Die For Me Again (Rewrite Begins!)

Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that a few months ago I finally finished the rewrite of Shadows On The Wall. I delivered to the manuscript (about 54,000 words) to Editor Pat and she had been diligently working on the edits since then. Notice, I write 'diligently' but there's not been much 'gentle' about it. I often get into the trap of assuming you all can see exactly what is in my head, so I don't write it out. Of course, the majority of you readers are not, in fact, mind readers, so this is a problem. I suspect that once I receive the manuscript back I will be adding a solid 5000 words to it.

Whilst I wait, though, I have grown bored! In addition to tearing up Pinterest with Die For Me Again boards, I have begun the rewrite on said novel. It is going absolutely swimmingly! I forgot how much I love this book and it's characters. Well, that's not hard seeing as Angela Estrada doesn't particularly love me back. All the same, I adore her and writing her story gives me a lot of smiles.

Thus far, I have completed the newly added prologue, and the first two chapters. I have kept in mind Editor Pat's complaints with SOTW, so hopefully I shall stay out of the same traps I have fallen into on the last two books.

On a side note about SOTW, I have added it to Goodreads, sans a cover or blurb, but you may add it there To Be Read!

My Writing Board has morphed into the Post-Writing Board with a checklist for SOTW about a mile long...of which only 3 things have been checked off. However, I am hoping it will go rather faster once I actually have the book again.


As always, check me out on Facebook for slightly less irregular updates! Until then, aufwiedersehen!

From Cam to Ange : )

Angela Estrada

When Being Happy Becomes A Problem

So, I'm pretty content at the moment. Yep. I mean, sure, there are a few things that I would love to change (having to work in customer service, oversleeping the alarm everyday, basically talking to myself and receiving odd looks for it), but on the whole I've been fairly happy in the last month.

I've settled in at the new job, got rid of the troublesome roommate, and I've been very adventurous in the kitchen lately. I'm practically on cloud nine.

Are you wondering why it almost sounds as though I am complaining?

Well, see here's the problem: I'm rewriting Shadows On The Wall. What, you mean that one sentence doesn't answer all your questions? I suppose I will explain then.

When I originally wrote Shadows On the Wall it was the spring of 2006. My sophomore year of high school, and also the year I passed the CA HS Proficiency Exam and left high school behind forever. It was the year I got my license, my first job, and we moved from Modesto to Oroville. BIG Year. (I also started writing Die For Me Again, but that was in the autumn.)

In the Spring of 2006 I let myself fall in deep deep like with someone entirely unsuitable and unavailable to me. I already loved this boy as a friend, so it was doubly bad. Unwittingly, he ended up breaking my heart that spring, or rather, I let my heart break over him. He really didn't do anything to break it, so I shouldn't blame him.

Well, those of you who don't know me all that well will not realize how catastrophic this was. I don't just get crushes on guys, when I decide I like them I go head over freaking high heels and totally lose my heart. No, really, I don't do anything halfway, especially not love. So while this wonderful boy thought we were just really good friends, I was in fact losing my mind over why he didn't like me in the same way.

When I realized he never would, and that I couldn't simply be 'just friends' with him, my heart did a weepy little break in two and I haven't been the same since. I believe that was the first time my heart was truly broken. (There have honestly only been two times in twenty-two years).

In the year following this heart break I completed two novels in the Immortal World series, one and a half standalone novels, and droves upon droves of weepy heartbroken prose.

Have you caught on yet? When I am heartbroken I write like crazy. And apparently, I write rather well because two of the most popular IW books came out of utter heartbreak.

I am now faced with two distinctly different problems, both resulting from the fact that I am in a happy state of mind currently:

1. I can't seem to write easily when I am happy.
2. Shadows On The Wall is a very emotionally stormy book, with deep lows--something that is quite hard to write from a good mood.

The answer? I'm not sure. I suppose I could go out and find some completely unsuitable man to fall head over heels for, in the hopes that he will tear my heart asunder and leave me a wasted shell of a woman....but that seems like an awful lot of work, and plus, there really aren't any worthy males to be had at the moment.

Nope, I just don't know. It's a problem, that is for certain.

Suggestions are welcome (with the understanding that, depending upon my mood, I may rip them apart or take them out of context or do any number of annoying/shannon-like things with them).