The Story Continues!

I just posted another hot-off-the-computer-screen installment of UnJust Cause for you over at WattPad:  http://www.wattpad.com/47941159-unjust-cause-a-dragon%27s-confession?d=ud

In this chapter, Valentine makes a startling confession...

Which is a giant tease, of course, so go find out what he says!

A Rainy Monday

Shawn, Mason and I had a nice weekend.  We spent a good part of Saturday morning estate sale/rummage shopping, which was a blast.  There were a couple of church basement rummage sales, including a really awesome book sale at St. Olivet's, which is this beautiful Congregational church close to the Merrim Park Library.  In fact, Mason and I were done early and we just sat an admired their gorgeous 'gymnasium.'  Shawn and I joked that we were tempted to join the church just for the building.

St. Olivet's was a stark contrast to the house we stopped at that was just down the road from Stepping Stone Theatre (behind the law school).  It was... straight out of a Stephen King novel, not only had it suffered HARDCORE neglect (on a squalor level), but, you know how most of the time you can feel the good strong bones of a house underneath all the grime and disrepair?  Yeah, no.  This house had been born with a mutated, malformed skeleton.  Because, even though people had 'remuddled' it over the years, there were pieces that were clearly original that were just... odd.  Like the second story... prayer alcove?  It looked like people had been using it last as a closet, but it had been built with a stained glass window and a little buildt-in kneeler.  The rooms were also all off at odd angles, which were perhaps originally meant to be 'charming' or even 'eccentric' but came off as cramped and wrong after time had worn the beauty away.

Mason, who has a very low threshold for bad vibes, walked in and instantly said, "Oh, no. Let's just go." Shawn and I pushed through with sheer curiosity and, much to Mason's chagrin, we both brought something home from that house.  (Shawn got a roll of rope and I found a leather wallet.)

That house was one of the ones that all the sale-rs had to stop and chat with strangers about (which, if you aren't from around here, you might not realize what a BIG DEAL that is in Minnesota.)  I would say something to Mason like, "My god, look at this, the original builders didn't even finish off these floor boards..." and the person passing by on the way up the stairs would feel compelled to stop, look, and then comment about some other odd feature they'd seen in the garage or elsewhere.  The estate sale workers kept trying to sort of reassure people by saying, "This house is old.  It was built in 1913."  To which, I replied, "Our house was built in 1911. It doesn't look like this.  Something more than time happened to this house."  To which, they had no other response than, "The workers are coming back on Monday."

The other thing that pissed off all the estate sale-rs that came through was that, possibly to fund the remodeling, the prices were jacked up.  There were things there that should have been marked ten bucks (generous) that were set at SEVENTY.

Mason shadowed me through the whole house saying, "This place is like a HOG (Hidden Object Game)."  Because on top of all the weird angles and decrepit-ness the estate sale workers had just piled all the goods in boxes and in tables in a way that just made it all seem that much more chaotic.  Even the back yard garden was a mess.

It was kind of amazing, really.  It was the sort of place that sticks in your head, and it may have to work its way into a novel, because it's too good to waste, you know?

Sunday we spent doing some housework, baking cookies (for real!  I made chocolate chip!) and playing some board games.  It was that kind of day because we woke up to a rain that beat down steadily all day long.

During some of my housework, I started a new anime series.  I'm now watching Witch Craft Works.  I'm not entirely sure I can recommend it.  It's weirdly compelling, though.  The story is about "an average high school boy" who, it turns out, has a witch guardian who considers him her "princess."  A lot of the humor in the story has to do with a shounen reversal. She gets all the power-ups, is popular and aloof, and he's just kind of a pretty/handsome load she constantly has to rescue.  Weirdly, that kind of works for me.  All the villains and side-characters are female, too, so it's very much a conscious 'see, this is what you look like!' in terms of reversing all the gender stuff.

I'm watching it on Crunchyroll, so it's a new anime, only just having aired this year in January in Japan.  There are 12 episodes, and I'm just about to start #4 with today's load of dishes.  I suspect that if this anime follows the flow of most 'new-ish' anime, the real action will start now that they've set up the characters and the situation.  I feel like it was right about episode 3 or 4 that Rei was introduced in Free! Iwatobi Swim Club and that's when things really started rolling.

