Tag Archives: writing

Wednesday With Words: Barometers of Society

Posted on by under For All the Bookworms, Wednesday with Words

I haven’t been reading a lot besides school books recently, but today’s quote is from a school book that I’m really enjoying. Total Truth by Nancy Pearcy is an absolutely wonderful, thorough look at how to build a complete Christian worldview and incorporate it into your entire life—not just on Sundays. She also has a lot to say about the arts and worldviews in media, and as someone who reviews movies, TV shows, and other media every so often, this quote really caught my eye. I thought I’d share it with you all today.

Nancy Pearcy

Thanks for reading today’s Wednesday with Words! I know I’ve been saying this a lot, but I want to continue posting on this blog, even if it doesn’t end up being super consistent. To everyone who’s still reading, thank you. I know I haven’t been around a lot, but thanks for sticking with me.

See you again soon!

🙂

Wednesday With Words: Boots for Birds

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I am still gradually working my way through a massive brick-like book containing all of Emily Dickinson’s 1,700+ poems, and while they are all beautiful and very expressive, every once in a while I’ll come across one that really catches my eye. This particular selection has been languishing in my commonplace book for a while now, and I thought I’d finally get around to posting it today. It’s not super profound or thought provoking; it’s just an interesting little word picture that made me smile.

Boots for Birds

On my reading list this week:

Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday with Words! Are you reading anything interesting this week? Have any book recommendations? Let’s chat in the comments!

See you again soon.

🙂

Wednesday With Words: Innovation

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I’m not exactly sure where I first heard of the book, but Real Artists Don’t Starve by Jeff Goins has been on my ‘to read’ list on Goodreads for over a year now. It’s only recently that I actually got a copy from the library and started reading it, but that seems like perfect timing, considering that I’ve been questioning whether or not I can actually look at my creative work as a viable option for making money someday, or if I need to scrap that and look for a different career. So far, the book is mostly about cultivating the creative mindset of a Thriving Artist, instead of wallowing in the self pity of a starving one. One of the things the Starving Artist worries about is being ‘original’, and Goins has devoted an entire chapter of the book to talking about how we as creators must learn to borrow from other creators and rearrange all the creative works that have come before us into something ‘new’. After all, there’s nothing really new under the sun, is there? (Apparently not, because a quote from Mary Shelley I shared earlier this year talked about this idea as well!)

Innovation

On my reading list this week:

  •  Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery: This was on my Grandma’s bookshelf when I visited her recently, and she said I could borrow it! I love many of L. M. Montgomery’s books, so I’m always excited to find a new one I haven’t yet read.
  • Christy by Catherine Marshall: I’m supposed to be reading this for the Back to the Classics Challenge. Unfortunately, I’ve fallen a bit behind, and it’s quite a large book! Hopefully I’ll be able to finish it up before the end of the year.

Thanks so much for reading this week’s Wednesday with Words post! I know it’s been approximately 5,000 years since I’ve done one of these, but I’d love to get back in the habit. No promises, though! 😛

See you again soon!

🙂

Beautiful People: Favorites Edition

Posted on by under For All the Bookworms, My Books

Hello, everyone! It’s been a long time since I did a Beautiful People post. This is actually going to be the last Beautiful People post of this year, as Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further In, who host the meme, are both super busy and unfortunately, they will be putting the meme on hiatus for the rest of this year. 😭

Fortunately, they will hopefully be able to pick it back up again sometime in the future, and they’ve put together a super special edition of the meme filled with favorite questions from past Beautiful People posts as a special farewell to this amazing blog meme! Let’s dive right in…

WHAT IS THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE MEME?

From the Beautiful People FAQ on Paper Fury:

Beautiful People is for writers. Every month, we post a list of 10 questions for you to answer about your characters. It’s designed to help you get to know your characters – their quirks, their personality, their flaws, and who they are.

DISCLAIMER: I cannot guarantee that everything here is or will be canon in the future. I have spent a fair amount of time developing these characters, but some stuff is still unclear in my own mind, so I will try to answer the questions as best I can.

Also, the character I’ll be using for today’s post is from a super-secret project that I have yet to officially announce or finish working on, so some details about the characters and plot will have to remain secret, for now…

Enjoy the post!

The Character

chalis007-189517

Once again, I’m mostly going to use Mae from the untitled sci-fi duology I’m working on, but I will be mentioning some characters from my other books throughout the post as well. Photo by 胡 卓亨 on Unsplash

The Questions

1.Favourite genre to write in?

This might come as a surprise, but I actually really enjoy writing sci-fi! I’m not sure if it’s my favorite genre to write in, but I love being able to speculate about what the world might look like in the future and writing about real locations while still being able to take some liberties with technology and setting.

