Month: November 2015
Just stopping by…
… to wish my US friends a happy Thanksgiving.
I’ll be back tomorrow for update day.
Love you all. (And am thankful to know every single one of you.)
Misha
XOXO
I feel sort of guilty.
I do. I know I’m not supposed to, but I do.
See, I have so much to do. I have three books to edit. I have three to rewrite before the end of December. And I have two to rough draft.
And I haven’t done anything related to any of those projects this week.
The problem is that I’m tired. Even when it ended up being nothing, the scare, drama and anger associated with the events of Tuesday night/Wednesday morning have possibly managed to tip over the scale into emotional exhaustion, which I have been trying to fend off since January.
So although I know I should write/edit, I just don’t feel like I can. And when this feeling strikes, I know it’s time to do something else instead.
Which I guess probably means I’m going to not do anything I set out to do in the beginning of November. But you know what? If that happens, I’m saving time simply by not pushing myself into a full-blown burn-out that lasts months somewhere down the line.
Instead, I’m going to take this afternoon off and draw. Then I’ll see how I feel about things in the evening. If the drawing doesn’t help, I’m going to keep drawing and add a reading marathon into the mix until the end of the month.
I’m figuring that a total of two weeks out of my writing schedule can’t be that bad, given how little breaks I’ve given myself this year.
What do you do when you need to rest?
Challenge. Accepted.
Callan sighed. Surely this was relatively well-known. Maybe the news just hasn’t reached earth yet.
“The wedding was supposed to be part of an alliance,” she said.
“We know,” Claire said, putting her a bit more at ease.
Gawain returned with a tray and set it down before taking a seat next to Callan. The room suddenly went buzzing as if someone had smashed a beehive at their table.
I’m going to challenge… All of my buddies at Untethered Realms and anyone else who wants to take part. What are you working on at the moment?
In memory of all who lost their lives to terrorism this year.
Blood
Blood littered the streets last night
Blood littered the streets
Of the city formerly of light.
Now in mourning.
Blood littered the streets last week
Blood littered the streets
Amid cries and tears and screams
That went unheard.
Blood littered the streets in January.
Blood littered the streets
Of what used to be a town
No. Blood flowed down those streets.
A river of death to water a village razed.
The silence still leaves me amazed.
Blood littered the streets today
Blood littered the streets
As it litters the streets always.
Only.
Without the news.
Realms Faire 2015
The 2015 Realms Faire!
Up to 10 knights can joust. Each will battle daily. Magic words will be granted to each knight to pass out to their adoring fans. Knights score points by commenters using their magic words. Knight with the most points at the end of the week wins. What does the knight win? A year of promo on my blog in the slider and a tumbler printed with your championship boasts and badge.
Winners are drawn daily from the adoring crowds.
A vortex opens. Five people are trapped in the Underworld with only one way out – challenge an immortal to a contest of skill. The odds are against those brave enough to accept but enthusiastic fans can help them win their freedom with magic words given to each contestant. Daily prizes awarded to each challenger and a commenter chosen at random.
One writer’s character squares off with another writer’s darling. Which character wins the duel? The audience decides. Daily prizes.
You are charged with tracking down the unicorns!
Every day, a new blogger will host a photo. You will have to find the unicorns in the image, much like the famous “Where’s Waldo?” Leave a comment stating how many unicorns you find in that image. The most correct guesses out of five, wins.
Prizes will include books and gift cards.
Five images – many unicorns – only one winner!
Heroes beware! Here at the House of Hero’s Dilemma, a new cliff-hanging adventure will dangle new heroes above the depths of destiny or despair. In 100 words or less, a hero will face a danger in story form.
Each day, the people of Realsmdom will decide the fate of these heroes in three sentences or less. If fateful endings are giving answer in poetic form, an extra entry for prizes will be awarded.
Daily e-book prizes will be awarded via random name-pulling from the entries. Everyone is invited to participate.
People of Realmsom, you have the power of storytelling might to decide the fate of the would-be heroes. Will they die in glory or shame, live in victory or defeat? It is up to you.
