Last weekend, I finished the last puzzle of a set. I hope more are put out, but this is all they have now. These are DC Superheroes done by Thomas Kinkade Studios. They’re pretty challenging because you have a lot of similar colors in the background. Many times, I had to work by the direction of the brush strokes. Can’t wait to see if they make more. The first are ones I did last year, but I wanted to include them.
This week didn’t go smoothly. The schoolwork was fairly intense because a lot of new skills and actions were introduced. First, analyzing a Longfellow poem with a kid who is literal to the bone is an act of patience. “Dust thou art, to dust returnest” became “you can make art from dust” and that was how we started. It was cute, but ‘Psalm of Life’ was 9 stanzas long. He began reading ‘Hatchet’ too and loves it, but the book can be fairly difficult for him. Then, there was the introduction of citations for answering questions. I spent the last few months telling him to answer in his own words and now I’m telling him he can use the words of others as long as they’re quoted and cited. All important skills and I get it. Yet, it took a lot of time to get through everything. We didn’t get to do anything really fun on Tuesday and had to skip Lego Harry Potter on Wednesday for the first time in months. So, it was a slog.
On a more positive note, we did get to play some Super Smash and put together a special edition Lego set. The Death Star trench battle, which will tide us over until we get a full day to work on the giant Millenium Falcon I got him. Anime watching at night has been a big thing too. Even if we don’t get to have fun during the day, I make sure that he gets his 3 episodes at night. It was Naruto, Fairy Tail, and My Hero Academia, but we recently finished the last two. At least as far as Hulu is concerned, which means I’m getting the Funimation streaming this week. He’s beginning to understand character motivation and development as well as emotions through these things, so I want to keep it going. Not to mention it’s the only consistent father/son bonding thing we get. Although, he noticed Digimon coming to Hulu and wants to go back to that. He also saw an ad for Sailor Moon and wants to add that to the rotation. One of them might become the morning show once he’s done with Sonic X. Lunch is still Yugioh. Honestly, we do enough schoolwork to allow for these fun shows instead of sticking to educational ones.
For those who want to say that TV before bed is a bad idea, it doesn’t actually make much of a difference with him. He might wake up and come into my room with a question about what we watched, but he’ll do that even if he doesn’t watch it. He’s currently trying to design his own superpowers (My Hero Academia), magic ability (Harry Potter/Fairy Tail), and jutsu (Naruto). It’s entertaining because it’s really stirred his creativity and that’s been helping me with teaching him the other stuff. Being able to put a creative twist to math and science keeps him going. So what if I have to use anime to help him understand metamorphosis. It sticks.
As you can tell, this has primarily been a schoolwork week. That isn’t to say I didn’t get any personal stuff done. I’m currently 3 chapters away from finishing War of Nytefall: Savagery. I’ll definitely be done next weekend. I’ll use the rest of that time to fine tune the outline for Anarchy even though I’ll be editing Ravenous first. I came up with a final title for The Ether Thief and changed stuff to revive an idea that I cannibalized. I made a few more chapter titles for Do I Need to Use Dragons? (Tips to Writing Fantasy) and mucked around with a few other concepts. My nights have been mostly puzzles, TV, and brainstorming.
Unfortunately, the brainstorming has come with a touch of melancholy. It’s tough imagining all of these ideas and then wondering if I’ll ever get to them. Not to mention I keep struggling to think of a way to get attention to my books. Yes, I know this keeps coming up. Paying for advertising doesn’t get my money book. Blogs don’t work and you can’t swap reviews. Everyone is begging online and only a few people seem to have maintained a strong team of supporters that announce their things. Those don’t usually return the favor too. So, it’s great that I’m getting my creation mojo back, but I never had the business mojo to go along with it. Can’t figure out where to go from here and I really want to go somewhere.
This coming week is going to be more of the same. Only thing that changes is what I watch on TV. Finished ‘Ghost in the Shell 2045’ and ‘The Magicians’ Season 3. I jumped to ‘Blackadder’ for some comedy. I think I’ll try ‘The Great’ next. Takes me a while to get through episodes since I’m outlining while watching. So, I keep pausing when my brain can’t maintain the balance. I tried working without the TV on, but the silence doesn’t work for me. Anyway, that’s really the only major changes. Life is fairly routine and I can’t be outside for long before the pollen gets to me. That damn oak tree is just waiting for me to open the window again.
Goals of the week:
ONCE UPON A TIME
I wanted to talk about true villains again. Yet, I noticed I did it once . . . twice . . . kind of a third . . . and I’m sure those aren’t the only ones. I seem to remember a few more times because the concept of a true villain continues to gain my attention. Why is that?
