Page 99 Blogfest

Today is the day and here's my 99th page of my book No System at All:


 Adrenaline pumped through his legs and arms. He needed to take action, soon.
          
“Who sent the text?” Colin asked.
          
“Russell Harris, my ex. I didn’t even want to do it in the first place. He totally pressured me into it. Thank god it didn’t last through the commercial break.”
          
A plan formulated quickly. Leah had been wronged on the most personal level and Russell Harris was not going to get away with it.  He didn’t know her very well, either, so he wasn't breaking any rules.
          
“Lizzy, can I borrow your cell phone?” She handed it over to him without thinking. Colin typed away but didn’t hit send. He headed over into the jock territory of the lunchroom where Daniel Walker sat with his lacrosse team. At Millbrook High school the Lacrosse team was the football team with weapons. Another field Daniel dominated.
          
As he approached the table, he realized it was like those documentaries, where there were thirty lions at a water hole. He was the elderly gazelle with a limp leg. He swallowed the extra saliva in his mouth and said, “hey Daniel.”
           
He put down his gray hamburger and nodded at Colin, “what’s up?”
           
“Is your team having a Pre Season party, and if so, would they like my band to play it for free?”
           
It wasn’t Daniel who spoke up, but Jared and three other guys Colin didn’t know. “Hell yeah!” 
           
Daniel smirked, “what do you need?”
           
“Back up, in about two minutes.”
           
“Done.”




So did that make you want to turn the page?  Do you want know what Colin's planning?  


Go and check out the other people doing the blogfest-- go forth and meet some new people!


Thank Alicia for setting this all up!

Road Trip Wednesday- favorite lines from your WIP.

What's your favorite line of your WIP (or of a recently read book, if you're not writing anything)?


Penny and Hank is a retelling of the Persephone Demeter Myth.  Hank and Penny get exposed to a deadly virus and they are locked up in quarantine.   In this little bit, Hank has just woken up, he's wearing one of the doctor's office paper robes.   He's just figured out where he is and that the people who are holding him captive and no idea who he is.

Penny and Hank

          I looked down at my arm where they had drawn blood. “Listen you’re going to march up or down which ever direction it is to the fifth floor, run my blood sample through the DNA database. Shit your pants when you see my name, go to your boss and figure out the best way to tell him you’ve got the CEO’s grandson locked in a concrete cell. Then your boss is going to come down here and answer any questions I have, got it?” I lifted my legs up and rested them on the glass.
           Victory.
           He blinked at me. “Boy, you’re not wearing any underwear so I would appreciate it if you put your legs down.”
           Crap.
           He stood up and walked out. Flicking the light off and leaving me will a full view of my junk.
           Christ, why could nothing be as cool as it was in the movies?


No System At All

Colin and his brother bully the bullies out of the school.  When Colin doesn't achive his life long dream of going to Julliard he opt to become a rock star instead. 




Here are some tiny bits of dialogue from my WIP that's the closest to being done.

In these two bits Colin the MC is walking around with his best friend Dave, a comic book geek.

           As they walked through the cafeteria, a lump caught Dave’s eye. “Christ, is that Tyler? He looks worse than Wolverine did when Magneto ripped out his adamantium skeleton in "X-Men" number 25.”
           “Really, that’s the reference you want to go with?” Colin said.


Colin jammed his hands into his coat pocket, “try to remember who you used to be, then you’ll understand.”
           Dave blinked at Colin, “That’s some serious Yoda shit there.”




In this scene Colin has just met his idol the bass player in his favorite band.  The bass player is giving Colin some life changing advice:

"I’ve heard this story a thousand times, the precise moment that inspires a kid to take the leap from screwing around to turning pro. Hmm. Word to the wise: the competition is heartless, the hours suck, the money’s worse, and there comes a time in every touring musician’s life where he has to shit in a bag.”
           “What?”
           “You’ll shit in a bag and hopefully it’s a plastic one.”

Why I love writing...

No System At All has been my labor of love for the past three years.  I write a little, get pissed off, spend my self into a deep suckfest spiral and then go back, rewrite, and fall in love again.

I've written before how I sent an epic failure of a query experiance.  It's cool. I've learned SO much and now I'm ready to try again...eventually.  Very soon.  Promise.

The hold up has been I don't trust myself.  I sent my books out to betas to read  I take their feedback and I make the changes.  Sometimes I think "um, no." Most of the times I think, "crap they're totally right." And sometimes I think "Holy crap that's awesome and I need to go off and write....right now!" 


So KO read the lastest draft and pointed out (citing my blog too) that How To Train Your Dragon introduces the conflict and all the main characters without getting bogged down with back story.


No System At All has has a new opening for nearly every draft. 

After reading a suggestion by KO I ran off and wrote this:

There was a rumor floating about the New Jersey suburbs of Princeton that the McCaffrey brothers destroyed lives.  If you were a douche of unspeakable proportions they paid you a visit.  The McCaffrey’s brothers' punishments, or pwnings, were so swift and fitting the douches, or noobs, either changed their ways, moved or went to jail. 

The rumor was true.

Bryce, nineteen, pwned noobz because he had a hazy moral compass. He knew God punished the evil but He took too long.  And he knew for a fact that God stole the good far too quickly. Bryce wanted to live as long as he fucking could.

Colin,  younger brother and  mastermind, pwned noobs because it made his life infinitely easier.  He was an easy target, skipping a grade and being the youngest Senior at Millbrook High School. He worked hard to keep a low profile, avoiding all the social trappings of  High School.  If something came onto his radar it must be bad and worthy of pwnage.  

They had been pwning since elementary school and the meek had finally inherited the school.  Or at the very least, they could walk down the hallways without being harassed.  But this was his senior year and he had a lot of shit on his plate.  The meek would have to take care of themselves, until he got his acceptance letter to Julliard.

So yeah, it might not stick around or it might.  I guess really its up to you guys.

But I write because I love that ahah moment.  That moment where everything clicks.  I love when I can't wait to get to a computer so the words can leak out of my fingers and fill the screen.  

That's why I write. 

Why do you?