New Writing

I has this idea for a novel for a long time, but I thought it sounded too intimidating to write. Plus I can't write romance to save myself, which would be a main feature of the story. I thought I was terrible at writing non-fantasy, but in the end it was my competition story which made me decide to write it. Half of that story was non-fantasy, and I think it worked quite well, so I'm giving this one a go.

And I seriously need to try and force myself to write in discription :( i just wanna let the reader imagine it themselves, but it means the setting is almost non-existent!

Meanwhile, inspired by one of my sister's books on yarn bombing, I decided to give it a shot myself. I went for a walk around the block, and found a nice chair that no-one ever sits on, and making sure no-one was looking, I quickly measured it. I then went home, and in a few hours I had created some knitting to my own made-up pattern. The name reads "Llama" and a smiley face, and I realised through this that I need to develop my sewing letters skills more as both my parents walked past it, stopped and said, "this looks suspiciously like something she would make....." but couldn't read the letters.

Also, I didn't measure it well enough as I was try to get away as quickly as possible, and so it was far too bit and the seam bulges out quite a lot.

Competition

Hey, I haven't been on my blog for a while now. I have just entered "The Woven Story" which I completed earlier this year in the Somerset National Novella Writing Competition.

I am aiming to get at least shortlisted. About 3 people from NSW/ACT will be shortlisted, and the state winner from there will be up against the other state winners from Australia. I imagine I am up against some heavy competition, but I believe I have a fair chance of being shortlisted as only about 80 people compete, my friend tells me. But she might not be right... not sure.

Anyway, it would be so very awesome and life-changing if I actually won this........ ahem.

I started this story about a month ago that i thought would be a brilliant idea, but now im already sick of it after one chapter, but I hate ditching stories. I hate it. I have another idea for a story, which is awesome in my head, but the more awesome these things are in my head, the worse they are on paper. So i don't know if i wanna write it... anyway, I've been feeling a little agitated recently that I haven't had enough experience to really be writing stories at all. What I am basing almost all my material on is other books and movies, which is very unreliable for real life.

That's my main strong point in my Novella in the competition, I think though. It's one of the first things I have written about with more content based on what I have experienced, than fantasy stuff ripped off from other works. There is some fantasy at the end, but a lot of it sounds just like what I am like, which can be a little embarassing when people read my stuff, cause it's like this large insite into my brain. I never really thought about how much a book is the author's inner thoughts until I have been writing for myself now...

Completed Story

Just now I have completed another of my stories. It was one I feared might be neglected, but recently I've been working on it heaps, and I just wrote a bit more and I was like "that's enough for today" and then I was like "oh... did I just finish that?!??" and i had!! I hadn't really thought about it, but that's the 6th book I have now completed!

... Yay!!!!!

In the end though, like so many of my other ones, my views changed as I wrote it. At first I thought this would be a great one to show my friends, but by the end I think I used the words "soul" and "magic" far too much for my liking.

That's a terrible thing that's happened to my writing in the last year or so. I have made a dramatic turn from including overfilling details of magic-casters, to now writing warning to readers never to ever even consider such things. I can now hardly face up to having written my Doria triligy, cause I used the word "spirit" so much in it. I just worry how some people might take it...

So anyway, I've thought recently that I might take another shot at trying to find a publishing company that might consider my stuff. Dunno whether I'd send this one (I'm quite fond of this one actually! Despite the "soul" characters written about all the time) or my Doria triligy... hmm....

Swan Lake and Woven Story

A company has come to Australia and is performing the ballet Swan Lake only three times - costs way too much, but wouldn't that just be awesome too see! *sigh*...

A great anime series, Princess Tutu, is based on Swan Lake. I never realised till I was watching it for the second time and I realised the characters and themes and songs were straight from this ballet. I did ballet when I was 5, and only wish I had continued...

Anyway, yesterday I thought back to those crazy three months last year when I sat down and wrote my whole Tales of Doria trilogy. I remembered it was a time when I had a laptop alone in my room, and there was no internet connection. So, trying to copy these methods, I got my dad's laptop and plugged it in my room, and then found myself typing for about 6 hours!! All in all, I typed over 9000 words yesterday in a story I started a while ago called the Woven Story, and wrote about 3 times as much as I had already done.

I am happy I have finally worked out my best working methods. Now I should be able to write heaps more when I need to!

Oh great.

