sem_writes

Title - The Eighth Years - Chapter 2
Author - sem_writes
Rating - PG
Word Count - 3074
Characters/Pairings - Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, suggestions of Neville/Luna
Warning - SPOILERS for Deathly Hallows and Half Blood Prince
Disclaimer - I own nothing. Characters are copyright of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. I'm just playing with them. No copyright infringement intended. Please don't sue me.
Summary - The Eighth Years receive instructions about the coming year. Old friends reconnect.
Author's Note - I figured since I was late getting Chapter 1 up in a properly formatted form, I'd give you my revised Chapter 2 tonight. Enjoy!

Read Chapter 1

( Chapter 2 )

SM

Title - The Eighth Years - Chapter 1
Author - sem_writes
Rating - PG
Word Count - 1999
Characters/Pairings - Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, Percy
Warning - SPOILERS FOR DEATHLY HALLOWS and earlier Harry Potter books
Disclaimer - I own nothing, except for the manipulation below. Characters are copyright of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. I'm just playing with them. No copyright infringement intended. Please don't sue me.
Summary - Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny get their Hogwarts letters. They discuss George with Percy.
Author's Note - This is the third time I've tried to post this. Let's hope it works this time...




The Eighth Years

A fanfic novel by sem_writes

( Chapter 1 )

Go on to Chapter 2

SM

Hello everyone,

Just a post to let you know that I've begun final edits on Chapters 1-4 and Chapter 1 will be posted probably before the night is out.  I'll be creating a Table of Contents once the story is nearing completion (which probably won't be for a long time yet), but for now I'll be linking to previous chapters when each new one goes up.  Thank you all for sticking with me through the long haul!

Oh, and these chapters have not been beta'd, they've just gone through my own rigorous editing...anybody want to beta for me?

SM

I've reworked the first two chapters I had already written.  To that point the story (including chapter titles) is 3,714 words in length.  The revision process is slow but somewhat steady.  I will be glad when I can begin writing new material and will be able to put aside each new chapter.

SM

Today I took down all of my entries in this journal that had to do with my story The Eighth Years.  It is currently going through some major revisions that will hopefully make it easier for me to get past chapter 4.  I hope to be able to spend some quality time with the story during the summer.  Look for the new and improved story hopefully starting posting in September.

SM

Notes:  Synesthesia is the combining of two senses, and describing one sense in terms of another.  In this case, I combined touch and hearing.

Word Count:  107

The loud knocking at the door reverberated in my head and seemed to pound right between my eyes.  Loud voices buffeted the outside of the door.  If I let the people in those voices would surely make me keel over with the force of a punch to the gut.  As the volume rose the weight of my feet seemed to multiply exponentially.  I dragged myself to the door and pulled it open just a crack.  The waves of sound crashed into me and I staggered backward.  I lost my grip on the door and it banged as it swung shut.  The last insult to my pounding head.

Total Word Count for January:  1026/15500 - Goal not met

SM

Notes:  We were given the prompt, "Describe something in terms of a single sense.  I was assigned Taste.  This was also my first venture into using 2nd person as my POV.

Words:  178

Untitled

The smooth sweetness spreads out over your tongue.  It is almost chewy – sticky and decadent.  The fudge syrup topping coats your teeth in a film of sugary delight and your tongue can’t resist running over them repeatedly.  It is the warm melted chocolate part of the ice cream sundae that you live for.  Your teeth break the weak resistance of the skin on the cherry and the juice fills your mouth.  This is a different kind of sweet.  It has an edge of tartness, not quite sour, but tart.  It is a nice balance to the sweet-sweet of the syrup.  The whipped cream topping dissolves almost instantly in your mouth.  Creamy liquid with just a hint of mint from the garnishing leaves in the sundae glass.  Ice cream.  The good kind with the bits of crushed vanilla bean in it.  You savor it as you take spoonfuls into your mouth slowly.  You lick the last bits of the ice cream from the back of the spoon and taste metal as well as the cream.  All things must end.

SM

Notes:  We were each asked to write down a concrete noun and an abstract noun which the professor then collected and handed out at random.  We were told to follow this first line formula:  (Abstract noun) is like (concrete noun)

Word Count:   41

Untitled

Eternity is like a pine tree
It branches out and out and out
It is always green and tall and noble
Stately and proud
Beautiful and yet at times prickly
Eternity grows and goes on forever
With deep and thirsty roots

--SM

Notes:  Written in approximately 30 minutes for my creative writing class.  I was given the "prompt" of two men sitting on a bench with a blanket behind them.  The younger man had a contorted expression on his face and was pointing toward the older man with two fingers, while the older man was laughing.

Approximately 700 Words

( Breaking Free )

Comments and/or constructive criticism are more than welcome.

SM

One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2009 is to write every day.  I have joined the community all_unwritten  on this journal (and I'm watching it on sopaltenbass ) in an effort to get ideas for writing.  My goal is to write at least 500 words a day, unrelated to school or general blogging.  I want to write actual stories or character sketches or SOMETHING creative.  Hopefully, the creative writing class I am taking this coming semester will also help me in this area  I want to see how long I can keep this up.  I will post my daily attempts with visible word counts to this journal.  If I am successful, I will have written at least 182,500 words by the end of the year.  Wish me luck!

