Off Week; Send Help

This has been an off week. Every spare minute outside of work was either occupied, or I was too burnt out to really think creatively. At my job, I was either hopping with actual work, or I again felt burnt out so I instead focused on my various mobile games or Duolingo practices.

To give you a feel for my week, we'll start with the fact that I wrote last week's blog post Monday evening so I could sleep in and spend all of Tuesday morning with Hubby for our anniversary. The problem with that plan, however, was that I completely forgot to go back online and promote my blog! Whoops! So... uh, thank you to the 11 people who still checked in on it and read last week's post.

Another quick reminder that I have links to the right for an RSS feed - if anyone uses that anymore - as well as email alerts for when a new post is up. They're great resources for situations like last week because a robot automatically sends out the alerts once the latest post is live. You don't have to suffer to my human error.

Anyway, my point is Hubby and my anniversary was the start of a long week of minimum online presence. This lead me to almost exclusively play Social Media Catch-up whenever I had a few spare moments to hop online. I ended up completely missing the release party Celeste Straub threw on Facebook for her debut novel “Leather and Lies.” What's worse is that she kept the party going until 9pm Sunday night so people like me could still hop on, read the author take-overs, and participate in the other prize draws. And yet I STILL didn't find time to participate. Whoops again.

As I stated, Tuesday was all about Hubby, and our anniversary. Wednesday was the start of a long work week for me, followed by Zumba. After I was done with Zumba I showered and then rushed back out the door to do laundry before the laundromat closed. I actually double-teamed laundry and zipping over to the grocery store while the clothes were in the drier. It was a long and tiring day.

Earlier in the week, Shadow had messaged me to see if he could “commission” me to help him with a D&D campaign and world build he had in his head for years now. I agreed to meet up with him on Thursday, completely forgetting that we would be hitting up Quarthix and Panda's for football. Hubby had to work late Thursday, so we ended up just watching football in the background of our own home so Shadow could still swing by.

Well, turns out Shadow wasn't joking at all! He tossed me $20 for sitting with him for a few hours Thursday night and try to organize his excited ramblings of his world. It... was a task... because by the time I wrote up what he said five minutes ago he was already onto the next topic. We were kind of jumping all over the place, but it was fun to listen to him go on and on. I'm amazed by people who world build so easily.

“But he had years for it to stew” I hear you say... yeah.... I've also had years allowing Gyateara and the world of Glitches to stew... still... I'm so lost!

Anyway, Shadow ended up heading home around 11:30 Thursday evening, so that was a long – but fun – night of helping someone else with their creative. Not much of my own worked on though.

Friday I had every intention to work on my own creative. Or I was going to clean. Or I was FINALLY going to read. Instead, I was so burnt out I just curled up in bed with my laptop and played catch-up with Facebook, Tumblr, and some recently updated fanfics. So.... I did get some reading in, just not what I intended.

Anyway, one of the fanfics I read was a cute one-shot by Jowy's Pixie.

Secret Shipper

Marinette finds herself drawn into the terrifying shipping world of LadyNoir when she stumbles across a particular type of fictional story she really wasn't supposed to, written by none other than her best friend Alya Césaire.

Another was the first chapter of a fanfic one of the women I follow on Tumblr wrote. This is the first time Buggachat is attempting to write a multi-chaptered story, and I know the bittersweet pain of taking such a task on, so please give her some love.

Curiosity Wrote a Comic

Marinette is entrusted with the opportunity to beta read Marc and Nathaniel's Ladybug comics, and she couldn't be happier. What's more fun than consuming content inspired by you?

That is, until the comics take a turn she had never expected. Now she finds herself faced with truths and possibilities she had never considered before, and it may just take a certain blond-haired boy or two to calm her fears.

...

Basically, Marinette reads some angsty fanfiction about herself and doesn't handle it too well.

Lastly, there was a bitterly painful but still wonderfully beautiful one-shot by Megatraven. It's super short at just over 300 words. It's also a bit unique because it's inspired by a tumblr ask as a writing prompt.

A Little Longer

“I can still hear the screams… they’re so loud.”
- requested by my-name-is-tom-dupain on tumblr

It's a Post-Defeating Hawk Moth story that hits right in the heart. I'm still amazed how people can relay over so much emotion and such a complete story in less than 500 words. Then again, Meg has 89 friggen stories written for Miraculous Ladybug alone, so clearly they have a gift for writing short stories, and with a quick turn-out no less. In other words, they have had the time and practice to perfect this craft. I still have no clue how they do it though and will always be in awe.

Anyway, I should have spent the time writing, but I just needed a recharge night on Friday, so reading fanfics it was.

SATURDAY! Saturday could be my “be productive” day! Hubby was going to be out all day again while having a game day with friends. I was going to have a “day off” the next day. It would be a great way to end my exhausting work week.

Yeah... no... Saturday I was in a bad spot. I was so burnt out with everything else that I was teetering on “I'm going to start balling and I don't know why” pretty much all day. My left eye twitch was back. I needed a second recoup day. So I gave myself a spa treatment. Long shower. Lather up with lotion. Do my nails. Soak my feet. Try to find things like “A Little Longer” to read to try to push me over the edge, and when that didn't work, I tried watching humorous videos on YouTube to try to pull me back the other way. Still quite melancholy and again snuggled in my bed when Hubby got home, I gave up on trying to be productive.

Sunday Hubby's one friend was getting married. So the morning was filled with the two of us tag-teaming the bathroom in an attempt to get ready, and then I ironed while Hubby made us brunch. We got a bit lost trying to find the place, but managed to get there with about 15min to spare. We then walked an awkward tightrope for the next few hours. Hubby works with the groom and has had game nights with him. During said game nights, we've met the bride, but we weren't exactly “friends” with her. We didn't know her enough. Same with the groom's friends we were at a table with. We've hung out once or twice with them during the bigger, more involved game nights – such as on the groom's birthday – and we like them well enough to have a fun evening. At the same time though, we were clearly outsiders... so.... it was an interesting day. We got home just in time for the evening football game, but we both wanted to veg, so I snuggled my husband, watched football, and ignored the fact that I didn't write all week.

Yesterday was my last hope. Two weeks ago at writing group the few members there requested I bring in something where Adrien is Chat Noir so they can see the personality shift. Sadly, he's uncharacteristically Emo in "Peeping Tomcat” due to him being ashamed with his spying. I could read off Mimicker's attack since that's closest to the dynamic they have in the show, but Ladybug isn't in the right light due to her frustration with Chloe. Plus, it's an 11-pg chapter. I've tried reading it aloud, and it takes me about 20min. Maybe read just certain parts?

Alternatively, I thought of writing the opening to “One and the Same” finally. Ladybug is her normal self, and Adrien is in a good place, so he'd be the closest to canonical Chat Noir. I just haven't been inspired though. I do also have the introduction to my MariChat relationship in OatS, but that's another one that isn't QUITE right with how Chat Noir acts. I've also played with a scene introducing my headcanon origins for The Bracelet so Adrien knows how important the charm bracelet was to Marinette, and therefore shows how much she cares about him. I just can't figure out how to organically bring up The Bracelet in front of Chat Noir though.

In the end, I ended up playing more catch-up; mostly reading tumblr exclusive fanfics or longer writing advice posts. We got TWO new Miraculous episodes on Saturday, so the fandom is super active right now, and it takes me hours to catch up. I really need to take a step back from Tumblr so I can find time again to WRITE. I just blank whenever I open a notebook or a word doc.

