Monthly Updates
Mild case of HermitSorry about how delayed this post is for March, but I've been dealing with a mild case of the Hermits. As a naturally reclusive person I am not the most social at the best of times, but every so often I develop an overwhelming desire to cut off all contact with my fellow humans except for necessary things such as going to work. My family calls this "a case of the hermits." Unfortunately I underwent a severe amount of emotional and verbal bullying in my adolescent years that lead to me turning inward. One benefit of that inward turn was the development of my need to write. I lived in a fantasy world of my creation, and later I became a spectator and reporter of that world. The downside was my tendency every time I was introduced to someone to ask myself "does this person hate me, loathe me, or just not care?" I always considered not caring to be the best I could expect. Never once did I consider "liking" to be in that list. I sometimes wonder if that lead to the reclusive nature I developed in my twenties. The last time I had a case of the hermits was in 2015, when I stayed at home for three months without going out once. Not bad, that was five years ago. Back in the early 2000's I had a case like that every year, once it even lasted for six months. I guess what I'm trying to say is that people should think about how they treat their peers, bullying is not just physical force and sometimes words can do more permanent damage than fists. I guess I've been fretting about this since February when the anti-bullying campaigns came into play, which could have set off this year's case of the Hermits. It seems to me that verbal and emotional bullying is actually on the rise, and no one truly seems to be aware of it. Even some of the people I saw wearing the anti-bully pink shirts this year were speaking to others in a verbally bullying way. People should be aware that there is more than one type of bully. Not everyone who suffers through that becomes a writer, some curl into a fetal ball as their minds become self destructive.
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Season of ChangeAs one can guess January was a month of New Year's resolutions for me. I resolved to keep looking for an agent for my remaining unpublished books, some of which I posted snippets of during the Christmas season on my excerpt page. The main part of that resolution was to look outside of my Native Canada for an agent. I also decided to sneak in a few changes here and there for fun. Two changes are also on the excerpt page, this time with this month's offering, specifically the book image next to the text of the excerpt and the text itself. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that the La Lune dress is no longer draped over the back of the chair behind the book although it is still there, however they may not notice that the text is actually from my own file of the book, not the cleaned up publisher's version, as my initial copy contained a differentiation between Psychic and verbal dialogue that disappeared somehow in the published text. I will apologize in advance if I am a little late posting at the monthly change-over this year; I already know that I will short on time over the next six months or so with writing, working, and upgrading my degree to enter a new profession (as well as writing.) I will do the best I can, but please forgive me if it may be almost a week into a month before I can get an update done. Until next month, happy reading.
Happy New Decade: 2020Well here we are in a brand new decade full of bright new hopes and resolutions. Yes, I have posted a piece of Secret Sorcerer chapter nine in which both Marigold and Prosaica are introduced a bit more fully and will hopefully make the bits of the unpublished books I posted during the Holiday season easier to understand. I am as busy as ever with both my writing career, the job that supports my writing career, and re-education to begin a new career path to take the place of my current job, however I am not neglecting my writing as I have a number of books completed, such as all three of La Lune's personal series, books one and three of Prosaica's series, and books one and two of a series pertaining to Marigold's missing kin. I also have three children's books completed, but unpublished, and a Narrative poem about Llaeron that is also complete. As for books Two and Three of the Ellfaerran Diaries and Book three of Moon Child Memoirs they are also completed except for final edits. As for books two and four of Prosaica's series (which is also Sapphire's series) they are currently in the process of being written. All I truly require right now is an agent to help me place all this written material with the correct publishers and to give me some help with promoting it as that is one thing I have very little time to do. Hopefully this will be the year, or at least the decade, when all the puzzle pieces fall into place to bring my characters to the world stage. As this decade buds like new greenery on a sprouting plant I hope my writing blooms with renewed vigor and brightens the homes of several readers. Enjoy the year to come, I know I mean to.
Seasonal Gifts With the holiday season upon us I have decided to give all those who visit my website's excerpt page a couple of little gifts, specifically tiny snippets from two unpublished books I am currently writing (please excuse typos as they are still rough copy texts) the first from Feline's time in Keldrean's Galaxy that comes between books one and two of Moon Child Memoirs and the other from the same series but from a book set much later, specifically in the not so far future. I hope all who read them enjoy these small glimpses into the adventures of Feline and company with the Parapsychologists own galaxy, the Adlamar Spiral, and yes I did base its location on M81, the first galaxy I ever saw in a pair of binoculars. Happy Reading and Season's Greetings.
