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January 2022 Fly-By Status Report – So we’re still in a pandemic, okay…I kinda wish it would snow…I need a cup of tea before I can start editing…
Well hi! Smiley day to ya! Why yes, I have been watching a lot of Critical Role lately, and no, I’m not procrastinating, why? Why would you even say that? I’m hurt. My new writing deadline to submit to an editor is April, which evens out to editing roughly a chapter a day if I play my cards right. But as I get closer to the end and I’m staring at a bunch of loose threads, I don’t think I’m gonna always be able to measure by chapter, there will be lots of jumping around and organizing data to make sure I finish everything up as neatly as possible. Which…
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September 2021 Fly-By Status Report – The State of the Art
Ahoy there! Just swinging by to update you on what’s been going on since my last report. View this post on Instagram A post shared by PuellaDocta's Minlandia (@myminlandia) The Etsy shop sales went slowly this summer, even as I was investigating other selling avenues that haven’t panned out yet, so I decided to take a break until Dragon Con got closer. I’ll come back to Dragon Con a little bit later in the post, but if you haven’t followed Sunlit Nook on Instagram or Facebook you totally should! I’m taking a break from MomoCon this year. Because of COVID Delta shenaniganery they decided to postpone til winter, and I…
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January/February 2021 Fly-By Status Report – 2021 Vision
Well, looks like I totally blew past my Fall/Winter 2020 Status Report. I think because nothing really changed in the goal department for 6 months! What even did I want to do *consults last post*…OH YEAH apparently I got rid of my agenda thing cuz it was boring. Good idea. So here’s what I’ve been up to, and what I hope to achieve! The Etsy shop is doing pretty well! Still not making a ton, but I am making a little money from it, and I’m having fun, so that’s all that matters! I’ve been doodling more with my Wacom tablet, and I designed the shrinky dink Japanese heart jewelry…
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May-June 2020 Fly-By Status Report – The Trying Times
I originally wrote this in May to appear in a patron-submission Quaranzie by Sarah Shotts. I’ll add some additional updates after the main post. One never really knows how one will react to a global pandemic until one finds oneself in one. And for me, that meant depression naps, lots of Animal Crossing and ice cream, and many conversations with my mental health specialists. I’ve tried to give myself space to feel and grieve and process, but blessedly, sheltering at home with my husband and two cats, with our jobs still intact, has been the best part of this whole mess. There have been a lot of ups and downs…
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January-March 2020 Fly-By Status Report – Creating in a Time of Coronavirus
Hello everyone! I’m sitting on my couch, where I do most of my work & editing, and I’m here with my cats and Wervyn, and despite the coronavirus spreading outside, with this social distancing we’re in introvert heaven! But I was having a lot of anxiety for the last couple of weeks; in addition to not knowing if I was going to have enough groceries, my church office coworkers and I were scrambling to get everything together for live-streaming Sunday services, which was mad hectic. But I’m taking off work till April 1, and we have enough food, so I’m feeling a lot better already! And with the open schedule,…
- About the Author, Blog, Love Letters, My Creations, Reflections, Slice of Life, Traditional Art, Writing Progress
September/October 2019 Fly-By Status Report – My First Tattoo Experience! (I’m a Grown-Up Hobbit, Part 2)
Posting a month late, twice in one year? Hey, come on, I always have a good reason! This time, I was waiting til a very specific wound healed so I could get a good photo. That is, I took my temporary tattoo idea I mentioned in my January Fly-By Status Report, and made it permanent! I couldn’t shake my desire for one, even though I had some reservations, but finally decided I should just go for it! So I got my first real tattoo the year of my 33rd birthday after all! (If you’re confused or feel like you’re missing context, read the post here.) So what does the tattoo…
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Fighting Anxiety & Procrastination by Giving Myself Accountability (hopefully, this one will stick)
Once again, I have found myself in need of some accountability to keep up with the things in my life that are hard, like exercising, tidying, and writing *facepalm* I’ve tried giving myself monetary rewards (too expensive), food rewards/coping mechanism (oops, gained 10 lbs), and various schedules that I stick to for a week and then inevitably drop. After a long stretch of feeling like a failure–yet again–discouraged, I talked to my counselor about it, and she encouraged me to keep hunting for accountability, and after a few good suggestions, I was motivated and ready to climb back on the wagon! But how to motivate myself in a new way?…
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May 2019 Fly-By Status Report – Same Old, Same Old
Well, it’s blog o’clock again! I feel like I have so much going on right now that I don’t want to stop and analyze what has and hasn’t gotten done! But I’ll do my best, in the name of tracking progress! I honestly felt like I’ve been floundering; since I returned from a trip and got sick, I haven’t been doing great with my SMART goals. I always seem to have something big that makes me lose momentum, and it takes me forever to get back into the swing of things. ? MomoCon is fast approaching, and for once this year it isn’t stressing me out because I’m not the…
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January/February 2019 Fly-By Status Report – I’m a Grown-Up Hobbit (I’ll explain)
In December last year, I turned 33! Sure, cool number and everything, multple of 11 and whatnot, but it’s also a special age for Tolkien nerds like me. Because in the Middle-earth universe, when a hobbit turns 33, it means they’re considered an adult. And to celebrate, I designed my own temporary tattoo and bought a whole sheet of them! (I’m still not keen on getting something that hurts, that will never go away and that will only blur over time on my skin.) I made a post about it on Instagram discussing its significance to me: View this post on Instagram …
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May 2018 Fly-By Status Report – Gardening, PitMad and Pitch Wars take 2!
