Welcome to October

Happy October, everyone! Welcome to my favorite month. It has fall, leaves changing colors, Halloween, and a distinct smell to it between the crisp air, fireplace and pellet stove smoke, pumpkin spice, apple cider, and decay of vegetation going into hibernation for winter.

There are two other reasons why October is my favorite month. One of which is that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

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So, in honor of BCA, I'm changing all of my hyperlink colors from blue to pink for the posts I publish this month. If the shade of pink I choose ends up hard to read for you, please let me know in the comments below, and I'll try a different shade.

Also, please remember that, at least in the USA, breast cancer screenings are either free or very-low cost. They are uncomfortable, sure, but they aren't all that bad - I've had mammograms and ultrasounds myself - and the technology is there for nearly everyone to survive breast cancer if it's detected early enough. So please, go get yourself screened. Self-check at home. Remind any breasted persons you know that they should get checked. Also, remember that you don't have to have breasts to contract breast cancer, it can affect any soft chest tissue. Watch yourselves; check yourselves; be knowledgeable of your bodies and talk to a doctor if you notice anything new.

Long-time readers of this blog would know that my mom is a breast cancer survivor. My mother-in-law was one as well, as was one of my mother's aunts, one or two of my mother's cousins, and a few of my mom's friends. I've had a friend or two myself who have had breast cancer scares. Of all the cancers that infect this world, breast cancer specifically seems to hit the most of my friends, family, and neighbors. It is a cause near and dear to me, and I will fight the only ways I know how - and can financially manage - to make sure no one else has to die from this disease. So, please, use this month to remember to check yourselves, and remember to screen for other cancers throughout the rest of the year. Stay safe and healthy the best you can. Love you all!

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by Bitmoji

As for the last - and arguably, now the most important - reason October is my favorite month? Well...

I had known for some time now that I was going to be working this past Tuesday, and therefore couldn't work on my blog post in the morning, as I usually do. I even planned on spending Monday evening – while the football game was on – writing my post so it would be scheduled and ready to go for my normal noon update time. Clearly, that didn't happen. I didn't even open Blogger to start it.

Such a slacker.

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So, why was I working on a Tuesday anyway? Well, it's so I could have Wednesday off, of course. It was kind of an important day. The main reason why I love October so much, although, to be fair, my love for October to begin with was the main reason we picked it....

Hubby and I celebrated 8 awesome years on the 2nd!

Look how cute we were!

I grabbed a shot of Rogue and Gambit from a comic book cover
in order to cover up Hubby's face and mine.
I think it works awesome for me, but Hubby looks like he's
wearing a creepy plastic mask. XD
Sorry, Hubby. <3

We celebrated with quite the lazy day on Tuesday. Hubby has been hit with the plague for the past two weeks, plus his long work shifts have been giving him back problems, and so leaving the apartment to go and do anything would be tricky. Didn't really matter much to me. If I could spend all day snuggling him - after spraying him down with Lysol, of course - I would be a happy camper.

With that in mind, we started our anniversary off right by not turning the alarm on when we went to bed the night before, and then slept in until 10am.

Like the adults we are.

Yeah.

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Once we decided there should be more to our anniversary than snuggling in bed, we made a hearty brunch, and proceeded to finally plow through Good Omens.

Yeah, we caved, and grabbed that free month trial of Amazon Prime so we can get our Halloween costumes situated on time. Which also means we can FINALLY watch the Prime shows people have been gushing about. We already binged The Boys a few days ago, and now that we're done with Good Omens we have Carnival Row queued up. We'll see if we can manage to get through it before the trial ends, especially since we've also been playing catch-up on the YouTube series Oxventure.

Official Oxventure promotional artwork from 2017
by DustyLeaves (aka Bendix)

Yup, while seemingly the rest of the world is obsessing over the D&D campaign series Critical Role, Hubby and I have started up watching Oxventure instead. We've been following the channels OutsideXbox and Outside Xtra for some time now, but we usually stuck with their listicles, so we didn't really know what was up with their Oxventure segments.

What was up was that, in September of 2017, to celebrate hitting two-million subscribers on OutsideXbox, the OX crews – Andy, Jane, and Mike from OutsideXbox, and Luke and Ellen from Outside Xtra – decided to film their first ever attempt at playing D&D. It was fantastic, and became a fan-favorite. Since that premiere session, they've continued kind of sporadically posting campaign sessions. They are currently up to thirteen sessions and a leveling video – split into 28 videos – and roughly half of those gaming sessions were filmed live at conventions. As first-time players, they seem to be having great fun, and their kooky role-playing antics just feel so much like my own play group. Complete with the players dumbing down their characters - or the DM dumbing down an NPC - simply because it's more amusing that way. For instance, the bard Dob has become canonically horrendous with money. He tends to accept quests for no reward, overpays for everything - such as spending 50gold on a round of drinks for the 5-person party when a typical pint of ale is generally half-a-gold in most D&D campaigns - uses the party's loot as if it were common items - such as weighing down a makeshift diving bell with gold bars - and he also routinely tosses their loot overboard, assuming it will be "safer" at the bottom of a lake. While not a reference to Dob's financial ineptitude, the pirate and self-appointed party leader Corazon canonically sells tunics that say "Don't be a Dob" on the front of them.

Likewise, as I mentioned, my play group also does stupid "our character should know better" moves for the overall entertainment value it brings to the story. Heck, in the latest session Hubby and I participated in, our characters - WHO SHOULD HAVE DEFINITELY KNOWN BETTER - requested probably the dumbest reward for clearing out a goblin den. We were going to be staying in the town for a few days, so my character asked for "free room and board" for the length of time that we would be there. However, Hubby's character misheard, and asked for "room and A board." So now the party has two free rooms - one for the men; one for the women, even though we never split the party that way - in the local inn for as long as we're in town... and a plank of wood that my character - who is a cat-person - uses as a stress-relieving scratching post. Along with the free room and "a board," Hubby's character - who really shouldn't have been the one to hand our reward request to the town mayor - requested just ONE SOLITARY MEAL voucher for us all to share for that night's dinner. We also received a large boat-shaped cookie for each of us when our original request for a fleet of "baby boats" - rowboats - was denied. We're good at this "receiving a reward" thing.

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So, when I hear the Oxventure Guild characters doing The Stupid, such as the dragonborn paladin propelling himself over a wall by standing on his shield and exploding a bomb beneath it, I just... I feel at home?

Hubby and I will have to get to Critical Role eventually, but each of those videos are roughly three hours long, and the first campaign alone is 121 videos! That's a little over 15 straight days! It will take us over 4 months to finish just the first campaign if we watch only ONE session each night; nevermind catching up on the second campaign. That 4-months schedule also takes for granted that we wouldn't be watching anything else - such as anime with Omnibladestrike on Saturdays; football Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays; or The Masked Singer on Wednesdays - otherwise it will take even LONGER to catch up with the series. We'd also have to ignore all of the extra content on that channel! Meanwhile, each Oxventure video is between 40 and 70 minutes long... a touch easier to get through. Especially when it looks like the last one was posted in August, so it's not like we have to catch up on a new one weekly. Although, it should be noted that they're doing another live session at EGX in London the weekend of October 18th, so the campaign seems to still be going strong.

Anyway, if you want a goofy, light-hearted, quick-to-watch D&D campaign series, I do suggest Oxventure. And if you're still not convinced, I'd like to add that Merilwen's cat form is friggen adorable.

