Trouble with parents

Well, the editing isn't going very well. It's been a week and I haven't even gone through the second chapter once. It probably has something to do with the fact that I keep getting distracted. A lot. But also because I decided to rewrite a scene (the one with the falling on ice) and I can't seem to do it. My writing stream has frozen up or something (speaking of, I'll have to rewrite the ending. Could it be that I haven't written a decent original sentence since July? Sigh). I'm hoping I'll get everything order again. In the meantime I'm already dreaming about other projects (including recording a song, making a video for it and shooting a small movie), all with the intent of bringing me new friends. And possibly make a fan base of sorts. What do you want? I only know one person in the whole of America. And all this reading about Kaleb Nation (who I believe is a great guy and I hate that I don't live in the U.S. and can't go to his book signing to meet him) and how his blog helped spread the word on Bran Hambric isn't really helping my confidence that if by some miracle The Changing Cloak did get published, anyone would buy it. Call me a gold digger, but I am way ready for some new friends. (Side note: Why doesn't any teenager in Latvia learn English seriously anymore? Oh, wait, they never have. Okay, why haven't they started? I want to be around people who are comfortable with speaking English and can fully participate in a conversation. While possibly being on camera. It's really hard to make a one-person movie. Ramble over)

But that's not what I wanted to talk about. The funny thing is that there are no speaking roles in The Changing Cloak for anyone who is over 23! Wait a minute... All right, there are four sentences in the novel spoken by someone over 23. That's still very little, considering that there are eight characters of that kind that appear in at least one scene. What's even funnier (to me, at least) is that neither of the lead's parents have names. Shouldn't I, as the author of the novel know what their names are, even if they don't appear in the book? That's the thing, I don't. There is a lot of stuff I don't know about my story and I like it that way. Only it gets a little hard when I'm supposed to know something. But that's off point.

Yesterday I created a new character. A parent. To someone who appears in about two scenes in the novel. What does that say? It says that my subconscious is figuring out another novel on the way. So that brings the total in the Pal Series up to eight. A lot, right? I love it when my subconscious takes over. Speaking of, I am totally in love with a character who didn't exist two weeks ago. I created him on the day I finished the novel and he only appears in the last chapter, but I can't wait to see what he'll do in the next novel! I actually didn't realize I liked him that much until yesterday when I started thinking about which of the villains I liked the most. And bam! Knowledge came. I don't think much of what I like about him (heck, no one's gonna read this unless the book gets published, so I can probably safely say that the character is Noah) shows on the pages, but I have a vague impression of his personality and I love it. You can't not love villains who are forced to be villains. Of course, his friend Alton is another story, but that's a tale for another time...

My manuscript keeps surprising me and I treasure every moment of it. Hopefully I'll get it polished soon and get some opinions! Which reminds me, I almost forgot: my friend Eve, the one that I gave the first chapter to, gave it back to me with words "I read five or six pages, really interesting" in a quiet tone (there were seven pages). I'm not sure if she actually read it, or if she understood it, but, nevertheless, I'm going to look at the positive. Maybe she really liked it, maybe it's worth something. Only you can tell.

Jane