Raven O'Fiernan

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February Flash Fiction: IV – The Emperor

February 24, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Weekly Update:

This week has been a bit of a hodge podge on the writing front. I did finally get the paper, and have printed out my novel, <i>Cipher</i> (working title), so I can start working through How to Revise Your Novel with it. Should be a shorter variation of the class since it is the second time, and when I was writing the second draft, I could tell it was a lot better. Otherwise, I worked on the website, newsletter set-up, and graphic design software for making covers. And as this is the last week in February, next month, I will be working on covers and the copy for the Hazel Kanetzki prequel.

Flash Fiction: IV – The Emperor

IV – The Emperor

So, maybe I’ve let myself go a little. I mean, a lush garden is wonderful, and I love all greenery, but the weeds are all mixed in with the plants, and it’s getting a little unmanageable. Yes, I said it, weeds. Yes, I know I always said there wasn’t such a thing. I know I said all plants were valuable, and that there were no weeds, only wildflowers. But I can kind of see your point — maybe there are some plants that want to strangle the life out of others, and it’s getting a little unbalanced with all these super-dominant plants. Maybe some kind of order would be good.

There’s also the matter of the animals. I love the deer and the rabbits, but they keep eating the plants and defecating all over. So, that’s the first step. I need to build a fence. It pains me to cut down the trees: I hear their screams as my blade whacks into their skin. But I need wood for the wall, and there isn’t enough loose wood around. It needs to be tall enough that the deer can’t jump over. After I cut the trees, I make the wood into boards and construct the fence. Obviously, I need a gate; I don’t want to imprison myself here.

When the fence surrounds the garden, and a gate allows entrance and exit, I know I need to turn my attention to the plants. I’ve been avoiding this. It was once my nature to just want to nourish them all, to just let them grow wild. But now, things have changed. It is overgrown and unruly, from my lack of discipline. While it hurt to cut down the trees, it feels just as wrong, at first, to want to shape these plants into my own image. But once I get started, I begin to find the ways to tame the wildness without oppression. And always I am rewarded, not just by the beauty of the sculpted shapes, but also by the sudden exuberance expressed by the plants. It’s as though they have been waiting for this, for someone to give them shape, purpose, structure.

Maybe they didn’t want to run wild.

When I am done, I have neatly trimmed hedges in exact geometric patterns. I have bursts of color in just the right place. Complimentary colors balancing each other: blue and orange, purple and yellow, and here and there bright red blooms against the dark green leaves. There are paths for walking and fountains for melody and stone benches for resting. Fragrant flowers are far from each other so the different smells don’t intermingle or overpower. Everything has a purpose and reason, and it is beautiful in its symmetry and order. And far from stifling growth through unnatural oppression, this new order has made the garden flourish in a different way than it did before. So, welcome to my garden. May it bring you peace and calm, and a sense of balance and rightness with the world. All is as it should be.

The End.

Filed Under: Flash Fiction, Reflection, Writing

Routine Friendships and Friendly Routines #IWSG 02-03-2021

February 3, 2021 By ravenofiernan 8 Comments

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Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Monthly Report

So, you may or may not have noticed, but I forgot to update last week. Whoops! I’m still not used to the weekly blogging thing, I guess. In any case, I write these on Sundays, so even though you will be reading this on Wednesday, February 3, today is actually the last day of January. So it feels right to return to a monthly report. On the whole, January was, as many have been before, a rather fractured month. Inspired by the hopeful energy of the New Year, I must admit I chose to start WAY TOO MANY new classes. There’s a meditation class, a health class, a WordPress class, and a Mailerlite class, and I am now behind on all of them. The meditation, despite being one of the classes without a deadline, is the one that is doing the best. On the other hand, my routines have been solid, which is a new and refreshing thing, and possibly the reason the meditation class is going so well, since it is part of my evening routine. I now have five items on my morning routine, seven on my evening (around dinner) routine, and six on my night (right before bed) routine. I have been getting most things done every day, though there is usually one of the evening or night that just doesn’t get done. I try not to let it be the same one as the day before, but since I have been doing guided meditation in the evening, I sometimes skip the unguided meditation at night. Writing and the peripheral activities (January was for the website) have also been doing well, thanks to the routines and the new streaming on Sundays. I get a story done each week during the stream, and I’ve also been able to do a blog post each week. I stream for 3 hours, so there is plenty of time. I will see at the end of this post if I managed my 10,000 word goal for the month, but if I don’t make it, I will at least be close.