SM

Wanted to read my paper, but didn't want to slog through 20+ pages of Arthurian research?  Here's the pared down version of my paper.
         

( Read more... )

 

( The Sleeping King Awakes in the Hearts of Young Readers )

22 and a quarter pages in MS Word.  Read at your own risk (of enlightenment, that is ;) ).

 

SM

 

( Read more... )

 

( Read more... )

 

Lying awake, my thoughts dwell
On the little things you do.
Subtle looks, suggestive words, smiles, gestures.
And I sigh, the breath escaping
My lungs almost involuntarily
Stomach in pleasant knots
Mind absorbed in racing thoughts,
Heart yearning for more, more, more.
It's all so new and exciting,
But also frightening.
I don't want to be hurt.
I want to be loved.
It's the little things that matter.

-- SM

Answer - Waiting until it's late/early enough for Sean to be in bed so I can e-mail him a reminder about something he has to do tomorrow.  I think I'm probably safe, but because I'm up, I'll post my paper proposal for my Arthurian research paper.

(Uncut because it's short)

               My paper will discuss Kevin Crossley-Holland’s Arthur trilogy.  The trilogy consists of The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing Places, and King of the Middle March.  I will examine the way that Crossley-Holland retells selected Arthurian legends in the context of the Crusades.  For my primary Arthurian text, I will use Malory’s Morte Darthur as compiled and edited by Eugene Vinaver.  Most, if not all of the legends that Crossley-Holland uses can be found in Malory’s text.  In my examination, I will compare and contrast the ways of life of people living in the late fifth to early sixth centuries (when the historical King Arthur may have lived) and the ways of life of people living in the late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries (when Crossley-Holland sets his story).  I will also examine how faithful Crossley-Holland’s adaptations are to Malory’s “original.”  Finally, I will address how the phrase “quondam et futurus rex” or “once and future king” plays a part in Crossley-Holland’s narratives.  A possible thesis for my paper is that by placing certain characters in his narrative (a boy called Arthur and an old magician called Merlin) and giving those characters similar experiences to that of the legendary King Arthur, Crossley-Holland wants his audience to believe that his Arthur is a new King Arthur.

SM

Hi all,

So, I didn't get much feedback from the folks over on my friends-locked journal, but I'm going to post stuff here anyway. Because it's my writing journal and I can do what I want, you know. Anyway...

This is my annotated bibliography for a paper I'm writing for my Senior Seminar class. We were asked to read a contemporary (post 1800) work that dealt with Arthurian characters or themes and then write a 20 page research paper about some aspect of it. I chose to write about the historical and cultural similarities between Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur and Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur trilogy (which is comprised of The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing Places, and King of the Middle March). So here's the annotated bibliography that I came up with. It was due today. You will be seeing more to do with this paper. The proposal for the paper is due on Thursday.
( Annotated Bibliography... )

 

SM

Notes:  I wrote this with a classmate in my Methods of Teaching English in Secondary Schools class.  It's appropriate for October/Halloween.  We were looking at ways to do comparisons creatively.  So...why not compare Edgar Alan Poe's "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" using a two-voice poem?  A two-voice poem is meant to be read aloud by two people.  Here is our text.  Voice 1 is from the perspective of the narrator in "The Black Cat".  Voice 2 is from the perspective of the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart"

(Voice 1)                                                 (Voice 2)

 

We killed                                                   We killed

I killed my cat

                                                                  I killed my master

I killed my wife

We hid the body                                       We hid the body

                                                                  Under the floorboards

In the wall

We both got caught                                  We both got caught

                                                                  My guilty heart

My vengeful cat

Gave us away                                            Gave us away

--SM [Voice 2] (and LM [Voice 1] - my classmate)

Notes:  Written in response to the events of today in my personal life.

Old wounds ripped open once more.  Why must you flaunt your happiness in my face?  Don't you know how much this hurts me?  No.  You don't.  Of course you don't.  How could you?  You go about your life with your petty little worries.  JUST TELL YOUR PARENTS!  GET IT OVER WITH!  LET THEM MEET HIM!  You just had to tell me that today.  Had to ruin a wonderful day by bringing up old hurts.  I THOUGHT I WAS OVER IT!  WHY CAN'T I BE OVER IT?  Over him.  What is wrong with me?  Is there something wrong with me?  And all this had to happen today when I was with someone I would have to explain it to.  Have to tell about it.  And then she says the words I hate to hear.  Of course, she doesn't say THESE words exactly, but that is what they translate to:  HE IS IGNORING YOU. 

I.  HATE.  MY.  INABILITY.  TO.  TELL.  YOU.  HOW.  I.  FEEL.  Was it I who drove you away from me?  Is all of this my own fault?  My own damn fault!  But then again, YOU'RE the one who's supposed to be the person to initiate things.  Am I being to medieval?  People tell me I am not, but can I believe them?  Should I believe them.  My feelings have been scattered from hell to breakfast and I will never be able to recover them all.  And it is all your fault.  I hope you are happy.  You gained everything, while I lost everything.

SM