James Grass

Fanfic Writer's Anonymous?

2009-09-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

I didn't know we'd made this, but...

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...I'll promote it anyway?

Hearts We Know By Stories

2007-06-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

Well, hello again those who seem to be reading this. Blah, I'm a bad member of the OAWC, I tell you... I don't think I've attended a meeting since, what, February? And I can't even spell the dang word "February" because that doesn't look right. I think it's "Febuary" but that doesn't look right either.

But they published a book with a collection of work done by the members of OAWC (and put one of my pieces in the book). This book can apparently be purchased through lulu.com, which is a self-publishing website. The book is about 9 dollars with shipping + handling, or whatever.

You can probably find a link to purchasing that book on the OAWC blog if you want to get it, but I'm too lazy to post a link here. It's a miracle I even remembered I have a blog in the first place.
-James

Slow recovery....

2006-12-06T11:15:00.000-08:00

Hello to those who can read! If you cannot read, and you somehow made it here... well, on a technical default I could say whatever I wanted to you, couldn't I? But sometimes I am nice, and considerate, and not a complete jerk.

But you should also be remembering that small, tiny, almost unnoticable detail: "I--AM--A--WRITER!" We're really all evil, but some of us won't, can't, or chose not to admit the fact. It's really true though. What other creature than a writer in this law-literate (I really don't think that's even a word, but now it is!) world could get away with
murder,
treason,
larceny,
adultery,
cruel and unusual punishment,
wretched singing,
destruction of government property,
destruction of private property,
assisting the successful invasion of aliens on the planet,
bad examples of belly dancing,
violating driving laws,
opening a candy store with a nefarious scheme to rule the world with mind-controlling sugar particles,
shoving people down stairs,
using an android to slowly take over the telemarketing business,
creating cyborgs using the living flesh of a child,
and so much more...

And actually never even get out of their seat, or remove their eyes from the keyboard/typewriter.

If you don't have an idea or two for writing next year's NaNoWriMo novel, perhaps it is a good, wonderful idea to pick up a book or three...or perhaps check back on this blog next October! I'm sure if I ever remember to post, I'll have accidentally (yeah... accidentally) said something interesting. Why, I even am so positively sure I don't know what I'm writing next year, I may as well not tell you about my assuredly wonderful idea.

I told my friends what I was writing about in my NaNo this year. I even wrote about what I was writing about in a short-story to be published with my writer's club 3-year anthology thingy. Guess what? The only thing I did similar to my NaNo idea, was that in the story there was a mansion, and there was an ad in the newspaper. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's pretty different.

But Sags is fun! Oh, I forgot to tell you!

I AM A WINNER!

Yay! It's so cool. I kept thinking, "Oh, gosh, oh man, I'll never make it!" Then, like the dummy I am, I would spend time writing a fanfiction because Sags is a dork. Really, he is! He's... oh, how did I put it? "Sure, he wasn’t a real private investigator as much as he was a wanna-be, but he had references! Why, just last week he had a particularly difficult case. An old lady called him up because her cat had gone missing." So you see? That's straight from the first-ish page! You can't really get any more direct to the story than that.

And you want to know something more about him? "He had perfected everything in his life to date. Except the fact that he was living in a slightly beaten up apartment with his ex-girlfriend Kara and her new free-loading, college-student, vice-president of a major corporation boy toy… That was really a minor detail, Sags was sure." Idiot. I tell you.

This year, I have no clue why I chose NaNo season to do it, but Sags' story is actually the very first original piece that I've ever written with a male main character (and kept going past 3,000 words). I had one with a main character named Jesse Something-or-other... I alway have crazy names and never remember them. He was in high school (a complete, total loser-nerd...not just a loser, and not just a nerd, but both intertwined dangerously!), and he loved writing for the school newspaper. I think as I started, it was supposed to be some crazy thing where he sucked at writing for the newspaper, and no one would read his articles and he was on the verge of being kicked out of the club, and then someone in the school died so he wrote about it or something. It was absolutely crazy, and rather stupid... but I never got far on that one anyway. Someday I'll go back to it.

