Friday Snippet #41

May 10, 2013May 10, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, a small excerpt from a science fiction nobel, a snippet from a novel every friday, drawing of seattle melting in the sun, drawing of the space needle in the sun, free short on smashwords, sea of sun3 Comments

I survived my lecture and came back to say everything went well. If the video turned out fine, it will be posted on YouTube, otherwise you’ll have to take my word for it. In that case, I’ll declare I was fabulous.

Meanwhile, in the green land of the never ending rain there was sun. Like a lot. I got freckles all over my face since I was out for long walks every day.

In other news, I decided to put Smashwords to work and made Linda of the Night free there. If somebody will report the lower price to Amazon, eventually the short will become a perma-free. I’d rather have readers taking a chance and sample my work than having the short sitting there, collecting dust.

This Friday’s snippet is brought you by my antihistaminic. At the moment, there’s more pollen than breathable air outside my room.

From Green Grass and High Tide, a science fiction novel I wrote two or three years ago and that might see an editor in the near future:

A soft orchestra of machines sounds, hissing, chirping, and the unmistakable regular thumping of a frail heartbeat, welcomed them inside Mother’s sleeping chamber.

“Come closer my dears.” A feeble voice came from the center of the room.

“Rya, my love—” Tyo’s voice broke.

Jules looked at his father and she saw etched in his face that he missed his companion more than he wanted to show.

“Mother, how do you feel?” Lucia walked past Jules and bent on the big bed that was the point of origin of every sound in the room.

Jules stood at the door petrified, barely breathing.

“I’m happy to sense you. I think I was sleeping before you entered. Tyo, how long has been since last time you talked to me? I have troubles understanding time…” Rya painfully dragged the words one after the other.

“You had an accident several years ago, and we’re keeping you in cryonic sleep until we find a way to reconnect your mind to your body,” he answered.

Jules thought that Father could have sweetened the pill, but Tyo would have never denied his beloved Rya anything, not even a harsh truth.

“Why did you wake me now?”

“Happy second century, my dear Rya. We’ve gathered to celebrate your birthday, love.” Tyo’s eyes were clouded with unwanted moisture.

Friday Snippet #40

April 19, 2013April 19, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, a day without coffee, a snippet from a work in progress once a week, koi drawing, small excerpt from a ya pararnormal5 Comments

I won’t comment on the weather. It’s raining now, but I can’t remember about the rest of the week. Other than editing, and waiting for some more editing coming my way, I spent the last seven days working on the lecture. I’ve been recording myself and I have mixed feelings about my performance. I tend to eat words a lot and I haven’t been able to recite the whole speech without humming and hemming between one slide and the next. Yesterday, I stopped making any sense after the seventh try. Also, after a spell of insomnia, I decided to avoid coffee for a week and see what happens. First day of the experiment. So far, I’ve tried to put clean dishes in the fridge, ate ~~three~~ five times what I would have any other day, and I have a huge headache. Also, I took a break from writing this post to go downstairs and eat some more…

From All the Rainbow’s Colors,

My day ends as it started, with my nose against the cold window’s panel. The apartments in the building complex in front of mine are all illuminated. The lady in pink hasn’t come home yet, but there is a man I’ve never seen in her living room. He’s arranging long stemmed red roses in a tall vase. The man is so pink he’s almost red like the roses. Who knows what it feels to be that shade of pink? I have no clues.

In the next apartment, a family of five, mother, dad, and three small kids, is preparing for the usual reading time ritual before bed. Every night, the father tucks the kids in their tiny beds, and read a tale from the same old, battered book. He must know every word of that book by heart. He smiles, always. The man is lucky, because he’s not cursed like me. He doesn’t see that his youngest child has the same green shade of his mom, but his orange comes from a family friend, who visits the house a lot. And so the dad is happy.

I am forced to know. Since it started, two years ago, people’s feelings are no secret to me. And what it makes this whole situation even worse is that I can’t do without colors. Literally. I hate them, and I can’t survive without them.

