Friday, May 13, 2011

Books and book -- I mean earth -- worms

About two weeks or so ago, me and my mom went out to watch The Greenhorns; a documentary about young farmers. I was already starting to get interested in farming thanks to Jenna and her blog, Cold Antler Farm, but watching that documentary was the last push I needed to really want to get into gardening and raising animals. I'm doing a bit of work in the garden currently, preparing beds to be planted with my dad, and cleaning up the yard a bit. Unfortunately, I was and am pretty out of shape -- not fat or anything, but I don't have much stamina. Hopefully that will change. At the moment, I'm focusing on plants, but someday I want to raise meat rabbits or maybe meat chickens. Lucky for us, one of our Unschooling friends knows a Homeschooler who keeps meat rabbits -- though it's her first year doing so. We'll see how this whole meat rabbit venture goes.

In any case, I suppose this writing blog may turn into a writing-and-farming blog.
That's probably for the best, though. Farming is, in my opinion, much more interesting then writing.

"Hey, what did you do today?"
"Oh I wrote some more of this plotline that I can't tell you about cause it has to be a secret"
"Cool"
"Yup"
"See you"
"Bye"

VS.

"Hey, what did you do today?"
"Oh, I planted three garden beds, took care of an egg-bound chicken and helped the first three sheep give birth. And took the pig to the butcher."
"Cool"
"Yup"
"See you"
"Bye"

Not to mention that there's a lot more to write about when it comes to farming then writing. Theoretically.

But that doesn't mean I won't be writing anything other then stuff about farming. In fact, while I was running out of steam a couple weeks ago, I've just started wanting to write again (which may or may not coincide with my computer coming back from the repair guys). I'm slowly working more on Thenew, not that there's much to do other then making up plotlines, which is fairly boring. However, I have started writing The Other Side of Shrae, and I plan to post each chapter up here as I write it. They'll be short chapters, though, and hopefully I won't have any major plotholes to fill. I don't want to be editing and re-writing chapters I've already posted.

I'll probably post the Prologue tonight. And hopefully I'll be able to write about a chapter or two a day. Who knows.

Here goes nothin'.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Story of the Mouse

We were off to Bellvue for a friend's concert, and the day, while slightly breezy, was nice enough; sunny, fairly warm, and if you count the fact that there was good music playing (if a bit loud for my ears), it was a near-perfect day.

We were outside a small coffee shop, called the Bellvue Bean. Sparky's band was playing outside on the lawn behind the shop. There was a gravel parking lot in front, but not nearly big enough to fit all the cars. As the band started playing, I wandered down to the parking lot where Harry (my brother), Corrine and Melissa (friends) were. Now, I must mention, I have eagle eyes, if I do say so myself, and am always able to notice nails or baubles lying on the ground. Why does that fact matter? Well, as I was walking over to Harry, Corrine and Melissa, who where chatting amongst themselves, I spotted something on the gravely ground.

You'd think a tiny, grey-furred, baby mouse would be hard enough to see in a field of tiny, grey-colored, rocks. As I said before, I have eagle eyes. Once I saw the mouse I froze, watching. Was it moving? Yes! The mouse let out a small, high-pitched squeak, calling for it's mother, and moved it's head a bit. I made a quick decision, and grabbed up the baby mouse, yelling something to Harry and the rest. They rushed over, cooing and awwwwing over the mouse. I closed my hand over it, rushing over to where my mom, my dad, Corrine and Melissa's mom, and our friend Dan were. My mom picked up the mouse and took it over to where I found it, putting it out near a bush near where the mouse was first found, where we guessed the mother might have come from. We had attracted a small crowd, but most where rather uninterested and moved on, while me and the Saxophone player's (sorry, forgot the name) daughter kept watch. She mentioned something about a snake she saw earlier... yeesh. As the minutes dragged on, the wind got stronger, and the clouds started to move in. The band was just done playing as the first few drops of rain fell, thunder rumbling off in the distance, like some scene from a movie.

A movie about baby mice and blues bands.

