Also, sorry for the delay on this week's post. I had a surprise visit from Ronoxym and Cyhyr this morning. So you can blame them for distracting me.
Anyway, this past week was actually pretty booked with other things, so writing kind of fell to the wayside.
I had a project I needed to finish for a gift, so that took up most of my freetime outside of work. That, and I ended up hanging out with Rozsavaria - formally known as Spink on this blog, but Rozsavaria is her main online handle, so that's her name here now - and she taught me how to knit.
 |
| It's not very good. I mean, it's not BAD, but it's also not very good. |
Anyway, yeah, I just did a lot of crafting outside of work this week. And some socializing, hence the hang-out with Roz. Omnibladestrike also did his weekly hang-out with us on Sunday. Quarthix was over last Tuesday to draft for fantasy football before I went to writing group. I've been a bit busy.
Also, since I brought up the topic:
 |
| I like reviving old memes.... |
While I was at my job I actually - surprise, surprise - did work! Yeah! About once every other month I have to go through all of our clearanced out items. This list is usually an inventory of about 450 items between the actual furniture and the decorative items such as lamps and wall art. I have to double check the spreadsheet I created is up-to-date on pricing, price drops, items on the list, and how many items are left between all of the company's stores. I then scan the items, print off, cut, fold, and hang the new tags; again double checking the pricing verses my spreadsheet. I also have to double check that we have barcodes for everything, that everything on my list matches what is on our floor, that items that were sold were properly taken out of the system and off our inventory, and look for the inevitable one or two items that are on our list but I can't find on our floor. This past week I also added in the task to photograph everything so I can also keep together a visual inventory of things that are harder to differentiate based on the item name: such as lamps or wall art. So I kept myself hopping this past week.
This left virtually no free time to write, and the few minutes I probably could have written I ended up wasting on YouTube videos instead.
A year or two ago, after I read Dante's Inferno, I discovered a YouTube channel called Overly Sarcastic Productions.
It was fun, but I didn't really get too far into the channel. Mainly because - as most people seem to rationalize these days - I can totally sit and watch four 10-min long episodes because "come on; it's just 10minutes!" but heaven forbid I watch one of OSP's 26-min videos about classic literature... I just don't have the time for that!
Anyway, one day last week I was going through a writing post on Tumblr that talked about tropes and cliches: how to avoid them, and which ones you could keep in. The article commented about OSP's Trope Talks playlist for some great and humorous discussions about literary tropes. Basically Red breaks down the tropes, comments about how they can become bad cliches and hinder writing, but also talks about how they can be fantastic tools for improved writing.
And thus I was hooked. I just tore through all of the Trope Talks currently up, checked out a few of Blue's History Summarized, and I'm now going through the Miscellaneous Myths playlist.
Everything is informative, so I FEEL like I'm being productive. However, LEARNING about writing isn't actually writing, and in learning about writing I'm failing to CONTINUE writing, so it is a wash when all is said and done. I just hope my writing improves because of the "research" I've been doing.
My final bit of procrastinating? Well, you can blame Jowy's Pixie for that...
As I'm sure we're all well aware by now, Pixie is the one who has left me those lengthy, ugly-cry-inducing reviews on "Peeping Tomcat". Well, through my messages to thank her for all of her reviews, and her replies back, we've built up a nice rapport. I think it's safe to say we even have the starting seeds of a friendship.
Well, along with this budding friendship, I've also picked up on how articulate she is. She has her thoughts well thought out, and they are meaningful and unique. I just knew she was a good writer, even though she gobbled up a whole humble pie and thinks she's just "okay". I couldn't believe that, and so I hopped on over to her FFN profile. She has three on-going "Miraculous Ladybug" fanfics right now. All of them are 50,000+ words long!
I wasn't sure if I could invest in such long stories, but I wanted to at least get a taste of her work. So I chose the shortest one she had: an AU where Chat Noir is a cat demon instead of a superhero, and Marinette is just a simple girl.... that accidentally sold her soul to Chat Noir.
It's called "Immortal Bond." It is a bit mature, intense, and dark though.Accidentally selling her soul to a demon wasn't the smartest thing Marinette could have done while messing around with a Ouija board alone. Especially when that demon is the devious Chat Noir, demon prince of bad luck and destruction. AU.
