Spring Cleaning Writer Tag Challenge

Hello, bookish friends! Today I'm coming to you with the Spring Cleaning Writer Tag Challenge! And I'm super excited about it. ^_^ (*whispers*: I've been wanting to give an update on my writing and this made for the perfect chance.)

I was tagged by the lovely Deborah O'Carroll, who is the creator of this tag. (Awesome job, by the way, Deborah!) Thank you, my dear! <3

Alright. Without further ado, let's get onto the tag!

The Rules:

• Link back to the person who tagged you
• Share the picture
• Answer the questions (naturally…) or even pick and choose which ones you answer
• Tag 3 other writers and inform them that you tagged them (via comment/message/email or hey, even carrier-pigeon or smoke signal; I’m not picky)

The Questions:

1. Dust-bunnies and Plot-bunnies: Reorganize Your Writing Goals (Or Make New Ones)

Writing update! Yay! *cheers* *ahem* So ... *cheering fades away* I have not been a good little author. Or even a good little writer. As an "author", I have not used the best marketing tip, which is to publish another book. As a writer, I have not been writing every day. Eek. Not even close. Almost all of last year was just a bad writing year for me.

However, I did make some writing goals this year, at least pertaining to blogging. I'm going to post at least once a week on this blog and every Tuesday and Saturday on Lady Grace. I've been doing well with that.

Not so much with novel-writing. *sad face* But at least I've been writing something. And I'm learning sometimes writers just have to take breaks and put their WIP aside for awhile (maybe even months upon months).

That all being said, I want to rise up to the challenge and make goals pertaining to novel writing, as this tag asks. I've been feeling my storytelling-self awakening at long last, so I want to get back into writing.

The good news, I wrote some on a story last week! *all the happiness* It was a lovely feeling.

The bad news, I've been taking on perhaps a little more than I can handle when it comes to writing/reading/studying/bookish stuff. I'm part of two Bible studies, which I really want to be invested in. I have two blogs to maintain. I have review books and book launches. Booktube. And I don't even know what all else. Just a lot of writing stuff. So ... *feels a tad overwhelmed when thinking of adding writing epic fantasy worlds to the list*

Perhaps I shall write up a schedule. (I think I actually thrive on those, even though I cringe at the thought of them.) Schedule in working on novels! For now I'm going to try to work on my story at least once every week. #newwritinggoal Perhaps the Sundays when I don't have Bible study. Which would be this coming Sunday ... keep me accountable, fellow writers! *winks*

(Okay. I think I over-answered that question. Oops. Onto the next!)

2. Which Stage Are You At? Expound!

a. Remodeling layouts (planning the story)

b. Painting the walls in colorful hues (writing)

c. Polishing the windows and scrubbing the floors and putting flowers in vases (editing)

d. Blueprints (not to the cleaning or remodeling yet … just drawing up plans for the very beginning inklings of a story)

e. Some combination of those things (cleaning out a closet)

Alrighty. I believe I would be somewhere between A. and B. Well, mostly B. – writing! But also a little bit of A.—planning the story—because I don't exactly have everything figured out. I'm currently working on Diamond's Quest, the sequel to Silver Rose. I started writing it a few years ago and got about 50 pages in on Microsoft Word before I realized it just wasn't working. I ended up changing the main character and basically starting all over. Then I tweaked it again. And again. So I think I finally have it to where I can really start writing, but I have notes and scenes all over the place that I need to get into order ...

I'm also a little bit at C.—editing—because Silver Rose is *still* in the editing stage! I'm looking into getting a professional opinion. And I have been reading through it here and there, doing some more of my own editing. I really, really hope that I can start the publishing process this year. Get it published, at last, late this year or next year!

I could also say D. – inklings of a story. For I have been vaguely plotting out and dreaming up scenes from book three in my fantasy series. (Which happens to be about Ivory, for those of you who've read Silver Rose.)

