Busy, busy, busy

Sorry about the delay, folks. I didn't have the time I normally do to work on my blog post this past week. I was too busy with family this weekend. Because my sister's birthday was Monday!

My sister is so magical and majestic...
Image is the cover art for a notebook by Black River Art

Anyway, Saturday Hubby and I drove down to visit her and my mom. I was also supposed to post the fifth chapter of "Prescription for Love" on Saturday, but things didn't really go as planned.... I didn't wake up early enough to post it in the morning as I originally wanted, which would have been a nice surprise for everyone, since I've been updating at about 11pm each time. When I missed my first-thing-in-the-morning posting, I figured I'd post after reaching my mom's house. However, she was throwing my sister a surprise party for her 30th, so when I got there I was recruited to help set up the party. It was a fun event, especially since I was able to surprise everyone with this!

My plates weren't put on the car yet.
It's actually a midnight blue, but it looks black here.

Presenting my new car! For the first time in my life I actually own a car that was built in the 2000's! It's a 2015 actually, so relatively new! Aaaaand it's from a dealer instead a private seller! I'm loving this thing. It's gorgeous. It's new. It's fun to drive. And Hubby and I are getting the biggest kick out of the XM radio stations.

I actually picked this baby out two weeks ago, on the 26th, and put a down payment on it. Then I officially signed the papers to buy it on the 28th. It was SOOOOOOO hard to not post about it until after I surprised my mom and sister with it.

Anyway, I surprised my mom with the car, since she thought I was borrowing from a friend, and then I was the distraction for my sister when she got home - so everyone could hide and she wouldn't notice oddities about the house - by showing off the car to her. Then the actual surprise party happened. My high school bestie was over to celebrate since she's basically another sister, and she stayed until 1am or so hanging out and chatting.

Originally, when the rest of the party died off around 10pm, I planned on hiding away to post a late update, as per usual, except I got caught up in catching up with the bestie. In the end, I didn't get a moment to update the story until Mom and Sis were at church the next morning. But at least it's available to read now!

"Prescription for Love: Chapter 5"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

On Sunday I also did laundry, and did some running around while I was visiting my hometown. Eventually, I went to the bestie's to celebrate my godson's fifth birthday!

Artwork is the cover of a greeting card

I ended up spending more time visiting the godson than expected, and by the time I got back to my mom's it was time for dinner, and my sister had a game night set up for us. So, no time to work on the blog post that night.

Monday, I slept in a touch, and then there was minor chaos trying to get all four of us ready before heading out at 11:30 for an early lunch reservation at a local hibachi grill. We had a fun time. It was the third time I've done hibachi, but a first for Mom and Hubby. Mom was probably more entertaining to watch than the chef. She's so jumpy and gets wonderfully amazed by so many things. Love her!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Right after we were done with the long lunch we headed across the street to the movie theater to watch "How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World." Again, my mom is fantastic to watch such movies with.

With the movie done, we headed back to my mom's, along with my sister's boyfriend and best friend, and the six of us played games for the rest of the day. We got in some Mario Kart, Uno - of which we had some of the longest rounds I've ever played in my life - and the new Mario Kart themed Monopoly Gamer. Around 10pm or so, everyone started to crash, so my sister's boyfriend and best friend each headed home before Sis also called it a night.

I was going to use the rest of the evening to work on the blog post, or edit the sixth chapter of PfL I wanted to post on Tuesday. Instead, my mom needed an assist on computer things. So I helped walk her through organizing old thumb drives and new photos off her memory card. Once it passed midnight, it got too late to stay up longer, so I crashed.

Tuesday morning I started working on this blog, but then Mom greeted me, we talked, Hubby woke up, we had breakfast, and then it was just about time to start packing up to head home.

We managed to get home with barely an hour to spare before my writing group meeting, and we used that hour to unpack and quickly pick up things like milk from the grocery store.

At the meeting, I read chapters 2 and 3 of "Prescription for Love" since these were actually fairly short. As per usual, most of the group sort of nodded their heads and commented about how much fun it was to hear. The only other member remotely close to my age, Skarabrae-stone, really got into my story, asking for follow-ups and the like.

Before I had read my story, Skarabrae read a bit of fanfic of her own. She has a Captain America AU series on AO3 called "And the Fall to Doom a Long Way Away" that is, as she put it, "a barely passing glance at canon." In her AU Steve "Captain America" Rogers and Peggy Carter were born in the 80s, along with other Avengers such as Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff, instead of their canonical birth years. James "Bucky" Barnes is also now "Becky Barnes" and has a potential relationship with Steve. As far as I can tell, she's still the Winter Soldier.