Friday Snippet #39

April 12, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, a small excerpt from a novel once a week, a small excerpt from a YA paranormal novel, cover artist, editing, proofreading, walking4 Comments

Almost at the end of our annual staycation. It has been a great week. I sent Gaia (working title) to Redadept Publishing and it should come back with notes and changes in fourteen days. The editing of Prince f War is almost done. Amy and I are working on the final touches before sending the document to the proofreader. My cover artist, Alessandro Fiorini, is playing around with Prince’s cover and I’ve just to decide which color and texture I like best. My talented and very patient husband helped me with a presentation about indie publishing. I was asked to give a lecture on the subject on May 9th, at the Bellevue Art Museum. He made my text pretty by adding animation, graphics, and other neat stuff I didn’t even know existed. Now, I must memorize the speech and time myself. Despite capricious weather, this week, I walked a staggering twenty miles around my green neighborhood. According to endomondo, the app I’m using to track my walking habits, I burned almost 2k calories and I was outside for a total of nine hours. Too bad today is pouring down like there’s no tomorrow.

From the YA paranormal, All the Rainbow’s Colors:

“Milla? What are you doing, there, all alone?” Giorgia is calling me from the stairs outside our classroom.

Since the Scholastic Authorities have decided that opening a transit directly inside a classroom creates distraction, duh, every school in the City has adopted the external staircases. Architecture gone wrong, if you ask me.

“I like eating alone,” I answer, while climbing the steps two at a time.

The rest of the day drags to the point I contemplate to slip into a coma. If I only knew how. Instead of taking the transit with Rachel, I go home walking. It’s colder, and it’s silver-raining harder than before, but I don’t mind. When I get home, I’m silver, from head to toe.

In the kitchen, I prepare a snack I will never eat. I’ve become quite the accomplished actress. Nobody has discovered me, yet. In two years I haven’t lost weight, and my pale complexion is all the rage.

I put the sandwich I made on the nightstand, and I go take a shower in my bathroom. After, I look at myself in the mirror, and I’m satisfied by my green. It’s a shade too dark, but it will do, for now. I should’ve looked for a bigger animal, the effects would’ve lasted longer, but I don’t want to complain.

*In case you’d like to take a look at my didlr gallery.

Friday Snippet #38

April 5, 2013April 5, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, a small excerpt from a YA paranormal novel, a snippet from a novel every friday, finished writing, indie writers stories, painting of Mount Ranier, the indie life2 Comments

Late in the day, but here I am. Rainy and cold Friday. Today, I couldn’t go out for my usual walk for a very good reason. After four years in the making, I finally finished writing my New Adult novel. Not sure if it is soft scifi or paranormal, there’s an alien but neither science nor vampires involved in the story. Also, I haven’t decided on the title yet. It has been Her Book for a while, but it will probably become Gaia or The Book of Gaia. In other and equally exciting news, my editor sent me the final six chapters of Prince of War. I’m mentally exhausted, my eyes see snow flakes when I look at the screen, but I’m happy. Looking forward to the weekend.

From All the Rainbow’s Colors:

A squirrel jumps from brunch to brunch on the tree in front of my bench. Even the squirrel is pink. Can you believe it? This color is starting to annoy me, big time. I give a brief glance right, then left. Nobody is around. I outstretch my hand toward the tree, and I point my fingers at the squirrel. I shake. I’ve waited too long. I do my best to steady my fingers.

The squirrel stops on the highest branch, he looks dizzy. I finally manage to aim at the small pink cloud, and ever so slowly the color dims, until it becomes a pale shadow of the tint it was. I feel immediately better, the incoming headache retreats, the blue is now a beautiful dark green. The squirrel seems to wake up from a nap, and runs away.

I feel bad. Every single time. After. I can’t not eat. I tried. I won’t ever be black again. Never again. It happened only once, at the beginning, when I didn’t know, yet, how to stop the hunger’s pain. Since then I’m careful. I never let myself go beyond the darkest blue. There are times when I can’t stop. Once, only once, I didn’t stop before the color disappeared.

