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The Right Tracks by VS Stark

July 28, 2020 By ravenofiernan 5 Comments

Welcome to the July 2020 Storytime Blog Hop!

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This July, I am happy to present a magical and very enjoyable short story by VS Stark, The Right Tracks. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, as well as the other stories featured during this month’s blog hop!

The Right Tracks
by VS Stark

The key to living among humans successfully is attention to detail. This definition of ‘success’ means never having to flee from an angry mob. It takes some work but is, overall, far less work than providing all one’s needs for oneself.

When I first began trading with human groups, it took me some time to work out the right type of approach. I had to figure out what factors made a stranger acceptable. As a solitary traveler, I needed a glamour that made me look strong enough not to be immediately attacked, but unthreatening enough not to spark distrust. My own physical appearance so closely resembles a nine-year-old human female that I must disguise it to be taken seriously.

The shortest of interactions will tell you that a lone male, while less likely to be attacked than a lone female, will attract suspicion. Over decades of experimenting with glamours to counteract that, I found the optimal attractiveness, wealth, size, and cover story varied somewhat, but stayed within certain parameters. Usually.

One cold autumn day, heading south, I approached a small village to buy supplies. My appearance was adjusted to resemble the size and coloration of the locals. I collected the usual number of stares as I entered and looked about me. The place was too small to have an actual store, just a few houses built around a small square. A couple of men approached me to determine my intentions. They became much friendlier when I showed them my coins.

A few women, venturing into the small square, set out blankets and laid items on them for sale. One woman was quite young, just into her childbearing years. She smiled openly at me. A man of about her age hovered near her, glowering. There were a few children peering from the tiny homes. One of the boldest ventured near and was chased off by the young man. Once his back was turned, the child made such a face at him that I nearly laughed. Both of them saw my reaction. The child was pleased. The young man was not.

At the conclusion of trading, everyone was happy except for the young man. The young woman had been chatty. I had bought a belt pouch from her and complimented the work. Her smile became wider. I suddenly had the appalling idea that she either found my glamour attractive or wanted the young man to think she did.

When I was ready to leave, the young man stepped forward, clearly in a rage. “How do we know this isn’t fairy gold?” he demanded. “What if, tomorrow, it turns out to be stones?”

The first two men glanced at each other. One rolled his eyes a bit, but the other frowned and asked me “Why not stay with us tonight? Take a rest from your travels. The air feels like snow.” The tone was still friendly.

I smiled at them. “I would be happy to stay in such a pleasant village. Where shall I sleep?”

The man relaxed while I cursed inwardly. The coins were quite real. It’s easier that way. Glamours take work for me to hold this far from Elfhame. Holding my appearance all night would be unpleasantly tiring. The young man was no happier – he had wanted me gone.

After a decent evening meal and tales told around the fire, I stretched and yawned. Shown to my bed, I gave the impression of a man wanting nothing more than sleep. Not that I got any, for fear of dropping the glamour. As soon as my host began to stir next morning, I quietly packed my bedroll and made myself ready for travel. I accepted a hot drink and a small breakfast, enjoying the luxury of having them prepared for me. After a few pleasantries, I walked out of the village.

A light dusting of snow lay upon the ground. I made fresh tracks through the unbroken expanse of white. Passing the last house, I stopped near a large rock and turned to look back. The same bold child from the day before was staring at me, his mouth actually dropped open. I saw that he had followed me, stepping into my tracks. My tracks were not the size of the boots my glamour wore. They were child-sized.

Cursing inwardly, I winked at him and held up a coin. That snapped him out of his trance. “Run all over this area. Make many tracks.” I set the coin on the rock and moved around it.

He still looked shaken but mustered up a grin and nodded. I walked on. When I looked back again, he was running back and forth, filling the space with prints.

I have avoided snow ever since.

Short and Sweet Update #IWSG 07/01/2020

July 1, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

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Monthly Status Report

June was still focused mostly on the eating, and while I didn’t do as well as I wanted, I have gotten rid of the biggest offenders (chips, ramen, etc.) and in general, I am feeling better, though the food prep is still frustrating at times.

