Author Celise Downs » The Family Jewels

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April 26, 2010 | Book Three,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Movie Queue,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Family Jewels,Weekend Wrap-Up,WriterMentor

Friday night, Babendude and I went on a date. We’ve been trying to incorporate date nights either Friday or Saturday nights. The goal has been dinner and a movie, but it seems that we get thru the dinner portion and don’t really feel like doing the movie thing after. LOL We’re too full and a bit tired, I guess. So, it’s just been dinner. Sushi at Kabuki. Hey, that rhymes! I think if maybe we tried date nights on Saturdays, went to the movie first–an earlier showing–and then dinner afterwards, we’d be good.

Saturday, we ate breakfast at our usual place. And at this point, let me just say that we eat at Ron’s nearly every weekend. Unless I have a hair appt or he’s hanging out with his BF, we eat there nearly every weekend. And it’s worth the wait, lemme tell you. On our way up there, we kept passing signs for a model home furniture sale, so we decided to check it out after breakfast: 5,328 sq ft, 3 beds, 3.5 baths, garage with loft, a play room for the kids (apparently the kids were aspiring actors because the room had a little theater stage. Complete with velvet curtain and an area to change. Too cute), the master bedroom had a serious walk-in closet and the use of skylights was fabulous. It was just an absolutely beautiful home. And they want $2.3 for it. Yikes! Looks like it might’ve been worth it. “This would be too much for us,” Babendude says. “I’d like something like this, but on a more townhouse-condo scale.” LOL. Indeed.

In checking this place out, I got better ideas for Book 3. The people that Draven are investigating needed an understated-yet-expensive-looking house to live in. Done. And the Mom needed a better job than the one I’d originally created for her (antique store owner): luxury home staging. Done. I love it when this idea shit happens.

Later that afternoon, (more…)

Technorati Tags: Kabuki

Posted by Celise @ 6:16 pm | Criticisms

November 18, 2009 | A Whole Latte Trouble,Book Three,Book Two,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Road Trip Wednesday,The Family Jewels,Writer Moment

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival”, where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it in on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

You’re more than welcome to participate! Just answer the question on your own blog, and leave a link to it in their comments.

Topic #7:

What songs represent/influence your WIP?

I wish I could say that I have a really cool playlist for my books. Or that I hear a song and think, “Wow, I can picture my character kicking someone’s ass right now.” If only it worked like that for me.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

I have to write in complete silence. This probably stems from the fact that my parents made my older sister and I do our homework in silence: no T.V., no radio, etc. When I started writing in the 7th grade, it just carried over. I’ve even tried playing soft music like Enya or Vangelis. And, yeah, that’s a no-go, Mission Control.

Funny: when I’m listening to music, and it’s my favorite song or a song I like, I picture myself singing it. Like at karaoke, in a video, or live in a front of an audience. And I sing it like it’s my song, y’know? It’s funny. This is what happens when you have an overactive imagination. LOL.

HOWEVER, starting in Book 2, Draven will pick up this odd habit of humming/singing while she’s, um, concentrating on something. She loves Motown–which is different from what her friends listen to (R&B)–but the type of music that helps her, um, concentrate, is a little outside what both her and her friends normally listen to. Something she’d never admit to, so this should be fun. And no, I’m not going to tell you. You’ll just have to listen in when I start doing podcasts.

So, in that way, I guess songs do influence my WIP.

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway, Enya, Vangelis

Posted by Celise @ 5:40 pm | 2 Criticisms

November 2, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",Book Three,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Family Jewels,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writer Moment,Writing Movements

So, at my job on Friday, my dept and two other depts had a potluck and costume/food/cubie decoration contest. My co-worker and I dressed up as superheroes: CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

Unfortunately, neither one of us one. Highly disappointing, to say the least. Granted, Lisa’s costume was store bought, but mine was custom made! I think Jennie should’ve won first place for her KISS costume: CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

But she got second. Instead, we all got beat out by a store bought, black shredded dress and wings costume called Goth Angel. Yeah. Whatev. The reactions we got made up for losing. The Gurl House visit was canceled on Saturday due to the fact that, well, we had no girls. LOL. All of them were spending time with families, and the one girl we would’ve had was moved to another house. So, I have no weekly posting. I’ll actually have two next week as I’ve signed up to volunteer for a Creative Writing Professional Artist Series. It starts this Friday, the 6th, and ends Dec 18th (the next day is our final day at The Gurl House). Christina Hammerton is the Professional Artist in Residence and will be conducting this series. I’ll just be there to lend a helping hand. And possibly do some writing, too. It’s at another group home for girls and the age range of the participating girls is 16-18. Those posts will be titled The Sunny House.

Saturday night, Mr. Maul and I wore different costumes this year. Instead of our usual Darth Maul and Storm, we did ~~Little~~ Sexy Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf: CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

No, he’s not wearing a mask. They’re latex pieces glued to his face. Pretty realistic, eh? I could barely look him in the face. Kinda freaked me out a little. LOL. He passed out candy to trick-or-treaters and it was funny to hear their reactions. We walked down Mill Ave with a group of DSG’ers. We’re known (me excluded) for doing Star Wars costumes, but surprisingly, very few did this year. We had a Vader, of course, but we only had a couple of Troopers and Biker Scouts. A few of our people did characters from TRUEBLOOD. They were really hoping I would be Tara, but my scalp needed a break from the braids. Still, we all had a good time and you can see the pics HERE.

School Daze – Since I didn’t have a Gurl House visit on Saturday, I was able to work on my paper. It took me a good part of Saturday and nearly all of Sunday to finish and post, but I did it. Of course, it didn’t help that we didn’t get to bed until 530am, and then slept till 1pm. It is so hard to write non-fiction, let me tell you. Writing fiction is so much easier.

