Shay Lynam's Blog

Thursday Ramblings.

So I missed random thought Wednesday. I noticed what day it was yesterday, realized I hadn't even had a random thought throughout the week, at least not one worth writing down, so I just kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off until Wednesday was over and I missed it. Sorry.

On that note, I've been working a lot on the third book in The Tree House Trilogy. It's been slow goings but I feel like I'm really starting to hit my stride finally. I just hope it isn't a flop :\ That would be depressing. I guess we won't find out until it's published...but I have to write it first.

I have so many ideas for books in this manic brain of mine, I have a note on my phone that's seriously crazy endless scrolling that's just chalk (chock?) full of ideas for new stories. But I have this focusing problem where I can really only focus on one story at a time. Otherwise my characters get all mixed up. I love to read but I noticed recently that it isn't really a good idea to read a book while I'm also trying to write a book. More so if they are in COMPLETELY different genres. Like I was reading An Abundance of Katherines, which is a great book but not nearly as great as Looking for Alaska which was marginally better than Paper Towns, which I had read right before it and I'm super stoked to see the movie, which they're still in the process of filming -- I follow John Green on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook...and Tumblr (fishingboatproceeds? I'm as confused as you are, though maybe not for the same reasons), and while reading An Abundance of Katherines, I've also been trying to write TTH3 which is a very depressing book and I found that my FMC was getting way too John Green-like. So I had to stop until I finished reading the book. Now I'm on a reading hiatus until I finish with the first draft of TTH3. Otherwise it's going to be a jumbly mess of all these different writing styles and mine is going to get lost in the process and that's just no good.

Still with me?

So I've been watching American Horror Story lately and I really like it. I just finished season 1 and really liked Evan Peters' character, Tate. I like the name Tate. It's a good name. Anyway, the season, while about ghosts, gave me a really cool idea for a book about time traveling. My only problem is, I have no knowledge of the science behind time travel and I feel like if I write this book, I'm going to get a lot of flack about how inaccurately I portray said time travel. I know time travel isn't really a thing but I feel like there's still some sort of scientific...stuff about it. I don't know. I guess we'll see what happens when I finally get to it. Because not only can I not read while I'm writing a book but I also can't work on any other book until I get done with the one I'm currently working on. So this one is going on the back burner. Actually I already have one on the back burner so I guess you could say the time traveler one is going across the street to the neighbor's house where it will sit on their back burner (because the front burner is taken up by YET another idea) until I get the other ones that I want to do done.

Alright well, I think that's all the rambling I can come up with tonight so...if you're still reading....goodnight.

<3
Shay

I'm Awful At This

The title is pretty self-explanatory. I was on a roll right at first crankin' out blog posts left and right. But hear I am, almost a week after Thanksgiving and I've only written one! How lame sauce am I? Speaking of lame sauce, my mom tried to use it in a normal sentence the other day while she was talking to a lady from church and said lady was very confused. It was funny :) Love you, mama!

So since it's Wednesday, I thought I'd put a random thought. I kind of want to make that a thing. Can it be a thing? It's a thing.

RANDOM THOUGHT:


One of these days I want to go to a restaurant and stay there for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So that was it. Nothing too exciting but I was thinking about that the other day when my husband and I were trying to figure out somewhere to eat. I thought about mentioning Applebee's but then I remembered we ate there the day before. I kind of dwelled on that for a while. If I were to just order something different, why does it matter if I already ate there? Then I thought, if I were to eat breakfast somewhere that also serves lunch and dinner food, why not just stay and eat the other two meals? Again, I wouldn't be eating the same thing. Can a person really get tired of a restaurant if they don't eat the same thing? These are the deep, complex questions I ask myself. You're welcome.
<3Shay

