Thursday, February 28, 2013

So I have come to a conclusion...

Stories in the Mind is rather boring right now.

Trust me, it is painful to admit the truth, but it is a very evident one. There is absolutely nothing that sets it apart and makes it unique and cool. Just drab.
 
 

 

So I put the dilemma forth to you, my dear readers. What is it missing? Besides more posts from me, eh? I had so much inspiration when I started it, so much planned for it. And I still do…but I lack the motivation to get it done. {blah, THAT would be the issue, wouldn’t it…}

I think part of the problem may be that I’m doing less writing and more editing on my novels right now, so I am feeling burnt out for fresh ideas. I need a spark, something to explode in my face and dazzle me with its brilliance. {Assuming I don’t get freaked out and run away before it can shout out how wonderful it really is.}






I have a very distracted mind. Had I gone to school {rather than be homeschooled} I’m pretty certain I would have been diagnosed with ADHD. Well, at least the hyper part. I am wildly active and it is sidetracking. It keeps me from getting things done because I am always up and down and over here and over there…in my head just as much as in my body.


 
 
I’ve got it! I’m going to start sharing more of my adventures with you! Oh wait… I don’t have any adventures.

Well, that is a lie. I actually do. But they are mostly domestic and are narrated in full detail at My Unicorn Has Wings. I do have some writerly adventures though, so I think I will begin by sharing more of those.

So what are your thoughts?




Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Double Secrets



Shhhhh.... You can't tell.

It's a secret.

*in very soft whisper*

I am linking up with Write on Edge this week instead of doing my Once Upon a Time... linkup. But you can't say anything. The blog might get offended if it actually thought too hard about the meaning of my betrayal. ;)

The prompt for Write at the Merge {their linkup} this week is: a secret.

My selection is coming from In the Shadow.



Pinned Image

 
The setting:
the morning
two slaves and a master
burning hatred
double secrets

Word count: 163
Ó Pure Grace


“You have learned our language?” he asked in Latin.
“I did.”
Marcellus nearly smiled at the rage housed in her voice.
Cleopas spoke, giving a low laugh. “You would not believe it, master! Brixia found that Ionez already knew how to speak most of your tongue! She has had to instruct her but little.”
Surprise blossomed inside him. So she had known Latin all along! “Why did you not say before that you knew Latin?”
“Why should I?” she snarled. “You did not tell me your father was Consul of Britannica!”
Marcellus was silent a moment. She did not move. “Very well,” he shrugged, “it is the past now. But it would have made our conversation easier.”
“For you,” Ionez spoke pointedly, her voice low.
“My sister has always longed for a fair slave from the legendary land of Britannica. Don’t disappoint her.”
“How could I?” Ionez asked sweetly.
Marcellus’s eyes went hard. “Tomorrow I introduce you to your mistress. Now be gone.”


writing prompt
 
 
 




An Interview



AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION NEEDED

I have decided to give you all a chance to meet one of the characters from my books by way of an interview. The only problem is, I have no idea which character I should chose. {That’s what happens when you work on multiple books with multiple characters. ;)}

So I thought, what better than to ask you all? Most of you have read pieces of my stories from the Once Upon a Time… linkups and so you know a bit about them. If not, feel free to click on the category and catch up! Because of that, I think you all know enough to pick a favorite to interview. So here is my list:

From my historical fiction, The Endless Fire Trilogy.

Ionez
Merrie
Claudia
Marcellus
Julia
Cyrus

OR

From my fantasy, In the Shadow

Breem {S - - - -}
Mikailah
Theron
Kiar 

OR

From my fantasy, Asteroid

Kaden*
Shade*
Malaica*
 
{*all Asteroid names are changed}

You can only pick one. {I know, I am so mean! *insert evil laugh*}

Have fun! I can’t wait to see who has the most votes. ;)

Also, when I have found out who the character will be, I will be asking YOU all for a list of questions for them. Anything and anything you want to know, about the world they live in, the people they are surrounded with, the things they do, the food they eat, the culture they live in… You pick.

I think this is going to be tons of fun. I am super excited. Eeeek!!

Also, I realized I never linked my facebook pages to the blog. I’m not sure how to do that yet, so here are the links! 

 

 

Go check them out. I post little snippets of story there to tantalize and intrigue. ;) Spread the word!
 
