My Favorite Writer

    I found one of these images the other day and I decided to compile a collection of the struggles of my favorite writer.  I hope you enjoy!
    ~Alyson

New Books

    Well, I had a very profitable birthday last week.  I received four books as presents.  Later, we stopped by a yard sale and I bought six Mary Higgins Clark mysteries at 5 cents each.  Even later than that, I got to spend an hour inside Barnes & Noble just wandering.  The last time I was in a book store was the week before Borders closed.  The best part was the smell.  I love the smell of a bookstore.  
    When I was fifteen, I couldn't wait to get my license so that I could spend my afternoons working on homework and reading while drinking hot chocolate at the café in Borders.  By the time I got my license, it had closed and that dream seemed unobtainable.  
    Anyway, I love bookstores, and I got to wander through shelves of books for the first time in years.  Husband of mine let me pick out a book (Frankenstein), and I picked out a new notebook too!  I'm saving it for the next book in the trilogy.  Then I picked out a new bookmark, and on the next shelf over I found something that I have been looking for since December.  I found 642 Things to Write About!  I am so excited for that book.  It has so many awesome prompts in it to help fuel my writing, so keep an eye out for those prompts in future posts!
    

Writing Challenges

    When I was in my first Creative Writing class, we spent one day doing a variety of writing challenges.  One of the challenges was to write a fairy tale ending.  I would like to challenge my readers to do the same thing.  It was super fun to do, and I don't want to do ALL the writing around here.  This blog is about the overwhelming urge to write.  Does this challenge give you the urge to write?  As an example, I'll share what I wrote.  Being me, I couldn't resist the urge to add in a twist of my own.  
    "As the sun slowly dropped behind the distant mountains, turning the sky a darker shade of blue with some purple and pink clouds, it seemed that life could not get any better for Prince Will and his soon to be bride, Marie. The problems were far behind them, and they could continue to move forward in their lives. Marie’s dreams were all coming true. She had her prince, her knight in shining armor. He had come to rescue her from the horrors of her evil step-mother and gave her the courage to stop serving her two step-sisters. He stopped the huntsman from cutting her heart out, and he protected her from the fire-breathing dragon. After his evil step-mother had banished her from the kingdom, he had vanquished her as well and found Marie living in the forest with the dwarves. He even climbed up the tower walls to break her free after she had been kidnapped once more. It was a glorious day when he had brought her triumphantly back to his kingdom and romantically proposed on the steps in front of the castle. He had saved her life so many times, how could she possibly deny him when she owed him so much? She said yes, he slipped the ring on her finger, and they embraced for the whole kingdom to see. The crowds cheered and Marie could not hold back a laugh as she smiled wide. She couldn’t wait for their wedding the next day. She had won the heart of the prince and the heart of the whole kingdom just because she had been in danger. Her father’s plan had worked perfectly."

More Old Poetry

    Just a few quick notes to start of this post- 
  1) Thank you to Husband of Mine for my lovely new logo!  I absolutely love it and I hope you do too.  He is awesome.
  2) I apologize for the missing post last week, but I have really not been feeling well and my exhaustion has hit such a bad point.  I have been so restless, but my headaches have been so terrible that it has prevented me from doing so many things.  
  3) I apologize in advance for the lack of posts this week.  My sister is coming to visit for my birthday (hooray!) and I will be crazy busy this week.  I hope I will find some time to post, but I cannot guarantee anything.  I'm hoping even more that I'll just start to feel better and be able to return to normal.  
  4) I am getting extremely close to the halfway point of Rose, and after intense internal debating, I have decided to stop posting chapters as soon as I hit that halfway point.  I know I have a lot of readers who are here specifically for Rose, but I can't have my blog interfering with my intent to publish it.  As it is my first draft, I will keep the first half of the book on my blog, but I will not post anymore completed chapters.  This leaves only about 3 chapters left to post.  However, I will continue to post my free writes on here and maybe they'll end up in the book.
  5) After I have hit the halfway point in Rose, I am going to cut down the number of weekly posts to 2 until it is finished, simply because I don't want the blog to take away time from my personal writing.  I won't stop the blog, because I love it too much, but it will slow down temporarily.  Once Rose is finished, then I will start back with 3 posts per week and I'll begin posting chapters of the next book too.  Any guesses as to which fairy tale I'll do next?
  6) I hit 1,000 views last week and I didn't even mention it so I thought I would bring it up now.  Thank you!!!  That is so awesome! Currently we are at 1,117 views total.  You guys make me so happy!

    Anyway, I had so much fun going through my old poetry last week that I decided to share more of it.  I wish I could find my old notebook so that I could add more, but it vanished a few months ago and hasn't been seen since.  I will continue to hunt for it, but no guarantees.  