Anyway, the piece Ska read Tuesday night was from a WIP she hasn't posted yet for that series. I really enjoyed it. I was a bit confused, but I enjoyed it. Once I realized it was an AU that mostly resembled canon in name alone, I enjoyed the story all the more, the confusion all cleared up. I also asked for follow-up information, mostly about the changes she made for her AU, and chatted about how much I liked the changes she made. Then the two of us bantered back and forth a bit about fanfiction writing in general: keeping to canon versus changing it up for an AU - which means "Alternate Universe" by the way, for any who might not know - how the word 'incredulous' seems to consistently pop up in fanfiction, the debate between writing a fanfic AU that barely relates to canon versus just writing it as an original story, and other such 'trade trials'. During those ten minutes or so, the rest of the poor group probably felt like they were watching a friendly tennis match as we lobbed comments back and forth to each other.

Eventually, we passed the floor over to Jack Nanuq, who read a sample of his sequel to "Parabellum." We discussed that for a little bit, and joked about his "taking a break" after publishing "Parabellum" since he's "only" about three chapters into the sequel.

By the way, quick side tangent as I remind everyone that "Parabellum" is now available as both an e-book and a paperback. Seriously, folks. This story is really intriguing, and it's so much fun to learn Nana's backstory while Carson deals with hitmen and military refugees.

One more time, here's the link: "Parabellum: When you live in peace, prepare for war"

Now back to the Tuesday night writing group meeting. After I read my bits from PfL, Ska and I kind of went back and forth again, as I mentioned above. I also had some insight chipped in from two more members of the group, but I've been reading Miraculous Ladybug stuff for so long they at least have a semi-basic feel for the fandom by now. Whereas, only one other member knew who Captain America really was, and it was largely due to the Marvel movies. My point being, it was nice to hear someone else's fanfiction writing, and for someone to be a bit more engaged in mine; knowing the wonderful pains of writing fanfiction herself.

After the meeting broke, I went straight home, where Wolfhearted was still visiting with Hubby. Originally, his plan was to have some "guy time" with Hubby while I was at my meeting, and then watch ML with me once I got home. However, almost as soon as I greeted him, he said goodbye to me. He claimed he was super busy, and sadly couldn't stick around any later, but then Hubby started up the latest episode of the SYFY channel series Deadly Class. Wolfhearted caught some of the opening, loved the concept of a secret academy to train assassins, and was hooked. He sank back onto our loveseat, and stuck around for an extra hour to watch the episode with us.

So much for "no time to watch Ladybug"... oh well... I guess I'm waiting until tomorrow for us to watch the latest episode together....

Wolfhearted ended up not leaving until around 9:30 Tuesday night. At that point, I thought Hubby and I had a show to watch at 10pm, and I didn't believe a half-hour before our show would be enough time to really get my writing done. I suggested instead that we spend that thirty minute block watching the latest episode of the DuckTales reboot, which had aired on Saturday. Might as well get one of our other shows out of the way, right?

Well, at 10pm, we ended up not having our normal show. I had forgotten that this past Tuesday night a sort of "adult content" version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" had a special on, and the show we normally watched would have its finale NEXT Tuesday.

Whoops. Guess I did have time to work on writing, huh?

Worse yet, instead of shrugging off the lost time and knuckling down to work on my story or blog post, I got suckered into a news promo teasing about an American football player trade. Hubby and I hopped over to ESPN, and I spent a good half-hour or so watching the news reports about the trade.

I might be a bit too invested in this sport sometimes....

Content that I learned all I was going to, and realizing how late it was in the day, I popped in my headphones, and FINALLY focused on editing and posting the latest chapter of PfL. Unfortunately, by the time I was done with edits and had formatted for posting, it was about 12:30am. It was Wednesday morning. Once again, I was a day late on my posting schedule.

I'm so glad my readers are patient.

Speaking of, if you wanted to check out the latest chapter and haven't yet, you can find chapter six at the normal three sites.

"Prescription for Love: Chapter 6"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

And also speaking of readers, have I ever mentioned how amazing mine are? I almost always get such lovely and excited reviews, and this silly little story is no exception. I even got Taurus Pixie a little riled up, in a playful sense, by not being 100% accurate in describing a British royal wedding.

I was trying to, Pixie! I did my research! It just didn't match up with the facts the show gave us, and all of the royals were already married off by the time the show aired!


Nah, I'm just teasing. I did legitimately try to be as close to 100% accurate as possible, but I knew Pixie's critiques were all in good fun. I enjoyed seeing them.


To be honest, it WAS difficult to figure out how to handle the wedding. In then end, I sort of went with "this is an alternate Earth where superheroes are real thanks to magical jewelry, so maybe it's a different set of British Royalty." I mean, it happens all the time for the United States. We always get some fictitious president instead of using the actual president at the time, unless said Real World president is important to the overall plot.

