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I’m in Full-On Dragon*Con Mode!
I finally finished my River Tam vest commission (COMING SOON to my portfolio), so that leaves my cosplay for Finny, figuring out what I’m going to wear, and occasional updates to the Tolkien Track site. This week I’m working a temp job as well, so let’s see how much sanity I’ll have left by the weekend! Expect a post about Dragon*Con next week!
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King of Pops Cart Art | Spray Paint
King of Pops is a delightful seller of frozen popsicles, filled with all kinds of delicious, all natural ingredients. In Spring 2013, I saw The King of Pops’ Cart Artist Contest on their Facebook page, and long story short; my design was accepted! So I got to go to their headquarters and work with their in-house artist to transfer my design to a stencil, and she taught me how to spray paint it onto the side of a cart! I’ve never used spray paint with stencils before, so it was a really cool learning experience! I made a video of the creation process, which you can watch below: I’ve spotted my customized cart around…
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Dear Awkward August
Dear August, Do you know how freaking awkward you are? Especially this year, you just feel really, really awkward. I have nothing against you, August, at all. Some of my favorite people have birthdays this month! But being the planner that I am, I sometimes find myself impatient for the next thing: the next big holiday or event, the next trip, or the next phase of a project. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, it’s just how my mind naturally tends to process, but as a result I’ve really been trying to make myself stop and enjoy the time I’m in at the moment. It’s a very intentional thing and isn’t always easy. So,…
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Summer in Review & Looking Ahead
AT LAST, a post! This is what I’ve been up to, and why I’ve been so busy! BG music: “Porch Swing Days” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) LINKS to cool stuff: Follow my writing progress: http://puelladocta.com/writings/ Art portfolio coming soon! Cosplay Comission coming soon! FinnyPuppet’s tumblr: http://finnypuppet.tumblr.com/ Dragon*Con Tolkien Track site: http://middleearth.dragoncon.org/ Check out the movie my group made at Camp Flix this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQNdDqCAoYI Original Maleficent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p78C3dmLI_c&feature=youtu.be AWA cut of Maleficent video coming soon!
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Letters to July | SarahShotts.com
This month, I helped contribute a video to Sarah Shott’s “Letters to July” series! It’s my first time doing Dear July, and I really like it! I don’t know if I’ll do another one this year, but I hope to in the future! *back-posted on 8/28/15*
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I’ve moved to PuellaDocta.com!
If you’re reading this, I’ve already started making all kinds of changes to canelsonauthor.com…particularly moving it to PUELLADOCTA.COM. Tadaaaaa! I’ve got it set up to redirect and everything! I’m slowly getting everything transferred so it will show up correctly, so please forgive any broken links or images! I’m still trying to figure out all the social media renaming too, but I’ll let you know if/when there are any big changes. I’m still going to write about about my writing here, I’m just adding my art and design to the party as well ^_^ Thanks for your patience! ~Christina
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Happiness is a warm kitten | Happy Birthday, Moss!