Writing Movement – Saturday afternoon, I took a break from writing the paper and went out to do some research for Book 3: The Family Jewels. Draven is 17 and a junior now (in the first two books she’s 16 and a sophomore). She’s got a new PT job and a new assignment: catching a family of jewel thieves. I basically scoped out her new PT job (working at a gym), the jewel thieves’ home (a very nice affluent area right near my job, actually) and a place of business for the mother (a 39,000 sq foot antique mall. It was freakin’ AWESOME. I can’t wait to write some scenes in that place). As you all may, or may not, know I’m attempting to write Book 3 during NaNoWriMo this month. And I got off to a great start, too….by losing a whole day of writing.

Thanks in part to waking up at 1pm and having to work on a research paper. So, let me break it down for you in the terms of how much this sucks for me. When I write, I don’t go by word count, I go by page count. If I can write at least one page a day, I’m golden. I shoot for 12 chapters, 12 pages per chapter. 50,000 words in 30 days, roughly works out to 7-8 pages a day. Again, 12 pages per chapter. Do you see where I’m going here? So, to make up for yesterday and to get my quota in today, I’m basically going to have to write my ass off. More so than usual. And since I handwrite first (I write mostly at work during breaks and lunch), I’ll need to write more. Sigh. I’ll try to give you guys weekly updates.

So, that’s it for moi. How was your Halloween?

Technorati Tags: Christina Hammerton, TRUEBLOOD, NaNoWriMo

Posted by Celise @ 5:51 pm | 7 Criticisms

October 26, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",Book Stuff,Book Three,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Family Portrait,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Family Jewels,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writer Moment,Writing Movements

On this Saturday morning’s episode of The Gurl House: paint and shaving cream. Yes, it’s as messy as it sounds. Mr. Maul spent some time with his BF, but when he got home that afternoon, we went to look for more stuff for his Halloween costume. We hit up Savers, where he found a nightgown and then Bubbles of Joy to pick up some claw gloves. And no, I’m not gonna tell you what his costume is. You’ll just have to wait and see when I report back next week. On Sunday, we had a late, late breakfast (we’re talkin’ late morning, early afternoon) at our favorite place, Original Pancake House and then we hit up the mall. For the past few years I’ve been Storm for Halloween, but took a break a couple of times. In 2004, I left the cape in the closet and wore a trench coat as Niobe (THE MATRIX): CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

And in 2005, I “grew” some horns as Darth Maul’s wife. If the Sith are allowed to mate, I imagine she would look something like this: CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

Great make-up job, yes? The hubby’s real good at that. For the record, breathing was not an option in that corset. This year, I’m only doing Storm at work. I’ve decided to be something else this year for the actual event (again, you’ll see next week). And it involved buying these sexy heels that I will probably only wear once:

I found these puppies at Hot Topic and had one helluva time trying to get them closed. They didn’t buckle—or snap—because really, that would’ve been too easy. Instead they button. Yes, button. Revolutionary, I know, but I’ve come to discover that only shirts and jeans are allowed to have buttons. Not shoes. I’ll be breaking them in this week, a little at a time, because my feet are already protesting at being crammed inside these babies for hours on end.

At this store called Shiek (I’m really hoping this was spelled wrong on purpose), I picked up a pair of Dereon’s:

Yes, Dereon as in Beyonce’s clothing line. Now, I can wear the shoes with the jeans. LOL. I may want to hurl every time I hear “Single Ladies”, but I like the design of some her jeans. And these are the only pair of shoes from her line that I would wear in public and not feel like a complete and utter dorkus.

School Daze – Working on my research paper this week for my EIS class: The Art of Healing: The Benefits of Art Therapy for Young People. I get to read books like The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell as research. By choice, not by requirement. If you’re a writer, you need to see this movie. And read this book. If you’re an aspiring teen writer, or you write for teens, then you really need to see this movie. And then read this book. I had an English teacher like Erin when I was in high school—Mrs. Smith—and she is the very reason I stuck with the writing. Not that I was ever thinking about quitting, but the encouragement was always positive and consistent. The rough draft of my paper is due this Sunday, so wish me luck. I haven’t done a research paper since college.

Writing Movement – I’ve been preparing for NaNoWriMo. Last week, I got two more chapters outlined. Altogether, I now have 6 chapters. At this point, I’m going to stop. On the blogs I’ve been reading lately, there’s been some posts about preparation for this challenge. On one blog I was reading (can’t remember for the life of me which blog it was) about the tips for getting through it. Turning off the editing mechanism won’t be hard for me. I tend to write the first draft all the way through without editing anyway. However, the “no time for getting stuck” part (a.k.a. writer’s block) may trip me up. As I mentioned in last week’s Weekend Wrap-Up, I’m a pantser by nature.

When I have a story in mind, the only thing I have is the title, the names of the characters, and a vague idea of the plot. The story itself emerges as I write. For this challenge, I decided to outline first and I’ve discovered that it’s really, really, hard. And I don’t like it. You have to know how the story is going to play out ahead of time and it was difficult for me to picture that. In regards to the “no time for getting stuck” tip, I’ve decided to stop the outlining process at Chapter 6. I’ve got a good start. I think I’m just going to wing it from that chapter on. If you’re looking for a writing buddy, look me up at DravensMom.

So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: Savers, Bubbles of Joy, Original Pancake House, Niobe, THE MATRIX, Hot Topic, Shiek, Dereon, Beyonce, Single Ladies, The Freedom Writers Diary, Erin Gruwell, NaNoWriMo