At any rate, I'm enjoying that.

Today my plans are to get a good start on my new UnJust Cause installment.  I have to say that given time, the serial thing on WattPad is starting to work better for me.  I've decided that I'm not allowed to look at my statistics, which helps, and only concentrate on the comments.  I have one really faithful reader (who is not actually someone I know outside of this context), so I'm kind of writing this for her.  She leaves comments at the end of each chapter and is even starting to try to guess at the plot, WHICH I TOTALLY ADORE AND HAD BEEN HOPING FOR.  So, that's working.

More importantly, having the publishing deadline of once a week on a Tuesday afternoon, means I'm writing forward every week.  This is a very, very good thing.

Plus, even though I hate it, it seems like my social media blast about the updates are getting re-blogged (at least a friend saw it happen once), so that's kind of all I can hope for.

I really do think this is the sort of thing that might become a THING given enough time.  For now, I'm along for the ride... and it's keeping me writing on a project.

New MangaKast

Mason and I just don't know when to quit.  We've posted our SEVENTH MangaKast.  In this delightfully short podcast, we discuss how Kenpachi can defy the vacuum of space with his irritated impatience and whether or not heads floating on plates might be delicious....

Yeah, admit it, you're curious:

http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/seventh-heaven/

Werewolves and Autopsies

The newest chapter in my WIP/sequel to Precinct 13 is posted!  http://www.wattpad.com/46894855-unjust-cause-part-5-werewolves-and-autopsies

In this installment, more and more evidence seems to point to Valentine's involvement in the death of the homeless woman found at the base of the clock tower.  

Pumped from Using the Prompt

I came back from my "First Pages" Loft gig at Chanhassen Library today feeling really hyped.  I had a blast playing with some of the story idea generators with the participants.  We found a couple of really entertaining sites that I'm going to share with you...

The first is really best if used completely randomly (press 'fill in) and see what happens.  We got a completely zany storyline that included robots poking each other at a funeral. (Exactly, right?  I mean, that image is going to stick in my head... possibly until I figure out how to write it.)  http://www.plot-generator.org.uk

The other one was slightly more useful.  This site offers a number of tailored options, including the one I ended up using with was 'how I got my superpowers.'  http://www.springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_randomators/plotgens.htm

The prompt I got in response to 'how I got my super powers' was: FROM THE FAIRY.  I couldn't resist that one and ended up writing this little snippet...

They told me if I wanted to get superpowers, I had to buy them from the fairy.  The problem was you never knew what it’d cost you.  Fairies are fickle, you know.  Sometimes they just want something mundane.  I heard of a guy who got the power of invulnerability and all it cost him was a slice of Munster cheese.  Other times, they wanted too much, stuff no sane person would part with.  Sure, you’re immortal, but your body is gone, and you’re just stuffed teddy bear without even the ability to move or speak.

I don't know if I'll do anything more with it, but it's a fun start, don't you think?

Anyway, I have no idea if the participants (I hesitate to use the term students in this situation) got as much enjoyment out of the program as I did, but I hope so.  One of the challenges of the 'First Pages' program is that it's meant to be flexible.  That's a good thing, because it can mean that the "class" is tailored to individual needs, but it can also mean the instructor (me) does a lot of flailing around from subject to subject hoping to hit on something that works.  I felt very flail-ly, but I sincerely hope that since I had fun it means they did too.

We nominally have a subject to discuss, but this one was "Read to Write" and so the 'discussion' was meant to be structured around what books can teach us about writing.  Since, as far as I can tell, the answer is: everything, we talked about that for a while, but... well, that wasn't much of a sustaining sort of subject, you know?  Maybe if I'd had a blackboard we could have listed books that influenced our writing.  Perhaps, since I'll be doing this again in Roseville next month, I can start with that next time.

But, so after we'd exhausted that subject, I opened the floor up to questions.  What do you struggle with with your writing?  And, somehow from there, we got to plot generators, and silliness ensued.

Ultimately, as I said, I had a good time, if nothing else.  And, well, I guess, worst case scenario, they got what they paid for (it's free.)

