Megan Trennett's Blog, page 3

30 Day Challenge: A Love interest … *I’ve* had?

I knew 30 consecutive days wasn’t going to happen, but I wouldn’t have guessed that it would be because of a cold. And planning my lil boys birthday cake. And a surprise trip to the ER. But it’s all good. Truly. And now back to the challenge.

Now, this is one is a love interest that��I’ve had, but of all the fictional crushes I have had, I can’t honestly say I’ve had one from the Zelda universe. Maybe Link, I guess, but that’s a stretch. Though if properly cast in this rumored Netflix series, that could change.

So instead I will say the characters I have kind of wanted together.

Now, I am a girl with a girly side so I will own up to shipping the most obvious ship of all: Link and Zelda. Can’t tell you how happy it made me to see them stay together at the end of Skyward Sword. And while in some games there was another girl that Link went well with (I like Midna for Link, even though she spent so much of Twilight Princess as an Imp), I still like the core hero and princess.

But the twist to this is… I liked the idea of Link falling for Sheik. My head canon has been that Sheik plays a little more of a role than just guide. You know, tends wounds, maybe helps Link with a monster battle in the field here and there. And while he spends so much more time with her, Link starts feeling torn about his developing feelings for Sheik and his loyalty to Zelda.

But enough of my head canon. It’s how I always imagined it, it’s the pairing I ship the most. And probably as close to a love interest I have had.

[image error]

30 Day Challenge: Favorite Song.

This one is really hard. Like, really hard. Picking a favorite song in the whole series, which is full of epic songs, is kinda like picking a favorite book. And then it’s subjective because maybe the next book you read becomes your new favorite.

But one song does stick out more than  the others.

Clock Town Day 1.

It was my ringtone for a very long time, and it’s often the first Zelda song I hum when I think Zelda songs. But selecting day 1 as the best is only because I think saying all the clock town days are my favorite is kind of cheating. Day 2 and 3 each have their own virtues,  and both are great. The eerie feel of day 3 always gave a sense of urgency. The downcast feel of day 2, when things were bleak but not yet desperate, makes one feel bad for the town folk.

So of all the amazing music, Clock Town Day 1 will be chosen as my favorite. At least until I hear one that resonates more.

And speaking of Zelda music, I highly recommend catching a Zelda Orchestra show if you can. My hubby and I went to the Symphony of the Goddess 3 years ago and it was amazing.

30 Day Challenge, Day 3: Favorite Villain

[image error]Ghirahim.No question for me on this one. I like everything there was about him. He was truly devious in such a delicious way. He is so over the top, and I loved that about him. Ganon/Ganondorf is a very classic villain, and I do like a classic, but I adore Ghirahim. He is kind of fabulous.

He works to bring forth his demon king, raise demise (who I hate with a passion and therefore raises my respect for a villain who knows a good weapon), and is just all out perfection.

30 Day Legend of Zelda Challenge: Favorite Character

[image error]

My favorite fan art piece by Silvestris.

This one seemed like an absolute no brainer to me until I started to dwell on it. I adore Sheik.��Love her. Yes, her, I never believed she was a boy at all and I’m glad they changed pretty much all design and references to her because… yeah.

But this is why I wavered: Sheik is essentially Zelda. And since Ocarina of time Zelda has been kind of a bad ass. Not nearly as much as Link, obviously, but she isn’t just standing around a sanctuary/temple/castle waiting to be rescued anymore. She disguises her self and lives right under the enemy’s nose for seven years. If you go by the manga, she was working with the enemy all that time. Outside of Ocarina, Zelda goes on her own missions. In Twilight Princess she may have been capture but she didn’t stand ideal, either. Skyward she goes off to fulfill her destiny and become the goddess. (Forgive my fuzzy details on both topics, I only played each one once.) Hyrule Warriors (if you count it) she once again disguised herself as the awesome Sheik, but was also a warrior in her own right.

She still gets captured/possessed/turned into a painting, but she’s certainly not a whiny character.

But Sheik. Still my favorite, regardless of what game she’s in.

Bonus Favorite: Happy Mask Sales Man. Because reasons.