2. What book (a real actual published book!) do you think your character would benefit from reading?

Um, honestly… Mae would really benefit from reading the Bible. 😅

3. Favourite piece of dialogue you’ve written?

“What, exactly, did you do to me?”

“It’s a neural enhancer,” Marta tells the opposite wall, “Developed to enhance memory retention, focus, and awareness. It’s designed for use in the military, but we needed something that would ensure you’d be back on your feet and talking some kind of sense as soon as possible, so I authorized the use of a nonconsensual injection. I should mention that side effects include temporary insomnia for at least thirty-six hours, headaches, and a temporary increase in blood pressure. On the plus side, you are seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and thinking clearer than you ever have in your life. Enjoy it well it lasts. It’s got a nice kick to it, but I hear the hangover is pretty bad.”

“Awesome,” I say, pressing my freezing hands against my buzzing forehead.

4. What did your character want to be when they grew up, and what did they actually become?

Mae has always wanted escape from her tedious life, and she found that escape in her online world, so I guess you could say that she became the hacker she always wanted to be…

5. Favourite character name(s)?

For girls, I’m really partial to Angel and Amber. For boys, my favorites are a tad esoteric: Jacamar and Marcel. (A jacamar is a kind of bird which was mentioned in The Mysterious Island, one of my favorite books, and I just love the word so much. I think it would make an awesome name!)

6. What makes your character feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way?

I think Mae needs someone to really take an interest in her and her problems. She’s been dealing with everything on her own for so long, hiding all her issues from everyone (and from her parents most of all, before they left) that having someone who would actually help her carry her burdens would certainly make her feel loved. When she was young, her parents served this role for her, but gradually she began to hide more and more things from them and draw further away, and their lives became harder as well, so that they didn’t necessarily have much time or energy to help her figure things out.

7. Favourite character you’ve ever written?

This is really, really hard, because I love all of my characters. But I think I might have to say Esmeralda from Behind Her Mask was Death and Empty Little Heart. She’s fairly complex and deals with a lot of issues, both in her past and her present, and she’s honestly just a ton of fun to write. I also love writing Marta and John from Shell (the first book in the sci-fi duology I’m working on).

8. If your character were permanently leaving town, what would they easily throw out? What would they refuse to part with? (Why?)

All Mae really needs is a laptop and/or phone, some clothes, and she’s good. Her entire life is online, and she can access money from any one of her many bank accounts at any moment, so she doesn’t really need (or care to have) anything else.

9. Favourite tropes to write!

  • emotional boys
  • characters who think they don’t care, but they actually care a lot
  • ‘good’ characters who find themselves becoming more and more like somebody that they really dislike
  • characters who randomly hate some universally loved thing, like pizza

10. Which story has your heart and won’t let go?

My sci-fi duology is very near and dear to my heart, but I think the story of the Lavender family (from Behind Her Mask was Death and the the prequel/sequels I’m working on) will always be my favorite.

11. Favourite relationship between characters you’ve written?

I would probably have to say Devon’s relationship with his mother. It’s heavily featured in my untitled Behind Her Mask was Death prequel, so I won’t say too much for fear of spoiling anyone before the  book is even finished, but it’s just such a pure and enjoyable relationship to write about. ❤

12. Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?

This is such a great question, because it actually ties directly in with my sci-fi duology. I started writing it kind of out of frustration, because all the ‘hacker’ books I saw were always about people hacking into video games and messing around with them, and I’ve always wanted to see a book about a hacker in the real world who messes with  actual governments and stuff.

13. Favourite Pinterest board / aesthetic for a book?

Here’s a little aesthetic for Shell that I made a while ago:

Shell Aethstetic 1

14. Favourite time periods & settings to work with?

For time periods, I like writing in the near future (20-30 years ahead), and also in my semi-Victorian fantasy world (from Behind Her Mask was Death). For settings, I really enjoy writing about cities. There’s just so many different people and so many different layers of life to explore! I enjoy writing about lonely spots in the middle of nowhere as well.

15. When people are done reading your book, what feeling do you want them to come away with?

Ooh, this is another hard one… I’d like people to come away from Shell, and from my sci-fi duology as a whole, with some good ideas to think about and chew on: Is it really easier to forget the consequences of our actions when they are mediated through technology? Is it easier to manipulate people when we can pick and choose what parts of our lives they see and ‘edit’ our speech? Is technology, or are users of technology, manipulating us? Lots of heavy stuff to think about. 😛

Of course, I’d also like it to be an exciting, enjoyable experience. It’s all about finding a balance…

Thanks so much for reading this Beautiful People post! I’m a little sad that this is going to be the last one for a while, but, on the other hand, we’ve got Cait’s book to look forward to, and you can always check out Cait and Sky’s blogs in the mean time!

Be sure to check out Cait’s original post, where you’ll find links to other writers who have done this meme, as well as the list of questions and a place to link up your own Beautiful People post.

