My posts almost always come as a surprise to me. Not because I don’t like doing them but because I tend to forget about them until the last minute. Lets take today as an example. Today, I wasted my day away playing Plants vs Zombies, felt a bit ill and lightheaded (my husband apparently returned the cold I gave him earlier. As Tali’zorah would say… “Totally worth it”), and went out grocery shopping and came home with a ton of fruit.
How much actual writing did I get done today? Not much, I’ll admit. I figured out what I needed to do for my next chapter, wrote a page and a half when I realized I needed to rewrite the first part, and then went to the grocery store. After we got home, I played more Plants vs Zombies and had supper, read about three chapters of Dance with Dragons and then opened up my computer to write.
Unsurprisingly, when I suddenly realized it was 9pm, what did I do? Well, I didn’t start writing this blog post.
Instead I went to audible.com, checked my bank account, realized I couldn’t buy the next book or two from Patricia Briggs, sulked a little bit, put money into my account and swore to buy them on Monday.
Then I looked at my blank sheet. Looked up at the clock, thought about which project I wanted to work on and then said… “Darn it. Today is Sunday, isn’t it?” Heavy Sigh. “Blog post.”
Like I said, it isn’t that I don’t enjoy doing them. I love getting my thoughts out, even if I don’t usually get discussions on my site. It’s just that blog posts are pretty low on my priority list. Or at least, it comes low on the “write them up in advance” list.
In addition to not actually writing my blog posts until the last minute, I also tend to not decide on what I want to write about until the last minute as well.
If nothing else, it tends to mean that these come across in my natural voice, don’t usually need too much editing and that I think of what I’m up to write when I put my hands to keyboard.
So what does all of this have to do with my writing? Surprisingly a lot. It shows that I’m not as driven as I could be. It also shows that I tend to do not too badly off the cuff but that I would probably do better with planning.
It also shows that I should probably have more self-confidence, even if I’m going into writing without a clue about what I want to write about.
See, this post proves that there is something to be learned from every bit of writing you do… even if it is just a blog post.
This is a rather short post today, but I will get you all up to date. My total is now, 17,372 words, which is almost a full 1000 below the 18,333 words I should be at. However, I should be able to make that up tomorrow while I write. At the very least, I should be caught up again by Monday.
I would have been further ahead, but this is the time of me learning to write as a career and still have a life. I had friends come over for Poker tonight and let me say, it was a blast. Sometimes taking a single night off can be awesome (especially if you were able to write prior to your company arriving) and can really recharge your flagging spirits.
For the rest of my post, I’ll leave you with a video of Errol’s, A Nano-er from Ontario. He does parody songs all year round, but this one he did with a few of his Nano friends is awesome. Please, enjoy.
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Errol himself has done quite a few awesome Nanowrimo based videos alone, but I would suggest subscribing to both his personal channel and this one for DebsAndErrol.
Posted in Blogs on November 12th, 2011 by B.A. Matthews | | Comments Off
Once a year, it comes around. Rearing its head from previously calm waters, it is suddenly upon you, eating your motivation, intention and willpower. Yep, some of you know what I’m talking about. Drama. But not just any Drama. No, this is a very specific kind. Yep, I’m talking about the Drama Monster that you never expect.
Nano-Drama.
Yes, this is a thing. This wild beast only raises its ugly head when lots of writers get together and proceed to get hoped up on Caffeine, hope and endorphins.
It happens when you say a careless word or try to help and get bashed down. It happens when somebody else feels that they are excluded from something and have to make a big deal of it. It happens when you refuse to say anything about issues you’re having because you don’t want to create Drama and then somebody else does it anyway.
It’s annoying because there is no good answer and (if both parties are adult about it) they know that.
On the other hand, adults solve this by deciding (as Jack Sparrow put it), “What a (wo)man can do and what a (wo)man can’t.”
If I am willing to put up with issues, then in my mind, the problem was not large enough for me to be complaining about. If it is big enough that I must eventually start speaking up then I can decide if that problem is big enough for me to stay or leave. So, how do I decide if I need to fight for my rights or how do I decide that my rights are less important than the groups? Each answer is different and no two will ever be the same.
Whether its somebody saying you’ve lied about your total, somebody bashing you or your words or perhaps even you making the eternal tired mistake of opening your mouth when you shouldn’t have, the advice is the same.
Pull up your Big-Girl Panties and get on with your life. The entire world doesn’t need to change to suit you but neither do you need to change to suit the world.
Decide what you can do and what you can’t. That will tell you everything you need to know.
P.S. – Also, remember that the only person who can let Drama stop you from writing is yourself. So keep writing… even if it is the last thing you want to do. This month, your novel is your refuge. Don’t let anyone take that away from you.
Posted in Blogs on November 11th, 2011 by B.A. Matthews | | Comments Off
There are times when writing is easy and there are times when writing is hard. These will change for every person but for today, I want to let you know some of the things that make writing hard for me. The first is summer. I don’t know what it is, but summer is the hardest time for me to write. It seems to be a lot more work in summer than it is in winter. It must be a combination of the heat, the humidity and the fact that I am much more slothful when I’m warm and happy.
Second is writing block. This only happens (as I’m coming to understand) when something is inherently broken in the scene I’m writing or where the story is going. My mind defines this as “It’s Wrong; Fix It” and refuses to budge from that positions until I figure out exactly what is wrong with the book. Fortunately, as I learn more about myself, I find that bouts of writer’s block don’t last as long as they used to.
Third is Too Many Projects. I can handle having quite a few projects on my plate and everyone I know says that I am a bit of whiz for multi-tasking. Unfortunately, all that skill seems to go out the window if I have four or more projects on the go. For instance, my current writing list is comprised of 1)Music Review(finished just an hour before I started writing this), 2)Blog Post(if you’re reading this, I am finished it now), 3)Falling through the Threshold(I’m in the last few chapters, maybe 16k to typing the coveted “The End”, 4)Dual Melodies(I’ve gotten behind on my 2YN stuff for it) and 5)A short story for SiWC(Got the idea, but haven’t done any planning or writing beyond that point). I was fine when it was just the three stories, but trying to add the other two flummoxed me. Fortunately, they will be things of the past by the time you’re reading this.
Forth is Video Games. I don’t think I need too much insight into this one.
Fifth is the Real World. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes you’re having hard times with your spouse. Sometimes as a writer you hit a wall and want to rail against it, angry and hurt, but you can’t because it’s not a problem that can be solved by screaming. Sometimes problems from the real world leave you feeling empty and drained inside.