Optional Monthly Question

February 3 question -Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere?

I hate to say this, but no. Actually not at all, unless you count my earliest days of online journaling when I had an Open Diary account. I made friends through that, but they have all passed on over time. Most of the friendships I have with posters on my blog have actually come from other areas, such as NaNoWriMo and Holly’s Writing Classes. I’ll give a quick shout out to those because Holly Lisle has temporarily lowered the prices to 50% off all classes over $20 due to the economic struggles we are all facing. I’ll be returning to How To Revise Your Novel in February, and I maintain that it is the very best writing class I have ever taken. Getting it for half off would be a steal. In fair disclosure, that is an affiliate link. If you prefer not to use it, you can do an internet search on Holly’s Writing Classes, and you will find all her offerings including that class. I have made a lot of friends through the forums, so even if all you get is the free flash fiction class, it comes with free, perpetual access to the forums*.

It is one of the best places on the internet, full of empathetic and compassionate people trying to help each other on the writing journey. My affiliate link to the free flash fiction course is here: How to Write Flash Fiction that Doesn’t SUCK

Of course, the lack of blog-related friendships is on me. I’m not very social. I recognize that to have good success with blogging, I need to go to other blogs and comment, and somehow, that part of the equation always gets skipped. It’s something I need to work on because when I do take the time, I am amazed by all the wonderful insights and perspectives I encounter. To link this to the previous section, it seems like, once the current routines are 100% solid rather than just mostly solid, I could add blog-reading to either the morning or evening routines (before bed would be silly!). Something I’ll have to consider!

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 February 3 posting of the IWSG are Louise – Fundy Blue , Jennifer Lane, Mary Aalgaard, Patsy Collins at Womagwriter, and Nancy Gideon!

*assuming good behavior, of course, as is true of all forums.

Filed Under: #IWSG, Reflection, Writing

January 2021 Book Review: Daily Meditations

January 20, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

So, the third week of each month will be a book review.  This month’s is a little unconventional.  I normally read fiction, but this month I am reviewing two non-fiction books, both of them daily readers.  But first, here’s what I’ve been up to this week!

Weekly Update

This week has been fairly uneventful on the writing front. I got another flash fiction piece done for the Tarot collection and did some website work (mostly learning stuff and applying it to local test sites, not too many changes to the actual live website yet), as well as starting to learn my way around Mailerlite so I can get a newsletter going again, this time without sending myself (and possibly others) lots of spam from who knows where. THAT was an eye-opener and the reason I don’t currently have a list. But yeah, moving slowly, but still making progress.

The main thing is that I have been more committed to my routines. I have a morning, evening, and night routine, and these help me stay sane and also help me to be more productive overall. On that note, one of the things I do is read inspirational passages from day books, and it has been hard to find some that I like, so I thought I’d share the ones I’m currently using for morning and night. I explain more about my morning routine later.

Book Review: Open Mind by Diane Mariechild and Every Day Spirit by Mary Davis

We will start with the night book, because I’ve had it the longest.

When I was in college, my mom bought me Open Mind: Women’s Daily Inspiration for Becoming Mindful by Diane Mariechild. I have returned to it over and over again in my life. Each day is on a separate page with the date at the top, then a quote by a spiritual woman, and finally a few paragraphs by Diane Mariechild explaining what that quote means to her and how we can use it. Today’s quote is from Izumi Shikibu:

Listen, listen;
longing and loss.
In the struck bell’s
recurrent calling,
no moment in which to forget.

And her explanation is about the importance of dealing with loss in a meaningful way.

I recently decided that I wanted to supplement Open Mind. I wanted to read Open Mind at night, but another passage in the morning. It took me a long time, but I finally decided on Every Day Spirit: A Dayabook of Wisdom, Joy, and Peace by Mary Davis.

This book is similar to Open Mind in several ways. Like Open Mind, it has a different entry for each day of the year. Also it was written by a woman. The main difference is that Davis’s book has a more personal overriding theme: some time she spent in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. So there are entries that can be more like diary entries where she discusses something that happened that day. Other entries do have a quote and commentary like Mariechild’s, but not all of them. Finally, Davis’s has two suggestions for focus during the day. A focus for how to approach the world/your daily life/external events called “In The World” and a more internal focus called “In The Heart”.

