RECENTLYI have a new blog where I now usually post about my writing and thoughts on books, authors, and writing in general. Please come by and be sure to comment!
http://philipamcmorrow.blogspot.com/
~Molly
Okay, 3 months is far too long for any excuse in not posting.
My biggest priority (besides for Bible and school) is writing. But not just writing...it is in getting my RH story done for good. I am about 36,000 words into the first draft, (I've been working on it for about a month) and usually my first drafts tend to be about 50,000-ish. But I am totally serious about this book. I have NEVER felt this way about any of my other stories.
What's the difference between that and anything else? Well there is a tremendous difference. Firstly, I believe it's me. Last year I had a very childish view on things - including romance. One of my biggest dreams was to meet a man like Rean-Hammon and get married. This year everything seems so different - I think I just took another step to womanhood, it takes many to get there. I believe I am more content where I am, and the looming 'fear' that I had last year "What if I don't ever meet the man. What if I never get married?!" isn't here at all anymore. I am looking forward to collage and my career, namely, to get a librarian degree and become a librarian and full time author.
Secondly, I believe that because of my own growth in maturity, I have greatly changed my outlook on my stories. I can't write only when I'm inspired - that's not good enough anymore. Lately I have been getting up at 5:00 in the morning and writing until 7:00 when I have to eat breakfast and start school. And believe me, when I hear the alarm sounding in my ear when it's still dark outside, the last thing I want to do is to get up and walk down the dark hallway to the computer room, turn on the computer, and wake up doing Write or Die. I am dead serious. I WILL have my novel ready for publication by next winter at the latest. Can you believe it? I am 16 and a half now, by next winter, I will have just turned 18.
I've run out of things to say, so I'll just stop here.
~Molly
I am giving a try at Irish Dancing!! There are two places in my town who offer it, and the first class is free, so I will give them both a try, and see which one I like better. But I am sooo exited, and it probably sounds as if I am bragging (I don't mean to) I'm just so happy! I have always wanted to learn Irish Dancing even when I was a little girl, but I have never taken it before - until now! So I shall give you an update on how that's going after I go to the class.
As for my writing...*cries*
My family has been watching two dogs for the past 10 days, and they have ocupied so much of my time, I have not been able to sit down at the computer to write anything. And when I don't write in like two or three days, my writing mind turns to mush. I have a huge writer's block right now because of that. I can't seem to write a single thing!
I fare ye well!
~Molly
Yes! Rean-Hammon! I am starting to edit my old Rean-Hammon story that I was writing with Katie last spring. As I have said before, I sorta gave the whole Rean-Hammon story up for lost. But now that about 7 months have passed since I have written anything with RH, I was suddenly surprised to find that I wanted to write that story over again! You know, Faithfulness and Deceit - FAD.
I am sooo exited about it though! I have a whole big adventurous plot lined out, the first bit of real adventure I have written since November. So I am very very exited about it!! *gives Rean-Hammon a tight hug* But his name won't be Rean-Hammon, it is Kelton.
Anyway, I must go off and write some more! I already have the prologue and the first chapter written and up on my story blog: www.homeschoolblogger.com/theborderlands
I fare ye well!
~Queen Flora (aka, molly)
Whatever Happened to Justice
Whatever Happened to Justice, by Richard J. Maybury, is a book about law and government. It takes us from what our founding fathers believed about law and government, to where we stand today. It covers Political Law and Natural Law. Political Law is fake, made up law; Natural Law is real, fundamental law.
In the
In Natural Law there are two fundamental laws: “Do all you have agreed to do.” And, “Do not encroach upon other persons or their property.” These two basic concepts agree with all religions and philosophies. Natural Law points back to a Higher Law, a law further above any law government can give. After World War II, the Nazi’s were put to trial, at Nuremberg, where the Nazi defendants claimed that they were following orders from their government – they were obeying their nation’s laws. However the prosecution contradicted saying that, “there is a higher duty” then anything that our governments can bestow on us. Natural Law is real law, it does not change, when there is Natural Law there is a decrees in poverty, business men can plan ahead.
