I’ve been working hard this week and things are only going to get crazier. The toddler’s birthday party is coming up, so cleaning and putting a few presents together will take over tomorrow. It shouldn’t be too rough until Saturday when all that last minute prep and the inevitable final hour uh-oh occurs.
Today is devoted to writing August blog posts because I don’t know when I’ll have time again. A situation change that I can’t go into right now will limit my . . . well all my free time for the foreseeable future. The toddler ends school on the 11th and then he’s home all day until early September. This means I’ll only be doing computer/writing stuff in mornings, evenings, and the length of ‘Frozen’ when he gets his daily watching. So I’ll be working a lot by phone and using Hootsuite for Twitter because The Compass Key should be live by that time. I might get some help for part of that time, but expect me to be like I am this week with very little presence outside of ‘likes’. Again, I can’t really go into the situation on a public forum.
Anyway, here is the news:
I will be revealing a Legends of Windemere Book Trailer on Sunday during the Goal Post. It will be on Youtube, so I’d appreciate any likes and shares from that. It was made by Sean Cooke whose blog you can visit and writer newsletter you can find HERE!
I’ve been told that the completed cover art for The Compass Key should be ready early next week. This is barring any sudden distractions and incidents. That means I’m aiming to have the Cover Reveal on August 6th and the debut on August 8th. Sorry for the delay on this, but a lot happened that was out of my control and plain odd.
I will be writing the blog posts for the ‘Windemere Questions’ that I requested a while back. I got a few and added some from other sources, but there’s always room and time for more. Feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll add it to the list. These posts will be going live in late August/early September after a week of character interviews.
Reminder that ‘Bob’ will be revealed in all his Book 5 glory on Saturday. I don’t remember if the section I posted is from before or after my edits, but you should get the gist of this bastard. I can finally stop calling him ‘Bob’ too.
That’s really it for today and now I’m off to get a few things done. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week.
*Today our guest is the lovely and talented Luccia Gray. Please welcome her and take a moment to say hello and check out her work! If you would like to do your own mirror interview–it’s a lot of fun talking to yourself–go to the contact me page and send me an email🙂
Why do you use a pen name?
There is a long literary tradition of writers using pen names. 19th century authors were keen users; Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell (the Brontes), George Elliot, (Mary Anne Evans), George Sand, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain. There are many contemporary examples, too: Anne Perry, Anne Rice, and Toni Morrison, among others. No doubt their reasons are/were varied. There is no one reason why a writer decides to write with a pen name.
I started using a pen name because I wanted my ‘writing persona’ to be distinct to my ‘ordinary persona’…
First, I never dreamed I would write poetry
Second, who would have thought I would ever share said poetry
Third, publish that poetry? Never!
Fourth, set up a twitter account. Not likely
Fifth, add an author Facebook page? You must be crazy!
Well, I’ve done all of those things…and more. I’ve had incredible reviews, garnered a bunch of twitter followers and now Facebook likes. I have three published books (well two and a half since one was a collaboration with Kirsten A.). And I have already started compiling poems for my next book.
Alone
So incomplete
Gazing at the moonlight
Wondering just when you’ll be here
Nearby
With me
To start our lives
Never to leave again
Becoming whole and not just half
As one
Pamela has written a second collection of love poems. Poetry is an expression from deep within the soul. It can be therapeutic and healing. It can bring out all the best or the worst in life. Her poetry comes from the heart, not the head. It is an outpouring of emotion and she exposes it to the reader in the pages. Love: Lost and Found contains over 90 poems representing over a dozen different forms of poetry. The poems span the angst and despair of love lost to the exhilaration and ecstasy of a deep abiding love.
Love: Lost and Found has already received a five star review that says
“Pamela Beckford writes with her heart as much as her mind. She makes me feel things when I read her work that usually stay buried beneath the surface. Her way of expressing emotions that usually aren’t captured for later evaluation is amazing.
I also enjoy that she uses a lot of different styles and forms of poetry in her collections, making the book varied and interesting. Some are shorter and some longer, but all of them carefully constructed. Her ability to say so much in so few words is a indication of her talent as a writer.
If you are looking for an excellent poetry book, look no further.”
Pamela’s other books have also garnered some great reviews and both are available on Kindle or paperback as well.
