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The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 5 & 6

June 26, 2012 in bonnie braverman, books, lola lefever, superheroes, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel | 2 comments

Hey, kids! It’s Tuesday, that means another installment of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 5&6 here.

You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 1 – 6.

Or if you want to read on the blog you can read 5 & 6 below, or hit THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab at the top of the page to read the entire piece on the blog.

And you’ve all checked out the Kickstarter – RIGHT?!  :)

While visions of powerful superheroes dance around behind my eyes, and my imagination flies out of the room and around the whole world, yelling in the backyard interrupts my thoughts.

At first it sounds only like teenagers chatting but it ramps up suddenly and something about the tone sends a chill down my spine.  I roll off my bunk and lean against the open window nearby.  The only staff is far away, out of hearing distance, and a small cluster of girls are near the house, shouting.  At first their cluster is so tight I can’t tell who is who, or what’s happening, but then a dark haired girl named Jenny comes flying backwards out of the circle and lands on her back roughly.  The group gets eerily quiet and two girls go to her aid, but she brushes them off and stands up on her own.  Her defiance ignites a spark of admiration and respect in me.  She walks back to the group, and two of her other friends are still standing there, mouths open, stunned.

I think briefly of going down, but am intrigued and even impressed by Jenny’s backbone.  Sharon looks to be the one that pushed her.  She’s new and has been making trouble since day one, but I’m glad to see someone’s over it and not afraid to stand up to her.  Unfortunately Jenny is rewarded for her bravery with a slap.

The slap shocks even me.

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30 Days Of Superheroines – Day 01!

June 25, 2012 in bonnie vs lola, meredith mcclaren, ross campbell, stephanie hans, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | 28 comments

So in honor of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING and the two kickass superpowered teenage protagonists I’m going to do a superheroine a day for the entire run of my Kickstarter.

I’m not going to write a big thing for each post, but I’m going to post tons of gorgeous art – both professional and fan art – to celebrate these great characters. I’m going to do my damndest to link back and credit, but if I miss something, please forgive and correct if you’ve got the right information in the comments.

Today we’re naturally starting with BONNIE & LOLA and I hope you’ll all enjoy them mightily.

There’s of course not a lot of fan art out yet for Bonnie & Lola since everyone is just meeting them, but a couple really wonderful people have already given me some art for them to get the ball rolling.

We obviously have the gorgeous cover work and illustration by Stephanie Hans which you’ve all seen – and if you go here you can see a dialogue between she and I about the cover process as well as her early sketches:

And then Ross Campbell contributed these absolutely gorgeous Lola and Bonnie heads:

And Meredith McClaren did these brilliant Bonnie and Lola “itties”:

And THIS one by Stephanie Hans – an original painting of Bonnie – from a scene in the book – and available for purchase on Kickstarter!

This has been so much fun already that I could just die.

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The Girl Who Would Be King Kickstarter is LIVE…!

June 25, 2012 in 1979 semi-finalist, books, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | 4 comments

Final Cover Design for The Girl Who Would Be King. Illustration by Stephanie Hans

Here’s a link to the Kickstarter – enjoy!

Also, please check out the website for the book as it has tons of information and cool extras – including hidden pages (hint – look for them on the Bonnie vs Lola illustration page)!

Oh, and the wonderful Michael May over at Robot 6 wrote a piece on the Kickstarter – thanks Michael!

The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 3 & 4

June 21, 2012 in bonnie braverman, books, lola lefever, superheroes, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | 8 comments

Welcome back to THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING!

If it’s your first time here – the short of is that I’m giving away “Part 1” of my novel THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING for free on my blog for the duration of my Kickstarter (which begins on Monday June 25th). New chapters go up every Tuesday and Thursday for the next five weeks. You can read a bit more about the project here and here if you’re so inclined.

For those of you returning – thanks for all the support – you’ve been wonderful and I’m so glad that so many of you are enjoying the book so far.  Today you’re getting Chapters 3 & 4.

You can download TGWWBK Chapters 3 & 4.

And if you’d like to download the entire story thus far – TGWWBK Chapters 1-4

You can also read below.

Enjoy!

I run.

