We choose love. Our love for our children. Our commitment to leaving them a better world. – Michelle Obama

Hello,

Thank you for the likes and follows.

I’m excited to know that 100 of you like what I do here.  Despite being born in the year of the rabbit, things are going around at a turtle pace.   Full disclosure I have really liked turtles ever since watching Grandmaster Oogway on the film Kung Fu Panda or was it the turtle Crush of Finding Nemo.  Either way they were cool turtles.  This was the highlight of last week, getting the notification.  I don’t give this website the attention it needs however consistency is proving to work out well.   After being concerned about progress, I learned that I am doing okay.

The writing project Gothic has an issue, I did not anticipate. It is the male lead; he is a vampire, and he does not have a name.  The stand in name is Seth, the more I use it the more I dislike the name for this character.  It is frustrating since I have been tossing this story around in my head for years.  I have gone through several names for this character.  It was decided to try another angle for developing this character.  Many may suggest that I just put the character aside, but that is not possible since he is the male lead and part of the novel trigger event.  Honestly, I kind of neglected this character, spending most of my time with the female lead and wondering if the familial trauma was too much for a developing mind.  Since both characters are important, I needed to know about him as much as the female lead.  There are general questions, how old is this vampire?  Is he arrogant or haunted?  How does he feel about humans? Are his ears pointed?  Is he a loner or part of a group? Is the supernatural world hidden or open?   Here is another effect of surviving covid.  I had answers to all these questions at one time.  There were mostly in my head, and I neglected to write them down.  In the past, I relied more on the inspired feels instead of developing craft.  Mea Culpa.  So now even the few paragraphs/notes about this character that were written down all seem wrong.  The only thing that I am sure is that he is between 200 – 300 year old and born in the Caribbean.  He was the last living descendant of another vampire.  This vampire and his partner adopted him when his mother died.   They brought him to the United States.  I don’t know enough about West Indian vampire folklore to write about it with authenticity.   At some time during his life,a geas was put on his by a Beaumont, that compulsion fell into to the hands of an inept practitioner.  That person introduced Melisande, my female lead, to suggest-his-name here.  

In previous iterations, Melisande’s upsetting mindset called a death bringing vampire to her.  I don’t like either of these initial meetings.  They are not cute or sexy.  I’m annoyed with what I have come up with as of date.  The scene is a trigger that sparks something deep Melisande.  It also connects Melisande with … … Seth, ugh.  It changes them both.

However, since I don’t know this character, I don’t know where this story is going from there.  The ambiguous ending for them is that they won’t be real dead.

Vampires like elves are malleable characters. There are many variations of them in fiction. It all depends on the story, horror, urban fantasy or paranormal romance.  One of my issues could be there is a vast amount of choices.

This week I will be looking into some articles on writing vampires.   One might ask is it smart to look for more information, with all the alternatives.  I have no plans “to steal like an artist” with this story.  So instead of thinking about developing a character like insert-vampire-story here, I will utilize the information instead of being overwhelmed. Wish me luck. 

Connection Lost has not been abandoned either.  Last week, I was doing the reading I planed to do two weeks ago.  It was a Nanowrimo project and that shows with the many grammatical errors.  I have corrected the ones that are needed the most and have made notes about others.  The summary will start this week.

In the reading news, I have been diving deep into manhwas and setting up my reading journal.  Over the last couple of months, I have nagged myself about the reading journal.  I had planned to write reviews on various forms of media, but I don’t have consistency yet.  The reading journal was supposed to help me with that; however, I fell into a reading journal set-up well by content creators on YouTube.  They gave me so many ideas.   I thought I would be making a dent in my budget and then I remembered I had washi tape.  The dent has been reduced to a hard tap.   This week I need to catch up on the craft books I wrote about previously.  I mention them to keep myself accountable but then don’t remember to write about them later. 

That is all for now.  I hope these word finds you all doing well.  Thank you again for following me. Remember to be open to positive opportunities and be kind.

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