Raven O'Fiernan

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Weekly Update: May 19, 2021

May 19, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Weekly Update

So, I did not get much writing done; I have been watching Sherlock and playing chess against computer bots. When I play real people, I get tense and lightheaded, so I don’t do it often, and it’s true online as well as in person, though in person is definitely much more stressful.
Anyway, that is actually rather relevant because I made a revelation this morning. You may know that I have had a world idea for some time involving what I call the Rookery. It’s a play on the word “rook” which has several meanings: the bird, the chess piece, monks, thieves… Anyway, I thought: what if there was a religious organization with multiple deities/practices that were kind of all connected, and one of them is the Rookery, which, in addition to serving the Goddess of Darkness, also functions as a secret organization of spies, assassins, and thieves? And they leave a rook chess piece when they are recruiting, but other chess pieces when they have committed a “crime” (but because they are sanctioned by the state, it’s not exactly a crime, though also not exactly legal either — in a kind of grey area).
But that is just a setting. I didn’t have a story for it, so it has just been sitting there, waiting for the right moment.
I don’t know if this is the right moment, but I do know that I finally have a character for this setting. I’ve always been drawn to unlikable, intelligent types. For a long time, my two favorite fictional characters have been Madame Defarge from Tale of Two Cities and Severus Snape from Harry Potter. We can now add Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock to that — I haven’t read the real Doyle fiction, nor have I seen any other actual interpretations, so I don’t know whether I would have the same reaction to actual Sherlock Holmes, but that is rather moot. I have a type of character I love, but have never written.
And that, my friends, needs to change. And they would fit perfectly in The Rookery world. I think I know what I am doing for NaNo this year!

Filed Under: Reflection

Weekly Update: May 12, 2021

May 12, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Weekly Update

So, I did not get done as much as I would have liked this week. Once again, I ended up working on covers. I had meant to do website and platform work — specifically figuring out new playlists for my Sunday streams and resuming the website class I am taking through Udemy, but I guess those are still on hold. June and July will be revision months, and probably August, too — at least the first part of August, because I am going to a writer’s retreat then, and that is perfect for revision. And three months really isn’t too long for revision. I should really do it almost every month, really.
Anyway, so that was that week, derailed a bit by overtime at the day job. This coming week should be more productive since I won’t have the extra overtime.
I write these on the Sunday before they go live, so today is actually Mother’s Day, and I am looking forward to visiting my mom (which I do every weekend anyway) and spending time with her. I hope all the mothers who read this had a lovely day as well!

Bright blessings!

Filed Under: Reflection, Writing

Writing v. Revision, May 2021 Edition #IWSG 05/05/2021

May 5, 2021 By ravenofiernan 6 Comments

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Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Weekly Update

So, this week has been all about the torch marathon for Camp Nano. I am one of the organizers of a month-long event called the NaNoOlympics, which pits different writing groups agaist each other in different events. The last event of the month was the torch marathon, and the rules were basically this:

  1. You try to “carry the torch” for as long as possible.
  2. A single “leg” of the marathon is one hour of writing (or editing, or other writing activity).
  3. At the end of the leg, the current writer can either keep the torch and write for another hour OR pass the torch to another writer.
  4. The switch has to be visible — that is, the first writer must say they are passing the torch (either to themself or to the next person) AND the next writer must say they are picking up the torch (unless it is the same person — they don’t have to post twice to say “I’m passing the torch to myself” and then again “I am picking up the torch”).
  5. The person picking up the torch must respond to the first writer (if 2 different people) within 5 minutes.
  6. The actual hand off needs to occur within 5 minutes of the top of the hour (if not, the person with the torch needs to finish that hour as well).

I was a participant in one of the competing groups, and we had some extremely dedicated writers (I was 4th on the list, but in terms of actual time, the two at the top did an INSANE number of hours). One of them regularly did 5 hours every days, and on at least two occasions, did 11 hours. Because of this, we were never really in any real danger of dropping the torch, so I ended up helping out when I could, and, according to the posted stats, wrote 20 hours during that week, mostly one hour, then a break, then another hour or two, but I did have a couple of uninterrupted 2-hour legs.