Friday Snippet #37

March 29, 2013March 29, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, a snippet from a novel every friday, koi drawing, small excerpt from a paranormal YA6 Comments

And here I am. Again. Sunny! All in all, another great week. Last Sunday, I posted my first video on YouTube. It was only possible thanks to my hubbie who patiently shot the video and then cut it and made it pretty. I’ll let you know that I look fat, but my accent is exactly right, and it was a surprise for a friend. In other news, I’m still exercising or walking every day, and I feel full of energy. Meanwhile, sales of my books have slowed down as expected, but I reached 51 paid downloads and that’s another new record. Plus, I’ve added a few drawings to my didlr page.

From All the Rainbow’s Colors:

By lunch time, I’m starving. I hide in the backyard, hoping nobody is going to find me, but there’s a couple sitting on my bench. From a distance, I can only see a pink cloud happily floating, but as I walk closer, some purple appears. Normally, I would leave them alone, but today I don’t feel magnanimous.

“Hi, Rachel. Hi, Matthew.” I sit on the bench, forcing them to scoop over.

“The backyard is big,” my sister points out.

“Hi, there, Ludmilla,” says Matthew, smiling his fake smile.

Everyone knows I hate being called by my name. Everybody. It’s moment like this, when I feel the urge of telling Rachel that Matthew doesn’t care for her. But, I would only be mean to her, and she wouldn’t believe me, anyway. Nobody would believe me.

“I normally seat here,” I answer my sister.

“Yes, but there is a bench over there.” Rachel is trying to be nice about it.

“I prefer this one, but thank you.” Maybe, just maybe, if Matthew hadn’t called me Ludmilla, I would’ve left.

“You are too… odd,” Rachel says, but she gets up and leaves, with boyfriend in tow.

“Thanks,” I answer to what she said, not to the fact that they are leaving.

It is true. I am odd. At the beginning, when everything started two years ago, I got scared. I was fourteen, and the colors used to give me horrible headaches. The army of doctors my parents contacted told me I don’t suffer from migraines. I’m not that sure, since I’m the one feeling the pain, not them. After countless hours of useless tests, the last specialist, a big-name professor who flew from another district, took a look at my brain, and said, “I have never seen anything like this.” And nothing else, just like that. No explanation whatsoever of why I see the colors.

Friday Snippet #36

March 22, 2013March 22, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, a snippet every friday, all the rainbow's colors, indie life, prince of war, small accomplishments, small excerpt from a YA paranormal, the priest promo, tweep nation podcast guest speaker, what makes an indie author happy4 Comments

Another week, another snippet. It snowed during last night and part of this morning. Lunchtime now and this is the view from my desk. Considering going for a walk with Nero, but it’s quite chilly outside. Great news regarding Prince of War: Amy and I are working on its last chapters. I’m going through her corrections and positive we should reach the end soon. My rewriting of Her Book is almost done as well. I changed a few things at the very end because I’m tired of YA or NA (the new flavor of Young Adult, New Adult) following certain rules. Rant aside, the story makes more sense now.

I was a guest on Tweep Nation Podcast last Sunday and had lots of fun. Thanks to the promo for The Priest, and everybody who helped me on facebook and twitter, I sold forty-six copies of my titles. Forty-two of The Priest. Two of Pax in the Land of Women. Two of Linda of the Night. Again, it’s a big accomplishment for me.

For this week snippet, I’ve decided to post what follows directly after the last one. From the YA paranormal All the Rainbow’s Colors:

“Why don’t you wear something… sunnier?” Mom asks from the kitchen.

I make a pirouette while walking down the hallway, and I let my black multi-layered skirt fly all around me, along with the matching black, beaded scarf.

“And, what about that heavy dark makeup on your eyes?”

“Mom, it’s how I feel today,” I explain, already outside the door.

Rachel is laughing; I don’t care. She wouldn’t understand, anyway. She has been neon-pink for more than a month.

“Are you going out with Matthew, later?” I ask to make conversation before we transit.

I hate the transit. You are yellow when you open the door, and then you come out blue. Like this, in a second. Your molecules are broken down, and rebuilt back together, and you are a different person at the end of the transit. Dad says that it isn’t true, that I imagine things. They, Mom, Dad, Rachel, don’t see the colors trapped inside the black void of the transit.

“It’s our turn,” Rachel says,and points at the couple in line before us disappearing behind the door.

Friday Snippet #34

March 1, 2013March 1, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, a snippet every friday, artrage painting, cactus drawing, excerpt from a new adult novel, mediterranean landscape, new adult story set in Rome Sicily Seattle, sicilian inspired drawing1 Comment

In the middle of an awesome blog giveaway, while writing guest posts, and studying how to market my books, my father called and asked me why I didn’t post a snippet last Friday. I forgot. So, in his honor, here is a piece from a novel set between Rome, Seattle, and Pantelleria. I’ve been rewriting this manuscript for the last four years, and hopefully soon I’ll decide it’s finally ready to be sent to my editor.

From Her Book:

One day, after lunch, I noticed that Giulia had left pencils and papers by the stone bench facing the sunflowers’ row.

“Do you still paint?” I asked. We were drinking espresso under the pergola.

“I come here mostly to paint. I’ll show you my latest drawings.” Giulia went inside only to reappear a moment later with a thick stack of papers. “Here, take a look.”

I leafed through the drawings, mostly black and white representation of the view from the house, a few of them architectonic details of the dammuso itself. A column, the archway, terracotta vases. “They’re beautiful.”

“Pantelleria is beautiful.”

“Do you still paint?” she repeated the question for me.

“Not like I used to.” My eyes went to the capers flowers cascading from the trellis, their alien shapes begging to be sketched.

“Let’s do it.” As if reading my mind, Giulia passed me colored pencils and paper.

We spent the rest of the day walking around, looking for objects to immortalize. The night came and I had filled several sketch pads with prickly pears cacti and bright yellow broom fields.

The morning after, Giulia found me in the kitchen, still drawing. The first light of dawn had woken me up and I had gone downstairs for a cup of espresso. The sea framed by the wooden window was picture perfect. “I had to draw this.” I smiled at her.

“What do you think about touring the island on my Vespa? There’s plenty of interesting spots.” Giulia went to the moka to fill her cup.

“At one condition.”

“Which is?” She turned to look at me.

“Only if you let me drive.”

“All yours.” Giulia tilted her head toward the dusty-pink Vespa anchored to the wall just outside the kitchen door.

I removed the chain and the rusty lock and straddled the seat. “Are you coming?”

Giulia got a bite out of a succulent persimmon, wiped her mouth on a napkin, and followed me outside. “Let’s get off of the beaten path.” She sat behind me and we left. “I’ll show you a place where tourists never venture.”

“Cool.” I followed her direction and drove the Vespa unhurriedly, toward a winding road that looked more suited for goats than wheels. “Are you sure?”

“Park here and we’ll go down by foot,” Giulia instructed me.

I stopped the Vespa under a tree and I secured it to its trunk.

“Be careful where you walk, the gravel on the road is treacherous.”

She hadn’t finished saying it that my flat-soled espadrilles slid on the gravel and I fell on my butt. Giulia looked at me and started laughing. “Care to help me?” I couldn’t help to laugh all along. It felt good.

Friday Snippet #33

February 15, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, discarded nanowrimo project gets new life, small excerpt from a YA fantasy story, the behind the story of a short story6 Comments

Today, the sun is shining and I went for a 2 hours walk with Nero. More of a slow procession than a real stroll, but he was in the mood for sniffing at the same leaf for more than it was appropriate and I had my kindle with me. All in all, it was a success. As I feel it was the rest of this eventful week.

For this Friday’s snippet, I have decided to post a small excerpt from the original version of Linda of the Night. As I said in a previous post, Linda’s tale was written as a bedtime story a father narrated to his daughter in my fantasy, Magical Glasses. Erratic at best, Magical Glasses was my first Nanowrimo project. I finished it at 56k words and never looked back at it. Until I remembered the story of the ugly girl who lived isolated from the rest of the world because of her hideousness. This is how Linda’s tale was introduced:

“Today, I was walking through a dusty street crowded with stalls selling all sorts of things, when I saw an old, older than old, ancient lady with a face full of wrinkles, so many of them that it looked like she had a spider web on her face. She looked at me and asked if I wanted to hear a story.” Dad paused to let Luce make her usual comments.

