Make it Magical (Sunshine 7)

*yes, yes this is another post I wrote weeks ago so it may seem random*

Make it Magical
I just randomly want to talk about American Fairytale. I can't believe it came out so long ago but I think about it a lot because it is the most un-Lile like thing while still being the most Lile-like thing. I love that Cillian is just a guy who gets taken on a journey by his own toxic pixie dream girl and in the end is still just a guy. He doesn't get special powers, he's not special, he's not rich and he's not prince. He's still just a normal guy trying to do good and repent.

But also it's the most Lile because its so deeply about a  place that gets sprinkled with little bit of magic and the unexplained to make it special.

And it's so  because right after American Fairytale was posted Lux Atearna came out. A big part of me was so jealous Lile created these two unique and broad paranormal universes but I'm also happy because I get to just sit back and enjoy them.

Anyway, this has just been kind of on my mind.

Talkin' Twilight
So part of the reason I was looking into Fairytale is because I couldn't remember if Lile had already used BooBoo Stewart for picspiration and then I remembered he was just a baby in Twilight so it's so weird for me to see him as hot now!

Disqus
I am still working on getting some of my lost comments back. I've created a copy of this blog but now I need to figure out how to put Disquis back on it and have it read the older comments. I'm really upset now because Disqus has FINALLY allowed Gifs. *sigh*


Rias/Charlotte 
This little image reminded me of  baby Rias and Charlotte. Especially the girl's hair.



Sunshine 7
Recap
Safely at Arkham, Luce starts training El to use her weapons. Haley announces that Maxwell is getting new adaptive technology that will allow him to tell about what they did to him so Haley runs back to the Sprawl to make sure Maxwell doesn't get the ability to communicate.

I sit with Grayson  until his tears stop and after an hour I finally convince  him to come inside with the  promise that we’ll ride to the train station and meet Haley when he gets off the train this time tomorrow.

Except it’s a bad promise.

Yes, Isaac lets us tag along on the shuttle he drives to the train station the next day.
But when they train empties out Haley isn’t on it.

Chapter 7
Playlist 
-1- Room 4 by 36
-2- Afterthought by  David Hyde
-3- Feed Me Diamonds by MNDR

A few more picspirations! (Sunshine 6)

This image gave me Twyla and Rias vibes!

These are some close-ish picspirations for Twyla (36) and Colette (37). We will be checking in with them more later....

I don't have a picspiration for everyone but I see BooBoo Stewart and his cheekbones as Real Kenji. They also happen to have some similar heritage.

Sunshine 6

Okay let's move on to--

Muse: Hey, Shawna.

SHV:Oh, hi....Muse ? You've never spoken to me on the blog bef--

Muse: Yeah, well you remember  that thing you posted a while ago about wanting a  new plot bunny you couldn't get out of you head and that would potentially take over your writing brain to a point that you stop working on your current stuff--

SHV: Well, I mean I didn't say it like that but...um...yes ?

Muse: Yeah, well. Here.

SHV: Oh, um...wait...I wanted something that wasn't Vice related and this--

Muse: Oops. Hmm.Well, no returns. I mean...I guess you don't have to write it.

SHV: Well, it'll be like what ? 2,000 words. I can do that. I'll just write it to get it out of my head and then--

* 11,000 words later*

So...I guess I'm writing another Vice shaped thing after this ? I'm going to codename this one Nova and I hate to be a tease because this might be a 2020 thing but it's why I've been  sort of MIA. I just had to get this story out.

I know I'm being unnecessarily secretive but I don't want to say something about Nova and then end up changing it.


Recap
El, Sara, Jean, Luce, Haley and Grayson make it to Arkham where they meet  Hotako and the real Kenji Washington. Leaving the question; who was the boy they met in the Sprawl ?

Also, there is a security guard in the house named Isaac Prior who seems to have it out for El...

