Whew! I'm fighting the urge to scream and shout like a small child given a pack of sweets. I finally finished Promised! Last night, which was April 29 2011, at 11:47 p.m. according to my computer. Yay! I'll remember this day forever!

I started writing it somewhere around the end November 2010, and I constantly suffered from interruptions and distractions, and lack of inspiration. I was interrupted by school exams, homework, and extra-curricular activities, which always made me grumpy to no end. I was distracted by anime/manga/manwha. Bleach, Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama!, Pandora Hearts, The Bride of the Water God, etc. etc. And then there's all those phone calls from my anime-crazy friend... They were distractions, so they don't make me grumpy, haha.

Ask any of my friends. If I don't write for several days, I get all moody and depressed, like the world's about to end. And irritable. And grumpy...

Now I think it's overly long. My original goal was 100000 words, but that somehow got extended to 108000 words, but now the word count is approximately 109125 ... Right. I should stop. I should start editing...

I find that there are a lot of genres out there to write about.

Personally, I've only tried historical fiction, contemporary fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, and maybe mystery. I've never really ventured into science fiction/dystopian before, except for that short story I wrote for the Commonwealth Essay Competition in 2010. It was called The Mad Scientist and was mostly inspired by the Joss Whedon television series Dollhouse. Sadly, it ended with just two seasons. It was the first science fiction series that I ever saw that I truly enjoyed.

As for books, I do have some sci-fi ones. There's A Tale Of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones, which is the first Diana Wynne Jones book I ever picked up. And then there's the Skinned Trilogy by Robin Wasserman. And finally, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins! I'd only finished it recently, and I'm still kicking myself for not reading it sooner. I'm possibly dying to get my hands on I Am Number Four, though I can't seem to find a copy anywhere ...

Hmm, I can't believe it. I'm writing historical fiction, as in the past, and yet I hate history, and I've never read anything of the sort before, unless you count The Secret Garden, which I read when I was eight out of sheer boredom, and I've loved it ever since. Other than that, I usually can't stand classics. I read 20 pages of Jane Eyre because - yes - I had nothing better to do. A copy of Les Misetables was given to me as a gift, so I read that just to be polite. 100 pages. Most of it was pretty boring, for me, at least. I found it long-winded. Oh, well ...

Paranormal romance. That's not a bad genre, actually. I love the L. J. Smith books, and The Hollow Trilogy by Jessica Verday. There's also Dark Secrets by Elizabeth Chandler, and numerous others that I've read. For me, paranormal romance is sort of like a mix between fantasy/paranormal, romance, and general fiction. Contemporary fiction is something I hardle ever touch, and what I've read include To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Ways To Live Forever by Sally Nicholls. Hmm, maybe I'll write something from that genre soon ...

Now ... Fantasy. J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, and Diana Wynne Jones. Their books are all awesome. Gaiman's Stardust is one of my favourites, and so is Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. Who doesn't love Harry Potter? I like the idea of a fantasy world, because there are no restrictions. Not in fantasy, and not in sci-fi. You can have dinosaurs prowling the world if you want.

But historical fiction, however, is confining ... There aren't any modern inventions to help you out of tight situations. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't know why I chose to set Promised in historical times ...

I'm so glad! Promised is almost done. I only have about ... maybe 3 chapters (or less) to go, and who knows how much the word count will be? I'm very pleased that I can actually write this much, and as of today I have forgotten how, exactly, I came up with the idea of Promised. I'd love to remember it, though, but I did draw a picture of a sylph sometime last year in my notepad.

Since I've been getting this question very frequently, I'm going to explain it here:
Q: What is a sylph?
A: Sylph (also called sylphid) is a mythological creature in the Western tradition. The term originates in Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as invisible beings of the air, his elementals of air. There is no known substantial mythos associated with them. (From Wikipedia.)

If you're going to ask me how I learned about sylphs, then that would be futile, because I don't remember. I learn all sorts of things without remembering them. That's it. I really do have my head in the clouds, don't I?