But NaNo was 90% with Sags as the main character. The last 10% was me going through (irritated with Sags doing NOTHING and crying about it - not me crying, but Sags! I'd never cry of course... Shifty eyes...) and inserting pieces and clips of his best friend Rei (not pronounced Ree, but Ray) throughout the story, switching to her instead of being with Sags. "Rei Cherrie had been at her desk for the past three minutes with nothing to do. She was terrible at patience or any related virtue. Boredom was something she never made a habit of practicing. With nothing to do for three whole minutes, or more accurately four now, she started thinking about things she could do later."

Rei is cooler than nice-guy, step-on-me Sags. She was raised by her parents' neighbors (Sags' mom & dad coincientally) when her parents decided to take off for France without her. She's a tomboy-type-girl. She managed to land an abusive boyfriend who slowly makes her lose her spunk and her will to remain the "toughest girl in town". Her mother and father come back for her. She finds out in a dramatic turn of events (cliche turn more like) that her mother actually had an affair with someone in Japan on the honeymoon, and that her father (who she never really met anyway) wasn't actually her father. Her mother want her to inherit the French restaurant she owns. Her mother is dying of a strange and mysteriously incurable cancer. Her father doesn't like her. Apparently she has a 20-year-younger brother named Jimmy, or Johnny, or some crazy name like that. She gets promoted to the Odd-Bobs section of the newspaper. Then, for good measure, I have a crazy guy break into her house and attack her with a sword, sending her to the hospital!

Whew! That was a lot. And then there appears to be some sort of plot in the story too. I donno, like, people mysteriously falling into a coma after they enter the Connor Mansion, and Sags having crazy dreams of Abi (who was literally my main character from last year's NaNo!) and some weird flying creature-who-looks-human. It's a simple story... Heheh......

Now I forgot what I was writing about as I started this whole spewing session. Oh hey! I can add images to this. Crazy! So let's do this again...

I AM A WINNER!
Doesn't that just have a lot more enthusiasm? I think it does.

Oh, now I remember what I was saying. I was talking about the writer's club I belong to. I really need to get to one of the meetings soon. But my Saturdays are so busy lately. I feel bad, because I can't go. November's over, so I really shouldn't have an excuse! But if I were given a few minutes, I'd think of a reason. Let's see... December 2nd I was recovering lost sleep from NaNo... In October I was not preparing for NaNo.................

Blah. Anyway, I think I've wrung this topic dry, and bore those who can actually sit through this to tears. If I ever remember you were here (once more assuming 'You' is reading this) again, I'll be sure to notify the authorities... I mean... post more.

Once more

2006-10-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

Once more I've changed things a bit in the Nettie Novel. I know, those weirdos who actually read the stuff I put here (or don't put here) are probably not surprised in the slightest. But that's okay, because Nettie Novel gets better every day that I find time to work on it with all the other writing projects (or as some people would call them, "problems", though I don't consider writing as problematic in the slightest) I have going on.

So, the new news (or old news depending on how you look at things) is that Nettie (Natalie Garson), Anne (Annaisuka Bristol), and Kat (Katherine deWinter) are still in the book. Percival White, who I talked about briefly in another of the postings about this, is still in the story. I don't know if I mentioned John Ruben or Henry Wilkens yet, but they are Percival's two best friends and they keep him insane, so it works out well any way you look at it.

As for more news about it, the new antagonist for the Nettie Novel seems to be (or at least the head honcho for the evil bad guys) the person who is creating machines that can be used to splice a living creature's DNA with another entity.

I'm really glad how it's going so far, since things are coming together so nicely and I'm not even at 30,000 words. The plot is coming out at a safe trickle, and none of the main characters are dead yet (though I had to delete several of my recent pages which included a character death that just wasn't working out for me). Normally I get to 100,000 words and realize, "I'm sure some poor reader wants to know what the heck is going on here," and only then start to hint at things.