In the
I enjoyed reading Whatever Happened to Justice? and it is a book I greatly encourage everyone to read. It introduced me to law, government, and power, and what is going on today in the
I realized I have not given an update on my writing in a long time!
~Trista (my 08 nano novel)
A few weeks before I finished my 2nd draft of Trista! I still have to add complete chapters to it when I go around and do my 3rd draft of it. I finished the draft with a total of 42,286 words in it. I was disappointed when I found out how short it really was - less by nearly 8,000 words! But it is so much more polished and smoother sounding. But it still needs a lot more work.
~All For a Rose
This is my newest novel, I started it a few days ago. For a few years now, I have wanted to write a retelling of the fairytale, Beauty and the Beast. I talked about doing it for last NaNo, but I didn't. I again thought about doing it for this November, but I didn't want to wait. So I have a blog for it now to post my chapters as I get them written. www.homeschoolblogger.com/theborderlands
One more note, Thank you all soo very very much who read my Trista story and posted comments on it!!! It was extreamly helpful and so encoraging.
I bid ye all farewell!
~Molly
I can't believe it's been about five months since NaNoWriMo! My nano novel, Trista is on the eleventh chapter of being edited. Although I laugh at the word "edited" for of my eleven chapters only like about 1000 words of it is from the original November story. My plot has changed a lot. Edred, instead of being a prince, is an average person, his father is not the king anymore, nor is his brother. Instead of adventure at every turn of the story, I'm taking out 99% of my adventure I formerly had. It is very different to say the least.
However, I especially like the way Trista is turning out though. I now have to write an adventure scene, but it shouldn't take too long and then I'll be able to write some more GOOD/SWEET stuff.
I was also talking to Katie about the difference of old books and new books. I don't like the whole writing style of new books, to me it seems that it is missing something. They seem to be missing the words. You know, those delightful, exquisite, fascinating, words that just make you want to stop and read them again.
It's as if the idea's are all there, the detail, but it is just a pencil sketch, as in this quote by Rhys Alexander:
"Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors."
That is why I don't enjoy new books very much. After reading books by the classic authors and authoresses it feels as though I'm wasting my time on the new books. I read most of Inkheart and though it is enjoyable and has fun characters, I really missed the old beautiful words. I would not care to ever read that book again. On the other hand think of L.M. Montgomery, or Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Jane Austen. See the difference?
The opening paragraph in Anne of Green Gables reads as following:
Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.
Think of how different that could have been written, no, I mean really think about it. It could have been written like this: Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a hollow with many kinds of flowers, and by a brook that came out from the woods of the Cuthbert place; it was a bigger brook farther back in the forest but was just a little stream by Lynde's Hollow, for not even a brook could go past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's house without being nice; and it probally knew that Mrs. Rachel was at her window looking at everything that passed by, and if she noticed anything odd she would never rest until she had found out why.
Isn't the first version so much more lovely? I mean, my little sentance described the same things pretty much, it only left out much of the beautiful words she used. So that is why I like to read old books. I believe they are much more delightful to read. Even the sound of the words! How many new books have you read where you will read a scentance or two, and say: "Wow! That was beautifully written!" And then go back and read it over again? Or do you read it just merily for the plot of the story and afterward, not care to pick it up once more? Because I think many modern authors have lost the art of using our bountiful language to the extent that it could be used.
So I encourage all of you to think about it more and try to write as to cultivate our lovely source of words and sew them into our liturature once more. After all, what joy is there in a story that is poorly worded or expressed with the bare minimum when you could express it with the full lushness of our launguage. Think about it.
Today I went outside and raked away a lot of leaves that were piling up at the edge of our backyard fence. As last autumn's leaves were pulled away, I could see bits of green! I was so exited that I quickly took a few pictures of it. I had already been seeing buds on our trees for the past two weeks, but I hadn't actually seen GREEN plants as of yet. Here are the pictures!
