Tempting Fate

Serves me right for bragging. Last Tuesday I was all about how the sun was shining again and how awesome I was and how I had my writing mojo back. Ask me how I did the rest of the week. Go, on, I dare you.

Not so great. I got about ten more pages edited on Wandering Wizards and then I came to a spot that needed an infusion of Jessica and Dominic and ground to a halt.

It took me all day Saturday to write, and post, my prompt stories.

Yesterday it was warm and sunny, but I had charge of an active pre-schooler all day which is not exactly conducive to getting anything done.

Today it’s back to being cold enough for a coat and rainy enough that if I had rain boots I’d be wearing them. Also, for the next few days I’ll still be looking after the granddaughter when she’s not in pre-school.

*sigh*

The good news is, after Friday I’ll have five babysitting free days in a row. Almost like a vacation, for sure I’ll be able to spend some quality time with my lap top/Neo/notebook.

But let’s not say that out too loud – we wouldn’t want to tempt fate by putting a jinx on it.


Prompts of the Week

Prompt One
While preparing your garden at the beginning of spring, you find the blueprints for your house buried in the earth. When you pull it out and examine it, you find that there is a room in the blueprint that doesn’t exist in your house. Both disturbed and intrigued, you set off to find the missing room. Write what happens next.

Prompt Two
Write a love story about the dish and the spoon from the classic nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle.” How did they meet and why did they decide to run away together? Will their relationship last?

You don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

Walking On Sunshine

Oh, the difference a little sunshine (and a long weekend) can make.

We’ve had enough sun over the last few days – in and amongst the wind, rain, and clouds - that my solar batteries are starting to recharge. And you know what that means – my writing mojo is returning.

Of course it may look nice outside, but it’s still a little too cool for planting my gardens, so I felt no guilt whatsoever staying inside over the long weekend and getting some writing done.

I’m still working on the edits to Wandering Wizards, but I finally feel like I’m making progress. I’ve deleted two chapters worth of NaNo fluff, and added in over 5,000 new words for Jessica and Dominic. And most of that was done over the weekend.

That was the good news. The bad news is that I’ve been making these changes to a paper copy I printed out and I’m still going to have to make these changes to the electronic copy. My hope for this week is to hunker down and get the rest of the edits done by the week so I can spend the weekend making the changes.

I think it’ll be a race against time though. I still babysit for the better part of the afternoons and tonight I have Fight Club (AKA my poetry group meeting). Tomorrow morning I get to go on a trip to a farm with the granddaughter’s pre-school, and Friday the daughter leaves for a conference in Calgary so I have the pleasure of the granddaughter’s company all day.

This is also why I want to get the edits finished by the end of the weekend. The daughter will be away all week so it’ll be full time babysitting until Friday, when she returns. And once I’ve caught up to where I’ve left my intrepid band of adventurers, I can move Wandering Wizards from “Currently Editing” back to “Current Projects” where it belongs.

So let’s hear it for the sunshine that’s pulling me out of my funk!





Prompts of the Week

Prompt One
Go over to your bookshelf, close your eyes, and pick up the first book you touch. Open the book to a random page, read the first full sentence on that page, and use it as the inspiration for a story or scene. Please include the original line at the beginning or end of your response.

Prompt Two
Write a scene that involves a fairy tale trope turned on its head or otherwise deviating from typical expectations. For example: A princess who’s cruel to her kind stepmother; a golden goose that lays explosive eggs, a big, frightening wolf who really just wants a friend.

You don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

Cartography Craziness

The mountains are on the wrong side of the planet.

At least mine are. This weekend I spread all the maps I made for the Moonstone Chronicles on the dining room table, and although there was a lot of work that went into them and they were something to be proud of, they were also wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

In the books I referred to the Shadow Mountains being in the west. Darkness is building in the west. Anakaron is holed up in the west. Well, when you’re facing north, then the west is on your left. The Shadow Mountains are on the right, making them in the east.

I thought briefly of flipping the map (or in this case multiple maps) over and tracing the outline from the back, but that’s not really going to work either. I have three big maps and a multitude of little maps. I need one map to rule them all.

See, the other problem I have with my maps is that they were created before I started working on the Chronicles. Other than Ghren and the Darkwood Forest, all the towns and cities were pretty much added in a haphazard manner, appearing just willy-nilly wherever my pen tip happened to land. And then I lost my maps when I was doing the actual writing, forgot the names of these towns (never mind where they were) and made up new ones. Ones that appear nowhere on my maps. And let’s not forget in Lucky Dog the action crosses and recrosses a river, which also does not appear on the map.