Luke as Half-Orc bard Dob, and Ellen as Wood Elf druid Merilwen.
Stuffed kitty as Merilwen's Cat Wild-form.
Screen shot from "Bad Chair Day"

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Soooo, yeah.

Hubby and I have been taking in the stories of the Oxventures Guild, The Boys, and Good Omens. I've also tried to go through a few more prompt ideas, still struggling with Ronoxym's now much-belated birthday gift. At least my struggles have helped ChibiSunnie come up with a new story idea. She was trying to help me brainstorm for Ron's gift, and in doing so I somehow got onto the topic of the show Altered Carbon on Netflix. The basic concept of the series ended up sparking an idea for Chibi, and she kind of ran with it. Her teacher and classmates are super excited with the solarpunk alien-world story she's developing, and I also can't wait to see what she came up with. Sooooo... there's always that. Happy to help.


I was still struggling though, and while talking to Wolfhearted about my Ronoxym dilemma, he told me that Ron's favorite character of all time just might be Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. I looked the series up and.... it's up to fifteen novels! Just reading ONE novel quickly enough to write a Dresden fanfic before the end of the month would be challenging, but to read FIFTEEN so that I could fully know the lore, and Harry's character development, and yada-yada? Nope. No way I'd be able to do that. Especially with the shows I still want to watch this month - I didn't even mention above that I also want to watch the Dark Crystal series on Netflix - and finishing pre-NaNoWriMo prep.

Feeling defeated yet again, I noticed that Butcher has a sort of prequel short story as well as a vignette posted on his website. I read both to get the basic feel for the series and the character of Harry Dresden. In doing so, I had a bit of a light bulb moment.

The concept of The Dresden Files is that Harry is a modern Chicago P.I. who happens to also be a wizard, and therefore also works to help magical creatures in need of a P.I. He also uses his magic to protect normal humans from the magical world they didn't know surrounded them.

Now, Ronoxym also likes the works of Rick Riordan, in which ancient Greek/Roman, Egyptian, and Norse gods/mythology are real and still around in the modern world. The teenage main characters must keep the mythological world hidden from regular mortals. Also, the protags all have special abilities of some form thanks to being mages or demigods or – in the case of The Trials of Apollo – a god-turned-mortal.

On top of that, while it is on my always-expanding “to read” list, I have yet to get to the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. However, it was Ron who had suggested it to me, and Ron who is cautiously excited about the Disney adaptation of the first book coming out early 2020. The concept of that series? A modern-day, teenage, criminal mastermind, and his interactions with Fairies. Although he starts off as an anti-hero – holding a Fairy hostage in the first book – he evolves to become a sort of reluctant ally of the Fae throughout the series.

Now hold up, because we're not quite done yet. The last I checked, Ron's favorite TV series is Supernatural. For those who don't know, that series follows the Winchester brothers Sam and Dean as they fight the – surprise, surprise – supernatural forces in the modern world. Usually it's demons and generic monsters, sometimes it's angels, who aren't nearly as kind and loving as the Bible would imply. The long-and-short is that it is yet again a modern, urban fantasy in which supernatural / paranormal / mythological beings are being hidden from mortal common knowledge.

Then you have the LARPs Ron plays via the White Wolf World of Darkness campaigns in which vampires, werewolves, mages, changelings, and even mummies roam the world; hidden from public knowledge.

Sensing the same theme I did?

Urban fantasy in which magical creatures are part of the day-to-day, but are somehow hidden from public knowledge, and the main character is the bridge between the two worlds? I could do that. It wouldn't be a Hunger-Games-like dystopia, nor would it be about Harry Dresden or any other fandoms Ron is in. However, if I do it correctly, perhaps a completely original work can still be entertaining enough that Ron will enjoy it.

So back to searching for more writing prompts. I actually collected quite a few that I enjoyed, even though most of them wouldn't really work with the urban fantasy feel I was now going for.

• The king has passed away without naming a proper heir to the throne. However, none of the six siblings are interested in inheriting the crown. The struggle to push the crown to someone else begins now.
• You are the king. After your daughter was kidnapped by a dragon, you offered the standard reward of her hand in marriage to whomever rescued her. You weren't expecting her to be rescued by a different dragon.
• With hair as black as ebony, lips red as blood, and skin as white as snow, you are a truly terrifying vampire. The people still tell of you to this day, even though you haven't publicly paraded as a vampire for centuries. The only problem? Some idiot screwed up, and now people tell the story of “Snow White” the Disney princess, rather than “Snow White” the deathly feared vampire.
• First appearing as a discoloration on your shoulders, now the scaling has spread across your chest and arms. You are changing, and you're not sure how much longer you can keep it a secret from the ones that you love.
• Three ancient dragons have existed for thousands of years. They hold the key to the kingdom's power source while protecting it from outside threats. When two of the dragons are killed mysteriously, a ragtag group of Orcs must find a way to the third before it's too late.
• Tinnitus is actually the result of pissed-off pixies, who haven't been properly fed in a couple of centuries (hint: it involves sugar and rum).
• You've been raised all your life to fulfill a prophecy, only for the seer to realize they were mistaken – you have no great destiny after all. What do you do now?

I could go on, but this is getting a bit excessive already. Just know that I now have a file of prompt ideas for my next writer's block moment. Before I move on, though, there are still a few others I wanted to make sure I shared. First, there were some that made me think of Taurus Pixie's story Immortal Bond, or Ali Luke's Lycopolis universe.

• Due to certain circumstances that are best left untold, you are now fused with a demon. What this means, however, is unknown.
• You're possessed by a demon. You quickly realize he's never done this before.
• The demon stands amid your destroyed kitchen screaming. “How? How were you able to summon me!?”
  You're standing in the corner frantically flipping through your grandma's cookbook, screaming back, “I don't know!! You were supposed to be chicken soup!”

That last one makes me chuckle whenever I re-read it.

And then there was one which made me think of the Legend of Zelda character Navi: bane of just about every player who played “Ocarina of Time.”

The tiniest fairy settled on your shoulder. She was cute at first, but several months later, you are desperate to get rid of her.

The main one I wanted to share though, was the final prompt I read to Hubby.

You finally build enough courage to talk to that cute someone you see every day on the bus. Their face turns dark as they respond, “You shouldn't be able to see me.”

This one proved to be the winner. Upon hearing it, Hubby actually thought of a slightly different prompt for me. He quickly jotted it down, and when I read his idea I fell in love. I could work with this prompt. In fact, while at work on Tuesday, I did some research and worked on my world-build. I don't know if I'll be able to get the story done before this upcoming Tuesday, but I'm aiming for the 18th at the latest, that way it's within the first month of Ronoxym being 30. Still counts, right?

Speaking of writing prompts and self-appointed deadlines. The Fruits Basket fan-event “Kyoru Week” begins on Sunday. One week of daily prompts – already released so people can get a jump start on their stories/artwork – dedicated to the Fruits Basket ship of Kyo Sohma and Tohru Honda. As Chibi pointed out, I've already written two Kyoru stories, unprompted, over the past few months. If I tag-team thinking of those seven prompts and figuring out my story for Ron, might I be able to conquer both???

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For those who want to join in with Kyoru Week over on Tumblr, the link is here, and for those who don't want to go to Tumblr, here is the list of prompts.

I will either be in a writing frenzy the next couple of weeks, or I won't get anything accomplished. I guess we'll have to see which way I go. I'm personally pulling for the “writing frenzy” option, but considering how late this blog post is I don't have terribly too high hopes....

