Code Names

Codename Novellas
So, in a total Shawna is Unoriginal™ move I've decided to give you some updates on my novellas using code names like Lile did. These codenames  aren't going to be obvious at all, but relate to the stories. I'm going to talk about them in the order I'd like to share them *fingers crosses*.

Pink Frosting
This one is either going to be one or two parts. I don't want to say which serial it's part of yet. It was only one part, but then I added more during NaNoWriMo. I have this one mostly outlined and the first half is completely written. I think I've been working on this one the longest

Meanwhile / Blob thing ?
This is a novella I've been thinking about writing forever and have finally decided to do.When I finished Vice I wrote about wanting to write something I called blob thing and I think this is the novella I was thinking of. It will likely be 5,000 words and I have about 1,000 drafted.

Haley/Maxwell
This is obviously the Haley/Maxwell novella I'm working on. I have a general outline for the story and some words written but I can't figure out what order to put everything in.

Silent Girls
This is my current favorite novella to work on. I have about 4,000 words down and I'll maybe add another 2,000. I wish I could expand this story and I'm not super ready to talk about which serial this is apart of.

Silly Meta Thing
I also have an idea for a silly meta thing. I was looking up something in a blog post for one of the novellas and one of you pitched a great scenario for a meta thing in the comments.

Speaking of Comments : Comment Corner
This comment exchange happened when I posted Chapter 4 and 5 of Compulsion and  for a while I had NO idea what the context was. I even re-read the chapters...

 Anyway it turns out it was a reference to an author's note where I  mentioned mistaking the words canning and caning.

Chapter 21
I'm honestly not sure where Chapter 21 came from because it was never apart of my original story idea. There was no Whitlow and there was no heroin and there was no Amber wedding in my original outlines but they all worked together to create this growing tension between Rhett and Juliana that I wanted

As I write more and more I've been exploring ideas about (here we go) intertextuality between UL and UL3 as well as ideas of  femininity and womanhood. In UL, Juliana is in a place where her body is a thing she uses to get what she wants from men and sexuality is a commodity. UL3 takes place in a small town where her sexuality is still seen as valuable to a certain extent but that fact is extremely taboo.

Also, that thing that Juliana says about men addressing Rhett over her happens in Chapter 19. I'm surprised none of you called it out. When Juliana gets hit on by a stranger the man apologizes to Rhett not her.

“I’m sorry, man” the stranger says to Rhett.“Didn’t realize this was you—hey, you a Navy guy or--,”

 
“Don’t apologize to me,” Rhett says dryly but instead of apologizing to me the man just walks off to his friends.

Chapter 22
Alright, this is a long one and so is the next one.

Recap
With Rhett still suspended and Juliana adjusting to being back in town things have been dark for the Clark family. Juliana is secretly buying heroin from one of Jocelyn's neighbors, Marty Enlign and she has coerced Rhett into injecting her.

But Juliana gets some much needed girl time and heads off to Hilton Head, SC for Amber's bachelorette party.  She meet with Rocket Olsen who tells her she wants to write a book about United Light and she comforts Savannah after she finds out her boyfriend dumped her.

Rhett confides in Bethany Whitlow about the reason for his suspension and then does some pretty heavy drinking to cope

Also, just for context, this chapter picks up about a month after the last chapter.

Chapter 22
Playlist
-1- Stand by You by - Alex Goot
-2- Stand by Me by Ben E King
-3- I Kissed A Girl and I Liked It by Katy Perry
-4- Live Forever by  Drew Holcomb
-5- Made to Love You by Dan Owen
-6- I Won't Give Up by Lennon &Maisy

Research Fact Tim McGraw

Ya'll
So, I went down a country music rabbit hole when writing that one sentence about Amber going to a country music show with her mom

CPShawna: This is why it takes you so long to write a chapter

Me: *closes Google tab* *closes Google tab* *closes Google tab* *closes Google tab* *closes Google tab* *closes Google tab* *closes Google tab* *closes Google tab* *closes Google tab*
 
I grew up in NoCal so I know a lot about grunge, rock and alternative music but country music wasn't on my radar so I knew very little about Tim McGraw.