So basically, all of the above? hehe #writerproblems 

3. Treasure From the Back of the Closet (Share one to three snippets you love!)

So the first two snippets are from a random story I started awhile ago. I just unearthed it today and felt a yearning within to continue writing it! (Wait, Shantelle, I thought you were working on your Silver Rose trilogy?? *facepalm*)

The third snippet is from the recent work I've done on Diamond's Quest.

I'm not sure if this is good writing, folks, but it makes me happy. Being with my characters. Feeling their feelings. Going on their adventures. <3

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

I'm an organized person. I love organizing when I start it. I thrive on organization. *laughs* Plus I dislike having a lot of stuff and/or clutter. So I generally keep my writing space and bookish documents on my laptop pretty neat. Every few months I probably go through stuff and clean and organize and rearrange and get rid of things and all that. *grins*

My writing space ... well ... I don't exactly have one. Sometimes I write at the dining room table, on my laptop. Or a notebook. Most times I'm probably in my bedroom. Here's a picture ...

I Tag:

LaKaysha @ Calico and Lace

Hannah @ My Bookcase and I

Liv @ Liv K. Fisher ~ Living & Breathing Words

***

So there's that! Once again, thank you so much for tagging me, Deborah! It was good to get the push to dust off the novelist deep down inside. ^_^

Comment and let me know what you all think!

Blessings, dear readers!

777 Writing Challenge ... of sorts

I was tagged for the 777 Writing Challenge by Tricia Mingerink a long ago ... and now just recently, tagged for something similar by Kenzie Morganthal. So I decided I should get around to doing it! *grins*

Since both tags have a little different instructions, and I just recently started my WIP (work-in-progress), I’m just going to do things my own way and share the first seven or so opening lines.

(Click on the links above if you want to read the original instructions for either challenge).

Now, first, some backstory! A lot of you know that I wrote a fantasy novel called, Silver Rose … and that the sequel, Diamond Dark , wasn’t coming along very well. 30,000+ words in, and I was despising it! Some ideas I liked; but I was mostly feeling as if I were forcing out the words. So, I let it sit for a while. And after much thought, I decided to try something. Rewrite it. Change the main, main character. And even the title.

Behold, the opening lines of Diamond's Quest:

"TODAY I WAS ripped from Mother’s arms by royal guards and forcibly escorted to King Black’s castle. I never once caught a glimpse of the king himself, but rather was shown to a group of silent maids and stayed with them for nearly the rest of the day.

     They bathed me (never minding my wild protest), almost scrubbing the skin off my body—as if they couldn’t stand the sweet smell of the lemon perfume Mother makes. My hair was braided into many small braids and pinned up in a severe manner that I am not used to. They heavily outlined my eyes with black kohl and stained my lips blood red. That, along with the garish pink gown they dressed me in, shocked me when I surveyed myself in the looking-glass. The dark make-up makes me look freakish . . . considering am I fair-skinned with pale blonde hair and light green eyes."

Copyright © by Shantelle Mary Hannu

(Diamond's Quest ~ CALLED TO LIGHT #2)

~ Inspiration for my new main character, Arella ~

******************

So there’s that.

Just to let you all know, I am supremely happy! And so excited about this! ^_^ Truly, not being able to write/hating one’s story is really hard on a writer! When I can’t write, a little part of me just feels really empty.

     Yesterday I attempted to write on my dystopian tale. But I just read what I had so far and left it at that. Later, I was sitting in my room, just hurting. I was crying; and crying out in my heart: “I can’t write, God. I don’t understand. I want to write again.” I felt really terrible.

     Then, an hour or so later, I was suddenly inspired. I’m going to re-write this story. And use a different heroine. And change the title! *grins* I went on a lovely boat ride and wrote down notes like crazy. Got back and wrote 2,000+ words. Just pure JOY flowing through me. I’m writing. And I’m loving it. No forcing words here! ^__^

     Now I have 4,386 words. So ... we’ll see how it goes! Maybe I just needed to focus on less POV characters, and largely on one I understood more. I’m hoping for the best!

