Resolutions

'Tis the time of year to think about them, at least. And its the time of year I hate the most. Mainly because I am a terrible goal setter. That said, I have a few things I do really want/need to accomplish this year. So here's my current list.

* Publish Lord's Curse. Its the big one and the one that I'm most excited about. It requires a heavy edit, then back to my editor, then a lighter edit, followed by general fixes and final proofreading by me, my editor and Grammarly. It also requires a cover, back copy written, promotional material made, formatting and ordering in physical copies before my release date.

* Finish writing Noble's Choice. I have another 40k (approx.) to write on it. The story is coming together nicely. After I finish it, I can put it in a box and ignore it for a year.

* Improve health. I am overweight, but healthy despite that (seriously, my docs run tests and it irritates them). I am also a big proponent of loving yourself at any weight and not falling into the belief that slim equals healthy. That said, I'm working out of the house, and I've noticed that my stamina, flexibility, and balance has suffered, so its time to do something about that. My goal is to start off doing a Fit Boxing workout daily on my Switch and supplementing it with a daily walk when weather permits and some strength training with our home weight sets. I know that my Switch boxing won't teach me to fight, but it will get me moving and count as cardio.

* Open an account on Fiverr. This was an option a friend mentioned I could try. I have been talking about becoming a professional editor and this year will be the year for it. I'm going to start on Fiverr to get a few books under my belt and to see what the job is like before I commit with a full website and such.

* Open an Etsy account. I am an artist and if I want to continue buying art supplies, I need to use them and see if I can make a living selling them. I'm going to start off with art pieces and then open it up into resin and jewelry making eventually.

* Read 75 books. I like making sure that I am continuing to read, no matter how busy my life is. I used to read 100 a year, but now I've lowered that to account for not having as much time on the bus to read.

* Continue to study Japanese and Spanish. By continuing, I mean, try to keep up with it. I fell out of daily practice in October/November and have had a difficult time trying to get back into it. Like with my exercising, I'm going for daily, but if I miss one or two on busy days I'm not going to sweat it.

* Clean house. By which I mean, organize my office, and go through everything on our shelves and hiding away in storage.  Moving has come up as an option, but if we move, we want a condo or apartment rather than a townhouse, which will mean cutting down on all of our excess stuff. And I really need a semi-clean office to work in. I've been avoiding it since our Yule tree is up, but I do need to get back in there and set it up eventually.

* Edit Book 3, tentatively titled Fox... mainly because I can't remember the second part of the working title. Have it edited and ready to go our for December, if possible. I'm speeding up, but I don't know when I'll be starting it, so we'll play that by ear for now.

And I think that's it for now. It's a big list which means I'll be breaking it down to a quarterly one before the first so I can work out my plan of attack on everything. It will be necessary since I'll still be putting resumes out there in the meantime.

What about you? Do you have a list? Do you wing it every year? What sort of things are on your list and why are they important to you? Let me know in the comments below.

All the ART!

And yet, nothing I can share in pictures yet! It's so frustrating. 

Since I don't have a job this year, I knew that I would be art-ing all of the gifts this year. Which is awesome until I realized that I only had a few weeks to make those gifts. Fortunately, I'm nearly done now. Arting is the right word, too! I have a few pictures painted with ink and watercolour, I have a few gifts made of resin, and more than a few acrylic pour canvases done (a style that I seem to have a natural gift in). In addition to that, I've also done a canvas painting for myself (it's adorable, but I don't know if it matches anyone's aesthetic but mine). 

Not the drawing I was talking about, but a picture I took a few weeks ago.

What does this mean? It means I have very little to show off for all this work. At least, until after the holidays, when I can ask people if they mind me sharing pictures later. 

I've also been editing. I got my work back from my editor on the 10th and spent a couple days reading it over and thinking about the changes she suggested. Now, I'm going through the biggest problem area she suggested and I'm working out what it's doing and what I need to change. She's suggested a rather large rewrite, but I want to see exactly what needed before I commit to that suggestion. 

What does all this mean? Well, firstly it means that I've been trying to avoid editing and succeeding. It also means that now that I'm actually working on it, it is getting done now. I'm hoping to have a full idea of what changes are required before the 25th and hopefully a full idea of exactly what rewrites will be required before my next post on the 27th. 

I will also cheer in getting another review as an early X-mas gift! I'm up to 4 on Goodreads, as well as three up on Amazon (over the different countries and locations). Hopefully, I'll get even more before Lord's Curse is released! I was so excited I made this for it!

As a final aside, I'll wish of you lovely readers a Happy Holidays, no matter what you celebrate this time of year. I'm personally very excited to have Solstice and Jolabokaflud happening this week. I don't know if I'll be able to afford a new book specifically for it, but I do have a few new books that I haven't had a chance to read yet, so one of those will probably have to do. 

Have any of you bought a new book for your friends/family for Jolabokaflud yet? Which books did you buy for them, if you did?

#Giftmas 2019

Giftmas is here again, Stand up and cheer again. 
Let's leave hunger and heartache behind.

Yes, its Giftmas time again! Last year, we raised over $1,100 for the Edmonton Food Bank and since every dollar donated can be stretched, they end up counting for about 3x that amount. This year, Rhonda Parrish has raised her goal to $1,000 or more. Since last year the goal was $750, I'm really hopeful that we can hit that goal! As of right now, (pretty early on the 12th day of December), we're sitting at $625, but I know we can hit that $1,000 goal before the 16th (the last day of the fundraiser). Please, even if you only have a dollar or two to spare, consider donating. If you can't, please share around the links and the other stops on the Giftmas set. Sharing might get it into the hands of somebody who can donate a few dollars to help out.

I was very lucky. Growing up, my family never had to go to the food bank for extra aid. I had my first experience with them was when I moved out and working part-time. Our money wasn't stretching as far as we needed it to and they were a huge help. When I was working at the Co-operator, we tried to donate an entire afternoon of our department's time. One or two of those years we helped at the Food Bank here in Calgary, usually creating Christmas hampers so that everyone could have enough food for a big turkey day. It was a job that even the twenty of us couldn't finish in the time we were there, but it was wonderful to be able to help wherever we could. 

In addition to the donations, there are a whole wack of prizes that you can enter in for! Please, sign yourself up and once again, don't hesitate to share. There are a lot of great prizes, check here for all the details about what you can you win. 

As if that wasn't enough, Rhonda is also hosting a Snowman drawing contest! You can go here to see all of the current entries, but of course, I had to get in on that as well! Before I show you my picture, the rules for your own entry are simple; draw a picture of a snowman (whatever medium you prefer, from digital to graphite to oil to coloured pencils), write #Giftmas2019 somewhere on it, and email a copy to Rhonda Parrish @ rhonda.l.parrish@gmail.com. She'll update the site with your entries and there are prizes you can win for that as well. 

For my picture, I decided to finish work on a snowman idea I had a few years back. I painted it using acrylics on canvas. It's a very cartoony style, but I loved the way it turned out. Its a really big painting too; 10" x 16". I'll be putting it up in my home soon... I'm just not sure where we'll end up hanging it. 

What do you think of it? And will you be entering a picture? Please, check out the page below and check out the hashtag to find your way to all of the great blog posts going up for this Giftmas!

Novel Update: While less important than the wonderful work that Rhonda is doing for the Edmonton Food Bank here, I did want to let you know that I have my book back from my editor now! I'll be looking over it today and will start working on changes asap! Hopefully, I'll be able to present a plan to you guys next week for it. 

Its Never Easy Getting Back in the Saddle

Well, this is coming a bit late... December is always an incredibly tough time for getting writing done. After spending a month writing 50k, I always need a few days off. This year, fortunately, it wasn't really a recovery I needed, but a chance to rejuvenate my flagging creativity. Its one of the side effects of falling into just one creative bubble for me; when I get out if straight recovery of abused muscles isn't needed, some mental recovery is. So, since Nano, I've been obsessively playing around with my tablet, drawing some really gorgeous dahlias. I've also got a quick rough picture done of an ink painting I want to do.

Now onto some awesome news! I just found out that my novel, Hunter's Gambit, has been added to at least one online bookstore in Sweden. While I realize that this is something that I should have realized would happen, seeing it actually do so is really exciting. It's a small thing, but it has absolutely made my day. Its another little way that helps me feel like I've made it. That added to the new review that I have on Goodreads and I feel like I could fly. I've also received one additional star rating, though no physical review for that one.

What does this mean? Well, Goodreads has my book sitting at a very respectable 4.25 stars with three reviews. I am secretly hoping for even more reviews for Christmas.

Speaking of which, how many of you have e-readers or are asking for them for Christmas? What books are on your gift lists this year? And will any of you be giving books (mine or others) to your family this season? Let me know in the comments!

So Close

I can practically taste the victory already. 50,000 words are just ahead of me.

I'm currently on track with 46,694 words. Depending on how early I finish writing this, I may have time to get in more before midnight. Which does mean that I'll be keeping this short.

The story is going swimmingly. I just got into the middle. All of the villains have been introduced and all of the major incidents have been shown. All of my characters have been having their chance to stand in the sun, and I've even introduced a new viewpoint pov character. I discussed the plot over with my husband and I am brimming with ideas to bring all bits of the story together at the end. I'm expecting the rough draft to sit at 75k-80k when done and 50k of that should be finished by the first.

I'd like to have it finished before I start editing Lord's Curse, but I'll have to see when that gets back to me. I have a deadline as soon as the story is back in my hands so that deadline will be the priority though. I'd rather get the second book ready to send to you than make sure that book 4 is roughly finished. I should be ordering the cover soon, I'm expecting sometime in the next few weeks so hopefully, I'll have a reveal coming out to you sometime in January or February.

And that is all that I think I got for you this time around. Until next week, keep reading!

You Got This

Writing is an incredible job, my favourite hobby, and I wouldn't give it up for the world. Let's start off saying that. There are days when I can write over a thousand words every hour. All of these words are good, strong additions to my book, words I'm proud to have written. Even the more average days when I've only written fifteen hundred to two thousand words during that time, I'm still happy to have gotten a chapter finished. Last night was one of a very small subset of bad days when despite sitting at my computer for 6-8 hours, I end up with 400-500 words and none of them are good.

Days like that last one make you rethink the whole writing thing. Fortunately, I've been writing long enough to know how to deal with these days... you push as hard as you can and take the next day, maybe two, getting your groove back on.

So, what does this mean? It means I'm just a bit behind on my word count. I'm not worried... I'll probably be back on track before I head to sleep on Saturday morning. Still, days like this are irritating. Why am I talking about it today?

Because somewhere out there is a new writer, one who doesn't know what it can be like. I want them to know that these days are temporary and fleeting and to treat them as such. You wouldn't think that your bad mood will last forever... I can promise you, neither will your writing slump.