Random Thought

Random Thought:It would be so cool to give a bunch of authors, each with a unique writing style, an outline for like the first chapter of a book, basically with character names and descriptions, a timeline, key plot points and phrases and just see what each person comes up with. So that the story would in the long run be just the same but that each writing style would be different.
I only had one this week so this isn't a very long post. With that being said...
Hi :)
I know I haven't posted in like a week which is probably goofy since I basically bombarded you with a bunch of posts within just a few days of starting my blog but I feel like I do that with a lot of things. I'm very gung-ho with new ideas but then the fire fizzles pretty quickly. I'm going to try and keep that from happening with this, though it may take me some time to really get into my groove so just bare with me. 
Also 
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVE!!!!!
<3Shay

NaNoWriMo 2014

So as I said in a couple posts down, I did NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2012. I somehow, miraculously, through no power of my own, won. This kind of boosted my confidence a bit and I found myself super excited for the following year. Then last year rolled around and my stupid ego got even bigger. I actually had a plan. I was going to write a freaking awesome spin-off novel (nudge nudge *points to the post below this one*) and because I had an idea this year, I was going to succeed with flying colors. I was already planning a little win celebration (and when I say celebration, I mostly mean a five second dance party with myself and cuddles with my puppy dog)

It didn't even matter that my husband (aka my wonderful wonderful) and I were going to be moving that month. I figured I'd have the book done early anyway. I was doing great at first as you can see below:


As you can also see, that momentum didn't last. Let's just say I ate a nice slice of humble pie last year for Thanksgiving. But hey, come on, we were in the middle of moving two and a half hours away from my family and friends and the city I had grown up in. I feel like that's a good enough excuse to lose, right?
While that was a good excuse, it didn't feel very good so I decided I was really going to try hard this year. If you can call figuring out a basic plot line and hoping it's enough, planning, then this year was frikin' ridiculous. I spent Camp NaNoWriMo (a mini version of NaNoWriMo done in April and July with a goal of 25K in the month) constructing an extremely in-depth outline for this year's NaNoWriMo. I basically wrote my novel in summary form. Not only did I do that but, since it takes place in a summer camp, I also drew a map of the camp (not terrible if I do say so myself), wrote out cabin assignments and basically planned out every little thing including the sports and games they played. I was ready. This was going to be freaking awesome! And I was absolutely paranoid that this would be a repeat of last year.
So paranoid, in fact, that I wrote 10K in just the first couple of days. It was already going really well. I actually felt like maybe I could do it this year. Maybe I could actually make it to 50K and make up for my crashing and burning last year. I used my paranoia to fuel my determination and ended up cranking out 50K in the first two weeks of the month! Yes, the halfway point was in fact five days ago and I'm STILL riding my winner's high :)
This was also the first year I attended NaNoWriMo's annual Night of Writing Dangerously. It's this event they put on every year in San Fransisco at this really swank, upscale venue. Basically NaNoers from all over the US (actually all over the world) get all dressed up, come together and spend the evening hanging out and writing. Here's me and Mike classin' it up San Fran style :)

It was pretty awesome and I met a couple apparently very well-known booktubers! In fact, one of them was the first one of the night to hit 50K and ring the winner's bell! That just fueled my determination even more and since I was less than 5K away from winning, I needed to ring that bell!!!
And I did :)
I also got a pretty, sparkly crown, see?

Honestly, I'm just glad it's over and I can take the rest of the month off. I have like a love/hate relationship with NaNoWriMo. I don't know why I put myself through this torture. But I have to say, looking at this...

really makes it worth while :)
<3Shay

A Couple Random Thoughts

Random Thought #1

I like the idea of a lot of things like road trips and hiking and getting lost in big cities...but after doing all three, I've found that I hate long car rides (reading and writing in the car makes me sick), I can't hike more than like two hundred feet without feeling like an asthmatic 90 year old, and after a recent move to Seattle and an even more recent trip to San Fran, I find I'm definitely a small town type if girl. (Now that's what I call a run on sentence!) Yes I think I'll just leave the adventuring and spontaneity to the characters in my books.


