A journey through cosplaying, tutorials, crafts and streaming games. Creating the Girlfriends Guide to League of Legends, learning the basics of making costumes and simply creating a fun community!
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
NanoWrimo Fail
It comes down to writing 1500 words a day, which I thought would be easy since in an hour I can smash out 1000. But if you miss a day....then another day, you're 3000 words behind and it lessens your chance at completing it. I had a rocky start.
October 31st we were out to pick up Martin's friend from the airport and when we had gotten in, we stayed up and gabbed a bit, so I, wanting to start of NaNoWriMo right, started writing right at midnight. Smashed out 500 words or more in a distracted mind set, but it was a good starting point. BUT that following night, I knew it was going to be an uphill climb. Andre, Martins friend, was staying in the living right by my work area, so it was hard to get around to even get to my desk, not keep our guest awake with my furious taping of the key board, and not be tired. We were out all day, then be home late so I was pretty beat after working and going out. This happened almost every night while Andre was down. So i missed a few days, but still wrote something. Then when he left I sat myself down every night and wrote and wrote and wrote but it felt like I could catch up. Not to mention my support group who were also doing it gave up as well. Martin said he'd start when Andre was gone, but decided it wasnt worth it. My brother Isaac just stopped because he had other non-job things to do. Steve ....well i dont even know what happened to him, he was so motivated at first! And Katie got a new job and also fell out of the running.
I got to about 10000 word or more before I did the math. I'd have to write over 3500 words a day to complete it in time. So I had to bow out of the running.
Its been different now, not writing at night. So I think I might work out continuing the Remastering of The Echoes, and get Fun Culture done. I like ending my night writing something and keeping warm by the computer, glancing over at Martin and watching him game.
Cheers mofos
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
My Year 2015
When we returned to our home in New West, it was really like coming back to a home. Because of the time difference I make it my goal to wake up earlier (I had been struggling with getting a good nights rest and being able to wake up early. I felt like I wasted alot of my life sleeping) So I began waking up at 9 am then 8am and even as early as 7am. I started this routine to prepare myself for the TIU Bikiniseries that started in April! I would wake up (after 2-3 alarms) make coffee and watch some tv on netflix. I think we were still using the laptop for watching things since we only had a TV but no cable!
Hello, it's me (probably the most overused phrase atm lol)
So it's been awhile! I had to take a break from blogging since I couldn't keep it up on a regular basis, plus I was also getting thefunculture.com website up and running. Yet I seem to go in and out of bouts of consistency with interests. Tons of stuff have happened in my life like moving into a bigger apartment then obtaining furniture, making permanent friends (I hope) I started with two and have recently made a third friend (they're actually from Windsor as well!) And this past summer was spent travelling BC, heading to the interior and having friends and family visit (Jen and Allan, my mom and dad, Baker and her girlfriend, Andre, Heath and Marc Baker, Alex and Mike) there was alot going on this past year!
My next post will have photos, this post is straight from my phone. I may not be as frequent on this right now since I'm currently doing NaNoWriMo for the second year, and also the remastering of The Echoes. I will do my best!
Cheers for now!
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Moving Sites!
thefunculture.wordpress.com
Check it out!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
FUN CULTURE final scene
Thursday, June 6, 2013
The Big Move
At the beginning of May on my older brother's birthdaym I messaged him a Happy Birthday and a following text saying: "Help me get out of here" Lol.
You see, lately I've been having missed feelings about Windsor. I grew up here and it'll alway be home, but something in my heart urges me to leave. I'm 24 and I've accomplished a lot. I have my Esthetics deploma, Can Fit Pro, Personal Support Worker cert. and I wrote a book! I feel that I've gotten what I can out of Windsor and it's time to move forward in my life.
My friend had re-added me to facebook and it's what he said that made me reginize what this feeling meant. He said:
"Courtney, we all have those friends, that after graduation I think, 'where are they even headed in life?'. I've never had to worry about that with you though. You have big dreams and big aspiration that you to go out there and get. You're too big for this city."
Not to be cocky, but he's right. And I think that's how I've been feeling, I need to escape, I need a change, and to be in a place with more oppertunity.
So I decided that I'm going to move to Vancouver BC. My brother already has a room for me to stay in while I'm there to get settled in. I'll be driving up there with my buddy, so I'm pretty pumped about the road trip!
I also plan on selling my book across Canada as we make our way to BC. Over all I'm pretty pumped. Money's the only issue atm.
Oh and there's a boy. But that's another story :)
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The Ultimate Query Letter
So this is a format to write a unique-ish (cuz you can only be so different) and GREAT query letter that'll help you get noticed.
Agents read 100-200 query letters a day and it's only the first few lines that get them to ACTUALLY read your email/letter. So the first step to have a eye catching line, something that makes your email stand out!
1) Before you even put "Dear So & So" why don't you put your favourite line of your book at the top of the email/letter? It's draw their attention and intrigue them enough to want to read your email :)
2) After the Dear whom and who you need a good intro line. What I like doing it visiting the website of the agency I'm sending my query too. I do this to get an idea of what kind of person this agent is. Searching for their twitter account works too and gives you a deeper insight to either have a professional intro line, or to start it off fun!!!