Although, to be fair, I HAVE been working on it daily since Tuesday, but time restrictions prevented me from working on it for more than a few paragraphs at a time....

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

OH! I almost forgot! I can officially retire my netbook now!

I've been complaining for quite a bit lately about how slow the poor thing has been running, and how it's gotten to the point where it won't even charge properly anymore. It is roughly a decade old, to be fair. Also, the keyboards is... shall we say... worn?

My glorious 10" HP Mini

Can you guess what keys, what part of the space
bar, and what portion of the touch-pad
I use the most?

The poor thing truly is in such bad shape. Most of the keyboard writing is missing from it! Also, do you see the claw marks my habitually long nails left behind after so many years? Poor keyboard!

I'm not actually getting rid of the netbook. That way I have it and the cables as emergency back-up should my laptop, my new netbook, and Hubby's laptop all fail me. It's an unlikely event, and I probably shouldn't "hoard" in an already overly cluttered home, but still....

To replace my old HP Mini, I now have an HP Stream, which is supposedly the replacement model after HP discontinued the Mini.

I've been using the Stream for about a week, as of this writing.
So there's quite a few finger/hand prints on the ribbed cover already.

It's not as pretty as that awesome vibrant red Mini cover, but it's still sleek, and it's suuuuper light. I think I've read BOOKS that are heavier than this thing! But it doesn't feel flimsy either. It should be able to last me for a little while.

Look at this happy new 11.5" netbook

Oh, hey! All of the letters are still on the keys!

I'm excited with this purchase, and the Stream is FAST too. Not much space on it, but once you clean up some of the surplus programs that come standard with HP Windows 10 - such as Xbox live stream, a couple of game demos, and Skype, which I rarely ever use - you have a comfortable amount of memory available to save a couple of small things. I also almost exclusively work on my netbook with my external plugged in, so everything is saved to and taken off of that. More than enough for what I use the computer for. I can actually use the internet with ease as well. That was always the big irony of my Mini. It was a Netbook, but even when it was new it was fairly slow while on the internet. That's not a problem for me anymore.

Now to find my Muse again, and some downtime at work, and I'm in business again. Yay!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

The Next Challenge

I don't know if I'm still on track to do a half-NaNo for this month's Camp NaNoWriMo, but I have managed to stay ahead of the curve since the 9th. Largely due to the massive writing session I managed to get done that day. Saved my butt after neglecting my writing again for four days. On the fifth day, though, I was back below where I should be by July 14th, so I cracked the whip again. I've missed two days since, but otherwise I've written at least 300-some words per day to stay ahead of the game. Out of my 10,000 goal for the month, I'm currently at 6334 words. Not the greatest, but also not too shabby considering how little I wrote pretty much April through June.

Yes, I'm doing fairly well with the word count, but what about the narrative? Well, I didn't get as far as I would have wanted before tonight's writing group. I knew I wasn't going to have it done, but I wanted to at least have the confrontation through to the end written.

I do have the confrontation, and the end, written, but I've been firmly avoiding writing the actual fight scene. How many more times do I have to admit how much I'm dreading this? Maybe I can convince myself to write it today so I can indeed have the back half of the story done by group tonight.

Or, at least, maybe have the rest of the opening written and explain my hesitation with the fight scene. That shouldn't be so bad, right? "Here's this story, and then they fight and Devon gets his ass handed to him, and here's the ending..."

The problem with finishing the rest of it - meaning, the opening of the story - is knowing how to start it. I know that Nyssa gets letters from her parents, but I don't know how to explain her parents knowing where she is. Maybe the teachers at the Xavier Institute contacting the parents? But if Nyssa's family truly are mutant haters, wouldn't the teachers want to shield her from that? Even if I skim over how Nyssa's family found her, how do I explain Devon's ability to escort Nyssa by himself when they feared Trish was with her parents? Why was the default "We need to go and get them" instead of "We need to let the X-Men know so they can save them"? Why did they keep the whole thing a mystery from the X-Men instead of asking for help from their new family? Especially considering the amount of trouble doing pretty much the same thing two years prior brought Devon.

Sadly, Hubby's attempt to move the game plot along quickly meant creating such a broad overview that in-depth thoughts like those above were kind of glazed over. Somehow Nyssa got mail from her parents. For some reason Devon and Nyssa thought they could handle it on their own and kept the real reason for the trip secret from Cyclops. The X-Men randomly decided to let these two go on their own without an escort, but the knowledge that backup might be needed for the kids. Finally, neither Devon nor Nyssa thought to call for backup once they knew how bad the situation was. Don't think too much into it....

I'm hoping the holes will fill once I start writing.

I have a few other things I need to think about anyway, such as what comes after this Devon/Trish faceoff story? Also, what to name this story so it doesn't have such a lame working title anymore....

What other things do I need to think about? Well, for starters, as I just mentioned, the obvious What Am I Going To Write Next question. I'm rolling straight from the Camp NaNo challenge into the Writers’ Huddle summer challenge. In fact, a week overlaps. At WH the challenge will be six weeks between Monday, July 24th through to Sunday, September 3rd. Or, in other words, the time between my birthday and Quarthix's wedding!

Oh, and another side note. Ali Luke has just dropped the cost of Writers' Huddle to only $10 per month! She also sent out a mass email as I was writing this paragraph - I still say the woman has a spy kit focused on me or something - alerting the public that she's now opening Writers' Huddle to new members. She only does this in brief spurts so that all the newbies come in as a "class," as it were, instead of slowly sprinkled in unevenly throughout the course of a year. So, if you're looking for an online place for critiques, info, and support, please check out Writers' Huddle. It really is such a great community, and Ali is such a big help.

OK, sales pitch over, back to my writing.

I had stated that I have a "few" other things to think about outside of my existing story. Well, one of which is the Summer Challenge at WH, but another is a way to get back to my writing practice. This week I typed up the last of my pre-written writing practices. They are all online now. I can only post them as I write them from hereon out, which is great that I caught up, but at the same time intimidating that I have to really stay on the ball going forward. I guess it's for the best: accountability. I wanted to share something with you guys every week, and posting those challenges was my way of doing so. It was simple: I opened up my notebook, typed a practice up, and edited. Easy peasy.

I have to get back to the grindstone now. Make sure I stop slacking off. Like I said, it's a blessing, but also an added weight.

Maybe that will be my challenge for August: work on my writing practices again. Have at least four done per week. That gives me slip days for when I'm just overwhelmed. Especially since my mom is retiring this Friday and is planning on coming up to spend the first week of August with me helping me organize my house, and possibly life. I'm drowning over here.

With any luck, the fresh look to my house will revive me. The de-cluttering of my environment will also de-clutter my mind, and I can again focus. I'm both antsy to start, and terrified. Point is, I want to spend the time outside of work with my mom redoing my house, which will leave little to no time to write. I want to be able to allow those cheat days where I ignore my writing. Maybe even wait and write four different writing prompt practices in one day just so I still have them done.

Then I'll have a backlog again.... which will mean I can again slack off and still manage a new story each week here..... maybe this isn't the most brilliant idea.

On the flip-side, it may get me back into the rhythm again, and drive me to set up daily writing hours once more. I could get my writing nest back in the library! I could take time-outs to sit on my front porch and enjoy the weather while I write. I could have a backlog of the practices to post weekly while working on a larger project, like I'm doing now with the Devon/Trish story! I could get back to Jolene's story. I could go back to the Hey Arnold Jungle Movie fanscript before the real thing comes out in November.

