Bre Faucheux's Blog, page 54

I Hate My Teeth – WARNING: RANT AWAITS

Today I would like to rant about a topic that has absolutely NOTHING to do with writing and everything to do with something that makes me cringe.

My teeth.

I was born 3 1/2 months premature. Now, given that small fact, I am quite lucky. I have known others who were also born that premature and did not end up so fortunate as I am. I have all my mental facilities (most days) and my body is relatively in proportion. I have known others who have disabilities in those areas because of the premature factor. But with me, my main fault and flaw regarding my prematurity is and always will be… my teeth. And low endurance, but exercise helps with that.

Let’s count all the work I have had done on my teeth. And keep in mind that the surgeries started when I was in the second grade, so this is only what I can remember.

- 4 teeth pulled (might be more, but that’s all I can currently remember. Basically my mouth was too small for all of my teeth).

- Overbite wire (makes the top 3 of most painful).

-3 Oral surgeries. (One in particular that left me practically deformed in the mouth and feeling like I got punched by Dwayne Johnson).

- 6 years of braces. (Don’t let anybody tell you that shit doesn’t hurt).

- Permanent wire behind my bottom front teeth.

- Three crowns.

- Bonding on my four front teeth (which is part of the problem now because they are relatively shot).

- Temporary frontal wire.

- Well over 15 cavities.

Now… all this is because I have extremely weak enamel. It is no fault of my own. I brush 3 times a day. Floss twice a day. Gave up refined sugar. And I have even been told that I brush too hard because I am so anal about keeping them clean.

Well, about a year ago, I went to the dentist before I moved and was told I had three cavities. No surprise there. It’s a running joke in my family for me to come home and my parents to ask “How many this time?”

But we were moving. I took my x-rays with me. But the dentist here naturally wanted his own X-rays done and wanted the money for that new Lexus payment…I have no doubt. Grr! This new guy said I had six cavities. Not three. But let’s remember, I was laid off. I had to save my money to get all this crap done. And I have been. In addition to my books, I have two other jobs on the side that help me to buy books and save for the important stuff. Like my teeth.

Well, upon deciding that the previous dentist was a quack, I went to someone new and closer to my family’s new house. And that turned out to be a good decision. Because she spotted things that the other two dentists missed. I almost feel like suing the other two if I could afford it because this could have been so much worse. Especially since the first one mentioned tried to tell me that this problem with my teeth was that I am an overall irresponsible person and I don’t take good enough care of myself. I could have slaughtered her. But that would inevitably get lawyers involved with my life. Not recommended.

The tally is as follows:

- My bondings new replacing.

- By this I mean that they are worthless. My teeth are worthless as well. Particularly my front teeth. The front two need crowns. One might need a root canal. (Need I remind you that this is not because I suck at life or at taking care of myself. My teeth have always just been rotten). And then they need to have veneers placed on top. At the end, I will have pretty teeth. But need I say OUCH????

- I only have two cavities after all. Har har previous dentist.

- And the mother of all mothers…I have three years of progressive gum disease. FUNNNNNNN!!!!!!! The new dentist called this the “silent killer” much like cancer because it can eventually cause septic poisoning in the blood stream. (Flashback to me on Thursday night with a glass of whiskey in one hand, dog in the other, crying my EYES out. To say I was freaked would be an understatement. I mean….WHY didn’t the other TWO dentists spot this???????????)

So……. today, I am going to get impressions done for these lovely veneers (which is gonna suck because I have a small mouth and the metal things make me gag like nobody’s business). And then…dear lord can’t believe this procedure even exists…….they are going to deaden my gums. All of them. Then lift them (YIKES) and clean UNDER my gums. And that is the first of my dental ventures in the coming months ahead.

Yeah… I’m freaking out. I thought I was getting beyond this teeth garbage when I had the bonding done years ago. I thought at the worst I would only need a few cavities filled.

No such luck.

So if I am absent for the next month or longer from my videos, it is because I have extreme pain of the mouth. Or my front teeth look like I am in transition toward becoming a zombie. Or something of that nature.

Excuse me. I need to go cry now.

Fuck my life.

Rant over.

Experience is a Bullshit Word

Today’s post is gonna be a bit angry. It might even qualify as a rant, but here it goes.

You know how Red said in ‘Shawshank Redemption’ that rehabilitated was a made up word? Well, that’s how I feel about the word ‘experience.’ It is a made up bullshit word that has no credit in this world what so ever.

