Tagged: writing

The joys (?) of “The End”.

Ahhh, The End. There’s nothing a writer loves more than scribbling those two, little, three letter words at the bottom of whatever manuscript they are working on. I finally finished the first draft of a novella I was working on, which meant I finally got to write “THE END”.

HOORAY!
*Balloons and streamers fall from the ceiling and some scantily-clad woman hands me a trophy*
Right?

No, not really… Actually, not at all.

Just because you’ve reached the end, doesn’t mean it’s done and ready to be submitted. (I wish that’s what it meant.)

What lies ahead of me now is editing, rewriting, having pre-readers slam me with their opinions and then editing and rewriting again…
DAMMIT!

Don’t get me wrong, it feels awesome to reach the end of the story after plugging away at my computer for what seems like forever, but I’m so not even close.
I keep thinking I should not write “The End” ’til the actual end. Maybe jot down “Partially Ended”, or “DRAFT FINISHED”…
Those seem like better choices to describe where I’m at in the story writing process.

All this is just me rambling about having finished a novella. Everyone was congratulating me and saying good work, which felt awesome, but the little voice inside me (the one that keeps my ego in check) kept reminding me of the fact I’m not even close to “THE END”.

Thanks for that little voice, you can’t let me enjoy anything can you…?

To the non-writer people who are reading this: Next time you read a book or short story, think of all the work that goes into getting the story from the author’s imagination into the book in your hands.

To the writer people who are reading this: Keep up the good work, and thanks for all the hard work you put into the books and stories I have read and will read.

End rant 😀
MDG

Pressurized Deadlines -or- Why I write better with no time at all.

With Canada Day come and gone, I’m back to the regular grind again. July 1st was an important day for about four other reasons as well, it was deadline day. For the past few months, I’ve had July 1st circled on my calendars because things were due to be submitted. I tried to get things done earlier, but every time I sat down at the computer, I struggled with what I had to do. Apparently, I love to procrastinate.

I had months to finish up the four stories I wanted to submit. I tried to get things done earlier, but it didn’t happen. Finally as the last week approaches, something in me switched on. I started to get things done. I didn’t have much choice as they were due in a few days…

The moment I realized the due date was approaching, I completed one story after the other. It was easy, I just sat down and wrote. In less than a week, I had four stories completed, pre-read, edited and submitted to their respective anthologies.

Now I wait.

What I want to know is why couldn’t I get them done a long time ago? Why did I have to wait ’til the last week to find it in me to do what I had to do? I understand that Facebook is a serious issue for me. *(I’ve been on it three times so far in during this blog post… lol!)

It’s not like I don’t have the ideas, my phone and my desktop are full of notes about stories I should write.
It’s not like I don’t have the time. Time, I seem to have too much of.
So why can’t I do anything??? ARGH!

(I do have to say, at least I got it done. I didn’t miss any deadlines, but this isn’t a productive way to work.)

I’ve made calendars and lists, so yes, I am working on managing my time better. I wonder when this all started… I don’t think I had this problem before. I used to manage a department store. Did I have issues with time management then? I don’t think so, I would’ve been talked to about it. Maybe I need an assistant manager. Like a secretary or something to help keep me on track, or at least completing things much more quickly.

I’ve done well today, my plan is to work on the story I started over my holidays. “This only happens in the movies” is the working title and it’s a horror story. I also am working on another story this week, not horror though. More of a comedy/action with a wicked character named Maple. I have her planned out to be a recurring character, but my procrastination has so far kept her as just an idea. She’s made it onto the paper, but then I just stopped writing. Feedback on this storyline is awesome so far.

It’s in my plans to only work on those two stories this week. I hope to have them finished by Friday. I’ve also slacked off on my reviews and interviews, so I’ll be reading two books this week and attempting to do one author interview.

Maybe cause I wrote about it here, it will happen.

It’s my magic blog.

(I’ll keep you posted…)

~MDG~

Review: Brains (A Zombie Memoir) by Robin Becker

RAWR BRAINS… Seems to be the ongoing “zombie style” for writing and movies. I personally get tired of the “same old-same old” zombie stories. When one of my friends suggested I check out this novel, due to it’s non-normal-zombie-story, I did. Sure, it still has the “RAWR BRAINS” moments in it, like you would expect from a zombie story, but “Brains” is something a little different.

