My New Blurb and Various Updates

First off: I originally named my series Wardiloth's Dragons. In my mind, before starting to write Legends of Light, the dragons were going to be the centerpiece of the entire series. The plot would revolve around them. Now, the dragons are more of a plot piece - an important and essential part of the series, but part of the plot rather than the basis for the plot itself. To reflect these changes, the series is now called the Prophecy Chronicles.

Second: I finally rewrote my blurb. Here it is!

A sinister plot by a dark stranger and a series of mysterious accidents force Gabby Nelson into an adventure she never wanted. Thrown head first into Wardiloth, a crumbling fantasy realm, she is assigned to the task of curing the city's dragons. Sent to work with her is Rayand, a city guard with a dark past and many secret regrets. A few reckless actions send them on a dangerous odyssey into the heart of enemy territory. While they face dark legends come to life and the subtle plots of a hidden traitor slowly grow, it becomes clear that the fate of Wardiloth rests entirely on the shoulders of these two teens who won't even trust each other. High risks, chilling betrayal, and tests of trust all face Gabby and Rayand as they search for their one final, doubtful chance: an enigmatic and powerful legend of light.

It's a bit long, but I like it a lot.

In a few days, I'm planning to upload Legends of Light as a free PDF. My general idea is that you could be like beta readers. I want to know how people in my target audience react to my book. More details on that when I actually do it.

Anyway, now that Legends of Light is just about done, I have more time for other things. You'll see exactly what I mean by this in a couple of days.

~ Sophia-Rose

I win again!

I finished editing LoL yesterday. After finishing it, I now have a greater respect for professional editors. I would never want that job.

To finish it by today, I had to have another editing marathon yesterday. Raisins were a big life-saver. The final wordcount is just over 70,000 words, slightly shorter than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I'm pleased with myself.

My parents asked me a whole ton of questions, including the classic "To what do you attribute your success?" I answered, "Raisins!" I think they might think something's wrong with me.

Anyway, soon I'm going to start showing it to people and work on self-publishing it, which shouldn't take too long. By the way, my last post was #50! :D I can't wait to start plotting out Ice Quest - it's going to be epic.

~ Sophia-Rose

Editing, Complete with Raisins

Raisins are the best snack ever besides chocolate. I could eat them all day. Once, I was so hungry at lunch that I ate almost half the container before realizing how much I'd eaten. In fact, they are superior to chocolate in just about every way besides general tastiness:

• Raisins keep for a long time
• Raisins won't make you sick if you have a few too many
• Raisins don't make you thirsty
• Raisins are better baked into various things, like banana bread. You wouldn't want chocolate in banana bread, would you? I didn't think so.
• Raisins are much healthier than chocolate, as the box advertises

You probably want me to get to the point. This post, as you may be guessing, serves more purpose than an advertisement for raisins.

Well, at first glance, editing and raisins are worlds apart. Editing is drudgery; raisins are a snack of solid happiness. Therefore, editing + raisins = productive happiness! So, I'm four days away from my birthday and six chapters away from the end of Legends of Light. I really need to get a move on. What better way than to have a day (today!) of solid editing, with raisins after every chapter? Lots of raisins. Enough to power my story.

I will begin my editing marathon at 10:30. Every time I finish a chapter, I will have raisins. Lots of raisins. Oh, and I'll post updates, too.

Wish me luck, and keep checking this post! (Oh, and did I mention that raisins are the best healthy snack EVER?)

Update 1, 12:01 PM: Chapter 10 is finally done. It was a hard one, since I decided to replace the skeletal dragons with something entirely different and much more interesting. The next few chapters are mostly action, so those should go by fairly quickly. Wordcount so far is 65,754. Hooray! Raisin time! :D

Update 2, 2:05 PM: I finished Chapter 11. Even though it was somewhat long, it needed surprisingly few edits since it was mostly action. I had to stop in the middle of this period for lunch, so in total, this chapter took me about 1.5 hours. Wordcount so far is 66,568. More raisins now.

Update 3, 3:07 PM: Chapter 12 is all done! It was on the shorter side and didn't need too many edits, so this was a really quick one. I'm happy about this. Maybe I can finish the book today. Wordcount is now 67,335. I'm now going to enjoy more raisins. (That was the best idea ever.)

~ Sophia-Rose

I hate orthodontists.

Yesterday I got my braces off. I'd been looking forward to this for a month, and I was happy happy happy the whole appointment, even though it felt like they were trying to grind my teeth apart. Ouch! After that, they took X-rays, stretched my lips unreasonably far apart for pictures, and then took some more disgusting goopy impressions, even though I'd just had them last week. Dramatized conversation afterward below:

Orthodontist: Okay, that's all done!

Me: So, can I...go now?

Orthodontist: No! You still have to get your retainer.

Me: Oh...

Orthodontist: Here it is! *pulls out weirdly shaped blue rubber attached to wire and weirder rubber strip* Let's try them on: one for the top teeth, one for the bottom! And they're blue, just like you wanted!

Me: I see.

Orthodontist: *slides the top one in* Fits like a glove! Aren't those impressions wonderful?

Me: Rmph. *face is messy with impression goo*

Orthodontist: Now for the bottom! *attempts to push onto teeth* Hmm, looks like this one is a bit tight. Come back in two more days for more impressions and we can fix it! *passes me mirror* Here, you can look at your teeth if you want.

Me: *silently stares at perfect teeth*

Orthodontist: Now, why don't you try talking? Repeat after me: Seven sailors sailed to sea.

Me: Shefed...AUGH!! Why cad I dak?!

Orthodontist: See? I'm afraid you won't be able to talk very well...but that's okay. Now here's the list of all the things you need to do to take care of your retainer. Don't get saliva on it, brush it four times a day, only touch it in certain places, and oh, if it breaks, you'd better call us up right away because if you leave your retainer off for more than a week your teeth will move and you'll have to get braces for another three years. Now let's go see your mom and show her your awesome retainer!

Both of us go out to the waiting room where my mom is waiting.

Mom: Wow, look at your perfect teeth! How does your retainer feel?

Me: *starts to tear up, to Mom's surprise* I cad dak vehy weh...

Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, I hate my retainer. And at the beginning of my braces, they showed me sparkly retainers as a reward for being good with my braces. REWARD?! I was a bit too old to be bribed by sparkles, thank you very much!

Crazy conspiracy theories: Orthodontists are torturers in disguise sent out to cause massive pain under the guise of being an amazing help to our teeth. Teeth are for eating, not being lined up in perfect sparkly little rows.

(By the way: Let's see if I can finish LoL by my birthday, the 19th. If I do, I have a surprise in store...)

~ Sophia-Rose