Goal Post: Meet the Teacher . . . Wait . . . I’m On the Wrong Side of the Desk

This was a busy week that felt like a month.  Don’t get me wrong.  Work was a lot of fun and I’m getting used to the new stuff.  Made successful strawberry bread with one of the students and we rocked it.  The only issue I had was that stress from other things was making me twitchy.  Glad I finally got back to therapy yesterday because I needed a non-family member to talk to.  All I’ll say is that there were a few personal obstacles that added to my stress and I can’t talk about it in public.  I know people don’t like that answer, but I can’t share everything without getting in trouble.

You might have noticed the title and gotten idea of one event.  I had ‘Meet the Teacher’ night and I wasn’t the parent.  This was a little nerve-wracking because I didn’t know what to expect.  As a TA, I wasn’t in charge of the classroom, so I really just stood or sat there when I wasn’t working the school store.  Got to meet some great people and hung out with one student who is always a blast.  It was a late night in the middle of the week, so I was tired the next morning.  This is when I was introduced a local coffee place and have to admit that the iced coffee I got was really good.  Don’t really drink the stuff and I’ve had bad reactions to the ones from Dunkin Donuts.  This time, I was good and it was oddly filling, so I didn’t get hungry until dinner.

Writing life continues to be dragging since my writing weekends tend to get derailed by other issues.  Sometimes it’s a bad encounter with the ex-wife that leaves me emotionally drained.  Other times, people around me keep asking for things that breaks my concentration.  Instead of finishing the outline for War of Nytefall: Ravenous, I only did 9 chapters with a lot of breaks.  One issue is that I’m doing a full rewrite to make some parts more secretive and I’m adding a drug addiction for one of the Dawn Fangs.  This was spontaneous and I’m going to have it run for a volume or two then work on a withdrawal arc.  Curious how an immortal would deal with this, but I’m having trouble locking down the actual source.  At least, my brain is doing work while my fingers are kept away from the pencils and notebooks.  If I’m lucky, I can do a bit tonight after the munchkin goes to bed.

Tomorrow is apple picking day, which we’re excited about.  Since he still has the cough from the pneumonia, we’re taking it easy today with Lego Harry Potter.  Mine didn’t go away until this past week, so it lingers.  The big fun will be next weekend when we see ‘Lion King’ on Broadway, ‘Abominable’ in theaters, and a few other things.  Hoping the weather holds and we can go to the zoo because we haven’t been there since the spring.  It won’t be long before the Children’s Zoo is closed for the season and the warmer weather animals are put inside for the winter.  My hope is to get a little more outlining done and open up the possibility of starting to write the next book in October.  I seem to be doing more hoping than working since things always go wrong.  Wish I knew of a way to change my luck, but it isn’t happening.

In other news, I started watching ‘Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’.  I’m only on episode 3, but I’m enjoying it.  Some of it feels like it goes against the movie, but that might be my imagination.  Always thought the Skeksis and Mystics were created when powerful beings messed with the Dark Crystal and got split.  Yet, they said that the Skeksis showed up and tricked Aughra into thinking they would watch the world while she psychically traveled the universe.  I mean, they never really went into details in the movie, so I could be wrong.  This series does make Aughra a more important figure, which I’m fine with since she was my second favorite character of the movie.  Right behind Fizzgig.  Out of all the new characters, I really like Deet and Hop.  I mean, I’d put them in my Top 5 Dark Crystal characters overall.  The hard part is watching and knowing that all but two of the Gelflings will be destroyed.  (If that’s news to you then please go watch the movie.)

Goals of the week:

  1. Apple picking!
  2. Fun at work since work site stuff begins.
  3. Try to finish that outline.
  4. Maybe work on some December posts.
  5. Get to sleep early a few nights.
  6. More exercise bike time.
  7. Consider making a post about what to do with Thursdays next year.
  8. Should probably start doing the next set of Teaser Tuesdays.  Going from ‘Beginning of a Hero’ to ‘War of Nytefall: Rivalry’.  That gives me 22 posts unless I add ‘Hopeteller’, ‘Bestiary’, and that horror attempt that I published like a fool.
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Book launch for “A Ghost in the Kitchen” by Teagan

John W. Howell's avatarFiction Favorites

I am so pleased to have Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene as a guest today. She is here to talk about her new book and other things.

