Guest Post: Randomness by Nastasia Peters (Plus Excerpt!)

Originally I wanted to write a post about Regius, the second installment in the Zinc Trilogy, as it’s to be published soon, so I figured, awesome timing and good pre-promo! But it turns out it’s very hard to do this without spoiling both the first and second book. It ended up looking something like this:

Regius picks up right where Altors left off, when Solenum is ___ by ___ and she ___ and he ___. The Narrator’s identity is revealed, so you are introduced to ___ at this section of the ___. But before that, you will learn what happened to Datura, whether or not he ___ after he got ___.

I should make a list of funny words now and hope people will use them to enter the blanks and see what hell and chaos is created.

As you can see it wouldn’t have been a very informative post, holding great information. For those who have a wordpress website without a spam bot, the previous sentence would have been slightly amusing. I thought I’d share some random information about reading experience, writing, publishing and then I will share a completely new excerpt from Regius, never seen anywhere else before (except hidden away on mine and my editor’s computer).

Random share number one: I have never read Harry Potter (Blasphemy, I know). I did read Twilight. I say one out of two major franchises makes me a decent human being. Although, I did snort coke out of my nose when I read the part where Vampires sparkled. Coke as in the soda.

Random share number two: There is an italicized sentence in Altors that literally refuses to un-italicize. Seriously, I have tried everything I know, it will not undo. Which is ironic because the ebook version of Altors has no italics whatsoever as it, again, literally refuses to remain italicized the minute I upload the file to the distributor.

Random share number three: The key to making your editor’s heart beat faster (I have many, many skills in that area—write me an email if you need help terrorizing yours). I’d finished Altors, handed it over to Amber to read it, tell me if I’d missed obvious plot holes, technical stuff, etc. I don’t think I even gave her time to read the first chapter. I called her and told her to stop what she was doing as I had decided to scrap the ending and attach two more books. She let out a ‘WHAT?’ so close to the pitch of a person who’d just inhaled helium, I nearly died of laughter.

Random share number four: I sometimes read in my car. This habit stuck last year when I went to waitressing school (yep, that’s a real thing). During my lunch breaks I’d hide away in my car on the parking lot and read. One afternoon I was sitting quite comfortably, trying to read I am Legend (I never finished it, I was too scared—even with daylight and fellow classmates smoking special herbs and laughing at nothing across the yard), and I lean back. Now, I have an old car, some stuff doesn’t hold as well as it should when under pressure. My environment is moving, I’m confused, set the book down and sit up. By the time my car’s behind gently crashes into the car parked behind me, I realize that I was leaning down on the hand break.

Random share number five: It was recently discovered that I turn into a mad scientist wielding a marker and white board when I need to re-write certain parts of a story. After finishing all plot related edits with Regius, I decided to look over Seers. Amber warned me. She told me “Don’t look at it yet, you’ll only get frustrated.” Of course I didn’t listen. The next day I went out, bought a white board and a set of markers and spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out what was wrong with Seers. Turns out it’s a very simple error that  does not require me to re-write a lot of scenes, my moment of insanity/melt down/internal apocalypse was entirely unnecessary. Amber got such a kick out of it (she’s not mean, she just likes to tell me “I told you so”), she recorded me. I’m assuming she’ll show it to me whenever I go near that state again and need a clear “no.”

Random share number six: This post turned out longer than I thought it would. Thank you so much for having me, Robin. I can’t wait to host you and your stories in return over on zincuniverse with Amber!

Last share: The never before seen Regius excerpt, a little scene taken out of one of Solenum’s chapters, one of the main characters. In Regius she gets to spend time with the not-so-pleasant characters. Enjoy!

~ Excerpt ~