 
 
 

 
 

Friday, February 22, 2013

Saturday Quotes

 
 
“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
― Dr. Seuss
 
 
“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent”
― Victor Hugo
 
 
“One must maintain a little bittle of summer, even in the middle of winter.”
― Henry David Thoreau
 
 
“Be yourself, don't take anything from anyone, and never let them take you alive.”
― Gerard Way
 
 

 
 
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
 
 
“It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
― L.M. Montgomery
 
 
“There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.”
― G.K. Chesterton
 
 
“A few songs with Him might change the way you sing. Forever.”
― Max Lucado
 
 
 
 
 


 
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”
― C.S. Lewis
 
 
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
 
 

 
 
“People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?”
― L.M. Montgomery
 
 

 
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
― C.S. Lewis
 
 


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Do or Do Not


Sometimes there are days when you just don't feel like writing. It has nothing to do with writer's block, headaches, business....or anything at all. You just don't feel like it.

I've been having one of those weeks. Or was it two?

Nothing seemed to be extraorindarily inspiring. I did some writing on my book here and there, but I just wasn't there.

I'm at that stage where all I am doing is editing. And editing. And editing some more. And if I don't feel like it, I don't do it.

Ha.

I tried made myself work.





And then discovered when I write by compulsion...its pretty much appalling.

There is a fine line to writing. You can't just go do it. You have to be able to feel what you are doing, get the flow, the mood. It's not something to be done by force.

Yes, I know. There are days when you just need to stick your rear in the chair and write because you are merely procrastinating.

Yet, there are days to take a break. Writing is exhausting. It takes talent, time, and energy. It can't be whipped up by throwing inspiration, words, and a few sketchy plotlines into a blender. {Wouldn't that be nice though!!!}

So I have learned that it's better to wait, sit back and take that break. The desire will come back.

Because if you don't enjoy what you're doing....no one else will either. And what a pointless piece of work it would be!


That all came because of my lack of activity here on Stories in the Mind. I was just....empty of words. At least relative ones. I think that is gone now and I am finally back. I will get back into the swing of things and have the guest post and linkup again next week. I hope you all enjoyed my absence.




Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Once Upon a Time... linkup: Threats


It is that time of week. Time for the linkup!

I've been having troubles with my internet and getting time to post... Hopefully soon things will slow down and the internet will speed up. ;)

This week the prompt is: threats.

This snippet is from Night Will Fall, #2 in The Endless Fire Trilogy.


The setting:
a dark room
best friends spit
conspiracy



Word count: 157
Ó Pure Grace


Nestor let out a small sigh. “Then there is nothing more I can say to you Marcellus. You have had my answer.”
Marcellus clenched his fists. “And I do not need you. I was mistaken about your worth. I will find another, more suitable to my task, one who will carry out my goals. And you had better be careful about who you mention this to.”
“You would threaten me, Marcellus?”
“I would do worse if I thought you would dash my dreams.”
“I won’t.”
“You had better not. Farewell, then. I hope you do not regret your stubborn rejection to join me when I am in control of this Empire.”
“You will add me to your list of enemies?”
“Nay,” Marcellus barked shortly. “But you will not be my Seneca."
“I would not want to be. That is a precarious position."
“Goodbye, Nestor,” Marcellus snarled.
“Peace to you,” Nestor whispered as Marcellus stormed out the door.


Join the Once Upon a Time... linkup:

Post a selection from your current WIP no larger than 500 words to your blog.

If there is a prompt, make sure your section fits the requirements.

Add the Once Upon a Time... linkup button:


 


 




Connect your link using the linkup button on Wednesday or Thursday!

And voila, you are done! Don't forget to visit the other blogs and drop a line.





P.S. Cait and Mime are hosting a frabjous giveaway over at their blog, Notebook Sisters. Go check it out!!!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Guest Post by author Cait Drews


So I'm back. Hopefully. For now at least. I will go into detail about just what has transpired in my sad absence at My Unicorn Has Wings. For now, I have a fantabulous guest post for you all written by Cait!




 
If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard of the adage “don’t be passive in your writing”. Funky. Specific. And easy! Right?
 
Right?
 
