Fionn Jameson's Blog

Fionn talks about Urban Legends #2

(This is going to be a series of v-log/blog/audio posts about urban legends to be posted every Thursdays until the end of November, woohooo!)

The three urban legends I’ll be talking about today are as follows:

Kuchisake Onna // Mothman // Bloody Mary

 

My first encounter with the Japanese urban legend Kuchisake Onna was around the age of 9 or 10. I had a neighbor with a stack of Japanese manga magazines, most in the horror/sci-fi genre. I would flip them through in both shock and delight. The Kuchisake Onna comic is the one that I still remember, even after over 20 years.

The picture I saw was a black and white drawing of a woman with crazy wide eyes, straggly black hair, a surgical mask hanging off one finger and her mouth split from ear to ear, exposing sharpened, bloody teeth.

It friggin’ traumatized me. No joke. I couldn’t sleep for days and had very little appetite because every time I opened my mouth, I thought about her and her mutilated mouth.

Now, even at that young age, I was no stranger to scary things, or what I thought was scary. I discovered Alvin Schwartz’s “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” with the original drawings and I was reading RL Stine’s Pike Street books regularly.

But that picture…even though it was so long ago, I still remember it with a shiver.

So, the story goes like this: Kuchisake Onna may or may not be a ghost or a ghoul or a monster.

There are two theories as to how she got her monstrous appearence.

#1: Her jealous lover murdered and mutilated her when he learned she was having an affair.

#2: She got too much plastic surgery and died on the operating table.

To be honest, I don’t know what’s more horrifying. I’ve seen some real terrifying plastic surgery “After” photos and some of them are almost as terrifying as the Kuchisake Onna.

Anyways, she is said to approach children, much like the previously mentioned Slenderman. She will be a tall, slim woman with long, black hair, wearing a black trenchcoat with a white surgical mask covering the lower part of her face. Now, someone dressed like this in Western countries would be considered quite suspect, but in Asia, surgical masks are actually quite common, so she would appear very normal.

That is…until she slips off her mask and shows off her mutilated face.

“Am I pretty?” she’ll ask.

If you say “Yes,” she’ll either kill you and split your mouth to look like hers. If you say “No,” she’ll kill you in a murderous rage, like her lover did to her.

How do you escape her wrath?

There are two methods. Method #1 is to say “You’re so-so” and then run away while she mulls over your response. Method #2 is throw candy at her and run away while she’s distracted picking them up. Don’t know why she’d bother with candy, but hey, whatever works, right?

So, the wierd thing about the Kuchisake Onna is that there are reported incidents that THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. According to the Wiki about the Kuchisake Onna, an incident was reported about a woman in a red mask seen chasing children in Korea and in 2007, a coroner found medical records of a woman from the 1970s who was hit by a car when she was chasing children. Apparently her mouth was cut from ear to ear.

*Shiver*

If you’re interested in this particular urban legend, there’s a bunch of movies and books regarding the Kuchisake Onna. With other urban legends, I have no problems Googling images to use in my articles, but I’m not opening an image search bar for the Kuchisake Onna. You can, if you are hardy enough, but I’m not opening that particular can of worms again.

 

 

 

“あなたは〜好きですか?” In Japanese, it means “Do you like __?” and this is probably Japan’s answer to the Slender Man internet Creepypasta legend.

The Red Room Game is an urban legend about a pop-up that asks “Do you like __?” Supposedly, if you keep clicking on it, it’ll show you a series of increasing disturbing images with the pop-up changing eventually to “Do you like the red room?” At the end of the “game,” you’ll see a list of people’s names. It’s the people who have seen the game through to the end, with your name at the bottom of the list. As legend has it, you will be driven insane, crazy enough to slit your throat, painting the room red…therefore, completing The Red Room Game.