Welcome to the launch party for A Ghost in the Kitchen! It’s a wild ride on a magical trolley through haunted Savannah, Georgia.

All the Pip stories by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

All the Pip books by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene. Purchase links:The Three Things Serial Story, Murder at the Bijou, and A Ghost in the Kitchen

Thanks for hosting me for my novel launch and book fair.

Hi everyone. I’m Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene, and I’ve brought a bunch of friends for this shindig on a magical 1920s trolley. First let me tell you a little about my new novel.

When my character, Paisley Idelle Peabody (better known as Pip) came along, I started writing a type of fiction that I never expected. Pip is a flapper. Her stories took me to…

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Life of the Author (A Shakespearean Sonnet)

To be honest, this is my first attempt at a Sonnet.  Learned about them in college and it was a project in ELA last year.  I helped my student with this, but I never took it by the reins myself.  Figured I’d give it a shot, but I’m not sure how this will go.  Not a big fan of rhyming and iambic pentameter always threw me off.  From what I can tell, it’s having 10 syllables in each line.  Here we go:

We all exist to put pen to paper
Born with the drive to imagine new tales
Thoughts and dreams move in our minds like vapor
Imagination is wind in our sails

Most cannot understand our words or way
Meeting our excitement with a blank stare
A chosen few get what we try to say
We get energy knowing that they care

That small speck of support can mean the world
Converting us from dire dour to bright hope
Our creativity will be unfurled
Giving us the strength to flourish and cope

The life of an author is full of stress
It is a path that we gladly caress

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Derailing Bedlam: Which One of Us Is the Predator, Again? Part 3 #fiction #adventure

As usual, here is your warning that this story has cursing, sex (not graphic), innuendo, and violence.  It’s my Rated-R action adventure called Derailing Bedlam.  This is the fourth outing (third official) for Cassidy and Lloyd, so feel free to click on one of the two covers to see how it started.  Each one is 99 cents!

Cover by Jon Hunsinger

Cover Art by Jon Hunsinger

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Continue reading

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This Fall, Fall in Love with Books

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

Fall in Love promo | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books

This Fall, fall in love with some great romance books, FREE or 99c!

Accent on Romance Giveaway

Fall in Love promo | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksAccent on Romance and Great Books Great Deals are running a collaborative promo until September 20th.

Three lucky winners will go home with one Fire HD 8 Tablet, plus two $25 Amazon shopping sprees for runner-ups!

You can enter the giveaway here.

Choose among these great books:

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FREE

Romantic Suspense

“Leah Spenser lives in the present until a past she has outrun imperils her future. Charming and soft-spoken Detective Leo Garvey caroms into her life. He seems to have her best interest at heart. Or maybe not…”

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$0.99

​Romantic Suspense

“Tina Wainscott delivers high-octane suspense and red-hot romance! Full of edge-of-your-seat action and red-hot passion, Wild on You is a souped-up roller coaster of a page-turner.”
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julie Ann Walker“Meet the Justiss Alliance:…

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Character Acrostics: More Poem Fun

Basically, every letter that starts the line is going to be part of a word.  That word will be a character associated with each series.  Think I’m going to do 4 or 5 here, but two of them will be lengthy.  I know it’s pointless, but I’m going to let people figure out the character just be reading the poems.  Let’s see how it goes.

Characters’ Series on Amazon!

Cataclysm born monster
Left to live in the sun
Yearning for peace
Desiring battle
Eternally restraining his beast

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Master of shadows
A thief to the bone
Building hoard after hoard

When will she stop
Is there a limit to her greed
Never tiring of
The challenges of her trade
Heaps of wealth
Running to the ceilings
Overfilling vaults
Perpetually call to her

Characters’ Series on Amazon

Looking for adventure
Urged on by stories of old
Keeping a family legacy alive
Even if it kills him

Childhood of training
And no experience of life
Letting his instincts fly
Leaving enemies confused
Instilling chaos on the battlefield
No strategy can survive him
Doing the unexpected
Over the top stunts
Resulting in a courage of a youthful hero