Don't worry about it. You got this.

Nano Update

Every Nanowrimo, I eventually suffer from a condition I have dubbed "Nano-Squishy-Brain". Nano-Squishy-Brain happens when you've kicked your own ass so hard from writing that you feel happily exhausted and want nothing more than to melt into a happy ball of goo that never has to think about writing again. It's indicative of pushing oneself harder than is perhaps warranted. For some, it's writing 500 words a day, for others its writing 2k a day or even writing 20k in a day. For some, its caused by working and going for your 50k at the same time.

For me, it normally happens around the 3rd week of Nanowrimo while working a full-time job. This year, it hit me about eight days in. I had no idea why, until I remembered that I'd been kicking my own ass to finish my novel and getting it over to my editor before November. I ended up taking two or three days off to rest, play some Don't Starve and relax. Now, after that rest and a 5k day, I'm still tired, but nowhere near as tired as I had been. I've gotten caught back up and should have no problem finishing Nano. 

The plot of this book is going much better than last year's. I'd made the unforgivable error of not reading book 3 before trying to write book 4, which meant that I'd forgotten a lot of the little things. Emotions, tiny incidents that would end up being a huge deal in the next book. This means that while I'm about 1/3 of the way through the rough draft, this book is already leaps and bounds better than the one I tried to write last year. I'm hoping to finish writing it as soon as I'm done editing Lord's Curse and then moving on (almost immediately) to editing book 3 (which will make all of my helpful little notes during this read-through useful).

I am still searching for a day job, and I have a dozen other little things I'm trying to complete, like writing up back cover copy so I can contact my cover artist about a cover for this one and getting a website up. I will probably order the cover as soon as I have the back cover written so that I can at least do a cover reveal while figuring out the physical details I'll need to get for her. Hopefully, I will have all that figured out for you by mid-December. The website may be longer since I need to design it and figure out how to transfer over my current blog to it and look into all of the programming details. Since I am not a programmer, I'll just say that one is a way's off for now.

I will add that I haven't had any real art time in the last few weeks and I'm feeling it now. I am looking forward to really playing around with digital art in December. 

How is your Nanowrimo doing? And if you aren't writing, is there any other challenge you're doing this month?

Lord's Curse - Pre-Final Edit Stats

I am overly fond of book stats. I don't know why... its just something that always interests me. So today, we're going to geek over the current stats of my novel Lord's Curse. Fair warning that some of these change before the book comes out... This is prior to my final edit, of course, so the exact numbers will probably change. 

Photo by João Silas on Unsplash

Okay, big story stuff first. Lord's Curse was originally just titled Lord since I knew I wanted to use the game Kitsune-ken as the basis for each novel's name. Not directly focused on Lord, but connected, means that the next books also need names that fit in with this convention even if they don't have to do directly with the game. I haven't decided what all the names will be yet, but I do have eyes on the names Fox's Facade and Noble's Choice for books 3 and 4, respectively.

Going back to the Lord's Curse, specifically the inner workings, my novel is currently 93,847 words long if we don't count the chapter titles as words. It has 44 chapters. While my first book was more based on the girl's pov's (unintentionally for the most part), this novel focuses a lot more on Richard's and Deckard's point of view, though it didn't feel that way when I wrote it. Deckard and Richard each come in at 14 chapters, with Kuzunoha next in the running with 10 chapters. Himiko has 5 and Isashi has only 1. This doesn't mean that the girls don't have their own issues in this novel... just that, in general, the conflict seemed to be with the guys this novel.

The average chapter size for a 93,847-word book with 44 chapters would b 2,132 words long. The chapter that is closest to that total is chapter 18 with 2,106 words. The chapter with the least amount has 1,026 words in it and the chapter with the most has 3,014 words.

Each of the five longest chapters in the book was written one from each character's point-of-view.  The order goes down this way, Deckard (3,014 words), Kuzunoha (2,972 words), Himiko (2,845 words), Richard (2,712 words) and Isashi (2,603 words). I didn't do this deliberately... I just thought it was really cool.

What about you guys? Do you like weird book stats? Let me know!

Lord's Curse is Out of my Hands & a new Stylus is in!

First, I am sorry that this post is coming your way late. I was so eager to begin writing last night that I worked straight until midnight and then started writing. I only realized that it was Friday morning when I crawled into bed. On the other hand, I actually have updates for you! 

On Monday, I finally finished my draft of Lord's Curse. I sent it that morning to my editor, but I don't have an expected date back from her yet. As soon as I know more there you'll get an update as well. Either way, as soon as I have it back I will be working on it. At that point, Nano will become me working on Nanowrimo during the day and the edit of that book during my evenings. 

Still, I am amazingly excited to have finished it finally. 

The other bit of amazingness for me is that my husband picked up the stylus that I have been wanting for a year. Why is this cool, I can practically hear you asking. Styluses are a dime a dozen, essentially. And in most cases, you're entirely right. But this is the Windows Stylus, specifically geared towards use with their Surface Pro systems. Which is what I have. The stylus essentially makes it so that your Surface Pro can be used as a drawing tablet, with all the layers of sensitivity, pen tilt and functionality built right into most programs, you can now use your pen to, as they put it on their site, 'Think with Ink'. For me, it turns my Surface Pro5, which I've been using for my mobile needs into an actual drawing tablet for me. The last time I tried to draw on a tablet like this, it was with less than optimal tools and I got a much less than optimal result. 

