17 Days of Posting to Come!

Hey all… oh… you aren’t here still? Crap! Could it be because I’ve locked up shop for sometime? It does look rather dusty about here, oh my… there goes a spider.

Sorry about my long absence guys. I know I say this every time I ditch you all (and I honestly don’t mean to… it’s more like drifting really) but life got in the way! I began school (junior year haza!) and am taking really ambitious classes… college classes. UGH. Dumb idea if you want to have a life. With school comes all the introductory club meetings (NHS, NAS, FBLA, Grace Kelly Girls, and the like)! So as you can see I’ve been busy.

But no more!

My birthday is coming up this month, September 28th to be exact. And in honor of my amazing ability to age another year I shall be posting and writing 17 days in a row leading up to my s17th birthday! *yeah Ally*

Please hold your breath so that I will feel guilty if I don’t post, because I wouldn’t want anyone to suffocate!

Anyway,  beginning Tuesday I will be back up and running with NI and catching up on everyone else’s blogs who I have missed! ( Gabb’s, Juan, I’m talking to you!) So if anyone else wants to toss in their hat onto blogs that I should frequently obsessively visit do so now.

I’m really excited to be back, I’ve been all antsy with the inability to write/blog lately and even now I can feel my stress level slipping down.

So as I was saying: TUESDAY, YOU, ME, this BLOG? It’s a date right? Good.

*commence breath holding*

“The Mirror Project”

Hello all! I decided to check in today to update you on something very exciting. My newest project. Since my Track & Field season ended yesterday (yeah!) and school will be ending in under 2 weeks, I have decided to release what I will be working on for the summer of 2012.

Ah! I can not even appropriately express my level of excitement for this project! it’s actually gotten to the point at which I am so bottled up with said excitement that I might actually explode. So… I don’t like giving details away, but I can’t help myself  so I’m going to anyway.

To begin I would ask you to press play on the (current) theme song of my novel (the newest remake of “Windmills of Your Mind” by Eva Mendes)CLICK:

 

*shivers* The mood of the above song is so spot on. It’s insane. *clears throat*. As is per-usual I do not have a title yet for the novel, but from now on I am going to be calling it “The Mirror Project”. I’m hoping this doesn’t sound anti-climatic, because I’m so high on ‘new novel’ that I won’t be able to tell.

Anyway, I don’t won’t to give too much away ( you all will have to wait for the teasers for that). So, just to give you a taste I will tell you some of the things The Mirror Project contains:

It contains a desert, and in that desert, there is a girl with one brown eye, and one blue.

 There is a boy in this desert too, a sad broken boy, who may or may not want to kill everyone the girl loves.

 And most importantly… there is a mother. A mother with more blood on her hands then she will ever admit. A mother who believes that her cause is worth every scarlet drop.

And that is all I’m saying.

Now I’m off to go work on plotting. My official start date for this is in two weeks. *bites nails*. Nervous, but excited. This can NOT get screwed up, but it will. That’s what drafting is for.

What have you all been up to as of late? Any new projects (writing or otherwise) for you?

 

Because I Am Magical

Best vanishing act ever. I know.

Here one day. Gone the next. What have I been doing? I mean, besides letting Novel Ideas fall into disgusting disrepair? Well I’d like to think this all happened because I am magical. Didn’t Houdini disappear and never return or something? Or was he the one squashed by the elephant he made appear on stage? Ummm… okay never mind.

As much as I would like to tell you that my absence from blogging was a cleverly planned illusion it wasn’t. It was LIFE. Oh my… not magical. *

So, what has my absence been filled with?

Mostly stressful business. School work ( you know the stuff they tell you will make you an intelligent, and functional member of society), Track meets (luckily the season is over in less than two weeks.), oh and standing on-top of large trees in California:

Me in a large tree near Lake Tahoe CA. Inspiring isn't it?

So besides a week’s escapade in California, I’ve mostly been (as I said) busy. Unfortunately, not in a writing way. I haven’t gotten much of anything done writer wise since I last posted in March. That is the main reason I haven’t been blogging. I can’t stand to have a ‘writing blog’ when I’m not actually… you know… writing. I feel too hypocritical spouting off advice when I’m  not actually applying it myself.

Thankful things will be slowing down soon. Track ends the week after next, school is out on May 18th, and there are no large trees to stand on in Cincinnati so I think that about covers that.