Once again, Beautiful People is hosted by the amazing Cait and Sky.

Beautiful People

The Spring Cleaning Writer Tag

Posted on by under For All the Bookworms

When it rains, it pours, apparently, because I’m back today with another blog tag! This one was created by Deborah O’Carroll, and I was tagged for it by my good friend Daley Downing @ The Invisible Moth. So let’s dive right in…

springcleaningwritertagchallenge

Rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Share the picture
3. Answer the questions (naturally…) or even pick and choose which ones you answer
3.5. Tag 3 other writers and inform them that you tagged them (via comment/message/email or hey, even carrier-pigeon or smoke signal; I’m not picky)

The Questions:

1. Dust-bunnies and Plot-bunnies: Reorganize Your Writing Goals (Or Make New Ones)

I laid out a few writing goals in my 2018 Goals post, but now that we’re three months into the year, I think it’s time to give them a good reevaluation.

  • My first goal for this year was to publish Esmeralda’s Story, and I was actually able to do so this February! The novelette is currently available only on Kindle, and you can find it here on Amazon. So, that’s one less thing to worry about this year.
  • My next writing goal is to write and revise at least one book. I’m a notoriously slow first drafter, even more so when I’m legitimately busy and also procrastinating at the same time, but even so I’ve been able to make some progress on my current WIP, and hopefully over the next few weeks or months I’ll be able to finish it up. But we’ll see…
  • My final writing goal for this year is to blog more consistently. I’ve been trying to write at least one post per week, and although there have been a few rough patches, I’ve mostly been able to stick to that goal.

Sometimes it feels like I’m accomplishing exactly zero things, so it was nice to take this little look at what I actually have done this year! Now, on to the next question…

2. Which Stage Are You At? Expound!

a. Remodeling layouts (planning the story)
b. Painting the walls in colorful hues (writing)
c. Polishing the windows and scrubbing the floors and putting flowers in vases (editing)
d. Blueprints (not to the cleaning or remodeling yet… just drawing up plans for the very beginning inklings of a story)
e. Some combination of those things (cleaning out a closet)

I love these neat metaphors! I would say that I’m at the ‘painting the walls in colorful hues’ stage, or slap-bang in the middle of writing my first draft of what I hope to be my next novel. I’m just over the half-way mark, at almost 30,000 words of what I hope to be at least a 50,000 word draft.

3. Treasure From the Back of the Closet (Share one to three snippets you love!)

His earliest memories were of her voice; sweet, mellow, rich and dark in tone, not like any other voice he heard around him. She used to sit beside his bed and sing him to sleep, her voice coloring his dreams long after he had sunk into slumber. In the blurs and shadows of his past, she was constant and clear, a rock in a sea of memories. He had hardly yet begun to appreciate his youth, but she made him wise beyond his years. She was everything.

He never wanted to be apart from her.

 

He realized after a few moments that they had stopped shouting. The silence of the twilit city, made up of a hundred thousand different sounds, pooled around them in the growing gloom. Chelsea’s heartbeat pounded against his shoulder, and every breath she took seemed to catch in her throat and shake her body like a trembling leaf. He couldn’t tell if she was crying or not. Her limp and dirty hair, which not so long ago had been neat and brushed and washed, hung in strings down her shoulders and back. He pristine white gown was gone, replaced by a shapeless gray dress which felt like it was made of potato sacks. She was gripping his hand, and her fingers were icy on his skin, but even in this state she felt like safety.

 

He pulled her through the garden gate into a blooming world carpeted with green; neatly trimmed hedges and soft moss and flowers fed by the rain, flourishing in color.

3.5. Bonus: Do Some Actual Spring Cleaning of Your Writer Self! (and share a picture!)

Eh, I’ve been cleaning up my room off and on over the past few months, but  it’s  still extremely messy  in some places, so I’ll spare you from any horrendous pictures… 😅

Thank you so much for this awesome tag, Daley! I would tag all my fabulous blogger friends, but I think they’ve already been tagged, so, if you haven’t yet been tagged, but would like to participate, consider yourself tagged and just head on over to Deborah’s original post to grab the questions for your own blog! ^_^

Thanks so much for reading! See you again soon.

🙂

Wednesday With Words: The Soul at Play

Posted on by under For All the Bookworms, Wednesday with Words

Hey, everyone! This week’s quote is from Emily Dickinson, just in time for World Poetry Day! I’ve been reading through an enormous book containing all of Emily Dickinson’s 1,500+ poems recently, and this really caught my eye:

Emily Dickenson

Thank you so much for reading today’s Wednesday With Words! Sorry it had to be a little shorter today. I hope you enjoyed today’s quote, and Lord willing I’ll have some exciting new posts up soon!

Bye for now!