Near the end of the month, I got back to writing, though, and have been writing some short stories for anthologies! One of the deadlines IS July 1, so while I am writing this post early, I’m not done with the story and there is still a chance I will get it done it time. That is why this post is so short this month. Darn deadlines!

Optional Monthly Question

July 1 question – There have been many industry changes in the last decade, so what are some changes you would like to see happen in the next decade?

Wow. I am such a newbie on this. I think the main thing is that I want there to NOT be a monopoly. I want other companies besides Amazon to continue to thrive and grow. Yes, it might be more difficult to market on multiple platforms, but I just like lots of variety and options, so I want to participate everywhere.

And that’s all for this week. Have a fantastic July everyone, and see you again in August!

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Secrets #IWSG 06/03/2020

June 3, 2020 By ravenofiernan 2 Comments

Monthly Status Report

May started out pretty much the way April ended. Still working on covers, still hanging out in my house, that sort of thing.

However, I noticed that my thoughts and actions concerning food and drink were getting a little out of hand, so near the end of May (exactly one week ago as I write this, about a week and a half from when it will be posted), I started doing Bright Line Eating (BLE) again. It’s an eating plan meant to minimize addiction to food; I don’t have a high addiction to food itself (at least according to the little quiz they have), but I struggle a lot with entitlement and rebellion, so am not where I want to be. I’m not a proseltyser and this is a writing post, so I’m only going to share a few more things, and no link. If you are interested, searching on Bright Line Eating should get you there.

The only other thing I will say is that it is NOT keto, though it does map well onto the more generous guidelines Dr. Fung lays out in The Obesity Code, aside from meals: BLE recommends exactly three meals a day and not skipping breakfast, while Dr. Fung recommends skipping breakfast and potentially starting intermittent fasting. Note that I am specifically talking about that one book. When surrounded by other Dr. Fung followers, I was occasionally accused of “cheating” because in other areas, his recommendations are much more specific. In this book, he allows whole grain and fruit, and any number of whole vegetables, which I understand are NOT recommended by him in other places and not part of a keto plan (the book is also NOT a keto book, and he mentions it as one of many plans you can follow). BLE by contrast recommends LOTS of vegetables (so many I can’t usually finish them all), fruit at breakfast and lunch, and whole grains at breakfast. Anyway, it worked for me before, so that is why I am doing it again. If keto or Weight Watchers or whatever else you are doing is working for you, that’s great! And if just living and eating the way you normally do works, that is even better!

On the writing front, not much new in the way of words, but I finished some more covers, and I should be done shortly. After that, I plan to continue preparing my short story for publication and figuring out the spam issue with my website so that I can then offer the story as a free sign-up bonus for my newsletter.

Optional Monthly Question

June 3 question – Writers have secrets! What are one or two of yours, something readers would never know from your work?

Well, at this point, I suppose it is not a surprise that I am going to talk about addiction and habits. I have a very addictive personality and can get caught up in whatever it is that holds my interest at a given point. This is one of the reasons NaNoWriMo is so successful for me. I tend to have one major area of focus, and the rest of my life kind of fades away. I clean irregularly, whenever I happen to notice that it is just way too bad or when I am in the mood. I’ve finally gotten to the point where my dishes get done regularly and the clothes laundry is done every week. Sheets and towels — I try for once a week, but usually don’t manage that.

I have tried countless exercise and yoga plans, but I usually don’t get much longer than a week or two. And sometimes (gasp!) I even forget to brush my teeth. Yeah, not pretty!

But I am making progress on all of this. While I still have near obsessive focus with whatever my main interest is, I’ve started being able to combine things. Last year, I was able to do my writing for the day, and then play some Skyrim — something that would have been impossible two years ago (it would have either been the writing OR Skyrim).

I have found some success in morning, evening, and night routines, though sometimes I only do one of the things that’s listed as part of the routine (for example writing (which for me includes anything that is moving me forward, including these blogs and the covers, etc.) almost always happens in the evening routine, but the dishes are much rarer). But over time, I am getting better, and I know that if I continue to show up, overall, the progress will be good, even if not linear.

So that’s my secret today! Thank you for reading.