Nope, now I'm doing really well. I've brought out questions, and slowly the reader can piece together a little bit of the story without the characters knowing much of anything, but still more questions are being raised.

However, in November, Nettie Novel will be put on a slow simmer on the back burner of my Writer's Stove, since NaNoWriMo is coming up and I made a bet with a friend of mine. Well, not really a bet, more as a challenge. We're both participating in NaNoWriMo and when we win, we'll read each other's crap stories.

NaNoWriMo is a load of fun, but I also anticipate being sick through December because of November, so Nettie Novel may not be picked up again until January, since aside from work and NaNoWriMo in November, I also am taking a class at a local school, so there's really no time at all for me to sleep/eat/live during that month. Thus the anticipation of sickness in December. And I know from experience (I participated in NaNoWriMo last year) that I most definitely probably will be sick.

So there you have it. I randomly felt like updating, and I don't actually sound like some sort of crazy, insane person. I simply "sound". Maybe not even that much.

More -- whenever.

-James

New and Improved

2006-07-31T16:18:00.000-07:00

The new "Nettie novel". I think it's going well.

I am writing a book about (so far) six kids who meet under strange circumstances. One, Anne Bristol, is thirteen and in the military. Her companion (not specifically a main character) seems to believe she was brainwashed. She believes strongly that she is not human and does not deserve human rights. She ran away from the orphanage at age nine, and was found by a doctor who "spliced" her genes with that of a snake, turning her into what was considered a "non-human" by the government.

Thirteen year old Natalie Garson was orphaned at age three and claims to have forgotten how that came about. When a lady comes to the orphanage to adopt her, she wants to say she doesn't want to go with the woman, but ingrained in her are manners so strict that she can't bring herself to speak up. Her traitorous mouth says, "I'd like to go," instead. The lady states that she has some business to take care of, but will be back in three weeks to fill out the adoption paperwork, and the orphanage caretaker warns the lady that--should someone else come--he cannot stop Nettie's adoption.

Thirteen year old Katherine deWinter was also orphaned at age three when her parents died in a car crash. She enjoys picking on Nettie from day to day, but considers herself Nettie's older sister and makes it her job to care for the clumsy other girl--without Nettie knowing, of course. She acts tough, and is tough. She wakes up before everyone else, and goes to bed after everyone. Kat doesn't like it when she finds out that Nettie might be adopted.

I won't tell of the other three yet. Perhaps another time.

Nettie01 status: first draft complete

2006-04-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

It is now the Monday after Easter, and everyone is fat off of chocolate and barbeque. Except me. And I will just have to tell you why, because the news is just hanging on my tongue like a monkey, which is not really a good analogy at all but seems to fit fine anyway.

My news is that I have finished the first draft of my Nettie novel and oh my goodness it is so awesome because I thought it never would end, and it started to seem like just a bunch of rambling (like what I'm doing now), and then I fixed it a little, switching things here and there and boom all of a sudden it was over and...

And then, well... you know... I did that thing--you know which thing--that you do when you complete a novel and everything... what's with the silence? Don't you know what I'm talking about? Oh dear... No, I wasn't thinking that. Really, you shouldn't stick your head in the gutters like that... (I love saying that, because automatically you end up with images in your head, don't you? What are you thinking about? Hahaha!)

I'm talking about starting book two! I have to know what happens next, even though I already know what happens next I still can't wait to see what happens next! It's almost scary the way it's over now.

So, I know I haven't told you much about Nettie and Percival and how it all ended. All I said was "Oh my gosh oh my gosh" over and over. I have a tendency to repeat myself. I repeat myself a lot...

Well, here I am, grinning like a madman. By the way, your taxes were due today.