All these things can happen and some of them sneak up on us so quickly or so silently that you won’t even see them coming. But those are the times when you have to remind yourself that these moments are exactly what your writing is for. It’s to remind you that everything is precious, that everything is worthy of being recorded and that sometimes you don’t have to live through pain to understand how to help with it. Why do I write, even when it’s hard? So that I know, I’ll be remembered, exactly as I am now, crystallized in a particular emotion, even if I’m called by something else right then.
As I final thought, I’ll leave you a favourite quote of mine by F.Scott Fizgerald. He once said “Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. It’s like actors, who try so pathetically not to look in mirrors. Who lean backward trying – only to see their faces in the reflecting chandeliers.”
It’s now been a month into the new year, so this blog I’m going to do something a bit different. Or at least something I find different. I’m going to speak about my New Years resolutions and discuss how I’m doing with those goals… which ones I’m failing, which ones I haven’t changed and which ones I’m succeeding at.
1. “To be a writer, I must write”… every day. This goal was ambitious in that I wanted a full year where I wrote every day. Ambitious? Yes, but at the same time I knew that I wasn’t going to succeed every day. Most of the time, though, I think I can. Still, I must be honest, with myself and therefore, by extension, all of you. This month I had 4 days where I did not write. One of those days, I did write, but it wasn’t fiction and so I don’t count it. The other three days though, I admit, I did not write at all. While three days is reasonably good, I think that is still too high a “not writing” rate. I will try next month to lower that to less than three days. So, a reasonable success here.
2. “I want to be a published author…” My goal for this was to finish my novel so that I can start submitting it publishers after I finish editing it. Unfortunately, I ran into a bit a block. When I finished writing at the end of November (in addition to being burned out), I had hit a very bad time in my novel. I hadn’t realized it prior to trying to write again but I had essentially written ‘Training Montage Here’ on my outline. This never helps me in the writing process. I was able to figure out what to put there, but it took most of this month. Update, not as successful as I could have been, but successful nonetheless. I will keep working on it as the year moves past.
3. “I need to stop being afraid to show people my work.” No work on this one… since most of what I wrote was flash fiction and I refused to show anyone anything more than one or two pieces of it. No success on this one, but I’m going to continue to try.
4. “I want to lose weight, get into exercising more regularly and start eating healthier.” This was also a failed endeavor. I’m trying to eat healthier but we’ve had nothing but opportunity after opportunity to eat out this month. I’ve gained somewhere on the order of 5 lbs, although since it’s only 5 lbs, it could be relegated to not enough water and a killer cold making me take on weight. I have used our weight room a few times… Not incredible, but I was able to use them to help me work out a bit. Fail, but not a complete failure. This is the one that I need to work on.
5. “I will continue to network and try to meet other writers.” Success. I have met many new writers from Twitter. Most of these people I have met via twitter and I am making friends with them. Very … cool? So what do you think of this one guys. I’m going to count this one as a success, at least until the rest of the year comes down with a more complete answer.
“I will continue to improve on my craft of writing.” Partial Success. I believe that I am getting better and improving my craft, but I’m afraid that I don’t have very much to show to prove it. However, I will be posting up some of my writing on here for the two new novels I’m going to be working on when I’m not working on my other writing things so you can keep an eye out on this one.
And that’s how the world looks from my chair 26,370 words into my year. What do you think? How are you doing on your resolutions?
That’s right, 2010 has passed and 2011 is here! This year is going to be a good one, if only because I make it so. I think today we need to talk about a few things… loosely connected with the new year. First off, looking back. How/Where have I improved in the past year, any truly intelligent lasting wisdom I’ve gained, that sort of stuff. I feel that before I can truly make any lasting resolutions for the coming year, I first need to understand where I’ve been. So, what has happened in the last year?
Well, on the topic of writing, I started up my website earlier this year. In fact my first blog post was on May 29th. I defined myself as a Dark Fantasy Writer, which was a very large step for me. While most of my writing is Dark Fantasy, I’m still working at understanding myself as a writer and I’m certainly not above trying my hand at other genres. So I’ve learned that I am still finding myself as a writer and that it’s okay to still be settling into my place.
I’ve learned that while I may call myself a writer, I cannot do it, unless I write. A writer is someone who writes, payment or not. This year, I have allowed too many excuses to stop me from writing. My lesson from this? That my most dangerous enemy to my dream of being a writer is me. It’s a harsh lesson, to realize that you could be so much further ahead in your dream, if only you would stop fighting yourself at every turn.
I’ve learned that I am truly self conscious about my work. Yes, I post short stories and chapters up on my site, but you should see the amount of editing I do to those. I don’t even like my husband reading my work until I’ve done what I like to call a “First Edit” where I go through my work, edit and then let him read it. Then I’ll do more editing as it comes up. I need to get over some of my fear of showing my work to other people. I’m always saying I have self confidence… Maybe I should start proving it.
I’ve learned that I really need help with editing. As a child, I learned to edit as I write, correcting things as I go. Usually, I would have a sheet of schoolwork, with 2 -3 words crossed out here, two sentences changed and otherwise my writing was the same. Line editing is less of an issue for me, but editing for content is. I have to learn more about editing and how to do it without destroying my work or my voice in the work.
I’ve learned that I enjoy the challenge of working with/against other people. To clarify, the idea that I’m competing makes me push that little bit harder to make sure I write every day and write more. I also work very well with rewards that I can’t control. The website 750 words for example. I can’t cheat my way to 200 days on it… or rather I could, but I’d know that I had cheated and that out there, people were doing it without cheating. So, I should be signing up for writing groups, so that I always have to have something to turn in. There is something terrifying to me about the line “We’re not angry, we’re just disappointed” (Thank you, Ivan Coyote). Don’t you agree?
I can be healthy even if it is really hard and that doing so actually helps me to feel better and more confident about myself. I must admit, I still look at my weight for the real prize, but I am learning that being healthy is something different than denying myself anything I want.
So, now that I’ve looked at what I’ve learned, I need to discuss what I want to do to continue to grow this year.
1. I know that if I want to call myself a writer then I must write. So, I am setting myself a word goal this year. 750 words a day, except in November when 50,000 for the month is in effect. The total comes out to 301,250 words. I think I’m going to cut that down to 300,000 words for the year, because it makes for easier math. However, it’s not just a yearly goal. What is important is that I write every day, instead of just waiting for the weekends or for when I have “time” to do so.
