Eh he, happy not New Years

I made a bargain.

{A horrible decision really.}

And now my hands are tied.

{With 70 feet of blonde magic hair.}

So, I have a BIG surprise for you!!

{Uh... I do too!}

Ooh, but I bet my surprise is bigger!

{I seriously doubt it.}

Would you shut up?

{Go find a dream.}

Gah. Just a second, guys.

*sound of frying pan hitting skull*

Ok!!

So...

I have several New Years {I am trying to figure out how that is really supposed to go grammatically...New Year? New Year's? New Years'?} resolutions. Honestly, this is the first year I have ever made real resolutions. Normally, I just watch the day come and watch the day go and smile and wave at all the people who create these fantastic lists and goals. Then I go to bed. And wake up a happier Caitria.

{Are you hungry? Cause I know of a great place to eat.}

.......................................

So, this year is a bit of a change. But that's fitting, because I changed so much this year. From head to toe, figuratively and literally speaking {with maybe a pun intended}. First things off, my list. It's short. To the point. And 100% realistic.


1. {Find a dream.}

Ummm....I thought that dude was gone.

The real 1. Lose the mask.

I wear a mask. Did you know that? Maybe that's a part of being a writer. But I rarely show my true feelings. This year, I want to dig down to me, the real me, and let it go without fear. {Maybe inspired by Frozen...}

2. Get In the Shadow or Imitation published

Aaaaah! I've dreamed of this for so many years. To actually have TWO books so close gives me shivers!

3. {Get married.}

Come on!!?? Seriously?

The real 3. Stop wasting so much time on devices and spend more time with my family.

Over the last few months, I've seen a degeneration in my life of migrating more and more toward my computer and social networks {such as facebook, snapchat, and instagram} and less time with my lovely, wonderful family. We have so few years here in this home {especially since I'm getting married, right?!}. I don't want to waste them.

4. Complete a 364 day photo challenge.

A GREAT friend of mine is doing this and I asked to join her. I had another friend do it last year, and it just looks like so much fun. I am excited to do it. Eh he, I started a day late... But you can track it through my instagram account (myunicornhaswings).

5. Bond even more with my amazing friends.

God has blessed me immeasurably this year, with wonderful, Godly friends. I pray that they can be strengthened throughout this year even more!!

6. {Rule the World and ban chocolate}

The real 6. Get rid of this dude....^^



Ok. So, the bargain....

{Really, really a bad idea.}

I have been writing my tail end off the last month, getting In the Shadow ready to be published. But, along the side, I've been also working on a few other books.

{Pfft. A few?}

And so now I owe you {blame Cait} an explanation of my 2014 writing list and story-lines.

{Death plots.}

Nuance.



In the Shadow

This is the big one of year. Well, more like 8 years. Yes, I've been writing/editing this book for 8 years.  BUT. It is done. I mean, as done as you can get... The last thing I am doing is a little bit of reformatting on the chapter sequences and then it's on to querying {which I'm totally freaked out about, just so you know}!! So, history is epic. Especially ancient history, the stuff we don't know very much about, because you can play with it so much. I definitely qualify as a history nerd and In the Shadow sort of exploded with my enthusiasm. It has 2 protagonists, both slaves in Ancient Rome. They are total opposites. While Merrie just wants to be loved by her mistress and enjoy a peaceful life, Ionez's favorite thing to do is throw her master's orders back in their faces. If her own weren't so infuriatingly gorgeous, Ionez would have the one thing she longs for - freedom. So instead, she schemes up an idea as bold as it is dangerous in an attempt to get it. There may be a bit of intrigue, turncoat step-mothers, and a very unique dagger involved...{but we're not saying}. Merrie's simple world is destroyed by one small necklace. Her mistress's favorite - stolen - and she was the last one seen with it. From favorite companion to despised scum, she rallies everything inside her to earning back all the love and dreams she based her life upon. Yeah...Cait, go ahead and say it. Vague. ;)


Imitation

This is the one Cait really wants to hear about. I'll be nice. Sort of. I was going to explain, but there is too much. So I'm summing up. This is a huge WIP, a Dystopian sci-fi, and utter chaos. Nicole, the 17 year old protagonist, is special. Born with a technologically advanced brain, she has been the object of study for years - and she didn't even know it. When the time comes that the Director, who leads her city, can use her power, she is ready to give herself wholly for the government's use. Then she discovers just what they want her to do. Questionably ethic, the project introduces her to Tyler. Who stands against everything she has ever believed and been taught is right. But she's spent her life listening to the statutes of the city. She knows they have to be right - and so she turns Tyler in as a traitor just as she completes the project and allows the Director to introduce it to the entire city. To change everything they - or any person ever alive - has ever been. Just add a city in the sky. And lots of spaceships and a broken outside world and WAR.


