Letting go of some of my favorite songs

Blog Stuff

I usually say in comments that I'm going to blog about somethings so here goes.

HASA

HIV/AIDS Service Administration ( HASA ) is a real institution in New York City. They do provide public housing to HIV/AIDS patients. I choose Mott Haven because of it's historical neighborhood and growing artist population. An apartment twice the size of a Manhattan apartment is 900-1200 dollars a month as opposed to 1600.

Character Portrayal

I originally wrote in a character who was supposed to be a neighbor in the building who ran a daycare (hence the broken toys and children paintings) but she didn't fit as an entire character into my final draft.

Conversation

Tomas and Sofia's conversation in Lithuania goes as follows

"I love you . . . you are very beautiful to me"

"I'm sorry I don't speak Lithuanian"

It's supposed to be a little tongue-and-cheek, because he doesn't think she understands him.

Chapter 15


Playlist

I.

+1+ - It's not over- Secondhand serenade

+2+ - This I swear - Nick Lachey (yeah, I know)

+3+ - Bless the Broken Road - Selah

+4+ - Sorry, blame It on me - Akon

Chapter 15 - God

And then things get wierd . . . but not what you think.

So, this is going to be a little odd but I have the last few (ie more than 3 less than 10) chapters of S&A. I didn't realize how far along I was when I started posting Litany Lane. So I think I'm going to switch gears and post the next chapters. I'd love to have additional opinions if this is a little to confusing. They just kept attacking me and I gave in ! .

S&A

So, while getting back into S&A mode I looked over some stuff and saw another UL similarities in chapter 4.

“Ever since I first moved here I felt like I’m losing parts of who I was and I just needed a little of the old me. . . please forgive me”

hello to you too

(Tuesday, September 22, 2009)

Now in UL

I gave a smile to the guard and walked to Sawyer’s bed, his eyes were half open.

“You did it ?” He asked

Hello to you too.

(September 6, 2009 )

Maybe I stole for Shawna?

Getting back in the game

Okay, so to get us back in the game feel free to skim the last 2-3 chapters. Let's see how this goes I know it's been too long.

Anywho, here we go

Playlist

I

+1+ - Daylight - Matt & Kim

II.

+2+ - No One - Alicia Keys

III.

+3+ Say it right - Nellie Furtado

+4+ It Ends Tonight - All American Rejects

Chapter 14 : Temporary

I need to work on titles

What's Going On

Kayla

First off I updated the inspirations page to include Kayla (i e It's Will smith's daughter). Also someone brought it to my attention about the bear, and like I said I worked myself into a plot whole with that. . . I just thought it would be creepy ?

Website

I've also been tinkering with the website (the graphics dept. is swamped) to make the "chapters" page look better. I am tempted to change the layout because when I add the text it double spaces and I have to delete them, which is actually a good editing technique.

Blogging

So, this is a blog and I feel like I'm not doing enough blogging. Because this is my work blog and my way to connect to readers I'm going to try and do that. I would love to blog more about Litany Lane but I think I'll wait a few more chapters before I get more in depth

I would like to take a second and say that I mean to offend no one with the Litany Lane's premise, It was inspired by a tinsey-tiny bit by The Lovely Bones and a few other things.

When I look at my outlines and see the endings I find myself concerned about my future at Cobalt. I've met alot of wonderful writers and hope I can keep up the same pace as them.

(:

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 is either going to be the make it or break it as far as plots go. I'm trying hard not to feel guilty for suspending reality but still feel in control. If I were to label this Chapter I would call it Lonely.

Music

Scene of Love - Michael Nyman

++Chapter 3 ++

Keep on Truckin' !

***Shawna ***

First I want to congratulate Shawna for finishing her awesome story, it just shows that she deserves her golden leaflet. I loved getting to know Shawna through her story and our mutual comments.

I was concerned about Shawna during her writer's block and when she was having a hard time but I guess times like those bring out the best and I think we were all clapping at the end, okay just me ?

Music

So, just a note on the music. I will be using mostly modern-classical which is usually (here goes my secret) Musical Scores, meaning I wouldn't take song titles literally.

Clarifications

I just want to get a few Geographical (my worst subject) things straight.

1. Litany Village is a "Town" in Nightfall
2. Litany Lane is a street (well, Cul de sac) in Litany Village

Emile and Clara

In the comments someone asked why Emile dressed like Fierro and I originally had a sentence where Emile says that Mr. Fierro has rubbed off on him but for some reason it seemed really awkward (not for the reasons you think). Also ,becuase it was also mentioned in the comments, Emile died in 2002 and the story takes place in 2007 (don't ask me why, it just does)

A little note about Clara is that her "I saw the roses" line was supposed to be her "I carried a watermelon" line.


Chapter 3

*there are no pictures for this one, I just couldn't find any ):, but here is an Alternative S&A image.

I only have one song that you MUST listen to, it's pretty nice.

Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap

LALA

Hide And Seek - Imogen Heap

Chapter 3


P.S

I'll probably post chapters four and five together or five and six. . . I don't know yet.

Thank You

I wanted to thank you all for the feedback.

I do have some inspirations for Litany Lane

Clara
Clara is based loosely on Eva Green and Leighton Meester. For some reason she is one of the few characters who has a first and last name.

Mr. Fierro
I don't know if it's implied and I don't plan on mentioning it, but since so many of you thought of Edward Cullen. Mr. Fierro's character is an Albino (like in Cold Mountain or Da Vinci Code), but I imagine him as a young Orlando Bloom.

Emile
I was tempted to name him Emmet but I liked his name becase it looks like smile. I also have a habit of giving characters french names and irish names (i e : Fierro). His look is based on Rick Fox or Shemar Moore

Ms. Ginger
I felt like a cop-out giving a redhead the last name Ginger but it stuck.

All of this inspirations can be seen Here

As for the houses and other inspirations I have a nice slide show here (passwords is books1)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also the reason the URL's are labeled BH is because the title was originally Beneath Heaven.

___


Chapter 2

Here is the playlist (Thanks Shawna for the Jimmy Eat World Song)

Let's try something

Okay everyone I know it's been a while but as I promised in my last entry I have been working on something new. . . but at the same time I have been itching to get 2 more chapter out of S&A. I do know that there will probably be maybe 5 more chapters left in S&A but I have decided to put that aside for now.

So as far as this new project what started out as a short story is slowly coming in at 13,000 at three chapters so it's not such a short story.

The Idea

So the inspiration for the story is inspired by one of my favorite actors and is a slight political-fairytale-esque story, it's a little scary, a little sci-fi but let's just see what happens.

Re-reading UL also helped me to get the strength to put this up.

I'd love to hear all of your feedback. I've had some new found time to work on this, so here goes.


Litany Lane

"The story of what happens after. . ."

Prologue

Chapter 1

The playlist is a little. . . out there but here it goes. I'll be adding songs to it as I go.

Notes and Things

Intermission

Just a little warning I will be taking a break from Spirits & Angels. I feel like it's a good point between sections and instead will be posting a short story I've been working on. The Short story is going to be less 20,000 words and when it is done I'll get back to S & A.

Since the short story is almost done and I'll just be posting 3-4K chapters plus aprologue and epilogue. This will give me time to devolve further into the world of S&A.

After that I'm seriously considering early retirement from writing, but more on that later.


Chapter 13

Rambling
Thank you for the feedback on chapter 13, I was unsure about putting it up together but there was no good breaking point. Chapter 13 was tough because I had written up a new outline, originally Sofia wasn't going to leave but it felt like the right direction.

I think the two are going to start learning more about their relationship to each other. I will admit I did "lie" because I knew how Sofia really got pregnant, it was important for her to be in complete denial because waaay back in New Angel people think that all foster kids use drugs. . .

Shawna
I know I stole Winston but I really wanted the name of a place in North Carolina

Background
This chapter was different in that I heard "Why Georgia Why" and wanted to write a chapter for it way back since chapter 4. I knew it would involve someone on an empty highway (which is no where near what the song is about) with a destination.

I also hesitated with the back-and-forth but I loved the way SH did it that I thought I'd give it a try. Also I didn't want it to come off too linear.

Music
As, 'Perri' mentioned I used a lot of country music and that was intentional. Like I said I considered writing Sofia's time in NC by itself and wanted to use all country music to set a tone but It just didn't work out that way.

Miranda Lambert - I like her voice and recently saw her on a Wal Mart commerical.

Sober by Kelly Clarkson - That section was also written for this particular song. It worked well because the chapter takes place over 3 months.

Retrospective & Numerals
In my last post I mentioned I did something rather tricky and it was in IV. I was afraid of overdoing the retrospective. Here is how it went

1. Sofia is presently in the car with Tomas flashing back to Washington Square park
2. Sofia is in Washington Square park flashing back to arriving at Severine's that morning where she is flashing back to 2 months ago. Then it all folds up to her leaving Severine's and going back to the beginning of IV where she is in the park.

Did that make sense ?

As far as Numerals go, I threw them in there last minute to differentiate the past from the present.

Pictures
Sofia's first outfit is based on this picture (via Life Magazine) of Jackie O that is also the picture for XIII that was distorted, in another version (I don't have) you can see that she is barefoot.

Also I found this website where I may from time to time post picture of the chapter's outfits. Here are some things I could see Sofia wearing in this chapter.


What to expect . . .

I really have ta sense of what I want from the characters in this and the following chapters, Sometimes I feel like I introduce so many secondary characters but it's just an example of how I feel my life has been.

I think I have put a little more of myself and life in these next two chapters.

Thanks

- LL

A Little Gift

here is a link for my new project !

" I will say that it will reflect on some of my interest as a teenager including science fiction, horror, paranormal and whimsical fantasy fairytale"