hello my world

The sun is just about to set and I'm watching Glee, good evening.

Lately I've been reading a lot about writing/writers, and when I'm not I've been reading sucky YA books that make me think, I could write that--couldn't I? All of my research has led me to the conclusion that I desperately need an outline!

So, boring stuff aside and even more boring stuff to come, I've started an outline. My first ever. So far my book sounds an awful lot like a load of other books that I've read or heard about. It's currently about a girl, Sam, whose family moves back to her home town of Deception Bay--a sweet little fishing village and favorite among ghost hunters and horror fanatics due to the tragic story of a young woman who threw herself into the ocean after she was deceived (hence Deception) into thinking that her beloved fiance had died at sea. The woman threw herself off, legend goes, of the cliffs right outside Sam's house, and every year, despite government attempts to quash the freaky ritual, hundreds of people come to Deception Bay for a final hurrah before killing themselves.

Talk about a weird neighborhood.

Growing up with so much death, Sam is a quiet but surprisingly normal teenager. Her mother, on the other hand, suffered many psychotic episodes while they lived in Deception Bay after seeing a man throw himself off of the cliffs through her kitchen window. Every time she saw something that reminded her of that morbid time, the whole family had to pick up and move--sometimes to to a new city or even province--lest Sam's mother totally break down. To be honest, Sam isn't totally surprised when her mom takes off in the middle of the night. Strange reports of her mothers death, however, take her totally by surprise--she was always so full of life.

Sam's father, always the level headed half of the pair, decided to do the unthinkable and move everyone back to where he grew up--Deception Bay. Sam makes friends with Lola, a hopeless romantic who caught her fiance cheating and came to Deception Bay to kill herself, just like they say in all the really twisted guidebooks. Their unlikely friendship, not to mention Sam's new friend friend, a boy who has no name and no background, as of yet, will bring a new life to Deception Bay and reveal the truth about the legend and the location of Sam's mom.

OOOOH, CHEESE!

Yup, it sounds kind of lame. And guess what--I've only just started on my outline so, while I have a good idea of the story (or at least what I've written in my sucky synopsis above), in my outline, Sam hasn't even arrived in DB. I'm so painfully behind. That, and I've got another story bubbling around in my head about a camp for kids allergic to sunlight and Marianne who has to accompany her allergic brother to the camp town, virtually abandoned in the 'D ("Short for Daylight but you'd never know it from how all the kids here talk about it with such disgust--no, not disgust. Fear.") Yeah, poorly worded sentence, but it's pretty rough and hey, I'm full of those.

That's what I've got for tonight! Enjoy and, if you wouldn't mind, please don't steal my ideas. I know they're not very original or very worthy or theft, but they make me happy and I want to write them. Not saying I won't end up quitting half way through (half way through the OUTLINE, that is!), just saying I might enjoy it just a tiny bit.

Luck and love with all your various projects, including life.

Erika