I feel like I'm in one of those spring fogs that you see at 4 am.

Cold and blurry,

I hurry through the dark night

For the cows call me.

......

Okay, I shouldn't attempt haiku poetry when I'm sleep deprived.

Since I last posted, things have turned upside down - quite thoroughly.

First, my dear Alpha Squad (Mary Katherine @ Sarcastic Scribblings and Lia @ The Singing Writer) are graduating high school together this weekend! Tomorrow I shall be charging my way out to Ohio to see them. It will be so weird going back after being away a full year.

As if that wasn't curveball enough, I got an even bigger one.

As of three weeks ago, I've been employed full time at a conventional dairy farm about 30 minutes from my house. It's a far cry from the living history career that I've been pursuing for the last three years, make no mistake. But, it's money in the bank and not a moment too soon, for the federal government is now demanding it's money back...

I'll be totally honest in that I definitely jumped off the deep end when taking this job. I'm working about 50-55 hours a week, 5 1/2 "days" (I get three half-days, and they are staggered), and 6 hours of sleep is now a good night for me.

Hence my blogging, and especially my commenting, has been rather uncharacteristically helter-skelter these past weeks....heehee. Sowwy guys. I pray this doesn't become status quo, but please don't be concerned if I suddenly disappear from time to time.

And now - since I love to kill two birds with one stone - I shall end with a tag!

I can't believe that spring is almost over already...

This one was a double tag!

One of my dearest bloggy friends, Sarah @ Plain and Average tagged me for this cleaning fest! You view her post HERE. Thank you so much, Sarah!!
And then my dear fellow RW collaborator and favorite Aussie blogger Melissa Gravitis also tagged me! You can view her post HERE.


Here are the rules:
1) Link back to the person who tagged you.
2) Share the picture.
3) Answer the questions or even pick and choose which ones you answer.
4) Tag 3 other writers and inform them that you tagged them (via comment/message/email or hey, even carrier-pigeon or smoke signal; I’m not picky).


1. Dust-bunnies and Plot-bunnies: Reorganize Your Writing Goals (Or Make New Ones)

So to copy from my post from the beginning of the year:

1. Keep up with my goal that I set up on the Year-Long NaNo group - write at least 50 words a day. I know, such a pitiful small little goal. But I haven't been able to hold any kind of a goal lately, so let's try to see if we can get this small one, huh? So far, it hasn't been going so hot....

I have since scrapped this goal entirely. Especially with my new work schedule, this isn't happening. It's going to be back to the old Sparki system again....

(Sparki meaning that I write when I get the inspiration and the time. I know, it's a terrible system...) 


2. Enter both Camp NaNos and do a proper NaNoWriMo. Due to my disaster in grad school, I never participated in NaNo this year. I want to change that.


I did participate in April Camp NaNo, which was great fun! 

Even though I'm working these crazy hours, I'm still going to attempt July Camp NaNo (at least that's the plan). July is going to be the big test for November though. If I fail this July, NaNo is going to be scrapped again.

3. Actually enter my writing into something other than my blog or RW. Whether that means entering a blog post into Project Canvas or entering a writing contest. Just get that blooming writing out there!

Well, I can safely say that I've accomplished this goal!

Just after I made that goal, I did a guest post for Project Canvas about pen names, which you can view HERE.

As for entering contests? No. Not happening, at least not in the foreseeable future.

4. FINISH ONE WIP from my WIP list that is on the blog. I don't care which one, just finish SOMETHING this year...

Well, considering that we are almost half way through the year (already???), I still have time!!! (I think...)

