still nothing done

I went shopping today. My way of getting out of writing. A sinful way to spend money and a way to get out of writing. When kyla woke up I took us to burger king to get their 2 for 3 dollar croissants. (They didn't taste as good as i remember them to taste) and then we went to the dollar store, and then the d.i. I bought some necessities at the dollar store, and i actually found 2 dresses at the di. I also found a cute little dress for kyla. 18 dollars spent in all. Not bad. Now i just wonder what i'm going to wear with the outfits shoe wise. I have black shoes for one and gold shoes for the other. Both dresses have really low necks, so im going to have to wear a tank top underneath but oh well.

i don't know why i've all of a sudden not doing very well on the writing front. i should be making leaps and bounds in everything but the thought of going over my book again (Picture of the Desert) just seems really dull. I was never good at editing things more than once. (Which w0uld explain my b average) and i know the novel needs desperate work. I also know that no self respecting editor would print my work in the shape that it is! I guess it's just a daunting feeling that there's so much to do and it took me about 2 months to go over it the first time. (Okay three months).

i'm baaaack

Well i don't have much to report. Except i've been a major slacker lately. Mostly because i needed to change the posistion of the computer. Now instead of facing two walls, i'm facing wall, and then side view of the house. So i have a little bit more of a view. And natural light. Always a good thing. I don't know what jon will think of me changing the position of his computer, but until he gets me a new little mini computer i don't think he'll mind too much. Just as long as i don't cahnge his desktop image. Which is really funny. Men have the most interesting pet peeves.

Oh My Brain Hurts!

The stress of multiple student loans, and the ability to pay them can give anyone gray hairs. Something tells me i need to dye my hair again. Those pesky grays might start showing agian.

on for the good news! I finished my outline for my other novel: October Ghosts. Now i just have to go back into my first novel: A Picture of the Desert. I redid the first chapter again, and now on to the rest of the book. I'm going to go up to my mom's this week, so it should be lots of fun! Some more good news is that I found my Picture of the Desert files that have all the photos and research in them! Always good to have.

My artwork done back in 2006, Watercolor.

Ahh a Writer's Wednesday Thinking of Research

After Jon's birthday party the house is a little bit of a mess, but luckily the dishwasher was invented slightly before my time so all i have to do is throw the dishes in the dishwasher! And then sit next to the dinning room table and complete my novel outline.
So far i have realized that i will have to do a lot of research. April(the sister of my main character) is in an abusive marriage, and I know I know I want to portray this particular tension in the most realistic light. I bet the librarians are going to be looking at me very strangely when i check out these particular books. hehe.
However! I am looking foreword to researching the fashions of the forties! My other main character (Angela) is alive just after WW2. As a free-thinking independent woman, i want to try to delve into the thought process of this remarkable character from the 1940s. I'm going to research fashion, popular novels, movies, and economy. Lots of research, but it should be really fun.

'horse family' in oil createdy by myself-

Before I Start Cleaning...

Well today has been a pretty good day so far! First off! Happy Birthday to my man! Happy Birthday Jon! And to Amanda B if you ever get to my blog, hi! It's been great being able to talk to you!
I have known Amanda since we were both about thirteen, so it's great to talk to her again. :) The outline is coming along slowly but purposefully. Lilian (The main character) is becoming deeper as I go along, so is her sister April. However, i need to find a name for a villain. (April's husband who is abusing her). My first name was Lester. Which wouldn't work because he's white, from a small town in Arizona, and just wouldn't work.
Well i have to go, my little girl is waving at me, as is her diaper that is wagging past her little knees. hehe.
If you have some names for villains, let me know!

Oh Lovely Muses!

I am happy to inform you that i have figured out what the middle of my novel with have. Action! There's romance that will make everyone coo- and action that will entice even the dull non-believers. :) Ah. What a relief. It's like having writing constipation. hehe. Now i have the whole idea to put down to writing. I don't want to give it all away, but lets just say there's a chase scene through dusty cotton Fields, guns, crashes, and cops! And i have also decided to add into my novel that deep hippie streak that i have. Deep down I have always wanted to buy a rickety old trailer, haul it out to the middle of nowhere and park it. I could commute to work every day, but i'd live out in the wilderness (electricity or no) and have a stove to keep warm, and maybe a generate to run when i want to cook something. That is what my main character is, a pottery-expert and art teacher, who now lives on her family's old ranch. Her friends come to hang out with her when the world gets too much to handle. She's self reliant to the extreme, and is LOVING it. Ahh. What a great main character. I've included this artwork i did back in...2005, i think, because i always thought the hippie era of the sixties was intricately amazing and strange at the same time.

