~AmethystGreye

Update:

I'm going on an internet sabbatical, boys and girls. I'll be posting "Chapter Nine: Counter Measures" immediately following this because I did promise one chapter a week, but after that I'll be unavailable for a week. I'm sending my brain to the cleaners' for a good washing; it needs it.

Meanwhile, those of you who have commented and been appreciative of my sentiments regarding grammar I think you'd really get a giggle out of Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. Nobody believes it possible for punctuation to be hilarious but the way Truss puts it, well, it is! I tried linking to it but for some reason, no go.

P.S. Besides, tomorrow is my eighth anniversary. I hear good things about those. *grin*


I'm not really up one meme tech here but I did agree to the rules of being featured in a sort of 'feature meme' type thing so here are the specs:

Taken from

The first 10 deviants who post comment in this journal will be featured. I will go though your gallery and choose three deviations I think most portray your talent and style and post those choices in my journal for everyone to see! Oh, and once I have all slots for this thing filled out and have plugged in all the "feature" info for you all I'll repost this journal entry so you can revel in my lack of featuring skills but see that I do my best at keeping my word. And that I ramble. *grin*

HOWEVER.

You have to put this in your journal as well if you posted a comment!

1.
Kiddo has a really nice sense of imagination and her perception of how characters relate to one another is genuine.

Snatcher

Most of us still adore a beautiful, tortured boy with a conscience, don't we?

Telepathic

Proof that it's not just a human condition to want what others have.

Blue Moon

Hey, what's up with Nick? Is Kyle about to succumb, too?

2.

I love this girl's color palette. The phrase 'hot candy' comes to mind when looking at most of her pieces.

Use Your Eyes
You'll need to if you want to catch every petal.

Tasna's Eyes
This one makes me smile because the coloring reminds me a of Final Fantasy X, and X-2 character, Yuna.


First Meme
Well, yeah, it's a meme, but it's a rather perversely funny one!

You viewers have been so sweet and supportive! I feel guilty to leave you hanging so I have made a command decision. I will be posting one additional chapter of Silver a week until it concludes, BUT you have to understand if I have to go through and yank them all in a few months because of publication rules or something. Them's the breaks, kids.

Meanwhile, who else rented Penelope today? *wink* I worked at our local video place until about nine months ago (when I had Ben) so I was the first person to get a copy (and with it the bonus feature that is a new scene of Twilight, whoohoo!).

Take care of yous guyses!
Amethyst

P.S. Hey, keep me in your "good vibes/prayer" places; I sent off that big new proposal to an agent yesterday and they should get it by Thursday. Who knows, if it's in God's will and we all stay with the postive maybe in a month I'll be a represented writer!

But as the saying goes, I'm getting back on one, analogically speaking (yes, I made up a word; roll with it, it'll eventually make it into the dictionary from sheer mass of usage).

I've made myself a mug of frou-frou coffee and I'm about to make another, because, as I said, my writing brain functions much better on Vanilla Latte.

This pitch is somewhat new territory for me, because this (very large) agency wants rather a lot of materials up front for a first contact proposal (i.e. a cover letter, two-page synopsis, credentials page, and the first 50 pages of the work). They also want exlusive reviewing rights for 30 days after they recieve the material. My overly-analytical brain thinks this "50 pages" business might actually be in my favor. There are a lot of good unanswered questions by the 50th page, questions that really make the reader want to know what happens next (for those of you who might have some frame of reference, page fifty ends with Sebastien explaining to Joss that their mothers really did know each other and describing that friendship to her).

My bigger problem is the synopsis. I've never rocked at summarizing anything in my life (aside from the occasional witty one-liner) and getting a nearly-500 page book crammed down to two single-spaced, 12 point font pages is going to be a TASK.

So, my lovely watchers, I say unto you, ACK!

P.S. Anybody have any ideas about possible cover art? I'm not asking anyone to draw anything (although you have my permission if you want to all on your own, I'm just saying...). All I can think of is a sort of brushed matte silver cover with a shinier "Silver" embossed on the front in the font I've got as Sebastien's handwriting (Blackadder ITC, if you're curious). I don't like a lot of clutter on book covers and prefer singular standout images, which is why I'm coming up short on ideas.

P.P.S. My wonderful and amazing friend Caitlin (who by the way is a super duper visual artist, but has no dA account) says writing a novel and submitting it is the "ballsiest" thing she's ever encountered. I'm not so sure myself. What do you think? Putting it out there, daring or daunting?

