Just Another Day at the Office

 

“I cleared my throat behind him. “Sorry to disturb you while your eating…” He lifted hi head to look at me, thick viscous liquid dripped down his chin and he drew back his top lip and snarled at me. Any normal, sane person would have legged it by now. Not me, I’d seen my share of vampires and this child didn’t even make me flinch. I think I sighed, that admittance of apathy seemed to make him take a proper look at me. I don’t know what it was that made him bolt. Maybe it was the stakes strapped to my belt or the bow at my back. Or ,maybe new vamps just get a mug shot with the words crazy bitch stamped across it. Either way he ran. When vamps start running that usually my que to start blindly firing in their direction. Most vampires have super speed so me chasing is a waste of energy but like I said, this guy was new. So I pursued.

 

He’d just rounded the corner of the underpath and was up the stairs toWaterloo. Not after all this, not now I couldn’t let him get on a train.Waterloostation at midnight is pretty quiet on a week day, luckily for me it was Saturday. I dodged crowds of people waiting for the last train. I actually knocked an old man over with no time to apologise I got a few choice words shouted at my back. Where was he? I’d lost him. Shit. I needed height I needed to see over these people. I scanned the crowd for a bench, a trolley anything with enough height to give me a shot. There was an information stand in the middle of the station. I ran over to it and managed somewhat ungracefully to hoist myself on top. I looked around my eyes darting to every face, every back of head, everyone else.

 

There the bastard was. He was heading for the Jubilee Line. I had a clear shot. I pulled my bow out of its sheaf and readied an arrow. I took aim. The whole world slowed. I could hear my heart in my ears and I breathed slowly. I cleared my mind, everyone else disappeared. I aimed for his heart through his back. I breathed again trusting in my training, trusting in myself, trusting in my goal. I released the arrow. It soared through the crowd and sunk home into the back of his cape. He turned, stunned, I could see the whites of his eyes. His mouth was open but no noise came out. He was clutching his chest. The arrow head protruding neatly out of hid chest. Jackpot. Then from the outside of the puncture wound his skin and clothing began to crinkle and curl, smoke billowed out in thin grey ribbons. Then just as quickly as it had started it spread licking all over his body engulfing him until a man of fire stood in his place. Then the entire special of it all imploded. Sucked into oblivion as if he never existed. All vamps go their own way but the end results is the same. They’re very considerate that way. No body. No evidence makes my life easier. ”

 

Copywright Karla Mouncey-Jaggers

Any Editors Out There?

I am finding the editing process so painfully boring!! I find myself dreading sitting down and going through the gramma and sentence structure. There are much more exciting ideas and stories out there. I have decided I would like to find an Editor. Someone I can pay to go over all the niggaly bits that I hate.

Can anyone recommend someone affordable? I would much rather go from someones recommendation than a random google search.

Blood is Thicker Than Water

“I instinctively reached for my rucksack and then realised I had left it upstairs I searched around the room for anything wooden to use a stake. There was a pool table at the back of the bar, I would have to put a lot of strength into my blow but it would do. Vampires are so allergic to wood that as soon as I broke the skin it would sink easily into his heart like any sharpened stake. I ran to the table picked up the stake and then turned back to Ralph. Ben was standing next to the big vampire and although his voice wasn’t raised I could hear everything he was saying. “Brass put Ralph down now. You have about forty seconds until he dies and if you let that happen I will not be able to save you” Brass grunted but didn’t let go. Every other vampire in the room seemed alert and ready to strike. I didn’t care what he was saying my brother was choking to death. I ran towards them and raised the pool cue in the air to get more momentum into my blow.

Ben looked at me with a stern expression and I don’t know what made me trust him but I slowed my strike a little. I put the tip of the cue on the vampire’s skin and pushed slightly I felt him go ridged. “Let go or I put this threw your heart”. He turned his head slightly to me and spoke in a voice like he had just smoked a million cigarettes and downed a pint of whisky. “I will snap his neck before you can kill me” I knew what he said was true but I also knew that Ralph had just fallen into unconsciousness. I started to panic and panic made me not think straight. My only thought was that I needed to distract him, get him off of Ralph in the next ten seconds. I did a stupid thing I smashed my hand down onto an empty glass on the bar. I felt the glass bite into my hand and hot liquid seep down my fingers. Brass’ attention immediately switched to my hand and he let go of Ralph. I watched Ralph take a deep breath and knew I didn’t care what happened next.”

