Saturday, January 30, 2016

Chapter 2: Faries, Pixies & Sprites

So you have made it to chapter 2 of

 

Good for you, hope you enjoyed it.  If you haven't read the chapter yet, head over to Wattpad and check it out.






This chapter was SO much fun to write. As you will notice throughout the rest of the book, there is about two or three parts to each chapter. This is simply because of the way I wrote it. I wrote 1,500 to 2,000 words a day and considered that a chapter, later I went through and combined each part into a newer larger chapter. 

This chapter had the two parts I wrote for the three girls that help Rebecca begin her great journey. These were completely and utterly ripped from reality and given new form in this book. I wanted to add an element of surprise to having three small flying girls show up at Rebecca's door, and that was that these were indeed three different girls. They all have very specific personalities and backgrounds.

Taken from my wife's very amazing cousins and best friends, Joy, Trish and Ara are three of the silliest and endearing characters I have ever written. And sitting down to make a person into a mythical creature always makes their personality shine. Just as my wife's cousins are completely different, but could commonly be mistaken as very much alike, so too are the creatures that knocked on Rebecca's door.

Fairies have always been the sort of staple when it comes to small flying glowing things. I have seen everything from Peter pan fairies to Hellboy, and fairies have always been very dynamic and easily changed to fit a story. I didn't want to change them so much, but rather show a difference in what people thought were fairies.


With a Pixie you have a much more earthy type of build. Bug like wings, mushroom cap, and flesh. They seem less like a mystical creature and more like a giant ass bug, or something of the sort. Pixies are a child like creature that wants to have fun and enjoy the area around them. They make mud pies and break sticks like a karate chop. And of course in the case of Trish, hide things to teach people a lesson.

 http://theanimalglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/Male-Pixie-Mythical-Creature-05.jpg



Then you have Sprites (no, not Spirits and certainly not the soft drink, but I think most of you may know that.) Sprites are creatures that commune as a part of nature. they are often seen as a water fairy or something of the sort. But I think it's important that each of these races and classifications has it's own history and purpose. Ara is a water Sprite, who can communicate with other water sprites, because they are all connected, like a river to the ocean. She is not a Pixie who couldn't care less for a puddle of water.


http://runeberg.org/jbauer/14.jpg


Finally The Fairy. Joy is a fairy, a figure of light in the darkness. She talks, herself, about being the defender for the woods. The fairy I think is a creature that stands alone for the most part, and sees the darkness around them, but embodies what the human spirit could only dream of. They stand firm in the dark, but shine brightly and with a sense of fun.  They are beautiful because that's what we as humans wish to be.



https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/fe/f8/6f/fef86f3be9717f2819b419839bd4f8d6.jpg



After the first week of being on Wattpad, I am renewed in my excitement for this book.

I have made a few friends and am continually learning about the community online. In six days (because I'm writing this on a Friday) I have had over 130 views of my book. if we continue in this pattern exponentially, I think I might pee my pants!

Starting next week, with chapter three, I will be joining some Book Clubs, and trying to get a few more readers. I hope that If you are reading this, then you enjoy the story so far (or have bought it and enjoy all off it!) and that you will share the story with your friends. Whether on Wattpad, or in real life, I hope you will pass this on.

And I will end this with my first week appreciation.

@Chloe_xl - For making me fell like a good writer.

@FatedPhoenix - For being the first to comment on the story, I'm glad you liked it.

@Lord_Xusecer - For leaving a critique that absolutely made my day wonderful.

@nateisfunny - For asking for chapter two. I hope the demands keep coming. Remember you can always just buy it on kindle for like $3.

@marjalilli - For making me make a cover that I was not OK with, but happy to see finished.

@oliviarose85 - For starting the EXCERPT thread. It has been really fun to follow along with that. Even if I'm terrible at chatting online.

Thanks, everyone. Have a great week!