2. I know that I eventually want to be a published author. So, my plan to help me achieve this goal is to finish my novel and start sending it out to publishers by the end of the year. Which does mean that I need to start reading and writing on it again. I will take 2-3 days and figure out where I was and where I was going and then I will move on to writing the story again. My goal is to finish writing the story before the end of January, so that I can let it sit and then I can start doing general line edits in February. After I have finished with just line edits, then I’ll take a look at content and ways to fix it.
3. I need to stop being afraid to show people my work. I will overcome that fear by posting shorter stories more often, even if they don’t actually connect to any of my other writing. Expect a lot of 750 – 1000 word short stories on a variety of topics here folks, as well as my other writings.
4. I want to lose weight, get into exercising more regularly and start eating healthier. To do this, my husband and I have invested in a personal gym. We now have an elliptical, an Olympic grade weight set, various free weights, a toning machine (think BowFlex type of machine).
5. I will continue to network and try to meet other writers. I will do this by continuing to attend writers conferences and making friends within the writing community.
6. I will continue to improve on my craft of writing. I will do this with my writing more often, by listening to podcasts like Writing Excuses, by attending writing conferences like SiWC and by taking some university courses on writing.
So, there you have it, my list of what I learned in 2010 and what I hope to learn and how I’ll learn it in 2011. What do you think of my resolutions and even more importantly, what are yours?
Today’s blog is running a bit behind so expect it to be a bit brief. I’ll make certain that I have a new blog post up Saturday for you guys. I got a bit sick a few weeks ago. The sucky weather Calgary has been having got into my hand, and my Tendonitis was so bad that I couldn’t close my hand into a fist or re-open it when I managed to. While this did curtail my writing, rest assured, I have gotten some done… Although, instead of using my computer, I have the scene written up in paper copy right now and working on it while taking the bus to and from work. The scene is turning out really well and I’ll be using a certain program of mine to add it to the computer.
That’s right, it’s time to talk a bit more about my Dragon! I’ve been using it more frequently of late, and now I can give a better opinion on it. My over all opinion is pretty good of it, though it’s near useless for using online. The commands activate whether you want them to or not, which means that trying to write text into a forum chat box or updated any social media site is out of the question (it works much better in actual messenger programs, like MSN Messenger).
This experience really reminded me why I got that program, even if sometimes I do worry that it’s more trouble than it’s worth (if I have a stuffed up nose it can’t understand me at all).
Using it has been teaching me to think more about what I write before I say/type it. I still have to delete things every once in a while, but it happens much less often now that I’ve been training myself not to screw it up. I do suggest that everyone give it a try though, since I am actually coming to enjoy using it. While I’m not using it to write this blog post (more for brevity reasons than anything else), it is on the computer and I have been training it to understand me. I am going to be training it to understand me, by using it at least 2 days out of every week to do all my writing… Something I hope to continue during Nanowrimo as well. (Remember to add me as a Buddy if you want to follow my counts during Nano!)
I’ll keep you all updated on that front.
Other than using Dragon and resting my hand, I have been keeping myself mostly out of trouble. I am still reading Brandon Sanderson’s “The Way of Kings”. I am 66% finished it and I’d like to say that it’s pretty damn awesome. It’s definitely an epic fantasy, told from a few different viewpoints. The only question I currently have is about the character Kaladin. While he is a wonderful character, Brandon Sanderson has been writing his chapters in a Present/Past sort of set up where we get one chapter of where he is now, and then we’ll get a chapter that led him to this point. While its really interesting, I am wondering why he choose to write it that way. I assume I will have discovered the answer in the next three-hundred and fifty pages.
I have also finally gotten notice that my long awaited copy of “The High King of Montival” is finally shipping. I should have that next week, or the first week of October at the latest. It will be next on my reading list after “The Way of Kings”. I also picked up Aprilynne Pike’s debut YA novel, “Wings”. While I don’t often read YA paranormal romance books anymore (Damn you Twilight), I heard about this one on Writing Excuses and decided to give it a try. I am also listening to “www: Watch”, a book by Robert J. Sawyer. If you haven’t heard of this series yet (beginning with “www: Wake”) pick them up. This set of novels is definitely worth your time and interest, although I give fair warning… Mr. Sawyer has a thing for ‘soft’ endings… They answer all the questions but do seem to leave you wondering why you’re vaguely unsatisfied. Perhaps it’s a problem with a super long dénouement feeling, instead of the hopeful awed feeling he was going for. I’ll keep you updated on all of the books I’m reading, as usual.
Oh, I’m going to try to write a review of Dan Wells “I am Not a Serial Killer” and post it up here prior to Nanowrimo as well… Expect new site changes in the next few weeks as well!
What are you reading? And will you be participating in Nanowrimo this year? Are there any great podcasts dealing with Nanowrimo that you’ve been listening to? Let me know, and keep those comments coming!
Oh, one final comment for all of you out there… Less than a month until my conference! I am soooo excited.
I was sitting down at my office today when it occurred to me, that I look at artistic mediums differently now than I did even 2 years ago. Compared with my younger self I find that I critique things now, instead of simply enjoying it the medium. A good example of this is how I now think about movies. I have found myself, more and more as time goes on, criticizing story, plot and setting than I used to. A very good difference though is that I tend to do it in a very constructive way. A few years ago if I watched a movie that I didn’t enjoy I would say “Oh, I didn’t like that movie”, but when I was asked why, I couldn’t give the reasons. Or I could give individual points that I didn’t like, but I was unable to describe why the whole didn’t work for me. Now, I’m able to look at movies, whether like or dislike, and explain what didn’t work for me and what did. I also find it exceptionally interesting that I tend to talk about the differences using an author’s terms, not in the terms a movie or screenplay would use.
The first movie that I can remember doing this to was 9. You may or may not remember this Disney movie from a few years ago. It was an interesting computer animated film about a dystopia in which humanity has been destroyed. The only living things are 9 small creatures designed to look like men (at least in basic shape) and their enemies, the robots that destroyed the world. The basic premise of the 9 creatures was that a brilliant scientist created them before he died, animating each of them with a personality or aspect of the man’s soul. In the movie, the creatures not only have to figure out who made them and why they are here, but they also have to defeat the evil robots who seem to be carrying out their last programmed command of “If it moves, kill it.”