It used to be a pretty low-tech flash “game” first seen on Geocities and is cited as the inspiration (not sure if inspiration can be used in this way, but whatever) for the Sasebo Slashing, which is a murder that occured in Sasebo, Japan in 2004 by an 11-year old girl who slashed the throat of her 12-year old classmate (seeing similarities between this and Slender Man, right?).

I would love to share the original Geocities game, but it’s entirely in Japanese and I fear that if you can’t read it, it might not impart the right kind of mood, so I’m linking you to a video that is almost as good as playing the “game” yourself.

 

 

 

 Okay, NOW, we’re on to a REAL urban legend: The Vanishing Hitchhiker. And boy, what a legend it is!

No one knows where it originates from, but just about every culture/country has their own version of The Vanishing Hitchhiker.

So, the basic story goes like this: A taxi driver is driving along a dark road. It’s raining cats and dogs, and he wonders if he’s ever going to pick up a fare, especially since it’s almost midnight. Then, he sees a woman waiting along the side of the road and he picks her up.

She tells him her home address and when he arrives, she tells him that she forgot her wallet and she’ll pay him as soon as she gets her wallet. So the taxi driver waits for half an hour. When the girl doesn’t appear, he knocks on the front door, wondering what the heck is going on.

An older woman answers the door, suitably perplexed, considering that it’s past midnight and asks him if she can help him. He says that he’s waiting to get paid for dropping off a young woman. The older woman turns pale and tells him that a young woman hasn’t lived there for a very long time. Then, the man sees a picture just beyond the woman and points to it, saying that’s the woman he dropped off.

The older woman stares at him and says, “Sir, that’s a picture of my daughter. She died five years ago.”

MAN. BIG SHIVERS. HUGE SHIVERS. I know, I know, the story itself is quite bare, but can you just imagine the shock and horror of the taxi driver when the older woman tells him that?

I suppose the pragmatic folks would say “Ah, I bet she just said that to get out of paying the fare” to which I can only glare at you balefully and think, “You party-pooper.”

There’s countless variations of this tale. Sometimes, it’s an old woman, sometimes the driver’s not waiting for the fare but the apparition has left something personal in the back seat, etc, etc. According to Wikipedia, this legend has been dated back to the 1870s, which makes you think…it’s probably a lot easier to jump out of a buggy unnoticed than it is a car going 40 miles an hour, LOL.

 

 

 

Fionn talks about Urban Legends #1

(This is going to be a series of v-log/blog/audio posts about urban legends to be posted every Thursdays until the end of November, woohooo!)

The 1st three urban legends I’ll be talking about today are as follows:

SLENDER MAN // THE RED ROOM // THE VANISHING HITCHHIKER

 

 Slender Man is actually a very interesting urban legend in that A: he’s not actually a “real” urban legend per se, and B: Unlike other famous urban legends such as Blood Mary (to be discussed next week) or The Vanishing Hitchhiker (keep reading!), this particular urban legend didn’t come to the general public’s attention until 2009 in a Something Awful post as part of a Photoshop thread.

So, what is the definition of an urban legend?

According to Dictionary.com, an urban legend is – a modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humor, moralizing, or horror:

I don’t classify Slender Man as a true urban legend because while it IS a modern story, it is not one of obscure origin. Slender Man’s beginnings can be traced to a series of black and white pictures of children Photoshopped to include the figure of a tall, spectral man (hence the moniker Slender Man) from the Something Awful forums, from which a large collection of “creepypastas” have been born. (I’ll do a series of “Creepypastas” as well, since I find them just as fascinating as urban legends)

Slender Man was more of an internet thing, not well-known to the general public until the horrific stabbing of a 12-year old girl by two classmates in Waukesha, Wisconsin who cited Slender Man as the inspiration of their crime. Slender Man was catapulted from the internet dark corners into mainstream media while the two girls went on trial. Due to the backlash of what people viewed as the degeneration of youth morality (what the hell did I just write?), the Creepypasta wiki was blocked throughout the Waukegan School District.

