from your bona fide, certified, apprecafied, expertified, but not brain-fried, phoenix expert

Sometimes, writing everyday means you only write a sentence or two before passing out. On the bright side, I only missed one day this last week! Woo-hoo!

I don't plot things out very much and at this point I mostly just have periodic "landmarks" that I'm going by. I've just finished up the tail end of the first major point which is probably the biggest reason why my pace has slowed down in my day-to-day writing. Figuring out the big moments comes relatively easily, it's finding out what happens in between that I need to find out now.

Moving forward while trying to let my characters guide the story is kind of a scary thing - to feel like you're letting go of control - but I'm invested. And guys, I am having so much fun with these three! I've never considered myself a funny writer, or a funny anything mostly because I can't usually tell a joke all the way through without stopping at least three times because I'm laughing too hard. But I have had so many moments in writing these last two weeks where I just broke out laughing at the situations these guys get in and the various ways they react. Judging by the reactions I got from my husband when I tried to explain why I was cackling by myself on the couch, these moments probably aren't that funny for other people but hey, as long as I'm entertained that's what matters, right? If the writer isn't having a good time, the reader never will.

I realized yesterday that the students in my class are going back to school in less than a month and I wondered if they thought summer has gone by as fast as it seems to me. Maybe it just went faster for me because I'm just working now - no new school year to get worked up over - so the end of summer doesn't feel as much like an end as it used to. Do you guys have any summer projects you're hoping to get done before the scorching weather tempers? My main quest [aside from writing] is to finally get doctor appointments set up for my husband and myself. I don't like going to the doctor but my mother had us go regularly when we were all at home so the fact that I haven't seen one in about four years makes me a little antsy.

Ending a post talking about doctor visits sounds weird to me so in lieu of that, I will tell you something about our quail. Well, they aren't our quail - they just live around our complex and we see them every so often. I think there are two pairs and right now they each have chicks so it's one huge quail field-trip whenever they roam the lawn.

 You can't see them all here but I've counted and there are at least 14 chicks.

Anyway, the point to this is that our buildings are surrounded by those low bushes in that picture and then by a street. So my husband and I are 99% sure the quail live in the bushes - having seen them run into them on multiple occasions. The thing is, we'll watch them run into the bushes, so we know they're in there and moving around but the bushes never move and you can't hear anything at all, even though they're fairly loud when they're out on the grass or road. So we've come to the only conclusion that makes sense: bushes are quail portals. They walk into one on one side of the complex and end up in another across the quad so of course you can't find or hear them in the bush they went through. And you know, I always knew that little feather on their heads had to be for something. Turns out, it's magic. Quail magic. Now you know.

a little excerpt for this holiday post

Hey guys! Yes, I know it's technically Friday but I'm still awake so for my intent and purpose, it's still Thursday.

I wasn't planning on posting today because it's a holiday here in Utah and I was going to take that excuse to be lazy but I've been struck by a sudden desire to share a bit of what I've been writing. Yesterday was the only day in over a week that I didn't write anything so I'm really proud of myself and really excited about what's happening.

What we have here is part of Mona and Percy's argument about whether or not Kamdon, a brand new Malmark [a Fresh], can join  their little group. Let me know what you think!