It’s Moss’ First Birthday!!! Birthdays are always special, but after all he’s been through, this one feels particularly dear. I wrote this long-form poem, which is more like a journal entry, in October last year, right after Moss had completed recovery from his invasive gastro surgery. He’d ingested a bunch of string that perforated his stomach lining and got close to his kidneys. After a nerve-wracking night of surgery, and a thankfully successful recovery, he’d had his stitches removed and his belly was still growing back all his hair. He was out of the woods at last, and I was treasuring his safety and health, wanting to appreciate every tiny,…
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My Obsession Has a Name: Child Ballads
*waves excitedly* Hey guys! Quick update: I’m really enjoying my temp job, I’m gathering some awesome story ideas that fell in my lap, and little by little, preparing for MomoCon! And heads-up, I’m also making plans to redirect my sites (including this one) to puelladocta.com, and combine my online presences. So prepare for some different branding going on with my Christina A. Nelson {Author} stuff, particularly on my Youtube and G+ pages. Facebook isn’t going anywhere, because of it’s no-name-changing page nonsense. >.< But just wanted to warn you. Anyway, I said something about my temp job? Yes, while I'm sitting at a desk all day, I've started listening to…
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#WeeklyVenture Challenge: Solo {a poem of embellishments on things that really happened}
When the yard explodes with violets and dandelions,And wasps inexplicably thump head first into the window,I know it’s finally time to break out the jellies. (They’re grown up jellies, with a low purple heel, comfort ridges and everything.) I know I’ll need comfortable* shoes because today I’m walking.I won’t have a car for an hour or so, and there’s some unexplored urban territory nearby.Jaywalking is involved. The weather is perfect, and I wish I had my bike. (It’s hiding in the shed on cracked tires.) A strip mall adjoining a nature trail is mine to conquer. A rare thing, like an old tree growing in the center of a parking…
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Puelladocta & the Search for More Money
Alas, my dear readers, I regret to tell you that I am taking a novel writing hiatus, in favor of that most persistent of goals, The Search for More Money. Unfortunately, though I’ve been looking for consistent full-time and part-time employment in the graphic design field, I’ve been neglecting my design and programming skills, in favor of writing. Which seems counter-intuitive now that I think about it. That and my portfolio site needs a serious overhaul. Plus, I want to sharpen my dulled artistic strengths, and I have other interests I want to investigate, like technical and article writing. But to develop those things, I must take a break from…
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Death is having a Near-Pratchett Experience
On March 12, 2015, Terry Pratchett’s twitter account posted the following: AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER. — Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015 Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night. — Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015 http://t.co/EzEDHf5EkW — Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015 The End. — Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015 And all Terry Pratchett’s fanbase reading those posts felt various levels of this: Terry Pratchett narrating his own death is the only time Twitter has made the hairs on my arm stand on end. What a loss. — Peter Hewitt…
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BACK UP YOUR WORK, a lament {UPDATED}
Come all my dear computer lovers And take a warning how you work If you don’t save your efforts elsewhere It will be there, and then it’s gone. I wish I’d known before I’d lost it Time I had left, my files to move For when it died, without a warning It left me here in grief to moan. Inspired by Jim Moray’s “Fair and Tender Lovers.” On Valentine’s Day, I opened my laptop, signed in, the screen was on for a few seconds, and no sooner had I plugged in my headphones, it completely turned off. No blue screen, no pop up error warnings, just black. With a whirr…
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6 of My Favorite Kid’s Book Author-Illustrators | Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators Week!
Happy Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators Week! This week is a great excuse to sit back and think about, or re-read, your favorite books from when you were little. If you look some up, you might be surprised (like I was) at how many were written and illustrated by the same person! There’s truly something fantastic about a well-written and illustrated kid’s book, whether textured by an author and a complimentary artist, or if both parts grew out of the same mind. I have a lot of respect for artists who dance in that middle ground, and there are so many with such rich talents! They have my undying admiration,…
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2015 Writing Plans!!!
I’ve got my writing projects all planned out for the year! For those of you who don’t want to watch the video, here’s the run-down: January 1 – 31: Plan out entire Lottie/Tales of Thoglan Series (ToTS) February 1 – March 13: Finish revisions on ToTS Book 1 March 16 – May 15: Start 1st draft of ToTS Book 2 (90-120 thou. words) May 18 – August 18: Start researching/writing myths and fairy tales for retold anthologies August 24 – September 30: Write Draft 2 of ToTS Book 2 October 1 – 31: Work on anthologies again November 1 – 30: Write ToTS Book 3 during NaNoWriMo December 1 –…
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A Tolkien Christmas Eve Story
T’was the eve before Christmas, and all through the house, Both Panger and Mossling awaited a mouse A mouse they could chase and play with all day And at night they could eat in a mousie souffle. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE! Long time no see, dear readers! I’ve been busy with all the customary Christmas projects: volunteering at church, working the obscene hours of the retail machine, and getting presents together. And this little bit of Christmas cheer, dear readers, is my humble gift to you! So wrap yourself up in something cozy, perhaps grab a warm drink, and I’m going to tell you a Christmas story. For a while, I’ve been wanting to…
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NaNoWriMo, Thankful, and Christmas AdvenTea
I update you on my most recent things, go over some of the biggest things I’m thankful for, and announce an excited string of Christmas videos, and it involves tea! Thanks to an awesome present from my father-in-law, I’m doing a tea advent calendar on my Youtube Channel. I’m posting them in a playlist, which you’ll find below. Enjoy!
