Best rejection letter

I know what you’re thinking! How is that possible?

But seriously this letter was really encouraging, and… wait for it… they gave me tips to improve, AND, yes there’s more, they’ve invited me to resubmit once I’ve fixed what they’ve suggested.

I’m so amazed that they not only read it in one day and got back to me, but also gave me feedback even though they were saying no.

It has really gotten my writing fire going again.

Only one tiny problem, I have no time to write at the moment. Why couldn’t this great opportunity have come 5 months ago?

Witching

Ding dong.

Go away kid! Faye thought miserably. No lights means no one’s home… Duh! She tried to concentrate on the TV.

“I guess no one’s home,” a muffled voice echoed her thoughts.

It was Halloween and all the kids were out collecting sweets from strangers. Faye had been invited to a couple parties with friends but she had turned them all down.

It wasn’t that Faye didn’t like Halloween; she enjoyed dressing up in fun costumes. It was just that Halloween came with problems for her. For as long as she could remember, she had been hiding this secret. It only affected her on this one night. It never used to be a problem, this night had only gained popularity here in the last few years.

When she was younger, before her problem started, she had led the way on her street when Halloween started getting popular. It wasn’t long however that it was ruined for her.

She glanced at her phone and the screen flashed 20:04.

Time for a film. She wasn’t one for scary movies, but she felt that the festivities should be felt. She wandered over to her DVD collection and pulled out the first series of her favourite old show: Charmed. Smiling, Faye made her way back to her tv and stuck the first disc in. She lay down on the sofa and watched episode after episode.

Faye checked her phone every now and then. She wasn’t expecting any messages; everyone was out having fun as witches, ghosts, and monsters. She kept checking the time. 21:15, 22:28, 23:46.

Ha! It’s nearly midnight. It’s nearly over for another year! she thought happily.

Name look alike

Sorry for my lack of posting, balancing uni and work is just crazy. I haven’t written anything story related in weeks.

Anyway, I was browsing books and I found something that made me cry noooo! I came across a book that used a name I had used.

Now it’s not a name like John, Mary, or Jack. It’s a made up word. Or at least I’d thought that I’d made it up.

They are used to refer to different things. In the book it was someone’s name, whereas I use it for a group of people. But it’s the same name.

‘Auri’ is what I mean. I came up with it from the latin word for gold, aureus, as in the chemical symbol AU. Now I’m not saying it’s very obscure like some of my other names, but it’s still upsetting.

Now I’m going to have to come up with another name for them. And I always struggle with these kinds of names. This is also probably going to stall me slightly.

Thoughts on my character

Lately my other project has been consuming my thoughts. The witch story that I have the opening couple paragraphs for. I probably shouldn’t let it distract me from my main story (especially now that I’m back to studying and don’t have time to write anything but psychology).

But I’ve been wondering what she would be studying. I have a picture of my character, age, vague appearance, and kind of what she does. But I don’t know the specifics. I want to explore the university student part of her – very relevant to my life right now – but I just don’t know what she would study.

Do I have her study psychology like me? Because I know exactly what it’s all about.

Or do I have her study something completely different that I’d need to find out more about?

There’s nothing that I can tell so far that she’d need to study to contribute to the story. The only thing is I know she won’t be studying history because that would be a sideline research job for her. Or do I make her study history because it would make her life easier?

Hopefully she’ll reveal her passion to me soon enough 🙂