Actually Finishing Something July Parts 2 and 3- In which I describe my failure.

This linkup is from Whisperings of a pen. I am doing parts 2 and 3 in one post.

The Second Set of Questions 

Be truthful. How has the first week-and-a-half of your personal writing challenge progressed?

I think I wrote on Arthur once, maybe twice, in the time since I started the challenge.  I did some chainsaw therapy with Arthur, which really helped, and I made some plot remodelings. And then I worked on another story for a while. 

Did you reach your weekly goal or wordcount?

I didn't make a weekly  goal.

Are you finding it easier to work with a goal in mind? Or does it make you nervous and even less inclined to get the work done?

Easier. Although, since I didn't have many writing sessions, I can't really answer this question adequately.

Did you do most of your writing in the morning, afternoon, or evening? When do you like to write?

Afternoon. Our computer won't let me log in until 1:00, otherwise I'd write in the mornings I think.

What music has been inspiring you to write?

Oh, I usually listen to Christian coffeehouse acoustic. Kari Jobe, Francesca Battistelli, Tenth Avenue North, Bethany Dillon, Ginny Owens, Relient K, Hillsong United--- a couple of songs by each.

Share a snippet of your writing!

One would think that Arthur would be used to waking up in strange places and being forced into unconsciousness. He wasn’t. A week in such buffeting conditions just made him feel helpless. So when he woke again, this time lying on the dirt. He had rather forgotten what it was like to sleep on a dirt floor. Someone was shaking his shoulder, hard. He opened his eyes. A face was staring at him. It was a scrawny boy, only about 12.

“Buenos días! Levantarse, o Beltrano te matará.” He said cheerfully.

“What does that mean?”

The boy laughed. When he did so, Arthur realized with a start that he was a she. With her pants (these made Arthur feel embarrassed) and short-cropped hair, she looked something like a young boy.

“Oh! You speak Inglés!” The girl spoke in English, now, but she spoke slowly, and with a heavy accent. “I said ‘Good morning. Get up, or Beltrano will kill you.’ My name is Mahalath (muh-HAH-leth), by the way. My abuelo was Hebrew and I was named after his madre.” As Mahalath spoke, she grabbed Arthur’s hand, pulled him to his feet, and led him from the small, windowless room.

“Where are you taking me?”

“To Beltrano. He is charge, you know. Well, not in charge of everything, but he is the highest person you will ever talk to.” They stepped outside. It was dark; Arthur saw stars above them.

“What time is it?”

“Later than I usually get up,” Mahalath laughed. “It is somewhere in between five and five thirty.”

Share your favorite "Ah-HA!" writing moment. Have you written anything that made you sit back and think, "Okay, this is awesome," during the last week and half?

Well, Arthur is currently a slave in Spain. My "Ah- HA!" moment was when I got the idea that on his second day, he would try to run away. Having no experience in this area, he will do it very clumsily and not succeed. He will be caught and nearly beaten to death. Mahalath will try to help him (help him not be beaten, not help him run away), and the overseer, Beltrano, will verbally abuse her because of it. This will cause her to flee to Adon (an old man that she takes food to). He comforts her and tells her to bring Arthur to him. Arthur comes, and he gives Arthur a talking to/reprimand/comforting. Adon will become Arthur's mentor/good example.

Any problem spots, scenes that are proving hard to work, or characters giving you grief? If so, how did you overcome these obstacles?
Well, Arthur was being extremely stubborn. But giving him chainsaw therapy (He had a dream that he saw Gwennie and Loch kissing!) helped. So I think the end of this writer's block is in sight.

Share your favorite line said by a character during this week-and-a-half of writing.
"Wait! Let me at least leave a message for her! I love her!” 
-Reu, son of Raanan 

How are you going to move forward in this challenge? It's been little more than a week-and-a-half since the start (July 4th). Are you changing your wordcount or page goal for this coming week?