This picture was my first attempt with subpar tools.
While it wasn't horrible, it was also very bad.
There was a lot that I couldn't figure out how to do,
and in the end I gave up entirely on shading since
everything was wrong with it and I just wanted to try
it again from the beginning.

This was my second with the subpar tools. And while it was a marked improvement, it still wasn't quite what I would have been able to accomplish on paper with more traditional tools.
Actually, I have an urge to redraw it using my new tools as an example of improvement to myself. Perhaps I'll add that to my list of tasks in December. 

I could have made it work obviously, but it wasn't anything like working on paper and I found it irritating. However, working with the new pen and the Concepts app, I have not only really enjoyed the results, but I have also enjoyed the process of making them. Also, I've never really liked the way most programs deal with their colours, and so to have the colours in it listed and matching the Copic colours, which I already use is great. It makes it easy for me to choose colours and decide exactly what I need to add. 

This was my first drawing attempt with the new stylus. Trying to figure out blending was killing me, but I loved the feel of drawing with it. Also, I clearly need to work on drawing hair more often. Those buns are hilariously bad. Still, as a first digital try, I really loved the potential.

This was my second drawing. While I still can't say that the bun is any better, I do like the shading in the hair and on the face and skin. I really found myself reaching for tools not available with the free program while playing with this; specifically the lasso and copy/move tools. Its why I'll be picking up the full copy when I have a job again.

And I think that will be it for this week. Let me know what you think of the drawings. Also, are you taking part in Nanowrimo? What is your word count so far? I've had a slow start. Day 1 gave me a migraine that wouldn't quit, which led to me only getting 1055 words for my first day. 

Obligatory Nanowrimo Post

Obligatory because its nearly November and I talk about November every year. That doesn't mean I don't absolutely love doing it though! Year-round, I tell every person who happens to mention that they once harbored a secret dream of writing a novel about it, write down the site address for them, let them know what my avatar name on the site is and try to get them to add me. Why do I jump into this so gung-ho?

It is because books have always played an important part in my life. Some of my earliest memories are of my father reading my favourite Wuzzles storybook to me. One of his favourite stories to tell is how one day he got tired of reading the exact same storybook for his daughter every day before bed. He suggested that I should read it to him. I was 4 or 5 and if I remember correctly, I was a little confused. But in the end, I did it. My father thought I was a brilliant reader, the best he'd ever seen in a young child. Until he realized that I had finished one line before ever flipping the page. It was then that he realized that I pretty much had it memorized, nearly word for word and I was actually trying (badly) to use his cadence to tell the story. 

He decided then and there that I had to read at least one book (aside from that one) to him every day before he would read me a story. Even when I was too old to have my Dad read me to sleep, I listened to him read to my little brother. Every week, he would bring home comics for my sister and brother and new novels for me. 

Very clearly not a picture of me, but I do all of my writing on laptops, wherever
 I happen to find space to pull it out. I now have an office though. One day you'll
get pictures of it. 

In high school, I took a class called Typing 104. My family had owned a computer for 3-4 years at this point and I was mainly taking the class to learn how to type business letters to prepare me for the real world. I admit that I spent the majority of this class writing a novel. It wasn't a very good novel of course. In fact, it was very bad and I never finished it.
However, years later, it was on my mind when I found out about Nanowrimo and tried my first few years. I hadn't considered that I could ever really write a book and publish it. That was something that important people who were way more brilliant than me did. It took years to hone my craft and more to push past my fear to publish. 

Books have always been one of my catalysts for growth and I want to try to make sure that other people have that same love for them I do. I consider books one of life's necessities, up there with food and water. Your mileage may vary, of course. But for me. I write. 

And every November, no matter what else is happening in my life, I put fingers to keyboard and write. I always will, even if there is no Nanowrimo.

Will anyone be writing this Nanowrimo with me?

Cover Reveal - Erin Embly

Today I'm coming to you with another cover reveal! 

Erin Embly's debut novel is going to be coming out early next year on January 17, 2020 and it sounds interesting, especially if you have an interest in urban fantasy. 

I’m not an assassin witch, I swear…

But one bad day at work as a Guardian was all it took to make everyone think I am. 

Darcy Pierce—infamous, soulless, lethal. Betrayer.
It’s all good, though. I fit right in at my new job as the magical bartender in a supernatural strip club, where no one cares about a girl’s deadly reputation as long as she has a nice rack.
Only now I’m being stalked by a schoolgirl bully who breathes fire, and her hot dad keeps trying to get me to touch his dusty old book. I’m used to men trying to trick me into touching things, but this is a whole new level of creepy.
I’m almost grateful when the assassin who framed me comes back for round two…
Except I’m not the only one in danger. My new friends at the club are the ones under fire now, and I can’t fail them like I failed before.
Once a Guardian, always a Guardian, right? That’s what they always told me, even when I ran, and I still don’t know if they were right.
Whatever I am, it’s personal now, and I have a hot-blooded killer to hunt.

It's available for pre-order now!

If you want to find Erin, she's on both Twitter and Instagram as @erinembly and on FB. 

If you'd like to read the first two chapters of the book, you can check them out on her website. Don't forget to sign up for her newsletter there, if you're interested. 

Deep Dive on Historic Women: Murasaki Shikibu

I shared a news article on my FB page a day or so ago about the discovery that the novel, Tale of Genji, has 4 newly discovered chapters to add to its length. Already 50 chapters long, this 54 chapter version is the longest ever found. This book is important, not only because it is considered our world's first full-length novel, but also because it is considered the greatest work of Japanese literature.

