For your perusing,
At times confusing,
Slightly amusing
(yes, i couldn't resist throwing a little nick jonas in here.)
So, I'm Sky, but my nickname on this blog is Pepper, short for peppermint tea. And also after the character in Iron Man. "Only 12%?" "An argument can be made for 15."
Obviously, I'm a writer. I don't know when exactly it started, but I do know that I've been writing for about as long as I can remember. My first book was a picture book, written and illustrated by myself, that I wrote when I was five. It was titled Dogs and Cats Castle.
I remember sitting at our old dinosaur of a computer before I was allowed to use the internet, and typing away in WordPad docs. I must have had thousands of WordPad files, and I wish I could still find them. Maybe I could, I don't know.
Off the top of my head, one of the earliest things I've found that I wrote was this Wizard of Oz journal. I received it when I was around five, and I wrote a story about Madeline. (I'll admit that it was partially fanfiction for the Madeline books.) The story went from when she was very young to when she fell in love and got married. (She fell in love at the age of like nine or something crazy like that. Obviously I wrote this at an extremely young age. Recently I looked back on it and just laughed and laughed.) Most of the book revolved around her expanding her family and having lots of kids, as well as her friends expanding their family and having lots of kids. At the very end, I even started writing about Madeline's daughter, Molly, as a teenager. It eventually faded away, but I was really emotionally invested in that story, and I guess you could say it was one of my first stories that had a ton of characters and plot threads.
At age 10 I finished my first book (maybe not full-length novel, but book at least). 'Twas the first project I saw through from the beginning all the way to the end. It was about five kids, all of which were named after states. They lived in Rock Rapids, Iowa and solved the mystery of a missing baby, whom they eventually found in a warehouse. (I've since written about warehouses in my finished novel, Because I'm Irish, so warehouses hold a special place in my heart.) It was written on a brick of a computer and it was my first dabbling in the wonderful world of suspense. That computer has since broken, but I want to try to hook it up again to see if I can retrieve the files.
Then, at the age of 12, I started what I consider to be one of my first novels. I sadly didn't finish it, but I still consider it to be a novel since I had the whole plot planned out, as well as two plots for two books after it. It was called Talryn's Tale, and it was my first dabbling in the world of fantasy. I still miss it and hope that something can be redeemed from it someday.
As for the actual plot, it was about a girl named Reese who wanted to play drums and loved coffee (very indicative of my personality at the time). It was basically about her, her friends, and quite a bit of matchmaking. There's not a lot there that could be salvaged, so I've shelved it for now. But maybe someday I'll come back to it. (And it ended with me spilling a potted plant onto my character's lap. SCORE.)
The next milestone is what indirectly started this blog and got me on the path of writing vicariously every November--it was my first time doing NaNoWriMo. The year was 2009. I wrote "my Shae story," which was about Hollywood, fame, and mistaken parentage. I did the Young Writer's Program, which allowed you to set your own goal wordcount, and finished with 30,000 words. I still don't really love my story in the slightest, but I am irrevocably grateful for what that NaNoWriMo did for me, and the way it sparked me to do NaNo for years after.
In November 2010, I wrote a story titled Chandler and Paislee about two grieving adults who found love again. (Not really my cup of tea.) I didn't intend to shoot for 50k since I had a friend visiting for the beginning of the month, but in the last week, a friend encouraged me to try to make it. I ended up writing 25k in the last week. It was absolutely insane. After that year, I realized that I could do pretty much anything. ;)
And then November 2011 rolled around, the thing that I'm pretty sure has made me get absolutely serious about writing. My project was Silver Tears, and it was a fantasy. Out of that year I got a new appreciation for outlining, an amazing experience, and a fiery desire to continue writing like this. I also got Riah, who is one of my favorite characters of all time. (She made a skirt out of leaves and has an extremely fiery personality. She's awesome.)
Oh! And how could I forget? That year, I also learned how to gut a deer.
The December following that year's NaNo, I started a project on a complete whim. It was supposed to be a short story, a little thing for my own amusement. It was based entirely off of an inside joke between me and a friend. But then it exploded into something much more. That novel became Because I'm Irish. It became my second, and my favorite, finished novel in July of 2012. It's about a violinist, Fiona, who gets kidnapped by a boyband (it's suspense, obviously, with a fair dose of hilarious humor if I do say so myself). I just can't even with that story. It's one of my absolute favorite things I've ever written. It's currently on hiatus at a standing total of 60,000 words while I get up the courage to edit that lovely thing. (Editing is one thing I have no idea how to do and I'm nervous to attempt. I don't want to make a mess of a story that I love so much, and I'm afraid I'll mess it up if I try to edit it when I feel so inexperienced.) However, out of all the stories I want to shop to get published, Because I'm Irish is pretty high up there. You'll probably hear more about it in upcoming posts.
So then, we reach November 2012, which is when I met my lovely, gorgeous Tea-Spitters. We met completely by accident but we've really got an amazing bond and I'm so grateful for them. We supported each other through NaNo, fangirled, keysmashed, and sent gifs. It was amazing, and they made my NaNo experience 10x better.
I wrote Broken Wings last year, which is my current work-in-progress. It's about people who don't fit into normal society, bald eagles, wolves, living in the forest, an insane villain, and love. It's about love. That year, I learned that I really could write romance. And I also created Lynx and Rane, who are some of my favorite characters. (And Rane is a favorite for others as well. Who knew?)
So now that's where I'm at. I just finished reading over what I have written of Broken Wings two days ago and I hope to start in on it again soon. I think I'm pretty close to finishing, and I hope I can wrap it all up soon. I'm also gathering inspiration various projects, which you can see on my Pinterest page. (My head is exploding with ideas.) And actually, I think my various novels may deserve a post of its own.
I will also have to go into my fandoms sometime (of which there are many) and maybe do a rambling post of all the things I find interesting. Who knows? Anything can happen when you're a Tea-Spitter.
Sincerely yours,
-Pepper
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