Hello, all! Can I just say that I freaking love late spring? It’s warm, things are growing, and down south it’s not too hot yet. We’ve also had a swath of glorious sunny, breezy days one after another, which got broken by rain JUST in time to water everything I’ve recently planted. Yeah, my coping with MomoCon stress mechanism has turned to gardening this year, as we just got some landscaping done and the time feels right. Speaking of MomoCon, IT STARTS THIS WEEK, so I wanted to make sure I got this sucker out before it got completely shoved out of my brain. And as I look back on…
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January 2018 Fly-By Status Report – I joined a writer’s group!
Greetings, readers! Nice to see you on the other end of Christmas & New Years! Finally. Dang, I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to put my thoughts and hopes for this year in blog post form yet, til now, when January is ALMOST OVER! (I’m curious, who actually reads these updates, or are they pretty much just for me? If you do, leave a comment and say hi!) Right now I’m typing to the dulcet sounds of workmen trimming the giant tree in my front yard (buzz saws and thuds on my roof), and now that I finally got WordPress to upload images again (ugghh), it’s time for my January…
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September 2017 Fly-By Status Report – I have con crud, but summer was great!
Good day and well-met! I’m feeling geeky, I just got back from Dragon Con and bought a whole USB of the Brobdingnagian Bards’ music, so that’s what I’ll be listening to, and eating pumpkin chili while we get our roof replaced as I fight off a cold and make millions of phone calls ? (“Oh, is that all?” I can hear you saying through the computer.) SO, how was the last three months? Busy, yet surprisingly chill! One gigantic highlight was seeing the total solar eclipse, which I made a vlog of, and you should totally watch it! As for writing, I’ve had a lot of success breaking things down into smaller…
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May 2017 Fly-By Status Report – Just Keep Swimming!
It’s time for another Fly-By Status report! And I’m up to my waist in MomoCon directing duties. But omg, we’re already a third into 2017! Dang, where does the time go? And I feel like I have very few brain cells to even process this blog post with everything going on right now. However, one of my part-time jobs just ended, so I have more time to do everything else I’ve been too busy to work on (in theory). SO, did I achieve my goals for the past 4 months? Long Term Doing some hardcore outlining and rewriting the style of my YA fantasy novel Sign of the Redwing in preparation for an…
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Jan. 2017 Fly-By Status Report – My Favorite Time of the Year
Merry Christmas and Happy 2017! I’m still over here celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, doing a lot of nothing, and baking ^_^ But it’s that time again to think about all the things I want to do next year that I didn’t do this year. I’m pretty enthused for a fresh start! Last year about this time, I wrote my 2016 New Years resolutions on a red Starbucks cup. Lots of good intentions, but the ones that really, truly happened and stuck were landing my perfect job situation, as well as taking significant and progressive steps to getting more physically and spiritually healthy <3 Of course, there’s always more to…
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Sept. 2016 Fly-By Status Report – Super-Charged Summer
*careens into blog, hair flying, adjusting glasses* Whew! Hey guys! How was your summer? Mine was great, and relentlessly busy, including 4 trips in 4 months, getting an additional part-time job, and being in a play! Which, in addition to regular life stuff, means I had no extra mental space for blogging! I know it’s the last day of September, and I want to get my tri-annual update in to keep myself honest. So let’s see how much I got done that I wanted to do. Here’s my Summer Agenda 2016 plans from my home page. If it’s crossed out, it means it’s finished, or I’ve edited the original plan,…
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May 2016 Fly-By Status Report – I GOT A REAL JOB!
