Don't you just love it when your computer doesn't feel like computing anymore? It's okay, neither does my brain. It's a strange day. I mean, it's a beautiful day, but I feel strange, mostly tired. I did a lot of running around Friday ending the day with over 12,000 steps only to get up early on Saturday to drive around a bit and ending on Sunday running more errands. I guess I just need a rest day, but who has time to rest when they're trying to accomplish something? When their dreams seem right there within reach? I used all the theiy'res.
Of course, the review that meant the most to me was the review I got from my big brother. He gave me lots of interesting insights and helpful criticism on how I could improve both my writing and my story which is great because I need helpful criticism if I'm ever going to become the best writer I can possibly be. I say he's the most important reviewer to me because he reads a lot more than I do, especially fantasy, and he has never pulled his punches when it comes to telling people how he feels, not even to me. Well, maybe to me a little bit, but I know he's telling me the truth because he loves me.
He said that the first part of the book was kind of dumb and felt a bit on the jerky side, like a person learning how to drive a stick shift. He didn't really appreciate the soap opera like parts and found them to be cheesy and unnecessary. That's his opinion. I prefer a little drama now and then in my reading, but whatever. He said everything changed for him in the second half. He said the second part was like an entirely different book. It was paced perfectly and even had him anticipating what was going to happen next, so much so that he didn't want to put it down until it was finished. There were a few issues he had that we discussed at length, and he's looking forward to the next one. All in all he said that the second part more than makes up for the shortcomings of the first and I received my big brother's seal of approval. Things seem to be going along swimmingly as I navigate this path. Some may be deterred by the slow momentum, but I think it's amazing! One is better than none and it's only going to get better from here. Inspire, motivate, believe. Together we can change the world. Let’s all work together to make a better world. We can be each other’s cheerleader. We all rise together. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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I know I said last week that I was going to start sharing my fiction on Wednesday and life stories on Monday. As you can see, I didn't do that. Oops. So, in the interest of not being a complete liar and to keep my normal post schedule, I'll share an excerpt of a horror story I'm working on right now. I only have three chapters in it so far and I haven't even decided if there's going to be a big twist at the end or a regular sized twist. Heck, I haven't even decided on what voice I'm working with. I've got first person, third person, second person, each with their own chapters. I might just leave it that way, but I don't want it to get confusing. I suppose giving those chapters titles can keep the confusion down since the titles will basically be the character's name, kind of like one of those Rick Riordan novels I read once. Wish I could remember which book it was. The Lost Hero maybe? I don't know. It wasn't Percy Jackson. Where was I going with this? Not important, I suppose. Something to do with one of the novels I'm working on. I should really just pick one and stick with it like the sequel to A Warrior's Path: Rise of a Legend tentatively called A Warrior's Heart. Speaking of that novel that's been published...
“It comes for you in the dark, a creature formed from the lost souls and remains of its victims. The remains make its body grow bigger. A bigger body needs more souls. It’s vicious cycle of kill, grow, eat, and tonight it hunts.” “That’s so lame,” said Nicholas Sato. He sat under the stars around a manufactured fire pit in his backyard with his twin brother, Nathan. “Under those rules, it wouldn’t stay a secret for very long. After a few years, it would be discovered and then hunted down.” “Well then, what would you suggest?” Nathan asked. “There’s nothing wrong with the idea of a monster that regenerates itself with the bodies of its prey. I mean, it’s not an original idea, but it’s not a bad one. The problem comes with the exponential growth pattern. Can’t it just eat and hide for a few years slowly digesting its prey until it comes out to feed again.” Nathan scoffed. “It’s what actually happened. I can’t change that.” “And what’s up with the dark?” Nicholas said ignoring his brother. “I mean, isn’t it possible for it to attack when the lights are on? Push some boundaries. People feel safe in the light. Take that away from them, makes things much scarier.” “If you’re not going to listen to my weird dream then I’ll just stop talking.” “No, just thinking out loud. This dream would make a good story.” “But it’s not a dream,” Nathan insisted. “Even better.” “I see the images when I’m sleeping, but it’s not a dream.” “You dream of killing people in the woods?” Nicholas stared wide eyed. “Yes.” Nicholas was silent for a moment. “Still kind of overplayed, though, don’t you think?” Nathan tossed his hands to the sky and stood. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t take this seriously. You don’t take anything seriously.” “Aw, c’mon, Nate.” “This has really been bothering me and I have to talk to someone.” “Nathan?” “I can’t just go tell Mom. I mean….” Nathan trailed off. “She’d take you back to that place.” Nicholas finished. Nathan stood near the back door with his shoulders hunched looking completely defeated. Nicholas watched him intently. “I’m sorry, Nate. Really, I’m sorry.” Nathan glanced up catching matching deep brown eyes. He seemed sincere. “I won’t let them take you from me again, okay? I’ll listen.” Nathan slowly made his way back to his brother. He sat next to him and leaned into his shoulder. “I don’t want to go back there.” “I know.” Nicholas put his arm around Nathan. “They treated me like I was crazy.” Nicholas pressed his forehead into Nathan’s. “I know.” “I’m not crazy.” “I know.” Nathan pushed at Nicholas’s chest. “I think I prefer the asshole version of you to this.” Nicholas brushed Nathan’s hair from his eyes. “I know.” Nathan laughed then took in a deep breath. “I don’t like feeling helpless, Nick. That giant thing is after me. Maybe it is just a dream like some sort of metaphor for something else.” “Or maybe that thing is angry it lost you and it’s getting closer to finding you.” Nathan pushed away. “Don’t joke about something like that. You’re the only one who even believes me about that thing.” “I’m not joking.” Nicholas was surprisingly serious. “You’ve got some sort of weird connection to it. You’ve said as much yourself before they took you from me. If that thing is hell bent on making you a part of it, then you’ll never be safe. You’ll have to face it again just to be rid of it.” “And if it’s not real?” “Be glad you’re crazy.” “It comes for me in the dark. So many faces.” And there you go! Two birds, one post. I'll get this down one of these days, but until then...
Inspire, motivate, believe. Together we can change the world. Let’s all work together to make a better world. We can be each other’s cheerleader. We all rise together. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I don’t think I’ve put up many stories about trips I’ve had with my mom. Some of them are a real hoot. I’ll have to remedy that. Anyway, Ma and I went to Albuquerque over the weekend to for a joint birthday party thrown by one of my friends. My birthday was a few days ago, hers is a few days from now. It was a Harry Potter party. As cool as it was, I think the party was more for him than it was for us. We started off going to Cracker Barrel for lunch. I found it absolutely hilarious that they messed up Ma’s order by making one of her sides carrots. We both hate carrots. They put that plate in front of her and she just starting saying “I didn’t order carrots, I wanted apples,” almost repetitively. Just the sight of carrots seemed to offend her and they were touching her pork chop. The waitress was apologetic and went so far as to scoop the carrots off Ma’s plate when she came back with the apples.
The flavored jelly beans were pretty neat. I actually wanted to try a vomit flavored one, and I did. It tastes just like vomit which was oddly still a better flavor than some of the other candies. The chocolate shaped like flies was pretty gross. It was made from a cheap chocolate. He kept comparing it to Russell Stover, I kept telling him Stover’s is gourmet compared to the cheap chocolate those overpriced flies were made out of. I’d compare it more to those little chocolate coins you can get at a party store for filling treasure chests, but honestly even that chocolate is gourmet by comparison. Don’t eat the official Harry Potter flies.
The bees were okay. Much better chocolate and they’re filled with something similar to Pop Rocks, so don’t drink any soda unless you want your stomach to explode. There was another candy with a similar filling. I think it was trying to be an orange creamsicle. I don’t like white chocolate. Some people do and that’s fine, I’m just not a fan. At least half of the candies were white chocolate. Needless to say I didn’t like any of those. So, out of all the official Harry Potter candies, the only ones I liked were the jelly beans that were made by Jelly Belly, and the pop rock filled chocolate bees. As you can see, I know Harry Potter so well that I know the names of all the candies and all that sugar made it nearly impossible to sleep. That was it for trip, time to head home. It was mostly uneventful which isn’t always typical. I did seem to run into half of the town at one of the rest stops. There was a band competition and the last weekend of Balloon Fiesta, so of course there were a bunch of people from home there. The fun came on one of the highways. A semi started to pass a guy in a truck. It all started out innocently enough, but we started to go uphill a bit and then a turn was coming. I’m not sure why the guy in the truck towing a camper didn’t just slow down a little when he saw there was a turn coming up and a semi trying to pass. All I kept thinking was that a car could come around that corner any second and none of us would know or even see it… and that’s what happened. Another truck came flying around the turn and had to drive on the shoulder to avoid getting smashed, the semi forced his way in front of the truck, and the truck had to slam on his brakes and swerved off to the shoulder to avoid getting side swiped. I had already slowed way down when I saw the turn so I wasn’t in any danger of hitting anyone. If only that truck had done the same. The driver of the truck seemed really mad, and who wouldn’t be. It took him a minute to regain control of the camper he was towing due to the high winds, but once he did, he started speeding. The semi wanted to pass him because the truck was going like 5 mph under the limit, which was understandable because of the winds. I just stayed back after that. Better safe than dead. And that’s some stuff that happened over the weekend. Maybe next time I’ll talk about something else that happened on a different weekend, or maybe I’ll actually start sharing stories. I could pick a day for that. I’m doing pretty good keeping up with this Monday schedule thing, maybe I can add like a Wednesday story time to it. Let’s find out. This Wednesday, I’ll share a story of some sort. Until then... Inspire, motivate, believe. Together we can change the world. Let’s all work together to make a better world. We can be each other’s cheerleader. We all rise together. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Tomorrow is my birthday! Seems like only yesterday I was running around with my friends, and now we're all old with responsibilities. Don't grow up. It's a trap. How about another story from my childhood, growing up on an air force base? As usual, I don't remember how old I was, just old enough to remember. It was sometime in the 80's and it was raining hard. We lived in a house that was constantly getting struck by lightning, at least twice a year. My brother and I were on our own for a little while. Before you get all up in arms, keep in mind this was the 80's, on an air force base, and my mother was working literally three blocks away. We were only alone for half an hour tops after school anyway and it's not like we were five. Ma set the house rules and we followed them, simple as that. And if we needed help, the neighbors were always around to help out. So my brother and I get home from school in the pouring down rain and I decided I was hungry. We had some microwave burritos in the freezer so I got one out to heat up. They said to heat for 90 seconds, but I added two zeros to the end for some reason leaving the microwave to heat for 90 minutes. Maybe I was in a hurry to eat and just had jittery hands, I don't know. After a few minutes, I started to smell something funny and went to go check it out. Right as I got into the kitchen, the burrito exploded. Just as I was going to the microwave, lightning struck and shook the house. I forgot about the burrito and watched as my brother ran outside to look at the roof. Lightning strikes the house and my brother runs outside. You'd think he was an idiot, but he's actually very smart. He just does dumb things. After a few moments, he runs back in and says the house in on fire. I run out to see too, and sure enough, there was a flame, but it was raining so hard that the fire was put out. I ran next door to the neighbors and my brother went back inside where he was met with a smoking burrito in the microwave. Ma was home moments later as my brother dealt with the smoke filled kitchen. They came and got me after that was all done and they've both teased me about the burrito ever since. I know what you may be thinking. The burrito? This story was about a burrito?! Yes. Yes it was. Ignore the being left alone and the fire on the roof, this story was about a burrito. Now for some shameless self-promotion.
Sometime around the same age that I beat up that boy for being a jerk (see last post), I choked my then best friend. I promise you, I’m not a violent person, but looking back it seems I put up with a lot less garbage then than I can tolerate now. So my friend and I were going to take our dolls to the playground back in the days where kids were allowed to wander the streets without adult supervision. Parents set their boundaries on where you were allowed to go and trusted you not to go there, so you didn’t. Well, occasionally we would cross a street we weren’t allowed to go passed to get to another kid’s house we may have met on the playground, but we would always tell when we did and how long we were there and which house it was. Trust, it’s a wonderful thing. Anyway, my friend brought her new Cabbage Patch Doll and two doll strollers and I brought my say 8 year old favorite, Dolly. Not a clue what kind of doll she is. She was made in 1978 or 1979 and I had her since I was 2. I still have her to this day. I’ll just say this happened in 1988 even though I don’t remember the exact year. I just know it was chilly enough to need jackets and scarves so it was probably late November.
Some passersby, other parents in the neighborhood, intervened. They probably saved her life because I was too angry to see straight. My friend escaped and ran straight to her house while the couple started asking me what happened. I told them she called my Dolly ugly. They looked at Dolly. The woman said Dolly looked extremely loved and the man said Dolly was ugly. I kicked him in the shin.
I’m not sure how I ended up back home, but I was in trouble. My parents told me I could’ve choked my friend to death. I told them she shouldn’t have called my baby ugly. I don’t remember the punishment, but my dad was amused. Why my dad always loved it when I got in a fight I’ll never know. Nobody messes with his baby girl, I guess. Why did I get into so many fights? Anyway, if you haven’t already, here’s a few more freebies for you. Convergence and The Medallion Descriptions in the books tab or just click the link. Download them or I’ll have to fight you. I’m kidding, I’ll just be sad on my birthday. Inspire, motivate, believe. Together we can change the world. Let’s all work together to make a better world. We can be each other’s cheerleader. We all rise together. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter |
AuthorYA Fantasy author and amateur photographer living in New Mexico. A reflection of herself, her characters are timid at first but tend to stand up and push through when times get tough. Archives
April 2020
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