Late, Late, for a Very Important Date

School officially started last Tuesday. (Junior year! One more year until that ever-allusive diploma, then I will never, ever have to sit through another lecture/seminar EVER AGAIN! Oh, sorry, is my happiness showing?) Throughout the past however many quarters/semesters I've had, my writing life has come to a relative stand-still once school started. Classes swamped me, extra-curriculars took control, and the only writing I did was in random bursts of "Oh! That might make a cool scene someday, maybe, in the future." But this quarter, my syllabi tell me I will -- *gasp* -- have free time. Not lots, but far more than I ever have had during a quarter/semester before.

(Just saying this makes me look over my shoulder at my school books, fearing they will multiply now that I've jinxed myself. But syllabi are "contracts" with the professors, right? They can't be broken, right? Right?)

But adjusting to this type of quarter has been laden with guilt trips. I should be doing homework, I should be studying, I should be reading something for school, I should be getting ahead on work, etc etc. Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't. I just know that if the paper I have to write can wait until next Monday, why not use tonight to pound out another chapter of my Stream Pirate sequel?

Because I've never before had to deal with time management as it related to writing during a quarter/semester (writing was never an option), it got me thinking. How do other writers manage their time? I know a lot of writer-moms who make both writing and mothering seem totally, totally manageable (but I'm still not convinced these women aren't secretly cyborgs with superhuman mother chips). Right now my plan of attack is to put my life in a list of priorities, and whatever comes up first is what I attack first. My list:

1) Writing.
2) Pippa. (Because, in my opinion, live creatures should always be in the top 5)
3) School.
4) Work.
5) Um, wait. I only have 4. Oh, except for family and stuff, but that goes without saying.

So, how do you manage your writing time? Do you shut yourself away and lock out the world for an hour each day? Do you sneak in bursts of writing whenever you find yourself near your laptop?

In the spirit of time-related stuffs, a trailer:



And because I'm shameless:



Is it just me, or is Dakota Fanning a little bit terrifying?

I have some skill with a pencil

*title said in heavy, deep Aragorn-voice*

Today, I had a few choices.

1) Do homework.

2) Work on the Stream Pirate sequel-that-is-now-a-trilogy.

3) Pull out my pencil and sketchpad and see if today was the day my drawing ability decided to wake from its slumber. Once a year, it seems, I have these great drawing revelations and can scratch down semi-decent looking renditions of things. But only once a year, for whatever reason.

Guess which one I chose?

Below is a sketch of a scene from Stream Pirate. Basic summary: Yazoo is saving Lu from a crocperson. I think what helped is that I based my drawing of Yazoo off of pictures of Philip Winchester. Pictures like this one.

And this one.

Okay, one more.

I could seriously stare at that man all day. But that would be weird.


PS: The crocperson is jumping out of a river, not flying. Just so you know.

Charging

Today begins the first day of yet another quarter here at mi universidad (I'm taking German now...maybe I should stop throwing Spanish into random sentences? Nah. Now it'll be random Spanish AND German. Muahahaha). And while just last night I was "excited" to get back to the grind of doing things, today I remembered what summer had un-taught me: my horrid dislike of large groups of people.

I don't know if it's a writerly trait or just a randomly assigned trait, but I am the world's biggest introvert. No joke. Right now I am hauled up in a corner of the building my next class is in, reveling in the silence, yet FREAKING OUT that I will, in one hour, be subjected to yet another large group of people. I've only had one class today, and already: exhausted.

I have an anti-stress enriched smoothie. Not helping. I have my laptop to focus my attention on other things. Lessening the blow, but not helping. What's a girl to do besides run into the nearest bathroom stall (hopefully a "Women" stall) and stifle the oncoming panic attack by calling the first number in my phone and crying at the sound of a familiar voice?

(No, I don't do that. Often.)

Stress is a part of all areas of life. Especially writing (need I mention agents, querying, editors, outlines, etc etc?). So, question of the day: what do you do when life seems to press in around you?

I shall leave you to your answers while I go find my next classroom and sit outside the door, counting how many people go into the classroom before me. Gulp.

Lookie Look!

It's official -- I have a website! It's pretty and red and it made me realize I really, really need to get some authors photos taken...but it's there! Woot woot!

