Year of the Metal Rabbit and what it means for you kiddos.

I have no resolutions. I am a child of rebellion, REBELLION, I say! Also, the word 'resolute' is the first word in red ink on my rap sheet, with underlines. Right next to the 'loves muffins' bit.

As you may or may not know, I'm something of a Zodiac dork. The Chinese way of astrology is a particular weakness of mine. Don't want to go looking through dozens of articles on what the Chinese way predicts for us? Fear not! I make it my personal duty to scour countless articles released on New Year, and I've complied the gist of all of them here. ;)

This year is a Metal Rabbit year. Last year was a Metal Tiger year. Tiger years are generally filled with financial, spiritual, and political warfare. War is what defines a Tiger year. Rabbit, on the other hand, is a calm, reserved year known for its incredible luck, morseo than any other years of the Zodiac. We've waged the battle, and now it's time to split the spoils.

Expect good shit to unexpectedly happen for no earthly reason at all. Providence is warming up her guns and feeling random, and rest assured, she's aimin' at all of us.

It's a Metal year, so there'll be feelings of melancholy and regret. Metal years are notorious for producing great cultural and literary works of art ( :D We're looking at you, pub industry).

If you were born in the Year of the Rooster, things might be particularily frustrating. Rooster and Rabbit are polar opposites on the wheel, and contention runs aplenty between them. Dragon runs for second place on having a hard time. Most of the other signs look to have a decent year, with Goats, Pigs, Dogs, and Snakes having an AWESOME year.

Each sign has a differing element each year, so not only are you an animal, but you have a certain element attached to it. Those born in Water and other Metal years will find things smooth, while those born in a Fire year find things even smoother. Metal chops the element of Wood, and if you were born in a Wood year, it might seem like you find resistance wherever you go! Earth elements have nothing to worry about in any elemental year, they are the center of the elemental compass and remain relatively neutral.


In short, Metal Rabbit will be a lot better than last year! Metal+Rabbit=Robo-Rabbit?

Rejection and why it doesn't kick my ass as much as it used to.

This is what rejection feels like;




This year of querying is my third time. Not first, not second, but third time querying the same WIP. Granted, after the second round of rejections I flipped a poo and rewrote the entire thing, and the result was AWESOME.

A lot of agents talk about the 'practice novel' and how the author will sometimes query it to them. I made that mistake twice, and it killed me. Right now, I'm doing something rather devious and querying the same agents I queried before, but with this shiny new WIP and new query with changed character names.

I'm relying on the fact that agents tend to FORGET a terrible past query. (I hope.) D:

So now that the REAL DEAL of my WIP is done and out there in the query world, I feel pumped. Excited beyond recognition. For the past two query times, I had no confidence in my manuscript at all - I expected all rejections and I mostly got all rejections. But even if Satan came up and slapped me in the face, I wouldn't quaver away from my confidence with this WIP.

So far, the rejection count goes something like this;

Formal Rejection: 3
Partial Requested but Rejected in the End: 1
Haven't heard from yet: 56

Rejection doesn't hurt anymore, but not because I've grown used to it. I have this crazy glowing trust that defies rejection, because the WIP is just that good. It deserves nothing less than getting published, and very soon. I KNOW it will get published, because I can feel it. Hard to describe, but the feeling is there, like a deja vu I've yet to trigger, but know is around.

And when it happens, I'll probably just explode. And throw a party. Not necessarily in that order. Or maybe in that order. I've always wanted to go to a party as a cloud of unrecognizable fleshy bits.

Put your WIP in Wordle and Weep.

Slow day at the office.

I did this instead.

http://www.wordle.net


I pasted my ENTIRE 306 page manuscript into there and it comes up with a wordcloud, with the largest words being the most used. It's a really handy tool, actually, and the list of most used words goes like this;

