Shining Wings of Destiny

2:23AM - Answer for question 4240.

Kingsmen was good. I thought it would be from the trailer, but it looked like it was a 'boys only club'. Turns out it was not. I don't know if they will give equal time to the women in the show if they continue with sequels (which seems likely), but it was nice to see a James Bond style story that was for everyone.

9:25PM - 26 week blog challenge: C is for Characters

C is for Character

I promised myself that by the third week of the blog challenge I’d actually buckle down and try to talk about writing. This week makes it easy with the chance to talk about characters.

Peter Beagle said he conceives a lot of characters but no matter how interesting they are he knows they aren’t for him or at least for his current story unless they speak. I thought that was a fascinating perspective. I have had that happen before as well, but most of my characters arise out of need. If I try to write a spy novel, clearly I’m going to need a spy, need to decide if the spy is a man or a woman, then the spy needs to face some kind of opposition, so need to figure out what/who/how many. The people behind that need names and personalities. What kind of personalities would they have to have to do the dastardly thing in the plot?

That’s sort of how it goes. Sometimes I’ll have a great idea for a character and forget the names that were in my head before I can get somewhere where I can write them down. Then I’m stuck trying to feel it out and remember. I will stick in placeholder names until I can recall or find something better. Whatever I use has to be good enough, though. My characters have specific names, I can’t change the name and get them to keep talking to me. If I ever have to change a name, I’d have to do it at the very end because it would, at best, change the character’s personality on me or, worse, halt the story in its tracks.

That probably seems odd to you. Well, think about this: Have you ever loved a song and heard someone do a cover of it and it sounded just plain wrong? It makes you want to rush to listen to the version you do like. Imagine you are supposed to now listen to the cover song all the time and keep going with whatever you normally do when listening to your music without missing a beat. Yeah, it’s kind of like that. It’s jarring to me and doesn’t work well.

This has an odd side effect for me. I would love, LOVE to write a story fit for someone like Tom Hiddleston to read. However, if one of the main characters doesn’t have a vocal range in my head that could blend, I probably couldn’t enjoy it! Which is sad, because it would probably cost a pretty penny to get him to do an audio book these days. It could even disrupt my ‘hearing’, at least if I weren’t done with the character’s stories. Once I’ve had enough time with a character, it might be fixed in my mind enough that it wouldn’t be a big deal, but sometimes it does bug me. Hence, I’ve been having trouble even figuring out how I would match people to do the audio versions of the books I have out.

Mind you, having a good reader with a clear voice and the ability to express the emotions of the characters and add the proper feel to the narrative is more important. Yet, I’d still feel odd if I heard it, kind of like hearing a recording of your own voice. Just feels odd and off-putting.

I suppose you were hoping to hear more about creating characters or archetypes or something like that. I had rather planned on writing something like that, but honestly, understanding that the story shapes the frame of the character is equally important. The setting wraps around the hole where the character should be and filling in the traits the character that fills that hole has effectively colors them in as if you canceled their invisibility field. Your story kernel will drive the narrative and needs. Sometimes that story kernel is based off the image of a cool character. In that case, you’ll wind up picking apart their looks, hair, clothing, tools, weapons, voice, all of it in order to figure out where they would have to be from to have those traits. A person in an astronaut’s suit will be different from one in goggles and grease as will one in a cape and cowl from another on a horse with a gun. Just realize, it doesn’t have to be hard, it doesn’t have to be perfect, if you begin spinning the story, the characters will walk on stage for you.

4:40PM - A is for Anatomy

26 Week Blog Challenge Letter A

A is for Anatomy

I have taken the 26-week blog challenge given by Tonia Brown along with several other authors. I’m not by nature one to blog about a subject, really I’m more of a ranter. Sometimes it manages to be humorous. Honestly, there is a fair chunk of my writing ideas that come from things that piss me off. Game design ideas come from things that could be better or went wrong. For reference see the art for the AD&D dragons around the early 1990’s where they started to all look alike.

Anyway, the challenge is themed with doing the alphabet. I’ve seen this done before by other writers and authors. I’ve seen it done well, in fact. Sadly that makes the bar higher and also makes it feel like an over-used prom theme. Still, it is a writing exercise and those with themes of some kind are usually good. You don’t always get to pick your theme, especially if you try to do the short story market.

Since it is week 1, the letter of the day is “A”. For me, A is for Anatomy. But rather than wax on about actual anatomy and physiology, I wanted to do one on “How to fail anatomy by trusting video games”. (I’m going to do anatomy and botany actually, and maybe a little geology; we’ll see how it goes.)

I love video games, I do, but if you were to trust them for your science foundation, you’d be a mess! Let’s jump in, shall we?

So recently I’ve been all hot on Dragon Age Inquisition. Some day I will look back at this or others might and go, “Wow, that was so long ago!” but one must face such fears and press onward.

Did you know that spiders have rib-cages? Yep. Underneath all that exoskeleton lies an internal one, at least according to this game. In fact, I think all creatures are made up of rib cage and goo according to this game. Mind you, the satisfying squish/splut noise from liquefying monsters doesn’t go out of style. Oh, and I guess they might be part gaseous as sometimes there are no ribs left behind, only a dissipating gas.

People, on the other hand, are made up of neatly folded, tiny backpacks. A friend hypothesized that there are death gnomes that steal the bodies, kind of like the hovercraft in Hunger Games. If you are around they guess at what things you might most want off of the body and leave it in a neat little package. This explains why there is no armor, weapons, etc. sometimes, just some enchanted ring or memento from home from a giant in armor wielding an axe. Don’t steal that idea, btw. The guy who came up with it has a certain set of skills. No, not those ones, worse.