My Unicorn Has Wings

Familiar with this one? My blog title was totally inspiration. This story is loosely related to my own life. Ok, mostly just the dorky protagonist. It's going to be fun. Have lots of puns, silly jokes, and craziness in it. Set in Kat's first year of college, it's more your traditional growing-up, finding yourself story {shouldn't she have done that already?}, with a mystery twist, including an ancient box in her attic, unicorns, and a grandfather she never knew. There will also be a singing competition {or musical theater, not sure which yet}, a library fight scene, a debate of the century, and a horse named Stargate.


Royal

This is actually the title of the sequel for this series, but the first book's name is under wraps. Another Dystopian. World War 3 has destroyed the earth. The people have come to the conclusion that half the problems of the world stem from their rulers and leaders. So they ditch every form of government, throw all the Royal families, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Governors, you-name-it types into a very special prison. {Wouldn't you love to know.} The new World Government runs smoothly for 10 years until Liv, daughter of the King of England, accidentally destroys her cell and finds herself free of the prison's influence.


Unbroken

I AM SO EXCITD ABOUT THIS BOOK! First of all, because it's not mine. It's my sister Brisa's. She's writing it. I am her editor. I'm excited because she has been reading over my shoulder and giving me ideas and thoughts for the last 3 years for my books. And she's AMAZING! I've been trying to get her to write a book for a while. Imitation actually started as a possible idea for her, but it didn't go anywhere and I kind of took over {eh, bad me}. Basically, I have no license to say anything about Unbroken {though I'm 100% positive I could}. But I just had to tell you about it because it's going to be fantastic!!


Astroid

No. Not asteroid. Astroid. Although stars and asteroids and huge ice glaciers and starving Siberian Tigers play a huge roll in the fantasy plotline {only partially constructed}. There's also a journey across an impossible desert where dragons play with fire and hoard fallen sky-gems. Two rival nations have been at war for a millennia. At long last, the {people group which I cannot disclose but start with an O so we'll call them the O's} O's have conquered the K's. With their victory, the O's hope to claim the prosperity of much smaller K through a small asteroid {yes, really an asteroid this time}. The King thinks the charm of his enemy controls the revolution of the planet through gravitational magnetics. But there's danger lurking in the asteroid and only Sam {pseudo identity}, the King's illegitimate son, suspects it. When he's sent on a mission and forced to team up with the crown prince of the kingdom they just destroyed, Sam discovers there's more to fear than just the asteroid.


The Last Scribe
I got this book half written before I sort of burnt out. Not of ideas. I knew where it was going {sort of}, but I burnt up my time. I decided to get In the Shadow done. Then began Imitation. My Unicorn Has Wings came along next. And so on... So, really, I just need to sit down and finish it. Another fantasy like Astroid {actually conceived first}, prophecy is the internal drive for my protagonist, Breem. Confused, timid, shy...he's not really the hero type. But he's been thrust into an adventure he cannot abandon. Finding the true king of the dissolved Messeran kingdom is probably the only thing that will give him what he wants. Escape. But where do you look for a king who doesn't want to be found? Yeah, this sounds pretty lame. So we'll ignore it for a while. It really needs a rework/rewrite of what I already have done.


And so {temporarily} ends my list of books. I'm spending most of my time trying to {unsuccessfully} block out the million other story ideas clambering inside my skull for freedom.

What about you, writing buds? Any great and glorious plans {of domination} for 2014? Which idea do you like the most?

{Ah ha! You expect them to have a favorite from that threadbare lot?}

Ummmm....



When you feel like giving up...

Sometimes it's felt like this.

No, I'm not about to get all sappy on you. I did that already this month. {Was it really June? Feels like it was longer than that. Can you believe how the time flies! :P That post is embarrassing... sorry.}

Today I'm talking about my book {again. imagine that, with my current status on it and all. lol. don't you wish I'd open up Stories in the Mind again. ~_*}

I began this book when I was 13 {barely. literally had my birthday days before the idea popped into my head. but I won't cheat and say any differently}. It was practically a plagiarized, feminized Beric the Briton {G.A. Henty ~ STILL love that book and would recommend it to anyone}.