*sigh*

So what is the lesson to be learned?

When writing a fantasy series that involves a lot of traveling, a map is a very handy tool for keeping track of where your characters are and where they’re going. However, it is best to start out with a vague outline and fill in the details as you go along. Also, do them in pencil, going over them with ink when the series is done.

Someone should really write all these pearls of wisdom for writing a fantasy series down, eh?


Prompts of the Week

Prompt One
You’re at work, like any normal day, and happen to look out the window as you head to the break room for a second cup of coffee. What you see makes you stop in your tracks. What is it?

Prompt Two
One day, while reading your favourite book on the beach, you notice a boat slowly drifting to shore. It eventually lands near your spot. A person, draped in pirate clothes, yells to you from the boat, “I have a treasure map and I need help. Are you in?”

You don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

Poem Portraits

I’ve always written poetry – sometimes a lot of it, sometimes just a line or two – but it’s always there, lurking just under my skin. And even though I haven’t been an active member in the local poetry scene over the last few years, I still keep tabs on it and enjoy taking part of the “poetry in the classroom” day at the high school.

What happen was, I went through a poetical dry spell. The part of my brain that created poetry was like a dustbowl with ideas trying to take root only to wither on the vine for lack of nourishment. I wasn’t even reading poetry, never mind writing it.

However, at the beginning of the year I started getting my poetry mojo back. While I haven’t got back to my exploration of set forms (one of my passions), I have written a few poems – not just jotting down random lines, but actual poems. I even went so far as to go to one of the local poetry readings where I met up with some of my poetry friends.

I had so much fun at the reading that I went to the meeting of my old poetry group, where I had even more fun. I even did the “poem work,” which was to write a poem with the word poem or poetry in the title. I wrote an “Ode to Poetry” where I named 70 different poetry forms. And just so you know, that’s not nearly all the forms that are out there.

While I’m not ready to dive into doing a poetry thing on a regular basis here, you might see the odd poem or two peeking out. You know, once in a while. As the mood strikes me.

In the meantime, I’d like to share this link that showed up on my Facebook feed from one of my poetry friends. It’s called Poem Portraits, the brainchild of Es Devlin. It’s an online experiment combining artificial intelligence and human intelligence to create a collective poem. To participate, you go to the website and add a word. Simple as that. Then you have the option of allowing the site access to your camera so it can create your “Word Portrait.”

The word (one of many, I might add) I chose was magical. I never use the camera on my lap top so the program couldn’t access it, so the picture at the top of this post is what you get without access. But then I had the bright idea of accessing the site with my phone. Using the same word I got the picture below as the result (and yes, I know, I take terrible selfies!).

I don’t know why my phone turned the picture blue for the selfie. A couple of other tries I made (that were even worse that this one) were yellow and pink . . . Maybe the camera in my phone was just getting tired. LOL

If you want to give it a try, the website is HERE . Go ahead, give it a shot. All it takes is one word.


Prompts of the Week

Prompt One
You have discovered what appears to be an ordinary room. But as soon as you enter the room, time stops for you. When you leave the room, time picks up right where you left off. What do you use this room for?

Prompt Two
Write a story that begins with the title of the book you’ve most recently read and ends with the name of your favourite character that you’ve written.

You don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

Focus Please!

You know, I started writing this post about being focused, and on how easy it was to lose that focus. But then I switched to how single-minded you can get when writing and waxing nostalgic, and I got up to ferret out a couple of stories I had stored on a USB key to check their length and on my way to doing that I went into the kitchen for another cup of coffee, had a text conversation with my daughter, and started to cook something to take for my lunch today. Then I sat back down in my chair – without the USB keys.

Got up and got my bag of keys, sorted through them until I found the one marked “everything” and stuck it in my lap top. But then there were all these folders to peruse. Some of the stuff was really old, I’d copied it off of a stack of floppy disks, and I couldn’t resist opening a couple of documents to check them out. One of them turned out to be a story I didn’t recognize as mine – it was a little rough but it had potential (sort of) – so I emailed it to the daughter, who also didn’t recognize it. Then I had to check on how my lunch was doing.

