Bad News and Good News

Cover for On Our Way Home as designed by Cassandra Lowery

Well, I have bad news and good news. 


The bad news? 


 I don't have a new chapter of Pinned but Fluttering for you this weekend. Work just slammed me. Between finishing up one online literary analysis class on Alcott's Little Women on Friday (and still having final essays to grade and return), I'm also starting to teach a literary analysis class on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice on Monday. I put up twelve posts over the weekend, everything from class schedules to assignments for the coming week. I was up working until 4 AM yesterday morning, and here it is past midnight already.... Plus we're back to home schooling tomorrow, too. 


So I'll work on the next chapter of Pinned but Fluttering as quickly as I possibly can, despite grading final essays on Alcott, preparing more lessons for The Merchant of Venice, and planning my own three boys' school schedules and actually teaching them something.... Gosh, it's going to be a hellish week! :)


The good news? 


 I completed On Our Way Home. It's up in its entirety on FanFiction.net (see sidebar), but I've broken it into four chapters on Wattpad.com, posting one chapter a day. I've found that posting longer works doesn't work well on Wattpad although the site is being weird about my posting separate chapters.... 


 I made a quick cover for Wattpad which is pretty sucky (see first image), so I'm happy to accept new covers from volunteers.... ;) 


In fact, Lexi on Wattpad made me a lovely new cover for The Long Night; see?

Cover for The Long Night as designed by Fusiee's friend, Lexi

Isn't it gorgeous???? Thank you, Lexi!! :) 


So keep your eyes peeled for more chapters of On Our Way Home on Wattpad plus a new chapter for Pinned but Fluttering later this week, if I can possibly manage it....


Warmly yours, 

Cassandra :)

Fandom for No Kid Hungry

I'm donating an outtake from Pinned but Fluttering for Fandom for No Kid Hungry. It will probably be in Carlisle's point-of-view, but possibly in Edward's as Bella leaves the Cullen home, covering Chapters 31-32. 


So you can go to the link for Fandom for No Kid Hungry and make a donation! The stories won't be up until this summer, and there will be quite the compilation of stories--outtakes, future takes, new chapters, and one-shots from some amazing fan fic writers. 


Here's the Schedule of Important Dates:

• May 19, 2012: Sign-ups close
• May 25, 2012: Teasers due
• June 1, 2012: Stories and donation receipts due
• June 10, 2012: Compilation released
• June 22, 2012: Authors may publicly post their stories

I'm thrilled to be part of such a noble cause. I've seen so many cool fandom causes, but this one is near and dear to my heart. 

So come check it out and get involved!!! 


With love to you all, 


Cassandra :)

Excerpt from "Pinned but Fluttering" Chapter 31

I stayed up until two o'clock in the morning, working on this chapter. I have about four pages written so far, so I'm about halfway done with the rough draft. My hope is to post the completed chapter by Saturday at the latest.

Thanks for your lovely support and encouragement! It's because of YOU that I stay up writing at two in the frickin' morning!! :) 

So let me know what you think, okay?

                          *****

From Chapter 30:

“Esme, you'll tell me the truth, right?” I asked. 

Esme nodded, her forehead creased with concern as she gently squeezed my hand in encouragement.

“Okay,” I repeated, psyching myself up to ask the real question now. I looked at her steadily, ignoring the spiking of my heart as I asked quietly, “Esme, I know that you can't tell me much about what you all really are, but I need to know one thing. Just one thing.”

I took a deep breath, then whispered, “Esme, is it really, truly safe for me to stay here with your family?” 

Chapter 31: 

Esme's eyes never left mine, but I felt her grip on my hand tighten almost imperceptibly. She hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth to answer my question as two figures appeared in the doorway with a suddenness that made me jump with surprise. 

Carlisle and Edward entered my room together, both of their expressions grim. From the frequent glances that Carlisle kept directing toward Edward, I caught Carlisle's anxiety...he was worried about Edward.

But why? 

It didn't help that Esme was giving Edward similar worried looks.

What the hell was going on here? 