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Ritual #IWSG 05/06/2020

May 6, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

Monthly Status Report

April, of course, was another strange month in terms of what’s going on in the world. For me, pretty much status quo. I am missing meeting with my writing friend, and the retreat I’ve gone to for the past two years was canceled, but otherwise, things are pretty much the same for me. The huge influx of work the middle of March at my day job settled down, and is also sort of back to normal. In positive news on that front, they love me and gave me a raise! I know that makes me extremely lucky in these times where many are losing their jobs, being laid off, or having to close their businesses.

April is also Camp NaNoWriMo — being an online free event, it still proceeded with gusto. If you read my report from last month, you know that I have been working on covers for my reader magnet. I finished twelve more of them during Camp as my Camp project. I also was part of a wonderful cabin and had a lot of fun. I even did some writing and finished another short story and started a new novel idea… but I don’t know when I will get back to that. I really don’t need any new novel ideas right now.

For May, I plan to finish the still remaining 4 covers and add the little series branding logo I created for one of the middle covers to all the covers that came before it. Then I am going to work more on my website. You may have noticed that I removed my email newsletter sign up form. I looked in my Spam folder and found thousands of bad email spam from this website with my name on it, so I don’t want to open it back up until I figure out how to stop it. I haven’t even started investigating yet, but it is definitely something I need to get to. Then get a new newsletter set up once the spam problem is dealt with.

Optional Monthly Question

May 6 question – Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? Care to share?

I love ritual. But strangely, my ritual to get in the zone is very minimal, and more a routine than a ritual. I know many people use the terms interchangeably, but for me, a ritual involves a kind of spiritual attention and purpose, while routine is just the actions. I don’t usually have a ritualistic mindset when I write, which, again, I actually find rather odd. Anyway, the main thing is getting set up with something to drink (coffee in the morning, water or black tea in the afternoon, and water or green/herbal tea at night — I used to have wine, but wine puts me to sleep and gives me a headache, so not really good for writing). Then I put on my hour-long playlist, which is a bunch of classical pieces that are 1) the right length for the playlist and 2) associated with Halloween for me or at least seem somewhat sinister. The actual list is:

J. S. Bach – Toccata and Fugue
L. Beethoven – 5th Symphony
A. Vivaldi – Winter, first movement
J. S. Bach – Cello Suite #2, 6. gigue
C. Saint-Saëns – Danse macabre
C. Gounod – Funeral March of a Marionette (Alfred Hitchcock theme)
P. Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
M. Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain
P. Tchaikovsky – Marche Slave
K. Jenkins – Palladio: I. Allegretto (the Zales diamond song)

So, I have my (usually warm) drink, my document open, and music playing, and my fingers just fly! Not as fast as some, but I average around 2,000 words an hour, which is pretty good, I think.

One last thing: I do all my drafting (not revision or planning) in the free program FocusWriter. I have my own theme set up with amber Courier on a dark blue background with a raven. Here is a screenshot with some lorem ipsum:

Get FocusWriter here: https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/

That also puts me in the right mood for all the magic and mystery of my first drafts!

What sort of routines and rituals do you have?

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Attitude #IWSG 04/01/2020

April 1, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

Monthly Status Report

It’s been an interesting month on the writing front. More on that with the optional question, but the main thing is that I had a good conversation with someone about newsletters, and we decided that my primary focus right now needs to be getting my reader magnet ready. She had several resources, but probably due to the virus, never got around to sharing them, so I am doing everything myself.

In particular, that means covers. Lots and lots of covers. I am taking Holly Lisle’s Title. Cover. Copy class (which I bought ages ago either at a discount or when I had extra funds — not sure which at the moment), and it involves coming up with 6 titles (voted on by others) and then creating four covers for each title. That’s a LOT of covers: 24 for those of you not counting at home. For a short story. But it is good practice, and I enjoy it. I have pretty much finished the first eight.

The story is a prequel to the Hazel Kanetzki series of witch cozy mysteries, which features her first encounter with her ability to go into trance when in the presence of the dead bodies she prepares. It also explores her relationship with her late husband.

I have no ETA on when I will have it available, but keep watching this space for when it does.