Appropriately, today’s entry is about developing a morning spiritual practice.

My morning routine consists of the following:

1. Reading a passage from a spiritual book (currently this one)

2. Drawing a Tarot card for the day

3. Doing my coffee ritual, see here:

4. Committing to my ideals

5. Connecting with content related to my ideals.

And that’s what I do, pretty much every day. There are days I miss, particularly when I have to work early on Thursdays and Saturdays, but I often get at least one of those in.

In Closing:

Do you have a spiritual practice or morning routine that gives meaning to your life? What are the key points in your spirituality or non-spirituality?

Note: All ideas/philosophies/faiths are welcome in the comments as long as they do not demonize any others or any living beings, but please do not argue about any being better than others.

Filed Under: Book Review, Reflection, Writing

Welcome to 2021!

January 13, 2021 By ravenofiernan Leave a Comment

Welcome!

So, I am going to finally start blogging more regularly. This comes as a result of starting to stream on Twitch once a week. I started doing that during NaNoWriMo this year, so in November 2020. And I was still finishing up the novel during December, but starting in January, I ran out of things to be actually writing. So, naturally decided to work on blog posts.

And this is the first one! So, here is what you can expect:

The first Wednesday of every month is still going to be the IWSG – Insecure Writer’s Support Group – post. The second Wednesday, for now, is just going to be a reflection of some kind. The third Wednesday will be a book review. And the fourth and/or fifth Wednesdays will be for flash fiction. This is because I will also be doing the Storytime Blog Hops and those are the last Wednesdays of January, April, July, and October.

The flash fiction for the foreseeable future will be the Tarot flash pieces I have been working on. 0 – The Fool will remain free and visible. As I add each new one, however, the one before will disappear. So every month, you will have 0 – The Fool and whichever one is most recent to read at your leisure.

On the months with five Wednesdays, I will be taking them as I go, maybe seeing what others are interested in, or just writing about what is on my mind.

During November, I am not going to have full blog posts, but rather just have a weekly update and then word count. That way, I can still focus on writing my novel during my Twitch stream.

Weekly Update:

Normally, this will be the first part of the post, but since this week, we have an introductory post, it made sense to put it first.

In any case, this was a good week for productivity. I mostly worked on the website and getting a mailing list/newsletter started, but not done with either of those yet. I am behind on the website class I signed up with through Udemy, but still made some progress on one or the other every day, and I also figured out what book(s) I am going to review for next week’s blog.

In Closing:

So, I hope you will stick around to read what I have coming. Next week, I will have a book review for some daily readers I use to keep me centered.

What would you like me to write about?

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Filed Under: Reflection, Writing

Pet Peeves Worth Their Weight in Gold #IWSG 01/06/2021

January 6, 2021 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

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Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Monthly Status Report

December was a quiet month for me. As usual, my monthly goal was just to finish up loose ends, and I am happy to report that I have finished the rough draft of Prime Tower. I wrote most of it in November for National Novel Writing Month, but didn’t quite finish. I was able to get it done on Sunday, December 27 during my weekly writing stream.

Speaking of which, that has become a new part of my life, and it has become completely habitual. I still fumble around when I don’t know what to say during the chatting breaks, but they are still nice to have, and it is enjoyable to converse with the people who show up while also getting work done!

I did create my loose yearly plan, which looks like this currently:
December 2020: Loose Ends
January 2021: Website work
February 2021: Revision of Cipher
March 2021: Covers/Copy for the Hazel Kanetzki short story
April 2021: Camp Nano: Revision of Cipher
May 2021: Revision
June 2021: Website work
July 2021: Revision
August 2021: Revision
September 2021: Covers/Copy
October 2021: Nano Prep
November 2021: NaNoWriMo
December 2021: Loose Ends

If I happen to finish the whole revision before the end of August, I think I will work on developing either the Hazel Kanetzki or Cipher series. I think it is highly unlikely, though, because I am a very slow reviser!

Optional Monthly Question

January 6 question – Being a writer, when you’re reading someone else’s work, what stops you from finishing a book/throws you out of the story/frustrates you the most about other people’s books?

