Books and Ideas

   Hello, hello!
   A new day, a new post, and this is today's post. 
   So, I've thinking of some things to make my blog a little bit more interesting, and I thought that doing an interview with a fantasy writer would be great publicity for both them, me, and their book. What do you think? 
   In any case, I posted something on goodreads, and we'll see if I get a bite. I know a lot of authors are very eager to have interviews, which is great. 
   Meanwhile, since I don't have anyone to interview at the moment, I thought I should do one with myself. What say you? Well, that's nice, but it's too late, so here it is anyway! Blue will be questions, red will be answers.


ME: Eva, tell us a little bit about yourself.
ALSO ME: Well, I was born in Missouri, moved to Minnesota when I was two, and was home schooled until ninth grade. 


ME: Was that difficult?
ALSO ME: I don't know, I don't really remember a whole lot about it, because I didn't develop my super brains until later.


ME: Super brains? You mean that you're really smart?
ALSO ME: Well, yes, I suppose you could say that. What I mean, though, is that when I was about ten I was on a field trip to a toxic waste disposal plant and I slipped and fell into a conveniently placed vat of the stuff. It was very nasty; I seem to remember there being a lot of old people's diapers and hypodermic needles. 


ME: Oh my, that must have been terribly alarming!
ALSO ME: Well, not for me so much as for my poor parents who took me to see the plant. They hadn't anticipated anything like that happening, I think it was a terrible shock for them. I was fine though, I didn't have any physical injuries, so they just took me home and showered me off, good as new. What they didn't know was that the toxic waste actually did have an effect, just not one visible to the naked eye.


ME: And then came the super brains?
ALSO ME: Well, yes. They didn't realize anything up until I had quoted nine of William Shakespeare's plays word for word all the way through. Of course, they were alarmed but also delighted. 


ME: Did the toxic waste have any later effects on you? An extra arm growing out of your head, nothing like that?
ALSO ME: No, not at all! Although I did learn quite quickly that I now glow in the dark. That's nice for a couple of reasons; firstly, we never had to spend a lot of money on night lights, and secondly, I could read in bed whenever I liked. It does make trying to sneak up on people in the dark to scare them a bit difficult, though. 


ME: So, how does this fit in with you being a writer? Does it effect you at all?
ALSO ME: Absolutely! See, all that knowledge, all the smarts, and all the awesomeness just built up in my brain until one day they overflowed onto paper and now they are my book, The Scarlet Sash! 


ME: That's terrific! Well, that's all that we have time for. It's been a pleasure working with you, and I hope that we'll talk to you on the show again.
ALSO ME: You as well, thank you for having me.


    There is my interview with the beautiful and dynamic (and possibly radioactive) Eva Gould. It was an absolute honor to meet her, she's a wonderful person, and I hope that you've enjoyed reading this interview as much as I have doing it. Her new book The Scarlet Sash came out just last month.
   Now, that really is all that I have time for tonight, so to you I have only to say; good night, sleep tight, and dream of reading. All my love,
                                    -Eva Gould, Author

Early Morning Writing

   Good morning, good morning, good morning! 
   I know that it's been a couple of days since my last post, and I apologize, but the truth is that there hasn't really been anything to write about. So, I thought, better to not write than to write about nothing. 
   In any case, here I am, dutifully writing my post at 7:57 AM, a time when I am usually not consciousness. The reason for this is that I have terrible sleeping habits, not going to bed until I am nearly comatose with exhaustion (at about 5:00 in the morning, in other words), and not waking until nature deems I am ready to face the day (usually about 3:00 PM).
   So it's a little bit surprising for me to be awake and doing anything at all, but the truth is, I have been writing. Exciting news; I am now forty-one pages into my second book, and I know how the next bit is going to go. Of course, I can't tell you, because if I keep giving you sneak peeks you are going to have read the entire book before it comes out. And that would just be boring.
   In any case, this is a big marker. Forty pages... that's a third of the way done, if you're not picky about length, and I'm not. I'm just going to keep on writing until this story unwinds- but precisely how I mean it to, of course. Oh it may have twists at the ending- the Scarlet Sash, for example, had a few surprises. I know I was very surprised when I was writing it, but overall it ended pleasingly. 
   By the way, if you have ideas for the second book in the Scarlet Sash series, I would love to hear them!
   In any case, things are going well publicity wise! 24 people have added me to their to-read lists, and there are about 175 people now entered to win my book on the goodreads giveaway.
   I've got to say, I love this weather. Oh, weather is a huge part of writing! Who wants to write when it's sad and rainy outside? No, if you do that your story will come out sad and rainy, and that's just not the right way to do it. But if you write on a warm, bright day the chances are that your writing are going to be... warm and bright. 
   Writing is all about the mood that you're in when you do it. If you're writing an angry poem when you're angry and hurt it's going to come out exactly how you feel, but if you do half now and then half when you're happy the results will not be good. So what's the lesson? Try to capture one mood and have it be your reading mood. For me that mood is the slumped-over stupor of sleep deprivation, but it seems to be working, so really... Who's complaining?
   In any case, that's all the news that I have for now. I am going to go and get a little reading done before I head over to my sister's house to babysit and then to play scrabble. People, if you know my sister, don't play scrabble with her. She's horribly good at it. 
   If you have any comments or questions, please let me know and I will be happy to have heard them and replied to them. Bless you all, and keep on reading. Love,
                                                                                    -Eva Gould, Author
P.S. I think because today was such a boring post that I should add something for your amusement. So here you go.

