It begins again. Am I scared? Of course. Will I let my fear control me? Maybe a little. I am taking some Art classes, Computer Science, English, and that is pretty much it. I want to learn how to make and design websites. I also want to be better at graphic design. College is insanely difficult.
(The photos are of me during my second semester of college in Rexburg, ID 2006. They are actually a self taken photos.)
I hope I get to spend time with my husband one day. . . I haven’t seen him without one of us being asleep for days now. We can’t sleep at the same time anymore because I have been taking night audit shifts from 11 pm to 7 am, so even when I am not working those shifts my sleep schedule is all wacked out. I miss him dearly. I must admit this is a million times better than being unemployed or underemployed. That doesn’t mean though that I am satisfied with never seeing my husband. But this too shall pass . . . . we live in a temporal world.
I decided I needed a new place to put all of my stuff about my book. Writing about it on here made me want to write about it every freakin’ day, and you don’t all need that, so I did the only thing I could think of and made a separate blog.
My favorite cowboys movie is Cowboys with the legend himself John Wayne. That guy kicks mondo trash! I love the lines he says! Here is a scene where he uses an unconventional method to rid this kid of his speech impediment:
He is just awesome in here! And the end is really great. Basically this was the movie that made me want to set my book in the American West, though I later decided the modern American West would be better. Anyway, I took some cute photos of me all cowboyed out because I am a wierdo.
Don’t forget to note that my hair is getting LONG! I am so happy to have natural colored, longish, growing hair.
And here is another clip from Cowboys. Bruce Dern is a bad bad man, but no worries, because John Wayne taught his boys the proper way to seek revenge.
So in addition to all of this I have been collecting music to play while I write. I was mostly sticking with Mason Jennings, Nickel Creek, and Yonder Mountain String Band. Since that’s all I have and I really can’t stand country music. However, I decided to go searching. Now I found that though the artist is twangy and uber country, some have that ONE badd*A, totally cool song.
I made a playlist on myspace, it’s mostly deep south, folk, and bluegrass stuff. It would have about 50 songs, but the list only allows ten, so here are the top ten I am listening to right now. Click here and you can listen to it: Danielle’s Amazing Playlist
Here is the line-up for now, but it is subject to change, as everything is:
Broken Hearted Road by Sonny Landreth
Black River Killer by BLITZEN TRAPPER
The Mountain by Matt King
Rattlin’ Bones by Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson
Something About Your Love by Mason Jennings
Hell’s Kitchen by Matt King
Girl Is On My Mind by The Black Keys
The Beast by Angus and Julia Stone
Mango Tree by Angus and Julia Stone
Mykonos by Fleet Foxes
I sent out my first query letter regarding my manuscript. Now, my manuscript isn’t quite done, so I guess I jumped the gun (or broke the barrier, to use a term I learned last night at the rodeo) by sending out the query letter, however, I just really want to get out there. What better motivation than the prospect of greatness? I hope that I have the personality to be great. I want to write! for a living! more than anything! Though being a graphic designer and being a full-time mom are probably sharing the number one spot with being a writer. I decided the blog world might want to read an excerpt from my book. First, here is part of the query letter (I attempted to be matter-of-factly with the description):
“I am requesting permission to submit my manuscript for your evaluation. The working title, “Unrest” is a 170 page single-spaced, typed paranormal romance manuscript set in the contemporary American west. It is of a woman, who upon meeting a dark mysterious man on a cross country train ride, is transformed into a vampire/zombie like monster called a Wake. She escapes the train and her assailant, and then she finds a group of cowboys who take it upon themselves to protect her from the impending return of her monster assailant, despite the fact that she herself is a monster, who can’t eat, nor sleep, and preys upon the blood of the asleep. There is a love triangle between the heroine, the monster from the train, and one of the cowboys. The heroine is relatable and memorable, while the love interests will leave any girl breathless for more. The setting is unique, new, and downright creepy.”
