New Month; New Drive

It's June! So, for all of my LGBTQ+ readers, Happy Pride Month!

Generated by Bitmoji

I'm hoping that June will bring more sunshine; banishing my "meh" feelings I've had most of this year thus far. We've had fairly nice weather these first four days of June, so that's a start. I even sat on my front porch writing a couple of times already.

Now, if only the temperature could remember it's June... I started off working on this blog post on the front porch this morning. It was bright out, barely any clouds, and there was a nice, light breeze. The problem was that it was still only about 50-degrees Fahrenheit, I was in the shade of my covered porch, and the light breeze was not a warm one. I lasted about 30min before I lost feeling in my fingers and toes, and I had to come inside. But the blinds are still up so I can enjoy the sunshine...

Eh, it's a start...

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

The sunshine alone does seem to be working it's magic, at least a little. As I mentioned above, I've been on the porch WRITING a few times already this week. Sadly, it only resulted in one bit of fiction writing, but still, I'm pouring words onto paper... er... screen... close enough.

I was too focused on figuring out my car situation last Tuesday to work on anything other than my blog, but I NEEDED to have some fiction written before the end of the month. I couldn't let myself slack off again. I needed to shake myself out of my rut, for fear that I'd never leave it otherwise.

Taurus Pixie had suggested to me last week that I should try writing some Laidren fanfiction, since there isn't really all that much of it out there, and I have yet to really touch that corner of the Love Square. ChibiSunnie also suggested that I could write more Lukanette fanfiction, since that seems to be my jam right now, and it was noted that there isn't very much "good" Lukanette fiction.

While I was too busy on Tuesday to actually start working on my fiction for May, I did take those suggestions into consideration, and tried to mentally come up with a story. Of course, an idea came to me as I was falling asleep.

I had finished off Pixie's birthday gift "I Was Thinking Of You" with the happy couple being discovered by Marinette's friends. I didn't really show any repercussions of the two of them getting together. Specifically, I didn't show what Adrien's reaction would be.

You know how much I love torturing this poor little bean, so of COURSE I had to continue IWTOY to showcase his reaction to discovering Lukanette was a thing. While I may, at some point in the (distant?) future, officially continue IWTOY by adding more chapters to the story, for right now I'm just making a series of short stories within this over-arcing plot.

So, my completed work of fiction for May is a short sequel to IWTOY, exploring Adrien's feelings after discovering Marinette is dating Luka.

Summary: Everyone has been acting weird all week, and when Adrien finds out why, he starts acting weird too. It can't all be about Marinette's new beau, could it?

You can check out my story at my normal three spots.

"Acting Weird"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

I even posted the full story on Tumblr, since it's only 2600 words: Acting Weird

Now, just because I had figured out the basic premise of this story Tuesday evening, it doesn't mean I actually had the darn thing finished with time to spare! Hardly, actually.

I started working on it on Wednesday, but I only had some sporadic moments at work to shift focus to my writing. Post-work, I got back into Zumba for the first time since my accident, and let me tell you how sore my legs were for the next three days!

My friend Rozsavaria wanted to try out the Zumba class with me, so I dragged her along. My sister-in-law and I also do an hour-long cool-down walk after our Zumba classes. It helps us with preventing cramping from just collapsing after the workout. It also gives us time to just chat and vent to each other. Not to mention, the extra steps doesn't hurt with over-all calorie burning. Anyway, Roz came with us, and the three of us chatted for a bit. By the time I got home it was time for a much-needed shower, some dinner, and just an overall collapse for the close of the evening.

Thursday I had off, but I focused on home-stuff and more car-stuff. For those of you who are wondering, I think the insurance debacle is sorted out, the other driver was deemed mostly at fault, and I have the funds to go fix my car now... in theory... assuming the insurance company didn't majorly low-ball me. I'm dropping the car off at the collision center tonight at least...

Anyway, Thursday evening Omnibladestrike came over for his weekly hang-out and anime watching. Naturally, I wasn't going to run away to write while Omni was over. While I'm sure I could have found time before Omni's visit to write, I just didn't take the opportunity.

Generated by Bitmoji

Which meant Friday was crunch time! I NEEDED to have the story done, edited, and posted before midnight in order to hit my goal.

It was a bit of a squeeze, with me formatting and posting between 11:30pm and 11:50pm, but I managed to get the story up on my main three sites before midnight.