As I wrote that throwaway line I wasn't even sure about what Tim McGraw looked like so I looked it up. Apparently during the time the serial takes place he looked like this:

 

And he was also in the Blindside where he looked like this:

But apparently he went on this diet and now looks like this (this man is 54):

 





And is making some interesting shirt choice:

 And I'm kind of obsessed with he and Faith Hill's country music power marriage:

 The Faith Hill/ Tim McGraw tour Amber references is the Soul2Soul tour in 2000 and I was momentarily mesmorized by all the eye tricks in the tour poster

And they are actually going back on tour together  in 2017 and I just think Faith Hill looks gorgeous in the new poster.

 And yes, he does look weird with the hat off

Anyway all that is to say Erik and I have tickets to the 2017 Soul 2 Soul tour...you know, for research.

CHAPTER 20
So, the tagline of this chapter could really be ish gets real. This chapter and the next chapter kind of explore what happens when the honeymoon phase is over. I know it may seem a little wander-y but it's all building up to a narrative thing.

CHAPTER 21
Recap / Characters to Remember

These characters are referenced / make appearances and haven't made appearances in a while.

Savannah Clark - Rhett's sister who is 8 years younger than Rhett.

Caleb - Savannah's football player boyfriend, who Rhett begrudgingly likes.

Bethany Whitlow - the only woman in Rhett's rescue swimmer class. She can do handstand push ups.

Brooke - Amber's best friend who works at the salon that Rhett's mom owns.



Recap
Juliana is back from Connecticut and spending most of her time as part of Amber's bridal party.  She tries some of Cody's heroin (in exchange for a handjob) and she likes the way the drugs makes her feel when combined with the trial antidepressant she is on.

Mr. Reese finds a letter Rhett sent to Juliana confessing everything he did in UL. Mr. Reese sends it to the Coast Guard and Rhett is put on unpaid leave by the Coast Guard and for the first time since they were married Rhett and Juliana are spending a lot of time together and it is not going well. 

Feeling guilty, Cody tells Rhett about happened and he is not happy when he finds out.

“I don’t care about what happened,” I tell her. But I know it's a lie. Cody had told me he gave her heorin and she gave him a hand job the day it had happened. He let me get  two clean hits in and we called it even. But there was nothing I could do to her. “Just as long as you stop fucking up and promise me you'll never try heroin again--,"

“Rhett--,”

“Juliana, I’m serious--,”

“It's helping me," she says like a fucking moron. "I'm not injecting it....it helps me....okay ? If I have to stop you have to stop drinking all the time."

“It’s not the same!” I tell her, but I may have yelled because she jumps back

"You're going to  wean yourself off the shit you are on and then you're going to stop. Heroin will kill you. It's addictive as fuck and you won't see it coming." I tell her. "If I find out you're buying I will make your life a living hell, do you understand ?,"

"You can't talk to me like--,"

"I can talk to you however I want when you're being a god damn idiot,"

Chapter 21 
Playlist

-1- Ho Hey by Jon D
-2 - I hate u, I love u  by gnash and Olivia O'Brien
-3-  4:35 AM  by Gemma Hayes
-4- Otis  by Jay Z and Kanye West ( I love all versions of this song)
-5- Blossom by Noah Gunderson
 

Hold Me

UL IS ALMOST 10 YEARS OLD SOMEBODY HOLD ME !

Year of the Novellas ?
I'm not sure what 2017 will bring serial wise, but I think I'll be writing a lot more novellas that are 3-5 chapters long. As I mentioned in an earlier post I was working on some of them during NaNoWriMo and they'll be for previously done serials and I'm enjoying working on them as a UL palette cleanser.

I kind of have an idea for a super subversive and dark Maxwell/Haley novella that will make Sundays look like a Disney movie but I'm not sure if I'll ever be in a headspace to really write it.

I'm also hoping to do some more meta stuff. QC and all of Lile's vault stuff has really inspired me to push boundaries.

So Much Pink ?
Someone noted that there is a section in the outline that is mostly pink and I think that is just my color preference showing. I'll sometimes use different shades of the same color and when it's all zoomed out it looks the same.

Chapter 19
It was around this chapter that I realized I had hopped on the angst train full speed ahead. To be honest these last few chapters is where the serial could have started--the point where UL starts slowly creeping back into their life. But I really wanted to establish Rhett and Juliana as a couple and the setting of Freeport...also I needed to introduce Rocket because she comes back. There is a method to my madness...maybe.

