Wordy Day; Ariana's Childhood, Part 1

Ariana looked up at her mother and knew that she wouldn't be comfort. She could feel that her body had begun to shake and her mother must have felt it because her hand tightened on Ariana's much smaller one, making Ariana flinch but still her mother did not look down or say anything. Ariana knew she was on her own and clenched her whole body, steeling her five year old frame for the pains she was about to go through. She began to shake harder and as the visions slammed through her brain, Dark! Vortex! Sand! she felt her grip tighten upon her mothers hand and then she fell to the ground severing even that contact. Pain! Red! Black! War!

When the visions and impressions fled, Ariana lay panting on the floor of the side hallway, all alone. Her mother was gone and she was bruised, her small shoulders aching and her face wet and clammy from tears that she hadn't even felt. She took a deep ragged breath and began to cry for real. It was the side corridor so her wails wouldn't disturb the rest of the house, she thought.

She shut her eyes and abandoned herself to despair, letting her misery out with her forceful cries that echoed through the hall. She heard a door click open and her eyes flicked open in shock. She scooted around on the floor and stared at the door that had opened behind her. It was just ajar by a few inches but as she watched like an animal about to be slaughtered, the door opened and a little girl, a toddler, stared out at her, her green eyes large and somewhat neutral. The little girl stepped forward and nodded to Ariana. "You're loud," she said with a three-year-old's lisp. "Stop it."

Just like that, Ariana closed her mouth, wiped her tears, peeled her sore body off of the hard floor and went into Melody's room. They'd probably play a game and it really was that simple. As soon as Melody showed up and didn't seem to care, Ariana calmed down and could begin recuperating for the next fit. They had gotten worse this year, but in the last months, Ariana was sure they'd lessened. She wondered if it was better when her mother wasn't around.

This is a bit about two characters in a series of books that I am working on, which includes the infamous Snow Sands I removed for revision late last year. Ariana and Melody are broken members of their family. They mostly stick together up until and during the events of Snow Sands. Ariana experiences visions, mostly against her will. 
Snow Sands is currently being expanded but it should be republished, perhaps under a different name, by May of 2014

Grammar and What it Means to Us and Everybody Else

I is one good girl. I likes banana and drinks five glass water the day.

The above sentence is wrong. It's very, very wrong. It does communicate as all the necessary information is there but, it barely counts as English, let alone good English.
I guaranty you that there is a language that would accept this sentence as proper, if it was translated, of course.

This fact serves to illustrate that the rules which we use and take pride in to construct prose aren't the only rules out there and the significance we attach to certain phrasing styles is based on what those before us have determined, as well as popular culture, not to mention many centuries of invading peoples.

What we can learn from this is...

Harshness has no place in the enjoyment of writing and neither do strict rules on how to do things!

I don't advocate clumsily strung together sentences and blandness is probably the worst thing that a story can communicate. I also don't like bad grammar.

However, there is wiggle room.

I'd really appreciate it if people stopped telling others that there's one way to do things. Not even the grammar and writing books agree with you there.

There's more than one way to do things in this world. Stop being so rigid, unless you're one of those English teachers or Literature professors, you know who you are. If so, it might be too late for you. You'll prove to be a good life lesson for your students on how to deal with difficult people.

(I'm not saying English teachers are inherently bad. I had plenty of good ones. Literature professors on the other hand...Well, hope springs eternal.)

I've Been Slipping

I try to keep from being too negative, most of the time, with strangers at least.

I've gotten better, honest, overall.

To be absolutely truthful I've been slipping for the last several weeks. Sanity, creativity and drive have gone out the window and my laptop is  still unusable. All of the hardware is usable, if anyone would fix it for less than a hundred and change, which they won't. The hard drive is fine, though. Unfortunately, I lost the screwdriver and now the hard drive is kinda stuck in the computer. Well, it is stuck. There's no kinda about it. Some of the connectors are also disconnected and the keyboard has some keys pried up because apparently my boyfriend and I are a bit like monkeys when we get annoyed. We can't just leave it alone. We gotta poke the damned thing, preferably with something pointy and metal.
No, we were like otters with a reallly big clam.