However, as awesome as the book detailing the exploits of Genji Hikaru is, it pales in comparison to the life of its author. Murasaki Shikibu was her pen name, and there is some evidence to suggest that her given name was Fujiwara no Kaoruko, since it's known from her journals that she became an imperial lady-in-waiting for the emperor's consort, Shoshi, after the death of her husband and that she was from a distant branch of the Fujiwara line. Raised mostly by her father after her mother's untimely death, she learned many of the so-called "manly" studies of the time. She excelled in Chinese literature and moved around the country with her father, which at the time was unheard of for a young aristocratic woman. 

Also unheard of was her romantic life. While most of Murasaki's peers were getting married in their early teens, it is known that Murasaki herself didn't marry until her twenties and that her nuptials only lasted two years, at that. It is believed that she began writing the Tale of Genji at this time. 

This picture is one I created for Murasaki. While we don't know what 

she would have looked like, we do know how nobility looked in the 

Heian Era. This is close to how they would have looked. I have lowered the

eyebrows from where they would have been drawn to make it look a 

little closer to our current day standards of beauty. Any mistakes are my

own and no one else's.

Afterward, Murasaki chose to remain her own woman and not remarry and was eventually called to become a Chinese tutor to the young Empress and, of course, to become her resident writer. She may have also received the job due to a brief affair she may have had with the consort Shoshi's father, Michinaga, a statesman of some renown at the time, although this connection is tenuous at best. She is known to have exchanged poetry with Michinaga though, which at the time was considered an essential part of seduction at the time. 

There is some discussion about when she died, some saying that she died 1014, but some say that she was seen attending official ceremonies with Shoshi for another 10 years after that.

I have decided to read Liza Dalby's novel, The Tale of Murasaki: a novel and then follow it up with more of the dry research about her life as well as an official reading of the Tale of Genji, eventually.

Have you read any of these books? Would any of you be interested in reading Liza Dalby's novel and discussing it, bookclub style? Let me know and if there is enough interest, I'll create an FB page for it.

Cover Reveal - A Raven's Revenge

I've been in the writing gig for quite a while now and while I usually stick to myself, a few years back I traded work with some other authors and did developmental/beta-read edits for them. One of those authors was Linda Bloodworth. We became friends bonding over not only our books but our shared love for anything Sailor Moon related. Anyway's, I read through her book A Raven's Touch, a kick-ass story about a half-angel fighting the forces of evil. She published that book a year afterward in 2015, and today I have the absolute honour of letting everyone know that she is finally releasing the sequel! 

A Raven's Revenge 
Hell hath no fury like an angel scorned. Justice St. Michaels is on a mission from God to avenge her parents' death, even if it means hunting Seliki to the depths of Hell. Justice and her powerful friends won't back down until His will is done. Can an angel, witch, vampire and elf take on Hell and come out alive?

I have to admit, this cover is fantastic. I don't know who the cover artist was, but they deserve a pat on the back for this one. 

The novel will be out on October 24th, but you can pre-order your copy now. If you're looking for something to read before then, you can pick up the first book in the series as well. Links for both are below.

A Raven’sRevenge $3.99 ebook and $12.99 paperback

A Raven’s Touch $0.99 ebook and $12.99 paperback

Linda Bloodworth is hosting a cover reveal party on FB today (October 4th) and will be hosting a release day party on FB on its release date. Check out the links if you're interested!

Linda Bloodworth - Bio
Linda Bloodworth is a writer from Toronto who often has to battle two cats and a dog to find a comfortable writing position. Through blood, sweat, and a few tears, Linda debuted A Raven’s Touch in 2015 and followed up with A Raven’s Revenge in 2019. Other than writing, Linda enjoys scary tales of the strange and unusual in book and movie form. Most often, Linda can be found binge-watching Sailor Moon ad nauseam. Tsuki ni kawatte, oshiokiyo!

The Dreven Creation Story (and an Update)

I feel like I've been saying this since January, but I'm nearly done editing book 2 of Kitsune-Ken! I have found a new editor and if everything goes according to plan, I should have it in her hands by this time next week. Then I can focus on Inktober, starting to edit book 3 and planning book 4 to write during Nanowrimo in November (for perhaps as long as a week before she gets it back to me). It's my hope that by November I will have the edits finished entirely and I can spend all my spare time that month doing the business end of getting the novel out to all of you... getting the cover made and released, the book formatted, proofread, and all of that fun stuff. Now we'll move onto the meat of today's post; the Dreven's creation story. 

Deckard is the main follower of this religion in my Kitsune-Ken series, though all of the Dreven people worship these deities. Even Isashi's Dreven father worships them and made sure that Isashi grew up knowing their religion, though, in the end, she chose to follow her mother's deities. 

The Dreven believe that the world was created when the creator force split into twins; the goddess Kittin and the god Kitaran. The two loved each other but fell to arguing over whether the universe was too empty. Kitaran wanted much more than the emptiness they inhabited, but Kittin was afraid and wanted the universe to stay the same. Kitaran promised to not create anything but eventually his loneliness could not be denied. To create the first island, Kitaran cut off his own hand. When Kittin discovered his betrayal, she slaughtered him and fell into a great depression for centuries when she realized that she'd destroyed the one she loved. 