“Don’t worry, there is an outdoor entrance [Issac] will use while you are here but I told him to come this way introduce himself to you," Kenji explains. "Your grandmother wanted to go to  our labs. She said she wanted to see if she could  build a backup server and new battery for Luce. The little boy and his father are outside playing with Cleo.  I thought I would offer you some lunch.”

“Lunch sounds good.”

Chapter 6
Playlist 
-1- You So by i mean us 
-2- How Will We Know by The Sea
-3- Find A Place by Iko

Memes&Gifs&Memes&Gifs (Sunshine 5)

***Ahhhh!, this has been sitting in my drafts for over a month so pretend like I posted this  a month ago and got on this meme before it blew up! ***

I feel personally attacked:

me reading back my own writing. pic.twitter.com/cb4zlWjjIG

— sarah fowerbaugh (@sarfow11) August 12, 2019

GWSOM in Gifs /Memes!!!!

When GWOSM wrapped up 

I was unexpectedly sad for the journey to be over. It felt like a roller coaster at the end and I wasn't ready to get off.

Sofia Madigan

GWOSM was such a Sofia focused story and I loved all her resilience and strength. I felt like she really stood out on her own in this one.

Tomas Alexander

I feel like he is one pep talk/ This is Why You Suck speech away from doing better.

The SH-LILE Paradox Line

It's so funny, Vice and Lost Angels are so far apart on the surface but they manage to have the most paradox lines. Like, Sunshine!Luce and Sunshine!Haley have a lot in common with Tomfia. Like a lot.

My favorite thing about the Angel series is the intense relationship between Sofia and Tomas. I know that serial is personal to Lile and it really shows in the work.

I am trying SO hard to respect Lile's process. I also can't imagine not having my serial 60% done before posting but all I can think about is how I the rest of the story now!

Chapter 5
As I mentioned above, I also can't imagine posting anything else without having it mostly done. My pantsing days might be over. I can't believe I'd post UL chapter with NO idea where I was going next. I was 22,000 into Sunshine when I posted and I still think I posted too early...which is why there has been a brief hiatus.

I know chapter 4 was a short one but I am having such a hard time cutting up this serial into chapters and I'd sort of imagined all the Paradise Springs scenes as one chapter but I didn't realize how short they were.

Recap
El's family home was blown up leaving her parents, siblings, Minnow and Alan dead. Sara and Luce manage to get Jean out of his club as he is being drugged and having his suicide staged by strange men. They steal a car and escape out into the desert safehouse only to find it up in flames.Their main suspect is Kenji Washington--El's cousin who was visiting and was in the house but not among the dead.

After a quick stop at a Sparks Premium truck stop they decide to  head  to Arkham Academy to talk to Hotako Washington, Kenji's father. Along the way they are dropping Haley and Grayson off at a train station so they can go back since it seems like they are trying to kill El and Jean to get rights to the inheritance.

And we're about to catch up on a few more characters...

Chapter 5
Playlist

-1- Throw Me in The Water by WILD
-2- Bower by Luke Howard

Dear Muse (Sunshine 4

Actual gif of me reading my old stuff

You: Why are you looking at old stuff ?
Me: Erm....




The Future
So, I've made some decisions about Sunshine. It is going to be split into two parts...mainly because I need to work out how to finish this mammoth of a thing this story has turned into.The first part will be 8-10 chapters and then I'll take a 1-2 month break to write more.

What happens during that break ? My plan is to use that time to post the Loosely prequel novellas. Maybe I'll even work on that UL3 novella. It's funny Noah Presley (who is based on Cameron Boyce) is featured  fairly prominently in it so it will be interesting to revisit those scenes. GWOSM has really inspired me to jump back into UL.

I may also do some TDOSH, which is why I was looking at old stuff. There is one chapter from one thing in particular I want to TDOSH.

Also...I'm going to talk Lost Sentinel. I do want to post the rest of what I wrote but I'm not sure I can bring the story home. I plan to take another stab at it, but if it doesn't work out then I'll just blog about what my general goals were with that story.