After much tension and many ifs and buts and what ifs, we decided to take the mouse home. We weren't sure before whether it would be better to hope the mother mouse would come or to take the baby mouse home, but the rain was the last straw, and my mom scooped up the mouse in her hands (which where much warmer then mine), and we walked over to the car, a couple blocks away. The rain really started up by the time we got to the car, Corrine deciding to ride home with us, living close enough to us for it to be possible. This wasn't the first time we had raised baby animals, the first being the two Squirrels we had accidentally separated from their mother. Kitten milk replacer, we knew from previous experience, was the thing to feed to the mouse.

Problem number one: we didn't have any kitten milk replacer. So we had to make a stop to Poudre Pet and Feed Supply. Problem number two: Poudre Pet and Feed Supply was closed. Cursing and worrying, we drove over to Petco, 5 or 10 minutes away, to pick up the kitten milk. It was expensive, and we had to buy way too much then a mouse would need, but we bought it anyway, having no choice. Unfortunately, the other thing we would need to feed the mouse would be a teeny-tiny eyedropper, and neither us nor Petco had anything like that. But we could visit multiple stores before we found anything the right size, and still might come up empty-handed, and the mouse needed food now, and he hadn't gotten anything to eat in at least an hour, maybe longer. We rushed home, but before the mouse could be fed, we needed to get something to feed him with.

But, thanks to our previous animal-raising adventures, we had just the thing, a syringe; with a curved neck and small enough mouth for the mouse to nurse on (it was originally used to feed a chicken with Wryneck vitamin water). Disaster averted, we warmed up the milk and attempted to feed the mouse. Melissa had come over, and after the feeding was over, we walked her and Corrine back to their house, a block away, promising to let them know how the mouse was doing every so often.

Of course, I didn't forget to take pictures:














Here he is the first day we found him, eyes closed but furred.

















And a here he is a little while later, a bit bigger and getting better at drinking from the bottle.


Life continued as normal, if you don't count the every 1-2 hour feedings, and the slight worry that the mouse wouldn't live.

But, against all odds, he stayed alive, and kept growing, and about 4 days after we got him, his eyes opened, and he began to be more and more independent.

















He started eating solid food more and more, and he stopped wanting to drink milk. He weened faster then we expected. Soon he was nipping at us when we tried to pick him up. He was clearly a wild mouse, and if you think that pet mice and wild mice aren't much different behavior-wise, you're very wrong. Even mice have been domesticated and bred to be calmer.

Soon, it was time to let him go, and while our cat might pay more attention to the kitten milk rather then the mouse while inside, she might go for him outside, so releasing the mouse in our yard was not an option.

After much delay, we decided one evening to take the mouse out to Redwing preserve, a small, marshy, wilderness area a little less then a mile away from our house. Camera in hand and gloves on hands (he bites pretty hard), we set out, with the mouse in a small cardboard box, and searched around for the best place, where the mouse might have a fairly good chance of surviving.

Finding a nice spot underneath a short tree, with some brambly bushes around the base and long grasses providing more then enough cover, we opened the box, waiting to see what the mouse decided to do. At first he was hesitant, staying inside, but as soon as my dad picked him up and held him over the bushes, he leapt off of my dad's hand, into the bushes, and he disappeared in an instant, grey-brown fur perfect for blending in with the grass. We scattered some a mixture of sunflower seeds, cracked corn and oats around, in case he had a hard time finding food at first. It was bittersweet, seeing him go, but he would have let himself out soon enough if we hadn't set him free -- he had been chewing small holes in his box. Sure, he was just a mouse, one of millions. But, to think you saved a creature, who was almost surely bound to die, and gave it free food, a better place to live, and a new chance at life...

It makes it worth it.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Mice, Rats, Blog Layouts, Broken Computers, and much much more.

First of all, I always feel embarrassed reading old writing (even slightly old) of mine. And I also feel rather embarrassed when other people read my stories. I don't know why. Maybe because I know it's not my best work, maybe because it is... I don't know...

Hmph. Random subject is random.

Anyway, I changed the blog design a bit. The black birds on white backround annoyed me. It made it pretty much impossible to find a text color that was readable no matter the circumstances. I like blue a lot, too. I may still fiddle with the design. It was a tough call between the blue watercolor-y backround and the white with splattered black edges backround

*long pause*

And now for something completely different.

