I wanted to do an animal post. Just couldn’t choose one off the list. Then, I kept doing other stuff like paperback formatting, January posts, parenting, sleeping, resting, and this day caught up to me. So, here are some Sunday memes to enjoy.
The holiday is almost over. I say almost because we’re doing Thanksgiving today since this is my year with my son. It’s okay. As long as family gets together for food. This has always been an average holiday for me anyway. I enjoy most of the sides and desserts, but I really don’t like turkey. So, the feast doesn’t have the same appeal as Hanukkah latke day or Halloween candy.
I’m also burnt out on the feast concept. The short work/school week was filled with preparing food for a feast. This is always a challenge because you inevitably get a ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ situation. I’m not much of a chef with this holiday, so I’m practically useless. It also comes with a sense of tension that you find in preparing for any big event. You want it to be memorable and a success, but you wear yourself down to the point where you might not enjoy the outcome. Plus side, I got to see several graduated students, which was a great end to the work week.
Honestly, I’ve been exhausted all week. A big factor is that I haven’t been sleeping the best and the weather shifting to rain set off my sinuses. Starting to think I have asthma too, which seems to be another parting gift of Covid. Breathing always gets tougher when the weather turns rainy and frigid. Makes me worry about when it comes time to shovel the snow. Only time will tell there.
Another reason I’m tired is that I spent all of last weekend finishing a project:
That link should go to my Amazon author page where you can click on the paperback option. I did it for Legends of Windemere, War of Nytefall, Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks, Quest of the Brokenhearted, and Bedlam. I announced this on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram already. You wouldn’t believe the response I’ve gotten since people were asking for this . . .
That would be absolutely nothing. I know this is something that had to be done, but I still feel a little scammed here. There have been plenty of times I’ve provided a version of a book or done something highly recommended with no payoff. It’s up there with people praising characters and stories while admitting that they haven’t even bought a copy of the book. This is a big reason I’ve lost some of my ambition and keep questioning why I still bother. Empty lip service doesn’t give a person hope or push them ahead. It does the opposite because the words have no actions behind them. In the end, a person who keeps running into this type of support won’t be able to accept real support because they’ll think it’s fake. Just something to think about here.
The rest of the weekly goals weren’t too bad. I finished the January posts once I finally got the energy. Only managed to use the bike once due to errands and having to clean for the weekend. Homework and meetings limited the father/son time until now. Black Friday shopping went somewhat smoothly, but it got pricier than I expected. Think I gave the credit card company a freak out because I had to explain that it was indeed me making the purchases. At least they’re watching out for me. We’ll see if I get to sleep in tomorrow since we have a full house, including a munchkin who wakes up with the sun.
I managed to go over the outline for Darwin & the Demon Game, but I wasn’t able to rewrite it. The weather changing made me feel like I had been hit by a bus and my sinuses were killing me. Took me all day to simply read through the three pages since I kept needing a nap. I covered the original in notes of where I can shore up the plot and expand on some characters. One was important, but got killed off too early. Not sure if I’ll work on it throughout the week or save it for next weekend. Depends on how I’m feeling and what else I want to tackle.
Only other accomplishment was touching the Phi Beta Files notebook. It was only one character and I struggled because I couldn’t remember what I wanted to do with this group of rivals. Freaking out a bit that I took too long to get back to this idea and I can’t remember enough to continue. Might have to use next weekend to make progress and get it back on track. Doesn’t help that I went hunting for another story idea and the notebook is nowhere to be found. It was the Keys of Ether monsters, which I can’t find anywhere in my room. That means I lost 100 monsters and every piece of plot information I had on this one. Got a bad feeling that it went missing during the move from Florida, which means it’s been gone for about 13 years. Then again, I vaguely recall working on it when I was up here, but it’s missing now.
Not sure how much planning I should make for this week. It’s the first of four where I don’t have a day off. That’s going to leave me fairly tired. Add in the inevitable rush of tests and assignments leading to the Holiday Break, which I’ll be juggling as a TA and a parent. This is why I’m not going to tackle Darwin & the Demon Game until that long break starts. Maybe I should only aim for the February posts and making progress on notebook work. That sounds more doable, especially since my anxiety has been giving me some issues. It’s only rearing up at night and first thing in the morning, but it’s definitely making an impact. Sleep has been broken some nights and I’m paying for it.
Television-wise . . . I finished ‘Warrior Nun’ Season 2, which was fun. Decided to try an anime called ‘Overlord’ again. Think I made a post where I used it as an example of how not to do an OP main character. Figured I’d give it a shot and look at it as a story where there is no real tension. Just a blunt power fantasy. I’m a little further than I made it last time and I’m enjoying it a bit more. Guess I was taking it too seriously or looking at it the wrong way last time.
