Madeline Turnipseed - Author

Happy March!  Happy Spring Break! Here is part one of the transcript of my interview with Anma Natsu about her book Aisuru , which premieres on  March 27th.  It is currently available for pre-order!  You can check out her website and stay tuned for part two of this interview for more details. I paraphrased some of the interview and took out some of the "uhh's" and "okay's" and "so's" so you didn't tear your hair out trying to read our conversation.  If you'd rather listen to it, you can go here  or look up Anma Natsu's podcast,   The Lackadaisical Writer , on your favorite podcast app and look for episode #60. *** I met Anma Natsu a couple of years ago through our writing group for NaNoWriMo.  We’ve gotten to know each other much better, read manuscripts for each other, and given each other feedback.  I’ve read two versions of Aisuru but not the final version.  I am really excited to be interviewing her about that her...

Give me a break, I hate coming up with titles. And the FCC spoke and said, 'Verily, I say unto thee, Verizon and their ilk shall not throttle the bandwidth of those they despise, nor shall they profit from the favoring of entities with greater bandwidth therein.' And there was great rejoicing.  And by great rejoicing, I mean that the internet blew up arguing about what color a dress was.  You go, America, exercise that freedom. Girls and boys, it's the last Friday in February and I haven't posted anything this month, so here goes. I'm so glad I didn't try to keep posting weekly, because school owns my life nowadays.  I approve of the once-a-month plan so far.  We'll see if I can do more posts during my summer break (i.e. the month of May). As you might have guessed, I have not done any editing on Om Nom Nombies.   I haven't written anything more on the first drafts of The Neif  or Spitfire.   I haven't even made any progress beta-ing a manusc...

Good morning, interwebs.  I am sorry to say the only news I have to report is that school is taking up all my time and it hasn't even started yet.  As a result, I have made zero progress on my editing and re-reading since I last posted. Jim Hill Media I am deciding to cut down my posting to a minimum of once a month effective immediately.  This way I can focus on school and give you updates on my writing when I actually have something to say.  Also, I have the freedom to post more often than once a month if I want (read:  if there is something I can talk about). WDisneyRP-Goob Sorry this post is short and kind of a let-down, but I hope that with this change all the posts will be meaningful and have useful information rather than just being "Status report:  nothing to report." Posts will still be released on Fridays, and I'll still be sharing them through the usual social media outlets.  I can't promise that the posts will be released on a ...

Happy New Year, friends!  2015 is here and I'm still behind on my editing, but I press forward. I'm currently in the reread process of week one from  The 90-day Rewrite .  I say "I'm in the process" like it's specifically directed, but week one focuses on the outline , which, for Om Nom Nombies , at least, took roughly two hours to complete.  Rereading is only referred to in one sentence, basically an "if you want to" kind of deal.  Then week two goes right into rewriting.  I've adapted the questions in week one to my reread and am highlighting my errors as I go, color coded as shorthand notes to myself.  This makes the rereading go much faster, as I only have to take the time to write one or two comments per page.  With a 335 page story, it adds up. Yes, that says "sin."  POV seemed straight forward to me, but I never realized how much I slipped up until I  took the Gotham SFF class last year .  And in this manuscript I h...

TeknicolorTiger Merry day-after-Christmas!  I hope you were able to spend time with the ones you love.  Last year, I gave you a passage with a birth, but today I have one with a death.  What follows is the first chapter of Spitfire, only edited for spelling and continuity.  I'm not sold on the format yet, so I'd love to hear opinions.  Enjoy! Smoke filled her nostrils.  Eunice sucked in a deep, deep breath, clicked her teeth together to make a spark, then let out one last fiery blast.  The final ceiling beam came alight.  She cradled the few valuables small enough to carry that she had gathered from the first floor in her apron. "I think that should be sufficient," Lavinia told her, pressing the master's face further into the cushion.  He was no longer struggling.   "The Wilkinson's will be able to see it presently," Eunice said, surveying their handiwork.  She looked at the master on the floor.  "We must leave tonig...

Hello friends, it's Friday and I am at home sick.  I hope you had a better night than me!  All that to say, I don't have the entirety of Week 1 completed from The 90-day Rewrite .  But I have done the outline for my story and I plan to begin re-reading with intention to start marking up once I feel better.   Here's my outline for Act 1 of Om Nom Nombies : ACT ONE Opening/False Belief We meet the roommates as they are prepping for the zombie apocalypse Dilemma Our roommates believe that their training and preparations would allow them to survive should such an event occur Inciting Incident Caleb goes nuts at the grocery store Opposing Argument The remaining three roommates discuss their approach to the situation, both tactically and psychologically Hero Makes a Decision When they finally leave their apartment, the roommates are faced with an infected neighbor who effectively tests their resolve. To read the outline in its e...

Howdy girls and boys, it's Friday once again. I have decided to use the book  The 90 Day Rewrite  by Alan Watt that I won last year at my region's TGIO NaNo party to edit Om Nom Nombies .  Today's post is not a review of the book, I trust if you're interested in one of those that you know how to use a search engine.  And I'll be able to give a much better review of the book once I've used it.  No, today I'm covering the "pre-week" that I did this week. Amazon The book is divided into 3 sections, the first covering some basics on stories before the book actually gets into the 90 day day-by-day section, specifically dilemmas, story structure, and technical matters. Dilemmas are problems inherent to the story.  (The ones that are supposed to be there that your characters have to overcome.)  They're really important for traditional three-act stories because they're kind of the whole point.  The dilemma is a two-pronged problem comp...