See how easy it is for me to lose my focus? I’ve been working on this post since 8 a.m. My mind keeps wandering off on tangents and I’m starting to feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. But when I started this blog 5 years ago I did promise to be honest.

When I first started writing, back in high school, I was very single minded. I’d do the assignments for my English classes (yes, I was one of those geeks who took 2 different English classes, one year I even took 3) – essays, poetry, whatever – but when it came to my own writing I stuck to short stories. I was going to be a writer of science fiction short stories.

And for it to be a legitimate short story, it had to be (in my mind) at least 4,000 words, but no more than about 6,000. If it ran longer than that, I abandoned it. I have at least three, maybe more of these longer stories stored away to finish one of these days.

The Moonstone Chronicles was one of these stories. The original story, Shades of Errol Flynn, made it all the way to Jessica waking up on the beach in the magical realm and meeting Prince Ewan, who was not, at the time, a dastardly prince. At that point, there were two ways the story could have gone and I had no idea which way to take it. So there it lay, abandoned, until I got the urge to turn it into a serial on a now defunct blog.

You may be wondering what the point of all this is. I have a confession. Me too. I know when I started this post I had a point in mind, but it got lost somewhere in the shuffle of social media, email, texting, and other assorted distractions. I’m sure it’ll come to me later.

But that’ll be a post for another day. :-D

Prompts of the Week

Prompt One
You were involved in a terrible car accident and have been in a coma for the past three months. What your family and the doctors don’t know is that you can hear everything that they say. Write the scene.

Prompt Two
A fortune teller at the local county fair tells you two things. She tells you something good that will happen, and something awful that will happen. What are these events or incidents?

Remember, don’t be like me and spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

A Tale of Two Word Files

Remember a few weeks ago I was whining about how I had two documents for Wandering Wizards and I didn’t know which one I should keep, so I deleted the shorter of the two thinking I must have edited stuff out of it? Then I printed out the one that was 165 pages so I could edit it.

I settled at the dining room table to work and I’m editing away, making pretty good progress, but I start getting the feeling that something’s missing. Weren’t my heroes at an inn near the beginning when Sebastian, the bard, gets a message about his mother? And wasn’t there a scene shortly after that with Dominic and Jessica on a boat?

Where’s the boat?

So I flip a few pages ahead and the first mention of Jessica and Dominic is pretty far in and there’s no Sebastian and I start getting this sinking feeling. I check the folder I keep all the files about Wandering Wizards in and I see one marked “throw away” and something clicks in my head.

At one point I had two copies of the original draft. One copy (the one that got printed out) was the original. The other copy I used to copy/paste into a new draft that I was adding new stuff to as it came to me. I was up to 150 pages of the latest version (and down to about 50 pages of the one I was cutting/pasting from) when I put everything aside for NaNo. And then I forgot what I was doing.

Fortunately the recycle bin in Windows does not automatically empty and I was able to restore the version of Wandering Wizards that was only 150 pages. Then I added in the remaining pages of the cut and paste. Then I deleted all other drafts.

Now I have a single, 200 page draft of Wandering Wizards, which I’ll still have to edit, weeding out the unnecessary NaNo fluff, before I can finish it. There’s still a lot of action between where I left off and the actual end of the story, but my hope is that this will wrap up the trilogy.

Barring any more stupidity on my part.

Prompts of the Week

Prompt One
You put your house on the market and, on the first day, a extremely old woman comes knocking on your door. She’s not interested in buying your house, though. Instead she tells you that this is the house she lived in as a child. The friendly mood suddenly changes when she reveals something terrible that took place in the house years ago.

Prompt Two
Your wealthy Aunt Edna has died and left you all of her money. At first you’re excited, as you’ve been living paycheck-to-paycheck your whole life, and this newfound money offers you endless possibilities. But, in her will, Aunt Edna left one big catch—and, if you don’t do it, all of the money is to be given to your most unlikeable cousin, Wilfred.

Remember, don’t spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

False Advertising

There I was, merrily peddling away on my stationary bike as I read a book I found quite entertaining, when all of a sudden I see this: Ready for more Cry Wolf? Grab the next two books in the Cry Wolf Series Boxed Set…

Say what? And, seriously?

Okay yes, this was a freebie on Amazon, and yes it did show on the cover that it was Cry Wolf book one, but when I checked the next book in the series it was about someone different, so I downloaded this one thinking I had a complete story. Nowhere, neither in the blurb nor on the cover, did it mention that volume one was actually a three book set.