Dear Muse
I'm trying to stay in the present with what I'm writing and going with the flow but I miss having fresh story ideas. I want to write more things like the mermaid stories that were these fully formed ideas just sort of pop into my head. Writing those stories really made me like writing again and I want that feeling back. So, muse, if you are listening...I'm waiting.

Lost Comments
In one of her posts Lile pointed out some of the comments are gone. This happened because those comments were in Disqus and I removed Disqus. I'm working on it. I have to migrate the comments into a new blog but when I did it I didn't take into account that the URL has changed from http to https... so it's a mess but I'm working on it. The comments do exists still!

Chapter 3
Chapter 3 was the chapter I wasn't  sure was going to exist. I could have ended the story with just some wrap up about how complicated families are but I decided to push and set up some stakes so we can live with these characters a little more.

Recap
An explosion occurs at El's house and she sees a message from her mother activating Sunshine Protocol--meaning it is the sole purpose of Sara and Luce to get El to safety. After sensing this may be more than what it seems they take her to a secret desert safe house.... only to discover that has also been blown up.

Chapter 4 
Playlist
-1- World's on Fire by Braves
-2-  Souvenirs by Steve Gutheinz

Alt Cover (Sunshine 3)

My other codename for Sunshine was LadybirdBox because it's a story about a complicated mother/daughter relationship and also about a young woman whose entire life is about to be turned upside down...

Alan Gray and Minnow Dory

I know I already did one for Minnow but I like to put everyone in pairs. I feel like with each thing I write I am trying to do justice for putting Minnow in a refrigerator in Veritas. I see them  as cartel old guards who are good at what they do. I do kind of imagine Alan a little (for lack of a better word) pussywhipped.

CPShawna: Mmhm, but why is Alan's picspiration so much younger ?
SHV: It's an android thing ? I like the idea of him deciding to look younger and for Minnow to be with a man who appears younger.

My picspiration for older Alan is Paul Walker. I don't know how to write this out but so many of my picspirations have died young. Anton Yelchin was my Sawyer piscpiration, Paul Walker for Alan and I had Cameron Boyce as a picspiration for Noah Presley in Liberation.

Luce/Haley/Grayson

Luce's picspiration is a model I found on Pinterest who is close-ish, I imagine Luce with a little less gray hair and  less of a full on beard but  more stubble. Luce isn't happy about his cybernetics not working but I imagine him generally content with his life. Also for such a tough character, he is a total mama's boy.

Haley's closest picspiration for me has always been this photoshoot the model Emil (yes, Emil!) Andersson did in the early 2010's so I just imagine him looking a little bit older than this.

When I was looking for these images again  I came across what Emil looks like now and actually he's still a pretty perfect inspy (CHEEKBONES!). I think Emil is probably in his late twenties or early thirties but it works for Older!Haley.

It's hard for me to come up with an exact one for Grayson but his hair is supposed to be kind of a long undercut like this:

I'm not going to say much about the Luce/Haley/Grayson situation because I kind of wrote two prequel short stories about it....I'll probably share them sooner than later. I'd love to write prequels for everyone I just need some ideas.

Also, these are the types of Japanese tattoos that Rias and Charlotte have:

Sunshine 3
After a disagreement with her parents about  not getting the same chances Kenji is getting El runs away from home for the night. She goes into the Sprawl and is spending the night in the apartment Luce, Haley and Sara share and wakes up to see a news broadcast about her family's mansion on fire.

Sunshine 3
Playlist
-1- Heaven I Know by Gordi
-2- Rattle by Penny and Sparrow
-3-  Capsize by Grace Grundy

Picspircations (Sunshine 2)

 

It is picspiration time!  As I do these picspirations I'm going to include some headcanon suff.

The Washington Sisters

These models are from Pinterest, I don't know who they are. The two for Angel and Atsumi  look a little old but they have the mischievous vibes I imagine for the girls. Angel was a placeholder names but I decided to keep it and have her named after an Angelfish thus continuing the fish themed naming Jean Dory and Minnow Dory have.