Yes, you read that right: I GOT A REAL JOB! The ultimate happy dance! | via GIPHY It’s a part-time administrative and communication assistant job, which is only a few hours a week, and a few minutes away from my house (YAAAAAY), so hopefully that means I can structure my life around that to get some stability for my creative work! I start today, and I’m really excited to see how it goes! Also, hi, I haven’t seen you since Easter! I’ve been super busy working, arting, volunteering, story researching…in fact, that’s why I decided to do tri-yearly status reports. I figure, if I haven’t blogged or vlogged in a while, I want to make…
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Post-Hiatus! Draft 6 Edit Process in review
Well, that was a lovely hiatus, but I figured I’d come back 😉 It’s been four months, after all! It was such a beautiful morning when I started writing this post, I had to wander into my yard and take some photos of daffodils glowing in the early, rising sun. It so beautifully represented a fresh start to an exciting new year, hence the flower picture for this post’s header. A lot has happened during my hiatus, even in the past few days (some good, some frustrating) but I’m happy to report that despite various time sucks and fluctuating motivation, my writing hiatus was very successful! Regardless of what I…
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Dear Awkward August
Dear August, Do you know how freaking awkward you are? Especially this year, you just feel really, really awkward. I have nothing against you, August, at all. Some of my favorite people have birthdays this month! But being the planner that I am, I sometimes find myself impatient for the next thing: the next big holiday or event, the next trip, or the next phase of a project. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, it’s just how my mind naturally tends to process, but as a result I’ve really been trying to make myself stop and enjoy the time I’m in at the moment. It’s a very intentional thing and isn’t always easy. So,…
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Puelladocta & the Search for More Money
Alas, my dear readers, I regret to tell you that I am taking a novel writing hiatus, in favor of that most persistent of goals, The Search for More Money. Unfortunately, though I’ve been looking for consistent full-time and part-time employment in the graphic design field, I’ve been neglecting my design and programming skills, in favor of writing. Which seems counter-intuitive now that I think about it. That and my portfolio site needs a serious overhaul. Plus, I want to sharpen my dulled artistic strengths, and I have other interests I want to investigate, like technical and article writing. But to develop those things, I must take a break from…
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BACK UP YOUR WORK, a lament {UPDATED}
Come all my dear computer lovers And take a warning how you work If you don’t save your efforts elsewhere It will be there, and then it’s gone. I wish I’d known before I’d lost it Time I had left, my files to move For when it died, without a warning It left me here in grief to moan. Inspired by Jim Moray’s “Fair and Tender Lovers.” On Valentine’s Day, I opened my laptop, signed in, the screen was on for a few seconds, and no sooner had I plugged in my headphones, it completely turned off. No blue screen, no pop up error warnings, just black. With a whirr…
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2015 Writing Plans!!!
I’ve got my writing projects all planned out for the year! For those of you who don’t want to watch the video, here’s the run-down: January 1 – 31: Plan out entire Lottie/Tales of Thoglan Series (ToTS) February 1 – March 13: Finish revisions on ToTS Book 1 March 16 – May 15: Start 1st draft of ToTS Book 2 (90-120 thou. words) May 18 – August 18: Start researching/writing myths and fairy tales for retold anthologies August 24 – September 30: Write Draft 2 of ToTS Book 2 October 1 – 31: Work on anthologies again November 1 – 30: Write ToTS Book 3 during NaNoWriMo December 1 –…
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Keeping my writing alive, even though I’m busy!
I lament at the lack of writing and editing I've done recently, but I share in 3 steps how I plan to change that, and how you can too. I again sing the praises of National Novel Writing Month, and share my list of editing plans. Click the blog header to read more.
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New shiny site design!
Hi everyone! Welcome back to the new and improved canelsonauthor.com! Not only has the URL changed a little, hacking off the superfluous “official” part, as you probably noticed, but I’ve made some design changes as well! Hope you like it! I certainly do! It’s been a long time coming. Just letting you know, I deleted all my extra post categories and listed everything under “Blog,” and I’ve been cleaning out my list of tags, which might mess up some page linking throughout the Web (to say nothing of changing the urls). But thankfully, everything should still point to this site, and I didn’t delete any posts, so between the search…
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Vlogs that I forgot to post on here
Remember how I used to have a Youtube video importing plugin that stopped importing my vlogs a number of months ago? Yeah. That was fun. As I’m updating my site I have to go back, delete the random vlogs I don’t really want on here (they’ll still be up on my Youtube channel) and re-embed the ones I do want, cuz I just got sick of the plugin. SO, in honor of Throwback Thursday, I’m posting some of these older ones from this year and the end of last year, which I really like a lot, but never made it here. They’re posted from most to least recent. Do enjoy!
