It's been a month since Michael Jackson passed...

... and I'm shocked by how much I was affected by his death. I always thought of him fondly even if I did laugh at some of the jokes but I guess I just didn't realize how much he was a part of my consciousness till he died.

Anyway, just like others, in the past month, I've listened to Michael Jackson songs that I haven't listened to in ages (the only song of his that was on regular rotation was "Rock With You") and an offshoot of that, so to speak, is that I've begun to listen to many of the '80s songs that I forgot about. Here are some of my favorites.

I was surprised to learn that this singer about about 13 years old in the video. The power of make up, I suppose. Plus her voice is so soulful.

Gregory Abbott - Shake You Down
Uploaded by jpdc11. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Ray Parker Jr. - I Don't Think That Man Should Sleep Alone
Uploaded by Larolke.

So I really, really, really HATE Boys Before Flowers

I was going to leave this comment on episode 12 (I started watching from ep 6) on another site but changed my mind:

I pretty much stopped watching the episode right when F3 came in to rescue Jun Pyo and Jandi.

Why? I don't find JP and JD's so-called love believable. I don't think deep down inside, she really likes him that much (well, I don't see it) and I think he just made up his mind that he likes her so now he's obsessed. So him getting hurt because of her isn't touching... and her running over to protect him... I don't buy it.

Why in the world was the hottie, Jae He/Ha Je attracted to Jan Di? That spoiled the whole thing. I was rooting for him because he definitely had a legitimate reason to hate Jun Pyo but why fall for Jan Di? That took a lot from it, especially as IMO, Jan Di isn't charming enough to capture all these hot guy's hearts.

They didn't beat Jun Pyo up enough. IMO, that guy is an animal and if I didn't already know how this ended, would be a perfect candidate for a 'Dangerous Love' type story... i.e. one about domestic violence or a psycho stalker. Cos that guy grabs his so-called girlfriend by the collar when he's upset and just beats up on people like an animal. He should be locked in a cage. I mean, in reality, if you date a guy like this and one day, he breaks your teeth, you can't honestly claim you didn't see it coming.

And Jan Di... what's her problem? This is just some high school puppy love. Why stay in a relationship that creates all these problems for her family? In my opinion, this is highly selfish of her. She needs to dump Jun Pyo so her family can move on.

lol... I've been told I'm overthinking this but wtf? This story is horrible. These F4 who go look down on everyone shouldn't be 'heroes' for crying out loud.

Well, I'm going to stop watching this show because it annoys me on end. As much as I hate the amnesia storyline, I think the only way this show will ever redeem itself is if Jun Pyo loses his memory and ends up becoming a different person entirely.

After taking an unnecessarily long break...

... I think I am back to writing. We'll see :D

OMG, I am freaking hooked...

... on Long Vacation. I've been watching, re-watching and watching again. GOSH. It started off hilarious and funny, I think there was a slight lull in episode 4 or so, got back on track and ended up wonderfully.

GOOOOOOOOSH! I only recently began to watch Japanese Dramas and just saw this 1996 classic. And even though the clothing is outdated, the drama itself isn't. I'll be back with more later because right now, I have to try to catch my breath.

So I pledged to do something writing-related everyday...

Well, if surfing the net counts then yeah, I succeeded.

I am still updating my two stories weekly but I haven't done much editing.

I think I got scared because Femi's Diary is so much work.

Bleh.

I'll try to edit again tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

I am still thinking about nanowrimo. I came up with a YA novel called "Today." But shouldn't I at least work on editing my completed drafts and finishing my current stories before starting something new? :D

Yay!

This person has now uploaded Losing You by Keyshia Cole featuring Anthony Hamilton. I prefer Anthony's part. Lol... I listen to the song from the middle.



Okay, no more Keyshia Cole in my blog :D

I'm not normally a Keyshia Cole fan but...

... her album "Just Like You" has been on heavy rotation for the last few days. Other than "I Remember" which I posted earlier, these are some of the other songs I have on constant repeat. This is definitely one of my favorite albums of 2007.

Fallin Out


Heaven Sent


Work It Out


Just Like You is also nice.

Possible writing projects for 2008

Poking around Absolute Write has really inspired me to take my writing seriously. I have far too many pieces lying around doing nothing. If I write so much, why not see if it can take me somewhere? I've been dragging my feet for too long.

So the plan is to do something writing-related everyday till the end of the year. This includes working on my two current Works In Project and editing my four finished pieces. I won't write anything new this year.

Projects I'm toying with for next year:

I'm the woman of the house. Or maybe it would be I'm the woMAN of the house or something like that. Basically, it'll be a Young Adult humorous story about a girl who's suddenly saddled with taking care of the home when her parents leave unexpectedly. Romance, light drama, humor. Obviously not a particularly original storyline but I hope to make it a fun read. Set in Lagos. EDIT: Okay, I need help. I only just thought of this storyline today and I've already started plotting it in my head. Things like NEPA... lol

Ogbanje. Wiki definitions for Ogbanje or Abiku. This will be a serious piece and the story I have in mind will sweep three novels. Lol. Do I have the energy for this? If I do write this, it will be last thing I work on.

Untitled. Romance/Humor/Cultural story. It'll be college-campus set and the heroine would be a girl who appears to love every culture but hers and the hero will be an American-born guy who's all into his parents' culture. I've been thinking about this storyline for about a year so I guess I might as well write it. Set in Yankee.

Edit Consequences and Honeymoon. Edit Femi 2 and WFF 2 if they aren't done yet.

Start sending queries and what not.

I've scrapped the idea of completing "Mission: Make Him Mine." Not that many people read my stuff normally but practically no one read that and maybe it's too gimmicky for me.

Awesomest of awesomest...

I'm totally loving this song by Keyshia Cole.

I Remember

Novel lengths.

I just went to Harlequin's website just to poke around. I think I'm still too chicken to send anything but we'll see. LOL

But anyway, so I've been stressing about the length of my work and feeling that they aren't long enough. I just randomly click on stories from Project Gutenberg and other e-books and do word counts because I want to get an idea of how long a full length novel should be.

Of course, I'm generally disheartened because most often, the stories are over 100K words and some are like 300K+ words. Now, that's a joke if I've ever heard one. I can't imagine writing so many words.

Anyway, most of my O.C. multi-chapter fanfics were about 30-35K words which makes them novellas. The Sam Soon story is about 40K but the 4 'novels' I've completed have been 54-83K words. WFF will probably get about 3-4K more words when I edit, the two Femi's Diary stories will probably get 5-10K words after they've been edited. This will still leave my range about 58-83K words in length.

Consequences is currently at 73K words but will probably get 15-25K more words by the time I'm done. Honeymoon is at 20K and will probably end up at the 60-70K mark.

What's the point if this post? I've been stressing about the lack of length and I think I've actually dragged Consequences quite a bit just for this reason. Only to get to the site and see that their preferences are 50-75K in general. Oh well... not that I'm sending anything to them but it's good to see that shorter novels are also desirable. I guess this means that instead of stressing about length, I should just write the story and it'll be as long as the story deserves to be instead of needlessly dragging it.

I think Consequences has two chapters that I want to expunge but it's only because I waited so long till I got to them. I could probably eliminate 10K words without really changing the story. I am quite dissatisfied with that story.