Excerpt

My mind goes back in time. Of course I remember it. I’m pretty sure it might have been one of the scariest nights of my life. No, that’s not true. The scariest day of the my life was when I first saw Justin Bieber’s face on the front of a magazine. Creepy, I tell you!
Oh, right. We decided it was a brilliant idea to sleep outside of Ky’s house in a tent. We were fourteen and had just become friends. It was my first time sleeping over at her house, the first time we got together outside of school.
We were sitting in the tent, and I was working on teaching her American Sign Language. (Which, by the way, she is now fluent in, thanks to me.) At this point, we both had a crush on the neighbor boy, who we went to school with, Curt Haydn. Little did we know he was a trouble maker.
But he did know we liked him. How, you ask? Well, we may’ve sort-of flirted with him a whole lot. But we were only fourteen, so you gotta understand give us a break about that. . Actually, Ky has had many boyfriends since then, so give ME a break.
Well, he saw our flashlights in the back yard, because he was a stalker. Er, teenage boy. So there we were, sitting nice and quietly in our tent when we hear this growling sound. Our teenage minds tell us it is a bear. We were too scared to think rationally.
Another growl.
Then screams. Our own, of course.
Soon, the tent stars shaking and we grab onto each other, stand up, then run out of the tent only to find Curt standing there, laughing his head off. Okay, how weird of an expression is that? Can someone actually laugh so hard that their head falls out? ‘Cause if so, I better stop laughing right now.
“Of course I remember it.” I say, in a fit of giggles. “Looking back, it wasn’t that scary, but at the time, I was petrified. I never wanted to sleep out in your yard again.”
But truth be told, that became a summer ritual for us.

Meet Kensi

If you all have gone to my Meet My Characters page - you've already met Trey. But in case you haven't, be sure to go there before you read this post. It'll help you understand things a little better.

There's not much in life that Trey finds enjoyable, or anyone that he REALLY loves. But there is one person.

When we first meet Trey, he mentions how he rarely spends any time with his sister, but in the first chapter that is about him, he decides to spend some time with his little sister. (Since I have a younger brother, writing about a five year old is easy enough for me.)

His half-sister Kensington - or rather, Kensi.

Kensi is five.

She is easy-going.

She ALWAYS picks up on things that are going on - the bad stuff, especially.

She loves her older brother, Trey - and enjoys spending time with him.

Is almost ALWAYS happy, and makes those around her happy, as well.

Is giggly. :)

Favorite Books & Good Inspiration

There are a lot of books that I look to when I'm wanting inspiration. On both writing style and how to write a good novel.

Some of my favorite books include The Hollywood Nobody Series by Lisa Samson and anything by Mary Connealy, Jenny B Jones, and Rachel Hauck.

I really like the Hollywood Nobody Series because they're set in the first-person, present-tense and they're really easy to follow. They're fun and quirky and that's something that I really enjoy putting into my stories.

The books by Mary Connealy, Jenny B Jones, and Rachel Hauck are usually in third-person, past-tense. Again, easy to follow and something that I hope to be able to write in my books someday. I usually have trouble with third person because I used to always write in the first person tense. So I like to read well-written third-person books as inspiration for stories.

Another thing that really inspires me to write is music. Usually any kind of music helps me, but usually I have country music or pop music playing the background. I'm not sure what it does, but it sets the mood for me writing and usually gets my creative juices flowing.

Anyone else have anything that brings them inspiration while writing? I'm curious to know.

Leave a comment and let me know what you're favorite books, and best inspiration for writing is!

~Ashley

Typing and Thinking!

As I'm typing up my story this evening, I am becoming painfully aware of the fact that as the story progresses, my writing gets better.

The beginning of my story is kind-of weak. I'm trying to add things to it to make it "better", but it's kind-of hard.

Thinking about the fact that the writing toward the middle and the end of the story is SO much better, I know that when I rewrite my story it shouldn't be too hard to make the rest of my story better-written, as well.

So I'll continue typing this up and see where it all goes!

Typed up so far: 19,000

Facebook & a Book Excerpt

First, go right on over to Faceboook and "like" my page!

And now, here's a short excerpt from the first chapter of my book! Enjoy it!