Some Old Poems

    I compiled some random poems from the past four years of my life to post.  The first ones are the oldest, and the last one is the most recent that I wrote.  The topics vary from my brief period running track in high school, to the emotional struggles of a teenager, to when husband of mine finally asked me out.  It varies.  A few of these poems are actually responses to others, for example Chance, Killing Me, and Hold Me are all kind of one big story.  The last one was written for my creative writing class where I had to write an imagery poem.  I hope you guys enjoy!

Race
My head is pounding.
My lungs are screaming.
My legs are breaking.
My arms are sighing.
I feel like giving up.
Is this worth it all?
The pain is unbearable.
I want to stop.
I feel as if I'm dying.
I cannot stop.
I must keep going.
Don't give up.
Don't start slowing.
The race is almost over.
Time is almost up.
I push my hardest.
Keep running to win.

Books

    I love books.  I love to read.  I love to escape out of my world and into another one.  My childhood was filled with them.  So was my adolescence, and my teen years were too.  I cannot fathom who I would be without books, and I don't even want to.  Books have changed me for the better.  

    This week I have been feeling under the weather, and writing has been hard.  When I cannot write, I read.  Reading has made me feel infinitely better, if only temporarily.  TV shows and movies do not have the same captivating effect as a book, even if it is a book I have read more times than I can count.  I love everything about books.  

Rose Ch. 11

    Yes, I know, it's been a while since I posted a chapter.  All I can really say about this chapter is that this is so not what I intended to happen in this chapter.  The picnic was supposed to be just the beginning, and then they were supposed to go someplace, but as I wrote the story developed in a way I didn't expect.  I guess my plans will have to wait a chapter.  Also, I am about two chapters away from what I am predicting to be the middle of the book, unless what happened while I was writing today happens more often.  This is pretty exciting for me.  I've never been this motivated to write.  Hopefully I can keep focused on Rose and get the second half of this book written as fast as I am writing the first half!

**Yet again I completely forgot to update the French to English translations.  Here's the link! 

http://alysonbowen.blogspot.com/2014/05/french-to-english-translations.html#.U73_-lZcMpA

Rose

Chapter 11

The following week consisted primarily of dark clouds and rain that barely relented enough for le marché.  Rose never minded the rain, but she did mind how frizzy her hair got because of the humidity.  In order to avoid the annoyance, she had braided her hair down her back.  She tread through the puddles with groceries in hand until she saw Dahlia just outside La Mine, waving her arm to catch her attention.

“Vite!  Inside, out of the rain.”  She pulled Rose inside.

“Dahlia, quoi...”

“Surprise?”  She giggled while Rose’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion at the scene in front of her.  After a moment, she pulled Rose down, maybe a bit to aggressively, onto the blanket spread out in the middle of the shop floor.

“Qu’est-ce que c’est?”

All About You

    Looking over my blog, I realized I have never asked what you guys want to hear about.  I've been blogging whatever I want, and that feels kind of selfish since this blog isn't only about me.  So I decided to do a quick post hoping for feedback to see what you people want me to talk about.  Tell me which posts you liked the most!  It will help me get to know you, my audience, better; as well as the added bonus of motivating me to keep doing what I'm doing.  
    I'm going to give you a couple categories of my posts in the hopes that it helps you to respond, but in the comments you can go into as much specific detail as you want.  Here are the main categories- Rose (from chapters to character sketches, and the free writes that may or may not actually make it into the story), Short stories (and other non Rose related writing), Inspiration (mainly quotes), Writing advice (like the post on motivation), and Journals (any post with me rambling about myself).
    Hopefully you all are enjoying this blog and that it is doing some good other than just making me ramble in written form, which I am so good at doing.  Thank you so much for reading and keeping me motivated in my writing.  I only do have of the work when it comes to writing.  My words are nothing if they are not being read.

    Thank you again!

~Alyson

A Good Start

    After the great views I got on my last short story, I decided to write another one to see how things go.  I hope you like it.  This one ends much happier than the other one too.  It comes from a prompt that jumped right out to me because I relate to it personally.  I hope some of you find you relate to this prompt too.

A Good Start

    "Do you really need all of that candy?" 

    "Do you really need to ask?"  She replied through a mouthful of chocolate.  

    "Oh, come on, Sadie.  It couldn't have been that bad."  

    "You weren't there, Em.  It couldn't have gone worse.  Seriously," she shoveled another handful of m&ms into her mouth before continuing, "what is the worst thing that can happen when you run into your ex?"

    "He's even more hot and you're drooling chocolate?"  Emily plopped down on the porch swing next to her best friend and tried to sneak a few chocolate covered gummy bears but was swatted at.

    "Don't take my candy!"  She scooped up her bags of various candied deliciousness and tucked them away on the other side of the swing, out of Emily's reach.  "So many horrible things happened.  First off, I'm doing okay, right?"

