Writing

Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- January 2018

Wow, so I 100% completely forgot to blog for this whole month! So…there’s that.

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I mean, it’s not like I did a lot in January anyway, but…here we go.

What I’ve Accomplished This Month

 

 

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Continue reading “Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- January 2018”

Blogging, life, Random, Reading, Writing

A Reply to “New Blog Feature: Girl Books”

Read the original blog post by Elissa here: New Blog Feature: Girl Books

“We need more books that feature strong, loving, nurturing female protagonists…”

I consider myself a feminist. It took me a while to come to that conclusion, because I have a different viewpoint on feminism than most “traditional” feminists, in that I believe feminism not only means the right to choose to buck traditional gender roles, but also the freedom to choose to embrace those gender roles. My mother is a stay-at-home mom who raised two kids on a farm (one of them home-schooled), and she is one of the most kick-a$$ women I know, despite never having actually kicked anyone’s a$$. She has lived the life that made her happiest, despite the world and “feminists” constantly berating people and labeling her life as the “weak” choice. I can tell you, for a fact, that I don’t have the courage and strength to do what she has done.

We (and by “we” I mostly mean women, though this can apply to anyone that feels forced into a box) are constantly bombarded with the expectation that we must do everything a man does, and if we don’t then we have failed as feminists. I don’t think this is true. I believe we have a duty to live the life that is going to make us happiest. If what makes you happy is kicking the bad guy’s butt and being physically stronger than the average bear, than go for it! You deserve that life! But if your idea of happiness more closely resembles a Jane Austen novel, complete with a handsome man to sweep you off your feet and a beautiful home with tons of little ones running around, then that has just as much value, and it certainly doesn’t make you a bad feminist.

I completely agree that we need more books that don’t portray feminity as the kryptonite of feminism, and I, personally, am looking forward to this series. There is so much more to strength than physical power. Just ask my mom.

