Upstream Updates 2020: May

Life Stuff

Wow, it's the end of May already? HOW? I call do-over on April! I can't believe the whole state has basically been in a holding pattern for almost an entire season. Seriously, schools shut down just before the beginning of spring... now here we are almost into summer! At least I have warmer weather coming our way... I just need to figure out some method of getting my word count in while soaking up the sun!

Speaking of Word Count... I am still riding that high after last month's record for Most Words Written Outside Of NaNoWriMo! May is looking pretty snazzy:

Words Written: 33,000 (and still climbing)

Books Read: 3/4 (eh.... you can't win them all... I have a good excuse, okay? Keep reading to find out what it is)

Writing

Current WIP: Princess of Undersea--Revised!

So, this is probably the thing that has me the most behind, as it was taking up a whole lot more time than I anticipated, even though I basically put all other projects on hold for it... But yes, "Princess of Undersea" is getting a snazzy new re-boot! I alluded to this a little bit last month. It's not going to be a total rewrite, so if you've already got the "First Edition", you're not missing a whole lot... but then again, there were quite a few "minor tweaks" I made.

Let me explain: I knew I wanted to add things like the short stories and the epilogue to the book. In order to do that, the formatter needed me to send her the whole interior as a Word document, so she could load it into her template (or however it's done... I don't know, that's why I planned to hire somebody!). Dutifully I went back and hunted down the document I still had, of the "original" Princess of Undersea draft (or at least a few drafts in...) and--

It was at least old enough that there was quite a bit of missing material from the final version, sometimes whole scenes that I would need to add back in. I pulled out a "bum copy" of my book (I'd been signing it for a friend and not only messed up the greeting message, but also BOTCHED MY OWN SIGNATURE IN PERMANENT MARKER *facepalm* Needless to say, I'd used that copy as my "work marketing copy", bringing it with me and letting students read it if they wanted) and started jotting down notes in the margins with a pencil, of little tweaks I wanted to make... little tweaks turned into whole conversations... and pretty soon, I ended up changing a few details "here and there" throughout the whole thing!

Among the changes:

-I've made it more obvious that Ylaine's motivation is primarily focused on trying to figure out what evidence she needs to convince her father to abandon his ideas of war. It's Nayidia's idea that as long as a human is devoted to her, she can extend the time she remains human--but love is the means to fulfill her motivation of reconnecting with her father, not the sole purpose of becoming human, nor the reason she stays ashore.

-The conversation between Nathan and Ylaine when she's giving him "civility practice" by pretending to be a princess visiting from another kingdom has changed, also. This is due to a previous conversation she has, which brought up a distinction between ruling with power and ruling with wisdom. The first mention is just a comment: "King Davor has built his entire reputation on the idea that he's a very powerful ruler. No one ever mistook him for wise." But later on, when Ylaine is seeing contrasts between the way King Theodore rules Overcliff, and the way her father rules Undersea, the fact that she brings it up again to Nathan, and they discuss it a little, shows how her understanding has grown, and she's really thinking about these things. Nathan even makes the comment ,"For a fish merchant's daughter, you seem very keen on matters of state!"

-I changed the demise of the villain at the end--using the plot device of "character turning into sea foam" from the original fairy tale! As opposed to the original, which was more along the lines of "the witch tried to touch Ylaine but she couldn't, and she swam away shrieking horribly and was never seen again." SUPER LAME, I know! But much better now!

That's as much as I can reveal for now--wouldn't want to spoil too much before it's even out! Oh, and I also attached the Epilogue, so those who get the Revised Edition will be able to read that, as well!

The next phase of production would be to get everything lined up for self-publishing through Kindle Direct--I want to be able to get it all rolling as soon as the formatter finishes getting the files all done up pretty!

The Last Inkweaver

As I said before, I kind of put this one on hold while I was working on Princess of Undersea--but before I did, I really got things humming along! I managed to expand things all the way to several chapters, giving even more of a sense of what Callista's academic life was like, and improving the order of things--she's not just "someone things happen to because she's the main character", but I really feel like I've established her as somebody with something to hide, and given her more of a motivation to hide it. The dream she has about Terra's dress (which is also the moment she crossed paths with the Inkweaver, though she didn't realize it at the time) comes about because her parents warn her to stay away from Terra--and then the next day, she can't seem to get rid of her! Giving her a reason to be in the library, too, by having a teacher assign her a research project with an "approved" source, was another change that worked in the story's favor, because then it was Terra's interposition, too, that leads to her finding a secondary source, which nearly brought disapproval from the instructor... and all this provides ample motive for Callista to try and hush things up at the beginning, because she sees it as more of a liability than an asset.

I've come to the realization that this is her perspective for just about the whole first act: this strange connection to the Wordspinners that she has is a liability, not an asset. Act 2 is when she first gets to experience it as more of an asset--except that she learns this by herself and others trying and ending up abusing her ability, which almost convinces her that her initial mindset was correct--but then in Act 3, she finally learns the correct use of it, and just how valuable it is, and her mindset has grown and changed because of what she has learned over the journey. I'm learning so much more about the story in this third draft--it's wonderful, and I really think you all are going to find that this is worth it!

The tricky part is knowing how much of the original to keep--so far, it's only been small bits of it, here and there, which makes it feel like a "total rewrite", even though I keep reminding myself that it isn't. I'm hoping that as I go through I can find ways to segue back into the Draft 2 bits, just to avoid rewriting them all completely!

Anthologies: One Down, One To Go!