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13 Books that have Stayed With Me
It began with a Facebook survey that my mother-in-law tagged me in: In your status, list 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take more than a few minutes and do not think too hard. They do not have to be the “right” books or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you in some way. And then the clever Sarah Shotts said she wanted to re-post her own answers on her blog, and I knew I had to do the same! Favorite books are such a special part of any writer’s life (everyone’s life!), I just wanted to share my list of enduring, memorable picks…
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20 Things You Might Not Know About Me | Blacksburg Belle Blog Tag
This blog post is a part of the “20 Things You Might Not Know About Me” Blog Tag started by April from Blacksburg Belle. She began this blog tag experiment to build community among creatives, help us bloggers to connect more and get to know each other better. This month’s topic is all about sharing just a little too much information about yourself. If you’d like to participate or want more info, check out the beginning post right here. Figured I’d post this to kick off the first week of NaNoWriMo 2014! Thanks for the tag, Sarah Shotts! Let’s a-go! Question 1: How tall are you? 5’2″. I’m fun-sized! Question 2: Do you have a hidden…
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NaNoWriMo 2014!
Huzzah, it’s that time of year again! Time to pull out your typewriters and notebooks and all those newfangled technology typer thingies and write a novel in 30 days! It’s NANOWRIMO time!!! And OMG the badge and banner graphics they made this year are AMAZING! So, I’ve decided that I’ve had enough relaxing on the NaNo front, I’m jumping back into the fray! This isn’t gonna be easy, so I covet your good thoughts and encouragement! Feel free to send me messages, texts, cookies *hee!* and let me know you’re rooting for me and that you want to read this book! The premise is pretty cool, I think. It’s about an…
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Interview by M.G. Boal
I’m so honored that my favorite author cousin M.G. Boal interviewed me on his blog! He asks me about my plans for this year’s NaNoWriMo, as well as my success tactics for new NaNo-ers. Here’s an excerpt: M: Welcome! As you and I know, National Novel Writing Month is coming up in 3 days. So in honor of that, I thought I’d ask if there’s anything you can tell me about your planned novel. C: Uh, well, it’s sort of a magical, steampunky story, set in Victorian London. An orphan girl named Mindie wants to work with flowers more than anything else in the world, because her family did before…
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10 More of My Favorite Twilight Zone Episodes
It’s just a few days away from Halloween, so you know what that means. It’s time for my yearly Twilight Zone episode review extravaganza! Check out my first one here. I also want to take this moment to say, happy 55th anniversary, Twilight Zone! The first episode, “Where is Everybody?” originally aired on October 2, 1959. Man, I can’t believe I watched the whole thing. In my last post, I’d only seen up to Season 3, but I sat down and finished the whole dang thing! There are very few shows that I can say I’ve watched all of, and even fewer that I’ve watched a few times, at least…
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Keeping my writing alive, even though I’m busy!
I lament at the lack of writing and editing I've done recently, but I share in 3 steps how I plan to change that, and how you can too. I again sing the praises of National Novel Writing Month, and share my list of editing plans. Click the blog header to read more.
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You should be embarrassed if you’re embarrassed to read YA (or Children’s books)
I express my frustration over the controversial article by Ruth Graham called “Against YA,” and share some quotes from other articles that feel the same way. Click the blog header to read more.
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THE MOSSVLOG! The purring and playing machine!
Uploaded this earlier in the week, but I didn’t want the post it to take away the 200th spot from the appointed entry! Meet our new fuzzy, black family member Demosthenes, better known as Moss. He’s the sweetest, most playful little guy, and he lights up my life! I only wish his big sister Panger felt the same way we do about him. But I know she’ll come around 😉
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Confessions of an Insecure Author* (Post #200!)
*I know, pretty much all you authors out there are. 😛 So, come commiserate with me. So, Labor Day weekend was a roller coaster for my writing emotions. For the first part of the weekend, we spent some time with friends at a beautiful farm house inn. I went to sleep to the sounds of thunder storms or barking farm dogs (kept there to chase off coyotes) and woke up to the misty mornings of sweet, quiet open space, punctuated by rooster calls. We ate breakfast in the common room with the other guests, and I met a fellow tea lover and tea pot collector at the hot drink bar, who told me she’s…
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New shiny site design!
