Tales From The Writer’s Desk: A Special Day

Hullo, everyone! Nothing like a book release to get me posting again, hmm? In case you missed it yesterday, Twinepathy is now available on Kindle! I realized it was about time I did another Tales From The Writer’s Desk, this time with the characters from Twinepathy. Because, let’s face it, why wouldn’t they hang out with Bri? Also, the sign-up for the Twinepathy blog tour will be posted tomorrow. So keep an eye out for that, and enjoy this post! I know I sure did!

I know immediately that something’s wrong when I walk into my office the day after my July 4th break. To start with, the mess of Post-it notes and index cards that usually covers the walls of my office is gone, replaced by rows and rows of horribly identical sticky notes. My usually cluttered desk is spotlessly organized, with all the pens in the penholder and all of the scattered papers gone. Instead of having my usual movie theme song music playing, my laptop is spouting classical orchestra music. The bookshelf behind the desk has been dusted, and the books are somehow organized by both color and height. I shudder at the thought of what my cluttered book room must look like now.

“What did you do?” I ask the woman sitting at my desk, my voice tight.

The woman spins around in the chair. Her brown hair is about shoulder length, and her eyes sparkle with both life and sadness. “I was waiting for you, and I honestly couldn’t stand the mess in here anymore.”

I cross my arms. “Jen, has anyone ever told you that it’s not polite to rearrange other people’s belongings?”

Jen–or Data, as she’s known with her code name–smiles at me. “Of course. But it’s also not polite to keep someone waiting.”

She has a point. So of course I shift subjects. “Why are you here?”

Jen leans forward. “Just wanted to check up on an old friend. There’s been a lot happening at IDIA lately. Some good, some… less good.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Really?”

She smirks. “Somewhat. Actually, I was just looking for our favorite troublemaker, and that brought me here.”

I groan. “What’s Blaze gotten up to this time?”

“I don’t know,” Jen admits. “I just wanted to check and see if he was here. And I wanted a chance to say hi to you and see how you’re doing. And to let you know that we’re taking over.”

“You’re taking over what?” I ask with a frown.

Jen grins. “The blog.”

I sigh. “Please no.”

“Just for one day,” she reassures me. “It’s just going to be an… interview. By commenters.”

I grin. “Well. That’ll end well.”

Jen nods. “Of course. I’ll be in charge. If you’ll excuse me, I’d better head back to headquarters.” She stands up and heads to the door.

“Bye,” I tell her, turning back to my ruined office. As the door closes behind her, I can’t help but grumble, “Handful.” Time to see what damage she did to my book room.

I open the door to the book room and stop in shock. In front of me lies the book room, looking perfectly normal… except the floor is covered in grass and there’s a huge tree growing out of the middle. The ceiling’s gone, and above I can see blue sky with fluffy cotton-ball clouds over it.

I sigh. “Blaze!!!”

The teleporter appears in front of me with a grin. He waves a hand slowly in front of my face. “I am not the agent you’re looking for.”

“Hardy-har-har,” I grumble. The illusion disappears, leaving my normal book room. “Thank you.”

“Any time,” Blaze says. “I’m just going to go mess with Benedict, ‘kay?” He jabs a finger towards the book room. “Just wait until that illusion disappears and you see what Data did to your precious books.” He grins and teleports away.

I sigh again. “This is the start of a wonderful day.”

Hope you enjoyed! Don’t forget to check out Twinepathy and come back tomorrow to sign up for the book tour! The aforementioned takeover by the IDIA agents will occur on the day the print book releases, and the post for questions will open up on Friday, or before. Comment below with what you think should happen in a future Tale From The Writer’s Desk!

 

Welcome, Agent | A Blogiversary Role Play Game

*throws confetti* Guess who’s blogiversary it is? Answer: miiiine! Actually, it was Tuesday, but I wasn’t able to finish the post in time. So you get it two days late! I wanted my second blogiversary post to be both creative and interactive, and this is what I came up with. Enjoy!!!

 

You are an agent of IDIA. Please find a spare sheet of paper and write down a superpower of your choice. Then come up with a one or two syllable code name. If you can’t think of one, comment below and ask for help from others and myself! You don’t need a code name or a superpower to continue, but why not? 🙂

Welcome, Agent. Today I, Database, and IDIA have a desperate need for you. Several movie villains have found their ways into the posts and pages of this blog, and we need your help to weed them out. We only have a small bit of information on each of these, but you can use that info to find their hiding spots.

Loki: He’s full of himself, so you might find him in a spot where his name is on a tower…

Smaug: Sometimes dragons flock to other dragons, even if they’re from different books (not ones by me!).