MangaKast, the Sixth

For those of you curious about my fannish side, you can feel free to listen in to the podcast that my son Mason and I record every Wednesday.  Wednesday is the day that the scantilations (fan scan translations) for a lot of our manga appear, so we get up at stupid o'clock and turn on the mic.  I can't say we're terribly articulate, given the time, but I still think we have a lot of fun.

We're up at:  http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/podcast-the-sixth/ (remember the little "go" arrow is kind of hard to spot, but it's right there at the very top of the page.)

New Installment of UnJust Cause Up!

I might have been writing up to the very last minute, but that just means this newest installment of UnJust Cause is HOT off the press!

You can read it here: UnJust Cause Part 4: Mochas and Motorcycles

In this installment, Alex discovers that demons have a weakness for mochas.  Also, it seems that the sexy redhead werewolf biker, Mac, is stalking her!

Writing Process Blog Tour

Is today!

So, here goes.

Step one: Acknowledge the person & site that involved you in the blog: conradzero.com/2014-writing-process-blog-tour

Step two: Answer the 4 questions below about your writing process:

----

What am I working on?

Just before I remembered I was supposed to do this today, I was working on the next installment for Precinct 13's sequel, UnJust Cause.  

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My agent used to say that I was "weird, but compelling."  I suspect that's a fairly accurate description of my writing.  I tend towards quirky characters.  For instance, in the scene I was just working on, my Muse suddenly decided that the demon Internal Affairs agent, Furfur, really, REALLY likes coffee and he's currently slobbering all over a mocha in a disturbingly semi-sexual way.

Why do I write what I do?

I tend to find Real Life (tm) kind of boring. I'd much prefer it if the world was populated by magic-sword wielding shinigami and/or dragon shifters.  I can't actually imagine how tedious it would be to write an entire novel about a dysfunctional family.  But, add a touch of magic, and I'm totally there.

How does your writing process work?

In the case of UnJust Cause I have a narrative outline that I developed as a proposal for this novel, which I refer to when I get stuck or can't remember what plot point I'm supposed to be hitting.  Otherwise, I just start and see where things take me.  I'm an odd combination of a pants-er and an outliner.

This novel is also different in that I've set myself a very simple goal of having at least 2,000 words ready to publish once a week.  So, I'm trying to structure these so that each little individual section has a bit of a story arc... or at least ends on a kind of cliffhanger that will make readers want to tune into the next week's installment.  That's a little different than my usual writing process, which shoots to do that kind of arc in an entire chapter.

Otherwise, I spend a lot of time writing a bit and then wishing the Internet would either be more or less entertaining than it is.

----

Step Three: Pick who is on next week (your own chosen three) – give a little bio and link to their website.

Whelp, the people I asked never got back to me, so I'm afraid I'm a dead-end in the blog roll.

Five is Live

Mason and I recorded our fifth MangaKast, which, if you a) have interest in Bleach, Attack on Titan/SnK, or Toriko, or b) just want to hear what we sound like at 5:45 am (before my first real cup of coffee, too!) you should totally check it out.

MangaKast can be found here: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/five-is-live/

This is another project I could consider a failed experiment, but, in this case, I really don't.  Mason and I have limited expectations for it, for one.  We probably have three faithful listeners (which is probably actually one, since I play the edited version for Mason when he gets home from school.)  But, this is a totally different thing we're doing.  It's entirely for ourselves and we know it.  I get to bond with my son about something we both enjoy, and he gets to be a host of a podcast... how cool is that?  (When you're ten?  Pretty darn cool.)

Plus, at least one day a week, we're up and ready for school ON TIME.  (Even mom appreciates that!)

Newest Installment is Up on WattPad

As I discussed yesterday, I'm keeping on with this project, and, thus, I bring you the third installment of UnJust Cause:  http://www.wattpad.com/44898135-unjust-cause-part-3-the-body-and-the-suspects

A body is discovered at the base of the clock tower.  But did they jump or were they... dropped?  It's up to Alex to determine if there's something more sinister going on, and her  investigation is hampered by the presence of the two Internal Affairs agents....

I don't know if WattPad has a space for these kinds of summaries, but, if they did, that's what I'd write to describe this bit.

Thanks again to everyone who commented yesterday.  It's surprisingly difficult, as I'm sure you all know, to pick your feet up and start again.  Knowing there are people out there rooting for me makes all the difference.  So, thank YOU.