The main reason I had to fudge the ages and retcon stuff from Burn was because I wanted El to be 18-years-old so I could do more adult stuff with her character.

The Parents

I love Gennifer Goodwin for Charlotte and it is really hard to find one for Rias but Steven Yeun in a few years is pretty close. In my headcanon Charlotte is 41 and Rias is turning 39. Charlotte parenting-style  is definitely overcompensating for how much of a "free range parent" Jean was for her.

The Grandparents 

Sara Grace is 68 and I imagine her a lot like Frances McDormand. In my head Sara is working through some stuff about having been an assassin and killed so many people for a living.

Jean Dory is 61 and has some real Jeff Goldblum energy and (since this doesn't come up) has been retired for a decade but lives at Virtue.

Minnow is 53 and I imagine her as a sultry, work hard play hard  Marisa Tomei type. I also see her as kind of the cool aunt / mentor figure for Charlotte and Rias

I have some aesthetics for the other characters but we'll save those for next time!

Sunshine 2
So, I realize with the way I have this written I left more questions out there than answers but I appreciate your nitpicks, it helps me see things in a better way. It is SO hard because I have this all written out (including the blog posts) so I don't want to get  too ahead of myself.

Recap
18-year-old Eloise "El" Washington and her sisters have a little too much fun before going to be with their father when he gets out of brain surgery. They learn they have a neoluddite cousin named Kenji who is is in town. Their dad comes out of surgery and they all head to their family beach house for his birthday party.

Sunshine 2 ( I fixed the tiny font)
Playlist 

-1- Cymbidium by WMD 
-2- No Excuses by Meghan Trainor
-3- Sit, Still Look Pretty by Daya 
-4- Run Away by Killa Manila

Let's Try Something New (Sunshine 1)

LSAM
In my documents Pulse is called LSAM which stands for Let's Solve A Murder! This serial came about after I wrote about Luce/Isla's interaction in Built for Sin and I just wanted to write a little more of how they relate being the two people closest to Haley...and then it got away from me. I wanted to try my hand at mystery, explore a little Rias/Charlotte and  fill in some other gaps.

I'm not sure how I got it all out but I did and I somehow developed Sunshine in the process.

The Name Game
I mentioned in the comment sections I have a character name document from 2009 I sometimes refer to. I'm going to share part of it.

This is a group  of names that I guess Past!Shawna thought were good male protagonist names:

As you can see Past!Shawna underlined Grey (this later became Alan Gray), Rayne and Luce for Veritas.

• Felix was used for Harlow's friend in Sundays/Compulsion
• Milo was used  one of the mimics in Mimic
• Griffin was used for one of Rayne's bodyguards in Vice
• Shad....I think was used in Veritas when they go to Neoluddite land ?
• Blackbird was used for a blackmarket doctor in Veritas and Vice

IDK if I like any of these other names all that much anymore...

Okay, this was fun I'm going to do one more:

These were my "soft girl" names (yes, yes all of the sections are color-coded in a super stereotypical gendered way.)

Twyla and Isla became main characters. I used Persephone in Compulsion for a bartender at Luxor. I think Harley inspired Harlow...I've used a lot less of these.

Sunshine
So, let's move on to Secret!Vice aka Sunshine. I started writing Sunshine in January 2019 and it REALLY got away from me. What started as a one scene flash fic has turned into a 26k+ serial shaped thing

Sunshine and Pulse have kind of informed each other in a way so it's weird to be writing Sunshine "solo" now.  It has morphed a lot as I've pushed my own boundaries and just went there with character decisions. Of course all of that means nothing to you all since you have no idea what it is about so let's get into it. You will notice right of the bat I accidentally stole a name from Lile. I literally didn't realize it until a few days ago....

Sunshine 1

Sunshine 1
Playlist
-1- Good as Hell by Lizzo (This was the first song on the playlist...I totally had it before Kirsten Gillebrand)
-2- Most Girls by Hailee Steinfield
-3- Room 4 by 36
-4- Mama Say by Betty Who