What does this have to do with writing you might ask…absolutely nothing. I merely want to discuss one of the many reasons I am pursuing writing so hard and not trying to get a normal day job like everyone else. Sure, I have a day job. But one of those soul sucking ones that people dread – I don’t want one of those. And all these years, that was exactly what I thought I wanted. Turns out, now that is my worst fear. Convenient that I figured this out after I had gotten a degree and spent tons of money on education. And sure, my education has helped immensely with my writing skills. But I didn’t need as much of it as I thought I did over the years.

When I first got out of school, everyone told me that if you go to college, you will get a job. And if you get a Masters (which I did), you are guaranteed an even better job or a promotion down the road. Well, that’s just not true anymore. What you really need is this fucked up bullshit word called “experience.” Employers use this world more than any other in the world. Even for jobs such a bagging groceries and delivering pizza. Apparently you have to have a significant math skills to know that you don’t put meat in the same bag as the other groceries because juices can get into the other stuff.

Basically, I believe I was lied to. What I really needed was to have a job while doing all these other things and make sure that I have that little bullshit word on my resume so it doesn’t get lost in the heap where everyone else is.

Oh, and what is up with this ‘apply online’ bullshit. When you have limited ‘experience’ like myself, you have a hard time filling out those online things. They generally want you to fill in the last two or three places you worked and won’t move forward with the application until you fill that part out. And you can’t apply if it is not filled in. Or you just get lost in the slush pile like everyone else.

Then I went to a Chinese restaurant recently. The owner came out to talk to us because we are regulars. He was discussing how he wanted a new waiter but no one was qualified because no one around our area had enough ‘experience.’  I wanted to vomit. This restaurant has all of seven tables, is quite small, and the menu was relatively easy to memorize. And yet he felt that the qualifications needed to be quite high.

Workers of the world, when were you given a first chance? Who took a chance on you? It used to be the case (at least my parents tell me this) that anyone who wanted a job could find one. Now, with the influx of degrees, a piece of paper saying you studied at Uni doesn’t mean shit because tons of other people have the same thing. They want to know about your practical “experience” because everything else is officially theoretical at this point.

Or maybe it’s just the banks screwing us over… telling everyone to take out loans and get that degree so you can get a job otherwise you will be fired from life. And now that they are bathing in money we can’t afford to pay back and fucking up our credit reports.

This is something that has bothered me for ages and continues to do so. When computers got to certain level of technology, I knew that I would have problems getting a job. Because they are being used to filter through applications. They have programs that literally look through your resume in under a few seconds to search for key words. And they say that hiring managers (don’t even get me started on HR) only look at an application for a few seconds.

Want a quick way to piss me off? Tell me when I ask your manager how to apply that I need to “apply online,” then watch the blood start to flow.

Here’s to getting my own business rolling. Because this stuff has had my brain in a permanent twist for over two years now.

So….the bottom line is: FUCK EXPERIENCE! It’s a made up word so you assholes in suits can have a job and come to work each day. And all the while tell me all the ways in which I suck at life because I didn’t get the same qualifications that you did.

Rant over.

Writing Log | September

I did some reading this morning, and there are some bloggers/writers out there who document all the writing they do in a month. I do this as well. I have a whole file that I call a “Writing Log.” So I think I will start to post a blog each month detailed the progress I made that month. If anything, this will help to keep me on track, help me to know that I am actually accomplishing something, and will let my readers know what I am working on and what to expect to come out relatively soon.

This month was rather solid. I spent a few days where I just planned out other stories because I was lost in the pile of work and my own personally set deadlines loomed over my head like a mystical black cloud. But for the most part, I got er’ done.

There were a few days in there where I trashed the words I had written and placed them into another file. I never delete what I write. I simply put it into a trash folder.

I am in the middle of writing both the 4th Elder Origins book and the 3rd Violet Blake. I hope to have Violet Blake’s story wrapped up by the end of this year. Unlikely, but a girl can dream. Because honestly, I have spent a year with Violet, and her woes need to come to an end. Unfortunately, things must get worse before they can get better. Sigh.

Then there is this fantasy I have been working on. And love. I love love love it. Which means that it will probably get semi-horrible reviews. But I don’t care. I want to get it out there for the world to see because I think it’s fabulous. I only worry because I don’t get to work on it as often as I would like and I feel like I need to get it out of my head and on paper as fast as possible. And I only have about 3,000-4,000 words of writing fuel per day before I reach burn out mode.

So without further ado, here it goes.

