Category: Just Life

Wednesday Pastimes

It is the middle of the week already. This year is ending faster than I thought. Seriously sometimes I wish I was jellyfish. I know with climate change and pollution the oceans are not the best place for sea creatures. The idea of just being in water floating wherever the waves take you is really appealing to me. It is also ironic because I don’t know how to swim. I would have loved to say neither do jellyfish but a quick google search dissuaded me of that whole line.

This useless paragraph was put together because I lost my thoughts on what was supposed to be in this post. Coming up with something interesting to write about is as difficult as reading.

At a loss of what to do for this entry. I will report what I’ve been listening to. I will apologize in advance because I fear some of my words may be redundant. I had completed the Forgotten Empires series by Jeffe Kennedy, the week before Thanksgiving. I enjoyed the whole series; the last book The Promised Queen had a twist I did not expect and one that I did. Overall, I enjoyed the three books and could listen to them again.

The day after Thanksgiving, I started to relisten to the Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole but only the Lykae stories. The series includes all kinds of supernatural beings. Some I’ve heard of and others I have not. Some have been tweaked for the benefit of the series. There are seventeen books in print. The series is paranormal romances in the audiobook version – not safe for work or headphones only. The narrator was a man named Robert Petroff and he was very good. The tests are female characters and various male characters. None sounded wrong for the story, even when a scene got intense, the voice or voices were distinct and held up. The stories were not in print order: A Hunger Like No Other -book 2, Pleasure of the Dark Prince-book 9, Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night- book 4 and MacRieve, book 14. In 2022, the 5th lykae based story will be out for readers, Munro. I think it has been on hold for 3 years. I hope it comes out, but I am not putting all my hopes into it. This book has missed a deadline before. It was never clear why there was a delay, at least I never delved too deep into the business side of this issue. It could’ve been the author’s problem or the publishing house. Nothing was ever clear. Fans were just disappointed. So now we wait with crossed fingers. I also hope that whatever the situation was it worked out well for Kresley Cole. Even though I know how difficult it is to produce a book much less a series of near 20 books, I still get belligerent when I’m wearing a fan hat. I had fun for the last two weeks, reacquainting myself with the IAD universe. I might continue with the vampire stories next, because Robert Petroff is that good a voice actor. Or I might listen to something completely different.

As the year comes to a close, some of my plans may be clear. Wednesday is still a day for review posts. I know I have not said much about the books I have listened to. A more in-depth review may show up at a later date. What I have been doing to make that goal plausible is developing a reader journal. I had a stray composition notebook and decided I could make good use out of that book. It is something to look forward to next week.

That is all I have to write about my pastimes. Things that I do when I am not writing. I think I might give myself a reading or listening challenge to complete as much of the books I started but DNF’d. If the reason was neglect and not dislike. I will see how far I can get with this. If any of you remember the list I put up on this blog, suggest a book from that list. Constructive comments are also welcome. I hope this entry finds you all doing well.

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Updates December 06-17

Hello,

Thank you for the likes and follows. I really appreciate them.

Last week I had to take a break. With a deep sigh, I have not won NaNoWriMo this year. I wrote more words during November than I have in a long time and I am grateful. I made new friends and I enjoyed myself writing with them on Discord. As usual, I have not abandoned my story. I will continue to write until this story is complete. What I learned from this intense challenge, is that I may need to plan writing projects more effectively. According to the NaNoWriMo website if I continue to write at the rate I was I will finish this draft of Star Crossed sometime in January 2022. I find this to be acceptable. Therefore I will persist until I have a satisfying first draft give myself a month or two and then start the revision process.

I will also like to admit here that I am a little disappointed in myself. This does not mean that I blame the competitive nature of NaNoWriMo or anything like that. I am not the only one that failed at 50k words. Many of us joined with different goals in mind. I am not sure what to think about these feelings. I took the week to process at least half of them. I have no malice or envy for anyone who has reached the 50k. I will mostly participate in one of the Camp NaNoWriMo’s in April or July and the official NaNoWriMo in November 2022. I believe in the work that organization is doing for readers and writers around the world. It is not just about lonely writers making friends. It is just amazing that about 20 or so years ago, a group of friends started something that is now a worldwide event. If I am envious of anything it is the connections and the reach of NaNo.