This is a difficult question. It’s pretty rare that I don’t finish something I have started reading. Besides being a completionist in general, I am also almost always curious about what will happen next. So, most of the things I can think of are not actually deal breakers, just things I am tired of or get frustrated with. So here they are, in no particular order:

  • Redemption arcs that fall apart: If I think a character has a chance for redemption, it irritates me to no end if the author makes them slide back to being evil.
  • Turning every M/F friendship into a romance or a failed part of a love triangle, but never turning other friendships into romances.
  • Sexy vampire romance.
  • Hot cop love interest in cozy mysteries.
  • Potential vampires who want to remain human.
  • Sex scenes that take away from the main plot.

I’m sure there are others, but these are the main ones. You may notice that I don’t have anything like “bad writing” or “grammar mistakes” or anything like that. That’s because I actually tend not to notice those things unless I am trying to. And I don’t like trying to unless I have a good reason. When I am reading for pleasure, it all goes right past me as I devour the story. But the things above will distract me and irritate me. I may not put the book down, but I may sigh . . . and wish it had been something else.

Which is why these books are often ones of great value. Because it’s these missed moments that give me the inspiration for my own works, and why I continue to write and find great joy in the writing. Because I’m writing the stuff I can’t find anywhere else. And maybe others will appreciate the novelty as well.

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 January 6 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse van Vuuren , J Lenni Dorner, Gwen Gardner Sandra Cox, and Louise – Fundy Blue!

Filed Under: #IWSG, Reflection, Writing

What is a Working Writer? #IWSG 10/07/2020

October 7, 2020 By ravenofiernan 2 Comments

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Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Monthly Status Report

It seems odd that a whole month has gone by. I got an idea for NaNoWriMo, so there is that, but otherwise, really nothing much happened at all. Life was pretty much the same, both writing-wise and in general. I had off for a whole week for my birthday, but mostly just relaxed and enjoyed myself. The food situation has gotten off track, so I definitely need to tighten up there in October. I have a lot of food in the freezer, but it wouldn’t hurt to have more. I also started working on mods for Skyrim again, and have been enjoying that.

Optional Monthly Question

October 7 question – When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like?

When I think of the term “working writer” I generally think of someone who works at the business of writing every work day, and for “work days” to be at least four per week, probably the same days each week, as if it were another type of job. I think it can coincide with another job, so it does not have to be full time to be considered “working”, but it does need to be more than 10 minutes a day or just on week-ends or during NaNo or something.

I think the work can and should include things other than actual first draft writing, things like revision, editing, promotion, book covers (if doing them yourself), formatting, cover letters, synopses, etc. In other words, the business side as well as the creative side. If you have a platform and fans, this would also include maintaining the platform and engaging with fans.

Where I fall? Well, lately, more of an aspiring writer or hobbyist… I have not been working consistently. But there have been times in my past where I would say I absolutely was a working writer. It’s probably something I should get back to, but not sure when or how. I will be doing NaNo, but for me this year, that definitely doesn’t count since I will be writing something that will actually take me away from my current “working writer” goals and adding to my pile of more revision work. I might do some “working writer” work in October, but since it is only one month, that’s not really consistent, so maybe December as a good, real starting place? I guess we will see.

Wishing everyone a great 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 this posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pett, Beth Camp, Beverly Stowe McClure, and Gwen Gardner!

Filed Under: #IWSG, Reflection, Writing

Qualities I Look for in a Beta Reader #IWSG 09/02/2020

September 2, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Monthly Status Report

This was a very scatterbrained month. Maybe I am not cut out for self-directed work. I have not gotten much done on the writing front at all, though I have spent every day doing at least some reading/analyzing of The Firm. Very minimal progress, though, and nothing of my own writing. I still have the two short stories I finished in June sitting on my table to read and revise. I also signed up to be a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo, this year, which I’m excited about, and starting to learn about. Lots of new stuff, just very little actual writing.

As for food, I did much better this month than last month, but as usual, still struggling with food prep. I did get some frozen vegetables, which might help in that department, but haven’t actually used any yet since, well, it’s summer, and there are so many good fresh vegetables.

Optional Monthly Question

September 2 question – If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be and why?