I’m thinking of alternatively working on Diamond's Quest and my dystopian story. We’ll see what happens.

As for tagging: Deborah O’Carroll // JayeL. Knight // Hannah Williams // Claire Banschbach //

…And I can’t really think anymore right now. Haha. But anyone else reading this and wanting to do this, consider yourself tagged! ^_^

(All pictures found on Pinterest)

Updates, 777 Writing Challenge, and Book Covers, :-)

     So I know I've been doing blog posts a lot lately... like, a lot... and you're probably getting sick of it. But, just bear with me here! :-)

     First off, I updated my Movie Reviews tab. Just wanted to let you know. I now have it organized according to genre. And I did update some of my reviews as well; namely The Hunger Games (2012) and Catching Fire (2013). So check it out if you'd like! I have a new review up for another fairytale film too!

     Speaking of The Hunger Games trilogy, I just recently watched Mockingjay: Part I (2014) with my brother. (Read my review HERE). Whew! Talk about heart-shattering!! If you ever need to discuss that movie, I'm here! I lament about the tragedies of it like every day, and my family just looks kind of weird at me. Lol. But anyway, I've decided to read the books so I know what to expect in the last movie! And I want to get some in-depth reviews out for the books of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

     Well, I'll have to get over to my library some day and borrow the series. As for right now, I'm reading a lovely book called The Creole Princess by Beth White.

     What a stunning cover, don't you think?? It's even better when you're holding it in your hands. :-) The pink color is gorgeous!

     And just for some more gorgeousness, here's some stunning book covers I've come across recently...

FrostFire by Amanda Hocking

The Ultimatum Bride by Leah Atwood

Lightning by Bonnie S. Calhoun

Luther and Katharina by Jody Hedlund

Of the Coldblooded by Angie Brashear

Out of Darkness Rising by Gillian Bronte Adams

Queen by R.J. Larson

The Door by Lorilyn Roberts

The Mistress of Tall Acre by Laura Frantz

The Wood's Edge by Lori Benton

To Get to You by Joanne Bischof

     Aren't those amazing? Do you have any on your to-read shelf?

     Alright. Now for the 777 Writing Challenge that I mentioned in my post's title! :-) I was tagged by Claire Banschbach to be part of this challenge. Here are the rules as explained from her blog:

     The 777 challenge requires you go to Page 7 of your work-in-progress, scroll down to Line 7 and share the next 7 lines in a blog post. Once you have done this, you can tag 7 other bloggers to do the same with their work-in-progress.

     So here goes! I believe I'll share from Diamond Dark. Hopefully its something halfways decent...

     They all stood before her in a straight, stiff line. She looked into their emotionless eyes and felt as if she were falling into an emptiness that was all too hopeless.

     “Ariana?”

     Ariana jerked herself back to reality and clapped her hands sharply, ignoring Mirabelle’s soft inquiry. “Attention,” she began. “I am Diamond, you know Ruby, and we shall start the day as usual.”

     Without meeting the eyes of the twelve to sixteen-year-olds again, she turned and led the way to the back corner of the massive chamber dedicated to teaching King Black’s workers.

     There blazed across the stone wall, was a horrific scene.

(From Diamond Dark by Shantelle Mary H.)

     There you go! :-) Now I'll tag... Jaye L. Knight, Hannah Williams, Amber Stokes, Ashlee Willis, Gillian Bronte Adams, Alicia Ruggieri, and Sarah Holman.

     I will probably be getting a review of The Young Victoria (2009) on here soon. And hopefully some more healthy recipes. I have one in particular that I've been using a lot! It's so quick and yummy and healthy. :-) Anyway. Doing a blog tour post with Claire Banschbach on the 27th, so be looking for that!