Maybe it IS a brilliant idea!

Well, I'm giving myself until Sunday's deadline to figure out officially what I'm doing, so who knows how much more see-sawing on the subject I can do in the next four days?

In the meantime, enjoy the last of my pre-written writing practices. I'll catch you next week with a new short - hopefully - and my decision on the Summer Challenge!

"Best Left Unsaid"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

Vacation From Writing?

Well, May has officially kicked my writing butt. Yet again I walked away with NOTHING written. It's getting pathetic. The worst part? I'm so drained from all this work drama that kicked up this month that I don't even have a drive to write. Normally, if I go a few days or a week or whatever, I'm angry with myself. I have an itch I haven't been able to scratch. I have this tug at my heart berating me for slacking off with my writing. I have overwhelming guilt about not picking up a pen or opening a new word document.

Not this month. Not right now. Even as I have my fourth "Yeah, didn't write..." post of this month, I feel no guilt. I feel no pull. I feel no itch to write.

What I do feel is a call to READ. A call to clean. A call to play video games. So, perhaps my mind is just so overwhelmed with what's going on with my life that it can't even escape into its own world. I have to escape into others'.

Hubby bought a new game: Ninja All-Stars. It's a bit complicated to learn at first, but once you get it, the game is super fun. It's a strategy game - which I suck at - and there are actually something like 12 different game scenarios you can play, and a flippable board to add even more variety. The best thing is that it is an army-builder game. When you create your team - or clan, in this case, because they're ninjas - you are given an allotment of game-money to spend on troops. Everyone starts with the same amount of money, but there's little guidance as to how to spend it, so each army is different. You can also set up the game as "League Play" where each player levels up his/her army after each game played in order to evolve their clan. It's a bit of an addicting game that we've been playing nearly every night for a little over a week. Problem is, each game takes an average of three hours to play! That's pretty much all of my free time outside of work!

Yet, when Hubby has a friend over to play later today, I am so tempted to join in instead of doing anything else. Clean. Read. WRITE. I know I can't afford to give up 3+ hours each day to play this game, but I want to so bad....

I don't know where the spark went, but the writing bug has hidden itself away lately. I'd prefer to get lost in the world of Ninja All-Stars instead. Perhaps I need a break from even thinking about writing. Let the work drama settle. Let my brain take a vacation. I really don't know.

As for my weekly updates of edited writing practices? Well.....

I have the January 17th one typed up, but it's my Lia story from a month or so ago. It still needs some polishing. Mostly because I was trying to write it as if it were in the Glitches world instead of the original X-Future one. I really need to go back and iron out the details of that world, or at least the center location of everything. I'll have to work on that and possibly post two next week: the polished Lia story, and the January 18th prompt practice.

Shackled to an Egg Timer

Excuse me for reviving an old meme, but....

*Sigh*

I'm a bit of a Sad Panda this week.

Due to the job chaos, I had to work my normal Tuesday off, but to make up for it I was given Thursday and Friday off. Sunday was the start of a new work week, so that was my "second" day off - since Tuesdays are my regular "first" day off. Anyway, this means that between last Tuesday and today I had THREE days off. THREE!

Yet how much writing have I done? If you guessed "pretty much none" you win!

I had days off! I should have had all the time in the world to write and read and elaborate on my Valentine's Day blog before today. Instead, I lounged pretty much all of Thursday since Hubby and I had the day off together. We considered it a belated Valentine's Day for the two of us. It was sweet having so much time to just snuggle with him on the couch, but A WHOLE DAY!? I needed the stress relief, but geez! Friday I did what I always do: get suckered into ONE task and spent all day on it.

Aside from tasks such as writing this blog, which have deadlines anyway, I have now taken to sitting with a kitchen timer next to me. It's set to hour intervals. Once the timer goes off, that's it. I move on to another task for an hour. Then another one. I might circle back to a previous task, but never in back-to-back hours. It's the only way to break me of my..... um..... anti-ADHD? I'm sure it's some sort of disorder in and of itself with it's own name. Over fixation? Regardless, I lose far too much time in my life due to my laser focus.

Spend seven straight hours on a forum catching up on old posts? How about four hours on DeviantArt looking at fanart? Five hours on Google Image trying to find reference pictures for a new character? Two full evenings - each a three-hour sitting or so - on doll-maker games trying to design a new character because I can't draw? Yeah, maybe I wasn't addicted to Facebook. Maybe I just don't know how to turn away from a task until it's complete.... or away from a distraction until a need - such as food or a bathroom break - arises.

So, now the timer is attached to my hip to keep me on track until I can learn to Adult better.....

Doesn't really help that I figured out the whole timer-thing AFTER last week's fail, though. I got barely anything accomplished when I only had to work four days.

I haven't even written on my writing calendar. I'll have to try to backtrack and remember when I wrote what. I know I only wrote two days last week; worst record this year. I also know that the last time I wrote anything was Wednesday. Such a long zero-day streak.

Either way, it's the good-old Chicken-or-Egg situation again: Am I not writing because I'm tired and cranky, or am I tired and cranky because I haven't written anything?

My performance at work has gotten kind of crappy as well. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm overwhelmed with trying a brand new tactic our Director of Sales wants us to follow, if it's because so many "losses" shook my confidence, or if it's because I'm not allowed to write at work any longer. It really allowed me to drift from a bad day for a few moments at a time, maybe as much as an hour, and then come back to reality completely refocused; centered. If my confidence was shook, I sat and wrote or read to escape for a little bit. By the time I was back I was ready to crush it.

Instead, my down-time is flooded with trainings, workbooks, studying, role-playing to practice the new technique, and stern talking to's.

So, the biggest selling point of this job for me - the downtime to read and write while still being a productive member of the sales team - is pretty much null. We'll see how I can re-adjust. I'll give it until my year point to see if things turn around.

In the meantime, how about I give you more details of what I did the previous week, since I didn't have time to really do so on Valentine's Day?

Well, to start, even though I changed up my Writers’ Huddle challenge goal, I STILL haven't managed to hit a week-goal yet. It's obvious that I didn't write a prompt a day this past week, let alone two, but even the previous week - when I was on a hot-streak - I wasn't able to fit two in. So much for catching up on the daily prompts by March 9th. I haven't even hit the January 13th prompt that I started the book with. My only real consolation is that there must be some sort of anti-writing-whatever in the atmosphere, because just about everyone over at WH stated that they didn't come close to completing their task this past week. In fact, I think, out of the years that I've been at the Huddle for winter challenges, this one has been the least productive over-all among the participants.

As for the prompts I already have written, I only had a chance to type up two of them, which caught me up to January 4th. Jynna's flash-story was from January 8th's prompt, so it will be a little bit before it's ready to share. I also haven't had much time to really delve back into her backstory in the meantime.

Well... OK, as I shared above, I DID have the time to either work more on Jynna or type up more prompts; I just didn't utilize it.... Point is, I don't have much new to share about her, but she does at least have a name. Yay. Also, Hubby's just waiting for the others interested in the game to build their characters, and then we'll be good to start playing Numenera, so... yay again!

I'm about half-way through "Heat Wave" and I'm trying to speed through the second half so I can still have at least one book done a month. So much for my new goal of two a month this year, huh? Darn Director of Sales messing with a system that didn't seem broken from our end. We were doing better than last year's sales, but I guess not better "enough" for his liking.