On the flipside though, I DID write a small blip of a scene with Hubby this week. He's trying to restart the X-Future game, and in the meantime of waiting for everyone to be ready to play again he and I are playing as his one NPC and Trish. Poor Lia hasn't been played since 2016! OVER TWO YEARS, and Willow hasn't been played for at least a year, but Trish I've still been quite active with.

I think I should be worried about that.

Anyway, nearly two years ago Hubby started up a scene with Trish where one of his NPCs - currently only known to Trish as The Stranger because they haven't introduced themselves yet - saves her from a Purifier attack. It was a painfully slow play through the scene where we'd go months before updating, and we finally finished it this past spring or so. Well, Hubby asked if we wanted to continue while waiting for the restart to happen, and I'm game.

Now we have Day Two of Trish and The Stranger working together to wipe out The Purifiers. And, yes, they STILL haven't introduced themselves so Hubby's character is STILL just The Stranger to Trish. We started up this new scene about a week or so ago, and we're going through it a bit faster this time. So.... that's where my creative bits went this week, I guess....

It did re-inspire me - along with long letters back and forth between me and Pixie - to go back through and re-read my write-up of my Glitches world build thus far. Tweak a few things. Maybe add others. It's not much, but it's something....

I better get past this writers block before November starts! Next week should be more-or-less back to normal when it comes to my work schedule, so I'm hoping that will help reset me.

In the meantime, maybe I should focus on reading.

Coincidentally, Celeste told me the random scene I opened to for this
picture is her favorite one in the whole novel, so... neat.

That's right, kiddies! “Leather and Lies” is officially out now, and on Saturday I got my beautiful paperback copy! So I'm excited about finally breaking this bad boy open. Apparently, she got her first review just TWO DAYS after the book released. And it was a five-star over on iTunes.

Nail-biting, suspenseful, and full of lust
I stayed up all night reading to get some resolution. The book is full of great twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. I'm desperately trying to decide what the Skye/Wes couple name should be. Skyley? Fingers crossed for a sequel – you've got the perfect setup for a series!

So super congrats to Celeste for that rave review! I'll be sure to share my thoughts here and on Amazon once I'm done with my read through.

Need one more reminder on how to get your own copy of “Leather and Lies”?

You can buy the ebook and/or paperback on Amazon or on Barnes & Noble.
As for other places to find the ebook? You can find them on Kobo, iTunes, GooglePlay, and Smashwords.

Did you also get “Leather & Lies” on pre-order and have blown through it already? Let me know in the comments what you thought of it, and don't forget to leave Celeste a review. It really is the lifeblood of authors.

Now to figure out what to read at Group tonight... Could I manage to write something today before 6? I'll keep you posted. Catch you all next week.

A Completed Story Plus a Cold

I hit my secondary goal.

I didn't get "Peeping Tomcat" done by the end of June so I could spend July working on "One and the Same" during Camp NaNo. I won't be able to spend this month starting the polishing process so I could have OatS up by October before people got bored and move on.

HOWEVER!

I did spend pretty much every free moment last Tuesday editing my final chapter of "Peeping Tomcat." By 9pm it was up, and I was done.

I officially completed my first multiple-chapter story. I completed my first novel-length manuscript. I completed a long-running project. I completed my first ever "Miraculous Ladybug" story, even if I have posted about half-dozen shorts before I concluded the story.

I hit a new milestone. It may not be much in the grand scheme of things, but it is a step in the right direction. It was proof to myself that I can do this. It's a new level of understanding and determination when it comes to my craft. It showcased that all the trials and tribulations I dealt with - the feeling of silliness for dedicating so much time to this project; neglecting friends, family, and house cleaning so I could write; losing my writing not once, not twice, but three times; the worry that I wasn't good enough compared to established ML fan-authors, etc - none of it would stop me. I felt what it meant to have a story grab you and push you to complete it.

Aside from flitting moments with Amara or the X-Future gang, I had never felt that compulsion before. It was intoxicating, and I now know what I need to aim for.

I also learned that I need to find a less demanding schedule until I can figure out how to write and edit faster. My home is a disaster and I greatly miss my husband and friends.

All of it was worth it though.

All the struggles.

All the learning.

All the sorrow.

All the worry.

All the joy.

All worth it, because I learned so much about myself and my writing. I earned a much larger readership than I ever did before. I have so many more dedicated fans. This milestone is BIG, you guys!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

Not so big as to have an 18pg conclusion, though. While Hubby agreed that it will be well worth it, the chapter size discrepancy just seemed too much for me, so I did end up finding a spot where I could cut it sort of in half. Leaving me with a double-posting conclusion before the close of July. Allowing me to hit my secondary goal of finishing PT before August.

You can read the penultimate chapter here:

FanFiction         ArchiveOfOurOwn         DeviantArt

And you can read the FINAL CHAPTER of "Peeping Tomcat" here:

FanFiction         ArchiveOfOurOwn         DeviantArt

Now, I did have a double post update, and each refreshed view - e.g. reading two different chapters - does count as individual views. So the numbers are a bit skewed since each reader would, in theory, have two views as opposed to their normal one.

Then again, so many people were used to my Friday updates that I don't know how many checked AO3 or DA when I posted on Tuesday. Those who were following on FFN would have been notified, but no one else would have.

Anyway, here are my FINAL "Peeping Tomcat" 24-hr stats!

FFN: 1526 views! 5 new faves, 4 followers, and 6 reviews
AO3: 446 views, 15 kudos! 2 new bookmarks, and 3 comments
DA: 24 views (19 for chapter 16, and the other 5 for chapter 17)

Total Results: 1996 views, 20 faves, 6 followers, and 9 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 19 total - 12 likes, 3 comments, 4 reblogs

Reviews:
  1. Awesome ending. Though 'Claws out' is a nice way to end it, word wise, this does take care of a few plot holes necessary for this book. Looking forward to a sequel.... (review shortened for relevance)
  2. I really enjoyed this one! glad that Adrien got to enjoy the festival. looking forward to their talk so now I'll go read it! (Chpt 16 review from marauderluverz)
  3. oh wow... I can't believe it's over but i did love it so much! even though I wanted to see the full confession, I'll take this happily knowing you are planning a sequel. looking forward to it! (Chpt 17 review from marauderluverz)
  4. Omgosh, that was so sweet, I really look forward to your sequel! (from cassy1994)
  5. This is spectacular! You are an amazing writer and I can't wait for your next story. Take all the time you need to make it just as wonderful as this one. Lots of love, your fan. (A guest review)
  6. (semi-lengthy review; please see below)
  7. You did so wonderfully on this story! Thank you so much for writing it, and I hope to enjoy the sequel just as much if not more. :) (review shortened for relevance)
  8. You did great! I really like leaving the reveal where it is- he had a good character arc in this piece, and the reveal would set off another one. Fantastic!
  9. How dare you. To write something so. Frustraitingly. Gorgeous. Thank you. Million times thank you. I can't say how much this story captured my soul.

Okay, so before I get into anything else, can I just note the oddity of four new followers on FFN? If someone bookmarks a story on AO3 it makes it easier for them to re-find it later. I do it a lot with fanfics I like so I can re-read or share them easier. For AO3 a bookmark is basically the same thing as a fave on DA or FFN.