Friday, January 22, 2016

Chapter 1: The Boy in the Bottle



Welcome to the First chapter of
 



I hope you enjoyed it, or if you have yet to read it then, go back and READ the DERN thing!
 



 The first thing you need to know about this book is that it was written as gift for my wife. Yes, her name is Rebecca, and I’m gonna be honest the metaphors and analogies aren’t that complicated in this book. But they weren’t meant to be, they were meant to be jokes and funny little things that I know my wife would laugh at while she read this book. So if it feels like you're missing out on some big inside joke… the fact is, you probably are.

I also wrote this book For National Novel Writing Month (or Nano Wrimo). A challenge to all writers, amateur and professional, to write at least 50,00 words in the thirty days of November. I took up this challenge and by Nov. 24th I had 53,000 words. I'm not saying this to tell you how great I am, but rather to inspire anyone reading this to take up the mantle this next year and do it. Cause If I can, then so can you.




Soundtrack Track 1: At Home - Crystal Fighters


Listen along each week and hear the music I listened to while I was writing.



But lets get away from those stiff background things and get into the story.

WHAT THE HECK!

What is happening to our young protagonist. Lets meet her real fast. Rebecca Moon is a sweet loving girl who, if you didn't catch it in this chapter loves video games. She is approximately sixteen, thought I don't talk about it to much. I want the character to be slightly ambiguous so she is acceptable to a wide range to people. The younger generation will most likely make her a year or to older, so that they can imagine life yet to come for themselves, while the older generation will make her a little younger, to create an innocence and nativity that they can enjoy watching.

I wrote this chapter with my wife in mind, a younger version of her as it is. A girl who didn't seek out the world around her, but rather enjoyed her solitude.Of course this character is not exactly my wife, the imagery, though, is best summed up with her. While I'm sure wife would kill me if I posted a picture of her as a representation of the character in the book, Here is a self portrait of her when she was younger. A gift that was given to me years ago when we first started dating.




This world that Rebecca Moon is now apart of is something unfamiliar to us all. Yet some how, it calls out to us every single day. Every time we feel something watching us from the shadows, every time we hear a noise we can't explain. The fear that grows inside us from no reason, this is the world that Rebecca is being thrust into. The explanation for those odd occurrences, the reveal of the monster behind the darkness.

What I love about Rebecca is that while she is being taken to a new world, a new realm of existence, without knowing it mind you, she is still innocent. She is more concerned with her Cat, than the  monsters. The first and most important thing about the boy in the bottle is that he's naked.   Rebecca is real girl, who has real idea's about what is right and wrong, and sometimes it takes her longer to understand the real situation at hand, because she is so caught up in her own prejudices.

Darcy, the cat, was absolutely named after Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice. It is my wife's favorite book, and favorite characters of all time. If she wasn't obsessed with giving her cat's ridiculousness names... then this would be a great name for her cat.

Cat's (and their ridiculous names) of my wife:




Tat/ Tatafur

 

Bubba

 

Pabu

 

Panda/ Panda Rat/ Rat



Pickels/ Dills/ Killer/ The Scardest Cat.  (In full honesty, this is not a picture of the real Dills. but I couldn't find a pic, so I supplemented with a generic pic. But this is her color and how fat she really was. in reality I don't think I could have found a better picture... )

And finally...





Momo, Mosby, Moser, Asshole...



The one Color of Cat that my wife says she wishes she could have one day is a Tabby, but she flips out every time she sees a calico, and so I thought in a perfect world Rebecca Moon would have her perfect Mr. Darcy Calico Cat. Also I't almost impossible for a Calico to be Male, which makes Darcy even more rare. Some slight metaphors in there... just so you know.