~Molly
Sorry for being away for so long! February Madness got to me, and I didn't even get 30,000 words. I got almost 26,000 though, and it got another novel on the making which I am very exited about. Now, however, I am working on "editing" my nanowrimo novel. By editing I only mean adding what I left out, and making it in order, deleting/adding new stuff.
So I set up a new blog to put up my edited version of my nano novel. click here to see my blog with the story on it. www.homeschoolblogger.com/trista
I shall now do my best to keep my blog updated, I plan to post an entry once a week at the least. Soon I shall have a post on my nature observations and Spring.
I'll talk to you later!
~Molly
A week and a half, that's all it took! I want to cry and laugh at the same time, I don't know which one to do! A week and a half writing together with Katie was interesting, I may say. Upon day one, Katie and me were freaking out, but in a good way. For the first whole week, up to Saturday the 7th, altogether me and Katie had close to 30,000 words written in FAD. We were hooked, and had the most coolest plot, but alas, it didn't last. What's new? It was Sunday, no...it was Tuesday evening, the 10th, I believe. We had to face it, it could never work out. It was MUCH too hard to keep all of our character with equally good and GOOD plots together.
Katie called me, and I was standing upon my bed, looking out a high window that was situated over my bed. The rain was falling gently down, and I had my window open, letting the cool breeze blow over me. We realized that we couldn't possibly write it together anymore.
The good new is that I can keep all that I wrote that week and a half with Katie, so it wasn't wasted. Also, 30,000 words is what me and Katie got to in the old FAD when we stopped writing it this last summer. I am so thankful that we found out our story wouldn't work together...with only having worked on it for TEN days, not 2 YEARS!
So here I am, half way through February, and I am behind on my word count, but I don't mind too much, I just have to get at it, and I will finish my first draft this month!! I have 14 days left, and i will get 30,000 words done!
~Mooly
Our story is coming alone great! Katie and me are writing together again so well! I was wondering at first how it would turn out seeing that we haven't writing together for more six or seven months. But if anything, I am writing SO much better with her than without.
Also, I am trying out something completely new to me. I am writing in only Andrus's (RH)'s perspective, not the girls point of view. It was at first rather challenging, but now I'm enjoying it numerously!
Today is my first day of Karate class! As I have said before, I am taking a woman's self-defense class, and the man who teaches that, also teaches Karate. My older sister Alice (who is married, and has three lovely children) is taking the woman's self-defense class also. She is loving it, as is Anna (mrs.gamgee) and me! I highly recommend taking a self-defense class, it has really opened my eyes. Our teacher tells us basically, how to get out of almost any situation, from a basic wrist grab, to being held at knife or gun point. I have a lot to learn still, and that is why I am so exited that my sisters and I can go to take Karate lessons, for a very good price. And anyone knowing me, normally wouldn't think I would like to do that sort of stuff, but when you look at Karate as self-defense, rather than a sport, (as I always thought of it, aka: the karate kid, etc.) I like it! So currently I and my two sisters go to the woman's self-defense class on tuesdays, then on Thursdays we will go to Karate class.
Anyway, I got to go, and do my word count for today!
I fare ye well!
~Molly
Last night I realized that the old RH was back!! I ran up to him and hugged him, I had missed him so so much!! I had not seen a trace of him since early October. And his imposture, Athelstan was taking over. Athelstan was the one that ruined FAD.
So when RH came back, I was so happy! I had thought I'd lost him forever, he was the best hero character I have ever known, and now he has agreed to come back and let me write his story once more!! Although, it was upon the condition that I took Amaye out of the story once and for all, and put Flora back into it. For ever since I had taken Flora out of FAD, RH being the faithful hero, left the story too.
Not to mention, RH probally left FAD also, when I changed his apearance to look like Prince Caspian...hehe, not a wise choice for me to do. So now I have RH back, though under a different name, not that he'll mind though. He has always been very obediant and most helpful to me and he has agreed to help me with Katie and my story.
