Monday Update

So last week was, apparently, a lazy week.  Oops!  I promise to be much more diligent this week.  In fact! I'm going to give you a rundown of what to expect:

Today: You're reading it

Tuesday and Wednesday: book reviews of HUSH, HUSH, by Becca Fitzpatrick and FIRELIGHT, by Sophie Jordan. (by the way, CRESCENDO, the sequel to HUSH, HUSH comes out tomorrow! click here to watch the trailer--You MUST watch the trailer. Seriously.  Not only is it AWESOME, but I'm posting it for a contest)  I'm waiting.  ;)

Thursday:  Goober Writers Anonymous post by Christi Goddard

Friday: A post on cheap drama in writing

Saturday: Saturday Fun Time! video

So that's it!  Hope everyone had a great weekend!  And watch that trailer.  I'm already on my third little peek at it and I'm not even close to being done.

~Emily White

Monday Update

It's been a while, but I have so many things to update all of you lovely readers on!

ELEMENTAL

Okay, I actually don't have anything new here.  At this point, my query is out with agents with very slow response times--like weeks to months slow.  I'm still sending more out and plan on getting another ten out today.

HANSEL AND GRETEL

Moving along very well.  I will admit I hoped to have been done with the first draft by this point, but this plot is so complex that there's no way I could have punched it out in a few weeks.  Right now, I'm adding those scenes in the beginning it started to become apparent I needed but thought I could wait on.  I couldn't wait.  They're pretty important scenes that basically set the tone for future relationships.

TALES OF MORCAH

Big news!  Big, BIG news!  I signed up for NaNoWriMo and this is the novel I'll be working on!  I'm really kinda terrified about this.  I've never done NaNo before and I'm really hoping I can pull it off.  *crosses fingers*  If you're doing NaNo, too, then tell us all about your novel!

HUGE NEWS OF MAJOR EXCITEMENT AND IMPORTANCE!!!!


I'm going to my first writers conference ever!  Yay!  I signed up for the SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC last week.  Unfortunately, I wasn't wealthy enough to sign up for the intensives scheduled for the day before the conference, but I'm still excited.  How about you guys?  Anyone here going to the Winter Conference?  If you are, we definitely need to meet up!  Maybe grab some chow in China Town or something. :D

And if you don't plan on going, what can I say to convince you?  ;)

Tuesday Update

Yup, another Monday Update on Tuesday.  I couldn't help it this time, though!  There was blogfest awesomeness going on yesterday that could not be missed!

But I promise I will no longer keep you waiting.  In fact, I'm positive you guys find this stuff absolutely fascinating, right?  Right?  Yeah, that's what I thought.*

*note:  if you don't click on the link, my joke is horribly lost and therefore lame.  :(

ELEMENTAL

No more news on this front.  I have not yet heard back from the four remaining agents.  I'm thinking about querying others, but haven't settled on who to go with next.

HANSEL AND GRETEL


The block is gone!  Yay!  And now I'm writing like crazy again!  Sebastian and gang are still entertaining me greatly, though they keep telling me I have to go back and add more scenes.  All in good time, my dear characters, all in good time.  Oh by the way, have I mentioned there's going to be zombies in this book?  And dinosaurs?  How can you combine the two, you ask?  Oh you'll see.

TALES OF MORCAH


Yeah, you know how I said my first book was going to be permanently shelved?  Um...apparently not.  To be honest, I haven't even really seriously thought about this book for years, but the other night I kind of asked myself what it would be like if I turned it into YA.  I'll tell you what it will be like--awesome.

ToM is going to be my fun writing project.  I'm not going to be going about it too heavily while writing H&G (maybe during blocks or extra time that magically appears).  I worked on it for too many years to let it take over my life again.  However, once H&G is done (i.e. perfectly polished)...yup, awesomeness!

So, how about you dear readers?  How are your WIPs, submissions, edits, etc. coming along?  


By the way!  Ishta Mercurio is this week's guest blogger for GWA!  

Monday Update on Tuesday :o

My apologies to everyone for skipping yesterday's post!  To tell you the truth, I skipped it because I didn't really feel like updating all of you on my failures.  But I've had a day to wallow in despair and I've decided that if I'm going to bother to have a Monday Update at all, I have to let you know about the disappointing stuff, too.