So, I guess I started this post to say that my computer is going to be sent off for repairs. Some problem with the fan. So I'm not going to do much digital art until it comes back. So no posts with illustrations, and most likely not many posts at all.

Heh, she says as she writes a blog post. Also, my spellcheck is Firefox, and since I'm using Internet Explorer at the moment (no idea why this computer doesn't use Firefox...), you can expect a few typos and misspellings. I'm also not used to this keyboard, so that doubles the typos.

Oh, speaking of blog posts (well, we're more on the subject of keyboards and spellcheck at the moment, but who cares), you can expect at least one fairly soon in the future -- as soon as the weather gets warmer. I guess I lied about not many posts. Heck, there might be more then usual... based on the frequency of posts lately. I should update more ofte--

*Ahem*
As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by myself getting sidetracked...
*Stern glare*

I will be posting soon (as soon as the story is concluded) about the Story of the Mouse. Basically, we found a baby mouse -- eyes closed but furred -- a few weeks ago, on the 9th. We were at a friend's concert when we found it (in the gravel parking lot of all places), and we waited for the mother to come, bu-- well, I shouldn't give everything away now, should I?

Oh, and while we're on the topic of rodents...
We will probably be getting rats soon! Once the mouse is free and everyone is healthy and up for getting new pets, we will try and get some from a breeder. We had a pair of female rats for a while, but we had to put them down, and we have since gotten a cat. However, with this whole mouse-saving adventure, we've learned that Zen (our cat and a great mouser at that), is more interested in the kitten milk replacer then the mouse eating it. I think if we keep doors closed and cat and rats apart, all shall be well -- and if the cat and rats meet, hopefully Zen can be distracted long enough to get the situation under control.

And I think that concludes our blog post for today, folks.
Goodnight, and happy late Easter.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Quotes

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
~Anton Chekhov

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.
~James Michener


When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.
~Enrique Jardiel Poncela


The beauty of being a writer is that even if you can't live out your dreams in real life, you can live them out through your books.
~Frances Dowell - quoted from this interview, because... well, I just agree with it!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Decisions... Decisions... Decisions...

So,
With most of Thenew about done, It's time to work on plots.

My strategy is to start with a few basic plot structures/themes/dramas/etc., and build plots from there.
The plan is to try and not have repetitive/guessable/boring plotlines every book. I want each plotline to be different and interesting.
Now, I'm not sure how hard or easy this'll be... I'm not even sure where to start with for designing these. But that doesn't matter because I couldn't really start if I wanted to anyway.

Well, I probably could, but, eh. *Shrug*

Anyway, the thing I need to figure out here before I start making up plotlines, is this:

What type of series/world will Thenew be?

Will it be like Warrior Cats*? (a world with different plotlines/badguys but following the same main character through different generations)

Will it be like Redwall? (a world with different plotlines/badguys/main characters, with only a few things and characters recurring throughout each book)

And, depending on if it will be more Warrior Cats or Redwall like, how long should each series/plot be? 1 book long? 3 books long? 6 books long?

Who knows. That's the purpose of this blog post. To try and figure that out.

So far, not so good.

*Not in the sense of badly written, boring and repetitive. .....I hope.

So, in an effort to try and figure this out, I bring you...
The Pros and Cons
.

More Warrior Cats-ish:

Pros:
  • Wouldn't miss the characters.
  • Would be able to follow the main character through many generations, see how they change, etc.
Cons:
  • Less freedom.
  • Not as believeable (all that bad stuff happened at once and is still happening? bad, bad, bad luck I say!)
More Redwall-ish

Pros:
  • More believable.
  • More free to do stuff and make things up.
Cons:
  • Might miss the characters/writing about them.
Based on this, I'd say that a more Redwall-ish series, with 3 books per plot, would probably be the best option. Assuming that you'd be sick and tired with writing about the main characters after about three books. Plus, three is just a nice, even uneven number.

It's also magical.
*Starts singing*
Three... is a magic number. Yes it is. It's a magic number.

Er... I guess writing and re-writing blog posts over and over starts to make you go insane after about 2 hours.