Brains: By Robin Becker

Meet Jack Barnes, he’s a professor/recently turned zombie. He can’t voice what he wants to say, but he knows he is different than the others around him. On top of his want for brains, there’s something else, a glimmer in his eye or a cognizance, if you have to call it something. He knows he’s not like all the other brain-eaters out there. He knows this because he can think and write.

A newly zombified Jack sets out on a cross-country trek to find the creator of the zombie virus, hoping to prove that not all zombies are mindless brain munchers as he quests for zombie/human equality. Along the way, he finds other zombies who are like him and slowly builds a group of zombies who have “talents”.

The first cognizant zombie he comes to meet is Joan. She is, or was, a nurse and has the ability to maintain the decomposition zombies face on a daily basis. She can repair and mend injuries with things she finds, like a Dead Doctor McGuyver.

Guts, an eviscerated young zomboy, is the next one to join the ragtag group of zombies with abilities. Not only does he understand, Guts can also run even though he’s decomposing at the same rate as every other zombie around him.

Then comes Ros, the first zombie who can converse since he hasn’t lost his ability to talk or remember.

Finally, Annie joins the group. The dead little sharpshooter makes for a welcome addition to the ragtag group of undead.

Throughout the entire novel, Robin Becker manages to create humour in what should be a tale about a horrific, zombie-filled world. Becker manages to create feelings of sympathy in the reader for her characters, even though they are zombies. On the flip side, the reader gets to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes… on dead legs.

Brains is a fun, well-written, different kind of zombie story for those who want a tale that isn’t like all the others.

***Brains: A zombie memoir is recommended as Mandytory reading***

Mandventuring – Down The Right Path.

I left the house yesterday. No wait, it’s not that I don’t ever leave the house, but I left the house just to peruse the neighbourhood, rather than run errands or whatnot. I’ve been meaning to do it since I moved into the neighbourhood in February.

I made an observation to myself yesterday (while running an errand) that when I go out, I only go out one way. I go down the elevator and out a door and head left. It’s the way to the stores and the bus route, my friends live to the left, the bars are to the left… I have no reason to go right, well not until yesterday that is.

It wasn’t really a reason as more than me just being bored. When I look out off my balcony, I see a school, another apartment building and this field that leads to this path, which in turn runs along the river. I just wanted to explore and see what’s shaking in the neighbourhood (things like this are good to know incase of zombie infestation or apocalyptic situations arising…) Also, I was tired of staying in, so I left… and went right. (Right would be more like behind my building rather than in front… Directions just seemed easier to explain.)

I finally got to the path… I suppose I could’ve cut through the schoolyard, but that’s really only okay when school’s not in. School was in, I didn’t wanna be the playground creeper and opted to avoid the schoolyard entirely. I went around the big building and followed my GPS thing on my phone to the pathway. *(The pathway is the Ottawa River Parkway, so said the signs once I got to it.) I didn’t really need the phone, but it’s fun to play with…

The path is pretty straightforward, it goes on for awhile, I only walked for 30 minutes one way then turned around and came back. (I had dinner plans so I was dealing with time constraints.)

Now while on this walking tour I decided to take photos, most of them are normal, like this one…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I found this… A random greenhouse thing in the middle of suburbia. Well it was between houses and the path I was on…

 

 

 

 

 


I’m not sure who or what it is, there was no sign that I could see from the path. It’s weird, the doors that are on the sides are bricked in, like a super solid fixture. I wanted to go check it out, but I was concerned about the enhanced Canadian security that was around this building… I trusted the sign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


I’m not sure what it was, but my imagination totally started making stuff up…

 

 

 

 

 


Government grow-op… Zombie housing… GERMS… So many things were running through my head, I should have taken notes for writing later. I’ll remember to do that next time. I’m definitely going to check it out again, hopefully find out what it is. I’m thinking probably tomorrow when I assume there’ll be no cars parked outside… There’s probably isn’t a sign, but you never know. 😀

I’ll keep you all posted…
Oh! If I’m never heard from again, come save me from the greenhouse place…

MDG

Rejected… It’s not as bad as I thought.