So, in the end, I picked Westminster Abbey since Prince William and Catherine were married there. I also took a few elements - such as a garden party reception - from Prince Harry and Meghan's wedding. Then I observed some of the more formal garb worn at such weddings as Prince Harry's, Prince William's, and both of Prince Charles', in order to get a feel for what Adrien, Gabriel, Kagami, and her mother should all wear. Finally, I researched the vows Prince William and Prince Harry each used for their weddings, added my own take via a generic "unique wedding vows" search, and threw in the Archbishop of Canterbury, since he seemed to officiate royal weddings.

In the end, I'm glad Pixie enjoyed my sort of unofficial AU of the Royal Wedding. Plus, it was fun seeing her get worked up about the details.

Again. I have amazing readers.

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Along with Pixie, I've also had routine reviews by two people: ChubbyUnicornMama on FFN and siriuslyrandom8 on AO3. These two have commented on every chapter of PfL, and it always makes me smile to see their names in my mailbox.

This weekend though, I had a sort of out-of-body experience. I had to stare at a name over on AO3 for quite some time to fully register it. One of my reviewers for the third and sixth chapters of PfL was Yunyin!

A little context. See, once upon a time, before I caved and re-joined Tumblr, I would just Google Image fanart for ML. It was when the second season started posting online. I would watch an episode, want to look for ML content about said episode, and would just search via Google. More often than not, I'd find pictures on Pinterest. One of two main artists I found, who created content I consistently enjoyed, was Yunyin. The other was the amazing EdenDaphne.

Anyway, after roughly four months of following Pinterest finds back to the original Tumblr posts - along with a lot of poking from ChibiSunnie - I eventually caved and re-joined Tumblr. Along with Chibi and a couple other IRL friends, Eden and Yunyin were among the first people I followed.

I just love her artwork and the fancomics she creates. I've adored her content for at least a year, and I don't recall her ever finding my content previously.

I'm not sure if she just stumbled upon my story on AO3, if she was specifically looking for content about the episode Backwarder - mine is one of 13 stories on AO3 based on that episode - if someone suggested the story to her, or if she saw one of my Tumblr posts promoting it. Regardless of how she found it, she did, and seems to enjoy it.

Yunyin (about chpt 3): Aaaaaw. Luka's Marinette song! And Adrien likes it!
I also like him worrying about Ladybug being alone. It adds a nice touch!

Yunyin (about chpt 6): I think the scene with the stars was nice! I could just see Adrien spinning to take them all in.

I'm still trying to get over the fact that someone I've followed for so long is reading MY content!

Readers, I love you all! You are my life-blood! Between someone I've followed reading my stuff, consistent readers letting me know their thoughts, and Pixie engaging so much in my story....

This was supposed to be a stupid little story, and it's getting such love! You guys rock!

Natsuo Maki from Love Lab
Manga by Ruri Miyahara

Now to buckle down and finish editing the next chapter - which was originally going to be the last one, but I think I now have two more to follow - so it is ready for Friday. MAAAAAYBE I can get it posted before 11pm this time. I can at least have it posted on the day it's supposed to be.... right?

As for "One and the Same"? Clearly, it's not posting this month like I teased forever ago. However, I'm all signed up for Camp NaNo, and have OatS as my goal project again. I only got about 12,000 words in during NaNoWriMo, but I'm hoping to actually finish my project in April. We'll see how that goes.

Feel free to join me, or follow my progress.

But, for now, I really need to end this post so I can get to working on my fanfiction. It's no wonder I didn't have the time to finish this up yesterday... Darn lack of free time!

I'll catch everyone at my normal noon update on Tuesday!

Farewell, Geodude

It's been a weird week. I felt like I barely did anything, but I also felt exhausted from everything I did....

I slacked off this week and didn't really write anything down in my daily planner, where I audit my time to make sure I'm not slacking off. Yes. I know the irony....

Did I meme correctly?
Characters from the anime Ouran High School Host Club

As I've mentioned many times in the past, for whatever reason Irony just LOVES to hang out with me... go figure.

Meh. Could be worse. Could be this....

Technically, it's more my coworker's daughter that drama loves...
The worst part is neither of those poor women ever start it.
Characters from the anime Fairy Tail

Anyway, enough of me showing off how bad I am at meme-ing....

My point is that I don't really know WHAT happened this week, because, like I said, I feel like I did a lot and yet nothing at the same time.

Well, to start, I cleaned my apartment a bit, ran around to do my normal errands, and did both days of Zumba, which is something I don't think I've done since before Christmas. Boy did my legs remind me of that. I also wrote more of my one-shot inspired by the "Miraculous Ladybug" episode Backwarder, while somehow simultaneously not finishing it due to procrastination.

