S.M. Carrière's Blog, page 5

Fight Like a Girl

Good morning, Readers. Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay To my sisters everywhere,

It’s not easy to be a woman. This has been true of every age, but it feels especially true now. We all know how hard we have to fight every day just to exist. Just to have our voices heard; our personhood respected. We have variously been denied education, the right to vote, to fully participate in political or civil life. Our historical contributions have been ignored because erroneous biases dismissed them as unimportant or even untrue. Our expertise ignored in nearly every area of life.

Our medical decisions were made by the men in our lives, diagnoses made by doctors using research that has ignored us, our own choices stolen by the state, or deferred to our husbands’ wishes. Our research and discoveries have been ignored, or stolen and attributed to the men in our fields. At every meeting, our ideas go unheard, only to be praised when spoken from the lips of a male colleague. Our ability to rise stifled to favour our mediocre male coworkers for all manner of nonsensical reasons. John has a child, you know.

We’ve been talked over, patronised, infantilised.

If evil things befall us, we are questioned as if we were the perpetrators. What was she wearing? Why was she drinking? She should have known better than to go for a walk. Our attackers are almost never charged, and fewer still see any consequence whatsoever. Sometimes, when we do what we must to escape, we face greater punishment than those who harmed us ever would.

Every interaction is dangerous. We are well aware that denying the wrong person could end our lives, and we all know that should that happen, there will always be too-loud voices who espouse sympathy for our killers. Surely only men are ever hurt by rejection?

We are variously too big, too small, too tall, too quiet, too loud, too opinionated, not opiniated enough, too educated, undereducated, too experienced, underexperienced, too weak, too strong…

We walk this world with a boot on our necks.

And yet.

And yet, some of the greatest discoveries in medicine, biology, astronomy, palaeontology were all made by women. Women who were denied a formal education. Women who stole an education in secret. Women who fought tooth and nail for the right to an education.

And yet, we take up our keys and go out in the world; despite the danger, despite the fear.

And yet, we open our hearts to those that may harm us.

Every single day is a fight. We do not always win. But we never give up.

The strength this takes would beggar anyone else. It's a wonder we don't recognise it. It's no wonder they refuse to.

Certainly, our shoulders might not be as broad. We may not be able to carry the same number of stones.

But my beautiful warriors, we carry the world.

You need not be the strongest fighter in the room to win the fight. You just need to be strong enough.

And you are.

You are strong enough.

Know that we are stronger if we stand together. So fight on. I am beside you. Fight like your sisters depend on you. Fight like you can change the fate of the world. Fight like a tiger defending her cubs. Fight like a devil.
​
Fight like a girl.

Not Much at All

Good morning, Readers! Image by Andrii K from Pixabay Once again, a blog post about not much at all, as not much is happening in my life at present. But let me fill you in anyway.

This weekend saw the recommencement of my stint as a martial arts teacher. It's always good fun, and I missed it very much. I'm currently recovering from a back injury, and the four hours of training/teaching may have aggravated it. I spent the rest of the weekend in a fair amount of pain, which included a vicious migraine. I achieved none of the things I wanted to this weekend. I'll have to do them tonight, I guess.

So... that's laundry and a special stream as I tie up the last of the loose ends of the game I streamed Friday. That's right, God of War: Ragnarok has come to its conclusion. I'm quite sad about it. I love that story. I love the characters. Saying goodbye to them was tough. There are some things to finish up before I start the new game, and was planning on doing that Saturday. Alas, after training, I was in no shape whatsoever to stream.

So, join me tonight as I clean up the last little things from God of War: Ragnarok. Then this Friday, I'll be starting the next game... Shadow of War, the sequel to the very fun game I played earlier, Shadow of Mordor.  The latter was a fun game and I got to play around in Middle Earth for a bit. I'm looking forward to returning! I'm coming Talion!

In writing news, I've made very little progress on any of my current stories. I am trying to get myself back into writing at lunch, but there is precious little time to do it, once all the eating and so forth is done. Today, naturally, I totally forgot to bring my iPad, so there'll be no writing today. That's good, I guess, I still have a headache, so maybe it'll be a good idea for me to just close my eyes for a bit at lunch and rest.

And that's it. That's all I've got. Exciting, huh? I should let you all get back to work now.

​Ciao!

