Des bouts par-ci par-là

Exams in one week -
10 from Monday to Saturday to be exact.

On the plus side, I finally finished a book, and what a book!
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is amazing.
An absolute A+
For a review that pretty summarises my own feeling, read this:
http://www.pajiba.com/book_reviews/the-brief-wondrous-life-of-oscar-wao-by-junot-diaz.php
As someone who was born and raised in a country that is not the country of her parents, some aspects of the book rang particularly true.

When my exams are over, I need to go over all the footnotes again and pick up a book on the history of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. I can't believe I've never heard of Trujillo...although, if the DR is part of a mandatory two second review in US schools, goodness knows it wouldn't make the cut in French schools. We don't even learn about French colonies for fuck's sake.

The book did provide inspiration for the final editing (which might as well be called a rewrite at this point) process of my book (sidebar) and I also need to pick up a history book on Jamaica. Why go looking for mysterious and exotic locales when I can pick my (family's) own?

Have now started The Hobbit. Will move on to the LOTR trilogy afterwards. I kind of saw the first one so the first chapter in The Hobbit is actually fun to read cause I still remember the images.

Does anyone know who drew the image above?

Nicholl Fellowship and other titbits

I entered my screenplay in the Nicholl Fellowship today.

It took me unbelievably forever to settle on a story - everytime I thought I had one, I changed my mind, and even while writing this one, I had so many ideas for other stories, it's ridiculous. In the end, time meant I had to stick to this one so I wouldn't have a bunch of unfinished stories and no screenplay to submit.

Frankly, I hope to make it at the very least past the first round. Despite being pressed for time and having to put it aside for studies, anything less would be shit.

We'll see. I know I still need practice but I feel reasonably confident about this one - again, to make it past the first round at least.

I wasn't able to enter the Disney fellowship but I'm still going to work on a spec script this summer. I've got a bunch more ideas as well and I have to finally edit my book to make it ready. Aside from the Disney fellowship though, so far I'm on track with all my goals (in the sidebar).

For the next three weeks, I'll be on self-imposed hiatus so I can get my Masters (another sidebar goal after all). Can't wait for that to be over.

PS: I lost my 'earnings' in the chaos that is my room. I need to find it and cash it, lol. Or frame it. Something. But find it.

I am a paid author, thank you please very much

Yay!

I got my massive 25-pound check today!

My first writing earnings ever :)

Neil Gaiman on books, life & death

“My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls in the ghetto had to do sewing each day. And if you were found with a book, it was an automatic death penalty. She had gotten hold of a copy of ‘Gone With the Wind’, and she would take three or four hours out of her sleeping time each night to read. And then, during the hour or so when they were sewing the next day, she would tell them all the story. These girls were risking certain death for a story. And when she told me that story herself, it actually made what I do feel more important. Because giving people stories is not a luxury. It’s actually one of the things that you live and die for.”

Neil Gaiman

If I should have a daughter...I'd want her to be like Sarah Kay

Two beautiful poems to frame a moving speech about moving past fear of yourself towards self-expression.
Sarah Kay's voice just brings you to tears, she's so full of passion

Globalshortstories.net competition - 2nd place

I got second place aka highly commended at a competition I entered in February :)
The story is a sort of metaphor for drugs and creativity and I was inspired both by Bruno Mars' song of the same name, Dreamtaker, and the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat's life.


The review makes me think they're talking about someone else, haha, but I'm so pleased.


Our highly commended writer, earning £25, comes from Paris, France, and is Deana Mundell, for Dreamtaker, of which Fiona says: “This is the stuff of nightmares and has a quirkiness which engaged me from the start. It recalled the reversal of fortunes in that classic movie ‘Nightmare Alley,’ which I saw only once when I was nine years old and yet the vivid impression of almost every scene has stayed with me ever since. The use of language is suitably economic and serves to highlight the very dark subject matter. Well done.”


http://www.globalshortstories.net/februarywinners2011.pdf


Mine's the second story.

Two confessions on "Supermoon Night"

a) I'm terrified of planets. I can't look when they show footage of planets on TV. Their monstrous size and their... "supernatural-ness" I guess, just creep me out. I could never be an astronaut.

b) If a full moon's light shifts to shine on me while I'm sleeping, I get crazy nightmares, hence why I keep my shutters closed at all times. I've been caught too many times. I'm definitely ruled by the moon.

What I'm doing right now in between school assignments

Most aspiring screenwriters simply don’t spend enough time choosing their concept. It’s by far the most common mistake I see in spec scripts. The writer has lost the race right from the gate. Months — sometimes years — are lost trying to elevate a film idea that by its nature probably had no hope of ever becoming a movie.

~Terry Rossio, WORDPLAY/Columns/01. A Foot in the Door

Wednesday Words

1) I'm crazy busy with school assignments, end of year thesis, exams and papers...my life is one big pile of never-ending homework.

2) I'm trying to find a concept. I'm working on a couple of stories but what I'm looking for, more than pretty sentences in a row, is a message, something that people will read and remember.
I'm trying to figure out & write "the truest sentence that I know". That's harder than it seems.

3) I'm trying to find time to meet the fellowship deadlines. With 2 months to go, I keep thinking that's more than enough time. Except when you factor in 1) and 2), it's not.

4) The results for the 1st competition I entered are in. I didn't win or place :(