Anyway, I’m posting just to let you all know I’m alive. Also I’ve decided to cut back on book reviews. It’s a lot to review EVERY book I read ( because I read ridiculous amounts of material) and… well I just don’t have the time to do all of it. So, I’ve made an executive decision and decided to review only books that I either REALLY love, or just need to rant about (because, let’s be honest, my reviews are a lot of ranting anyway).

So, I hope to get back on a bi-weekly blogging schedule in May, and look forward to talking to you guys again! Thanks for sticking around.

Now I have to go catch up  on reading I’ll the blogs I’ve missed!

* Just to let you know after I made that Houdini reference I looked him up and apparently he died from Peritonitis.That doesn’t sound very magical either.

I think we bear a resemblance.

 

Well… This is Awkward :/

*Que the strange apparition parting from the mist*

Oh, wait. Nope. That is just Ally.

I’ve been gone for what? two and half, three weeks?

Awkward…

I suppose I ought to explain myself.

Well, besides a number of personal issues. I’ve begun some new classes this semester one of them being the large and terrible abomination of Algebra III! I mostly veg out in that class and then go home and blankly stare at the book until I think I can read the first equation. All of which takes about four hours… Then I give up and go cry like a sissy girl.

Obviously, I hate algebra, and being able to study and pass that class thus far has been a nightmare.

After adjusting to that for about a week, I figured ‘hey let’s get back on the blogging train!’

Fate had other things planned. Things like a case of the flu. Ugh. A REALLY bad case of the Flu. So I spent four days shivering and sniveling in my house. Fun.

This lead to me being way behind in Algebra (I just finished all the makeup work this past Friday).

Then to put a cherry on top of all this, Track season started last week! Yeah! But, not exactly conducive  to a blogging schedule.

As you can see it’s been kind of crazy! I literally didn’t touch my laptop for something like a week. When I say I didn’t touch it, I mean I didn’t even boot  up the internet. The thing was in hibernate mode for SEVEN FULL DAYS. DAYS.

I have internet withdraw!

So, there above me are the excuses for why I haven’t been around. I’ll be back on schedule this week (so long as I’m not struck by lightning or anything…)

Since I’ve been gone I haven’t been able to look at your all’s blogs(super sorry for that), so what’s going on? Any news? Tell me please!

Also to Gab’s I AM SENDING YOU YOUR E-BOOK TONIGHT! I am dreadfully sorry for the delay!

And to RaeAnn: I am getting around to those edits I promised you. You’ll have them before the week is out!

Because It’s a Balancing Act?

I get asked a lot how I keep myself in check. How I manage to do all this ‘stuff’ I do, and not pull my hair out and fall apart, or you know, faint. I guess I’m suppose to tell you all how it is that you can balance writing,running a blog, critiquing others manuscripts, being in school, having a social life, playing a sport, playing music, writing music, reading, writing reviews on what you’re reading, doing art, and selling said art. But, honestly I can’t tell YOU how to do all that.

I can only tell you that I do, and it’s not without effort, or struggle, or sometimes collapsing on my bed, and wondering why I even bother because there is no possible way that I can accomplish it all without screaming.

Sometimes I DO scream…

Life in general is a balancing act. everyone has things to balance. Their work, kids, school, training their dog, running marathons. And everyone manages to do it in a different way.

WE ALL BALANCE DIFFERENT THINGS.

WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT.

I for instance am an insane procrastinator, so I know I have to get things done early, shut down my internet, smile, grin and bear it until I’m done. Other people (who are not cursed with procrastination) don’t have to do those things.

The thing is that we all need to prioritize. Realizing what is most important and divvying out your time accordingly. You need to understand that YOU CAN”T DO EVERYTHING. I have a problem with this as you can see from the above list of things I do. But, if you can believe it, I actually have rounded myself in by cutting out DeviantArt, a personal (non-writing) blog,photo a day photography challenge, and peer tutoring. Unfortunately I still have a lot to do.

So being honest with yourself is a big thing. Can you really make time to do all these things? Can you really manage another beta partner right now?Will adding another blog on WordPress really help you reach your goals? Will it make you a better person? Will it change you for the better? Will it change others?

Now, if you are being honest with yourself, and you know all the things you simply can not do without and have accepted that you can’t do it all then it’s time to look at how wisely your spending your time now.

Browsing the net for an hour is fun, sure. But is it helping you do any of those things?

ARE YOU WASTING YOUR TIME?