NuaNia Facebook sticker
by PRANEAT

It kept me a touch longer to get things properly formatted on Tumblr, so I wasn't able to publish to that site until 12:15ish, but the story itself was done before June, so it counts.


In the four days that I've had "Acting Weird" up, I've had a nice influx of readers already! Short and sweet, with some Adrien angst, and mention of Lukanette, is my sweet-spot I guess.

Here are my stats as of this writing:

FFN: 692 views, 11 faves, 7 followers, and 6 reviews
AO3: 221 views, 29 kudos, 1 bookmark, but no comments
DA: 20 views, 2 faves, and 1 comment

Total Results: 933 views, 42 faves, 9 followers, and 7 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 8 likes and 2 reblogs

DA review:    <3

FFN reviews:
  1. I super love this.
  2. I like it! But it kind of feels unfinished?
  3. This was awesome! Thank you for sharing it!
  4. Yes he does... blind cinnamon roll! Thanks for writing and stay Amazing!
  5. This is an interesting approach. You should continue it.
  6. Taurus Pixie's review; see below

Yeah, you knew that if Pixie had reviewed this story that it had to be its own blockquote. I love how much she puts into her reviews! Makes my heart swell a touch.

Taurus Pixie:
*slams head against table*

UGH! ADRIEN! WHY MUST YOU BE SO DENSE AND INFURIATING?!

Ahem...sorry about that. That boy is seriously gonna break me one day, I just know it. You managed to capture his infuriating obliviousness and naivety perfectly in this fic. It was also great seeing everyone interacting at school and just have a normal day with no threats or akumas. It makes for a nice, peaceful and casual read. And of course it was amazing seeing the references to Lukanette. Everyone was very in-character which just made it even more awesome.

You never fail to blow me away with your ideas and talent. I'm sorry about your writing slump though. I know how annoying those can be. Great work as always! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

Haha, I think I may have broken Pixie slightly.... Sorry, girl!

Anyway, it's been so nice to see the comments, and watch my faves/kudos/bookmarks and hit counts climb. Not insane numbers in the thousands like a lot of fanfic writers, but still... over 900 hits in 4 days is nice.

Well, since I was able to hit my self-imposed deadline of at least one completed piece of fiction before the end of the month, I needed to hit my next deadline. Specifically, to continue my Meet My OCs series on Sunday, as I had promised myself.

In case you don't recall, two weeks ago I started up a Tumblr series of posts all dedicated to explaining who my main OCs were, and how I came up with the worlds they inhabit. I had originally intended to just crank them out over the weekend, but then the car accident happened, and I only managed to release the first of the series.

It had introduced what I wanted to do with the series, as well as explain the real-world inspiration for my worlds Gyateara and "Glitches". I then came back last Monday - having sucked at life and neglected to get the post done by Sunday's end - and posted the second part of my multiple-post series. That one broke down the real-world inspiration that produced my four Gyateara characters: Amara Yori, Jolene Crisslebalm, Natalie, and Connor.

Well, I wanted to get back on track, and have Part 3 of my series posted this Sunday. What I didn't take into consideration, however, is that I have a LOT more characters for Glitches, and they are much more developed with a lot more real-world influence.

I had written the post in Word since it was easier to see everything that way, and I had save features. The complete post ended up being 9 pages long! It kept me nearly the full 8hrs that Hubby was at work for me to write! A touch more epic than I had intended, plus, I think Tumblr has a word cap for their posts, and I didn't know if that would surpass it.

What really killed me, though, was that I had forgotten to manually hit save for an hour of writing. My laptop didn't give me the normal "your battery is dying, bro" pop-up warning, and with my sunglasses on outside I apparently didn't notice the screen dimming to save power. I just so happened to glance at the clock and noticed the battery icon nearly empty. I raced inside to plug my laptop in when it had something like 10min of battery life left. In my frantic scrambling to gather everything up and bring it into the apartment I didn't notice that Word ended up crashing on me. Which meant I only had my last save to use.... I had lost an hour of work. Joy.

So good at life, you guys.

Anyway, I was still able to finish writing up my post, and split it in two. Then came the struggle of formatting everything for Tumblr. I guess Tumblr got rid of its line-breaks, which sucks because they looked so much nicer than a series of dashes.