Well, what exactly does it mean? Does it apply to every-single-sentence-in-your-book? How do you identify a “passive” passage? What is the exact difference between passive and action sentences anyway?!
 
Keep calm. Breathe. Let’s think about this slowly and logically, okay?
 
How to identify a PASSIVE sentence
 
“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” – (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling)
 
“There was a town, and there was a girl, and there was a theft.” – (Who Could That Be At This Hour? by Lemony Snicket)

Let’s take a closer look at these two examples, okay? They both have a certain thing in common. Hands, hands? A show of hands? Yes! The verbs are passive. Instead of action verbs like “shoved” or “ran”, they use passive verbs like “was” and “were”. I highlighted these in yellow (because I’m nice like that).
 
How to identify an ACTION sentence
 
“My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. – (Twilight by Stephanie Meyer)
 
“Rain fell that night, a fine, whispering rain.” – (Inkheart by Cornelia Funke)

This is easy now, isn’t it? Instead of passively telling us what’s happening, they use an action(“drove” and “fell”). Cornelia Funke could have said “Rain was falling…” and Stephanie Meyer could have said, “My mother was driving me…” But they chose to use action.
 
Okay, so we should always use ACTION in our writing and never be PASSIVE?
 
Gosh, no! For one, it’s impossible. And for two, there’s no need. Passive isn’t wrong, it just isn’t as strong as action. Basically, if you can show, you should.
 
In her book, What’s Left of Me, Kat Zhang could have started the first sentence like this: “Everyone was blasted from their seats by the end-of-school bell.” Instead, she decided to make the sentence into an action. The novel begins: “The end-of-school-bell blasted everyone from their seats.”

But you can’t always show.
 
Think of this sentence: “I was sad.” If you want the sentence to look and feel roughly the same, you can’t take out the passive. That’s not bad or wrong, either.

Learning to write sentences that use action verbs instead of passive ones takes practice. A little work and you can do it! ACTION can make your writing pack a punch, because it becomes tighter, smoother and connects the reader to the story by putting them in the middle of everything and not relating that it “just happened”. It’s a priceless piece of advice. I like it a lot.
 
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” (Sylvia Plath)


Between writing, eating peanut butter, and rereading The Hunger Games, Cait blogs at Notebook Sisters. She writes fantasy, a little on the darker side, and has finished 6 novels. Her favourite hobby is rewriting said six novels. She’s 19 years old, a homeschool graduate, and believes in Never Land.  
 

This week, the Once Upon a Time... linkup prompt will be: threats. Have fun!

 



P.S. I will also be doing the giveaway info which I missed while I was gone. Good luck to those of you who entered!

 

Friday, February 8, 2013

Apologies


So I know I have been absent this week. It kind of tore me apart.

I hope I will be back Monday.

Until then....pray I don't die. ;)

Sunday, February 3, 2013

I Love Old Books


There is something about antiquity that sets my heart to racing. I believe it has much to do with my love of history. But a part of it has to do with stories.

Things that belong to the past but live in the present. I have a few of those. But yesterday, my collection took a giant leap for the better.


The Young Midshipman by G.A. Henty, Ishmael by E.D.E.N. Southworth, and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson



I was supposed to work all day. I won't go into detail about what kind of job I do because you all would shudder. Let's just say it's hard and takes all day. But yesterday my Dad decided to go home early.

The only thing that made it better was that he also let me stop at two antique shops. And I found these.

The cool thing is, aside from the fact that they are OLD, is that they are books I love, they were super cheap, and extremely rare to find. Well, I will clarify, Ishmael and the Henty are hard to find.





What I think is the neatest thing of all is that both of them are undated. I looked up Ishmael and all the web could tell me was that is was published c1900. Awesome, is it not? And the Henty has a beautiful inscription tucked inside the front cover which says "Josiah Mainwaring Bethany, Harrison County Missouri, a present from his daughter Elizabeth Spencer". {Which is really cool cause that middle name is unheard of, I don't know where Harrison Country is - though I suppose I could easily find out - and that must have been one loving daughter...}

Just imagine the stories these books could tell if only they could speak! Of nights up late, tucked in loving hands, a lamp set just right to reflect the crisp black lettering and well-worn pages... Oh, to know the life of a book! What an adventure...

All in all, it just made me happy. ;)