Update - My Hero Excerpt!

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Who has the most neglected blog on the internet, right?

I've learned that I punish myself for not writing by not allowing myself to make a blog post.

Which tells you just how long I went without writing.

But, for the past few days, I've been in a frenzy of writing productivity working on my long-overdue 2010 NaNo Novel!

Things are going very well. You would not believe how effective getting rid of Zach was.

I also changed a male character to a female character, which will make things a tiny bit tricky (you have no idea how annoying it is to have to change the masculine to feminine EVERYWHERE I've already written with this character).

I'll pause and explain WHY I did that.

I have 3 NaNoWriMo novels that are started and need to be rewritten to be finished. All three of those novels, 1) My Hero, 2) The Lion and the Frog, and 3) Leprechaun Holiday, have a 'big brother' character. This may have something to do with the fact that I don't have an older brother and have always wanted one.

Besides the 3 NaNo Novels, I have a 2-book set in my head based on the fairy tale Thumbelina, 4) Flower & Thorn, and 5) Tommelise, which will ALSO have a big brother character in it.

[Why are there too many story ideas and not enough time/energy to write them?]

So, I figured that wouldn't do. Books #2, #4, and #5 DEPEND on having a big brother character. So I'm working with what can be changed. Luckily, the fastest and easiest fix is to switch the big brother in My Hero to a big sister.

It actually makes more sense in the long run.

Yay!

Aside from those 5 potential novels, I actually have a musical in my head right now. The plot was originally from a story (obviously), but the story is about a couple who rashly decide to break their engagement off, and how they eventually learn they don't want to be with anyone else.

[WHY!?]

So, anyway, that's an update on what I'm working on.

And, to reward you for coming back to my blog after my embarrassing hiatus, I give you:

A NOVEL EXCERPT!

As usual, this is a first draft, so it may eventually be completely different, but for the time-being, its one of my favorite scenes I've written thus far. It's also one of those PAY ATTENTION BECAUSE EVERYTHING IN THIS SCENE WILL COME BACK AT SOME POINT IN THE BOOK scenes.

Enjoy!

“Look out!” a voice yelped.

Peach skidded to a stop right in front of Fr. Albert Gregg, the priest from Claypool who came to Bendbridge every Sunday to say the 10 a.m. Mass. Bendbridge had no priest of its own, only the big, broken down, supposedly haunted church. . Peach realized she and Sukie were nearly to the skate park – she was standing in the shadow of the St. Flannan’s Church steeple. Without thinking, Peach took a picture of Fr. Gregg’s startled face.

He laughed. “I look that good, huh?”

“Sorry, Father!” Peach cried. “I wasn’t watching where I was going,”

“No trouble,” he said. He lifted the stack of papers he held in his hands. “I’m just here to hang these around town,” He held one of them up, and Peach read the header quickly.  

ANNOUNCEMENT:

CHURCH OF ST. FLANNAN’S TO BE CLOSED AND DEMOLISHED SPRING 2011

Peach gasped involuntarily. “Oh my gosh – really?”

Fr. Gregg nodded, looking a little crestfallen. “Unfortunately, St. Flannan’s is being closed. The bishop sees no point in trying to keep it open. It needs too many repairs and doesn’t get enough donations,”

For some reason, Peach felt like crying. She wasn’t sure why. “I don’t want it to close,” she said sadly.

Fr. Gregg raised his eyebrows. “Do you go to church every Sunday, Patricia?”

Peach blushed, and shook her head sheepishly. “My mom works a lot of Sunday’s, and she wants me to stay home and clean for our renters, and…”

Fr. Gregg held up a hand to stop her. “I don’t need a confession, Patricia, I’m just trying to make a point. Very few people in Bendbridge even come to church every Sunday. And most of the people who do attend Mass drive to Claypool instead of going here in town. No one really likes the church. They all say it’s haunted. And maybe they’re right. Sometimes I’ve gotten plenty spooked in there. Anyway, it’ll be fine, Patricia. Anyone who is still interested in attending Mass can drive to Claypool either Saturday or Sunday,”

“Peach?” Sukie called from further down the sidewalk.

