L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 25

Slow Down

Progress is slower than expected over the past month or so. I’ve been battling computer issues, leg injuries, and the flu. That last one was a doozy. It wasn’t super bad or anything, but I was heavily congested and dealing with some level of head aches for a week a bit. It’s tapering off now, so I’m hoping I can get back into the swing of things. Still a bit congested, but my throat is fine.

As for the leg injury, I’m pretty sure I pulled a muscle badly enough that going up and down stairs was a...

Upgrading

My recent delete key crisis (still in the process of being solved) has finally motivated me to upgrade my writing equipment.

You would think that someone who writes for a living would have a proper set up. Nope. I write sitting on the edge of my bed with a laptop because when I first started writing that was all I could do. As you can imagine, that hasn’t been the most comfortable experience, and you might be asking yourself why I didn’t upgrade to using a proper desk, monitor, and keyboard e...

Happy Castle Day (Flash Fiction Fridays #19)

My sister had her birthday recently so…

The door creaked open, and Katie’s eyes widened as two tall shapes loomed over her. Her shadows stirred instinctively, and she opened her mouth to scream –

“Happy Castle Day!” her Master cried as the magical lights in her room lit up.

“RAAARRGGHHH!” Sam added, waving several banners around with his tentacles. “RAAAAARRGH!”

Katie blinked owlishly and reached for her glasses on the beside table. “Huh?”

Her master reached behind his back and pulled out two c...

For Want of a Key

Over the past several days, the delete key (backspace) on my laptop has been gradually dying. Last night, it really began to bite the dust, so I removed the key and had a look at the switch assembly to see what the problem was. From what I can tell, it’s basically down to some of the plastic parts of the key being broken. They’re tiny, but without them in good order, the key will either jam down or come loose after a few presses.

My old laptop (which survived over a decade) had a broken escape k...

Blight (Flash Fiction Fridays #18)

Why is everyone so afraid? Spot asked. The dragon was curled up in the back of the wagon. Amanda had draped an illusion over him, so anyone who looked at him would see a large dog instead of a dragon. Although it meant he couldn’t fly around, it did give him an excuse to nap throughout the day. However, even a young dragon could only sleep so much.

Timmy handed the reins over to Katie. His apprentice was more used to riding a zombie than handling a team of horses, so this was a good chance for h...

Characterising a Character

It’s one thing to come up with an idea for a character, it’s another to successfully convey the nature of that character to the reader. The most common approach is to lean on exposition. Many writers will try to characterise their characters by telling the reader all about their pasts and motivations. That is certainly a valid way of doing things, but there are other things you can do to add more depth to your characterisations. Many of these things are subtle, but taken together, they help fles...

Dragons, Drakes, and Wyverns

Dragons, drakes, and wyverns are three of the most well-known flying species, so how do we tell them apart?

The simplest way is to count the number of limbs:

A dragon has four limbs and two wingsA drake has four limbs and two wingsA wyvern has two limbs and two wings

Counting the number of limbs allows us to tell dragons and drakes apart from wyverns quite easily. A wyvern has two legs and two wings, which is rather different from both dragons and drakes who each have four limbs along with t...

The Dog

The dog could just barely remember the days before he had met his master.

Those had been days of hardship and struggle.

He had been too small. It had been too cold. There had been too many mouths for his mother to feed.

He wasn’t sure how long he had wandered alone. He couldn’t even remember where he’d gone. But he could remember the cold. He could remember the hunger. He could remember the darkness closing in.

And then there had been warmth.

He had opened his eyes, and his master had been there...

Losing My Voice

Well, my sister got sick and is getting better, but now I’ve gotten sick. It’s not Covid, though, which is good. However, I am losing my voice.

It’s been a while since that happened. I’ve actually been blessed with a powerful voice. I can’t sing worth a damn (I am genuinely awful), but I can comfortably give a lecture in a hall large enough to sit a thousand people without having to use a PA system.

It’s funny, actually. My ‘normal’ speaking voice was so naturally loud as a kid that I had t...

Progress Report 12-04-2022

The second draft of Attempted Rescuing (the third book in the Attempted Vampirism Series) is now complete. It measures roughly 102,000 words. This is almost double the length of the first draft (57,000 words). This increase in word count might seem huge, but it’s actually in line with the increases in my other stories as they go from the first (very rough) draft to the second (much more polished) draft.

I’ll be putting the story down for a few days now to let it rest before taking it up again an...