When you drop something small and precious–like a ruby stud earring, for example–just stand still and watch it fall. Don’t grab for it. Watch it, and see where it lands, and then you can find it. Even if it falls into the bathroom trash can, which is disgusting from the kitchen incident of last week. I mean, ew. Anyway. Crisis averted, earring recovered; and the crisis with the kitchen incident of last week is healing itself, finally; the cut opened up and started bleeding again on Saturday, which was disturbing; but it’s been fine for days now, and the bandages are getting smaller and smaller, and sooner or later there will be no bandage.  __________ I finished my read-through “edit” of Demonhead today. There was a whole chunk about three-quarters of the way through where I thought the story had gone completely off the rails; but then it recovered nicely, and even some of the stuff that I thought WTF??? about as I was reading through, I’d made it work at the end. So the repair job may not be as bad as I thought. It might even be clever. Even so, there’s certainly things to smooth out, things that need to be better executed. But it ended strongly, and I was surprised at a few things. Yeah. Even though I WROTE THE BOOK. Funny, that. ___________ Auntie Susan comes tomorrow, I am excited to see her, it’s been far too long! She’s been staying in LA for a few days with other relatives. When I called there earlier, she said, “Oh, we’re sitting here drinking wine.” Oh REALLY?  At least I come by it honestly. Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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I fly to Portland tomorrow morning…somehow it feels like forever since I’ve been there. Heh. I think I’m all packed, except for the morning stuff. Otherwise, busy productive day–went to yoga, did two more chapters of Demonhead, did four hours of freelance stuff (up at the old office–it sure is funny going to work there), emailed people all over the world. Talked to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jaylake a long while, he is doing very well, for feeling as physically crappy as he does. We’re all learning so much through all this. You know? ____________ Not much more to say…my finger is still bandaged, so it’s hard to type. It doesn’t hurt at all, but the slice is so near the tip, I don’t want to take the bandage off. It’ll catch on something and start bleeding all over again, and I just don’t want to go there. I am reminded of the time when I was 11 or 12, at home alone at my dad’s house way out in the country, and was running up a set of stairs made from old railroad ties. Going full speed ahead, I stubbed my big toe so hard, all the flesh on the end of it just popped off, hanging on by only a tiny flap of skin. Horrified, panicked, I slapped it back on and bandaged it hard, tight, and then didn’t look at it again for like a week. It grew back together. Not even a scar. Yay, bodies and their healing power. Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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So I bought these wonderful new kitchen knives recently. Wow, I don’t have to say anything more, do I? You know *exactly* where this is going. Which is good, because it’s really hard to type with the bandage. __________ Despite all that, today was better than yesterday. I slept well, and late, it being a New Moon (and therefore no Ashtanga); edited two chapters of Demonhead (and by “edited” I actually mean “went through the printout marking places that need editing when I do this again on the computer”); got a pedicure; did not solve the freelance problem but went up to the Former Day Jobbe and worked on it there (where I found that they had not closed out any of my accounts or given away my office or anything…heh); and then had a lovely dinner cooked for me here by the_ogre (rescheduled from last night)–OMG the deliciousness. Even with all the blood. Ahem. ____________ And jaylake’s procedure went fine, as we knew it would; he was home resting when I talked to him, preparing to go out and have his hair washed. Washed clean of blood. Today’s post is all about blood, isn’t it? Sorry. Some days are just like that, I guess. _____________ And that’s enough typing, without my left index finger. Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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jaylake had a hard day yesterday. I was strong and capable and understanding and encouraging and sweet. Today he feels better. Today, I got the mood. I have no history of depression, and that isn’t what’s going on with me now. I know what depression looks like; I lived with a loved one with it, for years. It’s not what happens to me. I am positive and cheerful and upbeat and optimistic, generally. I mean, not to a fault–I react to circumstances like anyone else, and everyone knows that there’s hard stuff going on these days. I get in bad moods. And things get me down. And all that. But today was just crappy. Nothing worked. I’m tired, low energy, hungry all the time; the freelance work I was trying to do (that Former Boss Man is eager for) is just Not Working; the sky is gray; everything is just sideways. And, after I pulled it all together and edited three chapters of Demonhead and went to the store for dinner…my evening plans canceled. Which, meh, although I understood why, and there are no hard feelings, and it would have been foolish to go ahead with them under the circumstances, but….. well, it would have been nice to be cooked for. So I will drink this wine and go to sleep early, and tomorrow will be another day, a better day. jaylake has his port implant procedure tomorrow; I still feel like I should be there, although we talked it over at length and decided it made more sense for me to go up on the weekend instead. But, I feel very far away. From everything. You know? Meh. Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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Today was the first day of the rest of my life. Or, rather, it was the first day since leaving my job that I actually had the sort of “normal” day that I’ve expected, envisioned, planned for. As in: woke up at 5:30, went to yoga; did morning email and internettery; wrote a bit on project A (a short story with a Very Cool Collaborator); edited a chapter of project B (Demonhead); did some research for a freelance job; went for a nice walk up Buena Vista hill; talked with jaylake; did some reading, crit work, and more internettery; talked with markferrari; and now this and then bed. All unrushed, unhurried; all very satisfying. And, let me just say again: I wrote! It felt so satisfying, I cannot tell you. I have no idea if it was any good or not–but, I wrote! It’s been far too long. More tomorrow! Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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2 more days. There’s too much going on to even write about it. Things got better, at the Day Jobbe; then they sort of got worse again; but, it’s two days! Whatever, I can deal. jaylake left for Portland today. I’ll be there Sunday. In between: we’ll manage. We always do. I did another chapter of Demonhead. It still doesn’t suck. I did three loads of laundry. And some dishes. And, well, beyond that: I feel like I have nothing intelligent to say. Maybe it’s the not-sleeping. Monday night, I lay awake till about 4am–well, eventually got up and read a while, but yeah, not even sort-of sleeping. (Until after 4am, when I did fall asleep, and had ugly ugly horrid nightmares.) Last night, I fell asleep after only about 45 minutes, but then woke again at 2, till about 4. This is Not Good. Tonight, I hope for better. Stupid brain. Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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Apparently, the thing to do at this juncture is to say, Ahem, it’s Nebula-nominating time, and, well, I’ve got a few things to draw your attention to… So, um, here they are: “Eastlick” –in Black Static, May 2009. I love this story. It’s not in the least autobiographical. Well, except for the setting, and the pre-teen emotions. And some details. But, other than that, nope, not at all. “By the Sea”–in the anthology Grants Pass. This uber-cool post-apocalyptic anthology is getting some Stoker attention, BTW…. Rolling Steel (collab with Jay Lake), Clarkesworld, April 2009. A collaboration with jaylake , and also a podcast. Do I need to say anything more? Okay, that’s surely plenty. Go forth and nom(inate). Or don’t. It’s all good. I’ll still like you. ____________ In other news: I edited the first two chapters of Demonhead last night, and they actually did not suck. Of course, the beginnings of books never do, when you’re at the wide-open part of the parabola. So, I’m sure it will be horrible as I progress. But so far: not horrible. I might even do some more tonight… And jaylake has been working on Our Lady, and reports that it similarly does not suck. (Except for that inexplicable bit about the shoal beds.) So, yay! _____________ Day Jobbe, on the other hand, sucks quite a bit. But: four days left. I can do this… Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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Nice weekend around here. jaylake posted the details, so I won’t repeat it all, but will only reiterate: yeah, last night was fun. And today is going to be fun too: he is in the kitchen now cooking up a storm ("a simple light lunch" is a concept that has no meaning around here…) , and Notorious G and her swain are arriving in a few minutes to eat up that very same storm. This, we just realized, will be the first time I’ve tried to have four people around my table. Which should be interesting, and will definitely involve the moving of furniture. Later this afternoon, I am finally, finally, finally going to tackle this gigantic pile of paper that is the printout of Demonhead. I’ve been busy, and distracted, sure; but there’s more to it than that. It’s the age-old problem of Start Panic. Starting a new novel, starting a new edit, a new great big anything: it’s too big! I can’t do it! Where do I even begin!? I know the answer: you just do, and it’s fine. But still, the anxiety, the angst is there. So, tomorrow I hope to report some progress to you. For now, I want another bite of whatever that was that jaylake just brought me. It involved cheese and some kind of fried cured pork product. More, more! Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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OUR LADY crossed 100,000 words today…she now stands at 101,747, after yet another 3K day. (Oh I LIKE not working!) Progress is very good; I have officially entered the All Hell Breaks Loose part of the story, with lots of action and drama and blood and shouting and all that fun stuff.