I've seen people subvert the "Chat Noir is a demon" trope... and yes, it is a trope; you'd be surprised how many came up with this idea. Sure, CN is a demon, but he's still playful and fairly in character. Pixie, on the other hand, doesn't try to subvert the trope. Chat Noir is a demon who TRIES to be nice, flirty, and protective of Marinette. However, he ends up being possessive, stalkerish, aggressive, emotionally abusive, and demanding. Thankfully, Pixie also has Marinette trying to find any way she can to escape from Chat Noir, and the story does address the stress and fear Marinette suffers. Even with all of that though, Chat Noir is still one of the "good guys" and is played as an anti-hero. Well... more of an anti-villain since he's the main antagonist. But it is largely hinted that there is a Big Bad villain that Chat is trying to protect Marinette from, so back to anti-hero?
My point being, while lots of people subvert the "a character is a demon" trope, and I went in totally expecting that, Pixie is not one of those writers. She goes gritty. So.... trigger warning? I guess? But if you can handle a darker theme it is well worth the read.
In fact, I actually read her whole story in just two days! I read the first five chapters on Sunday, and then the second half during the slow times at work on Monday. I have NEVER read a 50,000+ word story that fast! It just begged for me to keep going. True, there still needs to be some more polish to it and perhaps one really good line-edit revision, but what fanfiction doesn't?
The concept is compelling and intriguing to me. The characters are forced to be in darker and more severe situations than are presented on the show, which means there's no canonical precedent as to how Marinette or Chat Noir would act. This means they're both a bit out of character, but understandably so. What this also means is that the story doesn't HAVE to be a "Miraculous Ladybug" story. Pixie can rename the characters and she'd be good to go to have it be an original story. I hope that perhaps one day she does rework it as an original.
Anyway, if you're looking for a good lengthy story, don't mind waiting for the weekly updates on chapters, and can handle the darker themes, go check out "Immortal Bond."
Aaaaaaand, since I'm promoting stories now anyway, I might as well let you know that the pre-order links for "Leather and Lies" are finally live! Don't forget to check out Celeste Straub's premiere novel!
For the time being, you can pre-order on Amazon and on Smashwords.
Other pre-order locations to come include: Kobo, Nook, iTunes, and GooglePlay.
I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.
And one more person to promote....
One of the artists I fell in love with via the Miraculous fandom is Eden Daphne. You probably read me commenting about her on here before. She's the artist and co-author for a few of my favorite fanfics:
- When Duty and Desire Meet
- Under Lock and Key
- Freed in the Rain (a one-shot within an anthology)
Over the weekend she opened up her commissions. Her prices are actually really reasonable, even borderline "cheap" for the work.
Do I go for an OC? And if so, who?
- My first main OC Amara Yori... the Edge Lord?
- My first X-Future character, the meek and motherly Lia Maddox?
- Arguably my main X-Future character: party girl and playful flirt Willow Driver?
- My psychotic, but fun to write, Brotherhood character Trish Morrison?
- My main NPC Crystal McGinty?
- My most-played D&D character Jolene Crisslebalm, the Golden Succubus?
- My newest D&D character the gnome Elymoxa Welbys Alver Teenybump?
- My Numenera character, the cyborg Jynna?
- What about my Gyateara characters? Female lead Nathalie, or male lead Connor?
I also have about three or four characters from when I played "Vampire: The Masquerade", two or three more D&D characters, and the list goes on....
Alternatively, I could go for a lower tier, pay for the background and/or extra characters, and ask for scenes from "Peeping Tomcat." It would help me promote the story now that it's done, and it could have the added bonus of Eden Daphne possibly wanting to read my fanfic. The trick here though is which scene?
There were so many options! I just couldn't narrow it down.- When Chat Noir first accidentally peeps on Marinette?
- When Adrien and Marinette have their cute heart-to-heart on the subway?
- Their pseudo-date at the movies?
- And even then, do I go for Adrien helping Marinette clean up her spilled popcorn?
- Or when he cheered her up by eating the rest of his popcorn that she accidentally knocked onto him?
- Or when she grabs his hand during the intense part of the movie?
- Do I showcase my original akumas?
- Which one there? Mimicker in the mall with her army of Chloes?
- Terravenger and his plant creatures after turning Place des Vosges into a dense forest; Marinette's family's home completely overrun?
- Gremlin taking out the electronic devices outside Center Hall?
- What about when Chat Noir watches Marinette drawing the yin-yang dress?
- When he watches her dance in her room?