And, after you have decided the fate of the Hero’s Dilemma, try your hand at the other Realms Faire Events for more fun and prizes!
A simple word game. Prizes drawn daily.
Come by and soak a blogging friend with wet sponges… or witticisms. Prizes drawn daily.
Each day I will give clues to a famous ghost from literature or movies. I’ll give new clues throughout the day until someone guesses the right ghost. The first one to guess correctly will get a $5 Amazon gift card and a bundle of ebooks.The only rule is that the same person can’t win the daily game more than once.
At the end of the week everyone who left a comment will be entered into a drawing for the grand prize which is a $30 Amazon gift card and a bundle of ebooks.
I am a book so popular they made a movie of me. Within the what if realms I lie. Horror? Fantasy? Or am I Sci-Fi? A riddle every day during the Realms Faire for you to take your best guess and have a chance to win a prize most splendid.
Each door is numbered and gives a peak at the book behind it. The blurb is available to help you out. In the comments section, guess the title of the book corresponding to the numbered doors to stand a chance to win. You may guess at any number of doors to enter.
Warrants of arrest have been issued for select authors accusing them of witchery and wizardry. The pillory has been erected and the trial dates set.
Good people of Realmsdom, I call upon you to bear witness to these trials and offer your testimony for or against the author’s crimes.
Points will be awarded for wordsmithing a comment in your best Olde English afore 8 of the clock in the Eastern time on the following scale:
5-Ye speak as one from the days of Queen Bess.
4-Ye could pass muster as a Ren Faire cast member
3-Ye could pass as a Ren Faire attendee
2-Ye wouldn’t be foolin’ yer mother
1-Ye stand out like the sun in a cloudless sky
An e-book will be given every day to the witness who scores the most points. Fear not, your daily score will be accumulated and the person with the highest score shall receive a special prize at the end of the week. So, brush off your Olde English and prepare to testify.
Prize packages up for raffle.
The Point to Being a Writer
It’s been a while since I did one of these sorts of posts, but I think this is a good time to bring it up. Again. See, I do mention this every now and then.
But then, writers need reminding of this every so often. I’m especially looking at you guys who (like me) have big goals and things to achieve.
See, goals are a good thing. I truly believe they are. They give us something to work towards, which gives us purpose. This purpose gives us determination and determination (and quite a bit of dumb luck) is what sees us through.
All very good things.
However goals can become millstones around our necks. They weigh us down with the sheer amount of measurable things we did not achieve. Or make us highly aware of how far we are from where we’ve seen ourselves at the end of some arbitrarily chosen moment. (End of the year, at the end of five years, etc.)
This millstone effect affects most people, but for writers and other artists, there’s an extra danger: It can and does kill our creativity.
Everyone’s motivation for writing differs a little bit. Often, we write for a variety of reasons. Maybe just because you like reading and thought it would be fun to write and it was. Maybe you have this huge drive to produce something, anything or your life just doesn’t feel complete. Or you need to write to process your emotions. And so on.
A lot of us find that, even if there are all these wonderful reasons to write, we just never seem to spend enough time on actually doing it. TV creeps in. Facebook sucks up time. All those million little distractions gang up on us and if we’re not careful, whole days go by without us writing. Which isn’t good.
Goal setting with accountability makes us careful with out time. We want to have something to show those we are accountable to, so we start building habits of carving out writing time for ourselves. See? It is a good thing.
But the flip side is that sometimes, through no fault of our own, we just can’t make those goals. Usually, it takes only a short moment of introspection to recognize when that’s happened. You don’t say “I wanted to write, but those crazy cat pictures took over my life and I just couldn’t.” But when things higher up on your priority list comes up (e.g. in matters of survival, or family issues, health issues etc.), there will be times when you. just. can’t.
This is perfectly fine, but those goals still loom and suddenly, people are asking: “Oh, what’s the point?”
And then they’re miserable. Because suddenly, nothing they’ve done is good enough. Now nothing they’ve written gets them anywhere and writing becomes this pointless cause of self flagellation until we’re not even sure we like being writers anymore.
So. Because I’ve been seeing a lot of you guys talking about this lately, I decided to be awesome and answer your question…