Optional Monthly Question

Every month, there is an optional question you can answer. I like them because they usually allow me to share more about myself as a writer and as a person in a way I might not have thought of myself. So, here is this month’s question:

April 1 question – The IWSG’s focus is on our writers. Each month, from all over the globe, we are a united group sharing our insecurities, our troubles, and our pain. So, in this time when our world is in crisis with the covid-19 pandemic, our optional question this month is: how are things in your world?

Surprisingly well. The answer may change the further into Virus-land we go, but for now, I find myself in an exceptionally lucky position.

Physical Health: My own health seems to be fine. I am cautious and staying at home.

Mental Health: Mentally, I am only spending a short time on the news and deliberately seeking out more informative/less sensationalized outlets. I feel I have a handle on the things I need to know (state orders, medical advice, etc.) without going down the rabbit hole of everything that could go wrong or that is going wrong in other places. By other places, I mean not my home and not my parents’ home. It’s possible a lot is going wrong even in my city. The fact is, we aren’t testing anyone hardly, so no one really knows how many have it.

Also, I am an introvert, so for now, my reaction to “must stay at home” is more like “get to stay at home” and “don’t have to go anywhere”. That may change, but right now, I’m not going to try to make myself more miserable just because I might be frustrated later. I’ll be frustrated then anyway.

Financial Health: Good. Better than planned actually. My job is one of the few that is not suffering in this crisis. I do telephone interviews from home for people who are applying for life insurance (or disability, etc. but not health). I was already working from home, so did not need to change anything about how I do my job. Not only that, but instead of having cut hours we have been having overtime the last few weeks and the calls have been going crazy. This may die down as more and more agents are unable to get out, but hopefully, more of them will switch to Tele-sales anyway. As it is, it is really worrying to hear about agents going into the homes of 70-some year old people to sell them life insurance.

I have pretty much everything I need. I happened to get extra toilet paper before the shortage (but extra is starting to be less than extra now), and have been making sure to have enough food and other supplies if I need to actually be stuck at home for 14 days.

Social Health: Probably not that great, but it wasn’t that great to begin with. See above about being an introvert. The main disappointment was the cancellation of the writer’s retreat I was looking forward to and the meetings with my writing friend every Sunday. I’m not good at (read: don’t enjoy) social media much, so my main “socialization” has been my calls to my parents.

My main concern through all of this is my parents’ and other people’s health. I am not really worried about experiencing the virus myself. I am more concerned about the possibility of NOT having symptoms and inadvertently passing the virus on to someone else who suffers more. That thought really bothers me and is enough to keep me at home most of the time and to be extremely cautious when I go out.

So on that note: I wish you all the best. And – does anyone know where I can get some toilet paper?

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Tradition #IWSG 03/04/2020

March 4, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

Monthly Status Report

So far, it seems like 2020 is a good year for consistency, but a bad year for actual productivity. I’ve been spending most of my “writing” time on critiques and podcasts, learning and absorbing rather than doing. But I think it is all good, and useful. I think I do alternate between fallow and fertile periods, and I know I will come back to a fertile period when I am ready. I have the luxury of a day job, but at the same time, I do want to get back to it.

That said, I have a new desk with more filing cabinets (really just a board on top of the filing cabinets), and so I am looking forward to getting back to my main revision now that I have all that extra space!

Optional Monthly Question

March 4 question – Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

I feel like I have, but of course, as is often the case, I can’t think of one right now. I know in the first draft of the novel I am revising, I had two long “scenes” that I had to cut about personal things. But they were things that didn’t really belong: how I put together a jigsaw puzzle, and how I like to make my ramen. Both were long pointless passages of exposition that had nothing to do with the story, and really didn’t even give much character to my character.

I can’t really think of anything else at the moment, but I might add Mr. So to my cozy series. Mr. So was called Mr. So because my dad’s first name started with S. He is a personal family elf during Christmas time. I can’t remember all the traditions around Mr. So, but I could see adding a kind of house-fairy to my cozy series. Maybe not related to Christmas.

I think this could add a lot of flavor actually!