I do have a new computer now. Used new.  It runs on windows xp and I can't get the word processor that I had before on it. I'm less than pleased about that. Apache Open office is nice and all. I could even like it better but I need compatibility. The writing demands it. Microsoft word has been a pain for a while but I need it.

I'm thissss close to getting a typewriter and shoving it down someone's throat.

I'm also considering a career in comedy.

I saw a sign a few days ago that said, "Peaceful passification authorized."

What could it mean? I started looking around for gas dispensers just to be safe.

Perhaps I have a future on stage. I just have to get over my fear of rejection. Also, I need to get over the fear of being recognized from my...Other activities. No kidding, I dream that my sordid past will come to light.
 People will go, "Did you hear? She ate an ice cream cone seductively in elementary school."

I didn't know, okay! but I would be ruined forever.

Nah. That would be silly. I have nightmares about other things being exposed. It's probably nothing. Still, you don't feel special unless you have deep dark secrets. 

The book is being worked on, albeit erratically and with little focus or surety.
I am just now regaining my routine and I am considering pen names. I think this name, which I never liked much, is fine for Snow Sands and any related fantasy but I think the book I'm currently trying to finish might go under another name. I'm not sure. It's hard to be certain. We'll see. I'll go back to posting on Wednesdays. Probably stories. Maybe grammar, if I knew for sure what that was.

I hope I haven't bored or disturbed you.
Night.

Woe is Meeee

My computer is gone, my dog is dead and I don't have any money for Christmas presents.

I am also anemic, overweight and unemployed.

I think I'd like to go to Canada. Such a large quantity of trees.

Then again, who isn't plagued by problem's such as these.

I think I'll start a business. Maybe read.

Computer Go Bye

Greetings bipeds possessed of a computer, I have news.
It is quite shocking to read, not Only for you but for your machines.
It is with great dismay and regret that I inform you my computer, my only laptop and my shelter from the pressures of life, is lying, case pried open and components loose, hard drive removed, atop my troublesome scanner.

My boy friend took it apart after the power connection broke and that is when we learned that asus loves hidden screws. As, the laptop already had damage that a repair shop would have scoffed at so we were left with few choices and an interest in seeing the treacherous machine's innards splayed willy nilly.

Don't worry. The hard drive was fine and all the data is safe. But. I've the use of an iPad and it's only the recent acquisition of a stylus that has me typing this much. I shall try to keep in touch but my hands shake even now.

Happy Holidays!

A Writer With no Supplies Becomes a Reader With Lots of Time

So.
I have a story to tell, though it isn't much of one, in my humble opinion or anyone else's.
It begins with me being to rough with my laptop charging cable. I keep my room in a dreadful state, full of things on the floor, including my futon, which I don't fold over as often as I should since I need the space. I unplug my computer frequently and when I discover that the cable has been buried under twenty pounds of shite, I do the most obvious thing. I pull.

Well, I broke it. I noticed tearing and I taped it up with electrical tape and then, a day and a half or so later, my computer cable began to smoke, to flash to burn to sizzle. Whatever you want to call it, the plastic was melting. This lead to what felt like a week but might have been less of no laptop. Instead I had the family Ipad. While nice for looking things up, it's futile to try and type out a manuscript on that thing so I didn't. Instead I rediscovered my love for reading and actually read a Victorian romance. It was pretty good. It was, This Rake of Mine, by Elizabeth Boyle and while a few things just didn't make sense, it was still darned satisfying. My favorites were Miss Porter's charges, the meddling girls from Miss Emery's school.

Finally, I have a new charging cord. Now I can get back to writing, if I can tear myself away from all these books.
What a quandary

Yep.
Also, I think I might try a fantasy romance.

As for my assertions that I will stop blogging to work on other things, I don't think it's a problem. Whether I will be very regular is another matter entirely.

Thanks,

Cait

Abundantly Clear

I don't know what I'm doing.



I think that's abundantly clear.

But I am trying,
And I will gain some measure of success.
Because I am improving.

It's either publish books or plot to take over the world.


Oh, I've plotted the changes for Snow Sands. It will be spectacular!