My first experience with Slender Man was not through the internet, but actually at a convention in Chicago when an acquaintance of mine cosplayed as Slender Man and decided to hold a hotel elevator hostage by dancing to PSY’s Gangnam Style for half an hour. It never occurred to me that Slender Man be sinister; hard to think so when the person cosplaying as such is thrusting his hips forward with his hands on his hips as the elevator door slowly opens, music blaring loud enough to puncture ear drums.

So, what is Slender Man’s MO? Apparently, he likes little children. Like, a lot. According to the stories (all fictional, of course), he abducts children, although what happens to them afterwards is not made clear. There’s a plethora of Slender Man games, books and even a documentary called Beware the Slenderman which premiered on HBO at the beginning of 2017.

The creator of Slender Man, Eric Knudsen, was inspired by HP Lovecraft, Stephen King’s The Mist, and That Insidious Beast by Zack Parsons. Through the Something Awful forums, he put up various photographs, snippets, interviews, newspaper articles (all doctored, of course), for weeks, putting more and more momentum behind the Slender Man myth, making it almost impossible to dismiss outright. The internet community took it from there, coming up with their own stories, their own spin on the mythos and basically turned Slender Man into a legend…an urban legend.

I want to share with you a fiction book by Willow Rose that deals with Slender Man being the “villain” in her wildly popular series, Emma Frost series. It’s free for KU customers, of which I am one, so you can bet I’m going to check this out tonight! (as a disclaimer, I am in no way related to the author or was asked to advertise this, I’m just posting the link because I thought it looked like an interesting read)

 

 

“あなたは〜好きですか?” In Japanese, it means “Do you like __?” and this is probably Japan’s answer to the Slender Man internet Creepypasta legend.

The Red Room Game is an urban legend about a pop-up that asks “Do you like __?” Supposedly, if you keep clicking on it, it’ll show you a series of increasing disturbing images with the pop-up changing eventually to “Do you like the red room?” At the end of the “game,” you’ll see a list of people’s names. It’s the people who have seen the game through to the end, with your name at the bottom of the list. As legend has it, you will be driven insane, crazy enough to slit your throat, painting the room red…therefore, completing The Red Room Game.

It used to be a pretty low-tech flash “game” first seen on Geocities and is cited as the inspiration (not sure if inspiration can be used in this way, but whatever) for the Sasebo Slashing, which is a murder that occured in Sasebo, Japan in 2004 by an 11-year old girl who slashed the throat of her 12-year old classmate (seeing similarities between this and Slender Man, right?).

I would love to share the original Geocities game, but it’s entirely in Japanese and I fear that if you can’t read it, it might not impart the right kind of mood, so I’m linking you to a video that is almost as good as playing the “game” yourself.

 

 

 

 Okay, NOW, we’re on to a REAL urban legend: The Vanishing Hitchhiker. And boy, what a legend it is!

No one knows where it originates from, but just about every culture/country has their own version of The Vanishing Hitchhiker.

So, the basic story goes like this: A taxi driver is driving along a dark road. It’s raining cats and dogs, and he wonders if he’s ever going to pick up a fare, especially since it’s almost midnight. Then, he sees a woman waiting along the side of the road and he picks her up.

She tells him her home address and when he arrives, she tells him that she forgot her wallet and she’ll pay him as soon as she gets her wallet. So the taxi driver waits for half an hour. When the girl doesn’t appear, he knocks on the front door, wondering what the heck is going on.

An older woman answers the door, suitably perplexed, considering that it’s past midnight and asks him if she can help him. He says that he’s waiting to get paid for dropping off a young woman. The older woman turns pale and tells him that a young woman hasn’t lived there for a very long time. Then, the man sees a picture just beyond the woman and points to it, saying that’s the woman he dropped off.

The older woman stares at him and says, “Sir, that’s a picture of my daughter. She died five years ago.”

MAN. BIG SHIVERS. HUGE SHIVERS. I know, I know, the story itself is quite bare, but can you just imagine the shock and horror of the taxi driver when the older woman tells him that?

