Bernadette Benda

First of all, I would like to thank the lovely Mackenzie at Smudged Thoughts for tagging me. And second, we must get to the basics.

 

• RULES
• Link back to the blogger who tagged you! . . . MACKENZIE. She flings cookies at your face, so you should definitely check her blog out.
• Include the graphic in your post . . . There it is
• Answer the questions . . . I’ll get to that
• Tag three other people . . . *puts thinking cap on*

Alright, grab your brooms, vacuums, and paper towels and let’s start to clean up.

Dust Bunnies and Plot Bunnies: Reorganize Your Writing Goals (or make new ones)

AHHHHHH. Ok, this is like when you clean up under your bed and start to panic of what to do with old shoes and manuscripts.

First off, I have a lot of plot bunnies, first drafts, and half written outlines that are just lying around that I’m not sure what I want to do with.

BUT, there are two things I AM working on.

1: Silver (thriller) it’s still in the editing stages

2: Lily’s Real Name is Leviathan (urban fantasy) (right now it’s a first draft and I haven’t read it since I finished in April)

Which Stage Are You At? Expound!

1: Silver is being edited. I just finished a line edit (ew). By June I hope to send it to my editor (*screams and flails and runs around the block*)

2: Lily’s Real Name is Leviathan is a first draft. I’m still letting it sit for a while before I read it. I’m not really sure how long I can wait because I’m REALLY excited to read it, partially because I have forgotten half the stuff that happened, because I didn’t outline it like AT ALL. Totally written by the seat of my pants.

Treasure From The Back of The Closet (share one to three snippets you love)

So I want to take this from the actual back of the closet, like OLD writing.

REALLY OLD WRITING. Like I have to get it from my external hard drive because I don’t keep this stuff on my computer anymore.

So this is from ten years ago, and I had forgotten about it. It’s a short story titled Rainy Hobbit Day. It didn’t really have a plot, but this bit made me laugh.

“Oh, the mail hobbit is late!” I grunted. I walked back to see how the fire was growing. Smoke was issuing from the kettle. Soon it began to sing in a whining high pitch tone. Hurrying back over to the kitchen, I opened a cupboard. I took out a blue cup and saucer and ran back to the parlor. As I laid them down upon the table they clattered from my slight clumsiness.  I reached to take the kettle off and heard a stomping up the path. Jumping up, I walked to the door. I opened it and the rain grew louder. The mail hobbit (whose hat was bailing out with water) was going through a pile of letters upon the mat. We greeted one another, and he handed me a few letters. He then walked away, whistling through the rain.

Then this is the opening for a fantasy novel Under the Shade of Dawn, about some people who lived in a mountain under a tyrannical rules and some people who were stars or something.

They were taught to never know a land above. But few of those that were born under the Mountain believed it. Buried in books in rooms lit by amber lamps, were stories about open lands and a great light called the Sun and green fields that stretched on endlessly.

Apparently I started writing a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves retelling at some point, though I had nearly forgotten about it (as I have forgotten about everything apparently). This is when the dwarves find Snow White passed out on their doorstep:

Then out of all the dwarves, Thor was the one to speak up:

“Well, she is alive, and it is against any hospitality of the dwarves to leave their guest lying at their threshold.”

Can we all just step back a moment and appreciate that there is a dwarf named Thor??

Bonus:  Do Some Actual Spring Cleaning of Your Writer Self! (and share a picture!)

I actually already did my spring cleaning, so I don’t have an action shot to share. But I can tell you what I did.

I took all the wintery stuff down, all the pine cones, fur, anything that reminded me of coldness. I got out ALL the elephant stuff I have (I have an elephant obsession) and all the green plants and fake succulents (because I kill real ones), replaced pictures (I went with a Fellowship of the Ring/Unexpected Journey theme) and dusted. Because you gotta dust.

And that’s it!!

I tag *drumroll*

Christine

A.R Geiger 

And YOU!