Author: Lisa Asanuma

There Are People Watching the Last Harry Potter Movie Right Now.

/ Lisa Asanuma / 6 Comments

I, sadly, am not one of them. It’s still two hours to midnight where I am right now, and I don’t have tickets to go, anyhow. Hopefully I’ll see it sometime this week—funds are extremely tight right now and you have to pick your battles.

Also…  I have to admit that I’m not so keen on the idea that this brilliant phenomenon is over. Oh I know, there’s pottermore coming, but the essentials—the books and the movies—they’re done for good now.

I was an extremely reluctant Potter fan. In fact, when the books were getting really popular and the first movie came out I turned my nose up at it all over the place. So much hype could never truly deliver. My sister had read the first three books, and my brother was starting to read them, and I was busy freaking out about starting high school—which had them teasing about me being so much like Hermione behind my back. I rolled my eyes at it then, but looking back, I’m going to choose to take it as a compliment. I think Hermione is pretty dang awesome.

Anyhow, I went along to see the movie—see what the fuss was about. Harry was your basic orphan-turned-something-awesome-in-some-other-world kid, and a bit of a brat, truth be told. I have to confess that I didn’t like him at all in the movie. What I did like, however, was the banter between Ron and Hermione. I have to admit that when I started the books, it was entirely to see how and when Ron and Hermione* were going to get together. For the most part I still didn’t like Harry very much… but that would change.

*(On the way home from the movie I asked my sister, “So, in the end it’ll be Ron and Hermione, and Harry and… Jenny? Was that her name?” I totally called it.)

Each book at first was breath-held anticipation as to whether Ron and Hermione would finally kiss, and then every movie was hoping-beyond-hope that they would portray things faithfully.

I really only started liking Harry a lot during the sixth book. Before that he was always so angry. In the seventh book, I fell in love with him. He’d grown so much, come so far, and was so profoundly grateful for the ones that had helped him get there… and that was what I loved most about him. That he was so thankful for his friends and for the people who’d sacrificed for him, and I was so touched by it all that I wanted to cry.

And because I saw the movie first, I’ve loved the movies just as much as the books. Watching Dan, Emma and Rupert grow up has been a lovely experience… and well, I adore Rupert, always have. Ahem…

But now the last movie is coming out, and it’s all going to end. It’s a good thing… but sad, too. I’m glad that I have a little extra waiting time to see how the last Potter flick turns out.

 

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P.S. I’m participating in the Independence Day blogfest tomorrow, details are here, come check it out!

A Few Randomosities About Me

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First things first – Go over right now and read my new Friday read over at Tales From the Hollow Tree. It’s called Procession, and it’s my favorite short that I’ve written so far.

Secondly – I’ve been watching Doctor Who with my husband… we’ve just started on Series Three. He misses Rose and sort of hates me for making him watch this show… and he’s not fond of Martha Jones yet (I don’t care for her much either, though I love Freema Agyeman).

Thirdly – We also just finished Veronica Mars. He sort of hates me for that one too… says it’s the worst ending he’s ever seen. I liked it better after being away from it for so long… though it did still leave me wanting more.

Fourthly – I’ve just listened to the audio books for both The Secret Garden and A Little Princess on Librivox.org (which I just love). I was so, so impressed with how much I still loved these books, especially the latter. Sara Crewe is one of my favorite characters, ever.

And lastly! I’ve been awarded the Stylish Blogger Award and The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award by the fabulous Ali Cross.

I’m supposed to give seven random facts about me, and then pass this on to eight other bloggers… I’ll do my best.

SEVEN RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME-

1) When I was a kid, it took me hours to eat a single orange. I’d eat it pulp by pulp. I had a lot of patience, apparently.

2) I learned how to sew when I was four years old, with a needle, DMC floss, and bubble wrap.

3) I collect middle names. (What’s yours?)

4) I am a really slow reader. Well, in comparison to my mom and my sister, at least. It takes me a week or so to finish a book, if I’m not too busy… but I’m usually too busy.

5) I’m considering going back to school to get a library degree, as soon as I finish my book and start querying agents.

6) This is getting closer and closer, as I’ve passed 50K  recently!

7) I have a new idea for a Middle Grade book. So, so, wonderfully new. Never been excited about writing middle grade before, but this idea is too fabulous to ignore!