This is just part of it. I hope I expressed myself properly. I didn’t want to say too much but just enough to strike the reaction, “That sounds like either the weirdest story ever, or the best. We might as well take a look at it.” I discovered though that I have lived in Utah my whole life and I went to school with bull riders and cowgirls, I don’t know as much as I hoped about the contemporary cowboy. I have been researching like a crazy person. Last night my mom, her boyfriend, Adam, Dustin, and me all went to the Weber County Fair to see the rodeo. It was extremly cool. Adam, Dustin, and I then went and talked with a pig farmer, and a pigeon guy. It was so cool to find people so excited to tell you everything they know about their “craft.” I had an absolute blast at the fair and it just sparked more gusto for my book.
Also my book delves into the “out-of-body-experience” and “astral projection” phenomenons. Using the theory behind these two events, wherein the body sleep while the spirit roams, it is the basis of my monster, who is cursed to never leave his/her body. They cannot sleep, because their spirit cannot leave, and they are immortal because death happens upon the moment the spirit and body become permanently separated. So my monster, a Wake, has their body and spirit inseparable; They are cursed. Now if you can’t sleep, that proposes a problem for the body, so part of the curse is that they must drink the blood of something sleeping in order to feel rested. They are frightening cursed beings. In my book I say, “They are the living breathing dead/The far-off, most secret, and invalid/Cursed to always escape the reap/Damned to dwell with the half-asleep/This curse, this molest, this eternal sentence, is the Unrest.” Thus is the book called “Unrest.”
Without further adieu, here is an excerpt from my book. Dont’ worry if you don’t understand at all what’s going on here:
“I saw red eyes in the dark space between two massive cattle directly in front of me, only about ten feet in front of me. I didn’t know that wolves’ eyes were glow-red. I could hear it breathe a rumble. I creeped a hand forward. The red eyes got larger, because it had mimicked my move closer. There was nothing that lay in between us. With Aengus’s blood in me I was strong and fast, but I doubted if I was stronger or faster than a red-eyed wolf. The wolf took another move closer. I had to be the first to act. If it wanted me then I could fight it, trying for its blood, and I wanted so much to use its blood to curb my unrest. That would not be sinful, because it was out for a kill itself.
“I could feel its weight shift on the ground and it flung forward through the air, I reacted like bullet from a gunshot, straight towards it. At that moment the security lights as large as the ones at a football field came on and flooded the entire ranch with its unearthly white glow. I grabbed with my limbs and snapped with my mouth. I grabbed skin. I felt hair and clothes. I screamed so loud I thought if there was a God he could hear me from wherever he rested in the universe. A boot flung and hit my back as we were in a tumble, hitting, biting, and scratching. The thing grabbed hold of my shoulders and flung me back. I slid on the ground my dress came up, and I pulled it down to my knees. My hair was all in my face and it was just one more thing I awkwardly and quickly fixed so I could see my enemy. It was a boy. He must have been just shy of fourteen years old. I got him good in the eye with an elbow and I could see his black eye develop darker and darker. He was in a fighting stance breathing hard above me. The black eye went dimmer and dimmer, and then was gone.
“”Who are you?!’ Alden yelled from just behind me at both of us. He had a shotgun pointed at my male enemy. The boy hissed at him revealing the half moon shears in his mouth. I felt my own teeth with my tongue and it was the same arrangement and design.
“”Who are you?!’ He was so calm and commanding, like when God spoke to Moses from the bush.
“‘I am only here for the girl. It would be in your best interest, if you went back to your house.’
“’Like hell I will. What are you?’
“’Who are you?’ I asked the boy, loud enough for Alden to hear.
“’I am here . . .’
“’What?’ Alden boomed from over me.
“’This does not involve you!’ He hissed at Alden.
“’You look like you just stepped out of hell, and I am the one with the gun. Don’t make me ask again.’