RH's new name is Sir Andrus. You'll have to get used to it, even RH doesn't really mind.
So with that happy news, I wish you all a fare well!!
~Molly
It is the first day of February's challenge, and already I have made a HUGE change in plot, culture, and viewpoints, in my book. Or, shall I say, OUR book?
Yes, you heard me correctly, Katie and me are not only joining back our fictional worlds, but also writing a book together. *hugs Katie and squeals girlishly* After less than six months apart, five to be exact, me and katie have decided to write a book together once more. We are now to take up the pen with both our hands. I have missed writing with Katie so much! It was so sad when we broke apart our story.
Six years ago, me and Katie wrote a story together about fairies. It was really quite amazing, this was our first real work of writing that we took seriously. At age ten and eleven, we worked furiously and with great aim, never loosing focuse. Granted, the characters were as we lovingly call them, "Robot Characters" and had absolutely NOT a grain of personality. But our writing habits were so well packed in! We both wrote faithfully everyday. We probaly spent a half an hour to an hour daily on our story. It came first for us, and all other activies came almost all after it. We never gave ourselves the excuse of "But I'm not inspired!!" No, we plodded diligently though it for almost a full two years.
At the end of two years we almost had it completed, before we stopped writing it at age 12. For about a year, we were wrote on our own. Katie wrote a lot of short stories taking place in modern time. I wrote lots of historical fiction. It didn't last long. We needed each other again, and that was when we came back and started FAD.
So with that note, I shall leave you!
~Molly
Memories, both sad and happy...
I can remember the first day when I decided to write 'The Silent Passageway'. I was laying on top of my bed, talking to my sister, Anna. In my hands rested a piece of paper, with typed up words upon it. It must have been a scene from a previous story that I had been writing. Anna wanted me to read it to her, but me, thinking it would be a fun joke, began "read it" to her. I was really doing nothing more than making up a story as I went along.
It ran something like this:
One day, as the sun seeped though the windows of an old musty attic of an old house, walked a woman. In her hand she had a key, that led to a secret lock which nobody knew about...
Suddenly I just knew I wanted to write a book about something with a key that led to a secret passageway.
A few weeks later, I was holding in my hands, a copy of Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was a red hardback, with gold embossed letters. I stood in front of my mirror and acted out a random scene of a girl who found a book such as that. She opened it, and found names of kings and all the royal line written in it. Though she was the princess, her name was not in it.
That sprang hundreds of ideas into my head, and I combined 'Flora-Anneola, Fleeing Princess of Hanaskea' with my older book, 'The Silent Passageway' and that became the very foundation of what is now called 'Faithfulness and Deceit' or FAD for short.
That was about two years ago. Then I formed another character named Lydia. Katie helped me with her for a while, and before we knew what had happened, Lydia was Katie's character and Flora was my character. Here it get's interesting, for while Lydia was basically Katie's character, Lydia was still in my book, and Katie wasn't helping write it yet.
About this time, comes an interesting argument me and Katie had which is really quiet comical. I always imagined Flora's hair to be curly and red, and Lydia's hair to be strait and black. Katie never imagined Lydia to have black hair, and I think at one point it was blond, but not for long. Soon agreement came, and Lydia had strait light brown hair, and Flora was the same curly red hair.
Then came the character named Hammon. He was Flora's twin brother. I sort of forgot about him, and at the same time created two other characters named Younger Ranger and Older Ranger. Well not really, but they didn't have names for the longest time.
The way the story went so far was that Flora and Lydia were "twin" sisters, though really Flora was the princess to the other country of Hanaskea, even though she and Lydia lived in Eterneth. (soon to become Ethernethia) The jist of the plot was that they ran away from their evil uncle Rumman, who was the king of Eterneth. On the way, they met two Hanaskean Rangers, who ended up protecting them and taking them to Hanaskea so that Flora could become queen, and where Lydia could get an army and fight against her Uncle Rumman. At this point however, Rumman's character changed. He became a nice uncle, and it was his son, Aragin who was the villan.