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My Writing Process (Blog Tour)
Thanks to the adorable and very talented Sarah Shotts, I’ve been tagged to participate in The Great Blog Tour, aiming to make a web of authors that stretches as wide as the internet is long! I’m so honored to be included, and I’m excited to talk about my writing process (and to show off some cool pictures I took for the question headers)! So, shall we begin? •~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~• Since late middle school/early high school, I’ve been building my own fantasy world filled with characters, which has grown and changed throughout the years, as I have. I worked on it tirelessly, until college, only pausing to focus on my studies, with just…
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VEDA 2013 – Day 7: Deliberation vs. Discovery
Planning your writing projects is always good, but writing is a process of discovery. Easy to forget ^_^
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Making Good
All right! After a few weeks to start getting a few of my health/house maintenance resolutions in order, this week I’m starting Phase 2 of the plan: adding in 4 hours of writing and 2 hours of freelance work a day on top of that. This entry is short to keep me on the move today, and once it is posted will serve to keep me accountable to myself. This means REALLY starting to think of everything I want to get done as a full-time job, even though I’m my own boss, and can be a very lax one at that. But this is exactly what I need, a schedule…
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Happy 2013! (and 2012 Year in Review)
I think back on all the progress I’ve made this past year and share my plans for the new year! And show off the t-shirts I got for birthday and Christmas.
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Reflections on the Atlanta Writer’s Conference
Wherein I talk about the conference and all the awesomeness that happened, and what I took away from it. Special thanks to Lara Perkins for helping me feel so welcome into the wonderful world of publishing!
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Writer’s Conference Starts Tomorrow! {Thoughts}
Hey guys! I know you just heard from me yesterday, (Happy November, by the way) but this weekend is the big writing conference I told you about a few months ago, and it starts tomorrow! Not gonna lie, I’m nervous but excited! I have never been to a straight up writer’s conference, not to mention that I might not even see anyone I know there (except possibly Josh Roseman, who I haven’t seen since MomoCon ^_^) I need to keep the worried thoughts out of my head; that people won’t appreciate my writing, that I’ll come off as a newb…in a bad way, that I’ll ruin my pitch or that…
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Exciting Updates!!!
I know I try to post only writing related news on here, but this is kind of a big deal! It’s a huge life changer! Gentle audience, I had no idea that a few hours after my last blog entry, I would be getting engaged!!! And to think, last year I was writing haikus about my only date for Valentine’s Day being a box of chocolate! You never know what a year can bring! The lad in question is Wervyn, who is the coding man for this site! He’s a wonderful, brilliant man and a fantastic writer, and he’s been helping me a lot with the final draft of my…
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The Dead Time
And my brain hath shut down 😀 I don’t want to touch the darn second draft until I get it back and can start on the next (and hopefully final) round of editing. I’ve even tried writing a bit of Book 2, but what I have just doesn’t feel right. I have ideas for other stories, so I jot down my thoughts, but my brain can’t hold more than one comprehensive world at a time! So I know I should finish the world of Thoglan stories before I move on to exploring other places. But the website thing is still a little maddening (in all senses of the word and…
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Hiccups Aside
Hi guys. I am REALLY sorry about the insanity of this website transfer thing, but I’ve been so busy I can’t give it the time it deserves. And since my brain can’t be in two blogs at once, I’m just going to move everything here, officially, and start the process of cleaning out the blogspot blog. I’ll leave a link up to lead the way in case you get lost or confused. I’m sorry for all the craziness and any inconvenience this might have caused you. I’ll be primping and fixing as needed, so I apologize if it’s a bit messy at times. But I assure you, things will smooth…
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Pilgrim, How You’ve Journeyed
Okee, guys, I’ve been working on a project, which I’ve mentioned in Twitter and Facebook, but I want to make it official by mentioning it here, now. I’m planning on moving the blog to an official site. Yes. At my job, I’ve been learning all kinds of new website building platforms and content management systems, and one of them is WordPress. In an effort to design a snazzier site than the Thoglan page, and so I can have all of my original work on my own piece of server that I actually OWN, I’ll be cleaning house here on Blogger and moving everything over. So far, I’ve already moved the…
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Internet Picture Serials
The internet has really given people a new lease on their creative life. They can create blogs, make their own videos, podcasts, Twitter characters and stories (EDITED years later: not to mention trans-media storytelling), anything, really! Storytelling has really evolved, and people have been taking advantage of it! For those of you who love blogging, I’m sure some of you like me have dreamed about creating a made-up story in installments on a blog. It’s like a serial story in a magazine without the subscription fee ^_^ Many people have gone out and done just that, and it makes it even more fun when they include pictures. As they say,…
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My First Interview
INTERVIEW with writer Christina Nelson, author of The Sign of the Sparrow, first in a medieval-esque fantasy fiction book series focusing upon young teen Charlotte Imadara, who comes of age in a mysterious world filled with complex surprises. Radiating an abundance of positive energy as she approaches the table, writer Christina Nelson sits down for the interview at a popular luncheon spot. Her engaging smile highlights an attractive face, bright hazel eyes and past-the-shoulder dark hair. Raised outside of Richmond, Virginia and a graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, Nelson is mid-twenty-something. For the interview, she is comfortably dressed in a simple, beige-and-brown print sundress. Silver hoops at…
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NEWSFLASH!
EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS! I got a real job! One with a regular paycheck and benefits! So my search for more money has finally come to an end! That can only mean more writing time when I’m not working, which can only be a good thing! I’m making plans for a little poetry/short story book that I will also illustrate. I was thinking of self-publishing, but I wish the self-publish stigma wasn’t so intense. I’ll figure it out, but the novel comes first right now anyway. Editing progress is going slower than I would like with all the jet-lag recovery and job hooplah, but I am still trying to get it sent to…
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A is for Axhsausted!
An appalling anguish afflicted the already aggrieved author. Graaahhh! My novel isn’t cooperating, talked my webcomic over with a friend who is giving me suggestions on what to do, and though it’s all such good advice I feel like my brain has hit a wall. While I wearily feel like I have so much more to learn about this medium’s brand of storytelling, my sci-fi main character is poking her head out and asking, “Since they’re being annoying, can I come out now?” It’s probably cuz I am exhausted. I need to finish reading some library books that indirectly have to do with my writing (reading them for fun AND…
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Miles to Go
Finally got back on the trail of my novel, tying things together! Also have reserved a wiki for the details of my land and story, to go up once my book is published! But recently I have been trying to focus a lot of my energy on being employed, and having a job will help support my writing, which is very important. So, tata for now, everyone. I have more journals up my sleeve, but they will have to resurface at another time. Thanks, for your patience, guys!
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Panel Planning
Hit another writing wall. But I figure I need a bit of a mental health day (and physical health day *blows nose*). So I’m gonna let the novel simmer and make plans for my webcomic, and see where it goes!
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But I’m a Cockeyed Optimist!
I’ve been getting a whole bunch of little idea nuggets. Not story ideas (I’m getting those too), but ideas for promotion-type things! My two biggest things I have been wanting to do lately are: 1. Create a youtube account and post videos (but I have no idea what they would be about), and 2. Create a character twitter account (except that none of them have access to our world, necessarily). Still, I WANT TO DO THESE THINGS! Perhaps once I get my book finished I’ll be able to figure something out. The videos will probably happen once I’m published, but the twitter, I am still figuring that out. Yet even…
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2009 Year in Review
A new decade. Funny how those things creep up on you. This time last decade I was barely out of middle school. The dream of becoming an author was a warm flicker in my heart, and I’m not sure if I’d thought up my novel at that point yet. But in the subsequent ten years, I have carried that novel series with me, through the highs and lows of school life, and after college graduation I set out for the trip of a lifetime: the journey to authorhood. I’ve grown. So has my novel and its series, and we’ll continue to. So many wonderful things have happened in 2009, including…
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So this is what the end feels like…
Juggling writing with freelance work now, so I have more time. I’m getting to a very exciting part of the story, where things get worse before they get better. Believe it or not, I am making a valiant DO (there is no try) to finish the entire thing before Aug. 14th. So I will definitely be hauling tail the next week or so. I’m really excited!
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Intricacies
I’ve been blessed with a window of time to blog today! Yay! I haven’t been posting because things are pretty much progressing about the same. Still writing away when I have free time, mostly on the weekends, but I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! I did this huge organization thing where I took all my digital notes (I have so many more written on paper! *faints*) and organized them to see what spots I still had to fill in. This helped immensely, so now I know where I stand and what I still need to cover. And I’ve been getting an overflow…
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The Anticipation is Killing Me!
I have been making some fun new plans for Book Two, so that means I reeeeally need to finish Book 1. Lock onto it, mate. It’s within our grasp!
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Decisions, decisions (Traditional vs. Self-Publishing)
I am pleased to say that since I have time to actually organize my life now, I feel safe in saying that I have time to write again. I keep finding myself scribbling story ideas on little pads or scraps of paper as I work throughout the day. I just had an interesting conversation with my friend Todd over lunch, a fellow writer. We were discussing the pros and cons of publishing with an acutal publisher vs. self-publishing. Big publishers have been losing ground recently, not unlike the music industry with the indie movement, where artists are pursuing their dreams on their own terms. I’d agree that self-publishing is becoming…
