Book prep for a cruise, you ask? What exactly am I prepping? Am I booking something, or am I prepping a book? Ahhhh!
Okay. First of all, calm down. You really need to stop panicking every time you read a blog post.
Secondly, I am, of course, talking about prepping a book to bring along on my Super Special Awesome Caribbean Cruise. I’m going with my mother and brother, starting in New Orleans, headed down the coast of Mexico to Cozumel, Belize City, etc. It’s going to be epic. But I digress.
When we booked the cruise back in January, my master plan was to have the sequel to Imminent Danger — whimsically entitled Chasing Nonconformity — finished and printed for mother to peruse at her leisure on our relaxing jaunt around the Caribbean. As of today, I still have the second half of the story to re-write. So that’s not going to work.
So instead I said to myself: “Michelle,” I said, “Why not print out another book you’ve written and make your mother read that instead? Surely she has nothing better to do on her vacation than read your latest questionable attempt at literature.”
Und hence, I present to you photographs of the printed-out version of The Elemental Guard, the YA fantasy novel (think Harry Potter meets Avatar the Last Airbender) I wrote a year or two ago. You will notice that the manuscript is stupidly thick. This is because I checked the single-sided box instead of the double-sided box on the Staples website, and they obliged me accordingly. Observe:
Front view of the massive manuscript, complete with inscription to my mother. I dread getting the manuscript back. I hate editing. Sigh.
Side view of the manuscript. It’s about 2 inches thick. Yikes.
Jedi Armen guards / sits on the manuscript. Rawr!
In unrelated news …
I will be hosting an author interview with Kathi Schwengel tomorrow (Valentine’s Day!), as part of her blog hop for her new book, First of Her Kind. Stay tuned for that!
And then I’m gone on my cruise until next Sunday, so that’s why you won’t be hearing from me. Frantic calls to the police regarding my disappearance from the blogosphere are therefore appreciated, but unnecessary.
Unrelated video of the day:
Hugh Grant’s finest moment in film history:
Michelle Proulx - Author 
Gosh I hate it when I make printing errors like that. That’s going to be hella-heavy in the suitcase. Enjoy your trip and get some sun for the rest of us.
Haha yeah, when I showed it to my mother, she was like, “I’ll read it, but it’s going in your suitcase.” Fair enough, right? I’ll definitely enjoy the trip, although I can’t promise the sun part. I am much like a vampire in that the sun burns me, so I’ll be spending most of the trip under an umbrella or liberally coated in sunscreen. Still, should be fun 😀
Have a great time!!
Thanks 😀 I’ll post a pic or two when I return. Statistics indicate that at least one picture of me will turn out with me looking halfway decent, so stay tuned for that 😀
Yikes! That is big! Have a great trip!
Thanks! How can a cruise not be great? Well, unless it’s Costa line, and the captain decides to get fancy with the wheel and crashes us into an island. That would be bad … and now I’ve jinxed myself …
The cruise sounds wonderful. I’ve never been on one. It’s on my bucket list. I hope you have tons of fun.
The novel sounds very, very interesting. (BTW, you’re not the only one who forgot to do double-sided printout of a novel. Crazy.) 🙂
Also, that Kathi is getting around the web.I saw her on another blog the day before yesterday, she was on my blog yesterday, she’ll be on yours tomorrow. I will definitely tune back in that tomorrow.
Love the Hugh Grant clip. I love this movie. Next to Ever After, I think this is one of Drew Barrymore’s better roles.
Have a great trip. We want pictures!!!!
Oh man, Ever After was fantastic. It was also one of the only 3 VHS tapes we owned, so we would watch it on our little portable tv every time we went on a road trip.
I’ll endeavour to snap at least one decent pic of myself so you don’t have to cringe when you view it upon my return 😀
Michelle….I do not think size matters when it comes to manuscripts. It’s like that Miley Cyrus song about it’s not how high the mountain, it’s the climb. And, did you think of this: if, God forbid, something goes wrong on your cruise and the ship starts listing to one side, all you have to do is put your manuscript on the opposite side and it will level the ship….you’ll be a hero. Have a nice cruise.
I didn’t think of the ballast potential! And everyone knows that books have special gravitational properties, seeing as how they can so easily suck someone in and trap them. 🙂
Haha, good thing it’s a cruise so you don’t have to lug the manuscript around.
Seriously, it sounds like a great trip. I wish I could go too, since the characters in my second novel (Islands of the Gulf) take that exact same route — only in the 1920s and on a tramp steamer.
Have a wonderful time!
That’s definitely one thing I love about cruises – you get to see lots of different places, but you always get to come back to the same room each night. Do your characters seriously take the same route? That’s so cool! Have you done the trip yourself?
No, I haven’t. Actually that’s one thing that made me uneasy while writing my trilogy — so much of it is set in places I’ve never visited. Research can take you only so far. Which is why they end up here on the West Coast.