I suppose the pragmatic folks would say “Ah, I bet she just said that to get out of paying the fare” to which I can only glare at you balefully and think, “You party-pooper.”

There’s countless variations of this tale. Sometimes, it’s an old woman, sometimes the driver’s not waiting for the fare but the apparition has left something personal in the back seat, etc, etc. According to Wikipedia, this legend has been dated back to the 1870s, which makes you think…it’s probably a lot easier to jump out of a buggy unnoticed than it is a car going 40 miles an hour, LOL.

 

 

 

Fall is here!

It’s a few days before October and fall is definitely here. I just wish it felt like it, here in Hangzhou, China. Unfortunately, we just had an incredibly humid, 90 degree F day a few days ago. I swear, I didn’t have to drink anything that day; I just had to go outside and take a deep breath. But not too deep of a breath; the pollution is quite terrible this time of year.

It’s raining now, have been since this morning (I’m writing this at 5PM) so it feels a little more like fall, so I’m grateful for that.

Things have been super busy on the writing front. Unfortunately, as an indie author, there’s more I have to do when it comes to publishing as opposed to a traditionally published author. In fact, for the past few days, I haven’t really been able to do anything remotely resembling writing. I’ve been signing up for promos, updating ebook files on multiple platforms, updating this site, learning more about the mechanics of self-publishing (branding, promotion how-tos, newsletter stuff), etc etc. Phew. I feel stretched thin at the edges, but strangely enough, I’m okay with it. I like feeling productive. It’s a good feeling, considering that for the past few years here in China, I’ve kind of let myself and my writing career slide.

2017 is turning out to be a good year, though. By the end of this year, I’ll have 6 new books to add to my bibliography and at the beginning of next year, I’ll be starting a new pen name, with a focus on historical/fantasy romance, which is something I’ve always wanted to write.

I also released my first NL a few days ago! It was an utterly nervewracking experience, but exhilarating at the same time. I wish it didn’t take me so long to bite the bullet and send it out, but I’m just glad I finally did it. I’ve got another NL going out tomorrow and beginning next week, I’ll be starting a monthly giveaway that will be posted in the NL as well as on this site.

So yeah, lots going on, HAH. “Lots” seems like a gross understatement to me.

As far as releases go, I’ve got 3 new releases coming up in the next few months! DARK MOON RISING, coming out on Halloween, ONLY HIS coming out November 6th and EVOLUTION coming out November 30th.

I was thinking about taking a bit of a break in December, but maybe I won’t. After all, I still have to finish BLOOD MARTYR, which I think has one more book left in the series or THE IMMORTALS, which definitely has one more book left. Once I finish those, I will be starting a new UF series called THE FIREMAKER. The first book is called RAZING HELL and it’s about an excommunicated and disgraced pyrokinetic who gets dragged back into the never-ending battle between Heaven and Hell when someone or something starts to target her friends and family members.

Sigh. The life of a writer. Still, I wouldn’t have it any other way

Chicago…you disappoint me. (Just kidding!)

Hi, all! I’m currently in Chicago right now, have been for the past month. I used in live in Chicago before moving to China, so coming back is amazing. Met with family, friends, ate so much good food I’m terrified to weigh myself now. Hi, all! I’m currently in Chicago right now, have been for the past month. I used in live in Chicago for a few years before moving to China, so coming back is amazing. Met with family, friends, ate so much good food I’m terrified to weigh myself now.

Luckily, this summer isn’t as hot as it was last summer. Last summer was truly a scorcher. I don’t know if it hasn’t been as hot this summer because of all the storms we’ve been having, but whatever the case, I am truly grateful.

Then again, there’s still time yet for Chi-town to show it’s true form, so…

Then again X2, there IS a saying here: If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.

Okay, as far as projects go, THD #3 HIS UNTIL DAWN is going through final prep before it is released on 7/31.