My final decision on the movie was that it was good overall but while I enjoyed it, it could have been much better. One of the arguments I gave for this was that “the movie didn’t keep its promises.” This frustrated the heck out of my husband who didn’t understand the term. I explained it to him by saying that the ending seemed to have been afraid to fulfill its promise of a gritty, philosophical ending. They had copped out instead by making everybody left alive sad about their friends’ death, but moving on, in a sappy scene where we see the earth healing itself. It didn’t seem to fit the movie, as though they’d cheapened it by taking the easy way out.
I do the same with music, which is actually where I first noticed me doing it. When I first started doing my music reviews, I had a few albums that were types I honestly didn’t enjoy much. I initially put off doing the reviews as long as I could. Eventually I realized that a good music review isn’t based on whether or not I ‘like’ the album in question, but whether or not it had been done well, noting where it was lacking and why and why the albums did excellently and why. It really taught me a lot when I began to look critically at all of the music.
Now I’m pleased to be able to say that I think I’m finally figuring out how to apply that critical thinking to my writing. I think this is a huge step for me in my learning curve. Now I just need to figure out how to connect it to the books I read. I think that I may have been doing so unconsciously since I’ve been having trouble reading anything. I seem to be catching the writers doing something that irritates me I’ll immediately put the book down and think about how to not make that same mistake in my own writing (or how I would improve it in that book).
On a related note, I started reading a favourite older book today, Sebastian by Anne Bishop. Set in the world of Ephemera, the book details how the Eater of the World is escaping his bounds. The best thing about the book (which is brilliant to begin with) is the way that the story really makes you think about the way their world works, and how we re-create our world with the truths within our hearts. It always makes me look back on my own life and try to untangle the strands that hold my heart and soul captive, trying to understand which of my life’s biggest issues have been brought about by someone else and which have been brought about by me.
It’s very interesting if only because searching the interconnected webs teaches me how people are tied together by their relationships and how sometimes the simplest of things can change our perception.
I think I’m going to start something new this week as well. I’m going to try writing up a 1k – 5k story on the writing prompts on the Writing Excuses podcast. I’ll try to post up most of them for you guys!
Writing Prompt: Write about an “Interspeciated workplace.” Or how your character has just received a “Cease and Desist” request from a Web Cartoonist.
Sorry for the very few posts this week. Some killer flu bug knocked me out, although I think it may have just been a continuation of whatever knocked me out last week as well. Regardless, the last five days my schedule has been nothing but sleeping for nearly forteen hours out of every day, working eight and a half hours, and about an hour of travel time. Most days, after four hours of being awake, I felt as if I’d been awake for a full twenty-four hours and wanted nothing more than to sleep again. So, one again, this is a ferfent apology for lack of posts. Next week will be much better (I assume) as today (for the first time in a week) I finally woke up before the alarm went off! Such a little thing to make me so happy, but there you have it. Now, on to more interesting matters!
No matter how ill I am I always listen to Writing Excuses and this week, as usual, was a doozy. Their topic was major overhauls to broken stories and, having done this once before, I found it really informative. A little over a year ago, I had to do a major overhaul on the Memories Written in Moonlight. I had found out that when I wrote it, the brilliant story I had in my head hadn’t translated at all to what was actually on the page. Due mainly to all the writing I’d been doing and all of the insight I’d gotten by listening to Writing Excuses, I was able to tell what I’d messed up and how I could fix it. Realizing that I’d ignored everything in favour of the relationship between the main characters, I decided finally to craft a new plot for the characters, giving them more freedom to advance as characters, defining them better as individuals and placing them in situations that placed them in much more conflict between each other and their surroundings. That story has been turning out much better in the rewrite, and will be worth the point of just editing, and not entirely rewriting it.
Howard Taylor (the webcomic artist of Schlock Mercenary)from Writing Excuses also made a comment that I think I’ll take to heart and really try to apply in my writing. He suggested a book to us because, as he put it, “It had stand up and cheer moments that were not the epically heroic, lone warrior against a million demons… but moments … that were triumphs of character, moments of courage in the face of small pettiness…” And I think that writers, especially new writers, like myself, really need to remember that sometimes it’s not the regular hero moments that we as readers will cheer for. After all, we see those successes every day in the movies and in the books we read. However, those character moments when your favourite character stands up to a bully and tells him to screw off… you really identify with the character at that moment. It’s that moment of identification that will make readers continue to be sympathetic with your hero long after the moment of victory has taken place. And it’s that sympathy towards the hero that will leave people remembering them long after they’ve put your book down.
In other news, me and a few friends got to head to the theatre today and we got to watch Disney’s new movie, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I must admit, it’s a good movie and Disney seems to have succeeded finally in a movie kids will like for the explosions and yet a plot and characters set that the adults won’t mind watching. The basic premise (in case you don’t know) is an epic centuries long battle between good and evil wizards culminating in a final battle between the sorcerer told of in prophesy and the head of the evil organization. The world of the sorcerers lies in ours, just hidden through concentrated effort on the side of the good wizards. The movie had an engaging plot, made fun of itself in all the right places, fun characters with generally complete motivations and a great CG budget that didn’t take away from the plot. Some of the decisions were silly or obvious and, of course, the story had its share of shaky science along with a bit of a weak info-dump opening scene, but these didn’t really take away from the movie. There was only one promise that I felt the movie didn’t quite keep at the end, and even then, they kept the promise, just not in a way I thought worked with the plot. Basically, instead of taking something one twist further they stopped and went with the first choice. I put off that minor disappointment to me temporarily forgetting that this was a Disney movie… and that they are not known for taking their twists one step further.
My final assessment though is that this movie is worth the money to go see. It will definitely be entering my video collection when it comes out on video. Especially if you are a fan of Urban Fantasy (meaning modern day mixes of magic and science) this is definitely a movie you’ll be able to appreciate. Oh, Kudos go to Nicholas Cage who plays his part brilliantly and yet, every other character in the movie held their own weight as well. Unlike with The Last Airbender, it was not two actors doing a brilliant job, but everyone coming through with a good performance based on their characters. Hey, that means we actually got a good movie with decent acting… definitely something worth taking a look at, right?
I promise, now that my health is on the uprise, I will have more to discuss with you next week, as well as both the next part of Dual Melodies and a new music review for you to read, to make up for my inability to post things up as often as I would have otherwise enjoyed the last two weeks. See you all then!
