First things first read the idiot's guide and research, research, research

So I'm researching query letters and on my break at work I'm reading the Idiot's Guide to query letters. I'm reading blogs and articles online query query query... I come across an article on Self-publishing. I had originally planned to self-published bypassing the "hard work" in getting a publishing house to except my work. If you can even get noticed. This article said to do both!
Have my cake and eat it? Oh yes!
I can upload my novel as an e-book (an electronic book or digital representation of a book read on a digital device, such as smart phones, e-readers, tablets and computers) Through a self-publishing site, I can sell Pull on Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble all at once. I can choose to print my book, but of course that's where you have to pay the big bucks. With an e-book I can sell it at a reduced cost or even for free and I get more profit than I would a major publisher. While self-publishing it, I can query about the same book, earning credit at the same time.
Don't get me wrong, it's not about the money, it's about people reading my work. This is the one thing I've stuck to because I've finally found something to be passionate about. It would be awesome to make money while doing it, sure! I could use money for a house we'll eventually buy or a baby that's not yet born. But first and foremost is sharing my work. making it into a movie.
I can't wait to get to the feedback from my beta readers. I can't wait to polish up Pull and have it available for download.

Art by Merkotoz

New To Do List:

• Polish and edit Pull (book one of the Sanctuary novels).
• Coffee.
• Find a book cover artist or a royalty free graphic for Pull.
• Research more on LuLu.com for my self publishing needs.
• More coffee.
• More Blink 182 listening for positivity.
• Work on book 2, working title: Gravity.
• Continue reading on query letters.

Three is my favorite number

Blink 182 released their Dogs Eat Dogs EP. This is a big deal for me. New music is always a tool I utilize to jump start the creative process for my stories. Blink 182 especially is important to me. Being that they are my favorite band in the entire world, using new music by them always blows my mind. They hit the right chords to my heart and their lyrics call to me like they were written just for me. I love them so much.
I'm at a point in my writing that I can use their help again. They write their music from their experiences from young teenagers to a thirty-something year-old. It makes them relevant to me and who I am. I'm a little younger than the band, but even as a 33 year-old I feel like a 23 year-old. Hopefully I don't write like a 5 year-old. What's my age again? <---that's one of their songs!


Tome DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker.
Blink-182

Book two is a Sanctuary novel. I'm not sure about the the title yet, but for now it's called Gravity. There's three main characters, troubled teenage boys who are called upon to help Violet, one of the main characters in my first book, Pull. With new music from Blink, I can revise my written work thinking in the mind set of these 16 and 17 year-old boys, who's lives seem so hopeless to them.
I call them "The Three". (Alex, Gabriel and Dash) I can't wait for you to meet them.

I've got a feeling, I've got a feeling

These broken nights and bitter ends

We would always starve and devour

Our closest friends my beautiful friends

Paranoia my paranoia

Can't let it go, it never lets me go

What am I feeling, why am I feeling

Forecast into the freezing cold

 

Dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs

Dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs

 

I'm the last and the first in a very sad set of eyes

To the bone, to the knees, to the factory line

I am numb to the shot, I have a crippling fear of heights

'Cause the fall sounds a lot like a symphony of cries

 

Your only hope is burning down the chapel

All getting washed out with the tide

We need to find some middle ground

It's always sex or suicide

-Dogs Eating Dogs by Blink-182

 

ZZZZZzzzz

Writing is my passion. How many people find their passion in life? I do bounce from one entertaining hobby to another like my father, but I find the one thing I can't stop doing is writing. It's what I want to do when I'm at work, when I'm in the shower, when I' not at home. All of the time.
The problem is time.
I don't have enough of it.
The majority of my time I'm at work.
I'm tired.
Maybe it's Holiday time and it's me whining, but all I want to do lately is sleep and watch Netflix. Even coffee isn't giving the extra push to write something as small as this blog. I'm barely awake. A week ago I finished my first draft. I think I maybe feeling like I need a vacation from writing. I should allow my mind to rest for the new year before I start my query letter, revisions on book one and the start of my craft revisions on book two. (Book two through four are written but not revised to a readable state.)
I should rest.

I know the moment I have the spurt of energy I'll be at my desk, on my iPhone, or my Nook to jot my brains out. I should really rest.

To Do List:

• Research Query Letter examples
• Research Literary agents in my genre (Crossover teen, sci-fi, paranormal romance, speculative)
• Buy more coffee (something different, I get tired of drinking the same kind after a while)
• Start Craft revision on Book two
• Review results from beta readers/proof readers.
• Make more copies of book one for beta readers
• Listen to Blink 182 new EP
• Laundry
• Laundry
• laundry
• Coffee... ZZZZzzzzz

I wanted to make music, so I started writing.

The disc I burned today was my first draft to a series I've been working on for the past few years. The first draft of book one took the longest to revise since the it was skeletal in it's original form. It's taken many cups of coffee and 8 GB of music to help me structualize my story; define my characters. Paint my picture with words I know and words the thesaurus helped me with.
Right now, I'm listening to the most inspirational music one can listen to for such a victory. The epic sounds of Angels & Airwaves engages my imagination to what my finished book will look like. The manuscript on the literary agents desk in the yes pile. Yes, I will have my novel printed, sold in books stores. Even my book store where I currently work at. I will see in the bestsellers bay. The dust jacket baring my name and the title I feel sums my book up. One word.
Pull
My heart pulls in one direction: Up. I fell I can only go that way because I've been every other way. It feels good to complete this one step. It's one closer to ultimate victory, but I feel I already have that.

"Here I am, here we go, life's waiting to begin."

Original character art by Nami-mi

Character by Nami Mi. Revision by Orihichan.

 

Tom DeLonge sings these words in his song, The Adventure, by his band Angels & Airwaves. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to that one song. The first time I heard it, it brought tears to my eyes. Someone was singing to my heart. I've never experienced that before when  a song that wasn't sung by my mom or my grandma. Tom Delonge was always someone I looked to for answers. His band Blink-182 is my favorite band ever. When I listen to their music it was humorous, anger and touching. It was unlike anything I've hear. Every lyric and strum of his guitar and Mark Hoppus's bass was something meant just for me. At least if felt like it. The music called to me.
Now, Angels and Airwaves confirms a new chapter in my life and Tom's transition from pop punk to epic rock was something I was growing with. I was following the music and the music followed me.
The flow of the songs I listen to activated me in such a way it envelopes my heart and my mind into an expansive world that is invisible to the naked eye. I've always wanted to express myself as creatively as Tom does. I wanted to paint the picture. I wanted people to watch my mind movies. Feel what I feel. Fear what I fear. I wanted to make music, so I started writing.

My grandma's death gave me the emotional build up I need to begin. I started by logging her funeral and expressing my emotions within the pages of an old notebook. From that, I reread my work and found a movie scene complete with music and a heartfelt story.
If I can do this with something real, can I do it with something not so real?
Little did I know what was inside me was very real and so I began the story I've used thousands of times in my head while I listened to music. A story I fantasized since maybe fourteen years-old or so.
Of Course it's a love story.
Every aspect of me is in it.
You will read it one day.

"The stars in your eyes, light up the sky, With all it's light and fire inside." -Love Like Rockets by Angels & Airwaves.