Thanks to my friend, Elissa, for standing by her convictions and beliefs! You go, girl! I’m always rooting for you 🙂

~~~

Doubtthestarsecover
Available Now!

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Writing

Book Spotlight: Doubt the Stars by Emily Selleck

Check out this spotlight on “Doubt the STars”, featuring a peek at the first chapter, as well as the playlist on Spotify! Thanks so much for the shoutout, Hilary!

Songs Wrote My Story

Henley’s father is dead

But returning home from her studies abroad, the crown princess of the planet D’marc discovers that his absence isn’t the only thing in her life that’s been turned upside down: her mother has already remarried, passing the throne to her new husband, the uncle Henley once adored. And there’s the ghost: a bold but enigmatic apparition, wandering the cold, metal corridors of Elsinore Station, seeking justice for the unjustifiable.

Betrayed by her own family and unwilling to involve the woman she loves, Henley is left with only the trust of her best friend and a fierce determination to expose the truth of her father’s death: for her home, for herself, for the people she cares about. Even if that truth calls into question everything she has ever believed in—even if it stretches the very limits of her mind.

The Book

Doubtthestarsecover

Excerpt – Chapter One

Hortensia Moretti…

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Writing

The Yearly Writing Round-up!- 2017/2018

Here we are again, another year come and gone. It’s time to look back, see what I accomplished in 2017, and lay out the plan for 2018. It’s been…quite a year.

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A lot happened in my personal life, which heavily affected my writing. I lost my grandmother, and then my grandfather eight months later. Grief is a hard thing to work through, even knowing both of them are no longer suffering. Harvey came, and he was a jerk, as anyone living in Southeast Texas knows. I have several friends still dealing with the repercussions of that particular asshole. There were other things going on in my life as well, all of which made it difficult to stick to schedules. It always felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

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All of that to say, I’m trying to be kind to myself, to celebrate the victories and let the other stuff go. It’s hard (especially when I have so many plans and not enough time), but one of my intangible goals this year is to stop comparing my writing life to the lives of others and do what I can do, while still making time for myself. I’m really bad at that.

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Anyway, let’s take a look at my goals from 2017!

Overall goals for the year: Edit and (Finished, Q1/Q2/Q3) Publish “The Stars Are Fire” (now titled “Doubt The Stars”) (Finished Q4) Write (Finished, Q2), Edit, and Post “Good Intentions”; Finish Writing “Double The Baggins, Twice The Took” (Finished, Q3); Finish Writing “Wonderland Reclaimed”; Write first draft of Tempest in Space novel (tentatively titled “Such Stuff As Dreams”) (Finished Q4)

Continue reading “The Yearly Writing Round-up!- 2017/2018”

life, Random, Writing

T’was The Day Before Christmas…

…and all through the blog, everything had been updated. Now, let’s have some eggnog!

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That’s right, I’ve spent my Christmas Eve updating the website! You might not notice much difference if the blog is all you’re interested in:  a color change, some font updates, and the like. The biggest change you might notice is that the Book Review Stars Explained! page has been moved in the header. It’s now underneath the Blog menu.

The biggest change has been made to the Home page of the site. I now have a featured page (showing where you can buy “Doubt The Stars”, which is out in paperback, by the way!) and a neat little About section. It looks pretty cool if you wanna check it out 🙂

I know I’ve been slacking on the blogging front this month. I’m going to try to catch up on that as much as I can in the next week or so. In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

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Writing

Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- November 2017

First things first, I know I missed my Hobbit walking post this past month. But I have a lot of things going on in the writing sphere right now and I want to discuss them, so we’ll do the walking blog next week 🙂

Second things second, “DOUBT THE STARS” IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE! RIGHT NOW! YOU CAN BUY IT RIGHT NOW!

I’m super excited! Even if you don’t read the book, I would really appreciate a share on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your social media of choice. You can use the hashtag #DoubtTheStars or tag me (fogisbeautiful) and hopefully I will find you!

And last thing, if you read the description of the book and decide it really isn’t your jam, but you’d still like to support me, I have set up this thing called Ko-Fi:

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Just click that link and support my borderline-problematic caffeine addiction…oh, and my writing ;P

Okay! Now we’ve got all that out of the way, let’s get into what went down this month.

What I’ve Accomplished This Month

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I’m gonna pull an Adan Ramie: So, what happened was…my writing group convinced me that all the proofreading and formatting and stuff I did in November totally counted for my NaNo word count. Call me a cheater if you want, but I had a rough month and goddamnit I feel like I deserve this!

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Continue reading “Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- November 2017”

Writing

Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- October 2017

I’m having a weird moment of trying to even remember what was in October…

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Yeah, that’s probably for the best, because November has been a whole new set of…I don’t even know what to call it. Let’s get into what happened in October and maybe I’ll have a burst of memory recall!

What I’ve Accomplished This Month

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Well…I mean I did stuff! That’s good, right? Right????

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Continue reading “Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- October 2017”

Blogging, Writing

The Quarterly Writing Round Up!- Q3, 2017

Oh my gosh, it’s a new quarter already!

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2017 is just flying by. If it could slow down a just a smidge I would be fine with that, actually. No? Alright then.

Here’s a recap of my goals for the year, in case you don’t want to go back and read the original post:

Overall goals for the year: Edit and (Finished, Q1/Q2/Q3) Publish “The Stars Are Fire” (now titled “Doubt The Stars”); Write (Finished, Q2), Edit, and Post “Good Intentions”; Finish Writing “Double The Baggins, Twice The Took” (Finished, Q3); Finish Writing “Wonderland Reclaimed”; Write first draft of Tempest in Space novel (tentatively titled “Such Stuff As Dreams”)

Continue reading “The Quarterly Writing Round Up!- Q3, 2017”

Writing

Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- September 2017

Let’s start this blog post out with a pictorial depiction of my month:

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Right. Now that we’ve established that

What I’ve Accomplished This Month

 

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Apparently, even taking into account that Harvey is an asshole and my out-of-town shenanigans, my goal of 25k words for September was just too much. I almost made 20k, which I could have been happy with, but I just lost my drive last week, so…yeah.

Let’s break down what I have done:

Continue reading “Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- September 2017”

Writing

Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- August 2017

I’m back!

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So, here’s the deal, the next few blog posts are going to probably be pretty huge, making up for the one’s I missed. But I wanted to go ahead and let you guys know what I did in the writing department last month (since I haven’t done hardly any writing related things yet in September).

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What I’ve Accomplished This Month

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So, my new goal was to track a total of 35k on WordKeeper Alpha for the month. I didn’t quite make it, but I did come in at 30,873, which is close. I probably could have made it if Harvey hadn’t been such a jerk, but that’s okay. Let’s break this down!

Continue reading “Once More Unto The (Writing) Breach- August 2017”