Not only have I ruined for myself that three key characters are kicked out of the show in Robin Hood - but i have recently read that a forth is also killed off.

HUMPH!!!

I never actually TRY to ruin these things for myself, but when I have to watch something that takes longer than a week, I eventually feel the need to look it up and accidently read the endings. And I DO mean accidently.

:(

I feel in the writing mood...... I seriously never ever have time to write. like, ever.

I reeeeeeally wanna read Howl's moving castle again though. I watched the movie last night in preparation for seeing Ponyo (Hiao Misaki's latest film) tomorrow but i couldnt help thinking the whole time if only i were reading the book rather than watching the movie... what has come over me?!

Today in art I saw some old drawing i did this year and was so embarassed I tore them all out then and there and threw them out. I shall never be satisfied with my drawing.

Drained and Memories

I feel drained of interest. All my life I have had time to read, write, draw, play outside, visit friends, watch movies, play computer games and relax. This year, even though I get home earlier than normal, I have felt I never ever have time for anything. And then when it is the weekend with spare time, I shrivel up and want to be thrown back into the world of school or church where I can't ever think but follow routines and instincts. So I have hardly produced anything this year worth while.

So I want time, but when I get it I just can't use it.

I feel rather annoyed too, as I have ruined for myself that three of my favourite characters from the Robin Hood series die. One I have already seen at the end of season 2, but in season 3 I have accidently read the deaths of two more key characters. Humph!!

I have been writing up my memories from Primary School and High school. These are some funny moments from my writings:

Kindergarten:
Show and tell was a very important part of Kindergarten for a number of reasons:
* The person who would bring in the most interesting thing would be quite popular for the rest of the day.
* If you have been good all day then the teacher will chose you to sit on the table during it and look out for the person paying the most attention (In other words, your best friend). This was a great honour for you were publicly the teacher’s favourite.
* If you payed a lot of attention and you were picked you receive a lolly.
* There is a vote at the end and the person who receives the most votes for an interesting speech gets their object drawn into ‘the book of interesting show and tells’.

A large problem in Kindergarten was the toilets. There were only about 10 to share among 2 classes of 30 after every Lunch and Recess. And of course, everybody had their favourite cubical. I remember I only ever went in the second last on the right but one day I went in and there was the biggest spider I have ever seen on the door and I rushed out screaming. I never went in it again.

Year 5
There was a mass food trading going on in this year. Usually what was in your lunch box was not what you ended up eating. I would always bring a doughnut to school. I got sick of having all my friends talking about it. Sometimes I think back and I think that the reason so many people clumped around me was mainly because of the delicious nice food mum always packed for me. Doughnuts, Vegemite rolls, fruit sticks, popcorn, poppers, chocolate bars and lots more. I had a thing where almost every lunch I would give Jessica Lesson my popcorn packet and she’d give me a packet of salt and vinegar chips. People soon caught on and tried bringing S & V packets to school to trade but me and Jessica had a deal.

Year 6
Game Name: The Cell game
Description: Started when Kiera was being silly and pretended to be a teacher and made us all ‘stand in the corner’. She then put us in jail so we were all allocated a ‘cell’. Eventually, the game evolved into a game where one person was the ‘door’, one was the jailer and all the rest were residents of a hotel/jail. We had to give our passwords to the door to access our apartment (a slab of concrete between two lines). If we were naughty, the jailer would put us in the jail. Of course, the whole game was played in an out-of-bounds area.

Then, of course, there was the tambourine. Whenever we were talking too loud or the teacher needed our attention she would ring it. When she was angry at someone, she struck it onto the table in front of them, making everyone jump or even scream. Some people were in tears because it was so scary. Eventually, she broke it and got something like a single key of a xylophone and donged it instead

Another great memory is another game we made up that didn’t really have a name. It started when I looked through Zoe’s notepad and found she’d designed the front of it to resemble a mobile phone. I thought it was cool and copied her. Soon everyone was. Then I started making myself a paper laptop. Soon, it developed into a huge paper game behind the teacher’s back to be done when her lessons were getting tedious. I had a pet shop and made paper animals. I also made mobile phones. Kiera had a food shop; Amy changed her shop many times; Zoe was banker and Annika made Laptops/computer games. We used pretend ‘checks’ rather than money that had to have the banker’s signature to be valid. (this was because at first everyone made their own checks for things like $1 000 000

Year 7
We did a literacy reading circle this year. My first. We were separated into groups and every group read a separate book. I think we had me, Amy, Jess and one or two others... and we read the worst book in the world. The Incredible Journey. At the end we had to present our book to the class so we did a game-show where the conclusion was Amy being asked what she would re-name the book if she could, and she said: “The Incredibly Boring Journey”. We all shared this opinion.

