Kathie Leung « Journals of Journeys

27Oct/09Off

Under Re-Construction

This blog, this website, will be undergoing some revisions and getting a new face over the next couple of months. It's time to revamp, upgrade, streamline and make some much needed improvements in preparation -- for what, you'll have to be patient and wait to see.

It's out with the old, in with the new. Maybe I'll get lucky enough to have it all ready for release on New Years Day. Wouldn't that be the bomb?

Periodically I might post here. Thoughts get caught up in my brain and need a way to come out. This has always been the perfect medium. It's just of late, well, there's enough going on that those thoughts can't be voiced in this type of forum. Please don't ask. It's personal. Very personal, and not something I'm willing to share, not even via email or any other route. I don't want to seem rude, but even pressed, it's not going to happen.

What will become of the posts up and till then? Probably archived and removed from the site. I haven't decided yet. Of course, if there's something you'd like to see transitioned onto the new site, leave me a comment. Having a link to the particular post or page would be even better. I won't make any promises, this is, after all, my site. But I do try to be accommodating.

The other blogs and pages? Yeah, revisions, remodeling, maybe even removed altogether. It's the website mid-life crisis!

So there you have it.

In case you were wondering.

See you on the flip side!

Filed under: 2009, General, Information, Journals, Kathie, Tech Problems, Thoughts, Warning, Writing No Comments

18Sep/09Off

Freaky Friday

I see dead people.

Actually I write about them. Maybe too much. You see, the other day I was doing some research on the fictitious town for my latest novel. I'd visited the intended site several months ago but still had to plot out the layout which Google Maps is really helpful in that way. As I added streets, placed markers for various locations, I added a few people icons to mark where dead bodies were located. Then, for kicks and giggles, I switched out to Google Map's street view and "drove" beside the first dead body.

And this is what I saw:

There in the white area (see me in the section below? The yellow figure, looking at the light blue figure, which is the dead body marker.) you might be able to pick out a face. Can't quite see it? Take a look at the image below where I traced it.

Freaky, huh?

So I did it again, just to see if I was imagining it.

The picture on the left highlights the face I saw with that white rectangle. The one on the right, because the tracing didn't work as well as the first one, I pointed to what I saw so maybe you can see it too. The big arrow points to what I call a "park ranger's hat". The line just below, to the eyes, then nose and finally lips. See it? Triple freaky!

So yeah. This is definitely a good place for a dead body. Don't you agree?

Until next week, have a freak-tabulous weekend, folks!

Filed under: 2009, Freaky Friday, Journals, Kathie, Novel Excerpt, Thoughts, Twisted, Writing, funny 1 Comment

6Sep/09Off

Have You Seen It?

Photo Journal

Last month a new blog was added to this site. The feeds and front page to www.kathieleung.com will be updated within the near future to reflect this addition along with some other changes that are in the works. So let me invite you to a sneak preview of things around the corner! Come visit the new photo blog at www.kathieleung.com/photo. Several photos are scheduled to be released in the next few weeks, so bookmark it and visit often!

Filed under: 2009, Journals, Kathie, Photo Essay No Comments

5Sep/09Off

Exiled Excerpt: Young Adult Work In Progress

While at the Pacific Northwest Writing Association's annual conference in Seattle this past July and waiting for my appointment with the incredible Erin Brown, a book doctor (more on her in a moment ) I chatted with a couple fellow writers. One was a young woman who writes science fiction/fantasy and the other was a slightly older guy whom I believe said he writes suspense. He asked how many works in progress (WIP) we had going. She answered two. I did the like (although in reality, I toy with about three). He said he could only do one at a time. We figured that was just because women, without stereotyping too much here, are probably better at multi-tasking.

A fellow writer, whom I met during the conference (long story, but the short of it is, she lives in the Seattle area, had attended the national romance writers conference, so wasn't attending the PNWA con), said it's best to stick to one novel and keep notes for other novel ideas. I'm not so sure I agree with that, but have been trying to take her advice. I find that if I get stuck on one novel, I can shift gears and go on to another WIP, work on that until I get stuck, shift again - lather, rinse, repeat. Since she made the suggestion, I'm trying to stick to just one. So far, it's been going good.

Until mid-morning yesterday.

I got stuck so bad I was reaching for my cell to call AAA and ask for a tow. So I flipped over to the Young Adult (YA) WIP. Thank goodness, too. I got a problem resolved in there (we'll get to that in a moment) and was able to return to the suspense-thriller I was stuck on. Progress once again!

The YA WIP I'd sent to Erin back in March had been in the second round of revisions, . Since then I had made a complete rewrite, did some more revisions, and set it aside. So when I was preparing to meet with Erin the night before our appointment, I pulled up the WIP and skimmed it. It was absolutely dreadful! I was mortified to have to go in and face this woman and the very moment she smiled up at me and shook my hand, I burbled out my apology. She was surprised because she said that my writing was strong, I had some very nice character descriptions, a great idea and she just had a few suggestions to pass along.

She lied.

She had a ton of great suggestions, ones that immediately were put to use. I did spend some time going back and taking her suggestions to heart, reworked the piece. But as I mentioned before, I got stuck.

After today's near-death-experience with the suspense-thriller WIP, I dusted off the YA WIP and found out why I was hitting the wall in that one. I simply had to cut a scene.

So... along with the high recommendation to hire Erin Brown, I present to you the exiled excerpt from my YA WIP:

Tommy reached his hand out from the sweatshirt's sleeves, fingers opening like a crab's claws. He brushed a lock of Dani's hair away from her eyes. She resisted the urge to pull back from having her personal space violated.

Had she given him the wrong signals?

His hand hovered there and then his eyes closed, his long, curled lashes resting on his cheeks. It was all she could do to keep from bursting out in laughter. She was picturing the flour that had coated those lashes clear back when they were still in third grade after a science project went wonky.

She pulled her head back. His lips were moving in her direction. "Tommy!"

His eyes flashed at her. "What?" His cheeks practically glowed bright red.

She laughed. "You weren't going to kiss me, were you?"

"No," he said at a decibel just above silent. Stepping back, he put his hands on his bike's handlebars.

"Good, because that would be weird," Dani told him as she unwound the chain from under her bike's seat.

"Why's that?"

She shrugged and kneeled down to thread the chain through the back tire's spokes. "'Cause you're more like a brother, I guess. I mean, come on, Tommy. I've known you since we were in diapers!"

He laughed too, but that's when it dawned on her that maybe he had been intending on kissing her. That thought made her stomach gurgle. It also made her sad. She liked Tommy as a friend. But now with that between them, it was like what Amy said, you just can't go back to being 'just friends.'