I had tried shifting everything I had written into HTML in order to format with header-sized fonts and line breaks and indents and bullet points within numbered points and... none of it worked properly. I must have spent an hour working on the coding, but when I previewed what I had done it never looked the way I wanted it to.

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I tweaked a few things here and there while in the normal Rich Text formatting, and left it at that. I think I had it looking well enough. Once that headache was done, I worked on formatting and posting the second part... er... of my third part... of a series.

ANYWAY! I got them done and up before midnight. Cutting it close again, but technically hitting my deadline.

Whoo! Technicalities!

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If you want to see how I spent my Sunday, you can check out the posts on my Tumblr:

Meet My OCs (Part 3a - Glitches Originals)

Meet My OCs (Part 3b - Glitches Reworks)

Yesterday I took a break from writing, and instead tried to focus on reading again. Last week I saw a Tumblr post showcasing a bookstore that had a bookcase display set up to suggest books based on the potential reader's gaming tastes. Things like "If you like to play Call of Duty: Black Ops (Zombies), then try World War Z by Max Brooks" or "If you like playing Sid Meier’s Civilization, then try A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin" or, my favorite because of how tongue-in-cheek it is, "If you like playing Mario Party, then try Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins."

Now, I don't know how closely the theme of these books and video games truly relate, but I figured I'd give some of the suggestions a try. Out of the list of 31 books, there were 3 games/franchises that I really enjoyed. So I figured I'd give these books a try.

If you liked "The Legend of Zelda,"
then try "Graceling" by Kristin Cashore 

If you liked "Fable,"
then try "The Young Elites" by Marie Lu

If you liked "Portal,"
then try "House Of Stairs" by William Sleator

Out of those three suggestions, my local library had "Graceling" and "The Young Elites." So, being such a huge "Legend of Zelda" fan, I figured I'd give "Graceling" the first try. See how close the aesthetics truly are.

Honestly, I'm not expecting much, especially based on the back cover blurbs. They seem like interesting stories, but trying to equate them to the games they're paired with feel like stretches.

The big thing with the Portal/House of Stairs pairing is that both involve a person - persons, in the book's case - trapped inside a strange building with no knowledge of how they got there, and I'm assuming puzzles need to be solved to leave?

"The Young Elites" has a main character who, after childhood tragedy, may have fantastic power and the potential to become a villain as much as she could become the hero. I can see how that might relate to "Fable."

"Graceling" though? The premise is that the main character Katsa has a "Grace" - which is kind of a mutation of preternatural skill - and her Grace is for killing; a power she can't stand. She then pairs up with another Graceling; an unlikely match.

I'm about 70pgs in, and I am enjoying the story, but I am NOT feeling "Legend of Zelda" at all while reading it. In fact, the other Graceling Po has a sort of "Aged Up Fanfic Chat Noir" feel to him. Also, based on the story blurbs, "Graceling" might tie in well with "The Young Elites" and "Fable" again, but so far no "Legend of Zelda."

The story IS still interesting to me though, because the Graces truly do feel like mutations. So... maybe some inspiration fodder for Glitches? We'll see.

Anyway, if you're interested in the full list of book suggestions, you can find the post here: Console-free Camping

If you join in on this list, feel free to let me know which game/book pairing you chose, and if you feel like the suggestion was accurate.

Until then, I'll keep up with my own reading, try to get some more writing in, and I'll catch you guys next week.

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Car Craziness

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to start off by saying

Me as a Bitmoji

No real writing done this week YET. AGAIN.

Granted, that is largely because I've been working on figuring out the insurance stuff - spoilers: it did NOT get sorted out last Tuesday - and checking to see how much it would cost to get the body work done on my car.

I've been to the police station to petition for a copy of the accident report once it's done.... which it isn't yet. Apparently it takes roughly two weeks for an accident report to be completed. I've set myself up with a new insurance company... long story I won't get into. I've gone to one collision center that gave me the top estimate of "only brand new parts for that specific vehicle from that specific maker." He seemed to know what he's doing, and I trust his skills, buuuut, he himself was being very unprofessional while I was there. The next collision center was a bit of a disaster with the owner grumbling about how crappy new cars are, and how he couldn't give me a proper estimate without taking the front off my car first, and then he slammed my hood shut... which dislodged my headlight further and wouldn't let my hood actually latch...


