Repost Party 1 of 3 : Chapter 2&3 with Picspirations

This is the start of our repost party ! I know there were supposed to be some one-shot stories first but I'm not sure about posting them just yet.

How It works

I'll just post the chapters and some things mentioned in the original post and maybe some extra stuff. Feel free to browse, lurk, ask questions, or just have fun !

I. Updates


II. Picspirations
III. Chapter 2 &3





Updates


Chapter 8 and 9 have been waiting pateintly on deck and  are just in need of tidying up. My writing procress is literally all over the place since I keep working on each chapter out of order. I've hopped from 10 to 11, to 9 and then the end. I know nothing about 12 and have sort of  lost count of how many chapters (no more than 15 though !) so we will see.

Picspirations

I am Reposting of picspirations for the main characters.

Juliet Wakefield  &  Detective Rainer

Clair & Martin

Clarice &  Colin

Claudia & Derek

Clara & Mr. Fierro

* I used some of them same celebrity-inspirations. Can you name them all ? Highlight below for answers

Emma Watson

Kate Walsh

Elizabeth Hurley

Tom Selleck (promo shot from Las Vegas. I think he looks pretty good)

Jonah Hill ( Yes, that's Jonah Hill)

Lacy Chabert

Victoria Beckham

Zachary Quinto

Camilla Belle

Kevin Zegers (Those cheekbones should be illegal)

III. Chapter 2 &3

When we left Chapter 1 Clara finds out her father didn't die. . . he was murdered and she is detective Rainer's # 1 suspect. 

Chapter 2

Seether - Broken

Amy Lee - Broken

Chapter 3

+1+ - The Word Spins Madly On - The Weepies

+2+ She is The Sunlight - Trading Yesterday 
+3+ Time Lapse Lifeline - Maria Taylor

Chapter 2  & Chapter 3

Character Interviews

House Cleaning

@Topaz
I forgot to link it but in my previous post I mentioned that I didn't want to pull a Free Spirits when it came to re-editing JNRR. Way back when I wrote a verison of Free Spirits that went like this, then I scrapped and rewrote it.

Alternatively (if you remember) section one ended very differently than it originally did, oh and it was written in third person.




Interviews
Okay everyorne so today we have some speical guest with us to answer a few questions and get us re-aquainted with them.

Sofia Alexander

LL : So, Sofia I know it has been a while but maybe you can re-introduce yourself

Sofia : Sure, My name is Sofia Madigan Alexander I'm 21 years old. I was born September 9th  1987 in Colorado, to a single mother. My mom and I were very close but after an accident she was placed in a hospital and I was sent into foster care when I was 14

LL : I'm so sorry

Sofia : It wasn't so bad. I was adopted by the rich and beautiful Angeline Duvall. She owns a chain of departmetns stores. She had another adopted daughter, Severine, and we went to high school together and are very close

LL : Wait, so if you were born in Colorado how did you end up in North Carolina ?

Sofia : My parents were originally from there and I was born there, so I was sent into foster care in North Carolina.

LL : Now things start to take a turn.

Sofia : Yes, there was a shooting at  a high school event, and I was badly injured. I was in and out of hospitals, alot of bad things happened, but when I was 19 I got back on my feet and I was living on my own.

LL : But that didn't last for long

Sofia : No, I  sort of met someone, someone from the wrong side of town. Tomas Alexander. He had a pretty tragic life like me except he didn't get so lucky. I guess we clicked.At the time he needed to get married so I married him, it was the first reckless decision I ever made. Somehow we feel in love and were officially married on December 28th 7 months after our first meeting. .

LL : Now before we get to your move to NYC, things got kind of messy for you two in Petal Brook

Sofia : Yes they did. I can't even begin to explain how badly drugs messed up my life. My adoptive family wasn't supporting me, I was trying to go to school and be a wife. Then Tomas just up and leave me. It all just got very overwhelming At first it was cocaine then  prescription drugs. I finally realized I needed to get clean when Tomas was diagnosed with HIV, I had to take care of him

LL : That must have been tough

Sofia : Yeah, I know *Glares*

LL : So then you moved to NYC

Sofia : Yes, things got a bit harder. I had to deal with his illness, my school, working it all became so much that I was tempted to see someone else. Things got really bad and Tomas decided it was best for the both of us if we had our marriaged annulled, But you see I had this one night stand. .. and I wasn't excalty careful so we couldn't get an annulment, it was just a big  mess

LL: But you did separate ?

Sofia : For a short time,I left the city and wen to a school in North Carolina for a while.I had some time to really find myself in religion and I learned how to forgive myself and have faith in the future. I know Tomas doesn't have forever and we want to have happy memories of each other.

