(It’s about watching clouds and seeing images. Sometimes, a poem is just that simple.)
Fluffy lambs at play
Before a churning sea
With wisps along the edges
Trying to tame their brothers
Solitary wanderers
With no true form to have
I see them all pass by
But can only cast a glance
As I go about my life
Far below their gaze
To be fair, I went back to school/work yesterday. It was what we call a Superintendent Conference Day. This is when the teachers are there to hear about the plan for the year and get together in departments to get things started. We have another today too because we have a lot to do. Definitely an official end to the summer. Although, I worked this summer, so I only had 3 weeks off (1 in June and 2 in August). Probably better this way because I’m not so far removed from the early wake ups and everything else. So, let’s have some funnies found in a Google Image Search.
(Feel free to buy a copy of Do I Need to Use a Dragon? too.)
Greetings, SE’ers! Beem Weeks here with you again. Today, I want to discuss writing personal beliefs into our works of fiction. A month ago, I was a …
Writing Personal Beliefs into Your Stories
Fizzle by Alison Hunt
For those that missed the last two Sundays, I came up with a way to promote Do I Need to Use a Dragon? before returning to work/school. That would be gathering questions and answering them on this post. Feel free to ask other questions in the comments if you think of something and I will add it to the post at the first opportunity.
Enjoy and thank you to everyone who submitted.
That is a tough question. I know it might come off like a dodge, but I can’t pick any that I enjoyed writing more. All of my books had some fun challenges.
Hello SE friends, Gwen with you today. Over these last couple of months, I’ve posted about creating Flawed Characters. We’ve considered Post …
Flawed Characters – Part IV
Art by Alison Hunt
As I said last Sunday, I wanted to help promote Do I Need to Use a Dragon? before I go back to work on Tuesday. This is the second day of asking for any questions that will create an interview post. They will be answered on tomorrow’s blog post.
So, what can you ask?
If you gave me a question last Sunday, but came up with another then feel free to add it to the comments. Be happy to get a few good ones.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
The title really says it all. The school year starts for staff on Tuesday. That gives me today, tomorrow, and Monday to rest up. Not a lot of time. Means I need to stop sleeping in as well because cutting that habit cold turkey is brutal.
This week didn’t have a lot of excitement. I had my son until Wednesday night, so the previous days were spent doing things together. With the Finger Lakes trip behind us, there wasn’t anything too big for us. A trip to the Bronx Zoo on Monday was the most exciting thing we did. The rest was Pokemon Go trips, watching anime, and hanging around the house. I used some of our time talking to him about starting high school after Labor Day. It’s a big step, so we’re all nervous. He won’t be back with me until the night before he starts too, so there won’t be much time to have a big sit down chat.
Guess a few things were cool at the zoo. They have a new area where you can feed budgies from seed-covered sticks. We gave it a try and I had no luck. My son got two of the birds to come to him. Unfortunately, it was hot and we got to this place by early afternoon, so they were already well fed. Smaller kids running around and screaming didn’t help. One saw my son getting the attention of a budgie and rushed over to jam his stick in the poor bird’s face. Decided it was time to leave and continue wandering the zoo after things got too rowdy. These are the best pictures of the trip that I had on my phone:
Wish I had more to share, but it’s been a lot of hanging out and doing basic things around the house. With everyone being gone for a while, I had to take care of a lot of cleaning and yardwork. Got back into cooking too, which was a challenge only because I’m trying to eat healthier. My son doesn’t need a diet, so I had to cook things that both of us liked, but won’t pack on pounds again. Things are harder with him gone since I’m not doing 2-3 hour walks for Pokemon Go. Hopefully, I can keep myself below 230 and start getting it lower. Sucks that my best attempt at weight loss was actually a medication reducing my appetite.
After my son went to his mom’s on Wednesday, I took Thursday to visit a friend. Not a really long drive, but I got up there in early morning because we had a list of movies and a TV show we wanted to binge. I didn’t get home until late evening either. Ended up having a great salad for dinner from this place my friend suggested. As far as entertainment, we watched ‘Street Fighter II Animated Movie’, ‘Batman: Mask of the Phantasm’, the newest animated Resident Evil movie, and then we finished by binging all 10 episodes of the ‘Twisted Metal’ series. That last one was surprisingly good. I don’t know the lore since I never really played the games, but I had fun watching it. Made me want a second season even though I don’t have Peacock as a streaming service.
