91,303 words

I did it.

I effing did it.

Spiders is finished. As of today on 3:46 PM local time, the first draft of the novel is finished. (But holy mackerel, the prologue is NOT going to be in the final draft.)

Dance party time!

And let's have some Band (the official band of the novel) to celebrate:



*memes do not belong to me*

Never mind

I just saw Joyce Carol Oates post on Twitter, calling the latest episode of Girls "a poignant new feminism". She likes Lena Dunham and thinks she is relevant and all that.

And this is where my love affair with Ms. Oates comes to an end. I just like her now.
Oh Angela Carter, never let me down.

World Book Night

For those unfamiliar with this wonderful annual tradition, take a gander over here at the site and learn a bit more. Every year, on April 23rd (Shakespeare's birthday), people go out with free books provided by the folks at World Book Night to give out to the public (mostly light or non-readers). This year, I was chosen to be a giver! And I got my first choice book: Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith (and yes, I did read this last year and chose it as my third favorite book of 2012)!

I'm super stoked, mostly because it allows me two things: 1) to get out of my comfort zone and 2) have some decent excuse to give out free books to random people.

So yeah, this is a thing that is happening. Soon.

Never mind, everyone!

No wedding scene. Spiders says "naw, no wedding! You don't wanna write that, don't ya? S*** goes bad now, okay?"

Okay, Spiders. If you say so...



This does explain why I was hesitant to work on the novel for a while.

*meme does not belong to me*

I was mad for a while...

when I read this article by Joyce Carol Oates concerning Lena Dunham (who I SEVERELY dislike with a passion). But after reading it, I realized something. It is the equivalent of

Ms. Oates offers very little to no praise for Ms. Dunham herself, doesn't exhibit any true emotion other than "this is a thing that is happening".

Never mind, not mad anymore. You've been forgiven, Ms. Oates.

*meme does not belong to me*

Aww dammit...

After working on Spiders and thinking about how much fun NaNoWriMo was, I think I want to do it again this year.

Dammit.

But I won't compete for prizes, but do it for the fun stuff. After all, like I said before, I already won the best prize you could get. I'll still post on the boards and try to participate in local events. It is something I shouldn't have said "eh" to after all that. I do enjoy the rush of plotting something and putting it together. Maybe I can revise an older story, like Thorns or even Spiders! Or write another feminist thriller/horror thingy. That would be really neat.

We'll see what the year has to offer and go from there.

Random-Ass Facts about My Current Novel Project

While hard at working on A Wilderness of Spiders, I came up with a random thing to procrastinate on... a random list of facts about the project.

Read at your own discretion (or boredom, same thing).

• This was LOOSELY inspired by my time as a bridesmaid for my best friend's wedding. It was thankfully not chaotic and tragic like the events of the novel (it was actually a huge blast and there was a mariachi band). And maybe the movie Bridesmaids, even though I have never seen it. I heard it was good...

• An addendum to the first fact: none of the characters were based on anyone I knew in the wedding party. Everyone was awesome and drama-free!

• One of the main characters was loosely inspired by my little sister. She approves of this. :D

• The novel plays with the legend of how bridesmaids were supposed to be the guards of the bride in tradition. 

• Yes, there is a stab at Fifty Shades of Grey. You're welcome.

• The main character listens to this song as she travels to the bride's place. I love this band.

• I may or may have not deliberately named three characters after two Talking Heads members and The Cars' drummer... o_o; (You get a prize if you guess the connection to two of the musicians!)

• An early title for it was Nowhere to Hide and then West End Girls (after the Pet Shop Boys song).

• It is supposed to be my attempt at a feminist mystery/thriller. I want that genre to exist so badly. Get on it, writers! I don't want to invent it!

• It takes place about two weeks before the 2012 elections. So when I was planning it, I had no effing clue who was going to become President. I wanted to capture the pre-election tensions going on around the time. (Not times we all want to recall, eh?)

• It takes place in the span of ten days. The prologue and epilogue are the exceptions, taking place in late 2004 and in mid 2013, respectfully.

• There wasn't supposed to be a wedding scene, but I added it in after thinking of it as a "deleted scene" and realized how awesome it would be if it was actually in there.

• I created my first atheist character in this novel. She's really awesome.

• The common connection that three of the characters have is a shared love for the music of The Band. And yes, they listen to The Last Waltz a lot in the novel.

• One character names "Gangnam Style" as her favorite song of the year.

• One of the police officers was named after a suggestion by my little sister's friend. Shout-out to her!

• Three characters from a previous novel idea make cameos in here. WTF, y'all? Stay in your own universe!

• And finally... this is the novel's official theme song.

Have I sufficiently bored you yet? No? Then go look at some LOLcats or something. Why are you still here? Here, have a random picture.

*meme does not belong to me*