Random Thought #2

A lot of authors have a lot of different writing styles. As far as mine goes, I feel like I'm a rambler. The kind that just types out long, expressive sentences, using commas randomly when I see fit even though reading/writing my ramblings is all meant to be read/said in one long breath. Know what I mean? Sometimes if I'm lucky enough, my rambling thoughts will form some cool, deep idea but it doesn't happen very often. It's what I aspire to though.

I love reading John Green. Not necessarily because of his characters or their sob stories, which I'm sure isn't actually why a lot of people read his stuff. No, I think everyone, including myself, loves reading his works because he can go on these tangents that right at first really don't mean anything but they just kind of sweep you up and carry you out and all you can do is let it pull you through these long winded sentences filled with "and"s and "maybe"s and "because"s and I really would like to think he talks like this and maybe he does. But the best part is that as you are being swept through this seemingly shallow idea, all of a sudden it becomes something deeper and you're up to your neck and then suddenly you're pulled under and reading it like it's one long sentence and he goes off on this epiphanic tangent and then when you feel like your brain is about to explode, it's finally over. And you come to the last period in the paragraph, you feel like you need to stop and catch your breath.

Know what I mean? :)

<3
Shay

Never

This is the last one, I promise!! So this one is my newest creation and I love it oh so much :) This is my Peter Pan spin-off/YA romance...fantasy...paranormal...chicklit...adventure...fiction...book, Never.

Look how pretty it is! Look! Look! Look! Are you looking?




I absolutely adore the cover and it's all thanks to Kellie Dennis with Book Cover By Design.
I've always loved fairytale retellings, in fact my absolute favorite book series is the Splintered series by A.G. Howard. It's a modern day, twisted Alice in Wonderland and it's just absolutely frabjous! I do recommend you check her out.
Anyway! So back to Never. Here's what it's about:
Wynn Harper spends her days trying to blend into the background. This isn't very easy, especially being the great granddaughter of the late Wendy Darling. Wynn used to love Great Gran's stories about her adventures in Neverland with Peter Pan and his lost boys, but that's all they were. Just stories, right? That's what Wynn keeps telling herself.

But then she meets Peter, the beautiful boy with a voice to match, and when he whisks her off to Neverland, Wynn knows this is no fairy tale. The lost boys are a group of rebellious ex-pirates, young Hook has a soft side, and Peter Pan isn't as innocent as you might think. 
And you can buy it heeeeeeeeeeere :) I felt like that last word needed to be sung.
So there you have it. My creations all together like a happy little family :)
Until next time, which will prolly be sometime later today but who knows.
<3Shay

A Prequel That Is Actually A Sequel...or is it A Sequel That Is Actually A Prequel?

Are you all still with me? I hope this isn't boring you too much :P Anyway, this is The Tree House's little brother, The Trial.




He can be a little obnoxious sometimes, like most little siblings are. I should know. I am one ;)

Here's the blurb:
Jack Morgan's world comes crashing down around him the day he receives a strange letter from his parents urging him and Ben to disappear. Feeling betrayed and confused, the brothers instead decide to go searching for answers. Neither of them could have ever imagined the truth behind their parents' desperate message and that Ben's mysterious past is coming back to haunt him.

Now, here's the thing. While this is the second book, it is actually a prequel to the first one. But you want to read it second to really understand it. Kind of like you want to watch the last three star wars movies before you watch the first three. Or you can just stop after the last three...you really won't be missing much.

Here's where you can buy The Trial :)

<3
Shay

My First NaNoWriMo Attempt

I don't know if any of you have heard of NaNoWriMo but it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's actually going on right now. Pretty much it's a personal challenge to write 50K words in a month. The first year I learned about it, back in 2012, it was five days before the first of November and I had no idea what I was going to write. In fact, I'm pretty sure even two weeks into the month I had no idea what I was going to write. I'm still surprised I actually won that first year, just barely scraping by at midnight on the 30th. The following year after a much needed rewrite and a rigorous editing process, my completely finished and published second novel was born!