- What about the Chat Noir Appreciation Festival?
- Do I not care about spoilers and have Eden Daphne draw Chat Noir finally seeing Tikki? Or even PLAGG first seeing Tikki?
Then ChibiSunnie intelligently suggested I just write all the options down and draw from a hat to see which one to ask for. I asked Hubby to pull from the cup for me, and he did so in a very unconventional manner that I won't get into.
While Amara was the first slip of paper pulled, he quickly declared, without even looking at the slip of paper, that the LAST ONE in the cup will be the winner. This resulted in Willow being the winning "pick", although I could have overridden him and went with Amara instead since she was the first one pulled.
I almost did, too. Mainly because Chibi has drawn me a couple of cards that had Willow on them already, so I technically already had fanart of her... or, free commissions since I asked Chibi to draw Willow on my cards?
Anyway, I decided to go with the spirit of the lottery that Hubby came up with, and asked Eden Daphne for commissioned art of Willow. Luckily, I got my request to her before she closed her commissions again. It wasn't even open for 24hrs before she received enough requests that she needed to close commissions down! I sure lucked out in getting my request in on time!
I chose the "full color, full body, no background, only one character" option. It SHOULD come out to be the $70 listed on the above sheet, but I haven't received the invoice yet. I did send Eden Daphne my write-up of Willow's physical description and personality, as well as some reference pictures. She seems super excited to work on Willow's asymmetrical silver-haired bob with blue streaks.
While I get that drawing takes time, I also can't wait to see the first WIP sketches to come my way! It's going to be so cool when I get the completed artwork! I also gave Eden Daphne fair warning that I just might attempt to slot myself into more of her commission openings in the future. I feel she might have to turn me away soon enough so she can give other people a try!
Alright, now that I'm done with promoting everyone else's stuff, it's FINALLY time to promote my own.
Like I said, I didn't really do much writing this past week. However, I DID still need to reach that "one new story per month" goal. So I polished up the akumatizing side story for "One and the Same." It is crazy early to try to promote this sequel, and most people will probably forget about this side-story by the time the main one comes out.
That said, it was the only story I had written in August, and it was ready to publish with just one more pass-through for line-edits. No need to stress trying to write something new and edit it within a couple of days.
"Making Headlines"
There isn't as much love for this story, mainly because it's so small - about 1000 words - and it doesn't include any of the main characters. I knew it was going to have low readership, though. All of my akumatizing stories have a small reader base. Even so, the reviews have been promising.
I even received a review from my mother.
- Oh damn! Of course you never cease to tease! ;p Intriguing, as always. Waiting for the continuation!
- Ooh, I totally like this!
- Oh, this is interesting! It makes me look forward to the story coming out next year!
- I liked this tale, especially the interactions between Nadia (who herself isn't too sure of her job) and the upcoming Clara. Clara stuck to the broken bones and lost dogs news items is somewhat sad and yet real for starting reporters. Jammer maar helaas! (Its' a shame, but there is nothing to do about it! You'll have to admit it looks better in Dutch)
I ADORE Headliner's outfit! She does have a "Press card" on her Fedora? That'd be awesome! I'm looking forward to next installments! I'd also want to thank you for all of your time you spend/lost on creating this wonderful, editing this great, writing out this amazing and most of all for sharing this delightful first chapter for our joy and contentment![sic]
 |
| Hacker Girl Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc. |
Mom: You actually have me hooked, so hurry up and tell me what happens. I knew eventually you'd write something for your mother.HAHAHA! Happy to please, Mom! For those who don't know, while my mother is a strong cheerleader of mine, I never seem to write anything that she enjoys reading. It's either horror/thriller/gory, or it's "super nerdy" with it being a fanfic of a show she doesn't watch or a book she didn't read. She likes romance, and wishes I'd write more of that. So, honestly, this no-romance-involved story catching my mother's eye is a bit of a surprise to me. Glad to have her hooked though.
I also received another guest review, but it's probably my mom as well, since she tends to accidentally double post when she tries to edit something she already posted....
- "You actually have me hooked so you better write fast and tell me what happens."I'm excited that I'm getting people pumped for this sequel.
NOW TO ACTUALLY WRITE THE DARN THING!
Speaking of, this post is already about 5hrs late. I think I should call it 'good' and focus on my story instead. Let's just hope Eden Daphne or Jowy's Pixie don't update for a couple of days.
No comments:
Post a Comment