Anyway. I'm still not sure if I'd miss the characters after 3 books...

Wait, I know! Make the characters elders or something in the next 3-book series if you still miss them.

Would that work? I hope so. The problem with writing is you can't test theories without a whole lot of time and effort. So you kinda have to guess at stuff like this.

Well, I had a feeling this blog post might help. And it did. I think. Anyway, I'll take what I can get!

Off to sketch out designs for the Sials. Again.
*Sigh* Oh well.

P.S.
Blog posts turn out really weird if you don't plan them out that much before writing them. I just noticed that.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Thenew... What is it?

Seriously, what is it?

Well,
Thenew is a... project I suppose it could be called, that I've been working on for... uh, probably a year or so? I really don't know.

Anyway, Thenew is the name of a world. And that world is where I plan to set a series of books. Not some classic (or should I say cliché? ) book about humans. Not even some cheesy one about animals that already exist. Nor some book about dragons or gryphons. The main characters -- or species -- on Thenew are called... *drumroll*

...er...

...well, I'm not sure what they're called. I'm not really sure about anything about Thenew. Not even how long I've been working on it. The series that will be set on Thenew doesn't even have a name. So I call it Thenew as well.

I really need work on that -- minor detail as it is.

Anyway, the major/main species on Thenew (and really the only one not stolen from earth) look a bit like lions with horns.

Here's a picture.














Yup... that's roughly what they look like... I think. At the moment they're called Sials. Or Liliths... I'm not sure... both names suck. And, just like everything else about Thenew, I'm not sure if they'll stay looking like this, or stay as Sials or Liliths. Everything on Thenew is bound to change. In fact, Thenew used to be called Theern.

...I think. Maybe that was what the horned lion-thingies were called.

Anyway, after that Thenew went by Theyag, then New Theyag, Then, for a short while, New New Theyag. Then it was called Thenew.

The good news is I doubt Thenew will be changing as much in the future. I think it's almost finished.

I think.

The one thing that hasn't changed about Thenew is where it is.

You may be thinking: but wait, I thought you said Thenew was a planet? Or did you say it was a series? Wasn't it a series based on a planet? Could a series be based on a planet. Or would it be based on a planet? But then how wou--

Let's just stop that train of thought because it's not going anywhere anyway.

What I mean by where Thenew is, is where Thenew is in it's solar system. I mean galaxy.... or something. I'm no expert on that stuff. Anyway, because it's solar system is close to the middle of it's galaxy (I think I got that right), at night, rather then having something like the Milky Way -- a long stripe of stars in the middle of the sky -- it has something called... er, well... again, I don't know. But it looks like a concentrated ring of stars around the horizon, rather then a stripe in the middle of the sky.

Thenew also has two moons, called Ethian and Tseg, though those names are bound to change. I would change them right now if I was feeling creative. Anyhow, because Thenew has two moons, it can sometimes have fairly severe... weather? On a double new moon (double new and full moons occur roughly every 8 months, alternating between double new and double full moons), Thenew often has very bad weather. Weird tides, earthquakes, volcanoes errupting, ETC. On Double full moons, in which both moons are full, there are no earthquakes and it is by far the safest time of the year. And the added light makes it easy to see in the dark to hunt.

So, this is what their sky looks like usually.















With or without moons.















But now, more about the Sial/Lilith/Horned-lion-thingies.


They started out as this:


















Then they lost the horns and looked like this for a while:




















Then I thought that the hornless version was unoriginal, so I made them moreso, and they lost the mohawk:























I briefly considered changing them to look like this (not the best idea I've ever had):



















Then they changed into this:





















For a while they alternated between having a mane and not having one:






















Then they alternated between having horns or not:






















Then I decided to add both a mane and a pair of horns:


















And then their horns straightened out and they became the final current version.

So, basically, they went from this:




















To this:




















So, all that really changed was the length of their horns and mane. And the quality of the drawing. Heh...

Anyway, I pretty much just went in a big circle. But at least the end result is pretty.

...

Actually, I'm still considering of changing them. Giving them a longer mane or a shorter one or none at all, and changing the shape of their horns and their number of legs. But I think I'm at least getting close to getting finished with their design. Hopefully.