DEcemberDid you ever have one of those days when you realize that you must be living a cursed life? I know that's how I feel today. Probably not a good time to consider composing this update, but so it is. Well, okay maybe my life is not completely cursed, but a Literary agent helping things along a little would certainly help mitigate the feeling. I guess the feeling comes from the fact that things have been going along quite well until I ran smack into an unexpected ( and metaphorical) brick wall in the advancement of my alternate career path. To be blunt, as much as I love the creation of writing and concocting worlds known only to me until I release them with my pen, writing just does not support anyone who is not a multi-billion best seller.
I generally deal with the situation by pulling off my bookshelf old friends like Miss Read with her gentle view of 1950's village school life, and Alan Dean Foster's rather warped fantasy Spellsinger for a good laugh and a bit of social analysis, I also turn to a rather sweet penguin named Opus from Berke Breathed's Bloom County, recently resurrected much to my happiness, to Johnny Hart's unusually modern cavemen in B.C. and to T.K. Ryan's unusual look at the old west with erudite Poohawks taunting, and sometimes aiding, dopey Cavalry men and cowboys in Tumbleweeds. Part of the cursed feeling comes from the fact that I can't seem to find T.K. Ryan's comic in book form anywhere but second hand stores. All of the above are currently on my table either waiting to be read or in the process of helping me through my crummy mood. Fortunately Llaeron, La Lune, and company have not abandoned my creative mind. They are all clamoring to come out of my pen for people to read. I'd better get back to them. Just as an added little note to yesterday's bout of minor depression that people of an artistic nature are prone to fall into from time to time, I ended the evening by watching my favourite Cliff Richard movie: Take me High (I can't remember the title it had in the United States, only that it was different.) That film always puts me in a good mood. Oh, by the way, if anyone is interested a few of the Ellfic female characters were inspired in varying degrees by the female lead in that film. The Two Ronnies shows were also a very strong source of character inspiration, they are also another depression eliminator for me as are Man About the House and Last Of the Summer Wine. Did you notice they're all British? There must be a link there somewhere. Then again, most of the depression fighting books I use are American or Canadian (Letter From Wingfield Farm) so maybe there isn't. BUsy DaysA fairly short post this month as I have very little time these days to work on the computer. I apologize for the brevity of the latest excerpts from my books, but I've been squeezing in typing time when I get a rare chance, as such the amount of text from my books is now somewhat condensed in comparison to earlier excerpt posts. That being said I hope you enjoy the latest excerpt and possibly find a clue to the situation at the start of Secret Sorcerer. Hopefully this is only a temporary situation and the excerpts will start to enlarge again as time goes on. One of my favourite holidays is now past and once again I donned La Lune's dress for the Trick-or-Treaters in my neighborhood. That is actually how I developed the character, through the creation of a Hallowe'en costume to amuse the local children. La Lune's whole history and story came from the sewing of that costume. As for some of the others, they found their creation, or their world's, through my love of porcelain doll-making. (Yes, the proto-type of Porpoise stands in my doll cabinet.) That's all for this month as the clock is telling me that I'm running out of time again.
Spooky SeasonWell it's that time again when the leaves change colour and fall in mild gusts of wind, or around here are torn off their parent tree to be whipped around and driven into what ever happens to be in the way of the autumn gales. It is somewhat less than fun driving in such weather, something I have to do on a daily basis. I have been giving some thought to a few of my past scholastic problems and a diagnosis near the end of my pursuit of a Bachelor's degree in Writing and Literature. The realization that a test induced mental blank and a hypoglycemic attack have identical symptoms (at least for me) has made me wonder if the two might possibly be related. Could low blood sugar to the brain be responsible for kids going blank during exams no matter how much they may have studied? It's worth thinking about anyway, especially as the only person I knew in Secondary School who never suffered from the problem at all was a vegetarian with a profound sweet tooth. as for this month's excerpt, I am trying to decide between chapter eight of Secret Sorcerer and chapter eight of Separated Soul. I'm trying to decide which is more suitable for this month. As soon as I make my choice I will post it. Funnily enough I've discovered that when I read the selected chapters from my books that I don't read them as if they are mine, and I've found a certain amount of enjoyment in that as well as, I hope, a degree of unbiased judgement.