That doesn't really matter, though. Boss-Man wants us to focus more on sales and how to improve them while at work. It's understandable. How many office environments allow for an hour or so of employee downtime for things like reading or writing?

While I'm trying to get my act back together, I do have those two prompts for your reading pleasure.

January 3rd's was the first time I wrote for Amara in years. I'm still trying to lock down her party-mates' names, but for right now I just ran with what I had. Also, sorry for the poor title; I got nothing for it....

"The Courtyard"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

January 4th's prompt had me completely stymied, so it turned out to be a mildly-rambling, stream-of-consciousness, personal essay about writing prompts in general. It's only about 800 words long if you want to still give it a whirl.

"Trust the Pen"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

Now, let's try this "writing daily" thing again. Starting with creating a "sacred" writing time to keep me from constantly playing hookie from this part of my day. Time to go set my timer....

Super Quick Week Recap

Normally this is when I'd have my usual, long, weekly recap of my writing. Sometimes I'd even have links to new projects I've completed. Sadly, this week will not be one of those weeks.

There was some pseudo-major upheaval at work that threw everyone off their game for a few days. We should be back to normal, sorta, next week, but unfortunately, the upheaval includes me having to work today. To make up for it, I meant to write this post yesterday, but with the work-chaos I totally zoned out on what I needed to do; mostly because I forgot what day of the week it was. I ended up working on some Adulting that I've been neglecting for a while.

Still productive, just not on the priority...

So, super quick between Hubby going to work and my need to get ready for my day:

• I had a nice writing streak going, but broke it Wednesday, started it up again, and broke it again on Sunday. I WILL get a full week in at some point!
• I haven't managed to do my new Writers’ Huddle challenge goal of writing at least two new daily writing practice prompts. I have written SOME more, but I can't even say I wrote ONE per day. I'm hoping I can remedy that next week once everything has settled down.
• One of my writing prompts got me to write a bit about my Numenera RP character Jynna; pronounced Gin-nah. It's nothing groundbreaking due to it being a quick daily writing workout, but it was fun to write about her anyway. We'll see how much will be canon once Hubby learns more about the world of Numenera.
• I do have more of a physical description and rough background idea for Jynna, so I'll have to see what I can gather up for more of a bio next post.
• I have been fairly consistent with my writing prompts, being handwritten, hitting less than 1000 words. I just keep neglecting typing them up so I can send them to Ronoxym. I really need to figure out a schedule and stick with it. As much as I hate the concept of every minute of my day every day of the week being assigned to something - it completely takes out the ability to be spontaneous - I think that my life right now dictates that I really need to do precisely that.
• I finally found my next book for my reading challenge: "Heat Wave" by "Richard Castle" - it's a ghostwriter pretending to be the author main character of ABC's show "Castle." It has red on the cover, so I could switch out "Ready. Set. Novel!" with a narrative if I so choose. It has a silhouette of the main character Nikki Heat on the cover, so it could go for "Woman on the cover" category instead if I'd like. Since I don't have a book that I "gave 5-stars to" in 2015, I could just change that category to "Re-read a book" for this first novel. It is also the first book of a 4-book series, so I could possibly put it under the "Start a new series" category. Technically each title in the series has a play on the main character's last name: Heat, so.... "Name in the title"? So many options. We'll see where it ends up going.

I think that's all the broad recap that I have for this past week. I can't make any promises that I'll have time to go into further detail about anything before next Tuesday. Today is pretty packed, and the rest of the week might remain tight. However, I'll give it the "old college try." Otherwise, I'll elaborate next week, along with all the writing advancements I make between now and then.

In the meantime, won't you be my Valentine, my dear readers?

Hopping Eons into the Future; Yet Another Character Forms

Strike two for the Writers’ Huddle winter challenge. I got a little further this week; I opened a word document and saved it as the next chapter. I then began outlining the story arc of the chapter. Then I had to go to bed and didn't find time to touch it again since.

Even after two months, the feelings are still a bit raw for Jolene. I think, in order to finish off her backstory, I have to first figure out what her new present-day story will be. The more I focus on that and her in Gyateara, the less I should be thinking about her on Laerrnesse. I might be able to get back to my story then. Sorry, Shadow, you're probably going to have to wait until the end of the year to read her story now.

This leaves me in a bit of a pickle for the challenge, though. I already flopped the first two weeks, decided that maybe I'm just not in the right mindset to continue the story I set out as my challenge, and have four weeks left. Do I just pull the rip-cord?

Instead I went back to "A Writer's Book of Days" by Judy Reeves. It is now a week into February, and I'm still a month behind on the daily writing practice prompts. I've managed to crank a couple of those out over the week, but still not nearly enough for my liking.

While, including this blog post today, I'm on a nice five-day writing streak - longest I've had since the start of the year - I did miss three days last week. Also, while it didn't keep me four days of little stolen-away moments like the Amara story last week, I did have a prompt that kept me two days to finish due to time restrictions.

This whole working instead of writing thing while I'm at my job is really a hindrance.

I also didn't have time to go back and digitize my stories, let alone edit them. So I don't have anything new to share today.

Which reminds me, I had my journal with me when I went to Cyhyr and Ronoxym's for their Superbowl party on Sunday, and I completely forgot to have Ron read some of it as proof that I again wrote something under 1000 words. I also forgot to poke him about his challenge for this year: show me some sort of completed story/prose once a month; be it a full story, just a chapter, a flash fiction, an outline for a story, or a character bio.

I might really suck at this whole "Checking in on challenges for accountability" thing.... I need someone accountable for my accountability....

Anyway, my point was that I need a challenge that I can actually achieve, and writing more about Jolene doesn't seem to be achievable right now. I'm not excited about her any longer, and I need to find a way to jumpstart that excitement again. I also want to EVENTUALLY have my journal entries actually written on the day indicated, instead of a month later. So, while I'm trying to re-find my love for Jolene, I'll use the last four weeks of the challenge to try to play catch-up with the daily prompts.

I will now write two per day until I am caught up, or the challenge is over, whichever comes first. If I do manage to write at least two prompts per day, I will be caught up by the second entry on March 9th. Knowing me? I'll slack off some time and it will be about April that I catch up. Still, A GOAL IS SET!

We'll see how well this works, considering I struggle with just ONE prompt a day. Still, if I aim for two, I'm more likely to schedule the time to at least get ONE written. Right?

In the meantime, I've got yet ANOTHER character in the works.

For Christmas my family got Hubby the player's guide for a new roleplay game: Numenera. I don't have a name yet, but I think I have the broad outline for a character made up. The way you create your character for this game is that you are given the generic sentence "I am an adjective noun that verbs" and you fill in the blanks with the provided word types.

The adjectives are appropriately your "Character Descriptors." Within the core rule book, there are a dozen to choose from, and one of those can actually split depending on if you picture yourself using the stats for more technological or mystical purposes. The point of the Descriptor is to create your character's link to the starting adventure of the overall campaign. Depending on the Descriptor, you are given four options to choose from, as well as a bunch of bonuses for your character.

An example would be Intelligent:

You're quite smart. Your memory is sharp, and you easily grasp concepts that others might struggle with. This aptitude doesn't necessarily mean that you've had years of formal education, but you have learned a great deal in your life, primarily because you pick things up quickly and retain so much.