Next up is Dragon’s Dogma. Did you know that carrots grow on vines just like pumpkins? In fact, almost all veggies grow on vines in this game. I will give some credit to Dragon Age Inquisition for having crops in the field that look like the actual plants do, but they get less than Elder Scrolls: Oblivion as you can harvest the veggies growing in said fields.

Weirdly enough, you can collect Morning Glory Root Pulp in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and apparently not utterly destroy the plant in the process. No, it keeps growing happily along.

Dragon’s Dogma does get props for having the potential for your character to get eaten by a hydra and ride around in its gullet for a bit before hitting the stomach. If you get swallowed whole by a large animal, you may well be alive for a time if it didn’t go through the proper effort to dispatch you.

Remember Noah and the Whale? There is a real-life account of a guy from a whaling ship who fell over and got swallowed. (It’s in a book of naval tales somewhere out there. Sadly I don’t have a copy.) The whale was caught 3 days later and when they slit it, the guy was alive in the belly! Mind you, he was not in great shape, seems stomach acid tends to bleach you a bit. Given the internal temperature of whales, I suspect this one got badly injured and wasn’t doing so hot as the guy should have baked in there. Still, it can and actually has happened. Truth is stranger than fiction, eh?

Well, I could go on all day, but I’ll stop here. Mario and turtles you are plenty familiar with. Do take time to check out Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal’s take on Pac Man.
Ciao for now.

3:06PM - Results of Experiment 1

So results of the experiment. I did not get the call and checked in myself. My MIL went to see a doctor just this morning. He wound up scoping her nose and throat and her vocal cords are partially paralyzed. (This does not alarm her as much as she had to deal with similar for a time as a child.) But the scope has made her throat even more sore. She's drinking soda in very slow, tiny sips because that's all she can manage. The doctor doesn't want to do more breathing treatments until the tests are in but she's worried the results might come a bit too late if they don't jump on it. So she will go to the hospital again if her breathing is worse. It is a worrisome situation. But I also warned her about the psychic's message in advance. We've all battened down the hatches and done what we can in anticipation of the storm. She knows she can call if anything gets worse or she is too winded to make food for herself or to run errands. All the efforts may have helped shift what was expected...but long term, the facts are still clear and Rob and I are preparing for helping with long-term care. The problem right now is more acute emergency worries. But we are all doing our best to minimize the chances and effects.

And that is all you can do if you get a head's up on a problem or even on something good-prepare for it. Enough preparation can sometimes turn the tide on something, but, like storms, some things are just *going* to happen. You hear someone shouting "timber" and a snap, odds are, a tree is going to fall. The difference is having a prediction is like that shout of "timber", it gives you a chance to get out of the way. Tree may have to fall, but if you know it is coming, sometimes you can get out of the way.

12:42AM - Testing Psychic Power

All right, here's our little experiment. I got warned that my plans to visit family this Sunday were not going to work out. A friend with psychic ability warned me to expect to have to leave on Wednesday. If what she was getting was accurate, I will get a call tomorrow afternoon about 2pm. And to that end, I have been busting tail to get my affairs in order so I can cope if this occurs. If it happens, I will report it (as soon as the crisis is dealt with and I am settled in wherever I wind up needing to be). If it isn't it's still a recorded expected event and the accuracy can be measured. Failure in such things is just as valid as success. But you have to have something to measure. So here you are. The warning was given about Thursday, June 5th 2014. And the narrowing of the time frame came Monday June 9th 2014.

Rarely is there information recorded in advance of an event so that it can be compared to later when the event occurs. The person giving the prediction has never met my family and was hesitant to say anything as it's kind of hard to deliver bad news. The person gained nothing by telling me and risked me being upset even. So it is purely they saw it and felt moved to mention it when I talked about my plans for a trip home later in the week. (I was going to check on the family member in question, but my main reason for said trip was to get a guest at our house back in time for summer classes without having to face the harrows of a long bus ride.) So if you have an interest in such things or the predictive powers of the mind/ability of the mind to extrapolate far ahead based on sensory data collected constantly, this post might be of interest to you. Just realize, my reply might take a bit as the need to leave will be due to an acute health crisis. I don't know the severity level. Sooooo, not a fun picnic but if some good can be gleaned from the situation then it might be slightly less sucky. But it is going to suck. If it happens. But I'm hedging my bet and preparing to leave out on short notice.

12:21PM - You Don't Go Into It For The Money.

You Don't Go Into It For The Money.

So I read a really rotten article about how many romance writers are females who "dabble" at writing and were reliant upon their husbands to get started. Seems that when a woman needs start-up cash, she's a 'dabbler' not a private business person. Thing was full of hearsay so I'm not going to repost it.

Instead I wanted to talk about the really horrible thing that is said to people in the U.S. at least: "You don't go into _____for the money". The only things I know of that make money right now are politics, law, and engineering. I have heard "You don't go into ____" for archaeology, nursing, writing, art, theater, teaching, retail, and animal care. I can pretty much put medicine on this list given the high debt load anymore.

So when did we need more politicians than nurses? Lawyers than salespeople? Why shouldn't ANYONE who is working full-time expect to make enough to keep themselves plus a little extra? It's insulting to insinuate that there was a secret meeting telling 'the right people' what jobs would be lucrative 20 years later. It is likewise insulting to tell someone who is doing something they are good at that they should drop it and chase whatever is hot now, even if they have no aptitude for it. Because the follow up will be "Well, you just aren't trying enough". These are both the words of the birds to the fish.

