Happy Hump Day. :)
Welcome back to Wednesday Words, where I use Random.org to show you all a piece the book I am currently reading.
At the end of last year, N.K. Jemisin published The Awakened Kingdom, an e-sequel to the awesome Inheritance Trilogy that became my life a few months back. This book follows a brand new godling named Shill who gets herself tangled up with mortals while trying to find out what her nature is. She's a very interesting godling, being less than 6 months old, only 1 month when the story starts. She has a thought process of someone with no attention span, which is always a hoot to read. :)
I'm about 3/5 of the way through, so let's see where Random.org takes us today.
From 1-100%, Random has chosen for me to go back to the 36% mark. (I just learned how to get to a location in an e-book! Multiply the number of locations by the percentage where you want to go.)
Counting these lines aren't as easy as I thought. I'm going to veto Random and myself and give you a few lines from the 36% mark.
His eyes narrowed. "You'd do my bidding? In exchange for...what, exactly?"
Oh, this! I inhaled. "Let me follow you around and do stuff like you do and talk to you and watch how you do things and maybe be your friend!"
The innocence of children. :)
Greetings
- Debra Renée Byrd
- Delaware, United States
- Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church. She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life... "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest." -Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Express Yourself: Book Pairs
Happy Tuesday! Time for another question for the Express Yourself bloghop created by Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie @ Bouquet of Books! You can join the weekly fun at either of their blogs.
This week, they ask us about some of our favorite book pairs, romantic, bffs, nemeses, etc.! That's not hard at all (sarcasm). lol
The first that comes to mind is Irene and Jonah from Terri Bruce's Hereafter and Thereafter.
Then, there is Victoria and Grant in Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers.
Jake and Talulla in The Last Werewolf. (I would fan myself if it weren't so cold.)
Ed and Winry in The Fullmetal Alchemist series! They might be my favorite.
I could go on forever, so I won't. lol
Friday, February 6, 2015
Friday Freeday: When Writing What You Don't Know
Good morning!
As I'm moving into my next writing project, a contemporary YA fiction, I've come to a point in my knowledge bank where I can work a little more of the things I've learned the past few years into my story.
A quick history of this project:
As I mentioned a post or two ago, I am revamping a set of short stories I began writing in high school. The first short story focused on the narrator's sorta-boyfriend, Jonny, and his mother. They both had a non-descript mental illness that made them closed off, impulsive and also manic-depressive (MDD). I always played with the idea of them having Schizo-Affective Disorder, but it's a fairly complicated illness, and being a teenager when I began writing that story, all I had to go on was the internet. I'm still not sure if they were true to the typical symptoms of that disorder.
Fast forward to today, or two or three days ago rather, I started writing the beginnings of this revamp (no plotting like I said might happen lol I'm a pantser, can't help it) with a new idea. First, as I'd actually focused on Jonny's parents in an early draft, I started with them again. This time, however, I got to use some more information. I was a secretary-type person at the Division of Developmental Disabilities services for 2-3 years before I got my current job. One of the duties they assigned me was taking notes, minutes, and copying off reports for a committee who documented the disabled clients that had behavioral disorders. So I spent months typing up and reading these reports, hearing about instances from their case managers and analysts where their behaviors spiked, and understanding the differences between the common developmental disabilities, like Downs Syndrome and Autism. I also learned of behavioral disorders like Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), Impulse Control Disorder (ICD); I even got to study documentation of a few clients with Schizo-Affective Disorder. (I probably should've gone into psychology, but I didn't realize how deep my passion was for knowing about these disorders until I was on that committee, and I don't particularly want to go back to college.)
So, I was given a foundation. I also knew by the time I put pencil to paper this week that the issue my Jonny and his mother would be dealing with was Asperger's with ICD, Anxiety, and Depression axes (did not know the plural for axis a minute ago) for Jonny's mother. I'm still on the fence about using IED, probably won't, but certainly either Asperger's with an ADHD or MDD axis for Jonny.
And something awesomely cool about the advancement of the internet: I found a blog by a mother with Asperger's (she didn't know she had it until her child was an adult). So, I can get experiences straight from a source to understand what a parent with Asperger's goes through. Just reading the first two posts in her series, I can see how frustrating and scary it must've been to know you're different but not why. We know so much more about Asperger's now than before (I only heard about it through Grey's Anatomy some years ago, and Asperger discovered it in the 40s).