So, I'm going to revise my writing goals slightly for this year:

1. Make progress on at least WIP, finish if possible. 
2. Participate in July Camp NaNo (and November if possible) 
3. Finish my Tag To-Do List. I will do this even if it takes me the rest of the year! Upcoming tags are as follows:
              1. Another Period Drama Tag (I'm almost done with it, Elanor! PROMISE!!),
              2. The Nameless Tag of Doom
              3. Lilah Music Challenge,
              4. February Fantasy "What If" Tag (I got tagged in April, so no worries on time!)
              5. Get to Know Me Writers Edition Tag
              6. The Fictional Portal Tag


2. Which Stage Are You At? Expound!

a. Remodeling layouts (planning the story)
b. Painting the walls in colorful hues (writing)
c. Polishing the windows and scrubbing the floors and putting flowers in vases (editing)
d. Blueprints (not to the cleaning or remodeling yet… just drawing up plans for the very beginning inklings of a story)
e. Some combination of those things (cleaning out a closet)


Okay. I don't like these "expounding" options. So, I'm gonna be a huge rebel and create my own.

A. Airing out the Room (Inklings of the story)
B. Blueprints Layouts (planning the story)
C. Straightening the Books on the Bookshelf (Research)
D. De-cluttering the entire room and filling in the holes in the wall (drafting/writing)
E. Scrubbing and Taking out the Trash (Major editing)
F. Dusting, Sweeping and Polishing (Minor editing)
G. Cleaning out the Closet (Some combination of all of these)


So, to go through all the WIPs:

It's a Matter of Faith: G.
Fair Winds: E (Sassy Devil) and D (Fallen Angel).
Shattered Chandelier: D.
Rose of Culmore: D.
Seeds of an Orchard Invisible: G.
From the Cave: D.
The White Rose: C.

Brother! I'm really bogged down in cleaning up this WIP list. Wish I had been a little more diligent in keeping up with the clutter! 


3. Treasure From the Back of the Closet (Share one to three snippets you love!)

I'll truly go into the back of the closet and share a snippet from...

Fair Winds: Sassy Devil


Ciara placed a smile on her face. “Grace! How would you like to be on a ship with Uncle, right now?”
“Be with Uncle right now? On a ship too?" Ciara nodded as Grace squealed in delight. She followed Ciara as she went to their bedroom to fetch their trunk “Like Father used to be?”
Ciara paused as she reached down beneath the bed to blink back tears. “Yes, Grace.”
“Will we see strange places, Ciara?”
“I think so.” Ciara heaved the trunk onto her bed and moved to the clothes-press.
“And will we bring back fancy dresses and smelly powder?”
Ciara laughed as she opened one of the drawers. “You mean spices? Maybe, if Uncle has Navy business in the East.” Ciara and Grace threw their meagre clothes in the trunk.
“Will we see men with swords and black eyes?”
“Black eyes???” Ciara stopped as she put her diary into the trunk.
“Indeed, like Mister Timbers talks about.” Grace said as she put her old dolly in the trunk.
“You mean pirates?? I most certainly hope NOT!!!” Ciara slammed the trunk shut and locked it resolutely.
“Why Ciara?” Grace reacted in surprise at her sister’s outburst.
“They are…very bad men, Grace. They are dirty, thieving, violent scoundrels determined to ruin anybody in their way.”
“Like the highwayman that robbed Cousin Cindy last spring?”
“Worse.” Ciara lifted the trunk off the bed and headed toward the door.



3.5. Bonus: Do Some Actual Spring Cleaning of Your Writer Self! (and share a picture!)

My writer self really does need to do some spring cleaning.

My notes are still scattered everywhere between multiple devices and notebooks. My computer desk is a disaster.

The only place that I did any kind of cleaning was a place that I never wanted cleaned in the first place.

In the beginning of May, Shaxpir glitched really bad on my computer and my interference made it ten times worse. In short, the program wiped itself and everything I had on it got lost.

Now, don't panic, everyone!! Because of my lock-out scare during Camp NaNo, I had a decent backup. I did lose some minor world-building notes, but compared to what it could have been, I came off easy!

In spite of all the fatigue and busy-ness of my life, my muse did manage to restart a little this week. It's now exploring the world and characters of my old Amish WIP, It's a Matter of Faith, because of the dairy environment I've been immersed in, LOL. I highly doubt that I shall do much with it...though I've said that before.

I'm going to leave this tag open, as I must be off. I need to go shopping for some shoes for the graduation (cause there's a dance afterwards!)

Scribblingly yours,

Catherine

Ow boy, does my brain hurt.