No, I'm going to try to plow through. I think I'll recycle these questions and try a "Actually finishing something in August".



The Third Set of Questions

You’ve little less than a week left in the challenge. Now that the end is in sight, do you think you’ll finish your goal?

No, not this month. Maybe I'll finish by August.

For me, the last week and a half has been so chaotic that I’ve hardly had the time to sit down, let alone write. How have you balanced life’s craziness with your writing goals? Late night writing? Scribbling down a few lines while waiting in the grocery check-out line?

I've not done much writing. What I did do was in the afternoon, holed up in my room, working on a different story (rather than Arthur).

Have your written mostly in computer programs such as Word, or do you prefer scribbling in notebooks?

Word, Word, Word! I LOVE Word!

Have any new characters jumped into your story? If so, tell us about them!

Well, a horse named Cassie jumped into the story I've been working on (not the story that I said I would be working on), and I finally found a name for an old man in Arthur. His name is Adon. He's a Spanish man, not a slave, but I think he used to be. He's a strong Christian, similar to the character named Jorgio in the Lamb Among the Stars series.

Share a snippet of your recent writing.

Mahalath gave him a saucy glance. “None of the men are smart enough to be bilingual. Two men know broken Inglés, but mostly they all speak Español. Besides, I am stronger than some of the men. The other women are elsewhere. I sleep in their quarters, but I eat and work with the men.”

“Ha! You are stronger than men?” Arthur laughed.

“You will see.”

And, after a disgusting meal of cold boiled beans, rabbit, and ale, Arthur hadseen. She was strong; it was particularly annoying to see her cutting through the ground with ease as he grunted and struggled.

Sometimes the most mundane, simple of things can spark one’s creativity. Have you come across anything, simple yet special, in your daily life, inspiring you to write?

 Well, I get a feeling, sometimes when I'm looking at a medieval picture or just thinking about my story, that makes me want to write.

Any pictures, images inspiring bits of your story?

Umm, probably, but nothing comes to mind.

Introduce us to the antagonist in your story and tell us his favorite dessert.

Which story? The story I'm supposed to be working on, or the story I have been working on? I'll do both.

The Arthurian Chronicles: The antagonist of Part II is named... AHH! What is wrong with my mind today? I can't remember any of my names!!! Well, I'll describe him. He is a baron in Arthur's court, and he is the antagonist because he puts a spell on Arthur and his knights that causes the said knights to think that life is about silly little quests (like finding the bird that lays golden eggs), so Arthur is tempted to prove himself by leaving Excalibur (which enhances his fighting abilities) behind. He finally does so, and is therefore captured. This man's favorite dessert is gingerbread cake.

My other story's antagonist is named Marian. She's not exactly evil; more like confused. She has a lot to learn. Her favorite dessert is something light and fluffy, like lemon cloud or pineapple sorbet.

Pick, from all of your July writing, your favorite three lines said by your characters.

“Reu, oh, Reu, Reu, the tree, the tree,” 

“What is this horrible place?” I gasp. “Did someone kill all the trees?”

“You know, you seem to be pretty good at making me mad.”

Any advice for your fellow writers as we reach the final stretch of this challenge?  

Plow on. If you've started late and don't seem to be able to finish, do a "Actually Finishing something in August". Set goals, work toward them, and above all, don't get mauled by your characters.

Dress making Tutorial

So, one day I decided I wanted a dress. My sister and I were making a skit, and I wanted a sort of Greek-style wedding dress to go with it (chiton, anyone?). We had none of these. WELL, that wasn't going to stop me!
"Fine," I said, "I'll make one."
The reaction I got? Well, it was what I expected:
Slightly bemused look and a "Okay, if you really want to." A sort of "have fun with that" response.
My family has no faith in my ability to sew. So, I'm not an expert, but I made barbie dresses from a particular website (AHHHHH! BRAIN FREEZE! I CAN'T REMEMBER THE NAME OF THE SITE!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY MEMORY???!!!) that doesn't use seam allowance. And do you know what happens if you don't put enough seam allowance? And with a Barbie, you have very, very, very little room for a slipup. And this was a year or so ago.
But the dresses turned out relatively well.
Do they care? My family hears "doll dress" and they think "easy."