Chapters, Who Need Them!

After completing a second novel this November I looked back over my manuscripts and decided that they felt more like two parts of the same book. It was then that I decided to merge the two into Book 1: London’s Bleeding. Once decided I then had to start putting in Chapters.

When I write for the first time I tend to write one long string of prose without any chapters. I do try hard to put in paragraphs (mostly). This style of writing leads me to the rather long and drawn out process of adding chapters! I am aware that a book needs chapters if not for structure then so the reader can stop reading at a set moment rather than in the middle of the action. Some of the main feedback I got from readers was there need for chapters.

It was long long long process but after it was completed I was relieved. I now feel like I can set myself realistic editing goals for example I will complete the redraft of chapters 1-3 this week.

Overall I think chapters are needed for reader and writer. In the future I will try to put them in. Its just that Olivia talks too damn fast. 😉

NaNoWriMo Winner!!

This is just a small post to say that I just completed NaNoWriMo!!

Expect much more blogs and excerpts from the new book to follow soon!

NaNoWriMo and Talking with Kate

Firstly I want to apologise for my lack of blogs for the past few weeks! I have been spending all my spare time getting my wordcount for NaNoWriMo!

In have just hit 35k so I now feel far enough over the halfway mark to start blogging again! NaNo has been an amazing experience, I have learnt so many new skills! Firstly my typing has increased in speed I am finding that I can get at least 2000 words in two hours which is a big improvement. I am also discovering the joy of letting my characters do all the work!

I start with an idea or event that needs to happen and then I introduce it to Olivia to see how she deals with it. I have been overwhelmed with my imagination and I’m slightly worried that Olivia may actually be living in my head! 😉

Beside NaNo the last few weeks have also been very productive writingwise due in large part to an amazing friend. She pushed me to send my first three chapter to Kate a friend of hers who is published in three countries! I took the plunge and sent her the chapters. She took a while to respond which I thought meant she never would.

Last week I had accepted that she didn’t like the chapters and put it from my mind. Then I got an email back. I was shaking as opened it. I was convinced she was going to tell to give up. I couldn’t be more wrong. She really enjoyed my writing and wanted to talk to me in person.

After two hours of amazing conversation with Kate (in which I took five pages of notes) my head was spinning. She told me that she loved my writing style and I had a real chance of getting published. She said I need to finish my first draft. Get it as perfect as possible and when I’m ready she will help me get on the right track!

This has been an amazing month and once I finish my NaNo novel it will be my best ever writing month!

NaNoWriMo Buzz

So Nano has begun! I started early yesterday morning, I actually started my day an hour early to get some writing done! I was rehearsing all day and the performing in the evening. I managed to reach 2k in all the breaks and pauses.

What struck me most about the process was the buzz I got! Every time I reached another 100 words I got a little tummy flip! I’m loving getting back with Olivia, it’s like a big cuddle everytime I sit at my lap top.

I don’t want to ruin anything for the few who have read book 1 but there are some twists coming tour way! I am now on my way to my first organised write in !

It’s official my name is Karla and I am a NaNo addict!

Paul

“I approached Paul’s studio and knocked on the door with a sign that read replica weapons by appointment only. He opened it as if he he’d been waiting for me on the other side.

“Hi Paul” I greeted him walking inside

“Hello” he said immediately closing the door behind me. He never shook my hand or looked me in the eye.

His studio was more a workshop. It was a small room no wider that a train carriage but it must hve held thousands of projects.  At twenty two but he had been making replica weapons for ten years. I’d met him in an obscure forum for vampire conspiracy theorists  I rarely participated in blogs but I always kept my eyes open for anyone with genuine insight or skill. He had posted a thread about the similarities of London’s vampires to George Orwell’s 1984. Very intelligent boy but with the social skills of a pencil. His user name had a link to his website and two years on he was still my weapons man.

I handed Paul my broken bow and he took it tutting and focusing on the bow never on my face. Paul hadn’t filled out yet he still looked like a sixteen year old. He was taller than me but that wasn’t hard. His hair looked brushed and he wore Harry Potter style glasses. He always wore a logo t-shirt today it said Mass Effect what ever that was. He handed me a new bow which was an exact copy of my broken one. He never added new specs unless I asked for them and even then he had to copy a design. I think my bow was originally a replica of Paris’s bow fromTroy. He was brilliant at replicas but as far as I knew had never created anything original.

