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Monday, June 28, 2010

OOD 4




I popped the quarter in the slot and cranked the metal handle.  I cupped my hand at the bottom of the spout ready for my treasure—but nothing came.  The greedy machine wouldn't give me my candy or the quarter.

I tapped, I turned, I twisted.   Nothing.  I had to find another quarter.  My mouth was cotton, I needed that gum.  I circled around the machine hoping to find some money; the circumference grew as I scoured the pavement.  Around and around I shuffled until I saw a scuffed up quarter.  I bent to retrieve it, but it was stuck I couldn’t remove the money from the asphalt.  I pulled and bent my fingernails, the quarter didn’t budge.

I stalked up to the machine and gave it one final thump with my fist.  I walked away without my quarter, without my gum, but at least I had a nice bruise to take with me.  I rubbed my sore hand and went home.   


     

Friday, June 25, 2010

OOD 3



The mutant octopus slimmed towards us, it’s large tentacles glowing with bubbling yellow toxin.  We weren’t going to make it.  Fin smiled sadly. 

“I’m sorry! It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” I cried.

“What? The neon yellow octopus wasn’t part of the date?”  He was trying to be funny.  It made me sick.  Here we were on the deck of my father’s sailboat, floating in an oil infested ocean with a giant suctioned cupped cephalopod on the deck, and sharks darting around the boat.

I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the sting of the poison as a tentacle hovered over me.  Make it quick, just make it quick.  
    
Thunk!

I peeked open an eye.  A large hunk of octopus flesh sat before me, bubbling and oozing.  The sea creature let out a horrible shriek and turned it’s full attention towards Fin who was now holding a large machete. 

“Where did you find that?”

“It was next to the life jackets and some aerosol can of something…” Fin puffed as he thwacked off another arm.  I smacked my forehead and ran for the can underneath the bench.   I pulled out the sea monster repellant as more octopus chunks flew. 

“Back up!” I ordered Fin.  I sprayed the pink foam over the intruder.  His bubbling skins started to hiss, as orange  vapor poured out of him.  The octopus slid back off the edge of the boat and deep into the ocean.  

“Phew, that was a close one…” Fin wiped his face with his t-shirt.

“Yeah it was, do you want to have our picnic now, or wait until we’re on shore?”

“I’d take some lemonade.”

“Sure thing.” 

Thursday, June 24, 2010

OOD2


Stars twinkled overhead as she belted out her favorite tune.  Her cheeks were wind whipped but her spirits were still up as the moon arched it’s way across the sky.  It was only three hours past her bed time, but it seemed to matter less with every s’more she ate.  A belly laugh like a baby tiger, the girl tickled her daddy next to the campfire. 

“Ticka, ticka, ticka.”

“Hmm, I think it’s time for someone to go to bed,” Dada said.

“I no wanna go to bed.”

“Yes but you should.”

“Dada’s right sweetie, if you want to go swimming in the morning you have to go to bed,” Mom started up. 

“I wanna watch a show.”

“Sorry pumpkin, there’s no tv out here.”

“Maybe we should have brought one…” Dada rubbed his head.  His musing was interrupted by a sharp cracking sound in the woods beside them.  Gizmo, the family dog, perked up at the disturbing noise.  An English bulldog ripped through the brush and straight for the beloved family pet.  Dada grabbed up the baby, while Mom kicked off the intruder.   The dog slowly backed away, with low throaty barks escaping through it’s horrible mouth.

“That stupid thing bit me,” Mom grumbled.

“Is it bad?” Dada asked.

“No, I think it only had one tooth, but maybe we should sleep in the car.”

As the family tossed and turned in the car, the little girl requested the Barney song to lull her to sleep.  This is when Dada decided that maybe they should just pack it up and go home.  The family decided to campout In the family room and fall asleep to Blues Clues, making the girl extremely happy.  It was the best camping trip ever.        

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Inspiration box...

My sister and I are taking a writing class together, we've only had two so far, but it's really fun.  It's just about getting you writing and using different techniques to get your creative juices flowing.  We did this exercise where we pulled on object off a table and free wrote about it--it was neat to see the kinds of ideas that people got from a tiny random object.

So my sister made me a shoe box full of random stuff... so I've decided to pull out an object every day (we'll see how it goes) and write about it...Beware I will post them, but I'm not going to take the time to edit them...as this is a writing exercise...not an editing exercise.