Friday and Saturday the store was SLAMMED, so I didn't have any time to write while at work. Friday I had Wolfhearted over to watch Backwarder and Stormy Weather 2, and we also briefly discussed characters for a campaign he wants to run in the near future. No post-work writing there. Then, Saturday, I was NOT feeling well. I hid in my room after work. Originally it was because my lower back had been throbbing all day and I wanted to lie down. However, as the day progressed, my stomach started to act up, so my lie down to write after work turned into lie down and watch hours worth of YouTube videos because I couldn't find the energy to write.

In truth, I should have spent the time at least reading more of "Armada" since I only finished up the first act of the story yesterday afternoon. I still have about 300 pages to read! I don't think I'm finishing by the end of the month.....

Ernest Cline, based only on the first act of the book, definitely did not have lightning strike twice. The book is entertaining, but doesn't seem to be as gripping and page-turning as "Ready Player One" was. I guess I'm more into 80s nostalgia with a side of gaming than I am into alien invasion First Person Shooter gaming with a side of 80s and early 90s nostalgia. We'll see if the story picks up steam now that I'm in the main bulk of the tale...

But back to my own writing.

Sunday I was able to do some editing and add in a few more paragraphs, but I was still nursing my back and stomach, while also prepping myself to go see "How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World."

We had a whole crew of us hitting up the local theater: six in all.

The movie was gorgeous to watch, and while there are some tweaks I would have done with the story, all-in-all, it was the perfect close to the franchise. It also gave the six of us a nice running gag for the next few weeks at least:

"CRY INTO MY MANLY BEARD!"

It was such an enjoyable movie, and one we were so excited to watch, that not only didn't I neglect to do more writing after Hubby and I got home, but I also neglected to watch The Oscars as well.... I think this is the first one I've missed since I started learning about video production in college.

Again, Irony seems to really love me... PAINFULLY so....
Characters from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist

Best part is, if missing the Oscars because I was watching a movie wasn't enough, I also spent the couple of hours between work and the movie with Omnibladestrike in order to - get this - help him write his story! Yup. I didn't work on my writing because I was helping someone else with their own.

Whoops!


Meh, it was worth it though. Omni was in a funk for a while, and decided to just start his whole novel from scratch to try to build a better foundation. Especially since the novel he's been working on for the past few years is actually the precursor to the original novel he wanted to tell. So he has to make sure he's happy with the groundwork he's laying with this tale.

I want to encourage that, and help it grow.

Awww, just look how nurturing Magi is. The way she directs Crysta's hand and then just proudly watches as Crysta rebuilds from the crumpled remains of the former tree?

Last one of these memes, I swear
Characters from the movie FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Okay, I was probably stroking my own ego a bit there with this comparison, but you get the idea....

Alright, so that was my weekend, but what about before that? Or after it?

Well... I did write a LITTLE at work on Thursday, but then my brain died on me, so Thursday night was spent editing, a little extra writing, and screen captures so I could design cover art for my story. A task I never actually completed.... I then researched potential name ideas to see if I had a unique one to use.



Okay, so the title I'm going with is fine. No hits on either AO3 or FFN. However, the first title I was going to go with? "For You"? Yeah... there's like 30 fanfics in the Miraculous fandom alone that has that title....

And this is why I check.

Wednesday though! Wednesday I wrote while doing laundry. I was then going to write some more while waiting for my car to be inspected and get an oil change. I was doing well.

And then I wasn't.

Turns out that, while I knew the problem with my high beams, and had a creative way to work around it, I had more issues with my car than I thought. For one, even with my MacGyvering, the high beams not properly working is enough to not pass inspection. Two: my back-up lights weren't working either. The biggen, though, is that my axles were all rusting through. The mechanic even warned me that I'm "one good pothole away from losing a tire."

YAY!


So, while the car is still driveable, there is no hope of it passing inspection, which expires on March 1st. Which means, it's time to say goodbye to another car.

Farewell, Geodude, you served me decently for three years.

It is actually MUCH smaller than it probably looks in this picture.
I also love that every car I've owned has that pin-stripe along the sides.

Rozsavaria got me that sticker to turn my Geo Metro into a GEODUDE Metro.

Fainted Geodude from Pokemon
Basically my car as of March....

So the rest of Wednesday consisted of searching the internet for cars I can buy for no more than $2000, calming my mother and sister down, Zumba, "The Masked Singer" tv show, and more online car searching. Noooooot really much time to write.

Which also means that, yes, the rest of the week did have me periodically checking out cars online in my downtime as well. Today is my first day off since I found out about my Geodude, so it's being largely spent checking out cars. Hopefully I can find one before tonight's writer's group meeting so I don't have to miss YET. ANOTHER. ONE.

If I can't find a car today, Friday is my next chance. Thankfully, Hubby's one friend offered us a loaner car, should we strike out today.