Season of Love (tanka)
First there is summer,
Followed by fall, winter, spring
But lest we forget
The season of love appears
Bringing hope for all lost souls
Last week was rough getting through the edits of The Compass Key and pushing all of the hype posts back a week. Until I get the editing and cover art done, I’ll be doing the push and a day of writing posts every Thursday. The alternative is to let all of those posts go live without the book, which would be very embarrassing . . . again. So I’m definitely feeling like I’m in stasis for now.
Not that I won’t be busy. My lovely, intelligent, wrathful, friendly, whip-wielding editor has given me an assignment. Use what I’ve learned to fix up Beginning of a Hero. I already started and I want to cry. It’s nothing like the others, which is one depressing sight. The other is that I’m still ‘over’ this book. I hate to say it that way, but I finished the first draft in 2000/2001. So figure I’ve been editing it at least once a year since that time and you can see why I’m whimpering. I still make changes for the sake of making changes with this thing. Thankfully, it’s short and I’ll get through it before the week is done, but it’s going to be more of a task than Book 6. Yeah this is baby author whining, but this is my blog and I’m allowed. (Prepares to apologize to editor for complaining.)
On top of hoping that everything comes together and I can still do an August 1st book debut, the toddler will have his birthday party next Saturday. So I have to do some cleaning, final check with guests, make sure I know what to get for food, and eventually put a trampoline together for him. Come to think of it, I have no idea how to build this thing inside and carry it outside. I think I have a tent to put up too.
Speaking of the toddler, he had a nasty spill at the park and skinned both knees. Bathes are going to be a challenge for a day or two and I don’t know what his second swimming lesson is going to be like on Tuesday.
Goals of the week:
Edit Beginning of a Hero.
Edit The Compass Key with editor over phone.
Pray for cover art, but plan for delay. Jason is trying and that’s good enough for me.
Write plot outline for new Clyde story.
Prepare for toddler’s birthday party as week goes on.
If need be, spend a day writing posts after pushing the Hype Week and Ask-A-Character weeks back. Saving the Windemere questions for after that. Subject will be a post for each Champion to discuss their ‘core trait’ or lack thereof.
Try to finally make it a week without missing a day of biking.
QUESTION! If I was to do another TWUBS Chat where people can ask me questions over Twitter, WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST DAY AND TIME? Trying to get a consensus.
The above is a show from the late 90’s that was about a cop whose senses where enhanced. Not just a few like Wolverine, but all 5 and the creators were very good about giving each one a use. Ellison was described as a walking forensic lab during the show and he had military training that was enhanced by his senses. Sadly, it didn’t make it beyond 3 seasons and a clean up season. Never got to see the 4th one because I was in college, it was 2 years after the 3rd, and I only found out about it today. Also, Seasons 2-4 are not on DVD and I’m done with this moping.
Something I always liked about this show is that there were downsides to his senses and they backfired at times. If he focused too much on one sense then the other ones dimmed or turned off. So he had to master using them without falling into trances that left him vulnerable. There were times when he would be using an enhanced senses and something would go horribly wrong. For example, I think he was blinded by a light at the worst possible moment and another time he got sick because of a scent in the air. Might be mixing up episodes though. Need to watch again at some point, but Brisco County Jr. is next on my list. So what are some pros and cons for each sense, but remember that this is not a comprehensive list. It’s just what I can think of without rambling on for pages:
Sight
Pros– Nightvision, longer range, and increased visual awareness are possibilities.
Cons– Easily blinded and tunnel vision syndrome.
Hearing
Pros– Improved tracking, unable to be surprised, pick up changes that denote lying/anxiety, eavesdropping on private conversations, and other increased auditory awareness abilities.
Cons– Deafened by sudden sounds and too focused on hearing for other senses to kick in.
Smell
Pros– Improved tracking, sensing poisons/bad food, recognizing people before seeing them, and other increased olfactory awareness abilities.
Cons– Very bad hay fever, potency of colds can be worse than normal humans, overpowering smells can kill sense, smelling something does not always mean identification, and looking odd sniffing everyone.
Taste
Pros– Identify ingredients to food, easily find trace amounts of things, rule at wine tasting, pick up molecules in the air, and other taste-based abilities. (This is really the hardest one to use.)
Cons– Only identify what is known (Sentinel practiced with different foods), spices can be overpowering, and kissing someone with halitosis will suck.
Touch
Pros– Instinctive sense of wind changes, find subtle changes in textures, uncover hidden doorways, and other tactile abilities.
Cons– Increased sensations of pain, some textures might full sharp like sandpaper, and skin is easily agitated.
