#AMWRITING...Again

Once upon a time I thought I'd write a book.

So I did NANOWRIMO and a book happened. I sent it to some beta readers (aka. friends and family) and got some decent feedback and some discouraging (but well deserved) feedback. That book I put away and have been ignoring for nearly six years. 

In the meantime, more NANOWRIMOs happened and I somehow got addicted to participating. More books happened. But none of them ever got finished.

Until this past year, and I finally finished Nano Book Two.  It took me one month to write 50,000 words and one year (seven years later) to add 13,000 more words to it and call it "finished." 

This weekend I plan to (you know I can always chicken out still!) go to the next step with this story... and enter it into a thing called Pitch Wars. 

Why am I doing this? I have no idea! Mostly for the experience. And maybe the off chance that someone thinks my story sounds fun and unique. And because there is literally nothing to lose, except maybe some confidence. And seriously, that confidence is so low that, there's LITERALLY (and I literally use that word for its literal definition!) nothing to lose. 

This contest is a really cool thing where a list of published authors called MENTORS look over the submissions and choose someone they want to help through the process of querying an agent. So if they like your story, they will help you do all the things to get it better. 

To enter I have to submit three things:

• the first chapter (or first ten pages)
• a query letter
• a one page synopsis
• choose and submit to four mentors with wish lists that match my story

Doesn't sound too hard, right? Well, think again. First of all, my book doesn't have chapters. Second, I've never written a query letter before. And third, have you ever tried to summarize 63,000 pages into one page? (LOL, you might say I've done it a thousand times here on this blog, yes? But also, I have never done for my OWN story and I can see just how much actually happens in said story that you have to LEAVE OUT when summarizing! It's painful!) Finally, all the mentors sound awesome and bottom line, I just want to curl up and read all THEIR books!

Anyway, here's to going out of my comfort zone and being brave and succeeding by just DOING it. I'm really not expecting anything, but I wanted to try just to prove to myself, if no one else, that I'm back on board and serious about this writing thing. Again. 

And if nothing else, I hope to make yet another effort to connect to the writing community and find my people. Because it's absolutely true that this writing thing is going nowhere without people in my corner. 

Maybe you are asking what book I'm submitting to this contest? Well, it also just happens that we have to have a 35 word pitch ready for this thing too, even though that's not part of the official submission. 

So here goes:

High school in the 80s can be rough! Note passing between two best friends is one way to survive the struggles of boys, bridge building and baby sibling number six.

Wish me luck!

Kdrama Review: Imitation

Drama: Imitation

Genre: melodrama

Starring: Jeong Ji So, Lee Jun Young, Park Ji Yeon, Jeong Yun Ho

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤

This was a fun drama that got a lot of buzz because it stars a bunch of our favorite kpop idols playing... kpop idols. Kinda cool, yeah?

It's about a couple of different kpop groups... two boy groups and one girl group, and follows them in their journey to debuting (in the case of the girl group) and struggling (in the case one of the boy groups) and being huge and popular (in the case of the other boy group.)

It deals with a bunch of issues swirling around the industry...the competition between groups, the comradery between groups, the terrible management and manipulation by management, the struggle these idols have with dating relationships, and so on. It's heartbreaking at times.

But also really heart warming at times too. Our main dude is very popular and a bit of an angry young  man, but then he connects with the girl from the girl group and they bond and fall in love. And then he turns all sweet and soft. But the other dude from the other and already loved her, so he has to deal with that sadness.

When the drama opens, one of the guys from the popular group just up and disappears right in the middle of a performance, so we have the mystery to deal with and learn about. And that's part of the heartbreaking bits. 

Anyway, it was very fun to see boys from ATEEZ, and SF9 doing some great acting. And it was fun to fall in love with a dude named Park Yuri (he does solo stuff) and also the main dude who used to be in a group called U-Kiss back in the day. They were all great. The girls were from real live groups too... Pristin and I forget who else.

Jongho from ATEEZ and Park Yuri... so much comic relief in this drama. LOVED THEM!

But the fun thing is that these fictional bands, since they were made up of people in real bands, all did songs and performances as part of the show. I loved that. 

Our cute couple

So yeah, it was great and a lot of fun. It did get a bit slow for me in parts and I always just wanted the cute romance parts, but everything about it was quite interesting.

Here's a tiny trailer:

Here's the "popular" group SHAX with their song:

 

 Here's the "struggling" group SPARKLING with their song:

   

 The debuting girl group OMEGA 3 with their song:

 

Book Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Book: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Genre: literary fiction?

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

I don't even know how to describe this little book. It's fascinating and trippy and weird. And I totally enjoyed it!

It starts out with us meeting a dude living in some sort of palace... but this palace is huge and goes on forever. And our dude seems to be the only one living here... with the exception of some other dude who visits him now and then.

Our guy is fascinating but we can tell he is... off... somehow. He is very very immersed in this palace place and it just seems so weird. He keep meticulous records and lives off the land (the sea actually because this palace appears to be on the water) and he seems very happy and content. 

But then one day strange things start to happen, and our dude starts getting a clue that something is not right. And that's when we as readers start realizing what's really going on too.

And I really can't say much else because it would all be SPOILERS!

But guys, have you read this book? What did you think? I feel like there's something deep and symbolic about it all but I don't really know what! Anyway. Good, fast, interesting little read this one was!