......

Soooooo, uh.... yeah.

There you have it.

My week largely consisted of me procrastinating, nursing myself back to health - which I'm still kinda, sorta doing - and looking for a new car.

Whooo!

I DID manage to do three things yesterday though.

One: Realize the story I've been working on could be a chaptered novelette. I was originally using line breaks to jump from Adrien's POV to Kagami's and back. However, each scene is at least 1000 words long, so why not make short chapters instead?

Two: Managed to finish up my first 2000+ word section - now chapter - of the story, as well as start up the penultimate chapter.

Three: Post the first chapter online, and set it up that I'll post the second one Thursday evening. I figured, an "every 3 days" schedule will be fairly fast of a turn-around, but still afford me enough time to finish the story and polish it while still dealing with the mess my life fell into this week.

Unlike my other stories, my newest one is basically embedded within an episode of Miraculous Ladybug. It is very spoilerific for the episode, so if you haven't watched Backwarder and don't want spoilers, I'd skip over this story.

Otherwise, you probably don't really NEED to know more about the show than what I talk about in this blog, so feel free to check it out, even if you don't watch the show. Each chapter should be between 1000 and 1600 words, except for the fifth one, which will be pushing closer to 2500 words. Still, super short considering my normal chapters, right?

Without further ado, I present you with:

"Prescription for Love"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

SUMMARY:
This was not the weekend away Kagami was expecting, but then again, what was written on Marinette's letter wasn't what Adrien as expecting either. As Kagami tries to understand Adrien's confusion, and find time to try to woo him from Marinette, Adrien is busy trying to understand Marinette's train-side send-off, and finding a pharmacy.

I posted "Prescription for Love" - a story that was timely two weeks ago... - at 8:30 last night, and already had one review, 3 follows/bookmarks, 14 faves/kudos, and 198 hits by the time I went to bed at 11:30. I didn't even remember to promote the story! Short and sweet, and dealing with one of the most talked about episodes still, was a good way to go apparently. We'll see how people feel about that once I get to Kagami's side of the story....

It's going to be hard for me to wait until Thursday to post the next part.

I also don't know what to read at group tonight. Do I continue with reading "Woven Heartstrings" even though that story is long done, Christmas is far enough past that my tree is actually down, and they haven't heard more than the first chapter in months? Do I start them on "Prescription for Love" even though I need to basically explain the whole subplot of Backwarder before starting? Or do I go back to reading bits of "One and the Same"?

I guess I could offer all three up for them to decide? This is the only real problem with quickly turning out smaller works. And having meetings continuously cancelled due to snow...

Anyway, I have until I go to bed on Thursday to accomplish two of three things:

1. Find myself a new car
2. Complete PfL so I can hit my goal, even if the whole thing isn't POSTED by the close of the month.
3. Use one of two new plot bunny ideas to write a legit SHORT, SHOOOOOORT, SNIIIIIIIPPET of a story so a completed new story is fully posted online by the end of the month.

Preferably, I'd like the new car to be one of the two things I accomplish....

One final note before I go car hunting. My writing group co-member has done his soft-launches the past month or so, but this Saturday, March 2nd, is his official book launch for "Parabellum."

Summary:
How does a POW become a spy? And why? And what the hell is a GALCO? These are only a few of the questions Carson Nowak needs answers to. Carson Nowak is a CIA contractor like none you’ve ever met before. Carson is tasked with retrieving a trunk full of documents. The order comes not from the Agency or even the President, but a higher authority: his nana. In addition to the documents, the trunk also contains a war relic tied to a mysterious death just before D-Day. Tracing the provenance of this relic triggers a chain of events that not only unlocks Carson’s family history but garners the interest of a South American hit squad. Carson must navigate the challenges of protecting his family, maintaining his business, ensuring the safety of a young refugee developing a revolutionary weapons system, and deal with an infuriating curmudgeon. Along the way he falls in love. To navigate these challenges, he enlists the help of a pencil-thin code breaker, a claustrophobic corpsman and a Haitian nurse.

PARABELLUM, the novel, is spy/mystery/thriller novel set in Upstate NY, with flashbacks to both World War I and World War II.
PARABELLUM, the word, is a Latin term which loosely translates to “When you live in peace, Prepare for war”.
The writing style is a mash-up of C.J. Box meets Daniel Silva, meets John le Carre.

You can find the novel in both paperback and ebook on Amazon. I already shared the link just above the picture, but here's another one just to be sure you see it.

If you're into modern-historical - as in, the summer of 2001 - stories, and/or spy thriller novels, then go check this one out. If you personally don't want to shell out the few bucks, then ask your library to order a copy that you could then borrow. Let's get the word out there!

Man, between "Parabellum" and "Leather and Lies," my friends will convert me to a spy-thriller reader in no time.