Imagine if you tried to go out tomorrow and there were no gas station attendants, no fast food servers, no cashiers or stockers in your grocery store or pet food places, none in the malls or private stores, and no mom-an-pop shops because you don't go into business for yourself to make money either. No books to read and the hospitals are empty of aid as well. I am willing to bet you will meet far more of these people than you will engineers, politicians, and lawyers. So please stop suggesting to their face or behind their back that they don't matter. And please do not respond with "oh, those jobs are for teenagers". Really? You think a teen with no experience is the first choice for store manager? Regional manager? You want someone experienced and steady. That can only be assessed over time which takes people out of that brief period of teenage working years.

We make the rules of our society. How about we value others as much as we do ourselves? Perhaps acknowledge that there is no excuse for suggesting that a 35-40 hour work week by anyone should be worth less than a living wage? You know what all this used to be called? "Good honest work." And I guarantee you that "good, honest pay for good, honest work" was appreciated a lot more just a few generations ago. It's time to appreciate the hard work everyone does and it shouldn't take someone like Mike Rowe to do it.

12:56PM - "Your Writing Process" blog tour

I got invited to the "Your Writing Process" blog tour that's been going on. My actual date was April 14, 2014 but I thought I would copy it over to LiveJournal where you can find things again unlike FB which is like adding drops of water to an endless sea. But this is what I've been up to. I've got my pair of super hero romance stories at the editor's now, the cover art is being worked on by the amazing Laura Hidalgo, and I have an appointment scheduled with the formatter to make it look shiny and unique.

Hayson Publishing did a lovely job of capturing the spooky/chilling feel of The Under-Circus and Other Tales and I'm sure my next stories will look equally fabulous. But, back to the blog tour. :)

Today is my day to carry on the Writing Blog Tour where writers and authors get to weigh in and talk about their writing process. The wondrous Elizabeth Constantopolus (probably known as Eli Constant to you) author of Dead Trees and Dead Trees 2 invited me to this. You can see her work at:

http://authoreliconstant.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/my-writing-process-blog-tour/

So you want to know how I’ve done what I’ve done. Sure. Come have a nice sit-down and I’ll tell you while it’s still fresh in my mind.

What am I working on?

Well, currently I’m mostly wrapping up 3 novels. It’s tax season and the start of convention season for me so I’m not getting to write much at the moment. What you will be seeing from me shortly is a pair of twin tales in the genre of superhero romance in my new Lost Heroes series, and then a dark romance piece that will blow you away called “Love at the End of all Things”. When I have time, I try to get a bit more writing in for the first book in the Lost Heroes series which will be more action-oriented and I am doing research to get into the headspace of a pair of characters for the next pair of twinned stories in the middle of the series.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Well, in the genre of super hero romance, it’s just Nicole Zoltack and myself so far that I know of writing this. And given some of the absolutely terrible things said about women and the super hero genre this year, I was very grateful to learn I wasn’t the only one writing in it. It isn’t that sex or romance is not brought up in comics, but that I can’t name novels that are focused on the relationship side of super heroes. We all grew up, shouldn’t our heroes be allowed to as well?

As for my other piece, “Love at the End of all Things”, it’s a startlingly dark romance. It is to others in that category what dark chocolate is to milk chocolate. My tale reaches Donner party levels of darkness. But it is romance. Instead of a delicate upward slope of a story towards a climax, my tale is like a roller coaster ride or the measuring of a rapid heartbeat; it shoots up and down with great jags. For each problem solved, a new set crop up. You don’t know if the protagonists will really make it. But the most surprising difference is that the protagonists of this tale, Thomas and Cassidy Charm, are married. Most romances are about boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl (or vice versa) but mine shows you what a healthy, loving relationship is like when it is put under extreme duress. All couples face challenges, whether it is the loss of a job, a home, or dealing with a serious illness, trouble comes along. This couple is a true partnership. When one is down, the other rises. They work together as a team and complete each other. And that tale is rarely told, even with the plethora of romantic stories out there.

Why do I write what I do?

Honestly? I missed LARPing. That is Live-Action Role-Playing. I loved storytelling, although I needed the assistance of rules lawyers to make sure it ran smoothly. Writing is another way to let those stories out. I am also blessed with a husband who is a writer. He won my heart with his writing skills! But I didn’t expect to take this path for myself. However, taking this step has been a great joy and pleasure to me. I am surrounded by amazingly talented and wonderful authors and feel truly welcome and embraced by them. It is quite wonderful.

Aside from that, I learned to write horror and romance because that is what there were calls for. I actually love to read fantasy and urban fantasy. But I can’t seem to write it…yet. Horror came to the quill quite easily. I suspect it comes from channeling the difficulties faced in daily life. Romance, I had a hard time getting down. My first attempt was edited at least ten times. TEN. And it’s going to get yet another proof-read before it comes out in its final form. But I did learn how to do it, and I spend a lot of time trying to push my own writing limits. So expect a lot of eclectic pieces from me. Each thing I try expands my abilities and the things I master become arrows in my storytelling quiver. And no matter what your style–you have to push yourself to improve. You owe it to yourself and your audience. However, editors can help a great deal in speeding up the learning process.