“I have always thought it would be a blessing if each person could be blind and deaf for a few days during his early adult life. Darkness would make him appreciate sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.” Helen Keller

I sit. I stare. I wait. I’m 18, and I can’t hear. Might as well tell it right from the start, right? I lost my hearing when I was 10. Loud sounds and sensitive ears did not mix very well - and really don’t get along.
So now I can’t hear anything. It’s hard, to say the least. I can’t even tell you how humiliating it is to have people look at you funny just because you can’t hear what they’re saying to you.
It’s not like I choose to ignore them. I really don’t. Well, some people I choose to ignore, but that’s besides the point. Though, some people seem to think that and I feel bad. I wish I could open my ears and just hear what they have to say. I wish that more than anything.
When it first happened, I was angry. Not to mention the fact that I was young and I didn’t understand. I screamed at God, wondering why he was doing it to me! Why me? Why couldn’t it have happened to someone else? Someone who was strong and who could take it better?
About the time I was sixteen, I began to understand a little better. I was blaming God for something, when I should have been trying to understand. And that was when I started. Instead of asking why me, I started asking “Why not me”? Why am I so important that God would pick me to be deaf? I realized that he chose me out of all the people in the world. And why?
He must’ve thought that I, Shaelyn Renay Hartford, could take what he’s given me and use it for good. I’ve made a lot of friends through being deaf. People, although the may stare, are instantly drawn to me. Mostly because I can read lips. And talk. So that makes it easier to communicate with people. It’s amazing to watch peoples’ mouths move and know what they are saying. Because I didn’t lose my hearing until I was ten, I can talk normally. Most people can’t even really tell that I’m deaf.
I can’t really explain what it’s like to be deaf. It just...is. I can’t hear. Most people can. The end.

Typed up thus far: 15,701

Approximate word count in notebook: 50,000

How much more of this story do I need to write?!

I've decided to make A World Without Sound my senior project. What I want to do is finish writing it, type it all up into a Word Document, format it and then get a few proof copies of it that I can actually hold in my hand.

But that entails a few things:

1. Finishing the book.
   Because I'm unsure of how long the story is so far - since I'm writing on paper, not in a word doc -, I don't really know how much more I need to write. From what I can tell, I need about 30,000 more words. This I can do. :)
2. Typing all of it up.
   I don't know why, but I dread this. Writing is SO much fun, but then having to pretty much "rewrite" it to get it onto the computer, is a pain. I hate it so much. Oh well, this needs to be done.
3. Format it into chapters, and break it out into better sections.
   Writing is my forte, breaking things out into chapters/sections, is not. I prefer to write without worrying about that.
4. Make a back cover for my book.
   I have a cover that I love for the front, but as for the back? Nothing thus far. I need to decide what kind-of picture I want on the back, and what I want the summary of the book to be. Another thing I'm not particularly good at.
   
5. Upload the book, the front cover and the back cover (is that what that's called?) to createspace.com so that I can get my proof copy.
   I have never done this before, so I'm not sure exactly how it works. If any of you know, maybe you could shoot me a quick email explaining this to me?
6. Wait patiently for my book to come in the mail.
   Patience is a virtue. A virtue that I wasn't born with.

~ash

A World Without Sound - Meet the Characters

The story that rolls around in my mind, and is written the most, is A World Without Sound. Like I said in it's description, it is about a deaf girl who is trying to find her place in the world. So for my first post on this blog, I am going to take the time to introduce you to the amazing cast of characters that take up my time and writing hand. :)

Shaelyn Hartford

Age: 18
Cover model: Hannah - a good friend of mine

Shaelyn is actually one of the most real characters that I have ever had! She's so easy to writeabout. Maybe it was because I made her a lot like me . . . and it's easier to write like that.
At any rate - she's cool.
Like I said above, Shae is deaf. She can read lips, and sign language, but can talk normally because she didn't become deaf until she was almost ten. She used to write but stopped doing that because of circumstances that happened when she was a young teenager.

The goal of the story is for Shae to look past what happened to her when she was younger and become something more.

Cody Andrew Jacobs
Age: 24
Cover model: Channing Tatum

Cody Jacobs is Trent's (Shae's older brother) best friend. They've known each other for years. Cody is like an older brother to Shae, and they pick on each other constantly - never a moments peace when the two of them get started.
But Cody has a life of his own.

He has a great girlfriend named Abigayle and a good job. Not to mention a great family with the Hartfords (Shae's family).

But his past comes back to haunt him at times, too. His parents died when he was only a child, and then he'd been shuffled around from house to house, foster family to foster family, never finding a real home, nor a real family.

So, like Shae, he's trying to live with his past and make a better future for himself that what his past was. :)

Treyson Joseph McFadden

Age: 18
Cover Model: Shane Harper

Meet Trey McFadden - all star sports player at a small Texas school. He's used to getting what he wants, when he wants it. Any girl that he wants? Yeah, he can get them too!

When Shae moves to the small town that Trey has long been living in, she isn't taken with him, to say the least. She thinks he's a jerk and that he needs to be taken down a few notches. She doesn't take his crap, and tells it like she sees it. If he's being rude, she doesn't take it.

So why is he so taken with this girl? Well, because she DOESN'T do things the way he's used to. She fights with him, and HATES him! And he likes it!

But he doesn't. He's not sure WHAT to think of his life when Shae steps it into - or more, JUMPS into it.

My goal for Trey is to grow up. To stop acting like he's better than everyone else, and to learn to be a person that people respect.

So there ya have it. My three main characters. Of course, I'll post about the other characters - the ones not to written about - soon. :)

~Ashley