    "Soon to be overweight, but yeah."

    Sadie glared before continuing.  "Anyway, I'm not doing great, but I've been totally fine since we broke up."

    "Yeah, yeah.  You died your hair, you reevaluated your life, and you changed all your lifelong plans.  I know all this.  What happened when you saw him?"

Free Write #2

    After searching Pinterest for inspiration for today's blog post, I decided to do another prompt free write using characters from Rose because last time it was really fun and helpful for me.  I actually decided I want to use that last free write I wrote in the book, so I'm hoping this scene ends up with the same fate.  Hopefully I'll end up liking it, but I have no idea what will actually happen in this scene.  Let's see what happens!

    He had taken her to many differen places but this was the first time his invite had included a dress code, and by dress code he meant a dress.  She didn't have very many nice clothes, but she did have one nice dress that Fleur, Faline, and Mystie gave her for her sixteenth birthday.  It was a beautiful, deep navy color, the color of the sky at night when the first star appears.  It was strapless, but she usually wore it with a gray sweater, and a gray belt cinched at the waist as per Vi's suggestion to show off her figure.  Vi had picked out the style and her aunts had made it.  It was very unique because of the high-low style that Vi chose specifically to show off her legs.  Rose loved the ruffles that ran the length of the skirt and how they felt when she walked.  It was the only item of clothing she had that was truly girly.  She should feel ridiculous for something like that, but she enjoyed it.

Firework

    Today, I decided to share some poetry on my blog.  Writing poetry is something I rarely do now, but in the past it was almost a daily occurrence.  Having lost my poetry notebook, I was left without anything to share except promises of posts in the future when I find my notebook.  However, In honor of July 4th yesterday and getting to light off fireworks for the first time ever, I took the opportunity to write a new poem.  It's not that great, but I like the concepts behind it.

Firework

A spark so small
Barely noticed
Or seen
Or heard in the black of night.

An idea mentioned
But not heard
Or noticed
Or seen in the crowded conversation.

A child trying to hide
Not wanting to be seen
Or heard
Or noticed in the unruly classroom.

The Ever Underappreciated English Major

    Just over a month ago, I was catching up with an old friend from high school.  We were talking about college and careers, which of course brought up the idea of my inevitably doomed life as a writer and English major.  If there is one think all English majors are ridiculously exhausted of hearing, it's comments about our major and, "how are you going to be able to use that degree?", because we've never heard it from anyone else and we're certain not to hear it again.  After mentioning how I was thinking about changing my major, she said to me (and I'm quoting directly from our Facebook conversation), "I'll admit that I'm glad you've decided not to rely on writing as a career."  Because my start of a blog to fully dedicate myself to my writing is not relying on writing as a career. 

    In case you didn't catch the sarcasm oozing out of that last few sentences, let me clarify something for you: our choice of degree and our career paths are not something to be laughed at.  Instead, it is something that should be commended because we voluntarily chose to pursue something we love over something with a guaranteed future of success, fame, and wealth.  We would rather dedicate our lives to our greatest passion than to give up our dreams for security of a job or finances.  We choose to struggle, knowing full well the trials that lay ahead of us and the limited options we have, and the last thing we need is anyone and everyone trying to convince us that doing what we love for the rest of our lives is not good enough in their eyes.  We did not choose this path to seek your approval.  We chose it because we love it enough to fight for it, and because doing what we love is worth the hardships we will inevitably face.  

A Very Short, Sad Story

    The idea for this short story popped into my earlier this afternoon, and as I posted yesterday, I have to write the words or else they will not leave me, ever.  So here is my short, sad story.

Lasagna

    
    She sat on the couch surrounded by the crumpled up tissues, having absolutely no idea what started the fight and the waterworks.  She loved her husband more than anything in the world, and all she wanted was to tell him that and to apologize and make up for the things she said.  Now that the flow of tears and the anger had subsided, she stood despite the headache that crying had brought on and headed to the kitchen in their tiny apartment to begin preparations on Dave's favorite meal.  That tradition had started when they had their first fight years ago when they were first dating but it had carried into their ten months of marriage as well.  
    Thirty minutes and one pan of lasagna later, she headed back to the used tissue covered couch.  As she cleaned up the wet and snotty tissues the cluttered the room, the scene replayed in her mind over and over again, repeatedly poking the festering wound that was her heart.  She rewatched the pain appear on his face after every harsh word fell off her lips.  It only took ten minutes after he stormed off for the regret to fill her up.  The whole argument was permanently incinerated into her mind, but after how therapeutic it was to make the lasagna she couldn't even remember what she said or what they were fighting about.  All she could do now was wait for the next thirty minutes until Dave would come home, as was usual after a fight.