07/30/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. I got good news on Friday, so my weekend was spent celebrating I could get my Playstation Vita without freaking out. Which I did. It's a neat little system I just feel like I'm not using it to its full potential. It's actually a really powerful device, which I'm currently using to play a PS2 game. I got actual games for the Vita, they're just not priority 1 right now.

I'm still pretending that 'Rending the Seal' doesn't exist, and that has helped relieve a lot of stress as well. Though I should probably start looking at 'The Light Rises' soon so I can get an idea of what needs to be worked out, and which story to do that on. I'm still surprised the speed transposing actually goes when it comes to 'Daughter of the Shackled King' I had anticipated the process being rather quick, especially since the pages aren't the standard 8 1/2 x 11 that most notebooks are (it's a composition book, so the pages are a tiny bit smaller) but every time I get around to working on it I never make nearly as much progress as I think I should. It's very interesting.

Our author from Friday's book picked up a copy of 'The Light Rises' as part of the Smashwords promotion this month. If she's reading this, thank you very much, it's very sweet of you do have done that for me. As a reminder, that sale's last day is tomorrow, so please stop by Smashwords to get 'The Light Rises' for $1 and be sure to tell your friends about it. It would be greatly appreciated if you could do that for me!

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I'll be back on Wednesday with my normal post. Once I have a start date for the job, and actually begin working, the times for the posts will likely change to be earlier in the day. I'll let everyone know though so there's no wonder about where the posts are if they do end up being a little later in the day. For now, thanks for coming and I'll see you in a couple days. I hope you all have a great start to your week!

07/27/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Greetings everyone! I hope your week was fun and entertaining. I got to see the new 'Batman' and all I will say is that it was a wonderful close to an epic trilogy. As for what next week brings, that is a mystery that I hope will all be good and awesome!

For now though I bring you 'Kitsune-Tsuki' by Laura V. Baugh. It follows the duties of an onmyouji (practitioner of the mystic arts) named Tsurugu no Kiyomori. He has been called upon to protect the warlord's new wife from a shape-shifting trickster. He works with Shishio Hitoshi to try and find the kitsune while investigating the warlord's grounds and the village surrounding the palace, wondering if the shape-shifter even exists.


You all know I'm a sucker for myths, and I couldn't pass up a story that dealt with the kitsune; a multi-tailed fox spirit known for shape-shifting and trickery. I hadn't done anything that delved into Japanese mythology yet either and decided there was no time like the present. The story takes place in feudal Japan, a time when samurai were prevalent and the belief in spiritual magic was at its highest. Tsurugu must find the kitsune before something happens to the warlord's new wife, but he must also determine whether or not the being actually exists or if there is a human element to the situation.

'Kitsune-Tsuki' is available on Smashwords for $0.99, and with it being almost 10,000 words that is definitely a deal you can't pass up. It will likely be available at other premium retailers soon, if it's not there already. Please check it out and tell your friends about it, I'm sure the author would appreciate it.


Thanks everyone for stopping by again this week. As a reminder, 'The Light Rises' is available for $1 until the 31st as part of the Smashwords Summer Sale, so please check it out and tell people about it. For now though I will go back to (somewhat) patiently waiting for word back regarding employment. I hope you all have a fun and productive weekend, I'll see you all back here on Monday!

07/25/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Hello everyone and welcome back! I hope the week has seen you all well so far, for me it is has been productive, with friends, and I have also learned that the one thing I had wanted to do while getting the True Ending in Persona 4 I could have actually done! (Don't you love when that happens? Thanks game, you're a winner.) As I said before I have also made progress in transposing 'Daughter of the Shackled King' and that feels really good.

Today I wanted to talk about what it's like to go from one story to another. It may seem like a simple task, but it's actually a matter of forcing your brain to go into a completely different gear. This is especially true if your various projects are completely different genres. If you wrote something that is a more fantasy type and you go to jump into something else that has more in common with science fiction you need to shift your way of thinking almost completely. Sure at some points technology can be like magic, but that doesn't mean it's the same thing, and you have it worked out in your mind how it actually works.

