Author Journey: August 11, 2023 - About the Author Challenge Week 1 Day 5

 Welcome to the scenic route! I bet you'll never guess what the weather's like here. I wish I could say it was stormy today. Oh, well, God knows best. I'm ready to get down to business with this stroll on the scenic route. Let's see what we have here. 

Author Journey: Celebrating Progress

I think it's important for creators to celebrate progress. If the progress is small, then maybe a small celebration (i.e. an extra cookie or cup of your favorite tea). If the progress is bigger, allow yourself something a little bigger as a reward for your hard work. 

I'm celebrating that I now have two books officially published (but if you don't shop Kindle, you can choose a different store for either Ripples here or The Tale of Outh'n Durr here) and that my covers are going to be looking more like fantasy books, as I'd wanted from the beginning. Even if you don't buy a copy, you can go check out the covers at least and see what I came up with. Window shopping is cool. 

I'm debating getting back onto social media. The more I see on YouTube, though, the  more I dread it. People are so callous when they think their comments won't get them a physical slap in the face. Are they really thinking about the damage their ill-thought-out comments are causing? And I'm not talking about how they affect those with a mental illness. I'm talking about those professing to know my Messiah who aren't really being great ambassadors and giving the rest of us who are trying to be what we are commanded to be a bad name. I'm sorry for the super long sentence. I'm in a hurry today...so much to do! If I get back on any platform, I'll probably limit it to Twitter. FB is just too much for me. 

Writer's Life: Here's the Deal

My mom's feeling better! To those who did so, thanks for the prayers. Our family appreciates that. 

I have been feeling out of sorts over the last few months, but now feel that things may be evening out a bit. I'm settling into the new routine and hoping it'll last a least a little while. Don't want to stagnate! Not at all! But a little routine is good now and then. 

Also, I won a prize package this week, y'all! I haven't won anything since I've been off social media. You know, so many people sign up for email giveaways. If you're on every social media site, you can follow /all/ of the authors or creators who are participating in the giveaway and have better chances of winning. I just don't care that much about having something "given" to me. Being required to follow a bunch of pages I'm not interested in isn't freedom. So I figured out that if God was OK with me having a prize, then even my piddling two entries would be enough. And if I didn't need that prize, then it didn't matter how many entries I put in. God is good, y'all!

This one was from a single author, Melanie D. Snitker. (linked to her Goodreads author page) She periodically offers a giveaway to her newsletter subscribers. I followed the directions and surprise! I won. It made my day, let me tell ya. If you haven't read any of Mrs. Snitker's books, I highly recommend you give them a try. I've read a few, absolutely loved some, and some were just OK. So it really depends on your preferences. She writes well, though, and you can tell she puts her all into her work. 

Spartacus is doing pretty well. This heat is getting to everyone, but he seems to be handling it well enough. Of course, being an inside cat, he's always in the shade. 😏 No pictures today...I just don't have time. 

Just Keep Writing: Friday Fascicles

If this is your first time participating in this kind of writing exercise, you're in for a treat. If you've done this with me before, just keep scrolling for the prompt.

Rules:

1. You can use any/all of the words and/or the photo in the prompt below to create a unique written work. Fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, even lyrics are acceptable.  
2. Please keep the material you write clean (i.e. nothing R-rated or worse) if you wish to share the link to your work here, as well as if you link back to my site. I strive to keep my site free of such things. My readers know and expect this. I respect your right to write whatever you feel you need to write. And you're free to use my prompts. But if your material is graphic, I'd rather not view it, and most of my readers will not wish to. 
3. Have fun! This type of exercise is perfect for growing in the writing craft, or for helping through a rough patch in your current WIP. If you're looking to push your author limits and you normally write in nonfiction prose, try a whimsical collection of lyrics. If you normally write poems about real life events, try your hand at a fanfic. Give yourself some room to explore.

Don't forget to leave a link to your creation (unless you're writing graphic material) so my readers and I can check out your work. I'd appreciate a link back to this post to help me reach more readers, but it's not required. 

What do you think? Think you can work with these? Let me know in the comments below!

Writing Challenge: #AbouttheAuthorAugust by Jameson C. Smith

I've been enjoying this challenge so much. I actually love writing challenges issued by other authors. I haven't been able to access them since leaving social media. This is also another of the pros for me going back to some social media. 

Today's prompt is "something you love about your WIP." 

I love that I still love my story after I've read through it at least five times. I still laugh where I'm supposed to laugh and feel a pull at my heartstrings where there should be one. I'm looking forward to releasing this story as I feel it might resonate with more readers. The heroine has to go through some interesting challenges and break through some mental walls she's built up over time, some she didn't even realize she had. The secondary characters are working through their own issues, too, and it's just been so fun working with them, Outh'n Durr being tied for my favorite with Kol Udota. 

Whether this book will fly with any critics is a toss up. I'm not letting that worry me so much, though. It's my story. I'll tell it as I feel it needs to be told. 

There are several scenes I particularly love: the intro scene, the transformative scenes, and the stargazing scene. I'm still not so comfortable with the ending. While there's closure, I don't think people will find it the kind they expect. In my head, my book world goes on and on. So while chapters close in characters' lives, the world of Y'Dahnndrya carries on, with all its troubles, comforts, victories, and mundanities. Tying off an ending is as easy for me as calculus... Yeah, no thanks. Still, I try. Hopefully, I pull it off well enough with Surge. We'll see.

I'm so glad you took some time out of your day to spend here on the scenic route. Did you find the post helpful, useful, or encouraging? Let me know in the comments below. 

I need to get moving with the rest of my work. I'll be back again on Monday with another word prompt and the beginning of week two for the #abouttheauthoraugust 2023 challenge. I hope you'll come back and bring your creative friends along. 

Until next time,
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