Now, as to blogs to tag:

– Isabelle Santiago              – Inari Grey                     – Shiny Shiny

– Tristi Pinkston                   – Elizabeth Meuller        – Jordan McCollum

– Shari Bird

Quilt Runs: A different kind of crazy.

/ Lisa Asanuma / 4 Comments

The past two weekends, dozens of quilt shops ranging from southern San Diego all the way up to Ventura County participated in the annual Southern California Quilters Run. If you don’t know what a quilt run is, it’s a bunch of shops getting together, and offering sales and raffle prizes  (and free block patterns, snacks/drinks) so that quilters can run around and see what shops are available, and check out new shops they’ve never seen before.

You get a passport and get stamped off for each shop you go to. For this quilt run, each shop has a $300 value prize basket, and each AREA (there were four… um… “Southern California” covers a lot of space—if you don’t believe me, google the distance between Chula Vista and Lancaster, the southmost and northmost shops participating) had another big prize. I think in the San Diego area it was a $100 gift certificate to each participating shop. There’s another prize if you get to ALL of the shops, but I didn’t make it halfway.

Why was I there at all? Well, my mother is a quilter. So, I’m used to this sort of craziness. For me the weekend consisted of a lot of driving, and then stopping to take pictures of fun things, and snack on cookies and mini cupcakes. Some shops even had hot dogs—these shops were the treasures of the run for me.

I do like looking at pretty fabrics, though…

Like this. Big old kits full of coordinated batiks. Batiks are about my favorite fabrics, full or rich vibrant colors. (The basket I wanted the most was from this shop, and had one of these batik beauties in it).

A…hem. Anyhow. A quilt run means a LOT of quilting ladies. And occasionally husbands being dragged around to collect goodies (like mine… sorry hun).  (He enjoyed the hot dogs too, though.) Me? I enjoyed myself a lot. Quilting is something I’ve only been marginally involved with—but I’ve been marginally involved in it my entire life, and use the basics all the time in my Etsy shop. It’s a whole different type of creativity than writing, and something that can be quite satisfying so far as finished products go.

The other great thing about quilt stores that you might not know?

They have cats. Well, some of them. That’s an incentive to go in and of itself. Or maybe that’s just me. 🙂

2K a day?

/ Lisa Asanuma / 3 Comments

Let me start out by saying I’ve never finished NaNoWriMo. I’ve attempted it a good four or five times, too. I’ve never successfully gone a whole week making the daily word count—which in case you’re wondering, is 1667 words per day.

Recently, though, I’ve decided that my biggest goal for writing right now is to get through a first draft, remembering that it’s the second and third drafts that’ll make things pretty and nice. I mentioned this to my husband and said that the thing I had to do was set a word goal per day and stick to it. He asked me how many words I would write per day.

“Um… I don’t know.”

This was not the right answer to give him.

“I was thinking probably a thousand.”

He then challenged me to write two thousand words per day. I tried to explain to him that this would be impossible, and possibly make me cry.

But he asked me to try it… just try it.  I was unsure to say the least, but I agreed.

How is it going so far? Well I’m really only a couple of days into the challenge. Two thousand words, every Monday through Friday, at least until my first draft is done. I started last Wednesday. My first day it took me almost twelve hours, but I hit my goal. The next day I started a little earlier, but it still took me just about all day. Still, I had a very good idea of where my story was going—including a checklist of scenes I needed to write.

Friday I went on a quilt run with my mom. (Well, we dragged the husband along—you know, for extra goodies). A whole day of writing was gone. Saturday was part of the quilt run too. (If you don’t know what a quilt run is, google it. Then imagine it full of crazy old ladies.)

So… now I was 2000 words behind. I was worried this would throw off my momentum, and it’d be a challenge to get started again on Monday—today. Well, it was a challenge to get started today, but not really because I couldn’t find momentum—I just couldn’t find a chance to sit down at first.

I’m happy to say that when I did get to the sitting down, with some persistence I got even more written in a shorter time than I had the other two days—I wrote 3024 words today, and broke 48K in my WIP. This isn’t the most I’ve written of an original piece of fiction, but it is by far the most consecutive writing of an original piece I’ve done. I have one at 56K, but it’s all scattered in scenes, with big gaping holes in between. With the WIP I’m working on now, 95% of it was written consecutively.