     Writing... I've been very bad about. Someday I shall get back into Diamond Dark. I've been editing and working on a cover for A Dream Not Imagined meanwhile, my Cinderella retelling, short story. I want to publish it through createspace.com sometime soon here! Silver Rose is still being edited by my lovely blogger friend. She's doing an amazing job!! So happy to see my first full-length novel looking so beautiful! :-) *Happy author sigh*

     Um... how's everyone holding up? Hopefully spring is coming your way. I thought it was here where I live, but alas, our sunny, warm days have vanished into cool air again. Soon. I want to lay outside and read a book. :-)

     That's all I have for now. Would love to hear your thoughts though. How's your week been going? Writing? Reading? What do you think about The Hunger Games books and movies? Are you excited for Mockingjay: Part II (2015)? Meep!

A Bit of This and a Little of That

     ***Updated Version***    

     Hello dearest readers! :-) Just wanted to do a bit of an update post today... since I feel like I've been doing nothing but book reviews these days!

     My writing is not going as well as it could (should) be. But I have hopes that I'll find some quiet time to write today. Diamond Dark is currently at a count of 15,617 words. I keep getting ideas for it, but I usually end up just jotting down notes, since it all happens later on in the story!! Grr. I'm struggling with the whole, How is it going to measure up to the first book?? thing too. But... I have hope!
     Here's some inspiration pictures (found on Pinterest) for the main characters of this story:

ARIANA

 

MIRABELLE

 

EAGLE

 

KARALEE

     Hopefully those pique your interest! Perhaps they'll urge me to get back into the story too! ;-) In truth, I am happy to be once again with my dear characters from Book One, Silver Rose; and to be meeting some new ones as well! It's all grand fun, though a bit nerve-wracking at times. Ha!

 

     Speaking of Silver Rose, editing is going well. After I started reading Silver Rose to some of my younger siblings, I felt the uncontainable urge to re-write the beginning. ...It was just, bad. So I did, and my editor was very gracious about it all! :-) I'm so thrilled to see this story coming together so beautifully!! I really need to start thinking seriously about the cover. EEP! I just can't wait to share Karalee and the others' stories with you all! :-) :-)

Here's a short, unedited snippet:

     Don’t panic! Karalee turned in a full, dizzying circle. All around her a looming, gray forest stretched as far as the eye could see. Her heart picked up its beat until it was fluttering wildly against her chest. This feels too much like— Karalee squeezed her eyes shut, cutting off the thought. No. Don’t think about it. She breathed in deeply and turned in a slower circle. Yes, she was in a gray forest. Lidepia had vanished into thin air. Something strange was definitely going on.

     The crack of a stick sounded a few yards away.

     Karalee’s skin prickled. She peered into the dark foliage, but couldn’t make out anything threatening in that direction.

     Another crack.

     Everything is fine— Wait, was that a shadow looming behind the bushes? A scream caught in Karalee’s throat. She started running before anything else could happen. Her heart thundered in her ears, chest constricting painfully.

     Ghostly footsteps echoed behind each frantic, fleeing step she took.

     “King Adonai!” she gasped, reaching out to slap aside gray branches in her way, “I don’t know what to do!”

     A huge, fallen tree seemed to appear out of nowhere in the middle of her path. She lifted her skirt and pushed off the ground with her feet, leaping over it at the last moment.

     Gray fled past her vision. Heavy breathing seemed to sound all around her.

     Karalee.

     Karalee did scream then. Her stricken voice echoed over the forest.

     In the next moment, she ran head-on into something solid, dark, and unmovable.

     Another terrified scream pierced the air.

(From Silver Rose by Shantelle H.)
 

     Reading. I'm about halfway through Dauntless by Dina L. Sleiman, and I've been enjoying it so far. After I'm finished that book, I'm so excited to get back in King's Warrior by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt, which I briefly started. Lovely books.

 

 

      Ooh, and while we're on the subject of novels, I should mention a FREE book! Waltz into the Waves by Sarah Holman is a kindle freebie for the next few days!! :-)



 

     Forgot to add this the first time around. I re-organized my bookshelf recently, doing it according to date. What fun!! I totally fell in love with this new system! :-) Of course, the fantasy just have their own special section, and the self-help type books...

