Meri Benson's Blog, page 18

Prepping and Prompting

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So while I have been working away at trying to finish my short, and toiling away at trying to plan out my WIP details for the upcoming NaNo, I’ve also been scouring the internet looking for prompts to try and do a little bit of one shot, like 1k shorts to just get into the October spirit.

Because, after all, October isn’t just about being prepared for NaNo. It’s the start of Fall. It’s Halloween. It’s Dia de los Muertos. It’s Samhain. It’s the time of year where the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest. It’s where we get to dress up and be someone else for a night, or all month. And it’s where, even for those of us who don’t normally write it, we writers might want to try to craft something that goes bump in the night.

I don’t know what it is, or why it is, but my scouring the internet came up short. Most of what I found were prompts about sharing your memories of different events or emotions tied to Halloween. And that’s just not what I wanted.

So, I crafted some of my own prompts. Originally I was thinking of a prompt a day kind of list, but when everything falls into place that’s a lot for someone like me who works 9-5 Monday through Friday. So I crafted one prompt every other day instead. If you’re not looking at a calendar to count, that’s sixteen prompts.

If you’re planning to fill any of the prompts, leave a comment down below with which one(s) you’re thinking of doing. As well, if you post it anywhere, I’d love to see it so go ahead and throw a link in the comment, or tweet me @MerisCorner because I’d love to see them all written out!

Meri’s October 2017 Prompts

In the middle of the night, some children summon an evil spirit.
Strange symbols have been found on the walls of the ladies’ room.
Small items have been found arranged into strange patterns in the mornings at the local library.
One evening, in an abandoned house, a group of students find something dangerous.
Puddles of mysterious liquid have been found in City Hall.
Strange lights have been seen near the woods at midnight.
A strange puppet arrives in the mail after a young girl accidentally reads from a spell book.
An evil spirit gets trapped in a bracelet.
A girl gets cursed from a strange website that was sent to her email.
A spell book sends a group of friends to a parallel world.
A thief steals an old pendant with a dark past and gets more than they bargained for.
A storm brings something dark and sinister to a sleepy rural town.
An old door appears at a family home on Halloween, leading to a mysterious place.
People at a library the night of the Full Moon have memory loss of the whole night.
Someone from another dimension arrives through an ordinary door on the full moon.
A woman is gifted a pair of earrings that contain a vengeful spirit bent on possessing her.

 

I hope you enjoy these prompts. And I hope that you let me know if you fill them!

October becomes Preptober

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So we’ve fallen into October. Or, well, I’ve fallen into October. I’m still working on a short, it’s bad, I know. But while I haven’t actually finished writing it I’ve outlined what I want to happen. I just need to focus a little more on getting it all done. Because it HAS to be done before November. Has to be. Ideally, I’d like it to be done by next week so I can really devote the rest of this month into planning out what I’m doing for November.

What’s November, you might ask? It’s National Novel Writing Month! Where you pledge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Sounds like a lot? It kind of is, and I always succeed better when I have an outline for my novel, so I know where I’m supposed to be going.

I had briefly considered continuing the one from last year to get it done. I want to write that one and get it on paper. But there are still a few things I’m unsure of for it. So I’m going to sit on it for a little while longer to better work out some of it.

Instead I’ll be striving to do a completely new novel, and a completely new style for NaNo. My story is going to have a DnD inspired story within it. Which makes October even more important for prepping because I have double the world building and double the character creation for it. Each character is going to be playing a character within the story. There’ll be two plots, the plot of the game within the story and the plot that follows the main characters in their world. And the fantasy world within the game, and the world that the main characters live in when not gaming.

Have I confused you yet? Hopefully the answer is No.

If yes? Let me see if I can simplify it.

Basically the story will follow six people in a small Midwestern town. They’re in a gaming group together, and there will be a plot focused around them. As well, I am looking to develop their actual game, give life to the story that they’re playing out when they all meet up together on Friday nights, run the two stories within the same novel.

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It’s something I’ve never done before, because it’s not like a lot of the gamer fiction where someone gets trapped in a game and becomes part of it and has to find their way to survive and potentially get out.

This will be a lot more to juggle. A Lot more to plan. Especially since fantasy settings involve a lot more as a whole as well.

Wish my luck with this journey down the rabbit hole, because I have no idea if it will end up being a great story or if it will be a cluster of not great. I’m hoping the first one.

If you are doing NaNo this year, are you dedicating October to being Preptober to get yourself set up? Are you pantsing it all the way? Let me know down in the comments!

First Day of Fall!