3) The Body of the Query letter!! The hardest part if I don't say so myself. I find this the hardest thing to write because I can't, for the life of me, write a good paragraph on what my book is about. Hence all the years or rewriting and revising the damn thing!! So what I'd suggest, have a friend (who read your book and is generally good at writing as well) write one for you! That why you don't over explain things or go off on a tangent about something in your book that doesn't have to be explained. The power of a few words is important here!
Note: Keep it short BUT DON'T leave them hanging. Agents/publishers will stop reading right then and there.
4) Forth paragraph should be something about promoting your book, your dedication and drive to make your book number one. If you get your book published, you don't just sign a contract and bathe in the royalties, you gotta go out there and make people wanna read your book! So talk about your audiences, maybe how you'd promote you book and free samples. Everyone likes free samples :)
5) Always say thank you. :D
6) Even if they don't ask for it, send them 1-3 chapters of your book (unless they say NO in their guidelines on their website. What if you did such an awesome query that they want to read your book right away?! Give them something to read! OR if you have a unique and wonderful review from someone of your audience, adding that makes your query that much more different.
Hope all that helps. Over the years I've sent so many different query letters and following this format has gotten me the most amount of positive feedback/responses from agents and publishers. So try it out and you may get lucky :)
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
And so it begins!
I got a query letter printed and will be sent by this afternoon
Discovered photoshop is on the computers at the college
Smell that? It's faint and far off, but I smell success!
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Exciting News!
1) Video game design! (Lot's of hours, but hey I need a hobby!)
2) Making a video (Less hours and more fun!)
3) OKay okay, getting an agent is hard. I'll take a fellow authors advise and go to the Publishing Houses instead! Bought Writers Market 2013
4)Website design! Woot, that'll be fun!
AND this blog will be going under some changes! So get ready for some awesome change!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
One Hour a Day
It's been a bit hard with the break up and everything to sit down and write Book Two of the Echoes. I haven't even been reading a lot either. But atleast I've lost weight and people have been noticing! lmao. So that's nice. :P
I was able to write a good scene with Adam for Book Two that had to do with what I've been feeling and thinking during the break up. It's been pretty good, but I've only been able to write when I'm drinking wine....a few glasses in lol.
I am now a broke College student (Yes, I'm going back to school WOOT for good income) so I can't really afford wine, but I'm not going to let that be an excuse to NOT write. BAM. Motivation, no excuses.
I'm not going to get into the break up details. Maybe later on. I'm going to have a secret revealing blog post in the near future to kinda let loose. I've been talking to people about the break up over and over so I'm just sick of explaining it. Yuck.
Everyweek I will try and post something on here to do with my book, working out (which just reminded me to update Fitocracy) or some update on my life :)
Cheers
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
BOOK LAUNCH
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Echoes/book-8qenmve2oUaUT3LL0GpKTw/page1.html?s=-re9fMvfn0ya1HjdrKnr6Q&r=1
http://www.amazon.com/The-Echoes-Book-One-ebook/dp/B009M5F43M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1351708290&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Echoes+Courtney+Gilbert
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Character Look-a-like
Terra from KH Birth by Sleep looks similar to Colton. Colton is more tanned and wears a head band.
Guy from Tales of the Abyss is almost Chase. Almost. I remember every time I thought of Chase in my story, Guy's appearance (but a bit different) would pop up in my head.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Was it something I said?
Might I add though, what might have given her motive to 'unfriend' me.
The past year I've been editing my book, doing all i can to make it better. I had it on Authonomy which it did do well. (Until you hit the top 100 rankings) When you hit the top 100, that's where the daggers gleam behind everyones back, waiting patiently for the right moment to strike with the "One Star" rating!! *Gasp!* With Authonomy, if you are not commenting on people's stories using at least 250 words that praise everything about their work, then your book will never hit the top. Authonomy has a good concept but I'm not about faking my way to the top and to falsely praise people.
I had a different method. Once I got some pretty good writer advise on Authonomy, I decided to get and editor. Months past until I finally finished that draft with the editor. THEN, the library opened their 'self-pub' system which is where I can print my book and make it look like a real one! Yay!
Since then, I'm self published my book on Kindle and Kobo and I will be having a Book Launch at the end of this month! So of course this entire process of my printing my book, posting pictures, getting my own business name (2am Publishing) getting my book on kindle and kobo, about to launch my book. I could only see that her reason was, jealousy. Or am I being conceited? She might not have liked the fact that even though she got a contract to publishing, I was the one with something actually done, I was getting it published and out into the world and I had a ton of support from the Library, work, family and (hopefully) the press. I plan on trying to get LaSalle post to my launch and to really get from publicity from it.
Plan for now? Get an agent. Monday is a holiday but for Canadians. I'll be sending out my query letters. I plan to make some money with kobo, so I can have something to show something to say like, "I've made this much! See my book is marketable!"
