
Greetings, wonderful followers of the Story Empire Blog. Jan here. I’m continuing on with my series on colors and how we can use them to enhance our …
Colors – How they can enhance our settings and characters – #6 ORANGE

Greetings, wonderful followers of the Story Empire Blog. Jan here. I’m continuing on with my series on colors and how we can use them to enhance our …
Colors – How they can enhance our settings and characters – #6 ORANGE

The rainforest is a vital biome of Earth. For those that don’t know, it is a warm, rainy forest typically found around the equator. There are some other really cool facts about rainforests:
It is very important to preserve our rainforests in order to keep our world inhabitable. This is true even if we don’t live near them because the water and air they provide can travel to everyone. We lose approximately 150 acres of rainforest every minute, which drives us closer to our own extinction.
Below is a full episode of Netflix’s ‘Our Planet’, which is narrated by David Attenborough and is about jungles. Jump around and take a look or watch the whole thing at your leisure. It’ll show how amazing this biome is.
Only one week left before the 24-25 school year is officially over. Got students Monday through Thursday and then final meeting on Friday. After that, my son and I jump right into Pokemon Go-fest and relax. I’ll be back with my students after July 4th for the summer, so it’s a brief break.
This past week was fairly tiring. More than I realized since I had a drink last night and it wiped me out halfway through. It wasn’t even strong or big, but it punched me in the stomach and forced me to lie down for a bit. I could have been a little dehydrated too since it’s been getting hotter even with a little rain. We have an extreme heat warning running from Sunday at noon until Tuesday evening. I’m going to get my Pokemon time in before the heat comes in and then depend more on the mall until things subside. I have my son for a bit this afternoon too, so that will have minimize my time in the heat.
Even with everything going on, I somehow managed to type in a chapter of edits for Darwin & the Beast Collector. It was a big one too. Helped that I had Thursday off, but I had a lot of errands and chores. Slipped in a few pages here and there until it was done. Still had time to watch two episodes of ‘Fubar’ before I needed to sleep. This means I might be able to get 2 more chapters done this weekend. Today is going to be iffy with me having time with my son, but tomorrow shows more promise. I might get some done on Thursday too since I don’t have any appointments on that day, the heat will be much less, and there isn’t a Pokemon event I’m interested in.
Pretty sure I have changed my editing plans too. I have 13 chapters to go and my goal is to finish it by the end of summer school, which means I can start writing a new book the week before school starts up again. This feels better because I still need time to get my head back into the writing game. Editing is easy compared to putting words on a totally blank page and having them make sense. I haven’t done that in so long that I get anxious just thinking of it. With other events coming up, I really hope I’m up for the task and haven’t lost as many of my skills as I fear. Writing isn’t like riding a bicycle where you can jump right back on. At least, it doesn’t feel that way.
I think I’m going to use my summer mornings while I wait for students to arrive for outlining too. Best to use as much time as possible since I’ve been barely active in this arena for so long. This means that I’m going to push the ‘old posts’ idea into September, which isn’t bad. I have so many old posts that went unnoticed because I had no audience, so I don’t mind reviving them. I might start on that during the times I have my son and he’s doing his own thing. That or when we take a trip in August, which will give me something to do while he’s drawing.
Not really sure how much I should plan for the summer since the weather is starting to worry me. We had a bunch of rain, especially on weekends, for about two months. Then, it was decent weather and now we’re heading into a heatwave for a few days. After that, we’re supposed to get storms for a few days. Good weather after that . . . Then, I have no idea, but it’s all over the place. I don’t like the idea of being cooped up inside even though I can get writing done. This type of weather pattern drains me and gives me headaches, so writing becomes a challenge. That means only 1 chapter section a day and I’m already expect to go slow out of doubt and anxiety.
On the plus side of things, my son is done with his tests and is basically through with 10th grade. His summer hasn’t really started since the students still technically have school through the 26th. So, he’s going to be sticking to the usual schedule while I have to go to work. Thankfully, I can use my lunch breaks to swing by the house and eat with him before heading back. I’m looking forward to these breaks since work is 4 days with 3 of them involving field trips. None of them on the day that will reach 100 degrees, which is a small favor. Really dreading combating that weather. You can tell that it’s been a focus lately since everyone is worried.
Haven’t mentioned book sales in a while . . . Because there aren’t any. 99 cents didn’t make any difference. No reason to change it back since a higher price won’t bring in readers. I picked a really difficult dream as a teenager. Though, I guess more people were interested in reading unknown authors back then. Felt like the 80’s and 90’s had more names rising to the top of the fantasy genre. Now, it’s the same ones with a few blips of new ones. At least from my perspective.
So, goals of the week?
Ran into these guys yesterday on my walk too:

