Oh Horror! I'm A Gardener!

I was watching some of the lectures from Brandon Sanderson's class on fantasy and science fiction last night, and to my immense horror I found out I'm a gardener. Not the green thumb variety. Gardening is a term used by George R.R. Martin, because he's one, which means a writer works by discovery.

In short, you don't work well with outlines or a rigid structure to your writing. You develop a story through discovering or learning as you go.

That's me. I write by discovery and I edit my stories as I go, which explains a lot. Like, why I've rewritten the first chapters of every one of my novels at least ten times over. And why I can only get so far in any one story and then have to go back and revise when I've yet to finish draft one!

Or when characters change and grow into their own persons, I have to edit my novel to adapt to those changes. And I'm constantly writing a chapter or so only to go back and edit a chapter or so.

It's like taking one step forward and two steps back. Progress is made but it's very slowly. And now I know why. But I'm not explaining it as clearly at Sanderson does. Take a listen for yourself. Video four deals with gardeners and architects.

Lecture 1

1. Intro



2. Ideas are cheap



3. Class format



4. Gardeners vs Architects



5. Writing group essentials



You can find the rest of Brandon's 2012 Lectures at Write About Dragons.

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Oh Horror! I'm A Gardener!

Free Summer Fantasy and Science Fiction Online Writing Class

Are you excited? I sure am! Thanks to the awesome site CritiqueCircle.com, I was directed to a free writing class.

Brandon Sanderson of Write About Dragons is offering a free summer fantasy and science fiction online writing class. Yes, it's totally free and totally online.

That means you get to learn how to write right from the comfort of your own home, or local library, or coffee shop, you name it. I don't know about you, but I need all the writing advice I can use, and if it's free that's even better.

If you want to join the class, head on over to Brandon's blog for the:

2013 Summer Class Sign Up

Class starts June 1 and ends in August. If you want to get a feel for what the course will be like, you can check out Brandon Sanderson's 2012 Lectures. And don't forget to tell your writing buddies.

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Free Summer Fantasy and Science Fiction Online Writing Class

Camp NaNo 4/8/13

It's week two of camp, and I'm floundering. With my mother's surgery last week and my own bout with sickness, I've been struggling to write. Oh, I've written everyday, mind you. It's just not enough.

On average, I'll write about 300 words a day and at most or on my best days, it's about 1k words. Camp Nano asks for 1,667 words a day. So far, I'm at 4k when I should be at 13k!

My current stats.

A couple days of missing the daily goal amounts pretty quickly. I like to call it the snowball effect. This tragedy happened to me last NaNo. But unlike November, I'm not going to slack off or give up.

I'm writing as much as I possibly can now. And that's my current goal: to catch up. I can say, for once, I like the direction my story is heading, even if I am behind.

Camp NaNo 4/8/13

Platform Challenge: Day 12

The Platform Challenge should be completed in a month, but for some reason it's taking me a whole lot longer. Oh well. What's important is finishing with a stronger platform as a blogger and writer.

By the way, this challenge originated over at My Name’s Not Bob’s blog. Now let’s get to today's task.

Day 12 of the Challenge

Write a new blog post and include a call to action at the end.

A call to action is a prompt for your readers to engage with your blog's content. Some calls to action are:

Profile Links

Links to your social media profiles at the end of your blog posts gives readers a way to connect with you. I have my profile links under my blog's search feature on the right, because I'm also using related posts and share buttons.

Related Posts

Having related articles under your posts helps readers find your other interesting content. A few widgets and plugins I recommend are:

LinkWithin

If you want related posts with thumbnails for Blogger, Wordpress (self-hosted), Typepad, and websites then LinkWithin's for you. The only con I think of is it's not super relevant. LinkWithin seems to display whatever new posts are on your blog randomly.

Zemanta

A browser plugin with a funky name for Blogger or Wordpress blogs. You can add related articles with or without thumbnails, in-text links, and photos all based on your post's content. The downside is it only focuses on your recent posts, so your much older ones don't show up as related content.

Blogger Related Post Widget (Manual Install)

This is my favorite widget hands down. You can adjust the number of posts you want to feature and, best of all, the related content is based on your blog's labels. So, more relevant material shows up including new and old posts. The downside is it's a manual install, which can be a bit tricky. But as long as you carefully follow the instructions, you'll be fine.

Share Buttons

Lastly, share buttons invite readers to, guess what, share your posts with others, and increase your reach/audience by gaining followers. Check out Day 7 of the Challenge about adding share buttons to your blog posts.

See you sooner or later for Day 13.

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Platform Challenge: Day 12

Serving Time: Cover Reveal & Demon Master Interview

Today we have a special treat, a cover reveal of Nadine Ducca's new science fiction novel Serving Time. Now for the drum roll please...

Cover Reveal

Ta da! I love Time's hair. She's the lovely lady on the cover. As a bonus, you can read Nadine's blurb for the book on her blog.