ELEMENTAL


After giving Matthew Rush and all of his followers a look at my query and revising it to a sparkly shine, I decided now was the time to take the plunge and send it out.  So far, after sending it out to nine agents, I've received four form rejections.  Out of the remaining five, I'm considering one of them a rejection because according to Literary Rambles, he responds within a day or two, but also according to the Publisher's Marketplace, he claims he can't always get back to everyone.  And I've been waiting for more than two days.  Sigh.

Before sending out my query, I happened to win Shannon Whitney Messenger's awesome first chapter critique giveaway!  Okay, so maybe all of my news isn't disappointing.  This was actually quite exciting!  And after getting some really great advice, I did some tweaking and I think the beginning is a lot smoother.  I will admit I was a tad stupid before this critique and didn't listen to my beta as much as I should have.  Let this be a lesson to you: your betas know what they're talking about!

However, as you might imagine, after receiving nothing but form rejections, I was getting a little upset.  I knew I wasn't about to write a better query.  So, I automatically assumed that of course my sample pages were just crap and this is why I was getting nothing but form.  However, I stumbled upon a great post about the many reasons agents reject that really lifted my spirits.  So, I sent out my query to my dream agent, hoping for the best.

HANSEL AND GRETEL


I've been writing sporadically on this.  I started out really great, but pretty much fizzled at chapter 5.  I can't seem to get past a certain point.  Plus, my husband's work schedule has changed and it's been messing with my alloted writing time.  I'm a creature of habit and my muse refuses to meet me at a time other than our appointed schedule.  So, sadly, I'm stuck around 12,000 words.  It's felt like trying to squeeze a marshmallow through a straw.  The marshmallow gives, but not quite enough to get through.

I'm going to lock myself in my bedroom today and force myself to get through this chapter, if it's the last thing I do!  *shakes fist*

Well, that's it.  My sad little writing career.  How are you guys doing?  A lot better than me, I hope.

~Emily White

Monday Update

I mentioned on Saturday that I officially entered first draft writing mode on Friday!  Whoo hoo!  Like I said before, that essentially means I'm back to writing one chapter a day (aka very little brain activity left for other things).  But don't worry, I still intend on blogging!  Unlike the last time where I took a couple weeks off.

So let me give you a rundown on where I am on everything:

ELEMENTAL:


I'm working on my query letter at this point and have it out with my beta and a very trusted fellow writer some of you may know--Matthew Rush.  If you haven't visited (and started following) his blog, The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment, I suggest you do so today.  He's been showing all of us his query writing journey as well as examples of some absolutely stellar queries from other authors that got those much anticipated and hoped for requests.

I've also purchased Elana Johnson's From the Query to the Call and have rewritten my query based on her amazing advice.

So, as you can see, my query is in good hands at the moment.

HANSEL AND GRETEL:

Officially started!  I toyed around with it when I first completed my first draft on ELEMENTAL, but with edits coming to a close on that work, HANSEL AND GRETEL has now jumped up to the top of my writing list.

After working on it for two days (I always take Sundays off), I'm already well into chapter three.  At this rate, I'm hoping to be done with it in no more than six weeks.

Wish me luck!

Fairy Tale Blogfest/Contest:

One week away!  That's right!  Next Monday is the BIG DAY!  Are you ready?  Don't worry.  I plan on reminding you every. single. day.

In fact, if you haven't even signed up, you can do so here.  There are some awesome prizes you just don't want to miss out on.

My beta--Victoria Caswell (aka aspiring_x):

She is having the coolest blogging week ever!

Today she's talking about music and writing, tomorrow is all about character theme songs, Wednesday is soundtracking your novel, Thursday is all about Not Without Grace (her go-to-writing-music band), AND Friday she will be interviewing Chris Franzen from that very band!!!  Amazing!



So how are you guys doing with your WIPs?  Still plugging forward?  Any requests out there?

~Emily White

Monday Update

Happy Monday, everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Mine was fairly uneventful, but most of my weekends are.  I'm glad you all enjoyed the video on Saturday!  If I were to weigh in on that whole star trek vs. star wars battle, I'd have to say it's a fairly even divide.  If we're talking original star wars vs. original star trek, then star wars wins.  If new star wars vs. new star trek, star trek clearly dominates there.  You have to admit it--Episodes I-III were butchered.