*

Flitting in the air
Invisible to some eyes
Zig to the left
Zag to the right
Locking in on his target
Eating the apple in one bite

Character’s Book on Amazon

In the world of Windemere
Champions come and go
Heroes fall into legends
And become more myth than man
But some have bills to pay
Ones who have been carved by life
Dedicated to the trade of adventure

Building off his fame
Ripe with exaggerations
Overshared by bards
Only some of which saw the deeds
Knees creaking and back aching
Some adventurers can’t retire

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Teaser Tuesday: At Least They Tried #fantasy #adventure

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Going back to the beginning with a teaser from Legends of Windemere: Beginning of a Hero.  Been a long time since I showed anything from this.  Keep in mind that it’s Free on Amazon and Smashwords.  A great introduction to my biggest series both to date and ever.  Although, you can really see how far I’ve come here over the years too.  Enjoy.

Continue reading

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Path of Heroes Sestina

(A sestina is a 7 stanza poem. The first 6 stanzas have 6 lines where the final word of each line is used in each position once.  It ends with a 3 line stanza with two of the words in each line.)

Heroes stepping upon the path
Some blind and others with purpose
All began unknowing of fate
One by one they join the battle
Driven forward by courage
Warding off the constant threat of death

One born with no sense of death
Another raised to walk her path
A youth depending upon his courage
The prince in search of purpose
A veteran of many battles
And a girl dragged into the whim of fate

Together they are bound by fate
Knowing at least one will be greeted by death
United for every battle
Keeping each other on the path
Friendship hardening their purpose
And bolstering their courage

Many times they will need courage
As their enemies chip away at fate
Those dedicated to a darker purpose
Starting with a being cloaked in death
Who follows his master’s path
And calls demons into battle

Forces clash in battle
Targeting their will and courage
Each one on a path
Questioning if its choice or fate
The answer coming with death
A prophecy of conflicting purpose

Who has the truer purpose
Will the answer come with a final battle
The only solution death
Or the shattering of courage
Viewed by the craftsman of fate
That has spent centuries watching this path

A duel of purpose that depends on courage
Leading to a battle of fate
To discover whose path will lead to death

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This did feel a little clunky, especially since I picked some tough words to reuse.  The poem depends on both repetition and ingenuity.  Obviously, I did this about Legends of Windemere and I hope I did my series justice.

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Check on the Idea Stockpile

(Okay.  I moved this from September 1st to the 15th because I forgot about all of the October post stuff I had set up.  Sorry about any confusion.)

About a week and a half ago, I was talking to someone and they showed an interest in me being an author.  Been a while, so I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not.  I talked about Legends of WindemereWar of Nytefall, and the others that have been working on.  Then, I was asked if I had anything else in the pipes.  Proudly declared that I had 30+ ideas on the burners in various stages of planning.  That’s as far as I got though because I terrifyingly realized that I couldn’t remember them.  Managed to make it out of the conversation and then broke down later that day when I was alone.  Why would this happen?

I used to always be able to run through most of my future ideas in my head without a problem.  After a full year of stress, anguish, and not being much of an author, I found that I couldn’t do this any more.  Everything is in my notes and I can jump start the memories that way, but this feels like another sign that I’m broken.  Not in the positive author way, but the detrimental author way.  I’ve had so little time with creative thoughts that things have faded away and that makes me queasy.  This is where people begin telling me that the creative ideas (and gift) are dormant and not gone.  Still, I’ve lost enough ideas to know things can vanish.  The stress and pressure of a ‘normal’ life require a sacrifice, which is typically our child-like creativity and optimism.  Lost the latter a long time ago, so the former is all I have left to stave off the crippling fate of being a mundane, go-through-the-motions adult.  Rather be a creative one.

When in Baltimore, I started remaking the list of series titles.  I have 3 copies in various formats and from various ages.  For example, 1 has Project Phoenix and Windemere mixed, 1 has them separate, and the other has arrows going everywhere.  That last one might have been when I was merging smaller stories into the bigger series to enhance the plots and cast.  I’m going to try to finish the list during my break and then step back into the fantasy tip stuff.  Once I get those entries outlined, I can gradually begin on that and maybe get more of my dwindling mojo back.  At least I still know how to write about the trade even if I can’t get the stories flowing.