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On Visual Art #IWSG 02/05/2020

February 5, 2020 By ravenofiernan 10 Comments

Monthly Status Report

I haven’t done much writing in January. I think this is rather normal, too. I am okay with it because I know that I will come back to it. That probably isn’t the right attitude for someone who wants to go pro, but I only sort of want to “go pro”, so it’s probably fine for me. I am not planning on ever quitting my day job, so I can have a more relaxed attitude towards my writing.

I’ve been doing a lot more studying and learning rather than actual production. I finished a big beta project and now I am listening to podcasts during my writing time. It will all help in the end.

Optional Monthly Question

February 5 question – Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

You know? I can’t actually remember this ever happening. I remember a news story inspiring a serial killer novel, and no, I didn’t ever finish it. And then the song “My Snow White Queen” by Evanescence inspired my Snow White fairy tale retelling, which I did finish — well, the first draft anyway — but a photo or visual art? I can’t think of one.

Which is kind of sad because I do love visual art. But I can’t think of any stories that were actually inspired by it. But now that the question has arisen, it is something I can think of when I see art. Ask my muse if there is more to the story than what I see in the image. New perspectives are always welcome!

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And here are the awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the IWSG!

Lee Lowery
Ronel Janse van Vuuren
Jennifer Hawes
Cathrina Constantine
Tyrean Martinson

Becoming a Writer #IWSG 01/08/2020

January 7, 2020 By ravenofiernan 2 Comments

Monthly Status Report

As usual, December was a slow month on the writing front, but I am happy to say that there was some important progress made. First, my evening routine. My evening routine consists of doing dishes, writing down what I am going to eat the next day, and writing for at least 15 minutes. To be honest, the writing part happens more often than the other two parts, and I managed it most days this month. I had a few non-writing days, particularly due to the holidays and just feeling tired at the end of the month, but overall, this is sticking. The downside to that is that I am beta-reading another writer’s novel, and that’s what I ended up putting into the writing session slot, with the understanding that I am learning from doing the review.

The other positive this month is that, following Nano, where I routinely did 3-5 hour writing marathons (with breaks!) on Fridays and Sundays, I decided that meant I could certainly do an hour of writing in the morning on Sundays. As a result, I finished a short story, and it is out to beta readers now. It’s one I’ve been struggling with for a long time. I enjoy having this time, and I might add Friday mornings at some point, too. For reference, I work Saturdays, but don’t start work until 3pm on Mondays and 4pm on Fridays, so I do have time in the earlier part of the day.

Optional Monthly Question

January 8 question – What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just “know” suddenly you wanted to write?

This is a difficult question. I know when I was very little, if my mom went somewhere and I was home with my dad, he and I would make little picture books. I still remember Norris the Nose! These were mainly just drawings with titles, but we stapled them up and they looked rather book-like. I also made similar stories with My Little Pony stamps/stickers. So, that was pretty little.

But something changed by the time I got to third grade because there was a creative writing prompt that started, “If I ever met a ghost…” and my response was just a single end to that sentence — “it would be a nice ghost like Casper” — and there was no additional story involved. I don’t know if I just had writer’s block or if I just wasn’t interested. I know I felt extremely clever at not making the ghost scary, which is what I thought we were “supposed” to do (in retrospect, there probably wasn’t any “supposed to” — I have a tendency to assume that sort of thing and then deliberately go in the opposite direction out of perversity).

Then, in fifth grade, we had to write these letters to our parents every Friday about what happened that week. Now, there is a reason I don’t write memoir. I find my own life incredibly boring. Also, I had a good relationship with my parents and told them what I did every day at dinner. So this exercise seemed both pointless and redundant. I was watching some soap operas at the time, so I made these letters as creative as I could (I remember at least one time my teacher telling me I had to redo it because it wasn’t what really happened during the week) using characters from the soap operas and making the events seem more interesting than they really were.

By sixth grade, I was committed to writing, and have been writing off and on (some periods in my life, like grad school, more off than on) ever since.

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Writers supporting, encouraging and learning from each other. Post on your own blog about your struggles, your triumphs, and your successes. Talk about your works in progress: the good, the bad and the ugly or some other writing relating topic on your mind. Read others, interact, comment, and grow within this wonderful author community. Every month there is an optional question for those who may need help figuring out what to post about.

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