Basically, I’m feeling good today. I even made up a good amount of the 2000 words I missed on Friday, so that I’m only a little over 600 words behind now, and now 600 words seems like a piece of cake. Even 2000 words doesn’t seem like a whole lot. After all, I can write 500 words in an hour, if I’m in the right zone. 2000 only takes four of those. That’s totally doable.

Well, right now, when I don’t have a job. I’m sure that has something to do with it. But at the same time, that’s exactly why I need to keep the fire burning.

So whatever your goal is, even if it scares you a little, believe in it. You’re capable. And if you need some support or a cheering section, hit me up. I’m good at that. 😉

This house is full of food.

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I’m not exaggerating.

I’m staying at a friend of my dad’s right now… kind of a long story…  This house is nice. Nicer than the house you’re imagining. Nicer than I know what to do with. This is the kind of house most people dream of. It’s in a gated community that’s similarly dream-worthy. The ironic part is that a lot of the houses in this community are empty 95% of the time, but bygones.

Right now it’s even nicer because we’re staying here alone, pretty much. This house sees a lot of guests all the time, though, so I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s full of food. Kitchen, pantry, fridge downstairs… etc. There is a lot of food everywhere. And I am doing a very bad job of being good and not eating it. My willpower is being tested here and failing utterly.

Utterly.

I’ve been stuck in the house a lot, which doesn’t help, and working on edits and formatting and tasks that involve a lot of sitting and inspire a lot of snacking. In a house FULL of snacks.

This is not a good thing.

I’ve been trying to spend time working it off with swimming and even a bout or two with racquetball (which I’m very bad at, but enjoy a lot—though I spend a lot of time with my arms up over my head) but I’m still worried I’ll be leaving this house with a few extra pounds… which is so far from what I need.

Got to get back on the wagon here… I’m foreseeing a drastic cut down on carbs in my future.

In other news… I’m in between editing projects right now, so hopefully I’ll get a new story up on Tales from the Hollow Tree by next week.

I’m working on Jethro, and I actually have a checklist detailing exactly what needs to happen to finish the story. There’ll be a lot of rewriting going on after that, I’m sure, but I’m looking forward to finally being done with a first draft of something. I’ve started to feel like a faker once in a while, when I look at how long I’ve been writing and how long I’ve been wanting to be published—but not been able to finish something. I’ve felt like one of those millions of people who say they want to write a book, but never do a thing about it.

The thing is, though, I’ve also always known that I wasn’t one of those people. Because I know this is the thing I’ve always wanted to do, and that eventually I’d be able to do it. Really it all comes down to that determination thing. Besides scrambling with day jobs (when they come) to try and keep money coming in, at the end of the day it’s the writing that keeps me going.

I think what’s really kicking me into gear right now is editing. Editing is fun and work that I really love, not to mention extremely gratifying when something you’ve worked on is released for publication. It’s still someone else’s book, though. And I want it to be my book. I just want my book to be ready when the time comes.

Brand new at Drollerie Press: Middlewitch Mayhem

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Just because Alicia Meldrew is a witch doesn’t mean that everything in her life is double, double, toil and trouble. Then again, trouble does have a way of finding her over and over again, even in the cozy little town of Middlewitch.

Alicia is starting to settle down with her new husband and a baby on the way, but little things like demon possession and mis-cast time spells keep getting in the way. Still, lake monsters, vampires (the bad kind, because you can’t generalize, you know), and vengeful enemies are no match for her, especially with the support of family and friends. 

With the community coming together to help her, her cats Domino and Tango dispensing wisdom each in their own way, and her husband James even doing a little bit of magic himself, Alicia can manage just about anything. Except possibly getting along with her mother-in-law…
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Middlewitch Mayhem, the fun sequel to Middlewitch, follows Alicia, a “white witch” and her friends and family through a rompy set of adventures. (Don’t worry, you don’t have to have read Middlewitch for this to be a great read!)
What I really love about this book is the strong sense of community in this novel. Whenever something threatens to overwhelm Alicia, someone is there to lend a helping hand and help her save the day. Middlewitch is one of those places you read about that you wish you could sneak into, because it just seems like such a cozy place to be. Sure there are lake monsters and the occasional spectral goat, but little inconveniences like that are worthwhile when you have the right people to help you out of them.
Alicia herself is a strong, spunky character, too. Part of what makes this book un-miss-able, though, is Domino and Tango. I don’t know if
you’re a fan of talking animals or not, but Domino’s wit and Tango’s sweet temper are impossible to dislike, either way. The whole book has a strong message of acceptance, too, which I really like.
If you’re interested in checking the book out, you can read the first chapter on the Drollerie Press website, here.
Enjoy!

