Cover Art for My Novel

I debated on whether or not to post this in "Magic Cover Shop Art Corner" but then I decided to post it here cuz it IS about my own writing.

I first posted my novel "Liaffon" on Figment: Write Yourself In over 5 years ago and it had this cover on for years:

Looks bad, I know.




Then I changed it to

I have a chance to make this! Publish my novel *chants over and over*

You didn't know this because I didn't tell you but me and my parents, we have been working to get published in an academic journal with me as second author.

Found out today we have been rejected and can't resubmit to the journal

One: It is bad that we have been rejected and can't resubmit to the journal.

Two: My name won't be on a published piece. My real name, that is.

Three: Very nice critiques with kind suggestions and reasons stated for the rejection.

The second point means something to me, guys.

I have long decided that the first ever published piece with my name (my pen name) will be on my novel Liaffon. THIS MEANS THAT,

Okay, let me just say...NO MUSIC!!

So A LOT OF TIMES I have seen people ask questions or write about it.

Yes.

Do you listen to music while you write?

or just

What kind of music do you listen to while you write?

Oh my gawd.

Just please, just please stop with that! Not everyone will automatically be a music-listening writer or a writer listening to music when they write.

I don't listen to music when I write. I listen to

Mixed up all those nursery rhymes and Mad stuff

So, I wrote this poem that doesn't make sense and I want to share it with you guys.

Riddle Me Mad

Riddle me riddle
A cat plays a fiddle
A boy Jack falls and breaks his crown
The little dog grins and makes a mocking frown
As Jill goes tumbling after

Riddle me riddle
The fork and spoon start to giggle
As the cow jumps over the moon
Mary quite contrary grows her flowers in June
The same month Humpty Dumpty makes a fall

Riddle me riddle
Two goats, a lamp, and Mr. Diddle
Hide behind the mulberry bush
As kookaburra whispers "hush"
"Quiet my child, the mad things are here
The tea cups and wolf are already near."

Riddle me riddle
The dish plays a fiddle
As the spoon runs away with the cat
The three little pigs laugh "Imagine that!"
And March Hare invites himself to tea

Riddle me riddle
She comes around the mountain to giggle
And all the King's men climb up the water spout
Down falls the rain to wash those spiders out
The sun comes out so the Mad Hatter can play
"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat, singing all the way."

Writerly Jargon Glossary

Some people aren't familiar with writerly words so here are a few I know and I'll add on the list if I come across any more.

MC = Main Character

POV = Point of View

WIP = Writing-in-progress

NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month. Held in November and you are supposed to write 50,000 words in one month preferably from scratch. Often referred to as "NaNoWriMo" or "NaNo". You WIN by verifying your word count by the end of the month on the official NaNoWriMo website. There is also Camp NaNo which is held in April and July. Camp word amount is free. 10,000 words, 5000 words or even 60,000 if you wanna give yourself a push. Any word amount is fine. Also, you don't have write from scratch. That novel you were working on, a Book Two or Book Three of your series, anything goes. As long as you WIN by the end of the month by verifying your wordcount on the official Camp NaNoWriMo website.

Figment = Figment: Write Yourself In  (I need to put this here because.)

I am the Evil Puppeteer of my Characters

Source of Topic: This Website

Topic: Who or what inspired your characters

My Novel was Born Out of SAT Vocab Practice

Source for Topic: This Website

Topic: "Talk about the inspiration behind your current book (if you have more than one book out, do a series on what inspired each of those books)"

I Am A Fiction Writer, Who Are You?

I've been writing for seriously for years. I've written so many stories I don't even know how many I have all together. I have over 400 poems and 1 writing-in-progress. If you asked me how much I like writing, words can't even describe it.

Since I have been blogging for a while now, and I'm beginning to tell more people about my novel, I thought I'd do a series of writerly things...anyway, enough babbling.

If you are also a writer like me,

Let me boast a little...NaNoWriMo

TAAAA DAAAA!!! :D

I finished Camp NaNoWriMo! 50,522 words with a goal of 50,000! Actually the story isn't finished but now I've given myself a little boost and I'll keep writing and writing until I finish my novel...but not at such a fast pace. I do want to start blogging again and I have some juicy topics planned *evil laugh*

See ya later, alligators :)

Fantasy Food in Fantasy Stories: idk what da heck...