The idea popped into my head that though there were TONS of adventure books out there written for guys, there were very few targeted at girls.

Well, I have since had my eyes opened. My literature selection at 13 was pretty narrow. We had no access to the library and I had no friends. At all. You know, the ones you beg borrow books off of. And my parents were pretty strict about what kind of books found there way into the house {we bought anything that came in...so if we didn't want to own it...I didn't get to read it...}.

Still, erroneous or not, the idea was birthed and my serious journey began. {I'll be honest. this wasn't my first attempt at writing. I'd been writing for years...just not on this level.}

I remember lying on my belly on the living room floor, stacks of notebook paper sorted and piled around me, scribbling ideas for this book and that book, titles, ideas, and all...

As I said, this wasn't my first project. I was 150 pages into a novel about a girl on the Oregon trail... Not exactly sure where this idea began or what my intent with it was... I might not ever figure that one out. {It's pretty humorous to read, though!}

But this was different. This time, I began a journey that has taken six years to complete.

Yes. Six. :P

I think I wrote about 80 pages in the first two days. For a 13-year-old, that was pretty impressive. Three weeks in, I got the brilliant idea to combine another book idea I had with it to have two main characters.

Three years later I had a novel pushing 700,000 words and 700 pages. And finished{ish...}.

I printed it. {It weighted about three pounds and had to fit into two large ring binder folders.}

And gave it to my Mum and Dad to read.

Six months later they finished it...

All in all...I decided to start rewriting.

Again. And again. And again.

There were times when I pushed it away and didn't look at it for months.

Once I had an {apparently} brilliant idea that I half started {but didn't write down} and then I didn't touch the book for two months. To this day I have no idea where I was going with it, but had to entirely change what I wrote to fit my new plotlines....

Sometimes I got so sick of it I just wanted to quit. Not the book

Writing.

For good.

But I couldn't.

The more I would try to ignore it, the more my desire to write would spring up in me.

And so I would.

Did...

And today we are here.

Book #1 Completed and Copyrighted.

Sent to two beta readers. Two more on the platform. One down.


I look around at it all and I sometimes wonder. What if I had given up? What if I had stopped, decided it was too much work, not worth it after all, and who cares?

What if I had never decided to write?

The idea scares me.

And I am so thankful to God for giving me that tiny-winy idea and growing it into a massive life purpose.

Who knows what I would be now if not a writer?!

So, don't give up. On whatever your idea is. It could be singing, photography, dancing, acting, being a mum, WRITING, teaching, or driving a mail car over the countryside. Pursue it. Keep your ambition high. Don't forget.

Every big idea started with a little one.

:D

Snippets of the Story

I am going to follow Aubrey and Cait and do Whisperings of the Pen's linkup. This is a chance for us authors to share bits of our works-in-progress with each other.

I have to admit, it is hard finding pieces that I like well enough all by themselves to post. Poor little snippets. :( But, anyway, here they are.

AND: I have some potential title idea's. Let me know what you think of them.

Book #1: Undone.
Book #2: Unafraid.
Book #3: Unconditional.

Or:

Book #1: Unknown.
Book #2: Unsheathed.
Book #3: Unforgettable.

And the series title...still under construction, but what do you think of The Endless Fire?

I wasn't sure I like the alliteration (besides, that's Cait's theme), but Brisa was dead sold on them. :P Her favorites are the first three.

So, idea's? Thoughts?

My personal opinion... is void. I don't have one. I'm still not bewitched myself. At all.

And the snippets:

“I would tell the Senator,” he muttered uncomfortably.

“Tell the Senator!” Merrie burst out, her eyes growing large.

“Aye.” Cyrus lifted his dark eyes up to hers across the gulf of blackness between them. “Merrie, tell the Senator.”

All at once, she was not afraid of the dark.

From Book #1.

copyright Pure Grace

 



“I will never belong here.”

“Perhaps. For now, we would be obliged if you would at least pretend you did.”

Ionez was taken aback. He freely admitted she was unhappy here? And he did nothing about it! Anger constricted her throat and she took a step toward him. “I would chop every finger and toe from your body before I would surrender to that!”

“Thank you. Maybe I can do you a favor sometime.”

From Book #1.

copyright Pure Grace



Julia smirked. “Clumsy oaf.” Suddenly, her eyes grew wide. “Hai, Merrie look!”

Merrie darted up and gasped.