My posts almost always come as a surprise to me. Not because I don’t like doing them but because I tend to forget about them until the last minute. Lets take today as an example. Today, I wasted my day away playing Plants vs Zombies, felt a bit ill and lightheaded (my husband apparently returned the cold I gave him earlier. As Tali’zorah would say… “Totally worth it”), and went out grocery shopping and came home with a ton of fruit.
How much actual writing did I get done today? Not much, I’ll admit. I figured out what I needed to do for my next chapter, wrote a page and a half when I realized I needed to rewrite the first part, and then went to the grocery store. After we got home, I played more Plants vs Zombies and had supper, read about three chapters of Dance with Dragons and then opened up my computer to write.
Unsurprisingly, when I suddenly realized it was 9pm, what did I do? Well, I didn’t start writing this blog post.
Instead I went to audible.com, checked my bank account, realized I couldn’t buy the next book or two from Patricia Briggs, sulked a little bit, put money into my account and swore to buy them on Monday.
Then I looked at my blank sheet. Looked up at the clock, thought about which project I wanted to work on and then said… “Darn it. Today is Sunday, isn’t it?” Heavy Sigh. “Blog post.”
Like I said, it isn’t that I don’t enjoy doing them. I love getting my thoughts out, even if I don’t usually get discussions on my site. It’s just that blog posts are pretty low on my priority list. Or at least, it comes low on the “write them up in advance” list.
In addition to not actually writing my blog posts until the last minute, I also tend to not decide on what I want to write about until the last minute as well.
If nothing else, it tends to mean that these come across in my natural voice, don’t usually need too much editing and that I think of what I’m up to write when I put my hands to keyboard.
So what does all of this have to do with my writing? Surprisingly a lot. It shows that I’m not as driven as I could be. It also shows that I tend to do not too badly off the cuff but that I would probably do better with planning.
It also shows that I should probably have more self-confidence, even if I’m going into writing without a clue about what I want to write about.
See, this post proves that there is something to be learned from every bit of writing you do… even if it is just a blog post.
This is a rather short post today, but I will get you all up to date. My total is now, 17,372 words, which is almost a full 1000 below the 18,333 words I should be at. However, I should be able to make that up tomorrow while I write. At the very least, I should be caught up again by Monday.
I would have been further ahead, but this is the time of me learning to write as a career and still have a life. I had friends come over for Poker tonight and let me say, it was a blast. Sometimes taking a single night off can be awesome (especially if you were able to write prior to your company arriving) and can really recharge your flagging spirits.
For the rest of my post, I’ll leave you with a video of Errol’s, A Nano-er from Ontario. He does parody songs all year round, but this one he did with a few of his Nano friends is awesome. Please, enjoy.
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Errol himself has done quite a few awesome Nanowrimo based videos alone, but I would suggest subscribing to both his personal channel and this one for DebsAndErrol.
Once a year, it comes around. Rearing its head from previously calm waters, it is suddenly upon you, eating your motivation, intention and willpower. Yep, some of you know what I’m talking about. Drama. But not just any Drama. No, this is a very specific kind. Yep, I’m talking about the Drama Monster that you never expect.
Nano-Drama.
Yes, this is a thing. This wild beast only raises its ugly head when lots of writers get together and proceed to get hoped up on Caffeine, hope and endorphins.
It happens when you say a careless word or try to help and get bashed down. It happens when somebody else feels that they are excluded from something and have to make a big deal of it. It happens when you refuse to say anything about issues you’re having because you don’t want to create Drama and then somebody else does it anyway.
It’s annoying because there is no good answer and (if both parties are adult about it) they know that.
On the other hand, adults solve this by deciding (as Jack Sparrow put it), “What a (wo)man can do and what a (wo)man can’t.”
If I am willing to put up with issues, then in my mind, the problem was not large enough for me to be complaining about. If it is big enough that I must eventually start speaking up then I can decide if that problem is big enough for me to stay or leave. So, how do I decide if I need to fight for my rights or how do I decide that my rights are less important than the groups? Each answer is different and no two will ever be the same.
Whether its somebody saying you’ve lied about your total, somebody bashing you or your words or perhaps even you making the eternal tired mistake of opening your mouth when you shouldn’t have, the advice is the same.
Pull up your Big-Girl Panties and get on with your life. The entire world doesn’t need to change to suit you but neither do you need to change to suit the world.
Decide what you can do and what you can’t. That will tell you everything you need to know.
P.S. – Also, remember that the only person who can let Drama stop you from writing is yourself. So keep writing… even if it is the last thing you want to do. This month, your novel is your refuge. Don’t let anyone take that away from you.
There are times when writing is easy and there are times when writing is hard. These will change for every person but for today, I want to let you know some of the things that make writing hard for me. The first is summer. I don’t know what it is, but summer is the hardest time for me to write. It seems to be a lot more work in summer than it is in winter. It must be a combination of the heat, the humidity and the fact that I am much more slothful when I’m warm and happy.
Second is writing block. This only happens (as I’m coming to understand) when something is inherently broken in the scene I’m writing or where the story is going. My mind defines this as “It’s Wrong; Fix It” and refuses to budge from that positions until I figure out exactly what is wrong with the book. Fortunately, as I learn more about myself, I find that bouts of writer’s block don’t last as long as they used to.
Third is Too Many Projects. I can handle having quite a few projects on my plate and everyone I know says that I am a bit of whiz for multi-tasking. Unfortunately, all that skill seems to go out the window if I have four or more projects on the go. For instance, my current writing list is comprised of 1)Music Review(finished just an hour before I started writing this), 2)Blog Post(if you’re reading this, I am finished it now), 3)Falling through the Threshold(I’m in the last few chapters, maybe 16k to typing the coveted “The End”, 4)Dual Melodies(I’ve gotten behind on my 2YN stuff for it) and 5)A short story for SiWC(Got the idea, but haven’t done any planning or writing beyond that point). I was fine when it was just the three stories, but trying to add the other two flummoxed me. Fortunately, they will be things of the past by the time you’re reading this.
Forth is Video Games. I don’t think I need too much insight into this one.
Fifth is the Real World. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes you’re having hard times with your spouse. Sometimes as a writer you hit a wall and want to rail against it, angry and hurt, but you can’t because it’s not a problem that can be solved by screaming. Sometimes problems from the real world leave you feeling empty and drained inside.