Goals of the week:
Thanksgiving feast today
Try to sleep when I can.
Homework with son.
Outline for Darwin & the Demon Game.
Touch on Phi Beta Files.
Bike at least twice this week.
Get a haircut.
Make sloppy joe’s on Thursday.
Try to get anxiety under more control, especially at night.
We’ll see how this goes. I couldn’t think of another way to end this topic since it’s fairly simple until you get into specific details. Let’s try to answer questions from both sides of the coin here.
How would you feel if you were summoned to a fantasy world to go on an adventure?
What would make you useful if you were summoned for an adventure?
What type of person or creature would you summon and why?
The title says it all. Enjoy these funnies while you either celebrate the holiday or wonder why Americans need a holiday to overeat. To be fair, we also need this holiday to maintain our traditions of family tensions and mental illness. Enjoy. (All taken from Google Image Search.)
Summons can fall into two categories. One is filled with beasts that follow orders and usually appear for a specific, temporary purpose. They are summoned multiple times as they are needed. The other category is where you would find characters who have been called from another location or dimension. They take a role as either as the main hero or support. Both are very different from each other with the first being easier to do than the second. After all, beasts tend to not require as much depth, especially if they go away within a few pages of appearing.
So, these tips are primarily for the second group. Only brought up the first to make sure people knew what I was thinking of here.
If your summons is a main character, you need to have a clear idea of why they have been called. This doesn’t mean telling the reader and characters the reason, but to have a general idea of why they are in their situation. Even if they were an accidental summons, there had to be a reason for the ritual to go off in the first place. This helps give the characters some urgency and focus. Otherwise, they’re just wandering around without any path.
If the character is summoned from another dimension, they shouldn’t know exactly what is going on. A current trend is for a hero to be pulled into a video game or story that they know about. This gives them an advantage, but it also erases all sense of tension if they are 100% right. Having them know nothing or some of their knowledge be wrong helps in making them the avatar for the audience. Otherwise, there’s very little sense of exploration in a new world, which is something that fantasy stories highly benefit from.
A summoned character doesn’t always have to want to go home. If they came from a boring or painful life, they may be more inclined to stay. The idea of being sent home after their adventure could be a source of fear. Considering if they want to stay or go from the beginning of their adventure. This will guide all of their actions and establish how close they get to people. Why be friends with people if you’re planning on leaving as soon as possible?
The summoner and summoned do not always have to get along at first. Remember, this character has been yanked from their life to follow orders. There could be some resistance if the summoner isn’t polite or nice. It could result in a spell being put on the summoned figure to keep them in line. That adds to their shaky relationship, which can either improve, degrade, or stay the same depending on where you want them to go. Much of this part will decided on the reason for the summoning. Save the world? Maybe they’ll be okay. Needing a person who can do their chores? Not a good start.
A person summoned from Earth won’t always know everything about technology. In fact, most people won’t be able to recreate things without the help of prior training or the Internet. So, a guy summoned to a world of magic with an Associate’s in medical coding and has only handled a gun in Call of Duty won’t be creating sniper rifles unless magic is involved. You need to give these characters the right background for these skills. Otherwise, they have to find ways to copy technology using the magic in the world.
Summoned heroes don’t ALWAYS have to be involved in romances. Is it because they come from Earth and shower more often than those in fantasy worlds?
Characters who are summoned tend to be special in some fashion. It could be that they appear with unique gear, special powers, or have knowledge that give them an edge. If they are completely normal and no better than the locals then readers might not thing there is any reason for them to be involved. Whether it be at the start or down the road, they need to stand out for some reason. There has to be a justification for why they were called to action. You can even have people questioning their presence if they aren’t perceived as useful.
This one will be pretty easy. We all make mistakes. Some typos are memorable and haunt us for the rest of our lives. Others are easily forgotten. Clearly, it’s more fun to talk about the first category.
So, what are some of mine?
‘Clear across the clearing’. My editor threatened to fly to my house and beat me with her Kindle over this one.
‘Kicked in the grown’ happened a few times.
‘We have to travel across the tomatoes’ . . . I was yelling out groceries while writing. Stuff like this happened a lot in the past.
There was one that I did a lot in Do I Need to Use a Dragon?, but I can’t remember what it was at this time. It was a bad one too. There was a phrase I a few times and I kept spelling a word wrong. It became dirty. If I remember it, I’ll add it.
Legends of Windemere 