Loni Townsend's Blog, page 11

I’m it in Rising Author Tag

Despite the low rating by critics and the sort, I enjoyed the movie Tag. But this blog post has nothing to do with that.

Author C.G. Coppola tagged me in the Rising Author Tag. Not sure that I’m a rising author since it’s been years since I put out anything beyond a short story, but still… Thank you, Caitlin!

Ah… Whoops #IWSG

So, I just now realized it was Wednesday. Been busy with tech refreshes at work and trying to recover after letting everything slide with NaNoWriMo (which I won – woot!). I might’ve dropped a few balls. In fact, I didn’t even bother trying to catch them. And now it’s the first Wednesday of the month, meaning it’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group!

After a month of putting everything except my writing aside (okay, I still went to work), I’m struggling to reign it back in and redistribute my attention to everything else in life. You know, stuff like doing laundry, paying the bills, and scheduling kids medical appointments. It’s difficult, I tell you. I fell behind on scheduling critique group meetings, I stopped looking at my email, and I stopped blogging or visiting blogs because I didn’t want to deviate from the obsession of meeting word count. Perhaps a bit unhealthy if you ask me.

Now, I’m weaning myself off of throwing my total focus into writing my story, and the withdrawals are kicking in. My fingers itch to click onto my project instead of my critique exchange folder. I’m tempted to get a few extra words in on my story rather than doing the exercises my body sorely needs. I actually have to take the kids out and do stuff on the weekend rather than shutting the bedroom door on them. And I still haven’t paid those darn bills.

Where does my insecurity lie in all of that? Well, I’m wondering when I’ll get my life balance back.

The optional question of the month is What are five objects we’d find in your writing space? Since I don’t have a writing space, you probably would only find two things consistently… me and whatever thing I’m using to type on/with. Pretty fail answer, eh?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group



You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Are you good at balancing life? Do long spurts of writing throw you off your game? Did you remember it was Wednesday?

The post Ah… Whoops #IWSG appeared first on Squirrel Talk.

NaNo Here I Go #IWSG

November kicked off pretty well on the writing front. If you’re not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s where people everywhere try to write 50K in 30 days. This is my 7th year going for it, and though I failed the past two years, I think I’ll make it this year. Why? Because this year, I have a plan. I took the time to map out all the scenes I’d need to take me from beginning to end of book 3, that way I’m not having to mess with the timeline post-writing like I did with Isto. I’ve already deviated, but I’m not worried since all the big coinciding events happen later in the book. Want to see my progress? Here’s the badge!

So you might wonder, with me keeping pace with where I should be, how am I insecure? Well, this book is different from the other books. Unlike its two predecessors, it isn’t linear. It changes based on POV from present day, 5 days ago, 5 years ago, and 25 years ago. They all converge eventually into present day about halfway through the book. It’s the way the story has always been in my head. But will it work? Will my tension suffer because of it? Guess I won’t know until I finish writing it.

IWSG Question of the Month – How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?

Well, not sure if this counts for the question, but I’ve gotten better at drawing my characters from the writing. Despite my mind being thick with the characters of book 3, my sketching is still in book 2. Here’s my latest work:

I’m still learning, practicing, improving. I’ve changed Derek’s hair style and focused on making him more masculine while keeping the comic flare. You can compare to my previous versions.

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group



You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Do you NaNo? Have you ever written a non-linear story? What do you think of my latest artwork?

The post NaNo Here I Go #IWSG appeared first on Squirrel Talk.

Happy Halloween!

Due to how busy I’m going to be today, I don’t have much of a post. But I want to wish you all a safe and happy Halloween. And if you haven’t already, be sure to pick up your copy of FULL DARK. Today is the last day to get it on sale!

The post Happy Halloween! appeared first on Squirrel Talk.

Correcting Past Mistakes #AmEditing

About a month ago, my coworker said he was rereading Thanmir War to prep for beta-reading Isto. That surprised me (it isn’t exactly a short book), and I told him to tell me if he comes across anything confusing (since that’s a common issue of mine). He promptly responded, “The first two chapters.”

After I got over the shock, I resigned myself to the truth of the matter. I’ve got a double prologue in Thanmir War, and those were the issue. The first one was added after I yanked out a bunch of world-building aspects and compiled them into a history lesson that a couple of my critique partners at the time really enjoyed. The second one is more applicable to the plot, but it was also written back before I was any good at streamlining the story.

