"Just come down!"

"Just come down!"

I heard his voice through the balcony window; it somehow managed to seep through my blasting earbuds while I lay on the couch trying to forget him. Not even the loudest volume and the most unnerving song could block him out. It was my heart's fault, I reasoned--you could deafen your ears, but the heart was ever listening, even when you begged it not to. Even when you'd had a bad day and wanted to forget about him, just for today, just long enough to get a nap and relax.

"Just go away," I mumbled, knowing very well that he could not hear me. I grabbed one of the couch cushions and pressed it over my head, blocking out all the light. If my human ears couldn't hear, and my eyes couldn't see, maybe I'd be able to blind my heart too--just for a little bit.

It was too late, though. My mind was aware of his presence just out the balcony, and it teamed up with my heart to worsen my nightmare. Why did he have to choose the balcony to apologize? It was so cheesy, so cliche, so...

So sweet.

I felt like someone in a fairy tale now. My imagination wandered far away, and I was in a castle with a prince out my window. What would a princess do in this position? A hundred years ago they'd probably go to the balcony. What would Kate Middleton do today?

"Please?"

I wasn't sure if he really spoke this time, or if it was just my heart begging me to give in and let it live this fairy tale. How many girls actually got to make this decision? How many girls could climb into a storybook for just a moment?

I pressed the pillow harder over my face; now I could barely breathe, but I would not give in. My heart knew Kyle wasn't gone yet. My heart and Kyle both kept asking, "Please?" My brain wasn't helping much, either. It kept reasoning that I was about to miss my only chance, and reason rubbed salt into the injury. I was about to lose the battle with my own will.

I tossed the pillow across the room and plucked out my earbuds, feeling disconcerted. He could have tried the doorbell. Why did he have to use the balcony? How did he know I was right there with the window open?

"Rachel!" he called again, this time in a voice heavy with misery. "People are starting to stare."

He'd probably caught the attention of the neighbors now, too. I couldn't fend off a smile. What kind of a fairy tale was this? A prince didn't typically disturb the neighbors--though this was anything but typical.

"I'll go in a minute," he called, this time to someone else who'd shouted angrily out their window.

Enough was enough. I got off the couch and sighed, trying to think of what to say after putting him through such humiliation. His persistence made me think that chivalry wasn't yet dead, and I was one of the lucky girls to catch a modern-day prince. My heart and brain agreed that it was stupid to send him off.

I opened the door and stepped onto the balcony; our eyes locked immediately, and though Kyle didn't say anything, I knew he was sorry. In his hand was a tiny wrapped present. After this, he probably wasn't going to forget my birthday ever again.

I leaned down slightly, waiting for the neighbors above to close their windows. When they finally did, I smiled and said quietly, "You forgot to throw the pebbles."

Kyle looked puzzled for a moment, then hesitated and motioned to the present. "I'm sorry. Can I come in?"

I glanced out over the city, for a moment taking in the beautiful sunset and picturing it as an illustration in a modern-day book of fairy tales. Then I looked down at him and smiled. "Yeah. Give me a moment."

Making a dash inside the house, I paused halfway to the stairs and grinned stupidly. Then I gathered myself and went to meet my prince and give him the hug he deserved. Actually, I danced down the stairs with a flourish...

Like a princess.

I'm now managing two blogs.

I've started up an officially spiritual blog, which you may visit by clicking here. The reason is because Universal Faith is launching in December, so I thought it'd be fitting to have a Wordpress as well as this. You'll probably see the same blog posts here as there, though this blog will be more writing and art focused. The layout is just too gorgeous for me to abandon it, I spent a long time working on it.
Unfortunately, I won't be writing for a while. After two surgeries for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I'll be taking a long-needed break, and instead focusing on reading and blogging. Maybe without so much writing I can develop a strong personality of my own. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning my projects. The Water Nymph Potion will be published, but it will be very different from how it was before. I've found lots of things that need changing, and ways to tighten the plot. Beautiful Dancing will be written someday as a Christian novel. The Wishing Well is probably going to be a thriller. The Shadow and all its sequels will be a fantasy series. My vampire books...well, I don't know about them. It depends on how my mind reinvents them when I start writing again...
...which won't be a while. My parents are watching me. My case of CT was really, extremely bad. So I'm finding some other hobbies to distract myself with in the meanwhile, including raising my voice about my religion. I'm learning what I believe and how to defend it. At this moment, I actually see myself more as an public figure inspiring people to become saints, than a bestselling author. We'll see what happens.
Both my blogs will be updated, so stick around. There's a lot going on in my head. It might not be a novel, but it'll be interesting.
P.S. I am praying for my bishop every Monday. If you're Catholic, you should pray for yours, too.

Pitch for BEAUTIFUL DANCING (Yes, I finally have one!!)