Here she be :) As you can probably tell, the cover isn't nearly as cool as The Tree House's cover but that's because I made this one instead of having Mike do it. I think I learned my lesson :P




This was my one and only attempt at writing mainstream fiction and while I think I did an alright job, it just wasn't as fun as writing about the drama filled lives of teenagers :P I think I'll stick to YA.
Here's a little bit about it:
Tyler works a dead end, 9-5 job by day and drinks himself stupid by night. When the girl he has been talking to online for several months is suddenly on the 6 o' clock news, Tyler finds himself driving across the country in hopes of finding her. In search of the only thing he's ever really cared about, he will learn what it means to fight for something in his life that actually matters instead of letting life pass him by.
You can even buy it here if you'd like :)

<3
Shay

I Made Dis

So in my last post I mentioned I am a writer. So, you must have read it and thought to yourself, well hey, she's a writer, what has she written? At least I hope you were wondering that. Can you pretend just for me? Thanks :)

With that, I'd like to introduce you to my books. Is it narcissistic of me to make a bunch of posts about my books? I hope not cuz I just love them so much and I want to share them all with you :)

On that note, let me introduce you to my oldest. This is The Tree House. Tree House, everybody. Everybody, Tree House. Isn't it so pretty? My wonderful wonderful husband designed the cover :)


Here's a little blurb:Hailey is an average twenty-year-old college student, living an average life. Or so she thought. When a past she never knew existed is brought to light, the reality she thought she knew is shattered and Hailey is left alone to pick up the pieces. Who could know this world holds such evil? Who is this strange, obscure boy that seems to know more than he is saying? 
And what can one girl do when a fight to stay alive becomes a fight to avenge and protect the ones she loves?

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN!
This was a really fun one to write. Mostly because I had no idea where I was going with it, that is until my husband (being wonderful wonderful) helped my basically flesh out the entire plot. We even produced and filmed a totally legit book trailer for it!! 



Starring my awesome sister-in-law, Katie and high school friend, Garrett, as Hailey and Jack. I'd say they did a fantastic job along with the rest of the cast and crew.

It's even available for purchase!! Right here :)

<3
Shay

Insert Title Here.

Is it absolutely ridiculous that I just spent like an hour trying to come up with/find a pre-made (pathetic, right?) title for this post that would be a little bit witty and clever? Honestly, I just put this title as a filler but now I don't really feel like changing it. Ha!

So, I decided, against my better judgement, to start a blog. A lot of authors have blogs. In fact, I'm going to go so far as to say that most authors have blogs. I thought I should probably jump on the bandwagon.

With that, take this as your one and only warning: I don't know what I'm doing.

You've been warned.

I shall now introduce myself. Hello!! I am Shay :) I'm a writer and I use smiley faces like they're punctuation marks. Writing has always been a big passion of mine and I feel like, along with my passion, I also have somewhat of a talent for it. That's always a nice thing to have, I guess. As far as what type of writing I do, I am a novelist dabbling mostly in YA fiction though I have written one book that you could call mainstream fiction, I suppose.

This is me a few hours ago, very cold and sad, outside:












And here I am now, nice and warm and happy, inside:














What else is there about me....uhh....oh! I'm married to the most wonderfullest man alive. He really is my most wonderful :) Also I have the cutest little puggle named Lucy who is adorably clingy (though others might say it is more annoying than adorable but I'm in denial) Ooh and I have this radtastic reading and writing cave, which I am in right now :) Though, every time I come up here, the first thing I do after turning on all my pretty, twinkly lights, is check for spiders. The one time I didn't, I had been up here for like an hour and then I just randomly looked to my left and there were too gi-freaking-normous spiders on the wall. I think I blacked out for a second.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back. I hope you all (haha all two of you maybe) liked my first post and I also hope you come back for the next one...and the next and obviously the next after that and so on and so on. I very much like talking to and meeting new people so please feel free to comment and say hi! :)

<3
Shay