Feel free to write your own piece to post in the comments or just read along.

-RBP

OOD1: Truck



The wheels spun against the red counter top and the truck slammed into a tall glass of lemonade. 

“You don’t stop messing with that stupid truck and I’ll flush it down the toilet,” Kathryn glared at me—she meant it.  I slowly rolled my truck away from her glass, if the food didn’t come soon I might die.  And now I had no way to distract myself.

I stared at my Styrofoam cup full of milk.  How come I had to drink milk anyway?  Kathryn got lemonade, Mom got sprite and Dad got root beer.  And I got a glass of stupid milk.

Kathryn tapped her blue finger nails against the table, waiting for her cell phone to chime.  She was hungry too, we had been in the car for over five hours, with a bag of carrots and some raisins Mom had packed to sustain ourselves.  And now we were stuck in this lame restaurant while dad was trying to get the car fixed and Mom was outside on phone with Aunt Lou. 

But the worst of it was waiting for over thirty minutes in the sticky booth for my hamburger.  I was about to march in the back and cook it myself.
 
I slowly pulled a sugar packet out of the brown box by the ketchup bottle while Kathryn texted madly.  I bit the end off the white packet and brought the milk down below the table.  I emptied my fifth packet in my milk when Mom startled me. 

“No food yet?” she asked.

“Nope,” I said shoving the emptied packets on the floor.  Mom sat down and a waitress headed for our table with four massive burgers and a mountain of fries.

“Finally,” Kathryn muttered.  I took a swig of milk, just as the waitress set our food on the table… the sugar tingled my teeth, just as Dad walked into the restaurant.

“Well Tyler, looks like you won’t have to push us to the Grand Canyon,” Dad slapped my back.  I choked on the milk most of it spraying over the hot plate in front of Kathryn.  She looked at her plate of soggy hamburger and milky fries.  She didn’t say a word as she picked up the yellow truck and walked to the ladies room. 
     

Friday, June 18, 2010

This is amazing!



Not that it has anything to do with writing or an update on my new "plan"...

but it's so cool.

So I decided to change my time line, I'm doing steps 3-5 all the same time, and hopefully this will save time. So I go through three chapters a day with a fine tooth comb and fix the world building, consistency and cut the fat... it feels like it's going well, I'm really pleased with the first nine chapters I've done.

Hopefully I can keep it up. I'm still giving this segment of the plan until july 11th, but hopefully I'll be moving to the next phase before then.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Plan...update

So why is everyone trying to get me to finish my book...don't they know it takes time to cultivate perfection?

Besides now I have a plan, I'm going to finish it, for the 7th...maybe 8th time.

My husband just asked me to finish my novel so we can be millionaires and start living the dream...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HA!

Oh and he wants that for a father's day gift so, I my deadline has been changed... to June 20th.

Right. I'm on that. Just shut the door and watch the baby...oh and bring me a bag of m&m's because I'm hard at work in here. I've got a deadline!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Plan

I need to be finished...for my own sanity.

This is the plan:
Part 1:
1. Finish Major Edits (that I'm almost done with, on pg. 202 of 284) 1 week (6/11-6/17)update...finished these Edits 6/12/10, moving onto next phase of plan
2. Re-outline MS 2 days (6/18-6/19) update finished outline 6/15/10
3. Protag. Edits, motivation and consistency 1 week (6/20-6/27)
4. World building 1 week (6/28-7/4)
5. Trimming the Fat... 1 week (7/5-7/11)

Plan revised...I just got edits back from my sister-in-law and they are amazing! So I'm trying to do steps 3-5 plus her edits all at the same time... so it's going a little slower...but I feel really good about it :) So the deadline for all these steps has also change... it's now:  Aug 1st

Part 2:
6. Then send it to my betas and take it on a road trip...(Aug.1-Aug.17)
7. Re-read/re-work query/synopsis/submission material
8. Make Edits
9. Query... September 1st.

I have a deadline. Huzzah.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Fish People

 


We're fish people, not because I want to be...
This post talks all about people and pets and rejection.

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Monday, June 7, 2010

Flipped

This looks awesome!  I can't wait to see it, it looks like it might actually live up to how awesome the book is...I'll keep my fingers crossed.