And finally, it’s fun. Learning to write is like learning any other job, it takes time to get the hang of it. You have to retrain your brain to put ideas into written form, to sit there and solve the puzzles you come up with, and to keep going forward even when it is hard. Writing doesn’t just come to you. You have to chase it. Once your brain starts to make new connections and pathways for writing, it gets easier. So don’t give up until you give it at least a solid month of effort. Write a little (or a lot) every day while you are learning how to do it.

How does our writing process work?

It varies wildly with me. I even wrote a short guide of tips on writing fan-fiction with an outline method using a skeleton. It’s cute and I really do use that for planning out the story arcs in a LARP. But I use it only a little in my usual writing. Ideas come in a flash, sometimes as a concept but often as a scene. I will then either research the living daylights out of it or just start writing. And sometimes too much research bogs down the writing process. I have 70 pages of notes for stories that are only 2 pages long so far. Hopefully they will see fruition. But at some point I will sit down and make sure I have a road map of where my characters are going. Sometimes I need to bounce it off a friend, sometimes I work up an outline alone. But the important thing with any outline or set of notes is that you need to have wiggle room in it. Quite often, your characters will do what they want no matter what you planned out. And you don’t get much say. That’s why you have authors sobbing as they hit the keys to kill off a beloved character. The characters run the story. You are almost a field reporter more than a writer. The characters dictate it.

Peter Beagle once said, “I know which characters to use when they speak to me. If they don’t have a voice of their own, no matter how much I like them, I know they aren’t meant to be in my story.” And there is a lot of truth to that. I’ll get a nugget of an idea, and start shaping a character around the needs of the story kernel. Once that character is fleshed out, if it starts talking, has a definite and clear style and presence, I know we are on our way. Another thing for me is names. I feel that names are very important to stories and should match. If a character tells me his or her name, even if I don’t think it’s a good match, I can’t change it. They will stop talking to me and the story will end. Any such changes have to be done afterward. Likewise if I have to do revisions against his or her nature, I risk not being able to continue. So I often have to be pretty far along before I can let others read my work.

I guess the other important thing about my style is that I do not write every day. That’s right. I do not do that. My brain won’t put up with it. My style is when I’m in the zone to write between 8-12 hours a day and even up to 16 hours when I’m facing a deadline. But once I’m done with it, I am done. I need to utterly break away, do other things and recharge. And I have had good success doing this. But it is how I do a lot of things in my life. You have to know yourself and be honest about it. I also discovered I write best at night. There are fewer tasks available to distract the brain so I can usually focus. I have a habit of becoming verbose at night as well. This is great for getting words onto the page. Sometimes being tired can help if you are frightened about doing query letters or biographies or summaries. Tiredness dampens fear so you just get it done. You can always revise later. But you have to get the words down first. And that is the secret to all writing: Get the words down onto the page. Start with putting that spark of an idea onto paper or into a computer document. You know you have little details that follow it, so put them down as well as they come to you. If you keep it all locked up in your head, it’s of no use to you or anyone. Put it onto the page. That act is what separates the writers from those who want to write. You have to write. Then go back and edit or entrust it so someone else to get it to completion.

And if you have trouble taking criticism, try writing for a contest. Knowing I had to beat the best of the best made me want to see my pieces come back looking like they had been on a slasher film set. I wanted them to bleed red with corrections, because every tiny improvement increased my chances of winning. And once you are used to that mindset, it isn’t so hard to keep it going for making your story be the very best it can be for your readers. Don’t forget that authors can only catch about half of their own errors. You need editors. And you will find them by getting to know other authors, getting into writing groups…or submitting. Even rejections help you see how close you are to hitting a bull’s-eye. And it’s a chance for a free opinion or edit job if you get accepted or even very close. Make the most of it. And caffeine is your friend along with some sort of distraction game or toy for when you have to distract yourself to think up solutions to puzzles. Just keep at it, and keep writing.

Thanks for coming by and reading my post. Next week I have lined up Chad Clark, Martin Spernau, and Lee Murray.

Chad A. Clark is an independent author specializing in genre fiction, mostly horror and science fiction. He is a life long writer with a deep love for language and his craft. His debut book, Falling To Dark is a collection of short stories coming out this May and he hopes to have his first novel published by the end of the year. "

www.bakedscribe.net/

A poet of the multi-verse, Martin Spernau's palms show two parallel life-lines, one of which is fading as he loses his physical sight, while the other shows his ability to portray the whimsical science of the fantastic with true insight and vision.

http://traumwind.de/tindertraum/

Lee Murray

Once, in a galaxy far far away, Lee Murray dreamed of natty suits with shoulder pads and a brilliant career in science management. Instead, she wound up globe trotting with her husband for a time and she tried out a few other career hats before turning to writing which has allowed her to wear her pajamas until lunchtime. Now she is the multiple Sir Julius Vogel Award winner and lives with her husband and teenaged children near the ocean in New Zealand.

www.leemurray.info

1:48AM - Publishing an Anthology

I have about a week to go back and forth with my editor and my husband for an anthology I'm putting together to release for Valentine's Day during the "Eat Your Heart Out" event on F.B. It's full of horror themed stories, going from humorous, to chilling, to scary. It's going to be an interesting experience as I need to get the bits finished and stitched together this week and learn the various ebook publishing sites about the same time so I can have it available for everybody. But...it is fun, it is neat to delve into the learning process of this new publishing sea.