You gain the following benefits:
Smart: +2 to your Intellect Pool.
Skill: You're trained in an area of knowledge of your choice.
Skill: You're trained in all actions that involve remembering or memorizing things you experience directly. For example, instead of being good at recalling details of geography that you read about in a book, you can remember a path through a set of tunnels that you've explored before.

Initial Link to the Starting Adventure: From the following list of options, choose how you became involved in the first adventure.

1. One of the other PCs asked your opinion of the mission, knowing that if you thought it was a good idea, it probably was.
2. You saw value in what the other PCs were doing.
3. You believed that the task might lead to important and interesting discoveries.
4. A colleague requested that you take part in the mission as a favor.

~ Pg 35 of Numenera Player's Guide by Monte Cook

The nouns are the "Character Type," which is usually called the "Class" in other RPGs. There are only three to choose from, but they each become vastly diverse depending on the adjective and verb you choose. The three types are Glaive - your typical fighter classes, Nano - the mages, and Jack - short for "Jack of all trades"; your rogue-like classes.

On top of the adjective and verb attached to the Type, there is also diversity in the Type itself. Since each Type encompasses so many other generic RP classes, you can figure out if your Glaive is a brutish swordsman that used to be a town guard, or a primitive mountain man who has lived off the land his whole life, or a noble fighter of the people who believed he was blessed by some divine being. Player interpretation is key. Beyond that even, there are three different backstory options for you to choose from in order to pick how you became that skilled Type in the first place.

We'll use samples of Jack as an example:

You might hear people say that a jack is just the typical everyman (or everyperson), but don't believe it. You aren't like anyone else. You can do things that no one else can do because you do so many things. You're a warrior, you're a thief, you're a diplomat, you're a sage, and you're a spy.

When you choose jack as a character type, come up with an explanation for how you learned your wide variety of talents. Choose one of the three options described below. It will provide the foundation of your background and give you an idea of how you can improve....

Born Lucky
You seem to be better than most people because you are. Your ancestors were part of a genetic experiment, and your genes are superior to those of the average human.... Some of your genetic advantage might even grant you low-level psychic abilities that greatly resemble the "miracles" performed by nanos.

School of Hard Knocks
You learned things the hard way - on your own. Adaptive and canny, you express the true strengths of humanity in your ability to adjust quickly to circumstances, pick up new tricks to succeed, and ultimately survive when you probably should be dead....

A Cobbled Jumble
You're the product of generations of eugenics, bolstered by minor cybernetic enhancements, a few small psychic abilities, and the lessons of secret masters. In other words, you don't have one source of power or one explanation for your abilities - you have many, and as far as you're concerned, that's the best formula for success....

~ Pg 28 and 29 of Numenera Player's Guide by Monte Cook

Finally, and this is the part that makes things REALLY diverse, you have nearly 30 different verbs, or "Character Focus," to pick from. While the Descriptor gives your character bonuses and a reason for them to join the quest, the Focus gives you the battle options and your connection to at least one other Player Character.

Each Focus is about a page long, so I can't really give an example of the full concept. However, for the basic flavor, I'll sample the first focus: Bears a Halo of Fire.

You can create a sheath of flames around your body. You leave scorch marks wherever you go, and you can't handle combustible objects without first dousing your inherent flames. If you perform esoteries (or similar effects beyond the abilities of normal humans), all your effects are tainted with flame. Fiery visuals accompany your powers, and in some cases, your predilection for flame actually reshapes your abilities to take on a fiery nature where none existed before.... For example, force blasts from Onslaught are blasts of flame, and Flash is a burst of fire....

You probably wear red and yellow, or perhaps black.

Although most of those who take up this mantle are nanos, flame-wielding glaives and jacks are fearsome indeed.

Connection: Pick one other PC. Through a quirk of fate, your fire cannot harm that character.
Additional Equipment: You have an artifact - a device that sprays inanimate objects to make them fire-resistant. All your starting gear has already been treated unless you don't want it to be.

~ Pg 38 of Numenera Player's Guide by Monte Cook

So, even if every player picks "Glaive," there can be some vast diversity among the party. Between the 12 Descriptors, 3 backstories, and 29 Foci, just one Type can have over 1000 different character builds! And who's to say that one Intelligent Psionic Nano who Bears a Halo of Fire is going to be played the same as another? Player interpretation kicks in there to add even more diversity! If that's not enough, there's already expansions to the core books that add even more Descriptors and Foci....

SO. MANY. POSSIBILITIES!

I'm still struggling with my character a bit, though, mostly due to option overload. The personality that popped into my head is definitely more of the street-wise School of Hard Knocks Jack than the book-smart Nano, however, I loved the idea of the Port and Plug Nano. So, with over 1000 possibilities for me to build my Nano, I decide to start my very first character sort of "off-book."

She WOULD have mastered skills that would define her as a Jack, but this orphan was actually kidnapped off the streets by a cult who experimented on her. Cybernetic surgeries were done to "enhance" her, against her will. She eventually became strong enough with the numenera to break free of the cult, but a bit of her brainwashing might still remain.

She is now a Nano not because she wanted to learn about the numenera, but because it became her way of life. It is how she survived and how she will continue to survive. She has learned to live with the scarring and mutilation of her body. In fact, she now greatly sees the benefits of being able to master the mystical force around her, simply by plugging in a new piece of tech. She studies the ancients as well as nanites and how they make up the numenera force. She realizes that the more she understands the numenera and how it came to be, the easier it is for her to better wield it. She may not be able to undo what the cult did to her, but she will use it to its every advantage now.

This is still open to change, but based on the above build, my sentence is:
I am a Mechanical reluctant Plugs and Port Nano who Fuses Flesh and Steel.

However, I am also quite partial to the Descriptors: Graceful, Intelligent, and Stealthy.
I'm also quite partial to the Foci: Controls Gravity, Crafts Illusions, Focuses Mind Over Matter, Masters Defense, Rides the Lightning, Controls Beasts, Talks to Machines, and Bears a Halo of Fire.

In fact, prior to reading the other foci in their entirety, Bears a Halo of Fire was the one I was all but convinced I was going to take. Plus, Controls Beasts or Talks to Machines would have been fun with Shadow's Mountain Man character. I could mess with him with either focus option since the connections are for the selected PC to somehow disturb the beasts I control, which would annoy Shadow who would be One with Nature, or that the selected PC is terrible with technology and would make the machines I communicate with worse. It would end up biting me in the behind, but again, how flavorfully appropriate for a Mountain Man to mess with machines like that?

I also have a bunch of reference pictures for my lady - what I was working on for hours last night instead of writing or typing up my already written prompts - but I couldn't find one picture yet that depicts my character in her entirety.

Yet again a time when I lament not being able to draw....

I guess I should start with a name for her, though. I'm picturing something mildly Latino for some reason. Considering the world of Numenera is Earth eons into the future, who knows what name-structure is like? It will be fun to try to explore those options. I'll have to keep you informed with how I'm doing as I go.

By next week I should have at least one story typed up to share, as well as at least a name for this new girl joining the ranks.

Productivity Up 300%, But Still Nothing To Share....

This past week has been both productively awesome, and complete fail. I'm going to start with the complete fail so that I can end this thing on a high note.

As I mentioned last week, I had completely lost the writing prompt that the local writing group had given out. I had read the result of a prompt that Phfylburt had given me instead, and had some nice critiques on it. I then wrote down the new settings writing prompt, and had every intention of working on that, the previous prompt, and/or the new challenge that Phfyl gave me.

