I am currently working on a new story and I would love two editors as this one I don't want to post without someone looking through it first. Send me a PM and I'll check back here every day or so for a response. Love you all and hope to have something ready to post soon.
As anyone who has read 12-Strings will know, I have a place in my heart for the outre when it comes to jewelry. This new line on Shapeways really hits me in that place.
I got a request to expand a concept for someone, and to do it publicly, so, here we go. It might end up a little long, but consider this to be a little bit of my personal view on what makes compelling conflict.
So, you've come up with the wonderful hero, Peter the Protagonist. He'll save the damsels, stand for the eradication of bigotry, and generally be a swell guy. Now you just need to throw a villain at him and everything will be set and you have yourself a story.
The link tells it most of everything you need to know about it, except for the fact that the Girl mentioned is a fifteen year old on her high school baseball team.
This is one of the tings I have considered about my story Baseball Rose, how other schools would react to Melanie and Jay on the team. Apparently my thoughts on the subject, which would have come out later, were not too far off.
I've revised chapter 4 of Baseball Rose for clarity. I should have done this weeks ago, but I was lazy and only got around to it now since I started to work on the next chapter.
Something happened to my last change, and for some reason it did not appear on the site. Unfortunately I wrote the new stuff ON the site. RE-wrote it, and hopefully it is at least as good as the first version no one ever saw. It is really up there this time. I promise.
I added some to the end of the story, as in reading back over it I realized that the commenters were correct. I stopped it too suddenly. It should be a lot better now.
So, I've finally let one of the people I know in the real world read 12-String. I respect his opinion, and for some reason I can't quite fathom, thinks I might actually be 'good enough.'
We'll have to see, but in the short term that means that I will be making a different form of the first eleven chapters for publishing.
By different, I mean that I will be altering my references to Sarah.
This is in no way meant as a slight to Megan or her story. It is simply a fact of what can work on it's own, and what can't.
For someone who spend almost a year reading books by the Brothers Grimm, I can be dense sometimes. Except for the fact that before I put pen to paper I switched the number from 12 to 16, Fairytale Princess is a retelling of the fairytale The Twelve Dancing Princesses.
I just finished recording the dates and information for Sarah Carerra, which I always do as I begin writing a new episode of 12-String. I like knowing where Megan is when I'm writting.
The interplay has gotten complex enough that I actually have the dates from broth Sarah Carerra and 12-String in an Excel spreadsheet.
Have I mentioned in the past that I'm a bit over-organizational?
Regardless. The point.
I catch up with Sarah Carerra in the next episode, unless I end up writing 10k words about the Juilliard audition. While possible, it is unlikely.
So, apparently my editor had some real life difficulties. This caused delays. I do not blame her for this. Just letting people know. 12-String in the future will be coming as it comes.
I guess I still think of this one as my flagship product :)
And for those of you interested, I've decided to run on a 3 story cycle for my other projects.
So, I was looking up more information regarding Ovotestis for the Jubal story and I came across some interesting facts.
Apparently, the condition is no longer called intersex, but is diagnosed as disorder of sexual development or DSD, with the aforementioned Ovotestis being OT-DSD.
Not sure how I personally feel about this, but I was able to glean more information that may hold some hope for Jubal, since apparently about two thirds of karyotype 46,XX have normal menstruation. . .
Sounds like a certain doctor might have jumped the gun thinking she would be sterile.
I hate myself right now. . .for what I did to a character.
I should have realized something was up when I was crying so hard I couldn't even finish the story. It hurt that much. Even now I find it hard to read the screen. I'm second guessing myself, which is something I rarely do with a 'published' story.
I'm seriously considering just scrapping the project completely and never returning to it. I don't know how much more of it I can take.
I really love this character. He is my little boy. He is my little girl. And I had to do this to him.
I have come to rely heavily upon my editor. It is very nice having someone who will point out all of your mistakes in the nicest way possible.
That being said, she has become busy with stuff in her real life. I will continue to write, but there will be a delay to when it it posted here.
What that means in a more clear sense is that when she gets back I will be posting at a more accelerated pace for a little while. Good for everyone, right :)
Yes, I admit that usually I am the bottle neck when it comes to getting my work out.