Coming Soon...

In the "Things Coming Soon" department, this a head's up that I've agreed to take part in a blog tour about the writing process.  Next Monday I'll be posting my blog, but if you're curious about what's gone before, you can check out the guy who tagged me, Conrad Zero, here: http://www.conradzero.com/2014-writing-process-blog-tour/

Also, I'm spending today writing and polishing my next installment of the Precinct 13 sequel for WattPad.  If you're confused about what I'm doing over there, the short of it is that I've really struggled with motivation to write ever since I was dropped by my publisher.  The idea of posting this is a work-in-progress on WattPad is to keep the momentum going.  I am really hoping to develop a following and a community there, so I can be encouraged to keep on keeping on.

I can't really say it's working so far.  It's possible that I've been silent too long.  My readers may have given up on me, which is totally fair.  I really dropped out of the scene pretty hard.

I probably should have considered doing this sort of self-publishing thing immediately, but, the truth is I held out hope that one of my other projects would sell quickly.  Obviously, that didn't happen, and when it didn't, I was very thrown for a loop.  I still have projects that I'm hoping my agent will be able to sell, but I probably wasted a lot of valuable time scrambling around trying to fight a system that changed on me, seemingly overnight.

For instance, she and I were still trying to sell books on proposal, which, apparently, despite how many books you've had published, you really can't do any more.  You need to have a finished project, ideally, but, if not that, then a lot of finished product to show off.  I didn't have that, and so when there was interest, I had to scramble and write... which I'm not as good at. I did my very best, but I'm much better at having a chance to have a lot of revision and time to feel my way into a character and the plot.  So, no surprise, those 'samples' fell flat for a lot of publishers....

...which, of course, only continued to depress me.

So, the whole idea behind publicly posting my work on WattPad was to up my confidence.  But, alas, I've lost half my readers between my first post and my second.  So... that kind of sucks.  I'm not sure what to make of it.  It wasn't like I had an overwhelming response for my first post, either.

However, I'm still trying to use the publication schedule I've set for myself as a motivator.  At least if I write a 2,000+ word installment a week, that's forward progress. Considering that previously I was writing zero words a week, that's a very good thing.  So, I'm not ready to write off this experience just yet.  Not by a long shot.

For those who are wondering, yes, the end result should be a self-published e-book.  Provided, of course, I stick with this.

Go Forth Fourth

Mason and I recorded our fourth MangaKast for your enjoyment.  If you have any interest in the latest Bleach or Toriko chapters, tune in!  We also discuss Blue Exorcist (aka Ao no Exorcist) and One Piece.

http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/go-forth-fourth/

Newest Installment is Live!

Though I'd been planning on publishing a new installment of the Precinct 13 sequel every TUESDAY, tomorrow I have plans that are going to take me away from the computer, so I thought I should post today.

Here's the link: http://www.wattpad.com/43901166-unjust-cause-part-2-a-demon-named-furfur

Remember, it's free to read and I'd love comments and kudos to keep me going!  Hope you enjoy it.

Video... Evidence

The reading from the other night is live and on-line.




It's long. I read the entire story of "God Box," as well as part of the WIP that I'm posting on WattPad. But, if you make it to very end, you'll be rewarded with my squee about Attack on Titan and Free! anime and my secret name on AO3.

Well.. THAT was a Surprising Success....

'll tell you no lies.

I was scared to death that last nights' reading at Dreamhaven was going to be a bust.  Even, so I was determined to make the best of it.  I brought along several copies of King David & the Spiders of Mars and planned to read "God Box," my science fictional Biblical horror retelling of the"golden hemorrhoids" story from Judges. I even took my laptop along in case there was more than me and Eric (the coordinator) and I had extra time to read from my WIPs.  I got all dressed up.  I wore tie.  I left early (early enough to stop for coffee, even.) 

Pre-show jitters (with cat):




And I kind of held my breath, expecting... crickets.

But... lo and behold, people came. 

Lots of people came.