“The boy breathed a few breaths as he went over the situation. He must have decided something, because he crouched a little closer to me. ‘We are the living, breathing dead. The far-off, most secret, and invalid.’ Before Alden could say anything, or I could react, the boy scooped me into his arms, and took off back into the herd of cattle. I heard the shotgun go off. The sound echoed from all throughout the valley. The boy fell forward on top of me, but held me tighter and climbed up on his knees, then stood fully and ran again. He threw me over the coral fence, hopped over it himself grabbed my hand and we continued running into the wilderness.”
Since last Monday I have been reading the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Mystery Novels. Holy crayola, batman. I LOVE THEM! I only have book nine left. Adam’s brother loaned the first few to me and I wasn’t patient enough to wait until he was done reading his to let me borrow them, so I went and bought 5-8 books, and now I need to go buy number 9. I am way too obsessed. They are about this world in which vampires have “come out of the coffin” and revealed themselves. The actual story is told by Sookie Stackhouse, this telepathic waitress in a small hole in the ground, fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The first book opens up with Bon Temps first vampire, Bill Compton, coming into Merlottes, the bar Sookie works in, and that night she saves his life.
As you can see from the book cover, these books are the basis of HBO’s True Blood, which is one of my favorite tv shows ever. The show does the story justice. Now, I must warn you, it is an HBO show, so with that comes all the racy pretexts it implies.
Here is a little clip of the first season, which encompasses mostly the first book:
My favorite character is Eric. Mostly because of how he is portrayed in the tv show. He is awesomely sexy, totally dangerous, and undeniably attractive in the actual sense of the word. He is the sheriff of area five, which is a vampire political thingy. Bill, Sookie’s vampire boyfriend, feels threatened by Eric, which he has grounds for it considering Eric wants Sookie, and Eric has more power and influence than Bill.
The second season of True Blood is currently airing, which would be cool but I don’t have tv, let alone HBO. But I have the Internet and youtube =) This is a preview for season 2, which is very much like the second book. You know if they keep this up, they got at least 9 years worth of material. Season 2 has the anti-vampire group “The Fellowship of the Sun” who pretends they are a church. They are just as evil as the vampires. You know, there is only one good in the show and it’s Sookie, but she gets pretty warped by the end too.
I love all this stuff because it gets me motivated when writing my book I have been working on for about 2 years now. I don’t know if I talked about it much on this blog, but it is awesome! It is a monster story. It is a romance. It’s going to blow everyone away. And watching a reading True Blood just gets my book progressing faster and with much more gusto than when I am not excited, obsessed, and down right enthralled in the world of monsters, romance, and action.
For our fake anniversary celebration I uploaded his video onto Youtube. We did a bunch of other stuff, I’ll edit this post in a bit and tell y’all about it. But for now:
1. He’s sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Super Marios Bros on the NES
2. You’re out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch
3. What’s one food he doesn’t like? Pineapples =(
4. You go out to eat and what does he get to drink? Water with ice and strawberry lemonade without ice (or soda w/o ice)
5. Where did he go to high school? Bonneville
6. What size shoe does he wear? 13
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Guitars, picks, concert ticket stubs, cool electronics
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Anything with avocados. Or melted cheese.
9. What would this person eat every day if he could? Hostess snacks, ccokies, brownies, cakes
10. What is his favorite cereal? anything with a lot of sugar, oh and special K with real chocolate pieces in it
11. What would he never wear? pink =(
12. What is his favorite sports team? The Mighty Ducks
13. Who did he vote for? He didn’t register in time, but he always says Nader is the way to go
14. Who is his best friend? Me, and Matt Daines.
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? Be deathly afraid of bugs.
16. What is his heritage? White. His last name is Smith.
17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? It doesn’t matter as long as it’d put him in a pre-diabetic state.
18. Did he play sports in high school? Hacky Sac king!
19. What could he spend hours doing? Pumpkin Carving and playing music.
20. What is one unique talent he has? he is an excellent pumpkin carver, and pumpkin farmer for that matter
Yes, folks, it’s true, Adam and I have quit the paper route! We are done! Done done done done done! That is all the news there is.