All these things can happen and some of them sneak up on us so quickly or so silently that you won’t even see them coming. But those are the times when you have to remind yourself that these moments are exactly what your writing is for. It’s to remind you that everything is precious, that everything is worthy of being recorded and that sometimes you don’t have to live through pain to understand how to help with it. Why do I write, even when it’s hard? So that I know, I’ll be remembered, exactly as I am now, crystallized in a particular emotion, even if I’m called by something else right then.
As I final thought, I’ll leave you a favourite quote of mine by F.Scott Fizgerald. He once said “Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. It’s like actors, who try so pathetically not to look in mirrors. Who lean backward trying – only to see their faces in the reflecting chandeliers.”
It’s now been a month into the new year, so this blog I’m going to do something a bit different. Or at least something I find different. I’m going to speak about my New Years resolutions and discuss how I’m doing with those goals… which ones I’m failing, which ones I haven’t changed and which ones I’m succeeding at.
1. “To be a writer, I must write”… every day. This goal was ambitious in that I wanted a full year where I wrote every day. Ambitious? Yes, but at the same time I knew that I wasn’t going to succeed every day. Most of the time, though, I think I can. Still, I must be honest, with myself and therefore, by extension, all of you. This month I had 4 days where I did not write. One of those days, I did write, but it wasn’t fiction and so I don’t count it. The other three days though, I admit, I did not write at all. While three days is reasonably good, I think that is still too high a “not writing” rate. I will try next month to lower that to less than three days. So, a reasonable success here.
2. “I want to be a published author…” My goal for this was to finish my novel so that I can start submitting it publishers after I finish editing it. Unfortunately, I ran into a bit a block. When I finished writing at the end of November (in addition to being burned out), I had hit a very bad time in my novel. I hadn’t realized it prior to trying to write again but I had essentially written ‘Training Montage Here’ on my outline. This never helps me in the writing process. I was able to figure out what to put there, but it took most of this month. Update, not as successful as I could have been, but successful nonetheless. I will keep working on it as the year moves past.
3. “I need to stop being afraid to show people my work.” No work on this one… since most of what I wrote was flash fiction and I refused to show anyone anything more than one or two pieces of it. No success on this one, but I’m going to continue to try.
4. “I want to lose weight, get into exercising more regularly and start eating healthier.” This was also a failed endeavor. I’m trying to eat healthier but we’ve had nothing but opportunity after opportunity to eat out this month. I’ve gained somewhere on the order of 5 lbs, although since it’s only 5 lbs, it could be relegated to not enough water and a killer cold making me take on weight. I have used our weight room a few times… Not incredible, but I was able to use them to help me work out a bit. Fail, but not a complete failure. This is the one that I need to work on.
5. “I will continue to network and try to meet other writers.” Success. I have met many new writers from Twitter. Most of these people I have met via twitter and I am making friends with them. Very … cool? So what do you think of this one guys. I’m going to count this one as a success, at least until the rest of the year comes down with a more complete answer.
“I will continue to improve on my craft of writing.” Partial Success. I believe that I am getting better and improving my craft, but I’m afraid that I don’t have very much to show to prove it. However, I will be posting up some of my writing on here for the two new novels I’m going to be working on when I’m not working on my other writing things so you can keep an eye out on this one.
And that’s how the world looks from my chair 26,370 words into my year. What do you think? How are you doing on your resolutions?
That’s right, 2010 has passed and 2011 is here! This year is going to be a good one, if only because I make it so. I think today we need to talk about a few things… loosely connected with the new year. First off, looking back. How/Where have I improved in the past year, any truly intelligent lasting wisdom I’ve gained, that sort of stuff. I feel that before I can truly make any lasting resolutions for the coming year, I first need to understand where I’ve been. So, what has happened in the last year?
Well, on the topic of writing, I started up my website earlier this year. In fact my first blog post was on May 29th. I defined myself as a Dark Fantasy Writer, which was a very large step for me. While most of my writing is Dark Fantasy, I’m still working at understanding myself as a writer and I’m certainly not above trying my hand at other genres. So I’ve learned that I am still finding myself as a writer and that it’s okay to still be settling into my place.
I’ve learned that while I may call myself a writer, I cannot do it, unless I write. A writer is someone who writes, payment or not. This year, I have allowed too many excuses to stop me from writing. My lesson from this? That my most dangerous enemy to my dream of being a writer is me. It’s a harsh lesson, to realize that you could be so much further ahead in your dream, if only you would stop fighting yourself at every turn.
I’ve learned that I am truly self conscious about my work. Yes, I post short stories and chapters up on my site, but you should see the amount of editing I do to those. I don’t even like my husband reading my work until I’ve done what I like to call a “First Edit” where I go through my work, edit and then let him read it. Then I’ll do more editing as it comes up. I need to get over some of my fear of showing my work to other people. I’m always saying I have self confidence… Maybe I should start proving it.
I’ve learned that I really need help with editing. As a child, I learned to edit as I write, correcting things as I go. Usually, I would have a sheet of schoolwork, with 2 -3 words crossed out here, two sentences changed and otherwise my writing was the same. Line editing is less of an issue for me, but editing for content is. I have to learn more about editing and how to do it without destroying my work or my voice in the work.
I’ve learned that I enjoy the challenge of working with/against other people. To clarify, the idea that I’m competing makes me push that little bit harder to make sure I write every day and write more. I also work very well with rewards that I can’t control. The website 750 words for example. I can’t cheat my way to 200 days on it… or rather I could, but I’d know that I had cheated and that out there, people were doing it without cheating. So, I should be signing up for writing groups, so that I always have to have something to turn in. There is something terrifying to me about the line “We’re not angry, we’re just disappointed” (Thank you, Ivan Coyote). Don’t you agree?
I can be healthy even if it is really hard and that doing so actually helps me to feel better and more confident about myself. I must admit, I still look at my weight for the real prize, but I am learning that being healthy is something different than denying myself anything I want.
So, now that I’ve looked at what I’ve learned, I need to discuss what I want to do to continue to grow this year.
1. I know that if I want to call myself a writer then I must write. So, I am setting myself a word goal this year. 750 words a day, except in November when 50,000 for the month is in effect. The total comes out to 301,250 words. I think I’m going to cut that down to 300,000 words for the year, because it makes for easier math. However, it’s not just a yearly goal. What is important is that I write every day, instead of just waiting for the weekends or for when I have “time” to do so.
2. I know that I eventually want to be a published author. So, my plan to help me achieve this goal is to finish my novel and start sending it out to publishers by the end of the year. Which does mean that I need to start reading and writing on it again. I will take 2-3 days and figure out where I was and where I was going and then I will move on to writing the story again. My goal is to finish writing the story before the end of January, so that I can let it sit and then I can start doing general line edits in February. After I have finished with just line edits, then I’ll take a look at content and ways to fix it.