   Take care and smile!

Green Girls and Giant Grapevines- another sneak peek!

   So, for those of you all ready looking forward to my next book, I have excellent news. I am now at thirty five pages in, and still working hard. Not at this very moment, obviously, but I'll keep at it and work more on it tomorrow. For now I am completely brain dead, thanks to my horrible sleeping habits. I got too much sleep, and now am completely exhausted. Of course, the ironic thing is that often when I stay up late it's because I'm working on my writing! 
   This is true mostly because I find that I can only write well when I'm in a kind of... sleepy trance. My brain sort of shuts off and the words just flow out. It's the difference between thinking of where the letters are when you're typing, and letting your fingers remember. Overall it might not be correct to let your fingers remember, but if you mess up you can go back later and fix it. That is why I have to stay up late in order to get any good writing done; or I can just get a ton of ideas and not write so that they build up and build up and build up until finally they just spill out in an overflowing fount of words, endless, beautiful words. 
   I promised another sneak peak of my latest story today, the one about What Gruman, and I will deliver. I've been working very hard on it, and it's almost completely on the laptop now, which means that the time for mindless translation is almost over, and I'll have to actually be able to think in order to write. But for now, I've spent the last couple of hours just typing away, and I am satisfied with the results. I'm very glad that I have a head start on this book, because it's a little bit of a vacation.
   But I feel like I'm just repeating myself. So, I'm going to go ahead and let you meet Jack and the Grape Vine, and we'll see what we see. If you had any feedback for me, I would be happy to here it. Here is the scene where they just met Jack Mann.
   "“Princess What Gruman, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you. Now, let’s skip the pleasantries and go right to business; what can I do for you?” Jack had an open, honest (if somewhat plain) face, and it looked trustworthy enough.

            “Bad Ass says that if anyone can help me you can.” Jack smiled just a little bit and leaned forward a tiny bit in his chair, his attention focused on her. “I need to know how to find a particular crone. I don’t have the faintest idea where she’s at.”

            Jack nodded as if this had been expected. Had it? “And what if I do this?” He didn’t seem greedy, just curious.

            “You can come with us.” What stopped dead and wished that she could suck those words back in like a vaccum. Since she couldn’t, she didn’t bother trying. Jack, who she would have thought would refuse at once (he didn’t look like the adventuring type) appeared to be considering the offer quite seriously. Well, she thought to herself, if this is what it takes I’ll do it.

            Jack was speaking, half to her and half to himself. “I can come with you, hmm? Well now… It has been quite a while since I’ve left the clearing.” He looked up into her eyes and smiled his bland smile. “All right, it’s a deal. Now, let’s go get you some information, shall we? We need to hurry before it gets too dark out.”

…

            There was a thin, overgrown path hidden behind the cabin. The two of them marched along it, Jack leading the way. They were both holding lamps, though they weren’t lit yet. They still had half of an hour before the sun set, and then another fifteen minutes until it became truly dark outside. Despite the fact that the day was getting on, it was still hot out here, and What tried talking to Jack in order to ignore the sweat trickling down her back in nasty little rivulets.

            She told him about the curse, about the dream, everything that she knew about the crone- which wasn’t much, but it would have to be enough. Jack had listened silently, and when she was all done speaking and her story had run out he had simply nodded and said “I’ll do what I can.”

            What’s legs were beginning to really ache when she finally asked “Where are we going? Are we nearly there, at least?”