“Coming!” Peach replied, waving to her friend. She looked back at Fr. Gregg. “I’m still sorry. I’d go to Mass every day to keep it open. I’m going to miss it,”

Fr. Gregg smiled at her, and made her feel very stupid by patting her helmet. “Don’t get upset about any of it, Patricia. Keep reading your bible and praying, and everything will be fine,”

He hurried away into the Church, and Peach watched him go. She always felt like Fr. Gregg didn’t take anyone in Bendbridge seriously, and that made her sad, too.

She skated quickly to catch up with Sukie at the corner. They stopped to let some cars pass, and Peach found herself staring into the cemetery behind St. Flannan’s.

“What was that all about?” Sukie asked.

Peach sighed. “The church is going to close and they’re gonna tear it down in the spring,”

“Really?” Sukie sounded surprised. “Too bad. I wonder what they’ll put here instead. They can’t exactly move the cemetery,”

“I didn’t even think about that,” Peach said. Her Grandpa Roy’s grave was in the St. Flannan Cemetary. She hoped they didn’t stick a McDonalds or anything equally disrespectful in the center of town once the Church was gone. 

Writing Update: Zach is Axed

2010 was the first year I took part in NaNoWriMo, and I had no idea what I was doing. I barely had a plot for the story I started, My Hero (it was never finished even though I reached 50k words). So a lot of random, weird things got thrown into the pot.

One of my characters was a seventeen year old boy named Zachery Green. He was supposed to be this tall, handsome Korean boy whom my protagonist was meant to fall madly in love with.

Well, that was pretty stupid. The way I wrote it, no one would have cared whether or not Zach and Peach ended up together. I DIDN'T CARE! I was going to have Zach move to another state at the end of the book, anyway. I broke his leg at one point. I said I loved him, but I think I hated him.

Part of it was that I was trying too hard not to make Zach like the guy I had a crush on. So he had no personality. He was just like this male blob who I figured I could mold into a believable character at some point.

I still don't have a handle on Zach as a character. I have no idea what makes this guy tick. And I made a promise to my boyfriend, and to myself, to finish my NaNo novels before moving on to something new. My Hero is the logical place to start, since the skeleton is 3 years old now.

So, in my efforts to rework My Hero and actually be able to write 'the end' with a smile instead of a grimace, I have officially cut the character Zach Green from the story completely.

Zach is axed.

Worse, Zach is REPLACED.

I am putting in a different male character who has yet to be given a name, but is actually based off of a guy I know. He is nothing like Zach was. His role in the story will be completely different.

And I admit I feel kind of bad about that. But Zach was never really a character...he was more of an anti-character. Because all I was doing with him was making him DIFFERENT from my crush. That made him boring and somehow very ADHD at the same time.

So, I press onward, WITHOUT Zach. Maybe I'll put him in a different story someday.

Maybe he'll actually have a personality then.

My Hero

Long ago, in 2010 when I first entered NaNoWriMo, I wrote a story called My Hero. It was random, spur of the moment, never finished, and frankly...terrible.

But many people told me the prologue was good, and my friend and I liked the name Peach. 

So here you go...enjoy :)

cover made by the lovely Kayla 

Prologue

Peach saw herself; small, blonde, large blue eyes, dressed in a white hoodie and jeans, standing in black, surrounded by swirling white mist.