When writing a story, you need to make the world real, especially for fantasy writing. Or for my story that I'm writing. If you want, you can read it at "Figment: Write Yourself In". Go to "search". Type in "Liaffon" and click. Then search "writings".
****************************************** :) *smiles* *******************

So, you try to bring in REAL things to make your story more REAL even though it's not.

Like music, food, art, and stuff.

I got the music part down. It's good to go to Wiki and type in List of musical instruments and then look for ones that match your region of story and then see if they match your era, then look them up on YouTube to see what they sound like.

I found out that

A Story...I think...flash fiction, I suppose...

This is a live typing...thing. I have not decided the topic, I will just write a story and see where it leads me.

Let's start out with a classic beginning...

Once upon a time there was a King and a Queen and they both really loved to sing in the shower. But their neighbor, a really evil bunny-rabbit hated to hear them sing together like that in their individual showers. He had no one to sing songs with and he was very upset about the whole thing.

Now down the street in a cul-de-sac lived a crazy little old woman with crazy green and purple hair and she loved to try and do some voodoo and witchcraft but she was terrible at it. But only she knew that she was terrible at it.

So one day the bunny-rabbit, fed up with all this singing lovey dovey shower stuff, went down to the crazy little old woman.

Do you remember? A Poem by N. J. Folettia

In the last post I deciphered the song, "Do You Remember" by Ane Brun. Then I remembered (joke unintended) that I had written a poem about 5 years ago...omg, I can't believe it's been THAT long already...with the same title.

So, just to let you guys know, I keep my poems all in one Word document...actually there are three Word documents...and I number each poem I add in. It's not always in chronological order. I must confess I did post this particular poem on Figment: Write Yourself In. It was sort-of-not-really for a contest that is now over.

This poem counted as poem number 100! Woot *cheers with sarcasm because it wasn't intended to be exactly 100 to impress you or anything*.

This is what I wrote as my description for the poem on Figment:

I wrote a book: Random House is my dream

A lot of books I have...are published at Random House.

I love the name "Random House" because I love randomness. Great friends with upcoming YouTuber Galligator: Her Royal Randomness, btw. She's not here today cuz it's 2am in the morn.

Also, Random House is linked with Figment: Write Yourself In, a community writing site that I have been on since it's very faithful beginning.

So, here's an excerpt of my book.

Liaffon Book One: East Seekers

(I will report you if you...never mind.)

Never mind I won't even post it here.

Liaffon Book One: East Seekers @ Figment

Instead here's the link. I just don't trust people on the web not copy-paste-y my stuff. At least on Figment you can't select. That's a relief.

You can tell I did the cover myself...maybe you couldn't, anyway, I did the cover myself. It's the vision for Liaffon that I had...well, when it was only one book. I had no intentions of making Liaffon into a potential trilogy but, here we are.

It could also be a potential quadrilogy (four books...is that how you say it?) but I still don't know.

Anyway, the cover is of course, subject to change to something more appropriate to the first book.

Just a spoiler...that is also subject to change.

Book Two: Mayah

Book Three: idk...actually I do but just not the title

Book Four: idk

So here you are. Mayah is about a girl living in a world close to ours but slightly more advanced. Yet, rainy-day traffic never seems to go away in any age, darn it :P

The thing that's different about the first and second books is that the first book switches between two characters that are important in the story. The second book has one main character only...who has the darnest habit of muttering and mumbling. Cute or annoying? You decide :)

My idea is that the story starts four days before the characters in the first book arrive at the scene in the second book. Four days. I think I kept that idea. I could've changed that to five...wait, gotta check my days again...

Anyway, the days are important. They coincide with something very important to the whole plot in the second book...nope, not telling! :D  Why is it so fun to make people all excited but then not tell them? Why? :D

Random House! I love you guys, and splendid covers! :D OMG, the artists are awesome! I so wish I was a photoshop guru and then maybe I can stop using people's pics...and start using my own!

