Monday, December 6, 2010

Publishing

My mother is still  my "manager," which will show all the people who don't know me just how young I am.  She is very supportive:

"Just finish the book when you want, and then we'll talk to Susie."

Susie is our publishing friend.  She has recommended Dog Ear Press.

I'm trying to finish Alex's first book as soon as possible.  It still needs a title, an editor, and the back cover.  This is a blatant ask for helpers, dear readers.  Thank you.

If anyone has any other ideas about publishing, please let me know.  I found myself a copy of the writer's market 2009 at the Seattle Library Book sale.  Although I haven't finished going through it with a stack of sticky notes (that thing is very thick), I am still hopeful that one of the tagged companies will accept my manuscript.

Ah, who am I fooling? 

I am very excited to get my first rejection letter, however.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Hello There.

Remember me?

Thought you didn't.

I'm back from NaNoWriMo, where I stopped writing Nigel about a week in and switched back to Alex.

I left the poor man with a broken limb and a kidnapped daughter.  So I got many many many words on Alex's story.  I hope I'll be posting more often.  See you around.

TTFN

M.K.Wissler

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Okay, so I caved.

I caved and I made a twitter. 

Don't judge me!

Since I'm doing NaNoWriMo this month, twitter is really the only thing I feel good updating, since I don't have to write big posts or anything.

You can find me here.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Friday, October 29, 2010

Great. Just Great.

You guys all voted for humor, which is basically the one thing I don't really write.  But I'll try anyway.

This was from an excerise that I did in the class referenced here.

There was an envelop of cards with professions, and an envelope of cards with an action.

My results:

"Guy that writes blurbs on goldfish bags"

and

"defends his/herself with a toilet scrubber"

Enjoy!

#

Hank pressed his back to the bathroom wall as he heard Kermit and Randolph stomp up the stairs.


“Alright, Mr. Wise Guy,” Kermit called, “you just come on out of that bathroom and we’ll have a talk. I’ve got my evidence right here.”

For maybe the fortieth time that month, Hank regretted writing that new blurb on the side of the goldfish cracker boxes. He cursed himself once again for dooming himself by using those two names, Kermit and Randolph, as names of happy goldfish. He never wanted to invoke the wrath of two hit men in the area who also happened to have those names. It was just a coincidence, he wanted to yell, but that would have meant using his vocal chords, which seemed to be failing him. He heard Kermit and Randolph draw closer, and he looked frantically around the bathroom for something to use to defend himself.

Toothbrush?

Too small.

Sink?

Stuck to the wall.

Medicine bottle?

Too light.

Toilet scrubber?

Toilet scrubber...

#

With a wild yell, Hank burst out of the bathroom, surprising the two ski mask clad hit men into dropping their bags of goldfish. He clobbered them over the head with his toilet brush, sending them both flailing to the floor, where they also dropped their guns. Hank kicked the weapons into the corner and made a quick 911 call while still battering Kermit and Randolph with the toilet scrubber.

#

By the time the police showed up, Kermit and Randolph were begging for mercy from Hank and his scrubber of doom. The two criminals were escorted out of Hank’s apartment to the waiting squad cars and Hank’s boss, who had heard that his best blurb writer had been attacked, jogged up the stairs to meet Hank.

“What happened here?” He asked. “Are you alright? When can I expect you back at work?”

“I’m not going back to work,” Hank told him. “I quit, unless you give me my own bodyguard. This is a very dangerous profession.”

#
 
TTFN
 
M.K. Wissler

Monday, October 25, 2010

I'm Thinking...

That I'll be posting some more morsels of stories.  That would be fun, wouldn't it?  Now I just have to decide what to post...

I want to post the short story that I referenced here in a previous post.  The story is set to "Howl" which is track number four.  I'm not sure if I have the rights to post it.

?

Someone please inform me.  I think it's okay, but I would like to know for sure.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Thursday, October 21, 2010

You thought I was Going to Forget, Didn't You!

Well I didn't!

Here we are with another banner, this one for a short story I wrote for an American Literature class on differnet sorts of Religion:



Alexander is going quite smoothly, but right now I'm formatting my NaNoWriMo from last year.  I write quite awkwardly, as you probably saw in the bait.  I don't know how long it will take to finish, but if the timeline so far is any indication, probably one month.

Alex's story is almost at that point where I can transition from Capriellen being small to possibly developing into a character of her own.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Okay.

So, since no one is commenting, I shall bait you...

With a short bit from Alex's story!

*Cheering*

So, here you are...

This is Misty Kilgore discussing Alex with her coworkers.  Enjoy!

 #

“If you really want to find someone, what do you do?” Misty prompted.

“Check the database.” Volans supplied. Misty shook her head.

“No. No, you need to stop thinking like a HEART agent and start thinking like a normal civilian.”

“Google.” Agent Towers corrected.

“Sure thing. I found, on the website of The Institute of Mental Health, a little line that says that one Alexander Cathal is currently working the front desk.”


"Alex? Our Alex at the front desk of a crazy-house?” Agent Towers suddenly roared with laughter, causing more than a few of the assembled to jump in their chairs. “I’m sorry, it’s just...you’re sure?”

“I double checked. It’s our own scarred, angry Alexander.”

“We told him to get a job at the Kreon Cineplex.” Volans said angrily. “I know I was the one who told him, but even if he had a problem with me personally, it shouldn’t have translated to directly disobeying orders.”

“He might not be directly disobeying orders.” Agent Towers suggested. “Maybe he’s trying to tell us something.”

“Like what?” Volans was skeptical.

“Oh, come on, Volans. Guy’s working at the Institute of Mental Health. The crazy-house of the entire Eldeenecaps region. What kind of message does that send?”

“He’s lost his marbles?” Mr. Ross proposed.