The monsters in this chapter are Goblins. Though I didn't decided that until much later in the book, They do play a pretty important role, which you will find out later (Muhahahaha!) . I have never been able to find an appropriate picture of them, because my Goblins are slightly original.
Out at my wife's childhood home, Coyotes were out every night. The Few nights that I stayed there, I could hear them around the house scampering around and yelping and howling. It's a blood curtailing and intense sound that made my hair stand on end.  The inspiration for the goblins in my book are those coyotes. The idea that we as humans have rationalized something terrifying, made normal a monster that hides in the darkness.

They are not the Goblins from Troll 2:




Song for this chapter: At Home - Crystal Fighters

I hope you have learned a little more about the first chapter of the book and I hope you enjoyed reading it this far. Keep an eye out for the next chapter of the book on Wattpad, Or if you want feel free to check out my webpage to learn more about buying the entire book at once.
Leave a comment here, or on Wattpad and let me know what you think. If you buy the Book out right, then feel free to leave a review, or talk with me here as you read along.

twclawson.com

 See you guys soon!

T.W. Clawson

Thursday, January 21, 2016

It's out.

Guys, if you can't hear my excitement through these words, then you need a hearing aid.


http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA4LzA1LzYyL2FuY2hvcm1hbi42NjJkYS5naWYKcAl0aHVtYgk4NTB4ODUwPgplCWpwZw/e36d14bd/1c0/anchorman.jpg


My book is out! and it's ready to be bought! I'm gonna keep this short and simple.

Go by my book on Amazon, either as an E-book or as a Trade paper back. You can get there by going to my website.

http://www.twclawson.com/works.html

Starting this Saturday, you can read one chapter a week on Wattpad, and each blog post for that week will be a behind the scenes or special features sort of look at it.

Thanks guys, everyone. If you read this, then thank you. Tell you friends and come back for more!

T.W. Clawson.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Written for my Wife

In the coming weeks, I will be posting about a book that I have written.

I just wanted to talk about it outside of itself a little before that. The purpose of it and what joy it gives me to release it online.

Several years ago I was homeless, unemployed, nonplussed and depressed. Living an a small loft above a very (VERY) generous couple's garage, I sat around trying to figure out what to do with my life. And while those were by and far a couple of the worst years in my life, I none the less was born out of them a better man.

Three things happened almost simultaneously, seeds of things that have born great fruit and I pray will continue to do so.

The first was when My dad called me over to his house, to experiment at designing a few shirts for a MMA athletic clothing line. I will spend little time on this, but the fact is it made me realize how much I enjoyed graphic design. And I continued to design my own shirts since then. Starting a (terribly unsuccessful) clothing line, and then starting a shop that is doing kind of, slightly, some what... well.

Second was when I applied for a job at Fred Meyer in Canby, Oregon. Now when I say I applied, what I really mean is that I demanded a job. I had literally been out of work for about a year and a half (despite the one month I spent in a place that I can only describe as hell, so I don't count that). If you have ever been out of work, then you will know how if feels when every single person you know only has one thing they talk to you about, and it's always the same question, over and over and over.

The fact was, I had found a lot of jobs that were good, but they didn't think that they had found anything good themselves, so I was never contacted again.  And thus, I continued on my trajectory of failure in the employment sector. But then I had finally had enough. I heard that there was an opening for the Starbucks in the Fred Meyer in Canby, and I thought... I could do that.
 I walked up to customer service, after getting the name of the HR lady, and simply told the CS associate that I was there to speak to Deb in HR. I was dressed to the nines and had my resume in hand. As well, I wasn't taking no for an answer.
Luckily, the nice lady at desk called Deb on the phone and told her that I was there to see her, she smiled, hung up the phone and directed me on how to get to Deb's Office.  Confidently, I walked back to the office and opened the door. As I peered into see Deb, I could see her shuffling folders about her desk and looking for something.

"Hi, I'm Tyler. I'm hear to speak with you." I said confidently, yet  light and quietly.

Deb looked up and seemed a little deterred. "Hi Tyler," she said getting out of her chair to shake my hand. "I'm so sorry, but I can"t seem to find your application anywhere in my stack. What was your last name?"