Now, while a follow on FFN does put the story in a little side category for easy re-finding, favoriting a story does the same exact thing. The only real reason to follow a story is so you can get alerts when the story is updated. As opposed to DA or AO3 where you have to physically check in on the story/author to see if there's an update.

I had noted in multiple different places that chapter 17 was the final chapter. No more. Story was done. It just seemed weird to me that NOW is when people start following me. If anything, I was expecting to lose followers. I mean, I DID lose a couple, but still... EARNING some?

Oh well.

Let's instead focus on the 1526 views I got on FFN! This is by far the most I've received within the first 24-hrs of posting. The number of views is second only to the previously "last chapter," before I realized I needed more than 15.

And what's more is chapter 15 had 2034 views after BEING UP FOR A WEEK! THAT is what these last two chapters are second to. On top of that, the next runner up is chapter 13 with a WEEK-LONG view count of 1449 views!

Granted, it WAS 1526 views for TWO chapters, so if we divide evenly they both had about 763 views, which is much closer to my normal 24-hr count.

Regardless.... WOW! I'm excited!

Aaaaand then I randomly have that large viewer discrepancy on DA... Why did chapter 16 get 19 hits, but then the next and final chapter only got 5????

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

Uhhh...sure....

I also got 15 new kudos on AO3!!! And I can't even attempt to minimize how awesome that is by stating "yeah, well, two chapters" because you can't leave kudos on individual chapters. You leave kudos for the whole story, that's it.

How amazing is that!? Fifteen new people enjoyed my story enough to leave me kudos - WITHIN THE FIRST 24HRS IT WAS UP!

Then again, going back through those nine reviews, I have to admit that perhaps I truly did earn those kudos! I'm still humbled to see reactions like those. Like, it's me. I was the one who wrote that story. I'm so used to BEING one of those reviewers who was moved so much by a story. I'm not used to being the one provoking those emotions.

Speaking of, let's look at that one semi-lengthy review I left out of above:

unholyconspiracy: Sending all the love to you right now! And although my fanboy side was waiting for some kind of ultimate Adrienette scene at the end, my logical side thinks this is actually a perfect ending. Not too obvious, yet gives the story a feeling of completion. And it was wonderful to read all the fantastic chapters, see the characters develop while being true and believable compared to the original ones. Thank you for the entertainment and for dragging me deeper into this fandom, but I guess that was inevitable anyway.
         Loved loved loved this one!
         And if you say there's going to be a sequel... see you in winter then!

My mind is indeed blown.

I mean... going back up to the last review listed with my stats: "I can't say how much this story captured my soul"?

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

Maki Natsuo from Love Lab
by Ruri Miyahara

I just... um... wow!

Hopping over to those Tumblr notes, well, in truth we can ignore the 3 comments. I had a gif in my post that the commentor had a question about, I answered it, and then they responded. That equals 3 comments; none about PT. Still, they had to have SEEN my post in the first place so... win?

And the reblogs were actually a sort of "reblog war" between me and my one reader skyeribbon. She reblogged with a nice comment, I reblogged her reblog with a mushy reply, she reblogged my reblog with her own reply, and then I reblogged her reblog of my reblog. So... four reblogs.

You can see the full chain here: FINAL CHAPTERS OF “PEEPING TOMCAT”!!!!
Fair warning, Skye does use the f-bomb once or twice.

Anyway, the love kept pouring in throughout the course of the week. Here we are, nearly a solid week later:

FFN: 2661 views! 11 new faves, 4 followers, and 9 reviews
AO3: 803 views, 32 kudos! 4 new bookmarks, and 7 comments
DA: 28 views, 4 faves, and 1 comment

Total Results: 3492 views, 47 faves, 8 followers, and 17 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 21 total - 12 likes, 4 comments, 5 reblogs

Reviews:
  1. Yes! Yay for fluff! Great job of writing as always! Your description of the akuma fight & the festival was downright awesome. I don't know Gambit, but I love Kirito so it's kind of cool that Adrien partially based his superhero from him. (I don't love him as much as I love Chat Noir of course, haha.) (review of chpt 16 by pkk)
  2. This story is great, and I'm very happy to hear that there is going to be a sequel! Your writing, both descriptive and dialog, is superb, with just the right mix to keep everything so entertaining. I certainly look forward to reading more of your work in the future. (review of chpt 17 by pkk)
  3. This was an amazing story. Can't wait to read your sequel.
  4. A semi-lengthy review by JustMeMusing; please see below.
  5. Loved it (review of chpt 16 by KorrieChan)
  6. I am a anime fan too! What else would we do with our lives if there was nothing to waste time on XDD (review of chpt 17 by KorrieChan)
  7. A semi-lengthy review by BunniElyse; please see below.
  8. The cyber punk headphones yes!!!!!! I do want a big shot noir hoodie lol. (comment on chpt 16 by Seirenpoison)

So first and foremost, good old Chibi chimed in with a comment on my Tumblr post, and someone other than me and skye reblogged my announcement, so that's cool.

As for those views! Well, again, it was a double-post week, so we should probably cut that in half to see what the views would have been if it was just one massive chapter. Even so, that's 1330 views, which is in the higher average for what I've been doing. I'm just dumbfounded with how many people come to read my story! Like, seriously!?

Slicing the AO3 views in half as well still keeps it in the higher average there too with 401 per chapter.

And SEVEN reviews!? That's the most I've ever gotten in one week over on AO3. Granted, two reviewers double-reviewed: one for chapter 16 and one for chapter 17. Still, that's five reviews, which is back to the top average. Chapter 15 is the only other chapter that got as many as five reviews on AO3.

Same with FFN and the NINE reviews. Weirdly enough, chapter 14 managed to garner SEVENTEEN friggen reviews somehow. Ignoring that outlier, this past week has the highest review count. Doing the same as with AO3, and removing two reviews because two people reviewed both chapters 16 and 17, that's still seven reviews, which is the high average.

Oh, and speaking of reviews, here are the two lengthy ones:

JustMeMusing: I’m not very good with 1st person stories, but this is well written, in character & had me waiting for updates. Someone like Adrien would be shocked & in turmoil over his behaviour and I can also imagine his need for friendship & happiness, even if vicarious. I’m glad you wrote a concluding chapter, even though the story isn’t finished - I look forward to the next part of the series. Can’t wait to find out GA’s reaction to M’s folio & whether or not she can relax enough to truly befriend A. And how will he reveal that he knows her secret? Will M discover him before she finds out he knows? So many musings to ponder - please continue soonish :D

BunniElyse: You always review my chapters so I just had to come over and visit your works! I don't have a lot of time to read fanfiction (sadly), but I just HAD to read this! So I've spent the last few days staying up too late after my baby's gone to sleep and sneaking chapters at work! (haha!)
          I am so in love with this story and am so excited for your sequel. I wanted Adrien/Chat to confess so bad that I kept looking at the scrolling sidebar to see how much more there was to this chapter - and got disappointed every time I was closer to the bottom.
          Thank you so much for this story and my new head cannon! Rarely does a fanfiction work influence my memory of canonical works to the point that I forget what is canon and what is fanfiction, but I can tell you that "Peeping Tomcat" has thoroughly affected how I remember Miraculous Ladybug. (lol!) It was all so well written and the characters were all so believable.
          Likewise, I loved reading your interpretation of how Adrien connects Marinette to Ladybug via their personalities as I am currently in that state of mind for "Sneak a Peek." I want Adrien to start to piece together who Ladybug is and he does so by subconsciously comparing Marinette to her. Your chapters on his thoughts were nearly mirrored to my own writing (which made me a little nervous because I don't want to unintentionally copy you!), but it did give me a ton of inspiration!
          Thank you for reading my fic, "Sneak a Peek" and I absolutely LOVED reading "Peeping Tomcat!" I can't wait for "One and the Same" so I'll keep my eyes peeled!

