Heather Hayden's Blog, page 18

Ensign’s Log, Entry 20: NaPoWriMo Day #19, Poem #6

I wrote this poem while in the car yesterday… It just came out of nowhere while I was watching the scenery pass by, thinking of the coming summer.

Kiss

Like a feather

Lips brushing my cheek

Under fire blossoms

It feels rougher to me than my normal poems, but at the same time, I’m okay with that. I scribbled a few variations in my notebook, but this one felt right.

Saturday Shorts: Evolution of Prophecies

The Astrals has long been a project of mine, being one of the first novels I ever wrote, one of the stories dearest to my heart, as well as a story that has gone through more revisions than any other I’ve written (in part due to the horrendous nature of the original draft.)

When I first wrote the story, my sister and I wrote a prophecy together that the story was tied around. Yes, I know prophecies are cliche, yesterday, and so not cool anymore… But I was twelve or thirteen at the time and unhindered by rules of writing.

This is the original prophecy, in all its clicheness:

One who rules the creatures free,

One who shall rule the seas,

One who rules the wind and sky,

And one who rules the trees

They shall join the fiery one

And one who masters all

Lighting darkness that has come

Brought by the one in thrall

Should they falter on their way

Their courage no more flow

The world shall fall in disarray

Beneath the cloak of snow

On the bright side, it doesn’t run on for multiple pages, and it rhymes relatively well, with a pretty good cadence.

On the downside, it’s very over the top.

Throughout numerous drafts and critiques, I had feedback from a variety of people who all pointed their fingers at the same thing–the prophecy needed work. Or, better, it needed to be cut.

After a long struggle, I decided not to cut the prophecy out completely. It was relevant to some threads in the story, and I liked it, cliche as it was. I did agree, though, that despite how short it was, it was still too long.

I don’t know how long I spent writing, rewriting, and re-rewriting this prophecy. It went through more drafts than The Astrals has, just on its own.

This is the final result, the prophecy included in the current, still-a-work-in-progress draft of The Astrals:

Darkness comes as fates arise,

Trees and beasts, sea and sky

As ancient chains shattered lie

Light will fade, hope will die.

Much briefer, much more mysterious (in my opinion, anyways), and far more suited for a MG/YA fantasy than the original.

What do you think? Do you like prophecies? Have you ever had a prophecy in a story? Did you keep it, or end up cutting it in a later draft?

Ireland: The Cliffs of Moher

It’s been a busy week so far, which is why these photos are somewhat belated–we visited the Cliffs on Tuesday.

It was a beautiful day out, as you can see… The sun was in my face though, so I was squinting a bit. I make no apologies for my hair–the wind makes a mess of it so quickly!

In the morning before heading to the Cliffs, we popped into town for a few things (including the newspaper. I help Papa with the crossword… Between the two of us, we do pretty well.)

Saw a lovely flock of sheep (including lambs!) on the way, and Papa stopped to let me take some pictures.

Such cute lambs! The scenery here is so gorgeous. Rolling hills and farmland as far as the eye can see.

When we got back, I took a picture of the cow grid (or cattle grid) in the entrance of the house to show a friend back home who’s done farming the past. A lot of houses in this area have these guards to keep cattle from walking into their yards–the cows don’t like the rolling bars under their feet.

We decided to get lunch on the way, and left for the Cliffs. When we arrived, we got our admission tickets, parked, and headed for a little cafe where we had sandwiches before we headed up the Cliffs.

The view is incredible.

Now, the edge of the Cliffs is, of course, very dangerous. A section of the walkway near the entrance and the old castle (O’Brien’s Tower) had barricades, but the rest was clear down to the cliff edge.

Here’s me by the barricades–they’re short enough to climb over, and some idiots do. If you aren’t careful, it’s a long way down to the water.

O’Brien’s Tower in the distance. You have to pay extra to go inside and climb to the top, so we didn’t bother, but simply walking around it you get a sense of its age and history.

Close up of the castle (with apparently a partial photobomb of my thumb. How embarrassing.)

The view in the other direction, walking past the castle.

As you can see, the barricade has stopped, but the trail continues. You can actually hike around the coast of Ireland; this path that passes along the Cliffs of Moher is part of the trail. It’s a long backpacking trip, but if it’s your kind of thing, I can assure you the scenery would make every step worth it.

Although we didn’t walk far along the unbarricaded path, Papa wanted to show me this rock, called The Stack. It is coated, and I mean, coated with birds on every inch of perchable space. It’s over a hundred feet tall, and even from the distance, the birds are extremely loud–I can’t imagine how noisy it would close up.

