FIRST QUARTER // March Recap

THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2018 IS GONE! GONE! *runs wailing into the night*

Blogging Things:

The Early Writing Tag
9 Book Quotes That Make Me Happy + That One
Twelve Golden Windows- Nawa, Kali, & Daliah
How To Schedule Your Posts Far Into The Future Like A Crazy
Awkward and Awesome #2
Books I'm Going To (Try To) Read This Spring!
(Took part in a collab tag on Lia's blog
Write What You Know: Knife Throwing
 Seventeen Facts About Me...By Proxy 
(Final part of the collab tag on Catherine's blog)
Books That Take Place In ITALY!



Writing Things: 
 I'm still working on the First Draft of Twelve Golden Windows, my Starfish retelling. I was hoping to have it done before Camp NaNoWriMo started in April, but now I guess I'll just have to work on it in addition to my camp project. Twelve Golden Windows has priority though, so I won't even start "the project" until its finished. I also won't be introducing the project until I've finished the First Draft. 

Once the First Draft is done, I'll send it to "Alpha One" . 
I've divided my Alpha Readers into two groups. Each group is made up of 2-3 people (depending on how I'm counting...since there are two people who aren't official Alphas, but will be reading my story in the early stages. One of them will be alpha reading, but probably won't alpha read all of stories and the other one will probably get all my stories, but doesn't quite have the same expectations/pressure when it comes to feed back.) 

"Alpha One" will get my First Drafts and I'll use their feedback to craft my Second Drafts and "Alpha Two" will get my Second Drafts and their feedback will be used to put finishing touches on my Second Draft before editing begins. And all of my Alphas will be able to read my stories again, if they choose, during the beta readings. 

(My betas will probably be broken up into groups as well. Probably two groups, but possibly three.)

Anyhow, back to Twelve Golden Windows. 

I had a mild panic moment when I was researching last names for my characters and discovered that IN MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES, THEY 1.) USE THEIR NAMES DIFFERENTLY AND 2.) GIVE NAMES DIFFERENTLY.  SO I WAS MILDLY FREAKING OUT AS I TRIED TO DEVELOP FULL NAMES IN THE CORRECT FORM, AND FIGURE OUT TITLES (WHICH MEANT I HAD TO DECIDE WHETHER I WAS USING ARAB FORMS, ANCIENT PERSIAN FORMS, MODERN PERSIAN FORMS...) AND TRYING NOT TO MESS EVERYTHING UP AND...*Screaming*

I ended up compromising on the name thing. So they don't all have full names and after the entail introductions (or on formal occasions), their given name is used. 

They don't normally use their given names for anyone other then family and really close friends, but I had to make a decision on it and what parts of the culture I use because my target audience is American/European teens and I can't spend the whole book explaining my three hours of frantic research.

I also had to figure out veils and how they were used. Because its a very feminist society, both men and women are guards, bakers, merchants, teachers....I'm blanking...whats the word for the really smart people who study a lot? SCHOLARS! (There we go)

And I ended up having some women wear veils (like the princess and one of her handmaidens) and the guards do not and it's mixed with everyone else. 

It is kind of hard though, because I'm used to describing people and using their hair. They play with their hair, water runs off their hair after they've been drenched, they braid their hair when trying to have the do something with their hands...and I keep forgetting that they have veils and you can't see their hair. 

I've also been calling her "a princess" and she is, in fact, a sultana. 
So...I had to change that. (Which was weird since it has a slightly different ring to it and it kind of messed with things a little.)

I also had to decide whether to use Sultan or Sultana, since they have both been used by women rulers and Sultana tends to mean the wife of the ruler...so. 

BUT ON A POSITIVE NOTE! I GOT TO RESEARCH PERSIAN/ ARABIAN FOODS! 
And by foods I mean dessert.

Lots of dessert.

(Desert dessert)

 


Reading Things:

Want to know something really funny?
About the time I started drafting this post, I'd only read two books. And at the rate I was going, I asumed that would be my total read count for March.

And then I read another book and I logged back on and switched my wording so it was for three books.

And then I read another book.

And another. 


  • The Edge of the Sword
  • The English Spy
  • Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare  
  • The Defector
  • The English Girl



Life / Other Things:

  • Lia had her blogoversary!

    And she dared me to keep asking questions as long as I could...and even with the self handicap of only asking her music related questions, she ended up having to do a entire second post....for all 115 questions. You can go check out that post HERE.
      
  • The before mentioned panic over research which left me eating my dinner in front of the laptop and scribbling notes on every piece of paper in sight while my family kept their distance and looked on warily.
     
  • I switched from drinking my Earl Grey without cream to drinking my Earl Grey with cream, which may not sound like much BUT DO YOU KNOW HOW SERIOUSLY I TAKE MY TEA?
     
  • I drank my coffee black once even though I'm a cream and sugar person because there were people over and I didn't want to bother asking anyone to pass me things. (I also wanted to freak out my friend who is a CREAM!!! and four spoonfuls of sugar person.)


-MK






Comments

  1. Sounds like your month went great! And your book sounds like it's coming along nicely. <3 Have an epic April! <3

    ~Ivie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let's just hope next month isn't as crazy ;)
      And an epic April to you too. Are you doing Camp NaNo next month?

      Delete
  2. I remember that frantic research drive quite well, LOL. Isn't research fun??

    Great wrap up, MK!

    Catherine
    catherinesrebellingmuse.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Man, that panic does not sound good. Hopefully your compromise will work out nicely. If not, I hope your next round of research isn't as frightening.

    It sounds like you're making great progress on your story! It sounds so interesting.

    I hope Camp treats you well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! The compromise it working so far (but who knows what the future will hold...)

      You're doing Camp, right?

      Delete
  4. I always do last minute research at like midnight, it's the worst. Best of luck with your writing!

    I take my coffee and tea pretty seriously too! I love black coffee as well as any other kind.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And then you're expected to go to bed and you can't BECAUSE YOU'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF READING ABOUT THINGS AND YOU CAN'T STOP NOW!

      *nods* coffee and tea should always be taken seriously.

      Delete
  5. I'm glad this month treated you well!

    That whole questions thing with Lia was EPIC. XD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I could have done more, but of course they all had to be music questions...
      Oh well, I'll get her next year.

      Delete
  6. HOW HAVE I MISSED SO MANY OF YOUR POSTS??

    Did Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare mention Christopher Lee at all?

    And you're going to have to write a post about those naming conventions now! ;) (Hey, you can save us a lot of research... xP) (Seriously, though, I am quite interested?)
    - Jem Jones

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly, it didn't mention Christopher Lee :(
      It mainly talked about the people in the office, inventors, and a few of the beginning missions...

      My favorite part was the secretary lady, Jane, who basically did everything and kept everything going. She was pretty amazing.

      Ha. I can try and gather all my frantic notes and write a post...maybe...assuming my brain didn't get fried during that frantic research session.

      Delete
  7. I've drunk coffee black before!! I don't like it with milk or without so like if I'm going to drink it what the heck it doesn't matter.😂(Although cappuccinos are nice?!) And good on you for getting deep into the research, it's super important to represent other cultures accurately and I'm personally all for sensitivity readers too!

    And working on two projects at once for April?! *sends cake* :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm personally more of a latte person :)

      Its kind of funny because after all this, I realized that the people are in fact PERSIAN. Persian and Arabic people are just ever so SLIGHTLY different.

      Still am planning on having sensitivity readers! (In fact, I plan on having some for ever book I beta) I just have to find some though...

      *gladly accepts cake and then cries on the floor at the sight of all my work*

      Delete

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