Naylene Rondon's Blog: More Than Scribbles, page 8

More old stories

I found another 3-year-old story, I named the file Defective. It’s weird to see how much my writing has changed. Sort of embarrassing.  Sorry for any errors you find. I’ve had not seen this since 2012.

Defective

It’s been four months now. I had to fake my pain. Every once in the while, I forced myself to cry. I needed to make it look like I loved him. I was supposed to love him, but how can I. The month before his death, he was assigned to be my husband. I was assigned to be his wife. We had two months to get to know each other. To fall in love.

On the day a girl turns fifteen, she is to get married. So two months before then, she is assigned a husband. A man to protect her. It was the rules. The city’s job is to find my soulmate. Find the person who has the right amount of differences and similarities from me. My mother says they always pick the perfect match. That you are guaranteed to fall in love with that person.

I always felt something was wrong with me. Though I didn’t have any proof to back it up. That was until I was assigned. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t love him. He felt too perfect for me. He had similarities and he had things I’ll never have, like patience. But, I couldn’t love him. That’s why I have to fake it. To look sane or maybe insane, I don’t know. Also, I had to stop those rumors. Four months ago, after he died. Everyone thought I killed him to get out of marriage. They said it happened before and it could happen again.

Several years ago, a girl killed her husband because she wasn’t “ready for marriage”.  She was terminated from the city. If I don’t fake it, I can end up like her. They said in five months, after I had a year to grieve, they will find me a new husband. I don’t want one and I bet no man wants me after I “murdered” the first.

“Salia! School begins in twenty-three minutes. You must get going.” My mother alerted me. I slowly dragged myself upwards and began heading for the front door. My father has already left for work and my mother begins working in the next hour. So neither really cares where I come or go. I stood there for a moment and watched my mother roam around looking for the card. That reminded me that I didn’t have mine. I quickly rushed to my room searching for it.

Everyone in this city has a card. You receive one the moment you’re born. It has everything about you in it. It holds things from your grades to your crime. It’s the key for our lives. It how you get into school, work, home, and how you purchased anything. The card holds everything.

I slid it into the door of my homeroom class. The small screen on the door lit up. It said:

SALIA VARA

AGE: 15

HUSBAND: DECEASED

GRADE(S): EARTH SCIENCE-85.97% ENGLISH-91.34% ALGEBRA-89.75% HISTORY-87.45% HEALTH-93.45% TECHNOLOGY-79.59% PHYSICAL-89.95%

The door then beeped and I heard the lock open. I turned the handle slowly. My teacher was staring at the door. He knew I was coming, everyone did. When someone enters the room the board lites up with the person’s name. Forcing everyone to know you.

The room looked different than usual. There was about twelve bouquets of white and pink roses. On the board my name diminished and the words “Congrats Melva” replaced it. I completely forgot yesterday Melva turned fifteen and officially got married. The twelve bouquet of roses was the gift of the homeroom class.

All fourteen-year-olds surrounded her. I can hear them asking her thousand of questions about marriage. “ What’s it like?”, “ Is he nice?”, and my personal favorite “ Is he your soulmate?” What disgusted me was her answer. “He really is. I could never imagine anyone more perfect for me. The board really know what they’re doing!” Her joy and delight sickened me. Why couldn’t I be more like that? Who knows, but then again, I really don’t care.

I sat in the only empty seat which was right behind Melva. In an instance, all the girls trampling her went quiet. “Sorry about your husband.” One blonde said.

“Don’t be. These things happen sometimes.” I said with a wry smile.

“You’ll be assigned someone new soon. Then things will get better.” Melva suddenly said. I nodded my slowly, looking as depressed as possible. Five months. Then all this would end. Five months.

Looking at my old stuff

This next week, I might be just posting some old stuff that I’m finding in my files. Found a portfolio I made about 3 years ago. It’s so weird because it feels almost like ages since I wrote it. Here are the three poems I had inside.

Food is the Miracle

Sitting in the pouring rain

Their stomach crying,

Begging for a meal

Every moment waiting

Never really knowing

How long they’ll see sunlight

Trying to keep the young alive

Fighting everyday for life

Food is all they’re asking for

Food is the miracle they’re looking for

I didn’t break it

Maybe our cat

or maybe our dog

Maybe it was brother

Or a little frog

All I know

I didn’t break it

So don’t put the blame on me

I know I’m the only one who was home

But, listen, I’m innocent

I really didn’t break it

Phoenix

The bird with the blazing wings

That flies high above the city

The bird who yells so loud

You can hear it a thousand miles away

It torches all the trees it touches

It’s fire writes in the sky

The phoenix is calling me

It wants me to join it above

Author Interviews

I have set up a page for those who are interested in doing author interviews. One example page is Shaloa. I’ll be posting them as they arrived. Click the page Author Interviews if you’re interested.

Want an Excerpt of Native Foreigners?

I’m on Bublish. You can read small excerpts of Native Foreigners with backstage passes. I provide extra commentary on certain scenes such as bullet removal or seizures. My profile is here: http://bit.ly/1J1GhZg. Check it weekly for more bonus content!

Busy Week & News

Sorry for the lack of an update. Last week and this week have been hectic and is presumed to remain that way for several more weeks. Vacations, planning a party, school, testing, and certification. I can’t keep up anymore.

