Tag: apparent

A happy list

Posted October 18, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Stuff that’s made me happy in the past week:

This song: Best Day of My Life by American Authors– It’s just such a HAPPY song, and I’d be lying if I said that the band name didn’t also make me smile.

Celebrating a friend’s promotion with a nice dinner at Salt. Seriously, one of the best burgers and mac ‘n cheese I’ve ever tasted. Plus I got to wear a new favorite maxi dress for the evening.

On Saturday, I Skyped with Angel and Aimee to watch Itazura Na Kiss: Love in Tokyo, which is a J-Drama based on one of my favorite anime (and which I’m convinced is secretly an AU of Sailor Moon). I also grabbed lunch with a couple friends on Sunday. Friend-filled weekends are nice sometimes, y’know?

This happy pink sweater which is so “me” that it pretty much demanded I buy it from the second I saw it– and which I’m wearing right now, though I’m rocking it with jeans and camel wedges, instead of a skirt like the model’s wearing here.

These tasty treats. Cinnamon fans, these are amazing!

The fact that while I don’t think I’ll ever actually grow to enjoy exercising, I’m proud of myself for getting through work-outs. And I’m appreciating the happy feeling that comes when I complete one. Morning exercise with this view helps.

Reading: I’ve been in a reading slump lately, and haven’t read much. However, I did read United We Spy (Ally Carter), Cress (Marissa Meyer), and around half of Tamara‘s awesome MS. I’m currently reading Just One Year by Gayle Forman and it’s also excellent. I’m thinking my way out of the reading slump is to read stuff that I get pure enjoyment out of and everything on this list qualifies on that front.

Writing: Remember a few weeks ago when I lamented my title? Well, “Apparent” is now titled “Threats of Sky and Sea” thanks to the help of Jamie Grey. I could not love my new title more. Things are quiet on the writing front as I gear up to write the first draft of my pirate MS in November for NaNoWriMo, but I’m feeling good about where my writing career is going, regardless of which publishing path I wind up on.

Basically, life is good at this moment. I’m happy and I have things I’m looking forward to. It’s just… good.

Title Angst

Posted July 26, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized, Writing / 1 Comment

Titles.

They make me all adlkjslijsiou daufcsvhshflcj

I am not a writer who’s ever been good at titling my works. Even in my fanfiction days, I struggled to title the fics I posted most of the time.

I settled with APPARENT for my manuscript. It’s not a title I’ve ever really loved.

I think it works on some levels, but it’s not… it’s just not. And of course, I always have THIS conversation when I talk about it:

Other person: What’s your book called?

Me: Apparent

Them: A parent? Like a mom or dad? Oh, so is it like lit fiction about being a single parent or something?

Me: Um. No. Not exactly. It’s A-P-P-A-R-E-N-T. And it’s a young adult fantasy.

Them: Oh.

A beat.

Them: Is that like porn for teens?

*headdesk*

I want a GOOD title. Something that conveys my genre. Something that has the FEEL of my book, BUT doesn’t give stuff away. AND OH MY GOD IT FEELS IMPOSSIBLE.

The good news is I found this post from Carina Press about an exercise to try to title your book. I’m not there yet, but I think the brainstorming is helping. Hopefully I’ll have some sort of epiphany.

But I mean… if anyone has ideas… I’m open to them.

#LV13 Blog hop

Posted July 14, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 8 Comments

SO. The Like a Virgin pitch contest starts tomorrow and since I’m one of the entrants, I figure I better hop on this whole blog hop deal!

1. How do you remember your first kiss?

Lord.

It was okay. I was 18. It was my first month of college. I was in a nightclub. That’s all you get. 😉

2. What was your first favorite love song?

THIS (song starts around 0:42):

(In case it wasn’t obvious, I have pretty much always been a Sailor Moon fangirl)

3. What’s the first thing you do when you begin writing for the day?

Hahaha. Um. Procrastinate? I.e. Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, food…

4. Who’s the first writer who truly inspired you to become a writer?

So, okay. This is a bit of a convoluted answer for me because my instinct is to say Tamora Pierce. There’s no denying that she is a HUGE influence on me and I adore her work.

But a more realistic answer might be to say Marissa Meyer. As you saw above, I’m a BIG Sailor Moon fan, and I read Marissa’s fanfics as Alicia Blade for YEARS. When she started on her publishing journey, it really made the idea that I could write a book seem real.

5. Did the final revision of your first book have the same first chapter it started with?

Nope. I did the computer version of this MANY many times before I figured out where I thought the book should start:

6. For your first book, which came first: major characters, plot or setting?

Okay, I never get to use that gif, so I take any excuse, really.

In actuality, the answer IS characters, I suppose. Usually the way that I start a book is with a random scene that jumps into my head. Sometimes the scene makes it into the draft, sometimes it doesn’t, but the characters from that scene always do.