Red Skull: He’s from the 1940s, so he might go someplace to revenge himself on an old friend, maybe with the White Witch by his side.

Kylo Ren: One of the newest villains on the scene, but his roots go way, way back.

Do us proud,

Database

And there you have it! Use those smart brains and superpowers of yours to figure out where these guys are hiding, then comment down below with what your superpower was and a clue to where one of the baddies is hiding. If you want to add a few extra red herrings, go for it! Enjoy, my friends!

Updates And A Schedule Change

Hullo, everyone! Not expecting a post today, were you? This is going to be just a short update post with a few changes in store, so let’s get on with it!

The first update-change: I will be temporarily pausing posting of Twinepathy. Right now, I’m working on editing the story, and some things are being changed in parts that have already been posted. Because of that, I think it’s necessary to stop posting while I finish editing and get ready for a final once-over before publishing. (Soooo close, guys!) I know you guys are on pins and needles, but hang in there! You’ll get more soon, hopefully!

But in lieu of posting Twinepathy… What am I going to post? I’ll be sticking with the Monday and Friday posting schedule I’ve had, but with different posts. Monday will be writing posts, about writing and storytelling in general, and topics that you guys can request (Have anything you want me to post about? You can post in the comments below asking me about them!). I currently have ideas for some posts about lessons from Star Wars: The Force Awakens about writing–specifically symbolism and speculation, and probably suspense too. Gotta have those S’s. I also have a few ideas for analyzing Captain America: Civil War for some storytelling techniques. So Mondays will be a lot of fun!

On Friday, I’ll be posting one of two things. I’ll either be posting something related to Twinepathy (fanart, fanfiction, collages, snippets, something like that) OR I’ll post something else I’ve written, like a short story or a fanfic. I’m currently brainstorming a fanfic for Civil War… Bucky and Sam are awesome, am I right?

So those are the changes that will be going on in the next few weeks. I hope you guys understand and enjoy the new schedule! I’ll leave all of you with this awesome collage that writefury made (You can check out some others she did for her own characters and other stories on her blog here.):

collagewritefury

 

Random Twinepathy Wednesday

Before you ask, no, this is not a new feature on the blog. I actually just have some awesome Twinepathy things to show you.

First off, I have a wonderful drawing, created by my wonderful friend Hannah, of Denver and Ezra. Isn’t it awesome?

DenverAndEzra

This is the first fanart anyone’s ever done for any of my stories! Eek! Although maybe it doesn’t count, since Ezra is Hannah’s character… Ah, well, I’m counting it. 😉

And then there’s this Twinepathy fanfic written by Merenwen on her blog Shattered Fractals. The fanfic blew me away and made me tear up, because I know the future of these poor, poor characters. Poor, poor Finch!!! You should definitely check out the rest of the posts on her blog, and she’s getting ready to publish her first book! *throws confetti*

And, finally, some quick updates on Twinepathy itself. I just hit 32,000 words (!!!), completed Part 52 (!!!!), and reached 130 pages! This is officially the longest book I’ve ever written, and it’s still growing! I’m having so much fun writing this and sharing it with you (even if I am over 30 parts ahead of what you’re reading).

So! Just a short post today, but I can’t leave without showing you the punny creation I made yesterday…

HanFroyo

I made that, guys. I made it. 😀 Have a great day, everyone!!!

I Can Hear The Deadline A-Comin’, It’s Comin’ ‘Round The Bend…

Hello, everyone!

super_duper_fan_fiction_crossover_challenge

As you may (or may not) know, the deadline for the Super-Duper Fan Fiction Crossover Challenge is quickly approaching. There’s only one week left for you to submit your entries!

If you haven’t started yet, there’s still plenty of time! It doesn’t take very long, especially if you already have an idea. I wrote Pevensie, my Captain America/Chronicles of Narnia crossover, in about half an hour, maybe less. And if you don’t have an idea…

ilikeher

Ooh...

Ooh…

fathers

Wait, what? Maybe not...

Wait, what? Maybe not…

What if Thor was a baby sitter?

What if Thor was a baby sitter?

Oh the feels...

Oh the feels…

LokiDeclaration

7b000291325cd92536fabc8bc46c8a22

TangledNarniaPlotTwist

Now that we’ve got that over with, let me get to the point of this post. To help you get your writing shoes one, all of tomorrow will be an ongoing word war! Here are the rules.

  1. Write for 30 minutes.
  2. Figure out your word count.
  3. Post the word count in the comments below.
  4. Repeat as many times as you want!

No prizes… this is just a fun way to motivate you to write! 🙂