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Would you believe we only have about a quarter of the year left before it’s 2018?

Ever since my dad passed away, I feel like the days just fly by before I can grab them and know what’s going on. I don’t know where the summer went, or the other first half of the year, really. I look around and there’s not too much to track the year past doctor notes and bills. This year especially hasn’t been great health wise for mom or I. But we’re managing as we can.

I have been reading a little, tiny bit. Not enough to finish a book. But I’m hoping to finish one this weekend. So there’s that.

WIP wise, I added a little to a current work but not a lot. I need to really get in there and finish. I think my problem is I knew how it started, so I have that down. I know how I want it to end, but I never fully thought out the middle part and so my brain is kind of doing a ‘what do’ thought process as I start at the page. I’m thinking of skipping that section for a little bit and writing the parts I know and maybe the middle will come to me later. I’ve never written the end before the middle before, but hey, I guess there’s a first time for everything.

Also. Did you know we’re getting dangerously close to NaNoWriMo Prep month? Because we totally are. Just 8 days before Prep Month, and a month after that we’re into NaNoWriMo. I’m not sure if I want to try conquering a new project when I have two WIPs that need to edit and polish. But at the same time I don’t think there’d be enough polishing the WIPs that would get me through NaNoWriMo.

Choices, Choices.

Are you thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo? If you are, will you use October to prep for November and what you’ll be writing? Do you plan to pants your way through the month? Let me know in the comments below!

September! September! Where have you gone!

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Would you believe that it’s already almost half way through the month? If you didn’t know, I work 9-5 for a University. I won’t say which one, but I take care of the day to day for a small department, helping faculty and graduate students alike. And one of the most hectic times of year, there are two, is the end of August/beginning of September. We have new Graduate Students coming in, getting settled, trying to make sure they’re registered for the classes that they need to take. On top of that normal, we started a new Masters program that I’m lead contact on, so I’ve been getting the small cohort for that program settled.

Personal wise, I’ve been healing from that concussion. My being on a computer has finally worked its way out, mostly, so there’s little to no pain when on it for long periods of time any more. And the headaches and migraines that I’d been getting have slowly gone away. Mom’s been seeing doctors for her breathing issue – it’s still not cleared up at all. They’ve confirmed that she’s only getting 60% of the lung capacity that she should have, but they still can’t actually pin point what is going on to cause the decrease. So still watching over her, making sure she rests as she needs to.

My weekends have also been taken by things, though happier things. A good friend of mine got married, and that was an amazing and beautiful time. Too short, in my opinion, but that’s only because I wasn’t able to stay too long at the reception.

I’m working, extremely slowly – snails speed slowly, on my WIPs. I am. I’m trying to implement a better schedule (or a schedule at all really), where after work and dinner before TV and video games and/or crashing I write for at least an hour. Of course, a good chunk of this time has been spent cleaning my desk to be able to feel like I can write first. But I’m at the point where I should be able to write starting this week.

My cats don’t like it. They sit and stare at me, meow at me. Because after a long day of not being home they demand attention. I try to give it to them between thoughts and word flow without killing my concentration. Though, that’s sometimes hard because my one has a habit of slipping behind the computer and wiggling the power cord JUST enough to unplug it. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t pissed every time.

Here’s to goals of getting my schedule set up though. I’m hoping by October I’ll be set in my writing ways and will be far more productive on my WIPs than I am now.

What goals do you have for the remainder of the year? Or just the remainder of the month? Let me know in the comments below!

Illness & Health

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So, it’s been a while my lovely blog and lovely readers. Like a month, give or take a few days. I didn’t mean to be gone that long, honest. A lot of health stuff has been going on in my life that I hadn’t planned on or expected, isn’t that always the case though.

The timeline is fairly timely. But I’ll try to condense it to something shorter. We’ll see how well that goes, as I do love the words.

I can’t remember if I mentioned, my mom was diagnosed with pneumonia the weekend of July 4th. They thought it was bacterial, gave her antibiotics for it and sent her on her way. Fast forward to  July 24, and she ended up in the ER because her oncologist didn’t like the sounds of her lungs. They basically deemed her with viral pneumonia, which takes a hell of a lot longer to heal from and get over. And one of the side effects she’s dealing with is difficulty breathing. She can’t lay down because she can’t breath. She has to be careful eating because after eating she has issues breathing.

And I know it’s not me dealing with the health issue on that end, but it’s lead to a lot of stress and worry on my end because she’s my mom and I want her to be healthy and okay. She’s still dealing with the breathing issue, and coughing up phlegm and all too as I type this.

