I am happy to welcome Fellow Story Empire colleague and friend Jan Sikes to Fiction Favorites. She has a new book and is here to tell us about it. So…
Guest Post – Jan Sikes – Saddled Hearts Blog Tour & Giveaway: Saddled Hearts by Jan Sikes #NewRelease #RomanticSuspense #HorseSanctuary #Rodeo @…
Image courtesy of Tumisu via Pixabay Hi SErs! It’s a day of Harmony here at Story Empire 🙂 Today, I’d like to talk about using In Media Res in a …
How to Use Prologues, Part 9, In Media Res
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This is apparently a big month for authors. I can’t tell if NaNoWriMo is the cause or an effect of this designation. Either way, I think it will be fun to use the Tuesdays in this month to shares some author experiences. Every person has a different journey, which means everyone can be a teacher and a student in this world. How can we start this little adventure?
What was the first story you ever finished writing?
To be clear, I’m not going to say completed with editing. First drafts are fine. It’s all about the first story you wrote from beginning to end, which I’m sure gave you a sensation is unique. You can never recapture your first, true ‘The End’.
Mine goes back to when I was 7. I had already written joke and animal books during my writing time in school. One day, I wanted to try my hand at writing a story with characters and a plot. This was going to be a present for a friend whose birthday was coming up. Can’t remember the exact name, but it was along the lines of ‘The Quest for the Ruby Monkey’. I know that because it involved a doctor, woman, and other person traveling into a jungle to find a monkey-shaped ruby. They had to get through traps, which usually killed a character who wasn’t there before. Eventually, they found the gem and the giant gorilla protecting it. Obviously, this was inspired by the original ‘King Kong’ movie, which I had just seen.
If we want to go for more mature and serious stories, my first would have to be ‘Immortal Wars: The Summoning’. That was my first novel, which I’ve posted here in its entirely.
So, what was your first ‘The End’?
Never a fan of this holiday being on a weekday. School gets in the way and homework is assigned as the kids get older. Still, you try to squeeze some fun out of it. Here’s a few funnies to get you through the day:
Hello again, Gang. Craig with you once more on this Happy Haloween. This is one of my favorite holidays, as if you hadn’t guessed. I happened to draw…
Fear and Terror
Since Halloween is tomorrow, I figured it would be best to put up some pictures of really creepy creatures. I tried to get a variety, but seems most of the ones I found were aquatic and/or insectoid. Had to really go hunting for mammals. Couldn’t bring myself to put any of the spiders on here because those freak me out. The Huntsman Spider is especially terrifying to me. I genuinely have my limits.
Angler Fish
Aye-Aye
Black Mamba
Coconut Crab
Goblin Shark
Hamadryas Baboon (Not creepy-looking, but baboons are vicious.)
Vampire Squid
Visored bat
Wolf Fish
I swear that I did one of those yesterday. Was the week so crazy that I’ve lost all concept of time? Probably.
Wish I could share the excitement, but it was really just things being busy once I went back to work on Tuesday. Work and parenting were the usual. Really nothing that is worth reporting in regards to that. Left me too tired to do much in the evenings besides finishing the December posts. The plan was to dive right into some outlining, but that took me until Thursday night. Friday night is when I wrote this up because I sensed that I wasn’t going to have time on Saturday.
I think I mentioned that I got my flu and covid shots last Friday night. Did that knowing it could knock me out for the weekend. I had enough energy and focus to get a bunch of the posts ready. Even better, I had the house to myself last Saturday and that meant no distractions. That is until I got a low grade fever and exhaustion, so I crawled into bed around 10 AM with no intention of getting out. Took me Saturday and Sunday to get through the comedy specials I had saved up. Lots of napping, which wasn’t a bad thing in the long run. Left the house on Sunday for some reason, but damned if I can remember what it was.
Monday was an off-day from school for me and my son. This was for Diwali. We had some plans, but he dropped a surprise project on my lap. Had to take care of part of that like we’re doing today. Thankfully, we got enough done to make it to ‘Black Adam’ and get to some video games. Probably should go more into depth here.
How was ‘Black Adam’? I liked it. Not a perfect movie and certainly had its flaws. The characters felt like they had more dimensions and the effects were better than I’ve seen in other superhero stories. It did feel like the movie was supposed to be longer and I’ve heard it was chopped down to go from R to PG-13. Not sure why critics tore into it so much since it set out to be a superhero popcorn flick and that was what it was. Black Adam himself showed some level of growth, so it was nice to see a movie where the central character changes even if they possess god-like power. I’d recommend for anyone who wants something just for fun and hasn’t been jaded by other franchises.
I won’t be getting any writing done this weekend. My son is here and we have a bunch of stuff to do. Homework, video games, Halloween prep, and I’m trying to convince him to give ‘Beetlejuice’ a try. We’re both looking forward to trick-or-treating on Monday and are hoping it doesn’t rain. His costume is ready, so I’ll try to post a picture here next Saturday along with the character he’s going to be. He loves it and I’m fairly proud of the work I put into it. Going to be a good holiday.
