Subdued Intrinsic

I have started the first draft of Golden's chapter five, and some of the more detailed reader critiques for Silver have begun trickling in so I'll soon be faced with the question of whether or not I've done as right by the book as I possibly can. Have I? Am I being too picky? Or am I perhaps being just a bit chicken about it all, afraid of the guaranteed rejection that comes with submission like peanut butter and jelly? I want the book to be the best it can be of course, but how much is my fear affecting my judgement?

I'm giving myself one more pass of the manuscript in a couple of weeks. No more quibbling. After that it's sink or swim.

Anyone got some scuba gear I can borrow?

Well, I can't deny that truth.

Stay tuned. In a few weeks my lovely compatriot Michelle and I will have something useful to enveil.

--Amethyst

P.S. Progress on Golden coming along, as it will.

Personal Note: Uh . . . every time I fall in love with a product the makers of said product discontinue it. It's like I have a gremlin hiding in my bed that calls up manufacturers and tells them what variety of things I'm lovin'.

So, in the world of insane schedules I'm a bit of a lone adult again and apparently I am big on the puns and/or other wordplay with chapter titles this go around. So far in Golden we have:

• Chapter One: Bad Dream Believer
• Chapter Two: Floorplay
• Chapter Three: Fake-n-Shake

I'm getting a little goofy, folks. And I think I'm going to keep tripping over myself until I write something more of a traditional outline, because while knowing what's going to happen, and even why it happens, is cool and all, knowing how it happens? Turns out it's at least a little important. And I need some sort of Amethystian brain chart to keep that all in place, because right now the cranium keeps splitting itself up all over the place for fear of losing some fun fact here or there.

FUN FACTS ARE NO FUN IF THEY EXPLODE YOUR BRAIN.

*mutters* Frackin' organization . . .

Personal Note: When I was about four years old my mother put out a dish of milk for our cat, Cherry Kitty (ironically a straight black and white mix), during a very hot summer. Afraid the milk would spoil and make Cherry sick, I put the dish in the fridge . . . but then Cherry couldn't get to it, so what to do?

Four hours later I remember I'd left the cat in the fridge as well. Because I'd put her in to be close to the milk. That I didn't want spoiling.

The cat turned out fine and in a grand example of Nature stumping me once again, after that I was just about the ONLY person she wouldn't bite or scratch.

So kids, just proof we all do stupid, crazy crap and it can always turn out okay. Don't let it get you down.

Hi, my name is Amethyst and I am writing my first novel series, collectively (tentatively?)known as The Guardian Trilogy. If you've been following along you know I am on the final 'hand it off to smarter people than me' polish of Silver, the first novel, and have just begun the first draft of book two (so far I think I'm following all the advice).

But! While I'm not a linear thinker (at all) I am a linear plotter, which just means I can't plan these things out of order. I can't do as some people do and write the last bits first or write the last book second or whatever. I write the first book. I edit the first book. I write the second book, etc. And I plot that way. When I wrote the first book I wasn't entirely sure what would happen in the second book and even less in the third. I mean, I had some ideas, I wasn't going blind, but nothing so organized as a proper outline or anything. Even my concept of 'outline' is a fuzzy, blotchy, sometimes-bulleted page of factoids, and that works for me, but it isn't particularly mainstream.

So! How excited was I this past week when first I woke up just knowing (in a very un-Nick Cage kind of way) who was doing what and whyfore in book two (commonly known as Golden), and then yesterday characters in book three (Bronze) kept whispering conclusions in my ear, tying up loose ends and basically blowing my mind (let me tell you, one of them is a real hag, too!) as Nathanael and I drove to see Transformers: Rise of the Fallen? I actually had to sit down and write a Fact Sheet/Things We Know about Bronze today to make sure I didn't lose any of it.

It's really wild just how much . . . firmer everything feels now. It's like the little plot bunnies I knew about hooked up and birthed enough other plot-bunnies to fill in all the gaps and now I know what all's going to happen, it is on like DONKEY KONG, BABY!!