He also pointed out that one battle scene where a character dies has an issue with breaking tension due to how I switched the POVs. *sigh* But at least those were his only primary complaints.

At this point, I’ve rewritten the plot-applicable prologue to cut out excessive backstory and description, and I’ve moved the other prologue to the back as bonus material. Skimming through, I’ve also noticed some wording I can tighten up. The grand plan is to fix the small stuff, and then rerelease Thanmir War a month before I release Isto, probably around June of 2019.

And speaking of Isto, my coworker read the whole book. Twice. You can probably imagine my exhilaration when he told me it consumed his entire attention and he had to finish it in a weekend. He went through it a second time to try to be more critical in his reading, because he was so absorbed with the story the first time. Talk about a boost to the ego.

My other coworker, who was my primary pesterer to finish the darn book and is also beta-reading, tells me he’s on page 3. Hey, I’ll take it! I thought he hadn’t even started reading yet.

Halfway Through October Already?

October’s been busy for me! At work, we’ve been strengthening our IT relations and that’s include multiple multi-hour meetings. As a programmer, I don’t use many of the systems that the techs or net ops uses, but for the sake of awareness, they want to make sure everybody’s on the same page.

I’m a bit strange with how I absorb information. If I hear it, I can usually retain it. But if I look at it, my brain will usually switch to try to process what my eyes take in and tune out what my ears are getting. So, I draw during the meetings. I’m sure it looks like I’m not paying attention, which probably infuriates the speakers, but the fact is, I am doing my best to get the most out of it.

That leads to my next topic: Inktober.

I heard of it last year and decided to give it a try this year. I tell you, I’m not a fan of ink. It’s unforgiving! I much prefer the texture of pencil, since I don’t know how to shade worth a darn with pen. Plus I can erase pencil. Here’s a selection of a few character sketches I’ve done during the meetings that I haven’t posted elsewhere to social media:

     

Not my best work, I’ll admit. I’m not sure if I enjoy ink enough to do this next year, but I figured I’d stick it out until the end of the month. Plus, I’ve got more meetings to attend. Here’s one more I did, though it’s digitally enhanced with color. It’s a self-portrait: a squirrel just hanging in there.

Oh, and a final note, don’t forget that FULL DARK is still on sale through the end of the month. Be sure to get your copy and tell other people about it too!

Have you tried drawing in ink? What do you do during meetings? Have you told all your friends about FULL DARK yet?

The post Halfway Through October Already? appeared first on Squirrel Talk.

Let’s Make This Quick

I’m the first to admit I’m a verbose writer. I’ve got multiple 170+K books to prove it. Therefore, the art of writing in quick bursts with minimal words is a skill that exceeds my ability. I find it easy to craft stories when I have as many words as I want at my disposal. But build a story in just 10 words? Six words? Now we’re talking tough.

If you haven’t met Sarah Brentyn before, let me introduce you. I’ve known her for years now, met her through blogging and followed her from her original Blogger blog to Lemon Shark on WordPress where she now resides. She’s also a queen of short fiction.

Her book, Hinting at Shadows, is on sale for the month of October for only $0.99. From flash fiction to microbursts, she’s built a collection of stories that leave you mulling over them for days after. Plus, they’re like candy, where you know you can nibble bits at a time, but you just can’t stop until you’ve consumed it all.

Be sure to pick up your copy while it’s on sale. And then, if you like that, check out her next volume, On the Edge of a Raindrop!

Do you enjoy short fiction? Have you met Sarah before? Have you ever tried to write a six word story?

The post Let’s Make This Quick appeared first on Squirrel Talk.

Plotting and Planning #IWSG

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, making it the day for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group!

I’ve been all over the security map this past week, going from high to low to elated to stressed. But since there are so many emotions in my mix, I’m focusing on just one topic–the one that has me scheming with excitement.

I’m planning book 3.

Now this might not seem like a big deal, but the thing is, this is the first time I’m planning a story before I start writing it. We’ll ignore the 7000 words or so that I wrote a few years ago. And the really creepy poem that goes with this book. Those don’t count.

After the mess I ended up with in book 2 and the fact that it took me five freaking years to finish, I decided I wanted to try to learn from my previous mistakes. Typically, I have a general idea of what’s going to happen and I just leap in and pants my way through the rest of it. But my progress was slow and I found myself wondering what a particular character was doing during a section of the book, leading me to hem and haw for several months. To help myself, I figured out all the scenes I needed in order to reach the end, and it worked, but it also made me realize what didn’t work. That led to a timeline shift and tossing out over 200K in book 2.