Last year Adam and I went to the Clearfield fireworks and loved it! This year we went to the Clearfield fireworks and brought our lovesac, nothing compares.
Here is last year, taken with a camera phone:
Here is this year, taken with the same (lametastic) camera phone:
I must say it is very weird knowing Adam over a year. We got married in just 6 months of knowing each other! So to talk about what we did the year before, and it was together, quite honestly is strange. I wonder how not strange it’ll be in 20-30-40 years!
Again, here is last year, laying on the hard cold ground:
And here is this year, enjoying the heckles out of our fluffy pretty amazing lovesac (also note how long my hair is!):
My neighbors, the amazing ones, gave us their old oak table. I asked if they would be upset if we did “something” to it. They were a little hesitant, but conceded. Jesse never liked the table anyway. Let me assure, since the project, they are happy about the transformation.
Ok, so here is it in all it’s 90’s glory:
Now I must say when I first started painting it, it was clearly pink paint. I even brought it back to Kwall to make it more red, and when I brought it home, it was just a cranberry pink. However, when it dried and I brought it upstairs it is undeniably red.
All the chairs aren’t quite dry and upstairs, but here is the photo of the dining room.
Adam put up those floating black shelves. He is such a stud. I don’t quite know what to put on them, so I put my china on display and some wedding photos. According to Feng Shui this room should represent Marriage. I am not sure how serious I am about Feng Shui, but it doesn’t hurt to display wedding pictures =)
Update: Here is the table with the red chairs.
My camera was acting up, and so the photo is a little fuzzy. I hope to put a little table underneath it with pictures and things on the table.
I am so excited to say that I have an art project. I saw these little designs as stamps at my work and I couldn’t escape the idea of scanning them into my computer, projecting them on my wall, and painting them. I had the paint from when I was collecting the 5 dollar Kwall miss-tints. I love how the image is skewed, and when it is all done it is going to be an amazing feature of my home.
These were my options, and that one is the one that looked the best in the space.
My friend, Acacia Tanner, who is a beautiful artist, came over to help me. She has a steady hand and an eye for detail, unlike me, so she was perfect to be my help for the day. By the way, her baby is due in September! She has the “glow” and looks more beautiful every time I see her.
After we penciled the image on, we began the paint project. It’s aesthetically pleasing, what with the tan wall and chocolate brown contrast.
I had so much fun. Honestly, making things beautiful, being creative, and spending time with friends can possibly be the remedy for any dark cloud.
In this photo below, I accidentally caught my dog’s shadow on the wall. He likes to sit up on the lovesac and look out the window. I really liked the photograph when I uploaded it. This is the wall art so far, I am not finished with it quite yet. After I finish getting it all up on the wall, I still need to go over it with a more few coats.
My neighbor, Anette, is the nicest lady ever. So far she has given me a care package with a door mat, a cabinet, a dishwasher (which won’t work until we can get a garbage disposal), a kitchen table (soon to be all put together and in place), use of her bathroom during construction, and for some reason unknown to me she took me to JC Penny last night and had me pick out curtains for my kitchen. I am astonished at her good will, and if I had any pride then I might not let her, but I accept with a smile and a sigh of relief. Her husband, Jesse, and Adam get along so well. He let’s Adam borrow the lawn mower (since we don’t have one nor the money for one), and pretty much any tool he has. We love them so much and they tell us daily how happy they are that the old owners moved out and we moved in (they didn’t get along with the last owners). I am hoping for Christmas we can give them a gift card to JC Penny paying them back for the curtains.
I have not even looked once for window coverings, and I had no idea what was out there! It is amazing! There is some of the cutest, contemporary, chic stuff I wouldn’t have dreamed of! I was still thinking it was all what my parents had in the 80’s. It never occurred to me that when style changed so did curtains. It has made me all excited to do the rest of the house, one day in the future.