As you can see, pretty far down from the Cliffs…but quite the ruckus!

On a clear day, you can see all the way out to the Aran Islands. There was some fog, but you could still see their shapes in the mist.

My grandfather has ancestors who came from one of those islands. We may take a trip there with my sister before she and I leave.

On the way down from the Cliffs, I saw these beautiful pink flowers growing beside the walkway and stopped to take a picture of them. Papa says they’re a species of heather, my namesake!

I have been to the Cliffs of Moher before, when I was twelve, but going back was a brand new experience for me. The sheer beauty of the Cliffs is astounding and awe-inspiring. Should you ever be in County Clare, Ireland, I highly recommend stopping by.

Ensign’s Log, Entry 19: NaPoWriMo Day #15, Poem #5

Not doing so great so far this month in terms of writing poetry, but I’ve seen some incredible vistas in the past week in my travels, so I’m sad to say I don’t feel all that guilty!

Today’s poem is another haiku, inspired by my time here in Ireland.

Ireland

Emerald hills roll

Against sand and rock alike

Kissed by gentle rain

Welcome to Ireland!

After a long journey, I finally arrived in Ireland early Monday morning.

Here’s a few photos from the flight (nonstop to Ireland, with a snack, dinner, and a light breakfast served en route.)

Please note that all images were taken with a gen 4 iPod, as my sister currently has my camera, so there’s some graininess and blurriness to them. But, hey, vacation isn’t about perfection, it’s about having fun!

On the plane, waiting to take off.

Obligatory selfie–pardon the poor lighting and my messy hair.

Prepping for takeoff! Boarding was around 7pm and as you can see, the sun’s setting as the guy directs the plane out of its parked position.

And we’re off! That blurry white dot’s the moon… A slender crescent that kept us company until it set.

Flying at night, looking down at the city, made me realize once again how large the world is. Every speck of light down there, every car, is at least one spark of human life on this planet–and this is just one small fraction of the world!

Most of the flight was at night, during which I could take no photos as my iPod’s camera couldn’t pick out the stars. It was a fun flight, though, and I saw some beautiful star formations in the clear air above the clouds. I also watched The Good Dinosaur and Pan, which were great movies (I hadn’t seen them before.) The former had me in tears, and the last one ended somewhat bittersweet, as it’s something of an imagined prequel to Peter Pan.

I also had a couple of inspirations during the flight, just little hints of ideas that might blossom into something some day. Always wonderful when that happens. No writing as the guy in front of me tilted back his seat, but that’s all right–I enjoyed two movies, a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory (one of my favorite tv shows), and the scenery outside the window.

Dawn was gorgeous, with the sun painting the clouds pink… You can see the start of a patch here. I took a short nap before we landed, after the light breakfast.

Touchdown! I thought I would be waiting for my grandfather, but it turns out he got up extra early to make it there so I wouldn’t have to. He’s so wonderful.

After stopping at a hotel for breakfast, we headed home.

At my grandfather’s house! The huge picture window is still there, which makes me so happy–it has a beautiful view of the backyard, the fields beyond, then the ocean…and beyond the bay are the Cliffs of Moher, our destination for Tuesday!

We went out for pizza for lunch, and had a lovely mussel dinner accompanied by brown bread and Irish butter. I cannot stress how good Irish butter and Irish brown bread are. And the cheese, too! From what my sister says, the sausage is also amazing, but I haven’t had any since I don’t eat meat (other than fish and shellfish.)

I took a brief nap in the afternoon, but otherwise managed to stay awake until about 10pm Irish time… Over 32 hours of almost no sleep. I slept well that night!

Saturday Shorts: Foiled

I’ve missed a couple of Saturday Shorts, but they’re back!

Today’s was written a while ago, based on a challenge to write a story in exactly 50 words.

I hope you enjoy this brief read.

Foiled

I made faces at the dark window, laughing at my reflection.

Headlights appeared outside. My parents? I leaned against the window, watching.

My reflection grabbed my hand and dragged me in.

I screamed in soundless rage as not-me greeted my parents like she hadn’t seen them in ages.

Foiled again.

 

Ensign’s Log, Entry 18: NaPoWriMo Day #7, A Limerick of a Writer

It has been a very long time since I last wrote a limerick, or even attempted to do so. As I’ve said before, I’m not a great poet, but I have fun writing poems and NaPoWriMo gives me the challenge I need to dust off my poetry muse.

Today’s poem is an attempt at a limerick… I got stuck on the last line of the first stanza for a long time after realizing I didn’t have a proper third rhyme that sounded like “edit”!