3. I need to stop being afraid to show people my work. I will overcome that fear by posting shorter stories more often, even if they don’t actually connect to any of my other writing. Expect a lot of 750 – 1000 word short stories on a variety of topics here folks, as well as my other writings.
4. I want to lose weight, get into exercising more regularly and start eating healthier. To do this, my husband and I have invested in a personal gym. We now have an elliptical, an Olympic grade weight set, various free weights, a toning machine (think BowFlex type of machine).
5. I will continue to network and try to meet other writers. I will do this by continuing to attend writers conferences and making friends within the writing community.
6. I will continue to improve on my craft of writing. I will do this with my writing more often, by listening to podcasts like Writing Excuses, by attending writing conferences like SiWC and by taking some university courses on writing.
So, there you have it, my list of what I learned in 2010 and what I hope to learn and how I’ll learn it in 2011. What do you think of my resolutions and even more importantly, what are yours?
Today’s blog is running a bit behind so expect it to be a bit brief. I’ll make certain that I have a new blog post up Saturday for you guys. I got a bit sick a few weeks ago. The sucky weather Calgary has been having got into my hand, and my Tendonitis was so bad that I couldn’t close my hand into a fist or re-open it when I managed to. While this did curtail my writing, rest assured, I have gotten some done… Although, instead of using my computer, I have the scene written up in paper copy right now and working on it while taking the bus to and from work. The scene is turning out really well and I’ll be using a certain program of mine to add it to the computer.
That’s right, it’s time to talk a bit more about my Dragon! I’ve been using it more frequently of late, and now I can give a better opinion on it. My over all opinion is pretty good of it, though it’s near useless for using online. The commands activate whether you want them to or not, which means that trying to write text into a forum chat box or updated any social media site is out of the question (it works much better in actual messenger programs, like MSN Messenger).
This experience really reminded me why I got that program, even if sometimes I do worry that it’s more trouble than it’s worth (if I have a stuffed up nose it can’t understand me at all).
Using it has been teaching me to think more about what I write before I say/type it. I still have to delete things every once in a while, but it happens much less often now that I’ve been training myself not to screw it up. I do suggest that everyone give it a try though, since I am actually coming to enjoy using it. While I’m not using it to write this blog post (more for brevity reasons than anything else), it is on the computer and I have been training it to understand me. I am going to be training it to understand me, by using it at least 2 days out of every week to do all my writing… Something I hope to continue during Nanowrimo as well. (Remember to add me as a Buddy if you want to follow my counts during Nano!)
I’ll keep you all updated on that front.
Other than using Dragon and resting my hand, I have been keeping myself mostly out of trouble. I am still reading Brandon Sanderson’s “The Way of Kings”. I am 66% finished it and I’d like to say that it’s pretty damn awesome. It’s definitely an epic fantasy, told from a few different viewpoints. The only question I currently have is about the character Kaladin. While he is a wonderful character, Brandon Sanderson has been writing his chapters in a Present/Past sort of set up where we get one chapter of where he is now, and then we’ll get a chapter that led him to this point. While its really interesting, I am wondering why he choose to write it that way. I assume I will have discovered the answer in the next three-hundred and fifty pages.
I have also finally gotten notice that my long awaited copy of “The High King of Montival” is finally shipping. I should have that next week, or the first week of October at the latest. It will be next on my reading list after “The Way of Kings”. I also picked up Aprilynne Pike’s debut YA novel, “Wings”. While I don’t often read YA paranormal romance books anymore (Damn you Twilight), I heard about this one on Writing Excuses and decided to give it a try. I am also listening to “www: Watch”, a book by Robert J. Sawyer. If you haven’t heard of this series yet (beginning with “www: Wake”) pick them up. This set of novels is definitely worth your time and interest, although I give fair warning… Mr. Sawyer has a thing for ‘soft’ endings… They answer all the questions but do seem to leave you wondering why you’re vaguely unsatisfied. Perhaps it’s a problem with a super long dénouement feeling, instead of the hopeful awed feeling he was going for. I’ll keep you updated on all of the books I’m reading, as usual.
Oh, I’m going to try to write a review of Dan Wells “I am Not a Serial Killer” and post it up here prior to Nanowrimo as well… Expect new site changes in the next few weeks as well!
What are you reading? And will you be participating in Nanowrimo this year? Are there any great podcasts dealing with Nanowrimo that you’ve been listening to? Let me know, and keep those comments coming!
Oh, one final comment for all of you out there… Less than a month until my conference! I am soooo excited.
I was sitting down at my office today when it occurred to me, that I look at artistic mediums differently now than I did even 2 years ago. Compared with my younger self I find that I critique things now, instead of simply enjoying it the medium. A good example of this is how I now think about movies. I have found myself, more and more as time goes on, criticizing story, plot and setting than I used to. A very good difference though is that I tend to do it in a very constructive way. A few years ago if I watched a movie that I didn’t enjoy I would say “Oh, I didn’t like that movie”, but when I was asked why, I couldn’t give the reasons. Or I could give individual points that I didn’t like, but I was unable to describe why the whole didn’t work for me. Now, I’m able to look at movies, whether like or dislike, and explain what didn’t work for me and what did. I also find it exceptionally interesting that I tend to talk about the differences using an author’s terms, not in the terms a movie or screenplay would use.
The first movie that I can remember doing this to was 9. You may or may not remember this Disney movie from a few years ago. It was an interesting computer animated film about a dystopia in which humanity has been destroyed. The only living things are 9 small creatures designed to look like men (at least in basic shape) and their enemies, the robots that destroyed the world. The basic premise of the 9 creatures was that a brilliant scientist created them before he died, animating each of them with a personality or aspect of the man’s soul. In the movie, the creatures not only have to figure out who made them and why they are here, but they also have to defeat the evil robots who seem to be carrying out their last programmed command of “If it moves, kill it.”
My final decision on the movie was that it was good overall but while I enjoyed it, it could have been much better. One of the arguments I gave for this was that “the movie didn’t keep its promises.” This frustrated the heck out of my husband who didn’t understand the term. I explained it to him by saying that the ending seemed to have been afraid to fulfill its promise of a gritty, philosophical ending. They had copped out instead by making everybody left alive sad about their friends’ death, but moving on, in a sappy scene where we see the earth healing itself. It didn’t seem to fit the movie, as though they’d cheapened it by taking the easy way out.