Month of September:

A total of approx. 51,000 words written.

One week for some reason I left undocumented, so the number of words is likely higher than this.

I wrote approx 10,000 words on a short story. Then 13,000 for the 4th Elder Origins book. 16,000 for the 3rd Violet Blake. And 4,000 on a new fantasy series that I decided today needs to be shorter than I thought only a few hours ago. I wanted to publish it traditionally, but with this new business model I am trying out, I don’t think that is feasible. I will simply make it into another novella series and stop worrying about traditional publishing. Because let’s face it. After years of observation, it’s overrated. Self publishing is harder because you write more at a faster pace. But that is half of what I like about it.

The rest of the words I wrote were plotting for books. And yes, those count as work in my mind.

So there is it. The Writing Log for September. More details to come in a future log post for October.

VOILA!!!!!

The Back Burner

So lately, I have had to put a couple of ‘works in progress’ on the back burner. I said in a previous Bre Faucheux video that when you are writing a book, you need to finish it in under three months. I stick by this. But then again, I am having problems doing exactly that.

I have a WIP right now that I am so in love with. It is turning into probably a high fantasy type of thing. I feel like I have read enough fantasy lately to be able to write it decently. Not that I am a pro, but descent enough. I have a young heroine in a fantasy world that is so screwed up that it might as well be considered a fantasy dystopian. She is struggling to understand her own place in this world and how to navigate it. And I loving seeing her struggle on through.

At the same time, I am writing short stories under a different name. I have this tiny feeling that those stories might do better than the stories under my Bre Faucheux name. I could be completely wrong about that, but I am following a sales model through someone I am communicating with via KBoards. Only thing is that it will require a lot of my attention in the coming months ahead. Like, practically all of it. I want to work on other things while working on those shorts, and I don’t know how to navigate that sea of confusion as far as following one story line in the morning and writing on that versus another in the afternoon.

Then we get to add on the stress of the daily life of a caretaker situation that is so profoundly bizarre that I was reduced to tears last night. I have tried to make use of government programs to help me out and they literally shut the door in my face and said, “You’re on your own, kid.” Yes, my situation is really strange. I have had doctors tell me that they didn’t even know who to refer me to for help because of my weird circumstances.

Bottom line, I sit down to work most days and don’t know which project to give precedence. A new Elder Origins needed to be written like….yesterday. Then Violet Blake actually started to sell better than it has in months. So I need book three on that pronto. Then I have these shorts under a different pen name that are doing okay but supposedly will do better over time. Then I have this high fantasy that is lustfully luring me back even though I would rather see it traditionally published one day. YEAH! That’s right, I said it. I would like at least ONE book traditionally published before I die.

So there…. that is the mess that’s been in my head for the last two weeks.

To all other authors out there, how do you balance working on multiple things at once? One week on this, another on that? Or do you trudge thing on things then onto the next? Any advice would be appreciated.

The Loves/Hates of Self Publishing

Okay. This is something that needs to be said. Because there are things about self publishing that I love and things that drive me bat shit crazy out of my flipping mind. And I like to quote George Carlin in this case, because it is SO true. “I don’t have pet peeves. I have major psychotic fucking hatreds.”

Yeah, that’s me. So without further ado… here it goes.

What I love:

- I get all the power. Like I’m a GODDESS. I don’t have a publisher telling me that my ideas suck, or that I can’t use that particular title. I don’t have to worry about the publisher choosing a cover that makes my heart sink because it is no way reflects my vision for the story. I don’t have that issue. I get ALL the say.

- I can publish whenever I am ready. I can push that button and take a sigh of relief and then a bottle of wine because I am nervous. I did just put a part of myself out there for the world to see. And that is always terrifying. But hey, I accomplished something. I don’t have to wait a year and revisit things that a publisher/editor thinks are not quite right again, and again, and again.

- I don’t have to go on book tours. I know this sounds strange, because every author should WANT to do book tours. Go out, meet people. Have a signing. Well, I am not that person. Because when you do a book tour, you are expected to get up in front of everybody and talk for about twenty minutes or so. Years of French Oral Exams have traumatized me considerably and this is my idea of a fucking nightmare. Yeah, I said it. The mere idea of it scares me. Let alone sitting there and having no one show up except one of the book store clerks so you don’t feel bad. With that being said, I would love to do a blog tour some day. I don’t know what is entailed, but I would like to try it out.

- I set my own deadlines. I think this one speaks for itself.

Now… What I HATE about self-publishing.