I have also crossed 40,000 for the month, which is my goal. So I will feel much less failish about the almost certain low-to-nil wordcount that I will have this weekend at Foolscap, and Monday when I drive back to SF. Even so, this month will end with a small surplus, and I’m looking at finishing the book perhaps a few days earlier than 10/15. Which would be lovely, of course.
After this draft, I’m going to make myself take a few weeks off from huge projects before diving into DEMONHEAD revisions. Sure, I can do short stories if I feel like it; but I will need some writerly downtime. Recharge the batteries. Have days where I just read. Mmmm, read. Maybe I’ll go do some of that right now…
Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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So skaldic asked yesterday how do I (or we) plan out a novel, which is one of those great process questions that I can think about and talk about all day. Or, well, nearly. My process has been shifting over time, and it’s different with collaborative projects and solo ones. When I wrote my first novel (that you will never read), I don’t think I had much of an outline at all, just a random aggregation of notes and character sketches, and some dates on post-its. A lot of that novel came straight from my imagination and memory, because it was the obligatory Far Too Autobiographical First Novel that we all have to get out of the way before we can do good work and develop our craft. From there I moved into the Gigantic Outline method. The proto-book which eventually became NIGHTCRAFT SISTER (which itself eventually got cannibalized into NIGHTCRAFT MOTHER) was called 360, and it was going to be a highly mathematically structured thing of 360 short pieces, divided into 12 chapters of 30 scenes each. I actually handwrote out a 360-line outline, starting with the major element in each chapter, and then filling in the 30 scenes that would build to each element. Then I wrote about two and a half chapters (again by hand–this was back in the days when I thought I could not compose on computer–ha!) before I realized that the project was made of fail: the protagonist was completely helpless and everything happened to her, she didn’t do anything. I pulled back from that and rethought the problem, ultimately realizing that if she were also magic, she could be much more active and the story would be much more interesting. Hence Callie came into being. That, however, necessitated a reworking of the outline. I pulled back from the 360 structure and let the story dictate its own needs. I still ended up with a 250,000 word book, but hey, I didn’t know any better. The next novel I started from scratch (as opposed to all the revising and reshaping and cutting and recombining and blah-de-blah that the Nightcraft series has been subjected to) was my first NaNoWriMo, in 2006, when I wrote EEL RIVER. NaNo is a highly social event, involving write-ins at cafes, retreats, write-a-thons, etc–in other words, being quite mobile with one’s writing. The Gigantic Outline method was cumbersome for that. Also, I hadn’t had much time to prepare; I started the month with a rough-sketched one-page outline that had the major plot points, and I wrote the novel off of that. And I LOVED that. I loved being able to see the whole story at a glance. Sure, it was short on details, but those would come out in the writing. However, in the spring after my EEL RIVER NaNo, I learned about the Snowflake Method. That sounded like a fantastic idea. I had a haunted house novel I wanted to write, so I followed the method and wrote that story in a month, just like NaNo. (My former crit group, the Critters, were all going to do a novel-in-a-month together; the others fell off, but I finished it anyway.) Trouble was, by the time I was actually writing the story, I hated it. I was bored with it–all the problems had already been figured out. There was no discovery process left. It was just too overplanned. I mean, nothing against the method–I still think it’s a great idea, and it obviously works for a lot of people–but for me, the joy of creativity was lost. So for NaNo ‘07, I went back to my beloved one-page-outline method. I wrote DEMONHEAD, and it was a royal disaster. (That was where I discovered the Dragon Problem that I still refer to today.) Not nearly enough was figured out; and with the required pace of NaNo, I was writing so fast, I got way ahead of my own brain. In the spring of ‘08, I rewrote DEMONHEAD from scratch, with a one-page outline and a whole bunch of notes and feedback from crit partners and brainstorming verbiage spread around on the desk to refer to. It was also a disaster, just a slightly smaller one. Thing was, I knew there was a good story in there, waiting to get out. I shelved it for a while and fiddled in the Nightcraft universe some more, and then for NaNo ‘08, I rewrote DEMONHEAD from scratch a third time, changing it from first person to third person, and writing from–yes–a one-page outline. This time, I think it works. It still needs revision, but I think the plot now holds together reasonably well. I’ll see for sure when I get into it again, which is next up