CE Christmas Shopping - Jen

Via Pinterest. But with blue eyes and
more freckles.

Purple yarn. That's all I ask for. Purple yarn. One would think that, with purple being my favorite color, that I would have had some in my personal collection, but, I didn't. One would think that the store would carry some ... and it does, just not the shade I'm looking for.

In my haste to get around to the other side of the racks so I can investigate other colors, I take the turn too sharply.

And find myself on my hands and knees.

As I scramble up to a sitting position, I hear a voice. "Oh, I'm sorry!"

I turn around to see a girl sitting with her back pressed against the . There's not much about her that would call attention to her. Straight brown hair, blue eyes, freckles ... she looks about fifteen. Two things about her catch my eye. First, she has a notebook propped against her knees, and there's a mechanical pencil in her hand. Second, she's wearing a golden bracelet set with a large purplely-pink gem.

"Um, no, it's my fault," I squeak out, my eyes fixed on her bracelet. "I wasn't, uh, watching where I was going."

She notices my interest in her bracelet, and lifts up her arm. "This was a gift from someone I greatly admire," she explains.

I nod distantly, then remember my manners, and hold out my hand. "It's very pretty. I'm Kendra, by the way."

She puts the mechanical pencil down to shake my hand. "I'm Jen."

"You write?" I questioned, gesturing towards the notebook. She looks like she has that notebook almost full.

She glances down and a smile spreads across her face. "Uh, yeah, I do, actually. Now."

"Now?" I question, intrigued by her comment.

She gives a half-hearted shrug. "A few months ago, I couldn't pin two words together. Now I have a story that spans almost two notebooks. I'm almost done." She thumbs through the pages that have been written with a wistful sigh.

I nod. "That must have been horrid."

She looks up and gives me a bewildered look.

"Not being able to write, that must have been horrid. I've had those days."

"You write, too?"

"Some," I said with a laugh, pulling my copy of Sew, It's a Quest out of my purse. The copy that goes with me everywhere.

"You're published!" she exclaims.

"Self-published," I correct.

She holds up her notebook. "I'll let you look if you'll let me look at yours."

"Deal." We swap books. For a little while, silence reigns as we each examine the other's work. Finally I look up. "This is quite intriguing." I point to the bracelet. "Is that your Ankulen?"

She nods in answer to my question. "Yours is better than mine."

"Mine has spent months going through the grueling process of editing," I say with a laugh. "Yours is longer than mine."

"Kendra, haven't you found that yarn, yet?" I look up to see my mom.

"Uh, no," I reply, suddenly remembering what it was I was in quest of. "I found a new friend."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To run into your own character, click here

Character Encounters - December 2012

It's that time again!!!

Time for CHARACTER ENCOUNTERS!!!

And we all take time to ooh and ahhh over the lovely
button Kiri Liz made me ..

BTW, Character Encounters now has its own page - look for the above button on the sidebar of my blog.

Anyways, I've come to a decision. I'm going to do a yearly theme, which will restart in October (because I began in October). This year is Places around Town. I know that last month's didn't quite fit, but I'll make up for it next Nov.

Anyways, you want your locale, don'tcha?

This month .... (drumrolll .....)

You meet your character while 

Christmas Shopping!

Via Pinterest

Wherever you normally do your Christmas shopping, whenever in the Christmas season you like (Starting today all the way to Midnight Christmas Eve). If you are a crafter (such as myself) you may run into them at the craft store.

Make sure you link back here, of course.

Other than that, the only rule is you can't use a character from your NaNo last month. Hey, your brain has had enough of a headache coming from that book. Give it a break and think about something else. Besides, your readers may want to hear about something else.

Do You Take This Cover Art!!!

Today ... You finally get to see the lovely picture that Brooke painted for Take's Cover art. I'm not going to show you the actual cover (Haven't seen it myself yet, and probably doesn't even exist, I only just shipped the picture off to Cousin Tenya.)

Soooooooooooo ......

Wait, no, that's not Brooke's Painting. That's my Drawing.

Let's try this again.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHH..... Even worse?

Let's try again?

JUMPROPE!!!

Can we all be glad that my pictures will not be the ones on the cover?

Okay, let's try this one more time ....

Ah, there we go. Oh, I can just stare at this all day long. I want it framed and on my wall. This is the picture that will form the background of Take's cover art.

And we all give Brooke our hearty thanks.

Or BroYo, as she wants to be called.