Those a really the big four reasons I keep wandering back to this topic. Don’t think I’ll ever get over it completely. To me, a villain is what drives action and evolution in a story more than the hero. You may have these calm side stories that involve romance and personal growth, but the villain is who keeps the main story going. Once they bow out, the hero loses almost all resistance to their own path. It’s a cornerstone to many types of fiction, which is why we may remember the villain before the hero.
So, does anyone else find themselves wondering about truly evil villains? I’m sure I’ve asked this before.
(Previously on Immortal Wars.)
(Small tidbit: At the time, I thought calling this spot the ‘game room’ was genius. Why did I think this? I was 15 and didn’t get out much.)
Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school. I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books. That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins. FYI- I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day. Enjoy!
In the game room, Miracle and Infinity have been spending the past hour and a half enjoying the many games that are at their disposal. The six-limbed, robotic cook stands behind the bar whistling an alien song to itself and preparing the food that it’s two visitors had just ordered. Miracle had discovered an interesting holographic chess game that allowed the game pieces to fight like they were real people and also defend themselves against the attacks. Infinity had decided to play a laser warfare game in the arena that filled the entire game room with loud, echoing noises.
“Aren’t you done with that loud game yet!” yells Miracle over the sound of laser blasts and minor explosions. She notices that her friend had not heard her complaint, so she calmly walks into the middle of the arena. A golden laser pistol suddenly appears in her hand and she begins to shoot down the scattered army of holographic enemies. In a matter of a few seconds, all of the holograms are lying on the ground and only the two immortal teenagers are left standing.
“I didn’t need your help!” exclaims Infinity after the guns disappear.
“Who was helping? I just wanted to stop that obnoxious noise. You should have turned the volume down when I asked.”
“Oh. Sorry about that. I didn’t know it was so loud. The computer gave me some noise dampeners, so it sounded low to me. I just gotta ask you one question, Miracle. How did you win so easily?”
“Oh, please. Both my dad and my older brother were in the Marines, so they brought me to the firing range when I turned fourteen. Of course, my dad never let me go there without him and my brother kept warning me about using guns. You know, just so I wouldn’t do anything foolish and stupid.”
“You be foolish and stupid? Never. Let’s go see if the food is ready.” As Infinity turns around, Miracle slaps him upside the head for the sarcasm. A similar shot hits Miracle a few seconds later and Infinity gives her a cunning smirk.
“Don’t start with me, boy. I’ve kicked your ass before and I can do it again,” threatens Miracle.
“Calm down, Kelly. You don’t have to prove that you’re tough. We all know it. So, just calm down and be peaceful. You really have to get control of that temper.”
“I’m trying. But I’m just being playful. You’re my friend. My pal. We always roughhoused before. Remember when we were kids and we were goofing off. You broke my leg and I broke your nose. That was all in good fun.”
“Until we ended up in the hospital. But we aren’t kids anymore. We’re not even human beings. Not anymore. We’re immortals and we should start acting more mature. That means no hitting your friends.”
“Fine. I promise not to hit you unless you deserve it. At least I still have Hydrana to have fun with. She always gives me a reason to hit her.”
Infinity shakes his head before saying, “We’ll work on that. Now, let’s get some food. I’m starving.”
The two guardians go to one of the many black tables that are in the room. As they sit at the freshly cleaned table, a flying robot places two plates of strange looking food in front of them. Their alien breakfast resembles waffles, but they’re multicolored and the side orders look like decaying roadkill.
“Uh. This definitely looks . . . interesting. You try the smoking black whatever and I’ll try the waffles,” whispers Miracle. As they each taste the two sections of the interplanetary cuisine, they show very different reactions. Miracle starts to smile once she swallows the piece of waffle. On the other hand, Infinity nearly throws up because of the foul taste that hits his taste buds.
“The waffles are pretty good. Tastes like a bunch of different wild berries that have been mashed together. Although, it’s a little on the dry side,” says Miracle, so she takes tiny sips of a yellow drink that is placed in front of her. Once the liquid hits her tongue, it starts crackling like a group of firecrackers and she jumps out of her seat.
“Yuck! Whatever this stuff is, it tastes a lot worse than it looks,” mutters Infinity as Miracle sits back in her chair. Her wild hair is letting a few sparks fly into the air. Infinity doesn’t notice and devours the colorful waffles, but the disgusting taste remains strong in his mouth.
“But that is exactly what you ordered. Neptunian berry waffles with a side of Tiberian bacon and Korlanian firecracker juice,” explains one of the robotic waiters.
“Tiberian bacon? Let me take a wild guess here. This bacon isn’t made from a pig, is it?” asks Infinity. He gulps down his crackling drink in hopes of the awful taste disappearing, but it still stays in his mouth. It does give his entire body a full glow and causes him to get knocked off his seat.