Only a week or so! I’ll be holding a giveaway on my Facebook page to celebrate the new release, so keep an eye out for that.

On to other news…

Currently, I am working on edits for DARK MOON RISING, the 4th book in the Blood Martyr series. I am also plotting the 5th Blood Martyr book, which just might be the end of the series.

I’ve also got edits lined up for the following projects: #1: Evolution – The Immortals 2 #2: Only His – Her Master’s Mistress 2

As far as first drafts that still need to be finished, they are: #1: Queen of Beasts – fantasy romance #2: My Obsession – NA romance

There are, of course, plenty of other projects that are on the back burner, but I think the above-mentioned 6 projects will be coming to you very, very soon. Or at least within the next six months.

(And I didn’t even mention The Immortals 3 or Her Master’s Mistress 3)

So, that’s the plan, Stan. See you guys next time!

Updates

Working (hard) at edits right now!

HER SUMMER LOVER will be available on all major e-retailers in less than a week. As a treat, I’ve included the first 2 chapters of my next book, MY OBSESSION, in the back matter. It’s currently with my absolutely wonderful editor right now but I’m hoping to get it back tomorrow so I can get it ready for publishing on Monday.

Currently, I’m working on edits for HIS UNTIL DAWN as well as EVOLUTION, the sequel to ASURA NIGHT. ASURA NIGHT is available as a box set until the first of September, which is in KDP Unlimited so you can read the entire set for read until then. I will probably release EVOLUTION at the same time as ASURA NIGHT is re-released as a single title, so that gives me a few months to finish edits/revisions/proofs.

My current 1st draft project is finishing MY OBSESSION, the story of an art student who must learn the difference between love and obsession. This was a book that I started writing, oh, 2-3 years ago, but it was written completely by the seat of my pants. Honestly, I can’t even tell if it’s a contemporary romance or not. I think it qualifies as a NA novel, as the protagonist is in college…but the way it’s going, I’m not sure if it’s a typical romance. It features a love triangle, something I usually don’t enjoy writing, but it seemed to make sense with this kind of story.

Anyways, I’m about 66k into the first draft, so I’m hoping to have MY OBSESSION available for sale by either late August or early September.

Well, that’s all for now.

In other news, I’ll be leaving for Chicago this Thursday and I’ve got to tell you, I am NOT looking forward to the 17+ hour flight, ick, ick, ick.

Celebrate good times, Come on!

It’s been a while since I’ve had rankings like this. I think the last time this happened was back in 2012…five years ago when I first started publishing.

This was accomplished with a combination of putting A ONE NIGHT AFFAIR in KDP Unlimited + making it free for 2 days + Bknights.

I was a little hesitant about using Bknights, because the last time I used their services, I ended up getting my money refunded because the promo hadn’t worked at all. I’m not sure what changed this time, but I’m glad it worked and I’ll definitely be using their services again.

I had considered using Freebooksy, but Freebooksy is $100 while Bknights is $10…and to be honest, it’s hard to say which would have been more efficient. I’m not sure if I could have achieved a higher ranking with Freebooksy, considering where I am right now.

But I will be using Freebooksy, probably after the release of HIS UNTIL DAWN and we’ll try this experiment one more time.

Can’t wait!

Why One should almost ALWAYS hire a Professional

It always confuses me a lot when I try to figure out what words should be capitalized in a blog title.

Anyways…

So, if you read the previous entry, you can see that I designed a cover for my upcoming release called Her Summer Lover.

Just in case you need a refresher, here’s what it looked like:

Okay, but it took me all five minutes, messing with Photoshop with some filters and overlays and fonts that wouldn’t look too good in small thumbnails.

I was looking at it for a bit and realized that I wasn’t too fond of it, so I hired Jaycee from Sweet n Spicy Designs who have done a number of other covers for me in the past, to give Her Summer Lover a try.

Here’s what she came up with.

Let’s do a side by side, shall we?