LL : That's actually shocking

Sofia : Anyway, we live in Astoria now and I work as a nurses assistant. Tomas is taking classes and still does tattoing and sells art, he is so talented ! He is still infected and eveyday the illness is taking some from him.

LL : I guess we will hear more from you during Angel Black, White and Grey

Sofia : Yes, i'll be dealing with a part of my life I thought I had buried

LL : Now we have a few questions from my fans

Sofia : Okay *sips tea*

LL : Why don't you describe your and Tomas's sobriety ?

Sofia : I mean it's true that drugs have played a big part in our relationship. I've been clean  since becoming a mother and working as a nurse. I want to use my experience  to help those with substance abuse. As for Tomas I'll just say it's hard for him because certain drugs  help him with his. . . illness, He tries so hard though.

LL : Now, Let's talk about Adam the man you met in New York, do you still think about him

Sofia : I do but only in spirit. He reminds me of the life I could have one day. I have an Eiffel tower necklace to remind me of the places I want to go and the inspiration he gave. Maybe we will meet again years from now, but I  can't see us as more than friends.

LL : So, because my fans like to have a little fun they want to know how your SO is in bed ?

Sofia : Oh, um . . .well. Really ?! Do I have to ?

LL : Yes

Sofia : I guess our physical relationship has been a tumultuous journey to say the least, but I enjoy being close to him now. I guess that comes with knowing some one for a few years. Love in all its forms is a learning experience and their is never enought to learn !

LL : Thanks Sofia, You've been great !

Sofia :


Clara Delune

LL : Okay Clara can you tell us a little bit about yourself.

Clara : My name is Clara Cinderella DeLune. I was born April 19 1985 and raised in Rochester, New York where I attended The DeLune academy. I received numerous composing awards and was a highly gifted piano student and composer. I attented the  Univeristy of Rochester and graduated with honors in Musical Education. I  have a M.FA and while earning my Doctorate of Music Arts I started working at St. Augestine's a prestigious art days school. While working I  was engaged to an Italian Prince. I speak 3 languages, enjoy running marathons, shopping and--

LL : Wow, we get it. You're rich, smart pretty and pefect. What could go wrong ?

Clara : Well . . . I died.I ended up in the beautiful limbo called Night Fall on Litany Lane. Where I met my future best friend Emile. I also met my neighboor Mr. Fierro

LL : Tell us a little more about him

Clara : Um, well he's this rich-old fashinoned  mysteriously handsome albino that was really mean but ocassionaly nice to me with an deilishly polite sensibility

LL : Are you sure you aren't describing Edward Cullen ?

Clara : Positive

LL : Continue

Clara : Right, so he hires me as his maid so I can buy this amazing piano I want. I can't really explain it but I start to fall for him. Victor, the king of Nighfall, isn't happy about that because he wants me to himself.

LL : Then things take a turn


 Clara : I'l say. it turns out Mr. Fierro is my step-grandfather and he was very much in love with my grandmother who I very strongly resemble. Apparently she and my grandfather killed him 50 years ago.Since then he has a grudge against the entire DeLune family. then when my grandmother died (2 years before I did) they met again after-life and got married

LL : NO !

Clara : I know, but it turns out that while my grandmother did love him, it wasn't enough to keep them together.

LL : How terrible

Clara : Yes, so she became a Spectre or ghost and it turns out she killed me because she was afraid her youthful husband was infaturated with me because I was young, beautiful and alive. She wanted nothing more than for him to join her for eternity.

LL : That's a nice story

Clara Any way . . . long story short I ended up sacrificing myself for Mr. Fierro and by doing so we both got a second chance

LL : (:

Clara : But then my crazy grandmother decided to get revenge and begins possesing me, like the exorcist,  and is hell bent of permantly possesing me so she and Fierro can be together; mind, body and soul. They kidnap me for months.What's worse is I think a small part of him wanted her plan to succced.*glares*

LL : But you were able to convince her into letting you go.

Clara : Yes, but first My grandfather had to die, Fierro had to die and I got my face sliced into.

LL : Right, but sine your face was damaged you no linger resemble you grandmother, so if he does love you it's not because you look like her.

Clara :Hmm, I never thought of it that way

LL : But continue

Clara : Right, it turns our Fierro wasn't really dead and I was pregnant and had a daughter with dark hair, ashen skin and large colorless eyes. My father was so furious. He hated her becusae she was differnt, illegeimae and he also had this crazy idea that Fierro kidnapped me and forced me to have Roasile

LL : Er . . .

Clara : Anyway it  turns out Victor ---

LL : Who is now a Spectre and looking for revenge.

Clara : Right, and what better time to do it when  my daughter, the only child I'll ever have, life is on the line.

LL : How ter-

Clara : Don't. It turns out Victor had stolen my daughter's soul for himself. He was trying to make himself more human. Without a soul Rosalie would never die and she would forever be apart of  him. So he proposed that one of us gives her our soul so she could be normal. Of course that meant one of had to murder the other

LL : oh, um. did you get it back ? Her soul, I mean ?