Now, I was going to list everything here, but that actually sounds more ridiculous now that I’m looking at it.  I do have some confusing ones.  Think I’m going to keep everything in Windemere, including my superheroes.  This means the alien bounty hunter is going to have a problem.  One version had her crash land and go in search of bounties that escaped her ship.  Being aliens, they all have different reactions to Windemere’s magic and there was going to be a cult that goes after ‘Moon Children’.  Might be safer because I could never get the spaceship battles to work right and I prefer magic to science.  Those are my biggest headaches though.  Considering everything after Legends of Windemere, doesn’t really sell, I should do what I feel comfortable with and continue aiming for the grand finale of everything.  At least I’ll be entertained and I can leave the stories finished when I go bye-bye.

Another thing I’ve been looking at here is the format.  I’m thinking of turning many of the non-core stories like ‘Lions of Trune’, ‘Monster Hunters’, ‘Wraith Slayers’, etc. into short story collections.  It’ll be similar to how I do Bedlam in that each chapter is an adventure that connects to the whole.  This can turn some of them into one-shots or, at the very least, duets.  It could result in the ebooks being closer to 400 pages instead of my usual 200-300 but at least the story will be out there completely.  Besides, I’ve seen plenty of ebooks out there of that size.  Just another idea that I’m playing with.

This post is predominantly to clear my head.  I can’t do much else at this time since I’ve got a lot on my plate.  If I can use my breaks at work to get some outlining done then that’s a good move.  Hoping to use my non-son weekends for working on the next War of Nytefall book.  Things are going to be busy, but when are they not?  Maybe I’ll get my things together and designate a weekday in 2020 to reveal future ideas and get feedback on the basics.  Guess we’ll find out and hopefully I keep getting better in terms of being an author.  At least I have my new list.

Posted in Character & Book Themes, Character Origins | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Thoughts on Last Week’s Blog Topic

Bleach Characters (Both Female)

For those that were busy or avoiding the blog on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I talked about the Pervert Character this week.  It was a gamble given what the character is known for and how people respond to it.  A few people in the comments talked to me and I think we agreed that it might be cultural because you see them predominantly in anime and manga.  This I expected and believed beforehand.  Yet, there is a curious thing that I realized throughout the week.

People were saying that these characters are irredeemable and couldn’t be forgiven even if they were peeping toms.  Keep in mind that this wasn’t about rapists, but the anime perverts that peep, grope, jump for kisses, and do other things that TYPICALLY get them BRUTALLY BEATEN!  I think people ignored the results of these actions because there is NEVER a reward.  Again, cultural where there’s an acceptance that it’s fiction and gets more leeway.  Seriously, we really seem to put more standards on our fiction than on our reality.  This isn’t even the main thing that I realized.

I have written posts about serial killers, assassins, thieves, murderers, psychopaths, vigilantes, warriors, badasses, and other types that use violence to solve problems.  Each time I brought up this topic, I got a lot of comments about how they are used and popular examples.  Dexter was brought up as an example where we look at him as a hero and hope for redemption, but he’s still a SERIAL KILLER!  So, I was kind of shocked how the Pervert posts managed to scare off some people and get judged in a way that the violent ones never did.  The sex had everyone uncomfortable and deeming the characters irredeemable.  The violence is accepted because . . . it’s entertaining?  We really are a fucked up people if we can forgive a character who murders his way through a double-decker bus of enemies and scream for the death of one that copped a feel then got that same bus dropped on their head.  People brought up power and consent, but those things are being broken when you kill someone too.  I bet I could set up a series of posts in a few months about a violent character and get more results than this week.

Anyway, this is an observation and I’m sure people will respond by giving me their cultural insight.  Yet, I don’t really think that’s what we should look at.  It should be personal.  Why are you able to accept violent character, but not perverted ones?  Why can you forgive one and not the other when they are both crossing a line?  What about the fact that many of the perverts described are punished for their actions while the violent ones are almost praised for their slaughters?

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