For those of you who don’t know, yesterday was my birthday. Not only did I get The Writers Market 2010 (which I’m going to review at a later time), my aunt, who happens to be a fairly big editor, also gave me a black journal; almost empty.

At first glance, it may seem like nothing, but upon further examination, it’s actually extremely valuable.

What she did was buy a journal, and write the first paragraph of a story (78 words, to be exact). In return, I wrote 85 words, and in the next day or two, she’ll write the next paragraph and so on.

It may seem like we’re going pretty slowly, but actually, at this rate, we should be done in about six months. That’s less than the average novel, and this should be about 60,000 words.

We also don’t tell each other the plot or where we’re going with the story, so we really have to make it up as we go along. That normally wouldn’t be a good idea, as the story wouldn’t hold itself together and it would be very difficult to continue the story, however, as we’re only writing a paragraph at a time, it’s pretty easy to move forward, even without planning.

This can be really great practice for a writer, because it’s easy to write; not only because you’re writing only a paragraph at a time, but because you don’t have to come up with all the ideas–only half. You also definitely don’t want to let down the other writer and not continue the story.

Writing a book like this with a writing partner can keepy you motivated, keep writing fun, and make it easy to finish a book.

What I’m also doing with this is I’m typing it up and editing it as we go along. Because we’re only writing a paragraph each, we tend to leave out a lot of detail’s that could be included. It’s easy to edit two paragraph’s at a time very carefully, so it’s very possible to publish the book.

In the coming week’s and month’s, I’ll be posting the chapter’s of the book as they come. I can’t wait to share with you how it end’s up, and I highly encourage you to do the same. In my opinion, for five or ten minutes a day, it’s well worth it.

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Post image for The 39 Clues Book 9 Cover: Fiske Cahill and the Mysterious Madeleine

A few days ago, the title and cover for The 39 Clues Book 9: Storm Warning. The description is something I’ll talk about a little later, as the information it reveals isn’t even close to other sources. However, the cover reveals many pieces of information which could be crucial to the quest and certainly shows that many theories that I have been throwing around for quite some time are becoming a reality. Check out the cover to the left.

Madeleine Cahill

Back in book five, you may remember a code on the inner cover (both front and back) with the name “Madeleine Cahill” spelled backwards, as well as a code reading “Olivia had another.” As introduced in book three, Olivia is Gideon’s wife, the original Cahill, and the mother of the founders of the four respective branches: Ekaterina, Lucian, Janus, and Tomas. These codes can also be found in the second card pack’s (Branch vs. Branch) Madrigal handbook. These two codes imply that Olivia had another child named Madeleine. For obvious reasons, it makes sense that Madeliene would have invented the Madrigal branch.

She had disappeared from the action for a while, but the cover is a certain sign that she will appear in the next book, and the Madrigal secrets will finally be revealed. It’s on the wooden dagger type thing in the middle of the boat. If you enlarge the picture to the fullest extent, it should be easy to spot: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0545060494/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books.

Fiske Cahill

Most of you will probably remember Fiske; Grace’s long lost brother who disappeared in 1962. Even though many pronounce him dead, a vast number of clue hunters have long suspected that the mysterious Man In Black is actually Fiske, due in large part to the fact that the Man In Black always signs his messages to Mr. McIntyre with “F.”

On the boat, if you look very carefully, you will see the initials “FC.” This almost certainly stands for “Fiske Cahill.” So Fiske will be in the book.

If these two secrets already revealed are any indication, The 39 Clues Book 9: Storm Warning, is going to be, by far, the best one yet.

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The 39 Clues Book Eight: The Emperor’s Code

April 7, 2010
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Jonah claims he’s making phone calls to Amy and Nellie and trying to track them down. However, when Amy and Nellie ask him if Dan is with him, he lies and says he isn’t, and was never making calls. When Dan meets Jonah’s mom, Cora Wizard (the leader of the Janus branch), it becomes apparent that the Wizard family is just trying to use him. They even claim Dan is from the Janus branch! Unfortunately, that prompts Dan to respond with the following:

“Janus? I’m no Janus! I know exactly what branch I am!”

“I’m a Madrigal!”

Read more!

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Protecting your Writing: 1 Simple Thing you can do to Make Sure your Writing is Safe

January 30, 2010
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This tip is a quick one, but if you don’t use it, you are putting yourself at danger to your writing being destroyed…

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What is Amy and Dan’s Branch?–The 39 Clues

January 29, 2010

I think that you can tell where I’m going with this: Amy and Dan are of different branches.

I think that’s where the clues above lead, and it would definitely be devastating enough.

To see why I think this and what branch Amy and Dan are part of, click on post headline above!

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39 Clues Audio Book Two: One False Note: Bonus

January 28, 2010

See my review of these audio books.
Note: The reason why I’m not reviewing the bonus in audio book one is because I don’t think it’s earth-shattering information and I’d much rather post about this at the moment. If anyone wants to write a guest post and submit it through the Submit your Content! page, feel free [...]

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