Take care of yourselves. The world needs you exactly as you are.

Amethyst

Wow, that was freakin' tough. I feel like I've been on the Tilt-A-whirl, now. Whew!

So, here are ten things that are completely that are completely random. They may be about me, or they may simply be related to me. Either way, I'm in there somewhere.

1. My church choir always, without fail, makes me cry.
It's totally true. It's a small church, small choir, maybe fifteen people, but they have great lungs and greater passion so I'm always fighting tears when they do their thing.

2. I actually made Silver character support Flair for my friends over at Facebook.
Yes, and Drew is totally kicking everyone else's rear end, including Sebastien's. I suspect it's because Taylor Swift made the name "Drew" pretty well-known. *wink*

3. I didn't start really drinking coffee until I started writing Silver and now I find I don't work as well without it.
I even have a preferred mug. So, when I write, which is usually after dark and before sunrise, I have a mug of coffee and a large bottle of water sitting on my desk.

4. My middle name really is 'Greye', and it's after "Gandalf".
Yeah, so my dad was really creative and he loved Tolkien, so when I came along I was named after "Gandalf the Grey, with an extra 'e' to make it more girlie.

5. I dated an "Edward" for almost 4 1/2 years, but I married a "Jacob".
Oh, calm down! M. and I weren't right for each other, too alike. Strangely enough, except for the height thing, he looked much more like Jake than Edward. My husband, on the other hand, looks like Nick Cage. Go figure. It's his personality that's all Jacob.

6. I'm the same height as "Jocelyn", and most people think I'm a teenager.
I'm told I will appreciate this later in life, but the truth is I'm tiny, most people think I'm a Senior in High School when they meet me, and my voice sounds like a kid's. Telemarketers are always asking me if my parents are home.

7. I love all big dogs, except St. Bernards.
One once fell in love with me and kept knocking me down to show his love in a most embarassing way. I think I was about seven at the time and hadn't yet cleared fifty pounds. Very traumatic.

8. Despite being a serious Grammar Geek and hating how people misuse the wonderful language that is English, and being a writer, I can't spell to save my life.
Oh, it's so true. My husband (that Jacob-like guy) thinks it's the funniest thing on the face of the planet and laughs at me all the time...so I correct his grammar constantly. We live in The South, so I have ample opportunity.

9. Try to get me up before seven A.M. and I will rip your throat out unless you are my progeny.
I have never been a morning person and it takes me several minutes to even be able to think straight. Before seven it's all animal instinct. I start being human around nine A.M.; after that I'm safe for conversation. Also, social sites like my MySpace, FaceBook, LiveJournal, and the blogs I read are like morning coffee. Remember I don't drink coffee during the day.

10. My favorite color is not purple or grey, like you might expect. I like those colors, but my favorite color is red.
Yep, red. I like almost all true shades of red from bright Poppy red all the way to bloody red and bordeuxs. In fact, in my living room I have three walls that are sandstone colored (that cool texture paint that makes it feel like sandpaper) with tiny gold sparkles in it, but the fourth wall is Red Velvet Cake red with the same tiny gold sparkles. My couch and bedspread are deep shades of red, too.

1. The majorly talented and super-Snape fan =lilyhbp featured me in her latest journal, though this is due more to charmed timing on my part than any real merit (on mine; She's got merit coming out of her ears. Hoping to prove I deserve it.

2. I'm getting a fan-base! Look at those sweet little Deviants! Aren't they wonderful and enthusiastic? Some of them have even left comments. *grin*

3. I am > < close to reaching a thousand page views which kinds of blows my mind. Around two-hundred of them in just the last three days, which is due in part to the very flattering attention for the excerpts of Silver I've posted. As a writer I feel almost like I'm being fed ambrosia by all the attention, even though to most of the unbelievably amazing people I watch these numbers are a blip on the radar. I still get warm fuzzies.

3b. As a side note I'm sorry I have no visual arts skills with which to make you awesome people a proper 'thank you'. I would if I could, promise. Oh! And would someone remind me how to do one of those screen shot things? If I manage to catch the 1000th pv I'd want to freezeframe it for posterity and it'd help to know how. Thanks!

As for getting Silver published, I'm keeping the faith...which Sebastien would tell you is the thing to do!

Take care of yourselves, okay! Hope things are going fantasmagorically for you!

Amethyst