I noticed this while going between my own stories; even if it's technically the same world (just a bit further along in the time-line) it was quite the shift. Sure there's still magic, but it now works differently (yay plot!) and I also have to take into account the advancement in technology and such. It is a big shift, which is why sometimes it's alright to take a little break before hopping over to something else. It's a time to let your brain settle and then get ready to focus on something else to make sure that you don't start mixing things up.

I know I say that the break taking thing is just fine a lot, but I really can't stress it enough as how important it actually is. I know there are some people that can sit down and shoot out book after book after book, but those people are robots and honestly I just can't do that. Also physically I think that would make my hands fall off. It's important to give your brain time to rest and adjust before jumping into something else. If you need a break to take a few breaths and such, take it, that's perfectly fine, no one will hate you for it. If anything people will show you how much they're excited for your next book, and that should help give you motivation to come back.

Thanks everyone for stopping by, I'm sorry it's a bit later than normal, but Youtube is a terrible distraction. I hope to have good news by the end of this week regarding the employment situation. I hope the rest of the week is great for everyone and I'll bring a new book for you all to look at on Friday.

07/23/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone! I hope your weekend was full of fun and excitement. Mine was normal, which was rather nice since my week is full of waiting and wondering. Also back pain, but I think the couch is toe blame for that, but we'll see. Luckily I have an RX-filling appointment on Thursday, so I will ask people then.

I made some more progress on 'Daughter of the Shackled King' while I continue to pretend 'Rending the Seal' is not a file that exists on my computer. It was really nice to switch gears and work on that story again. Since I'm transposing it from a notebook it gives me a chance to get some editing done at the same time I'm working, so I'm hoping that will make that step in the process a little bit easier when it comes around do it. I still think I prefer typing out the stories first, but the notebooks gave me something to do at work, so I think that part of the process worked out rather well.

I haven't been able to get nearly the amount of work done I have hoped during my time unemployed, but I suppose that isn't too much of a surprise. Leaving my previous place of work did a number on me and I think I needed a little more time than I had initially anticipated to get my brain together. I see my friends from there on Facebook and there is always talk of how we miss where we were before, and each other, while a lot of us are now all over the country. Couple that with family also possibly moving to another state (after they already live far away) or possibly another country and I have not been all there.

Never fear though! I am kicking myself into high gear to get things as done as I can possibly get them. I should be hearing back about job prospects any day now, which means I have high hopes for the future. Also I finished Persona 4 (late to the party, I know) which means I can focus on other things, at least until Persona 4: Ultimate Arena comes out in August. So yes, I need to make sure to get things done before massive distraction times happen again.

Thanks everyone for stopping by on this Monday, I will see you back here on Wednesday. As a reminder, 'The Light Rises' is still on sale until the end of the month at Smashwords for $1, so please stop by, check it out, and tell your friends. It would be much appreciated. Until my next post I hope you all have a good start to your week!

07/20/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Hello everyone! Sorry about the delay, but I had to do a little bit of digging for this. It's another Friday, and I hope it means an end for a rather nice and productive week for all of you! For me it meant getting my prequel to the editing stages (finally) and being able to finish up a video game while I wait for things to finish up with the job-background check stuff.

Today is a little different, I am helping out a friend, who's helping out a friend. Today I bring you 'The Returners' by Mikey Neumann. Imagine if heroes and villains from myth, legend, and history had the ability to move through generations. The story opens following Alex and his girlfriend to a restaurant for dinner and he learns that not everything is as they seem. Someone is killing those known as Returners, and Alex must find out who it is before the fate of everything is sealed.

Seeing as I enjoy playing around with myths and such I was immediately drawn to this story. Legends are always fun to play with, and putting a modern spin on them is always interesting. This story doesn't just stick to people from ancient history either, modern heroes such as Eliot Ness and even Paul Revere become subjects to the plot. There are two parts to this story, and the author is constantly updating their site for it as well, so be sure to keep checking on them.

'The Returners' is available through BOZ Publishing, and you can either read the books for free on the site or you can purchase for $2.99 through Amazon. I do recommend picking it up as it is incredibly entertaining and a rather quick read, so it would be a nice way to spend a Summer day watching birds or thunderstorms (both can be fun) from your window.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today! I hope next week brings you fun and excitement and that your weekend is full of Batman. As a reminder, Smashwords is still having their Summer Sale, so 'The Light Rises' is still available for $1 if you check it out there. Have a good weekend, I'll see everyone back on Monday!