So it’s finally happened… Out of all the things I send out into possible-publish land, I finally received my first rejection. *(First and second actually, they came in one after the other.) Now all in all, I kinda expected it to hurt more, but it didn’t. I looked at it as “Yay! Now it’s back so I can send it out again.” 😀

I’m still working on figuring out formats and stuff when I send things in, so it’s possible that I’m still making mistakes with the whole submission process, but I don’t think it’s anything that would stop me from being accepted. More than anything, it’s probably just not for them. I’m new to the whole submitting thing, so I’m not sure who wants what… Also, I send my stuff in as horror, but sometimes it’s not. Well it is, but not. I don’t know how to label my writing yet. Most of it’s twisted and creepy, so I just assume that it’s horror. It’s some kind of horror anyways.

I’m glad to have the first one out of the way, now it’s probably not going to be the most upsetting. I assume that when I start sending out the novel and it gets rejected, that will suck way more. I think the amount of time invested into the piece is a huge factor in how much a rejection is going to affect you. Having worked on a novel for a year compared to a days worth for a short story is a big difference.

I’ll deal with that when I come to it. First let’s get the novel written, before I start worrying about anything else. 😉

MDG

BiographyWriting Self-Lesson #1

So the last few days have involved me setting up pages and blogs and anything else you’re supposed to do when you are an author. *(I’m not really 100% sure on that but I’m going with what I think you’re supposed to do…) One of the things that came up was writing a bio. I’ve had to do little ones that will appear at the end of my book, but never a longer one. That’s what I’ve worked on for the last couple days. *(It’s listed here on the About MDG page, but I figured I’d include it as a blog post. I told you I’d be working on being more proactive with the blogging.)

I’m also working on categories so that my blog posts aren’t all over the place, but I’m not 100% sure what to do there, so we’ll see what happens. 😀

BIOGRAPHY #1: (Amazon and Website)
(I say number one cause I’m sure there will be many more edits and renditions of this within the next couple years, it’ll be fun to go back through all of them.)

“My name Mandy J. De Geit. (I dropped the “J” and smashed De Geit together after my first story was published when I realized the more words there was in my name, the longer my autograph would be…)

Anyways, I’m 34 years old, single and I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I’ve lived here since 1999 I think, it’s been awhile anyways. Home for me was originally Timmins, Ontario, it’s a tiny town up four hours north of… YES THE ONE SHANIA TWAIN IS FROM and no… I don’t know her. *(I’m hoping to be the next big thing from Timmins, put it on the map for something else other than her…)

My family is still up there, but I chose to make Ottawa my home, for the last… 13 years up ’til now. I’m kinda gypsy-like, or nomadic and I don’t like staying put, but I haven’t strayed to far from here yet so we’ll see what happens.

I’ve been writing since I was a kid. I may have started in grade 3 or 4 or something like that. I started with poetry and descriptive paragraphs, most just trying to explain the images I saw in my head. I read a lot as a kid, Mom and Dad didn’t think a kid should be reading Stephen King in elementary school, but it’s a book. What can you do?

I wrote a lot more when I hit high school and the joys of being a teenager… What I wrote during those times was more of a therapeutic thing than anything. I think that era would be my writing “Dark Ages”, but it may have also saved my life.

Through my twenties for some reason, my writing just stopped. Maybe I felt that I didn’t need the therapy writing offered, as my life had taken a better turn, maybe I did suffer the writer’s block I told people about, maybe I was just too busy, I’m not sure why I stopped, but I did.

One day, the need to write just came back, so I wrote.

Which takes me to now, where I have now published my first story “She Makes Me Smile” (2012) and have a novel on the go. (Currently the novel is about half done. It’s the first one, so I’m sure I’ll have to redo and rewrite, but it’s getting there.) At the moment, I call myself an author of creepy fiction as I’m not sure how else to explain what I write. I am not all about the gore (well not yet anyways…) I try to write about things that just might happen. I write more about the darkness that resides inside people around us, the secrets our friends might carry or the things that people close to us think about and are capable of. There’s really no category for that yet so creepy fiction works for me for now.

With that being said, I like being creepy.”

——

Oh yeah for those out there in Mandyland that know me and think that something should be added… DO IT!!! Send me your add-ons to Mandy’s biography. I’ll see if I can work them in.

Thanks for reading.
MDG