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September 2021 Fly-By Status Report – The State of the Art
Ahoy there! Just swinging by to update you on what’s been going on since my last report. View this post on Instagram A post shared by PuellaDocta's Minlandia (@myminlandia) The Etsy shop sales went slowly this summer, even as I was investigating other selling avenues that haven’t panned out yet, so I decided to take a break until Dragon Con got closer. I’ll come back to Dragon Con a little bit later in the post, but if you haven’t followed Sunlit Nook on Instagram or Facebook you totally should! I’m taking a break from MomoCon this year. Because of COVID Delta shenaniganery they decided to postpone til winter, and I…
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January/February 2021 Fly-By Status Report – 2021 Vision
Well, looks like I totally blew past my Fall/Winter 2020 Status Report. I think because nothing really changed in the goal department for 6 months! What even did I want to do *consults last post*…OH YEAH apparently I got rid of my agenda thing cuz it was boring. Good idea. So here’s what I’ve been up to, and what I hope to achieve! The Etsy shop is doing pretty well! Still not making a ton, but I am making a little money from it, and I’m having fun, so that’s all that matters! I’ve been doodling more with my Wacom tablet, and I designed the shrinky dink Japanese heart jewelry…
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January-March 2020 Fly-By Status Report – Creating in a Time of Coronavirus
Hello everyone! I’m sitting on my couch, where I do most of my work & editing, and I’m here with my cats and Wervyn, and despite the coronavirus spreading outside, with this social distancing we’re in introvert heaven! But I was having a lot of anxiety for the last couple of weeks; in addition to not knowing if I was going to have enough groceries, my church office coworkers and I were scrambling to get everything together for live-streaming Sunday services, which was mad hectic. But I’m taking off work till April 1, and we have enough food, so I’m feeling a lot better already! And with the open schedule,…
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Post-Hiatus! Draft 6 Edit Process in review
Well, that was a lovely hiatus, but I figured I’d come back 😉 It’s been four months, after all! It was such a beautiful morning when I started writing this post, I had to wander into my yard and take some photos of daffodils glowing in the early, rising sun. It so beautifully represented a fresh start to an exciting new year, hence the flower picture for this post’s header. A lot has happened during my hiatus, even in the past few days (some good, some frustrating) but I’m happy to report that despite various time sucks and fluctuating motivation, my writing hiatus was very successful! Regardless of what I…
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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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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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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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September/October 2019 Fly-By Status Report – My First Tattoo Experience! (I’m a Grown-Up Hobbit, Part 2)
Who doesn’t love a good Renaissance fair?*
January 2022 Fly-By Status Report – So we’re still in a pandemic, okay…I kinda wish it would snow…I need a cup of tea before I can start editing…
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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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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 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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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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Editing! See? I’m productive!
Hubs and I sitting down to do some intensive editing. Continuity is still a problem 😛
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VICTORY!!!!!!!!!! (and Sweet Readin’ Cakes)
Angry zombie mongooses and I FINISH DRAFT 4 OF MY NOVEL!!!! YAAAAAAY!!!!!! Hoooraaaaaaaay!!!!!! Draft 4 is done and sent out to the first batch of reviewers! Once I get it back from them, it’s hopefully just moderate editing, and then off to a publisher! Man, this calls for a celebration! How ’bout some bookish cake, huh? All these (and more) from CakeWrecks.
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Author Unplugged: The December Discussion
Two podcast updates at once! Mercy me! They’re actually whittled down halves of one long conversation I had with Wervyn about writing, recorded Dec. 2010. It was tough deciding to split the whole thing up, and it was hard cutting the halves down to a crisp 5 minutes or less (audioboo specifications), but I did it! I even created an intro and an outro! *is pleased*
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Exciting Updates!!!
I know I try to post only writing related news on here, but this is kind of a big deal! It’s a huge life changer! Gentle audience, I had no idea that a few hours after my last blog entry, I would be getting engaged!!! And to think, last year I was writing haikus about my only date for Valentine’s Day being a box of chocolate! You never know what a year can bring! The lad in question is Wervyn, who is the coding man for this site! He’s a wonderful, brilliant man and a fantastic writer, and he’s been helping me a lot with the final draft of my…
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CONTAINS ACTUAL WRITING!!!!