I don’t know, honestly. I don’t think I know anyone well enough to know if they would be a good beta partner. I look more for personality traits than writing traits, to be honest. And my writing goals are very personal. My number one reason for writing is to write the stuff I want to read, but that doesn’t exist because everyone is convinced no one wants to read it, so advice on what will increase my readership based on what “everyone is reading” is not going to be at all helpful, and I could see it leading to conversations that make me look like I am not interested in improving or not willing to take advice from people who are more successful, when that’s not the issue at all. I do want to improve, I just want to improve in a way that leaves my core values and core reason for writing untouched. I think that’s probably true of most writers, but I think a lot of people are afraid to say so.

So, understanding that motivation and willing to put up with my countless “Yes, but what about . . . ?” types of responses would be at the top of my list. I don’t want to just take a suggestion that might end up messing up a different part of the story. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to solve the initial problem, it’s just that I’m not likely to take the very first suggestion I get. I want to be able to have a lot of give and take and discussion to find the very best solution, rather than just the first one.

I’m also highly sensitive. I have a post on why I think writers don’t need thick skin, because I take the metaphor to mean not letting things affect you in the first place, and I think part of what makes us good writers is the fact that we DO feel things, we ARE affected. We need to learn not to act unprofessionally based on our feelings, but to me, this is very different than not feeling it at all. So, another quality I would look for in a beta reader is someone who understands that I will probably be upset when I get their feedback, and to give me time to process it, rather than chiding me for not having “thick skin”. Granted, I tend to throw it back on myself first (“I’m a terrible writer, there’s no point in fixing this because it still won’t be any good,” etc.) rather than aimed at the critique-giver (I don’t think I’ve ever had a reaction of “You’re so stupid to not see how brilliant this is” — though I was flabbergasted once when I was told my secondary character wasn’t believable because he drove a truck, and the vehicle he drove was a Dodge Spirit, which is a sedan), but it’s something I need to get out of my system before I can look at it with a clear head, so I would want a beta willing to get that out of my system without thinking I’m a “special snowflake” who can’t take criticism.

I guess these are similar in that I don’t want to be pegged as a defensive crybaby just because I don’t immediately agree with everything they say and might specifically ask if there are any good points that make the story WORTH revising, rather than just throwing out.

I didn’t think I was going to have much to say about this topic, but I see I was wrong! Have a wonderful September, and let me know your own thoughts on finding a good beta reader, and whether you look for similar or different qualities. Thanks for reading!

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 this posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, J Lenni Dorner, Deniz Bevan, Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, and Louise – Fundy Blue!

Filed Under: #IWSG, Reflection, Writing

Another Quick Update #IWSG 08/05/2020

August 5, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

I had a lot of overtime at work and have been extra involved in my Bright Line Eating program, so here I am on August 2, knowing that this short time while my laundry is in the washer is all I really have to write before the post is due on Wednesday. So, this one is even quicker than last month’s, and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles I usually like to have. Luckily, I can copy a lot of it from the previous post and the IWSG sign up page.

As for writing, my July Camp NaNo goal was to analyze the book The Firm by John Grisham. I did not finish, but I got over half-way, and have had a lot of great moments of understanding that I will be able to use in my book once I get back to revising it.

So, that is the first plan for August. If I finish that before the end of the month, I plan to go back to finishing up all the covers for the Hazel Kanetzki short story so I can get feedback on them. So August is looking to be very much a “loose ends” kind of month, and I hope I can get it all done by September, so I can get on to something new. But we will see.

I also have decided to forego traditional publication of my Tarot series, so expect to see those begin to pop up here again, starting with a re-post of 0 – The Fool for the October Storytime Blog Hop. That one will always be available for free on my website. The others will be available for free at first, but then removed over time. I have not yet decided whether to leave them up until I publish the first collection (which will be the Major Arcana) or to take each one down as soon as the next one goes up.

With that, here are the important links for the Insecure Writers’ Support Group! May you all have a wonderful month!

Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

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 August 5 posting of the IWSG are Susan Baury Rouchard, Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Hawes, Chemist Ken, and Chrys Fey!

Filed Under: #IWSG, Reflection, Writing

Short and Sweet Update #IWSG 07/01/2020

July 1, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

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Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

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!

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 July 1 posting of the IWSG are Jenni Enzor, Beth Camp, Liesbet @ Roaming About, Tyrean Martinson, and Sandra Cox!

Filed Under: #IWSG, Reflection, Writing

Ritual #IWSG 05/06/2020

May 6, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments


Find out more at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

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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