Question for readers of Sew. Which Sword do you think is who's?

Sneek peek pictures!

I'm just going to share a few pictures with ya'll and make you guess what they are ...

They're from the picture Brooke (a friend of mine) painted for Take's cover art. Once I find my camera, I'll share the full thing with you. (I had to take these with my webcam)

Would you believe me if I told you that Brooke had never heard of a Star Lilly before I asked her to paint this for me?

Do You Take This Tag?

Amy Dashwood has issued a tag for her loyal writing followers to complete. It's actually for her half-nano thing she's doing, but she says that even if you're not doing half-nano, you can still do the tag. I decided not to do my NaNo project, as NaNo this year was book 3 ... (I've given up on NaNo. There is NO way I'm going to complete it and get Take published ... but anyways) and I'm not ready to disclose details about it yet. But I'll do Take for ya'll.

Soooooo .... without further ado ...

~What's the name of your project? When did you first come up with the idea? And how long have you been working on it?

Do You Take This Quest? 

The series was sparked some time in the spring of 2010. Mom and I hashed out the plot of this book in one night some time in the spring of 2011. I've been working on and off on it ever since.

~Sum up your novel in five words or less.

Find allies. Home for Wedding.

~Who is your favorite character?  Tell us about him or her.

In this book Madeleine was my favorite. She's an artist and the lost aunt that Robin and Robert were looking for in book 1.

As characters in whole, Robin outranks Madeleine in my favorites. But for this book, I had a hard time capturing Robin, and so Madeleine outshone her.

~Where does your novel take place?  What time period?

In Bookania, a medievally fantasy-y world. The main locations are Briton castle, Upontime Castle, Winthrop Castle ... and Skewwood.

~Do you have a theme song for your story?  What is it?

Unlike most of my books, this one actually does. It's Here comes the Bride!

~What's been the hardest part to write so far?

Getting it started and getting it ended. Oh, and the middle. That was tough. Yes. Sigh. This whole book has been a headache. There were scenes, even entire chapters, that were fun, and even got onto the computer screen relatively quickly .... but that wasn't the rule.

~Which chapter was your favorite so far?

I think I'll go with chapter 20. Unfortunately I can't share what it's about, as it's the climax of the book.

~Can you share one of your favorite snippets?  (One you haven't shared on your blog already)


  When they at last caught up with Robin, she had reached the castle gates. She had her sword out and was threatening the guards. “If you don’t let me in!” she shouted, “heads are gonna roll!”
  “That’s what we are we are afraid of,” replied the captain of the guard.
  Eric caught ahold of Robin’s arm. “Robin,” he said, “I don’t think making threats is the best way to get into the castle.”
  Robin froze, then turned to Eric. “Oh, that’s right,” she said, in a subdued voice. “There’s a magic word.” Then she turned back to the guards and said, in a desperate voice, “Please! Please open the gate!”

My brother runs around quoting this. It's funny listening to him trying to imitate Robin and Eric.

~Are any aspects of your story drawn directly from your own life?  Give us an example.  

I can't say it's very much inspired by my RL, but there is a scene towards the end drawn from an incident that happened on Thanksgiving of ... 2008? (9?). Anyways, it was the year that my all of my cousins were down. (they live waaaaaaay north of us, so when they visit, we say they come down.) In short, two of my cousins were arguing over whether or not he should eat the pie filling that he had on his plate. As I was plotting Take, I knew that this was an antic that Solomon would pull, so ... I shoved it in.

~Your main character gets dumped into a big city in the modern era (or if you're writing a contemporary work, he/she gets dumped in medieval London).  How does he/she respond?

I think Madeleine would take it in stride and marvel at all the strangeness of our modern marvels. (she wouldn't think them magic, though.)

~Who's the funniest character in your story? Tell us why! Give examples! Support your argument.  :D

In theory or in practice?

In theory, Solomon was supposed to be the funniest character. He has the "Mirth of Youth" afterall. But, while he does have some great jokes (and hilarious antics such as refusing to eat his pie filling ...) He didn't get enough screen time to really shine.

In practice ... I don't know. Possibly Samson and Madeleine when they get into a word war. Or maybe the old man. He can be pretty funny.

~If you were forced to eliminate a character from your story--just wash them clean off the slate--who would it be?

Probably Enna. She doesn't do much.

~Do you plan on writing a sequel to your novel?

I'm considering doing so ... *hastily shoves list of the first 20 titles of the series back into purse ...*