L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 14

Spot Sounds

Although Spot the dragon (from the Unconventional Heroes Series) is capable of telepathy, he also uses a variety of sounds to communicate. Since I’ve occasionally been asked about those sounds, I thought I’d go into a bit more detail. Note that everything I will be mentioning here has also been mentioned in the books.

First and foremost, Spot is a young dragon. Another dragon would refer to him as a hatchling. Sure, he’s pretty big compared to a person, but he’s still tiny for a dragon. This mea...

A Brief Aside

Not as much progress as I’d like over the past week. I’ve been sorting through an absolute mountain of paperwork for reasons that I won’t get into here. To put it into perspective, I’ve got about 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of paperwork that has to be securely destroyed. In other words, it has to be shredded. What made things so time consuming was that stuff was mixed in with stuff that could be recycled, so I had to go through it manually. I’d say I went through at least 45 kg (99 pounds) of paper...

Every Weapon Is A Knife

I firmly believe that almost every weapon came be explained in terms of knives.

Rock? It’s kind of like a stone knife… only it’s blunt.

Spear? What you get when you lash a knife onto a stick.

Sword? A big knife.

Gun? It uses gunpowder to shoot little knives at people.

Chainsaw? It’s like a whole lot of little knives chained together and rotated really quickly.

Axe? A weirdly shaped knife attached to a stick.

Poison? Chemical knife.

Laser? If knives were made of light.

Rail gun? A way to throw kn...

Daily Writing

If you want to improve your writing, then one of the best things you can do is to write regularly. In many ways, writing is like a muscle. If you don’t use it regularly, it’s going to atrophy. This doesn’t just happen to novices. It happens to everyone, which is why even when I’m on ‘break’ I’m basically always writing something. Sure, it might not be something I intend to publish, but just writing helps keep my proverbial writing muscles fresh and limber.

Of course, writing each day is easier s...

Progress Report 28-06-2023

Here is the long-awaited progress report for Two Necromancers, a Fortress, and a Titan.

Things have been going well. The second draft has now reached a total of roughly 193,000 words. I’m a bit shocked by that length since I only started writing the second draft on the 4th of June, which means I’m averaging almost 10,000 words a day. I’m about two thirds of the way through the story at the moment, so it’s looking like 300,000 or so words, maybe more, by the end of it. That would make it the long...

Audible Sale

I have been informed by my audiobook publishers (Podium Audio) that several of my books will be part of a sale that is currently going on over at Audible and expiring on Sunday the 25th June.

The titles included are:

http://www.audible.com/pd/1774244322

http://www.audible.com/pd/177424425X

http://www.audible.com/pd/1774244888

Saurian Sorcerer (Flash Fiction Fridays #38)

Because people wanted to know how a dinosaur wizard would even work…

Fred’s eyes narrowed as an unfamiliar scent drifted to him on the breeze. The mystical charms woven onto his feathers flickered in swift succession as he tapped into their power to enhance his already keen senses.

North.

He needed to go north.

With a speed that few could match, the velociraptor went north. The jungle around him was filled with life, from giant insect to tiny mammals, as well as his saurian kin. None dared to b...

Who Would Win?

Who would win in an epic confrontation involving:

Ninja RatsKung Fu CatsDinosaur WizardsMad Scientist Hamsters

I should point out that all four of these groups are likely to make an appearance at some point in my stories. The ninja rats have already made their appearance of course, and I’ve already written (or am writing) stories that involve Kung Fu Cats, Dinosaur Wizards, and Mad Scientist Hamsters.

Spoiler alert: The Dinosaur Wizards belong to an alternate version of Earth in which Sauri...

Writing Conditions

I occasionally get asked about what sort of writing conditions I have. That is, what sort of conditions do I write in?

I’ll start off by saying that I do not write in a giant mansion, sitting atop bags of money. I’ve done okay for myself writing, but I’m far from rich. However, one can hope. Movie studios… if you’re listening, I’m totally open for a movie deal.

In all seriousness, I think that every writer has conditions that suit them best when it comes writing. Some like listening to music whi...

Extra Opinion (Flash Fiction Fridays #37)

Simon dragged himself out of the portal and then rolled over onto his back as it snapped shut behind him with a faint hiss. The familiar white ceiling of the portal chamber greeted him.

“Congratulations, meat bag. You’re still alive. Somehow.”

If Simon had the energy – and if Advisor had a physical body – he would have lashed out. Or maybe not. If Advisor got her own body, she would probably get some kind of invincible robot body that could kick his ass in about fifty billion different ways.

“Yo...