But today is Monday Update!  And this is August!  That means I'll start querying in just a couple weeks!  Ah!  Yes, this news deserves lots and lots of exclamation marks.  Lots.

Do I have a dream-oh-my-goodness-super-agent picked out?  Yup.  That's not to say I don't also have a few equally fabulous agents on my list, but don't we all have that special someone who we really REALLY hope will say yes?

I'm a little nervous, as you might imagine, and I haven't quite decided on how I'm going to proceed.  Do I start with super agent or test the query waters with some of the other fabulous agents?  I've got a little while to decide, but it's starting to feel like I need to decide NOW.  You have no idea how badly I just want to jump the gun and start right now, but I gave myself until September to get everything ready and I'm going to stick to that deadline.  Yeah, I have to tell myself that numerous times during the day.

So, how are you guys doing on the WIP front?  Any soon-to-be-queriers out there like me?

Don't forget to sign up for the Fairy Tale Blogfest/Contest------> Click the link on the sidebar-------->

Monday Update

It's Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I know I didn't post anything for Saturday Fun Time, but I had to bake bread that day and let me tell you, it's a whole day affair.

Bake bread, you say??  Yes, I make practically everything from scratch because well, it's cheaper.  A lot cheaper.  And when your family lives on one income, you have to find ways to save money.

But today's post is about my progress on Aurumenas!

Editing is moving right along.  I've gotten about a quarter of the way through with my beta and I'll be working on the last few scenes of the book today.

There's something so sad about working on the last scene, though.  I'll by no means be done with editing, but working on your MC's last words is a little like saying goodbye.  I've been with these characters for almost two years now and knowing that my time with them is coming to an end is kind of sad.  Oh, I know that if this story does get picked up by an agent and then a publisher, I'll still be spending lots of time with my characters, but unless I get a multi-book deal, this will be as far as their stories go.  I'll know what became of them in an abstract way, but no one else will.

Do any of you get a little sad when working on the last scene of your WIP?  And speaking of your WIPs, how's the progress going?  Share!


~Emily White

Monday Update

Now that I've started a couple new projects, I'm going to update you on ALL OF THEM!  Yay!  Lucky you!

                                    

And yes, I've been playing with my account and I now know how to post multiple pictures!  Mwahahahaha!

But I won't torment you too much.  

Without further ado...

Aurumenas:  Second draft is complete.  After taking a break for a week, I started reading through it to find any plot gaps.  I'm not focusing on typos or spot edits at this point because I want to make sure my book as a whole works first.  I'm halfway through it at this point and will hopefully have it all read by tomorrow.  My betas are being very helpful with this and I promise to bake them all cookies when the book is done.  I've heard I make fabulous cookies.

Hansel and Gretel:  Though I really fell into this and got a lot of words down, I'm slowing up a bit to focus on Aurumenas edits.  I don't want to confuse the voices.  That being said, research is still ongoing and if anyone has any first hand experience with northern Utah, I need to talk to you.

Army Strong (or a fobbit's tale--still haven't decided):  Going beautifully!  Voice confusion is not something I need to worry about considering the MC in this is me and the MC in Aurumenas is definitely not me.  As you can see, though, I'm stuck on the title.  Both of them I like for humorous reasons.  Army Strong because it's the new theme for the military and I joined as a 107 lb pipsqueak, and a fobbit's tale because that's an inside joke in the military to refer to certain deployed personnel.  I need opinions!  

And because I equally love hearing about everyone else's status on their WIPs, please share!  

~Emily White

Monday Update

Thank you to everyone who commented last Friday! I assure you, though, Superwoman I am not. Not unless you think the inability to barely function at the end of the day is a good thing. It got to the point where I felt like my brain had been wrung out like a washcloth.

To be honest, I thought it was going to take me a lot longer to rewrite Aurumenas. The first draft took me a little over a year to write (at the time, I was proud of myself, considering my first book took me about five years), so when I faced the reality that I needed to rewrite the whole thing, I was a tad depressed. On April 5th, I posted about my new task and at the time I never thought I would actually finish in just over two months. A whole book in two and a half months. I'm still shocked, and quite proud.

So I decided to give myself a little vacation. One weekend off. I couldn't even do it. Friday night was painful. I actually had to shut my computer off and hide my thumb drive so I wouldn't work on any of my new ideas. On Saturday, I gave in.