I am on this diatribe to say that it's okay to write what you don't know if you take the time to research it, speak to people who've experienced it, and/or find blogs by people who've experienced it. Work to make it as real and plausible as possible. If this story sees the light of day, I hope someone will be able to relate to it, see themselves in it, and say that I did a good job portraying it.
Is there something you've wanted to write or something that has interested you that you yourself haven't experienced?
As I'm moving into my next writing project, a contemporary YA fiction, I've come to a point in my knowledge bank where I can work a little more of the things I've learned the past few years into my story.
A quick history of this project:
As I mentioned a post or two ago, I am revamping a set of short stories I began writing in high school. The first short story focused on the narrator's sorta-boyfriend, Jonny, and his mother. They both had a non-descript mental illness that made them closed off, impulsive and also manic-depressive (MDD). I always played with the idea of them having Schizo-Affective Disorder, but it's a fairly complicated illness, and being a teenager when I began writing that story, all I had to go on was the internet. I'm still not sure if they were true to the typical symptoms of that disorder.
Fast forward to today, or two or three days ago rather, I started writing the beginnings of this revamp (no plotting like I said might happen lol I'm a pantser, can't help it) with a new idea. First, as I'd actually focused on Jonny's parents in an early draft, I started with them again. This time, however, I got to use some more information. I was a secretary-type person at the Division of Developmental Disabilities services for 2-3 years before I got my current job. One of the duties they assigned me was taking notes, minutes, and copying off reports for a committee who documented the disabled clients that had behavioral disorders. So I spent months typing up and reading these reports, hearing about instances from their case managers and analysts where their behaviors spiked, and understanding the differences between the common developmental disabilities, like Downs Syndrome and Autism. I also learned of behavioral disorders like Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), Impulse Control Disorder (ICD); I even got to study documentation of a few clients with Schizo-Affective Disorder. (I probably should've gone into psychology, but I didn't realize how deep my passion was for knowing about these disorders until I was on that committee, and I don't particularly want to go back to college.)
So, I was given a foundation. I also knew by the time I put pencil to paper this week that the issue my Jonny and his mother would be dealing with was Asperger's with ICD, Anxiety, and Depression axes (did not know the plural for axis a minute ago) for Jonny's mother. I'm still on the fence about using IED, probably won't, but certainly either Asperger's with an ADHD or MDD axis for Jonny.
And something awesomely cool about the advancement of the internet: I found a blog by a mother with Asperger's (she didn't know she had it until her child was an adult). So, I can get experiences straight from a source to understand what a parent with Asperger's goes through. Just reading the first two posts in her series, I can see how frustrating and scary it must've been to know you're different but not why. We know so much more about Asperger's now than before (I only heard about it through Grey's Anatomy some years ago, and Asperger discovered it in the 40s).
I am on this diatribe to say that it's okay to write what you don't know if you take the time to research it, speak to people who've experienced it, and/or find blogs by people who've experienced it. Work to make it as real and plausible as possible. If this story sees the light of day, I hope someone will be able to relate to it, see themselves in it, and say that I did a good job portraying it.
Is there something you've wanted to write or something that has interested you that you yourself haven't experienced?
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
IWSG: Next Project
Oh well, it's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means: IWSG! If you are a writer, the chances you have some doubts is very high, and that's why Alex J. Cavanaugh created this hop, so we can all support one another. The thing is so big now, it even has its own website and Facebook page! There is also a critique group now on Facebook, so if someone can comment that so peeps can see it. :) (Update: posted, hyperlinked. Thanks, Alex!)
This week, I opened up three short stories I began writing in high school. It focuses on these 4 best friends and the ups and downs they go through. I've wanted to expand their stories for quite some time and had even started a short story in the future that focuses on some of their children, but I didn't finish it.
I really want to do this story; the characters are dear to me. I just want it also to be relevant and realistic (the stories were so melodramatic and WORDY lol), so I might have to *gasp* plot.
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Express Yourself Weekly: How to Say Thanks!
Welcome back to Express Yourself! This bloghop was created by Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and is filled with interesting questions each week that we can all answer. You can find this month's questions on Dani's page: aquí.
This week's question was submitted by J. Lenni Dorner, and she asked: What's the most creative way you can come up with to send a Thank You note?
As Dani said, it depends on the person. Most of my thank you's are done by reciprocating whatever the person did for me in some way. I think if I knew the person had a favorite radio station, I would try to send them one that way, so the world could hear their name. hehe
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