Clara :  Yes, while Lucie is still bitter, she began to care for her great-granddaughter and felt responsible for the way my father treated her. So, Lucie helped ups.Let's just say Rosalie is a whole of two halves.

LL : How ?

Clara : I had to kill someone *casually sips wine*. Anyway I decided it was best Rosalie not live with me for a while, so I can sort things out with my family.

LL : So. . . you can't die ?

Clara : I guess. It means I have to watch my friends and family die. Including Rose and because of complicaitons I can't have anymore children so I--we'll be alone till the end of time and then some.

LL : Wow

Clara : Yeah, but it's not like there is going to be a nuclear war that could drastically reduce the female population where bio-technology and cybernetics will rise over Art and Culture

LL : Um, yeah either way just stay on the East Coast. Now Clara we  have some quesitons from readers.

Clara : Okay

LL : First, can you tell us a little about your family and where they live ?

Clara: Well, all my siblings live in Rochester. Um, here is a family tree.

I'm not super close to my inlaws but I get along with Colin the most because we both like Joss Whedon. Derek and I have a love/hate thing going on.

LL : Okay so once again because I'm kind of a tease, the fans want to know what are brooding protagonist is like in bed.

Clara : *sighs* let me put it this way, I lived with a red blooded Italian man who mastered the violin with and without a bow, it's just not really fair to compare.

LL : Wait what ?

Clara : Oh, um. I guess that's it for today, we had a great time

LL : That's my line. I do  hope this was helpful and a little fun. Maybe I can convince them to stick around for comments (:

Our JNRR Re-post Party is going to be starting soon ! Maybe I can encourage SH to co-host !

Zero

I wish I could be prolific, I wish I could hype myself up to something that was worth having a count down. So I'll just be honest.

I died

Well a part of me did. As many of you know I have been through more than I thought I could handle.

I was so consumed for months. So much so that I forgot about what I hadn't finished

This journey

This strange fictional journey that I have taken with all of you.

I've been in and out of therapy learning all the things I want to do again : eating, hold my kids, puting on make up, cooking (lol, jk I still have a sense of humor)

But even more so I kept staring at my Mac book gathering dust in the corner and I rembered what I could still do, and the places (though fictional) I could still go (ecspcially when I kept hearing that one Adele song).

This journey is going to start on memory lane

What does that mean ?





It means I want to finish the story of Clara Delune and (hopefully) Sofia Alexander. And in In order to do so we must start at the beginning.


Don't worry not the very begining but we will start with Je Regrette Rien, which I have re-edited

Once again don't worry I didn't do what I did with the ending of Free Spirits.

I wanted JNRR to be a mystery, to make it a more active story, but I buried the clues in a lot of unnecessary misdirection, I didn't give you a chance to get the gist of what was really going on.

The structure of the story is still the same with only slight changes. We'll take it slow and start with chapter 2 and 3 (Chapter 1 and the prlogue are still the same) and re-post them.

It will be quick and painless.

In the mean time I want to reacquaint you with the stories in a 2 part post

Post 1
Character Interviews
I am going to do  "character interviews" with our heroines to help reestabilish everything, nothing to invasive or off script but if you have questions about a certain character that our heroines can answer let me know.

Post 2
One-Shots
Two original mini-stories that take place in the Litany Lane and Angels universe, most of these are little things I've written and never had a place for.

I hope you all will join me and we can have a little fun along the way.

LL

It's Been A Long Road

As most of you know it has been a long road for me and for the members of Cobalt. In the middle of everything I have been through I was fortunate enough to finish, The Harder They Fall. It was a way for me to deal with all of the issues I was dealing iwth


With that said it has been very difficult for me to get back to Je Ne Regrette Rien and even Angel Black White and Gray because these works have a bit more of me and my emotions in them.


To be honest I don't know how long it will take me to get back to the person I read in my  previous posts.


However for a few minutes out of the day when I am able to interact with readers it really does brighten my day. I've gotten a lot of support from Cobalt fans and that has meant the world to me. I want to be able to give something back, so I hope this post helps.



I'm aware the LA magazine has some information regarding some of the things that have been happening and I must agree that JB's comment on our tragedy speaks volumes. and by comment I mean that my mother was a matriarch in a modern sense of the word and we will never stop mourning her.
 

For those of you who are friends I'm willing to share more personal thoughts



I'd like to dedicate the remainder of Je Ne Regrette Rien to her.




Chapter 6 

It has been a long time. Chapter 6 was a filler chaper but it bares somes connection to August, the short story collection I wrote. Chapter 6 acknowledges that Claudia and Mr. Fierro have met before (he has also met Clair but she doesn't remember). Rosalie just happens to look a lot like her parents so Claudia but two and two together.