Isn’t her design so much better? Just goes to show you that no matter how good you think you are, sometimes, you’ve just got to get the professionals to do the job.

Writing Empty Words

Starting today, I’m going to start focusing on how many scenes I get written, not how many words I write. I’ve known this for a while, but I tend to just overwrite just so I get my wordcount quota, but in actuality, I haven’t advanced the plot at all. It’s just a waste of time. I’d rather underwrite than overwrite. Erasing is harder for me. I can always go back and write more in the subsequent drafts, but separating the chaff from the wheat isn’t easy, not for me. So yep. We’ll see if this helps me write more productively. Each chapter is anywhere from 2.5k to 5k, depending on the kind of story I’m writing, but usually falls somewhere in between 3k, so that would mean that at minimum, I’m writing 3k a day. Not bad, as long as I can keep that momentum going.

I read three books yesterday, although technically one of them was more of a novella than anything else. I think I’m going to start doing that; dedicating the sleeping hours for even half an hour of reading. During the day, I’ll read some self-help/craft books, but during the night, I’ll make a point of reading fiction.

The books I read were was Chuck Wendig’s “Double Dead” and “Bad Blood.” I forgot how much I liked him as an author. His words are very visceral and there were points in the books when I had to physically put the book down, make a face and then jump right back in. Talk about glutton for punishment.

The third book I read, technically finished, was Honoree Conder’s “Prosperity for Writers”, and it was…disappointing, to say the least. It seemed like the message of the book was “Think positive and your life will be better!” which…is not the most useful thing to tell an author who has no idea how to increase her profits. Yeah, yeah, I know, the most obvious way to making more money is to write more books, but I was hoping for a bit more advice as far as marketing and social media goes. Booo. Oh well. I did come away with a list of books that might more fit my needs, so it wasn’t a total loss.

As far as writing goes! I’m two chapters away from completing the 1st draft of SUMMER LOVER. Got the cover designed and everything.

I’m hoping I can finish this by tomorrow so I can run it through several runs of editing before I turn it into the box set coordinator.

Needs more sugar.

Late start today, seeing as how I fell asleep late and had a bad night of sleeping on top of that. Oh well. No classes today, so I’m not on a schedule, so sleeping in isn’t the worst thing in the world. As long as I start writing around noonish, I should be okay.

The herbs are starting to grow, woo. As in, I’m seeing green stuff sprouting. Dunno if it’s the seeds or weeds, but whatever the case, it’s still good to see something happen.

For breakfast, I made an oatmeal shake with banana/unsweetened cocoa powder/peanut butter with a dash of cinnamon and vanilla extract. The second I tried it, I thought ‘Hmm, needs more sugar’ so I guess it’s perfect the way it is. I’m trying to lessen the sugar in my diet, but it’s not very easy. Oh well. I saw a meme somewhere that said if diets were easy, it wouldn’t have the words DIE in it.

Boy, do I feel witty today.

Yesterday, I played a bit of Dragon Age: Origins…which is okay. The story so far is more interesting than Dragon Age: Inquisition, although I’m not too keen on Alistair being the only male to romance. Still, Bioware’s character design beats Bethesda to the floor. I swear to God, the Fallout 4 character designs don’t look any different from Fallout 3…even though there’s 7 years between each game. You’d think they’d make SOME improvements, but nope, the character designs still look as dopey as always. I know, I know, appearances shouldn’t matter if the gameplay and story is good, but is it a sin to want a game to look pretty as well?

Yesterday was pretty productive as far as writing goes. I wrote 3.8k of SUMMER LOVER, as well as edited THD #2 A ONE NIGHT AFFAIR for a few hours. And I drew. And did two loads of laundry. And taught. And even took a nice power nap. AND helped a friend deal with an ailing cat. Yay for productivity.

Then again, I DID start at the break of dawn yesterday. Today, it looks like I’m starting at noon, which…does put me back at least 4-5 hours.

Ah well, better late than never.

