sangrefrio

I rarely have time to make a post, even for my Spain blog (spaingirl.tumblr.com) these days. But here's why: I'm working on a 25 page introduction of my writing portfolio. It will hopefully describe my craft, its general arc and progress, and what has influenced me to write. I have also revised and edited a lot of poems and short stories, and have done quite a few readings as well. Here's a brief summary of what I've been doing these past few months

Performances:

-Recently I had a fourteen minute reading (it was supposed to be ten, woops) of "El Confesor," which I used to call "The rosary" or "El rosario." I edited it once while I was in Spain, revised and expanded it from two to five pages, and revised it again to submit to a contest (probably won't win because I never do, but hey, it's worth a shot). I read it in front of a large group of Knox students and teachers, and got quite a few compliments! Expect to see it go through another revision, most likely. I'll probably leave it alone after that and move on, because I still have a lot to do.

- "Crinkles," and "Backyard Love" in Barcelona, Spain. I read both of these poems for an international audience, in a bar/cafe called "Lletra Ferit." I tried to work with the ending of Crinkles and expect to continue resolving it. "Backyard Love" has now been renamed  "The Last Summer." I revised it once more just a few days ago, submitted it to the Cellar Door, and expect its revision this upcoming Wednesday

-"Bubbles" I performed this for Off Knox winter 2009 I believe. I haven't changed it.

Revisions:

- "The Last Summer" formerly "Backyard Love"
-"Crinkles"
- "El Confesor" formerly "The Rosary." It's undergone four revisions so far. The Spanish version has yet to be revised, although I am still figuring out what to do with the idea of Spanglish, which gets sucked up and disappears in the Spanish version, which is no good.
- "By Sound of Falling Tree" formerly "The Melody of a Falling Tree"
-"Painted Walls" formerly "Red Walls." It started as a story, and became a game script when I tacked on two alternate endings (based on two or three choices you could make). I collaborated with LinWest (http://artificalapple.livejournal.com) to make it into a game:

http://amphoterik.weebly.com/games.html

This is a rough first version, because I have now significantly altered the script and made the paths much more work easy, which means no more endless scrolling just to get to the next choice. Unfortunately I don't have the time to revise the game until this summer.

Much more to come! Here's what's next: "La Carmela," "The Architecture of Trains," and other poems. But these are the main pieces! And surprisingly, I plan on revising Seventeen Cats at least once so I can submit it to the Third Level.

In which I may or may not be ditching LJ, since no one seems to be following along. This was a pretty good document for my reading and writing, but I jacve to admit I'm way more excited about being in Spain and blogging about it on my tumblr. I feel like I actually have some hope that someone will check it out and see another country through my eyes. I finished writing the English version of Caramelo, by the way, and I think I'm going to take another stab at getting into Catch, even if I get rejection after rejection I am going to try to get in this year if it's the last thing I do. That's because I'm graduating, so I'm down to my last chance!!! I am going to make a TON of submissions. And then I'm going to amp up my writing for next submission and so on. This has GOT to work. Alright, well wish me luck!

I was reluctant to put this anywhere, because I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. But I will post it here:

( Backyard Love )

...I don't know why I don't have compilation of poetry on LJ, but probably because I assumed I already had one.

This one got published in I-mag:

( La Foca )

( Last night I almost told you how I felt )
This was Gina's favorite, and was read for "Knox's Poem of the Day":

( Crinkles )
( Adaptation )
Another of Gina's favorites:

( Portrait )

( Our Shore/We are the only ones who know )

( Torsion )

Floral Sequence:
sangrefrio.livejournal.com/13993.html

Another favorite of Gina's:
Bubbles:
sangrefrio.livejournal.com/10542.html#cutid1

Melody of a Falling Tree:
sangrefrio.livejournal.com/11181.html#cutid1

And if you want to see any of the poems in progress, or some thoughts I have, just check out my "poem" tag!

Good news: I've finished Caramelo at 31 pages! Mostly because of the very productive sleepover I had with Lindsay, lol. I'm also 15 pages in for the Architecture of Trains. I sent Caramelo to my teacher to hopefully look over and edit, but he hasn't responded yet. Potentially because he's in Cuba right now? They have study abroad classes for writing one term a year, so I wouldn't be surprised. I've been asked what I'm going to do with these pieces. They are definitely going into my portfolio, and I am going to try to polish them enough so they can get published. If it's not possible, then I might start posting them online. For now, I'm going to check what poetry I have on LJ, then post it on Amphoterik:

http://amphoterik.weebly.com/

If I finish Architecture, Circe is probably next in line, along with Mithras and hopefully another visual novel. don't forget to check out Red Walls on Amphoterik!

I can't believe it. The moment is finally drawing near. Linwest and I are almost done with our visual novel Red Walls, after a year of conceiving it. As  my first visual novel, I am really excited. Not to mention that this was one of my first successful completed short stories. I also finished the first draft of Caramelo, but I am going to have to redraft the ending for a bigger punch. Even so, this is really exciting news. And, as a bonus, I forgot to post this little short story I wrote for fiction workshop, called Confidant:

 

 

( Confidant (english version) )

 

*there's a Spanish version as well!

On another note, I finished Dawn of the Dreadfuls (prequel to Pride Prejudice and Zombies) a few days ago. It was pretty funny but it didn't make me crack up like PPZ did. I would still recommend the read though, esp after reading PPZ.

A lot of people are talking about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I'll have to see if it's worth reading. I'm going to have to borrow another book I guess, not that I'm going to have much time for it.

So I definitely surpassed the page limit. Somehow I managed not to finish either story. I've worked on it some, and for Carmela at least I know I'm on page twenty three. I have yet to write the fight scene and the after party. Which I just realized could be difficult from first person. Need I say I also need to finish translating? This does not at all include the train story which for now has been forgotten. Hopefully I will pick it back up, and maybe Circe. When I will have time for all this is a different question. Basically those last three weeks during August, yes? Oh, and I got a cool magazine for altered clothing and cute vogue knits? NEVER. Yeah, that might happen...eventually. Not to mention a happy tea party when I come back. My goal by the end of...something is to get at least 25 pages for Carmela. That should carry me through the fight and into the after party.

Here's a sample of a freestlye (Copyright) my main character, Oscar makes up on the road trip:

I'm out to wipe out all competition
This ain't hereditary I'm a fight to kill this division
This ain't delirious, a fighter's one guarantee
Is to get serious and take it to the last degree


:)) I had so much fun with it. But it was hard to balance gender and vocabulary etc. I've decided it serves the purpose though!

So there's only one week to go before I magically come up with 35 polished pages. I'm on 23 or something like that. Ha...Also my creative notebook finally ran out of pages, in just six months. Last time it took me a year, so I'm getting faster (or a smaller notebook?) which I attribute to the break in writer's hiatus. I'm going for another story in Spanish to double the page count (translation counts separate). Wish me luck!