Pauline Hemingway is a ballerina. She's spent all her childhood trying to express herself with grace, in a stuffy Alabama mansion where things are always so quiet. For most of her life there hasn't been much noise except her music and the fights between her parents--shouting she never listened to, whispers she couldn't be bothered with.

Then one day, sixteen-year-old Pauly is injured at dance class, leaving her no choice but to come home early. She finds herself walking in on a dark secret that will slam the doors shut on her dreams.

Rumors fly. Pauly is pulled out of school and her dance class for two years, wanting nothing more but to escape. On the night of her eighteenth birthday, she does just that.

The music has long since fallen silent in the halls of her house, leaving nothing but her parents' fighting to fill in the silence. With a soul thirsting for art and beauty, she will no longer wait for it to come to her. On the night of her birthday, Pauly escapes to New York in search of beautiful dancing.

Will she be able to find it?

In Which Mariella Talks About Redesigning Blogs And Possibly Taking Down The Wishing Well For Editing.

I've redesigned my blog layout again because it was a little too crowded before. Too many widgets. Too much info on the front page. Now, I'm going to create different pages for each important part of my life. I've found that web design is fun and relaxing--but it does take a lot of time. Not only do I have to spend time designing the graphics and then redesigning them again, but I have to change the rest of the blog to match the picture. Once it's done, though, it's definitely worth the work and the time I put into it. 
I just wish it was that easy to get back all the followers that I left behind on the old blogs that I 'abandoned,' so to speak. Nobody really seems to pay attention to this blog, and no matter how much I push it on people--no matter how much I talk about it on facebook and make it clear that it's really important to me--well, I guess nobody can see it. Anyway, now that my moment of self-pity is over...I would like to ask that if you're a friend, or a former follower, or a person interested in my blog...and you happen to stumble in here...maybe you can follow it? Please? Then I wouldn't feel so lonely... :D
That subject aside, I think I'm going to take down all but 10k of The Wishing Well while I edit it. I got a lot of valuable critique during the time it was up, but from now on I'll be consulting about it mostly with a close team of friends and readers. That is, if I don't take down the book altogether. Nobody seems to be reading it now that it's got its review, and it's just floating around in inkpop cyberspace and taking up picklists that could now be going to someone who really needs it, given the changes in how the system works. I'm not totally sure yet, but I'll pray about it, and if I decide on yes, most of the book--if not all--will be down by August. So if you've wanted to read it for a while, now is the best time to start; I'm letting you know, just in case. ♥
I'm up way too late because of web design. So I think I'll go do my devotionals and try to get some sleep. Lately, sleep is something that seems to be avoiding me. It's just so hard to turn off my imagination and get a good night's rest. (Or rather, in my case, a good morning's rest.) It comes with being a writer, I suppose.
Also, I've been trying to promote The Escapism Project like crazy. This blog is like, really important to me. So on second thought, if you have to choose between my blog and Escapism to follow, choose Escapism. I just think it's going to go really far and I'm putting a lot of my hopes and efforts into this project. Now would be a good time to thank my contributors for the millionth time for all the help and for being in this with me. You guys are awesome.
With that, I am off. HUGS!

WHOA. That was unexpected.

It happened. Like, in one second. The entire plot for Beautiful Dancing changed.

 

Or did it? I'm starting to wonder if it ever had a plot. If it's ever going to have a plot at all. Pauly's a liar, a blatant liar and she can't stop. It feels like this book is just a lie, and it's getting all these pretty covers and things...

 

I've told a few of my friends the plans I had for this book and everything. But everything you may know about it now has changed. In just the blink of an eye, what was isn't and what isn't...well, that isn't either. It's all one big lie.

 

Can I pull it off?

 

I don't know how long this book is going to be. It's up to the book. But I'm not making any more goals ahead of time.

 

I'm excited. I'm on fire to write it now.

THE ESCAPISM PROJECT is almost here!

I’m excited because I can’t wait to work on a book blog, and now it’s also a book blog with other people too. It’s a collaboration work, a masterpiece involving more than one person and opinion. So far my buddies in this are Kristia, Jenn, Cherise, Syd, Anna, Caety, and Wendy. There’s still room for other contributors—we want this to have as many people as possible so it can truly be a collage! If you would like to participate, just message me! And, there’s no deadline to join in, either. Even after the blog is started, we love guests.
As it is, each of us is going to take over once a week, on a given day of the week, to blog about books in a personalized and distinguishable way.
What we have so far is this:
SUNDAY- Not filled in yet.
MONDAY- Not filled in yet.
TUESDAY- Kristia blogs about music.
WEDNESDAY- Jenn blogs about classical novels.
THURSDAY- Syd (commonly known as Squid) blogs about going out of boundaries in the writing world.
FRIDAY- Mariella blogs about living and breathing stories.
SATURDAY- Anna blogs about inkpop, book reviews, and an advice column.
Our other bloggers who haven’t taken up days to blog yet include Cherise, Caety, and Wendy. Since they have the right to just pop in and write whenever they have something to say, they have got the title of odd job blogger (the term has been coined by Cherise. ^^)
This schedule does not limit the book reviews. Our contributors can pile in book reviews every day. Repeatedly. The schedule only helps to ensure that there is never a day of the week where we don’t have a blog post guaranteed. When someone can’t blog that day, we’ll get another person to fill in for them.
And we’re always looking for new contributors. This is basically a magazine. Submit something and if it’s within reason we’ll share it. This is a collage. This is a world. Escapism works different ways for different people. Message me (Mariella) if you want to contribute.
Our first official blog post will be on July 1.
We hope to see you then.