[image error]

By TerraDaWolf At Deviantart

30 Day Legend of Zelda Challenge: My favorite game

While this game series is one that is beloved by many, everyone who has played more than one of the 15+ titles has a favorite. And I am no exception. But I must say that my favorite is boring because it’s easily one of the top three games as picked by most Zelda fans.

Badadada!

[image error]

Yep, that’s me, getting all nostalgic here with the original N64 box art. This was the first of the many ways I played this game, getting it the year before Majora’s Mask was released. It took me about a month of playing after school, weekends, and on storm days to finish it. Dating myself here: One of my most distinct memories of playing the game was on a snow day, sitting in my room on my inflatable couch, trying to keep quiet so I wouldn’t wake my mother while defeating Volvagia.

Anywho, so why is this one my favorite?

The legend is the first part that sticks out. At the time, Ocarina was supposed to be the very start of the timeline. So the legend wasn’t supposed to have actually come to pass in anyway or form before the moment Link had the nightmare which eventually led him to Zelda’s door step.

The Ocarina. It was awesome playing those songs, trying to hit the buttons and making the notes carry the same way they do in the song.

The seven sages were more than random men in robes you hoped to find as your ran around Hyrule just for the sake of finding them. And better yet, I liked that they weren’t all men.

The temples were beautiful but sometimes creepy, fun but often challenging.

And Zelda herself was actually more than a damsel in distress.

When they re-released Ocarina of Time for the Game cube, I got it. 3DS? Yep, got that too. As well as having it included in a gamecube collector’s edition, AND a console download on the Wii. Skyward Sword had the potential to top it, but I got frustrated with the lack of world to explore. Majora’s Mask is easily a second favorite, but it was too short. And A Link to the Past, while the first Zelda I ever played and will always cherish, just can’t compete with Ocarina for me.

[image error]

Prepare to be geekified

I’m trying to get into blogging once again (100 time’s the charm, right?). The problem is that before I found it difficult to find tips as I felt boxed in by my genre of chicklit writing. Now that I have decided to expand  my topics of discussions to things I love outside of writing, I have a plethora of options.

This morning on Pinterest I saw a thirty day challenge on one of my favorite things ever: The legend of Zelda. How much do I love Zelda? I almost named my son Link. I can discuss the history of Hyrule better than that of my own country. I have the amiibos even though I’m seriously bored of the Smash bros series.

I’m totally going to do this, though whether it’s thirty consecutive days is another thing all together. Unless I post twice a day sometime, we’ll see.

So here is the challenge in case any fellow nerds out there want to take part.

[image error]

This will probably be the most dedicated blogging I’ll have ever done. Sad. But hey, it’s a passion.

All I needed was a little edumacation: First true experience with Scrivener

I am a panster writer at heart, but I also get floods of ideas for the series I’m working on. I have a binder full of stuff, but I also like to work away from home when I can. Having a semi screwed up back, and a really bad left arm, carrying heavy stuff is not my forte. Therefore, the more things I can do digitally the better. Except I hate having multiple files open in multiple programs.

I know what you’re thinking: why don’t you just use Scrivener. It’s made for writers, especially writers like you.

Well dear reader I had. Multiple times, but when things get too cluttered seeming and confusing I am very quick to abandon ship. Like the stereo-typical man, I’m not a fan of reading instructions (unless I’m assembling furniture). I love to feel I am smart enough to dive right in and figure everything out on my own.

As you can probably guess, that hasn’t worked out very well for me.

So after lots of trial and error with various other software programs “like” Scrivener, i finally decided to look into the real deal. And this time instead of getting overwhelmed, I made myself watch tutorial videos.

It’s amazing what a little edumacation can do. While I still have a lot to learn, my eyes have been opened to the joy that is this god of writer software, built by a company known as Literature and Latte (Which should have tipped me off right there to how awesome this thing really was).

Downloading any and all tutorial videos I can get my hands on, I truly foresee this replacing word for��the most part. The downside is sometimes I like to take my tablet with me to write, and with no android app I’m going to continue using Google docs for such a thing. Not that matters with the totally awesome import feature. That’s another thing I lurve about scrivener as of this moment. You see, I like writing in chunks. I find it helps me think better, so the fact that I can compile my current chunks, and then write in chunks within the program itself, is awesome.