I've finished up all of my homework, I generally don't start the next week's assignments until I'm fully rested on Monday, and I'm patiently, mostly, waiting for my editor to get back to me with episode 12 of 12-String.
Which is to say, I'm bored. I want to write, need to write, ache to write. . .and I don't have anything to write.
Ok, so when I submitted the final version of 12-String: 12 to my editor, a problem with the court scene at the end of 12-String: 11 came to light. It's not that what was there was wrong, per se, but that it leads to an incorrect conclusion about what is happening. I've already changed it, but the paragraphs I changed are as follows:
So, we finished the second episode, and I've edited it on the site to reflect the change. The link is provided below for your enjoyment, should you be interested to see the minor changes made :)
So, this is a first for me. I posted an entry in the year long writer's challenge earlier, since I was waiting for my editor to get back to me with the last change sheet for 12-String, and I was waiting for another author to post their story for the day.
Lo and behold, I get back my change sheet for 12-String. . .and end up posting right after myself. I do hope no one gets mad at me for this.
Well, we have completed the revision and editing tour for 12-String one, and the first thing I have to say is I suck. Not in any major way, I just forget a lot of question marks and general punctuation at the end of paragraphs.
Those are the sort of thing I simply don't see when reading through my work. It's a dyslexia thing. Basically, I have to assume I understand what is written there half the time, and it becomes easier when I was the one who wrote it.
I have come to the realization that writing from the perspective of a serial killer is bad for my health as a writer.
The first time I wrote an episode of Obsession, I was gone for four months.
This time, being better prepared, I was able to get back into writing after only a week.
That being said, I am so far behind with 12-String that I kick myself constantly. I am writing it, though, and am about 2/3rds done with the current chapter, and have already had the first third proofed for the first time.
So, I was looking at rings on the internet, trying to find the perfect one for Madam Zeela to make for Gretchen.
It's not exactly what I was envisioning (which was something closer to http://tinyurl.com/4g98447) but I fell in love with the following one, and want to get everyone's opinion.
The next chapter of 12-String is done, and it has been submitted for editing. Last time I posted about this, I think my editor felt a little rushed. That was not my intent. Take your time, as I would prefer a complete product to a fast one :)
Just letting you all know where we are in the process.
I've just finished episode 9 of 12-String. . .but you may notice I haven't posted it yet. I now have a proofreader who has already helped me improve the content of episode 9 and so we will have to see how it progresses from here.
I had a second offer of proofing come in today, so I'm going to be starting on a couple of 12-String related side projects.
The first will be a complete revision of the existing episodes for continuity and general clarity. As soon as that's done, Ill be starting on Dichotomy, which will star Ethan before she became Gretchen.
Ok, so last week, I did some major deep tissue damage to my back and shoulders. This means that doing my homework (math this semester) is a pain in the neck, literally, let alone sitting for the four hours a day I need for writing my stories. Did I mention that I already spend eight hours a day at work doing typing?
Add to that the fact that I got both LEGO Universe (early) and The Lost Hero (book, unexpected) this weekend.
On top of that, I had my daughter's birthday to take care of on Saturday. Yes, she was a Halloween baby.
The next chapter of 12-String has given me some trouble. It's not the writing of it, but more what happens in it.
I didn't realize until after she hooked up with Bobby, quite the person that Bobby is.
I know that people under the age of 18 can't usually be diagnosed yet with personality disorders. That being said, Bobby has narcissistic personality disorder. This is a type of sociopathic personality disorder.
Now, not all sociopaths become murderers, and so here I stand at a crossroads. I will not be in any way including this in the story, but Bobby attempts to rape Buffy.
Ok, so I am getting behind in my school work because my teacher didn't respond on time to give me my assignment, and assuming she would be on top of things, I let it slide most of the week. I find out my assignment on Friday, only to get a call from animal control that my dog was put down.
This is the dog that the electrician my landlord hired to finally finish my kitchen let out on Thursday, neglecting to tell us that he was gone. We found out after 3 PM. . .but the dog was hit just before noon. So we would have had time to save our dog.
Ok, life intrudes on my ability to continue at the pace I would like to write at. If I wasn't currently running 12 credit hours (about 36 hours of work per week) and had a 40 hour per week job, I might be able to spend the 28 hours a week it takes me to keep producing TGL daily.
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
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Calimesa, CA 92320
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Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
