Upstream Updates 2020: March and April

Life Stuff

I figured it would be too confusing to try and re-cap March, from here at the end of April--and with all the confusion happening in the world, I figured we just didn't need that! Besides, there was a whole lot that didn't happen in March... and everything was inside-out and backwards for most of the month... I didn't really hit a "stride", per se, till April anyway... So here we go!

Yeah, March was the month that everything ground to a halt--and there was some big "family stuff" that I had to deal with on top of it, so there was definitely a week or two when I didn't really feel like doing much of anything, or making any plans. I work in an elementary school, you see, so when we heard of other schools in "hotbed cities" closing down, I was still convinced that as long as we didn't have any cases in the school district itself, we could remain open. Then, one hour before the end of the school day on a Friday, the "six-week" closure was announced. (Today would have been the day that ended.) Teachers scrambled to get together whatever materials they could, and did their best to prepare the kids for a long-term break... Never knowing that within the next two weeks, schools would close for the remainder of the year, and widespread distance-education would begin.

I'm still keeping in touch with my supervisors and principals and such. "Working from home" looks a little different for someone in my position--given that it's really an "onsite" job description, there is not a lot that I was ever expected to do from home, so it was a few weeks, really, before the administration could figure out what I'm supposed to be doing beyond just checking my email. I have an inkling that this might change in the next couple months, as they have finally figured out what to do with paraeducators--but then the school year comes to a close, and we're moving on to "summer break" without really having a "Last Day of School." I'm really going to miss those fifth graders who will be moving on to middle school next year!

March/April Stats:

-Words written:
March: 18,025 (the lowest so far this year... I was in a funk, what else can I say??)
April: 30,000+ (since I just finished the month... but 25K is the "baseline goal" anyhow, so I made that with a few days to spare!)

-Books read
March: 5/4
April: 7/4 (See what I can do, given enough time?)

Writing

The Last Inkweaver

In March, I managed to go through and work out at least eight different sections in the book that need to be rewritten completely, in and among the bits and pieces I could tweak then and there. I tell you what, Olivia Cornwell's Editing Services were well worth the price! By her input, I was able to identify spots that needed major assistance, isolate them from the passages that didn't need much help, and not just that, but work out exactly how I could fix them! Helpful, above-and-beyond what I would have been capable of doing on my own, and, judging by the way it reads now, since I've actually started rewriting the sections and made it through at least a new-and-improved Chapter 1... It's made a world of difference, and I'm really liking it!

I think I've gotten a better handle on what the world actually looks like, I'm able to throw in some actual foreshadowing in chapter 1, instead of "saving" it all the way till the very end of the book... The one thing that I'm still having trouble with is chapter length--but in light of the fact that there will be other parts I'm combining, and still more that will end up cut down to a more manageable size, I might not end up with that much difference as far as word count is concerned!

Priscilla Sum

Oh boy! I had to skip the last two weeks here of April, because otherwise I would have been cutting too close to what I haven't quite finished writing yet! Doesn't appear that very many people are too hurt by this, though... Can't say, from just looking at the view count, if people are actually reading and enjoying the serial, or just glancing at the link when it comes up. (HINT: that's what comments are for! That's how you can let me know if and when you're reading!)

I will say, I'm glad to actually be on the island at this point, and we're into the "wild and crazy jungle adventure" portion of the story, the one where the real supernatural-type stuff starts happening! This is where the story gets finicky if I don't "science" things just right, too... So that's another reason it's taking me so long to write! (Other than, of course, the bajillion other things I also happen to be working on, that is!) There's just always the question in the back of my mind... am I making this interesting enough? For people that aren't me, I mean? (There's no way to tell unless people comment...)

Flash Fiction Fridays

Link to Story:
"The Beckoning of Oz"

Woohoo! I didn't think I'd have the headspace to do any more of these... I hadn't been back to the Facebook group for a writing prompt in a good long while... But there was this one photo that immediately sparked something in me... So I wrote a quick little scene and called it "The Beckoning of Oz." A girl named Ruth meets a shapeshifting crow-man named Quinn, and his natural-crow companion named Manny. One problem: He thinks she's Dorothy. I really can't resist a good fairy tale twist, can I?

I also did a second one, that had more to do with "what if Kaiju monsters attacked the earth and wiped out humanity... except for one person??" I did have fun with that one, coming up with a fascinating scenario about what life would be like for that one person, if all man-made structures (not just buildings, but roads and houses too) had been smashed to smithereens... how would they survive? Where would they go? It's the little questions that really get the creative juices flowing!