This brings up the question on what to do next weekend. Part of me wants to take the time to make paperbacks for as many of my books as I can. I probably need a full weekend to do that since there are so many. Yet, I kind of want to tackle either the ‘Phi Beta Files’ notebook or the next Slumberlord outline. Hard to decide, especially since I wanted to start writing that book during the holiday break. I really should tackle the paperback project and try to get those all done before December. That way I can make an announcement in time for the holidays and watch zero sales come in. Guess we’ll see how many people really show interest in paperbacks.
Anything else going on? I’m going to try a recipe called ‘Ice Cream Bread’ later today. We got chocolate ice cream and rainbow sprinkles. The videos I’ve seen make it look really good. Fingers crossed that it works too. If it fails, I’ll have a carton of ice cream to eat, which isn’t bad. I’ll also have a giant container of self-rising flour, which is about as useful as an ingrown toenail to me. Takes about an hour of prep and baking, so maybe I’ll do it right after breakfast. Depends on how busy the kitchen is since we have a full house for a bit.
That really does it as far as the past, present, and future. I’m not treading water as much, but I don’t feel like I’m going anywhere. Not in regards to the writing thing. Kind of hoping for one weekend where my son doesn’t have to study for a test, work on a project, or have an event. This is what happened last school year where most of our time was spent on work and people around us kept making plans. It really is around 8th grade where the workload becomes crazy and adults start pushing for kids to ‘grow up’. We really do rush children into maturity as if a part of us wish we could go back to have some of that youthful freedom. Guess it’s to prepare kids for how adulthood is about work, bills, maintaining the house, and leaving little time for real fun. Not that I’m regretting growing up or feeling a little bitter about rarely getting a moment to breathe.
Goals of the week?
Indus Worm
Here we are at the final day of monsters. I remember stumbling onto this guy years ago, but promptly forgot. For any fans of modern fiction, the Indus Worm might make you think of the Graboids from ‘Tremors’ or the sandworms from ‘Dune’ or ‘Beetlejuice’. Odd combo there. So, what is the mythological version?
These white worms live in the Indus River and appear in ancient Greek writings. They are also called the skolex and horrible Indian Worm. They are said to be the only creature inhabiting the muddy depths of the river. Obviously, they resemble a worm and were originally said to be around 10 feet long. That size has been altered depending on what the tale needs them to do. Indus Worms have an upper and lower tooth, which are square and are 15 inches long. Some versions smell of the rotting flesh they’re digesting. Finally, they are too thick for a child to hug and their skin is two fingers thick.
You can tell from the picture that the Indus Worm is carnivorous. By day, they stay in the water and burrow through the mud. Maybe their white skin made them susceptible to getting burned in the sun. It was at night that they would be dangerous. They would attack from below and could grab even animals as big as cows and camels. So, a human would be a snack. They don’t devour prey right away. Instead, they drag them underground to eat when they get hungry. Some stories do have them grabbing animals that are drinking from the river . . . Huh.
The Indus Worm is prized for the oil it produces, which is so rare that only the king of India is allowed to have it. The oil is very flammable and can consume wood and animals with ease. This made it perfect as a siege weapon. You can only put out Indus Worm fires by throwing clay and garbage over the flames. That makes it very dangerous, especially during a battle where you won’t have time to get those things. The oil was kept in clay pots and thrown into cities like grenades.
So, how do you get the oil? You capture the worm on a chain using either a lamb or a kid (baby goat!) as bait. They you kill it, which makes sense. After that, you hang the Indus Worm corpse for 30 days and keep basins underneath to catch the oil. You get 5 points of oil per body. Doesn’t really sound like a lot from a large beast, but this may only be for the smaller, original versions.
Now, there is a real creature that could explain the Indus Worm. You may have picked up on the hint as well. A predator that lunges out of the river to drag prey away. That would be a crocodile. Oil was extracted from crocodiles to use on burns and food because it has more fat than fish oil. What about the white skin? That comes from one report and albinism has been recorded in crocodilian species. They are rare, but someone could see one lurking in the muddy waters and think it’s a worm instead of a reptile.
And there you have the last of our monsters. Hope you enjoyed it.
Hello, SE’ers! It’s Jan here to talk about another marketing avenue for Indie Authors. Unless you live in a tiny town, there is most likely a …
MKTG #21 – BookStores
(This was a newer version of a poem I wrote in high school, but lost. I think I did another version when I spent a summer in Israel back in 1998.)
It is an itch
Embedded
Within our blood
An unquenchable thirst
To leave a mark
A scar
A glimmer of our existence
*
We are all creators
Whether by hand
Or voice
Mind
Or seed
Even the great destroyers
Do so to create
*
Many ask why
Explain the itch
Rationalize
Your irrational desires
They refuse to note
They do the same
Yet in a different way
*
This is an urge
Placing us
Above the standard beast
For while all think
And act
Only man creates
For creation’s sake
*
This ability
Is our true nature
Pushing us
Beyond acts of survival
For it is not enough
To survive
A human must create
Legends of Windemere 