There are actually four new ideas playing around in my brain right now, but I've decided to work on just two of them right now. One of them isn't so new, actually, but I've been waiting to finish with the major stuff on Aurumenas before starting. My Autobiographical Novel (tentatively named Army Strong for now, though I'm also considering a fobbit's tale) is coming along smoothly. Half of chapter one is done (I may have started working on it, but I really needed to cut back a little) and I'm excited with how it's coming out. I think it will turn into a comedy more than anything, with just a touch of romance and drama.

My other WIP, Hansel and Gretel is really exciting me. Now that I've established the fact that I write Young Adult Science Fiction, I've discovered my particular niche in that genre. I love bringing fantasy into the sci-fi world (look above for new subheading). I have so many ideas for what I can do with it and sometimes I wish my muse would shut up for just a moment.

I'm kidding, muse. I love you.

Also, I updated my pages (see above). I came up with a new query for Aurumenas (again) and I would like you guys to let me know what you think. Part of me really likes it, another part has some reservations. I've also got my elevator pitches for my other WIPs, so let me know what you think of them, too! Please? :D

~Emily White

By the way, Happy Father's Day to all you daddies out there!

Monday Update on Aurumenas

Cailen didn't say anything. He just rubbed circles on my back and pressed his cheek against the top of my head. His silence urged me on. "When I left Sho'ful, I thought...well, I didn't know what to think. To be honest, I didn't put much thought into my escape, but I definitely did not think I'd start shooting fire and air out of my hands, and that some crazy little man would say I'm some prophesied Destructor, or that I have to worry about not killing people when sometimes that's all I want to do..." It was the longest speech of my life, and I didn't know how to finish it. I became aware of the muscles in Cailen's arms tightening around me and I was immediately ashamed. I had admitted to being a monster; the worst kind.

Happy Monday, everyone! That little blurb came out of the section in chapter 11 that I just finished working on this morning. That's right--chapter 11. That means I'm right about at the halfway point. A little, but not too much, ahead of schedule. I would like to be a lot ahead of schedule, and to be honest, it looks like I might be soon. As I'm nearing the latter chapters, I'm finding the writing is no longer straight up horse manure. I can actually work with half of what I've got. This means revisions go by much quicker. Yay for me!

On a not so happy note, I'm becoming frustrated. I no longer feel confident in knowing the genre of my book. Let me explain. I've done a LOT of research on genres and sub genres, so for the longest time I was quite confident that Aurumenas was an Epic Fantasy. Though it's set in a sci-fi military world with interstellar battleships, laser weapons, etc., the gist of the book is the war between Good and Evil (Epic Fantasy), with some really kick butt fairies. But then I started thinking about how I explain the rules in my book and there's the rub. Everything is explained scientifically. The fairies (known as the Auri) have special abilities, but it's not magic. They produce a special chemical that allows them to manipulate the elements.

So now I'm wondering if I should claim my book is science fiction, and not fantasy. And there's more to frustrate me, dear readers, much more. My MC is seventeen. I had thought that despite the young age of my MC, some of the content (such as faces being ripped off during the battle scenes, and other instances) was too adult. But I've been reading more and more YA lately, and that stuff doesn't seem to be beyond the realm of young adult fiction. So now I'm wondering if my book CAN be classified as YA and if it SHOULD be. And also, is it automatically YA just because my MC is seventeen? I'm writing this in first person now and that seems to be the viewpoint of most YA literature. Not that adult literature doesn't feature that viewpoint, but if I stay in the head of a 17 year old girl throughout the entire book, it seems like I've now written YA.

And honestly, part of me would love to get on the YA bandwagon. But my mind is too muddled to find clear answers to these frustrations. I need help.

Please! Please, dear readers! Tell me your thoughts! I beg you!

~Emily White

Monday Update on Aurumenas

If I could have any say in the cover of my book, this is what it would look like (kind of). I'm no photoshop wizard, so I didn't know how to put the changes that need to be done, but this is pretty close. The little gems on the inner crystals would be gone and the center gem would be multi-colored, but clear (the whole prism effect thing).

What do you think? Isn't it pretty? "But wait," you say! "I don't get it!" Well, let me tell you my wonderful stalkers, er readers. That orange and red flower with the clear, multi-colored gem is the symbol of the Destructor in my book (and it's closely tied to my MC). So, I will be putting that picture at the top of every Monday post from now on.

