Randomly Delicious & Blogfest: First Pages

Tomorrow is the last day for the The Keep It Going Contest. Post a comment tallying your entries. Add to the story if you have time. There are multiple ways to win. Don't miss out. Act now. Supplies are limited. Wait,what were we talking about? Oh, yea - sorry, I was momentarily possessed by an infomercial. I'm better now.

BLOGFEST!! Yay!!  Kelly over at Kelly's Compositions has come up with a wonderful idea for a blogfest. As she says, in most blogfests we post excerpts from the middle of our novels. This is a great opportunity to start in the beginning.

This is perfect timing, because I've been thinking about beginnings. This week I started a new WIP, a YA paranormal. And as I tweeted last night (FOLLOW ME), I've had to remind myself not to stress about the beginning in the beginning, because I write a better beginning in the end. That's the only nugget of wisdom that I can share today. Beginning a new WIP, always leaves me feeling quite humbled and terrified. It's like a first date. Is this the one? Do I want to spend all my free time with these characters, this plotline? Is there a better one out there for me? Is this the best for me now? But the answer is quite simply, you'll never know unless you try. Tell the voice of doubt to shut the hell up, and write your heart out.

Back to blogfest. I'm pulling this from my finished WIP, Iron Thirst. The novel has two beginnings: prologue and chapter 1. This excerpt is from chapter 1 where we meet Felicity Johnson. Hope you enjoy.

***

-->

Who knew two tiny fangs could be so hard to find? I bought the pair nearly five months ago, and I specifically remember thinking to put them somewhere that I could find them. My room is a complete and utter disaster. I have been through every drawer, emptying the contents onto my bed in search for the last thing needed to complete my costume. I can’t be a vampire without fangs.

            I plop down on the bed, and close my eyes. Where did I put them?

            “Bathroom, second drawer, along with the red contacts,” I say aloud to the ceiling.

             I leap from the bed. Christian will be here any minute, and I want him to see the complete look. I slide open the drawer, and there they sit. I can’t believe I forgot the contacts too. They set me back nearly a hundred bucks.

            I insert the teeth, and begin trying to attach the colored plastic to my eyeballs. I should’ve waited on the eye makeup. I run back to my closet to grab shoes.

Zipping up the knee-high leather boots, I stop by the mirror for one last look. The struggle was well worth it. My eyes glow a bright crimson with black around the edges, as if the fire inside has burnt the curved periphery. I bounce my palm off the spikes of my black pixie wig. The menacing grin is complete with two sharp fangs over my scarlet red lips that look poised to wreak havoc amongst the unsuspecting city of Atlanta.

            Well, the town won’t be that unsuspecting, considering the rest of the people at DragonCon will also be dressed in costumes ranging from Star Trek to Night of the Living Dead.

As I darken the shadows under my eyes to give myself the true undead look, the doorbell rings. I slide down the banister to get to the door--safer than taking the stairs in these boots.

I fling the door open, and there he stands. We both let out a scream and begin cackling at each other. Christian is a yicky-ucky zombie, complete with a tattered, stained, once-white shirt, suspenders, and pants that look as if they had been buried. His normally perfect hair is dirty and a total mess. His skin is painted a weird grayish green, and his mouth is bloodstained. No one would recognize this scary critter as my clean-cut best buddy.

 “Felicity Johnson, you look a-freakin-mazing. I would have never thought that you, of all people, could pull this off.”

I should be offended, but he is quite right. Everyday “me” is not sexy, not scary, and definitely not a vampire.

You're writing a what, about a who?

Well, let me start at the beginning...

On December 31, 2008, I sat up in the bed and looked at my doting husband and said, "Wouldn't it be cool if someone wrote a story about DragonCon? You know, playing on the idea that some of the fantasy exists there was actually real?" And instead of saying - "Woman, you're nuts!” he said, "That is a pretty cool idea."

I continued getting dressed and let the idea dance around a little more inside my head. By the time I arrived at the office, I had pretty much laid out the outline for the first chapter minus character names. When I arrived home that afternoon, I read him chapter one. And so the journey began.

While working full time, going to school full time, and still being a pretty decent mother (who am I kidding, I rock!), I wrote the bulk of the novel in about 4 months. The idea became much more than a book about DragonCon and more a love story that was plagued with obstacles while maintaining a humorous tone. My logic - laugh or the world will kill you. And in this story, oh does it try.

I had heard of this horrible thing called, shudder, writer's block, and I knew it was coming. I feared it for the beast it was and was terrified that it would come and rob me of my story. The story that I desperately wanted to share with others. At the end of the four months, the ideas began to slow and then trickle, and then be tiny little thoughts rather than what was once mind-blasting, must get to keyboard, pull the car over or I will write with my teeth balancing the notebook on the steering wheel, breakthroughs. It had arrived. Or so I thought.

Let me back up. I write mosaic style. Although I started at the beginning, I didn't write chronologically. I start with an outline, and I then write what I feel. Put the scenes on the page as they come to me. I think I finished the ending before I wrote chapter 4. When the ideas stopped coming, what I thought was that horrible creature that I dreaded was actually a mostly complete story.

A month later I decided to start at the beginning, begin my first read through, and connect the scenes. When I finished three chapters, I then inflicted them on three people who so lovingly volunteered to read and critique what I had wrote. This has kept me on track by holding me accountable. This brings me to where I am now....

I can see the end of the book on the horizon. It is within my grasp. I have seven more chapters to clean up and send out. Step 2: Actually correct my horrible grammar and punctuation. Once that is complete, then it is time to dive into the deep end of the agent pool hoping to find my mythical creature to swim along side of me as we deliver Iron Obsession to the world.

But first, finish the next seven chapters! Hope you join me on this journey.