Oh, and I've been working on this book for...uhm...since I started Figment so...It says member since Dec 2010 on my page...which means...I'll have been a Figgy for five years this December...that is ridiculous.

Figment has apparently been around since 2008...but not fully fledged until 2010. Established 2008, okay, I see...

Oh, sorry guys, talkin to mahself there :D

So...I have not been on Fig from 2008 but I have been a member since it kicked off in 2010.

Crazy stuff...but hey, five years. Worked on Liaffon for five years. I'd like to say I had at least a year and a half when I didn't write anything in Liaffon at all. Not just because I had writersblockitis (serious disease for us writers, guys) but also because I wasn't so serious about finishing Liaffon or getting it ready for publishing or anything. Only in the last few years did I really "up" my game.

Oh, and uh Liaffon (lee-ah-fawn).

Got it? Good! :)

I probably edited Liaffon...five times. Then I wrote up a bullet-point summary of what happens in the story and found shocking results... nothing really happened in the book. So, with the story fully written down in my mind, I went into major rewrite mode.

This means, I opened up a completely blank new clean Word Document and began to write Liaffon all over again from scratch. By this time I had already started and "finished" writing Book Two and even started on the first chapter of Book Three thinking hey ho I'm on a roll now! which I wasn't just a fake one.

Anyway, I rewrote Liaffon and tried, with NaNoWriMo 50,000 words experience to get Liaffon to 50,000 words and make the story dense like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. Just a few months ago I finished rewriting it and not only that it's currently got...60,902 words and growing.

Growing because I'm going back to clear up messes and plot holes and try to make a believable world. For great beautiful scenery, I'm going to actually study J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The first book. Because there is some good descriptive word magic going on and he's like the tops of all tops in fantasy books. Idk even why I'm telling you all this. I have no one to tell, really. I'm a lonely soul when it comes to writing.

My parents don't really get how grueling this can be. My Mom used to write and then I asked her one day why she wasn't continuing her stories. She said, "I've moved on past that phase in my life."

I could not believe my ears.

A PHASE??? Writing is just a frickin (sorry my language) PHASE for her????

That is insane. How can writing be a phase? I do not understand her sometimes.

Enough of the jabbering.

My point of this post *laughs to self in a ridiculous way* is to say I am ready Random House. I am ready to find an editor. All I need to do now is write up a pitch and finish editing my story. That will come soon, I'm telling you.

So, anyway, thanks guys for reading this long. Enjoy the rest of your day, night, afternoon and all the times in between depending on what part of the world you live in.

See ya later alligators! :D

November 2014 NaNoWriMo WINNER: Me

Yeah, I'm bragging :D

I slayed the 50k-word novel dragon!!!!

Oh yeah :D

Finished with 53050 words! WOOOOO!!!!

The process is awful but the finish feels GREAT. That's why I do it :)

National Novel Writing Month: It Has Begun!

I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm...

Actually really, I am pretty calm just that my MC (Main Character) isn't. Really. He's slowly going nuts and he doesn't realize it and his father is all to blame.

So, this month I decided to accept the challenge and juggle NaNo and school work and life stuff. So far, so good.

The only thing I'm really having trouble with now is... going to bed at a decent time.

These days it's become a habit to stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning, skip breakfast, eat brunch, eat a snack, and eat dinner and eat a snack before bed. It's awful! And habits are so hard to break.

Today in one of my classes a professor said, it was something like... "H. A. B. I. T spells 'habit'. You take the 'H' off and you get 'ABIT', take the 'A' off and you get 'BIT', take the 'B' off and you get 'IT'... habits are hard to break."

Clever way of putting it and he was absolutely right. And it was funny. Very interesting professor.

My mother likes to say that to break a habit all you need to do is create a new one. But you know, in reality it's more like you need to fix your bad habits. I mean, what good would it do if you get rid of a "dubbed bad" habit and create a new one that also happens to be bad?

Meh :/

Anyway, I currently have 12,278 words. Goal is 50,000. I'll try to keep you guys up to date so you can all be motivated to maybe take on the challenge as well! :D

NANOWRIMO!!!

Get those fingers on that keyboard and start typ'in!

List of Often Seen Types of Protagonists in Fiction

I don't know if you guys have noticed (you probably haven't) but I read a lot.  I mean, really, A LOT.

And when you read, there are certain things you kinda notice that writers often use.

You know, like, vampires.

But anyway, I'm not talking about genre I'm talking about plots.

First, what are plots?  Well, they have a beginning, middle, end, and a building up part to a climax somewhere between the beginning and the middle, and the middle and end.  Well, the end is the climax and the, well, I guess it's kinda like the resolution of sorts.

And anyway, I'm not talking about plots I'm talking about the protagonists in the stories.

Here's a list.  Most of them are "general I've seen before" types but some of them are ones I took from the stories I've read.  Mostly fantasy, as you may notice.

1. Was a nothing average kid and suddenly has the whole world on his or her shoulders because of some heritage or destiny...  The Destiny Child.  Wait, Destiny Child sounds familiar...isn't it a celebrity name or something?

2.  Nothing average kid wakes up one morning and feels different.  Then meets people with strange powers and goes to save the world or something.

3.  Magical fantasy land with magical princess or prince going to get married soon but hates it and runs away, hides identity, finds a peasent or country girl or boy falls in love but is forbidden... well, you know, love stories that cross between ranks.

4.  The chosen one stories.  Oh, wait, I know a good chosen one story.  The Pokemon movies.  Not the TV series.  In the movies, every single one, Ash (Satoshi in Japanese) goes out to save the city, the country, the world, the pokemon species.  Good grief.   Sometimes I think he should give one of his buddies a chance at the saving the world thing.  Don't get me wrong, I like the Pokemon movies.  But I think it might be interesting if the protagonist wasn't always the protagonist like in the TV series.

And, in a way, Harry Potter is kind of like the chosen one, isn't he?  Not too much, but kinda.

5.  Speaking of Harry Potter, those protagonists who naturally have some great power with them the moment they were born.

6.  Protagonists that revolt against some authority force and are the leader of that revolutionary group.

7.  Protagonists with amnesia.

8.  Girl protagonists with a corrupt family and school life who find love with some guy that help them bring their life around.

9.  Speaking of love stories, nothing average girls getting asked out by popular boys and the struggles they go through with entering the popular girl world or not.

10.  I'm running out of ideas... uhm... Suicidal insane protagonists finding love or finding power they didn't know they had and realizing they weren't insane or end up staying insane or succeed in killing themselves.  Sorry for the frankness.  And I'm saying sorry to those of you who have lost someone because they took their own life.

There.  I don't know, maybe these are cliche but maybe someone of you writers out there can mix-mash them and create something new?  *grins* I dare you to try to mix these up good.  And show me!  However long I don't care.  I'd love to see creative creative writers :)

J.K. Rowling regrets character match-up: SPOILER ALERT (sort of)

Today I saw an article about J. K. Rowling coming out that she regretted matching up Ron with Hermione.  This is a case of character match-up regrets.  I can feel her.  Totally.  I mean, when you start writing, working on a plot, planning all the way through, its different when you actually start writing the story.  And, finally, when you leave it alone for a couple months and go back to it.

Am I making any sense here?

When I did my first NaNoWriMo, I outlined a plot.  Since I don't normally outline a plot it was kinda tricky at first.  My main character, Chelly, was initially supposed to go to a young police officer to help her find the island that appeared in her memories and go with him to that island and find connections to her past she couldn't remember because of amnesia.  She was initially supposed to fall in love with him, forget her past, never remember, and finally settle down and have a family.

But it turns out when I was writing the story, following the plot, her remembering was becoming a big part in the story so, I changed it.  She did go to a detective and they kind of find each other's past in their eyes and well... love, see?  I'm the kind of writer who changes plot as I go along.  I tweak it here and there, but making sure I never lose track of my initial goal for the story; Chelly needed to find love again and live happily ever after on the island she washed up on from the ocean.  It had to happen one way or another.

This is my way.

J. K. Rowling seems to be one of those people who come up with dense plots and follow it completely.  I'm not saying she definitely does this because I've never met her and I'll have to look up interviews and stuff I don't feel like doing right now.  You can do it if you want.

