R.M. Ridley's Blog, page 17
October 13, 2014
Another Promo Post about the Antho I’m In!
In case you forgot – I’ve got short story in an anthology coming out very, very soon!
And …
There is a blog tour and give aways!
Click the PIC to find out more
Filed under: Book Release, Writing
October 12, 2014
More Proof E-cigs are not Analog Smokes
“Prof. Burstyn’s comprehensive analysis should help put to rest the good-faith concerns of some in the anti-smoking community who continue to doubt the safety of e-cigarettes’ ‘second-hand vapor.’ Unfortunately, for the bulk of the harm-reduction haters, this will probably have little impact, since they are refractory to science-based discussion, fixated as they are on their various perverse agendas.”
Filed under: Vaping
Official White Dragon Black News
I’ve pointed you to this site before and I am again… BookNerd’s Sneak Peaks
This is the blog of my beta-reader and the only official White Dragon Black Blog (besides my own). So if you want updates, rumours, and other fun stuff about the series, you really should be following her blog.
She just posted an official notice today from me – so hop on over and give it a read.
Filed under: Publishing, Writing
October 11, 2014
Doctors lash out at E-cig scare tactics
October 10, 2014
Legends and Lore – An Anthology of Mythic Proportions
This anthology comes out on the 22nd!
I have a White Dragon Black short story in it – ‘Charon’s Obol’ – and there are many other great tales as well.
Click on the pic to go to my publishers web page dedicated to this anthology. You can find out what the stories are about and, if you read my bio, you can discover the latest WDB news…the secret project I’ve been in the works with Xchyler to make happen!
CLICK IT!
Filed under: Writing
And… I’m a Scatter Brain
The other morning, I had worked at getting several hundred words into the fifth White Dragon Black novel, which, alas, still has no name. ~looks pointedly in Muse’s direction~ I decided to use some of my time in the afternoon to finish up the first draft of a short story. I opened the file and began to skim it, to re-familiarize myself with what already existed.
That didn’t take long, because there was only a couple of paragraphs – short ones at that. I felt my stomach drop, even as my mind went into wild bird in glass box mode. My brain bounced from one thought to another as it tried to reconcile the fact that it was sure there was a lot more to this work than was on the screen. My gut said I had somehow lost all the work.
I searched the computer, opened files incase it had been saved under a different name somehow, I stuck my thumb-drives in to make sure it wasn’t there. I even opened my email to see if it ad magically moved itself. All for naught.
Then I looked to my left and saw the small pile of pages ripped out of a notebook which had been sitting there for well over a month. I opened the fold over pages and read the first line.
Yeah. It was the majority of the story. Soon as I read it I remembered I had written it in the summer, waiting in my parents van for the delivery truck to bring the baby chickens. I just never got around to transcribing it. I honestly had no recollection of writing it that way until I unfolded the paper.
I have no idea what I thought those pages were but I do have note pages of all sizes, all over my tiny desk- story idea’s, quotes to put in current projects when I get there, jotted down interesting facts I might be able to insert in a story, all the usual writer’s stuff. Still, I felt pretty damn silly.
Now I’m putting the chicken scratch of my writing into the computer, so I can try and wrap this one up before working on the other two calling out for my attention. Because writing three short stories and a novel would be silly, two on the other hand…
Filed under: Writing Tagged: 5th novel, Brain, current work in progress, Jonathan Alvey, muse, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, short story, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, writing
October 8, 2014
Fall = Love and Hate… but mostly Hate
Fall means many things to me… not many of them good.
First it means that soon my brain will be cycling up. That my mental health issues will become more insistent. My bipolar will start its month long stressing of my coherent thoughts. And I will become less able to handle- well… just about anything. My need for routine will become more important as will the need to have stress removed.
Fall also means winter is right around the corner. Cold reaching deep into my bones and not letting go until some time in May. Snow banks up to my waist to tromp thru two or three times a day to feed wood to the furnace to keep the worst of the cold away. Fingers too cold to type coherent words and shoulders hunched up to my ears causing stiff neck muscles and back pain.
It is the time I catalogue all the projects I failed to do over the summer, while also listing all the things that must happen despite the cold and wet, before ice covers everything. This part, obviously, working directly agains the whole, follow routine and reduce stress aspect.
The only good thing about all this, is that my routine, my coping mechanism, the one thing my brain -even crazy as it gets – allows for me to do, is write (and edit).