On my end, it’s not just the stress and worry that I’m dealing with.

I ended up with a concussion.

Yes, you read that right. The same day my mom was in the ER, I was in the ER for a work related injury to check out my head. How, you might ask? I was rearranging the cords for a faculty member of mine, and moved too fast under the desk and hit myself well. On a solid steel desk. Three hours later, with a splitting migraine and this rash and undeniable need to cry my heart out for absolutely no reason, found me filing out a work incident report and headed to the ER because the nurse that saw me didn’t like how unfocused and unbalanced I was after some rest time.

Between mom and I we were in the ER until almost midnight. And doctor’s orders for me were to stay off anything I needed my eyes for for the next two days, and to limit my computer use, tv watching, and reading for the next couple months because brain injuries take longer to heal.

Over all, I’ve been getting migraines – a health issue I’ve dealt with since I was fifteen – more frequently and in increasingly hard to fight through the pain and actually do things. I don’t say that lightly either, because as I type this I’m having to focus doubly hard because I have one currently. My office doesn’t help, because I’m under fluorescent lights all day and they only aggravate it more.  But sadly, as someone whose desk is the front desk of a department, I can’t just shut the door and turn out the lights to make myself feel better during business hours.

So yes, the reason I haven’t really been active, blog writing, WIP writing, Review writing, and twitter posting is less to do with motivation recently and more to do with the fact that I’m having trouble sitting at a computer for too long before my brain starts to feel like it’s melting. I’m hoping my brain will get on healing faster, I have words to write and characters to boss around. But it’s not something I can rush either. It takes the time it takes. (Can you tell Patience has never been one of my strong traits?)

I hope that you, my dear readers, are doing well.

Life & Booktubeathon 2017

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Don’t think I forgot about you, my valued and lovely readers. I most certainly did not. I know it’s been a little over a week since I last posted on here, and there is definitely a shame on me for that, I do have a reason. I was sick. I ended up with a cold of some kind on the 3rd. I pushed through it and seemed to be getting better until I ended up with sharp pain in my ears. An Urgent Care trip, if you’ve been following my Twitter you probably saw this already, diagnosed me with a mild ear infection on the left and a serious ear infection on the right. And I’m always lethargic when on antibiotics. So between meds and healing, things just didn’t go well for me. On top of that, my mother, who I dragged into Urgent Care with me, was diagnosed with pneumonia. So I’ve been keeping a close eye on her. She, this last weekend, also ended up having her shoulder seize up, and we still haven’t been able to get the muscle to unlock so we’re trying to manage her pain as we can. But, all the health problems have meant, sadly, that no words have been typed and stored and added to the word count.

Camp NaNoWriMo really isn’t fairing well for my poor little novel. But, health is more important than words, right? Right.

I am hoping to get some time to write in. I am going to be pretty stuck at home this weekend. We’re having a contractor come in to redo the bathroom floors. Subfloor is shot, so I’m taking the ability to replace the tile in there and everything. But it means lazying about so if he needs anything I’m around. Here’s hoping that words can be done while he works.

Also, as the title suggests, I have another goal. Booktube-a-thon is next week. And I’m thinking of following lots of booktubers and readers in reading books! What is booktube-a-thon? It’s a readathon held by a booktuber over on Youtube. You can find out all about this year’s event by watching this video! The goal is to read as much as possible during the week long event. Comic books, graphic novels, audio books, ebooks, print copies, if it’s a book of some kind, it’s fair game to count.

I’m still working out my TBR list for this event, but I’m definitely interested in participating. Any suggestions on some good books? Make sure to leave them in the comments below!

Book Review: Sprinkle with Murder by Jenn McKinlay

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Author: Jenn McKinlay

Publisher: Berkely

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Rating:  4 Stars

 

 

 

Melanie and Angie are two friends that, with a third friend who more of a silent investor, opened their dream shop. Fairy Tale Cupcakes. Despite the stress of a local bakery owner not liking the competition everything seems to be going will. They even have their first big customer – a bride-to-be who wants 500 cupcakes for her wedding.

But when Melanie finds the bride-to-be dead, she becomes the main suspect in a murder that could not only put her in jail but sink her new business. Determined to find the real killer, Melanie starts digging herself.

Overall, I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. I ended up starting it at 7pm one night and every time I tried to put it down to go to sleep my brain refused and I found myself continuing. I finished it about three hours later, and I’m already planning to pick up the next book in the series.

Now, I know, this book is far from new. It was originally published in 2010 and I purchased my copy through a used bookstore. But that’s really not the point, is it? What is the point is that it’s a quick read, as most cozy mysteries are, and it keeps you hooked and wanting to know more.

