Yay!! It's 2019 and I am continuing the regular updates! About once a month, like I was doing before, I will go over where I'm at with the various projects I'm working on, letting you know what's going on... I welcome feedback and comments on anything, feel free to ask your questions in the comments--let's GO!!
Oh jeepers! I never thought I'd get here! Closing in on 140K words (most of which are probably unnecessary, don't freak out!) and I've only just arrived in "Moon Valley"! It was trippy, the way I wrote it the first time around--but that was because I didn't quite know what I was doing. This time, not only do I have a better handle on the circumstances, but they have new meaning and purpose, thus I am able to evaluate things based on that meaning and purpose, and those things that don't have anything to do with furthering that goal are so much easier to just eliminate! Hopefully that will make it significantly less trippy, and more cool and mind-bending, which is what I want. "Moon Valley" has some huge moments in it... It's where Callista gets a small glimpse into what might happen if a Wordspinner "goes bad"... i.e., starts using the storytelling ability for their own ends, instead of allowing the story to speak to the hearer... That's the idea, anyway! The thing is, my first time writing this sequence of scenes is what gave me the idea for a longer story arc, so a lot of what she encounters here will be dealt with in more focus in the next book--so there will be some questions left unanswered, for sure! But it's all in good fun, and I am nearly to the end!
Red,
The Wolf
Okay,
so I shared a story excerpt from this, and I talked about it in the birthday
post... But, such is the writer's life, that the first draft isn't
necessarily going to be the one you end up sticking with the whole
way through.
The thing I realized is that, loquacious as it is, that
initial opening takes too long and adds too many superfluous details
(a regular problem of mine...) to be actually useful, and to segue
into the part that I really wanted to write. After two more (failed!)
attempts, I finally turned to the group and asked for opinions--and
the advice I got worked so well, it helped me figure out the best way
to string everything together, and I think I've got it now! This is
so exciting! I can't wait for you all to read it!
Anthology
Submission News: "Serenity's Light" ACCEPTED!
Those
who have been with me for a couple years might remember the epic
"Year Of The Thousand Word Suggestion Box." Beginning in
the summer of 2015 and stretching all the way into 2016, I embarked
on an epic quest to start my Suggestion Box posts not with just
random lists, but actual images I could then use for the thumbnails
of my posts. There at the beginning, I couldn't decide between doing
each post separately, as I had in 2013, or stringing them all together into a plot, as I did in 2014... So I ended up doing both! I
managed to garner enough participation to be able to maintain a
mixture of single posts, punctuated with installments of a continuous
story, called "Serenity's Light." Well, it just so happens
that the story fit the theme of an anthology releasing this spring,
so you'll actually get to read it as a self-contained story,
in print! And only you, my lovely followers, will know that it came
from a random assortment of lists from totally unrelated people...
and if that's not an awesome way to write a story, I don't know what
is!
Wattpad
Updates: NEW Story!
As if 30 stories wasn't enough... Just
last week I started posting yet another story! Those of you following
my blog back in 2015 might remember in November when I mentioned (and
posted a few excerpts of) a random story that I'd drummed up at least
a scene for, but never managed to write, called "Clay Heroes."
Here's the blurb (and the mock cover I drummed up):
Chad
Stevenson is very good at being invisible. Not literally, but in a
class full of rowdy, mischievous third-graders, it's easy for him to
keep his head down and blend in. Adding to that the fact that his
parents are busy with another sibling on the way, and no one seems to
pay any attention to the fact that young, imaginative Chad is an easy
target for the school bullies--Chad decides to take matters into his
own hands, and fashion six heroes out of clay, to rescue him from
these difficult circumstances.
Unfortunately,
with the heroes comes a villain, and when a miracle happens, Chad
finds himself in more trouble than he bargained for--
Who
will save him now?
Follow
the hyperlinked text above to read the story on Wattpad! I'd
forgotten how good the story actually was, even though it was only
about half as long as I had hoped it would be for the NaNoWriMo
challenge!