I run anytime the world will let me.  If I had my choice I’d just run through everything I suppose.

I run as close to the fence at the home as I can.  Over the years I’ve worn a pretty impressive path into the yard.  Until two months ago I’d actually taken pride in it, my running path.  I never realized there was anything weird about running by a fence, the same path, the same way, day in and day out.

But then we took a trip to the zoo.

The tigers had this beautiful enclosure, there was even a little lake, and I was thinking it looked pretty nice, considering, until I noticed one tiger in the enclosure, just walking very fast back and forth through the space.  After watching him for a minute I realized he wasn’t just walking, but pacing the exact same route over and over again.

He’d worn a similar path into his cage that I’ve worn into mine, and suddenly I was a bit sad for both of us, but I also knew I wasn’t going to do anything about it.  There’s something about following rules that’s very important to me.  I can’t really understand it yet, but I hope I will someday.

Even though I know in some way my running is like that tiger and his pacing, it’s still good.  It makes me feel calm.  And it keeps the loneliness away.  Maybe it’s the same for that tiger.  I mean, it’s lonely to run. It’s a singular activity, but it’s supposed to be that way I think.  And I don’t know, the way I see it, there’s nothing wrong with feeling lonely when you’re supposed to be alone.  It’s when you’re standing in a crowded room and feel lonely that it’s really sad I think.  Sometimes feeling like that makes me want to tear off all my skin.

So yeah.  I run as much as I can.  And running neurotically by a fence all the time hasn’t made me so popular with the other girls, but it was kind of a lost cause with them anyway.  They’re never mean to me, rather they just don’t seem to understand me, and they just seem to kind of wish I’d stay away from them, so I do.  It doesn’t help that I don’t speak.  The not speaking thing really seems to bother them.  I can’t blame them.  It would probably bother me too.  I’ve tried to find things to say sometimes, but nothing comes.  It’s just empty inside.  Hollow where the words should be.  It’s felt like that every day since the accident.

That’s really how it all started.  I just didn’t want to say anything for a while after the crash, and then I couldn’t think of anything to say, and then I just forgot that I was supposed to be thinking of something to say.  And so I was quiet all the time.  But that’s yet another reason for running I guess.  Nobody ever expects you to speak when you’re running.

A big splashy drop of rain hits me on my wrist and I look up at the sky.  It’s crazy cloudy out of nowhere.  The sky looks ready to let loose on me.  More cold drops hit my skull and seep into my hair.  Running in the rain is even better than regular running, but I know I’ll be called in immediately.  Sure enough, before I can even finish the thought I look up and see Alice motioning me in from the front door.  It’s good that it’s Alice though, because she likes me more than most, and she almost always lets me get another lap in.  I hold up my pointer finger as if to indicate ‘just one more lap’.  Even from this distance I can see her roll her eyes, but she smiles too.  She yells out across the quad. “Okay, but hurry up!” before going back inside.  I smile up at the sky and stretch out my legs, really laying into my long strides.  I go faster, but never too fast.  Never faster than I’ve ever seen anybody else run. Some of those runners in the Olympics I’ve seen on TV run really fast.

I can run much faster than any of them.

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The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 1 & 2

June 19, 2012 in kickstarter, superheroes, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | 22 comments

Bonnie & Lola.  Illustration by Stephanie Hans

Here we go!

Next Monday, June 25th I will be launching a Kickstarter for my book THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING (which I talk about a little bit more here). Part of the Kickstarter will be giving away “Part I: break away” in full online by releasing pages here on 1979 Semi-Finalist every Tuesday and Thursday for the duration of the Kickstarter.

As today is Tuesday, we’re starting with the first two chapters of the book. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for a new piece, and click on the THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab above to go to a dedicated page with the all the updates compiled in one location. The text is both below in blog format for easy reading, or available in a downloadable PDF at the link so you can take it with you on your devices.

Of course if you like what you read, please feel free to sound off in the comments. If you don’t…um…go away? Just kidding, you can let me know if you don’t like it either, but productive comments are preferred and the “comments policy” will be in full effect as usual.