At the edge of the table one of Messalina’s expensive crystal perfume bottles tottered. And there beneath it sat Aurelia, looking up with expectant brown eyes.

Just so you all know, Aurelia is a puppy. :D

From Book #1.

copyright Pure Grace





Marcellus watched her, his eyes glowing with humor. “You are confident to ask such a question.”

“Should I shiver to hear its answer?”

“Some would.”

“I am not one of them.”

“Good for you.”

Claudia stiffened. “Oh, charming Marcellus, you scorn me.”

From Book #2.

copyright Pure Grace





“All I need say is Claudia’s days are numbered."

 

From Book #3.

copyright Pure Grace



 

Whisperings of the things Claudia had told her tingled in her ear and she tried to brush them away. She didn’t want to hear it. Forget it, she ordered herself. It means nothing.

But again, the memories flooded her mind. “God loves you!” Claudia had said. “He wants you to come to him. Open your heart and let Him in, and He will take care of you.”

“Take care of you,” Merci whispered to the darkness.

From Book #3.

copyright Pure Grace

“I am entirely to blame,” he ended. “If it weren’t for me, none of this would have happened.”

“So she is dead?” Cyrus’s whispered.

“Aye,” Marcellus bowed his head, overcome. “And it is all my fault.”

 

From Book #3.

copyright Pure Grace

 

Claudia laughed out-rightly.

“So will you stay or go?” Aelia asked eagerly.

“Stay,” Blessing said.

“You’re staying with them?” Claudia jerked back, surprised.

“Nay, we’re all staying. Boat’s gone.”

One by one they turned and gazed out across the bay where the schooner floated mid-water, its oars dipping rhythmically toward the ship.

Slowly, Claudia began to chuckle. Then Lavy laughed. The entire group began to shake with laughter except Blessing.

“What?” she scowled, shaking her fist. “It left without us!"

From Book #3.

copuright Pure Grace

 

 

 

 

Captive Danger

Today I thought I would link-up with RED Writing Hood.

 

 

This week's prompt...

write about a face to face meeting which,

for better or for worse,

doesn’t go as planned

 

Step into my world: Rome is a place of power and iron and war. Ionez, a captive from wild Britannica, has found nothing she can't outsmart. Yet.

 

            Word Count: 450

© Pure Grace

 

 

 

 

The hall was blacker than her room and it took a moment to let her eyes adjust. As she stepped forward, eager and daring, a black figure rose out of the gloom before her.

Startled, Ionez halted. A little snake coiled in her stomach, ready to spring. Before she could, a hand shot out a gripped her wrist. Turning her about in one smooth movement, the stranger pushed her back into Brixia’s room bodily. Fighting, Ionez jerked. The hand let go of her, careening her across the room.

Brixia scrambled from her cot and hastily lit a tallow candle. The pale yellow light filled the room and cast bizarre shadows upon the floor and walls.

Ionez rolled over, hands pressed against the cold stone floor. Cleopas stood in the doorway.

A small growl curled in the back of her throat. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

Cleopas moved farther into the small room, seeming to take it over with his immense size. “A question more suitably put from me. Marcellus thought you might try something tonight.”

“He sent you!” her voice rose with frenzied anger.

“And well sent.” He folded his arms, looking down on her like to a child. “Will you tell me what you thought you were going to do?”

Ionez leapt to her feet. “I need tell you nothing.” She moved to return to her room, but Cleopas intercepted her.

“He will hear of it.”

“From you!” she spat. “Do you think nothing of your own countrymen?”

“I don’t know? Do you?” His brows rose slightly as she glared at him. “What were you doing?”

Ionez folded her own arms, her eyes shooting daggers. “I was going to wake Aelia,” she said bluntly.

Surprise blanketed his face. “For what purpose?”

She whirled on him, accusing. “Do you never want to fight? Do you never want to show them they can’t master you, Cleopas? Why don’t you show Marcellus he has nothing over you?”

Cleopas’s answer was well measured and quiet. “Because I know it will do no good. If I want to get out of here, the last thing to do is fight.”

“What other method do you propose?” she scoffed.

“I can earn money to buy my freedom.”

“In thirty years, when you are crippled and broken and no longer care for life!”

“At least I’ll have life.”

“Better death than that life.”

“Very well. You are free to choose your path. But remember, after tonight, you will no long be under Brixia or my protection.”

“I don’t need your protection.”

“Let’s hope so. Good night, Ionez.”