EEEEE, these are just too sweet! Also, I did link to Bunni's story. It's her take on what happened after the season 2 episode "Dark Owl" and it is adorable. It started off as a one-shot, but reviews inspired her to keep going with the story.

Reviews matter, guys!

Anyway, I guess I didn't need to be so nervous, huh? All this encouragement is really going to help me stay motivated for "One and the Same" and that is fantastic.

Oh, also, I can now do something I've been dying to do for months now: OVER-ALL STATS FOR "PEEPING TOMCAT"!

These stats are from the minute I posted the very first chapter until now. I'm still amazed by them. Dumbfounded I found so much love and appreciation in the process. This whole thing truly is humbling, and exciting, and uplifting, and.... EEEEEEEEEE!

FFN: 21,420 views! 138 faves, 212 followers! and 89 reviews!
AO3: 6821 views, 265 kudos! 38 bookmarks, and 30 comments
DA: 454 views, 37 faves, and Seirenpoison commenting on 3 chapters

Total Results: 28,695 views! 440 faves, 250 followers! and 122 reviews!

Going all the way across the board - all three sites from day one until now - I had close to 28,700 views! I mean, how!? I'm this little nobody in the fanfiction sphere. This is my first "Miraculous Ladybug" fanfic. Yet I garnered over 28,600 views! Granted, the most popular stories on AO3 have a couple HUNDRED thousand views each, so my measly 6821 views is nothing there.

FFN doesn't show view-count outside your own notifications for your own stories, so I can't really check there. However, I can say that the most popular ML fics on FFN have around 3000 faves, and 2000 followers, and over 1500 reviews. So, again, I have kind of measly numbers in comparison.

But still.... there are stories that barely get found. Barely get noticed. Barely have any likes/faves/kudos, or reviews. So, to earn as many as I did?

Those numbers are HUGE to me. And that's what counts, right?

And as for Seirenpoison and her comments? Well, two weeks ago I showcased her "rough draft" fanart sketches of the gang for chapter 15 and 16's Chat Noir Appreciation Festival. To conclude the story, she also did an Adrienette pic that she posted this past week.

For a full-size view of this pic
please go to her DeviantArt page
Seirenpoison

How cool is that!? Someone drew fanart of my fanfic! And, according to skyeribbon's Tumblr post, I should be expecting more to come my way! I just- I mean- I can't- EEEEEEE

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

What's even more exciting is the number of people who are now following ME as an author! I received SEVENTEEN emails from Fanfiction stating that someone has either favorited me as an author or is now following me.

Actually, more than 17 emails, because a couple of people both favorited and followed me.

I even have one person who favorited "Peeping Tomcat," and then faved and followed me, and then faved and followed X-Future: The Second Generation Begins!

Whoo! What a ride, huh? I still can't believe it's over. I wrote what eventually became the chapter "Truth" during the tail end of last year's Summer Writing Challenge over on Writers' Huddle. I then expanded it in November during NaNo. I spent most of the winter editing, only to need to keep editing a chapter per week to stick with the schedule I had set up for myself. Something I need to really re-think when it's time to start posting "One and the Same."

I have been with this story for the better part of a YEAR. A year of near-constant work. If I wasn't writing it, I was thinking about it. Plotting it. Re-reading it. Grumbling about it. SOMETHING.

And now I'm starting almost from zero.

I have the bare-bones for "One and the Same." I even had such withdrawal symptoms from PT that it only kept me until August 2nd before I wrote out the rough draft of the Full Confession scene. I'm still struggling to figure out where it should go in the story, though.

Monday I wrote the side-story for the first akuma to be presented in OatS; how she became akumatized. I keep writing little scenes here and there. I'm trying to build up steam, but I am STILL going through withdrawal from PT. Not knowing where to go without it.

I'm hoping to be re-centered by next week. It doesn't help that my "withdrawal" symptoms are coinciding with a nasty head cold. Well... chest cold? I've had a nasty cough for the past week where my throat is dry and scratchy no matter how much I drink. Just Sunday night I coughed myself into such a fit that the pressure caused a migraine.

I need this cold to either go away or transition into something less dry.

Anyway, I've been a bit dazed from the cold medicines and my body just fighting the cough itself, which doesn't really help with the plotting portion of writing.

Which means I've mostly shifted from writing to reading, and making up for my long hiatus from books.

I've gone through about two or three new short fanfics, read the latest chapters of the ongoing ones I follow, I breezed through Ali Luke's latest "Not So Imaginary," and I'm already about half-way through a book Spink suggested to me.

It is pretty much non-stop reading both at work and while on self-appointed bedrest to try to get over this cold.

So, I have two new books to add to my reading challenge! It's almost full!

I had to take off "Fall release of 'Trials of Apollo'."
I didn't read correctly.
The next ToA book won't be out until fall of 2019.

First up is Ali's. As I shared two weeks ago, she has a novella that's coming out soon. She's just working on the finishing touches. I have an advanced review copy, and I blew through that puppy in one day while Hubby was at work. I mean, it did still take me about five hours, but I'm also a slow reader sooooo.

It was awesome. There were a few snafus, but I alerted Ali, and she'd going in to tweak one last time before the official publication.

The story has chapters short enough to read in small bites - if you don't have a lot of time - but since it's a novella, you can still read the whole thing in one sitting if you wanted to. The pacing has a slow start that still brings you in with nagging questions you want answered. Then, as the questions are answered, they are replaced with a quickened pace and a sense of dread and doom. My heart really did race quite a bit in later chapters. I would be frantically flipping pages... except it was a digital copy, so I had to settle for frantically scrolling....

While it is a completely stand-alone story that doesn't require anyone to read the Lycopolis trilogy, it very much has the same feel. To the point where I was half-expecting Kay, Seth, and The Prince's Forest to make cameos. Ali did confirm it is the same universe and stories with such crossovers are in the works, which just gets me even more excited!

I will warn my more sensitive readers that Flint - much like my character Trish - has one HECK of a foul mouth on him. So, while it is a very enjoyable read, you will have to weed through quite a few course words and lewd language. It's very fitting for his character though.

Anyway, I'll let you all know when the story is officially out, so keep a watchful eye. It will be well worth it!

As for the book suggested by Spink? Well, after a long conversation that can more-or-less be shorthanded to "You like Miraculous Ladybug. That show has a lot of puns, so you must like puns. Have you heard of the Xanth books? They're deliciously filled with puns. Here, read the first book in the series," I ended up with her copy of "A Spell for Chameleon" by Piers Anthony.

Either it doesn't have nearly as many puns as she implied it would, or they're so subtle they're going over my head. He is really good at the "subtle pun." There is an entire page about the main character "sowing wild oats" that all feels so innocent. He talks about the "sea oats" - since Xanth is a magical land and plants come in all varieties - and their local wild cousins that are native to the area. He then comments about planting a crop of the wild variety. He took great care to grow them until his mother freaked out upon finding the crop. It wasn't until then - about five or six paragraphs into this mini-story - that he used the phrase "My son? Sowing wild oats?"