I realize that limericks are usually a single stanza, but after struggling with the first one, the second popped into my head almost fully formed and I couldn’t resist adding it!

A Writer’s Limerick

There once was a writer who liked to edit

She tried to give all her critters some credit

Each of their questions

And their suggestions

She pondered whether to keep or discard it

Of course there were times when the writer faltered

Where only one critter wished a phrase altered

It would be her choice

Stay true to her voice

And if she kept this adverb, who would fault her?

Ensign’s Log, Entry 17: NaPoWriMo Day #6

I’ve read many kinds of poems–sonnets, epics, free verse… But I think my favorite is the haiku. Brief, simple, beautiful poems. Scribophile has a post in their Writing Academy about haiku, which I’ve read multiple times and highly recommend to anyone interested in learning more about this lovely poetry form.

Today’s poem is about spring… The spring I experience in the Maine forest where I live.

Spring Morning

The sun rises

Glancing through my window

As chickadees chirp

Ensign’s Log, Entry 16: NaPoWriMo Day #5

I had quite the experience yesterday journeying home by bus–a trip that should have taken about eight hours took almost twelve thanks to a small collision (no one hurt, thankfully!) followed by bad weather (snow, in April? After last week’s high temps? What are you doing, Spring?!).

Despite the bad weather, delays, and sudden outage of internet access (the ISP would only give me redirects to ads rather than loading the pages I wanted unless I used a proxy), I made progress in several writing-related endeavors and also caught up on some necessary sleep. I was still worn out by the end of the trip, but not in as bad a mood as I thought I would be. Sometimes, you just need to focus on the bright side of things.

Although I didn’t see any rainbows during the rainstorm that turned to snow, rainbows have always been a reminder to me not to let bad things get me down.

Today’s poem celebrates the beauty of rainbows.

Rainbow

Colors sweep across the sky

Bringing beauty to the eye

Bringing solace to the soul

Of one and all, young and old

As I gaze upon the arch

Something lightens in my heart

Suddenly the sun shines bright

Stormy darkness yields to light

Ensign’s Log, Entry 15: April Month Map and 2016 Writing Goals Update

A few things to talk about today, all related to my writing.

2016 started out very strong in January–I made a lot of progress with Upgrade. February had its moments, although the ultimate result was less than impressive. March made a good comeback, though more in terms of other things like critting than in progress on my own writing.

April, though?

I’m spending the majority of the month in Ireland. I have no idea how good the internet access is going to be, which means doing work is going to be difficult–my job allows me to travel, which is great, but jobs are intermittent and I can’t pick up a rush order if I’m not sure whether the internet’s going to crash suddenly and be out for the night.

I’m also not sure how much time I’m going to have to do my own things… My grandfather takes my sister around to meet new people and see new places every weekend she’s home from college, and I’ll be staying with him, so I might be going out a lot. Which is awesome–I love exploring Ireland and meeting family members, and I haven’t been over there since I was 12.

Regardless, I still want to have a plan for April, and I’ll do my best to keep up with it. A few highlights planned for this month:

National Poetry Writing Month: I shared my first poem earlier this month, and plan on sharing more, if not daily, then several times a week.

Upgrade: I’d like to complete at least two revisions on Upgrade, which should be possible provided I sit down and go through the chapters in a timely manner. I’ve got several critters waiting for updated chapters to be posted, so this is the current priority of the month. I’m also going to begin prep for publishing Upgrade–namely, contact my book cover designer about a cover. Provided I get enough revisions done, I may also begin seeing beta readers (have a few people committed, but always interested in more!) and also people willing to review my book in return for an ARC.

Augment: I’d like to work on some promotional stuff for Augment with the materials I currently have. I’m also seeking book reviews for Augment, in preparation for doing promotions, as a lot of promotional sites require books to have a certain number of reviews.

Demons trilogy: I completed the timeline/plotline for Demon’s Blade, but Demon’s Magic and Demon’s Soul still need to be done. I’d also like to get some revision done on the timelines, if possible–and since I’ll be seeing my sister, who knows almost as much about this series as I do (possibly more at the moment, since she read them all again recently), I’ll be able to get some serious work done on this trilogy. My goal is to revise all three and publish them over the course of the year.

Of Beauty Within: If that isn’t enough on my plate, I’d also like to work more on this project. Most of what has been written so far was done on my bus ride down to NYC back in January… But I love the concept and the characters who have appeared so far and I’d like to make some more progress on it.

Of course, this post wouldn’t be complete without a Month Map!

This month, you can watch the flowers bloom as I complete my goals.

What exciting goals do you have planned for April?