I disclose 4 things I like to have about my person while writing and then you get to see me in action. Lucky you
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A Good Nightmare Always Begins in a Dark Cellar with a Coffin
Zzzzzzzz…. The pirate video ate up so much time that I’m finally getting back to editing Draft 3! I just felt like writing a real entry, since all I’ve done the last two weeks was tweet, make promises, break them, and eventually upload a pirate movie 😉 I have plans for other entries, but this one is getting back to the basics, where I actually write about writing. It’s been hard the last few weeks to get writing in, between visiting friends and work, so tonight I’ve started to be a bit smarter with my time. In addition to editing, I’m taking notes. Why? I live in mortal dread of…
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Writing Dialogue Tips
Had this convo with a writer friend Ben, who I’ve collaborated with on blogs before, and figured I’d post up what I told him, for anyone else who’s curious about dialogue. PS: I’m planning a new vlog for posting on the 19th! Ben: How do you handle dialogue? Me: I write it as it comes out of my head, depending on what I believe a character would say, and then read it aloud later. Often I don’t read it aloud til [someone] reminds me, but it REALLY helps you figure out how it flows [to read it aloud]. Ben: I bet. That’s a good idea. I cringe at all my…
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Getting Stuck and Unsticking Tactics
That’s probably my biggest writing hurdle right now, so close to the end of editing and modifying Draft 2 (squee!). I always get stuck somewhere in the plot, big or small hurdles. Either the character or the story or something isn’t going the way I want it to go to get x result, and for whatever reason my exhausted little bean of a noggin can’t process it correctly. It’s not exactly writer’s block, since I know what I’m trying to accomplish in the big picture, but the little picture details are getting too precise and I need to put them into some kind of logical order for the big things…
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The Far Side of the World
I knew I would collect some exciting writing fodder on my far-off trip to South Africa (yes! That’s where I went!), and I did! Not only did I get a taste of a different country and different culture, but I had a surfing lesson, did other daring things like jump 14 feet into a pool below, ride in the open back of a pickup truck, and went on a safari drive where I saw many animals I had only seen in zoos, like giraffes and tigers, as well as a gentle, kingly white lion (we dubbed “Aslan”) and four 22-day-old lion cubs! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it…
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Goings and Goals
In a few days I’m going off on a trip to attend a family vacation/wedding, so I shall be taking a three-week hiatus from blogging. I will likely give a bit of perspective on my trip upon my return, as I foresee reaping some wonderful writing ideas. While I’m gone for my extended time, I plan to do as much editing and writing as I can. As I won’t be attached at the hip to my laptop, I plan to print the offending pages out, so when I am away from the computer I can have something to work on. I’m about halfway+ through the manuscript now as it stands, until…
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A Little Bit of Everything
Oh man, I’ve been meaning to post this entry last month! I’ve been thinking about/doing a lot of things lately, so I hope you’ll forgive the discombobulatedness of this entry! Blogging really is my favorite way to keep the writing alive when I’m not actually “writing,” but doing more “editing.” It makes me feel more productive when I have something published on my blog, or when I’m making plans for it ^_^ My story has been keeping me busy, but lately I’ve been doing much more job hunting, so I’ve made less time for it than I’d like. Speaking of blogging, one of my writer friends, Morgan Riley, mentioned to…
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The Writing on the Wall
It’s the third week of the New Year, and I’ve already got a new plotting strategy. My brain felt fried after spending so long writing the first draft, and I was worried that I’d have to really push myself to write and edit. But after a chat with a fellow writer friend, I had a huge a-ha moment when she suggested a method that would really help me visualize the rapidly expanding plot of my novel. Sticky notes. Okay, I know I’ve been tracking this all over my Facebook page, but this is the first time I’ve tried this approach and, frankly, it’s very empowering! Plus, I really get to…
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*Paces*
I have all the strict ideas down on paper: the ones that have refused to leave my head while I wrote the other one. The rest won’t come, I don’t think, until I start writing in November. How terribly frustrating. Sometimes you need to just write, the act of writing will somehow work everything out in the end. That alone can often do me more good than a planning session: things will fall out of the sky that I never suspected just because I am writing. Alas, I must bide my time til Nov. 1. Well, at least I won’t have time to mope about Halloween ending! {Edited 10/23/09} I…
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I meant REALLY listen!
I had a really great phone convo with one of my dear writer friends last night. We hadn’t chatted in a while, and it felt good to catch up. We know each others’ writing weaknesses, and she helps me so much (I can only hope it’s mutual!). We talked about life and stories, and she encouraged me to keep growing as a writer, which will lead to some necessary tweaking in my narrative. I caught a glimmer of golden truth today when I had a chance to scribble some thoughts down. It was a truth that I knew well, but it still hadn’t sunk in. I was continuing with an…
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Distance
People have always told me that distancing yourself from your work now and then is the best thing a creator can do. When you take a step back, you have the freedom to move outside of your work and look at it afresh with a more discerning eye when you return to it. I tend to forget this, especially when I’ve set a writing deadline for myself to finish Draft 2 ASAP by the autumn. But the good thing about being so busy with life is that I’ve gotten some distance from my story, so when I went back to try editing last night, it was so much clearer and…
Artist, Author, Geek
