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Archive for the ‘Real Life’ Category

2023 Goals Outcome and 2024 Goals

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , on January 1, 2024| 2 Comments »

Wow. I only set myself two goals last year, neither of them had to do with writing. And I managed to fail at both of them, anyway.

I said I would do better about sweets. Well, right now really isn’t the time to talk about that. I was given far too many for the holidays. But I wasn’t doing as well as I should have been earlier in the year, either.

And I said I’d hold myself accountable with monthly posts. Yeah, that didn’t work out either.

Okay, well, it’s a new year. Last one, especially the last couple of months, did not go according to any plan I made. Frankly, I’m a little afraid to try planning anything, so many of the plans I did have blew up in my face recently.

Still . . . . I have made some progress on my Arthurian story. Not as much as I should have, but slow is better than none at all. If I can just stop finding new research rabbit holes to fall down, maybe I can get somewhere. We’ll see.

And, I have another story idea on the back burner. I real one, not the fluffy little thing I was playing with last year. Though, who knows, some other year that fluffy story may meet up with another idea that will give it enough substance to be worthwhile. This other idea already has that, what it really needs is the world building to suit the story, and that hasn’t come to me yet.

At this point, I make no promises on either, other than I will keep trying. Sometime, hopefully, the log jam will break and words will start to flow again.

Here’s hoping.

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Different Kind of Progress

Posted in Real Life, tagged , , , on June 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I’ve gotten a very little bit of writing done. I know exactly how this next scene goes, so there’s not much excuse. Except that, with a bit of help, I finally accomplished something I’d been trying to do for some time.

See, one of the things about living in an old house is, sometimes, old appliances. The washer and dryer are/were not less than 25 years old and probably closer to 30. The washer still works, with a couple of tweaks, but the dryer had given up the ghost more than a year ago. It’s okay. Clotheslines still work, in some ways better. (Well, except when it’s raining.) The mud room/utility room/pantry/laundry room is about 5 1/2 feet wide by roughly 11 feet long. And the dryer was smack in the middle of one long wall taking up 30 inches of the 5 1/2 foot width of the room. Bad enough when it was useful.

I wanted it out. But I couldn’t get the gas valve (which hadn’t been turned off probably since the dryer was installed) to budge. Finally had to ask for help. But it’s done now. The dryer is out. The washer stays, for now. But eventually I’ll replace it with a combination unit that is both washer and dryer. Still a bit of cleaning and reorganizing to do. (The only thing the dryer had been used for recently was a flat surface to put things on.) But that tiny room feels enormous with that beast out. And coming in the back door doesn’t feel nearly so crowded.

So, now, maybe I can stop fussing with trying to get that out and settle down to write. Hopefully.

Before and After pictures:

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Computer Issues

Posted in Real Life, tagged , on May 31, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Yeah, speaking of reset buttons . . . .

I restarted my computer yesterday morning and ever since it’s been throwing me into temporary accounts, which don’t have all of my shortcuts or my saved passwords (for low-threat sites like this blog) and also won’t allow me to directly access any of my files–or some of my applications. I tried restarting–which only resulted in multiple temporary accounts. Then I tried copying all of my files over to this temporary account–I can find them in File Explorer, at least. And setting up at least what I could.

Then I shut the computer off last night and . . . right back to a new temporary account this morning. Clearly, this approach is not going to work.

I’ve managed to find a set of instructions on things to try in order to fix this, so I suppose that’s next. For however long that takes.

First up is copying all of my files off somewhere safe, just in case. Then into the wonderful world of arcane computer instructions.

Wish me luck. I need it.

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Pushing the Restart Button

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , , , , on May 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Wow! Looks like I haven’t been back here in almost two months. Sorry to say, nothing much happened writing-wise during that time. And now, I’m pushing the restart button.

Truth to tell, I’d love push restart on this whole year. I imagine most everyone would. But that’s beyond my power.

What I can do is push restart on my writing. Literally.

It’s weird the way one thing will prompt another. I was attending to some mundane tasks–getting my books up on GooglePlay–when something just clicked. The reason I was not making any progress on my current writing project–well, apart from the general background stress and feeling of being overwhelmed–was that I’d started in the wrong place. Way too early. Again. That background might make it into a prequel novella some day, because it is important, but it’s way to far back from when interesting things actually start to happen.

So, restart, quite literally. I wrote the new first chapter yesterday. And it was fun! And at least a partial antidote to being overwhelmed.

The story has a new title, too. Merlin’s Gambit.

Onward.

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Free

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , , , , on March 30, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Well, I forgot to post on Sunday, didn’t I? All I can say is that time is beginning to feel a little surreal right now. Really weird to see no one on the streets and almost no cars. Trying to maintain something like a regular schedule, but . . . .

In any case, five of my books are now free for others who are also spending way more time at home than usual. We are all Safer at Home, right now.

The Shaman’s Curse is perma-free and has been for a while:

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The next four are free now thru April 12th. (Amazon has price-matched in the US, so far.)

Become: To Catch the Lightning:

BecomeCover2

Fire and Earth (with its shiny new cover):

3D computer graphics of a female warrior with fantasy dress and sword

The Bard’s Gift:

TBG New

and Daughter of the Disgraced King:

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Meanwhile, I have mostly been doing a little more research for my work-in-progress, so not much direct progress. But, if you don’t get the foundation right, it’s a lot harder to get the whole book to hang together, so not time wasted.

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Pulling Myself Back Up

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , , , , on March 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I confess to having been knocked a bit off balance last week. A lot of things happened in a short space of time. I know I’m not alone in that. It’s a new reality we’re all trying to cope with.

