For those of you who normally follow my sporadic blog posts, you may have noticed I neglected this month's IWSG day. I got hit with the plague, okay, maybe not quite that, but that wicked cold/flu hybrid thing from hell. I've been mostly in zombie mode since last Tuesday when I contracted this lovely condition from my husband who picked it up from someone at one of his gigs the weekend before. And now my daughter has it too.
PSA time, if you're feeling like hell, or like you're coming down with something, for the love of all that's holy, stay home and keep your germs to yourself. Do not go out and infect the musicians who then have to cancel their upcoming gigs and possibly the couple hundred other people who will be in the germ zone with you. As much as we love to see everyone, that's just not a cool thing to do.
So yes, we've both been sick all week. Much nasty coughing, heavy chest congestion, many rounds human furnace vs. chills, headaches, and so much more. I left my bed for a couple hours yesterday to go be a zombie on the couch. Today I've mostly been in my comfy chair. Not that I'm writing like I want to be, my head hurts to much for that, but I've been getting a lot of things cleared off my Netflix watch list. So hey, that's something I can do with one eye shut and a hand pressing on my temple.
According to my husband's recovery rate, I've got about two more days of this before any major improvement. Mmmm goody.
Stay tuned for a guest post from Nick Wilford later this week with his new book release. Until then, I hope you stay healthy!
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Sunday, January 13, 2019
The Narvan, A Smidge of Optimism, and Aquaman
It's January. A new year. I make no promises to blog more often or more regularly, but I may be inclined to make an effort to try. Low expectations mean I can't let myself down, right?
I saw Aquaman today. It was awkward. I wanted to like it. It was pretty to watch, both the actors and visual effects. But the dialogue...oh man. The corn and cheese factor was pretty damn high. So many jokes fell flat. The plot was so predictable. I wasn't expecting to be wowed by a deep plot or emotionally invested in the characters - and that was a good call. Did I mention that underwater scenes were stunning? The acting itself was good, there was also plenty of shirtless eye-candy and it did have a few humorous lines of dialogue. Look at me finding nice things to say.
Beyond thinking about seeing Aquaman, the first two weeks of the year have been spent polishing two short stories for submissions and working on book 5 of The Narvan: The Minor Years.
Book 5? What the hell! Book 1 isn't even out yet! I know. I know. It will be shortly - I'm assured by the publisher. I like to plan ahead...sort of. Having finished what I wanted to do with books 1-4 to tell the story I'd set out to do, I realized there was more, but couldn't put my finger on how to go about it because the MC's arc was complete. I tried three different starts since finishing book 3, because this has been on my mind for a while, but none of them took off. Then, I'm working on an entirely different book, and breaking for a short story with a timeline submission window, and bam, book 5 hits me! Creativity is like that sometimes.
To make things confusing, because I'm like that, book 5 actually takes place between books 1 and 2 but doesn't impact the main story arc and is told through different POV characters. I'd say it's aimed at readers who want more once the main story is complete, or maybe it's just a self-indulgent project that only I will enjoy. But I'm writing it either way because I need to get busy with the final edits on Book 2: Chain of Grey. The Minor Years happens between books 1 and 2, I want to flesh out a few things in TMY and be able to use them in the opening of COG. The current opening of COG would benefit from a few more concrete details of what has transpired after the end of book 1 to where we pick up in book 2. Because these books to actually end. I'm not a fan of major cliffhangers in a series.
Writing book 5 has also given me the opportunity to get back into Anastassia's head. The first four books are all in Vayen's POV. In the earliest versions of Book 1, Anastassia was the POV character, but I was having a hard time getting past all her attitude and quite frankly, she was being a bitch, even to me. Since she was a little (lot) to high on herself, I put her on the sidelines and got into Vayen's head instead. The story took off and that was that. It was a massively painful rewrite to change over that first book, but I can't imagine it any other way now. She's mellowed now. We've come to an understanding, her and I, made our peace after the major shift in storytelling. All in all, I'm happy with it so far.
Now, I'm off to work on The Minor Years. More on Trust in my next post, which hopefully be sooner than later. Woo, optimism.
I saw Aquaman today. It was awkward. I wanted to like it. It was pretty to watch, both the actors and visual effects. But the dialogue...oh man. The corn and cheese factor was pretty damn high. So many jokes fell flat. The plot was so predictable. I wasn't expecting to be wowed by a deep plot or emotionally invested in the characters - and that was a good call. Did I mention that underwater scenes were stunning? The acting itself was good, there was also plenty of shirtless eye-candy and it did have a few humorous lines of dialogue. Look at me finding nice things to say.
Beyond thinking about seeing Aquaman, the first two weeks of the year have been spent polishing two short stories for submissions and working on book 5 of The Narvan: The Minor Years.Book 5? What the hell! Book 1 isn't even out yet! I know. I know. It will be shortly - I'm assured by the publisher. I like to plan ahead...sort of. Having finished what I wanted to do with books 1-4 to tell the story I'd set out to do, I realized there was more, but couldn't put my finger on how to go about it because the MC's arc was complete. I tried three different starts since finishing book 3, because this has been on my mind for a while, but none of them took off. Then, I'm working on an entirely different book, and breaking for a short story with a timeline submission window, and bam, book 5 hits me! Creativity is like that sometimes.
To make things confusing, because I'm like that, book 5 actually takes place between books 1 and 2 but doesn't impact the main story arc and is told through different POV characters. I'd say it's aimed at readers who want more once the main story is complete, or maybe it's just a self-indulgent project that only I will enjoy. But I'm writing it either way because I need to get busy with the final edits on Book 2: Chain of Grey. The Minor Years happens between books 1 and 2, I want to flesh out a few things in TMY and be able to use them in the opening of COG. The current opening of COG would benefit from a few more concrete details of what has transpired after the end of book 1 to where we pick up in book 2. Because these books to actually end. I'm not a fan of major cliffhangers in a series.
Writing book 5 has also given me the opportunity to get back into Anastassia's head. The first four books are all in Vayen's POV. In the earliest versions of Book 1, Anastassia was the POV character, but I was having a hard time getting past all her attitude and quite frankly, she was being a bitch, even to me. Since she was a little (lot) to high on herself, I put her on the sidelines and got into Vayen's head instead. The story took off and that was that. It was a massively painful rewrite to change over that first book, but I can't imagine it any other way now. She's mellowed now. We've come to an understanding, her and I, made our peace after the major shift in storytelling. All in all, I'm happy with it so far.
Now, I'm off to work on The Minor Years. More on Trust in my next post, which hopefully be sooner than later. Woo, optimism.
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