Not sure what I wrote about the last two weeks in November before this entry. The holiday went very well. The Thanksgiving meal was held at a relative’s home. They had just moved in the summer I think and they invited as many family members as they could. We all had a good time and ate a lot. There were some substitutes instead of a whole turkey, we had a whole chicken. There was traditional stuffing, baked mac, and cheese, a vegetable curry for the vegetarian family members. If I am being a little honest it was around this time I fell of the writing wagon. I tried to stay on but over the weekend I fell completely off. I peaked at 25k. No matter how far I start a paragraph it always comes back to NaNoWriMo.

This is the first full week of December. Podcasts and YouTube channels will be full of reflections about the past year. I will have to seriously think about when I am going to post my reflection essay. My writing schedule is a little off-kilter but getting we are getting back on track. I wish you all reading this a great week. Don’t miss an opportunity to be kind.

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Place Holder 05 late edition

The last full week of NaNoWrimo and Thanksgiving week as well. I have words and cooking recipes on the brain. This entry was nowhere near it. It feels like the end of November came faster than believed. I didn’t think I would post an entry today. I completely missed last week Wednesday’s post. Then I remembered I am the boss of this website.

At the end of this week, I will have excepted wherever I am on the writing project. The goal is still 50,000 words but I won’t be surprised if I don’t make it there. I will be very glad once I reach 25k before Thursday. I know that day and Friday will most likely be non-writing days

This is the shortest entry I have made in a very long time. Usually when I type this, I find another 100 words to share. This is not the case.

I wish everyone a safe warm Thanksgiving or whatever day you want to call it. Enjoy the time with your family and friends.

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Short Reviews & Sundry 02

This is going to be more sundry than reviews. I still have the writing project for NaNoWriMo on the brain. I have not reached my personal word count for the project and I am still about 2,000 behind the NaNoWriMo official word goal. On Thursday or Friday morning I am going to do my best to catch up. I think I should pause for a moment and look over what I have in my outline for my characters. Romance may seem like an easy genre to write in however, looks are very deceiving. I know that for this event, done is better than perfect. I have come to realize that I am more linear than I would like to be. I can skip a scene every now and then but there is an internal narrative I follow. In Star Crossed II, I feel a little disconnected from my characters. I think if I don’t address it, it can grow to be a bigger problem and I don’t what that.

The distractions for this week have come in the form of Webtoon comics. I have been a member of the service for 3 or 4 years. There have been a number of notable comics, some that have even become hardcover books. I have subscribed to many comics on Webtoon but the two I am going to write about today are – It Was All You, created by I Soon Ki, and OH5HO, an original story by Jake Lee. It is set in future Korea. Clones are possible and a luxury item for the wealthy. We follow a woman who works for the company as an engineer and tester of the products which are the clones. While testing the newest model of clone, her marriage falls apart. She does all that she can with the help of the new model to exact revenge. The title gives me pause. I feel that she is being led to something more nefarious.

The other comic that pulled me away from Star Crossed II was put in the romance category. Perfect Marriage Revenge, original story by Yibambe, webcomic creation by So Young and Jerryball. This story is about a woman given a second chance to fix the things that went wrong in her life starting with her marriage. The main character dies in the first chapter in distress after realizing an ultimate betrayal. She wakes up a year before the incident with the opportunity to make different choices.

Neither of these comics is complete. It Was All You has been out longer than, it has over 30 episodes and Perfect Marriage Revenge has about 6 that are free and 2 or 3 under the coin paywall. One of the good things about Webtoon is that each episode or chapter eventually will be free to read. If you can’t wait coins are available for real money. I reward myself with a chapter when things in Star Crossed II go well.

There isn’t much going on with me besides the dash to write. I hope things continue to go well for you all. Please leave a comment, like and subscribe.

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