Eventually, a noise broke through her self-absorption and she realized that Kitaran's body had not simply ceased to exist, but had transformed into an entire planet. While she loved it as she had loved him, she was horrified to find beings like themselves living upon it. Believing they were defiling Kitaran's legacy, she began a slaughter of all she could find. When only seven remained, better at hiding than the rest, she began destroying the world, determined to leave them no place to hide. One goddess came to her, begging that she stop before she destroyed Kitaran a second time. While she hesitated, the goddess brought down upon him the gift of prophecy. In her first moments of Kitaran's final gift to him, she realized that she had been destroying their children, created with his blood and her energy. 

A photo composite I made of Direnai begging Kittin to stop his destruction. 

Kittin realized her error and offered Direnai and her sibling's true godhood, promising never to hunt them again. They accepted though all but Direnai refused to believe in her sudden altruism, thinking that her apologies came too late. When one of the Seven created humans out of a new metal alloy and the began to multiply on their own, they expected Kittin to start destroying everything again. Fortunately, she had learned her lesson and instead blessed the new ones with wisdom she had never had. The humans began to worship her for this gift. The Seven still hide from Kittin, allowing humans to worship them only if they promise to never tell Kittin where they hide. In return for their favour and gifts, the Dreven refer to all seven as a single deity, the Secret, though they are taught the ways to show their reverence for each of the seven. 

Kittin is the only major deity, though most non-Dreven think of Direnai as a close second, not realizing that she is only the face the others hide behind, the one that is willing to be seen. Kittin rules over Divination and Wisdom, hard-won after all of her mistakes, though no Dreven forgets her lesson that without wisdom they will destroy everything they love. The other seven deities are Direnai, goddess of healing, Tormu, god of innocence, and five others whose portfolio's consist of Fire, Sailing, Weaponry, Victory, and Sorcery. Direnai is the deity that Deckard believes has granted him his blessed status. He loves and hates her for it.

And that will be all for today! In the coming weeks, I'll try to keep you guys up to date with where my novel is, how Inktober is going, and of course, more about the Dreven religion. 

Author Event - Focus on Adria Laycraft

Today we're doing something a little different. I found out one of my fellow authors recently released her book through Tyche and next Thursday (Sept 26, 2019), she's going to be hosting a launch party for it down at Owl's Nest Bookstore, the same place I had my signing a few weeks back. 

If you can make it down to the Owl's Nest Bookstore here in Calgary you'll be treated to a great evening. Starting at 7pm, there will be the direct access to the author and certainly a chance to buy a physical copy of Jumpship Hope and get it signed. There will also be food, drink, a short reading and even the author and her daughter performing a haunting song from the POV of a database. 

The book is Jumpship Hope by Adria Laycraft. 

Jumpship Hope
Earth is a Storm-Ravaged Wasteland.
Humanity has fled the planet, establishing bases off-world. But disaster has struck the food crops of Luna Base, leaving the orbitals starving, and Mars colony ignores their pleas for aid. 
Hot-headed pilot Janlin Kavanagh will do anything to save her friends, so when spacetop captain Stepper Jordan proposes a sketchy plan to save their people, she immediately volunteers. Anything is better than slow starvation, even a risky voyage to an alien solar system in a ship with unproven jump technology. 
The mission faces unexpected dangers, and the mettle of Janlin and her crew is tested, against each other and the strange, new species they encounter. Can Janlin overcome mistrust and betrayal to salvage the mission and restore hope to her friends and herself?

Inktober Supplies

 As Inktober gets closer, just like Nanowrimo, I start to get a bit antsy to get started. Despite my patience, I've never really liked waiting for anything. I prepare for conventions and concerts by immersing myself in the culture of the event, whether it be music, anime, writing or whatever else. I tend to give my husband his gifts for his birthday as I get them, early or not, and I don't even wait for Christmas to give gifts to everyone (okay, that's just a family thing since we kids grew up, but still). 

Today, I want to talk supplies and workspace. This is a picture of all of my supplies as well as my desk. Honestly, my desk is tiny for doing art on, so I'm hoping to bring up a second desk for my office that's about double the size before October starts, but barring that, this will be my workspace and all the supplies (aside from paper and pencils) that I'll be using throughout the month. 

For paper, I use cold press, 140 lbs/300gsm... which for those of you who don't work with watercolour is the most common watercolour paper I've found. It's a good thick sheet that will buckle (under my water use at times), but not horribly. Its made out of paper, instead of the cotton ones which are supposed to be way better, but honestly, I've never tried. Cold press means that the paper is a little textured instead of being super smooth like hot press is supposed to be. In general, I really prefer working with textured paper over smooth; even for my sketching, I use multi-media paper rather than the more usual sketching books. 

Here's the close up of my inks. I have 24 Bombay India Inks, 4 Winsor & Newton inks, 10 cheaply made Chinese inks and another 5 no name that I received with a glass pen I picked up last year. I also have a full bottle of Higgens Ink (the cheapest bottle I could find to practice with when I first bought a glass pen) and the other is Carbon Ink, one of the blackest inks out on the market. 

