Monthly Archives: September 2010
Vampire Diaries Recap – Episode 2.3
Episode 2.3 – “Bad Moon Rising”
There’s a lot of skipping around in this episode, so I’m gonna try to condense the scenes together by shared characters, see if that flows a little better.
The return of Alaric! He’s looking a little scruffy and what’s going on with his hair? Still I’m so glad to see him back in action I’ll go with it. Ric looks none too happy to be at the Gilbert place, but agrees to help them get some research on werewolves from Isobel’s old office. Damon’s a little skeptical about the existence of werewolves, but in the interest of not being totally screwed, he wants to find out if that’s what they’re up against.
It turns out that Elena, Alaric and Damon will be going on the road trip to Duke for Isobel’s research, and not Stefan. Stefan seems to be okay with this and I almost wish we would have seen a little threat from him to Damon to behave or keep his mitts off his woman or something. Ah well. Elena seems pretty moody from the get go in this episode, vowing to bond with Alaric in their anti-Damon solidarity.
Before they get on the road we get to see what’s happened between Ric and Jenna. Apparently they’ve drifted apart over the summer and Jenna’s trying to be cool about it when it’s obvious she’s miffed over it. Alaric tries to pull that “sorry things have been stop and start for us but maybe…” line where he gives her some hope even when he’s clearly still conflicted about moving on but Jenna calls him on it. “Do what you need to do.” She says. Basically, call me when you get your shit together.
About to leave, Elena deliberately gives Stefan a long, lingering kiss, obviously designed to make Damon jealous and Damon’s expressive face is a treat to watch.
SeptNoWriMo Update
I am so close to finishing this writing challenge I can almost taste it! I’ve made it through a first draft of the new book and just have one more scene to add (a dream sequence, love those!) and I was sorta hoping I’d be done by now. But RL has really kicked my butt this week so far so that one scene is only about a third completed. I’m not sure if I’ll get it done tonight either as I’ve got a killer headache but I might push through a rough draft of it anyway since I’m so close! This one will be quite a bit shorter than the other two books, closer to 75k so hopefully more palatable to agents and publishers for an unpublished author.
I just finished my first fanfic One Is The Loneliest Number this week and it’s a bittersweet ending for me. Sweet because it was my first attempt at fanfic, I’m really proud of how it came out and thrilled with the responses I got from my readers. Saddened because it’s over. But at 33 chapters and almost 100k words it’s practically a book in and of itself!
I’ve also been working on Wake Me When The Sun Goes Down and just threw my readers a BIG curve ball. In preparation for the reviews I took a deep breath and put my armor on expecting a lot of outcry, but instead I got the nicest, most supportive responses! I have to say my reviewers are the coolest readers out there! I’m definitely feeling the love and it makes me want to update faster.
On a side note my eleven year old daughter just told me she’s gonna start writing a fanfic today, I’m so proud! Only I had to promise not to read it. 
I guess I can understand that. I just hope she keeps it up!
Off now to try and push my way through this final scene so I can be done with my first draft!
Vampire Diaries Episode Recap – 2.2
Episode 2.2 – “Brave New World”
As we start the second episode of the season, Caroline wakes up in the hospital, trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Her memory seems a little fuzzy but one thing seems clear; she’s craving blood big time! I can’t help but think the poor girl must be confused as hell considering she has no idea about the existence of vampires at all. (Until her memories start coming back of course) A little sneaky sleight of the hand and she’s sipping on blood like there’s no tomorrow and officially making the transition to vampire. Is it just me or is Caroline really hungry in this episode? Maybe it’s just the transition thing?
Cut to the next day as Elena and Bonnie are feverishly trying to put together the school carnival. (How come my high school never did anything as cool as that? Oh right, because I didn’t go to high school on TV…) Elena is bound and determined to do “human stuff or else I’m gonna go crazy”.
Stefan gives Jeremy a crash course on Vampire 101; how to kill vampires and repel them… dangerous information for a teen who was almost killed by one to have. But it’s nice to hear the cocky laugh from Stefan as he lets Jeremy know in no uncertain terms that he’s not the least bit afraid of Jeremy having that knowledge. I have to say, I’m liking this new Stefan… Grr, keep it coming baby!