Well, in case you didn't know, a pattern in which all of the pattern pieces are stacked on top of each other and there is NO seam allowance in the said pieces and in which there is literally no room for a mistake, that is a difficult pattern.

I'm not exactly mad at my family, just kind of disappointed, I guess. However, I made this dress completely by myself, with no pattern at all or any assistance at all and it turned out pretty well. Even my sister and parents thought so.

This pattern is really easy. Even a professional amateur like me can do it.

So, the basic idea of the cutting of the pattern is this: you are going to cut out two rectangles.

So far so good.

Measure from your shoulder to the floor, or to wherever you want the dress to go (you want a knee length dress, measure from shoulder to knee).
Add an inch or two to that number and write it down. Now measure from shoulder to shoulder and add about six inches.

My measurements were 52 inches and 22 inches, if that helps at all (but I'm super short and have really small shoulders).
Now lay out your fabric and use a pencil or something to draw a square with your dimensions (52 by 22 in my case). I got lucky and was using a sheet (more on this at the bottom) so I didn't have to hem as much as you will have to.

 

Cut out your fabric and hem both squares. Have fun. :)

 I suggest using an iron and some pins to help with the seams and hems.

 

 And maybe use a ruler or something with a straight edge to make sure these hems are straight.

Okay. You've finished hemming. Your hoping this is going to amount to something cool because all that hemming was really boring (hopefully you remembered to play some music).

At this part you need to take some more measurements. Since this dress has two slits in it (for walking-ease), you kneed to measure the slit area. I measured from my knee to the floor, because I wanted the slit in my dress to start at the knee and go to the floor.
Then, measure from the top of your shoulder to right under your arm.

Now, lay out the two panels of the fabric, right sides together (right side is a term for outside part). Choose one end to be the bottom of the dress, and measure your slit measurement (that is, if your s.m. is 23 inches, measure 23 inches from the bottom edge of the fabric, and put a pin where the 23 is.)

Starting at the other edge of the fabric, measure your arm measurement (if the a.m. is 8 inches, put a pin on the 8 inch mark and the 0 inch mark).

Sew in between your slit pin and the beginning of the arm pin area. Repeat on the other side.

You should now have two rectangles, joined at the sides, but not all the way from top to bottom.

Sew about one inch of sewing at the very top right and the very top left. This forms the sleeves.

Now you are ready for the darts (which are wonderfully easy don't let anyone tell you otherwise).  You will be measuring, basically, how long your back is. Measure from the base of your neck to the bottom part of the small of your back, or from your neck to your waist.
Write the measurement down. Now, lay out your fabric, and choose a side to be the back. Measure your measurement from the top of the fabric to wherever it ends (my measurement was 16 inches).

Measure approx. 3 inches from the right side; sew your first dart about 1 inch thick. Measure 3 more inches; sew the next dart, again, about 1 inch thick. Measure three more inches and do the last dart (you guessed it: 1 inch thick). If my instructions don't make sense, look up a youtube video on making darts, and you will understand them.


Looking at your dress, it should look like this:

 Sew along the dart lines you pinned off, and turn your dress inside out.
Try it on. I recommend using a belt with it, although without the belt it doesn't look too shabby either.

Oh, dear. I don't like that picture one bit. It makes me look so extremely not tall. Then again, I AM extremely not tall.


So how did I get stuck using a sheet (albeit, a pretty sheet). Well, it just so happens that all of the fabric we have is one of two things:

1. About 2 feet square.
2. Upholstery fabric.

And the thing is, my mother doesn't sew, my sister who still lives at home doesn't like to sew, and so my dad is the only one who even touches the sewing machine, save me. He's made some costumes for us before, and doesn't do too shabby a job, either.