Other than that, can't wait for bookfest! I now have a contact with the woman who is on the board of the Bookfest. Yeah, fingers crossed. I'm getting there!
-Courtney
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
WHY no REPLY?!
I'm tempted to just create a presentation and go there in Aug. Since I'll be there anyway for canfitpro.
It just makes no sense why people just can't simple reply to messages. When it comes to helping other writers out, it's either they'll stab you in the back to get their own book to the top, or they'll actually help you out.
I bought the new 2012 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market and so far, it's full of crazy good information. Finally an explanation on postage and all that jazz. Actually, I should go down to Shoppers now and get some shit. Yes, that's what I'll do...
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Let's begin!
For words, I was too young to put any together so I wrote Z Zz zzZZ zZZz. I even took a shit ton of paper and I'd fold it to look like a book. Then I'd scribble in it to make it look like a real story was in this real looking book. I'd even give them as gifts to my cousins.
When I discovered my mother's recipe book with a ton of blank pages, you could only guess what I did....I wrote a story. I remember this book, pink with tiny tiny flowers and it had a soft feel to it, like material bound it.
I began to draw this awesome adventure that me and my brothers and my cousins were about to take. I'm pretty sure I wrote it with Laura watching. It might have been at one of our famous family get togethers too. Anyways, it started off with all five of us playing around my house (which was five stories taller, than it was in real life) and we decided we were going to look for gold. I drew different places we visited on our quest for gold. Five pages later (and writing over a recipe) we found our gold! We bathed in it and played and enjoyed the riches. We brought as much of it back with us to the house, where my mother had her head out one of the windows, and boy her hair was half the size of the house. (She had a perm back in the early 90's)
Needless to say, I was so proud of this crazy, cool adventure that I brought the book to school, I was in JK so I was four at the time. I forced my friend Brad to sit with me in the cloak room while I read my adventure to him....everyday. And everyday I'd change it up a bit too.
So my first full length story was in 1993. BAM
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Picture
It was the end of September and during the ride up to Ottawa we decided to stop by. The picture doesn't do any justice, the cliff in front of me was stunning. You didn't have anything to say about it even if you tried your breath would be captured by the beauty of it.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The Hunger Games Movie- On the right track?
-Peeta's leg being amputated
-The depth of the "Dogs". (In the book they go into some great detail on their eyes reminding Katniss of Roe's eyes.)
Those two things they left out were okay. Reading the whole series, the depth of the dogs kinda fades into the plot (like everything else) and I think, in the book they could have done alot more.
Anyways, I'm trying to keep this short. Devontional Writer says so!
Im out
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Tumblr?
Dont know whats it's really about, but I guess I'll start trying to use it lol.
I'll have to make a post on facebook and see who else has it. So my weekend was standard. Went to a friend bday party and had a good time. Greg came with me and got relatively drunk to start socializing. A few funny moments here and there.
We got our camera back!!! So I'm pretty pumped about taking pictures. But I'm sure that with this tumblr I'll have to upload photos with my phones. Sure my phone sucks, but I like taking pictures with it but can't post them on facebook. They don't give me an opinion since I don't have an iPhone or blackberry.
Dramas? One of our personal trainers disappeared. Last weekend though one of the front desk girls ran into the PT. The PT pretended to not know who the front desk girl was. So strange.
I got a new client. I'll be hitting the 120 club. I'm so pumped because we're such a small club yet we have trainers will full clientele. Makes me feel all gooey inside. I'm so proud to work at my gym. We're such an awesome group of people.
Writing has been slow. I got tooo many books to read and my one client has been editing my story. So far I like what she does. Grammar....too controversial. Grammar has changed over the years. There's more rules and loops and exceptions.
My rule for writing is, if I'm in your story and I see what you've described, and I love your characters. Then..
Good job :)
Monday, January 30, 2012
Write Drunk, Edit Sober
I read it today and it was...well
AWESOME.
No lie. This is something I will probably continue doing :)
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Always Waiting
I am waiting for a Literary Agency to email me back.
I was actually really tempted to start getting things ready for ebooks. I have another idea for a book cover, I got the idea while I watched the final scene in Zelda Skyward Sword. WHICH REMINDS ME.
WHAT AN ENDING. As in, terrible. Like, nothing will ever compare to the story line from Tales of Synphonia. In this Zelda, they live in the sky called Skyloft. They don't know whats down below and Zelda was always talking about wanting to see.
You can tell something romantic is going on with Zelda and your character Link. In ALL of the Zelda's they NEVER KISS, even though he saves her ass every single time!!!! So I hoping that the creaters of this game would throw me a bone! Well during the game theres a sidequest where this girl admires you. So I totally lead her own cuz if Zelda ant giving me ass, then this bitch can. LMAO. She's not as pretty as Zelda but you know, Link needs a good lay. Like come on. Hero or not, he needs some poontang.
My ranking has dropped. I'm very disappointed :( I need to get that shit back up again