It took me weeks to finally get this tag mashup together! But I finally muddled through, and am rather glad to get if off my little plate.

For this Taggy Tuesday post, I'm doing two challenges that were handed to me....a few months ago. Both of which were absolute fun and I can't wait to show them to you!

First I present to you the....


The second half of my Alpha Squad, Mary Katherine, tagged me for this really cool elongated snippet reveal challenge...in revenge of the fact that I never revealed ALL of The White Rose snippets to her yet. For a sneak peek at her own awesome work, 12 Golden Windows, click here!!

The Rules Directions:

Go to the 7th page of your WIP
Go down to the 7th line
Copy the next 7 paragraphs
Tag 7 people.

Okay, story time! To give you some context on what is going on in this scene, a married sister of Janina's has just arrived at Castle Sigurdnir, before the Karala Games begin.

Magda laughed with the rest, a bitter soft laugh. Her eyes betrayed a storm of emotion, unnoticed by everyone in the room, except for Alvilda.


Orla was not a character that I had really planned on when I first framed the story. I had only intended her to have a brief and very background presence, figuring that she would concentrate more on her little children. And then she burst into the work with a bang and I saw sooo much character development potential through her.

I tag:

All my fellow collaborators in the 5-Part Writing Special back in March! I wanna see snippets from everybody's wonderful WIPs that they featured in the Special!
(If you've been previously tagged, then you are excused.)


And now, for my next act, I present to you the....


Okay, I saw this go around the blogosphere, and thought "This is super awesome, I love it!". Not to mention an excellent exercise for us budding authors when it comes to query letters!  

I didn't expect it, but True @ A True Author tagged me for this one! True is a really awesome blogger who is a really deep writer and a great inspiration. You can view her post HERE! 
So...I'm going to create comp titles for all of my WIPs that I have listed in the WIPs page here on The Rebelling Muse, with the exception of Laboure, Ancora Spei (my utopia story). All the book/movie/song images will be linked to their respective Goodreads/IMDB/YouTube pages.




Katherine Morgan is an ordinary Amish girl, about to commit to being baptized into the Amish church. When she meets the Catholic boy that is working her neighbor's farm, she thinks nothing of him...at first. 

I know, such a wimpy little blurb....

For those who are unfamiliar with this one (which may be all of you) this is a really really old WIP that I've had sitting around since I was in high school. Instead of being relegated to the dustbin, like most of my high school writing, this one has stuck around.

Why?

Because I took the trouble to creating a very detailed chapter map, lots of story instances, and even drafted several scenes. This one is sticking around, since I put so much effort into creating and researching this story. Of course, it needs plot restructuring, as does every single one of these darn WIPs.

The best comp title I can come up with is:




Now, I've never read The Englisher. But I have read The Choice, and it was a good book source of inspiration for this WIP. 

From what I can gather from Goodreads, The Englisher has a mysterious English guy working in proximity to the Amish, which is what John Stamford is to the Morgan family. The Choice, if I remember correctly, had a love triangle and a struggle with the Amish church. And an unconventional Amish girl. 




Sassy Devil:

Ciara Arlen is left alone with her sister Grace when her father and mother are lost in a storm. Ciara receives a letter from her uncle with instructions to go to Dover where they will meet his ship, The Maiden of Valor. When a mix-up results in a kidnapping, Ciara must use her wits to escape...even if it means allying herself with strangers.

Fallen Angel: 

Ciara Arlen has run from the safety of the British Navy and has struck out on her own. Her dingy runs aground onto a little island in the Carolinas, where several pirates are hiding out. She makes them into a band, but their first marauding adventure turns horribly: The ship breaks on the reef and the survivors are captured by a tribe of natives! With her wits stretched again, how will Ciara ever find her place in the world? 


Dear me, do my blurb writing skills need work....

Just to clarify, this is not two books. This is one book in 2 volumes (a common occurrence back in the era of the classics but unusual today. Wonder why?)