But he doesn't sew enough to know my dilemma. *sigh* If only I had someone to commiserate with me. But oh well.

Actually Finishing Something in July.

I saw this challenge on Whisperings of a Pen, and it looked cool. This is a linkup from there...

What is your writing goal?

To finish The Arthurian Chronicles this summer, and have it be 400 pages long. My goal for July is to finish part two, at 150 pages long.

Tell us about this project. Give us a small synopsis.

Well, first off, I'm really bad at 'small synopsis's. But here goes:

in Part one, Arthur finds out that he is the rightful king of England, having drawn Excalibur from the stone, and discovers his parents are really just adoptive parents, and his real mother is the queen. He discovers this all in one day, and is made king that afternoon. All of the sudden, the responsibilities of a king come crashing down on his shoulders. He is separated from all his friends, and, at only 15, must serve the kingdom as it's king, and marry a stranger named Genavivian. But not everyone wants him to be king... dot dot dot dot

That's the summary for part one. I'm around half way to 3/4 of the way through Part two, and I have plans for Part 3.

Arthur, Vivian, Gwennie, and Rayfus are the main characters of Part 1. Arthur, Gwennie, Loch, and Mahalath are the main characters of Part 2.

How long have you been working on this project?

Since January, I think. *guilty, cringing expression*

Introduce us to three of your favorite characters in this project.

Well, Vivian was definitely a fave 'cuz she's just really cool. She appears to be charming, social butterfly, but she's not who you think she is. She's a lot more cunning, powerful, and hateful than you would think when you glance at her tall, slender frame, complete with golden waves and bewitching, dazzling green eyes.

Then there's Mahalath, who's also a really cool chick, since she has a caustic retort and a prank for every situation. She's a slave in Spain, and is a lot stronger than she looks. She can outrun even some men, and has gotten used to taking care of herself, since no one does it for her. She isn't a Christian, but is a fairly nice person (on the outside) to people she pities. She knows what it means to be absolutely destitute and she tries to help those she can, though on the inside she it just as tormented as those she helps.

Arthur is a slave in Spain right now, too, so that I can reform him (thanks to a lot of hard work and a old Christian spaniard who Mahalath takes food to).  I pity him, but I treat him like a son: I love him to death but know that I'm doing what's best for him and his kingdom.

I like Gwennie, too, but I don't really have to worry about her right now since I'm not coming back to her 'till part three, and she's happy, anyway, so being with her would be utterly boring.

How often do you intend to write in order to reach this goal by August first?

Thirty (minimum) minutes per day writing on just Arthur.

How will you make your characters behave long enough to finish this goal?

Good question. Well, I guess I'll tie up Arthur (fairly easy to do), yell at Loch enough to get him to stop spouting love sonnets (I can see my throat getting raw), weep until Gwennie pities me, and give saucy remarks right back to Mahalath's. I'll also probably employ some Beautiful People stuff and a character letter or two. Sir Garcia! Kay! Stop that, right now, or I'll shall lock you two in a room together! Mahalath, that's not a nice thing to say at all!

Go to page 16 (or 6, 26, or 66!) of your writing project. Pick your favorite line or snippet on the page.

Arthur was on the outskirts again- trying to hold up his visor- when he saw the
figures. The battle was in between the castle and a large hill. At the crest of the
hill, two figures on horseback were hurtling down the hill, their horses in sync.
Their hoods were blown back, and Arthur recognized the dark green clothes and
cloak of Gawain. Beside him, his white hair and blue cloak streaming, Arthur
thought he saw Merlin, still clutching his staff.
He blinked, trying to work out what was happening. Then a red knight was
swinging a battleaxe at him, and Arthur had no more time for contemplations.
Arthur had knocked the man from his horse when he felt a strange prickling
sensation in his boot. He looked down, and saw a black think dangling from his
boot. He grabbed it and pulled.
It was the snake. Arthur dropped it immediately. In his distraction, a knight had
reached him, and Arthur felt something collide with his helmet. Head throbbing,
he spurred Galilea away from whoever had hit him. He shook his head, trying to
dislodge the ringing, throbbing, pounding, feeling. His thoughts returning to the
snake, he wondered if he had been bitten. There was no way of knowing without
taking off his boot, and the middle of a melee was hardly the place to do that.
“Stop!” Someone cried. The voice sounded like Gawain’s, though it was higher
pitched. “Stop! Stop fighting! You have been deceived!”