The problem with this is that my Camp goal was revision, but I got swept up in the excitement and ended up writing instead. Part of this was due to the earlier Weekend of Writing Wildly, which was a similar event, except done as streaming on Twitch, and when I am streaming, I prefer to write because people can hear my typing and see words appear, even though they are very tiny. So, anyway, I’ve been writing and I have started a new novel/novella (thinking it will be shorter, but too soon to tell), which is a paranormal ghost story. It may end up paranormal romance, but not typical paranormal romance, and it will probably be a lesbian romance at that.

So that’s this week.

Now that we are in May, I am focusing more on the “business” side of things, which I have been completely neglecting since January. I am also planning to organize my life better. Then, June and July will be revision months again, and maybe August, too… As long as I can avoid the temptation of writing lots of new words!

Optional Monthly Question

May 5 question – Has any of your readers ever responded to your writing in a way that you didn’t expect? If so, did it surprise you?

Yes, but I actually can’t remember it. It was a long time ago, and I remember thinking it was really cool, that they got this thing out of my story that I could see, now that they pointed it out, but did not deliberately put in. It was very eye opening. It made me realize how alive our stories are, and how they can grow and change with each reader, while the actual words remain the same. It made me question authors who tell their readers that their reading is “wrong”. I’m not saying they are wrong, but in my case, it was clear that the reader was right, that I can’t decide what the book is actually about, that I can’t tell a reader they are wrong for seeing something that IS there, even if I didn’t put it there. But I also think there are readers who see what they want to see, and maybe it isn’t there. I haven’t experienced that personally, but I could believe it could happen.
Anyway, this is the number one reason I will not be upset about any fan fiction that might occur. I’ll be flattered and curious to see the different ways people see my world and characters… if that even happens. Of course, I have to finish stuff first, and that means NOT writing new first drafts, and instead finishing the revision of Cipher.

Happy writing, other insecure writers, and I look forward to seeing you all next month!

INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP

FOUNDED BY

Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh

Twitter is @TheIWSG Hashtag: #IWSG

Join in here!

IWSG Website

The awesome co-hosts for the May 5 posting of the IWSG are Erika Beebe, PJ Colando, Tonja Drecker, Sadira Stone, and Cathrina Constantine!

Filed Under: Reflection

April 21, 2021: Weekly Update

April 21, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Weekly Update

Just a weekly update again this week.  I am working on setting up the post for the Storytime Blog Hop next week, so this one is short.  Also trying to make progress on my revision of Cipher.  I haven’t finished Katherine Neville’s book, The Eight, yet, but I am about half-way through and it is quite good. But it does mean I don’t have a review for you yet. It will have to be next month.

Happy writing and reading, everyone!

Filed Under: Reflection, Writing

April 14, 2021: Just a Weekly Update Today

April 14, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Weekly Update

Work is getting better. I did scheduling the Friday before last, and it really helped, so I spent a lot of time scheduling again this Friday, and things are starting to settle.

That means I am expecting my non-work time to begin to settle again, too, and I can get back to some of the things that I know are good for me. And I can get back to doing some writing in the evenings again, too. Which in this case, is revision. I am working on revising Cipher.

Technically, that is also my Camp NaNo goal and my general April goal, but I haven’t been doing it much, so, well, it hasn’t been happening. I’m in a bit of a rut, actually. But hopefully with the job solidifying, the reast can, too.

I have been watching TV lately. I watched The Irregulars, which I really liked, and I am almost to the end of Cursed. These are both on Netflix. On Amazon, I am watching Scott and Bailey, which I am really enjoying. I like that it is a little shorter than Cursed, even though I like them both. After Cursed, I am thinking about watching The Woman in White. I will see.

I’ve also been reading. I’m currently reading The Eight by Katherine Neville. It’s about a powerful, mystical chess set hidden over the years. I haven’t read The Da Vinci Code, but I suspect it’s similar to that. It’s not much of a surprise that I picked this one to read as the TV thing actually started with The Queen’s Gambit. I love chess, and I love France and Russia, so both that show and The Eight go into all three quite a bit.

Anyway, I guess this is a little longer than usual, and I don’t have much else to say. Next week, I hope I will be done with The Eight, so I can give it a proper review.

Until then, happy reading!