Also, you know how on Friday I told you all about the quote of the week that I post to the right? Well, I'm going to post a small quote from the section I had just completed, and I'll also post it here during the update.

Without further ado...

The girl staring back at me was glowing with the halo of flames dancing around her. She looked happy; she looked complete. But there was something that she wanted, and I knew what that was. She wanted to release the burning ache in her back; she wanted to give in and let it all out. I would give her what she wanted.

And now I bet you're wondering just how much progress I made last week. Well, let me tell you. I cut about 17,000 words and added about 5,000 (give or take a few hundred). I had yet to get rid of all the scenes that were in different POVs, so this weekend, I decided to just buckle down and do it. It was a little depressing at first to see my word count go down so much, but it was refreshing to get those unneeded words out of the way.

My first eight chapters are out with some of my betas. One of my betas is being stubborn and demanding a hard copy, so I have yet to get to a print shop to take care of that. If his opinion wasn't so valued, I would have told him to forget it and refused to make him dinner. Hehehe. It's my husband, and I really can't refuse him anything. I will admit that finding people I know who enjoy sci-fi/fantasy is rather difficult. If you know anyone who's appealed by the idea of intergalactic fairies who ride around in battleships and control the elements of fire, water, and air, tell them to send me an email.

And finally, I've discovered that two chapters a week is what I can handle. I don't allow myself less, and it seems time won't allow me more. That being said, with only about twenty chapters left to do, I'll be done in a little over two months (right on schedule). So if my betas don't come back to me with major issues, queries can start going out this summer! Phew! Finally! (To the betas that are reading this, don't let that make you go soft on me).

Check in tomorrow for a book review I've been putting off for a very long time. You'll want to check it out so that you can voice your own opinion on this controversial novel!

~Emily White

Contest, Update, and More!

First and foremost...check out the blogging idol contest going on at The Alliterative Allomorph! You may click the link here, or the one just to the right for your blogging convenience. Critiques galore are being given away, so I suggest you get over there and participate! :)

And because yesterday was Deleted Scene Blogfest Day, I didn't have a chance to update you on Aurumenas. Allow me to do so now...

My children were wonderful to me last week! I was able to actually work while they napped! It was amazing. Normally, they decide that they like to nap at different times of the day, but last week, they were extremely cooperative. As a result, I am well on my way to finishing chapter 8 within the next few days. Luckily, these next few chapters are in Nathadria's pov anyway, so I don't have to do a total rewrite. Just some major tweaking.

On another note, I'm gathering together my betas to read the book in 100 page increments. I find this helps to motivate me to get the next 100 pages done while also allowing me to know what needs to be fixed before I move too far ahead. If it's something major, I don't want to continue down the wrong path for the entire book. I'd rather know up front.

I'm both excited and terrified by this. For reasons I may or may not get into in my About Me posts, it is very difficult for me to put myself out there for people. Blogging is actually a sort of therapy to help me get past this so that I can actually query some day. Yes, I am slightly crazy. *shakes head* :)

And tomorrow I will be giving away awards! Yay! So check in!

~Emily White

Monday Update on Aurumenas

It's that time of the week again--another Monday. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

First, I want to mention that the winner of the template experiment was...Sunshine Theme! Thanks to everyone who voted!

Now on to the update...

One particular fact became glaringly clear to me this weekend: weathermen don't know what they're talking about.

I really depend on Saturday and Sunday to get the bulk of my writing done. The weekdays are just too jam packed with kids and housework to be able to devote more than an hour or two for writing. And considering it typically takes me close to an hour to get into the right frame of mind, I often don't accomplish more than a tweak here and there. So when I heard that this part of New York was going to experience nothing but massive thunderstorms for the whole of the weekend, I was excited. What better writing weather could be had?

Well, the weathermen were wrong. The beautiful, sunny outdoors called to me all weekend long as I worked diligently on my book. I almost couldn't stick with it. But I did, and I'm finishing up chapter six today.

Say what? You couldn't revise two chapters in two days?

I know, I know, it doesn't sound like I got much accomplished, but to tell you the truth, this is more of a rewrite than it is a revision. Changing the pov from omniscient to first person requires a massive overhaul of the vast majority of what I've written.