And I guess that is the whole point of this post. Don’t waste your time. You only have so much of it. In fact it’s the only thing you can’t get more of. EVER. So ask yourself this:

Is your balancing act really a balancing act? Or, are you forcing it to be one? Are you stealing half-hours to catch the end of that re-run of Burn Notice instead of writing/exercising/ playing piano/etc.?

My life isn’t a balancing act.

I make it one.

You make your life one.

Drop what you can, but ask yourself do you have to?

 

UPDATE: On Thin Ice FF Contest Results will be up this Week! KEEP ON THE WATCH

To: All My Lovely Readers!

Hello guys! I just wanted to drop by and say hey, because I’ve kind of been absent the past week. Second semester has started and I have some hard classes this winter (including college algebra … ugh *shivers*) so I’ve been occupied doing that along with my first commissioned art piece ever! (There will probably be pictures when it’s done.)

I just wanted to remind you all to ENTER THE FLASH FICTION contest I have running right now! SERIOUSLY GO DO IT NOW! Please! If you do you’ll have a chance to will CLOCKWORK PRINCE by Cassandra Clare, so you should definitely enter to win that awesome novel! You can read about it HERE, and submit your entry to me at novelideasblog@gmail.com BEFORE JANUARY 15th when the contest ENDS!

I hope to be back posting consistently soon, but life is getting pretty busy so hang in there with me while I get myself together guys!

In the mean time enjoy a little music from Ron Pope, who I’m totally lovin’ on right now (metaphorically…of course).

Until next time… Take it over Ron:

November is Heavy

The plethora of things I should be doing right now is piling up around my ears, and screaming at me. I ignore them.

Right now I should be writing my NaNo novel (even though it’s Carolyn’s night to work on it, so I’m resisting the urge). I should be, working on A Light That Shatters, or plotting out my next project… thus far only known as ‘the Mirror Project” (spooky, I know). And, probably, most urgently, I should be editing the manuscript I’ve agreed to critique for a blogger friend. I belive it’s due on the 27th… so that’s what? four… five days… yeah…

So, instead of doing all those things what did I do today?

I went shopping (what a waste of time… did I really need another skirt for church? Did I really need more sweat pants for track season?… No.)

I Read Sweetly by Jackson Pearce (… I actually did have to do this! It’s completely enthralling! I had no choice! I swear! Blame Jackson!)

I watched the last episode of GRIMM that I missed (… ugh, this show is amazing, Gosh, why does it have to be so addicting?)

I surfed the web for innumerable amounts of time, looking for “playlist music” for ABLAZE (that is what I told myself anyway. Let’s just say that’s what it was. Makes me feel better.)

All, and all my day was basically a haze of eating the last reserves of my candy corn (God, that stuff is good) and contemplating whether or not I can justify pestering Carolyn one more time via text about whether or not our next plot point should occur before or after Italia gets our of that heat stroke delirium. I just feel like the whole day kind of disintegrated in my hands.

And, so tomorrow, I am locking myself in my  room ALL DAY. I will go up in the morning, get my candy corn reserves, and then firmly plant my butt in my writing chair, and WRITE. Since my father is gone on a business trip, dinner won’t be much of an affair, it’ll just be me, my mother, and sisters. I know, I must sound terribly boring. But, if you were looking for Jersey Shore party time, I would leave this web page immediately and go turn on MTV. Haha!

(Still here?…Good!)

Besides eating ridiculous amounts of food and candy corn, tomorrow will probably just be writing/or editing. Since I have got to finish editing that manuscript. I still have thirty pages to read/add comments to, and then I have to type up an over view letter. Ugh… Why is November feeling so terribly heavy this year?

Have a good Turkey day all!

I’ll be back soon, hopefully with some flash fiction and what not!

NaNo 3 Tips on Day 3

NaNo has begun, and it’s been going great for me As you all know I’m doing a collaboration novel with my critique partner Carolyn (something I’ve never even dreamed of attempting) and am loving it!

we’ve set it up so that we each do a chapter/section every other day (meeting the word count) and then send it back to the other via email. It’s working out really well, and having somebody else depending on your pages forces you to write!

Sadly not everybody has that to motivate them to write and so for you single NaNo goers I’ve decided to hand out my top three NaNo tips:

1) Get ahead on your word count. No, seriously, don’t look at me like I have three heads. I realize you already have to write over 1,600 words a day. What I recommend is just writing an extra two or three hundred words. I know that doesn’t seem like much but after a few days those will add up, so if you miss a day you won’t be behind. look at it this way, if you write an extra three hundred words for the first week that gives you an extra 2,100 words! That leaves you getting done a day and hale early, do that every day and you could be done four even five days early!