Meanwhile, Flora's twin brother was forgotten about, and I named the "younger ranger". His name became Rean-Hammon as shown below. :)
I must say, Rean-Hammon became one of the main characters, and the hero of the story. Then, first sugested by a friend of mine, I first added romantic stuff to it. It wasn't too bad, there are actually a few scenes I look back upon, and I still want to use.
At this point, after about a year of writing, Katie joined with me. She wrote all of Lydia's scense, and I wrote all of Flora's scenes, (by this time I had changed the name Flora-Anneola, to just plain Flora).
Also Katie introduced a character named Raindant, who was a poor stable boy who falls in love with the princess Lydia. Katie's two character's went their own way, and my plot and my two character's went a different way, although we managed to keep them together for about six more months.
The spring of '08 was when I began showing FAD to all of you. And by then, it was called Faithfulness and Deceit. The whole plot turned slightly, and turned into more of a romantic book. The first chapters took place at balls, and Flora had many suitors, after all, she was a beautiful princess.
This summer Katie and me found out major problems in the story. First of all, Katie found out that her characters, Lydia and Raindant were getting out of hand. Lydia was a wonderwoman, who could do anything! Raindant was whimpy. So she changed a bunch of things, and named the girl Adrianna and Raindant was named Callan. Katie's story took a huge upward turn, and mine seemed to be flying along.
In late July, Katie and me split our book into two seperate books. Adrianna became a gypsie, but Flora was still a princess, although not so pretty.
By October, my plot seemed to be going wonderfully, better than I had ever hoped to imagin. Then came NaNoWriMo, and the month of November. I put FAD on hold, and began writing a sequal for it. The hero of that book being, Rean-Hammon's younger brother, Kelton.
Katie and me soon realized that we had to seperate our fictional world, into two entierly different places. She went and made different countries, and I made changes to mine. I also tried to focuse on my cultures a bit more, and Rean-Hammon's name was changed for the first time. He was called Athelstan. And Flora had long ago dropped off that name and was named Amaye.
My nano novel turned out wonderful, but when I came back to write FAD, it seemed to have lost all of it's aspects that I had loved. Athelstan (Rean-Hammon) was not the man he used to be. He was no longer the hero everyone talked about. He dissapeared. Katie's hero, Callan became the hero now for me.
Everything had changed, so so much from the small little story I had written so long ago. December was a trying month, as was the beginging of January. However, a few days ago, I have finnaly made my decision. I am no longer writing FAD. Something changed in it, although I was never sure what it was. I could never put my finger upon it. Somehow November, with the break of writing FAD, showed the book in it's true light. It was now dim, and old, no longer brilliant and new. The old hero, Rean-Hammon had dwindled down into an annoying doomful ranger. And Amaye, well, she was never that much to look at.
So here I am. How does it feel, to let two years of constant hard work, go to waist you may ask? From the ages of 14 to 16? Well, it hasn't gone to waist. I have learned so, so, so much in those two years! I learned how to make characters, I learned how you must sometimes just let your character lead the way. I have learned how a plot may change so many times, and I have learned to forget and let the past go.
It is true, many of my plot ideas, and some of my characters such as Loxlin (the older ranger) and Kelton, have lived on. Kelton (now named Edred) has his own book and someday soon, so will Loxlin (aka Ethelbert).
So where do I go from here? As many of you know, I am writing a knew story, which is on my story blog. I am enjoying working with and getting to know Latisha, and Hadrian (characters from it). I do not look at the past with regrets, but with hope for the future. I still continue to write wedding novels, with some adventure mixed in.
With that said, I am looking forward to February's challange, writing 30,000 words in my novel. By then I shall have at least 40,000 words in it, and I shall put it on hold, and in the month of March I will edit my nano novel.
From there? I do not know. I shall edit this story. I cannot say. Although I do hope that before this next November, I can have both my nano story a good way edited, and also my newest story edited. And in November, I shall start another story. Where from there?
I fondly bid you all farewell! God bless!
~Molly