“Of course not. There have never been any kinds of pigs on Tiber. The long dead inhabitants of that moon made the bacon from a rotten tasting lizard. Now that I think of it, most of the Tiberians did not have any taste buds and therefore could eat any kind of horrible tasting food imaginable. As long as it was food and could be digested.”
“Thanks for mentioning that little bit of information. Of course, it would have been better if you said that two hours ago!”
At that very moment, the game room’s door opens and Fate enters the room. He silently walks over to the same table as his friends. He attempts to order the same food that Infinity and Miracle were eating. Just as he was about to order the bacon the other two talk him into getting scrambled eggs.
“Your breakfast should be ready in a few minutes,” says the robot. It flies toward the bar in order to give the cook the new order.
“What was wrong with the bacon?” whispers Fate.
“Don’t ask. Just don’t ask,” mutters Infinity, who still tastes the disgusting lizard meat on his tongue.
“How did you sleep?” asks Miracle. She slides her chair over to her boyfriend and kisses him before he can answer. The potent firecracker juice is still crackling in her mouth, which makes for a very intense kiss.
“Wow. I feel great after that shock to the system. What have you been drinking, Miracle?”
“Some kind of alien drink called firecracker juice. I am definitely going to be drinking more of this stuff before I kiss you.”
“Lucky me. Have either of you seen Solix today? He’s doing that disappearing act again and I’m getting tired of it.”
“Not since yesterday’s afternoon training session. Is something wrong? Besides the fact that you hate doing the same stuff over and over again,” says Infinity.
“Nothing’s wrong. There are just some basic questions that I want to ask our mysterious host. Like, why the old guardians suddenly quit and what those evil immortals are like? There has to be a reason we haven’t been told this stuff.”
The airborne robotic waiter soon returns with Fate’s food and places it in front of him. The waffles are the same, but the scrambled eggs are speckled blue and red. Fate starts shoveling the food into his mouth while Infinity walks off toward the arena to restart the laser warfare game. The drink that came with Fate’s food is a shimmering pink one instead of the bright yellow one that Miracle asks to get refilled.
“Don’t worry yourself over things that are in the past. Just remember that we have a long future ahead of us,” whispers Miracle.
“Maybe you’re right. I could just be acting paranoid. But I’m still going to take an unscheduled look around the sun base. We are never allowed to walk around unless Solix is with us or SEAS is keeping an eye on us. I think something is being hidden from us and I want to know what it is,” replies Fate. He finishes the multicolored waffles and speckled blue and red eggs in a couple of quick minutes.
“Fine. Just don’t get into any unnecessary trouble.”
Fate gulps down his glowing, pink drink and gets up to leave. Just then, the black door hisses open and Hydrana walks in wearing her dark green guardian uniform and a very annoyed look on her face.
“It’s way too early for any of us to put up with her complaining,” mutters Miracle.
“Don’t I know it. I’ll see you later.”
“Wait. Don’t leave me with her.”
When the Neptune guardian takes a seat, she quickly orders an omelet with a voice that has an angry edge to it. Fate decides it’s the best time to leave because he’s really not in the mood to put up with the spoiled brat. He was having enough time accepting the fact that she would live forever.
“I hate this ugly uniform and this stupid sun base,” Hydrana announces as she places her head on the table.
“What are you talking about? These uniforms aren’t that ugly and I don’t see anything wrong with the sun base,” answers Miracle just to get under Delila’s skin.
“You would. I just do not like the color I got. My favorite color is violet. Not this gross, dark green. And, why did I have to be the one who gets this short skirt when the air conditioner is deep-freezing my bedroom as we speak? Anyway, Solix said immortals’ don’t feel pressure and temperature changes that much. But our bodies are still working on that part of the super powers. I hate being turned into an ice cube while I sleep.”
“How should I know about any of that? Besides, I would have liked to have the skirt. I mean, I do have much better looking legs than you.” A smirk crosses Miracle’s face when Hydrana’s head turns bright red.
“Don’t start with me, tramp. So, where was your boyfriend going in such a hurry? You tell him that you’re pregnant or something.”
“At least, I have the ability to have a child. Unlike you who isn’t even allowed into the human gene pool. If you must know, he went looking for Solix. He has a couple of questions for the old man.”
“As long as it doesn’t concern me, I don’t really give a damn right now. Here’s my food,” says Hydrana. Her food arrives and she is shocked by what she sees on the plate. The omelet she had ordered is yellow and violet spotted with a pulsating blob of thick, black slime on it.
“What is that . . .stuff? It looks like it’s alive,” whispers Miracle as she stares at the moving food.
