Take your pick of chocoloate cake or chocolate cheesecake. Celebrate with me!!
FABLE RANGER II is done!
Woot! Woot!
Now, to take a very short breather because we all know that reaching "The End" in the story is not the end. It's the beginning to a whole series of things. Will Dingbat Publishing be interested in taking on the project after my prolonged - though necessary for my sanity - writing hiatus? Will I need to seek a different publication avenue? What will I name FABLE RANGER II so that it is a fitting name to go with its duology companion, Fable Ranger, Summons? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
First Wednesday of the month is when many of us in the writing community take time to post and share good news, bumps in the road, and difficulties. It's a time where we are all reminded that on this writing journey, as unique as each of ours may be, we are not alone. And that is true encouragement and support.
I'm glad you've stopped by today to visit with me and ask that you visit others as well by clicking here to get to the Linky list. Hop from blog to blog and check out what other writers have to share.
A question is provided as an option. I would love to hear your thoughts on this month's question: Does spring inspire you to write more than others or not?
I shared this song by The Byrds because it is cool and it came to mind when I considered how seasons have impacted my writing life. Not winter, spring, summer, or fall from a calendar perspective. Rather... Spring - the lively bouncing time when writing burst at the seams in the raucus garden of my imagination Summer- the bouncing crazy continued on for a couple of years Fall - a bit of real life crept in and brought unexpected changes Winter - writing didn't die, rather, lay in a quiet place with the occasional idea to remind me I will always be a writer
Now back to Spring - blossoms of that bouncing time making a slow but steady comeback, perhaps a bit slower so I can do better at finding my mom/work/life/write balance.
By the way, have you gotten your IWSG anthology? Want to learn more about the recently released Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime and others?
Yes, there are those who can sit at Starbucks or McDonald's from 8 am until 5 pm, Monday through Friday, banging out chapter after chapter of wordsmith genius that can be shared with the world in less than 6 months.
Then there are those of us learning the cycles of our writing lives.
From the time I first plunged into the blogger scene and donned my writing hat, I danced about in the long spring and summer of that part of my writing cycle. Then, after publishing Fable Ranger, Summons, life loopy-looed a different way, ushering in a long fall and even longer winter in my writing cycle.
So I empathize with the tree in this picture, a creature of nature reaching and stretching to the heavens, branches once thick with foliage, but now barren and skeletal, barely clearing through the fog.
But it is happening.
Spring is returning.
Slowly, but it is happening in my writing cycle.
It felt good adding conent to Fable Ranger II, the follow up to my MG fairy tale mashup story. Casey is in Lorealia. Dovetail is at his schemes once again.
But this time, it is a family affair.
So what about you, where are you in the cycle of your writing life?
First Wednesday of the month is IWSG posting time. I don't post as often as I did when I first started. I was quite the busy beaver in my early blogging heyday. Yet, I try my best to participate in the monthly IWSG.
This group has been a source of inspiration and motivation, and such a helpful support group when I believed I was dealing with something that no one else could understand. Because when I would hop around from blog to blog, I'd find out that in my good times and my bad...I wasn't the only one.
So be sure to click here and visit other blogs. See what they have to share. Perhaps they are posting about the optional question: When your writing life is a bit cloudy or filled with rain, what do you do to dig down and keep on writing?
Honestly, there have been days that weren't so much rainy. They were filled with rolling thunder so loud it shook the foundation of my writing life. Lightning crackled across a roiling cloud-heavy sky and struck me to my core. The rain fell with such might, crashing into the ground so hard and fast it bounced back up into the air creating the illusion of soaked grasses and streets sending rain upwards in reverse.
When those days happened, writing took a backseat to survivng daily struggles and making time for my daughter... for making time to take care of me.
The struggle gets SOOO real sometimes : ( (credit: Thinkstock.com)
But writing didn't go away.
I read, both fiction and some craft titles, keeping my love of words ever in the forefront of my mind. Maybe writing is in my DNA. Or maybe I'm like Linus from the Peanuts Gang, inseperable from his blanket as I am from writing.
What about you, what do you do when the clouds ands rains invade your serene writing space?
Now, I've read and endured classical reads, such as Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, for school. Personally, I recognized that Twain wrote for what was his time period whether I liked certain word choices or not. I also read my fair share of sword and sorcery or saga/epic tales where nearly every "human" is white. Like seriously, I love Lord of the Rings and still realize that's just how it was.
It isn't how it has to be.
There are things being done, awareness being made. Stories where the MC is a member of the diverse universe - like they are a person of color and NOT in a gang or selling dope, or is a female and it ISN'T a romance, or they're challenged by a physical or mental impairment, or they're GLBTQ - are slowly fitting into the shelves.
Not filling them.
But there is progress.
There won't be any overnight change in publishing. Just as there won't be one for Hollywood.
But there is progress.
So I'm curious. I would love for you to share your thoughts. What do you think about publishers hiring sensitivity readers?