Elena is firmly in denial, not wanting to discuss Damon at all. But this is not quite the rage I imagined after Damon almost killed her brother… in fact, is it just me or is everyone pretty accepting of Damon’s little temper tantrum the night before? Even Jeremy?
Oregon Novel Contest
At long last I got the results of the Oregon Novel Contest with local publisher Onyx Neon Press that I submitted to last April. They had pledged to publish the top two novels submitted that were written during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month in November). I came in 3rd! So sadly, I am not winning the publishing contract, but I did get an honorable mention and I figure it’s not too shabby for my first novel ever. And they will provide me with the judges’ feedback.
I also heard back from the agent I’ve been working with that she is definitely interested, but suggested some changes to the 2nd book. I’m learning that while people do like the books, they’re considered to be too long at 110k and 98.5k respectively. So, that gives me a couple of new projects, to start editing and trim them down a bit. But first I want to get the current book finished, at least the first draft of it.
RL has hit me hard this week at work, so I’ve fallen a little behind the last couple of days and I’m due to write another chapter of fanfic soon and the latest Vampire Diaries episode recap too. On the plus side, I’m in a long weekend now, so that gives me some extra time to get caught up, so I’m hopeful I’ll emerge at the end of the weekend on top.
Crazy Weekend!
Holy crap what a crazy weekend! Yesterday I woke up on a mission and started the day with my 3k quota on the book by 10am. Good start, right? Then it was 2k for a Vampire Diaries episode recap (found posted below), then it was 3k of the next chapter for one of my Vampire Diaries fan fics “Wake Me When The Sun Goes Down.” I even managed to squeeze in some side writing with a friend.
So then I go back to add a little more work on the novel, and it hits me… I’m definitely not in love with the direction things are going. It’s going alright, but I haven’t had as much faith in the romantic lead as in my last two books. Fewer of those moments when I’m done writing a scene and just go “Wow, that came out cool!”
After talking things over with my hubby, I decided to change the entire 2nd half of the book, including who the romantic lead is, because the original just wasn’t working for me. Long story short, I ended up losing a few thousand words. Yikes! It’s like finding a mistake in knitting a sweater and having to rip out a ton of what you’ve just worked on! But, through some hard work I’ve managed to regain what I lost, including my 3k quota for today as well as about a thousand to spare. phew!
So now I’ve got a little time to catch my breath and maybe work on a little fan fic before the season finale of True Blood comes on tonight! I will be taking notes, because I plan on attempting at least one True Blood fanfic in October.
Vampire Diaries Episode Recap – 2.1
Episode 2.1 – The Return
Season two starts out with a bang, jumping right back into where it left off with John getting butchered in the kitchen, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy! Elena rushes in to help stop the bleeding and call 911. Nice little bit of suspense there with Katherine still lurking in the house and Elena going to investigate with the bloody butcher knife in her hand. What happened to putting pressure on those wounds Elena?
Seeing the front door slam mysteriously shut, Elena races upstairs to check on Jeremy who it turns out has not turned into a vampire but is just as moody as ever. Stefan shows up to check in on his girl, and snap a little bit of sense into Jeremy who looks like he could happily slit his wrists right about now.
Bonnie shows up at the hospital and clues into the fact that her handy dandy vampire spotting device caused Tyler to crash his car and now Caroline is in critical condition in the hospital. Feeling a little bit of responsibility there Bon?
Damon shows up at the hospital, acting very sympathetic to the Sheriff’s worries about her daughter Caroline. Is it just me or did he seem genuinely concerned? Going way beyond just trying to keep a helpful face in front of the council with a comforting hug? The sheriff is too broken up about her daughter to worry about much else, but does tell Damon about Mayor Lockwood being killed in the vampire raid since he was affected by the Gilbert device that was only supposed to make vampires go haywire. She insists that he must have been something else because she’s known him her entire life and his family has always been part of the council. Yeah but so have the Salvatores… not exactly a winning argument there Liz.