Fall begets with new beginningsI apologize for the lateness of this post, however the transition from August to September has been a fairly hectic one for me this year, not the least of which being my decision to engage in a new career path. This does not mean I will stop writing, or publishing, merely that I have decided to return to a campus I have been away from for seventeen years to study for a new direction to go alongside my writing. As you can guess I am still a little rushed with a return to university this week. I have only posted a small excerpt from chapter eight of Escape to Ellse Where due to the above mentioned time constraints, however I think you will agree with me about the importance of the segment chosen from the book. As for my hunt for an agent to represent not only the books already in print but also the several fantasy/ science-fiction novels I have yet to place with a publisher at this time. I hope everyone had a nice summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and for those below the equator I hope it was a nice winter. The change of seasons brings changes into several aspects of life as well as the elements. If I have learned anything from the past few days, including my feeling of coming home when I entered a classroom again for the first time in over a decade, it is do not fight the flow of fate; it will take you where you are supposed to be even if you don't realize it yourself.
A Very odd SummerWell, maybe not that odd, we've had summers like this before: wet and cold, but not for a while. If this follows true to form the winter will be both sloppy and snowy. Not something the incomers to this island like, especially the almost constant grey gloom that coats our skies. For some reason they think an island, even one that reaches further north than Toronto (or even Calgary,) must be tropical. We have cold weather trees growing native here, but they insist on importing palms and other tropical plants for the proper "look." Thanks to unnaturally warm winters over the past ten years they honestly believe it a) never rains here [in a north western rainforest] and b) never snows here. Both belief systems were, until 2009, completely erroneous. 2009 was the first winter I remember that did not have any snow, and I was born here! I will not say how many years ago that was as it was decidedly before the 1990's. As for my writing it's coming slowly as my outside job takes up a great deal of my time and energy. Writing only truly pays if your name is either Nora Roberts of Steven King. Anyone else requires a day job.
One of the things I've been doing is going over a lot of the unpublished work I've stockpiled over the years including a children's mystery series I started to write involving ancients myths and legends invading the modern world in a suburb of Victoria (probably Sooke, although I've never stated exactly where it is.) The mysteries are investigated by an unusual cat, a group of three dogs and a garden sculpture that isn't. Maybe I should see about finding a literary agent for those as well as my Science Fiction & Fantasy novels. To be frank, I threw out a lot of Christian folklore when writing the series and concentrated of the actual pagan religions from which the myths originated. My purpose was to teach these cultural myths within the context of a slightly goofy story with the animals. I wonder who would be interested in that? As for my published work, this month's excerpt is from Separated Soul chapter seven. It is now posted on the excerpt page. Shoe Problems and fun with growing thingsDid you ever have someone tell you that you required a specific type of shoe for something? Naturally you have, but what if you have awkwardly sized feet? I'm thinking of this right now because it happened to me in June and being under five feet in height my shoe size is quite small. By small I mean I generally wear either a child's size 1 or 1 & 1/2 as very few places carry a ladies size 3 (size 1 in U.K. and size 33 in Europe.) Occasionally I will buy a size four and stuff the heck out of it with insoles and cotton balls in the toes, but once in a while a place will carry and actual 3 or 3 & 1/2 (again the insoles come into play with the 3 & 1/2.) I finally managed to find something that sort-of works, but is not perfect in the children's department, but I cannot help thinking that between my height problems and shoe-size issues that this world is either trying to ignore or punish smaller people for being short. This is something I really have to think about, especially as I am not shaped like a child, and I haven't been since I was twelve.
Oh well, apart from that I am still attempting to find a literary agent who'll be willing to represent my books, including the Dark Witch of the Moors series I am currently putting through a final writer's edit. All three books are already written, just as all of the Moon Child Memoirs and Ellfaerran Diaries fantasy series books are written, just waiting in line for me to finish my last edit. I have a few other books sitting in binders on my shelves that I've completed preliminary writing on, such as what happened in the Adlamar Spiral when Feline was taken there, and the first book of Sapphire's own series showing who he was and how he became what he is. I'm playing with horticulture again, I seem to have a wide Hobbit streak as I'm always trying to see if I can grow something from the very start, this time I have to build a mini-green house. I wonder if it's possible to grow a pineapple from it's top in a Pacific Northwest (fairly chilly) rain forest? It should be fun finding out. |
AuthorHello, I am a writer of High Fantasy utilizing ancient myths mixed with modern anthropological discoveries to create the worlds in which my characters live. Please join me in my journey to uncover those mystical worlds of myth and pre-history. Archives
March 2020
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