Author Promo-ing

Facebook Author Page: Leslie Conzatti--The Upstream Writer

Another exciting thing that's been happening in April (not so much in March) is that I've gotten a bunch of different promotional opportunities! From reading aloud the first few chapters of Princess of Undersea, to getting to talk all about my latest (upcoming) anthology submission, the story of "The Water-Man", which will be appearing in the limited-edition anthology Myths and Monsters, compiled by an author whose books you've seen several times on this blog, Pauline Creeden. I've also gotten to fill out a couple author interviews for some blogs (I'll add the links to this post when I know what they are!), I participated in an author round-table where we discussed the elements and methods of story creation (you can watch that >HERE<), and if you enjoyed that, you'll want to keep a weather eye out and watch >This Space< because that's where I'll be linking a second round-table I'm participating in, talking all about folklore and fairy tales!

There's more upcoming, and they're all going to be centered around my novella Princess of Undersea--for two reasons: namely, that's the only solo book I have out so far. My second reason brings me to my next point...

Adventures in Self-Publishing

Surprise! Princess of Undersea is getting a re-boot! Not totally... I'll just be self-publishing it, so the watermarks and whatnot need to be taken off the cover, some wording in the blurb needs to be changed... I'll also be updating my bio to reflect the current state of my writing accomplishments, AND (this is the most exciting part) ADDING THE TIE-IN STORIES AND THE EPILOGUE! That's right! The "bonus material" I have linked on the "Princess of Undersea" page here on the blog is actually going to be part of the book (if all goes well)! Perhaps not the three "Suggestion Box" stories, ("Gondu's Gamble", "Unlucky Urcellus", and "Yet You Are Young") but certainly the two "Reviewers' Tribute" stories, "Give Me What I Need" and "What Happened To Simon." Yep! You won't have to go fishing through my Facebook author page to find those anymore... and you'll finally get to read that elusive Epilogue that I've only shared with a handful of people by now!

I just need to figure out how to self-publish through Kindle Direct--I'm already in contact with a formatter who can help make the alterations on the cover and in the book itself. The main story isn't changing (well, maybe a word here or there, and some minor stuff that I wasn't confident about the first time around!) but I am pretty confident you're going to like the new-and-improved version when it comes!

Speaking of upcoming things....

Coming Soon: Clan of Outcasts, Season 3!

Say WHAAAAT?

That's right! I did close out "Season 2" with everything neatly tied off... mostly. (Sorry Justin...) And I really thought that would be the end of it. Well... There was that fanfiction where I basically pitted Denahlia against a character from another series, on another world, and created ties for her back in that world... but that was just one little fling... Wasn't it?

Those of you who were around at the beginning know that this whole thing started from nothing more than a really neat group of "character inspiration" images from an author friend I follow. (The same one who wrote the series that I fanfic'd, incidentally!) She just keeps finding these irresistible things... But at the same time, I just couldn't think of how else to use some of these images, since I couldn't very well come up with another adventure to throw these characters on...

Could I?

The answer, as of midnight on a Tuesday night (not even kidding... like I popped awake, jotted things down, and went right back to sleep), is "Why not?"

So yes! As soon as I'm finished with "Priscilla Sum", I'll be taking you all back to The Realm, where Jaran rules as king with Azelie his Queen, Prince Beren ("the Elder", as Jaran likes to add!) and Princess Zayra are working hard to develop the region once known as the "Wild Wasteland." Denahlia serves as the Harbor Watch, while Velora guards the Forest... Korsan the Mage has departed on sabbatical, and in his place, as Adviser to the King, he's left his protegee, Risyn Nysir--who has his fair share of secrets he's keeping... a new villain is on the rise, and the past refuses to stay buried...

Needless to say, I've got fresh images for old characters, and a handful of new characters to introduce to you--and even though I've got so much on my plate already, I can't wait to get things rolling! If you loved the original story, you're going to enjoy this one! If you haven't read "Clan of Outcasts" yet--now is the perfect time to start!


Wattpad Updates


Over the last couple weeks, something amazing has happened on Wattpad--Somebody commented on a fic I'd all but given up on.

The way it happened was this: way back in high school, I learned about and studied Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand. I loved the verbal repartee, the logic, the jokes... I did not love the apparent age difference between Cyrano and his lady-love, nor the fact that the play was intended as a tragedy, so it ends in death and not romantic resolution, in spite of everyone's efforts to the contrary.

However, when I was reading it, I really did start picturing it like a whole drama set at an art college--literally every character is some kind of theatrical trope! Forthwith, although I had only just started online courses for college myself, I set out to write a modern adaptation of the play. Everybody became students or staff at a college, so the age difference wasn't too drastic, and I turned it into a romantic comedy just so the guys do not both die at the end. I called it "Once Upon Love", it was cheesy, I had a really hard time "updating" a lot of the dialogue... but I gave it my best shot, and called it "okay." I wrote it and moved on with my life.

Well, a few months back, I had the itch to revisit it again. I made a cover for it, and started posting the first couple chapters on Wattpad. Nobody commented, and it didn't seem like it was getting a whole lot of views, so rather than just keep apologizing for it, I just stopped updating it.