Here are the Bombay India Inks I was talking about. These inks are gorgeous to use, very pigmented, and permanent when dry. They are also lightfast. For those non-art folks, you know how some posters and pictures fade and lighten as they sit on your wall? That means they weren't made with lightfast supplies. So any picture I paint with these will remain vibrant for hundreds of years, rather than only a few. If you are thinking about taking part and still want colour, I can suggest these as a great supply. They are my go-to for most of my work. That said, there are 5 brown colours and 4 of them are horrible. Most pigment a physical thing inside the ink, along with a binder. This means that you shake/mix them well before use. But those four browns start tearing apart from the binder by the time you've removed the cap from your bottle. They come out as muddy and difficult to apply. They can still be used, but I suggest never using them directly from the bottle. Put a few drops onto your pallet and mix very liberally with water, remixing the pile whenever you re-dip your brush if you wish to use these colours. 

 These are my Winsor & Newton Inks. They are not as lightfast as the Bombay inks, but I bought them because they have gold and silver in this set. Also, an extra white is always a good idea. Also, they are completely waterproof if you let them completely dry... but only if you let them completely dry... otherwise, you'll still get some lift if it gets wet again later. On the other hand, gold and silver... I stand by my choice. 

 
 These two pictures are of my Chinese no-name inks. I bought both set from Wish for pennies on the dollar in both cases. That said, I almost never use them. They're difficult to open without spilling, they aren't waterproof at all, and while they are vibrant, they also have sparkles in them. Not a lot, but enough to add a very slight glimmer to dry inks as a final top layer. Offhand, I don't suggest them... I mainly picked them up as a lark, rather than a serious purchase. That said, I do like the subtle glitter effect, so they do see some use on occasion. 

The Higgens ink was some I bought upon buying my first glass dip pen. Basically, its a super cheap ink, not waterproof, even when dry, and it is a very dark grey rather than a black. I use this one for playing around with new supplies like dip pens and my glass pens rather than for any actual art. I do not use it for any actual art... I may use it for playing around if I were to start sketching with my glass pens, but that's about it. The Carbon Ink is a glorious dark black, one of the darkest out there, and is mostly waterproof when dry. I use it when I want a black that's darker than any other black I own. Plus, it's really nice to use. A silky feel on my brush as I lay it down. 

 These supplies are the unsung heroes of my work. I use a cloth for wiping down my brush, taking excess water from the brush and occasional cleaning. I try not to use paper towel when I paint, only reaching for it if I need more precision than the cloth affords.  I have two glasses of water so one can be clean water and the other dirty. I also have a tiny vial of salt in the blue container. It makes a mottled appearance in the ink when used that I love. My brushes, for the most part, are super cheap ones from Michael's (which almost never see use nowadays), as well as a few I've picked up (usually from art boxes) along the way. The two glass pens above don't see much use honestly, I'm including them here because occasionally I'll use them for lining. They won't end up seeing much use next month, but I love showing them off. 

 This is my swatch sheet for the month. You can see how vibrant the colours are and even the differences between how the black goes down. Those browns all look splotchy and bad, which is why I use them sparingly, as mentioned above. I do love the CX-11 violet and may use that more than the others in that line since I don't have a direct equivalent with the Dr. P.H. Martin's Bombay India Ink. The black paper is some black sketchbook paper I have. It isn't watercolour and seemed to dissolve under my Bombay white, mixing with it and making it a nearly invisible grey. The Winsor & Newton fared much better and I don't know why. Both whites work wonderfully on the other inks, just not on the black paper I put there to show them off. 

 As an added bonus, here's a painting I made earlier this week with the supplies above. It turned out amazing. It was made almost solely with the Bombay India Ink and the gold and silvers of the Winsor & Newton. I love how it turned out. The ability to layer the colours and their vibrancy is what makes this picture really pop. 

And that's it. What do you think about the picture? Will you be joining me in Inktober, even if it's only with a ballpoint pen? Let me know in the comments below. 

Editing Snags

I have hit a snag in editing.

It isn't a severe issue, but it does mean that I'm going to have to do nearly 6k of re-writes. I'm about halfway done that now, but it did slow me down. I could have left the part as was and honestly, I did really like the original way it was written. Still, when one of my beta readers identified a potential problem, I looked at it closely and finally decided that they were correct. The piece wasn't wrong, per se, but it just wasn't that as emotionally connected as it could be. 

*Sigh*

I feel like I'm not meeting my goals for you guys, even though I am getting things done. I'm slow at editing, but I will get there.

Anyways though, I'm going to keep this update quick. I've got things in the backdrop that I'm working on... getting out the book, working on producing more jewellery, and getting more art ready for sale, hopefully ready for the holiday season, but otherwise just a pipe dream for now. What are your yearly goals? Do you feel like you're succeeding so far? Let me know in the comments below. 

Inktober & Nanovember

Its nearly September and I am already eagerly awaiting October and November. Not because I'm in love with pumpkin spice... in fact, I am firmly on the apple cider side of this debate. Back to my apparent love of fall though. In addition to November being my favourite writing event of the year, NaNoWriMo (more on that in another post, but its basically a month-long writing event every November) I also take part in a few other yearly events. One is MerMay, where you try to try to draw mermaids every day in May. The other is Inktober, which is what I'm talking about today! 

 

Inktober, as you can probably guess, has to do with ink and the month of October. Started up by Jake Parker a few years ago, it's mainly a month-long challenge to simplify your art tools and work on your craft. As per the rule, you are supposed to try using only ink to draw with for the month. If you're an absolute purist, Jake Parker suggests using only black to do your work. Personally, I use the full rank of colours that P.H. Martins Bombay India Ink, makes (24 in all), plus another 5 to 10 in different blacks, golds, silvers, whites and even inks that sparkle. I also use a pencil to sketch in my design and much like I would never put out something without an editor looking at it, I also prefer to have some idea of what I'm drawing before I start putting down permanent lines.