I ended up doing none of the above. It kept me literally until midnight on Sunday for me to send Phfyl the resulting work for my challenge. Even then, it was only an outline of what I wanted to do. Not a bulleted one, I wrote each paragraph out so that all I needed to do was add detail, dialogue, and some polish. Still, the outline was about four pages long, I didn't really hit upon the actual prompt until the last two paragraphs - which lead Phfyl to believe that I just tagged them on as an afterthought just to say I followed the prompt - and the four pages that I had were pretty craptastic.

I was kind of all over the board. The problem with the prompt was that it was semi-vague and on a topic I'm sort of obsessed with: "Link finally breaks the silence about Zelda and Ganon." A fun prompt, for sure, but I don't think Phfyl understood how broad of a spectrum he painted for me.

First of all, which Link would be part of this expose? Between all of the games, only some of them have the "same Link" in another adventure. The rest are either reincarnations, descendants, or some weird combo of the two. All in all, there are about a dozen different Links I could use, and each one has his own thoughts on the matter. In some games, Link is clearly in love with Zelda, and Ganon is the embodiment of all things evil. Some of them, Link and Zelda are best friends, and Ganon is an evil that Link must stop before he actually fully forms; meaning Link can't really HAVE an opinion on Ganon aside from "He's someone I wanted to make sure I didn't meet." Other games, Link is simply a very loyal knight to the crown, and Zelda is little more than his sovereign that he'd do anything to protect. There are games where Zelda is a damsel in destress, and I'm sure Link is probably just as irritated with having to save her as Mario gets over Peach. On the other hand, there are games in which Link couldn't have defeated anyone without Zelda's help. Some games Ganon is a dark shadow in the background, pulling the strings, but doesn't interact with Link enough for him to form an opinion. Other games he's simply a power-hungry thief from a semi-troubled background.

So, which Link is going to "break the silence"? How do I choose?

Then there's the tone of the story itself. Do I go dark and serious? Having it written like it's a true expose after crawling along in the dark, seedy underbelly of Hyrule? Do I have it set up like a talk show in which his opinion of Zelda and Ganon are just "hard hitting" questions the host asks? Is Link at a convention-like discussion panel, and he actually keeps dodging the question when the fans ask him about Zelda and Ganon? Are Link and Zelda having a nice dinner at the castle and Link just snaps?

Then there's the tone of HOW he breaks the silence. The running gag in the fandom is that Link is a "silent protagonist" because you never hear him say more than his famous grunts; with the exception of a few games where he'll say simple commands such as "Come on" or "Stop". This is done in the programming portion of the game to have the player connect more with Link, as well as speed up the game because you don't have to listen to him relay over things you played through. Eventually, I'm sure the programmers purposely kept the games that way just to keep the gag of Link being "silent".

However, the characters in the game DO learn things from Link. They found out his name, his mission, and answer questions that will help him figure out his quest. Sure, some of the time it's because Link's companion does most of the talking to get the information across, but more often than not, it's because the player already knows the answers/questions that lead to the NPC's response, and so it's just skipped over, commonly by a quick fade to black to skip over Link relaying things over.

So, Link clearly ISN'T a mute, he's just a man of few words, and the few he does have are usually stolen by his traveling companion taking the conversational lead. Now the question becomes, does Link just speak with no problem and makes a straight joke about not holding his tongue any longer? Is he a man of few words, and so his thoughts on Zelda and Ganon are quick and to the point? Does he attempt to speak his mind, only to be cut off by his traveling companion - and if so, which one? Same issue as "Which Link" above. Does he not have to say anything at all because the traveling companion does all the talking for him; knowing him and his thoughts on the matter so completely after their journey together?

Part of me wanted to go semi-humorously by having the whole series of traveling companions that Link had ever had switching off interrupting him as he tried to speak about Zelda and Ganon; each one THINKING they knew his answer, and he'd be in the background getting angrier about each interruption. Eventually he'd explode, tell them to shut up, and that he wanted to speak for once. Then he'd conclude with something short and sweet, such as "Zelda is a great friend, strong person, and fantastic ruler. Ganon - on the other hand - is the embodiment of evil, and I hope he just stays gone for the rest of time!"

Hubby suggested that it would be fun if the interviewer(s) would ask Link a question, and he'd simply answer in shakes of the head, head nods, shrugs, coy glances, and finally his signature "Hyah!" The best part would be the interviewer(s) accepting these as legitimate answers to the tough questions, and move on to the next one.

Like I said, there were SO MANY POSSIBILITIES with this prompt, and I just couldn't narrow down which one I liked best. So, at about 10pm Sunday night, while already exhausted from being up since 7am the day before - I had a 2hr nap or so sometime in there, but I ended up covering for someone on the overnight shift - and I hadn't written a word for this prompt.

I ended up - in my tired haze - writing some weird combination of all the options; see which one would stick. It was a daytime talk show, and Link was cut off from answering a question by his fairy traveling companion answering for him. This lead the hostess to bring out all of the other companions Link had ever had - which ended up being something like eight characters - I then had them all argue among themselves, and wonder why Link didn't recognize them. However, with such a large ensemble, it was hard to give really any of the companions enough dialogue or action to warrant them being in the story. It was just a jumbled mob of a mess. Eventually, it was revealed that Link didn't recognize anyone aside from the first fairy - there were four fairies in all - because this wasn't the same Link that had traveled with each of them. Link was then given the Fierce Deity Mask from the game Majora's Mask, and it sort of channeled all of his past lives - going with the reincarnation fan theory - until it arrived at the Original Link; the one whose soul would eventually be trapped in this reincarnation cycle of  "Save Zelda/Hyrule, eventually die, become reborn only if Hyrule/Zelda will be in peril again in the near future."

Original Link - who isn't truly in-game canonical, but is introduced in a manga in the back of the Nintendo-sanctioned book Hyrule Historia - talked about how he died to save his country - "his" like how Americans say the United States is "our" country; Original Link wasn't the king - and its people from destruction, creating the floating island Skyloft, which is featured in the first chronological game Skyward Sword. He's a bit bitter about the whole thing, and he keeps referencing to Zelda as her original form:

The goddess Hylia who placed his soul in the reincarnation cycle before shedding her divinity to do the same as the human Zelda.

He still cares for, and respects Zelda, as well as the land he once called home - originally called The Land of Hylia - and so, while a bit bitter about only being reincarnated and called upon when the land is in danger, he is also a bit glad that it is him that can insure the land will always prosper.

As for Ganon? Well, Original Link again only really knows the man in his original form: a monstrous demon that eventually reincarnates as the male Gerudo Ganondorf. He also knows Ganon to not only be corrupted by the demon's powers returning in attempt to seize the Triforce, but also as the entity that eventually corrupts others while waiting to be reincarnated or released from his trans-dimensional prison.

The story goes from light-hearted and a bit jumbled to quickly dark before an abrupt end. Needless to say, Phfyl had some concerns about the story.

I reassured him that I was fully aware that it had no focus, and so I've been periodically using the week to try to figure out what to do with it. I think I'm going to stick with the darkness of Original Link and his thoughts on reincarnation and the like. I just need an explanation as to how the interviewer is able to talk with Original Link, who has been dead for Hyrule's equivalent of probably 2000 years - if not longer - and who has been reincarnated about a dozen times.