And that was when the pun finally clicked.

I'm a bit slow. Leave me alone.

Anyway, there seems to be a great deal of meandering and focus on world build with the story. Much like Lord of the Rings or the Odyssey. Actually, VERY much like the Odyssey with the strange lands and seductive sorceress with ulterior motives for her hospitality. Sorry, minor spoiler there....

The story was sort of drifting me off to sleep in some of the more meandering places, but that could also be because of my cold. All in all, the story is good, as evidenced by me tearing through 156 pages in three or four days. I know, that doesn't sound like much, but remember, I'm a horrendously slow reader, especially for a writer....

"A Spell for Chameleon" is about Bink. His 25th birthday is a month away, and he has yet to showcase any magical talent. Anyone who doesn't possesses even the slightest bit of magic by the time they hit 25 is exiled from Xanth, the only magical land in a world otherwise classified as Mundane. Yes, it is capitalized.

Bink sets on a journey to try to find out if he really does have the ability to use magic - therefore allowing him to officially become a Xanth citizen - and what that magical talent could be. On the way, we meet a cast of unique - and named - characters that only journey with Bink for a few pages before seemingly disappearing again. I keep waiting for them to make surprise appearances, but they seem to be like anyone met in real life: you may find out their name but only know them for about 15minutes your entire life.

At the pace I'm going, unless I interrupt myself with writing, I should have the book done by next week, and I can give you a more complete review.

Oh, and speaking of interrupting my reading with writing: Hubby and I started up "X-Future" again. Well, to be fair, we're finishing up a scene between one of his "mystery characters" and Trish that we abandoned over a year ago. Once that scene is FINALLY done we'll have a time jump and THEN he'll attempt to start up the game again.

I have missed playing on X-Future, and it's evident in the length of Trish's first post since forever.

To be fair though, last August I wrote her fight scene with Devon - which I still need to edit - so it's really Willow and super really Lia who have been on the back burner. I haven't written for either of them for about TWO years. It will be interesting to re-find them.

In the meantime, I'll focus on Trish, and the restart of the game, and my reading, and outlining OatS, and recovering from this nasty cold.

Until next week!

Hacker Boy Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

Found a Snowflake

It's been a bit of an interesting week.

Things are finally starting to fall back to normal at work, and I'm starting to get my free time to work on my writing while there, at least, over my lunch breaks. I still can't figure out that darn second akuma attack towards the end of Act II in "Peeping Tomcat," but I have thought of a slew of other potential akumas. I have them jotted down in my Miraculous notebook to possibly use in other fanfics. The main reason why I'm not using them in PT is because they just won't work with the story I have in mind. Either the idea of introducing that particular akuma is too large and deserves its own story, or the subplot it would bring up with the dynamic between Ladybug, Cat Noir, and/or Hawk Moth goes in the opposite direction than I want PT to go in, or there's no clean way to introduce the akumatized victim without going into a side-tangent in PT, or the battle wouldn't showcase what I need showcased in PT, or.... well, you get the idea. They just wouldn't work for whatever reason, but I do have a few fun ones.

Back stock for when I need akumas in other stories. Maybe I could even use one or two in "One And The Same" later this year.... Still doesn't help me now though.

Speaking of helping, even though she's pretty booked, since she was on spring break, I sent Cyhyr my story thus far. We both agree that her own stuff comes first. However, Netflix is FINALLY getting the American release of season 2 of "Miraculous Ladybug". It premieres this Friday - March 30 - and perhaps a read through my story is a nice pre-gamer? She offered to at least attempt. So that's sweet of her and I love her for even offering!

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by Birdman, Inc.

I've also come to the conclusion that, while I love both Cy and ChibiSunnie for volunteering to beta for me, and while I know I will need the help of a beta, and while I'm nervous about having such a HUGE first chapter.... I also remembered that this is fanfiction.

Yes, I should try to be as professional as I can in all things I write in order to better prepare myself for this being a career. However, I shouldn't STRESS about it. Fanfiction is supposed to be fun. Even the "not so great" ones get love because people understand that they're done by novices, and people can see the story potential. It may be hard to find an audience that is willing to read a 7000-word first chapter, but they're out there, especially with the hype of the new season coming out this week.

In fact... I might cash in on that hype and post the first chapter THIS FRIDAY instead. Ride the wave of people swarming to fanfic sites.

I've gone through that first chapter about five times already, not including the three-plus versions I wrote before this draft. I can only find a few paragraphs here and there that might need to be cut. I'm still debating if I definitely should. Worse comes to worse, I'll take "Peeping Tomcat" down if Cy or Chibi have anything drastic they'll need me to change, and repost the revised edition. Sure, I'll lose any lovely comments/reviews people may have posted, but it's not the greatest loss in the world.

And so what if this isn't the most professional thing in the world? So what if the story seems lopsided because I have 7000-word chapters along side 2000-word chapters? Who cares if one week has a massive chapter update, and the following only has a quick-read one? Worse comes to worse, I'll double-post since I'll have them all done ahead of time anyway.

The point is that I'll hit the milestone of COMPLETING A LONG PROJECT. That in and of itself is huge! The point is that I'll also hit the milestone of weekly updates. The point is actually finishing, editing, polishing a NaNo story. There are a LOT of milestones within this story already. Having it be professional-quality perfection doesn't need to be one of them. Not yet anyway. I know I still have a ways to go until I hit that "I can publish a novel" part of my career. I know I'm about a decade behind where I should be. Thank you, College Professor. However, I also know that I've been improving more and more, and faster and faster, each year.

I'll get there. I still need to push myself to make sure I do. I don't need to KILL myself in doing so, though. And I can't use perfection - or the pursuit of it - as an excuse to procrastinate.

So, uh, I guess keep an eye out. I think I just talked myself into pushing up my publication date.

Oh! And since I'm on the topic of publishing, it IS the end of the month, and I still haven't posted anything. Although, it does sound like I'm remedying that on Friday.... Anyway, in an attempt to sort of clear my head from it being bogged down with PT stuff, as well as making sure I stick with my "something new per month" goal, I decided to work on a little side-project.

It's not done yet - I need to finish after I'm done with this blog post - but I'm hoping to have it ready to read at writing group tonight.

It occurred to me that I haven't worked on "Glitches" in a long time. I had a desire to write with at least one of My Girls. In the shower - where all the plot bunnies come to find me now, I guess - I thought of early in the X-Future game when Penumbra was wary of Devon, and was not a fan of Willow potentially flirting with him. For whatever reason, this became a scene in my head. I think it's a fun way to give some character background while also showcasing some of their personalities.

So, I have a little scene where Penumbra is lecturing Willow about the dangers of interacting with Devon. In response, Willow goes to bat for Devon, and tries to calm Penumbra with some flirtatious illusions. Penumbra is not pleased. In part, because Willow is trying to skirt around the problem instead of solving it, but mostly because Penumbra knows Willow doesn't think of her romantically, and hates being lead on.

I'm having some fun with it, but I'm sure it will need some polishing before I post. We'll see what the group says tonight. It will be one of the few times where I'll attempt to read something to them BEFORE posting it online.

Ya-Ya Monkey Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Who knows, though? Perhaps next week I'll have links to both this little one-shot as well as "Peeping Tomcat." How exciting would that be!?

Oh! And speaking of exciting things for this weekend. Cy and her hubby, my awesome Wonder Twin Ronoxym, are coming with me and my own wonderful hubby to go see "Ready Player One"!!!!