on my agenda after OUR LADY is done. Speaking of OUR LADY… then there’s collaborative writing. My first collaborative novel, ENTANGLED, is back on doctodd’s desk now. Our process was to brainstorm the plot, then he wrote out the outline for me to draft from. I asked for a one-page outline; he gave me about a page and a half. That was fine. I wrote an 80,000 word draft in about two and a half months, then handed it off. doctodd now tells me that he’s thought of whole new plot twists and elements…and I am pleased to leave them to him. And now to OUR LADY OF THE ISLANDS. I told jaylake that I work best from a one-page outline. We brainstormed the plot as I did with doctodd; then jaylake presented me with a 26-page document, including background and world details. This is actually a novel synopsis, though it was written before the novel itself. Yet the Snowflake problem didn’t happen to me this time–I’m almost 98,000 words into this thing, and I’m totally still having the joy of discovery. I think the difference is that I didn’t come up with all these details myself–even though we passed the outline back and forth a few times before I started writing. And there’s the occasional plot holes and problem and un-figured-out things–we had a particularly complex and fun one this morning, where we talked out why the MC would do the exciting and dramatic but incredibly risky and foolish thing that we need her to do at this point in the story, to make it all work out the way it has to. So…in short…that is my process: figure it out anew each time. For my next large new project (after DEMONHEAD revisions), I will need to do a good deal of research, so even if the one-page outline method works, I’ll still need to have piles of notes at hand as I write. I do really like to see the shape of the whole story at a glance. Even at risk of dragons. Everybody: tell me your process! Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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As I sit here at my desk with a few extra minutes this morning (because, despite going to the chiropractor yesterday and feeling o so much better, my back is still kind of tweaky, so I left yoga early), I am going over my writing to-do list, with time line.
One of the items on the list–in fact, the next big item–is currently Seekrit, though I hope to be able to talk about it soon…it’s a fresh new drafting project (as opposed to being an edit or something), and it has an actual deadline.
Deadline (and word count) makes me think of NaNoWriMo, and NaNoWriMo makes me think of the Dragon Problem.
When I wrote the first draft of DEMONHEAD, I had a great idea, a cool vision of the world, and a fairly thin outline, as I always do. I started writing with great enthusiasm–everything was going fantastically, I was ahead of word count, etc.
Then I hit the retreat, with the word count wars, the all-day writing, the too much sugary snack stuff (NaNo, of course, being right after Halloween)… anyway, I ran out of story.
Enter the dragon.
Which, naturally, had to be removed from subsequent rewrites of the novel. All the damage the dragon had done had to be fixed. In fact, as many of you know, I’ve actually rewritten DEMONHEAD from scratch.
Twice.
___________
What I’ve learned, from NaNo, from the Dragon Problem, and from subsequent projects, is that I can safely manage about 40,000 words a month without ridiculous plot elements sneaking in (or roaring in, breathing flames and knocking over furniture with their big scaly spiky tails). So that is my plan. I’ll start drafting Seekrit on July 1 for a first-draft deadline of October 1.
Which means I need to get NIGHTCRAFT MOTHER revisions done by June 30.
Which means I better get started on them!
Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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Yeah, that’s right, there’s more to my world than medical updatery. Fortunately, everything on the medical fronts, both here and in Portland, appear to be settling down with no further drama. I hope. I have to say, though, it’s nice and convenient that I had just finished writing a novel before all this excitement started. Because my writing time has fallen off considerably. But it makes me wonder. Could there be any kind of a correlation? Like, once the novel was done, my body decided it was okay to get sick? Because actually, it’s not okay. I have lots more to do: I have a commissioned story due at the end of the month, a collaborative story in progress, an anthology I’ve been invited to submit to, revisions to do on Nightcraft Mother, revisions to do on Demonhead, short stories to submit to other markets, Zombie critiquing to do, and, the biggest and soonest thing: reading Pinion for jaylake, helping him cut many thousands of words out of it in a very short time. Not that the weekend was a total waste on that front. I did get started on both the Pinion reading and the Zombie critting, we both worked on a Sekrit Project and got it submitted, a bit was done on the collab, and some good brainstorming was done on a few other things. But enough being sick! Back to the word mines with me! Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.
