Folklore-Dorkery

The fey have names. The fey have names. Thefeyhavenames!

It's an exciting moment. I'm finally getting to a major plot point--the characters have been almost as lethargic as I have, and the names were a big deal. I even managed to sneak a bit of Celtic-mythology-dorkery into the Queen's name of "Ainestacia"--Aine being the Celtic queen of the fairies. Ahe, faeries. She'd smack me for getting it wrong.

But now I need to write my proposal for the Dean and hope to whatever diety is watching that it gets approved. Because otherwise, this was 200 pages of work for pretty much nothing but my own masochistic amusement. As long as I focus more on style and less on plot, I should be fine, but here's to hoping anyway.

Sebastian had just get off his happy ass, walk through the door, and into faerie court so I can beat on him a little more. MRG.

And to think I was going to get such a massive amount of homework done this weekend... I still need to read three books and get a seven-page essay on The Jungle Book written. Wish me luck?

Let's see how far down it goes

The thesis is behind schedule, and it's annoying the living hell out of me. Apparently the moment anyone brings reporters into fiction, they slow everything down. Jargony bastards. And you'd think I'd have it down, since I'm in journalism. Of course, assumptions have been getting me nowhere thus far. And I need character motivations done for my thesis advisior by Monday. So hopefully I'll get some of the stuff on Nocturnal Melee updated so that it's not information from the first draft 10 years ago. Ha.

Anyway, I'm back to the Alice-esque rabbit hole. And this could prove to be fun. We get to meet the faeries, and the Fey get to be Switzerland. It should be grand.

My plan is to have that done by the weekend. Here's to hoping, right?

And there's another crank thrown in: I'll be away this weekend. AGAIN. First it was Forks, then Ashland, and now Seattle. I've been all over the damn place this semester, it's surreal.

But I get to go see Neil Gaiman, and I'm stoked, and NOTHING (and when I say it, I mean it) could dampen the exhilaration at the moment. Friday cannot come soon enough, oh Gods. The fangirl in me could die a rather happy death come Friday evening (save its anger at no San Diego Con yet...). Haha.

So, writing. And then the dinner party for Shawn. And then more writing. Dilligence?

the lamenting of their women...

I hit 40,000 words on the thesis last week, and I have my second real critique on Friday morning.

If I keep going, I may be able to get this finished, at least draft-wise, by Christmas. Which is when the whole project, as the first draft, is due. MEEP. It's made so that I supposedly have 4 months to edit it and have it "finished" as it'll be by presentation time.

And then hopefully I can start getting letters out, and then start working on Nocturnal Melee again, which, after being read by a friend, wasn't as finished as it should have been to warrant sending out to agents. SO. The book has been reoutlined again, keeping 80% of the integrity of the product finished in February, and expanding on it so much that the ending of the manuscript is now about half of the book instead.

Things will work out. I have to keep telling myself that. NM may not end up being the debut novel I had intended it to be, but it'll get done. And The Suits will get its ass in gear.

At least the process actually calls for and instigates the growth I'd always found so hokey when writers talked about it. Yay for maturity, or something of the like.

Also: Stephenie Meyer Day in Forks? Full of hilarity.

It's a damn good thing that I like books...

I've finally settled down a bit from the chaos that is May Move-out. I've even visited the old crew at work--and without the "when are you coming back?" pressure, which was really nice.

This summer may shape out well.

I picked up some books that mnay help shape my thesis, and now have a HUGE summer reading list. However, if this is all I'm doing this summer, it shouldn't be too bad. So far, I've got:

The Norse Myths translated/retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Sandman Volumes I-X by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Nibelunglied

Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory

Celtic Myths and Legends translated/retold by T.W. Rolleston

The Annotated Grimms' Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm (duh).
I also need to pick up any volumes of Fables that I can get my hands on. I have an itchy writing hand, but at the same time, I want the story to come together instead of wandering aimlessly, and I need to do the research before I can do that. Therefore reading comes first.

Commentary to come?

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On another note, the Stumptown Comics Fest this year was pretty damn rad. Brian Michel Bendis was awesome, and told me that I got the first good photo of him in 20 years (EPIC WIN!)

Additionally, Tara McPherson was really nice, and I've fallen in love with her art. I'm really surprised that she and Bendis were able to go to this con, especially since it was so small/indie. Pretty damn cool.

Comic book month in Portland was a major success. It makes me happy to see that I'm not the only weird person I know trying to hail this as literature--a whole city has done it now too.

Crazy people lead hectic lives.

It's been pretty hectic lately. I dropped my Japanese Media thesis, as it just flopped on every end. I think I'll still write it, but perhaps more as an independent study project than my thesis. Instead, I'm now working on a project called The Suits, which takes "The King of Nothingness" mythos, and turns it into a gradiose, full-fledged mythology. And the gods are based on face cards.

I don't know how it works either, but I'm jumping on the ride anyway.

Let's see. I've finished a painting since the last post, which is based upon some stationary I remember seeing in Powells once.
The poem on it reads:
Can you fit my soul
Into a sheet of paper?
Caged in thin white fury,
and bleeding
Inky whispers of sincerity.

Also, I went to a Gerard Way comic-book signing this week, as the Portland Mayor has deemed April "Comic Book Month," which is pretty much rad. I live in a city that dedicates a month to nerddom. WIN AT LIFE.
For those of you who don't know, Gerard Way wrote a comic called the Umbrella Academy. Oh, and he sings for a little band called My Chemical Romance. Y'know, just to put this in context. BTW: Those roses were for his birthday (which was the next day/yesterday), and were being given to him by the first 24 people in line (I feel special for sitting in line all day).

And the school dance was pretty rad, unless, of course, the music and the VJ are taken into context. Some days, I swear I should drop my English major, and go into deejaying. I'd be much better at it than some of these people. I don't care if he has music videos to accompany the song--I cannot dance to rap for 3 hours straight. *sigh* But watching a group of 50 people flailing around, trying to dance to "Thriller" was fantastic.

Does this mean we're just too young, and wish we weren't? How sad it that?

Rejection and Excitement

So far, 3/6 of my agent responses have been direct declines. It's been all "The work isn't my type," which means that it's definitely a lack of research/miscommmunication on my part. I think I'm marketing the book as horror when I should go with supernatural/dark fantasy. In the last letter I sent off, I changed the genre, so we'll see if that makes a difference.

I thought I'd be taking the rejection harder though.

I suppose it's a good thing that I'm not though, eh?

I need to get writing done tonight too, as tomorrow CRISIS CORE comes out, and I just don't think that I'll have much time left in my day. Hahaha.

Fangirlish excitement, oh gods.

By the way: Neon Genesis Evangelion is funny stuff. Especially easy to make fun of, and the stagnant moments of pseudo art...oh man. It's enjoyable just for its quirks alone. I'm almost happy that I need to use it for my thesis.