Hello,

Thank you for the likes and follows.

Last week flew by faster than I would like. Not sure if what I was doing was productive or not. Due to outside forces, there wasn’t much writing done.  My family needed me and that is where my focus had to be.   It is a struggle and can be frustrating at times, but this is life and I’ve accepted it for what it is.  

The silver lining is that progress has been made on the stories.  In Gothic, Ephraim’s surname did change from Bishop to another name.  Then I realized the name was in a book I looked at briefly.  It annoyed me to no end that I unconsciously chose a name, another author had used in her paranormal trilogy.  This has happened before, many years ago.  I was attempting to develop a female character called Merrick, in some kind of paranormal story.  Then on my way to work, Anne Rice’s book titled Merrick was blasted all over a Barnes and Noble Bookstore window display.   The idea and character turned to ashes in my mind and every now and then it haunts me.    Some people will say to develop the character or write the story, but sometimes it is better to let sleeping ideas lay down and be fleeting memories.   It is quite possible that Gothic came from the ashes of that idea.  Melisande was a unique name, and it wasn’t until Game of Thrones fame that I heard of a similar to my character’s name Melisandre.  It didn’t affect me or the characters in any way.  My fledgling story and GRR Martin’s sagas are two different animals.   The gist of this wayward paragraph is that I will be looking at surnames this week.  It is true that supernatural near immortal characters don’t need surnames, but I can’t think of these characters any other way.  

Despite all that, this week is going to be a Connection Lost focus.  I’ve been neglecting it for too long.  As a middle sibling myself I know that Somer will have issues with her older siblings.  It is supposed to affect the story but I’m not sure in what way.  There is a little bit of annoyance on my part because there are threads of the story that are lost, and I don’t know where to find them.    Before any decisions will be made, there will have to be another re-read of everything.  This was written for accountability.

February is a short month, and the things I wanted to do may feel out of reach. I neglected to do tasks that may have helped me keep focus.  I wrote about my quarterly goals in previous posts, but I didn’t keep them close.  Adjusting to a new job and attempting to take a class online as well as write on various platforms, set me back.  It is upsetting when I caught myself on a path I didn’t want to be on and the means to reaching the goals I wanted seemed to be gone.   Instead of wallowing in defeat, notes have been made here and I will do better.  Reflecting on failure is so easy.  I’m embarrassed at how quickly I could fall into that miasma.  The silver lining is that I noticed it in time to do something about it. 

In reading news, I have been catching up on various manhwas series. I will share my thoughts on them as soon as I figure out exactly how I want to structure them.  I started a paranormal romance series by Ines Johnson.  I am also planning to complete reading a contemporary sports romance series by Naima Simone.  These authors come highly recommended, and I have many of their books on the To-Be-Read list and the To-Be-Bought list.  The other hobby I am trying to maintain is a reading journal. This year’s reading journal is a B5 notebook.  There are a lot of pages to fill.  The point of this journal is to keep track of what I was reading and organize my thoughts for reviews.  Yes, I still want to post reviews on this website, every Wednesday. Not giving up on that goal.

That is all for now.  I hope these words find you all doing well.  If inclined leave a comment, like, etc.  Remember to be open to positive opportunities and be kind. 

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