Who Rules the World

Good morning, Readers! Things are quiet on the front, so there isn't much news to report. However, I do have a new show I'm obsessed with!

As you all know, I am in absolute love with The Untamed, a fantastic Chinese Wuxia drama that ripped my heart out, stomped on it, and then lovingly sewed it back together. I'm sure I've written of it here before.

Well, thanks to TikTok, I was made aware of another Wuxia-style Chinese drama that was released last year. So I've started watching it. That was, quite likely, a mistake! I'm obsessed.

Of course, it has all the usual things about this type of show that I absolutely adore - the impossibly beautiful people (serious, wtf is in the water over there), the crazy (and often very silly) fight scenes, the feudal setting, the gorgeous locations, the stunningly beautiful costumes - it also touches on some pretty awesome scenarios that have me absolutely glued to the screen.

Brushing aside the main romance, which I normally find trite and boring (something The Untamed managed to circumvent incredibly well, and even in this one it's not so bad... largely because they treat it as the comic relief a lot of the time), this show is filled with family drama, sibling rivalry, personal angst, clever plans and maneuvers, and court intrigue all in a backdrop of an empire in turmoil. Despite the romance being the main thing, it's still so very good.

Unlike The Untamed, there have been no goofy CGI incidents in this... at least, nowhere near as goofy as in the former show anyway. At least, not so far.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to profess my love for this show.

And also, if anyone has any idea where I can locate a DVD set for this and The Untamed with English subtitles, I would be forever indebted to you. I want those things sitting on my shelf, so if ever the internet dies, I still have some brilliant shows to sit and watch and sob over. And since I appear to be the only one in my friend circle who watches C-Dramas at all, I have no one else to enthuse with over them save this blog. So... thank for being there, I guess.

That is all. You may return to your day.

Ciao!

Decisions, Decisions

Good morning, Readers! Image by DBU DirektesSehen from Pixabay What? A post in the morning. Be still my heart.

In any case, I haven't much to report. Life is chugging along, and I've been finding it difficult as all hell to write anything at all. Between working two jobs and trying to stretch in other areas, I'm finding precious little time and motivation available for writing.

But, there are some writing things that have me excited. Things that I'm pondering. Decisions need to be made.

As you all know, I wrote a novel called The Lioness of Shara Mountain. What many of you don't know is that I, rather rashly, decided to submit it to a relatively new publishing house that has an interesting business model. It's a long shot, and there's no guarantees with new houses, so... In any case, I had submitted it in the middle of last month-ish, and they asked for 45 days for an answer. We're approaching that number, so now I have to decide what I want to do with the manuscript.

I was feeling rather fatalistic about my publishing career, and had thought that perhaps I'll just offer it up for free as a serial on Wattpad or a similar site. I've spent a while pondering and I'm no longer sure that's what's best for me or the book. So now I'm stuck decided whether I should do that, or if I should submit my novel to Renaissance Press to see if they would like to publish it.

I'm not sure what to do. I need to think on it more.

Luckily, I have time, as the manuscript is still with my third beta reader (I told you my submission was rash), and I won't be moving forward with it in either scenario until I get it back.

In the meantime, I have managed to acquire a blurb, with enormous thanks to my friend Jim who, despite having never read the manuscript, took my pathetic attempt at a blurb and crafted something that was surprisingly accurate. I only had to tweak it a little bit to make it fit.

So, without further ado, the blurb for The Lioness of Shara Mountain​:

Lis, the youngest prince of Rin in the Hnura'i Empire, was raised from birth to guard the traditions of his people and take no chances with his family's honour. Yet, at the tri-annual Desert Market's slave auction, he feels the unfamiliar stirrings of rebellion at the sight of the strange foreigner who will only identify herself as The Lioness, and stands proudly even as she is being sold in chains.

​Ignoring the gnawing whisperings of his upbringing, he is compelled by an irresistible sense of purpose to buy this mysterious woman and take her back with him to Shara City — setting in motion events that promise to destroy Lis and tear apart the principality of Rin as the shadows of her past threaten the lands she has made her new home. Tradition is cast aside in the forbidden bond that forms between Prince Lis and The Lioness as they strive together to fulfill her ancient vows and save the sacred Shara Mountain.

What do you think? Interest piqued? Would you read that book?