The book will be called "The Under-Circus and Other Tales" and the cover art is magnificent. Really. I love it and am amazed that Jeffrey Kosh managed to hit the nail pretty well on the head given the parameters I gave him. The cover has the Ringmaster from the titular stories of The Under-Circus. It had to be a circus at night in the background, and he did it. I'm so pleased, I can't give him enough credit. (Some of the other authors who use him were drooling this pic is so good!) And it's for my husband's piece which makes me really happy. He's been writing for years, I'm the newcomer. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have tried. But-it's fun. And I get to hang out with some of the coolest people in the world. Authors.

So if you are bored on Feb. 14th, come hang out with me online and nearly 30 authors during the 24 hour period. We will post interviews, do some discussion panels, and even video-jockey a bit. So if you like horror, zombies, or post-apocalyptic stories-come meet some of the authors. Valentine's Day can be a downer sometimes. And not everyone is into flowers and chocolates. If you want to talk about scary books and films, you want to be there with us. :)

Did I mention I'm stoked about it? Yeah. This is really cool.

8:43PM - So what if you threw a party and everybody came?

I was looking for Arcadia et Al, but I guess she deleted her account. Pity, I was hoping to hit her archive of life as a publisher. I shall have to check her Word Press. But in the meantime, I should update.

I finished a novel for a contest that is in judging currently and as the end date creeps closer I can't help but get excited. This is bad because I need my brain to focus on the piece I'm working up *now* for submission for another one. Since it isn't out yet I will mention the competition here as there is time for people to jump on the bandwagon. Go search for Dark Crystal Author Quest and get in on it. Yes, that is what you think it is, they are looking for a prequel novel and it is open to *anyone*. How cool is that?

So I'm still slogging on my submission and time is running out. Editors are standing by! And I have 2 more pieces to get done before Christmas! (Yeah, how did I fill up my year with writing projects suddenly?) But I have no complaints. :)

Both of my stories to Firbolg got bumped up to the anthology and it comes out in January as will the Dynatox Ministries "Witches!" anthology. It's a bizarro anthology created to help raise money for a convention. A lot of it is shocking style stories, I think I squeaked in with weird as it's a reach for me.

But let's get to the titular story shall we? Some of the people I know weren't doing great, being an indie author can be rough, as it is for editors and the like as well. So I tried to promote a few zombie titles on my author page to help out with the tag, "Feed the Zombies". That sounded kind of good, I thought. I wondered if more could be done with it.

Then I got talking to Timothy W. Long, seems I said, "Looking forward to your new Z-Rising series". He let me know it was "Z-Risen" but he liked "Z-Rising" more and was torn about changing the title! Ha ha ha. Well, we had some good natured banter and I asked him about doing something for the zombie authors with the "Feed the Zombies" tag. He really liked it, started an event and it was 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. I invited 5 authors, he invited 5 authors, cool.

Within 4 days we had 32 authors wanting onboard and a good 71 people on the page as supporters. We had to split the event and move some of the authors onto a second event as we couldn't list all the covers or accommodate everyone in the first event. By the end of the week we were over 400 strong and I got to take part in a zombie radio show!!! Z-radio's Zombiepalooza which is on Friday nights at 10pm EST if you ever want to catch it. (There are actually 3 zombie radio shows out there. I had no idea!) We ended with upwards of 800 people at our online event on November 27, 2013, the day before Thanksgiving in the U.S. (Which is a great mnemonic for zombie events, heh.) So, yea, I come up with lots of crazy ideas all the time. They don't usually take off like that.

So we will be having the overflow event February 14, 2014 with "Eat Your Heart Out" on FB for the authors who got missed in the first round or who want to return. I hope it does well for them also. By then the judging for my story will be over and I might have something I can share in the event!

I never dreamed I'd be hanging out in the author community and making so many friends inside it. But let me tell you, it's a great place to be. Come join in, the water's fine!

2:40AM - Busy, busy bee!

So we closed the store and I have thrown myself into writing again. I have the little fan-fic writing guide up on Amazon for the Wartooth Arena contest. And I just penned the words "the end" on a superhero romance. Sadly, it is not long enough to submit to the publisher I want to send it to. So I am plotting out a second half for a "later on down the road" segment of the tale.

I've gotten into some online writing groups and they are great. I am trying to work on some more contest pieces that will be taxing the heck out of my new skills as I have to come up with 2 1/2 novels by December. The first is due by October 1st and I am on chapter 2. That is 3,000/50,000 word. But I must try! The prizes are worth it! So I'm not exactly suffering right now, in fact I kind of like this gig a lot!

Firbolg Press accepted a couple of my short stories and they will appear in one of their anthologies this January. So I'll have something else to point to for my writing credits then. Right now, I'm just trying to keep putting words on the page. Miss a lot of you here so I'm throwing this tidbit of news together for those of you who might still remember me! Heh! But things are okay right now on my end. I hope all of you are fairing equally well. Peace out!

4:48AM - Rising Star

I have had my second short story accepted and have a third out in the aether being judged. The third one is for a paying site so I am extra nervous on that one. It is a tier I haven't reached yet. I have had to write a third bio already and was asked if I had an author's page. I didn't expect this problem. I am a pretty small fish and frankly, I never considered what I would have to face if I actually started getting published!

Long story short: I made one.

Now I have to figure out what to put on it since I really don't have a lot o' content. Damn, I guess that means I will actually have to start producing stories! Ha ha ha! And there is a nifty writing competition I want to enter that is like a multi-part writer's combat thing that sounds like a lot of fun. We shall see how that goes.