WELL... Then that brings us to a couple weeks ago, when I suddenly received a notification of a comment and a couple upvotes on this story that I'd pretty much abandoned. "I had to read Cyrano for school and this book is in a way, helping me!" the commenter said.

OH HAPPY DAY! You mean this bucket of tripe is actually useful to someone? I did a good thing?? Turns out that was all the motivation I needed. "Once Upon Love" has been reinstated to active status... and maybe you'll read it and like it, too!

I've also got another old fanfiction that I've been posting: "The Return of MacPherson", a Warehouse 13 fanfiction. I actually based it on the pair of stories that were the first "books" I really wrote after only writing fanfiction for a couple years. I had these stories, and I did notice how there were a few details that could possibly fit within Warehouse 13 canon... and you all know how I feel about true-canon fanfiction... So I went ahead and started jotting down notes for it, promising myself that the minute the story started falling apart, I could stop... Well, I made it all the way to the end of the "fanisode" without issue, so I went ahead and wrote it--and had a lot of fun making references to a pair of stories that never actually existed. (If people start begging, though... I might be convinced to also start posting those stories... Just saying...)

Reading

Wow! Ok... So reading over the last couple months has pretty much exploded, compared to what it was for January and February. All of a sudden I don't have to choose whether to read or to write--I can do both in a day, and I think that's why both my reading habits and my writing habits have mutually benefitted. It's like that quote I saw somewhere, by literary analyst Pam Allyn: "Reading and writing cannot be separated. Reading is like breathing in. Writing is like breathing out." And it's true! If I'm reading a whole lot and not writing much, it's like my creativity is asphyxiating: a whole lot going in, not a whole lot coming out. If I try to just write a whole bunch without reading anything in between, it's like I'm creatively hyperventilating: expending too much without taking in and re-charging what I'm expending. For proper creative respiration, one must expend and recover in a balanced degree.

That being said, I managed, over the course of two months, to read a total of five ebooks: Grave Tidings by R. R. Virdi, Fortunate Son by E. A. Copen (both of those I actually read in March, but they aren't listed on Goodreads so they "technically" didn't count toward my recorded reading goal, but I am still counting them!), and in April I read A Splash of Truth by Amy Hopkins, Ugly Girl by Mary E. Twomey, and Mirrors by Rebekah Dodson. You can follow the hyperlinks for each book to see what I thought of them!


On top of that, I got through just about my entire stack of books, both the old stack and the new stack: After Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Magnus Chase and The Ship of The Dead by Rick Riordan, and Until We Meet Again by Michael Korenblit--in April I read Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik which was absolutely everything I wanted it to be. She's just so gorgeous with her folklore! The Stars Below by David Baldacci was also a book that amounted to exactly what I was expecting--which is to say, not a whole lot. It did bring things to an end, for sure--but there was something inherently alluring that is typically found in all of his adult thrillers that this series just lacked, in a big way. Who knows?

Anyway, I moved on to read Inquisitor by John and Carole Barrowman (yes, that Barrowman...) only to discover that it was BOOK 3 IN THE SERIES. And as I was feverishly wondering how I culd possibly mistake Book 3 for Book 1... I realized it was because the library didn't have the other two books in its catalog, so I'd gotten Inquisitor as the only option... when it wasn't even the start of the series!! So, with great disappointment, I had to just put that right into my bag of library returns, and move on to the others.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartmann went a long way to softening the blow, though! An absolutely delightful take on dragon-lore, and not unlike the concepts I tried to explore in my Cinderella re-telling, "The Dragon's Mark"! Seriously loved it. Which then left me with only Empire of Shadows and then Beastly by Alex Flinn to read. Speaking of the latter, the book wasn't that much better than the movie, suffice to say. It was a fluffy teen re-telling with no attempt at being subtle with its references... The whole chatroom conversations with "Mr. Anderson" and other characters (who must be references to characters from the other stories in the series) provided a kind of "updated" angle, but this whole "series" seems to center on the witch character, so I don't think I'm really up for that. I'll stand by the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer for my "fairy tale re-telling" needs!

As for Empire of Shadows by Miriam Forster, that's the last of the library checkouts I will be reading... I've already scoped out the first couple chapters and it looks to be more of a spin-off of the first novel, than an actual sequel. I'm not seeing any familiar characters at all. Maybe some will show up later, but who knows? That one, although it is from the library, is going to be a "Reader's Review" post, so you'll find out what I think of it soon enough! So beyond that, as you can see in the picture, I have Hercule Poirot's Casebook by Agatha Christie, and then, if the libraries still haven't opened by the time I finish that one, I am going on to finally finish The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks--which has been sitting with the bookmark at exactly halfway for MANY months... I guess that just shows you how desperate I am!

And so we come to the end. That's basically what I've been up to this last month, and I'll be seeing you for another one of these at the end of May! As always...

Catch You Further Upstream!