Seems only fair, considering how many I'm converting to fanfiction enthusiasts....

Speaking of which, there will be no fanfic to be enthused about if I don't find a car with enough time left for me to write! So I better get going.

How's 2019 Treating Me?

I've actually been doing pretty well with my writing this week. That's gotta be a first, right?

While it kept me a few more days than I would have liked, I did manage to get the latest chapter of "Woven Heartstrings" up on Sunday, just in time for the Epiphany, otherwise known as Little Christmas. You can check out the chapter at my normal three sites:

"Chapter 4: The Proposition"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

Oh, and a real quick side note about DeviantArt that amused me. It was only last week that I commented about how my poor chapter 8 of “Peeping Tomcat” - Guilt - was the only chapter on DA that didn't have at least ONE fave. I lamented that it was clearly the weakest chapter, since not a single person favorited it in nearly 8 months.

Well, yesterday I saw this notification on my DA account:

Image cropped down so the notifications can be seen with the date/time on my taskbar

It did it! My poor neglected chapter finally won someone over! Yay! Apparently AndreaDragonheart wasn't impressed with chapter 7 though.....

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Meh, I'll take the wins where I can get them.

Back to the main part of this week though. Namely, the fact that, while I wasn't able to post as soon or as frequently as I would have liked, I actually DID do fairly decent with writing progress this week.

Check out all of those faces! It's fun to draw them. ^_^
I decided to do "meh" faces for progress that doesn't include narrative writing.

Look at them all! I've only slacked off on three days, and I managed to keep up with my resolution to WRITE - actually get narrative out of my head - at least four days a week. If I make it more broad to include any sort of writing progress at least four days a week, then I'm way ahead of the game. Whoo!

I also started jotting down exactly WHAT it was that I worked on/wrote on those days to help me better know how I'm spending my writing time.

Yeah, excuse the handwriting. It's bad to begin with, but I jot quickly (read: scribble) in my planner.

I had fallen off the wagon for a few months with regards to auditing my time, a practice I desperately needed to get back into since it does make me feel more accountable. I still have far too much time used by video games and Tumblr, but I now SEE that's the case, instead of those gut instincts about it. So I can start weening myself down to more productive levels on those fronts.

I also need to work harder on auditing my after-work hours, since that's where most of the time-suck comes from. It's easy to stay on top of things at work since I can just have my calendar right there, but at home, when I move around more often, and my planner usually stays forgotten in my work bag? Well....

I always seem to die off with this task when the weekend comes along...

Part of my workday mornings consist of me trying to remember what I did the night before so I can jot it down. I also wish these things started at 8 instead of 7 so I didn't feel like such a slacker, and that they kept going until midnight so I didn't have to try to squeeze it in within the margin....

Maybe I'll make my own planner layout to keep in a 3-ring binder or something once this planner runs out in June. That way I'm not wasting the next few months left in this planner by buying a new 2019 one while they're still out. It also saves me from the crazy running around I did last July trying to find an hourly break-down planner. They just don't really have these anymore, at least, they don't really have them mid-year.... Finally, if I made up a planner myself I could have the hours broken down the way I need them to be. I mean, I'm productive at work and all, but for the most part I don't need to know what I did for the 8hrs I'm at work. I need to know what I do with my time while I'm home.

There's a lot to take into consideration over the next few months.

Another benefit of me making my own planner is that I could have my monthly overview - where I put my faces - broken down like the NaNo calendars that Dave Seah creates each year. That way I can also keep track of my writing productivity by way of words written.

I could then, if I am ever bored/intrigued enough, analyze my writing three different ways: how frequently per week/what days I write, how many hours/when in the day I write, and how many words I write per day/week.

I'm getting more and more excited by this idea as I'm writing it all down for you guys. Anyone know of a planner-design program I can use? Or am I going to have to stumble my way through Excel and/or Photoshop?

Anyway, that's a project for Future Me. Present Me is busy finishing up this post.


Present Me is also trying to finish up the next chapter of "Woven Heartstrings."

I was able to get most of my brainstorming done on Sunday. Unlike the first four chapters, where I had a loose idea as to where the story needs to go, but I largely let the characters lead me around, for the final chapters of this story I actually wrote down what I want to do. I actually have a fairly detailed breakdown of the upcoming chapter, as well as skeleton plots for the next chapters as well.

I'm getting really into the nitty-gritty of the chapters now. For instance, I now know that, as long as the characters behave themselves and I don't have to split up chapters, "Woven Heartstrings" will definitely have seven chapters and an epilogue. I also know whose point of view I'll be using for each chapter, since I've been using 3rd-person limited for this narration. My concern with figuring out how to display what has been going on "off-screen" was also figured out. Finally, thanks to the help of Shadow - who is getting ANOTHER name change to Wolfhearted - I have the perfect gift from Adrien to Marinette. I'm excited to have that glorious exchange!