405 Pages (double spaced, 12 pt. font)
Twenty-seven chapters
Approx. 113,500 words
First Draft: Complete
Final Draft: Incomplete

The To-Do Series:
Refuse To Die
By: James

The series title is tentative, and the book title is also not yet set in stone. I was hoping that my dear friends in the writer's club I kind-of, sort-of belong to would help me out there after they read it. I'm only on like page 3 of book two, and that one is now called my second Nettie novel, because I haven't named it yet (really, only in page three guys, don't rush me). But it's so crazy because evil, evil Modred Gaines keeps trying to kill Nettie and she just won't die! That's why the title so far is "Refuse To Die".

Anyway, Nettie shouldn't get herself involved with complicated, perfect people like Percival White, because it just gets her into trouble (and her first kiss stolen by a jerk who thinks she's going to let him get away with it). I'm not quite sure about the ending either. I'll need help with that because it may or may not move too fast. I might not have explained it well enough.

Still, WOW!, I am so done with book one's first draft that it's not even--okay that's a lie, it is funny. I pretty much told everyone I've seen so far (there may or may not have been a few strangers who found out too... though I can't be positive on that one). But I fixed the part (which you won't ever know were wrong to begin with unless I publish this post thingy) where Nettie became Elizabeth's ward after she was supposed to go to jail, so that makes a bit more sense now.

And Percival is awesome but he's just so weird and that's really cool. Well, he's not weird like Nettie is weird (I think I'm still spelling weird wrong but honestly don't care and never have cause it's a weird word to begin with) but he is weird, I mean it. I mean, he's a pompous, arrogant, know-it-all jerk! (Coincidentally, since I made him up, I could change him but I won't...).

Blah, I am rambling and I talk a lot. If I remember about this spotted bloggy thing, I will completely promise to post again. But hey, come on, no pressure now.

2006-04-06T10:50:00.000-07:00

I am a new (bloggeress? blogger-girl? um...). I have to give this thing some thought... because I'm not good at diaries (seems like this could be likened to one...) since I'm terrible at writing about me.

So, I'll solve that problem in a simple manner! I'm a writer (more about me? oh...) and the current work I am engrossed in is about--don't you just hate it when people go off subject? Well, a forewarning, I do that a lot. Anyway, back on point? I mean, it isn't like many people are going to read this anyway, so I have no problem rambling endlessly.

Right now I call my novel "The Nettie Novel" because it lacks a title at the moment. I don't title things 'till the end or else I find myself trying to write around the title which gets really buggy sometimes. I always used to get really mad when I'd think of a cool title for a book and then try to write a story to go along with it... then the story would suck horribly and the title would be catching and cool.

So I stopped with the titles, and when I speak of my current work, I'll probably say something weird like "such happened in my Nettie book" or something and you (if "you" are reading this) can ignore me completely. My Nettie book is crazy cool though! (To me...).

Nettie is fifteen and goes to school at a Boarding School. She's gone there ten months out of every year since she was four years old. I can't figure out if my story would be a fantasy/mystery or a science fiction/mystery, or a combination of all of it, but at least I know its a mystery. It takes place in my own universe but has all those wonderful technological innovations that we have here on earth, so it's pretty cool.

Nettie's a clumsy student at the school--but not just A clumsy student... she's pretty much the clumsiest person you could ever meet which makes it so fun to play her character. Because she's so clumsy, she stumbles across a lot of things she shouldn't, and gets herself into trouble that she never would have had to deal with otherwise. She's paired with a perfectionist named Percival for a class project. Percival is--despite his kind of nerdy name--is extremely athletic and just never ever fails at anything.

Because of--can't exactly say why or I'd give away some things in the book and you want to read it, I know you do!--certain complications... yeah... that's a good excuse... Percival has a very evil guy who is out to chop him up, box him up, and ship him to his parents. Nettie--due to the fact that she was paired with Percival for this project--ends up getting involved in the nasty scheme of the evil antagonist and it's just so exciting. I love playing Percival too. He's ... serious. More sometime... if I remember I have started this.