Yeah, let’s not do that again.

So I sat down and started figuring out all the scenes I’d need for book 3, and I discovered I had the same exact problem as book 2. About 3/4ths of the way into the book, I had no clue what a particular character was doing. I knew what was going on with the other characters, but this one? Hmmm. So I started asking questions of myself, I consulted with my sis-in-law, flooded her email with the random ideas that popped into mind, and voilà! I figured it out! This character would be dealing with people introduced in book 2 and encounter a particular item that’s referenced with some regularity in book 2.

And… now I need to add something to book 2.

*sigh*

Book 2 is out to beta-readers already. It’ll only be a small addition, maybe 400 words in one scene. But it’s going to come into play for book 3 and lead to the wrap up in book 4!

So am I insecure? Yeah. What else am I overlooking? What other issues are there because I haven’t figured out all the scenes I need for book 4? Guess we’ll see when I get there.

I’m skipping the question of the month because it just sends me spiraling into a state of despair. So rather than dwell on that, I’m pretending it doesn’t exist. That’s healthy, right?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group



You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Have you ever planned a multi-book series? Have you ever come across something that you realized should’ve been introduced in an earlier book?

As a side note, you should totally pick up a some books while they are on sale for only $0.99 each. First is FULL DARK, an anthology featuring one of my stories. Next are Hinting at Shadows and On the Edge of a Raindrop, both by Sarah Brentyn. They are collections of flash and micro fiction, perfect for lovers of poignant tales or reflections on the human condition. More on these next week, but I didn’t want people to miss out on a sale while it was going on!

The post Plotting and Planning #IWSG appeared first on Squirrel Talk.

Digital Painting and Sales

As you may or may not know, I’ve been trying to improve my digital painting this year and my focus tends to be my characters. I managed to capture personality in my comic style, but I can’t help but want to see what other styles might suit me. I opted for something a little less comic this time, aiming for strong brush strokes rather than smooth shading. Not as much personality, unfortunately, but that wasn’t the goal this time around. This time, I was going for “pretty”.

My self-criticism tells me Derek’s neck in the new style is too thick, and maybe his eyes should be slightly closer together. Or maybe it’s just the shading. I have less qualms with MaTisha’s portrait, but that might be because she’s looking at the viewer straight on rather than a slight cock to her head.

Another issue is that they don’t look like the same people as my comic version. Here are the comic equivalents for your comparison.

It might be the shortened noses or exaggerated eyebrows. I don’t have an educated enough view of art to be able to identify what makes the comic look like different people rather than caricatures of the other paintings. If you see where it strays, please chime in.

In other news, the wonderful Melissa Maygrove has put the anthology FULL DARK on sale. You can pick it up for only $0.99 and all the proceeds go to the Gary Sinise Foundation that helps active military, veterans, and first responders. If you haven’t picked your copy, please consider doing so. Not only will you get a great collection of stories (including one from yours truly), but you’ll be supporting a charity as well.

Got any tips on digital painting? Which style do you prefer? Have you picked up a copy of FULL DARK?

The post Digital Painting and Sales appeared first on Squirrel Talk.

Covering Myself #CoverReveal

You are all the greatest. When it comes to writing, my bravado is a lot bigger than I actually feel. The truth is, I’m terrified that people are going to hate my stuff. The fact that people actually volunteered to beta-read for me…

Thank you. I’m honored.

Since this isn’t IWSG week, I won’t dwell on my insecurities. Instead, let’s talk about covers!

Now if I were a good marketer, I’d probably arrange a big event to flood the bloggoverse with my cover, but I’m not and I didn’t. So this grand cover reveal is because I enjoy sharing.

I do the thing people recommend not doing and create my own book covers. I’m not a professional graphic designer and I don’t offer services. Everything I know has been through testing through various audiences and getting feedback. But I am rather pleased with my creations. I’ve created all the covers for the big books and have them squirreled away for when the books are actually finished. And here is Isto:

I wanted to go for a theme. The parameters: stone the color of the elemental clan, and the clan symbol in distress. Thanmir War, which you can see in the side bar, is represented by the Earth Clan. Tagline: The Earth Clan has declared war and a landscaper is at the dead center of it. Their color is green, symbol is the tree.

Now, I don’t expect anyone outside of the know to pick up on my theme. I assume most people won’t associate Isto’s cover with the Water Clan. I’m okay with that. I’m telling all of you because that’s what I like to do.