Alright, I have to go. And think more.

​CIao!

Dungeons & Dragons - A Review

Good morning, Readers! This weekend, for the first time in a long time, I went with some of my friends to the cinema to go see Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves. I have a very short review:

Holy hell it was so much fun!

As soon as I saw the trailer, I knew this was one I wanted to catch; not because it looked good (it did), but because it looked like the kind of light, silly fun that I desperately needed right now. And I'm really happy to report that it was, in fact, the light, silly fun that I desperately needed right now.

It was funny, heartfelt, full of awesome action, and a number of references for the true geeks of the tabletop roleplaying game. In fact, it was so funny, it would happily fit under the 'action comedy' title, and as such, joins Hot Fuzz as one of my favourite comedies. Shout-out to the world's fattest dragon.

For a while there, it honestly felt like most writers of the genre felt that dumb and funny were synonymous, and every comedy out there was nothing but a running litany of stupidity. I don't find stupidity funny. I don't think people being idiots is particularly amusing. I'm so, so glad that this film wasn't that. I was quite worried that it would be. Thank you to the writers for not going down that road.

There's more that I really love about this film. For starters, the two main folks of our loveable group of thieves are fast friends, who love each other deeply, and even raised a child together. But they were not romantically involved. They were friends. They remained friends. It was friendship that kept them together. I honestly don't feel like we have enough of that in our media. Everybody seems to place romance on a pedestal, as if that's the best (or even only) way for two people - particularly of the opposite sex - to interact. It's always so refreshing to find examples of something other than that.

While there is plenty of action in this film, a special mention must be made of the incredible sword choreography between Rége-Jean Page's character, Xenk Yendar, and Dralas, played by Jason Wong. It was fast, clever, and very beautifully performed. It legitimately froze me to my chair. It was just. so. good.

I would go back to watch the movie for that fight alone.

Sort of redundant to say, really, as I have every intention of heading back to the cinema to watch the movie again. It was just fun, and good, and really funny.

Most importantly for me, I feel, is that is is also, in it's updated way, a heartfelt love letter to the films of the 80s and 90s that I grew up with - the films that didn't care about snobbish ridicule; as if the exercising of imagination ought to be looked down on. This touches on those films that were as responsible for turning me into a writer as were the brilliant books I devoured. This was a nod to Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Willow, Lady Hawke (which I maintain still has an excellent premise and if any movie ought to be remade it should be that one). These unironic celebrations of story, and imagination, and joy shaped who I am and formed my imagination, and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is a return to form.

Go see it. You'll thank me later.

Ottawa Mini-ComicCon Report

Good afternoon, Readers!Image by changewire from PixabayThis report is quite late (as is this blog post), so forgive me if I miss some details!

A couple of weekends ago, I was at Ottawa's mini-ComicCon... which I failed to mention I'd be at because, well, I was a little discombobulated due to factors explained last week.
Life vs MeIn any case, it was my first properly large event that wasn't bookish specific, and I was quite anxious about it (I did CanCon last year, but that's smaller, and much more Covid-cautious, and I know practically everyone there, which helps with the anxiety).

I did not have my own table. I, instead, manned the Renaissance Press table for them. It took a lot for me to volunteer, ashamedly. I was anxious, and sad, and not really feeling prepared to face the world yet. As it turns out, it was the best thing for me. But let me start at the beginning.

I couldn’t go Saturday, as I was teaching martial arts from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and getting to the EY Centre after training, all sweaty and gross still in order to make it before the thing closed, was just not in the cards. Wisely, Nathan scheduled me for Sunday instead, and so I showed up, caffeinated and fed and nowhere near ready to take on the world.

Luckily, I was in good hands. Jen and Éric (of JenEric Designs and JenEric Coffee) were at the tables immediately behind Renaissance’s table. Right beside me was Saucy Frocks, run by my dear friend Jasmine and another Jen. I was able to get some quality hugs. That always makes things good.

Then I was visited by my good friend Bill whom I haven’t seen in an age, and who often volunteers with ComicCon. I got another great hug, and a lovely chat.

Despite my anxiety, Sunday turned out to be a fantastic day. I made a few books sales. Thank you to the wonderful folks who bought copies of my books, and those who bought copies of other fantastic books from Renaissance. Every book they sell, mine or not, benefits us all, and I’m very proud of what Renaissance has built. Anyway, special shoutout to Bruce, who put up with my brain completely blanking on his name despite having known him for years at this point.