- The stigma. I tell people that I am self-published and they immediately assume that I am chewing on bitter ash of my lifetime failures and all my books are stock piled in my garage because there is no one but family and friends who read them. I will have you know that I had my best sales month EVER this month.

- The reviews that THINK they are helpful. This one is something that I could go on about forever and ever and ever. PARTICULARLY the reviews telling me that “there are a few grammar errors.” This one comment makes me want to Krav Maga someone’s ass. Because 1, they think they are being helpful. And 2, it’s condescending. I have never in my life read a traditionally published book where I didn’t find at least one tiny grammar error. EVER. Not EVER! And yet, if someone KNOWS you are self-publishing, they feel the need to point out the fact that your book needs a good edit because there were 3 grammatical errors. Harry Potter 7 had several, yet you never hear about that. I think that I should get some credit for the fact that out of a 300 page manuscript that I edited myself, only 3 things slipped through. And by my beta. I think that is an accomplishment, and not something to be pointed out. Because here is the news flash, reviews that say that, are more detrimental than they are helpful. They lead other potential buyers into thinking that your book is written in an amateur like way. GRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- CreateSpace (AKA: getting things in paperback) is a total bitch. Formatting will always be my least favorite thing in the world.

- Martketing. It’s hard to get your name out there and make people aware of what you are doing. By the time something “gets around” as something that works, it’s old news and it doesn’t work as well anymore. So you have to on top of the new marketing techniques that work on a daily basis and literally POUNCE on them. I can’t always do that. And it hurts my sales from time to time.

These are my two cents.

♥♥♥

Stolen | Book Review

Stolen – By Lucy Christopher

The title explains it all!

Hope you enjoy!

My books:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Bre%20Faucheux&sprefix=Bre+F%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ABre%20Faucheux

My beauty channel :https://www.youtube.com/user/TribalFaerie

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My First Giveaway! (U.S. only…Sorry).

To enter, leave a comment below saying which book you want to receive and be subscribed. I will message the winner.

Hope you enjoy!

My books:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Bre%20Faucheux&sprefix=Bre+F%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ABre%20Faucheux

My beauty channel :https://www.youtube.com/user/TribalFaerie

Blog: BreFaucheux.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBreFaucheux

Twitter: Bre_Faucheux

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GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7258303.Bre_Faucheux

August 2014 Wrap Up and September TBR

The title explains it all!

Hope you enjoy!

My books:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Bre%20Faucheux&sprefix=Bre+F%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ABre%20Faucheux

My beauty channel :https://www.youtube.com/user/TribalFaerie

Blog: BreFaucheux.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBreFaucheux

Twitter: Bre_Faucheux

Tumblr: brefaucheux.tumblr.com

Instagram: tribalfaerie

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7258303.Bre_Faucheux

Top 5 Fictional Schools – T5W

Blog: BreFaucheux.wordpress.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBreFaucheux

Twitter: Bre_Faucheux

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My Books are Available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Bre%20Faucheux&sprefix=Bre+F%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ABre%20Faucheux

Here is Lainey’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWEbV2Z1guEF0SvWF0Ng2qw

The Year Long Shuffle

I was going through my writing notebook yesterday and realized something rather upsetting. I started writing the “Violet Blake” series 11 months ago. That’s nearly a year. It’s been through four or five rewrites. The only part I have published in the first novella. The second is almost ready, but REALLY! That Is beyond ridiculous. I did publish a short story and did work on the side for three other books that remain unpublished, but that is just too damn long.

I love the premise for Violet Blake, but it has consumed my brain for too long and I need to move on to something else for the time being. So many Indie authors tell me that I am not publishing quick enough and my rhythm is going to get messed up. And maybe that is true. I want sales and I want this to be my career one day. But I can’t force something that clearly isn’t working.

I am not going to leave the story an orphan. I fully intend and PLAN to finish it. Although for now, I need to step away from it. The characters all have maps and backgrounds. I know how I want the series to end. But the middle work has been racking my brain for ages. I think the primary reason why is because when I started getting to the gritty bit in the middle was when my personal life kinda went to shit. My loved one got sick, I had to move twice, and I was seriously stressed out. The energy that I was going to put into the story was lost somewhere in the shuffle of the events of the previous 9 months.

So… my dear Violet Blake. I love you. I cherish you. But we need a standard trial separation. Just for a little while. This isn’t good bye. And yes, I know that it might mess up any readership the story might have acquired (unlikely), but I need to focus elsewhere for brain wrack reasons.