I’m still learning a lot, and maybe I will blog about my new conversion as I gain more knowledge on this stupidly awesome program. You should try it out yourself, as there is a 30 days-of-use free trial, and it’s discounted for those NaNoWriMo peeps who conquered the 50 000 word mount.��Until then, I’m going to go back to learning and playing so i can get back to the writing.

New year, newish me

The new year is always brings a wave of doubt and lack of self confidence. I usually wonder why I’m bothering with writing, and whether or not I should bother continuing. I always end up trucking on, but that faze of self reflection always makes me take a look at what I want.

This year was no different except for one thing: what I determined in that self reflection.

As happened a couple years back, I feel I lost touch with who I am and how that relates to me as an author. This time it was not because I was a new mom struggling with that identity, but because I don’t know how to relate entirely to the chick lit community. I love the stories, and enjoy writing them, but I am not enough of a girlie girl to market to the right people.

I am committing to one release in that genre this year, but I don’t�� know if there will be much more. I have been exploring the idea of a fantasy series for a while, and it’s those characters that speak most to me these days.

There is something really enjoyable about playing in an entirely fictional world with characters that are facing their fears as well as evil. There is still a romantic aspect, that is part of my nature and an aspect I do love in writing. There is not, however, modern day luxuries or even a setting.�� There are no everyday issues standing in anyone’s way. It’s not what I have been writing, but it is the type of writing I have always lived to do.

So while I will still occasionally blog about writing, or maybe chick lit, my geek side will show more. New Zelda game next month, I am being excited to reply one of my old favorites. Once Upon a Time coming back in March? The count down is ON!�� New Avengers movie this year? You can expect a weepy post about how I don’t get to see it until the Blu ray is released.

‘Tis the Season

I have been working non stop since August. Or maybe July, I dunno. While the blog hasn’t been the most active, I have been diving head first with little to no breaks with all other things writing. Editing old novels, cleaning up a couple newer ones, rereleasing ebooks and setting up paperbacks, it’s all been hectic on it’s own. Throw NaNoWriMo in the mix and you can kind of see why one wouldn’t come up for air for a while.

After I finished my fifty thousand word goal (woot!) I got hit with a fantasy novel idea which I had to write before I took a break from anything. Okay, it wasn’t the idea, per se, as it was reading the synopsis for the abandoned NaNo project of 2013 and thinking “Damn that’s a good sounding book.” So three weeks and nearly seventy–five thousand words later I finished that project too. Oh, yeah, which reminds me, I will be releasing that series as a different author sometime in the next year. More to come on that later.

So as it stands I am more than up to date on everything I needed to do. Unscripted Transformations, the final book needing rerelease is back in ebook form, and Paperback is on schedule for it’s end of January release. There’s even a giveaway on Goodreads, so check that out.

Which leaves me feeling restless. But relaxed. This is the best time of year to catch up on the books I’ve neglected, the shows I’ve skipped for a couple extra hours of writing, and best of all is spending time with my hubby and son.

So until the new year, all. Happy Holidays to you and yours!

How do you spend the last weeks of the year?

NaNoWriMo and the toddler

Last year I shouldn’t have complained. Writing with a baby? Easy peasy in hindsight. Two nap times and can be totally preoccupied with toys on the floor. So what if I was tired from the 2 am feedings and the 6 am wake up call, I HAD IT MADE! This year Lil bug is much more demanding. And exhausting. Sure he sleeps a solid 11 hours, but during the day he is a ball of energy who must dance, play blocks, run around outside, ect. So all that nay saying I did last year? I take it all back. My best work does not happen at 6 am,  trying to write to kids songs to attempt to finish my nap time work is difficult. But hey, I’m  getting through it.

My word count is awesome. Not to brag, because if I didn’t have an awesome hubby, and NaNoWriMo didn’t start on a weekend, I wouldn’t have one.

So how do others do this, I wonder?

No seriously, how are all the other writers doing? Not a nanowrimo – er?  How do you keep up with toddler demands and writing life?

In the mean time, I have a castle to build and a song about Unicorns to listen to.