Rants & Ravings
This blog will contain information about my various works, resources related to them as well as miscellaneous rants and ravings of a lunatic… err author.
Creative Writing
To further my writing (and maybe figure out what the hell I’m doing) I enrolled myself in Creative Writing Level 1 and Level 2 through Mount Royal University’s Continuing Education program. Level 1 started in October and ran into December, then Level 2 started in January and just ended.
For the program we needed to define our Work In Progress for the class. Aliens & Cowboys was too far along to use for the class as there’s far too much history for anyone new to understand, so I decided to use my block distraction project, The Runes of Elsewhere for the course.
I got a lot of good feedback on my writing and have already made numerous changes to what was originally released to my patrons.
Elf on the Shelf
After the success of Witches and Werewolves that I wrote for the NaNoWriMo 2021 contest, I’ve decided maybe I’ll try it once again, only this time I’ll have the characters and plot sorted out beforehand.
It’s going to be a Christmas story and it’s going to tie into my Runes of Elsewhere series, which I will continue to write once I complete Aliens and Cowboys.
In the simplest summary, an elf helping Santa on his Christmas Eve deliveries gets betrayed and stranded on a farm without communication or magic. It’s her quest to try and return to the North Pole, find out who betrayed her and try to get justice for doing her wrong.
The blog post title was just a working title, I can’t use it though as everything about it is copyrighted to the n-th degree.
Anyone got any ideas for a title?
NaNoWriMo 2021
Witches & Werewolves is a story I wrote during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It was more or less just to prove to my creative writing class that I could do it. It was definitely difficult to meet the 50,000 words in 30 days target, but I managed to do it.
Most writers that participate in NaNoWriMo do all their plotting and planning in the months leading up to November, they even have sessions to help with this process… but not me!
I happened to watch a movie with my daughters on Halloween day when my oldest asked, “What would happen if the werewolf only turned human on the full moon?”
Good question! It got me thinking and I didn’t think a reverse werewolf story had ever been written before. So after thinking about it until November 5, I decided I had enough ideas to write a story.
I joined NaNoWriMo, almost a week late, and STILL managed to hit the target… albeit around 11:30pm on November 30th (50,320 words!)! Then December and January were editing and revisions and today the book is available.
It was a fun little story and is already popular on SOL.
Update on Life
Just to let everyone know, I am doing OK. I just haven’t done much writing in the past couple of weeks.
My family went for a final campout of the season at Silver Creek Golf & RV Resort (my cousin’s golf course) at my mom’s request.
It was her final camp trip as she passed away on August 31st, two days after returning home.
My mom loved to go camping, even though the last couple of times this summer it had been so difficult for her that she was pretty much limited to staying inside the motorhome, but it was what she loved.
Her request was that her ashes be spread on crown land out where we go boon docking (off-grid camping). So we’ll likely be doing that next year. May she rest in peace.
With her passing, I’ve done a lot of thinking about life and it has caused me to reconsider the way people live in my Aliens and Cowboys story, and the way that the medical system works. So I will be making some changes and it will affect numerous chapters throughout the story.
I will not go back and edit the chapters on the free sites, but I will be making the changes to the content of the books. In all honesty, my patrons and the free sites are more like the rough drafts of the stories, I give it to the readers on the site and they give me feedback, it’s like having thousands of beta readers. Then I take all their feedback and suggestions and modify the story that ends up in the books.
Once I finish writing Book 3, I’ll be putting them on the big sites like Amazon and Rakuten/Kobo.
Stay safe!
Become a Patron
Many creators have Patreon pages these days, it’s an awesome concept and one of the main reasons I decided to actually publish what I write.
With tiers priced at less than a cup of coffee per chapter it’s very affordable and helps to offset the ongoing costs of domain names, hosting and other writing/publishing related expenses.
Writing takes time and effort and I do have a family and a full-time job… it’s not like I sit at home writing for hours each day and pumping out 5 chapters per month! Often it’s simply 1 chapter per month, maybe 2 if I get on a roll!
By charging per chapter, rather than per month, you don’t get charged without getting something tangible in return!
What can you expect by supporting me?
Currently patrons get early access to chapters of my stories, plus patrons are welcome to participate in a community that contributes to story plot lines, characters, scenes, etc. They also receive discount codes used to obtain the finished products when they get published.
Can’t spare any pocket change, but still want to show your support?
There are ways to read the story for FREE as I publish my stories on several websites. They aren’t as user-friendly as an eBook or Book is and they don’t have all the latest updates, but they are free.
All I ask is… if you do use one of the free services, please leave a review and/or vote for the story. Every review and/or vote helps gain the attention of future readers and potential patrons!
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