Hi everyone! Welcome back to the new and improved canelsonauthor.com! Not only has the URL changed a little, hacking off the superfluous “official” part, as you probably noticed, but I’ve made some design changes as well! Hope you like it! I certainly do! It’s been a long time coming. Just letting you know, I deleted all my extra post categories and listed everything under “Blog,” and I’ve been cleaning out my list of tags, which might mess up some page linking throughout the Web (to say nothing of changing the urls). But thankfully, everything should still point to this site, and I didn’t delete any posts, so between the search…
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Lots to Look Forward To (Starting Draft 6 & Purple Hair)
It’s amazing how a few months can change things! I finally got my editing groove back after a long brain break. What a relief! It’s not an easy process, and it’s going slowly, but it’s going. I’m also doing some more character studies as I get inspired. I’m planning on relaunching this site, and I have some plans for guest posts and some of my own posts. I’ve also finally won the Search for More Money and will be starting a part-time seasonal job soon! Oh, and I got purple highlights too 😀 It’s been a good summer’s end. Posted this vlog on Youtube on Aug 22, 2014.
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Vlogs that I forgot to post on here
Remember how I used to have a Youtube video importing plugin that stopped importing my vlogs a number of months ago? Yeah. That was fun. As I’m updating my site I have to go back, delete the random vlogs I don’t really want on here (they’ll still be up on my Youtube channel) and re-embed the ones I do want, cuz I just got sick of the plugin. SO, in honor of Throwback Thursday, I’m posting some of these older ones from this year and the end of last year, which I really like a lot, but never made it here. They’re posted from most to least recent. Do enjoy!
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My Writing Process (Blog Tour)
Thanks to the adorable and very talented Sarah Shotts, I’ve been tagged to participate in The Great Blog Tour, aiming to make a web of authors that stretches as wide as the internet is long! I’m so honored to be included, and I’m excited to talk about my writing process (and to show off some cool pictures I took for the question headers)! So, shall we begin? •~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~• Since late middle school/early high school, I’ve been building my own fantasy world filled with characters, which has grown and changed throughout the years, as I have. I worked on it tirelessly, until college, only pausing to focus on my studies, with just…
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Why NaNoWriMo is Awesome
November 1st marks a very auspicious day for writers around the world; it is the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a glorious month-long holiday that encourages everyone with a story inside of them to put it down on paper. The plan is to come out with 50,000 words by the end of the month, which is quite an endeavor, but with the encouragement of others on the internet, or even in your home city, it’s a worthy goal that leaves you with a great feeling of accomplishment. It’s been the most encouraging thing to happen to my writing in a long time. In college I didn’t have time…
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10 of My Favorite Twilight Zone Episodes
Imagine if you will, a rented out room in a cozy bungalow in Franklin, TN. The young, rather pretty young woman sitting on the bed, channel surfing and eating ice cream out of the carton is Miss Christina Nelson, aged in her mid-twenties. Right now she’s lamenting her single status and just wanting to unwind after a long day at a job in the city. But soon, she will run across a channel running a marathon of an old 1960s black and white TV show. Miss Nelson doesn’t know it yet, but she’s about to stumble right into…The Twilight Zone. I could probably talk forever and ever about the awesomeness…
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House, Agents and NaNoWriMo
I give you a quick glimpse of the front of my new place, and share recent writing news…what little of it there is right now 😛
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Changes and Challenges
Dear Readers, I’m so sorry that my busy schedule has consumed my life and only allows me time for quick tweets and occasional Vines. Those on social networks will already know exactly why. We bought a house! It’s beautiful and it even has a studio building in the back that we plan to use for storage and I’ll use it for a writing, artsy retreat once I get it inhabitable, but my life has now been consumed with all the logistical details of home ownership, leaving me very little mental energy for things oft thrown to the back burner (including fixing up the bugs on this site). I at least…
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Captive Vlogging (Finally!)
When Panger decides to take a nap on me, I finally get back into vlogging after a 3-month hiatus 😛
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VEDA 2013 – Day #29: Winning!
Finished my Camp NaNoWriMo novel a day early! W00t! Now I am tired.