Ron and I have been super stoked about this movie for over a year now, so we're going to be unbearably excited and antsy all week! We are both sorry to our respective spouses.

Anyway, I even got this guy already as part of the hype and excitement:

This is the main character Wade's avatar while inside the online digital universe of the OASIS. I mean, I already liked the main character, but I think I'm particularly fond of this character design because he kind of reminds me of a gender-swapped Willow.

Or rather, Parzival could be a non-evil version of Willow's older brother Shawn.

All the more drive to finish writing that one-shot with Willow.

Which brings me full circle back to writing.

This past week Omnibladestrike has again struggled with his writing after having a nice spurt of inspiration. I don't know if it really helped him any, but in an attempt, I sent him the link to something called the Snowflake Method for outlining. I discovered it thanks to a fellow member of Writer's Huddle. If you'd like more about the method from the man who created it, you can check it out here: How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method.

The long and short of it is to start off simple and small so the task of creating a novel doesn't seem so daunting. Think in the most broad strokes possible while still defining specifically your novel. Start with a one sentence plot summary of your novel: your "hook." Then start expanding out. Create a paragraph summary using roughly five sentences: The exposition sentence, the initiating conflict, the Act II conflict, the climactic conflict, and the conclusion. Or, as the author of the article Randy Ingermanson puts it, “three disasters plus an ending." Now expand each of those sentences out to be their own paragraph. Expand each of THOSE paragraphs out again and again until you have a detailed outline of your story. Do the same with your characters. Start with basic info: name, age, race, gender, etc. Then expand out. Create a sentence summary of their character arc. Now expand out the same way you did with the novel. As you expand on both your characters and the plot, and discover something new about either, go back and adjust the other elements accordingly.

This is actually kind of similar to the outlining that James Patterson talked about in his MasterClass. The idea is to have the most detailed outline possible without going into the nitty-gritty of dialog or specific problem solving. Yes, you know that your protagonist is going to save his love interest from a burning building by jumping out a window to safety. You don't need to know the specifics of which window, what safety, how long it takes for them to escape, etc. That's for the actual writing portion in order to keep that fun. Point is, you know that the love interest is going to be in trouble by being stuck in a burning building, and you know that she and the protag are going to get out safely, and you know what kind of injuries - if any - you want them to suffer. You have your entire novel, in pretty great detail, only taking up about twenty pages instead of two-hundred. MUCH simpler and faster to sit and read through your outline to try to find plotholes, slow spots, and poor character arcs. Take it from someone who has been struggling through editing both "Peeping Tomcat" and "Please, Let Me Explain", it is a pain to read through a long work to try to figure those bits out. Another struggle that outlining could avoid is the "wait, did I already explain that same bit elsewhere in this story?" Much easier to pick up on that in a 20+ page outline.

If you take the time up front - even if it's a couple of months - to do greatly detailed outlines, you won't struggle as much or hit writers block as frequently - if at all - once you get to the actual writing. This allows authors to punch out a much stronger first draft in just a few weeks.

In fact, I might even attempt to spend the summer Camp NaNoWriMo writing up such an outline for my November NaNoWriMo novel idea, and see how that turns out. Will I be able to hit the 50,000 word goal easier? Will the story actually be complete at the end of the month, instead of the word goal simply being met? Will the first draft truly be much closer to being publishable - at least, online - once I'm done?

I've been playing a bit with the idea of more detailed outlines before writing since I took the James Patterson class, but perhaps with the add-in of this Snowflake Method breakdown, I might give it more serious thought. I might even use it for PT's sequel "One And The Same" in an attempt to make sure it's done and ready to publish once I'm done posting all of PT's chapters. I could use it to work on "Please, Let Me Explain" and finally finish that project. I attempted to do the James Patterson outlining method with Ron, but perhaps the Snowflake Method is a better fit.

I'm actually pretty excited about trying this method out. I'll have to let you guys know how it goes once I have a chance to use it. If you end up trying it, or already have, feel free to let me know in the comments what you thought of it. Did it work for you? Did only portions of it work for you? Did your writing improve? Did it take away the fun spontaneity of writing by the seat of your pants, or did it make writing more fun because you didn't have to stress about "what's next"?

I'd love to know your thoughts.

Ready For 2018 To Be A Big Year!

Well, 2017 is behind us, and 2018 is just started. Let's see how this year ends up, huh? I'm trying to aim for a much more productive one all around.

Productivity in adulting, such things as paying down my student loan, getting a better car, working on my credit, maybe getting a house or getting pregnant. Productivity in my health, such as eating healthier, working out, losing weight, seeing doctors at a more regular pace. Productivity at work with such things as maybe pitching to the owners my idea of having a Communications Director to make sure all employees are on the same page, as well as help take some weight off of the office personal.

Most importantly, productivity in my writing. Yesterday was a wash. I read, yes, but didn't even think of writing anything, not even a Facebook status. So, not the best start, but January first rarely is. Which leads us to this glorious tradition of First Blog Post Of The New Year Is The Resolutions Post!

First, let's recap how I did last year.

Resolution #1: No More Than 3 Zero Days in Any Given Week
Um..... Yeah, I was sort of hit or miss on this one. I still have my two calendars, one for marking if I wrote or not, and the other with the hourly breakdown so I can see what I do with my life. I'm going to try to get back into the habit of using those so I can crack down on this resolution.

Resolution #2: Complete the "Reading Books Like a Boss" Reading Challenge.
I got further with this one, but, as I discussed last week, I didn't finish. I'm getting further into "Ender's Shadow." I even went back yesterday and re-read the first two parts of the book I completed already in order to jot down my notes of parallel moments. That way when I re-read "Ender's Game" I can look back at my notes to get an idea of where Bean was during all of it.

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week
This one was another negatory. I had bouts of good participation, and then months of ghosting. I was more active than I was in previous years, though....

Resolution #4: Beta Read And Return Notes Within A Fortnight
This one I managed. I didn't really have many people give me things to look over, but the few that did I returned notes on within 14 days. A lot of them I gave the notes back probably on the 14th day, but it still counts!

Resolution #5: Have 52 Blog Posts Published Before The End Of 2017
I DID IT! I COMPLETED ANOTHER RESOLUTION!

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by Birdman, Inc.

I know I celebrated last week, but it's exciting to me, so I wanted another quick hurrah!

Resolution #6: Ronoxym's Writing Challenge
Yeah. I didn't even really attempt this one. At the beginning of the year when I was doing the "A Writer's Book of Days" prompts and happened to write something under 1000 words that was original and a complete story, I used those stories for the challenge. Other than those afterthoughts, though? I didn't even think about this challenge Ron put out for me a couple years ago.

So.... that's how I did. Not spectacular, but not disastrous either. Now to set up the resolutions for this year.

Resolution #1: No More Than Three (3) Zero Days In Any Given Week

I will try this one again and again and again until I get it as routine. Yes, I did say above that I wanted to try the fifteen minutes every day routine, but if I can't even write four times a week, I'm never going to succeed in every day. So, baby steps. I will once again attempt to write at least four days a week for at least fifteen minutes a day. We'll see where I will go from there.

Resolution #2: Complete My Personal Reading Challenge

As I stated last week, I'm not going for any actual pre-made reading challenge from anyone. I have a series of books I want to read, and I want to try to make sure I tackle those. So, here is my own personal reading challenge.