It's Thursday, and I again have nothing. Phfyl tried to have me go on hiatus while I figured this story out, caught up on my two writing prompts for the local group, AND work on my six-week challenge for Writers’ Huddle. I wouldn't let him. I was determined to stick with his prompt challenges, as well as challenge him too. I just didn't expect his Legend of Zelda challenge to be so simply complex that it took me over two weeks to figure it out....

Needless to say, because it's kept so much time and effort to try to figure out Phfyl's challenge, I haven't given either of the setting prompts from the local group any sort of thought. Further fail.

But what about those positives I said I had?

Well, I went on to my online friends writing group - Struggling Writers Society - to ask them their opinion on what to do for the Writers' Huddle challenge. I gave them the same list of options I posted here last week. Cyhyr suggested I do a combination of all of them. There were six open writing projects, as well as an option to write x-amount of words per day/week. So, she proposed that I aim for about 500 words per day during my daily writing hour. She also offered that I work on the first open project I listed, but only for the first week of the challenge. By the end of the week, I would have roughly 3500 words added to that project; a decent push forward. Then the second week of the challenge I'd do the same thing, but with the second project on my list. So on and so forth until I had 3500 more words for each project I listed.

It would give me a chance to push each project closer to completion, allow me to work a variety of stories to keep it fresh, as well as have me figure out which story is calling out to me the most. That way I know which one to try to tackle and complete in the months following the challenge. Plus, it was a happy compromise so that I wasn't stalled while trying to figure out which direction to go in.

I had a few more suggestions from a couple other members, but I think Cyhyr's advice was the one that stuck out the most for me. However, Phfyl did had a valid point when he advised that I don't try to compromise by working on all six projects more-or-less at the same time. It would be hard to switch off from one project, and get my mind in the proper place for the next one. It might work well for Cyhyr's husband Ronoxym due to people with ADHD thriving in multi-tasking projects, but Phyfl was right, I don't think I could switch between story concepts so quickly and still be inspired to write something of value by the end of the week.

Besides, two of the projects consisted of me world-building, and so I'm not entirely sure WHAT I would write to total 3500 words by the end of the week. Most of the world-building would consist of research, map-drawing, scribbling down notes, and possibly a character profile or two; like what I did over the summer. MAYBE I would add more to The Divine Legends or The People of Gyateara while working on the Gyateara world builds, but there was no guarantee. Plus, with only one week to work on the project, I had to be certain that I could get inspiration to strike during my daily writing hour. Otherwise I'd spend the hour trying to figure out ANYTHING to work on for the build, and then get annoyed with myself when I either didn't get anything accomplished, or I had to take up even more of my already stretched-thin time.

And as for Please, Let Me Explain? Well, as I mentioned last week, I feel like I'd be stealing the story from Ron if I just went and wrote the rest of it without him, especially since we agreed that the part he added on to the back of the outline - in other words, all the stuff that still needs to be written - needs some reworks first. If I were to just go ahead and write the ending the way I picture it based on what he wants the story end-game to be, I feel like he wouldn't have any input at all. Just me slapping my own ending on to his work. I dunno. It doesn't feel right. I need us to at least jointly finish the outline until it's something we agree is best for the story. From there I'd be less hesitant to write out the ending and then send it to him for notes. Then again, as I pointed out last week as well, I'm still waiting on notes for the last thing I sent him for this story.

I guess that's karma for ya, considering my average beta-read-notes-return turn-around is like a year....

Alright, so three out of the six projects were pretty much a no-go. There was still the option to now spend TWO weeks on each project, so I went to Hubby for advice. Do I spend two weeks each to knock out roughly 7000 words towards the next few chapters of What Is Truly Meant To Be, X-Future: The Second Generation Begins, and X-Future: Snippets?

His advice was to stick with the 500-words per day minimum while keeping my daily writing hour - which he has made sure I followed through on - but to also listen to Phfyl and focus on one story. Since out of the three remaining projects - the final one actually having three sub-projects in and of itself - the only one I was truly ready to work on again was TSGB, he suggested I just stick with that.

So, as of right now, that's my aim. We have two new members to the X-Future board, and they promise to be VERY active players. If this board takes off again like it did in the "good old days" then I have no hope of catching up.

Therefore, my goal for the Writers' Huddle challenge is to write every day for an hour, making sure that I don't stop - even after the hour has past - until I get at least 500 new words written. So far, so good. Starting Monday, I've written every day from 4-5pm, and I've averaged about 650 words per day. However, I was completely in a groove yesterday or something, because I jumped from about 1300 words to over 2400!

I'm also focusing solely on TSGB, with the aim to have a new chapter written each week. If I break the scenes down enough, none of them should really need much more than a week to write, even if it means writing more than 3500 words per chapter. This shouldn't be much of an issue, given my current week, which should have the 3500 words written by the end of tomorrow's session.

It won't be much in the grand scheme of things, but I would be about six-chapters closer to closing the gap between TSGB and where we currently are on X-Future. At the very least, I should get tantalizingly close to the major event that caused the two-year time skip. Then the fun will be to continue the next TSGB book - I'm planning on ending the current one just before the time skip so it's not 100 chapters long - as well as Devon's spin-off story.

So, while I am complete fail when it comes to the "weekly" challenges that the local group or Phfyl have given me, in regards to continuous writing and the Huddle's challenge, I'm on my A-game! This also means that I've been able to start up that chain of "No Zero Days"; double win!

I also managed to get in some more reading time this week. It's down to the wire in regards to completing a book this month, but I should be able to make it. Especially since this is an "off" week for football while everyone prepares for the Superbowl next week. I could use my normal football-time to read! Whoo!

I still haven't read a piece of fiction that would qualify for any of the 2016 Reading Challenge categories, but I did read Ali Luke's self-help mini-ebook a few weeks back. For now I think I'll qualify that as my "read in one day" book. Hopefully later in the year I'll be able to crank out a novel in fast enough time to truly read a "read in one day" novel as well. Which would then give me a baker's dozen of books I read, since "The Throne of Fire" doesn't qualify for any of the challenge's categories. Still, I was determined to finish this dang thing! Even if it almost literally kept me a year to do it!

If anyone wants a refresher on the challenge, it was presented by Modern Mrs. Darcy, and the challenge list is as follows:


I have to say, while I feel weird keeping myself on a semi-strict schedule, Ali's suggestion to do just that has really helped me out. I still give myself a little bit of wiggle room by having my work schedule and writing hour be the only things I actually have strict time frames for, I have kept myself on a timer. No more than 2hours on any given activity.

Even if I feel like spending 10hours actually scrubbing my home down ceiling to floor, I know I'll then exhaust myself, miss snuggling the husband, and be mad I didn't read/write/Facebook/do something with the finances.

So, no matter what I am doing, I cut myself off usually after an hour, but I allow up to two in order to finish up any loose ends.

Facebook: hour, next. Figure out finances: hour; next. Watch TV with Hubby: two hours; next. Write: hour; next. So on and so forth. Granted, it's also been a chaotic week with me outside the home doing a hundred errands, and so the apartment is a sty. Still, my writing and reading are up, I have a bit more energy, I don't feel like I'm slacking off a lot, and imagine the time I will have for cleaning after the out-of-home chaos settles!

Speaking of, I have been working on this post for nearly two hours, so it's time to move on to a new project. Sorry I didn't have a new story for you guys after all this week, but I'm well on my way for a new "The Second Generation Begins" chapter, so there should at least be that next week. Perhaps I can end the chapter a day or two before my deadline and use those days to work on the other prompts I've got backed up. We'll see.

Catch ya next week!