Other
Serials
In
other news, I'm still trying to get back into the swing of finishing
the series-in-progress that I've started here. Namely, "ThePrince and The Rose" and "Priscilla Sum." But it's
slow going, amid all the other projects I've got going, and all
the reading I also would like to do!
I
think probably the thing that is holding me up the most about
"Priscilla Sum" in particular is that I have to write about
her college experience... having never actually gone to a physical
college, myself! Yes, I even managed to "homeschool" myself
through college, using an accelerated distance program that allowed
me to earn the bulk of my college credits through credit-by-exams,
and then enrolling online in an affiliate college to complete their
requirements for my desired degree. Hence, all the scenes of
Priscilla going through her classes and whatnot, and even which
buildings she might use for the different subjects, I'm totally
making it up, based on what I've heard from my college-attending
siblings, and the limited experience I've had going to college
campuses to take my exams. That makes it hard, but it's the character
and story-building stuff that will make all the rest of the story
make sense... so it's necessary! 
(If anyone has any input...
particularly if you're familiar with campuses like the University of
Chicago, I welcome it!) Hopefully I'll start having more things
regularly, since according to the poll I put up on my Facebook page a
while back, you all seem to like the pre-written stuff! Stay tuned!
Also, a quick note about A Writer's Tale Series: I know I was trying to get Book 3, "The Sheriff's Showdown" off the ground... but it slowly ground to a halt because I'm in the middle of a conversation between two characters, with not a lot of action--It's still in the process, though, and I hope to have it done eventually! Probably after I get through all the anthology shenanigans I'm pulling off at the moment!
Reading
Updates
Yeah,
so... Reading has been a little slow, of late. I'm currently dividing
my ebook reading between The Tannis Project by Daryl J. Ball,
and The Queen of Spades by Patricia Loofbourrow.
The
former is like "Interview With a Vampire" for the modern
age. A 200-year-old vampire named Tannis patiently and succinctly
blogs about his life, answering questions ("or not..." as
he repeats at the end of every post) and explaining fallacies and
details about living as a vampire with a very congenial demeanor
about him. I'll have more to say on it when I actually write the
review, but I am immensely intrigued by it, for sure! The latter is,
of course, part of the marvelous Red Dog Conspiracy series...
I cannot believe I am finally getting to only the second book!
So many series... so little time... I had hoped to be tearing through
these indie books at a much faster rate than I have been... Do me a
favor and keep me motivated, all right? Meanwhile, I have purposed
that I cannot spend that Amazon gift card I got for my birthday
until I've read the next 10 ebooks on my TBR list; I already know
exactly which titles I'm going to buy--I just need to get around to
reading the books I already own!
And
finally, as far as print books are concerned... Two trips to book
sales have yielded a modest stack of books I haven't read, amid the
books I have and am pleased to finally own. I figure I am going to
hold off visiting the library until I've managed to read through
those. Among them is the book I received a while back, that I managed
to get halfway through before the onslaught of library checkouts got
too much: Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks. I'll probably be
finishing that one first, and then there's the second book in the
MYST series by Rand Miller, The Book of Ti'ana. I
rather enjoyed the first book and I was happy to find the second book
at the next book sale! After that comes a truly beautiful copy of The
Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which is a collection of 11
short stories that I have never read in spite of growing up
reading The Complete and Unabridged Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Like WHAAAT??? THERE'S MORE?? Totally excited about that. At
the recent raid er, acquisition of more books, I found a
Michael Crichton book I hadn't read yet, State of Fear, and a
few new David Baldacci books such as Last Man Standing. And
once I finish these, it will be off to the library for more fun,
games, and shenanigans!
So
there you have it! A relatively complete run-down of what I'm up to
these days... Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any
questions, encouragement, or observations! You'll notice it looks a
bit different at the bottom of my posts... With the termination of
GooglePlus, I've reverted back to having a more "generic"
comment section. Anyone is free to comment! Join the fun! And as
always
Catch
You Further Upstream!
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