I’m a terrible friend.

There were a lot of people at the convention, an awesome number of readers, and so many fantastic costumes. There was also a service cat being pushed around in a stroller. No, you read that right. A service cat. I asked if I could get a photo, but was told no, so I don’t have a picture for you. But I wish I did, because it was cute as hell.

Also, I found Wally/Waldo.

I have a few photos — not many, but a few, that I’ll be posting to Instagram soon-ish. I should have done it sooner, but, well, life.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who dropped by the table and bought books, or spared a moment for a chat. You really did make Sunday an awesome day, even if it took me a couple of days to recover!

Alright, I have to get back to work.

​Ciao!

A Long Absence

Good Evening, Readers! Image by Todd MacDonald from Pixabay My apologies for not posting for a while. I hope I haven’t worried you.

Something came up last month that was quite distressing. It’s an ongoing situation. I will not be elaborating much, because this isn’t my story to tell. Nevertheless, I received news from home that knocked me off my rails for a little bit and left me floundering.

​I did mean to keep blogging, but it turned out to be nearly impossible; even when I had really fun things to share… like I was at the Renaissance Press booth at Ottawa mini-ComicCon on Sunday past. It was a good time. But I will elaborate further in another blog post.

The news from home is continually developing, and it might be that I may be called away home at the very last minute. Things are not great, but they’re as good as we can hope given the circumstances.

Please don’t ask me any specifics, as I won’t tell. I will, however, tell you if I’m called away, or if I will be not blogging for a while. For now, with the news being the best case of a terrible thing, I’m going to endeavour to return to my blogging scheduled.

For now, please accept my apology for being away for so long. I was doing so well getting blog posts up of late. Sigh.

I’m well, so don’t stress. I will be back Monday with a regular blog post, instead of this overly long, rambling apology.

Sending you much love!

​Ciao!

That Awful Moment When…

Good Afternoon, Readers! Image by pierreforlin from Pixabay A Tuesday post, because I was insanely busy Monday and didn’t have time to write at all. 

Not that I’ve had all that much to write about.

I do have news, but I’m saving that for my newsletter, so if you’re not subscribed yet, you may want to ( here ). It’s not really very exciting news, but you’ll get any news there first before you read it here.

​Writing is going very slowly. I am not thrilled with what I’ve written so far. It’s not any good. To be fair, I’m trying to pull a recollection of what I’ve written already… and lost. You see, I had quite a bit of Daughter of the Sea already written. This was just at the beginning of the pandemic. Only now, I can’t find the stuff I wrote anywhere.

The cold, hard knot that formed in my stomach as I sat down to open the file only to find that the file was nowhere to be found. Not on my iPad, where I do all my writing. Not on the cloud (either one) where I store my manuscripts when I’m not working on them. Nowhere. Only the fact that I was at work on my lunch hour (like now) kept me from a loud, long, despairing wail.

So, I sat down to start again.

And I hate everything I’ve written.

I’m out of practice, too, which means that my writing muscles have atrophied. It’s like drawing blood from a stone at present. As a result, I spent one session writing over the last fortnight and that’s it.

The best way to get the creative juices flowing is the just create, but that’s easier said than done currently.

That said, I did have an idea pop into my head during my morning commute regarding the opening of the book and hoy boy, it’s a really cool naval battle and I’m quite excited about it. I will attempt to work on it during my lunches this week. Hopefully the writing will be easier.

The prologue desperately needs to be fixed, though. I might delete it… for the second time… and rewrite it.

Alright, I have spent what writing time I had today on this blog post. I have to return to staring blankly at numbers and asking other people to make them go down.

For the love of all things good and green, may I soon become a full-time writer.

​Ciao!

Directionless... Perhaps?

Good afternoon, Readers! Image by Ylanite Koppens from Pixabay In preparation for the most likely outcome of my submission of Soldier, which is to say, silence indicating rejection, I'm struggling a bit with retaining the will to continue submitting and publishing. I have developed a pretty tough skin over the years, but the rejections do wear on me. Couple that with working full time, plus another part time job, plus a monthly video podcast, plus my art stuff, I can feel the burnout starting to take root.