This one was also a really hard one to peg down in terms of a comp title. Ciara's struggle is to find out what it means to be a woman, since the example that she had is almost non-existent. A very unusual quest for a piratical novel....

So after some scouring on Goodreads, I came up with the following:




I've not read The Redemption, but there are a lot of similar themes: Pirates that have a moral side to them, the missing-parent syndrome, some battles and captures and trust issues. I picked Treasure Island because of the fact that Jim and his comrades are practically kidnapped into Long John Silver's ship and must defeat the pirates in order to legitimately gain the pirate treasure. I've been told by a critique group that my writing has an old-fashioned ring to it too. And the last book? Well, it is the only book that I could find that was remotely close to the "finding womanhood" theme that I have.






Jessamine and Kestrel are two struggling actresses that end up at the West Side Theater with a small theater trope playing Phantom of the Opera. Jessamine ends up with the lead part and gets to play opposite of the two best actors - Eric Gerard and William Coulter. What happens when the love triangles start moving off-stage? 
Well, that's somewhat better...

This one was much easier to create a comp title for, since I based it off of one of my favorite books and a "favorite" musical of mine. I say "favorite" because in reality, I really don't like the plot or most of the music lyrics because of the heavily veiled emotional abuse. It is excellent if it can be portrayed as a cautionary tale, though, and I love to pick it apart and argue about it.





Stars Collide is a really fun contemporary book in which two co-stars of a popular TV show wind up in an off-camera romance. I assure you, my dear readers, this is one of the sweetest romance books that I've come across - it's romance of the best kind.

The Phantom of the Opera is a huge love triangle based around a budding leading lady in an opera house - between her sweet (or should I say rather sappy) childhood friend and her very mysterious music tutor....who apparently thinks it's fun to terrorize people. Notice I used the musical version and not the book version. I did that on purpose - the musical (besides being much cleaner and less cringy) being a rather integral part of the piece, it stands to reason that it should be part of the comp title.

So just so you guys know...this WIP was born because of a gripe speech that I delivered about the Phantom of the Opera. One day, I shall publish it for all of you to see :).





John Callahan has lost his crops and his family to the Irish Potato Famine. Desperate to escape the pain, he moves north with a friend to find work in Derry, Ireland. He ends up in Culmore, where he meets a bonny lass by the name of Rose O'Neill. But...Rose is bound for America and wants nothing to do with John. Can he change her mind?

Ah yes, the infamous Irish song retelling....the one that was hyped and put down. *cringes and facepalms*

For those who don't know of that saga, I'll spare you the gruesome details. Basically what happened is that the draft trainwrecked because Rose O'Neill was not very forthcoming on what her beef was with John. At the time, I was also in the middle of a huge life change (graduating college).

However!

As of several weeks ago, I made a major breakthrough!

Would you believe it - I was flipping through some recommended tracks on Spotify and found a really sad waltz-y song that immediately thrust me into her head. Her life story literally flashed through my mind like a slow movie. I LIVE for those kinds of songs...they are my muse's dream come true. Who knew my muse was locked by music...and all I needed was the right key??

This is probably the most off the wall comp title ever, but it's literally the only thing that I can come up with. Song retellings don't seem to be all that popular yet...I've only found one so far.

But here goes....


Yep. My story is closest to a song and a movie. This is a problem....

You can guess that "The Maid of Culmore" has a major part in it, and how/why. Darby O'Gill is going to take a little more explaining.

For those of you who have seen the movie, do you remember the romance between Katie O'Gill (Darby's daughter) and Michael McBride, the new caretaker that supposed to take over for her father?
Well, Rose O'Neill has some startling resemblances to Katie O'Gill's character - except that she is a lot colder. I want to mirror Katie and Michael's "romance" in this story, but again with a much colder note. An unhappy note. Because, as we all know from the song, the guy doesn't get the girl.







Hmmm. Another infamous trainwreck. Why do I have such a track record for these??

This work was the one that was supposed to go to Rooglewood this winter as my Welsh retelling of Snow White. Again, I shall spare you the tragic details of that failure. Suffice it to say that I suffered a six-month case of burnout and frustration before I put it down.

