Merry Christmas!

 Happy Holidays (Holy Days) to you and yours!

In my recent newsletter, I sent out links to various places for inspirational messages and offered up a bit about Booksprout.

I don't want to repeat myself too much here at my website, but I would like to say:

I hope you have hope this season. I hope you know joy. I hope you have peace and comfort, great books, and wonderful people in your life.

I hope you know Christ as your Savior - not because I want to be aggressive or rude or overbearing with my faith, but because I believe Jesus is the best way to have peace, hope, joy, and comfort.

If you are wondering what that's all about, I will add four links here that I added to my newsletter. They are the Advent Series links from my church - a multi-denominational church.

Advent: Writing the Script

Advent: Casting the Characters

Advent: The Dress Rehearsal (I gave the message that Sunday.)

Advent: The Mary Miracle

Merry Christmas to all! And Happy New Year! 

IWSG December 2022: Holiday Writing and Book Shenanigans

 

IWSG

December 7 question - It's holiday time! Are the holidays a time to catch up or fall behind on writer goals?

The awesome co-hosts for the December 7 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Chemist Ken, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Cathrina Constantine!

HOLIDAYS and WRITING

Holidays are the best time for me to read and to write stories that bring me joy. It would be nice if every aspect of writing filled me with joy, but some parts are simply hard work. 

Sometimes, a book or story will seem to dead end into a cheerless, dark corner by the trash leftover from Halloween, but it's often that I need to shed more light on the story, or I need to lighten up my mood with something fun or silly or just odd. I've written a number of short stories that fit into those categories, and some of them have been stories I've written around the holiday season. 

Then, there are the "serious" stories that seem to beg to be written in December, when the sky grows dim. Even as I long for light, some years I turn to history and faith, and find myself poking at an old historical fiction story or reworking a poem long forgotten. 

For me, it all depends on the year and what else it has brought into my life.

This year, I plan on vacationing from writing other than in my journal from December 22-27th, and I think having a planned timed off is good for renewing the energy I need to write. 

December 26th-January 1st are my prime reading days for the entire year, based on a childhood tradition. I asked for books on my tenth Christmas, received fifteen of them, and read half before I started school again in January. While I don't often read quite that many books every year in that week, I spend at least two days reading to my heart's content.

How do you write and read over the holiday season?

BOOK SHENANIGANS/NEWS

Dark Blade: Forged is completed as a Kindle Vella serialization. The first three episodes are free (this is a Kindle Vella rule), and the whole novel is finished. I will be turning it into a regular Ebook, paperback, and Audiobook in 2023.

Dark Blade: Tempered (Dark Blade, Vol. 2) is my newest Kindle Vella project, with the first free episode out today! I have a more-detailed-than-usual plot outline for the series to keep the serialization driving forward. 

On an "off writing" day, I spent some time playing with my book covers again (they are mostly the same, but Dark Blade: Tempered is new) at Canva and attempting to create a new banner for The World of Aramatir. This is what I have so far, but I hope to create some "marketing" materials for the series as I get into the new year. 

Pre-orders are definitely happening at Amazon for 25 Impossible Tales of Survivors, Flawed Heroes, and Annoyed Villains It was fun to put together, and using some great feedback from some beta readers, I've taken out one of the darker stories and added in a happier one. 

Due to some family wedding plans in the spring (one of my daughters), I have moved the release date up to January! If you are interested in becoming an ARC reader for a free copy, check out my Booksprout Campaign. 

If this is your last post of the year, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

Giving Thanks!

 

Giving thanks invites reflection, rest, humor, and courage into our lives.

In the autumn, I fall into a reflective season of writing each year. Even as I participate in National Novel Writing Month, I find myself reflecting on my writing: what I write, how I write, why I write. I rejoice over the writing that has gone well (both in success and in personal meaning) and consider the writing that didn’t go well (either not successful, unfinished, or simply hard to write). 

I give thanks for those who want to read my writing. 

It kind of amazes me that people like both the wildness and the repetition in my writing themes. And I feel honored and thankful to have been able to write and to speak and to share. 

I find rest in giving thanks because it is an action and thought process that starts in reflection and moves to giving everything away, a letting go of what has been in gratitude for all that has been a part of my life.

Humor comes into the act of thanksgiving when I let go enough to laugh a little, to find the ludicrous in those moments that I can’t say are really “horrible” moments, but certainly aren’t great ones. 

For instance, I am thankful for the moment after I fell on the ice last week while visiting Spokane, Washington (the colder, dryer, more inland part of the state). Okay, maybe not the searing pain in my knees, hands, and back moment, but the moment after that, when I realized, with some embarrassment, that I was swearing a blue streak and I had scared a huge guy experiencing homelessness - he came out from behind a car, wrapped in layers of clothes and a sleeping bag and edged away from me as I flailed on the ground trying to get up.

Maybe that doesn’t sound funny, and I do feel badly that I scared him, but honestly, it made me laugh at that moment and still does. Who knew I was so frightening when I allowed my old natural childhood tongue to come flying out of my mouth? Who knew a short, overweight woman flailing on the ground could scare away a tall, big guy standing on his feet in a parking lot?

For those who don’t know, I actively try not to swear much in my regular life, but when you start your life with those words in your mouth and brain, they don’t just go away easily. I didn’t even know which words were swear words until I was in elementary school, and there were a few I didn’t recognize as bad words until I was in my 40s, and after I had used them in a message at church…. Oh, yes, there’s a story there, but best saved for another day.