            Jack smiled at that, and pointed ahead; “See for yourself, we’re here now.”

            What had been a bit distracted by the smile, which hadn’t been bland, for once. “What’s that?” She looked around hastily.

            They were at the mouth of a miniature clearing, and inside of the clearing was the biggest grapevine that What had ever seen. The grapes on the clusters were as big as a man’s hand, and the vine stretched far up into the sky until it simply vanished from sight.

            “Whoa.”

            Jack smiled again, looking pleased at her reaction. She guessed that he didn’t have much opportunity or reason to show this off as much as he would like to. “Thank you. I raised it from a tiny seed. Now, wait right where you are and try not to make any noises or sudden moves. That would break my concentration and then we would have to start over. We need to get this done before it gets too dark out.” After Princess What nodded her consent he walked forward into the clearing and placed his hands on the (for lack of a better word) Trunk of the vine. What stood as still as she could, watching with interest. How could a plant fix her problem?

            Jack began to speak, muttering words that What couldn’t quite hear. He kept muttering for minutes, and it began to grow gradually soothing, like a lullaby; What felt herself drifting off into a trance as his voice hummed on and on.

            And then there was a rustling. It began at the top of the vine; a whispering that descended down along the vine, rustling the leaves as it passed. Down, down, down it came, until it surrounded Jack. It tugged at his clothes playfully, and whipped his hair into a frenzy. A few stray stands of wind teased What and cooled her. They whispered words in her ears that What couldn’t quite understand.

            And then, all at once, the wind and the voices were gone.

            Jack finally moved from his stance, lowering his hands slowly. He took one long breath and let it out, and with that his shoulders drooped in exhaustion. When he finally turned he looked pale and wan, but there was a kind of happy exultation behind that.

            “What was that?” the princess whispered, and her voice was full of awe.

            Jack gave her a grin and laughed. “I was listening to the grapevine. How did you think I knew you were coming?”"

   There it is, folks. I hope that you enjoyed it. This is going to be a very punny book, but also rather serious. Is that possible? Well... It is now.

   Okay, well that's all I've got for you today. :) Thanks for reading (and for following me), good night, sweet dreams, and read always. I love you all.

                                                                              -Eva Gould, Author

Followers and Difficult Book Names

   Before I do anything else, I want to say thank you to my very first follower- you know who you are! :) Thanks, sis, I appreciate it, and I hope I won't bore you out of your mind!
   Now, I realize that I've given you all some information; for example, that I am a writer is evident by the title of my blog and is inherent in many of my posts. I am currently working on a story, which has no name yet (and I can't imagine a name for, actually.) What do you call a book about a half-goblin princess going on a quest to find something that she doesn't know she's looking for, with four donkeys, in order to marry her prince? There is a whole lot more included; for example, the Grape Vine, which is a magical vine which relays gossip to the asker; Jack Mann, the nice but not-as-interesting-as-her-prince man who owns the Grape Vine and a giant vegetable farm. Little do people know that when his grandfather traded the cow for those magic beans he got other seeds as well, but he never used them. So Jack broke away from his family of Jacks (the giant slayer, be-nimble, fell down the hill, and and-the-beanstalk) and his own bright future as a Jack-of-all-trades to just be a Man. Jack Mann, to be precise. There will also be a toad-like king in the marshes that they travel through on the quest (who will have some horribly unpronounceable name like Ono'oshanagog Gharradhafa) and he will have a tribe of little toad men. So, tell me, dear reader, what do you call that? Really.
   In any case I hope it will end up as a most amusing book.
   Did you know that The Scarlet Sash wasn't meant to be a book? No, not at all. I started it with the full intention of finishing a short story at 20 pages tops, because I had never written more than that, and 300 pages later I had myself a surprise. Now I couldn't be prouder as the amount of people on goodreads who have added it to their to-read list hit twenty today! And maybe they won't ever actually read it... But it's still an amazing feeling.
   Well, ladies and gentlemen, I don't have much else to say. So in thanks for listening to my inane (don't you love that word) ramblings, I'm going to post a list of names for the new book below, and you can pick which one you like. Feel free to let me know which one is your favorite. Also, next time I'll post a new sneak peak in which you'll get to meet Jack Mann and his Grape Vine.


   Names for odd book:


1.) What Gruman
2.) Princess on a Mission
3.) Being an Odd History of a Green Princess and her Equally Odd Companions
4.) The Princess, Four Mules, and a Man Named Jack (I like this one, rolls off the tongue.)
5.) The Princess Who Could
6.) The Good, The Bad, and Princess What 
7.) I have absolutely no idea. 