But,
as a fellow writer, I can see where she comes from.  I understand that in the beginning, the very first plot is like your baby, your child, your pet that you don't want to let go.  Her pet was that Ron and Hermione would get together and in the movie it was obvious that they may soon become an item.  It was clear Harry and Hermione were just friends.  Friends to the end, that is.  Such special friendship *tears up a bit and smiles*

My point is that I understand why she went on not changing the original plot.  And another thing, once she made it seem like it was going to happen, then brought girlfriend possibilities for Harry, it was like, "No going back now, J. K. Rowling."

Personally, I think it would be interesting if someone, maybe even J. K. Rowing herself, had the guts to rewrite the whole series with the aim that Harry and Hermione would get together and Ron would... idk... who else was there... Luna Lovegood or someone else... maybe there can actually be someone NICE from Slytherin that can be with him.  I did like though, how Malfoy (I'm not spelling his name right) had a heart in the end.  You know, his parents did take him away but, he did waver for a second.  I kind of would be interested to see his side of the story through the whole series and afterwards.

Though it always takes me off guard when the main character suddenly switches and I have to change perspective completely, for the writer its fun to think "What was happening to the secondary character when the main character was doing that?  What was the secondary character thinking?  (If he is a bad character) What were the real intentions behind his doings?  Could he possibly have re-thinked his actions?"

Sorry to J. K. Rowling that I have not read any of the books.  Just the movies.  But I really like the fact that she involved herself completely in the movies because it is true some great books like the Hunger Games, can be totally ruined by the movies (my opinion).  I should not have read the book beforehand.  Or maybe I should not have watched the movie.

Same reason why I'm never going to watch "The Host" because the book was my first ever page-turner and really, really, really good.  I'm really, really, really afraid it'll be ruined forever by the movie.  It was SUCH a good book.

If J. K. Rowling ever comes across this post and miraculously reads to the very end, I would like to tell her that she is an amazing writer.  Persistent, imaginative, and someone I can never be on equal ground with no matter how much my friends tell me I could be.  NO.  NEVER.  Not even in a million years.


P.S.
Did someone just say, "Hey, N. J. Folettia looks a lot like J. K. Rowling!  Yo stealing the idea for a pen name buddy?"  Well... not really.  But I had no other idea for a pen name but...I really wanted to use my middle name for SOMETHING.  In Japan, people don't have any middle names so I never use mine.  EVER.  And... on a writing site, Figment, I use this pen name that is half my real name and half my fake name.  And I kind of like it.  So I thought, well, I don't really want people that I know to find this blog by my real name and see what the heck goes on in my crazy mind.  And my mother doesn't really know about this World Problems blog.  Only the Saving Wildlife one.  And she doesn't read it soooooo...

No, I'm not copying anyone.  It just happened to be that way.  Well, maybe I did use her pen name idea as base.  But at least its not J. K. Folettia or N. J. Rowling, right?  It's my own pen name.  So, yeah, that be 'bout it, buddy.

"I'm gonna write a book! :D "

Whoa!  Hold your horses!

Do.  You.  Really.  Know.  How.  Hard.  That.  Is?????

No, you don't.  Of course not.  You've never written a single thing in your entire life... and no, essays and reports don't count.

Sometimes these people joke that they'll write a book.  They think it's such an easy thing to do.  As easy as saying "I'm gonna go swimming! :D".  Nope.  It's not that easy.  Take it from me, I've been trying for... 5~6 years now.  The only novel I did actually finish writing, was the one I did for Camp NaNoWriMo.  It's not edited so it's not finished though.

And... and, and, and, I have this novel that I've edited about four or five times.  I've been working on it for over three years now and that's just Book 1 and partially Book 2.  Neither are finished.  I'm planning on having a Book 3, too.  Recently I figured I would have to write a Book 4 for it to all work out in the end.

And well, let's not get into the details about editing, shall we?  Let me tell you this, IT ISN'T EASY TO DO BECAUSE YOU MIGHT HAVE TO GET RID OF PARTS YOU LIKE a.k.a YOUR BABIES.  It's really hard to get rid of those.  But sometimes you gotta let go.