This comp title's concept was super easy...getting books was not so easy.

But I'm very proud of this one:



So both the latter titles are very Welsh-oriented. The first one, The Mabinogion is a collection of Welsh legends and fairy tales. I used this work heavily when trying to give that Welsh culture. Here Be Dragons is (another) book that I haven't read, but I probably should consult one of these days. From what I can glean from the description on Goodreads, it is set during one of the great periods of Welsh uprising...and deals with a famous historical marriage between an illegitimate princess and a king. Both elements are also strong in this work, and from what I can gather from reviews, even the prose might be a similar writing style to mine....



Gail is an ordinary teenage techie junkie. When her parents insist on her taking a camping vacation, she is not at all pleased. But when a storm breaks and she is forced into a cave for shelter, her phone is whisked away to Aistaraina...wherever that is.

When the portal suddenly closed, with her on the inside of course, Gail is forced to adapt to her new surroundings. As she becomes accustomed to Aistaraina's way of life, she becomes aware of several races of creatures. Creatures that seem harmless but Gail suspects of having dark motives. 

When the children of Aistaraina start showing signs of mysterious disease, Gail is determined to find the cause. What she doesn't know is that she has been lured to Aistaraina...and her tempter is coming for her....   

Oh my gosh. What do you know. A decent blurb!! (There is hope yet....)

This work...is my baby. It's my favorite of all my little stories...and the one that I hope to debut with in the publishing world. Once I write it that is. Which will, God willing, be in November for my first EVER official NaNoWriMo novel!

This comp title was probably my easiest in the entire series....as I already had 3 works that I knew it was similar to!



My current WIP (featured below) is the prequel to this WIP. Being the chronological person that I am, I am pulling a stunt I did with Fair Winds and writing what came first...first. I'm weird like that. It's a fairly standard fantasy - there is a huge quest, involving a female with a portal into a very complex fantasy world. There are shield-maidens, weird creatures, a strong-and-silent prince, a complex language system, allegories, and adventures galore!

And it's going to be so much fun to write!





Princess Janina Sigurdnir never expected to be the Blue Star of Duventoliel quite as soon as she did...but her older sister Magda's expulsion from the marriage market leaves her no choice. She still has much to learn...after all, what does a 15 year old know about the duties of state, of her royal status, or even about marriage???

During the tournament for her hand, she finds herself attracted to the noble-hearted, charitable, manly and still-single King Ealdread of Aistaraina...who is nearly a score of years older than she....

Themes: character development, maturity and love has no age requirement

You all know about this one! It's not like I haven't been talking about it non-stop since....Februrary. (At least I'm actually staying on one WIP for once....LOL).





When I first read Marcia Schulyer, I didn't see any ties to this story whatsoever. And then I found the notes sheet that I had made years ago for this WIP, and suddenly saw the parallels between Marcia and Janina. Both were really young brides that ended up taking the place of an older sister. To be honest, I've always wanted to retell Marcia Schulyer, but I expected to do it in a contemporary setting, not a fantasy. But I'll take it anyway!

Pippa of Lauramore...oh my gosh. This book was a major inspiration for fleshing out that original plot bunny. I stole shamefully from this book, I must admit. The Karala Games were largely inspired by the huge tournament of Pippa's. The idea of having a purity ring, I stole that too (and took it to a completely different level).

And because it's set in the same world that From the Cave is based in (but in a different country), The Simarillion is also placed in here as a major inspiration, even though there is nothing really "history-like" about this book (even though there is a fair bit of history and legend discussed in conversation). Also, the Elves in this story bear a lot of similarities to Tolkien Elves....


And there is the last of them!

So, several things I need to work on:

a. my blurb writing.
b. Don't look at just theme but also writing style. Though I guess it would help to know which authors are, um, similar to mine. (can anyone help me out in that respect?).
c. Look to see if movies and songs and stuff are allowed into comp titles in real query letters...

And the curtain drops....

Come sit down and chat! Any ideas on whose writing style I'm similar? For those who have read some of my works, do these comp titles seem accurate? How do you like Orla?