I laughed slightly. "Clawson, and it's OK cause I don't have an application in. I'm sorry about that."

We both sat and I looked her directly in the eye as she started to calm down. "See, I wanted to speak with you before I put in the application online. I know for a fact that you're hiring for Starbucks and I want to make sure you know who I am when I put in my name."

Deb smiled a sly smile... an approving smile.

"Anyway, I just thought I would introduce myself and give you my resume and make sure you know that I will apply as quickly as I can."

She told me to fill out the application, and then two days later called me in for an interview. I didn't know it, but the day I walked in and demanded attention, an opening in the Electronics Department had arrived. (a dept. that I was much more capable of working and my resume showed that.) They interviewed me... Deb the HR lady, The Manager of the Dept. and then a third interview with the Store Director all with in an hour. Then before I could walk out the front door of the store, they were calling my phone to offer me the job.

This was a win, and while I complain and have lost a lot of devotion to my job at Fred Meyer, I will never forget the fact that they saved me. This was the second thing to happen that started to turn my life around.

The third thing was this:

Five children were sitting in a field. They sat looking at the world around them from the peaceful grasslands of their grandmother’s backyard. It was ten acres of green grass and sporadic trees, with a narrow road driving down the side of the property and a small collection of maple trees mixed with firs, and some oddly colored trees that would forever be uncategorized following along the path. On the far side of the field an orchard of apple trees sprang to life, creating a home for wild animals. Their grandmother's home sat behind them with a large tree off to the side, supporting a tire swing hanging down.

Now, at this (dark) time in my life, I knew I wanted to write comic books and movies and all that jazz. I have always been a dreamer and tried to tell stories. But I never wanted write a novel. It was too much, to big. It was work. But nothing was working out for me. Movies are expensive and I would have to start at the bottom. Graphic Novels require an artist, I have no illustration skills. But Novels would require only writing my ideas on a page.

I had even taken an old comic book that I had written and I began to add to it to turn it into a novel. Because I thought "I have already written most of it, now it won't be to much work to adjust it a little." So if I was going to write a book, then it was going to be the easy way. But then, as I was getting pretty far into it, I suddenly found myself without the flash drive that had stored the entire piece of work. I had literally lost my "novel" and would have to start over.

In a deep and dark depression one night, within my cave in the forest (my loft five miles outside the nearest town.) I wrote this small passage. Then I wrote an entire page. Then I had finished the chapter. Then the first act of the book, and soon things had started to come around. I moved back into town in a shitty mobile home, which I paid way to much rent for, I started fixing my car up and I started to have something close to a life.

I then finished the first draft of the book, and God provided an editor and people around me that helped me craft it a little more. And soon (though it really took a very long time) I had a finished book, that I was querying agents for representation. And that's where I sit now.

There is one piece of this that I haven't mentioned yet, because it's something very special to me. My wife, Rebecca. Through everything, literally everything, she was there. Encouraging me, helping me, freeing me. Despite my terrible situation, she stuck it all through with me, on a promise that we might one day be wedded. If you have never had dark and terrible times, then it's hard to explain how much the encouragement of another person is.



Even the one time I tried to break up with her, for her own good, she wouldn't have it. (we weren't married at the time.) I tried to give her a life with out me, with out my pain and hurt and darkness. And she refused to accept it, she wanted me for every thing I was. Dark parts and all. It's a wonderful and moving thing to have in my life, a person who loves me like that.

And she does.

So (and I promise I'm almost done.) when I started thinking about a small book I could write, to try and self-publish so as to get more attention, I had to think about what it was I wanted to write about. Naturally I thought about the wonderful and unbound love of my wife. And that's what this book is. This is a book that tells the world of the love that I have been given. It is a book that shows my wife, that I have seen her greatness and it has inspired an entire book. This book was written for her, and inspired by her. She is my dream come true.

