I missed last week’s Sunday Sketch due to NaNoWriMo preparations, but this week I worked in some time to sketch the ultimate love triangle.

Catherine is a gold-digger extraordinaire; Edgar is an ostrich (he knows what Catherine’s all about, but he chooses to stick his head in the sand); Heathcliff might be Satan’s spawn. Mix all of that together and what do you get? Wuthering Heights.

I might take some time to ink it, but I’m debating it. I like the effect of the pencil sketch—it gives it the feeling of 19th century drama, but I think a bit of color might make it pop a bit more.

Happy Tuesday! It’s time again for another edition of Teaser Tuesdays…

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page
• You also need to share the title and author of the book where you get your teaser from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given
• Please avoid spoilers

This week’s teaser:

“He endeavoured to pronounce the name, but could not manage it; and compressing his mouth he held a silent combat with his inward agony, defying, meanwhile, my sympathy with an unflinching, ferocious stare. ‘How did she die?’ he resumed, at last—fain, notwithstanding his hardihood, to have a support behind him; for, after the struggle, he trembled, in spite of himself, to his very finger-ends.” pg. 98* Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Thinking back to high school, I would have much preferred reading this to Jane Eyre. Don’t get me wrong, JE rocked, but Wuthering Heights…it’s like an eighteenth century soap opera with ghosts and betrayal and gold-digging and revenge that spans generations.

Every other page my eyes are bugging out and I’m saying WTF?!? in the back of my head. So far, everybody, save Mr. Lockwood and maybe Ellen Dean, is nuts. And by nuts, I mean dose-dive off a cliff CRAZY.

Right now I’m savoring as I read, so it’s slow going—I’m only about halfway through, and even though I’m anxious to realize the conclusion of this engrossing tale, I must pace myself.

* Although I linked to the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of the book (because I love that cover), I’m actually reading it from my Project Gutenberg printout—therefore, the page number may not correspond with any of the traditionally published volumes.

On another note, if you’d like my cleaned up & pre-formatted Word document to print a copy for yourself, just leave a comment and I’ll email it to you.

Going into the second day of NaNoWriMo, I have just shy of 2,000 words complete (and by the end of the day, that total should jump to just shy of 4000—I hope).

The NaNo board still isn’t complete; it’s only halfway done, but I figured I might as well post up a progress report.

In case you’re wondering, yes those are pictures of Paul Walker. I was watching Into the Blue the other day and all of a sudden, I jumped up and screamed, “OMG! It’s Rick! It’s Rick!”

Of course, now my craziness is showing, but to explain, Rick Dawson is one of the main characters in my NaNoWriMo novel and he goes through many, many changes in the story; I needed someone who could visually pull it off. Paul Walker goes from a sweet pretty boy (upper left corner) to a gritty bad boy (bottom right corner) just like my MC.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t found the perfect visual example of my leading lady and I’m afraid I may have to break down and draw her, but I’m keeping hope alive. (If you know of any young biracial models or actresses, please let me know.)

In the center of the NaNo board, I have the calendar that I printed from deviantART and colored in with water colors.

To its left is my Magna Carta I, all the things I like in a novel, and to its right is the Magna Carta II, all the things I dislike in a novel.

I still need to include the mind map cloud thing because it would be much easier to look up at the board for reference rather than dig through my notebook. Goodness willing I’ll get that finished and glued on there this afternoon.

All right, since this is technically my book blog, I’m going to return it to discussions on books and reading. I’ll continue my NaNoWriMo ramblings over at Today, I Wrote…. The goal is to update every other day or so, but at very least, once a week.

(P.S. This is also the reason there was no Sunday Sketch yesterday.)

I didn’t get the NaNo board finished yet, but it’s coming along. The calendar, Magna Carta I & II, and some visuals have been completed. The goal is to finish it up this weekend so I can hang it above my desk by Monday.

In the meantime, I’ve already set up Liquid Story Binder XE for my newest novel by resetting my global work logs from last year’s and preparing my Planner.

I’m doing things a bit differently by incorporating Builders. The reason is that this time around, I’ve actually prepared a mind map for this particular novel—something I didn’t have last year (I flew by the seat of my pants).

Right now I hope to write as much as possible because I want a nice comfy cushion when those lean writing days arrive…and I know they’re coming.

I’d also like to keep a daily writing journal and post over at Today, I Wrote… (which is desperately in need of some love) as I go along. I hope I won’t become too preoccupied.

If you’re also participating in NaNo, buddy me. You can never have too much support.

If you’ve never heard of Project Gutenberg, you’re missing out on some Unadulterated Awesome™.

It’s a place where you can find books in the public domain, including many of the great classics such as Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (pictured above). You can even find works by Austen, Lawrence, Twain, the other Brontë sisters, Wells, and many more.

FinePrint is software which allows you to print multiple pages on a single sheet of paper. It’s not free, but there’s a fully-functional free trial that doesn’t expire—it only adds a small footer.

Personal laser printers offer sharper lines than inkjets, meaning smaller font sizes are easier to read, and they tend to print much faster. (My Brother wireless printer shot out the entire novel pictured above—50 pages—in under two minutes.)

The wonders of binder clips should be self-explanatory. But just in case: No unholy mess of papers. (Also good for keeping snack bags closed.)

Now I can curl up with a novel and highlight sections and jot notes in the margin without any residual guilt for mangling a perfectly good (bound) book (which may not be mine in the first place).

Here are a couple helpful tips if you plan on going this route:

• Whenever possible, choose the HTML version of a book, and then copy/paste it into a word processing program so you can format the font/margin sizes, remove space between paragraphs, and add page numbers. (12 pt Times New Roman/.5” margins all around usually works best for me.)
• Delete everything that isn’t part of the novel itself—it’ll save you about 5-10 pages. Most of it is found at the very beginning and very end of the novel.
• If you use heavy weight/darker paper, double-sided printing will save more trees, but if you wish to take notes, then single-sided is best.
• Print a single test sheet to make sure everything is as you like it. Much easier than printing 50 sheets and discovering the font’s too small for your pleasure.