Stressful Times Friends

I apologize right now for the lateness of the post this week, but I am so so very stressed from the events that have occured this week. Without saying much I can tell you that members in my family have been very close to being seriously injured on more then one occasion in the past seven days. It's taken a lot out of all of us and I humbly ask you to be patient while I take a bit of a breather. I should be out with a blog tuesday or wednesday. Thank you for understanding.

Giving Nano Another Try!

Banter banter banter "how are you?" banter banter "Oh no she di-int!" banter joke laugh banter...

OKAY LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!

I've decided to give NaNoWriMo another try in June by participating in Camp NaNoWriMo! I've got a great plot lined up (it's all shiny and sparkly) and have started outlining. (Also, I hate publishing. Just thought I should add that in there somewhere since I haven't talked about it in a while.) But I'm kinda caught. Thanks to Picnik shutting down in April (meaning all their premium features are FREE) I have made six awesome covers for the draft. I want you guys to decide which cover I should use.

Cover 1

Cover 2

Cover 3

Cover 4

Cover 5

Cover 6

Yes, I went away from the traditional Becca Lathorn and changed it to B.J. Lathorn for this one book. Sue me. So, which one do you like?

Oh yeah, forgot to mention...GOT A FREAKING DOG YO! You monkeys are jealous, I know.

The Time Traveler's Wife and My Secret Life

Like for free premium features since Picnik is closing down!? Wait, wrong social media....

What up Monkeys?

I just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffengger and was dying to give it a review. For those of you who haven't read it, it's about the lives of Henry DeTamble, a man with a genetic disease that causes him to time travel randomly and his wife Clare DeTamble, who has known she was going to marry him all her life even though he has only known her since he was twenty-eight. It goes through in a scattered chronological order, seeming to stick closer to Clare's timeline since Henry's is chaotic, but the story is told from both points of views.

I want to break this down from both a reader's and a writer's point of view. First off, because I think that everyone needs to know how difficult it is to write in the format that she chose. And she does it so fully, so beautifully, that I am convinced that Niffengger cannot be is not human, for no mere mortal can achieve that level of greatness. Her format is jammed packed with flashbacks and concentrated with switching personas. Let me tell you, from the point of view of someone that has attempted to do that same, it's freaking hard. (Just so you know what planet I'm coming from, in Scrapper the Connection Reborn my format was to switch between present and past every chapter or so with the main character Scrapper. In the second book of the series Snatcher the Bridge Restored, the same general format is placed, only in the present I'm shifting back and forth between Scrapper and Zane's point of views and in the flashback chapter's I'm retelling the story told in the first book from Snatcher's point of view.) I went in, innocent to the ways of flashback chapters, and I think I lost a piece of me along the way....Honestly, for my birthday the year I started Scrapper I ask my Mom for a shirt that said FORGET YOU FLASHBACKS! It's difficult to flip the character focus in your mind, and after a while you notice that the characters sound exactly the same. That, and there are so much inconsistency that sneaks in there while no matter how hard you try to keep it all straight. It's like you're writing two different books at the same time. throw in some extra points of view and you just aren't really sure what you're doing anymore. Somehow, Niffengger made sense of it all, and for that I have never ending admiration.

And now from the reader's perspective, I was utterly blown away. To be honest, when I picked this up at the bookfair I thought that it'd be another chick-lit thing that I'd end up hating. But the book was glued to my hands before I even reached page six. Henry is such a deep conflicting character, one that I don't think I'd ever forget. And Clare, so patient and so accepting, yet still so human at the same time. The way Niffengger constructs and arranges every part of the story sent pangs to my heart. Particularly at the ending, it was everything to keep me from balling my eyes out in the middle of study hall. It took all day for me to get over it.

Ah, feels good to get that off my chest.


So, ever since I got back from the conference I've been playing with the idea of revealing my secret life through another blog to all you monkeys. "Secret life you say, Becca?" Yes Timmy, a secret life that I've kept hidden from the world until now. Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a reason that I write paranormal young adult despite my growing distaste for the genre. Its because, in another world, I live it. It's more of an alternate life then a secret one, considering I jump between two different realities, one not so different from the other. In both I am still sixteen, still battling zits and jerks, still seeking out true love. The only major difference is that in one, humans are the only dominant species on earth. In the other, well, they are not. But here I am getting ahead of myself.

So, want to know more?

My First Writing Conference!!!

Oh My Goodness Monkeys! So much has happened since I last saw you all! (How are you doing, by the way? How was your day? ...MmHmm...Yeah....Wait wait wait, back up, when did Timmy jump off the computer?...Uh huh...Hmmmmm....Well if I were you I'd just give the cheese to the pig...That can't really be helped now, can it?....Okay so maybe she went a little-...You know what? This is why I should do the talking, and you should just shut up and listen.)

So first thing's first. Right now I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffengger. I saw it at the book fair and figured I might as well pick it up. So far it's been hard to pry my hands off it. And I just realized that I never told you how much I LOVED The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It changed the way I read books. For real Monkeys, what are you doing sitting around reading a blog when you could be reading Night Circus? Go! Go I say!

~Ahem


So anyway, this weekend I attended my very first writer's conference! (AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!) It was amazing for more then just one reason, I can't even tell you how much fun I had.

First off, I was blown away by just how adult it was. People boldly said anything they wanted unapologetic-ally. And there wasn't any of the mind games that high school-ers love to play so much. No implied contemptuousness, no trying to one-up each other, no let's-listen-to-what-I-have-to-say. It was in all honesty, not hard to just talk to people without them having to spew their disgusting life stories on you! And let's not forget that I was in a room full of people who had something in common with me for once. There just aren't words for how awesome it was. (I may have accidentally lied to some people and told them I had graduate high school....I didn't mean to, honest!)

And like I said just two sentences ago, I was in a room full of people with whom I shared a passion with. It knocked me out, I gotta tell ya. I was so used to writing being unique to me, it being a defining part of my personality. But here I was, and nothing was out-of-the-ordinary about it! I had something to talk about with these people! Granted, I didn't do much of a good job with socializing this time around BUT THE NEXT TIME I WILL BE ALL OVER IT LIKE SHELDON ON COMIC BOOKS!

Finally it was a good for spending time with my parents and finding out just how invested they are in my writing too. Turns out they're proud of me. Huh, who would have thought. And aside from learning self defense in my hotel room with my mom this week's episode of the office, (Strike, scream, run) I learned a lot about the practice of publishing and finding friends in the city. (This weekend I'm going to a reading at the book cellar downtown, hurray!) Fantasitic weekend? I'd say so.


One last thing. I was watching Shark Tank with my parents the other day and thought to myself, what if the Investors were Agents and the companies authors trying to get their book picked up? 
I'd watch that show, would you?