And I've killed my prologue. Yes, I had one, but now it's gone. For omniscient, it worked, but I really want the reader to discover everything along with my MC, so I took it out. I don't feel one bit of remorse about it, either! Mwahahaha! Die! *little white girl wielding machete*

Okay, I'm better now. I have a slightly violent streak. *blush*

My final bit of news is I've also been working on my query. After practically a thousand different versions, I think I've finally found one I like. I've still got time to learn to hate it, though, so we'll see what it looks like when I'm done with the revisions.

Have a great Monday!

~Emily White

Monday Update on Aurumenas

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm still trying on new templates. This theme we'll call the Book theme. I've got three more that I want to try out and then I'll put up the poll.

Revisions are going slowly but steadily. I haven't quite finished chapter five yet. When I first started writing it, I knew that this section was pivotal to one character's development, but I had no idea that it was pivotal to two of them. I was really stupid for avoiding this scene. I'll be honest, writing this is kind of making me depressed. One of the characters is going through his tragic past and it's really affecting me. I'll admit that I'm trying to avoid it. But I must write, or else I'm going to be stuck on this chapter forever. Sigh. Let's just say that something happened to him that I swore I would avoid in my writing because I knew the pain too personally. It's bringing up some bad memories, which I'm actually going to get to on Wednesday in my one day early About Me post.

Why is it going to be one day early? Because this Thursday is the Book Club! I know that all of you are eager to get to discussing and so am I.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

~Emily White

Monday Update on Aurumenas

Things are still going very smoothly. I'm working on chapter five this week. Actually, this is the new, never before written chapter five that will push the previous one to chapter six. It's a scene that I always had in my head, but never wrote down. It was silly, really, because this particular scene is pivotal to a certain character's development. I don't know why I never wrote it--perhaps it was just laziness.

At this point, I seem to be getting one chapter done a week. I really want to get up to at least two, perhaps three a week at some point, but for now, my kids are being demanding.

Nathadria is pleased with me for letting her tell her own story, so she's been cooperating nicely. The other characters, Meir and Malik, are having a great deal of fun at her expense, so they've been easy to work with as well.

Nathadria's love interest is about to make his first appearance, and I'm really excited about revising that part. I've got some wonderful ideas brewing in my head that are itching to be put down on paper. I just have to keep reminding myself to be patient.

There's nothing much more than that. I'm still plugging away, and loving every minute of it.

By the way, just ten more days until the Book Club for The Secret Year. I received my copy last week and finished it in four hours (this is an estimation as I didn't finish it in consecutive hours--I wish my family was that cooperative!). There's only 192 pages to the whole thing--too easy to finish.

If you haven't gotten your copy yet, get to it!

~Emily White

Monday Update on Aurumenas

Final edits are going extremely well; I am very pleased. I don't feel like I'm trudging along anymore, struggling to get to the end. Switching to First Person was definitely a wise choice.

So let me tell you how I got there...

Since starting this project, I've struggled with choosing just the right POV to write through. I started out in Omniscient, switched to Third Limited, and then went back to Omniscient, but none of it was ever quite right. During my last edits in Omniscient, I felt that I was close. I had found a good voice that flowed well, but on rereading Aurumenas, I realized that my MC just wasn't coming out the way I wanted her to. By distancing myself from her in that POV and putting her on the same level as my other characters, I found that by the end of the book, the reader didn't have any real reason to sympathize with her situation, at least not any more than any other character. And I also realized that I was giving the villains too much page time. I don't mean in that I showed the villains too much, but in that in order to prove they were evil, I just went through the scene focusing more on their pov than others. I felt like I was cheating. I wasn't showing them through Nathadria's eyes. And to be frank, she had no real reason to fear them because of this.

Things are completely different now. The other characters are coming to life more than ever now that I'm forcing Nathadria to really notice them. And I'm in love. Seriously. Now, when I reread a previous section to get myself into the right frame of mind, I don't go "ugh." I actually like what I'm reading. And it's nice because now I see an end to my edits. I feel like I've been washing a car. The first draft was the initial cleaning, the edits were me putting on the coat of wax, and now I'm buffing it to a sparkly shine. Those finished areas don't need to be reworked; I'm truly moving forward.

And the best part of all of this is that now I can really show how crazy Nathadria is. She's nuts, trust me. Solitary confinement can do some nasty things to a person. Mwahahahaha!

~Emily White