I enjoyed exploring the whodunit with Melanie to race against time to figure out the culprit before her shop took the brunt of the problems with the murder.

As well, I am in love with the cupcake recipes in the back of the book and can’t wait to try my had at making them. The cupcake recipes are for ones that were mentioned in the story that the shop itself sells and I think that putting them in the back like that is just a beautiful touch that a lot of cozy mysteries these days are missing.

Over all, while it’s not new, I highly recommend reading this cute book if you’re looking for something and enjoy a cozy mystery.

 

Holiday Weekend

[image error]This weekend is going to prove to be a loud one. It already has been, truthfully. Last night, there were a ton of fireworks going off even though there is still some time before the 4th. I don’t mind them over all, so long as they’re not from the neighbors coming into my yard, but my cats don’t particularly like them or know what to do with the sounds and scares they get from the super loud noise. I expect that they will only get worse as we head toward the 4th.

Over all, my whole plan for this Holiday weekend is to try and relax some, get some reading in, and of course, getting some writing done. Camp started yesterday, after all. And Camp is all about writing. Getting those words on the page is my goal. And it shall happen. I believe in myself.

I also ended up finding a used online bookstore. So I might do a bookhaul blog once they all come in. And hopefully after some quick reads, they’re all cozy mysteries, get a couple reviews up on here. Reading and writing! It’s important for days off!

Though, tomorrow I do have half a day of work. But it’s better than a full day I guess.

How are you spending your 4th of July weekend? Do you have Monday off?

Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash

 

To Camp!

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I’m going camping in July!

Well. Not camping in the traditional sense. At least, not until August – at which points there will be tents and bugs, and a lot of sun.

No, July’s camping is much more virtual. I’m going to be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. 30 days of cabinmates, forums of other writers, and me finishing this work in progress I have been wanting to finish.

A friend of mine suggested that we both participate. Me, so I can finish my current WIP, and her so she can finally really dig into a book that’s been floating around her head for like two years now.

Now, some of you are probably going, ‘what’s NaNoWriMo?’ and others, who may know about the main NaNoWriMo may be going ‘Camp NaNoWriMo? Did you make this up?’

First and foremost, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It was started way back when, and it’s when a bunch of us (thousands of us) writers get together for the month of November with the solid idea of writing 50,000 words in a month – ideally it’s towards a novel but some use it to rewrite novels, or do a compilation of short stores, etc. You can find more information at their website: nanowrimo.org

Camp NaNoWriMo is run by the same people who run the original NaNoWriMo. They created Camp NaNoWriMo because they had enough people going ‘but guys, I have finals in November, and we have this whole Thanksgiving Holiday because I live in the states where I have to be social with family! I can’t hole up for a month to write!’ And such, Camp NaNoWriMo was born. Camp is held twice a year, in April and in July. Unlike NaNoWriMo the Original, you can set your own word count for the month. Which makes it the perfect session to finish an already started project, verses trying to write one from start to finish.

And instead of regions that you’re broken into when participating in NaNoWriMo, Camp splits you into cabins of people and there’s a community discussion area where you can chit chat and encourage each other while the month gets going.

Find Camp NaNoWriMo at their website: campnanowrimo.org

Over all, it should be fun. And by the end of it, I should be able to go ‘It’s Finished!’. At least, that’s the plan!

Are you planning to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo? Let me know down in the comments below!

New Writing Prompts on the Horizon

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So, I was at the bookstore the other day with my best friend and I happened upon this book just sitting on a shelf staring at me. I get distracted by shiny, and I don’t mean shiny like pretty but shiny like actual shiny. The writing on this book was all shiny reflective gold and I kind of loved it. The title of the book also caught me, no lie.

Write the Story – yes, the image that probably dragged you in here to read my blog post.

It’s this mostly empty book, with a prompt and ten items that you should be including in your writing when filling the prompt.

I’m excited to try to use this to help me better at writing. Because these can be used just for exercises to get me a little more back in the writing spirit. I think it will be fun to see what crazy interesting things will come from these prompts.

Maybe I’ll even share them here. Or at least pieces of them. We’ll see.

I’m hoping to start working on doing these prompts maybe once a week in July. I know they’re not really meant to be all that long, the book only gives you a page each prompt, but I never know how long my short prompts are going to be until I’m writing it and it’s coming to a close. After all, my current WIP was originally planned for 30,000 and it’s going on 50,000 words. We shall see.

What do you use to inspire you? Let me know in the comments below.