~~

"He's not coming."
Mona paused and looked up at Percy who had turned to busy herself with organizing the new contributions to her stores of herbs. She'd known this argument was coming, moving on tomorrow had just pushed it up the schedule. She suspected that wasn't coincidental.
"Would you bring me some of those logs when you're done? For someone who was so concerned that I'd left him alone, you seem decided to do just that."
"Alone with our stuff," Percy said, lobbing several logs across the fire put in Mona's direction. "I have no problem leavin' him here."
"Why?" Mona asked, hefting a log in her palm before tossing it onto the growing flames. The tongues of red and orange soon began to lick at the dry brown bark.
"He's a liability," Percy said, brushing her hands off on her tunic. "We don't know anything about him. He might not even be a Fresh."
Mona quirked an eyebrow and suppressed a grin as she settled another log up against the first. "We both know how Fresh look, Percy." She scrubbed out a few rogue embers that had popped out of the pit and onto the dirt of the forest.
"You didn't see him leave the gate yourself." Percy sat down on another log and began picking pieces of bark and dirt off her sleeves. "He could be acting."
Mona felt her mouth screw up in confusion. "What?" She blinked and stared at Percy, fire forgotten. "Why would anyone pretend to be Fresh? There's no benefit. They're the best targets."
"Unless someone picks them up as a charity case." Percy gave Mona a significant look that didn't shift when Mona rolled her eyes.
"Kamdon couldn't lie to save his life. We could both tell when he made up that story about his past last night." Mona stood and moved to their supply packs.
"Maybe he's trying to throw us off the important lies."
Stooped over the canvas food bag, Mona just stared at Percy who shrugged, unapologetic. Mona shook her head and dug through the sack for some of the vegetables they'd gathered a few days ago.
"I know I said he was smart but I think you're giving him too much credit. No one comes through the Wall that crafty."
"Okay, so that's a stretch," Percy said. "I just don't like the idea of picking up random people. He could be dangerous."
Mona raised an eyebrow, still sorting through the bag. Kamdon might be taller than Percy, almost as tall as Mona, but he'd never win in a fight against the shorter girl.
"He's out here, isn't he?" Percy was defensive. She must have seen the eyebrow go up.
"Yes," Mona said, standing with a handful of orange and brown vegetables and one of their larger pots in her other hand. "So are we. Or have you forgotten what we are? Here, cut these up." She dropped half of the vegetables in Percy's lap before setting the pot down by the fire and sitting again. "We're more dangerous to him than he is to us if only because he's one unknown against two. We have more experience out here and you keep denying it but I know you have at least four herbs in your bag that can kill a person."
The grin that lifted Percy's glower disappeared as quickly as it happened. "I don't want to be a baby-sitter," she muttered. "He's a liability and not my problem."
Mona's knife paused half way through a carrot. She spoke carefully, her patience waning in the face of the heartlessness in Percy's voice. "We were in his position once."
"Yeah," Percy hacked at a potato, "and I took care of myself."
Anger and surprise boiled up in Mona without warning.
"And I almost died!" She felt as shocked at the outburst as Percy looked. The wood rang with sudden silence. "You know how many Fresh do."
A breeze rustled the leaves above their heads.
Percy bent to pick up her knife from where it had fallen and looked up, just shy of meeting Mona's eyes. "We can't save them all, Mona."
"I know." Mona wiped at the moisture streaming down her cheeks. "But can't we save one?"
Silence reigned again until a bird chirped tentatively into the evening air. Both girls turned back to the vegetables.
"Why did you help me?" Mona asked, resolving her voice into a more normal tone.
"What do you mean?" Percy dropped her uneven chunks of potato into the pot and ran her free hand into her hair, staring at the fire.
Mona tossed her uniform chunks of carrot into the pot as well and settled her elbows on her knees, turning her knife over in her hands. "You saved my life when I was a Fresh. Why. If no one is your problem and it's so much easier to take care of yourself than help anyone, why did you step in?"
Percy sighed and stood, sheathing her knife before pacing over to a maple tree, kicking bracken and twigs as she went. "Honestly" She turned and folded her arms across her chest, looking at Mona's boots. "I helped you because I hated those guys and I felt bad for you. I know." She glared at Mona's smile. "Shut up. I was tired of trying to see out the front and back of my head at the same time. And you're taller than me," she added. "So I figured you might make a good body guard even if you turned out to be stupid."
Mona was smirking now. "Well that was tender."
"It's the truth and you know it," Percy snapped. "Though you turned out to be a lousy body guard."
Mona laughed. Being taller was the only physical advantage she'd ever had over Percy. "You were surprised?"
Percy stuck her tongue out at her and they both laughed. Mona set to the remaining vegetables as Percy walked slowly back to her log. She picked up the stick Mona had used to stir the coals to life and set about shifting some to the side, away from the open flames of the new wood to create a bed for the pot.
Mona waited as Percy retrieved one of their water skins and filled the pot before adding more chunks of vegetables. She watched as a flurry of expressions crossed Percy's face. She could imagine some debate going on inside her head but she didn't ask. When Percy argued with herself the conversation eventually turned vocal. Mona focused instead on cleaning her knife carefully on the hem of her tunic. The blade would need to be sharpened soon.
Percy lifted the pot onto the prepared coals, shifting it around more than necessary before speaking to the fire.
"Why this one?" She looked up at Mona, baffled. "If you have to be saving one, why him?"
"Why not?" Mona asked with a wry smile.
"He's annoying," Percy said under her breath.

still alive

Hey all, sorry about the radio silence. As you know, Tim and I spent the last week of June in NY. We got back on the 2nd of July so I've been around but it's taken me these last two weeks to really start readjusting to being home. One week out east was not enough for me and I knew that going in but the level of trauma experienced when we flew home was much more intense than I had expected. I told Tim to give me two days and I'd be fine, bless his heart he's been having to put up with my weirdness for two weeks instead.

Ah well, life rolls on. I came back to some pretty major imminent changes at work which has actually been helpful in getting me back into the swing of things and focused on something other than my crippling homesickness. 

Also helpful has been the writing streak I'm on this week. I brought my notebook to NY but I didn't work on anything because, frankly, I had more important things to spend that limited time on. I've been mulling this scene over in my head ever since we got back, though, and on Tuesday I finally picked up a pen and man am I having fun. Last night I tried to explain to Tim why I was enjoying writing this scene so much but I don't think he found it as amusing. I suppose I should feel bad for Kamdon that Percy is currently just laughing at him but he doesn't understand yet that laughter is one of the most approving things you can get from Percy - if she was actually upset with him she'd be yelling, more so than usual anyway. Sorry, that probably doesn't mean anything to you guys either, I'm just enjoying this too much.

In other news, I'm renewing my previously non-existent efforts to prepare for the GRE [guys, studying is like eighty-trillion times harder when you're not actively in school anymore] so I've downloaded some vocabulary practice apps to my phone. They're super handy because I can review words on my way to and from work and during any little down time I have during the day. There are three levels, each with about 6 "decks" of 51 flashcards each. The sad thing is that the first level is called Common Words, I'm on the third deck, and the majority of the words I'm reviewing I've never heard before. So now I have to wonder if my vocabulary is really that limited or if they just have a different definition of "common." I think I might hang onto these apps after I've taken the test, though. It's a handy thing to learn new words and work out your brain.