Next comes the publishing deal.  If you ever do finish editing, the next step is finding a publisher.  I often hear about authors who have gotten rejected tons of times.  I'm really afraid to send my draft anywhere yet.  Wanna get it perfected as much as I can first.

Even if they do accept your writing, what if the rest of the editing process doesn't go well and you never get to see your book?  But even if you get your book, what if hardly anyone buys it?

The book world is a tough one.

It's really hard to be good enough like J.R.R Tolkien or J.K. Rowling or Stephen King.

Well, if you do "write a book" and I don't mean like a first draft, I mean a Book.  Capital "B" Book.  You can only call it a Book once its been published and bound together and distributed.  Then, alas, finally, you have written a book.  But until then, all you have are drafts.  Nothing is ever complete, you know that?

The novel I told you about, the one that has Book 1~possibly 4?  I keep editing and editing and editing and editing and editing... never ending editing.  I betcha anything even published successful authors like J.K. Rowling don't feel like their book is perfect.  It's never perfect.  So, well, you have to come to this... stopping point, I guess.  You have to find a place to put your foot down and say, "Okay, it's good enough."

My dream is to see my book at a bookstore and people buying it and enjoying it.  Not much about money and fame.  Sure if it gets it it's a plus but not everything has to be about money and fame.

Those of you out there, wanting to write a book for money and fame, not gonna go so well.  Let me tell you that.  NOT gonna go so well.  You might, just might get money but fame... I'm not sure.  Looks kinda grim.

Well, anyway.  Someday you might see a book written by N. J. Folettia.  Until then, this blog is probably the closest thing.

So you wanna-write-a-book people out there, think about all the responsibilities first.  Sorta like caring for a pet.  Think and then act.  Don't act and then think.  Do it in the write order (pun intended).

This is the sort-of cover for my future book.  Liaffon (Lee-ah-fawn).  The image is taken from the Internet.  What I really want is a glamorous city beyond the hills and the title should be golden embossed letters.

A creative story. Wrote from Inspiration. Enjoy!

Inspired by Nat G Hal Blog  http://nateghalblog.blogspot.com/#!/2013/04/mythical-creature-creative-writing.html

Thank you for the inspiration!!

So, here it is, a creature who lives in something we abandoned and a child finds the creature.
I forgot about the mythical creature part but, oh well. 

And, I'm not happy with the title.  If you have an idea for one, let me know in the comments.

First and Last, Always and Never

The sky was dark and the cold air was biting her legs.  The only warm things were her tears that trickled fresh from her eyes.  It was past dinner and she hoped her parents would come looking for her.  They knew all her hiding places.  But something inside, maybe a child’s intuition, told her they were too busy fussing over her sister.  Her older sister Meggy was tall and slim and almost became a model when she was in junior high.  Loina didn’t really understand about all that then.  She was only eight.  Too busy with braiding her doll’s hair and throwing all her dolls around in her room, squealing with delight when they hit the ceiling.

It was all her sister’s fault for being so perfect.  Loina was chubby around the middle, her hair was a strange brownish blonde, and her feet were too small to hold her big body up.  As she padded up to the forgotten tower she liked to go to cry her eyes dry, she cursed herself.  Meggy was in high school now.  She was sixteen.  Loina was only ten still.  But she knew a few words.  Meggy used them a lot.  Her parents never got mad when she used them.  They only got mad at poor Loina.

Now in the corner of the lowest level of the tower, her favorite spot, Loina sobbed.  Why?  Why didn’t her parents care about her?  Why didn’t they even look at her once?  They didn’t even seem to notice when she basically shouted into their faces that she hated them and was running away.  She wouldn’t really run away though.  She always sulked back before it got too dark.  The monsters of the night really scared her sometimes.  Meggy called her a baby once and Loina ran to Mama.  But Mama didn’t scold Meggy.  Mama told Loina to grow up.  She said,

“You’re a big girl now.  So don’t go crying about monsters, do you hear?”

She heard.  But she didn’t want to listen.

Loina lifted her head from her soggy sleeve of hot tears.  She sniffled and stopped.  What should she do now?  Go home?  No, not yet.  She’ll stay as long as she can.  Maybe Mama and Daddy will come after all.  Maybe they still cared about her?  Even just a little bit?