07/18/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Greetings everyone and welcome back! I hope your week so far has gone well. I am still going through the waiting process regarding work, but that's a good thing so far. It means they haven't run into any problems. Right now I'm working on actually getting things done and then I can sit there with the satisfaction that certain things don't exist for a while.

I wanted to talk about what it means to complete something today, which may seem like an odd topic, but it's actually an interesting thing to deal with. It's similar to when a television series comes to a close; you're anxious to see how everything is closed up, but you don't actually want it to end. Now there people that don't have issues with this, but I know there are also a lot of people who do, and I'll admit that I'm included in that population, so I wanted to bring it up today.

Now when you are about to finish a project, you first feel the excitement of knowing things are going to be done soon, which is super great, but as you get closer to the end, there's this little voice that reminds you that once you're done there won't be something to do afterwards. That's when the slowing down starts. You'll go from making ridiculous amounts of progress to not nearly that amount, then you'll skip a day, and then something else will happen that will cause you to skip another day. Things then continue that way until you're making almost no progress every week. This is because deep down inside you don't know what to do once you're finished working on your current project. That's understandable since you have dedicated a portion of your life writing this book and then just like that it'll be gone.

The best way to deal with that is what I call the 'Band-Aid' approach, basically just getting everything done all at once. It's not like once you're done the book/novel/short story/poem/thing you've been writing won't need editing once the initial portion is done. Yeah you will likely take a bit of time to pretend it doesn't exist anymore, which is also something everyone should do since it means when you come back to edit it you'll have a fresh perspective and can actually appreciate the story more. Not to mention if you're writing an entire series it means the sooner you'll be able to jump into the next portion of the series, which is lots of fun as well. Just remember that when you're current project is done it's not actually the end of the world, that's just the first step to actually getting your things to the world.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today! I will be following my own advice and (finally, this has seriously taken a lot longer than I anticipated) write up an epilogue for 'Rending the Seal'. I'm so happy it's finally to this step in the process. Since the prequel will be in the 'finishing' stages shortly, please take the time to check out 'The Light Rises' while it's on sale at Smashwords for their Summer Sale! I'll see everyone back here on Friday, so please have a fun rest of the week!

07/16/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone and good morning! I hope you all had a fun and entertaining weekend. As the norm, mine was spent seeing friends and family, just the way I like it. It was also spent getting new Magic cards, but that's something else and my own little fun-time to fill.

My interview on Friday went exceedingly well, so now I'm just waiting for the background check information to go through. It's really nice to know that soon I might not have to panic all the time, and also just enjoy the severance payout that comes this week. I won't do anything with it until I know for 100% that everything's fine though. Here people say Friday the 13th is a bad day...seriously don't know what they're talking about.

I wish I had more news to report about writing, things are picking up though, so that should mean there will be more soon. In the world in gaming though, all the Kickstarters for Conspiracy X have met/exceeded their goals, so I will be getting all the books I have been waiting over a decade for. Including the expansion/sister game Extinction that was only a rumor and a prayer all those years ago, so I am stupidly excited. That and the new edition of Iron Kingdoms will be pre-released at Gen-Con this year, and while I may not get to go, the for reals release will be in September, which means 'Happy birthday to me!' at that time.

Smashwords is still having their Summer Sale until the end of July. As a reminder, if you head over there you can get 'The Light Rises' for $1. I recommend doing this not just because it drums up my own sales, but because it's a great deal! It's a full-length novel for just $1, it's not everyday you get that. So please check it out, tell your friends, have them tell their friends, and basically just tell everyone! That would be much appreciated if you would do that.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today, I hope the start of the week sees you well. Hopefully I will be making nice progress and finishing up a video game so that I won't be distracted while making progress. I'll be back on Wednesday for my normal writing post, if there are requests, comments, questions or concerns please don't hesitate to let me know! Have a good couple days!

07/13/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Welcome back everyone and I hope you've all had a fun and productive week. I realized that it's been a while since I've had a form of  'Summer Vacation' so it's been a bit strange so far. I do have an interview today though, so let's hope for all the good news!

Today I will bring you 'The Nereid' by Hannah Cuckler, it follows the life of Lexi, a recent marine biology graduate just trying to enjoy a little vacation before starting her new career. Her plan is to collect shells after the tourists leave Myrtle Beach, but as luck would have it, she also collects something she doesn't necessarily want.

After a run-in with what she can only describe as a 'mermaid' Lexi goes home to try and clean up the damage, only to find her life forever is changed. She learns that this change isn't up to her, and she's going to be a part of a world of myth whether she likes it or not.

I picked this story for a couple of reasons, the most important one being that I have seen time and time again where someone is changed, changing, or discovers they really are something else that isn't human and joins their new/actual people freely and happily. Lexi doesn't have a problem with her life, her family, her friends, and doesn't want to leave, that choice is made for her. It's different and that I like that.

'The Nereid' is available for Free on Smashwords, and is something that I feel you should all check out. It's well written, and makes references to pieces of mythology that it seems like are either ignored or are Disney-fied so much that no one really remembers where the stories came from. Sometimes looking at the source material is lots of fun, and the author obviously enjoyed doing that while writing this story.

Thanks everyone for stopping by this week. I'll be back Monday with an update after what's hopefully a nice and quiet weekend. Don't forget that 'The Light Rises' is part of the Smashwords Summer Sale, so if you go check it out you can get it for $1! Please tell your friends as well! For now though, we are at 2900 views, let's see if we can get it to 3000 by the end of the month, and I hope you all have a good weekend.

07/11/2012 Writing Wednesday

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday! I hope your week is seeing you all well. I have received mixed news about my job prospects, but things are still looking up so that's good! I'm going to keep a positive attitude and move forward. Now if only my cat would let me be so productive that would be nice...

Today I wanted to share a bit from my own experiences as of late. It's a little bit about stress, and what that can do to motivation. I'm sure you've all seen my mentions of my job dissolving and such, this as I'm sure you are aware, has caused a huge amount of stress and stress does weird things to everyone. Everyone handles it much differently, and I went through a bunch of different stages. Now that I am home, I find I have a lack of motivation, which is not good.  The reason this happened is rather simple; stress made it hard to concentrate, so I wasn't able to get a lot of work done, now that I have time I'm still stressed, but now I don't want to necessarily do anything. This is something that I must get over and fast.

The problem there is that I am still working through the large 'unknown factor' of what's going to be happening next. Though as I said, things are starting to look up, so I need to get myself back into high gear. I need to use this time for what I had initially planned for; writing, cleaning, more writing, and video games. I have done half of them, I need to get back on for the rest.

One way to help get yourself back to where you need to be, if you're ever in my position, is to try and motivate yourself, and when that doesn't work have people help you. Have them bug you, have them poke you, keep having them do that until you finally open that file, or pull out that notebook and get back to work. You'll find that as soon as you get past the first sentence everything will fall back into place. It will feel right, and if you're like me who uses writing as a way of relaxation you'll also wonder where it's been all your life. I know times are tough, but that doesn't mean all is lost, no matter how crazy everything is right now. Finding and embracing your creative outlet is going to help you through all of it.

If jumping back into a larger project seems a bit too much, try working on smaller things first, possibly even unrelated ones, and then see what happens. The thing you have to remember is to not let them bury you under them. There's a high chance you'll get distracted because they are shorter, easier, and things like that. Remember they are a temporary break, but your main projects won't get finished until you get back to working on them. Trust me, I know it's hard, but sometimes you just have to make yourself do it.

Thanks everyone for stopping by. I'll be back with my review for Friday and I hope it will be a story you'll all enjoy. In the meantime, remember there is a sale going on at Smashwords right now, and if you stop by you'll be able to get my book 'The Light Rises' for $1! The coupon's already provided for you on their site, so all you really need to do is add the book to your 'cart' for purchase. I'll see you all back on Friday, until then I hope everyone has a great rest of their week!

07/09/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone and welcome back! I appreciate you all checking in today, even if it is a little too warm for my tastes. My hope is that sentence structure is alright because the heat caused me to be awake for a decent portion of the night. Though there was lightning, that was cool.

I have a mysterious second interview tomorrow, so my hope is that after that I'll be able to take the rest of the month off without worry. I would love time to just relax, write, play some video games, and hang out with people before having to do a transition into a new job. We'll see though, I'm looking at the idea of a second interview as a good one, which usually they are, this one just is a bit different from what happened to other people that applied for this position.

I really need to get myself into a better routine though, while last week was a nice break, I really didn't get much done from a productive standpoint. I need to get over the fact my story has taken me far longer than I feel it should and just get it done. I also need to make more progress transposing over the notebooks for my other projects. I don't like the feeling that things have become stagnant, since I always considered myself a fast writer. It's a difficult thing to push through, and it's at times like this I tell myself to take my own advice. 

A reminder, Smashwords is having their Summer sale, and 'The Light Rises' is part of that sale. Please head over there and check it out, they have coupon codes provided so if you go purchase 'The Light Rises' you'll be able to get it for $1. I got a purchase notification this morning, so to whoever you may be, thank you so much I wish to give you a hug! Please tell your friends and pass on the word so we can make this the best sale ever!

Please come back on Wednesday for my regularly scheduled post. I hope the start to your weeks are all good, and hopefully my next post will also come with good news. Thank you all for stopping by, I hope you have a great day!

07/06/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Welcome back everyone! I apologize for kind of the late post, but not having a set schedule is causing me to be a little bit of a slacker. Well at least this week, since it's my lazy week, hopefully next week I'll be a bit better about it. For now let's actually get to business.

Today I bring you 'Purple Irises' by Judy Goodwin, it's a nice little short story about a woman who has the ability to get prophecies through dreams. Her most recent one has her going on a quest to cure the village's Than of his illness. Everything seems rather easy to handle, except that she must bring the Thane's daughter Alura along with her, for it seems like the child has an important part to play in the prophecy.

The Lightseer, as they're called, wants to help the Thane, but the prophesy has made her uncomfortable, and it has something to do with her age and also the fact she doesn't have children of her own. Having to take Alura along with her on the journey will prove to be a learning experience for both of them, but the real question that remains is what is the girl's part to play in the prophesy and will it heal her father's illness?

'Purple Irises' is on sale at Smashwords for $.99, and is most definitely worth your dollar. It's a quick little read that you can take with you anywhere. I tend to pick short-stories for my reviews because people, in general, read while on break/lunches, and short things make those times feel a bit more fulfilling. So please pick this up, I'm sure you'll all enjoy it.

Thanks everyone for stopping by again this week. Having Wednesday off was kind of fun, I got to spend time with my boyfriend's family, watch the fireworks, and comfort a usually calm cat. Please come back next week for what will hopefully a more on schedule posting. Also, don't forget that Smashwords is having their Summer sale, so you can get 'The Light Rises' for only $1!! Please check it out and tell your friends! In the meantime, have a good weekend!

07/02/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Welcome back everyone! Today I'm trying an experiment using the Blogger App from my phone. I'm not sure how it'll look when I'm done, but my hope is readable. While it is true I downloaded it for those days when getting up is not really a desired thing to do, this should also help on those days I space out a little.

I filed for unemployment yesterday, which was an experience I had hoped I wouldn't have again for quite some time. I'm sure it'll all work out though and that in the time I have being part of the statistic I'll be able to get lots of work done. Even if it's hard sometimes to open a particular file because I see the 'date created on' numbers and get frustrated. How are everyone else's writing endeavours going?

This week also marks the beginning of Smashwords' Summer sale! Head over there now and you'll be able to get 'The Light Rises' for $1. They will supply the coupon code on the pages, so it's super easy to participate. I only ask that you help spread the word, since seriously, it's $1 for a full-length novel, I'd say that's a pretty awesome deal.

Thanks everyone for stopping by again today. Remember Wednesday is a holiday so I will be out doing other things, possibly that involve small explosions (or comforting my cat as he panics because of said explosions) which means no post that day. I will be back Friday though with the normal review, so please come back for that. Until then enjoy the start to your week and if you're in the US, have a fun and safe 4th!