.Courage is invited into our lives when we give thanks, because when we reflect on our lives, we can choose to let go of all that has come before, and choose to step into the moment right now, and into the next moment, with an understanding that all of the experiences past, present, and future, are but fleeing moments in a lifetime where we can give thanks and have courage, and live as best as we can - giving grace to ourselves and others, giving thanks for life itself. 

Because I love God and have been growing deeper in love with God over my life, I give thanks to God for my life, for my writing, for the awesome family members and friends who encourage me. I give thanks to God for being God, for Jesus as my Savior, and for the Holy Spirit breathing life and peace into my soul.

So, when I say Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you have a nice holiday, but I also hope you have time to give thanks and invite reflection, humor, and courage into your life.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

November #IWSG and #NANOWRIMO Thoughts

 

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November 2's optional question - November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

The awesome co-hosts for the November 2 posting of the IWSG are Diedre Knight, Douglas Thomas Greening, Nick Wilford, and Diane Burton! Many thanks to founder Alex J. Cavanaugh!

You ready?
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Do You NANOWRIMO?

First, what is it and when did it start?

According to their website:

"National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel during the thirty days of November."

If you haven’t done it before, it might sound slightly unhinged.

If you have done it before, you know that it is slightly unhinged.

However, the writers who run NaNoWriMo.org provide motivational messages from well-known authors, some cool gadgetry and graphs on their website to track word counts each day and throughout the month, forums to join in online, meetups in person, and a general way to have fun while taking part in the challenge of getting 50,000 words on the page in 30 days. 

If you’ve ever read Stephen King’s book On Writing, you know he would own the challenge easily with his 3000 words a day word count, so it’s not like this challenge actually rocks the world book of records for writing, but it is a challenge. 

Many authors hate it. Many authors love it. Some have been there and done that. Some go back every year. Some prefer to write on weekends, or write at a slower pace overall. Some prefer to keep their own word count guides or hit different marks - 100 words a day, or 500, and not the 1667 or so necessary to make the 50,000 in one month.

But the question wasn’t, what the heck do I know about NaNoWriMo, it was: Have I participated? And why or why not?

So, finally, my answer:

Yes.

Because it actually brings me joy when I don’t overstress about it.

I know that may sound like a weird answer. Some authors see the challenge as an ultimate stress-monster, and I have felt that way, a few times. Those were the years I didn’t finish. 

Last year, however, I noticed a writing friend called her project “Potluck” and she wrote on her blog about doing more than one project at once, and writing the word count as she saw fit. 

I wanted to reach across the webspace and hug her, or cheer, or at least raise a frosty glass of butterbeer in her direction. 

                                                    Found on Tenor

While some authors hate project-jumping, I hate working on one project for an entire month. I love project-jumping from week to week, or three-day to three-day increments. I love writing every day, as long as it’s not on the same project day in and day out. 

So, while I am in revision with one project and the proof stage with another project, I’m also drafting three different projects, joyfully, happily, contentedly. So, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year as a NaNo Rebel and I’m anticipating a win. :)

Unless something crazy in life happens, because sometimes… life has been crazy. So, given a free-sailing month, I’ll be NaNoWriMo-ing this year. 

What about you? Do You NaNoWriMo?

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Also, speaking of some of my projects...

If you are interested in being an ARC reader for 25 Impossible Tales of Survivors, Flawed Heroes, and Annoyed Villains: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection, let me know in the comments below!

And, while I did slow down a bit with Dark Blade: Forged on Kindle Vella, it has a few new episodes up and going. 

Does Rest Have a Place in Fiction Novels?

 Fiction novels take characters on a breakneck pace through trial and fire, through trouble and time-crunched plots where every second matters.

Given the fast-paced nature of most YA, adventure, and speculative fiction, one might think rest has no place in those novels, but I believe it does.

Rest plays an important role in fast-paced, adventure-filled fiction.

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I love The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien which contains mini adventures rolled into the larger adventure of the quest. In every novel, characters usually go on some kind of journey internally (emotionally/mentally) and sometimes, externally (physical adventures), and in every novel, there are “rest” points where characters have time to reflect on their circumstances before moving onward in their journey.

These rest points are key moments in any fast-paced, adventure-filled fiction. The rest moments in novels give characters time to reflect on the adventures they've had, how they have changed, and if they are prepared (or not) for what is coming next.

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The Hobbit includes some rest points for the party of adventurers, and oddly, not all of them are nice places. They rest with the elves, with Beorn, and with the Wood-elves who imprison them.

Now, wait, you might be thinking that the prison isn't a restful place, but yet, it is. They spend time there. The dwarves heal from their spider bites. Bilbo has time to make a plan for their escape and make it happen.

Rest in a fast-paced novel doesn't have to happen in an idyllic glade or at an elven feast, it could be in prison, or under the foreboding shadows of dark trees. The only key requirement of rest in a novel is that it be a moment during which the characters reflect on events.

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Rest gives the characters time to consider their internal struggles and is often when the most important internal story arc takes place.

Bilbo takes a beat in the tunnel before he enters Smaug's lair in the mountain. This important rest beat helps him discover the courage he needs to move forward, and this courage is based on the adventures he's already had at that point in the novel. While you can argue that the interior monologue in The Hobbit is pretty sparse, I still think this reflection is embedded in the scene.

Since I went on vacation a few weeks ago and rediscovered how much I need rest so I can reflect on my life and find renewal, I've been seeing this need everywhere - in life and in fiction.

If you write breakneck, fast-paced novels, how do you build in reflection and rest for your characters, so they have the strength to go on?