My lovely bookshelf. Sometimes I could just look at it and sigh for hours... ;D

Some of the books didn't have dates, so I'm not sure if I have them all in exactly the right order. But I did my best. And its surprising how many books actually do have dates!

First and second shelves...

Second and third...

And last. That my American Girl Felicity doll that I got at nine-years-old... thence came my love of the colonial/Revolutionary War era!! :-)

 

     Hey!! I recently got a twitter account: @shantellemary! I've been told its good to be on all those social media sites, to kind of get your name out there and all. So I went ahead and signed up for twitter... even though I had pretty much no idea what it was. Haha. I think I've learned a bit since then, ;-) :-)

 

     Well, I think that's all for updates today. I hope everyone has a good book in hand, :-), and that all the other things of life are going considerably well.

 

     Blessings! <3

 

     "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30

A Dash of Randomness

     So the first month of the new year has gone by. Already. Wow. No wonder I’m one book behind schedule on my book-reading challenge on goodreads. Time flies, :p

     Some of you perhaps read my post about Garbanzo Bean Fudge, and noticed my Health Food and Fashion tabs. I do fully intend to get some more yummy, healthy recipes on here! But it just turned out that my family came down with a nasty flu right after my great inspiration for health, and so I haven’t been baking much lately. However, that should all change soon here, :) :D So be on the look-out for healthy cheesecake, sugar-free chocolate chip cookies, Greek-yogurt, flourless pancakes, and things like that!! :)

     As for Fashion, well yeah, I’ve been meaning to get that started too. Probably I’ll just be sharing little, modesty tips and some outfits I’ve put together, for the most part.

     Reading. I’m currently in the middle of Winter Queen by E. Kaiser Writes. And quite enjoying it, I must say. I also have bookmarks in Every Tear by Molly Evangeline (which is also a grand tale so far), and Thunder by Bonnie S. Calhoun (this one’s a bit confusing at the moment, but still good!). And I have a kindle full of exciting tales just WAITING to be read…!!

     ...To name just a few.

 

     ...And a fair amount of books on my bookshelf also waiting, expectantly. I’m a little overwhelmed, and try not to get caught in their accusing gazes, lol.

 

     Oh! And Anne Elisabeth Stengl’s Beauty and the Beast contest has come to an end! I didn’t make the top five, but I thought I’d share the results…

     I am really excited to read this new collection!! :) Although, by the story descriptions, I fear that some of them might be a bit spooky for my taste, haha, :p We’ll see. Anyway, coming out Summer 2015, so be on the lookout, fairytale-lovers!

 

     Writing. My novel, Silver Rose, is currently being edited by a wonderful blogger friend; and one of my dear friends is also doing a bit of editing work while she reads it. I am so, so grateful for their willingness to take on this project!! :)

     I started writing the sequel, and had a couple days of lovely inspiration, putting me at a word count of 10,642 words. Then I just, stopped. Writer’s block, you know. :/ But I shall start writing again!! Erm, hopefully. (Let’s not mention that I got distracted on a rather deep and personal retelling of Rapunzel, :p) Anyway, I’ll share a few pictures from pinterest that lend me inspiration for Diamond Dark:

 

DESPAIR...

 

...CLASHES WITH HOPE...

 

...AND BLACK BEASTS HAUNT THEM ALL...

 

 

...IS THE LIGHT MORE POWERFUL?

 

 

     And… one movie I’m looking forward to watching this year? Beyond the Mask. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this Christian, independently-made, Revolutionary War drama film… Eek!! Check out the trailer here. It’s going to be epic! :) :)



      Last, but of course not least(!), a verse that was especially poignant to me this fresh year of 2015: Ephesians 4:29-32

^29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. "

     Praying God’s blessings on you all, dear readers! May your readings and writings go well, and may we all grow ever closer to the King!