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Cleaned up the ending (again) (yeah, shut up) of Nightcraft Mother. It's ready for its reread now.
To cleanse the palate, and to follow up on a possible opportunity, I spent the rest of my writing time tonight reworking "Tiny Pink Aliens," a story I wrote about a year and a half ago. Including a name change; it's now "Jello," which makes a lot more sense. Well, sort of. :-) The story was originally to be the backstory to Demonhead. Well, Demonhead changed dramatically, and this story changed a bit in the other direction, and now they only bear a passing resemblance to one another. Enough, actually, that I'm a bit concerned that should they both be published, the alert reader might say, Hey, that's not the way that works...
That's a problem I hope to have, actually. :-)
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In addition to reading 75 books, I did other stuff too last year, in the writing/reading department.
2008 was the year my writing career, such as it is, began. I sold 7 stories (one of them co-written), although I can't point you to most of them until later this year. But this was my first year getting paid for writing, so that's a major milestone.
At the beginning of the year I did a bit of querying for agents for the novels, but I soon pulled back on that to work on rewriting/re-editing both DEMONHEAD and NIGHTCRAFT MOTHER (and am still working on both of those). NCM will be ready to query again within a few months. A major goal for this year will be to get an agent and sell this book--this series. EEL RIVER made it past the first two readers at a small press, but they ultimately passed on it.
I attended two NaNoWriMo retreats, the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference in Alaska, the Iron Springs writing retreat in Washington state, and World Fantasy Con in Calgary. I hope and plan to attend more cons this year.
At Iron Springs, I met jaylake , who has become an incredibly helpful mentor, fun co-author, and good friend.
For 2009, my goals are:
-Finish and query NCM.
-Finish and query DEMONHEAD.
-Finish a first draft of ENTANGLED (the joint novel with doctodd ).
-Work on a second joint project, TBD.
-Start research for a new series, which is only a vague idea at this point and a pile of books on my desk, but let's just call it urban fantasy with...ah...a slightly unusual setting. Maybe start writing it too, time depending.
-As for short stories: I have one commissioned story due 6/1, but otherwise, I plan to write them as the mood strikes, or not. This will be a year to concentrate on novels. (And keep trying to sell the inventory of stories already written, of course.)
Am I missing anything? Heh, it already seems like a lot. I'd love to get EEL RIVER out there too, but I know it needs work, so it's on the back burner for now. I will continue to do crit work as it comes. I will continue reading books, and New Yorkers, and other magazines, and blogs, and newspapers, and milk cartons, and and and and...
Happy New Year!
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Aside from some Writing-Related Program Activities, I'm taking a few days off from writing...just trying to clear my head before the next project. Demonhead began to occupy my mind quite thoroughly, by the end there. Like, um, a demon in my head, or something.
And what is that next project, you might ask? Why, Nightcraft Mother, of course! jaylake has been generous enough to give it a full line edit and commentary, and when he comes to town later this week for Writers With Drinks, we're going to carve out some time to completely rework tidy up some stray loose ends in the magic system. That is all...as for me, I'm headed to the couch with a magazine Right Now.
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Yes, it was a good weekend. The National Novel Writing Month TGIO (thank ghu it's over) party was Friday night, and even as tired as I was, I had lots of fun at that. Saw old friends, and reconnected with some new friends from the retreat earlier this month--so many thousands of words ago, it could almost be a lifetime!
Last night was another party: my aunt and uncle's annual Christmas party. I spent good quality time talking to my mom, which was very nice, given that we didn't get much chance to catch up during the hustle and bustle (and eat-fest) that was Thanksgiving. I almost thought I wouldn't be allowed to leave the party, as everyone demanded a demonstration of the power retractible hardtop feature of the new car, but eventually, they let me go.
In non-party news, I did some laundry, watered the orchids, paid bills, ran errands, and finished proofing the galleys for GREEN, for jaylake . I hope I found at least one thing he missed in his own proofread, to make the time spent worthwhile. But it was worthwhile anyway, as I just love love love this book, and it was such a treat to see it again after professional edit.