I took some photos of it, but the back splash is still not up and the kitchen is still in it’s remolding state, so don’t look at that. Oh, I finally picked out my back splash, it’s going to be a this beautiful stone arrangement.
I am a good cook, however mac n’ cheese always gives me a tough time. In addition to the evil Kraft Mac n’ cheese, I have never mastered cow meat. That blasted cow has always given me trouble. Oh, wait, ground beef and hamburger patties I am good at, its the intact steaks, ribs, and roast cuts that always come out undercooked, gamy, tough, and tasteless. I realized the other day it usually comes out white and imitating chicken. Gross. I don’t have a BBQ nor a roasting pan, but I thought I’d try my luck one more time. I stuck some sort of cut roast in a pan with butter and olive oil and browned all the sides. Then I drowned it in a can of beef broth, a package of onion soup mix, and a package of au jus sauce powder mix. I brought it to a boil then simmered, covered for 2 1/2 hours. The last half hour I stuck peas, carrots, and a potato in it. I must pat myself on the back, because it was delicious!!! Finally! I was beginning to worry about myself. I was so happy I took pictures. Adam was playing guitar and messing around with the recorder thing (pulling a Keller Williams in our front room), so I got him in the pictures.
Oh, and I even, for the first time ever, made home-made gravy. That was easy. I just put a 1/4 c. of cold water mixed with about 3 tablespoons of flour into the drippings and voila! there was gravy.
p.s. I really like cooking.
Adam and I went to the Salt Lake Bees game last night. The last time we went was over a year ago, and I’ve got to say, the Bees rocked it last night. There is this guy, Brandon Wood, who stepped up to bat with all of this expectation. Everyone in the crowd was talking him up so much, and I doubted he could live up to all that glory. Bases loaded. He was at 3 balls and 2 strikes, and what do you know? He hit a grand slam, right out of the park. It was pretty awesome, and I don’t know the first thing about sports.
Here is Adam, me, my mom, and her boyfriend Thomas (who was more interested in watching the game rather than photo session)
I took a photo of Dustin, which is a cool photo, then my mom started complaining that he should have showed teeth (she meant smile), so the next photo is him showing teeth.
The thing that I LOVE about baseball is the amazing hot dogs: foot-long, covered in cheese, tomatoes, pickles, and sauerkraut. I crave them often. If you are wondering what Dustin is doing, it’s his gang sign for “brat” with “kraut.”
The day would have been just lovely had it not been for missing the train coming home by ten minutes and thus having to wait at the station for an hour and 15 minutes for the train ride which is 50 minutes! We didn’t get to Roy until 12:45 am. Needless to say we watched The Dark Knight on the iPod and the whole thing went with less angst. But the paper route still is at 2 am, so that was super fun =)
I discovered that great things come with Twilight: Stephenie Meyer’s book Twilight, Elliott Smith’s brooding/beautiful song Twilight, and Salt Lake City’s Twilight Concert Series.
The Twilight concert Series is an epic line-up of indie music artists. Last year the series rocked Yonder Mountain String band, Keller Williams, among others. The year before Kara and I had the privilege of seeing Peter, Bjorn, and John (pb and j.) This year is one for the scrapbooks, we got the talented deep-southern sounds of The Black Keys, the praised He himself M. Ward, and my all time favorite – - – - IRON & WINE.
Want to know the best part? It’s free.
Want to know the second best part? The Frontrunner and Trax takes you right to it, which, as Adam and I are students, is free.
Want to know another BAMF part? I’m poor.
Here is another one (again maybe for the scrapbook): I LOVE IRON & WINE.