That's right! Starting Monday, the limited-edition anthology Myths and Monsters goes live, and you'll get unprecedented access to my short story, "The Water-Man"! I have mentioned it several times on the blog, especially when I first wrote it, exactly because I never posted it here, as I have done with so many stories in the past. Instead, I called it a "Wattpad Exclusive" in a bid to try and get readers over there to read it... but it's in the anthology now, so you'll get to see it in print! Fun Fact: even if you have already read it on Wattpad, you'll want to get the anthology anyway and read it there, because I made some pretty substantial changes to some key moments in the story, based on beta-reader feedback, and it made a much stronger story because of it! Plus, I know that the anthology includes stories by Pauline Creeden and C. A. King, whose works I've read and reviewed on this blog, so just for that, I can say for certain that you're in for a treat with this anthology!

The second anthology that is still "to go" doesn't have a release date, but I was just recently notified that it was moving ahead at long last, so I'm totally thrilled! The anthology is a second volume of stories by the same editor who helmed the anthology Cracks in The Tapestry (pictured), which had a fantasy theme to it. This one is called Warping The Tapestry, and it has a more sci-fi focus, so instead of using a pre-written story (since most of the ones I have are largely fantasy-oriented!), I took a flash-fiction piece with a "superheroes" theme to it, and used that for inspiration to write an all-new short story! It's called "Finding Her Niche" and I really hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!



Blog Serials

Prisicilla Sum is almost done! I'm excited for how far I've been able to get in the story. True, it's not quite as strong as, say, a Rick Riordan novel, but just you wait! The group is about to run into some very stiff obstacles... After all, they haven't encountered the demon yet, have they? So you still have that to look forward to. I know that at least today, maybe tomorrow, I'll be writing the part where things start to ramp up--there's arguments, and suspicious behavior that only Pris seems to notice, a thwarted escape attempt... and somewhere deep under the island, a mysterious door appears where there wasn't a door before. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile I've got most of the plot for The Clan of Outcasts, Season 3! There's going to be a sea voyage, I'm borrowing place names from one of my Flash Fiction pieces (specifically, "Gybralltyr") and there's a mansion nearby the place that I'm calling "The Roque"... because "The Roque of Gybralltyr" was just too good of an opportunity to pass up!

I've finally got names for all the characters--I'm debating whether I should do an introductory post, kind of like what I did when I first started the Clan of Outcasts series, introducing all the "Outcasts." They aren't Outcasts anymore, but there is still trouble brewing in the Realm. I think those who follow my author page on Facebook already know all the names--but if you would like to know them here on my blog, in their own posts, let me know! If you'd rather just "meet" the characters in the series itself, then I won't do an intro post. But I promise it's coming, and I think you are going to like it!

Wattpad

I... haven't been as consistent as I want to be about posting. But then again, it hasn't seemed like much of a big deal, because other readers are adding my old stories to their lists!

Once Upon Love (the "fanfic" adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac) kind of fizzled to a standstill because I realized very quickly that I'd written a drinking scene... as a teenager... having no idea how alcohol actually works or feels... so yeah, that is definitely going to need to change before I let anybody see it! You don't have to know the particulars, just know that with my current understanding of inebriation, 17-year-old me got it VERY WRONG.

Meanwhile, we're just getting to the good part of my Warehouse 13 fanfic, The "Return" of MacPherson. If only I could stop forgetting that it's Wednesday until too late in the day! The Warehouse gang has split up to figure out what went wrong at an art museum in Ann Arbor, and to try and track down the potential artifact in Chicago... Meanwhile, a certain Phantasmian werewolf has awoken and is trailing our intrepid heroes... Fun times!

The Amateur's Dungeon

Forgot I was also trying to make a foray into Dungeons & Dragons, did you? To be honest, me too--since for a while there, meeting up for a party was out of the question! I also didn't know how to proceed with our existing campaign, and I very much wanted to just be able to at least look through an actual campaign, since I didn't even know how to format an actual campaign, much less how one should be run.

Thanks to Wizards of The Coast and their "Stay At Home, Play At Home" program, I happened upon a simple little campaign, and so all that remains for us is to actually run the campaign, get a feel for what it's like to be an actual DM, and then use what I learn from that to re-vamp my own campaign to be more along the lines of a true playable experience! Already, I can identify a few things I did wrong, and how I can make it better--so that's already a step in the right direction!

Reading

After the rousing success of last month, this month's progress has slacked off somewhat--but at least I'm still on track!

With the completion of Empire of Shadows by Miriam Forster, I officially came to the end of my library checkouts. That's the main reason why I haven't read so much: I don't have as much to read anymore, and I can't "replenish my stash" until the libraries open! Meanwhile, I was also taking the opportunity to read the novellas I missed in the Verona: The Mermaid Tales series by Pauline Creeden--and both of these were not originally listed in my "official" Reader's Review TBR list, so that's a couple bonus books I've gotten through, and now I'm back on track to blaze some trails through the books I've actually listed!

Meanwhile, since it's going to be at least another month before libraries open again, I've resorted to reading the big "chonky" books I have on my shelves... which is the main reason I haven't completed very many books this month! I'm working my way through Hercule Poirot's Casebook, which is basically a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie, featuring everybody's favorite Belgian detective--it's a lot different than reading a novel, since you don't get a whole lot of backstory and intrigue, before Poirot just waltzes in, solves the case, and lays it all out. I'm also bound and determined to get through The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks--in spite of the fact that the writing is still so confusing and very dry, I still get lost a lot of times and start skimming... I've tried going back and watching Season 2 of The Shannara Chronicles on Netflix, but the more I watch it, the more it's obvious why this show got canceled! But I'm almost done with that, and then I can get onto something more enjoyable... like the handful of Baldacci books I still haven't read!

So that's where I'm at, five months into 2020--how are you doing? Let me know in the comments what you're reading/watching/writing! I'd love to hear about it. And as always...

Catch You Further Upstream!