I still have three slots that I can fill in throughout the year. The key is to try to get twelve stories read even though I'm fairly confident it's going to take me at least two months to truly absorb "Atlas Shrugged."

Also, yes, I did include fanfiction as one of the categories. If NaNo considers 50,000 words a novel, why not use that as a basis of making a non-professionally published work just as "valid" of a read? It's still a challenge to read through something that requires that much time investment, so why not?

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week

I again failed at keeping up with this community, opting instead to stay closer to home with my physical friends and local writing group. However, I have been more active in the fanfiction Facebook group my college roommate got me into a few months ago, so why shouldn't I be as involved in my online writing group!? 

I need to step it up. Let's see what I can accomplish this year! No ghosting!

Resolution #4: Complete My Four Main WIPs

For those who don't know, WIP stands for Work In Progress.

I want to get the following stories completed by the close of 2018:

• "Peeping Tomcat" my main and premiere "Miraculous Ladybug" fanfiction 
• "One and the Same" my planned sequel to "Peeping Tomcat."
• My still unnamed X-Future story about Trish and Devon's last battle
• My fan novelization of Varekai

I really REALLY want to get "Peeping Tomcat" done and posted by the end of March. I'm even officially signed up now for NaNo's "What Now?" months. Once I'm done with PT, I want to get "One and the Same" posted around June. At this rate, I'd be posting something roughly once a quarter, which would have the Trish/Devon battle in September, and Varekai at the end of the year. I may use Varekai as my NaNo concept after all, just a year late....

Resolution #5: Post Some Completed Work At Least Once A Month

Just because I'm working on four major projects doesn't mean I can't try to get some minor ones up as well, right? I mean, if I'm aiming to write at least four times a week I should be able to do some "warm up" writing on a monthly project before zeroing in on further progress with my main ones, right?

I hope so. It will keep me from burning out on my main projects. It allows my creativity to still grow with these side projects, instead of shoving even more plot bunnies off to the corner. It keeps me relevant by having me post something more frequently than four times a year. It also gives me more things to share with you fine folks throughout the year. At the very least, this would mean twelve updates - one per month - but in theory could mean sixteen: one per month, plus the four main WIPs. We'll see.

And there you have it, my main resolutions. I'm still aiming to keep strong with my 52 weekly blog posts for the year, as well as my fortnight turn-around time for beta notes. However, I've conquered those resolutions. Sure, I must resolve to keep up with them, but I also want to focus on the ones that will allow me to grow as a writer.

My sister gifted me with a bunch of writing books this Christmas, and I still have the three from last year, so, here's to 2018 being the best writing year for me yet!

Hideki and Chii from Chobits by Clamp

Did A Lot Of Thinking; That Counts, Right?

To start, sorry about the late post update. I got caught up on editing and lost track of time. I mean, on the plus side, it means that I have more for you fine folks to read. On the downside, aside from a late blog post, I'm still just editing stuff I wrote back in like March and April. I'll get to that though.

Let's start on that high note: two new stories for you to read. First up is that Lia story I was having issues with last week. Ended up being delayed for no reason. A whole week later and I still don't have the names figured out and updated, so aside from some minor sentence structure editing, this is exactly the same as it was last week. Whoops. Hubby and I are trying to brainstorm, though, and I did spend all week TRYING to come up with new names for everyone. So there's that. Don't know if it counts if I didn't succeed though. Either way, here's Lia's story. First thing starring her that I've written in about a year. Geez. Poor thing.

"Weirdo Among Misfits"

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Next story probably isn't too much of a surprise coming off the heels of a Lia story: a Willow and Devon story. I mean, I was in an X-Future mood the day before, it just seems natural that it would continue into the next practice. Especially with the prompt: "Write about a sideways glance."

"Mutual Teasing"

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I was nervous about that second story. In the past I've been a bit off when writing friends' original characters. And odd thing to admit when I'm a fanfiction writer, but I'd always be close yet still not quite right. I sent Ronoxym "Mutual Teasing" this morning to quickly read over, and I'm so excited by his response.

Ronoxym: "That was actually beautiful. It's nice to just look at the two of them and think about what might have been."

He went on to let me know that Devon was in-character. So... Yay! I win!

Now, if I could just win again by actually having something NEW written, not just polished before being upload to a few websites.

Anyway, as I mentioned, ironically after stating that I was going to take a mini-vacay from writing, I spent a great deal of last Tuesday trying to figure out the new names for everyone. I then realized that I never really rewrote Jamie Madrox to his Glitches version Cody. I put in a great deal of time trying to figure out how his powers worked, but nothing really on Cody himself. Even then, I didn't really solidify what I wanted to do with his powers. The simple way of explaining is that he can use fresh drops of his own blood to create temporary clones of himself. However, there has been a sort of head-canon about Lia that I wanted to bring to Glitches, and I don't know if Cody's way of duplicating himself would lead to that.

See, when I created Lia and luck of the dice decided that she was going to have the same exact powers as her mother, but none of her father's, I then unintentionally designed Lia so she looks like the spitting image of her mother. It happens. Some kids just pick up a lot of their looks from one parent, and barely any distinguishable traits from the other. However, the more I thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. Jamie's mutation is the ability to duplicate himself. That's in his DNA. DNA he was now sharing with his daughter. The way that happens is that his DNA is mixed with Amara's. So.... why not having Lia accidentally be a clone of her mother? Birthed naturally? Jamie's DNA mixes with Amara and, instead of duplicating himself, Jamie's mutation actually duplicates Amara. Jamie's body doesn't recognize it as a duplicate since Lia has Amara's DNA, not Jamie's so he doesn't re-absorb her like his other dupes. Amara's body doesn't have the mutation that would have her re-absorb her duplicate. Er go, no one realizes the natural cloning.

I personally think it's a neat bit of trivia, however, if Cody's powers requires him to use blood to duplicate, can it still work? Could his mutation still mix with Keahi's DNA upon conception of Lia? Could maybe that mutation use Keahi's blood via the umbilical cord/placenta to accidentally turn her freshly fertilized egg into a naturally growing clone?

Fun thought exercise, but it brings me back to the same issue: I'm too focused on Cody's powers and not enough on his actual character. I also still need to figure out Neo-Mystique for Devon's mother. She most likely won't come up until much, much, MUCH later in the series, but basic information about her might pop up in the meantime.

So, that's what I've been doing this week. No writing, but a lot of thought exercises to try to figure out and lock down the last of the Marvel-property rewrites into originals. While I'm at it, I realized that a lot of Lucas Kinney that made him who he is consists of elements I'm not bringing over to "Glitches": a naturally conceived/born child of a clone, time travel, knowing how he's going to die thanks to the time travel, his toughening as a youth plus his establishing the institute as his home thanks to multiple organizations wanting to capture and experiment on him, and the fact that he's pseudo-related to Wolverine as the man's artificial grandson. I tried to fix some of it by having my version of Wolverine rescuing Lucas from government-sanctioned experimentation, and then being a surrogate father. Still, there was just too much characterization I couldn't bring over. So, I might do with Lucas Kinney what I did with Marvel's intellectual property: use it as a base as I create my own version. 

