I'd rather be in my own little world....

I've been accused of spending more time in one of my own little worlds than the real one.  It's probably true, but not just of being in the worlds of my own creation, I get lost in those of countless other authors and artists as well.  It's an escape from the ugly reality we see on the news, or may even encounter first-hand, every day.

Photo by Alishba Farooqui at Stockvault.net

I can escape into a piece of art, such as the photo above, as easily as a book.  Now that I think about it, various pieces have been inspiration for several of my stories.  Now this, I just saw today, but it could be the flower fields in the valley of Naharran on Isiterra, though there would have to be five moons in the sky.  Really, it's more of a scene out of The Land of All But Forgotten Things.  See the glow of the fairies, waking up in the flowers?  Places like this are what I've dreamed of seeing for as long as I can remember.  Since I can't draw them, I write about them.

The Shadow Watcher is different from from my earlier novel attempts, the landscape looks like your typical Southern California neighborhood.  (If you've seen Roswell, you've seen Novica.)  It's my first novel set in the "real world," and I was intentionally setting out to write something different.  It resulted in my first published novel as well - who knew?

As much as I'm enjoying the endless possibilities here on Earth, I want to hurry up and be done with A Shadow in Doubt already!  Isiterra is calling to me - that world is truly my own, and I've been away too long....

I hope you're having a beautiful day in your corner of the world - or can at least escape to one you prefer!
Roari

The Weight of Time

The Weight of Time

The weight of Time 
presses against my shoulder,
urging me forward, 
on, and on,
toward what end,
I could never imagine,
I only know Time will not wait.


I started that as a post on a poetry blog last May.  I may or may not finish it.  Maybe it is finished.  I don't think so though...   

I was feeling this pressure of time slipping away, like I was missing out on my kid's childhoods, always saying "maybe next year," knowing there are only precious few of those years before they are grown and living their own lives.  (And that I would never finish writing a book.)  We were fortunate at that time to be in a position where I could leave my job to stay home, so I did.  

There is still the pressure of time.  Getting to school.  Getting homework done.  Filling in the holes the dog digs. Editing the sequel to The Shadow Watcher.  It's a different kind of weight, one I don't mind carrying.  Speaking of editing, I'm going to get back to it now...

Enough rambling for one night.  I hope yours is beautiful!

Roari  

Side Notes Turned Stories

Here I am blogging again, when I should be editing the sequel to The Shadow Watcher - which I keep calling The Shadow Society, but I already know that's not what the title is.  It doesn't work, at least not yet.  I'll worry about that later.

What's really distracting me?  When I started The Shadow Watcher, I had no clue what I was getting myself into.  The idea was to get away from complicated histories and such - I've got enough of that going on in the Isiterra universe.  I needed a break!  What started with two people meeting in an alley, having a strange conversation, evolved into a complex cast of characters with widely varied goals and motivations.

Those two people are still the core of the story, but I found the need to explore some of the other characters more, because their goals and motivations are equally important.  I've already written some short pieces I'm calling "Fore Shadows" - stories from Future Sam's perspective and from Michael's.  I'm saving the first one for after the second book, possibly will include it at the end.  Probably.

Kristoff wasn't supposed to become a main character, but he's becoming one of my favorites.  He was going to die in the attack, but I couldn't let him.  But, there's another book, so no one's safe!  I spent a couple days working out his back-story a month or so ago, which made me like him even more.

And, yesterday, I started on Tollack Pennington's story.  I knew it vaguely, but when I got into the exact reasons behind his resentment of Daniel Marquet, his best friend's son, things got interesting.  I spent too much time goofing around on the internet, but I did nail down some dates and locations that were still floating somewhere in the general fog of back-story.  I also got a much clearer picture of Samuel's life from 1513 on.

Those will be the future installments of "Fore Shadows."  I was going to include them in the sequel to "The Shadow Watcher", but I think they slow down the plot.  They'll make for interesting reading, but won't be central to Sam and Michael's story.