As I Sit With My Hair Drying

In a short while i am going to go clean up my car, and put all the broken glass in the dumpster. However, right now i intend to write a short blog. I wrote a small amount of my novel outline for yesterday, but now i have come to the dreaded middle. What to do? Well I don't know. Perhaps add in more of the second plot line. It seems to be the best idea. So here goes the interesting interweaving of 1947 and 2010. Both main characters are incredibly strong women, but while Lillian(2010) is fully capable of doing everything she wants, and customs allow it, Angela (1947) is bound by the culture of formalities and a male dominated society. Ahh. Even now I'm excited to write it. But as i was writing last night, i realized that this novel is going to be incredibly different from my previous novel. I will need to write better internal duologue and even more captivating imagery. This novel has to have mystery, romance, hatred, and even murder. Whew what a big task. But I'm uploading another sketch i did way back in 2006. It has nothing to do with the blog, but i thought that it was interesting.

What a Decaying Day

<Artwork done by ME.


So i did manage to write about one third of the outline yesturday. But i said that doay i would buy dishwasher detergent and get some more quarters to do some laundry and send my friend her baby presents. (She just had her baby on last friday). And what did I wake up to? A busted in back windshield on my truck. (Agggggg.) Well needless to say my plans were all bashed in. Glass is everywhere, but luckily they didn't steal anything. There wasn't anything to steal anyway. Until i can take it to the car wash i can't drive kyla around, and i can't drive kyla in it to the car wash because of all the glass. It's a guanine mess. I called the cops and apparently a lot of apartments are being driven through and the cars are all being busted out. I called a junk yard and they sell back windshields. They don't know if they have any because they don't keep track, and they weren't going to bother to look for me. So i have to wait until i clean it out, get an extra thirty one dollars, and plus two dollars on top of that to get my car back to running. And once i go through all that, what is stopping whoever did this from doing it again? Nothing. Well i have a filthy house to clean, and dishes piling higher and higher. A sticky kitchen floor, and only half of a novel lay out. Oh, and a bout a billion dollars worth of student loans to pay off. (Not quite, but it feels like it.) What a rotten day, it feels more like a monday instead of a thursday.

Maybe today i'll be able to do the outline.

<Photo Courtesy of Justin Rhodes


Alright, so to have an easier time of writing a novel, most writers, (including myself) create an outline. Usually mine goes along the lines of something like this:





Chapter one: Main Character (Lilly) is fighting with brother in law and sister in law. Eventually she takes her sister's kids out for a trip to the Pima Library and an ice cream cone. She lets her sister and her sister's husband fight while she takes the kids for an outing into town.


/


Lily meets up with best friend, (I don't have name for her yet- but i'm basing her off of Queen Latifa) and soon the reader is getting to know the predicament the main character is in. (She's constantly fighting with her brother in law who is one of the villians of the novel- and everyone is pressuring her to get a man.) Meanwhile she's trying to take care of her younger sister's (her name is April)'s kids. So! That is what i'm trying to do. Write the outline to the novel so that I can actually begin writing. The other half of the novel is happening right after WW2. So i have to do some research. I'm going to be posting links to my research on this blog as well. As for now, i'm going to post a poem i wrote waaaaaaaaay back in 2006. I'll ad more links to this area so that people can look at my fan fiction and original work soon.

Writing: Oh what a lover.

Rain falling against my window,
A angel cries because of it’s beauty,
While I sit here in my own type of monopoly.
I try the quil of my keyboard,
Think it’s strange to feel the flow again,
Of a talent I have let sit on the floor.
Writing comes like a stranger’s kiss,
Exciting but strange,
Soft but different,
Every time it’s different.
I sit here in my room,
Deep in the women’s dorm,
And ponder…nothing.
Listen to the music of the night,
Try out the feeling of being alive,
And resist the urge to stop.
Because writing is an almost forbidden pleasure,
All the things I need to do,
Let myself go again,
And feel the stranger’s kiss.
Writing,
In all it’s glory,
Seducing me to the keyboard yet another time,
Like a lover who calls outside my window in the rain.
It embraces me,
Kisses my neck,
My face,
And swears to never leave.

Big Announcement

I have come up with the name of my next book. Drum roll please!
ddddddddddddddrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-ting!
October Ghosts
There. And i will add more info about the story later. I'm not quite sure how this blogging thing is supposed to work. Somehow I'm afraid of someone else taking my novel ideas. GASP! Alright that is probably flattering myself since there is a high possibility that NOBODY even knows this blog exists.

First Blog

This is my first blog on this site. Welcome! My name is Brooke Curley and I am writing several novels. The first I'm sending to the publishers is the coming of age young adult novel named Picture of the Desert. I hope you will enjoy my blog.