Again.

I feel as if I'm not selling particularly well, and part of that is definitely my fault. I'm not especially good at marketing my work, and so I'm struggling to reach the level of sales I need to reach in order to make this writing lark my full time gig. And I so desperately want to be a full time writer of fiction.

Being so drained, I haven't yet started writing as I promised I would. I feel like I'm in a holding pattern until I pass the indicated deadline from the publisher for my submission and until I get the final edits from my final beta reader for the novel I finished last year.

It's not been conducive to creation, this whole thing called life.

Still, I've not been idle. I've been researching various serial sites where I might publish The Lioness of Shara Mountain. I thought I had settled on a site - Webnovel. Then I read that the contract through them requires first dibs on rights of subsequent related works. The Lioness of Shara Mountain is set in the same world as (albeit a different continent to) The Great Man Series, the first book of which is Soldier... currently on submission. That publishing requirement will not do. So, not Webnovel.

There were a couple of alternatives that my good friend Jen has made me aware of - Vella and Yonder.

Vella is owned and operated by Amazon, and while it does have the structure and monetisation I'm looking for, I really, really, really dislike the way Amazon treats its employees and their authors, so I'm not keen on going with Vella. At all. It's joined Webnovel in my 'Not-Bloody-Likely-Let's-Hope-I-Don't-Get-This-Desperate' list.

Yonder I only just learnt about today, and it looks extremely new. There isn't a lot of information on their site yet about what publishing a serial with them will look like, other than they pay royalties on original content. I've signed up, though, in the hopes that when they're ready, I'll learn more information. For now, they're on my 'Could-Be-Promising' list, though the terms of their contract will dictate whether or not I will seriously consider them.

Currently at the forefront is Wattpad. I used to have a Wattpad account back in the day. I don't know if it's still there. The problem of course, is that it's mad hard to monetise Wattpad stories. They do have an invite-only site where stories can be monetised. But it's invite-only, and so I fear The Lioness will suffer the same problem as all of my other published works - discovery.

Now, I am allowed to ask for payment on Wattpad, which is nice, but also makes my skin crawl. I'm not good at that part. Still, I have both Ko-Fi and PayPal, so I can ask for a tip or a couple of bucks if folks enjoyed the story. And there's always the (very slim) chance that The Lioness gets widely popular there, and is picked up by Wattpad's monetisation site.

For now, though, Wattpad is the surprise leader in my quest to publish The Lioness of Shara Mountain as a serial story.

I'm just sad about the whole discoverability issue, but it's not like I'm not used to it by now.

Listen, the more I think about this latest work, the more I really like it. It's a good story... and perhaps a little too much of my soul for my own good. I really want to give it the best shot possible. So, if any of you know of a serialisation site that might suit, do let me know about it. I'm still researching, and as Beta Reader Three is very busy at present, I have some time.

Thanks so much for your help.

​Ciao!

How Does This Sound?

Good afternoon, Readers! Image by Marcel Langthim from Pixabay As my third and final beta reader makes his slow way through The Lioness of Shara Mountain, I've turned my mind to some of the publishing details. It will be happening soon-ish, maybe. Anyway, I'm workshopping some blurb ideas for the back of the book. I could use some help. Here is what I have so far:

When Lis, the youngest prince of the frontier principality of Rin, encounters a strange, pale slave who identifies only as The Lioness at the tri-annual Desert Market, he feels strangely compelled to purchase her and bring her back home to the picturesque Shara City, nestled in the foothills of the sacred Shara Mountain.

Following her unexpected participation in the rescue of Rin's recently stolen children, she and Prince Lis form a bond so profound that neither tradition nor duty can shake it. Not even her constant breaking of Rin's strict taboos can cause Lis to abandon the Lioness. She, in turn, becomes his fiercest protector.

When a shadow from the Lioness' past threatens the sacred mountain she now calls home, she becomes the mountain's divine defender, and beloved of the people of Rin, and a legend in the Hnura'i Empire. In her selfless devotion to her ancient vows, the Lioness forever changes the frontier principality and all who call it home.

Anyway, it's not great. Blurbs are not my strong suit, so I'm asking for some serious help. Does this sound good? Would you read a book with this on the back cover?

​I anxiously await your opinion!