Why Write It?

The final installment in The Night Stalker Q&A series is brought to you by Banana (TM). Bananas are good!

Perhaps the most important thing to know about any story is why the author wrote it. Why did they put the time and the effort in to writing, editing, and publishing this particular story? What's so important about it?

As I was growing up, I always felt like there were more books for boys with manly, handsome action heroes and ditzy girls. The girls were princesses who wait in towers to be rescued and can hardly pick up a pillow. I was never that girl. Ever. I was the strongest girl in my grade and could beat all of the boys at arm wrestling. Perhaps that is why my imaginary friend and my first ever not stollen from another story character was a B.A. elf named Arya Poisonhold.

I'm still probably one of the strongest girls in my grade, but all of the boys can beat me at arm wrestling. Karma.

For much of my childhood, I longed for the strong, heroic female characters that I was missing. I felt out of place because to be pretty, you had to be Barbie. And Barbie wasn't strong or B.A.

When I started writing The Night Stalker, I think I was trying to fill the void of a strong, female role model. If you look at everything I've written up two about a year ago, you'll find that all of my main characters are strong, heroic females. The first book I wrote where the protagonist wasn't a strong female was Loving Amelia Perfect, which I wrote last summer. The two main characters are Amy, a shy girl who is secretly agnostic; and Ben, a social outcast with major family and relationship troubles. Ben was the first time one of my narrators was a guy.

Now, books are changing. More and more protagonists are heroic females like Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games and Tris from Divergent. Writers are saying that girls don't have to be skinny to be pretty. Any shape or size is beautiful. People don't have to be perfect, they just have to do the right thing and be strong. Don't let people push you around. Make your own decisions.

This is exactly what I'm trying to get through in The Night Stalker. I want to tell girls that they can be independent and make their own decisions, go after dreams, and kick fear in the butt. Gail isn't a perfect person. She's stubborn and very independent. Gail doesn't take orders well and will decide to go off and do her own thing in the blink of an eye. But, at the same time, she knows when to be smart, when to stay, and when to help people. She doesn't try to act stupid around guys, and she repeatedly doesn't do what they want her to do. Though there is romance in The Night Stalker, the romance isn't a huge part of the storyline. Gail is focussed on other things like finding her mother, defeating the Alliance, and deciding, as the Night Stalker, if what she is doing is right. I wanted to show that there is more to life than romance, and that you don't need someone to love you in order to be a good and amazing person.

That's all I have today. Take it away, Banana (TM)!

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Best of Writing!

~Snowie

Physics, Physics, Physics

Interlochen School of Creative Arts

Back a while, in the first week of December, right after the madness that was NaNoWriMo, I was still typing like a mad man. For the first couple of days, I was fervently trying to finish the Night Stalker. But, a week before December the 15th, I was killing myself. During NaNoWriMo, I had decided to enter the Virginia B. Ball Contest. The winner would get a 30,000 dollar scholarship to Interlochen.

I just barely managed to enter myself on time.

And I waited and waited and waited some more for that email or that phone call.

The email came yesterday. And I..... Wasn't a finalist.

Oh well. There are plenty more contests and a whole lot of writing to do.

If you would like to read it, click here. I let my English teacher read it, and she left a lot of notes, but I haven't gotten around to actually editing the thing yet. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it!

In other news, the Night Stalker is nearly finished. I am currently working on Chapter Seventeen out of Nineteen. I'm getting to the really good part after bawling over a really sad part. I cry every time.

I am working feverishly on Loving Amelia Perfect. Last night, I did a complete read through and now have a list of things to fix on the over all plot. Tonight, I will be working on the outline and hopefully character dynamics. Fun stuff!

For a while, I have been thinking about writing a book called something a long the lines of Diary of an Atheist Christian. It will follow the life of a Atheist who is raised in a Christian family and the hardships he/she went through. It might also follow two or three other people. I was hoping to do this for Camp NaNoWriMo, but I feel like starting it earlier... Hmm...

That's all for now!

Best of Writings,
~Snowie

The Where is Just as Important as The Who

The who,
The what,
The where,
The when,
And the why.

All very important things when it come to any type of writing- fiction, nonfiction, and reporting alike.

Setting refers to both the time and place- the when and the where.

So, snowie, when and where does The Night Stalker take place? And why? I know you are just dying to tell us.

Why yes I am, anonymous, nonexistent follower.

TNS takes place in the north eastern United States. The majority of the story occurs in the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania. Gail spends much of her time traveling through the mountains, and trying to make her way to Maine where her mother reportedly is hiding.

Originally, the story was to start out in the Rocky Mountains and Gail was supposed to hike across the entire United States. That became a bit lengthy.

I chose to set the Night Stalker in the woods because the woods can be a very harsh environment. Also, there are plenty of nooks and crannies for fugitive and Rebels to hide out. The beginning of the war was characterized by nuclear bomb threats and complete annihilation of large cities. The safest place to live was in a secluded area, underground. For Gail, this means a bomb shelter protected by hundreds of tons of rock in the middle of one of the harshest mountain ranges in the world.

I placed the main Rebel base along the Coast of North East Maine. To me, the state seemed like to most logical starting point for the Rebel's counter attack. It is easily defendable and not very important to the Alliance. Also, the have access to the sea, making it easier to move people and troops from place to place, continent to continent.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this post and are getting really excited to start reading this. What do you say to being my beta reader? Just two more chapters to write!

Also, I lied when I said that his would be my last Night Stalker Q&A. I nearly forgot to tell you why I'm writing the book in the first place. Stay tuned!

What do you thing of the book so far?

The best of writing,
~Snowie

Nerdy Things

So lazy. One more Night Stalker post to come!

~Snowie

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Today, I interrupt your intrepid blog reading to wish you a very pleasant Wednesday or Thursday... Whatever day it happens to be, I hope it's wonderful.




~Snowie