I didn’t get to do any writing until Friday. Even so, it was only two sections of Darwin & the Beast Collector. Took such a long break from the story that I needed to get back into the groove. My hope is to get 2 sections done every day until I start work again on Tuesday. Then, I’ll try to get 1 section done each day, except Thursday, and do another 2/day over the 3-day weekend. This would get me through 5 chapters without killing myself. That leaves 5 more, which I can possibly finish by the end of October. I think my days of doing 3 sections a day are behind me until I can get my various health issues under control.
Speaking of health, I finally have my sleep apnea consultation on Thursday. That’s why I don’t expect any writing to get done. If it’s the same as the one years ago, I’ll need to use a home device to check my vitals while I sleep. This typically requires 8 hours, so I’d be going to bed around 9. Not sure if that’s feasibly with the early wake up, which means I might have to do it the next night. Really putting a lot of hope on this diagnosis since nothing else seems to be working out. I’m definitely not getting a good amount of sleep at night since I wake up groggy and feeling sick. Takes about an hour to feel human and I sometimes find that my oxygen levels are low at the start of the day too. I’ve bought so many devices to help with this problem. Now, I’ve got a blood pressure machine, an oximeter, an oil diffuser, and an air purifier. Fun!
What are the goals of the week?
(Update: So, something has occurred and altered the weekend plans. Can’t get into it. Writing won’t be going on like I had hoped. Not until Monday night at least. It’s not ideal, but I can’t focus and need to socialize for my own well-being. A friend is staying over as well. Oh well. Some things take priority.)
Google Image Search
I’ve stated before that writing Do I Need to Use a Dragon? was a challenge in a variety of ways. One of them was my confidence. I questioned if I had any right to release a book on writing when I’m an indie author who barely sells anything. That plagued me throughout the process. So, did my confidence grow by writing and publishing this book?
I’d love to say yes, but I can’t. Don’t think I can give a no either. Part of me still feels like I’m a fool for voicing my opinion. That part will always be there. Can’t take it back though, so I have to accept that I wrote and published the book. This self-analysis is going so well.
At the very least, I have a better understanding of my own viewpoint when it comes to writing and being an author. Do I Need to Use a Dragon? helped me pinpoint my strategies and aspects of my style. This does give me a little confidence when outlining and planning stories. Not sure it made a dent in how I’m feeling when I actually write things. I routinely have imposter syndrome whenever I finish a section of a Tales of the Slumberlord volume. That doesn’t sound very confident.
This is a really difficult question to answer now that I think about it. Confidence isn’t something that you gain and keep forever. It rises and falls depending on your progress, mood, and life. I actually started working on Do I Need to Use a Dragon? back in 2019 in terms of planning. The pandemic is what gave me the time to write the book along with the final volumes of War of Nytefall. That amount of free time made me feel like I did in the old days even with the doubt about the overall project. This could mean that I gained confidence during the writing stage. It didn’t really carry over to the editing part, especially when it took so long to publish. Plenty of times I thought about scrapping the whole thing even after I was done. Again, we aren’t seeing a ton of confidence in my thoughts and actions here.
A better question might be if I’m happy with the finished book. That would be a yes because I put a lot of myself into it. The advice and opinions I gave are mine, so I have to own up to them. This doesn’t always translate to confidence, but I accept what I said and don’t make excuses. Might make clarifications at times since I don’t always get my points across to every person. Still, I’m happy with how the book came out and wouldn’t change anything. In fact, editing was scary because I kept worrying that I would rewrite the entire thing and trap myself in an endless loop.
True confidence in myself will come and go over time. It might depend on how people react to this book too. Honestly, I may have more emotional investment in Do I Need to Use a Dragon? than any of my fiction books. I’ve stated that it makes me feel a little exposed and vulnerable. It shouldn’t surprise anyone to see that my confidence will be affected by responses. Not sure if I should say that out loud.
Photo by Karim Ghantous on Unsplash Hello SEers. John is with you today. I hope you are looking forward to the weekend. I know I am. Today, I’m going…
A Discussion on Book Titles – How Do We Select Them?