You can also find Serving Time on:

• Goodreads

Along with the cover reveal, Nadine offered me an interview with one of her characters Robert Westbrook, Demon Master. You may remember the blog hop with Cloverpuff the dimensional hopping rabbit and press agent.

Clover interviewed a host of characters including Robert at the Devil's Playground. Now, I get the chance to toss some questions Rob's way and hopefully avoid any demon hoards.

Character Interview with Robert Westbrook

---

Today I will interview Robert Westbrook. Hello, and welcome, Robert.

Hello, Lanise. It’s a pleasure to be here, although I’m still wondering what exactly I’m here for.

Just a few questions, if you don’t mind. Who or what do you want in life more than anyone or anything else?

That’s a bit personal. Why are you asking me that? Did one of my demons set you up for this? Was it Abaddon? It was probably him. This sounds like one of his jokes. Did you know he calls me a cocky monkey? Him! Abaddon! The puffed-up lizard with halitosis—and he makes fun of me and calls me a cocky monkey.

D-demons? No. I didn’t talk to any demons. I’m just trying to do an interview!

All right. All right. But if this is all one of Abaddon’s tricks, I’m going straight to the Devil’s Playground to teach him who’s master! If my own Keeper can’t respect me, none of the other demons will.

No tricks, I promise. Now, who or what do you want in life more than anyone or anything else?

Have no doubt about it. I want my goddess. My Time. When I lost everything, I turned to her. She was there for me. She took me in, kept me by her side. I have spent over two hundred years with her, and I hope to spend so many more.

If you could kill anyone or bring anyone back from the dead, who would it be?

I got all of my enemies out of my way decades ago. It’s actually quite lonely, without anyone to hate. Maybe someone new will turn up soon…

As for bringing someone back from the dead, there is only one person I want. My wife, Amaris. She was everything to me, and she passed away so young. When I lost her, I almost lost myself. Luckily, I sought out Time, and she saved me, but it’s never been the same. I…I’d rather not talk about Amaris now.

It’s okay. I understand. How would you say life has turned out for you so far?

In one word: interesting. But how else would you expect my life to turn out? I’ve been meddling with demons ever since I was a boy. I know them better than I know myself.

Have you ever heard the curse “May you live in interesting times”? Well, if I were to tell you just how interesting these times are… It’s no wonder we’re all cursed!

Uhm, thank you Robert, for letting me interview you.

No problem. Don’t mention it. Really. Don’t. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a demon or two to whip.

---

Next in the blog hop

• Dathi's sneak peek with Robert Westbrook

What you may have missed

• Kelly's interview with Seth
• Nastia's sneak peek of Seth

Connect with Nadine

• Blog
• Twitter

Serving Time: Cover Reveal & Demon Master Interview

Challenge to Write Daily

Remember those few lessons from the F2K writing course? In one of my posts I'd mention my opinion of Ray Bradbury. That man's books scared the hell out of me as a kid.

However, I'm not eight anymore and I think I can handle a dark circus. So, I picked up a couple of Bradbury's books at the library, and I was a little surprised by a single sentence he wrote in the afterword of one book. Speaking of the early days when he first started out, Bradbury stated:

I wrote every day after that, for the next sixty-five years.
-Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Can you imagine writing everyday for that many years? That's amazing! I no longer think people have any excuse when they say they can't or don't have the time to write everyday. If you're able, it can be done. Bradbury did it. You can and so can I. I'm going to try my hardest to write each day, everyday for the rest of my days.

I also want to work on some new short stories. So far, I've got about 3 finished. I would like to start submitting those to magazines, but that's a step I'm not ready for yet. For now, I'm focusing on finishing my Camp NaNo goal of 50k words in 30 days.

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Challenge to Write Daily

Time and Time Again by Henry Beam Piper

View Kindle Edition

Time and Time Again by Henry B. Piper is unlike most short stories you'll ever read. This tale of science fiction is short and choppy and the writing isn't that great, but I admire its quirky ending.

Synopsis

The year's 1975 and a soldier, Allan Hartley, fallen wounded in World War III. Oh yes. WWIII occurred in the '70s. Who would have thunk it? Somehow Allan's transported back in time to his home in Williamsport, Pennsylvania when he just thirteen years old.

He wakes in bed in his teen body without a clue of what the heck's happening. But he has his memory and every knowledge of the war and all he's learned in adulthood. He freaks out for a bit and then confronts his father with the news.

Excerpt

"Last night, you were still my little boy. This morning--" Blake Hartley was talking more to himself than to Allan. "I don't know. You were unusually silent at breakfast. And come to think of it, there was something ... something strange ... about you when I saw you in the hall, upstairs.... Allan!" he burst out, vehemently. "What has happened to you?"

Allan Hartley felt a twinge of pain. What his father was going through was almost what he, himself, had endured, in the first few minutes after waking.

"I wish I could be sure, myself, Dad," he said. "You see, when I woke, this morning, I hadn't the least recollection of anything I'd done yesterday. August 4, 1945, that is," he specified. "I was positively convinced that I was a man of forty-three, and my last memory was of lying on a stretcher, injured by a bomb explosion. And I was equally convinced that this had happened in 1975."