“Or Loulabelle has a mental problem.” Agent Towers added. Mr. Ross didn’t agree.

“If something was wrong with her, he would put it on the forms.”

“Or something else is wrong. Maybe he hasn’t made contact with Agent Icyk.”

“We told him to initiate communications. Is there a possibility he can’t find him?”

“I have another theory.” Misty announced over the melee.

“What might that be?”

“I want you to think back to the night of the memory-extraction, Mr. Ross.” She said softly.

“What about it?”

“Where was the practitioner?”

“Well, he was unavailable. His assistant performed the procedure.” Mr. Ross reminded her.

“I want you to imagine that something went horribly wrong.”

“Misty...”

“I want you to imagine that instead of only several selective months of his memory gone, he lost large blocks. Undocumented three month chunks. Years, maybe.”

“No.” Mr. Ross denied her ideas outright. “No, that isn’t possible.”

Misty pressed on.

“Imagine that Alex is missing years...say, five to seven years. He wouldn’t know anything about Loulabelle, or Kathleen, or HEART. He would have woken up on that train without a clue.”

“With a military mindset.” Agent Towers added.

“And no idea as to who Loulabelle was or what he was supposed to do with her.” Misty confirmed. Volans rolled his eyes.

“We’re getting the child documentations, remember?” He shook his head. “Really, Misty.”

“They aren’t real.”

#

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Banner Thursday! Again!

I'm pretty sure you can tell that I'm in school now.  My James Bond dance has a full day rehearsal tomorow.  Play rehearsal started.  I'm Juror Five in Twelve Angry Women.

Here's your banner!


It's the banner for Alex and his baby.  Comments appreciated.

TTFN

]M.K. Wissler

Friday, October 1, 2010

Oh.

Yesterday was Banner Thursday, wasn't it.

Oh well.

Next week.

In other news, I have now almost 35,000 words on the Alex story and my NaNoWriMo is bouncing on its diving board.

Visit me here at NaNoWriMo!

I need some suggestions on the Alex story.  Capriellen just tore someone's throat out, but now the employees need to explain that to themselves.

Much thanks.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Gasp!

It's Banner Thursday!

Not that anyone cares.

I've just been so busy with my James Bond dance, which is finally choreographed.  (Although I had to kick someone out.)

I've also been busy with the play. (Autitions Monday and my monologue isn't memorized.)

And my copious amounts of homework.  (But I'm not complaining.)

But here you are, m'dears:



This is something from a little series that I wanted to write, it even had its own notebook and everything.  I liked it very much and if I have time, I'll start it up again.

TTFN

P.K. Enna

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Banner Thursday!

This is what I want you to think I'm feeling like today:

YaybannersOMGsofun!

This is what I'm feeling like today:

UghOhGodwhyismyheadbeingsplitopenwithachisel?

But I post a banner because banners are pretty and I am proud of them.

Behold:



I'm loving it.  Please tell me if the font is too hard to read, because I'm getting some feedback that it might be to loopy.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

P.S. 35,000 words on Alex!  Yay!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo!

Made a banner!



I love it!  I used the blood splatter from here.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Soundtracks

Whenever I write, I see what I'm writing like a movie.

Not only that, but I cast my stories like movies and I make playlists on my iPod for the soundtracks.  Call me crazy, but it makes me feel like I'm rounding out my stories a little better.

For the Alex story, I have a 162 song playlist for writing and a 16 song playlist for what I really think fits the plot.

I used to be worse.  I used to make playlists for each character, and then it was each chapter, and then I just gave up and made it for the whole book.  If I feel like not being lazy, I might post the 16 song list, but no one would really care.

TTFN

M.K Wissler

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Author Talks

Author talks are probably some of my favorite things to do in the wide world.

I had an author talk with my actress friend on Thursday last week. She's working on a fantasy/medieval/renaissance story and we had to develop a horse theft.  My little silver voice recorder really came in handy for that, because all you have to do is talk and then you can take as long as you want to write the conversation down, and pause and replay etc.

My bubbly friend and I are attempting to write a comic book, which isn't the best idea because we both have so much more stuff to do, but I'm game.  It's a sort of alternate universe weird, Gotham city thing with a bunch of underage criminals and a psychic poker player.

And lastly, my ukulele-playing friend and I did some short story critiquing.  She was very brave to do this with me because last time we did critiquing, I threw a laptop at her.  She just churns out short stories like...a machine, and they are all fantastic.  Very dark, very real subject matter.  And fairies.  Quite well written fairies.

While I was at chez ukulele fille, I started another series.  Don't worry, it isn't a book series.  I'm trying my hand at short stories.  Not what I used to call short stories (23 pages, min) but really short things, like 2 pages long.  So I'm drawing inspiration from this album:


For those who listen to music, listen to this.  Yes, yes.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

*Insert Spy Music Here*

Along with taking the novel intensive, I just got back from a week long trip to Washington DC, where I encountered walls of hot, humid air, museums that felt like meat freezers, and museums upon museums filled with interesting things.

And these interesting things definitely sparked my creativity.

I saw the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian, and some other lovely sparkly things.

I also went to the International Spy Museum and the Crime and Punishment Museum, and let me tell you, I was taking notes right and left.

Did you know there's this thing called a gas tank pill that you drop into an enemy car (for sabotage) and it expands and they can't go anywhere?

I need to use that...

Highly recommended even if it is a bit childish...hey, we all like being kids, right?

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Novel Intensive

Recently, I did a novel intensive class with the lovely Katherine Grace Bond.

It might have been the best thing I ever did for Alex.

Period.

I learned how to structure the plot better, and how to convey more emotion (which I seem to have trouble doing) and I got critiques from the other students.

I need to find myself a critique group...

TTFN

M.K. Wissler