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

I am really lost for a title ?

Challenge !

 

Recently Shawna and I agreed to switch things up with a little challenge in which I would write a (correct me if I'm wrong) side story to the Veritas series. I choose this  because I used to love science fiction when I was teenager.  I understand this is cyberpunk so we will see how it goes ! Any advice ?

Je' Ne Regrette Rien 


I really did not think I would be able to update with how hectic things have been, but after moving into a new house I am finding myself with so much free time, just listening to music.

Picspirations

I though I might give picks for the rest of the DeLune family. I found myself inadvertently choosing certain pictures for a reason.

Clair DeLune (47)

Elizabeth Hurley

Claudia (30) & Derek (28)

Victoria Beckham

Zachary Quinto

Clarice (28) & Colin (35)

Lacy Chabert

 

Jesse Tyler Fergunson

  

Rosalie (4) & Clara (26) and Mr. Fierro (29) (81)

Suri Cruise*

Katie Holmes

Kevin Zegers

Formatting that last one took me almost 30 minutes

* I feel bad for posting a picture of her, but her outfit is perfect.



Andover House

Pink House in New York

I don't have one for Martin DeLune yet
Chapter 3

Rainer is accusing Clara, Clara is accusing Mr. Fierro, Mr. Fierro is accusing Clara, Juliet is accusing everyone and why do they keep mentioning Thanksgiving ?

Playlist

+1+ - The Word Spins Madly On - The Weepies
+2+ She is The Sunlight - Trading Yesterday
+3+ TIme Lapse Lifeline - Maria Taylor

Chapter 3

I hope you don't get whiplash (:

ABWG Preview

Chapter one is complete so I decided to post it just to give you a taste. I have been holding on to this long before it was requested and putting it out there helps to shape the rest.

So, go ahead and read it and then under the cut there will be extra information about it.


Playlist

 The music is not as strict for chapter one but as the story goes on it gets more exact. One song absolutely makes this story but we haven't gotten there yet. For some reason the playlist is acting up so a link can be found here

All the Way Down - Gale Hansard
Near To You - A fine Frenzy

Chapter 1, Angel Black, White and Gray






ABWG Section

I know strange to start a story about Sofia off with Tomas' POV but I couldn't stop myself that was how it came to me. As I mentioned I am a big fan of Tomas and I could kick myself for the times that I had to stop from writing him like another male character.

I think the other reason I did this because this is probably the first installment we are going to have where Tomas is actually not on drugs so that is something to think about in regards to how he is trying to function. I wish I had more to say about Sofia but that will come in later.

I find that this story will have similarities with UL2 I couldn't help but to use it for inspiration. I hope you don't mind SH !

Je Ne' Regrette Rien

Chapter 1 and Prologue

This chapter was just a little head start. I realize that it may have seemed like Clara doesn't have a daughter but she was lying to Rainer. I know I failed the Bechdel Test in every other story and someone mentioned how well I was doing here but it was almost unintentional

Pictures

Juliet is quite obviously based on Emma Watson

Detectvive Olive Rainer, I can picture Kate Walsh

Becuase I always pick a new one Natalie Portman in her Dior ad reminded me of Clara.

Chapter 2, JNRR

Chapter 1 and 2 were originally one chapter but I split them up for "tension" but I feel like this is a god set-up point.

Connections

In a complete non-cannon way the events that happen between chapter 1 and 2 of JNRR would be Standing In The Rain. But ABWG takes place in Summer 2010 and JNRR takes place in December 2011 so therefore it can not actually happen it just might explain why Clara appeared the way she did when I wrote that.

Chapter 2

So, where is Clara going now that she has her sister's passport ?

Playlist
Features 2 versions of the same song Broken by Seether and Amy Lee.

Chapter 2

Which Web Serial Is Up To Bat ? ( AKA WHAT AN UPDATE !)

@ Shawna 

Original Spirits
SH kept telling me how inspired she was by the orginal spirits and I just recently read over it and I realize I could never flesh out that story properly. I can see the inspiration used in Veritas I always said it wasn't the kind of story I could tell but it was one you told beautifully. It's all yours if you want it !

Methodology
I was conflicted on which Web serial to post first. orginally I wanted to post whichever one was 10k first but they both reached that point, so that went out the window. Angel : Black White & Gray will be shorter than Je Ne' Regrette Rien.

Recap

Je Ne' Regrette Rien

Incase you couldn't telll I consider this the fifth installment in the Litany Lane series because I consider August a part on it's own  and I love the word pentalogy. Admittedly "Paranormal Mystery" may have been a slight understatement but I'll let  you be the judge of that.

Angel : Black, White and Gray

I knew I had to keep up with the name thematic here but I wanted to explore black, white and gray areas of life. I've mentioned numerous time that this story will cover the loose ends in Dark Ange land I'm sure people who know me will point out to me when I get to "real" but it a large part of the process. Also I think the 'trailer' was meant to come across as a little more abstract.


Click To see the first chapter of . . .

Why ?

I have such big plans for ABWG and there is so much that  still needs to come together for it to feel real. ABWG and JNRR are on two complelty different planes, the somewhat "surrealism" tone of JNRR made it so easy to write. I really need ABWG to be perfect before I start posting it.



JNRR Prologue and Chapter 1

There is not much to say except this takes place 6 months after Desert Sand Iris. Quite a few chapters are already written so maybe I will inter-post this with ABWG . This will give me something to do while I am taking breaks from writing my memoir !

As always I've been hoarding this chapter since November so it's sad to see it go.

Music

Prologue (auto-music !)

Chapter 1

+1+ - Bodecia - Enya

 Here we go . . .

Prologue

Chapter 1