But this week I am committed to getting myself back up out of that slump and doing things. At least those things I can do. Some work in the yard (I did a little this morning.), some house cleaning, something creative. And figuring out how to manage or work around those that I can’t or shouldn’t do right now. (I fall into the vulnerable group as far as this virus goes.) I’m seriously tempted to restart my vegetable garden (in some other place until I can clean up the old one), even though I know nothing would be ready for harvest for at least two months.

I did manage to get the books and stories I still had in Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited pulled out and up for wider distribution. So, that’s something. And now that they’re wide–or as soon as the distribution works through the systems of the various retailers, I’ll likely start setting some of them free for a limited time. Everybody needs some form of escape right now and books seem to be one of the only safe ways. And, in times that are just as unsettled financially as they are health-wise, well, it’s something I can do to help out.

Gold Flame Dragon

And I swear I am going to get some work done on the new story. Really. I may even start working on cover art.

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Looking on the Bright Side

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , , , on March 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I haven’t really gotten any writing done recently. But, as I’m about to have two weeks off (I hope it’s only two weeks) while the schools are closed, hopefully I’ll be able to make the most of the time.

I’ll also use the time to prepare several books/stories that were in Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited. I’ll be taking all of them wide (Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc.) by the end of this month.

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Some Progress

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , , , on March 1, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I have actually started writing again on DRAGON AGAINST DRAGON. (I have to think of a better title, but the working title is fine for now.) Unfortunately, I also managed to tweak my back. Not badly, but just enough that I can’t sit for very long without it stiffening up on me. Which is probably good for my weight loss goal. And for cleaning up the back “bedroom”, finally. (It’s probably been about 30 years since anyone actually slept in there, and about 20 since there was even a bed in that room. More of a storage room, now, but in desperate need of organization.) Not quite so good for getting a lot of writing done.

Also a little progress on FIRE AND EARTH–but not complete progress.

3D computer graphics of a female warrior with fantasy dress and sword

I’ve done my part and updated everything I plan to change, but somehow it didn’t all make it through Amazon’s process. The e-book has the new blurb, but not the new cover. On the other hand, the print version has the new cover, but not the new blurb. I guess I’ll have to contact Amazon tomorrow and see if I can get that straightened out. I want to run a promotion before it comes out of Kindle Unlimited later this month, but not with the old cover.

Good news is that THE BARD’S GIFT may not need anything but a little adjustment to the back matter for its “relaunch”.

TBG New

I want to add a sample chapter or two from BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING, rather than the current chapters of DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING. THE BARD’S GIFT has more than a touch of Norse mythology and the BECOME series is inspired by Greek mythology, so that might be a good match for readers.

Not sure yet what, if anything, I’m going to do about a relaunch of DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING. It’s kind of an odd book out in my back list. I’ll probably go on to do some relaunch on the DUAL MAGICS series before worrying about that one.

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Stray Thought About Genre

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , , , , , on September 15, 2019| 2 Comments »

I failed to post on Wednesday, I know. Something came up that has had me too stressed out to write this week. I think I’ve formulated a plan, now, and maybe I’ll be able to get back to writing. Generally, once I have a plan and can get started on it, I can relax. And start writing again.

Meantime, I’ve been thinking about genre, some. Well, several things kind of came together to make me realize something. It has to do, among other things, with what genre to put MAGE STORM into.

Mage Storm

I’ve always framed MAGE STORM, to myself, as an epic fantasy, because it does have an epic problem, epic stakes. But . . . in other ways it doesn’t fit the typical epic fantasy mold.

The more I think about it, I’m not sure that’s how readers will see it. It seems to me, that readers of epic fantasy have come to expect the great climax that saves the world and then everyone can go home and get on with their lives. After all, that’s the model Tolkien set up with THE LORD OF THE RINGS, arguably the archetype of epic fantasy.

But . . . well, here’s how I see it. Tolkien fought in World War I. That’s how he saw war. The men–it is all males in LotR–put their lives on hold, go off and save the world, or their corner of it, and then go back home. Only, well, in my lifetime, that hasn’t been how war–or military conflicts, since we haven’t had a declared war–works. It goes on and on, sometimes into the next generation. And, sometimes, no one wins; they just agree to stop fighting. And, at the same time, many of the other kinds of problems we try to tackle are not the kind that can be solved in one blow.

It’s entirely natural and right that authors today should write stories that reflect our reality–even into fantasy realms we make up out of whole cloth. It’s part of what speculative fiction does–reframe realities in a different, more distant setting so, sometimes, we can take a clearer look at the issues. See the forest without being blinded by the trees.

But, there’s still that expectation of what epic fantasy will be like. And MAGE STORM isn’t going to fit that mold. There isn’t going to be one great climax where everything is solved. More like incremental steps and strategies for improvement.

So . . . I’m still left with the question. When I finally finish MAGE STORM and prepare to publish it, what genre do I call it? It’s certainly not sword and sorcery (no swords at all, for one thing). What kind of a bird is it?

 

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Bad Week

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , , , , , on September 8, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Of course this week we had hot, humid weather. In previous years, school would not have started until the Thursday of last week (Thursday after Labor Day), but, in their “wisdom”, they moved the start of school up ten days–just in time to hit what is usually the most humid part of the year, here. Naturally without making any adjustments to make that easier to deal with.

So, basically, there wasn’t enough left of me to do any writing during the week. It is cooling off–and much less humid–now. Hopefully this weather will hold for a little while.

I have gotten some writing/revising done on MAGE STORM this weekend, at least.

Mage Storm

And hope to get more done during the week, because the week after that will be busy with other things and the one after that I may be on jury duty.

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