That was page 66.

Tea or coffee?

TEA!!! English breakfast tea (with cream), raspberry tea, blueberry tea, you name it. But coffee.... yuuuh. nuh- uh. I'm not drinking that stuff! Though Arthur loves it...

Book Review: The Dark Foundations

Oh. My. Bananas.

Wow.

Greatest.
Book.
I've.
Read.
In.
A.
Long.
Long.  
Long.
Time.


So, this is part three of the Lamb Among the Star's series, and I might have liked this one best.

The Dark Foundations continues the epic story begun in The Shadow and Night (also sold in two separate volumes: The Shadow at Evening and The Power of Night.) Far beyond the tranquility of the Assembly worlds, Nezhuala, Lord-Emperor of the Dominion, is preparing a merciless and crushing attack on Farholme as a prelude to an onslaught on the Assembly. Back on Farholme, Commander Merral D'Avanos recovers from his wounds after the battle at Fallambet where the intruders were destroyed. Yet even as Merral dreams of a return to peace, he receives a warning of imminent war on a massive scale he cannot ignore. Amid the urgent preparations for battle, Merral and his friends realize the inadequacy of their defenses. Then, with weeks to spare before the predicted eve of ware, Merral receives an offer of assistance from the strangest of sources. But can it be trusted? As the wave of war finally crashes over Farholme, Merral must find the answer to other questions in the heat of battle: Can Farholme survive the growing internal strains? Who will pay the price for victory? Will his own weaknesses undo both him and his world?
  In the first book, I would basically describe it this way: for ten thousand years, evil has been caged. And the cage is breaking. So, in the first book, evil is only just starting to leak into their world. I love, I love, I love the way they look at evil in this first book. They treat ever sin as a monstrosity. I think that we (myself included) tend to rank evil. Example:

Rape- OH, HORROR OF HORRORS!
Murder- HOW HORRID!
Stealing 10 grand- That's awful! 
He told a lie- Well, I guess that's not that bad. I mean, you have to give them grace.

It's true. Liars need to be given grace. So do lesbians and murderers.
But in this book, Merral (the main character- I just love him) is so unused to sin that he freaks. out. over sins that we would take for granted (like couples arguing).


However. In The Dark Foundations, sin's cage has completely broken. Merral himself sins. He disobeys a major command that an angel gives him (well, God gives the command, but the envoy tells him). 
You would think I wouldn't like this. But I find Merral even more likable.


Once again, a however, or, rather, two howevers. One, I thought at first that perhaps that Merral and co. get used to sin too fast. But on reconsideration, we all take to sin like fish to water, so maybe this is unfair. 
Two: Sin is unleashed in this book, so, naturally, this book has more things in it like sexual mentions than parts 1 & 2. There is even a demon or two. But considering the other books for teens and young adults on the market right now (Twilight, anyone?), I think this is a definite improvement.

BUT I CAN'T BELIEVE HE KILLED- oh, wait, that'd be a spoiler. :)


Positive Elements:


Spiritual Elements:
God is a big deal in this book. If you have a problem with that, you may not like this book.
Demons, angels, heaven, and hell are all mentioned. Merral and other characters pray, talk to an angel ("the envoy"), and fight with a demon (though their swords and other weapons have no effect on it, which I think fitting).


