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.
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.
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.
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.“I can still hear the screams… they’re so loud.”
- requested by my-name-is-tom-dupain on tumblr
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. |
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.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!
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment