Updates March 21-24

Hello,

Thank you for the likes and follows.  

Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com

This post was put up on Tuesday instead of Monday because time got away from me. Not sure if I mentioned it in other posts. We are moving from Queens back to Brooklyn.  The shutdown of the Queen’s house is taking a lot of time.  I have to figure out what to keep and what to throw away.  These are truly tough choices.  Most of the packing is happening on the weekend. From Tuesday night to Saturday morning, is reserved for the day job.  So much time, but it pays the bills.  There are small pockets of time to get writing done but I end up using them for reading via audiobook. 

Last week I wrote that I would be working diligently on Connection Lost, act 2. That did not happen. There is no excuse except that I got caught up in work and other things.  I feel like I am coming out of a fog.  For about 3 weeks or so I had no desire to write, even though I knew the story was right there waiting for me to continue it.  Instead of working, I listened to Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Spare Man.  It was an audiobook read by the author.  Mary Robinette is a very good voice actor.  I had several books with her voice before I realized that she was a great storyteller.  I also listen to all the audiobooks available in the Legacy of Magic series by Lindsay Buroker.  There are five books published.  I don’t know the reason why books 4 and 5 are not an audiobook.  I have them on a kindle and I will wait for the audiobook to keep the set together.   Lindsay Buroker is an amazing world-builder.  I started to listen to another series by her called Dragon Blood, which is a Steampunk/magic series. It is a unique world that has completely shunned magic and magic users.  It is a safe bet that one of the main characters in the series is a magic user. She also writes believable romances between adults.  

Some of you may be wondering what about the vampire paranormal story.  It has suffered the same fate as Connection Lost.  Gothic is older than Connection Lost, however, Connection Lost is more structured.  Which is under the working title umbrella of Midnight Fantasy Witch Tech.  There are supposed to be 3 or 4 novella-type stories about Somer and her world.  Most of what was written in Gothic had to be trashed and rebuilt from the ground up.  It is easy to get lost in backstory or character development.  I have been fighting it for a long time now, but I will have to cut some characters.  Many of them don’t have little to no role in how I want the story to develop.  Again, faced with tough choices.

The plan for this week is to catch two episodes of Invisible City on Netflix, season 2 starting later in the week.  Instead of binging, I will watch it in doses.  Season 1 of Invisible City was predictable but also satisfying. The voice actors did well but there were times when the performance was cringe-worthy.  I will also be working on the Gothic outline.  The task for Connection Lost from last week will be carrying over.  Since time and energy is an issue, I will be evaluating this as well. 

That is all for now.  I hope these words find you all doing well.  Remember to be kind.  I think we need that more than ever.  

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PS: The March flowers of the Month are daffodils, and jonquils and I read somewhere cherry blossoms. Jonquils and daffodils are hard to tell apart

Updates March 13-17

Hello,

Thank you for the likes and follows. 

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I have returned.  Due to being sick.  I have not been able to post an update or a QFW for two weeks.  Updates were attempted but they weren’t ready to be shared.   I caught this cold, and it knocked me on my butt.  I’ve had colds since coming out of the hospital, but I was taking immune boosters and vitamins.  I stopped being vigilant and this cold reminded me that I have lung issues.  Recovery took energy and I didn’t realize how depleted I was.  Tip for the week: take your vitamins. They actually work.

For the past two weeks, I did try to work on Gothic and Connection Lost. It did not work.  It was a little disappointing because this is the last month of the first quarter, and I wanted to have positive results with productivity.  I ended up working a bit on my book journal.  That project is not going as smoothly as planned. It was supposed to be a review aid.  I let myself get carried away with book journal videos on YouTube.  Too many choices are making me freeze. I will be taking time to work on that this week. 

The other thing I did was complete the Death before Dragons series by Lindsay Buroker.  I also started the second series called Legacy of Magic. This story takes place in the Death before Dragons world but instead of being a half-elf, the main lead is a half-dwarf, who doesn’t trust the military. She does get an arrogant elf love interest. It is a pairing I never really thought about but should be more possible.  I like the story is going so far and there are cameos with characters.  The book achievement I am most happy about is the completion of The Kindred by Alechia Dow.  It is a YA space opera/star-crossed lovers story that went in directions I didn’t expect but ended up pretty well.  The story has expanded into a trilogy but I am not sure I will get it.  It is a young adult book, and I can only consume them in small doses.  The Kindred was a book I had put on hiatus.  I always planned to come back to it.   I also started to watch a supernatural Brazilian show called Invisible City on Netflix.  The story centers around a cop, who is investigating the death of his wife.  He is a single parent and Brazilian folklore is involved.  I find it interesting how other countries write speculative fiction or paranormal stories.   I have mostly watched shows like that from the U.K. and on Netflix, I have come across several international shows of interest in this genre.  Most have bad dubs, but you adjust or read subtitles.   When the story is good you get lost in it and stop thinking about voice actors.

This week I am going to be working on Connection Lost, summarizing act two.  Somer will be attempting to do the job she was hired to do.  She will be confronted by people she didn’t expect. Some relationships will be made, others cut and a few reforged into something different.  I want it to be exciting, entertaining, and emotional.  I am wary about reaching those goals.  This is a writing fear or doubt raising its head.  Later on in the week, I might be asking myself, did anything I wrote to make sense? Are they cliché?  Is it outdated and will anyone care?  I will of course work through these questions.  It took some time to realize that many of these issues can be fixed in revisions. 

That is all for now.  I hope these words find you all doing well.  Please leave a like or a comment.  Remember to be kind.

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