Sexual Content: SPOILER ALERT
Before reading this section, or reading the other sections, you have to understand something:  there are two main civilizations in these books: the assembly, which consists of Christians, population of approx. 1 trillion, spread over 16000 planets (*which are genetically modified to be like Earth*); and there is the Dominion, which consists of humans who broke away from the Assembly about 10,000 years ago. There are people from the Dominion in this book, so a lot of the sexual content has to do with them, particularly a character named Azeras. So, this looks like a huge section, but it's all really minor stuff.

So, the sexual content:
So, Clemant, Representative Corradon's advisor, is listing off some crimes to Merral on page 107; he says:
"What else? Petty theft - someone stole someone else's garden plants in Ganarat. Increasing sexual incidents. We had a rape the other day."
"Are you serious? Here?" Merral says.
"I'm afraid so."
"It's appalling!"
"I agree." Their conversation then turns to other things.

Azeras, from the Dominion, thinks it's silly that the Assembly has female pilots. I quote- 'Azeras shrugged. "Women have their uses: bed, kitchen - maybe the brighter ones can teach children."'
Later on, when he meets Perena, who is a pilot, he says:
'"A lady captain," Azeras said, and gave Perena a long and intense look. She flushed, and, taking a chair, moved it so she was out of his field of view.'
Later on, after their conversation, Merral says,
'"Perena, at the start something passed between you and Azeras. I was wondering what."
She blushed. "I wast just stunned by the way he looked at me with... a fire of lust. His eyes were almost stripping me bare. I've never felt that way before..."
Vero's face tightened.'
 Then Merral changes the subject.
An intelligent machine, Betafor, insists through out the book that she is a female. Later on, Merral and Vero ask her to take her jacket off so they can look through her pockets. Her reply:
"I refuse to take my clothes off. I am a female. It would be sexual harassment." It's more funny, though, than uncomfortable, because she's really just a machine and 'sexual harassment' is her excuse to try to stop them from looking in her pockets (where she houses poison).
Merral tells Azeras he will reward him, and asks what he would like. Azeras comes back with, "A house by the sea, a supply of wine, a woman." Perena then reprimands him, telling him that women are not objects to be gained, but people and that he should rethink his mindset about women.
Then, another dominion person tells Merral that if he signs this treaty, he can go back to his old line of work (preservation of the forests of Farholme) instead of being a commander in the army. He is strongly tempted, and then it says,
'Don't be silly, a second voice said, temptations are to do with power and sex, not trees.'

At a very dramatic and sad part, Perena says, "Hold me, Vero." He holds her for about 2 minutes and then she walks away.

Violent Content: SPOILER ALERT
There are a few [mostly small] battles, but they 1) keep it from getting too graphic, description-wise, and 2) Merral doesn't like fighting, and only the bad characters o(which I think is nice, compared to the war-loving characters of some books); Merral tries to avoid fighting.
Plus, in pretty much all of the battles, they are fighting Krallen, which are machines, so when, for instance, Lloyd stabs one, it says 'silver fluid leaked out' rather than 'blood poured from the wound, gushing onto the flour in a ruby cascade' like a lot of books do when they're fightin' people.

Crude or Profane Language:
Hell is said a couple times, but it doesn't bother me as it's used in context. Once or twice it says "Azeras said a word in another language that Merral presumed to be a swear word."

Drug/Alcohol content: 
Azeras mentions that he would like a supply of wine. I think someone drinks wine once or twice, but no one gets drunk or anything, that I remember (and I'm not likely to forget something like that).


Other Negative Elements:
It wasn't long enough!!!! I NEED the next book ASAP!!!


Conclusion:
Once again, wow. 'that was just about all he could say'. Wow. You. Should. Read. This. Book. I tried my best to not put too many spoilers in, and I shall review the other books, too, with as little spoiling as possible, because I don't want to ruin this book for you.
As I said, in this book, things are a little heavier, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could be. I would give it 10 points, for mature 12 year olds, or 13 and up.