Surprise Ending

You can imagine his father's reaction to: Hey, Dad, I might have died in the future and come back in my teenage body! But the two of them come to an agreement and decide a plan of action. They're going to change the future and prevent WWIII from happening or at least find a way to win the war. And then the story ends. Right there. Nothing more. The story ends where you'd expect it to just be beginning.

Lasting Impressions

I may have yelled at the last page... Why would the author end a story so abruptly? It was like watching one of those infamous M. Night Shyamalan's movies with a sorry-ass ending. Honestly, I was pissed. Then I realized I think the author wanted people to be pissed or surprised the story ends so unexpectedly. And I have to admire Piper for his unique twist to this story's end.

Find This Book

You can find Time and Time Again for free at ManyBooks.net.

Time and Time Again by Henry Beam Piper

Camp NaNo April 1, 2013

Camp NaNo strikes again and on April Fools' Day. What a funny coincidence. Maybe I'm a fool for trying this, but I'm going all out and aiming for a goal of 50,000 words within the next 30 days. It's called a challenge of writing a novel in a month for a reason.

I'm using the opportunity to finish my Steampunk novel Graythorn Manor. I've been trying to finish this book for what seems like the longest. And now I'm really going to do it whether I have to shackle myself to my desk.

I shall write come rain, sleet or snow. Come temptations of BioShock Infinite gameplay or the never-ending stream of Steampunk photos on Tumblr.

My characters have been neglected for long enough. The plot is thin enough. I've had enough. Now, it's time to write.

Camp NaNo Progress


My motto for April: Steampunk FTW! ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

Camp NaNo April 1, 2013

Poems For Those Missing Souls

I'm growing an interest in poetry. Mostly thanks to my melancholy mood lately, but let's not go there. You're here for the poets, right? Well, here they are all nice and neat.

These are my favorite poems dealing with:

Matters of the heart

The Open Man by Mark

Whole by Katrina Wendt

You are tired by E.E. Cummings

I carry your heart by E.E. Cummings

I Like You When You Are Quiet by Pablo Neruda

The humor in things

You Fit Into Me by Margaret Atwood

Throwing Away the Alarm Clock by Charles Bukowski

The darker side of life

Starlight by Philip Levine

Wolves by Louis MacNeice

I Am The Shadow by Irrelevance10 (nice handle)

The Mysteries of Others by Ute Carson

I recently found Ute Carson's wonderful piece on Julia Hones' blog. So far, I haven't read much poetry. If you have any good recommendations, please let me know.

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Poems For Those Missing Souls

Time for an Update

Breaking news about blogging, life, and my writing progress. Let's get to the headlines!

New Blog Design

It may be hard to tell but I have a new blog template. It's a minimalist theme from litethemes.com. It's called Twenty Twelve and is an adaption from the Wordpress theme by the same name. Actually, I had to change templates again because the one from litethemes didn't work well with Internet Explorer. It only looked great in FireFox.

Instead, I've gone with another template, a responsive one that's well adapted to the web, tablets, and mobile devices. My newest template is called Responsival by FiveForBlogger.com. It's epic and it's free.

Google+

What's not epic is that I was locked out of Facebook recently. Yeah. I'm not kidding. Facebook claimed I wasn't a real person and locked my account (see? it's still locked). I can't access my account until I give them FB cell phone number. Politely put: That ain't happening. So, that means no Facebook for me for the time being.

Instead, I've settled for Google+ and I'm so delighted I joined. Google+ is like the nerdy brainchild of LinkedIn and Facebook. It has all the professional advantages with the simple interface of all the other major social media platforms.

It's really cool. Plus, I've created a brand spanking new sumo-sized banner for my profile page. I've even put my disgruntled mug, profile pic, on there. Being disgruntled brings me to my next topic.

Love and Lies

Time and life sure change. One day can be filled with misery and the next will be one of the happiest you may ever experience. With me, though, I tend toward misery.

About a month ago, I wrote a post titled Post-Hiatus: Update On Life. And there's one little sentence in there that sticks out like a ass-ugly bruise. In that post, I wrote:

I'm also thankful I met a wonderful man that's making me fall in love with life again.

Well, that's no longer the case. Long story short, things fell apart mostly due to my doing. It was my fault. Now I have no one again. All alone like it's been the majority of my life. Oh well. Life deals its crap, and sometimes you might win at craps, sometimes.

Just take life as it comes. This brings me to a little article I found some time ago. It's about love. Something I don't seem to know much about... The Second Time You Fall In Love With Someone. It's cute and I hope it's true. Maybe one day it will be.

Writing

On the subject of misery, I'm trying to cheer myself up and going for another try at Camp NaNo. Camp begins April 1st and I plan to continue working on my Steampunk novel Graythorn Manor. This should be fun. I'm going full steam ahead. That's it for this update. See you in inevitable NaNo updates.

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Time for an Update