Slow progression

I actually had the chance to sit down and write some more recently. I was so proud of myself! But just when I was getting back into the swing of writing, our computer decides it hates us again and won't let us access any internet or documents. So I can't write any more... or continue any of my 3 assignments due next week!!!! So I have to revert back to using Dad's laptop AGAIN.

I'm in the process of writing a short-ish story based on some ideas I got from the Japanese mini-series called Princess Tutu which I was watching recently. The idea of charcters being inside a story, and finding a way out of it into reality. Pretty random... anyway...

I'm STILL editing my Emeralds in the Tower story that's going on www.elizabethdanara.mysite.com though. It's a very long process. I need to start advertising that soon... I made a whole load of advertisements for it :D

I've been watching a musical on youtube recently called "A Very Potter Musical". It is extreamly funny in some parts, and just stupid and dumb in others, so if I keep watching for a while I'm bound to come across a good bit that makes it worth watching :)

Going online

elizabethdanara.mysite.com

who on earth could this mysterious new author be??


...


That would be me.


PLEASE come and read my stuff!!!! I'm despirate!!!
Hardly anyone's commenting!!


It's really hard uploading things as im a very slow editor and the computer seems to reject me copying and pasting my story now... hmmmmm...

anyway, I spending a nice quite holiday in Melbourne. I swore I would not touch the internet for the whole two weeks - but my mum thought i looked board and let me on the computer for games, and hasn't worked out im on the internet yet.... id better go!!

Feeling Sick

I feel sick.

And I almost wish that was all there was to it.

So much has happened since I last posted here -- I don't know where to begin.

We had a family friend over recently who dramatically changed two things in my recent past. For one thing - she encouraged me in exactly the right point that I needed encouraging -- GET THAT BOOK PUBLISHED!!!

But what I thought was amazing was that she didn't consider publishing to be an act of sending my work to a printer who then somehow accepts it and it goes around the world - she meant something even more efficient, and I really have no idea why I was blinded for so long not to do it. Perhaps it was the hope that I may still have the chance of a lazy life where I could actually earn money by sitting down and writing - ha! as if!

So I have finally come to a conclusion that I am going on the web. I have already created my website - I have spent hours online, listening to tutorials and what not. The only reason that people aren't reading my stuff right now is that the stupid program that I'm using sent me an incorrect code to publish my stuff online, so I have to wait patiently for another one.

So stay tuned for my online book website, featuring:

By the new unknown author going under the pseudonym:


But the other way my recent life has been changed by our friend's visit is by the Robin Hood series. She left them for me to watch, and I have found that in my sick invalid state, I can do nothing but sit and stare at my beloved children: the characters of Robin Hood. I LOVE them all. I have discovered recently that movies with 4 main characters really draw me in. Weird... there must be some phycology behind this.
What can I say? Richard Armitage from North and South is in it ^-^

Uploaded

I finally got round to uploading and editing some of my pics:

This is Raoul and Christine from Phantom of the Opera. I know their faces suck - Raoul looks like he has no nose and Christine looks about 10 years old, but it was more a study on clothing.
This is a picture of me i got from a photo - i was just testing out my realistic-drawing skills... it turned out MUCH better than i thought it was, it's just that the mouth is too wide... otherwise - cool!!!This some-what unflattering picture is still quite good by my standards. I have no idea what my hair was doing that day... going a bit crazy...

anyway, then i decided just for fun id re-draw them as manga characters!! so this is how they turned out - a little random, but interesting!:

Quite Uninspired

I feel quite uninspired right now.

I drew some pictures recently of me from photos, and they actually turned out pretty good, and ive uploaded them, except our stupid printer can hardly pick up anything so you can hardly see it... ill try fiddlying on GIMP and see what i can do...

anyway, writing - which used to give me so much joy in the past, and would keep me going through the days with the prospect of writing more of my trilogy - gives me little pleasure now. My characters and unbelievable and i find it hard to get my ideas onto a page without making it all sound corny. so im having many problems right now.

