Sunday, September 30, 2007

I'm not normally a Keyshia Cole fan but...

... her album "Just Like You" has been on heavy rotation for the last few days. Other than "I Remember" which I posted earlier, these are some of the other songs I have on constant repeat. This is definitely one of my favorite albums of 2007.

Fallin Out


Heaven Sent


Work It Out


Just Like You is also nice.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Possible writing projects for 2008

Poking around Absolute Write has really inspired me to take my writing seriously. I have far too many pieces lying around doing nothing. If I write so much, why not see if it can take me somewhere? I've been dragging my feet for too long.

So the plan is to do something writing-related everyday till the end of the year. This includes working on my two current Works In Project and editing my four finished pieces. I won't write anything new this year.

Projects I'm toying with for next year:

I'm the woman of the house. Or maybe it would be I'm the woMAN of the house or something like that. Basically, it'll be a Young Adult humorous story about a girl who's suddenly saddled with taking care of the home when her parents leave unexpectedly. Romance, light drama, humor. Obviously not a particularly original storyline but I hope to make it a fun read. Set in Lagos. EDIT: Okay, I need help. I only just thought of this storyline today and I've already started plotting it in my head. Things like NEPA... lol

Ogbanje. Wiki definitions for Ogbanje or Abiku. This will be a serious piece and the story I have in mind will sweep three novels. Lol. Do I have the energy for this? If I do write this, it will be last thing I work on.

Untitled. Romance/Humor/Cultural story. It'll be college-campus set and the heroine would be a girl who appears to love every culture but hers and the hero will be an American-born guy who's all into his parents' culture. I've been thinking about this storyline for about a year so I guess I might as well write it. Set in Yankee.

Edit Consequences and Honeymoon. Edit Femi 2 and WFF 2 if they aren't done yet.

Start sending queries and what not.

I've scrapped the idea of completing "Mission: Make Him Mine." Not that many people read my stuff normally but practically no one read that and maybe it's too gimmicky for me.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Awesomest of awesomest...

I'm totally loving this song by Keyshia Cole.

I Remember

Monday, September 24, 2007

Novel lengths.

I just went to Harlequin's website just to poke around. I think I'm still too chicken to send anything but we'll see. LOL

But anyway, so I've been stressing about the length of my work and feeling that they aren't long enough. I just randomly click on stories from Project Gutenberg and other e-books and do word counts because I want to get an idea of how long a full length novel should be.

Of course, I'm generally disheartened because most often, the stories are over 100K words and some are like 300K+ words. Now, that's a joke if I've ever heard one. I can't imagine writing so many words.

Anyway, most of my O.C. multi-chapter fanfics were about 30-35K words which makes them novellas. The Sam Soon story is about 40K but the 4 'novels' I've completed have been 54-83K words. WFF will probably get about 3-4K more words when I edit, the two Femi's Diary stories will probably get 5-10K words after they've been edited. This will still leave my range about 58-83K words in length.

Consequences is currently at 73K words but will probably get 15-25K more words by the time I'm done. Honeymoon is at 20K and will probably end up at the 60-70K mark.

What's the point if this post? I've been stressing about the lack of length and I think I've actually dragged Consequences quite a bit just for this reason. Only to get to the site and see that their preferences are 50-75K in general. Oh well... not that I'm sending anything to them but it's good to see that shorter novels are also desirable. I guess this means that instead of stressing about length, I should just write the story and it'll be as long as the story deserves to be instead of needlessly dragging it.

I think Consequences has two chapters that I want to expunge but it's only because I waited so long till I got to them. I could probably eliminate 10K words without really changing the story. I am quite dissatisfied with that story.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Lol... is this accurate?

Although I don't tell 'jokes.'

