Here we are, old friend, you and me, together on my 100th post

Yes that was a Doctor Who reference. No I don't care if that made your feels feely. Yes, I've been spending a lot of time on tumblr. I love tumblr.
I've also been spending a lot of time trying to find a job. I've got a minivan now, it's pretty spectacular. Its name is Rose. It's a 2001 Ford Windstar. Supposedly, it's green. It looks more gray though.
I'm also working on a couple new story outlines, particularly one about werewolves and another which will be kind of the same idea as Fear Street, but for the new millenium.
Beyond that, I haven't done too much, really. I'm still homeless, I'm still trying to find a job... And not much about that is changing. I do have a decent shot at a job in a kitchen at some big-ish company in Anoka, but I don't know.
I've got an IndieGoGo project going. http://www.indiegogo.com/BackToJimmy
It's to help me raise money so I might be able to get housing for me and my cat sooner rather than later. Any little bit helps, and the more you donate, the more I love you. Not that I don't already love you. Because I do. Dang, baby.
This is my 100th post, and I'm making it as I'm getting ready to go to bed after being awake for only about half of my birthday. But it was an all right birthday. Would have liked to have been able to do more, but I wouldn't have really had anything else to do, anyway.
I'm hoping to be able to give you lot an excerpt or an outline or something soonish. I don't know when though. I haven't really had the time or energy to update you lot.
My book is live through PublishAmerica now, and as I've promised, I've not given them a red cent. I have seen a couple of websites promoting it. Well, not promoting. Linking to it? I suppose that's a form of promotion. I don't know. I'm not expecting a lot but it would be cool if my luck could turn around and I could actually not be homeless anymore.

Kickstarter

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1053183733/the-girl-i-used-to-be-book-series
I'm trying to raise money for the next series I plan on writing and releasing: "The Girl I Used To Be."
It's about a girl named Jaida who is the victim of incest, develops anorexia, and later loses her mother to her abusive father. It will span five books and takes place in my hometown of Fridley, MN.
Trying to raise $3,000 so I can get the first book professionally edited and get a proper book cover made.

An Update!

Well, I don't know how many people that follow this blog are Whovians, but lately Doctor Who has taken over my life. To the point that I've even begun to write DW FANFICTION. And the first one I actually posted to a site outside of Tumblr (titled: Footie Pajamas and The Rain) has already had 60 hits in less than two hours, and three positive reviews. I'm floored.
I don't generally tend to believe that I'm a good writer. Really. So when I get good reviews, especially in large quantities, I have a tendency to die just a little from amazement.
If you care to check out any of my fanfics, you can do so at: http://www.fanfiction.net/~skraindukat
Beyond that, I am still jobless and technically homeless. If you'd like to donate $20 and become a character in an upcoming story, you can do so by sending your cash to emmaline.westlund@gmail.com through paypal.

I'm still alive!

Just haven't had any real reason to blog lately. Got some new stuff in the works, more details soon.

It's BLO-OG, IT'S BLO-OG

Bonus points to anyone who read the title to the tune of that "It's Log!" song from Ren and Stimpy. XD

I figured I'm probably overdue for a blog about what's going down lately. We'll start with PublishAmerica. Yes, I have read all the warnings and errors and red flags. I decided to check them out anyway. Worst thing that could happen? One of my least favorite of my short stories, Fatima, gets stuck with a crappy publisher until they inevitably cancel my contract. I won't spend any money on them, so I doubt they'll keep me long anyway.
I submitted the final manuscript yesterday along with the author questionnaire, and was kind of shocked to see that it didn't ask me for all sorts of weird red-flag stuff that others have reported. But who knows.

The second thing I need to report, as it's been all over facebook (well, maybe not my author page, which you can find at http://facebook.com/emmalinewestlund, if you haven't checked it out yet), is that I flipped my car on Tuesday. I don't want to put all the details on the blog here, since I'm going to write a short story out of it to really try to show people what went on in my head as the accident happened.

Pretty much, I was going just a touch too fast for the stretch of road (somewhere between 40 and 55, speed limit is 55, but there's FAR too much gravel to go much over 40, whereas I was going faster), hit a patch of loose gravel, and began to lose control of the car. I over-corrected and ended up heading to the ditch. My first thought was ok, I'll just go into the ditch and drive back out. Then I completely lost track of what was going on. Suddenly, I was sideways and I was in water. I recall thinking "oh crap. I'm in a lake. I'm dead. I'll never get out." Everything went black.

I had lost consciousness for just a short amount of time, couldn't have been more than a couple minutes, and I realized I was still breathing. I opened my eyes and found myself hanging from my seatbelt in water that was rising. It was rising slowly, but it was rising. My CD player was spouting random bits of songs from the FOB CD that was in, and that was when I began to panic. I couldn't reach my seatbelt and my fat ass couldn't quite wiggle myself free. I screamed for help- despite the fact that the nearest cabins are more than a mile away from where I went in.

I managed to free myself and found myself wading through knee-deep water back to shore, where two different couples had stopped, one man running down the embankment to help me. He pulled me up and helped me crawl up to the road, where we waited for the wrecker.

I managed to walk away with only a couple nasty bumps on the head, a scraped shoulder, a couple really bad bruises where the seatbelt got me, and a bumped elbow (as well as two scraped toes and an embedded piece of glass in a pinky toe). I walked away. I was very lucky.

P-P-P-PublishAmerica!

Now, despite what you've heard of them, despite what I've heard of them, I'm giving them a go with my story "Fatima." I want to see how it goes. If I like them, I'll offer my other books. If not, I'll go elsewhere. I'm not losing anything on it because I will NOT give them any money. and they can whine all they want. I will not pay for anything, just as everything on their website claims, that I won't have to buy anything.
But because of this, Fatima will be unpublished when I sign and send over the contract. So if you want a copy for nostalgia's sake, you'd better get you over to Amazon and get your copy! Paperback or ebook.

Darkness

Darkness is my very first foray into the world of zombies. Well, okay, it's the first that wasn't written when I was seven and very, very bored in second grade. And I do mean bored. Reading class, in particular, drove me batty, as I had learned how to read in Kindergarten, thanks to having a wonderful mother who helped me learn my ABCs and very basic words like "ball" and "red" and "spleen" before I hit school age.
Darkness marks my contribution to zombie lore. Darkness begins to ask the question: What if some zombies still held the intelligence and brainpower that they had in their lives before becoming zombies? What if the drive for brains (or flesh, or blood, or whatever) wasn't the main personality point of some zombies?

It is currently free in the Amazon Kindle Store and you can find it at the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-ebook/dp/B008SH6VH8/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1344614458&sr=8-13&keywords=emmaline+westlund