Telltale Ink

Thursday, December 19, 2013

The Sunshine Award

I am on a short hiatus at the moment, as I need to finish my damn novel, among other things, but Skye Fairwin has nominated me for a Sunshine Award. I am incredibly honored to know that she thinks of me as a blogger who "positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere," especially considering that this blog is dangling by a thread. I try when I do post, though. I really do. So, the gig says I need to post ten facts about myself. I'm not very interesting, though, so this will be difficult.

1. I do most, if not all, of my planning for stories in a sketchbook. This way, I can squeeze in words in every available space without pesky notebook lines getting in the way and doodle along with my brainstorming. I have two whole sketchbooks dedicated only to writing-related stuff.

2. Just like Skye, I started out on Booksie (nearly six years ago now). I will probably never, ever post another story online again (knock on wood) but I still think Booksie was one of the greatest periods of my life. I met so many writers and learned so much about own writing on there.

3. I've been on every edge of the USA, but I've never traveled outside of my country. I dream of touring Europe one day, though, starting with Ireland.

4. I have a severe addiction to lip balm. My EOS collection rivals that of Miley Cyrus'.

5. I've been working on my current WIP for around 4 to 5 years now. It's evolved drastically from the very first words I penned, but I didn't finish the first draft until May 2012. Call it what you may: dedication, laziness, or a chunky smoothie of the two, but I'm still in love with this stupid story. It keeps me up at night and burdens my every action with guilt, but the feeling of working on it is unequivocal to anything else in this world.

The very first cover I made for it! This is so old.

This is a newer, less sucky one I made for a challenge during the Unofficial June Camp NaNoWriMo thingy I did with my lovely Writer's circle. *

6. I share a birthday with Jensen Ackles, Ron Weasley, Justin Bieber, and Ke$ha.

7. For some reason, when I first started drinking coffee, I drank it black. I don't know how or why (maybe I thought it was cooler?) because now I find it disgusting. Pass me my gourmet flavored creamers please and thank you.

8. ...I may be a spoiled coffeeholic.

9. The closest I've ever come to meeting a celebrity** was when I went to see the Actors From The London Stage perform Twelfth Night and I noticed that the actress playing Viola/Cesario was the girl who played Olive in Ella Enchanted (one of my favorite movies when I was little).

Seriously, I've never even been to a concert. Or a book-signing.

10. I've never held a job, and I'm starting to think that I will never be able to. Not a real one, at least. That whole getting up early and taking orders doesn't bode well for me. Expectations, schmexpectations.

*If you're confused, Elle Flynn was my alias for several years as I was (am) terrified of combining my real life with my writing life. I still refuse to talk about writing out loud with my normal (I mean this in the least offensive way possible) friends.
**Chief Justice John G. Roberts gave a speech at the graduation ceremony at my school last year, and it was kind of a big deal, but for whatever reason almost meeting Olive was more exciting to me. I don't care much for politics.

I hereby nominate all of the people that I nominated the last time I was tagged for an award:

AND YOU, if you are not on this list and you own a blog. Come on. Just do it. I promise I'll read it.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Well, Damn.

I had a freaking plan. I made a schedule and everything. And then life got in the way and "accidentally" dropped my plans into a water drain during a rain storm.
First, as I mentioned in my last post, a bunch of personal crap got in the way, forcing me to delay my plans for just a bit.
BUT THEN, I went on a college visit. Brought my computer, stayed in hotel room, did some shopping in the biggest mall ever, and went home. When I got home, guess what I did not find in my bag.

The charger to my laptop.

This happened nearly four weeks ago, and I just received the power cord from the hotel two days ago. Kinda flushed my NaNo goals down the toilet. And I don't know what that means for the manuscript deadline I set myself. And because I'm so behind in all of my classes and my writing life, I also don't know what this means for my dusty blog series. I mean, I will continue it. I just don't know when. This Friday? Next Friday? Ugh.
So, if you need me, I'll be drowning in all of the academic papers I have to write before this week is up.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

You Better BeLiebster

Ah, yes, I forgot. Skye Fairwin for some reason decided I was worthy of being nominated for a Liebster Blog Award. Although I don't entirely see your logic behind this, thank you, Skye. I shall do my best with it.

Rules of the Liebster Award:

Link back to the person who nominated you
Answer the 10 questions that are given to you by the nominator
Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers
Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer
Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blogs and notifying them

My Answers

When did you first start to see yourself as a writer? This is a difficult question to answer, 'cause really, any kid who picks up a pen and writes the first (and in many cases, only) words of a story considers herself a writer. I've been considering myself a writer for several years now--I'm not even sure how many. Seven, maybe? *silence as I count it out on my fingers* Yeah, seven. But then, every other year or so, I go through this huge epiphany-type thing where I change one little thing about my process and it's like, "Now THIS is writing. What the hell was I doing before? Nothing, that's what. I was such an amature. This is what it feels like to be a real writer." So I guess the more I write, the more I feel like a writer? Wow, WHAT an elaborate answer. *cough* word-abuser *cough*
What was the first story you remember writing about? It had something to do with a car crash and a murder mystery, mostly derived from all of the Law and Order I watched as a kid. That's all that I remember, apart from having handwritten eighteen pages of it and making everyone read it. I was, like, ten.
What do you blog about and why? A bunch of random writing crap so far, but I'm starting a series of blog posts connecting art and writing, which should help me keep a more structured blog.
Who is your idol? Maggie Stiefvater, I suppose?
Besides writing, do you engage in any other creative/artistic pursuits? (E.g. painting, composing, etc.) I do artsy things, like draw, paint, sculpt/carve. I also watch a lot of tv, does that count?
If you were sucked into your story world, how long would you survive? Probably a while, because I'd do as I was told. (I pretend I'm not, but really, I think I'm too much of a wimp to die for liberty and justice and dignity and all that crap. I'd probably just try to make the best of what I have there.)
If you could live during any historical period, when would it be and why? Um, now, I guess? I mean, being able to wear long flowy dresses and having servants and stuff would be cool, but being able to shower everyday and having rights and stuff is even cooler. Also, there's no wifi in history.
Where do you hope to be in ten years time? Alive. Living on my own. Hopefully published. Hopefully multiple times. Working on stories. Making art. In love. Living somewhere pretty, preferably in the middle of a forest. Self-employed-ish. Doing whatever the hell I want. Some-what well off (money wise).
Which of your characters is your favourite and why? Devlin, because he's dead and grumpy and constantly has to hide that to please others.
If you were given one wish, what would it be? That for each wish I make, I get two more.