This week is the final stripping down of our first storefront though, so it is good to have more positive things to dwell on. I'm slowly getting my back issues sorted out but after months of chiropractic visits I want to go *do* things and it is still pretty easy to over-torque it. On the plus side, I can take full strides without having my back give out on me. Yeah, I did a number on myself. I'm getting up to being just "out of shape" instead of injured. But I have to keep pushing the boundaries some in order to start strengthening the muscles again. It's a fine line, let me tell you. But it is working and I am happy to be improving. I have to start listening to my body instead of forcing it to work when it hurts. Not getting any younger, but I can feel it by taking better care of myself.

Well, not much more for now. I need to get back to writing. And given the time, that is just about over for tonight! I wish you all well out there, and keep pursuing your dreams.

11:23PM - Better than expected

I had my first short story accepted, as I probably mentioned. It was supposed to go up in the May Rogues' Gallery for Firbolg Publishing. I was waiting to hear more, but finally visited the site.

The picture of the month that we had to write an interpretation of was up, as were 2 other stories, but mine was not present. So I scrolled back up and read this:

"The first round of stories for The Rogues Gallery are in! Congratulations to Joshua Skye and Carina Barry for their outstanding flash fiction. They will be appearing in the January anthology release. We have two gruesome stories for our web site feature to give you a taste of what is to come!"

from: http://www.firbolgpublishing.com/the-rogues-gallery-vultures-vultures-vultures/

That means my story got picked as the best of the best for the end of the year anthology. So I am a little floored. I am sorry that I can't link people to my story as planned...but not too sorry! ;D I guess it is something for everyone to look forward to for New Years. ^-^

1:08AM - The Big Update

I guess I have a lot of ground to cover. Today is wonderful and terrible, joyful and shocking. I'm starting to feel like a character in a book! But it's not as good a read since a lot of it is internalized. Today was a good day for sales at the store, which was uplifting. I got a piece of the Procyon puzzle figured out and another chunk done on a wall map/scroll (its on butcher paper don't get too excited) mapping out how all this research falls out. (Writers/Researchers, invest in butcher paper! You still have to do all that work, but it looks cool on your wall and is fun to play with.)

I got through the day, but my leg is telling me it is displeased. Aspirin/Ibuprofen wasn't cutting it so it's onto alcohol which does a great job on muscle pain with few side effects. I was in better shape tonight than yesterday so I managed to make dinner, red curry chicken sprinkled with cheese. Tasty! A bit hot! (drinking more of the beverage...whee!)

And then there is the news about the extinction of the black rhino subspecies. I've wanted to work with and save animals since I WAS FIVE!! But by the time I finished college, so did everyone else. So I have to come at it at an oblique angle. That is still a work-in-progress. Hopefully I will get it to bear fruit. Then I will use some of what I make off of it to help fund measures to save the animals I love so much.

Last but not least, the amazing guest of honor who looked at my writing sample at Penguicon and gave me a couple of exercises to try looked at my first one and gave me feedback already! How incredibly nice of him! I didn't expect an answer so soon but it's wonderful to have it. I am seriously considering using these exercises to write with for the long term. They might be a great way to escape stuck scenes and remove clunky sections. So tonight I hope to tackle the second half and then maybe play around with some character concepts that were floating around in my head today. I may have enjoyed writing in someone else's sandbox for an exercise, but unless a miracle happens, I can't really do anything with this piece...except turn it into a running gag, which I TOTALLY am doing, but that does not make money. (But amusing the crud out of yourself is priceless, right?) So time to start putting this knowledge to use in-between the mammoth-sized project.

I got my first short story accepted on Thursday (4/25/13) by Firbolg Publishing and it will appear in the Rogue's Gallery next month! It's a free press so check it out if you like gothic horror. I had set a resolution on New Year's Day to get published this year. I submitted some haiku's that very evening and one was accepted for a Valentine's Day collection called "Haiku for Lover's: An Anthology of Love and Lust". Oh heck, I'll throw a link in here. My name is listed in the book description with the other authors! So exciting! So lots of things have been going on and I figured it was high-time I updated.

Our first store-front will be closing at the end of this month as it is in a bad location. We've learned a lot and days like today show us that we could probably make it work elsewhere, but we aren't in a position to pull that off right now. The goal for now is to get the husband moved back home from his work exile period and get the house sorted out. Then maybe in a year we will be able to try again. Still, we learned a lot and survived it all so we will still count it as a win. And I am starting to meet and hang out with more authors both online and off which has been wonderful, inspiring, and amazingly helpful. So love to all of them, and love to all my friends here. Ciao!

2:35AM - The best day ever.

Today was the Grand Opening of our store. We were going to have an event anyway and we had been dreaming of doing something big for 12-21-12 for a long time since our main mascot is a quetzalcouatl. So we went for it.

We already had a wonderful gift in that our semi-adopted son showed up on our doorstep on Thursday to be there at the Grand Opening. Since he had not even called for Father's Day, my husband was not expecting anything like this. Indeed, he was moping and hating the holidays since he rarely gets anything he asks for at Christmas. He felt quite unloved. Then here is our little protege on our doorstep. He sacrificed ALL of his Christmas gifts by asking only for gift cards to have enough gas to make it down. This was wonderful. One of our friends from Michigan would see our first store which was set up in Southern Ohio. It would have been enough. But that isn't what happened.