7. What’s the first word you want to roll off the tip of someone’s tongue when they think of your writing?

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Revision log

Posted May 2, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

So, here is a plan: I’m going to update this post with revision progress day by day until I’m querying. WHICH means the last update to it will read: “MM/DD/13: Sent out first batch of queries. BRB vomiting.” And that will probably be the only thing I say re: querying on this blog because it’s seems kinda jinx-y to put that out there for the public. ANYway. I shall start with today’s progress: 5/2/13 2:30 PM: Completed Alex‘s revisions up to the end of Act 2. Began making a list of crutch phrases. Created a Wordle to help me figure out the really BIG crutch words. 5/2/13 10:47 PM: Finished Alex’s revisions. (!!!) Also I had a minor stroke-type episode where I decided I was going to rewrite the whole book in 1st person present tense… it’s currently 3rd past. […]

The Importance of Having CPs

Posted May 1, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing / 2 Comments

Sometimes, when I browse writing and publishing blogs, I see excerpts of blog readers’ work– whether it’s a query submission or first pages, or anything else. Sometimes, the work is strong, sometimes not so much. But sometimes, they make mistakes that make me blanch and wonder “Why didn’t their Critique Partners or beta-readers catch that?” And sometimes, I can guess the answer to that question: They don’t have a CP or beta. Because here is something else I see in the comments of those blogs: complaints about the difficulty of finding a CP or a beta. First of all, to those people, I say: you are wrong. Involve yourself in the writing community or in the community around your genre and it becomes easy. I met one of my CPs, Alex, in an online YA writing class on Litreactor. My […]

Post-draft-finishing feelings

Posted April 21, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Writing / 0 Comments

Last night at approximately 11:33 PM, I finished the third second? fourth? to be honest, I don’t even know anymore. My drafts were a pretty messy affair draft of Apparent with exactly 75,100 words. And I cried. There were many reasons for this. One was that I was flipping tired. I get grouchy when I’m not snuggled under my covers by an hour that my sleeping schedule deems satisfactory. The second reason was something I shall never reveal because I have to keep a certain air of “writerly mystery.” …I mean, I guess that’s is how this is supposed to go anyway. But thirdly and finally, I cried because I finally felt close like I’d gotten close to what I want the book to be. Both of my other drafts were… how do I put this delicately? They were a mess. I […]

PARTAY TIME- Or: Revise-a-thon round 2

Posted April 13, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 1 Comment

Good morning! So Lindsey and I are BACK to give our darling manuscripts a little TLC. The last time that we did this, I was trying to finish up Act 2 of this draft (draft 3). This time around, I’m finishing up Act 3. I hope. So, what does this translate to? Well, I know I’m making some big cuts to a scene that currently goes on WAY too long and is MOSTLY unnecessary, so I’ll need to tweak it to where I talk about what MATTERS and edit it to make it ~flow. I’ll be killing lots of darlings and cutting other scenes that no longer work with the ending that needs to happen. And now that I’m really LOOKING/thinking about what is left to REWRITE in this draft, I don’t think it’s 3 chapters like I’m been saying. […]

The procrastination continues. Or “House Sigils for my characters, Game of Thrones style”

Posted April 12, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 1 Comment

(I blame you, Alex.) For round 2 of revision procrastination, today I made Game of Thrones House sigils for few of my characters. I’ve been meaning to do this for a few weeks, since Alex did it and… well, I was on a procrastination roll. You can make your own here! It seems only appropriate that since I ended my heroine generator post with my main character last time I posted, we let Bree kick things off this time around. Now, none of my characters actually have house crests (that I’ve discovered thus far anyway) and Bree has always lived as a peasant, but this is good representation of her path to self discovery and the mission she has to take on in Apparent. Side note: I thought about making her house motto: “Leave me alone and drink your beer” […]

The Heroine generator- aka LOOK AT MY CHARACTERS

Posted April 11, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 6 Comments

A few months back, I stumbled on this post on Diana Peterfreund’s blog. Peterfreund lamented her lack of a drawing ability because she couldn’t create and share pictures of her characters. I suffer a similar fate. But yay for Diana Peterfreund for cluing us all into this “Heroine generator!” I can show you guys an approximation of some of the characters in my head! First, let’s meet Aleta, the princess of Nereidium and ward of the king of Egria. Aleta is wearing purple to denote her status as royalty. The wedding veil is a nod to her betrothal to the king’s son, Caden. She wears the roses in her hair in a specific scene and they definitely mean something… that hopefully you’ll all be able to read some day. 😉 Aleta doesn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve, so when […]

The past three months wrapped up in a tidy post.

Posted April 10, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Because I post so sporadically, I rarely update you all on my life. And it usually seems to be in bullets when I do. Maybe that will change and maybe it won’t. But for now, updating this blog at all seems better than the alternative. So, let’s talk about my last few months, mmmk? In February, I went to DISNEY to celebrate my friend Kelsey’s birthday! Kelsey used to intern at the parks and remained friends with people who worked there who agreed to use their employee passes to get us in fo free. I’m a pretty big Disney nerd and I had a great time. We went to Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom in one day and then returned again the next day solely for Magic Kingdom. It was unseasonably cold for Florida (in the forties and fifties, […]