As much as it pains me to do so, because the catalyst for wanting to write "Glitches" in the first place was to revive him, but I might have to do the same with Phfylburt's other character Lincoln as well. Part of his confusion and feeling lost is because he was part mutant, part Inhuman, and part fairy. He didn't know what race he was because he was a mix of non-human races raised by humans. On top of that, he had a disembodied voice constantly with him that only he could hear, and yet the voice was adamant that it wasn't a split personality or Lincoln's imagination. Darwin was positive that he had a separate soul and was somehow locked within Lincoln's body, even if neither of them knew how or when that happened.

Lincoln is just such a beautiful character with such depth and complexity. It's no wonder I mourned for so long after Phfyl killed him off. I can only hope for readers to be as connected to my stories. Even so, things like mythical creatures being real and a race of half-human/half-alien hybrids is getting too close to the Marvel realm again for my comfort. "Glitches" is going to be INSPIRED by Marvel's X-Men, not a complete rip-off of it. So, how do I tweak Lincoln to ignore the Inhuman and fairy sides of him? How do I explain his confusion when he discovered that his powers and mutation wasn't simply because he was Inhuman, it was because he's also part mutant and part fairy? How do I explain his irregular upbringing due to his father being the mute leader of the Inhumans; a man forced to have multiple wives so that each of the different subraces of Inhumans felt properly represented within the royal family?

Even if I could figure any of that stuff out, I haven't spoken to Phfyl in over a year after he slipped off the grid. I wouldn't feel right unless I went over the changes to Lincoln with him. As it is, redesigning Lincoln - but keeping his wings, his anxiety, and Darwin - still feels a bit too close to comfort for me. I know that if one of my friends took Willow, Lia, Trish, Jolene, or Amara, tweaked them so they were slightly different than they are now, but kept them mostly whole, I'd feel weird if I didn't OK it. There's a reason why authors tend to hate the movie/TV show adaptations of their characters unless the author had a hand in the change. These are our babies. If you change one thing about them, it's no longer them.

This is why I'm so nervous about keeping people in-character. If I even had one glance, one gesture, one bit of dialogue, even one word wrong and out-of-character then it shakes the foundation of the character for the creator.

I have time to figure out the Lincoln situation though, so I have some more brain exercises to do. Perhaps when I'm closer to being ready to roll Neo-Lincoln out I'll get back in touch with Phfyl.

OK. Enough X-Future/Glitches stuff. You pretty much have the idea of what I was doing this week in regards to that. However, since I really DIDN'T do any writing this week, I decided to use my break to finish my reading.

I didn't manage to complete "The Dark Prophecy" by Rick Riordan before the end of May, but I did complete it on Sunday, so I guess that's something. Only three days late. I also started up my June book already. It can either bump "Ready. Set. Novel!" off the "Red on the Cover" category, or it can fulfill the "Takes place in the UK" category. But first, let's check out my challenge thus far:

Challenge by Reading Books Like a Boss

OK, so, real quick before talking about my latest book read, a reflection on "The Dark Prophecy." All-in-all, I am enjoying the book series, but it's closer to "The Kane Chronicles" than Riordan's other works in regard to over-all enjoyment.

He did so well with the Percy Jackson series, and Heroes of Olympus. He's doing amazing with the Magnus Chase series. I don't know why he seemed off his game with the Kane Chronicles or Trials of Apollo. I think it's kind of the same issue though.

In The Kane Chronicles, you have Sadie and Carter Kane. They are practically polar opposites of each other despite being siblings. Sadie is arrogant, but has some redeeming qualities. However her magical prowess makes her seem a bit overpowered despite Riordan's attempt to explain the restrictions Sadie has on her magical reserves. Then there's Carter who can have random bursts of power but mostly tries to use his brain to strategize ways to conquer their problem. While I liked Carter more than Sadie, and they are both fully developed characters, for me, Carter seemed a bit underwhelming. I mean, these two didn't really leave much of an impact on me. I had to look up their names to make sure I remembered them correctly. When I put the book down, I could go days without going back to the story, and when I did I'd have to start the reading session by re-reading the last page or so of the previous chapter to remind myself where I stopped. I could barely put down any of the other book series Riordan wrote....

Then there's the Trials of Apollo. Apollo basically is Sadie's arrogance in Carter's lackluster build. Apollo was transformed into a hero, so he can't really do much of anything unless he has random blasts of godly power, so he mostly whines about how things were when he was still a god, pine over his multitude of lost loves, and strategize to try to find a non-combative way to solve problems. Then there's Apollo's companion and human master during his trials to regain his godhood: Meg. Meg is Carter's soft-spoken, near-forgetability wrapped in Sadie's near deus ex machina power set. Somehow these characters are likable, but I'm not passionate about them like I am with all of Riordan's other characters.

Heck, half the time I like Magnus Chase's sword Jack more than Apollo and Meg. This breed of hero just doesn't work for me, but that's not to say they aren't lovable to others. Like I said, they are well-rounded, and Apollo is redeeming his arrogant ways as he quickly realizes how hard it is to be a human, let alone a demigod.

Still, I liked the Egyptian gods Anubis, Bast, and Bes far more than I like Sadie and Carter. I liked the Karpoi Peaches more than Apollo and Peaches' owner Meg. I couldn't really see much difference between Josephine and Emmie in "The Dark Prophecy," and had to frequently go back and re-read to figure out who said what and who was where, because the women blended together for me.

The biggest disappointment for me? Leo. He was totally my boy in the Heroes of Olympus, and even after my week of feeling gross ended I still felt like Leo wasn't "himself" anymore. It was like someone was ghostwriting Leo for Riordan, and didn't quite hit the mark. As I mentioned above, the slightest change to a character can completely change the character, which is why I'm so nervous about Lincoln.

I don't want to discourage anyone, though. Like I said, some characters speak to me because of my own personality and upbringing, and others just don't click. It's the same to other readers as well. I might find Meg lackluster, while you might find her the most beautifully written character with a quiet strength holding her up against an emotional trauma that would normally crumble other 12yr olds. On the flipside, you might find Jack the sword from the Magnus Chase series an unnecessary and annoying plot device.

Now, as for my new book for June, well? I'm not sure about it yet. The dust jacket makes the story sound promising, which is why I picked it up in the first place, but then I started reading it.....

"Half Bad" by Sally Green is the first of a trilogy; very first novel that Green ever wrote. You can read the jacket copy on the linked site, but the overview of even that is that Nathan is a witch trying to find his father, but his father is dangerous and Nathan is caged and watched. Like I said, the concept seems so cool.

Still not sure about the actual writing of it though. Each chapter is short. Super short. Like a scene. The very first chapter barely fills a page, the second is only three paragraphs. The thing that threw me off the most though was that the entire book is in second person. An odd choice that brought Green lots of praise for her skilled use of it.

It's too odd for me, though. It's weird, having everything make ME the main character - the point of the "you" pronoun in second-person - is actually disconnecting me from the book. I'm not Nathan. It's hard for me to suspend disbelief far enough to get past the fact that I'm not Nathan. However, if the book was in first person or even third, my extreme empathy would let me connect with Nathan so much easier.

I'm an odd duck.

Four chapters in, sixteen pages, nearly done with the first part out of a six-part novel, and Nathan's hand was nearly burned off by acid. You'd think that would be enough of a hook. Yet, I'm like "alright, well, let's see this through...." I'll keep you posted on my progress. I'm hoping I can get over the weird narrative POV, because the story, if it were in a more traditional 1st or 3rd person, would have gripped me hard by now.

OK, well, it's now WELL past when I would normally post my blog update, so I should probably start prepping for writing group now. Save something to say for next week.