“The food is not alive and it never was. It is a Titanian omelet. Is that not what you wanted?” asks the robot.
“I didn’t want this. I wanted an omelet from Earth. You know the kind that actually looks edible and won’t try to eat me!” yells Hydrana when her ability to speak returns to her gaping mouth. She throws the plate of food high into the air and deep freezes it to the metal ceiling. The startled robot quickly goes to get her new breakfast while Miracle looks at the frozen plate and starts laughing.
“It wasn’t that funny,” mentions Hydrana. But after a few seconds, she starts to laugh as well.
“Then, why are you laughing?”
“I’m allowed to change my mind. Did this food problem happen to you and Infinity this morning?”
“Yeah. I ordered waffles and they ended up being multicolored. Honestly, they didn’t taste that bad. But I think we should try to be a bit more specific with our orders from now on. A lot more specific. Unless we want to keep trying alien food that looks plain nasty.”
“No kidding. Of course, I think we should get a menu with pictures from SEAS because I don’t want to put up with this again. You want to play that chess game. I really feel like I can beat you this time.”
The two female immortals stay in their seats and play a few long games of holographic chess. During the game they start talking about the future and trade insults. They mostly trade insults because Hydrana accuses Miracle of cheating once every five minutes.
Well, I guess I was in a mood when I marked this topic for today. Perhaps I was thinking about writing drama, but the picture I grabbed seems to be something else. Nothing to do, but carry on. I mean, we all deal with drama to some extent. Even those who swear that they don’t. Seriously, they’re either in it, watching it, starting it, or pretending that it isn’t around. Life is drama! Can be as small as the dramatic decision to get out of bed, but it’s there. I think the term has been labeled with so much negativity that we can’t see it as anything else too. There can be good drama if it’s entertaining or leads to a happy event of some kind. Instead, we seem to use drama as a simple way of saying ‘starting shit’. Let’s get to the questions.
Ciao, SEers. Last time, we discussed Dwight Swain’s concepts of scenes and sequels. (If you missed that post, you can find it here.) Remember, a chapter’s scenes can be one of two things, a scene or a sequel. Today, we’re going to go deeper into the concept of scenes.
Scenes are the “proactive” units of a story. They introduce and advance goals, conflicts, and disasters. Scenes should have all three items before advancing to the following sequel. Why must they include all three? Because all three are necessary for tension. And without tension, there’s no reason for a reader to turn the page.
Goals:
A goal is simply what your POV character desires. It could be:
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Sleep seems to be a recurring theme in my blog, probably because the wee one doesn’t let me get enough myself.
I have already written about How Better Sleep Can Boost Your Writing, shared an Infographic on Bizarre Sleeping Habits of Famous People, and offered some tips on How to Remember Your Ideas When You’re Falling Asleep—or Waking Up!
Today, I’m sharing an infographic with some tips on sleep hygiene, courtesy of Casper, which I hope you’ll find interesting.
Sleep hygiene is all about forming good sleep habits that can help you get a better night’s sleep. Practicing good sleep hygiene goes beyond buying a comfortable mattress. What you do during the day and into the night can greatly impact your quality of sleep.
Some examples of good sleep hygiene include exercising regularly and avoiding frequent naps during the day. Good…
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Let’s all welcome Mae Clair today. She’s one of my best author friends, and a co-founder over at Story Empire. Today she has a new book to tell us about, and it’s a short read. I love short books and it’s nice to see Mae dipping her toes in that water. I read it and gave it five stars.
***
Hi, Craig! Thanks for hosting me today for the release of my Amazon 90-minute short read, In Search of McDoogal. It’s great to have a new release, and a different one at that. As a mystery/suspense author with a bent for urban legends, many of my books carry a somber tone.
Not McDoogal. This is all light-hearted fun. The reader gets to tag along as two friends try to recover a missing painting before the artist returns to town.
Brady Conrad and Declan Fitzgerald met in high school. Now, a…
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Yahoo Image Search
You want to join
And taste sweet victory
Even for a moment
Regardless of yourself
To dive into a sea of cheers
And swim to your own dreams
*
The trend is a stepping stone
A door left open
That many have found
The frame is cracking
So there is not much time
To stake your claim
*
This is not your genre
Brutal learning curves
Old habits in the way
Yet you carry on
Sure that it will be the move
That brings you to your goal
*
Successes have racked up
Your name is known
It is time for true love
The series of your dreams
Can now be written
But are you allowed outside your box?
(Basically, this is about how some authors jump on a bandwagon to get their name out there. A good move if you can work within the trend, but it has a risk. That would be getting known for the trend and not having anyone follow you to a project that you planned first, but isn’t in that arena. So, one should weigh this possibility when looking into the move.)
Legends of Windemere 