I have a question now though. On my website, there really is nothing that isn't on my blog. In fact, there is MORE stuff on my blog. More in-depth explanations of stories, more updates, not to mention the standard pictures, bio, and contact info. Here's the question: do you think it is sufficient for a writer to just have a blog? Or do you think a website is a necessity in the writing world too?

I shall leave you with that question while I go find out why Pippa is being quiet. Quiet puppies = destroyed trash cans and/or shoes and/or how-on-earth-did-you-reach-THAT?! Toodles.

35.9%

Ouch.

If you're looking for a fabulous time-waster, go here. Lulu.com's Titlescorer takes some info about your title, plugs it into their fancy little, well, titlescorer, and tells you what the chance is of your title becoming a bestseller. The results are based on 50 years of study, 700 published novels, blah blah blah. It's slightly discouraging, but super fun all the same.

My results:

According to Lulu.com's Titlescorer, Stream Pirate only has a 39.5% chance of becoming a bestseller. Blind has a 63.7% chance, White Like Ashes a 69% chance. That makes Stream Pirate my lowest ranked title. Sad. I rather liked it.

PS: Random chuckle for the day.

This is My Problem:

A) I wanted to read a lot this summer.

B) The closest B&N and/or other type of bookstore to my house is a half hour away. Not very far, but when I spend the rest of the year driving back an hour and forth an hour twice/three times a week for school, I don't like driving when I don't absolutely have to. That, and gas is expensive.

C) While I like ordering books online, I feel that buying them new in a bookstore supports the author more. I'm just cool like that.

A+B+C= I didn't read a lot this summer. As my lack of a book review since June has showed.

D) Now that fall quarter is upon me, I will be a mere hop, skip, and a jump away from a B&N whenever I go down for classes to mi universidad. (btw: googling "mi universidad" brings up a lot of links to the University of Michigan...oh, wait. "mi"="MI"="Michigan". I'm not blonde, I promise.)

E) Now that I will have access to a bookstore at regular intervals through the week, I will *gasp* be buying a lot of books to catch up on all the many, many, MANY books I did not read this summer. Bad, Sara, bad.

F) I'll start classes the same time I'll start buying books. This, along with the newly resurrected Stream Pirate sequel, may cause a conflict of interests. But I'm okay with that.

D+E+F= I need book suggestions! What have I been missing? I know it's been a LOT. Apparently there's some book called Catching Fire, or something, and it's kind of a big deal, or whatever. (BUT: I did start The Hunger Games and hated Katniss so, so much I couldn't finish it. She drowned a CAT! Did that not disturb anyone else? When they do biographies of serial killers, they always go back to their childhood and discover how the five-year-old used to chop squirrels to pieces in their backyard or DROWN CATS. I'm just saying.)

Anyway, I have compiled a list on my own, but dude, I need more. A lot more. Throw in any titles I'm missing. Please. I want to have so many books sitting beside me as I do my homework that my homework gets scared, shrivels up, and runs away.

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
As You Wish by Jackson Pearce
Sea Change by Aimee Friedman
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph
Fire by Kristin Cashore
Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
Paper Towns by John Green
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Stray by Rachel Vincent
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson

A Big Deal (on My 150th Blog Post, btw)

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know one of my favorite writing peeps is Natalie. I mean, seriously, people. She can DRAW. Like, really draw. And she writes about cyborgs and elves and dragons and NINJAS. To a girl who writes about pirates, that's like the yin to the yang, so to be speak. Anyway, suffice to say Natalie is made of awesome. But we already knew this.

To further enhance just how made of awesome she is, you should visit this blog post of hers. Yeah. Not only does she DRAW and write about NINJAS, she's now repped by NATHAN *wait for it* BRANSFORD. Nathan Bransford. Name sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? Oh yeah, he's just that agent who runs this blog and gives insanely awesome writing advice and has 1,985 followers and is worshiped by every newbie writer with or without a blog. Yeah, just him. We shouldn't be, like, FREAKING OUT WITH INSANE OHMYGOSH HAPPINESS for her or anything? Nah, not us.

(Correct answer: Wrong. We should TOTALLY be freaking out for her.)

THE Nathan Bransford and THE Natalie Whipple have now joined forces. Dude. Throw in the ninjas, and the world will never be the same again.