End of Camp NaNo July 2017

Originally published July 26th on Patreon. 

Today I decided to just finish up my novel. I didn’t have enough story to bring it to the full 40k, so I rounded off a chapter and added an epilogue and the final wordcount is 37,467. Which is not bad! The story is finished, and now I can rest until August 1st.Next month I’m going to jump into editing. I’ve made a goal to edit 1 chapter a day, and spend at least 1 hour on the chapter.  I hope to have a polished 2nd draft by September 1st.

Also in August I’m going start a new novel. I want to write 30k on it. That’s 1,000 words a day, which isn’t too bad. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself considering I’ll be editing this month as well.

Come September I’ll be looking for places to publish TPP.  More info on that later. All in all, I’m content with where I am.

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Promoting Creativity – July 2017

This month I had the pleasure to do an interview with an author I worked with through Patchwork Press,  Patricia Thomas. Be sure to check out the links at the bottom of the interview!

1) Tell us a little bit about what you do.

Hmm, what I do. I write books! And take naps! So many naps. I’m currently the author of two novels, though I’m hoping to double that by the end of the year. When I’m not writing, I’m busy worrying that my writing is horrible, binging Netflix (currently obsessed with Dear White People and iZombie) and learning how to cook new recipes.

2) When and why did you start writing?

I started writing because it was getting to the point where I had too many ideas for stories and needed to start getting them out of me to make room for more.

3) Tell us about a project that you are currently working on that has you really excited.

I’m currently reworking a series I initially published earlier this year, planning to relaunch in September after cleaning it up a bit and getting some AMAZING new covers done (that I am really excited about). It’s a series about what happens to book characters after their stories are over, once they enter an after life and get to start making decisions for themselves instead of someone else writing their story. It’s such a fun world to play around in.

4) What are some of your goals for the future?

I’d love to keep growing and expanding

5) How can we support you?

Keep an eye out for future books! I can’t wait to share them with all of you.

You can follow Patricia Thomas on Twitter and on her Blog.

A Baking Post

Here is a post on what I’ve been baking these days with my sourdough.

First on Tuesday I made a loaf of Cinnamon Raisin bread.

I ended up putting on too many raisins, oops. 😀

But the loaf turned out beautiful!

Next today I made just a regular loaf of bread, I made grilled cheese sandwiches with it. And even made homemade tomato soup!  Here is what my starter looks like after I feed it.

The dough was really easy to work with.

And there is the final product. I baked it in my cast-iron pan, which is why the loaf is round.

All in all I am really loving making my own bread. It doesn’t take all day, and it tastes so good. Plus buying the flour is far cheaper than buying a loaf of sourdough bread.

Oryx and Crake – By Margaret Atwood

Goodreads Synopsis: Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.

Find on Goodreads and Amazon.

Oryx and Crake is a truly strange book. I’d read The Handmaiden’s Tale some years back and saw that this book is by the same author, and so decided to read it.

This book starts out sort of slow, it follows Snowman in the post apocalyptic version of our world.  Snowman is depressed, starving, and apparently the prophet for a small tribe of people.  The beginning of Oryx and Crake is slow. It flashes between present time and Snowmen’s memories of his childhood. And while this isn’t boring, it does feel like nothing is happening for awhile.

The book does eventually pick up. Snowman has to go out into the dystopian world to try and find more food for himself, he almost gets killed by pig-like creatures. In between this the flashbacks continue, showing Snowman when he was going to college, his friendship with the genius Crake, falling in love (or rather obsession) with Oryx.

Make no mistake this book is depressing as hell. Crake has some real problems, and he takes them out on the world and Oryx.  Snowman himself is also messed up, and yet somehow he ends up making it through the apocalypse. And most people are dead by the end of the book.

I never found myself caring for any of the characters, sure I felt pity for them, but I never wanted to cheer anyone on. Possibly Oryx the most, but she didn’t have as much of a part in the book as she could have.  In the end I gave this book 3 stars.

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath –

Goodreads Synopsis: A major literary event–the complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath, published in their entirety for the first time.

Sylvia Plath’s journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath’s husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet’s personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons. The complete Journals of Sylvia Plath is essential reading for all who have been moved and fascinated by Plath’s life and work.

Find on Goodreads and Amazon.

“I love people too much or not at all.”

Wow, this was quite a book to get through.

At 732 pages, the Journals of Syliva Plath take you into the mind of a genius, a woman, and a poet. I was so moved to be able to read her journals, though at times it did feel a little strange to reading something so personal.

So many people have different opinions on Sylvia Plath, some people think she’s brilliant, other’s immature, etc etc.  Me, I just found myself reading about the life of a woman struggling to find her place in the world. To me, it was really hopeful, reading her diaries. Reading the honesty, the depression, the ups and downs that come with trying to be a published writer. The honesty about her marriage, the ups and downs that come with that.  The journals made Plath a real person to me.  She’s not just the best woman poet of the century, she’s not some mythical creature.  She was a woman who loved to write, who loved people, who loved places. She was real.

There’s so much controversy around Plath’s death, and I doubt anything I say could add to this discussion.  So I feel it’s best that I don’t say much, only that in becoming real to me, her death also became real.  Reading her journals made me feel more for her.

The Journals of Sylvia Plath were very inspiring to me.  The encouraged me not to give up on my writing. They encouraged me in my own relationship with a fellow writer. Life gets hard sometimes, of this Plath never hides from, and neither should I.

I gave this book 4.5 stars on Goodreads.

A Mad Woman’s Voice – Updates

This is just a quick reminder post talking about the blog tour.  There is still plenty of time to sign up for it. You can find the link here. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfO7LnWNCvpKtGSgRPIOhCjxaVPX2XUkSHtyiCPqkXGN3aBA/viewform?usp=sf_link

I will send out emails on the 30th to confirm with people who want to join.  Again the blog tour will start on the release date of A Mad Woman’s Voice, August 10th and then go for a week.  We can talk via email about if you’d like to just do a spotlight of the book, or if you want to do a Q&A with me. You will be getting a free copy of the book if you sign up, and you could also do a review of it if you’d like.  I’m up for anything really, I’d just like to get the collection out there a bit.

Here’s a link to the Goodreads page for my book.

Thanks for reading and thanks to the people who’ve signed up already!

Edit: My friend Sarah and I have thrown around the idea of doing a huge blog tour for poetry collections. I’ve posted about this before, and now that I have a new collection coming out I thought this would be a good time to bring it up again.  If you have a poetry collection that you want some promotion for, sign up for my blog tour and when I send emails out we can talk about adding your collection as well!