Recap
Back from Connecticut Juliana is on a new medication and ready to get back to her life only to discover her Dad wrote a letter to the Coast Guard asking for Rhett's removal because of his involvement with UL and he is put on indefinite suspension.

Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Playlist

-1- Birdsong by George Orgivile
-2- Free Fallin by Tom Petty
-3- Southern Girl by Tim McGraw
-4- It's Your Love by Tim McGraw
-5- Out of the Woods by Bryan Adams 

FZAFSOAAWA ???

So, this post is actually super old. UL3 has turned into such a personal project for me lately that I've been abandoning my posting. It's not so much that UL is personal to me so much as I finally know where I'm going and  I just want to get it out. I just want to finish it for myself at this point.

Anyway, I'll share this post I wrote a while ago and then add in updates in purple TDOSH Style !  

I FINISHED MY OUTLINE FOR UL3 AND I WANT TO GIVE YOU GUYS A SNEAK PEAK:

(pretend there is a page break here)

How I Imagine You All Right Now 

 

I somehow have two outlines for UL3 and this screenshot is just showing chapter 16 to the end. The colors represent where chapters begin and end and...for some reason I kept writing on top of the outline so my latest chapter outline would be on top so it actually reads backwards. So, even if you can somehow read it, I doubt it will make sense.

 This outline feels so satisfying yet so scary. It's just so odd to think of UL3 being so sketched out and outlined beforehand  because the original UL was the pantsiest thing to ever pants.

Chapter 18
As I mentioned in a comment on a previous post, chapter 18 and chapter 19 were originally together, but I broke them up because it didn't flow...I guess I could have done a double chapter post.

I always knew I would work Juliana's past with Brad and Topix into the story. The adult video stuff was so implict in UL, but never explicitly stated and I just didn't have the context back then to dig into it like I do know.

When outlining I hadn't put much thought into who would be the one to post about her being on a porn site. Originally I think I wanted it to be Cortland, but then I re-read some of his parts and he really wouldn't have cared that much to try and ruin her life. Then it was going to be Brad's son Patrick, but then I remembered Hunter and it was a good fit.

Also, while writing chapter 18 I originally planned to go in more deep with the whole mental hospital stay and did a TON of research, but ended up leaving a lot of it out because this serial is already pretty long. I did kind of fudge on her being involuntarily committed--most people with anxiety who go to mental wards have to go voluntarily.

A THING ?
So, you guys I wrote about 300 words of  Formless Zombie Apocolypse Fantasy Space Opera Aliens Assassian Wizard of Oz -ish  Thing (FZAFSOAAWA ?) I mentioned in my last post for NaNoWriMo and it was just kind of silly, but now I have a few plot bunnies running around in my head.  This serial is still in the very, very, very, early stages but it could be something ? Maybe ?

If I do write it, it probably wont see the light of day for 9 months or so, but it's nice to know the muse machine is still working. 

Extra Detailed Recap

A year after Hurricane Katrina, Rhett graduates from the Rescue Swimmer School, he get stationed in New Orleans  and he and Juliana move into his paternal grandparents house and start a life together in Freeport.

Hunter Day, Cortland's younger bother anonymously posts Juliana's videos on a Freeport community website when he sees a story about them written by Rocket Olsen. Then Rhett's cousin West posts the comment on Facebook and quickly deletes it but it's too late. Juliana is humiliated in front of church and ends up spiraling into a catatonic state onset by her mood disorder.

Rhett calls her Dad and they make  her to go to a mental hospital in Connecticut since Rhett has to go to work for three days and can't be with her and he doesn't want to tell anyone how she abandoned Mason. At the mental hospital Juliana gets back into knitting, writes some very mean e-mails to Rhett, receives an indecent proposal via e-mail from a neighbor named Marty Enlign and finds out she is still part of Amber Cunningham's wedding to Rhett's cousin--the same cousin who posted about her on Facebook.

When Juliana's released from the mental hospital on a trial drug she has to stay in Connecticut for observation.The the first thing she does when she leaves is find Hunter Day (who is your basic proto-gamer gater) at Yale and gives him a piece of her mind.

When she gets back to her Dad's house she finds him reading through some of Juliana's letters from Rhett from when she was in jail. Her Dad tells her he found the letters because they were going through her things to figure out where she had gone. He Dad tells her it's time to destroy the letters because they represent an ugly past.