And, hmm, let's see...seems like there was something else...
Oh yeah! I FINISHED DEMONHEAD!!! :-)
Hee.
I know it's a mess, I know I utterly abandoned any description or art/artifice as I rushed to get the plot out, I know it's 20K too long, but--it's done! And I'm so happy. Now I will put it aside a while and relax, then concentrate on other projects, before I return to it for the deep thoughtful edit it deserves. (And some research. All I have to do to embellish the details is: take a tour of San Francisco's City Hall, and spend three weeks or so in postapocalyptic Bangkok. Heh.)
| 120,056 / 100,000
(120.1%) |
Words, which are, in fact, the last sentence of the novel: Strangely energized, Sybil returned to the stack of papers before her, keeping one eye on the window for nightfall.
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And almost done. As in, I finished the resolution of the plot, and now I only have the last, short chapter, the denouement, the emotional clean-up bit, to write. You know, after all the action is done, and the characters are looking ahead to what's next. (a sequel???)
Whew!
Now to some chores and other weekendish activities. I feel so good about this book--I mean, I know it needs a ton of work, the writing has gotten a bit sloppy as I've rushed to the end, but that's all fixable. And it feels wonderful to make it this far. I should finish tomorrow.
| 118,883 / 100,000
(118.9%) | Words: Brooks closed his eyes and pressed her small hand in his hard enough to break bones, if she had been human. “I can’t stand this,” he said. “I know.”
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Whew. Busy crazy week, but now it's Friday, and I have actually returned to the glorious world of Demonhead! A mere 1,500 words, but they're solid and I'm pleased. Even with a brief not-writing spell, I always have the fear that I've lost it, it's all over, I'll never find my way back...well, of course that's silly.
And, I'm so close to the end of this thing--I may be able to finish this weekend, I don't know. Surely there's hardly anything left on the outline. And I know what's supposed to happen. And blah blah, all that...well, no promises. We'll see.
| 116,568 / 100,000
(116.6%) | Words: A pause, a silence. Then Gia said, “Well, I guess the only thing stupider than doing what she told us to do is not doing it, and starving down here.” Scott nodded, realized she couldn’t see him, and said, “Yep.” So they walked along the tunnel in the dark.
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But the book continues.
Funny thing: I had kept my NaNo work in a separate file, to make keeping track of word count easier. It now being December 1 (and happy birthday, Mom! No, really, the card will arrive any moment now.), I recombined the files...and in so doing, lost 300 words.
I think the words are all there. Just, the word count changed. I have no idea why.
So, I wrote 1,300 words today and advanced my word count by 1,000. Which, whatever, the thing's too long anyway. And, most disappointingly, I reached the point in my new! clever! perfect! detailed! all figured out! outline where it indicates that the main character, and I quote, "saves world."
Um. Gee, thanks, former self, for that incredibly detailed and well-thought-through plotting. Right. Perfect.
So, my task for tomorrow morning's walk is to figure out just how the heck she does that. Because, well, she does. It says so in the outline, so it must be so!
Metrics:
| 115,062 / 100,000
(115.1%) | Words: “Why is it so hot in here?” Sybil asked. The demon gave her a look through heavy-lidded eyes. “It’s the tropics, stupid. Don’t they teach you people anything in school any more?” “Not much,” Sybil said. “The educational system kind of fell apart during the Plague Wars. Nothing’s really back to normal yet.”
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Well, I won yesterday, actually, but things got a little hectic around the witch household and I didn't have time to post.
And the novel is not done. But I've gotten to the climax scene, well into the reveal of the final, terrible conflict. Now all that remains is the resolution of the situation and then a little tying up of loose ends. 10-15K more, I think...heh. Still hope to finish by Friday, but we'll see.
Then the cutting shall begin (after the project rests in a drawer for a while), because the thing will be 20K+ too long.
NaNo:
Demonhead: | 114,057 / 100,000
(114.1%) | Words: It was nothing like when Brooks took her through the magical realm. This was sharp and jagged, and seemed to last forever, though some piece of her also knew that it was the work of a heartbeat. Except the heart that was beating was full of broken glass and rose thorns.
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busy
calm
crappy
exhausted