I was able to get nearly 1400 words written yesterday, and my chapters seem to be ranging between 3100 and 3500 per chapter, so I'm a decent chunk into the chapter. I was hoping to FINALLY fall into the rhythm of a 3-day posting schedule - day 1: brainstorm, day 2: write, day 3: edit and post - but it looks like I'm stretching this out to 4 days still, assuming I make the time today to finish the chapter. With any sort of discipline, and luck that life doesn't throw me a curveball, I should have it posted late Wednesday... maybe early Thursday since Wednesdays are pretty packed lately. So keep an eye out for that.

I MAAAAAAAAY even have both chapters 5 and 6 done and published in time for my blog update next week, so that could be fun; sharing both chapters with you at once.

Now, all of this is rotating around my first New Year's Resolution. Let's take a few minutes to break down all five of them, as I have in the past, to see my goal(s) for 2019.

First, since I didn't have the time to do so in December, let's recap how well 2018 worked for me.

Resolution #1: No More Than Three (3) Zero Days In Any Given Week
I was doing so good with this at first, but it ended up falling to the wayside. Every now and again I'd be able to get back on track, but it wasn't very sustainable for me the way I had my life organized last year. The most ironic part - because Irony is my stalker, apparently - is that I think I failed with this resolution the hardest in November, during NaNoWriMo.

Resolution #2: Complete My Personal Reading Challenge
Last year I decided that, while I enjoyed doing the challenges I found online, I was also either missing out on books I wanted to read, or was forcing myself to read more than the 12 books challenged. While the latter seems ideal, the whole point of the challenges was to get me to read AT LEAST 12 books in the first place, forcing myself to read MORE than that was becoming stressful. My alternative was to create my own 12-story-long reading list I was challenging myself to complete. And complete it I did!

I'm going to have to change the Blue/Yellow color scheme for this year
It was too difficult to read everything, in my opinion....

Never did get around to reading "Atlas Shrugged" though....

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week
Weeeeeeell... I was doing well with this, but then Ali Luke decided it just wasn't something she could keep up with anymore. Her writing priorities changed, so we were shifted to a Facebook group instead. We still chat and have the camaraderie, but not to the same level of frequency. I have started posting a TOOOOOOUCH more frequently in my personal writing group. I should add that to my resolutions this year....

Resolution #4: Complete My Four Main WIPs
Whoo boy.... Well... um.... I got one out of four done....

For those who don't know what my main four were, they were "Peeping Tomcat", "One and the Same", a rework of a battle between Devon and Trish, and a fan novelization of the Cirque Du Soleil show Varekai. Clearly I only managed one out of those four. I couldn't quite write fast enough to pump out one per season like I wanted. Still.... one is better than none, especially when it became a larger project than I gave it credit. I'm also about a fifth of the way through OatS, so.... meh?

Resolution #5: Post Some Completed Work At Least Once A Month
I was doing so well with this! Between one-shots on FFN, AO3, and DA, and my shorts on Tumblr, I actually was posting something new - aside from PT chapters - each month! I fell off the horse in October, and couldn't get back on. Still, 9/12 isn't terrible.


I know it wasn't part of my resolutions, but I'm glad I was also able to keep up with my posting schedule for this blog. Sure, a lot of posts were published after my normal noon update, and there were times where I posted a day or two late, but I made sure to have SOMETHING posted nearly every week. I just tripped at the finish line with the craziness of Christmas falling on my normal update day.

All-in-all, while not quite as productive as I would have liked, 2018 was still a much more productive writing year for me than years past. Sadly, that was pretty much the only good thing about 2018, but I'll take it. Like I said at the top of this post: take any win when I can.

What is my outlook on 2019? Even bigger and better, and a much more professional/disciplined writing year. You saw last week what my resolutions were, but let's get a bit more in-depth this go.

Resolution #1: Try yet again to write at least 4 out of 7 days of the week

As I mentioned last year, this will be my number one resolution every year until it becomes second nature to me. I've been doing fairly decently so far, but the trick is maintaining this schedule, especially when things start to pick up at work, since most of my writing is done there. The other trick is getting back on the horse after it bucks me off.

Resolution #2: Finish and post my fanfic sequel "One and the Same"

This is going to be my priority after I'm done writing "Woven Heartstrings." Yes, the Christmas-themed story is great practice, and a nice break from OatS, but it is also putting me so far behind. I had the whole first draft of "Peeping Tomcat" done last January, and all I needed to do was edit it. It still kept me until the last weekend of March to have it ready to post. I'm even further behind on OatS, and I had originally wanted to start posting chapters in September! As it is, I won't be ready until April, so I need to step up my game with this.   