Happy Memorial Day!

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Okay, I know I’ve been missing from around here lately, but I’m in the middle of a move, with big editing deadlines on me at the moment, so I’ve been quite busy.

But I’ll be back soon!

Keep writing until I do. 🙂 We’ll have lots to talk about then!

A through… ahem…

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So, the A-Z challenge didn’t work so well for me. I didn’t even quite make it halfway through the challenge, and then I stayed away from my blog to avoid my shame. We really do get silly about our blogs sometimes.

I’ve been up to my elbows in edits for Drollerie the past couple of weeks, and am likely to be there for some time. It’s pushed writing to the corner of my mind, but I’m trying to keep the story talking in my head. I’ve been working on the mythology behind Jethro a little bit, talking it over with Isabelle Santiago. She’s helped me to realize that I still had thrown-out ideas that would work, and that maybe I should re-incorporate them. Previously I had taken them out because they were a little too complicated, but talking them out, I found solutions for a few things I hadn’t thought of before.

In other news, I feel a bit sheepish that it’s taken me so long to do this, but I’ve been given a Creative Blog Award by Deirdre Coppel of A Storybook World.

Thanks Deirdre!

K is for Killer Instinct

/ Lisa Asanuma / 14 Comments

I’ve been trying to wrap a lot of my blogfest entries around to writing, and it took me a while to think of something that I could write about the letter K, but then it hit me.

You see, I have a secret fear when it comes to my writing… that fear being that I just don’t have the killer instinct required to be great. Villains are hard for me to write, because they involve motives that don’t always make sense to me (in an emotional way, not in a logical way). And then my other characters, my non-villains? Well… I like them. I like them too much, maybe. A part of me worries that I’ll always pull punches—that I’ll never put my toys away and play with the big girls.

This is, I think, Stephenie Meyer’s great fault. One of the Cullen clan ought to have kicked it by the end of the series. I was betting on Rosalie being killed off in Breaking Dawn. It would have packed enough of a punch, and torn Emmett to shreds—a depth of character possibly well beyond him with Meyer as his creator.

Good writers—great writers—don’t pull punches. Great writers make you feel every inch of indecision, or hurt, or loss that the character does, and lets the worst of things happen to their characters. My latest favorite author, Maggie Stiefvater, has torn my heart to pieces on more than one occasion, and by goodness do I love her for it.

I worry, though, if I’m capable of that. If I can really destroy a character I love, for the sake of good fiction. It takes a lot to take or destroy a life, even a fictional one.

I want to be able to do that, though. I’m seeing some hope in my future, as lately in plotting I’ve come across ideas that both horrified and excited me—and I think that must be the way it starts.

J is for Jethro

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Jethro, Arizona isn’t on any maps. That’s mainly because it’s plucked straight from my imagination. I was traveling all over the southwest a few summers ago, on business with my dad. Luckily this was made interesting on account of my father knowing the southwest like the back of his hand, and his willingness to travel off the beaten path.

I had a story in my head that, while not exactly just beginning to form (it had been a story before, you see, but it had been demolished and salvaged for scraps when it had gotten out of control and unpublishable), was definitely in the beginning stages in most cases. A lot of my time on this trip was spent writing poetry about desert lizards and musing on this story.

I was looking for a place. I knew it would be in the desert, but it had to be somewhere special, somewhere that was mine. And then I found a place that was almost perfect. We drove through Jerome, Arizona, a small mining town that’s all topsy-turvy and thriving on tourism alone, with intrepid architecture and dangers of mine shafts all round.

I knew that I had found something magically close to where I wanted the setting of my story to be. I regret that I haven’t woven more of its magic into the story yet, as I feel that will be something left up to the rewrites, but it’s all the glory of the modern world in an older western settlement, with the beauties of the hot Arizona desert, a desert I’ve grown to love in my years of traveling across it time and again in my youth. This is a story I love, so it’s fitting for it to have a setting that I love, too.

And I’ve just realized I now have two J entries… le sigh.