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VEDA 2013 – Day #24: Pushing Past the Boredom
Why do I feel bored writing my NaNo novel?
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VEDA 2013 – Day #19: Worldbuilding & Ideas (Podcast)
Second and last in the series of old podcasts getting posted to Youtube for posterity!
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VEDA 2013 – Day #18: Can You Ever Stop Being a Writer? (Podcast)
Happy Amateur Radio Day! Finally posting the first of two podcasts I recorded in 2010, which I want to put on here for posterity since the podcast seriously fell out of use.
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VEDA 2013 – Day #14: Giving Myself a Pep Talk…Rant…Thing
*sings* Da da da-da-da Day four-teen! I’m actually not exhausted so I’m able to ramble for a while AND still carry the topic with gusto without too many pauses!
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VEDA 2013 – Day 7: Deliberation vs. Discovery
Planning your writing projects is always good, but writing is a process of discovery. Easy to forget ^_^
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VEDA 2013 – Day 5: Life, London and North Korea
Using my life experiences to help my writing along is something I really enjoy doing, even if it can get emotional. Also, was well-informed by Hank Green’s video on North Korea, and love all the Londoniness of Maureen Johnson’s “The Name of the Star.”
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VEDA 2013 – Day 4: Agents and Tiny Chocolate Bunnies
Playing with tiny chocolate bunnies is more fun than shopping my book around.
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VEDA 2013 – Day 3: Hurting My Characters
I run errands, get frustrated at “The Name of the Wind” (but that just means IT’S REALLY GOOD!!!), make goat noises, mishear lyrics, and talk about how hard it is for me to heap hardships upon my characters.
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VEDA 2013 – Day 2: In Which Much Writing Occurs
I love being ahead of the curve! We’re also reading a really mathy book. And the cat is adorable.
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Goodbye, Lizzie (and the Pioneering of Trans-Media Entertainment)
Yesterday marked the 100th and last episode of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. We are sad. In case you don’t know what this wonderful thing is, it’s an adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, modernized and told in the format of a video blog, with characters interacting on screen as well as over Twitter and Facebook and Tumbler, and they interact with their fans as well. And it is…was…AMAZING. The writing, the actors, the crew, everything was stupendous. And the melange of platforms drew you into the story even more than would be possible if you were experiencing it through only one medium. I’ve been sitting on this blog…
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Two Weekends of Awesome! (And Writing Advice from Maureen Johnson & Stephanie Perkins)
Since I don’t yet have a smart phone, which makes it really hard to live tweet, I need to play a lot of catch up with the cool things that have happened lately! And since I myself have a hard time reading long blogs, I’m going to try to make it short. If you don’t care and want to skip to the writing advice, there ya go. This past weekend I worked MomoCon! A yearly tradition now, but this year I got to do social media for the entire con, posting to Facebook and more often Twitter about all the cool events. This allowed me to go where regular con-goers…
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With a Little Help From Nostalgia
ast night, right before bed, I found myself in that cozy, soft realm between sleep and awake. During that time for me, walls tend to come down. Thankfully the lights were still on and my hubby was next to me playing a mindless game on my iPod, so I found myself talking about what was on my heart: my writing. It hasn’t been going to plan lately. Of course, man makes his plans in vain, but I’ve been trying to write, really I have. It always gets brushed off with the chores of the day. Plus, the revolving computer wallpaper of disapproving actors and writers telling me I should be…
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Hiding
I can’t stay in bed all day because I’m overwhelmed with life. Also finally trying to climb on the HD bandwagon.
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Agents, Writings, and Other Stuff
Wherein I discuss hearing back from the agent I talked to at the writing conference, I talk about how much I’ve written on Book 2, and some potpourri.
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Making Good
All right! After a few weeks to start getting a few of my health/house maintenance resolutions in order, this week I’m starting Phase 2 of the plan: adding in 4 hours of writing and 2 hours of freelance work a day on top of that. This entry is short to keep me on the move today, and once it is posted will serve to keep me accountable to myself. This means REALLY starting to think of everything I want to get done as a full-time job, even though I’m my own boss, and can be a very lax one at that. But this is exactly what I need, a schedule…
Sunlit Nook | Christina A. N. Wert
Artist, Author, Geek