Duckies! Mother flew off, so I hope she came back

Villains are always fun to write. They can be over-the-top in all sorts of ways that the heroes and supporting cast can’t get away with. Still, there are times you write a nasty, horrible villain that makes your skin crawl. What do you do to come back to normalcy after writing a scene that doesn’t involve them dying horribly?
Now, I had a villain in Legends of Windemere named Stephen Kernaghan. I felt dirty every time I wrote him because he was designed to be the most loathsome of the antagonists. Manipulative, arrogant, murderous, and it was made clear that he had raped others. Even the other villains had issues with him, but he was too powerful for them to take out. He was also the main antagonist’s son, which didn’t help. I looked forward to the day I wrote his death scene because I needed to walk away every time I was done with him. This happened even if I wasn’t done with the scene.
So, what did I do?
Surprisingly, taking a nap didn’t help because I would only dream about dealing with Stephen. That and I still had undiagnosed sleep apnea, so a nap would cause me to wake up groggy.
So, what methods would you use to get back from writing a horrible, disgusting villain that makes your skin crawl?

You son of a bitch, Death.
(Sometimes it does feel like society is designed to have us continue moving at our top speed. We are guilted for relaxing unless we are of a certain age or tax bracket. We ignore that a lifetime of rushing ahead causes damage. Well, here’s a poem about that.)
We move too fast
In everything we do
Planning every minute
To ensure all gets done
As if death is at our door
You see it on the road
People weaving into harm
As if the reaper
Is racing up behind
When he is waiting up ahead
We do it to our children
Pushing all they do
As if doom has them on the list
Planning to take them
Unless they speak at two
All our actions center
On what tomorrow holds
And how to get there fast
Skipping over days like leaves
Crushed beneath a funeral march
The quicker that we move
The faster we reach our maker
Who may ask us to our face
Why we never slowed our pace
And listened to the wind
Greetings! Liz Gauffreau with you today. I think it’s safe to say that all authors want more people to read and enjoy their books. (I know I do!) …
Curated Writing Content: Accessible Ebooks

The graphic above from a Google Image Search pretty much covers emotional numbness, which is a problem. In fact, it seems to be a growing issue with more people getting stressed out and pulling away from general society. No, social media doesn’t count as all the human contact that you need. So, what effect can numbness have on an author?
A really big one because this means an author won’t be able to access emotions when writing certain scenes. Happiness, sadness, anger, and the like will be flat on the page since one won’t be able to stir them even slightly. Yes, you can use the proper words to bring the emotion across and an experienced author might be able to get a spark within a reader. Yet, there was always be something lacking for a reader who is drawn deeply into the book. It can stand in contrast to anything written without the numbness, which makes the issue even worse.
Keep in mind that I’m not saying an author has to go into a rage to write anger or weep to create sadness. I mean, being able to sense the emotion on some level and remember or imagine what it feels like on a deep level. With numbness, you can have trouble pulling at the emotions with ease. Forget jumping between them if you have different characters feeling different things at the same time. You’ll have a struggle without realizing it and your writing will suffer. If not flat then you’re going to have a lot of jerkiness within the scene.
Unfortunately, most people need to have their numbness pointed out by those who care about them. It isn’t something you can easily be aware about because you hit survival mode and simply keep going through life. Dealing with the stresses and not getting a break for an extended period of time gets away from you. The numbness comes on gradually too, which means it’s easy to fall into the abyss.
There are a few things to do for recovery or even avoiding the problem in the first place:
So, what do other people think of emotional numbness in general and with writing?
I want to welcome Esther Chilton to Fiction Favorites. Most of you know Esther as a fun blogger who puts up some interesting prompts. She also blogs …
Guest Post – Esther Chilton – The Secret Dragon – Pre-Order Launch – #newbook
Denise here to revisit a favorite subject of mine animals, and writing. When I was young, I was drawn to books about animals and that hasn’t changed.…
Revisting Animal Characters