Hahaha, or in my case they end up in space on distant planets, which no one can dispute the authenticity of because we’ve never been to distant planets! My plan is fool proof!!!!!
First of all, I would like to say that my desire to stow away in your luggage and come along is really overpowering. That cruise sounds AWESOME, I need a vacation, and all of the places you’re going… well, I’m just plain jealous! (NEW ORLEANS, man, NEW ORLEANS. That place is nuts. Loved it. :)) Plus, it is still cold and snowy here, and by this point I could kind of use some warmth and sunshine! (I set my book in summer half because it was convenient for the story and half because I’m just cold and need to think of warmer places.)
Also, you’re leaving the blogosphere for so long! D: So sad! You’ll have a lot to catch up on when you return! (Hopefully.) And not only are you leaving, but one of your last acts of spite is to leave us with a tantalizing look at a new, completely-unheard-of book?! MADNESS. Now I wanna know what it’s about! (And sorry about the print issue.)
Quite frankly, my dear, I’m just disappointed. Bad form!
Jk. Have fun, relax, and see you again when you get back. 😀
You’re … disappointed in me? 😦 *sniff* Well, now I feel too guilty to go. I suppose I’ll just have to refund my ticket and languish in my cold apartment for the next week. SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO ME?
Yeah, I’m psyched about New Orleans too. I don’t know much about it, other than what I saw in The Princess and the Frog. If I don’t come back, assume I’ve been transformed into a magical singing amphibian.
Hahaha I did kind of leave a teaser there, didn’t I? Well, in my defence, the book is far from being ready to be seen by human eyes (apparently my mother’s eyes aren’t human), so you won’t be learning anything more about it for a looooooong time. Muahahahahahahaha. Madness is my middle name. Michelle Lothlorien Madness Proulx. It’s got a nice ring to it, doncha think?
xD ❤ Yes, nice ring indeed. NO NO, go on your fancy-schmancy vacation, it's okay. I'LL be the one languishing in the cold here.
Ha ha! Actually the first (and thus far only) time I went to New Orleans was about a year ago for a writer's conference, and the only things I knew about it were from that movie as well. xD Unfortunately I didn't see any of the bayou, but the city is gorgeous and old, you can wander around with alcohol in the streets (which is illegal elsewhere,) and the beignets are indeed TO DIE FOR. How can you go wrong with dough and powdered sugar? YOU CAN'T.
And darn you! 😦 Well, guess I'll just have to put on my waiting face then and stick around.
Who needs a book to read on a cruise, when there are hot cabana boys to corrupt? I’m just saying….. 😀 Enjoy, and have plenty of “just wrong” stories to tell from your vacation.
Lol. I think we’re only going to the beach for one day on the trip, so my selection of hot cabana boys will be tragically limited. I’m not sure about “just wrong” stories. Most of them will likely involve me living it up at the 24 hour buffet table. There’s a recipe for disaster if I’ve ever heard one. Ooooooh I hope they have those little fruit tarts. I love those things.
Never mind that the sequel isn’t ready– celebrate all your progress and success with Imminent Danger!!! (I’m sure The Elemental Guard will be as equally brilliant reading material, anyhow.) Enjoy the trip!
And thank you for sharing Hugh Grant’s glorious moment…I laughed and fell in love with the 80s.
Well, if The Elemental Guard isn’t as brilliant as Imminent Danger right now, it surely will be once my mother’s done with it. Of course, it could take five years to get to that point … but we shall prevail!!!
I said I wasn’t going to lose my head, but then POP! goes my heart. Words to live by, my friend. Words to live by.
Have a fabulous time on the cruise! Looking forward to hearing about it when you get back. And – wow. That manuscript is impressive. *I’m not worthy*
Oh, you’re worthy. Trust me. The only thing not worthy is that gigantic monstrosity I call a “book”. I’ll report back in five years when it’s fit for human consumption.
“Okay. First of all, calm down. You really need to stop panicking every time you read a blog post.”
Your humor delivers perfectly via online… love it! The line above literally had me laughing out loud… too funny!
Well, to be fair, my followers are very flighty. They’re much like meerkats in that way, except that meerkats can’t fly.
It’s OK if you don’t provide your mother’s reading material, just this time! She’ll understandl I enjoyed your irrepressible blog.
Haha, thanks. She ended up reading Legacy of Heorot, which is good, because I don’t think she’s read a book for pleasure in about five years. Not my fault!!! She just always manages to be busy, somehow. Not sure how she does it, lol.
Thank you for my wonderful magnet which is now gracing my fridge and the added bonus that your stamp is not my sons favourite – he likes to pinch the stamps when I get any overseas post lol 😀
Excellent! May it help you adhere things to your fridge for many years to come 🙂