Whew ! 

Chapter 19
Playlist

-1- The Wild One by Joshusa Fletcher 
-2- Beach by Axel Flovent
-3- Guiding Light by Foy Vance and Ed Sheerhan

NaNoWriMo A Go Go

NaNo !

So, I've decided I'm going to attempt to do a NaNo. It's going to be an nontraditional NaNo though. I have three novellas in my head that I'd like to write, one is for UL3 and two are for Vice. I've already written 1K-2K for each of them previously, but I'm not going to count those pre-written words towards my goals.

I'm also going to be going back in and editing my Nanos since these are pretty short stories. I hope working on these as NaNos will give me time to stretch out the novellas more.

I mentioned in Lile's comments a while ago that I wanted to write a paranormal romance type thing...the only issue is I have 0 ideas. As I've been going back through some older posts I realized that I was working on HMLIS and Vice at the same time and then I was working on Vice 2 and UL3 at the same time. This is the first time that I don't have anything else brewing in my head and it's scary.

Update: Okay, so...I started randomly writing this weird, formless fantasy space opera about aliens, a trained killer and the zombie apocalypse...that may or may not be based on The Wizard of Oz. If I ever actually wrote it it would need a lot of work so I think it will  be in the vault for a while.

Anyway, you can find me here: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/shawnaharrison

When I signed up for my account I completely forgot  that I already had a NaNo account. In 2012, Vice was my NaNo and I only got about 700 words logged before I forgot to keep updating...I kind of want to see how many words Vice is now.

For now I'm calling my novellas Little Revolutions because that's kind of what I wanted to change the name of UL3 to. I'm also calling it that because one of the Vice novellas takes place in the future and is sort of about how the same things keep happening over and over again.




House Tour
So, a few of you have been asking about Rhett/Juliana's house and it's really hard for me to find picspirations because the kind of house they live in isn't one people have picspirations for...so I went on to Redfin and looked in the Louisiana area to see if I could find some houses that were close. #procrastination. It's funny sifting through photos online I realize I'd imagined their house more specifically than I thought.

So, this house is close except imagine it without that paths to the front door and the shrubs. I imagine them as having just  plain green shrubs. Also, imagine the neighboring houses a farther away.

As for the inside for the house, it's older and it has wood paneling so it looks something like this, except with new carpet

Chapter 18
Recap 

Life has been going well for Rhett and Juliana a year after Hurricane Katrina; they've moved into his grandparents empty house, he works at the New Orleans base and she's joined the church and becoming friends with Amber Cunningham--Rhett's ex-girlfriend who is marrying Rhett's cousin, West.

Then a user on Topix name AnonymousBitchslap posted a link to Brad's porn site where Juliana was the star and Rhett's cousin West posts it on Facebook so most of the town sees it too. Juliana is humiliated at a story time in church when she is asked to leave because of the videos and she breaks down and neglects Mason for two days. When Rhett finds out he is furious with her, while also trying to make all of this go away.

When Juliana won't get out of bed Rhett calls her Dad to take her  since he has to go back to work. When Juliana realizes Mason isn't going to CT with her she gets upset and they have forcefully remove her from the house. She also drops the bombshell that their marriage license got denied because of her previous marriage.

Now Mason is with Rhett's aunt while Rhett goes back to work and Juliana has been taken to Connecticut and she is not super happy about it....

Trigger Warning: LiLe there is a mention of something you may find triggering 

PLAYLIST
CHAPTER 18
-1- Sweet Child by Take by Trees
-2- Blackbird
-3- We Are Young

A lot of pictures of Sterling Knight

Chapter 16
I don't really have much to say about Chapter 16, it was really more of a transition chapter and a recovery chapter to tie up the ends left by Rocket's chapter. Chapter 16 and the next few chapters are going to be Part III. I know it all seems random and pants-y now, but trust me I'm getting somewhere.

Also, I have to say it's really, really hard to write dialogue for a toddler. They do a lot of random babbling and pronounce words wrong so, a lot of what Mason says is just how it sounds to Juliana ears because she understands what he is saying because...you, know mom super powers.

Picspiration
Not that she is going to show up in this chapter or anything, but Rocket's picspiration and general aesthetic is Carrie Brownstein:





I also have a picspiration for West Sullivan, Rhett's cousin who is marrying Savannah. I imagine him as the 23 year old version of Sterling Knight, who was the love interest in Sunny with A Chance

Also, those lines around his mouth when he smiles  ? I totally imagined Rhett with those, but I could never think of how to describe them.