She never went up to the top of the tower.  She was afraid of the monsters.  “But,” she thought.  “If the monsters do get me, it won’t matter.  Mama and Daddy don’t care about me and Meggy will be happy I’m gone.  I have no friends either anyway.”  So, she climbed the stone stairs.

Each step brought back the adventurousness in her.  Sometimes stone crumbled underneath her feet but she didn’t stop.  Once she went right through a cobweb but she merely brushed it off herself before continuing on.  Half way up she began to puff up the stairs.  Her heavy body became her obstacle.  She knew she needed to get thinner but… Mama and Daddy didn’t care what she ate.  She didn’t care either.

At the top of the stairs she whispered, “I made it!”  The lightning of victory shot through her and she almost squealed out loud.  But something moved in the corner and she clamped her mouth shut and held the sound back with her two spongy hands.

She stared out into the corner, into the top tower that looked out over the town she lived and further off, at the city.  In the corner, right by the window, was a curious light green blob.  Since the tower was slightly darkening, the green blob seemed to glow in the dark.  Or, was it actually glowing?

“H,hello?” Loina called out to the blob.  Though she didn’t know if it could speak she knew it was always polite to start with a greeting.  She’d learned that at school.  Not her Mama.  They never paid attention to their youngest child.

“H,hello,” the blob replied and turned around.  It had eyes like a snail that stuck out from the top of its head.  But its hands were like a person’s hands and it had a mouth like one, too.  But it didn’t have a nose and no feet either.  Loina silently wondered if it could smell very well.

“My… I… um, my name is Loina.  What’s yours?” Loina took a hesitant step forward.

The green blob came forward, too.  It outstretched its blobby hand.  “Kemmy.  I live here.”

Loina smiled and took the hand without hesitation.  It was a friendly gesture that she trusted.

“How long have you lived here?” Loina sat down on the hard rocky floor.  Kemmy came to sit next to her, stretching out his body like a slug so he could bend his middle.

“A long time.  Humans have long forgotten this place.  Abandoned it.  So I took over.  They don’t notice.  I don’t mind,” he looked her up and down.  “I think I can trust you not to tell anyone about my secret place?”

Loina nodded with earnest.  This was her very first friend she wasn’t going to let him down.

“Good,” he nodded.  Did he have a neck?

“Where are you from?” Loina began her bolt of questions like any ten-year old.

“Somewhere,” he said matter-of-factly.

“That’s not a place.”

“Sure it is!  It’s the name of the place.  Somewhere.”

“What’s it like?”

“It’s okay.  But we’re just born out of nowhere and when we get to Somewhere we all feel lost and left out.  We have no friends or family.  Some of us try to make friends with others.  But we’re so different it’s really hard.  Then, like me, some of us leave to find a new place to call home.  A lot of us come to Earth.  It’s so peaceful in lots of places and there’s lots of abandoned places we can make our homes.  Sometimes some people come in but they never find us.  I was surprised when you finally decided to climb the stairs.”

“Why do you glow?”

“Everyone from Somewhere glows.  It’s… kind of our thing.  Like your thing is to sing.”

Loina shook her head.  “No.”

“No, really, you’re really good.  Why don’t you sing for your parents?”

“They don’t listen to me,” she stuck out her bottom lip and sighed.

“Have you tried to get them to listen?” Kemmy turned his eyes so they looked right at her but his body didn’t turn.

“Yeah…”

“No, you haven’t really tried.  You need to really try.  You need to tell them how you really feel.  Not how they want you to feel.”

“You know a lot.”

“Yeah, I’ve been living here for forty years.”

Loina looked at him up and down.  He didn’t look at all old to her.  Kemmy laughed at her expression.  It sounded like a chuckle and a giggle at the same time.

“My days are longer compared to your days, Loina.  For you, I’ve only been here for forty days.  Each day is a year for me.  Goes by really slowly.”