I do the same with music, which is actually where I first noticed me doing it. When I first started doing my music reviews, I had a few albums that were types I honestly didn’t enjoy much. I initially put off doing the reviews as long as I could. Eventually I realized that a good music review isn’t based on whether or not I ‘like’ the album in question, but whether or not it had been done well, noting where it was lacking and why and why the albums did excellently and why. It really taught me a lot when I began to look critically at all of the music.
Now I’m pleased to be able to say that I think I’m finally figuring out how to apply that critical thinking to my writing. I think this is a huge step for me in my learning curve. Now I just need to figure out how to connect it to the books I read. I think that I may have been doing so unconsciously since I’ve been having trouble reading anything. I seem to be catching the writers doing something that irritates me I’ll immediately put the book down and think about how to not make that same mistake in my own writing (or how I would improve it in that book).
On a related note, I started reading a favourite older book today, Sebastian by Anne Bishop. Set in the world of Ephemera, the book details how the Eater of the World is escaping his bounds. The best thing about the book (which is brilliant to begin with) is the way that the story really makes you think about the way their world works, and how we re-create our world with the truths within our hearts. It always makes me look back on my own life and try to untangle the strands that hold my heart and soul captive, trying to understand which of my life’s biggest issues have been brought about by someone else and which have been brought about by me.
It’s very interesting if only because searching the interconnected webs teaches me how people are tied together by their relationships and how sometimes the simplest of things can change our perception.
I think I’m going to start something new this week as well. I’m going to try writing up a 1k – 5k story on the writing prompts on the Writing Excuses podcast. I’ll try to post up most of them for you guys!
Writing Prompt: Write about an “Interspeciated workplace.” Or how your character has just received a “Cease and Desist” request from a Web Cartoonist.
Sorry for the very few posts this week. Some killer flu bug knocked me out, although I think it may have just been a continuation of whatever knocked me out last week as well. Regardless, the last five days my schedule has been nothing but sleeping for nearly forteen hours out of every day, working eight and a half hours, and about an hour of travel time. Most days, after four hours of being awake, I felt as if I’d been awake for a full twenty-four hours and wanted nothing more than to sleep again. So, one again, this is a ferfent apology for lack of posts. Next week will be much better (I assume) as today (for the first time in a week) I finally woke up before the alarm went off! Such a little thing to make me so happy, but there you have it. Now, on to more interesting matters!
No matter how ill I am I always listen to Writing Excuses and this week, as usual, was a doozy. Their topic was major overhauls to broken stories and, having done this once before, I found it really informative. A little over a year ago, I had to do a major overhaul on the Memories Written in Moonlight. I had found out that when I wrote it, the brilliant story I had in my head hadn’t translated at all to what was actually on the page. Due mainly to all the writing I’d been doing and all of the insight I’d gotten by listening to Writing Excuses, I was able to tell what I’d messed up and how I could fix it. Realizing that I’d ignored everything in favour of the relationship between the main characters, I decided finally to craft a new plot for the characters, giving them more freedom to advance as characters, defining them better as individuals and placing them in situations that placed them in much more conflict between each other and their surroundings. That story has been turning out much better in the rewrite, and will be worth the point of just editing, and not entirely rewriting it.
Howard Taylor (the webcomic artist of Schlock Mercenary)from Writing Excuses also made a comment that I think I’ll take to heart and really try to apply in my writing. He suggested a book to us because, as he put it, “It had stand up and cheer moments that were not the epically heroic, lone warrior against a million demons… but moments … that were triumphs of character, moments of courage in the face of small pettiness…” And I think that writers, especially new writers, like myself, really need to remember that sometimes it’s not the regular hero moments that we as readers will cheer for. After all, we see those successes every day in the movies and in the books we read. However, those character moments when your favourite character stands up to a bully and tells him to screw off… you really identify with the character at that moment. It’s that moment of identification that will make readers continue to be sympathetic with your hero long after the moment of victory has taken place. And it’s that sympathy towards the hero that will leave people remembering them long after they’ve put your book down.
In other news, me and a few friends got to head to the theatre today and we got to watch Disney’s new movie, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I must admit, it’s a good movie and Disney seems to have succeeded finally in a movie kids will like for the explosions and yet a plot and characters set that the adults won’t mind watching. The basic premise (in case you don’t know) is an epic centuries long battle between good and evil wizards culminating in a final battle between the sorcerer told of in prophesy and the head of the evil organization. The world of the sorcerers lies in ours, just hidden through concentrated effort on the side of the good wizards. The movie had an engaging plot, made fun of itself in all the right places, fun characters with generally complete motivations and a great CG budget that didn’t take away from the plot. Some of the decisions were silly or obvious and, of course, the story had its share of shaky science along with a bit of a weak info-dump opening scene, but these didn’t really take away from the movie. There was only one promise that I felt the movie didn’t quite keep at the end, and even then, they kept the promise, just not in a way I thought worked with the plot. Basically, instead of taking something one twist further they stopped and went with the first choice. I put off that minor disappointment to me temporarily forgetting that this was a Disney movie… and that they are not known for taking their twists one step further.
My final assessment though is that this movie is worth the money to go see. It will definitely be entering my video collection when it comes out on video. Especially if you are a fan of Urban Fantasy (meaning modern day mixes of magic and science) this is definitely a movie you’ll be able to appreciate. Oh, Kudos go to Nicholas Cage who plays his part brilliantly and yet, every other character in the movie held their own weight as well. Unlike with The Last Airbender, it was not two actors doing a brilliant job, but everyone coming through with a good performance based on their characters. Hey, that means we actually got a good movie with decent acting… definitely something worth taking a look at, right?
I promise, now that my health is on the uprise, I will have more to discuss with you next week, as well as both the next part of Dual Melodies and a new music review for you to read, to make up for my inability to post things up as often as I would have otherwise enjoyed the last two weeks. See you all then!
B.A. Matthews is an amateur author hoping to make her way into the world of published works. Her novels and short stories tend to be Fantasy, slipping into Dark Fantasy often as not. She also used to write music reviews over at Pagan Radio Network (www.paganradio.net).
I am currently working on two novels, Falling through the Threshold and a book tentatively titled Dual Melodies.
B.A. Matthews tries to update her blogs once a week and her various writings under the Pages section twice a month.