Of course, it couldn't stay in its purist form forever, which is why you'll now find all sorts of creatives re-purposing Inktober for their own needs. You really need to work on your watercolour? You can use it for the month. What about pencil crayons? Go for it. There are even a few who turn it into a writing event, writing flash fiction and short stories every day. Some even work digitally all month, drawing up incredible works on their computer.

My thoughts on different forms of art being made under the Inktober name? As you've probably guessed, I'm fine with it. Last year I followed Lyfe Illustrations on Youtube (and on Instagram) and she did some of the most gorgeous artwork I've ever seen with ink and watercolour. You do you, Boo.

I would like to mention that all of the above pictures are mine, done during last years Inktober. 

So, will you be doing Inktober with me? I'll try to add my pictures each week at the bottom of my posts, but for daily art follow me on FB and Instagram and use the hashtags #Inktober and #Inktober2019 to see everyone else's art each day.

These two of the pictures are not mine. These are two of Lyfe Illustrations Inktober pictures that I was able to get from the Kickstarter campaign.

Doing the Work

Sometimes all of the well-intentioned planning in the world can't fix a novel. That is what I'm going through with the sequel to Hunter's Gambit. Before I go any further in, I want all of you to know that I'm not saying Lord's Curse is unfixable; in fact, I think I've already got a new plan for it that will make it way better. But that doesn't stop that in all of my original writing, my first edit through and then all of the plotting and planning for this edit didn't work out. And this time I got to the end part and was annoyed that I couldn't think of how to fix the problem I was seeing. I worked on just adding a single chapter, but it felt tacked on, like a badly added box in the game Forts. 

Screencap from the game Forts. Copyright belongs to Forts... I just enjoy the game.

Finally, I had to admit that simply tacking on a chapter wasn't the answer. Instead, I looked at it and decided to take the more difficult route. The entire end needed to be changed and then a new 6,000 to 8,000 words added, with 6k being removed and perhaps moved to the beginning of book 3 instead. 

I've already gotten started on the work and I've got over 1k of the rough draft part of this new 6k already finished, so it won't take me a horribly long time to finish it. The nice part is that even if this is the path that took the most work, I am 100% sure that it is the correct route to take and that makes the writing come easier, if not easily. 

Post-Convention Post!

Hello!!!! I am so glad to be back! Not that I really went anywhere, but it feels like it. Last week was magical; a term I don’t use often, let me tell you. But it really was. I’ve been going to When Words Collide for years now… if I remember correctly this was my fifth year. Year two and three, I was on panels, but I didn’t have any books out. It meant that in addition to me occasionally feeling like I was unworthy of being up there with published authors, I also had to deal with looking at people earnestly excited to meet me and read my books and not have anything to give them. So finally being able to have my book to show at the panels and being able to direct people where it was selling was wonderful.

First, let’s talk about the panels. I was on four panels, as I mentioned last week. All four went wonderfully. I felt a little unworthy and fan-girly about being on the East vs West panel, which came through in a slight inability to pronounce Japanese/Mandarin words correctly. Other than that, I feel that I did really well, showing my knowledge, talking with the other panellists and discussing the topic. We took questions and everyone left excited to have listened to us.

The two about social awareness went really well, too. I was intelligent and able to discuss my positions easily and intelligently. Being on the panel with Adam Dreece was as fun as I thought it was going to be. He may have stole the show, but he still made sure that all of us got a chance to talk, to discuss our positions and that we got to have discussions across the board. My favourite panel was actually on the bad guys though. It was a wonderful panel with a lot of energy and a great crew with me. We talked about monologuing, about the different classifications of bad guys, what we liked seeing, what we didn’t like seeing, what annoyed us and what interesting things you could do with your bad guys. It was awesome.

I got to have dinner with Laura VanArendonk Baugh and Rhonda Parrish (you’ll remember that I was part of her Giftmas last December) and a few other people. We had great conversations about everything from the food we eat, to religious beliefs, to what panels we’d been on and what we’d been doing all weekend thus far. It was wonderful and the dinner was very tasty. I really enjoyed it.

At the signing, I left Laura and Rhonda and found a seat at a table with two wonderful writers. I was fully expecting to talk to two or three people who stopped off to see the other two at my table, maybe show them my book and tell them where they could pick it up later if they wanted, and that was it. Instead, I was lucky enough to sell most of my copies and talk to a whole lot of people. I got to catch up with a few people I hadn’t gotten to see yet that year and had four people ask for my autograph. I was over the moon!

My table mates were awesome as well. Amanda Witow had some of the best swag I’ve ever seen; book lights, tote bags, bookmarks, pens… she had something for everyone. She was nice enough to give me a pen and sign one of her tote bags for me. Nicole Bross was super friendly as well and had the coolest prop I’ve ever seen; a working purple typewriter; a Remington Portable #3 from 1929! Apparently, she collects them and fixes them up, which I think is pretty darn amazing. She said she has 20-30 already, which is just an incredibly awesome thing to collect!

This is the Remington #3 in orchid that I mentioned above. Isn't it gorgeous?
Picture attributed to Nicole Bross

And that was my weekend! If I have any regrets, its that I had no extra money and wasn’t able to come home with any extra books for myself to read. It means I’ll be looking forward to next year all the more. Were any of you at WWC? Let me know how your weekend went? What panels did you go to and what books did you come home with?