   Honestly, can you think of anything? Because while I might not be a horrible writer, I am terrible at making up names for what I write (See above for example.)
   In any case, if you have ideas don't be afraid to let me know. Thank you all for reading, and I love the lot of you. Stay wonderful, and keep on reading. Love always,
                                                                        -Eva Gould, Author


   

The Promised Picture!

  Well, ladies and gentlemen (but I'm guessing mostly ladies,) here is the promised picture of Princess What Gruman, Bad Ass, and Good Ass. In the background you can see the weeping willow, and the glass castle on the cloud that she lives on. 
   Thanks to my dad for fixing his scanner- I am so excited to finally be able to get this up! For those of you who don't know (and that's basically everyone, since no one has read this book yet) What Gruman is green because her father King Golden Goblin... Well, he's a Goblin. She's not green like grass because her mother's human. Except her mother has gone MIA. But you don't know about that yet. ;)
   All right. Well, to get right down to business, here is the picture.

   So, what do you think? I didn't work on it for too long, though, so if you don't like it... Oh well! I'll try again some other day. 

   In other news.. There's really no other news. I haven't done any work today, but I plan on editing a friend's story just after I wash the dishes. I love editing almost more than I love writing, because you get to be so horrible brutal, and no one can get mad at you- because after all that's what editors are paid to do! And most of the time people request you do edit their stories. 

   Well, I'll try to take it easy on him, but for now I'm off. If you have any feedback for me you know where to email me- eva_gould2000@hotmail.com.

   I love you all, first-timers, those of you coming back again, and all my friends and family. Thank you so much for everything, and be sure to have a wonderful day! Yours always,

                                                                                                -Eva Gould, Author

The Scarlet Sash Cover

Nieces and Writer's Block

    First I would just like to say that my sweet niece Inga is spending the night tonight, and it's just her, me, and mom and dad (her grandparents). She's very adorable, and her and mom are coloring together now as the brownies that they started cooking finish up. After they had mixed up the batter she sat there and licked the spoon while making "Mmm"ing noises for a good five minutes, then she said "I never tasted brownies before!" I don't know if that's true, but if it is... Well, she's in for a treat. 
   She also asked me to let her play an easy flash game that I was playing, and she was nearly as good at is as I am. People, this is one very smart 4-year-old. She's so excited about spending the night all on her own that she keeps giggling about silly stuff, and it's super adorable. I love all my nieces and nephews, every little bit of them. Okay, not the bit where I have to change stinky diapers, but all the other bits. :D
   In book news, I've been working on my new story, which I don't have a title for and have been simply calling What Gruman, and it hasn't gone so well. Writer's block is a terrible, terrible thing, folks. I have been writing more of the story in the notebook as I move it from notebook to computer. I still haven't got it all moved over, since so far I have been writing faster than I move it. Which is good, I suppose. 
   But I'll have a few days to relax and work on my writing, since I don't work again until Saturday. Not so next week; I work five out of seven days, which is unusual because I usually work two days, but also good, because while I love writing it's not exactly profitable. I think that I've made a total of two dollars and forty cents from writing, but that's not what I care about. I just want people to read my book! I want to make them happy!  
   In any case, I have finished my picture of What Gruman and the Asses, and I think that it turned out pretty good. I was super excited to get it up to show you all, but just my luck that my dad's scanner wasn't responding right, and the scan button on my mom's printer is jammed. I will still be doing everything in my power to get the picture to you, but in all likelihood I won't be able to get it up until at least Wednesday, when I am going to visit a friend with a printer/scanner. No promises, but I'll see what I can do! 
   Also, I'm thinking that a good way to unblock my creative glands is to focus on writing something else for a while; in this case a short story. I'd love ideas, if you have any! You know my email address, don't be shy about using it.
   In an update; the goodreads book giveaway is up to 146 request entries, which is fantastic. I know that it's not as much as some books get, but that's all right, because my book isn't as good as some, either. As long as people keep wanting to read it I'll be one very satisfied author.
   Well, the brownies that Inga and mom made are beckoning with chocolaty, delicious fingers, and I have business to attend to (that's code for I'm going to do some gaming and maybe some writing). I am off, my dear friends and readers. Thanks for reading, and have a terrific day. As a thank you, I will post below cute pictures of baby sloths. Love always,
                                                          -Eva Gould, Author