Filed Under: Reflection

Risk-Taking in Writing #IWSG 04-07-2021

April 7, 2021 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

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Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Weekly Update

So, another long, tiring week at work, and not much done to show for it. But I will share the current covers anyway — these were made last year. Since this is an #IWSG post, it’s possible other people will see — these are just my very first attempts at this sort of thing, so feel free to offer any feedback and/or tell me which one(s) you like most.

The story is about a woman who is a funeral director whose husband has just died. She is preparing his body when something exceptional occurs. It’s not romance and there is a paranormal element. It’s connected to my Hazel Kanetzki series of cozy paranormal mysteries, but it is not a mystery itself.

Optional Monthly Question

April 7th’s question, if you’d like to answer it, is:  Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?

Oh boy. This is a can of worms, isn’t it? Absolutely. I don’t deliberately add controversial topics, but they end up sneaking in because I mainly want to write what doesn’t exist yet. I love reading, but when I write, I want to write what I want to read but can’t find. And so that leads into what I personally and uniquely find missing, which, by definition means it’s not the usual.

And I have the problem where I like to read, and therefore write, in many different genres. At least, I have heard that is a problem. People searching on my name might run into drastically different stuff, so my Also Boughts are going to be a mess… Assuming I even get something finished.

My riskiest novel is one that has been set aside. It is a retelling of Snow White. The step-mother is only a few years older than Snow White, and the prince is her former lover who curses her, and unleashes insanity (basically the archetypal world warping everyone into archetypes — so it forces the step-mother into the evil stepmother role, for example). So all three of them are slowly going insane. It’s written in alternating first person from these three unreliable narrators. I want to get back to it at some point, but not sure when I will. Oh, and then there’s the idea (not even a first draft yet) of the sister of an abused girl who frames the abuser of serial killers and goes insane as she begins to become addicted to killing… Um, yeah. That one might never get written.

Even when I am in more mainstream genres, like the aforementioned cozy mysteries, I find myself wanting to play with the tropes and avoid the most common things (on the other hand, as far as tropes go, I love vampires, just not vampire romances, or at least not the typical brooding/protective male vampire with human female romances).

I think I am starting to ramble here, though, so I will leave you with these oh-so-amateur book covers!

INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP

FOUNDED BY

Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh

Twitter is @TheIWSG Hashtag: #IWSG

Join in here!

IWSG Website

Thanks to our awesome co-hosts for the April 7 posting of the IWSG! PK Hrezo, Pat Garcia, SE White, Lisa Buie Collard, and Diane Burton!

Filed Under: #IWSG, Covers, Reflection, Writing

Four Covers for Grief’s Thorn

March 24, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Weekly Update

So this week has been all about the covers. Last week-end, during my stream, I finished XIX – The Sun and realized, wow, that means I only have two left before the Majors are done. And since I’d already been adjusting the covers I made previously, I decided to go ahead and start making covers for the Major collection. Obviously, I will also need to revise them and format them, and in other ways make the stories themselves good enough for publication, but since March is covers month, well, there you go.

But I am still getting feedback on the covers for the Hazel Kanetzki short story, so here are the four I made for the title Grief’s Thorn. To be honest, these are definitely not my favorites, but hopefully will show my process of learning.

Covers

So, there you go. Next week, I will have the next Tarot flash fiction piece up! Have a great week, everyone!

Filed Under: Covers, Hazel's Series, Reflection, Writing

The First 4 Covers – Three Roses

March 10, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Weekly Update:

This week was a difficult week, to be sure. I got a promotion (yay!) and this was the first week of the new job, so lots of anxiety, new-job uncertainty, feeling “stupid”, etc. And in the middle of it, I finally finished the final touches for my covers for the prequel (but more of a side story, rather than lead-in) to the Hazel series. It’s an introduction to the main character, her reasons for not being interested in romance, and to her ability to get a picture out of a trance after being around dead bodies. But, unlike the other stories in this series, it is NOT a mystery, so might not bring in readers to the series and could possibly appeal to the WRONG readers, and not appeal to the RIGHT ones. Anyway, it’s a story that can stand on its own, so I am going to publish it soon-ish (hopefully within the year) after getting more feedback on the covers and then working on the copy, and then all the administrative tasks involved in putting a book up, which are still slow-going for me since I haven’t done it much.

But that all brings me to the main point of this post:

I’d like to share these covers with you and get your thoughts. I realize they are not my best, but they will improve, and it will give you an inside look at what I’ve been working on.