He also gave me the low-ball estimate of "probably going to use all refurbished parts, and I couldn't see everything without taking off the front" which was about half of the quote the first guy gave me.

Needless to say, I am NOT going to that second guy.

Thankfully, my manager at work knew of another collision center in the next town over, and let me leave work early so I could get an estimate before they closed for Memorial Day weekend. I have to say, I am DEFINITELY going with these last guys, as long as their estimate doesn't come back as more than the first guy's.

See, I don't have the estimate quite yet.... I got there with about a half-hour before the collision center closed. They took pictures for insurance purposes, and checked everything out to see what I would need replaced. They didn't have the time to look up prices for the pieces, though - hence me not having the quote yet - because they were a bit more concerned with a couple of other things.

As I mentioned, the headlight got dislodged further while the second repair guy was pulling and shifting things to see around the front bumper to see what needed replacing. Which meant the inside of my hood looked like this.

The back of the headlight was now resting on my fuse box and was preventing the hood from closing all the way. The cracks in the headlight were now at the perfect angle to catch the rain we had been having off and on all week, so some water was already pooled inside a touch.

Also, with all the not-so-gentle tugging on the front bumper, it was now significantly off the main body of the car. When I drove my Cruze to the third collision place, since I'd be on the road for about ten minutes or so, going about 50mph (80kph) on the stretch of road connecting the two towns, I thought I'd be smart and bungie everything together. I have a whole package of those mini-bungies that are only about 3 or 4 inches long (~8cm). I latched two from the hood to the body, making sure to lace through the bumper as well to try to hold everything together.

The guys at the collision center were not fans of my ingenuity....

They were afraid the bungies wouldn't hold. The bumper could fall off the front too quickly for me to stop, so I'd run it over; popping my tires and/or tearing my undercarriage apart. Or I could cause an accident. Oooor, the bungies would fail and my hood would come flying back at me, smashing in my windshield, possibly dislodging and destroying my roof, or even get me into another accident. Then there was the headlight problem: it could scrape the fuse box and damage that, at the very least abandoning me with no electricity to my car, at worse it could spark an electrical fire. Plus, the water pooling in the headlight could also cause a short. The turn signal wasn't working either, or the fog lamp... and I have no horn to warn people....

They were NOT going to let me leave with the car like that. So, instead of pricing up my quote for me, they - completely of their own accord; free of charge - spent the next half-hour banging out the dent a little on the one fender so the headlight could lay in it properly. They also JUST finished repairing another 2015 Cruze that was hit on the left side by a deer. So they had a "replacement" headlight. It's not a permanent fix since this light is cracked as well, but the bulbs still work and the crack isn't so bad as to allow water inside. So it's a better option for safety reasons.

Also, don't worry, all of this work was after they took the pictures for the insurance company, and the original headlight is in my trunk in case the adjuster needs to see it in person.

They also managed to easily pop my blinker back in place and snap my bumper back on. Now, my bumper is in place, my hood closes, my fuse box is clear, and my lights work! Still need to get the actual parts replaced, but it's a good tide-me-over until I can get that police report and finally get some pay out from insurance.

Headlight from other Cruze that was hit by a deer

Bumper popped back into place and hood fully closed!

I felt really safe knowing these guys were looking out for me. Even if it was a ploy to try to win my business, it worked. Customer service will win you clients most of the time...

So that's been MY week for the most part. That, and being so mentally drained from this whole nightmarish rollercoaster that I just zone out on the couch when I am home.

There was really no way I would get my mind to work well enough for quality writing.

I DID manage to finally finish part 2 of my Meet My OCs series over on Tumblr. I had meant to post the first three in the series - all of the Real Life Inspirational Backstory stuff - on Sunday the 19th, when I posted the first part. When that didn't happen, I meant to post part 2 - the Real Life inspiration for all of my Gyateara main characters - on Monday or Tuesday. Some time relatively close to the original post. That also didn't happen.

So I figured, "I know! It will be a weekly series! I'll post part 2 on Sunday!"

Bitmoji

Missed that too. So yesterday I was DETERMINED to get this post done and published before it got any later. I hid out on the front porch, enjoying the sunshine for an hour or two after work, and COMPLETED PART 2! Yay!