Also, (here’s the big news) I’m working on three more stories.

The first one is called Against the Changing. It’s actually a two-part series about aliens. Another book for sci-fi lovers. I’ll unveil more when the first part is closer to completion.

The third story is a project I’m currently working on. It’s going to be different compared to my other stories. Again, more information as it comes along.

Again, my book Native Foreigners is out.

Not sure about my writing, preview some poetry and short stories here on my blog.

You can read my earlier writing for free at Booksie and Wattpad.

Anyways, like I said, the whole month of June is going to be a crazy ride for me. So posts will be less frequent. However, in July I’m going to be posting almost every other day. Watch out for that.

Native Foreigners available on Kindle and Nook

Written by Naylene Rondon
April 2015

Native Foreigners

‘If Earth didn’t want you, why would Cynthia?’

Jane would do anything to find a cure for Dill. She goes on a journey with the help of the taxi driver named Zeb. After the long travel, she realizes things are much more complicated. Even planet Cynthia has its secrets.

Jane will have to fight for the future while Zeb has to fight back the past.

    Available online at

Amazon – Barnes and Noble – BooksAMillion – Createspace

The Unknown is more important than the Known

“Hey girls, should I be calling the cops?” Zeb asked.

Above is a quote from Native Foreigners. It’s an intriguing sentence. Now, why is that? Well, you get a sense of danger due to the mentioning of police. However, you don’t know why he should be calling the police?

This leads to curiosity and curiosity lead to interest. We know lots of things. Since youth, knowledge was one of our greatest concerns. So, when we don’t understand something, we strive to find an answer.

This applies to reading and writing too. The less you know, the more likely you’re going to continue. You want the answers, so you’ll read a thousand pages to get it. That means, you just can’t have a curious one sentence, but chapters that lead to more problems than solutions. If you read Native Foreigners.You’ll know that the characters themselves aren’t too sure what happened in that first chapter.

Don’t go through the whole book like that either. Readers want the answers, but don’t do an info dump. Reveal things slowly. As you reveal, let it lead to more questions that will also be answered later in the book.

Remember, the unknown is what keeps people reading because they want answers.

Dangerous Existence by Naylene

Dangerous Existence by Naylene.

Eaten Alive

A/N: A poem about literally being eaten alive. Inspired by Attack On Titan or Shingeki No Kyojin.

Eaten Alive

At first, there is darkness

A deep fear burning your body

A heat seizing your skin

A stickiness of filth and uncertainty

Everything you touch is wet

The walls around you move

There’s a soft rumble deeper down

Soon things begin to tilt

Under you a large muscle moves

You lose your balance and stability

Gravity is your enemy here

You then fall into a larger darkness

You plummet in a warm liquid

It’s thin, but not like water

It smells like vomit and splashes against you

It’s too warm as you feel it burn your skin

It’s eating you

The liquid is eating you

You’re not sure what to do anymore

You try to get out of it, but it is everywhere

The liquid rises and sloshes

Soon, you can’t hold your head above anymore

You can’t feel anything as you go under

Soon, you can’t think

It burned everything away

Your body is crushed, twisted, and broken

There is no saving you

You have been eaten

Author Interviews – Shaloa

Hey guys, I did an interview with Shaloa Robinson. She’s a new YA author out with a new book called ‘Perfect Harmony.’ It’s currently free on Smashwords. I asked her if she was willing to do an interview and she said yes. Here it is:

1. What are your favorite authors?

Sistah Souljah (The Coldest Winter Ever) Walter Mosley (Devil In A Blue Dress) Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me) Veronica Rossi (Under the Never Sky) Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy)

2. What are your favorite genres to write?

Anything Young Adult/ New Adult. Dystopian, angst, family drama, romance.

3. What are your favorite aspects of writing?

I do love dialogue and first chapters. I try to capture the characters personality with the dialogue.

4. What time do you usually do most of your writing?

Between the hours of 10am and 4pm. When my kids are at school.

5. Do you have any writing habits? If so what are they?

I just try not to have too many distractions, like food and drinks or interesting books withing arms reach. It is a pretty strict rule to not read a new book while writing. I’ll lose focus and start to imitate the characters in the book I’m reading.

6. Do you usually type or write your first draft?

Type. I might write a first chapter, or quick lines here and there if I’m away from my computer. But even then, I try to type it into an app on my phone. I love hand writing, I just hate retyping it. I like to keep moving forward. And I can type a lot faster than I write when I’m “In the zone” so to speak.

7. How long does it take you to write a first draft?

This book took a few months, I’d say 3. However another one took up to 6 months.

8. Are you a self publisher? If yes what made you decide to self-publish? If no how was the process of finding a publisher?

I’d heavily considered finding a publisher for this book. But I wanted to learn more about self publishing. The ins and outs, how it works. And before I knew it I had a published book. I also like being able to control how much it cost and other things I’ve noticed authors talking about.

9. What’s your most recent book?

“Perfect Harmony” is the title.

10. On your recent book, what inspired you to write it?

Encouragement from friends and family got me to get serious about writing a book. I have hundreds of ideas in my head. This one came out the easiest. I was surprised when I looked at the words and it said over 20,000 and I still wanted to tell this story.

So, guys check out Shaloa’s new book Perfect Harmony. I just started reading it myself and will be posting a review as soon as I’m done.