There was hardly an empty seat in the house and someone brought a very professional video camera (on a tripod and everything), so there may be a YouTube video of the reading at some point.  I gave the guy my card, so when/if it goes up, I asked him to let me know.  I'll be sure to link to it here (and anywhere else you're likely to go looking for me.)  But, of course, he was one of the first people to arrive, when all the seats were still empty, and we joked that he should splice in the ComicCon crowd where everyone is shouting, "Loki, Loki" and try to make it sound like "Lyda, Lyda" and I even raised my hands and said, "SAY MY NAME!" 

I doubt he'll really do that, but it was fun to imagine, especially since I was still terrified I'd be filmed reading to an empty room.

But, so the reading went REALLY well.  As you know Bob, I'm a bit of an extrovert, so the more people, the higher my energy level. 

Did I mention that I'd also stopped for coffee?

Yeah, it could be... "interesting," this film, but, honestly?  I had a BLAST.  I even read from Tate's WIP, the sequel to Precinct 13 (and mostly didn't blush or mumble over the especially dirty bits), and and let people know that they could read a bit more (and the updates as I post them) on WattPad. 

So... yeah... a surprising success.

Plus afterwards there's a tradition at the Speculations readings of going out for pizza after, and I can't even remember the last time I has as much fun as I did last night.  A bunch of us were still there as they were turning off lights around us and we even stood around in the cold wind continuing to talk until almost 11:00 pm.  ON A SCHOOL NIGHT! 

I have to thank everyone who showed, because I... I *really* thought this was going to suck so much.  So if you were there last night and reading this: THANK YOU.  Big time.  And, if you missed, well, fingers crossed the video will go up soon, and you can see what I'm liked hopped up on crowd and caffeine.

Your Wednesday MangaKast

If you want to hear what my son and I sound like first thing in the morning, here we are again bringing you the latest, breaking news in Bleach and Toriko:  http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/a-cookie-for-kenpachi-or-our-third-podcast/

An Experiment

I've decided to just jump into this kind of crazy, new world of self-publishing/social media, and so I'm writing the sequel to PRECINCT 13 in serial fashion on a site called WattPad, which allows for quite a bit of interaction between the reader and the writer--kind of like an original fiction version of archive of our own.

So, if you'd like to read the sequel AS I WRITE IT, check out the first installment here: http://www.wattpad.com/43223189-unjust-cause-part-1?d=ud

PLEASE let me know what you think of it!  I'll let you know here when new stuff goes up there, but the plan is to try to post once a week.

More Nerdiness from Mason and Me...

If you want to listen in, Mason and I recorded our second MangaKast.  Just like last time, the podcast is actually playable on the WordPress site--you just have to press the little, almost invisible forward arrow icon there at the top of the page.

The podcast is a bit... well, I ultimately left a lot of it unedited, because we just sort of ramble around subjects and I found it kind of adorkable.  Of course, if you're not following Bleach or Toriko, it will probably make a whole lot of NO SENSE.  I'd suggest catching up on Bleach, but there's, well, 573 chapters and counting...

Meanwhile, if you want to read something by me that's just kind of fluffy fun, I wrote some fan fic for  an Anime called Free! (aka "the gay swimming anime") which I'm considering turning into a regular story.  The original fic is called "The Merman Who Hated the Sea" and it's here:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/1328380

New (Goofy, Fannish) Podcast...

My son and I are huge manga nerds.  Every Wednesday is like a holiday at our house.  We get up early and rush to the iPads and read the latest iterations of Bleach [for both of us] and Toriko [for him.]  I also just read a lot of manga.  I'm pretty sure I've talked here about my love of Bakuman and others.

At any rate, we've started a very on-the-fly, first-thing-in-the-morning, first reactions kind of podcast, where we get up, read the manga, and... well, basically freak out for a while and then talk about it.

If you want to listen to my unbridled enthusiasm (and my adorable 10 year old son), you can check it out here:

http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/first-ever-mangakast/

Wyrdsmith and a Con Report...

First, go check out the wonderful interview with my fellow Wyrdsmiths, Adam Stemple, over at our blog:  http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com/2014/03/q-adam-stemple.html

Also, I wrote up my Saturday and Sunday con report for MarsCON over on my LJ--

Saturday: http://lyda222.livejournal.com/330315.html

Sunday:  http://lyda222.livejournal.com/330924.html

In a nutshell, good times were had by all otaku, I asked Dr. Demento for directions to registration, and postalized for Moon-Moon and the Free! anime.