Who Wants to Meet My OCs? (Part 2 - Gyateara)

In case you aren't sure what I'm talking about, what I started doing on Tumblr is give the background, and eventually I'll give the actual bios, of my original characters. I've wanted to do this since November, and I'm finally pulling the trigger on it. Part 1 talked about my inspiration for the two main story worlds I'm working with: Gyateara and "Glitches".

Part 2 talks about the real-world inspiration for each of my Gyateara characters. Things that wouldn't show up in their character bios. Things like Amara being my first D&D character and based off a mini Hubby had given me when we were dating. Or Natalie and Connor each being hodge-podge meshes of cliched anime protagonists. Or Jolene being my longest-running D&D character who also inspired my first winning NaNoWriMo story.

So, if you want the full details on those four lovely characters, check out my Part 2 of my Meet My OCs series. I'm going to try REALLY HARD to get Part 3 properly done for a Sunday update over on Tumblr, but I'll be sure to link here on next week's blog as well.

Biscuit Facebook sticker
by Ghostbot

I did manage to get more reading in this week, though. Taurus Pixie had her latest chapter of "Chat Vert" up yesterday, and I quickly devoured it. We finally get to see Adrien's perspective of what's happened so far. We also get to see his jealous, borderline possessive, tendencies whenever he sees Ladybug with another man. That man, of course, is the amazing Luka. So... his nervousness about losing Ladybug to Luka is quite justified. Just... not EXACTLY the way he's thinking.

Anyway... go check out the story!

In the meantime, I haven't written anything fictional all month. I've slacked off a touch once, I don't want to do so again. I guess that means this week's goal is to write up a nice one-shot to finish the month off with. Anyone have any suggestions?

Oh! And I used some of my "I'm doing brainless activities to zen out" time this past week to go through my Bitmoji app and save just about every image I could find that MIGHT be valid to use on this blog at some point or another. I think I have over 200 images. So, you'll be seeing a lot more of Cartoon Me from now on.

Bitmoji

Farewell, Geodude

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But back to my own writing.

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

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

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

"CRY INTO MY MANLY BEARD!"

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

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

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

Whoops!


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

I want to encourage that, and help it grow.

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

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

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

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

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



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

And this is why I check.

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

And then I wasn't.

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

YAY!


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

......

Soooooo, uh.... yeah.

There you have it.

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

Whooo!

I DID manage to do three things yesterday though.

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

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

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

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

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

Without further ado, I present you with:

"Prescription for Love"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Video Games Have Taught Me

Finally figured out that this is Knives from the graphic novel series
"Scott Pilgrim" by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I really am starting to hate December, and I hate that I'm hating December, because I should love December. December has my husband's birthday, Spink's birthday, Christmas, and a slew of other holidays that my mother had us celebrate while growing up. Aside from the cold, I used to LOVE December.

The family time together. The decorations. The music and movies. The traditions.

Yeah, all that went in the toilet as soon as I moved out.

Crazy retail work weeks due to hectic holiday shoppers. Exhaustion from running around work in order to pay the extra bills not included in living at home with Mommy. Football taking over nearly every evening. Lack of children negating the "need" to do all the normal holiday extra stuff - decorating, checking out the neighbors' lights, watching movies, listening to music, baking cookies, etc. With just the two of us, December becomes the last minute run to the end of the year. I routinely forget what day of the week it is, let alone what date it is.

Hence me missing last week's blog post. Didn't even notice that I missed it until today. All my focus is on finishing the crochet project for my nephew, cleaning the house, finishing gift shopping, wrapping said gifts, and kicking this head cold's butt.

Oh, and my faithful car that I've had since 2006 is on death's door - has been since July, truthfully - and so I finally pulled the trigger and bought a new car. Problem being, the one that we found within our price range is a standard five-speed. I don't know how to drive stick. The only other option was an automatic - that I did love, by the way - that was more than three times the price. I couldn't justify spending the extra coin on the automatic. So, standard it is, and now I need to learn how to drive the darn thing!

So, it's probably pretty clear that writing has fallen to the back burner this past month.

Oddly enough, though, it kind of hasn't.

The wheels have still been churning over the past month. I don't have one thing I'm focusing on, though. I keep trying. While I'm spending hours mindlessly shelving and dusting at work I keep telling myself "This is a great time to let your mind wander and for you to mentally write something. Anything!" In the end, though, because I'm not working on a particular project, I come up blank.