After a pause he added.  “But my memory only lasts for two years.  Then the next year, it starts all over again.  I know this because I’ve been keeping a diary.  I disguise myself as a kid and go buy notebooks at supermarkets and stuff.  The cashiers don’t even look at you when you buy things.  Really convenient.  Today is my last day for another two years of memory.  As we speak, I’m writing the diary with my tail,” he looked behind him.

Loina didn’t notice at first but behind Kemmy stretched a really long tail with tentacles at the end.  It was grasping a pen and jotting down words in a notebook.

“Wow!  You can do that?” Loina watched wide-eyed.

“All of us from Somewhere can.  It’s so we can write down if we wanted to while that thing is happening.”

“Oh,” Loina nodded.  Then she heard a familiar sound.

“Loina!  Where are you?  Loina!”

It was Mama.

“Loina-girl!  It’s past dinner!  Where are you?”

It was Daddy.

Loina stood up to balance herself on her small feet.  “I think I need to go.  Like you said, I’ll tell them.  Like you said, maybe I’ll sing, too.”

Kemmy nodded and smiled.

“Will I see you again?” Loina bent down to hug her new friend.

“Of course.  I’ll always be here,” Kemmy hugged her tight.  His blobby body felt soft and spongy.  He was also chubby around the middle.  For once, Loina didn’t mind her chubby stuff and her spongy stuff.  For once, she didn’t really care.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.  Will you remember me?” Loina asked as she made her way to the stairs.

“I’ll remember you,” Kemmy waved with his blobby green hand.

“Promise?” she said and started down the stairs.  She turned around to see him still sitting there waving at her.

“Promise…” his voice was soft.

“Loina!” came Mama’s voice.  Without a second glance back, Loina hurried down the stairs, her heavy footsteps echoing through the tower.

Mama hugged her close and Loina told her heart out.  They made a deal.  From now on, they would watch their little girl grow up.  Meggy was big enough already to handle herself most parts.  Loina was happy now and couldn’t wait to tell Kemmy about it tomorrow.

*    *    *

The next day was Saturday.  Loina woke up early to go see Kemmy.  She left a note on the table saying she would go outside for a little bit. 

His secret was safe with her.

But when she reached the tower, breathing heavily and clutching her middle, Kemmy wasn’t there.  All she could find were forty days’ worth of diaries and a few dried up pens.

A tear stung her eye and she pushed it back.  Did he leave?

“Kemmy!” she called.  “Kemmy!”  But only her gasping voice echoed through the tower.  Light trickled in from the open window and shone on the diaries.  Loina picked the top one up and flipped to the page Kemmy must’ve left off.

“Dear, Loina,” she read out loud, surprised to find the last page was a letter.

“I’m glad we finally met.  I liked talking to you.  I told you I only remembered two years at a time.  What I didn’t tell you was that yesterday (your day) was my last day.  We only live forty years (our time).  I was hoping you would someday come up so we could talk all day.  I’m glad you decided to come when you did.  I’m glad I could meet you before I left.  Oh, and you can keep my diaries.  I wrote in them just for you.  About all kinds of stuff.  I can read minds.  I didn’t tell you.  I thought you’d be afraid.  So, well, this is the end.  Goodbye, Loina.  Thank you for being my last and only frie”

It ended right there but Loina knew what it was supposed to be.  “You were my first friend, Kemmy,” she sobbed and tucked the notebooks under her arms.  Then, carefully, she went back down the stairs and out of the abandoned tower.  She only turned back once.  Hoping Kemmy wasn’t really gone.  But the tower just stood there, half broken, half crumbly.  Grass shoots sprung out around it here and there.  Rusted metal bars stuck out from pieces of stone like thorns.

Loina turned around and trekked back home.  She had a home concert tonight and she needed to get ready and pretty.

“Somewhere over the rainbow,” she sung softly as she made for her house.

Camp NaNoWriMo! We have a WINNER!

Woot!

I have 51996 words and my goal was 50000!  Yay!  I made it!

See, even someone who is such a procrastinator like me can accomplish something!

Just wanted to let you guys know... if anyone is reading my stuff, that is.

You who are, I'd like to say thank you!

Woot, woot!


P.S.
My novel is 14 chapters long.  But the last chapter has only 2 pages :/

 

My original cover idea for my story.