Late in the day, as the first real snow hit on the first day of winter, I was talking with a reporter for one of the local papers when in walks our best friends with tot in tow. They kept it secret from us that they were coming to be there for the Grand Opening. Our hearts sang. I could not have asked or desired a better Solstice or Christmas gift. And even my Mother called today which was even more icing on top. Other friends who could not come texted us. It has been the best day ever. Our friends came for our store's Grand Opening, but in truth, our friends came so that on the day the world might end, we would spend it together. May you be blessed with friends and loved ones who would move heaven and earth to be with you on such a day.

It is around 2:00am now and after coming home at 1:30am I halted my car and dug out the driveway for my husband and myself. Then I went and shoveled a few of the neighbor's drives. When you are this happy, you want to share it. I hope they are pleasantly surprised in the morning and that the wave of happiness continues to be passed on. And I wish all of you as wonderful a gift as I have received this year. Peace be to you all.

2:14PM - Cloud Atlas, NaNoWiMo, and Writing

It has been awhile since I posted here and I miss it. My days are busy as I did get my store opened. Unfortunately, it is not doing well at all, however, the conventions have been fantastic. But relying on the conventions to keep the store afloat is like gambling. One bad convention and the house of cards comes tumbling down. But I have a spare moment so I am updating. I miss all of you!

I want to see Cloud Atlas. It is supposed to be fantastic and very thought provoking. It is from the people who brought you The Matrix. But it has very few showings left since Twilight's last movie has come out. I can go to PA or wait until I am back in Michigan and have a reeeeaaally long Thanksgiving. I think I will aim for the latter!

And it looks like my brother-in-law, Chris, is attempting the NaNoWiMo. I wanted to but with the store, writing at all has been its own challenge. My book is sitting at 2,045 pages, with 341,659 words. But it isn't a very accurate gauge yet as much of it is framework that will be changed massively as the gaps get filled in properly. So the word count will go down and then up.

The really sad thing for me right now is that I have a food section and I have permission from All-Recipes-dot-com to use them as a reference. But I have to let them know which recipes of theirs I have used. I have no idea right now as I use several sources at once. So I see a new word file in my future listing which foods come from which sources specifically. It will get a bit strange when I wind up referring to myself as some are my own creations getting mentioned. (Mind you, I am not listing recipes, just suggested dishes.) Still, you would not believe how many files I have to have open at the same time to track this gargantuan beast! Still, I will cheerfully admit, it is a good problem to have!

3:33PM - Shining Wings of Destiny

It has been a long time since I have posted. My husband and I are about to get our first storefront! I wasn't expecting to do that this year, indeed, after the fiasco of trying last year and getting turned down for a loan (right at the August 2nd debt ceiling crisis), I had shelved the idea for awhile.

This year was supposed to be about getting Quetzalcoatl Con merged with Northern Michigan Anime Con. So this September we will be a part of NMA vs. the End of the World Con, which is a large enough event to worry about! But we are supposed to run one of the Magic the Gathering tournaments and I suddenly could not order Magic the Gathering cards without a store front.

So in the process of looking for a commercial location that we could use the address of, we found a spot we might actually be able to make a go of. So that is very exciting! Then of course there are delays, problems, and hang-ups that are not so exciting. But working to put the place together has been therapeutic. We have a store! So I guess we can both kiss sleeping goodbye. Heh. We are just waiting on the final inspection to make us official. I am hoping that will come on Monday or Tuesday. Then we can see how well our anime/games store does here in Ohio. (Yeah, we are a little far from our home in Pontiac, Michigan here in Newton Falls, Ohio!) But whatever works, works.

Rob is stuck here for another 17 months or so for work, then we can see what our options are to move. Wish us luck! After nearly 5 years, we are achieving our dream-without the banks help.

5:59PM - Beware, I carry a loaded pen

So I am in the middle of cleaning and a touch of packing right now. While clearing a table I came across a poem I wrote right around Thanksgiving/Early December. It's called, "Beware, I carry a loaded pen". It is still in a pretty raw state, but I like it. It is full of fun and power so it is hard to pick it apart as much as I should. But hey, if you actually LIKE something you wrote, don't knock it! Ha ha ha! I know I was feeling pretty good the day I wrote it, although I can't remember why. Perhaps it was having my husband up to visit, perhaps it was getting the Christmas/Solstice shopping out of the way. Maybe I was just rocking at a video game, I really don't recall. (Hmm, it might have been when the Marriott started trying acknowledging that they screwed up...seems likely.) But I know I felt good. And the poem captured some of that moment and holds it. So I enjoy it and I hope you do as well. Here is "Beware, I carry a loaded pen":

Beware, I carry a loaded pen.
My mind is full of ammunition
And my thoughts fly like bullets.
I load them into my pen
And spray them all over the page
Or sometimes I pause, and with careful thought,
Squeeze off a single shot with the words I jot.

Some call me author, writer, storyteller, or bard.
I am all of these and more.
Gangs let bullets fly and see who lives and who dies.
With my words I can make you die
A thousand deaths in the eyes of each passerby.

Be aware that words are power
And can make kingdoms and fortunes
Rise or fall, and then,
Beware of me, I carry a loaded pen.

12:57PM - December 2011

I still have nightmares about the stupid dentist. I think I preferred the one I had the other day about trying to get Stevie Wonder's autograph and missing my chance. C'est la vie I suppose. The weirder thing was that a few days prior I dreamed I got Barack Obama's autograph and saw a poster saying Stevie Wonder was coming to the college campus soon. Then I wind up having the dream about the Stevie Wonder autograph. So my mind gives me upcoming previews of future dreams? Weird. And here I thought that the serial dreams where I was effectively watching a movie for 3 days was unusual. Wish I could catch the re-run of that one. It was a good film! Ha ha ha ha!