I'm dreaming, she thought subconsciously, but it didn’t really register, or matter, especially after what happened next.
The black morphed into one of those stereo-typical, terrifying forest paths, where the trees are dark, bare, straggly and gloomy and the sky is gray/brown, and the air is cold as death and has the scent of something horrible coming after you. She staggered, terrified, through trees and dark and mist. She didn’t know what she was running from, or even why she was running at all. Than, she saw them. Shadows. Shapes. Slipping in and out of shadows and changing, flashing, nothing clear, but the shapes so horrible Peach knew she was running from them. They looked like monsters, animals…beings Peach didn’t know she could imagine.
“Help!” she cried, her voice hoarse and whispery. She must have been yelling for help all her life. Why did she keep trying? The things got closer, and she ran faster.
Up ahead, all she could see was more of the same…straggly bear trees, cold mist, black. Black. The black made her want to turn and run back…except of course for what was chasing her.
“There’s no hope,” she gasped, her words coming out in little puffs of mist. “No one can hear me. I’m doomed!”
She slowed enough to turn around, which was her biggest mistake. One look, and her heart, her body, her thoughts all froze in terror. She didn’t even know what she was seeing…there was nothing there. Maybe that was what was so horrible.
“No!” She screamed, horrified. “Help me! Someone! Please! Save me!”
Suddenly, she was stumbling…she flew forward and scraped her face and chest on the hard ground. She cried out, unimaginable terror washing over her. She flipped onto her back, and saw dark shapes flapping towards her. They were too big to be bats, and every one of them was screeching like it wanted to rip her apart.
She scrambled to her feet, and found herself unable to see clearly. Everything was a blury haze, and the forest path was melting into black. The mist stayed put. The black squirmed and swirled. Everything that had been chasing her was melding together into a world of darkness, fear and pain. And it was going to suffocate her. She whirled around and around, but there was no escape. The mist that had assured her she was still at least in a real world suddenly flitted away, like the flame from a candle.
Peach screamed, her hands flying up to ward the black away from her face. “Why didn’t you save me!?” she sobbed, but she had no idea who she was yelling to. She dropped to her knees, knowing it was over.
Suddenly, there was a noise like wind ripping through a paper bag, only it was deafening. Peach’s eyes flew open, and she saw…light.
Light, beautiful, pure, blazing light ripped through the black, blinding her.
There was a beautiful yet horrible wind, and Peach covered her head with her arms as it rushed over her. She felt…hands…grabbing at her. She cried out, but the hands were wrenched away. Nothing touched her.
She was safe.
The rush of wind passed, and Peach hesitantly looked up. She gasped. Where there had been darkness, now there was light. She was surrounded by light. It was warm and beautiful and horrible at the same time. It was unbearably wonderful. It hurt her heart in a way she didn’t understand.
“Where am I?” she wondered aloud, her voice quavering.
And than, through the light, there came a dark silhouette. It looked like a man…a strong, broad, tall man. She stared at the person. Whoever it was, even through their form was dark, they seemed to make the very light around them look dim. The light was coming FROM them.
“Peach,”
The voice was beautiful, warm, and deafening.
“You owe your life to someone,”
“Wh-who!?” Peach stammered, sounding hysterical in her own ears.
“You remember, Peach. They saved you. You couldn’t be alive right now if they hadn’t. You owe them your life. You owe them your love.”
Peach stared at the silhouette, her trembling body starting to still. “I…I remember?”
“Yes. And you need to be grateful.”
 
The next thing Peach knew, her eyes were open and she was staring up at her ceiling. Her heart sped up by about three hundred beats and she sat up, sweat running down her face. “WHOA!”
She looked around, panting. Her bed, her pale blue sheets messed up and her flowered bedspread rumpled over her shaking legs. The room was unchanged. The walls were dark, the shades were drawn. It was clean. The rug was wrinkled from where she’d launched herself into bed last night. Her desk had five or six books on it, and her closet door was closed. The fan whirred quietly on the ceiling. The green letters of her alarm clock read 3:37.
Peach slowly looked down at herself. She hadn’t changed either. Purple ankle socks. Black sleep shorts. Pink sleep tank top. Her brown/blonde hair hung in tangled lumps around her face.
But…she had changed. Something was different. She could FEEL it. I shouldn’t be here.
I SHOULDN’T BE HERE.
“I should be dead.”
A shiver went through Peach. The voice in the dream said she remembered. But she didn’t! She didn’t even understand! She took five breathes one might expect froma beached whale rather than a rather small fifteen year old girl. Than she let her head collapse back against the pillow, trembling slightly. She closed her eyes.
“I should be dead,” she repeated, whispering into the dark. “But…somebody saved me. I have a hero.” She paused, tears of awe welling up in her eyes. “A hero. I have a hero.”
She opened her eyes, her jaw setting in determination.
“And I need to be grateful.”