🙂

Wednesday With Words: Invention

Posted on by under Wednesday with Words

Hello, everyone! I’m back today with a quote from Mary Shelley’s introduction to Frankenstien, of all things. I’m reading Frankenstien for school this year, and so far its really interesting and way different than I expected. But I actually found this quote in the author’s introduction to the book, and I thought it was a really neat quote about writing, or any creative art for that matter:

Mary Shelley

On my reading list this week:

  • Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery: I reread Emily of New Moon for the Back to the Classics 2018 Challenge, and I’ve moved on to the second book just because I love this series so much! You can read my review of  Emily of New Moon over on Goodreads.
  • A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett: Another book I’m rereading for the Back to the Classics Challenge. My mom read this to me years and years ago, and I don’t really remember much about it, so I’m looking forward to reading this again.
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: I’m also reading this for the Back to the Classics Challenge. I know basically nothing about this book, and I’m really interested to find out what it’s all about…

Thanks so much for reading this week’s Wednesday with Words post! I hope you enjoyed it.

See you again soon!

🙂

Wednesday With Words: The Act of Writing

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Heyo! It’s break week, and I’m officially back from my little haitus with a new Wednesday With Words post! Today’s quote is from William Zinsser’s famous On Writing Well, a fabulous book about writing that I’ve been perusing this week. While the book focuses on nonfiction writing, it does have quite a few tips that can be applied to fiction writing as well, and also this little description of the writer at work, which I thought was too good (and way too true) not to share today:

On Writing Well

On my reading list this week:

  • Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor: A novel based on the hit Welcome to Night Vale podcast about a weird little town in the middle of nowhere, where paranormal happenings are everyday occurrences and every conspiracy theory is true. I love the podcast, and I’m greatly enjoying this book, but I’m not a fan of the super liberal worldview…
  • Cyndere’s Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet: The second book in the Auralia series. I started reading this back in July of 2016, and then eventually dropped it when my reading pile grew too big for me to manage. I picked it up again recently, as I own the entire series and would really like to finish it. The book is kind of slow, which might have been part of why I originally dropped it, but it’s picking up a bit now that I’m nearing the end.
  • Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery: Rereading this old favorite for the Back to the Classics 2018 challenge. It’s one of my favorite books by L. M. Montgomery! I just identify with Emily so much.

Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday with Words post! See you again soon.

🙂

Esmeralda’s Story is Almost Here!

Posted on by under My Books

Hey, everyone! You probably forgot all about the Behind Her Mask was Death novelette I’ve been working on and teasing for a while now, but I’m finally ready to actually release it this week! This novelette is called Empty Little Heart: Esmeralda’s Story, and I do finally have a cover and blurb to show you guys. This amazing cover art was created by Jenna Paddey. Definitely make sure to check out her other beautiful art on her Tumblr or her Instagram page.

Empty Little Heart (Cover)

Ten years before the events of Behind Her Mask was Death, Princess Esmeralda discovers another life beyond the high walls of her father’s palace. Her governess is bent on keeping her under control and acting like a proper princess, but Esmeralda wants nothing more than to escape the confines of her stuffy little world. Only William, her brother and best friend, can keep her sane. But she would still do anything to be free…

 

 

This novelette will be available on Kindle starting this Saturday, and you can preorder it over on Amazon, if you like! And, in case you’re wondering, you can read Esmeralda’s Story before or after reading Behind Her Mask was Death. It doesn’t really matter which. I’m always working on more stories about these characters and their world, so if you have enjoyed Behind Her Mask was Death, or if you read and enjoy this novelette, don’t worry! You’ll definitely be hearing more about Esmeralda and her friends in the future. ^_^

Thanks for reading this little announcement. I’ll see you again very soon!

🙂

Wednesday With Words: The Fire of Life

Posted on by under For All the Bookworms, Wednesday with Words

Hey, everybody! I’m back with another quote from Smoke Signals by Ashley Dun. I chose this quote for today because I’m actually going to be seeing Ashley and the rest of the Secret Midnight Press crew on their book tour tomorrow! I am very excited! There is going to be poetry reading, live music, and a meet-and-greet after the show, which sounds awesome! (And maybe I’ll see if I can get my copy of Smoke Signals signed???)

The Fire of Life

On my reading list this week:

  • The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: Rereading this for the Back to the Classics 2018 challenge. It’s actually one of my favorite books of all time, so its nice to have an excuse to read it again.
  • The Last Archer by S. D. Smith: The latest installment in the Green Ember series; this one’s a novella and I’m reading it while I await the publication of the next full-length Green Ember novel!

Thanks so much for reading this week’s Wednesday with Words post! What books are you reading this week? Have you ever been to a Secret Midnight Press show, or are you going to one this year? Let’s chat in the comments!

See you again soon.

🙂

As always, Wednesday with Words is hosted by ladydusk.

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