I keep trying, though. Always keep trying.

I finished up the writing prompt for the last 2015 writer's meeting tomorrow night. It's definitely not my best work, but the concept didn't really catch my interest enough for my full heart to be in it. Still, it's one of the only pieces of the anthology that I put up on DeviantArt that was favorited. Two different people within three days of me posting it. So, maybe what I think is good is vastly different than what others believe to be good. Who knows?

"What a Crumby Day"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

It's actually super short compared to my normal works. It only clocks in at like 1200 words or something. I'm not very good at slice-of-life stories, which is what that turned out to be. It didn't need to be, though. I could have gone in any genre I wanted. All I needed to do was include the following elements from each sense:

• Feels Satin
• Smells Musky Perfume
• Sees Ice Breaking
• Tastes Apple Pie
• Hears Bells

I don't know why I ended up writing slice-of-life when I'm so bad at it. I didn't even do so on purpose to try to practice and improve. I just went with the story that came to me. Part of the "Channeling Methodology" of writing, I guess.

Besides working on the writing prompt to read tomorrow, I've been brewing things in my head the past few days. Mostly taking note on what I need to do for further world building.

It's the holidays, and it's been crazy. Both Ronoxym and Cyhyr work retail as well, plus both have much larger families than Hubby and I do. So I figured their crazy must be a step up from ours, and so I halted on my playful harassment of Ron on the progress of Please, Let Me Explain. At least, until the new year. Come 2016, I'm going Life Coach on him about this story.

In the meantime, as I mentioned, I've been brainstorming more world building.

A friend lent Hubby his copy of Skyrim. Yes, we are slowpokes who haven't even attempted to play this game in the 4yrs since it came out. Our friend thought that was a travesty, and he's too fixated on Star Wars Battlefront right now to really care about playing Skyrim anyway. So, Hubby's been playing for the past few days.

Hubby's one best man Shadow - AKA The Bard, as he was previously referred to in this blog - has always stated that the best thing about the Elder Scrolls games was the lore and background they put into the open-world storytelling. You could become just about anything. You could do just about anything. You can wander just about anywhere. The game world was your oyster. So the thing that really ties it all together - since the actual game plot is very vague and buried under all the open-world fun you can have - is the depth, complexity, and realism of the world you run around in.

Everyone has their own problems that don't rely on you. You can help them solve the problems, or they can take care of themselves. Just like in the real world. Characters don't just sit around and wait to hand you another piece of the plot's puzzle. They are having their own arguments and conversations that you walk into. Just like in the real world. I love it. This is what role play games should be like. Granted, I am horrible with first-person game play, which is the default of these games, which is why - despite the genre - I haven't been much of a fan. However, if I can learn to drive a standard car, perhaps I can master dual-thumbstick maneuvering in First-Person games.

This is all besides the point.

The point is I'm watching the detail and complexity of the world that Bethesda Games created. I'm loving it! I really am. Hubby needed to finish a side quest that required him to bring booze to the town drunk. Is said drunk just sitting and waiting for Hubby's return like in most games? NO! He had to run around the town for about five minutes before he found the guy, who was off doing whatever it was that he was planning on doing that day anyway. Hubby also runs across open fields to stumble upon people being attacked by raid groups that completely ignore the "hero" that just appeared. Hubby's character is so insignificant to the world he's running around in. Fantastic!

So, I'm realizing that I need to work on doing the same thing while creating Gyateara. I need to think of it as a large web of stories all unfolding together. Building lives that would run without the main characters of my stories ever getting involved. If I do what I originally planned with Gyateara, and have it as my own D&D world for campaigns, I need to make sure that the parties that run through my campaigns are just as insignificant to the world around them. That is, until they do something major enough to affect it. Having the world sit and wait for the players or the main characters is just poor world building and boring writing.

Nothing has really come to mind quite yet, but I'm setting the gears in motion to come up with these other mini-stories and conflicts to have in Gyateara. At this rate, I might not run a single campaign or write a single story in that world until I'm 50, but by gum, they'll be fantastic when I do!

In theory....

So, in case the week gets the better of me and I don't get the chance to make up my missed update by posting on time this week, have a merry Christmas. Even if you don't celebrate it, still have a merry and blissful December 25th.