As the silence stretched, I became impatient. I scooted myself up in my bed to a sitting position, declining Esme's quiet offer of help. She did shift a couple of pillows behind my back to help me sit up more comfortably, and I gave her with a thin smile of thanks.

“Will someone please answer my question?” I asked, trying to keep the impatience out of my voice but unable to suppress a slight nervous quiver. “Is it really safe for me to stay here with you all?”

Carlisle and Edward spoke at exactly the same time, their emphatic voices overlapping but still easily understood. “Of course you're safe in our home,” Carlisle started, then stopped as Edward's voice overtook his in intensity as well as volume.

“No, you are in great danger if you stay here,” Edward stated flatly. Then as Carlisle stopped speaking, Edward continued alone, “You are in danger at this very moment, as you have been since you first set foot on the grounds of Forks High School.” The sincerity of his midnight black eyes bore into mine, and I couldn't stop the shiver of fear racing up my spine. 

Here, at last, was the Truth.

 “Edward, you're exaggerating. Don't frighten Bella, dear,” Esme pleaded.

“No,” Edward raised his voice slightly as he turned to his mother. “I am not exaggerating in the slightest, and Isabella needs to be frightened...so frightened that she leaves...and never returns.”

                                                                          *****

Okay, there it is. I'm still working on "On Our Way Home," too; I'm just not sure when I'll finish it. Although I'm off next week, I have a lot going of grading to do for my online and co-op classes, plus it's my daughter's 20th birthday on Easter Monday, so we'll probably go see Titanic in 3D. 


And I have massive grading to do all day Tuesday and Wednesday, then classes to teach all day Thursday, then taking the boys to tutoring, then to lessons on Friday. So this week is MY week for writing the extra story and getting ahead on my other ones (yes, I'm working on three right now--all for YOU!). 

So we'll see how this week pans out and how much I can get done while still trying to REST during my break.... ;) 

Much love to you all,

Cassandra :)  

Teaser from New Story "On Our Way Home"

"On Our Way Home" was the first one-shot I started writing last summer, I think. I hadn't touched it much since then; it was barely over a page and needed some major re-vamping (please forgive the pun).


I'm thinking that, unless I run into a major case of writer's block, I should be able to complete this story as a special Easter gift (in addition to Chapter 31 of PbF).


So here's the beginning of it...and I hope that you like it (or absolutely adore it!!). And yes, it's short.... :(

"On Our Way Home"
EPOV from New Moon


After helping Bella into the window seat, I placed her backpack in the small compartment over our heads while Alice slid hers next to it. I gently closed the door before moving in from the crowded aisle as tired tourists filed past us, toting their carry-on bags. Sliding into the aisle seat, I gazed once again into the beautiful eyes that I had never thought to see alight with life again.

Bella gave me a tight smile, the same smile I had seen pass over her features only a few times since we left Volterra hours ago.

There was something very wrong with that smile, haunting me, mitigating the joy that had exploded within me in that shadowed alley as I realized that I held a living, breathing Bella in my arms, the joy that had been renewed when our safety became a reality as Alice guided the stolen sedan out of Volterra limits.

Thankful for the wide first class seats that Alice had insisted upon, miraculously obtaining them with much sweet talking and several generous bribes, I lifted the dividing arm between our seats, placing my arm around Bella's too-thin shoulders and pulling her against my chest. Now she could sleep at last. Ignoring Alice's frantic whispers to Jasper on her cell from the seat behind me, I sighed as I noted again the changes in Bella's appearance: the deep purple circles under her eyes, the dull paleness of her face, the lankness of her once-shiny hair, the loss of fifteen pounds of weight, and, most concerning of all, the tug-of-war behind those beautiful brown eyes. Gazing into them once again as I cupped her thin face in my palm, I saw her love for me war with uncertainty, hurt, anxiety, and, worrying me the most, fear.

What was Bella afraid of now?

So, please, let me know what you think. And, yes...it's short and terse...still in rough draft form. But I have always been captivated by these scenes in the book and with my opportunity to play in Edward's POV...why not?


Have a wonderful week, my writerly and readerly friends!!


Warmly,

Cassandra :)