You Should Be a Joke Writer

You're totally hilarious, and you can find the humor in any situation.
Whether you're spouting off zingers, comebacks, or jokes about life...
You usually can keep a crowd laughing, and you have plenty of material.
You have the makings of a great comedian - or comedic writer.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Random

Somehow, I remembered this song from 1994. It's by Tina Arena who's an Australian singer. Back in the days, I just loved pretending I could hit the high notes.

Chains.

I feel uneasy...

... like something is off. I've also been having some odd dreams. I sincerely hope it's nothing.

Monday, September 17, 2007

I'm back writing again...

... updated a story on Saturday and should update the other tomorrow.

I cut my stupid finger on a Diet Coke can today.

What else? I love how my 100th post is complete crap. YIPPIE!

In respect to writing, my goals for the rest of the year:
Finish Consequences
Finish Honeymoon
Edit Femi's Diary (parts 1 & 2)
Edit Wrong Foot First (parts 1 & 2)
I think these are all doable.

Starting October 1st I am going to do something writing-related everyday.

Plan for 2008:
Start sending stuff out and brace myself for rejection.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

On the writing front... (again)

All has been well for like the last few days. I'm just lazy and have been procrastinating for a while now. I should write something tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Monday, September 10, 2007

I am absolutely and totally in love with Nodame Cantabile



Nodame Cantabile is a Japanese drama based on a similarly titled manga. From what I understand, the drama only spans the first 9 volumes of the manga so I suppose there's a lot more story left. Apparently, there are 18 volumes and it's yet to be completed.

The drama is set in a music academy where the title character, Noda Megumi, is a 3rd year student and her love interest and the love of my life, Chiaki Shinichi is a 4th year student.

So why do I love this drama so much? It's freaking adorable. Like the other dramas based on mangas I've seen (It Started With A Kiss, Hana Kimi), the male lead is very straightlaced while the female is quite psycho. In many respects, I found this drama to be quite similar to ISWAK although they tell entirely different stories.

Chiaki is a genius pianist who follows the rules but not his heart. He's got the technique down and is quite a brilliant player but doesn't add much 'life' to it. Even though he's talented in both the piano and the violin, his dream is to be a conductor. This character is played by Tamaki Hiroshi and I must stay that he makes my heart flutter. I ended up watching another movie of his (Heavenly Forest) because I just needed more and even though he was cute in that, it was nothing like he was in Nodame Cantabile. I think it was a combination of his haircut, lighting and just the character he played. Yum.



Technically, he isn't as good looking as say, Wu Chun or Won Bin. Plus I think he looks at least 5 years older than his actual age of 27, but there's something so damn HOT and sexy about him. Plus his lips are just to die for.


Nodame is also a genius pianist but she lacks organization. She plays her piano with feeling but no technique in the sense that she never follows the sheet music but instead, lets her emotions rule. So in the end, she plays very sloppily. Anyone listening to her can tell that she's extremely talented but lacks discipline. In addition, she isn't ambitious and even though she attends a music academy, dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher. I found her character quite sweet and not as annoying as I would have expected. She wears her heart on her sleeve and makes her feelings known like most of these characters normally do but it was quite endearing in her case.

So the story is pretty much about how these two different characters meet, interact and change each other for the better. Yeah, typical but it works.

I remember trying to watch Devil Beside You but I found it so animated that I got turned off. This drama is also very animated but for some reason, all the exaggerations really worked here.

I don't know why but I think a lot of it had to do with the actors and how much they appeared to enjoy playing these over the top characters. For example, the lead female character in My Girl was technically less over the top than Nodame was, yet, she appeared less natural to me. It might have a lot to do with the fact that the characters in My Girl were regular people unlike the all around craziness in Nodame.