Well, that's what I've been up to, but now it's pool time.  More writing after the sun goes down!

I hope you're having a beautiful day!
Roari

The Wrong Characters Are In My Head!

All day, while procrastinating with blog and Facebook posts, I've been trying to work on "The Shadow Society" - but I can't get in Sam's head today.  The most progress I've made is deciding The Shadow Society won't be the title.  Those words may be involved, but not in that order.  I don't know....

Instead of editing, I've been thinking about "The Land of All But Forgotten Things,"  I wrote lyrics to an imaginary song in my head, and then there's another character - Kaylie/Tah - who woke up today for some reason.  She's been out for well over a year, and then all of a sudden, here she is babbling away about her past lives, and their relevance to the story.

Charlotte Fairgrey has been bugging me as well.  And then there's Aria, and the whole world there on Isisterra.  It's past time to go back there.

There's a lot on my plate, but the sequel to The Shadow Watcher is what's coming next!

I hope you're having a beautiful day!
Roari

"The Land of All But Forgotten Things" is not forgotten! And other ramblings....

With Mother's Day approaching, my Kindle book of poetry, "In My Mother's Garden" is available for free today and tomorrow.

It includes the first portion of "The Land of All But Forgotten Things," which is an epic poem, or it will be when it is finished.

To be honest, when I started writing TLOABFT, I was bored.  The first four lines wandered into my head, and were hanging out there for a day or two, and then, one night, after the kids were tucked in, I decided to write start writing an epic poem in rhyming couplets.  For fun.  (Go ahead, call me crazy - I take it as a compliment.)  How the unicorn happened, I don't know.  Maybe we were watching The Last Unicorn? I don't remember, it was a long time ago.

The problem is, I keep getting stuck.  But today, I was thinking about it again, and I think I've been going about it all wrong.  I'm trying to write each couplet consecutively, or is it chronologically?  I need to focus less on the line by line, and just write lines, then put the pieces of the puzzle back together.  That's how most of my poems come to me, in pieces I fit together, so why should this one be any different?  I feel like a weight has been lifted!

So there's a big note now taped on my desk.  EIGHT LINES A DAY.  That's not much at all.  EIGHT LINES A DAY.  Doesn't matter where they go in the story, so long as they rhyme.  They can even be four couplets in four different sections.  EIGHT LINES A DAY.  If I can hold to that Monday through Friday, forty lines a week, well that would be more progress in one week than I've had in two years on this one.  I will let you know how it goes!

As far as what it will be when it is finished ... I love the idea of having it illustrated as a children's book, but that is beyond my personal capabilities.  Then, last year at the kid's book fair, I found "Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai.  Totally different subject matter, but it is told all in poetry.  It is a beautiful telling of a sometimes painful and difficult journey, but at the same time a celebration of life.  You should read it.

It also inspired me into thinking a chapter format is more suitable for TLOABFT.  If that's the case, I suppose the excerpt from "In My Mother's Garden" is chapter one, the fairies would be chapter two, the centaurs chapter three, and so on.  Each of the "All But Forgotten Things" represented by its own chapter.  I still don't know if I can finish this year, even at eight lines a day.

I have a bad habit of doing that in my writing, starting things I don't know if I'll ever be able to finish.  (Yes, in other areas of life too!)  That's why I had to move on from Isiterra for awhile, because I'd lived there (in my head) for so long, I was starting to speak in Siyen and Malorian tongues to actual people.  But I think once The Shadow Society is finished, that vacation will be over.  I've been waiting too long to share my Aria's story, part of which is over at Writing.com.  Actually, I think the whole book is still there, but it needs to be rewritten, and I was planning to add three new chapters in the beginning - I think I only finished one of those. If you check it out, don't get hung up on titles, I still haven't decided on that, but I will definitely be working on that again this year.

Oh, wandering through my trove of ideas that need to be written is an adventure.  I could spend days here, but I need to get back to The Shadow Society (sneak peeks at WDC too!).  I hope you're having a beautiful day!

Roari