Blog Rebirth

My 19th birthday was 4 days ago (January 1, New Year's Day!). And just last night, at approximately 11:30 PM, I finished the draft of my novel! After 129 days, draft #1 is complete! (I began on September 1, 2011. I don't count outlining and planning, which took up a good chunk of summer 2011.) This is the third novel I have been able to complete in a long time.

My birthday cake. It has Chinese characters that say "Happy birthday." Hey, look, I'm a one-year-old aspiring novelist!

I know that this used to be an art blog, but so many things have changed since then. Aside from now being a UC Berkeley freshman, and blogging for their Caliber Magazine (my author archive is here.), I'm going after my dream to be a published novelist again. I tried way back in middle school with two novels I wrote, and with high school, I was so busy with academics and my art portfolio that I didn't get to do much novel-writing. Two authors who have inspired me to resume novel-writing are Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, and Lauren Oliver, author of Liesl and Po. My own novel is middle-grade, and I hesitate to say "fantasy," because I don't want readers to suddenly harbor pigeon-holed ideas that my story is paranormal/cliched forbidden romances/Mary-Sues who become "the Chosen One,"/save the world,  and so on.

To save time, I'll say this much for now: It involves...

*an eleven-year-old girl with a functioning keyhole upon her neck

*a paraplegic tarot-reading princess

*an obsessive military general and his ten-year-old protege

* a world that's a mish-mash of the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, fairy tale magic, and steampunk.

In the meantime, I have been obsessing over the Liesl and Po book trailer, which I will share with you. The song in it, called "A Train With Wings" is particularly touching, and the animation of the actual illustrations by Kei Acedera from the book is so beautiful!

Until next time...<3