Music

Music has always been apart of my life and I have found some inspirational songs to keep me going and one song that I absolutely love, but is not featured on this playlist

Chapter 7

There are so many parts  of this chapter that makes me uneasy and I fought with myself on whether I should change it but I didn't, so I ask you all not to hold back on anything.

+1+ - Supermassve Black Hole - Muse
+2+ - Unchained Melody- Righteous Brothers
+3+ - Warm Whispers - Missy Higgins
+ 4+ Crash Into Me - Dave Matthews

Just posting this is making me feel better already. (:

Chapter 7

Sparkle, Sparkle

 Will's End


I have been struggling so much with my challenge piece and now SH has raised the bar. Since I guess I have the power I would "christian" it cannon. It had a few rough spots for example Mr. Fierro's "tear stains" humanize him to much but you could almost be my ghost writer

" I wished I could stop and capture the moment but, anyone I would share it with was already here."
My favorite line.

I like the Kayla/Emile/Clara interaction it was something light hearted compared to the "darker" material we often dabble in. 

Pictures of You
Now that we have rounded out our suspects cast I want to point out one of the reasons I choose the photos in the picspiration post was because of the expressions the people in the photos had. I wanted them to somewhat connect with the personalities of the characters.

Chapter 6
This chapter is a little different. I really wanted this story to stand alone but chapter six does reference something that happens in the first "anthology" in August. It is  not a  major connection and you don't even need to re-read it. I'll explain in the author's note.


Rainer receives some mysterious letters in her mailbox and Juliet gaines some insight into Clara's mind but does she really know what she is thinking ? Well, Clara seems to have a lot of thinking to do now that she is engaged but more importantly who is Cal ?



Playlist


+1+ -Lux Aternea - Clint Manswell
+2+  You Could Be Happy - Snow Patrol

CHAPTER SIX

I flew to close to the sun

In my attempts to get ahead of JNRR I began working on the longest and most pivotal chapter. I had found the perfect place to hide from my kids set my ipod to shuffle and I started putting the pieces together. . . and then I lost the entire file.

It's gone . I replaced the file with my notes.

Fortunatley re writing will be easier and it won't effect my posting flow.. . hopefully

LOL, Shawna

I too was planning on doing an April Fool's Joke in which I revealed in whatever chapter of JNRR that I was working on that Juliet Wakefield was really a doctor and Clara was a mental patient and LL-JNRR was the results of her hallucinations and the other characters in the novel were all people who worked in the hospital. I know it sounds like Sucker Punch.

It would have been to much work to make it convincing

I also had a tiny feeling Encounters was written on the fly because I did some tiny editing to LL and during Mr. Fierro's description I changed the word "carvat" to "tie"

Like +

SH mentioned her favorite serial was Hidden and I decided to declare Spirits and Angel to be my favorite. I feel as if it is really solid with the other works there is some shakeness, for example

Free Spirits - Tomas leaving for New York and staying could have been better explained. It's the one tiny apart that I don't like.

Litany Lane - I would probably do away with the "political-fairytale" ascpect I was going for

HOF -I debated on wheather to add flashbacks between Lucie and Addison inbetween the present day story and maybe it would have fleshed it out more, but this isn't a novel

DSI - Same as above I would have put more "episodes" of what happened in the three years past and I probably would have given Clara a different love interest (hint she was supposed to be  fall in love with a busboy/musician at her grandparents restaurant for 3 chapters but I thought it would be more emotional if I killed of a character already introduced.)

Chapter 5

Everyone is back in New York and just when Clara thought she knew what to expect she finds her whole family has been taken into police custody and she's next.

Playlist

+1+ - All Of This Past - Sara Bettens

+2+ - The Entertainer -Scott  Joplin

+3+ - Happiness - The Fray (it's been a while since a Fray song)

CHAPTER FIVE

Now with more pictures and less text ?

* The post font was bothering me. 

 Je' Ne Regrette Rien : Chapter 3

Chapter three was pretty straight foward I know it may have raised a few more questions but it is a mystery. I'm really hoping to have more Emile in this story because he is a character I really like.

Also I hit an unexpected stride with JNRR but I promise to take a post to catch up with Tomas and Sofia.





Chapter 4

Pictures

Yes as the title indicates I will try to place more pictures into this story. I've always felt that the story didn't have the right tone for pictures but I found some I liked. I wish I had more to blog about.

Clara is in England but everyone seems to be hiding something.. .even Rosalie, Mr. Fierro's moving back to New York and if Oleanders killed Martin that must mean. . .

Playlist

This chapter doesn't really have a playlist but I decided to throw in some Einaudi because his music worked so well in Desert Sand Iris.

Chapter FOUR