But I'm not finished with telling you about the Sials. I haven't told you about their folklore or culture.

The Sials believe that the two moons circling Theyag are the god and goddess -- when they are together, on a double full moon, they guard the world. But every so often both of them leave, on a double new moon, evil forces can get to Theyag, wreaking havoc.

They believe all creatures have a soul, and all stars are souls that have died and not yet been reincarnated. No soul is particularly evil or good, because once freed from their former body, souls don't really have a personality. One soul might be a particularly cruel Sial in one life, and in the next life, a kind one. A soul might even be a bird in one life, and a fish in another. A female in one life, a male in another. And... well, you get the point.

They also believe that shooting stars are souls being reincarnated -- probably because of the appearance of a comet in late winter -- the time when most cubs are born.

Leaders and healers will often give gifts of sculpted clay or 'Softstone' to the gods, sometimes mixing in herbs like Silvermint (the Sial equivalent of Catnip) or Honeyfern and many others.

Sials have a sort of code/written language that they sometimes use to write messages to other packs or persons.

They also have a spoken language. If you could call it that. I don't have the patience to transilate every single word into Sialithian or whatever it would be called. Their spoken language is made up of very few words and mainly used for names and sometimes spoken by leaders or healers in prayers or the like. Most elders know it, and most younger hunters know a few words of it -- mainly the swears.

Now, about the Plants and Animals on Thenew


I'll keep this quick, but basically, every creature on Thenew is the same as on earth except for the Sials. So original, right?! Same goes for plants. Except for any plants that I've invented because I needed to invent them because I don't even know most of the herbs that actually exist.

Oh, I forgot. You may be wondering what Thenew actually looks like.

Well, the place in which the story will be set will probably be a rainy, cool-weather place. There will be mountain ranges with snow, there are four seasons (meaning that there is a winter with snow, a spring with growing things, a warm summer and a fall in which all the trees turn orange), and the majority of the landscape is covered in thick, green forests. What is not forest is rocky, mossy hillside. So I guess Thenew might be like a cross between England and Pennsylvania -- maybe a bit like a Cloud Forest, except with snow, and not quite as high up in elevation. And maybe with not as many giant spiders and centipedes. *Shudder*

Anyway, I think that's about it. I'm pretty sure I've explained as best I can all I can think of to explain about Thenew. And I've caught up on what I've created, as well... which means I'll be able to actually write Thenew soon. Hurray!

If anyone reads this, and cares, and has questions to ask, I'll gladly answer them.

P.S.
Don't steal Thenew. All of this is my art and my idea. And if anyone were to try and steal my ideas, they'd be in a lot of trouble.

Well, that was a suprisingly short post, for how long it took to make.

Friday, March 25, 2011

It's about time for a new post ...

... even a lame one ...

(Stolen from the NaNoWriMo website, and edited to include any they missed... which was a fair amount, actually)

Dialogue Tags Other then "Said",
Or, Other Ways to say Said.
  • Acknowledged
  • Admitted
  • Agreed
  • Answered
  • Argued
  • Asked
  • Barked
  • Begged
  • Bellowed
  • Blustered
  • Bragged
  • Complained
  • Confessed
  • Cried
  • Called
  • Croaked
  • Demanded
  • Denied
  • Gasped
  • Giggled
  • Growled
  • Groaned
  • Hinted
  • Hissed
  • Howled
  • Interrupted
  • Inquired
  • Joked
  • Laughed
  • Lied
  • Mumbled
  • Muttered
  • Nagged
  • Pleaded
  • Promised
  • Proposed
  • Protested
  • Pondered
  • Questioned
  • Queried
  • Remembered
  • Replied
  • Requested
  • Roared
  • Sang
  • Screamed
  • Screeched
  • Shrieked
  • Shouted
  • Sighed
  • Spat
  • Snarled
  • Sobbed
  • Threatened
  • Told
  • Teased
  • Warned
  • Whimpered
  • Whined
  • Whispered
  • Wondered
  • Yelled
  • Yowled
  • Yelped
P.S.
I will edit this with any more I think of. If I missed any, please say!