In addition, even though Chiaki was the most normal of the main characters, he was also quite crazy. In shows like Hana Kimi or even in a story like David Copperfield, the male protagonist is pretty much boring while all the surrounding crazy characters make the story alive. In this drama, Chiaki also brought a lot of life to the storyline. The actor, Tamaki Hiroshi, as I already mentioned was beyond gorgeous on screen but in addition to this, the anime features like the way he twitched his cheek when something was awry, the way his eyes rolled back and he started to shake whenever he remembered his near-plane crash from childhood and even the way he tilted his head and 'fainted' when something nuts happened, cracked me up endlessly. And boy, did I mention he was so cute? From their NGs, they seemed to really enjoy their roles. I really loved how the entire crew would burst into a chorus of "aye" whenever an actor messed up.

Other characters in the drama cracked me up. Stresemann who was supposedly German but obviously played by a Japanese actor was beyond hilarious. I don't even know how the other actors managed to keep a straight face around him. His accent and manner of speech were beyond hilarious and his dialogues were virtually priceless. Even though he was such a creepy, dirty old man, I found his character the most memorable. I just loved his NGs:


Ryutaro was a character I grew to love. He started off as the stereotypical bleach blonde rocker dude uninterested in classical music but turned out to be one of the most responsible and caring characters in the entire drama. It was cliche in the sense that he eventually grew to respect classical music but his storyline was very well done. His was the character I would love to be friends with in real life.

Masumi, the gay guy with an afro and a freakishly weird moustache was also a sight for sore eyes. Other than his 70s clothing and platforms, he was so hilarious in his quest for Chiaki's love. One of my favorite scenes was when Chiaki walked into Nodame's apartment while Ryutaro and Masumi were there. This was early in the series when Nodame and Masumi agreed to a duel for Chiaki's love (lol) and when he (Chiaki) walked in, Ryutaro informed him of their fight. Chiaki said, "I can never be attracted to a woman like Nodame (whose face had been badly painted by her opponent)." Then he pointed at Masumi and said, "And... and, isn't this one a man?" Masumi's reaction to that comment was killer.

I thoroughly enjoyed the music (even though I have no ear for it) and orchestra (created by Stresemann featuring all the misfit underachievers at the academy) and the storylines about friendship were great. If I could change anything, I would add a lot more romance between Chiaki and Nodame. Even though their hug was touching, I would have loved to see more romance than this:



In addition, even though it was quite obvious that Ryutaro was going to hook up with fellow violinist, Kiyora, their storyline wasn't very well developed. It went from sexual tension to him saying he loved her to them waking up in bed together. Yes, there were other scenes in between but it would have been nice to see some real development between them.

There will be a two-hour sequel airing in January 08 and even though I doubt Ryutaro/Kiyora will appear, I hope it focuses on Chiaki and Nodame's romance.

All in all, I loved Nodame Cantabile :) I love this so much that I seriously considered writing a fic sequel like I did for MNIKSS but since this is a manga, I guess there already is a continuation to the story. But hey, I might still do it.

People often ask me why I enjoy Asian Dramas so much and Nodame Cantabile is a very good example why: they can be so delightful.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

In my quest to rediscover my love for writing...

... I've been reading through posts at http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/.

I signed up in July but never really checked it out and even though the site is really not pretty, there appears to be a wealth of information on it.

Maybe this will do the trick. *fingers crossed.*

True Love by Tuface

Nice song... too bad about the video. Don't know why he insists on his crappy videos.

Monday, September 3, 2007

On my current hate-hate relationship with writing...

... for starters, this happened quite a bit while writing Femi's Diary. I think at one point I didn't update for like 6 or more weeks after my previously weekly updates. So I guess it's nothing major or even new. But I think the difference is that back then, the issue was that I wasn't really in the mood to write. Now, I think I kinda detest writing. Why?

1)It's tedious.
2)Right now, there's no pay off in any way, shape or form.
3)I could spend my time doing more productive things.
4)My ability/skills/creativity/whatever are average at best. I honestly can't tell if my writing is good or not. If I go by the content of feedback I receive, it's not bad. If I go by the amount of feedback I get, it's awful. I honestly don't think my writing is as bad as the amount of feedback I receive suggests so I guess I'll say I'm a little less than average? Personally, from reading my work, since I'm so close to it, I really can't be objective about it.
5)Whatever.

