Goal Post: Winter Break as a Teacher (Assistant)

Posted on February 16, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Where to even start with this week?  Well, I took my son to see Lego Movie 2 last Sunday, so we’ll start there.  Not as good as the first one, but still very entertaining.  I like how they incorporated both worlds this time.  It’s more musical than its predecessor, which isn’t a bad thing.  They had fun with it and there are some fun twists.  We went to the Lego Store afterwards to pick up some sets since you can’t take a kid to a Lego movie and expect him to not get some afterwards.  This was a great way to end last weekend . . . and step into a really odd week.

Very early Monday morning, my son got sick and it resulted in me spending most of the night doing laundry.  Of course, he couldn’t go into school and I wasn’t able to get anyone to change their schedule to watch him.  My first time taking off from being a TA and I really didn’t know what to do with myself.  Felt so bad about not being there, especially since the next day was a snow day.  Not for my son, but for my school district.  I just kind of sat around working on War of Nytefall: Rivalry posts.  I wanted to work on my book, but the snow day call came at the same time as my alarm.  The combination just threw me off, so I wasn’t sure what to do with myself.  The rest of the week went somewhat smoothly.  Learning that things don’t always go as planned when dealing with teenagers, which I’m sure I knew beforehand.  If a nine-year-old is a challenge then an older kid isn’t going to be any different.  Part of the fun and challenge.

What else to talk about?  I didn’t get any writing done on War of Nytefall: Eradication because of time and tiredness.  Barely getting any sleep at the start of the week did a number on me.  That personal issue I’m unable to talk about sapped my strength too.  Honestly, we should just assume that that event is talking a lot of energy and attention from me.  Ended up earning a new health issue, but it isn’t anything to be too worried about.  Either caused by going from cold to warm temperatures or stress, I get a full body itch around the end of the day.  Half a dose of Benadryl helps, but I’m getting things checked out today.  Had the doctor’s appointment anyway.  My hope is to get one chapter done this weekend, but we’ll see what happens.

I do feel weird about my writing time and ability.  Since I’m still trying to get into the swing of things, I don’t do much during the week.  I probably could if the itchiness and cold weather weren’t draining me.  At some point, my schedule will adjust itself to let me do biking between getting home and my son getting back too.  To be honest, I started War of Nytefall: Eradication about a month and a half ago and I’ve only done 3 chapters.  That’s out of 18, which used to take me about 2 months.  That’s what happens when you get a day job, which takes priority.  I’ll figure this out eventually.  I’m getting things together to apply for a summer camp job too, so I won’t get those two months off and they might be busier.  If I can, I’m going to work on Ichabod Brooks stuff during that period and maybe Nytefall will remain a school year project.  Using weeknights to prepare blog posts after my son goes to sleep helps too.  I’m getting ready to start scheduling April posts and I’ll be asking for topic suggestions tomorrow.  Though, I’ll be focusing mostly on my vampire series.

This week is Winter Break, so I’m focused more on having fun with my son.  I don’t get to play with him as much as I used to, so this is a treat.  He still has some appointments, but we’ll figure some things out.  We’re seeing ‘How To Train Your Dragon 3’ on Friday and I would like to do an animal-related outing at some point.  That second one is going to be tough in the winter, especially since he has appointments.  The weather might be gross too, which means playing inside.  Trying to avoid video games as much as possible since he’s become a little obsessed.  We still have a few science projects in a kit that he got over the holidays, so I’ll try to talk up one of those.

Oh, this happened at 8:04 PM EST with Legends of Windemere: Beginning of a Hero:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,953 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)

Seems the freebie ‘sold’ 21 copies and shot up the ranks.  I don’t know if it got any higher since I’m writing this Friday night.  Seriously, nothing is really going to happen between me finishing this post and it going live.  If the numbers get better then that’s great and I hope it has an effect on the rest of the series too.  Not sure what caused this either.

Considering this is Winter Break, I’m not really going to bother with goals . . . Yet, I really should do something:

  1. Spend time with son.
  2. Rest up for return to school.
  3. Write some of War of Nytefall
  4. Finish the blog tour posts.
  5. Biking would be nice.
  6. See ‘How to Train Your Dragon 3’.
  7. Watch more ‘Seven Deadly Sins Season 3’.  I like Escanor a lot more than I expected.
  8. Really should request more books from the library.  Down to two.

That’s really it.  Hope everyone has a fun weekend.

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Phases of a Story: The Churning Gas of . . . No Clean Way to Do This Title

Posted on February 15, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

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I had to think long and hard about this one because I couldn’t really put my thoughts to words.  There was a moment of giving up and throwing the concept out to everyone for how they would do it.  Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to call it quits when I’ve come so far with the theme.  I mean, the analogy has to work somewhere.  How could liquid and solid be connected to writing, but gas is impossible?  It shouldn’t be and I’m going to bring this theme home.