Although, to be honest, better early than not, right?

PS: I’ve now started writing SUMMER LOVER out of order. Whenever I get close to the last half of a book, I tend to write out of order, jumping from chapter to chapter. In this case, I wrote Chapter 15 yesterday and I’m hoping to finish Chapter 16 today. Chapter 12, 13 and 14 still remain to be written, as well as 17, 18, and then the epilogue.

Hm…seeing at how many chapters I still have left to go, I still feel like I’m not that close to THE END, after all, even though I have 43k to my word count. This book was originally supposed to be 45k, and then I kept on having to move back the goalpost. Right now, it’s set at 55k, but seeing as how each chapter is roughly about 3k, it seems like I’m going to have to move the goalpost YET again to maybe 60 to 65k. SUMMER LOVER was originally meant to be a 35k novella, but clearly Saku and Jun had a lot more story to tell. Ah well

The keyboard to end all keyboards. I can only hope.

Gooood morning. God, I really do love this new Logitech bluetooth keyboard. The keys are round, which I think looks kinda cool and I use it with a silicon keyboard cover, so it just FEELS good and it’s pretty quiet, so I don’t disturb my sleeping husband when I’m tip-tapping on the keys in the wee hours of the morning. I ended up waking up around 5:15ish, so no more 4 AM mornings! (watch me wake up at 4:15 tomorrow morning, LOOOL)

Yesterday, for it being a Sunday and all, was a pretty productive day. Got 3k down for SUMMER LOVER and also worked on edits for THD #2, A ONE NIGHT AFFAIR. So, all in all, not a bad waste of a Sunday.

Got my Facebooking and emailing out of the way. Kind of. Still got a ton of emails to reply to…hopefully I will get to them at some point before I die. *fingers crossed*

Today, I’ve got a class at 6:30 and then I have to help out a friend administer ear drops to her newly adopted kitty because her husband is away and administering any kind of treatment to cats is a two-person job. I’m going to chalk up the walk to her place and back as my exercise walk of the day, so hey, killing two birds with one stone, yeah?

Today, my writing schedule looks something like this, I hope:

7-8 – Writing

8-9 – Writing

9-10 – Breakfast Break

10-11 – Edits

11-12 – Edits

12-1 – Lunch Break

1-3 – Take care of other stuff (power nap, laundry, etc etc)

3-4 – Write

4-5 – Write

5-6 Dinner!

And then the rest of the day is whatever. I won’t get home from my class until around 9 or so, if I figure in that “walk” I’m supposed to go on, so from 9 to 10…I’ll probably do some craft reading.

I’ve been reading Marcy Kennedy’s DEEP POINT OF VIEW, but there’s so much information packed in those pages that I feel like I need to read it many more times in order to fully absorb the information she’s presenting. Instinctively, I know what 3rd person deep POV is because I’ve been lucky to read great books by very talented authors, but I thought it would be a good idea for me to get even more indepth and ACTUALLY learn how to better myself as a writer, and not just write whatever comes to mind. I’m always very keen on improving myself, body and mind…although lately, it’s been more mind than body. (stares at unopened yoga mat that’s been sitting in the corner, gathering dust, for the past month)

Also, very excited about taking a power nap again. I never thought I could feel so energized from a 30-40 minute nap in my computer chair, but it works! My computer chair has a foot rest and reclines almost to 140 degrees (I think? I’m terrible with geometry. Crap. It IS geometry with all the angles, right?), as well as a headrest and back support, so sleeping in it is a pleasure. Hah, pretty sure not a lot of people can say that about their office chairs.

Got a new picture idea from a stock artist I patron on Patreon, so that’s another project I want to work on this week. Another busy week, another normal week, please don’t let me get sick or have something else that comes up.

SUMMER LOVER is due next Sunday. Oh God, I’m sooooo SCREWED. (because I still haven’t finished the first draft..and I still have to edit it, ROFL because I can’t cry)