She is my Rebecca moon.




"Yummy coffee and a good book, written just for me. Thank you Tyler!" - from Facebook post.





























T.W. Clawson

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Date and Cover Release!

I know that many of you, and by that I mean the 7billion people who live on Earth, don't really care, but for those of you that do...

I'm releasing my book, Rebecca Moon and the Boy in the Bottle!

I'm setting it for Thursday, January 21st on amazon for both Paperback and E-book. As well, Starting that Saturday, the 23rd, I will be uploading one chapter on Wattpad weekly.

If you wanna see my big plan for everything, check out an older post that lays out everything a little more.

http://imthewritestuff.blogspot.com/2016/01/soon-very-soon.html


And, as I'm sure you have scrolled down to see, below is the cover art for the book. As off this moment of me writing, there is only one physical copy in existence, and my wife has it on her book shelf. Check it out!

 

 



So there it is.
I will be updating my Blog and my Webpage: http://twclawson.weebly.com/
You can follow me and purchase the book on my website as well as (if they all work out...) in several stores in the Portland area. Which I will post as soon as it available.





Saturday, January 2, 2016

Soon... Very Soon...

Lets just get the funny pic out of the way:




HA HA! Anyway...

I'm glad your checking out this post because it's kin of a big deal. I know I'm not the most consistent, entertaining, prominent or gifted blogger in the world. The fact is though, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that fact simply because I don't want to be a blogger. I'm not trying to go out of my way to write every single day, or week to entertain or make my name synonymous with some great weekly article.

Instead I insist on working on my Novels, or my Shirts, or just plan working for that matter.

But this is a big post for the very reason that it will be the beginning of a new set up for the Blog. Soon, I will be releasing my book "Rebecca Moon and The Boy in the Bottle", selling it on Amazon as an E-book as well as trade paper back.  I'm very excited about this, as I'm sure you can imagine

What I'm more excited about is that I will be releasing "Rebecca Moon" on Wattpad for free. Every week I will upload a chapter of the book and allow the world a glimpse into the whole story. It is an attempt (I will admit) to try and get people to buy the whole thing. I'm not doing this to make money, but rather to gather attention.

Further more, I intend on updating this Blog weekly as well. I know that this might not seem like a big deal to some, but the fact is, I will have a purpose in doing so. Most of the time I don't write in my Blog because I don't know what to talk about. Despite what my family will tell you, I'm not a big fan of giving out my option to people that I can't see face to face, and I haven't actually done a lot. So I don't have a lot of experiences to share with others.

With putting each chapter of the book on Wattpad, I would like to allow the reader to get to know me a little bit more. If there was anything people know about me, it's that I do love to talk about my books. Like... A lot. So that's what I'm going to do. Every week I when I update my book on Wattpad, I will zip over here and update my Blog with some surrounding things. Things I like or dislike about the chapter, replies to comments on Wattpad, extra content on the whole process.

Adding fun things as well. Talking about the music I was listening to while writing, creating a kind of play list sound track. Art that Inspired different characters and creatures even some inside jokes that most people wouldn't understand with out the Authors input.

I'm posting this as a kind of warning. That this will take up most of the Blog now, and that if you wanna know what I'm talking about, it's probably a good idea to either buy the book, or follow along on Wattpad. Not that I think a lot of people read this, and/or care about what I do here.

If you do, though, if you happen to follow along with what I write, or stumble across this then I would ask something of you. Tell your friends and family. I know that this book is not for everyone. It's going to speak to some people, and not others, and that's totally fine. If your not the type of person that cares about this book, then move on, but before you do remember that there is probably between one and five people in your life that might actually care about this book. Someone you know that could use a good story, a laugh, a small twinge of heartbreak and and over all sense of encouragement.

If you don't buy or follow the book for your own sake, consider who ever pops into your head.

I hope you enjoy the next few months, and I hope to hear from you.

T.W. Clawson