First, what is gas?  It is an air-like fluid substance, which expands freely to fill any space available, irrespective of its quantity.  Yes, this is the dictionary definition.  I see this as an ephemeral phase of matter because you can’t really hold it and it drifts away so quickly if you see it.  Think about how your breath dissipates on a cold day instead of hanging around.  It’s this hard to grasp, but still exists side of gas that keeps drawing my attention here.  There has to be that part of writing where you know something is there and are trying to contain it.  This can lead to the ‘gas’ becoming a liquid and solid, which means I’m not at the end of the path.  I might be at the beginning.

Once you have your idea locked down, you move along and don’t really consider the earliest stage.  We talk about how the idea came to us, but immediately jump to when it became solid.  Yet, there was a moment, either brief or extended, where you were struggling to grab that spark of imagination.  Without a doubt, it was there and you know you needed it like you need oxygen.  Yet, you kept having to chase it and find a way to creation the conditions to make it solid.  Maybe you left it alone and it congealed while you were doing something else.  Perhaps meditation worked or you simply brainstormed off the feeling until something clicked.  The point is that you began with an ephemeral, barely there idea that grew into the story.

This means, the gas phase of writing is much harder to control than liquid and solid.  It doesn’t appear when you want it or expect it.  This part just materializes on the periphery of your mind then gradually gets closer to the conscious mind.  You are along for the ride at the beginning since you might not realize it’s there.  This isn’t to say that you can’t grab it by the horns and wrestle it into submission, but that can leave pieces of it behind or damage the idea.  Perhaps at this stage, we’re all pantsers because we aren’t working off a plan.  This is where the plan is forged, but it has to be at the proper pace or you will lose it all.

Personally, I tend to ignore these sparks for a bit to see if they stick around.  Long ago, I got so many that it was impossible to chase them all, so I let the strongest ones survive to be nurtured.  The others vanished back into the ether only to stay gone or return connected to another spark.  It makes one wonder if an idea can ever truly be destroyed or it simply changes into something else like matter.

So, what do you think of this ‘gas’ phase of writing?  Does it make sense?

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Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Update – #Reviews – Jacquie Biggar, Clifford Browder and Christine Campbell

Posted on February 15, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz
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Derailing Bedlam: Flirty Fish Tails Part 1 #fiction #adventure

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

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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Phases of a Story: The Flowing Liquid of Plot

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

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This one might be easier than I expected because we’ve heard the comparison as much as the solid foundation phrase.  So, what is something that comes to mind when you think of a liquid?  Oceans, drinks, showers, baths, streams, rivers, rain . . . I’ll be right back.  *toilet flush and washing of hands sounds*  Didn’t think that list through.  Anyway, most people probably thought of something along the lines of flowing.  I hope because you could also have considered that liquid is wet, takes the ‘shape’ of its container, and a few other things that don’t work for my post.

Authors need to have their stories flow in a way that the reader doesn’t feel like they’re in stop and go traffic.  This goes for word-to-word all the way up to beginning-to-end.  If the story is choppy or so twisty that nothing makes sense then you won’t have many people getting to the end.  Many of those who finish your book might do it out of a deep sense of determination or simply want to spite you as if you didn’t want them to get to the last, precious page.  Either way, you need to get a good flow going, which can be accomplished with a variety of methods that can also be combined.

  1. Outlining can help gather your thoughts and lay down the groundwork for the story before you begin.  This allows your mind to already have the pieces and they will get shaped as you do the first draft.  It might not create a perfect flow, but you’ll find the transitions are less surprising to you.  Foreshadowing may be easier to establish as well because you know what’s coming.  These connections help to extend the flow of the plot over the entire work.
  2. Beta readers will tell you if your story isn’t working.  Saying that things don’t fit or the flow is wrong is fairly common.  This bypasses an author’s ability to fill in the blanks inside their own head.  We can read our own stories and think it’s clear as day because we know it all.  The messy flow is sorted in our minds as we read, so we are blind to this issue.  Beta readers don’t have this weakness, which makes them great at pointing out this problem.
  3. Editing specifically for the flow, which can go hand-in-hand with beta readers.  Force yourself to focus on how things are moving along and block those pre-existing notions that will get in the way.  This is actually harder than one thinks because you can become distracted by typos and switch lanes.  Take a lot of breaks to make sure you remain focused.