1. Shadus (UH OH. MAIN LOVE INTEREST UH OH.)
2. Miranda (She's one of the top five main characters, so this is expected)
3. Eyes (hurr durr)
4. Back (what the fuck?)
5. One (uh...sure.)
6. Lara (yup. Main character.)
7. Like (and I'm not even from California)
8. Head (???)
9. Face (I'm concerned because body parts seem to be a trend.)
10. Away (??? I don't recall writing it that much?)
11. Know (I recall writing this MORE.)
12. Time (Ditto above.)
13. See (Verbs are really common on this list. Bad or good? No idea.)
14. Around (An Approximate word. Ugh lots of these fags)
15. Away (APPROX. WORD)
16. Joseph (Yeah! Mexican badass.)
17. Geoff (No! Evil guy!)
18. Look (...kid's book much? I coulda used 'gaze', but nooooo)
19. Moment (MAKES SENSE.)
20. Anything/Something (TIED FOR 20th place the irony does not escape me.)
21. People (Duh.)
22. GCIP (Mofos.)
23. School (Ugh.)
24. Cure (Disease isn't even on this list. Suspicious.)
25. Makes (VERB.)
26. Stands (VERB.)
27. Kill (I'M STARTING TO GET WORRIED ABOUT THESE VERBS.)
28. Light (Yeahhh a noun!)
29. Even (APPROX WORD. FUCK.)
30. Go (VERB.)
31. Get (VER-UGH.)
32. Voice (Noun yay!)
33. Cassie (lololol the Main Character is down here because it's first person POV.)
34. Good (I don't know whether to cry or commit seppuku.)
35. Basement (THIS ONE WAS A SURPRISE.)
36. Gutters (duh.)
37. Quiet (Not silence? Weird.)
38. Life (i herd u liek mudkipz.)
39. Feel (VERB.)
40. Every (APPROX WORD jesus christ.)
41. Quickly (ADVERB. I am so dead by the syntax nazis)
42. Never (APPROX WORD I wish I never used dem.)
43. Right (WRONG.)
44. Now (APPROX WORD)
45. Still (APPROX WORD)
46. Just (APPROX WORD WHERE IS A NORTH KOREAN BOMB WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE SWALLOWING ONE?)
47. Mr. (Yeah, Geoff rigged this one.)
48. White (Where's black. I r disappoint son.)
49. Blood (HURRRRRDURRRRRR)
50. Smiles (gay.)



So, this was informative. I'm going to slash and burn as much as possible. The main theme of the most used 50 words was verbs and generally unneeded approx words. Body parts were also very common even though I don't remember writing about them so much. I also thought Kill would be higher up (and Cassie). And I expected more colors.I was disappointed in myself that Shadus was #1. Oh well.

YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY - *brick'd*

Post-coitus....for writing?

In sexual terms we call it the afterglow. In less creepy terms, it's the calm after the storm, the recovery, the disarming lull that settles in once you've completed something that felt monumental.

Having written three (rather shoddy) books, I'll tell you this right now; when it's done I feel a distinct emptiness in my chest. I'm pretty lucky in the fact that I can put in two to four hours of writing a day, but it's not always the most productive - some days I get 6k words, others I get 500.

When I start typing out the very end, the epilogue or the last few words, it's always a teary time for me. The ending might not be particularily sad (but being me, it is always sad) but I am still real emotionally volatile. This being my third time going through the process, I'm able to pinpoint it now - I get touchy because I no longer know if what I did was right.

I begin questioning myself; did my material deserve more than what I gave it? Did I shape the clay accurately after the dream, so to speak.

(Writers aren't artists, but that is a discussion for another day.)

Inevitably, I make peace with myself but the nagging emptiness remains. I want to write again, and I make slipshod plots in the notes section of my phone while running errands or checking into work - I want to be writing again as soon as possible, please and thank you.

I think it's an addiction.

It's taking a bit of a tax on my social life. It's hard enough to have a social life on a cesspool island like this, but in all honesty I'd rather be writing than grabbing coffee with people I don't know well enough to like. This is how it's been since I was little - it was just disguised. I had notebooks filled with dragon gods and maps of worlds. (So did everyone else, it seems, but you understand.)

Writing is not the only path in my life, but it's the only one that matters to me.

Maybe my passion does not equal my output. Maybe what I produce doesn't reflect what I feel for it, and if it doesn't then that's the only true failing I'll admit to.

When I'm not writing, I want to be writing, and that's all there is to it. Maybe I'm mentally unwell?

This is not to say the real world holds no interest for me - it very much does. I have no illusion of being a creator of worlds, or an artist. When a story leaves me as a finished manuscript, I feel very empty and immediately scrabble to fill the hole with another endeavor. I feel like I'm wasting time if I'm not churning out words.


I don't know what it is, really. I'm just happy to be alive and writing.


Querying is terrifying and an exhausting process. I would rather write seven more books than query one. But it's one of those things you have to do!


who likes bourbon?
I don't.