2) Don’t skip writing. Just because you apply point number one, and happen to have an extra 4,000 words in week two does NOT mean you can skip a day. This is the fastest way to lose NaNo. Believe me, I know. If you decide to take a break one day, you will give yourself a second day. NaNo is all about consistancy. Don’t get yourself out of that mind set, or you will most likely be doomed to fail. (I know what your thinking…. ‘she has to be fun at parties‘)

3)Delete your Internet short cut. I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying ‘there’s many a slip twixt the cup and lip’. Well, during NaNo it is more like, ‘there  is many a web page between You and WORD’. It’s easy to just click on your browser when booting up the computer to start writing. A fleeting whim to Google, or check your email will often pass your mind when things get sticky in Microsoft, and that page is looking awful, or when you just don’t want to write. Deleting your browser shortcut makes it harder to answer that impulse. If you delete  the shortcut you have to go through the start menu and programs just to boot up the internet. It will seem much less appealing then. I SWEAR it will not kill you to do this! It’s a small thing, but you will get a lot more done. And, you can always go back after November.

Those were my tips for the day! How is November (NaNo or not going for you all?)

Revamping Before NaNoWriMo

Hey all!

I was just dropping in to bring you an update on Novel Ideas and the writerly ordeals that will be going on this week.

I realise I haven’t been very active blog wise in the last few weeks… as you’ve noticed the site has become a lot of me going:

Boo..hoo I haven’t written anything, and Oh crud I haven’t posted this week yet so this is me posting!

This is a pathetic excuse for a writing blog. Now as you may also have noticed the ‘winds of change’ are blowing in. As you can see NI has a nice new fall backdrop, a brand new logo (which you can see on the side bar, to the right of this post>>>) and if you were to go and select the ABOUT ME page you’d find an updated bio, and a new fall picture.I’ve also taken down the disastrously neglected “ME CURRENTLY” and “ANNOUNCEMENTS” pages, as they hadn’t been updated in such a long time that it is embarrassing. Hopefully I’ll get a few new useful pages up soon.

Now that the blogs been put up with nice newness, I figured it was time to look at what I’ll be posting. As you all know November is coming up which means one thing NANOWRIMO! *throws glitter around* I will be participating in that yet again this year, but as a collaboration novel with my critique partner Carrie.

I’m kind of mulling over the idea of doing a ‘post a day’ thing with NaNo, but I’m hesitant as Not only will I be doing NaNo, but I’ll be beta reading a manuscript for a WordPress friend in November that is due on the 27th. I’m going to try not to overload myself with stuff, but it may be inevitable.What do you all think?

As far as current writing goes I’ve been working on CARVE, and am extremely excited about the new project, I’ve had the idea for a little over a year, and have been, off and on plotting/experimental drafting since April. I feel like I’m making good progress! I’ve been utterly ignoring the Lighting Shadows series (The Shadows that fell (formerly BTE) and its companion novel) but that is soon to be opened up again and I’m thinking of showing some of that on here and demonstrating to  you how terribly WRONG it is and how you can avoid such horrid mistakes.

That brings us to posting I’m going to be doing a couple of advice posts here soon, and I’m also hoping to do a flash fiction challenge. Along with that I’ve been deciding whether or not to do some video posts (vlogs I’d guess you’d call them).

In other words November is gong to be my revamping month, and it’s going to be super busy around here!

As always guys, thank you for sticking with me!

Anyone else doing NaNo this year? Any big plans for November?

 

Whoa! Where Did Ally GO?!

I haven’t posted in over a week! A WEEK! Ugh… sorry I’ve been so gone lately guys, I had to finish an art project that I got commissioned for. I had the canvas for over three weeks, and didn’t even sketch it out until Friday. So, I had a 15-20 hour project to accomplish in three days… No pressure or anything! I literally just finished five minutes ago!

Here it is:

I’m calling it “Wolf Pack In the Briars”. It didn’t come out exactly like I wanted, but it turned out OK.

Sorry about the crazy off again, on again schedule. I’ll be posting tomorrow to make it up to you! have an excellent day all! Talk to you tomorrow; I need to go scrub this paint off my face!

CURRENT MUSIC: Curtain Close by Automatic Love-letter