I'm spending more time designing covers for this book than I am actually writing it...

So if I write 500 words per day for the next 141 days, until November 11...

I can finish BEAUTIFUL DANCING at 70,500 words.
Knowing me, it's gonna be a longer book than that, but I hope not.

And THE WATER NYMPH POTION is going up on July 23.
If I write 500 words every day for the next 30 days, that'll give me the 15,000 words needed to complete the book. But if I write faster then I can edit it as well, at least the first 10k that will be up.

I'm reading THE WISHING WELL and getting ideas on how to make it more powerful based on the HarperCollins review.

There's my progress in one short, sweet blog post. :D

I think I'm having way too much fun with this.

 

But I'm really, super excited about this project.

And I chose just about the most epic release date ever.

THE EPIC FIRST NOVEL ADVENTURE

Which I stole from Kara. Visit her blog here!

10k was: OHMYGODICANWRITEICANWRITEICANWRITE!!!!!
20k was: I'MSTILLDOINGITWHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
30k was: Whoa. This is like an actual novel or something.
40k was: Whoa. This IS an actual novel or something!
50k was: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I could PUBLISH this now if I wanted to! 8D Except...you know...no ending...And it may be short. Maybe.
60k was: Oh look at my baby in it's pretty novel length. ♥
70k was: Okay...Cool. It's long and I've been working on it for awhile. I can wrap this up any time now...
80k was: ...I'm STILL going?
90k was: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME????
100k was...Well, let's say I considered chucking it off Deception. Many times.

Leave it to Mariella to start plotting a new story when she should be editing an old one.

I'm pretty sure I can do both, though.
And this time, I'm going for a love story. No magic. No supernatural stuff. Let's try something relatable:

The cover I made for BEAUTIFUL DANCING.
Pitch coming soon!

See? It even says in the cover that it's a love story.

So, in honor of this unusual event (SARCASM!) I'm creating a works-in-progress section on the sidebar.

Editing one story, finishing another story, beginning another.

I honestly can't picture myself doing anything else with my life but writing!

Escape.

I'm rescuing this post from my old blog because I like it and it's going to help with The Escapism Project:

It had been so long since I read any stories which really sucked me in. I am so used to creating worlds of my own that I try to become a part of, that I’m impressed when someone else does it. When I read a book that contains more than empty romances and super characters. What I love most are books that leave enough space to allow their readers inside, so they can become a part of it in their imagination. A story so big that it welcomes us in. we become new protagonists and can help save the world.

http://weheartit.com/entry/9308466

Lately, there aren’t many stories that do this. I really think it should be a goal in writing a book. As important as grammar, plot, characters…it is all a dry effort if the readers can’t come in.

And by that, I mean more than just ‘come in’—the kind where you sort of get in but can only stand there, because there’s no room for you to walk about and help solve the mystery, have talks with the characters, and feel like you’re in danger. Sure there are a lot of stories around where you feel as if you were ‘standing there watching everything before your very eyes.’ But to me, that’s not as fun as being a part of the story. How many authors care to make room for their readers among the cast of their stories? How many realize that this does the story so much good?

We all know the close friendship that develops between a story and its author. It’s so amazing, an adventure that we wish could go on forever. How great would it be if we could offer the same escape to our readers—one of more depth than can be achieved by just reading?

What if, instead of just writing stories, we could create dedicate ourselves to writing entire worlds?

It would require more care in our craft. We would have to layer every book element so delicately. It would take so long before we would be satisfied with our worlds. This will not be easy—but it would be so worth it. Readers love stories like that most of all. I sure know it’s worth a try.

I want to try and create a world like that, using Living Breathing Words Escapism. By this I do not mean the blog, but the words I use to write my novels. Are your words dead, or are they Living and Breathing?

I’m not saying that my words are wonderful and I have some superhuman talent that works just like a portal and drops people off in different worlds. I am saying that I plan to work harder so that they eventually do. I dream of someday being able to ask my readers, “What were you doing during the story? Did you have a happy ending? Are you going to do it again?”

Not only will the readers have the satisfaction of having felt like this world was their home, but I as the writer will be proud to know that my story really got somewhere. It came alive, and there’s still people whose hearts reside within the pages of my book.

I really think we should all try it. Don’t we all want our stories to come alive?