Here (in order of appearance) are the before mentioned bands:
(Yonder Mountain String Band)
(Keller Williams)
(Peter, Bjorn, and John)
(The Black Keys)
(M. Ward)
(Iron & Wine)
After 5 weeks of unemployment, and intense searching, I got me a job. Thanks solely to my Heavenly Father. Adam and I cannot live on paper route and music school teacher pay alone. I really really wanted a full-time job, but they are scarce these days. I got a 4 hour guaranteed a week, minimum wage job. Fortunately this week I get 20 hours. Probably not enough by far to pay for our humble lifestyle, but it’ll do. I do have to admit, I am pretty scared about being in this situation.
Adam and I have been waking up every morning at 2 or 3 am for almost a year now. We took Septmeber 25th and December 31st off (the morning after our birthdays), but that is it. I wanted to get our anniversary off, but that wasn’t a possibility, and it’s looking like ever getting another day off will never happen. I really want to go to The Fiddle Festival in Wieser, ID. I don’t know folks, I guess we are just going to have to continue this. Also, our brakes went out, again, despite the fact that we replaced them not more than three months ago. I thought something was wrong, but it looks like delivering papers every morning, stop and go, for 60 miles, wears a car down, and we should now expect to get new tires every six months and brakes every three. yay….
I finally got Adam to watch Pride and Prejudice. The 300 minute, A&E version. I think he cannot resist my outrages, intense giggles, and my witty banter so much so that he smiles and laughs and agrees openly that Mrs. Bennet is the cuh-raziest lady ever, and reminds us both of my mom. We are going to finish it tonight, and then I hope to optain the Kiera Knightly version (since I appallingly don’t own it.) I think he’ll totally dig the new one more, since it’s much better, even though the A&E one is awesome.
We love our dog, btw. He rocks banana socks.
I am super into listening to Sean Lennon all day. His songs are lovely.
Oh, I work at Robert’s craft store. I like it so far. It’s a great place.
Adam and I now own the rights to all of our wedding photos! In addition we got every single shot done at our engagement, bridal, and entire wedding day! Our photographer, Brody Dezember, gives this to everyone of their clients on their one year anniversary. Pretty exciting.
Celeste Drake is my sister-in-law, and she is amazing. She got this fancy camera for her birthday and has been putting alot of miles on it. She even has made a separate blog for just her new photo shoots. Its appropriately named, Shot By Celeste. I secretly wanted her to take photos of Adam and I, so it was fantastic when she stole us away and took some really amazing photos of us. I like to call them my anniversary pictures, considering its our one year mark.
Thanks Celeste!
Adam and I rescued a young dog from the pound. We love him. He is very well behaved. Adam says he is a little too well behaved. He is a genuine mutt. No one can really figure out his breed. I think of all the dogs he may have more Welsh Corgi than anything else. To me he looks like a small Golden Retriever, but I don’t know. He is cute though. We named him after Django Reinherdt, the gypsie jazz guitar player from the 30’s and 40’s.
When we first picked him up, and man at the shelter said he worked at a groomers and they give the first bath free to those who rescue, so we followed him to his place and he gave Django and really nice bath. It’s called Pet Pals Place. The lady who runs it is way nice and it’s a beautiful place that’s all new and large. She gave us some brochures. Coincidentally, we ended up needing to put him up in day care, and the lady was there at 6 am to get him, he ran around her huge property and played with dogs all day, and it ended up being free (as opposed to the measly twelve dollars it would have been.) It was real nice to not have to lock him in our house for 12 hours, only after having him for about a day, and not have to worry the whole time while we were at the funeral.
He is such a good car rider. He just sits on your lap and enjoys the uninterupted time with you. He is a people dog.
Pretty much his favorite activity is layig or sitting. One time I got him to bite his toy, only for a second before he sat next to me in hopes of being pet. You know, most times, he doesn’t even care to be pet, just being there with humans is enough for him.
I’ve got to say that having a dog is very wierd. We now have to take care of this little thing that requires bunches of time and attention. I hope we don’t kill him or anything, hopefully we are good dog owners. I’ve never had my own dog.
Here is a great photo showing our life with Django. He lays, Adam plays, and I portray.