Well, am planning to go to Ohio to stay with my husband for most of his exile due to work. I will be wandering up enough to keep my residency but this being apart for 3 years is sucking. I broke at about 7 months. Heh. ;)

I am hoping I will make better use of my time there. Get my book finished and hopefully some serious inroads on my card game. At least my friend and I have been back at it, hashing out the second tier. I will have to leave her a bunch of info so we can figure out a comfortable way to work on it over the internet. Might be time to learn to Skype. Must talk to the techie friends since we have the equipment. (I swear I just heard one of the cats open a door. >-> Who's been passing out opposable thumbs? Hmm, maybe they were just playing next to a door that wasn't closed well.)

I've sent my reference books down already. Have to box up my allotment of "other" books for my own enjoyment. This will be a bit harder. Only 2 small bookcases to use. Hmm. :/
Still, that isn't so bad. Most of my very favorite books have a much smaller, tall shelf they occupy. I just won't be able to quote passage and verse on some of my reference ones.

My husband is hoping to use the cutting back to better evaluate what we have and cut away some of what we don't need/don't use. It does include books. (Sounds like sacrilege I know.) But we were hoping to donate some to the Occupy Wallstreet movement in Detroit. Now it doesn't sound so bad does it? ;) That part of the movement has managed to stay peaceful and not only offers a bookmobile, it has been feeding the homeless. It is people trying to help people again. This still moves me.

So if we must be banished, some good should come of it. One of my pack-rat friends is doing a massive over-haul so I have a good inspiration to keep at it myself. I just don't know where to start again. It feels a bit unreal, I am here and suddenly I will be there even though this is my house. So strange. Maybe I will have a friend over to keep me company. It might help. <3 So later, all my LJ friends!

12:24PM - Icarus and the lightning bolt

Well, Rob and I got the minimum amount we were told we needed to get an SBA loan. I copied all the paperwork, filled out all the financial forms. I SPENT $10 just on the photocopies and that did NOT include our 28 page business plan. But in the meantime, our advocate, Ryan Curtis, left Comerica. We liked him, he knew us, he knew our business and was on our side. The new person we wound up with looked at us with dollar signs in her eyes and handed us the paperwork for an unsecured Comerica loan.

I did not take that well. We didn't spend 3 years building up our business and getting what we were told we needed to get handed an "unsecured" loan packet. But Ryan had given us the SBA paperwork online some time ago so I used it and mailed it to the bank as I was off to visit my husband. (Add another $6.50 just to mail this monster.) It got turned down for applying for a location in Ohio from a bank in Michigan. Seriously?

So I seek out a bank in Ohio. I drive 2 1/2 hours one way to meet the guy and discuss the business and what we need. He tells me to come back once the packet of information gets sent back to me. I get it after I arrive home from my visit with my husband. I drive another 2 hours one way to have the guy pull out 2 pages and tell me that my projections are too high and that if we already had a store worth $100,000 he MIGHT loan us $25,000. Really? REALLY? I waste 2 days and $100 dollars in gas to have the guy utterly brush me off?

The next few days left me in a real funk. We have been working towards this goal for THREE YEARS and just get told to "keep at it"? Really? The business is carrying no debt, the projections are based on the numbers our competitors make, some of them don't even run credit cards! And my projections are "too high"? So if you see the news telling you the banks are still lending to small businesses, it is a lie. Or at least they aren't working with new businesses.

Just when we thought we were ready to fly, we get hit with a lightning bolt. So what now? Well, we will be able to get a convention vehicle in November and I think we will get a nice car wrap and brand it. We will continue to hit the larger conventions and I will work on my book, the card games we have sitting in the wings, and get a better paying, part-time job for the next 2 years and move in with my husband in Ohio. At the end of that we should have enough to do something more. And if anyone knows Ryan, please let me know if he is at another bank. I'd rather follow him than use anyone else for getting a loan.

When my husband and I can stop paying for 2 living locations we will actually be doing pretty well. But money later isn't money now to the bank. Even with increasing our sales 28 fold over 3 years in a bad economy isn't enough to show it is a good risk. I had tried to beat Mercury Retrograde to get the loan process started but failed. I'm sure it didn't help but losing our advocate hurt the most. We miss you, Ryan!

2:48PM - State of Things Address

Well, I have been tied up a lot with conventions and whatnot and thus have not updated for awhile. What's new? Well, I've just finished up vending at Michicon and will be at JAFAX next I believe. The tax return got used to get the bills caught up instead of going directly to getting the store front. That was a painful thing to do, but it will help our credit which will make us look more attractive to give a loan to. We have managed to squirrel away 1/4 of what the return was and 1/8 of what I need to go for the loan itself. The goal is to get it this year.

That being said, the IRS decided I somehow made a LOT more money last year doing this than I recall. So they want a little over $200 more from us. Since it is for the closed business name that is linked to closed business accounts I think it would be harder to fight it than pay it. It is really annoying since I could use every penny of that for getting closer to the physical store, but hey, the state is broke. Do you hear that GE? You could try *paying* your taxes and not taking money on top of NOT paying and the state might actually do quite well. But I digress.

I have seen the Mecca of book keeping...or at least for me. So I am trying to prepare myself to imitate it. But for some reason the Hyperbole and a Half segment on "This is why I'll never be an adult" keeps popping into my mind. At least in reference to my organizational abilities. Here, go see it for yourself! ^-^
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html