Download the PDF here:  The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 1 & 2

Berks County, Pennsylvania

The car hits the tree going at least forty miles an hour and I go through the windshield like I’ve been tossed gently by a hurricane.  I land thirty yards away from the car on some bright green grass, barely missing the tree directly in my path.

Everything is black for a while.

When I open my eyes again all I see are these vivid green leaves floating casually above me, and I wonder for just a moment about their casual ways, trying to understand why certain parts of life just don’t care about the other parts.

And then the smell hits me.

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The Long & Winding Road Part IV: Editing With Agents

June 19, 2012 in The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | Permalink

Part 4 of my series about my experiences with my novel is up on Lit Reactor. Check it out!

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So…About My Novel…

November 19, 2009 in art, cartoons, comics, the jilted league, the novel, writing | 8 comments

The Jilted League aka The Bimbo, The Bitch, and The Brain aka Olympia, Dina, and Val.  Click to enbiggen! Words and Art by Kelly Thompson.  Colors by Adam Greene.  Thanks Adam!

Well, so much for that.  I sent the ladies to deliver a message and as usual it’s lost in a sea of bitching and moaning.  I hope they’re better superheroes than messengers…time will tell.

So here’s what’s going on with my novel, for those of you who have been asking (you precious but devoted few!).  As some of you already know, I got an offer from an incredibly talented and powerful agent to work exclusively on the revisions to my novel with him.  This essentially means we have both put in considerable time and effort on my book and are both hoping to work together, but we have not signed a contract.  So officially, I’m working exclusively on revisions to my novel with this agent, but technically I do not yet have an agent.  But don’t worry, this is not so uncommon as it sounds.

Anyway, sometime last June the agent and I came to this exclusivity arrangement at which point I began the painful process of waiting for his revision notes.  They arrived in early August and I got to work quickly after they arrived.  The notes were excellent – but much larger in scope than I had expected.  I (finally) finished the revisions (which included cutting about 60 existing pages and adding 130 new pages) at the end of October.  Upon finishing the revision I sent the notes back to the agent to get his feedback, at the same time I sent the revised manuscript to my writing group for a critique.

I have not yet heard back from the agent, though I hope to soon, but Wednesday night I got a very in depth crit from my writing group on the new draft.  Now, I must tell you, it’s pretty scary to wait for a crit like that.  You’ve been pounding away on your keyboard all alone in a room writing 130 new pages that could be brilliant or could be the worst dreck you’ve ever written, and while it seems like it should be obvious which it is, I have to admit that I am wildly inconsistent in how I feel about my work.  I can write an amazing scene before lunch, pat myself on the back as if I’m a genius, go make a sandwich, come back in half an hour, look at the same scene and proclaim myself King of Hacks…the hackiest hacky hack to ever live.  It’s quite a sight.  So suffice to say, I really had no barometer about how those new 130 pages were working.  Some days I felt pretty good about them, some days…not so much.  And since not a single soul in all the world had read them yet…I was pretty anxious to hear what the group thought.

Overall, they really liked the new draft and the change in plot and arc (130 new pages – that’s definitely some changes).  There were problems of course (there always are) and I haven’t yet had a chance to go through all four manuscripts to see their individual page to page notes (which can sometimes be a blow to the ego), but the response was overwhelmingly good…much better than I had expected.  So I’m really happy today.  And really grateful to have such a wonderful group of writers that are supportive and critical.  Joining a writing group was hands down the best thing I’ve ever done for my writing.

So what does all this mean?  It means that I’m not crazy (yay!) and that hopefully the agent I’m working with will feel similarly about the manuscript as my writing group did.  I have no doubt that more revisions will still be needed (not to mention a strong edit – the ms is coming in at a bloated 419 pages right now) but hopefully the agent will be on board for the new direction…and sometime…sometime!…in the relatively near future we can sign a contract and get this book out on submission to publishers. So everyone, please continue to keep your fingers crossed – I know it’s already been about six months – but if you can hang on for three or four more I’d really appreciate it – and hopefully this thing will really get to go somewhere…and if I’m lucky…take me with it.

Thanks for all of your support…and know that by “support” I mean agreeing to buy at least 500 copies of the book each when it finally (hopefully!) sees publication.  :)

*Oh – and click here if you want to know “what happened LAST time” according to Dina in panel two.

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