Three Roses Covers

So there you have them! Please let me know your thoughts on these covers. And until next week, happy reading!

Filed Under: Covers, Hazel's Series, Polls and Surveys, Reflection, Writing

Reading Preferences #IWSG 03-03-2021

March 3, 2021 By ravenofiernan 2 Comments

Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Weekly Update

So, contrary to expectations, the last week of February has been the week that I finally got into my revision, even though of course it was supposed to be my focus for the month overall. And March, I am getting back to covers, so by the time you read this, hopefully, I will have started that. I don’t have much to do with them, though, so I should still be able to get some revision in as well. I just started, but so far, the revision is going well.

I also started a new day job, so my schedule has changed, and I am planning on making more of an effort to add walking and yoga to my daily routine. We will see how it goes.

And, as this is the first Monday of the month, that means it is Insecure Writers Support Group day!

Optional Monthly Question

March 3 question – Everyone has a favorite genre or genres to write. But what about your reading preferences? Do you read widely or only within the genre(s) you create stories for? What motivates your reading choice?

This is a good question for March because I am also hoping to integrate more reading into my schedule, particularly at night. I have not been reading as much as I like to. But typically, it goes the other way. I used to read much more broadly than I do now. These days, I tend to default to easier reading, mostly cozy mysteries. I do write cozy mysteries, of course, but I also write in lots of other genres. And sometimes, when I read a book in a different genre, it will inspire me to write something in that genre as well.

What motivates my reading choice? I like to discover new things, but I also like to continue reading something I have started to love. It seems once I get into a series, I just want to keep reading that series. And then, I also like to read the work of other writers I know, or new writers I haven’t heard of. When I was a teacher, I tried to read the books my students read. But in general, I read pretty much everything. It just hasn’t been in the forefront of my mind lately, which is why I want to get back to it.

INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP

FOUNDED BY

Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh

Twitter is @TheIWSG Hashtag: #IWSG

Join in here!

IWSG Website

The awesome co-hosts for the March 3 posting of the IWSG are Sarah – The Faux Fountain Pen Jacqui Murray, Chemist Ken, Victoria Marie Lees, Natalie Aguirre, and JQ Rose!

Filed Under: Reflection

February 17, 2021: How Do You Know Who You Are?

February 17, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Weekly Update:

So, I realize it has been a few weeks since I have posted a weekly update. Sorry about that. New habits are hard to establish sometimes, and I plain just forgot about it. But that is no reason to throw it all out, so here I am.

This week was a good week. The big issue was that I ran out of paper. I didn’t realize I was so close to being out because I thought I had some new paper somewhere. Turns out, nope, I didn’t. I was going to continue/restart my revision of Cipher with Holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel (Affiliate link), but it involves printing out your manuscript and as I was about to add paper, well… Anyway, so I printed off the first 50 pages and have ordered paper, which I will get on Saturday of next week. So February is looking like it is NOT going to be revision week. I will continue with the website work.

Book Review:

The book I am reviewing this month is The Likeness by Tana French. I really need to reread it. It is gripping and intense. The story is a murder investigation through undercover work. The main character is a detective who, because her appearance is so strikingly similar to the victim’s, goes undercover as the victim, pretending that she is not really dead, so that the suspects might give themselves away and she can find out who killed her double.

It has very believable training, and explores the nature of identity: how much is internal and how much is what our actions are. How memory plays into it. But it is not a literary novel; it is mainstream suspense. I was so engrossed in the story that it colored everything in my life, and I felt I was really there, even when I wasn’t reading. The description was realistic and yet totally alien to anything I’ve ever done. That combination was obsessive.

This is the second book in the Dublin Murder Squad series, but the books are only very loosely connected. There was one small event in this book that recalled the previous book, In the Woods, which is also a great novel (but which I don’t remember at all, unfortunately — I guess I need to reread that one, too!), but otherwise, the plots were completely different and unrelated.

The main thing I took from The Likeness is a deep questioning of who I am as a person, and how much of that depends on my actions, my beliefs, and my memories. Who are we really?

In Closing:

Have you explored questions of identity? Has a book ever made you question yourself? How do you continue to define and create your authentic self?

Filed Under: Book Review, Reflection

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