Also he apparently looks like this now:

And the internet is not pleased....

You guys, I'm not sure how this blog post devolved into talk about an late oughts teen hearthrob.
 
Chapter 17
Recap
Rhett has graduated from A-School and is working on the New Orleans base as a rescue swimmer doing three day shifts. Juliana is going to cosmetology school and back on her medication. Things seem to be going well, but when Rhett is getting ready to go home he gets an alert from Deacon about the following comment comment left on an article about Rhett and Juliana's photo that Rocket Olsen took:

AnonymousBitchSlap

Lol, that blonde bitch is totally a porn star. Check out this link.

CHAPTER 17

PLAYLIST

-1- Catalog and Classify by Mark Robinson

-2-  Smother by Daughter

-3- It's Alright by The Fractures

 

Is the RLA Better in AG-VCTE or AG-V or the AG-VCTE AU ?

Literally Me:

I've been doing a lot of writing/editing/re-writing

Chapter 15
I can't believe I posted that chapter, I'd been working with it for so long. It was pretty much the culmination of all of my Katrina research I've been doing off and on for the past two years.

Basically, most of what Rocket says in the last chapter is true. I think we forget that back in 2005 the name Mike Brown was associated with FEMA's terrible efforts. When I started reading about how The Admiral of Coast Guard literally took over FEMA (incidentally enough, a few years later this guy was in charge of the oil spill too) it all came together. The Coast Guard Oral History project is real and I really wanted to work that in. I did read some of the Oral History Project (and some nonbiased news reports to make sure I wasn't get biased info) to put together what the work would have looked like for the Coast Guard during those days.

 The only information I fudge is some of the timelines...because we have to get back to the prologue....I did not think that one through. Honestly, my timelines are giving me the most stress right now so I may just stop worrying about them.

APR
The APR bit was obviously inspired by QC. Rocket was always going to be a character, but I was having trouble fitting her perspective in and then I read QC and a light went on.  I also liked the format change because it allowed me to move time quickly. It was really fun to do, but I don't think I could do it in any serious way ever again.

Although, If I am ever hard up for content I may do the Adventures of An Alternate Universe Time Jumping Public Radio Show Host....

Comment Comment Corner
So, I ended up re-reading some of my TDOSH's because I was looking for when I mention who created the trenches...you know, for prosperity since Lile and I were talking about it in the comments. I couldn't find the reference but I did find some comments that I wanted to comment on and this may become a regular segment.

These comments were left on the En Moritas post--which came after Vice was finished. If you don't remember En Moritas was something I wrote after Veritas that showed how I thought Haley, Minnow and Alan died.

I chose this comment because I I just kind of loled at all the convoluted acronyming. That said I do have a soft spot for the NA AU, QC.

This comment really got me. This is from when I posted a novella called The Truth About Bridges where Blythe visits Abigail at rehab. I mean seriously, when did 2016 stop being the future ? I think I actually ended up doing this fluff in 2015 but if only I could go back and warn this Shawna of the year that would be 2016.

Chapter 16
Let's do a recap:
Hurricane Katrina hits and Rhett and Juliana loos etheir apartment and Rocket Olsen, a Coast Guardsmen Public Affairs Officer turned journalist begins following them around for an APR story based on a photo she took of them in the storm aftermath. Juliana and Mason move in with Joceyln and Juliana and Mason are both baptised. Rhett is stuck working round the clock shifts before going back to A-School. Because of his work schedule he hasn't gotten to spend much time with his family.

Now, It's been a little over a year since Katrina, Rhett has just graduated from A-school and they are making plans to move into his paternal grandparents abandoned house to start  their lives over and finally be together.

Also, when Rhett goes to work in the Katrina aftermath he gives Juliana his wedding ring for safekeeping. This isn't important, but it comes up in this chapter.

Rocket Olsens' radio story ends a few minutes after the graduation ceremony where she sees them joking and being affectionate. We are going to pick up a few hours after that:

CHAPTER 16
PLAYLIST
-1- Let Me Love You by Mario (This is a popular song title...)
-2- Walking on Sunshine by  Katrina and The Waves
-3- Maybelle by Ida