Im feeling a little out of it actually -- i need something exciting to happen -- like when my fam came over yesterday!

I think my problem is that I just miss the joy of writing my Tales of Doria trilogy, and now that im done ppl read it and think its pretty boring, and that makes me feel depressed... :(

Mother's Day

I decided it was high time to make some hand-made gifts again -- so i made one for my mum for mothers' day!



I think it's rather cute - although it's a bit random and the writing is off-centre - but ah well!!

Other Ideas?

So I've been pretty annoyed at my excitement in publishing being ruined, and now I'm in a weird stage where I think that any other option is possible... I was chatting to one of my good friends recently, and in an offhand manner we agreed that it could be a possibility that we could write short stories together, and bind them outselves! we have done such things in the past, but we were now considering making websites for them, and selling them and stuff!

so, anything's possible right now i guess... we're still not sure how serious we could get about this idea of selling our own hand-made books (complete with pictures!!) and we are both a little nervous of how it might turn out if we really do it... well, we may as well try!!

~Muse~

My friend from my old school, Erin, has had a very large impact on my artwork. She's absolultly amazing at drawing, especially dragons and manga. Here's just a few random pieces by her:

Success and Failure

Well, the bad news first I guess.
I have given up on my dream of publishing while I'm still at school.
That has always been something I've wanted to achieve, but I see now for the first time that it is next to impossible.

I have looked up over ten different Australian publishers, and all either say that they are not publishing unpublished authors, or that they refuse to publish anyone under 18. I soon realised that they'd all say things like that, and I have decided to lay aside my writing dreams for now.

However, I have had great success with my drawing.
I drew a picture recently I entitled Flute Girl although she's playing a tin whistle, not a flute, but Tin Whistle Girl doesn't sound as good.

So here was the sketch I did last week:I was watching how other people computer draw on youtube, and I picked up a few techniques, including using basic layers (I didn't realise my program was sophisticated enough to use them). Anyway, I was fiddling with colours and backgrounds. Not exactly what I had wanted, but this is what I got:



Although I was still not quite happy with it, so I tried again:


I still am not quite happy with the bodice's colour schemes next to the skin and hair, and I would've prefered the glow in the background to be bigger, but it's good enough for me :D

~ Miss Cooper

Having Problems...

I have been having issues with publishers. There seems to be very few Australian publishers, and all have some reason to stop me from sending my work there.

Also, could anyone explain the difference between a normal publisher and a self-publishing company? Is a self-publishing one where you have to pay for it yourself? And do you really not have to pay at all for publishing normally??

I'm so confused!!

Glows and Publishers

I have spent a long time today drawing a picture of a girl, and then editing it on the computer using a handy program called GIMP. It depicts a girl holding some sort of glowing thing, and this is the picture before I added any confusing glows or shadows or anything:I saved it like this because I knew that I may mess it up when adding more things. I have never made a picture with so many new lighting techniques like this!

I know very well that there is something very odd about the shape of her head and features, but I shall worry about that some other time.

So after I had played around with the lighting effects on GIMP, this is what I got:



It's totally not what I want it to look like - for one thing, I want the background to be a lot darker, and the girl to be a bit lighter. I also want the glow to be coloured either green or red. But for today, this was enough work on that picture.

I am hoping to send a short novel - or a novella, whatever - soon to a publisher, and am looking up Australian publishers. Does anyone know any good ones besides scholastic - which quite personally I would rather not publish on? I have considered Pan McMillan too, but they seem to publish mainly for an older audience than I am looking for, and are filtering through their stuff more than others.

Anyone know any other Australian publishers??
Yours faithfully,
Miss Cooper

First Entry

My first entry on my new blog!

Well - I have set up this blog particularly for my writing and drawing. I have appalling spelling, and may turn this into a boring blog - but hey! At least I have somewhere to write frequently now.

I write novels in my spare time, and draw whenever I have free time from that. I have hardly written at all this year as I need to get some editing done first which I am trying to put off! Also school is getting busier and I find I have little time to do anything I want to any more, except go on Facebook which I do way too much!

It is my goal to have sent one of my books into a publisher by the end of this year, hopefully quite soon in fact, once I edit it again. I do not take my drawing as seriously as my writing however, although perhaps some day I shall consider teaching art, but right now it is for pure enjoyment :D

So have fun and please check out my blog from time to time!

Your humble blogger -
Miss Cooper