“And you said yes.” Luce laughed.

“And I said no!” Dad laughed too and then waited for her reply.

“Why?” Luce seized one rosette without noticing. Mom caressed her hand to relax her fingers.

“Because you should never say yes the first time a bruja offers you something. They always, always, want something back from you.”

“So, what did you do?”

“I asked her directly what she wanted for the story, and then I said yes.” Dad loved the dramatic pauses and sometimes Mom complained out loud he overused them, but Luce could never have enough.

“What did she ask that you said yes?” Luce mangled another rosette. This time Mom let her be.

“The ancient bruja asked me to tell her a story in exchange for her tale.”

“What story?”

“I told her the story of when I saw you for the first time. I described the joy I felt when you held my finger with your little hand. I told her that I’d travel to the end of the world for you.”

“What did she say?”

“She said that a love so big deserved a gift.”

“What gift?”

“She told me the most beautiful story…”

Friday Snippet #32

February 8, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, small excerpt from a YA dystopian novel, view from my desk, writing a story once a week, writing for fun5 Comments

Not even 9:00 in the morning and I’m already done with my weekly appointment with X. I redeemed Boarderlands’ codes for my husband—someone has to do it. Called the vet because Nero can only drink warm water, otherwise he throws up. I even went around the house and did some chores. It feels rather satisfying.

More or less, the view from my desk this morning:

From X:

Without moving a single muscle, she looked up. A kid was looking down at her. Big, blank eyes staring at hers. The boy didn’t express any emotion in seeing her. His face was a mask sharing nothing with the rest of the world. The absence of any recognizable reaction scared Allegra more than anything else. The moment stretched until it was impossible for her to maintain the lock on his gaze. She blinked. And then she recognized the kid. They had met yesterday. Or the day before. Or one hundred years ago. It was difficult to think. He was the boy at her house.

A subtle pressure on her side told her Julius had reached the same conclusion, probably several heartbeats ago. The boy kept staring at her, through her, as if she were nothing more than air. Finally, when she thought she couldn’t hold the scream inflating her lungs anymore, the obsidian eyes revealed consciousness. It was brief. No more than a breath, if she were breathing. A glimpse of recognition flickered behind eyes that were hazel and warm. Hope colored her hazy thoughts. Then, the blank stare was back. A blink later, the boy was gone.

Friday Snippet #31

February 1, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, small excerpt from a YA dystopian novel, writing for fun, writing once a week4 Comments

The sun is shining upon this small stretch of Northwest. I’ve been dieting and exercising the whole week and I didn’t have a single headache. I haven’t checked my weight on the scale—according to the app I’m using, I’ll be three pound less in two years anyway—but I do feel lighter. Since the day promises to get better, after lunch, I’ll go out for a walk with Nero.

From X:

Allegra was already out of breath and looked at the steep climb with dread.

“To the right!” Julius pulled her out of the path and they fell on the ground and were swallowed by the tall grass. “Stay low.”

Heart pummeling against her ribcage, she kept her eyes on the brown dirt. “What is it?” Then she cleared her nose and the scent of the looters reached her nostrils. They were coming from the Royal Palace, but still on top of the hill. She was scared, but didn’t want her aura to show it. She forced her lungs to work and breathed in and out a few times before saying, “Did I tell you lately how thankful I am I got paired with an unseer?”

He squeezed her hand. “Of course you are.” If he had said out loud, “Good try,” it wouldn’t have been clearer.

The looters were descending, running toward them, but apart from the noise their shoes stomping on the ground made, no words were spoken. It was unsettling.

Julius pulled her closer to him. “They won’t find us.”

She smiled against his shirt at his attempt of calming her. A small pebble pocked her right tight and she focused on the discomfort rapidly morphing into pain. The ache grounded her in the moment and didn’t let her think of what would happen if the looters saw them.

“The grass is tall enough to cover us,” he whispered in her ear.

The sound of approaching steps made her heart skip several beats.