Resolution #3: Post at least one new completed story per month

Yup, same as last year. A "completed" story will be anything from microfics/drabbles on Tumblr, to one-shots on AO3/FFN/DA, to smaller multi-chapter fics like "Woven Heartstrings" posting the final chapter. For the last option, I'm also aiming for these multi-chapter fics to be started and completed within the same month. So, as long as I get WH done by January 24th, I'll count it.

Resolution #4: Win NaNoWriMo again this November

Thinking ahead a bit with this one. It felt so great to win NaNo two years in a row, and then I just flopped when I tried writing OatS this past November. I don't like that feeling, and I don't want it to hold me back, so I'm aiming to train myself enough throughout the rest of 2019 that I can win NaNoWriMo. Maybe even win easily, depending on the routine and habits I can form by then.

Resolution #5: Continue my weekly blog post routine

It seems weird that this one is back as a resolution since I've done so well the past two years. However, I'm going to be doing a lot of reworking of my schedule this year in order to try to best set myself for success for the other four resolutions. In all of this shuffling, I fear I might become neglectful of this blog and when it gets posted. Heck, I'm late even today! So I want to make sure it stays a priority.

You guys may have noticed that I don't have a reading challenge included this year. Well, fear not, I am still planning on reading just as much as I have in the past, even if I've kind of slacked off these first two weeks. I just don't have an official challenge figured out yet.

Hubby got me "Armada" by Ernest Cline this Christmas, so that's going to be my January book, and Rick Riordan will have another Trials of Apollo book out this spring, so that's going to be in there too. Another must-read is the book "PARABELLUM: When You Live in Peace, Prepare for War" by a fellow local writing group member Jack Nanuq; whom I have previously called Carson, based on the name of his main character.

Let me pause for a moment to properly promote this book:

How does a POW become a spy? And why? And what the hell is a GALCO? These are only a few of the questions Carson Nowak needs answers to. CARSON NOWAK is a CIA contractor like none you’ve ever met before. Carson is tasked with retrieving a trunk full of documents. The order comes not from the Agency or even the President, but a higher authority; his nana. In addition to the documents the trunk also contains a war relic tied to a mysterious death just before D-Day. Tracing the provenance of this relic triggers a chain of events that not only unlocks Carson’s family history but garners the interest of a South American hit squad. Carson must navigate the challenges of protecting his family, maintaining his business, ensuring the safety of a young refugee developing a revolutionary weapons system, and deal with an infuriating curmudgeon. Along the way he falls in love. To navigate these challenges, he enlists the help of a pencil-thin code breaker, a claustrophobic corpsman and a Haitian nurse. PARABELLUM, the novel, is spy/mystery/thriller novel set in Upstate NY, with flashbacks to both World War I and World War II. PARABELLUM, the word, is a Latin term which loosely translates to “When you live in peace, Prepare for war”.The writing style is a mash-up of C.J. Box meets Daniel Silva, meets John le Carre.

While I have heard this story read to me over the past year-plus that Jack has been with the writing group, I haven't had the pleasure of sitting down with this book to read it cover-to-cover without weeks-long interruptions between chapters. I also haven't seen how he's altered things after our feedback. There has also been times where I'd miss chapters because I had to miss a meeting. So I'm excited to get my hands on this book. You can purchase it as either an ebook or a paperback - or both - on Amazon.

If you're into spy thrillers, and historical fiction, this is a fantastic book to check out. Just trust me when I say you'll want to make sure you have a package of Fig Newton snacks nearby while you read.

Now, going back to my reading challenge.

I have three professional stories to read already on this list. I also still have to work my way up to reading "Atlas Shrugged" at some point, which gives me four. There's also multiple novel-length fanfics I want to read, mostly written by Taurus Pixie, but I have others that were suggested to me.

On top of ALL of that, both Omnibladestrike and Rozsavaria have suggested a long list of dragon-themed stories. I even joked that 2019 would be the Year of the Dragon; focusing most of my reading to these dragon stories.

Once I have all of this better organized into an actual list, and once I have the time to redo my challenge list format so it's easier to read, I'll be sure to post it here. For accountability sake if nothing else.

Okay, I'm now pushing an hour late on publishing this week's post, so just one more thing before I have to jet.

After a bit of a slump, Cyhyr has gotten back into writing, and has been working on daily challenges for this week. So, why not give her some encouragement and some love to help her along. Her focus right now - as it is for me - is her main fandom. She's really into Final Fantasy XV, but even though I'm not in that fandom, I'm greatly enjoying her stuff. So, seriously, guys, give her some love. She deserves it.

Alright, now I REALLY need to kick my butt in gear if I'm going to get a chapter up in the near future. Until next week!