These hell months that are descending, like a pack of harpies, at least allow for my Muse to channel into me and use me for greater lengths and purposes.
Filed under: Homesteading, Mental Health, MIscellaneous, Writing Tagged: bipolar, Brain, crazy, cycle, heat, Mental Health, muse, winter, wood, writing
October 7, 2014
No Really – I’m just the Conduit
I wrote some more in the fifth novel this morning. Several short snippets of scenes ranging across the time line of the manuscript, now exist. I put # tags on either end of these snippets, and hit the return button a few times. This works for me because I can see generally where in the progress of the novel they will fall, but keeps them self contained. I can add to the scene within the # and when two scenes finally mesh up, join each other in the time line, I simply remove the #.
However to assume that this means I know the plot in it’s entirety would be a mistake. I know the general flow. I know–at this stage in the manuscript–the main plot points. I know the over all how and why but the vast majority of the details simply are not there. Tat’s what the snippets contained in the # are—the small moments of detail shown to me by my Muse.
These scenes, these little details, begin to give me a wider view, as more moments happen, I can beginning to understand how the story must travel to get from A to B. Eventually I can see it all, but still the words, dialogue, conflicts, they can be sheathed in secrecy until I actually write them.
I trust it to all work out in the end because this is just how I write. Now, if I keep getting unwieldy manuscripts that are, in the end, too incoherent and leave my editors with headaches and stacks of empty red pens, I may have to reign this in, but until that happens I trust and write and enjoy.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: current work in progress, Jonathan Alvey, muse, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, plot, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, world building, writing
October 4, 2014
Back to the 5th
With all the edits that I had in my lap completed, and waiting for the next round to come from my beta-reader, I had the choice of doing nothing, or getting back to writing the fifth novel.
As I am a writer, I chose the second option. I had already been a bit disappointed in myself for allowing it to fall to the side of my attention. Continuing to allow it to wallow in activity would simply be wrong. I would very much like to see it finished this year, though I realize it will probably take longer than that – especially with all the edits yet awaiting me.
So, with putting it off not really an option, I turned my mind back to it. It had been awhile since I wrote in it however. Could I really just plunk myself back in? I figured I might have to take the time to reread what I had done- not the first time I’ve had to do that with a novel.
There was one scene though, that I knew – that I had seen in my mind – right at the start of this project which I hadn’t written yet. I decided to just write it. It didn’t matter if it was in chronological order. I already had scenes written out of order. In fact, it seems I am almost completely incapable of writing any other way now.
I jumped in and, with just over a thousand words, wrote the scene. It already has grounded me into what this novel is about. It sparked a lead-in scene, and I think I can continue to flow int the work from here.
Too many distraction are about to come my way, I really must anchor myself in this story and release bits every morning. Dedication to my goal might just counter distractions from my routine… I hope.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: beta reader, Bindings & Spines, current work in progress, edits, Jonathan Alvey, muse, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, plot, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, world building, writing
October 3, 2014
I’m cold and there are wolves out here…
More and more I don’t want to leave my study. It’s not just that I don’t want to stop working, it’s that I don’t want to do anything else. I know it seems like I’m splitting hairs but…
When I think about doing something that isn’t sitting at my desk, I get a cold hard feeling in my gut. I mean watching a movie with my wife, sure fine but going out and about–not so much. Things that are different, and take me outside my home and away from my desk, even for an hour, well I get uncomfortable. My mind retreats from the thought, the concept, and the actualization. The cold hard feeling starts being a heavy rock in a washing washing on full power.
This is my routine – the sitting at my desk working. This is what I am comfortable with and the more we draw near winter the worse this is going to get. I’m cycling up and this …tick, is only going to get worse as it does.
I know it is mental, a reaction to something that is manifesting as this. It isn’t agoraphobia (had that before a few times …though luckily never for long — the brain is a weird thing) but it does share similarities.
This, if I’m honest, has been going on for a number of months now. It’s why nothing got done this summer. I’m tethered by irrational emotional response and mental breakdown. I don’t want my routine broken. I don’t want to do other things. I want to feel comfortable, relaxed, and calm. I want to stay withdrawn here in my little word.
Unfortunately life – no matter how hard you try to ignore it – pushes in and mauls you. I don’t think there is an answer. I just get to hope it doesn’t get too unreasonable as winter comes and I cycle up. I also hope that , unlike last winter, there is nothing to drag me away from this seat during that most hated season.
Filed under: Mental Health, MIscellaneous