This is really what the liquid phase is about when it comes to the story.  Not just the flow, but the malleability of the piece.  Solids can’t be molded as easily as liquid and gases are even worse.  So, this phase/stage is where you can do the most crafting upon that core you previously developed.  This isn’t only for the story itself too.  You need to consider the malleable flow of your overall world to make sure it fits together and any connected works must be attached to what you have done.  If the movement from one series to the other is shoddy and stunted then it will feel like they shouldn’t be connected at all.

So, what do you think of the ‘liquid’ phase of writing?  Do you have another way to explain this analogy?

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Smorgasbord Book Reviews – The Beast Within (Mended Souls Book Two) by Jacquie Biggar

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz
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Teaser Tuesday: Not Another Hider #fantasy #adventure

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Sean Harrington

Been a long time since I did any type of promo for Quest of the Brokenhearted, which is still one of my favorites to have written.  It’s tough to do excerpts because each chapter is almost like a short story with a fight involved.  So there aren’t many things I can do without posting some spoilers.  Feel free to buy the book and read it at your leisure though.

Continue reading →

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The Benefits of Hearing Your Book Read Aloud

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Don Massenzio's avatarDon Massenzio

Oops Word on Big Red Button Correct Mistake

This tip has to do with something I learned from a fellow author and reinforced as I was trying to record an audio book version of one of my novels. It may sound silly, but you can greatly improve your work by reading it aloud or by hearing it read aloud to you.

This can be a tedious exercise, but it is well worth it. I’m going to pass on an anecdote from that fellow author I mentioned earlier. It was a situation that could have been embarrassing at best and disastrous at worst.

She had written a middle school age book. All of the spelling, punctuation and grammar were pristine and she was ready for publishing. On a whim, she put the book through the ‘Speak’ utility that is part of Microsoft Word (I’ll show you how to set that up later).

What she found was, in one spot…

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Phases of a Story: The Solid Foundation

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

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This week is going to be an experiment coming from an odd idea that I had.  Stories go through phases just like matter.  You have the idea, outlines, first drafts, final drafts, published versions, and other phases in the middle.  So, I was wondering how stories are similar to the three main phases of matter.  This could easily fall flat, especially when I get to the Gas post on Friday.  *pauses for laughter*  Anyway, let’s dive right into this and touch on the easiest phase: SOLID

Aside from books being something you can hold, the thing we look for the most with a story is how solid it is.  Similar to matter, you need the pieces to be densely packed and organized for the whole to maintain its shape.  One part falters and you can watch the entire structure crumble.  We talk about stories with a lot of physical, solid-based words as well.  How often have you heard an author talk about creating a strong foundation or compare the process to building a person with all the physical parts?  I’ve even heard a few authors talk about their books as if they put together a house.  So, the connection the solid phase of matter is pretty easy to make.

One way to create more solidness in a story is with planning, but this isn’t necessary.  Yes, an outline can create a clearer path for an author, but you can get a similar effect from simply following your whims.  It really depends on the person.  We’re looking at the result too, which is a story that has very few holes.  That’s the major goal for an author.  We want consistency and continuity to avoid creating a tapestry that is unraveling with every chapter or page.  Now, you can’t make it entirely unbreakable because everything has a weak point.  Somebody could easily tear your story apart if they put their mind to it, which is a threat shared by all stories.  Instead, you design it to withstand most of the attacks like a fortification wall around a castle.  Sure, those with explosives or a battering ram can get through, but you’re protected from kicks, arrows, swords, and anyone who thinks a headbutt can finish you off.  Again, solid doesn’t mean 100% unbreakable, but sturdy enough to survive most assaults.

Seems I keep coming back to a construction type of mentality here, which isn’t too surprising.  This is how a lot of authors act even if they don’t realize it.  We’re putting pieces together to build a whole.  Characters, settings, subplots, main plots, emotions, action, humor, dialog, twists, and so much more are merged to create this single entity that we hope will stand tall.  Yeah, I wasn’t as scientific as I thought I’d be here, but this one is fairly straightforward.  This is why I mentioned a foundation in the title because nearly everything stems from this solid core.  As complicated as it is to create, it’s pretty easy to figure out in this context.  You need this solid part for the story to be coherent and readable.

What do you think about comparing a story to the solid phase of matter?

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Saving your Privacy

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

In my last post, I described the moves companies take in their fight against fake news. That post raised some privacy issues; issues I will further explore in today’s post. Namely, I list here 15 default settings you could change to safeguard your privacy, courtesy of the Washington Post. And the best part? It will only take 15′ of your time.

Have you ever visited an eshop, only to see ads popping up on Facebook about the very same items you were shopping for? This is made possible thanks to various tracking methods. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

As the article points out, some of their defaults are plain crazy. Google saves a map of everywhere you go. Amazon makes your wish list public — and keeps recordings of all your conversations with Alexa. Facebook exposes to the public your friends’ list and all the pages you…

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