Maybe if I somehow found this rewarding, it would be different. But now, it just isn't. And the more I write, the more I hate it... and I think the worse I become. I feel like I need to just stop.

Bleh.

Since I'm obsessed...

... and not going to bed yet, some of my British faves from the current decade.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Murder on the dance floor.


S Club 7 - Two in a Million. Is it shameful to admit to formerly being a faithful viewer of their T.V show on ABC Family? :(


Blue - If You Come Back. So, okay, I was totally crushing on the Duncan guy but that has nothing to do with my appreciation of their music... even if they totally destroyed Next's Too Close. But since Karma is a bitch, Bollywood got them back with their One Love remix... okay, I'm lying. The Bollywood version of One Love for the movie Rakht wasn't bad. I actually like it.


Daniel Bedingfield - If You're Not The One


Craig David - Rendezvous. Okay, I don't want to talk about it but I was a total Craig David fangirl in the early 00s.

So... from my last post...

... I kinda went from Bobby Valentino to Babyface to Faith Evans. I suddenly got into a Faith Evans mood and started listening to some of her stuff from her first album. That got me into thinking about Shola Ama who kinda looks like her. That in turn made me think of British bands I enjoyed in the 90s and now it looks like I'm going to spend the last hour of my Sunday night watching dailymotion videos. I can't post all but I'll post some... all of which are some of my favorite British songs from the 90s.

Shola Ama - You Might Need Somebody. This is a remake of a Randy Crawford song. The initial reason I (and a bunch of other people) gave Shola Ama the time of day was because her name sounds Nigerian. For starters, Shola is a Nigerian (Yoruba) name and Ama could easily be a Nigerian name. So we heard of her and had to support, as per Naija... turns out that Shola Ama isn't her real name. Nonetheless, it's a good rendition of the song.


Take That - Back For Good



Eternal - Angel of Mine (yep, they sang it before Monica)


Everything But The Girl - Missing (gosh, I loved this song)


Gabrielle - Dreams


All Saints - Never Ever


Spice Girls - 2 Become 1 (shhh... don't tell anyone. Besides, it's not a fav or anything... just a song I know. And yeah, I know all the words but that's because they are so easy to learn!)


Oasis - Wonderwall. Now, how did this become a fave? I don't normally listen to this kind of music (whatever it might be) but some 60's coverband did a remake of it and I thought it was hilarious. And in the end, I somehow ended up liking the original.


Prodigy - Firestarter. The song is nuts... how couldn't I like it? Besides, it's way better than "Smack my b*tch up."


MN8 - random song. Couldn't stand them but my girls loved them. Bleh.


I'm tired.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

The definition of good love...

... according to Bobby Valentino. These are some choice lyrics from Soon As I Get Home off the Special Occasion album.

I'll buy your clothes
I'll cook your dinner too
Yeah, soon as I get home from work

I'll pay your rent
Your faithful lover
Oh baby, soon as I get home, soon as I get home from work

Your the kind of woman that needs a man with lots of cash
With a stack of major credit cards and with me, you don't have to ask


Girl I'll treat you right and I'll never lie
For all that it's worth
I'll give good love



Hmm... he'll buy my clothes, cook my meals, pay my bills, give me loads of money AND screw me right? He'll even be faithful, give me tender loving care, not flirt blah blah blah. Hmm... and what do I have to do in return? Just be with him. Something doesn't seem right. Yeah, I know... HE'S A BIG FAT LIAR!


Here's the song on youtube.


Hmm... apparently, it's a cover of a Babyface song. Here's his version.


My favorite Soon As I Get Home is by Faith Evans. I really loved chubby Faith. Seems her talent disappeared with her weight.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

I keep flip-flopping...

Now I feel like I can't bring myself to write. Maybe I should just leave an announcement for my readers?