 

“You made this fast” I commented

“It was time” he said whilst examining the broken bow under a magnifying glass the size of diner plate.

“Time?”  I questioned

“Usually a bow only lasts four months with you, its been three months and twenty-five days” I laughed

“So you already had it made?”

“I know your patterns Liv” he flicked his eyes to me

“Thank you Paul” I genuinely meant that, I sat down on his sofa which seemed unused. My arm was beginning to throb and my neck ached.

“Your bleeding” he said and I looked at my hand where I’d touched my neck there was a dot of blood on it.

 

“Shit. Paul do you have a first aid kit?” he moved quickly under his desk and returned with a green box that was untouched, shop brought ready made. “Did your Mum make you buy this?”

“Yes” he smiled. I found a square of gauze with sticky on the sides and removed it from the box. I reached up and removed the bandage from my neck, the air hit the wound and I took a sharp intake of breath. Paul was suddenly sitting on the couch next to me. He was staring at the wound intently.

“You ok Paul?” I asked

“Yes” he responded eyes not leaving my neck.

“Why are you staring?” I asked being more direct with him

“Am I being rude?” he asked “I’ve never seen a real wound before, not in real life”

I understood, he played games of war for hours and watched filmic blood and guts everyday but he’d never come close to the reality of it. “How did it happen?” he asked.

“Animal bite” my automatic response, it was really starting to sting so I covered it with the gauze and stood up. Paul stood with me “Thanks for this” I motioned to the bow

“No problem” he went back to his desk as I let myself out there was something off about Paul and I hoped it wasn’t as malevolent as that last encounter had felt.”

 

NaNoWriMo plan?

It has been an incredibly hectic week, in my other life I am an actor and on Saturday night I performed a short sketch during a concert. Most of this week has been devoted to A, getting ready for that and B trying to recover from a horrible cold! However I can assure you that Olivia had never been far from my mind.
With NaNoWriMo looming just around the corner I am feeling a sense of excitement followed by OMG why am I doing this syndrome. At the moment I seem to have all the time in the world to write and now I have done the Olivia Everett book two outline I am gagging to start writing it. One of the main comments I have received from the small amount of readers I have is that they want to know more about Hugo. He is only mentioned in book one very minimally but 60% of readers have asked about him.
In my original outline he wasn’t mentioned at all but I feel that due to this feedback I need to at least keep him prominent. When I was writing my outline I couldn’t imagine how I am ever going to stop at the fifty thousand mark! There is so much to address and so much I want to explore with Olivia that I see this book being never-ending!

Watch this space for more NaNo related blogging once book two gets on the way!

Any other NaNoites out there feeling the same??

Warm Up Sprints for NaNoWriMo

During November I will be participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), this is the amazing feat of writing a 50,000 novel in 30 days. I am very excited about this challenge! I have chosen to write the second book of the Olivia Everett series and in order to prepare I am going to be doing some small writing exercises in order to ‘warm up’ for the marathon that is NaNoWriMo.

 

 

Getting to know my characters is very important to me, I think that knowing every detail about them is very important. This is a short exercise to get to know the idiosyncrasies and seemingly unimportant details of Olivia and Ben’s pockets.

 

The Contents of Olivia Everett’s rucksack

• Extra arrows
• Stale polos
• An empty water bottle
• Keys
• Oyster card
• Stakes
• Garlic essence
• Purse
• £24.07 in the purse
• 1 debit card
• 1 expired library card
• 1 café Nero loyalty card
• Scraps of paper
• 1 pencil
• 1 pen
• Iphone
• Plasters
• Bandages
• Safety pins
• Antiseptic wipes
• Grandmothers charm bracelet
• Grandmothers charm bag

The contents of Ben’s pockets

• Wallet
• Three debit cards
• £250.00 in cash
• £7.28 in change
• Oyster card
• Iphone
• Pack of mints
• Small daguerreotype of his wife and son
• Condom
• Keys to pub

 

 

If you would like to be writing buddies my NaNo user name is Mrsmj