There’s only one thing worse than a book that is serialized – and by serialized I mean that the full book is spread over several smaller books – and that’s a book that has no warning that story has been serialized. It’s a cheap tactic that shows that the author is only in this for the money, not the story.

But wait, you say, what about your books? Aren’t they a series?

Yes. The Ardraci Elementals and the Moonstone Chronicles are both series, but they have not been serialized. These books are complete stories that also happen to be part of a larger story. You do not have to read the entire series to get a complete story from each book.

A serial is a single story broken into episodes.

A series contains the same characters throughout, but each episode is a different story.

With a serialized book, you have to buy several such episodes to buy the whole story. In the 19 century it was common for novels to be serialized in periodicals. But the thing is, people knew from the start of the story they’d have to buy several issues to get the complete story.

My beef is with the authors who don’t warn you ahead of time that the book has been serialized, that you won’t get the whole story unless you’re prepared to shell out for several volumes.

I have no problem with a book that’s been serialized. If the story is well written and piques my interest I have no problem paying for several volumes to get the complete story. But when I read a book with a story I’m really enjoying and at the height of the action I suddenly get presented with what amounts to “to be continued in the next book” then all I feel is cheated.

How about you? Do you enjoy serials or would you rather read a series?


Prompts of the Week

Prompt One: Dampness lingers in the midnight air. Nearby, an unidentifiable sound pricks at your nerves, repeating every few seconds. Your breath catches in your throat as a long shadow cleaves through the light spilling from a street lamp just around the corner ahead of you. You consider turning back . . . What happens?

Prompt Two: You are showering one morning when you notice a tattoo on your body that you’re quite sure you don’t remember getting. What is it, how did you get it, and what does it mean?

Remember, don’t spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

Getting It Together

Yup, that’s right. I feel like I’m finally getting my s**t together.

My depression usually gets a lot worse just after the time change in the fall, and I’ve noticed that this year it seems to be getting better now that the time has changed back again. Which begs the question, is it because of the time change itself, or is it because the sun has been making more of an effort to shine lately?

Maybe it’s a little of both. But whatever it is, I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

I believe I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: if you are writing a series whereupon the plot of the next book relies on events of the previous one, DO NOT write the next book before finishing the previous one!

I’ve also mentioned before that the first 50,000 words of Wandering Wizards, the third volume in my Moonstone Chronicles, were written as a NaNo novel. This is all well and good, it got the novel started, but the problem was I hadn’t yet finished Lucky Dog, volume two of the Moonstone Chronicles.

I thought I only needed to make a few minor adjustments to Wandering Wizards and then carry on. Turns out I was wrong. Oh, so wrong. For one thing, considering the series is really about Jessica and her journey, there was very little Jessica in WW. And there were a few things from Lucky Dog that had a big impact on the action in WW. And WW ended up going in an unexpected direction that was taking it well away from the story line as a whole.

Normally I get the first draft done and then worry about re-writes, but Wandering Wizards is such a hot mess that I finally broke down and printed out the current version – all 165 pages of it. THEN I discovered a second document labeled “current version”, which was about 8,000 words shorter. Which came first, the long one or the short one? I had no idea.

After wasting far too much time on Sunday trying to compare the long one to the short one, I finally got fed up and just deleted the shorter one. If I edited out 8,000 words, well, I’m sure I can edit them out again. It was stupid to waste so much time (with the potential of wasting a lot more) trying to figure out what changed between the two. And no, I didn’t think of using the track changes option in Word until after I’d already deleted the short version.

So where does that leave me? With 165 pages to edit to get the story back on track. And hopefully before I get to the end of those pages I’ll have figured out where to end the book. There’ll be a case of mistaken identity, a kidnapping, and the potential for many bad things to happen - the big question is, will the book end before or after the wizard is rescued?

Buckle up folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!


Prompts of the Week

Prompt one:
One day you come into work and find a cookie mysteriously placed on your desk. Grateful to whoever left this anonymous cookie, you eat it. The next morning you come in and find another cookie. This continues for months until one day a different object is left – and this time there’s a note.

Prompt two:
Writing as yourself or a character, tell the following tale:
A ghost appears before you one night and tells you to expect a visitation by three spirits who will each transport you to significant moments from the past, present and future. However, you soon discover that the three spirits aren’t quite like the ones who visited Ebenezer Scrooge…

Remember, don’t spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story.