[Tag] All About You and Around the Blogasphere

 

Greetings.

I was tagged in the All About You and Around the Blogasphere tag by the most Marvelous Mattie May of The Blossoming Writer, the lovely authoress who wrote and published the delightful  debut historical fiction novel Everlasting Gold. 

I am greatly in debt to Mattie for this, because as you can see I haven't posted in ages and really needed to get something out soon. Thanks to this tag, I can at last do that! Well I "could have" done it without the tag, but if I'm being honest, I would not have.



P.S. I would like to inform any bloggers who should happen to read this post that I am not going to be doing any blog tags that aren't themed around writing or reading, with some occasional exceptions. So if you by chance see this and stash away my blog name for future tags so you needn't go hunting later (it's okay, I do it too), please keep this in mind. Thank you!

Onto the tag!

Rules 

-Answer the following questions

-Tag at least a couple other bloggers

-Have them answer these questions

Questions

What's your favorite book/book series and why?

Wellwellwell, if it isn't the question I'm never capable of answering...
Alright I'm going to cheat and divide this up into very specific categories so as many of my favorites can fit into this as possible (if the NY Times can do it, so can I).

My favorite standalone would be The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari. 

    I have loved this book since the very beginning of Bleeding Ink, and some time before it. I would say that it's the first book that showed me what my taste in books is.
I had read books that I loved before it (many a historical fiction novel and The Hunger Games trilogy being the ones that come to mind), but while I loved those books none of them were me. But in The Last Dragon, I really found myself in the voice of the book, in the world, in the characters. All of these things in ways which I really would not have expected. 
It also was one of the very first fantasies that I read, and so it also introduced much of my very favorite genre to me.
So many kudos and cookies are due to the translator who brought Mari's wonderful story to english-speaking readers such as myself.


My favorite MG fantasy series is The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan. 

These books are so much fun. They're just loose adventures with endearing characters and a healthy amount of emotional issues. Halt and Will's mentor-mentee relationship is one of my favorite things ever, the horses are precious, the world is easy and fun, and the action is pretty good too.
I love them so much and I am delighted that they exist (though I am only in the third book so far). 

 
My favorite YA fantasy trilogy is the Dragons' Bane trilogy by Melody Jackson.

    This trilogy catches a lot of flack and is generally disliked by many people who read it. But it will forever hold a very near and dear place in my heart. There's so much depth to it, so much intention. It's easy to miss when you read it the first time, or even if you just read it without the willingness to see things a bit differently from how you're naturally inclined to. 
But once you see it, and once you follow the breadcrumbs of all the hidden amazingness, it is so, so cool. Not to mention, the emotion and humor and characters are just wonderful.
I have so much respect for what Jackson did with this trilogy, for the careful execution of the story and for one character and their arch in particular. 

My favorite adult fantasy series is The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson.

This series. It is phenomenal. 
 

My favorite YA sci-fi trilogy is The Fire Rain Chronicles by Miranda Marie.

    This trilogy was so. good. It's got a few things I really wasn't big on, but as a whole the characters, the overarching story, the prose - they were so solid. Marie did a great job on this trilogy and merged sci-fi, dystopia, and just a hint of fantasy together in such a delightful way.
This story is also very intense at times and I quite literally zoomed through all three books because of ye olden "I have to know what happens next" feelings in addition to the general fast-paced nature of it all.
Talking about this is making me feel that a re-read is due...

My favorite classic novel is  Great Expectations (I say, having not finished it even after five years)  or the Jane Eyre.

    But see this isn't even accurate because I read a lot of classics. So many. Because they're so easy to get a hold of in audiobook or physical copy, I probably read more classics than anything else. Besides that they're just so good, and have so much to offer that modern fiction doesn't.
I just really love classics.
Sherlock, Austen, Tolkien, Lewis, Twain, Montgomery, Alcott... I don't know, there's just so many books to love! Even getting into oddly specific categories won't fit everything in...

But anyways, I'll at least talk about the two I mentioned. Just know that there are many, many more and these are only two of them all.

Great Expectations - I just love this book so much. The atmosphere, the foreshadowing, the characters, the prose, the meaning, the depth, Joe Gargery. One can't not love Great Expectations. Well, unless you hate it because of the pain it gives you, but even then, that's still loving it. 

Jane Eyre - Another one of my favorites that catches much flack! Why must my reading taste be so controversial... Anyways I love this one not for the gothic appeal (I didn't even know this book was paraded as a gothic romance until after I read it, and only picked up on the occasional gothic feeling when I was reading) nor the romance (though it is there, I didn't see it as the focus at all, and also don't find it to be problematic as so many readers seem to) but for Jane. Jane is so very precious. She's so strong and endearing and beautiful, an absolute treasure of a character. 
She stands for what she believes, she- ... oh wait that's a spoiler. Basically she sacrifices things she loves, things she wants, for what she knows is good and right. She is such a good role model and definetly one of those characters I can think back on and find comfort and courage in.

(slipping in an extra here because talking about controversial opinions reminded me...) Dracula - I loved Dracula by Bram Stoker. Loved it, I tell you. And I hate vampires. So why did I love this book so much? The CHARACTERS. Oh my word did I love these characters. The bond they all had for each other, the deep love and care they had as a group, the strength and endurance they all showed in such traumatic situations- AH I just LOVE IT. 

Now liking Dracula isn't the controversial part. The controversial part is me saying that I didn't find it to be a deep conversation on the role of womanhood. Granted, I haven't studied Bram as I have other writers, so I really wouldn't know. But I read the book just as the book, and found the ladies to be lovely and strong (though they weren't my favorite characters), and the way the men treated them made lots of sense given the story and also just seemed normal and sweet? They all cared for them in different ways, as people tend to. 
But that is, perhaps, a conversation for another post in which I can talk full spoilers. 

My favorite children's novel is either Peter Pan or Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.

    I really love both of these books so much. They have two very different approaches to very similar topics. They're both about a child who goes into another world filled with magic and adventure.
But Peter Pan is a bit more dramatic when you think about it, and a bit tragic though in a good sort of way. It's full of fun and swashbuckling, little boy mischief and magic, and all sorts of wonderful things. But there's also quite a bit of deepness to it that hits every so often.
Peter Pan is definetly good just as a story, but it's also a very good conversation with young people about childhood and growing up (and even adults). 

Meanwhile, Alice In Wonderland is literal nonsense. Not in the romantic gothic way which people insist upon depicting it, but in a crazy, wacky, funny, absolutely perplexing way. Jam-in-a-watch sort of way. March-around-in-a-circle-while-water-washes-over-you-to-dry-off sort of way. Talk-to-a-stoner-caterpillar-and-take-his-advice-about-eating-mushrooms sort of way.  
Alice In Wonderland is pure fun nonsense. That is literally why Carroll came up with it - he was telling a story to a little girl named Alice, her sisters, and his friend, and Alice requested a story about complete nonsense. 
It's not a deep conversation, it's not got symbolism, it's just unhinged lunacy. It's funny and delightful, but it isn't deep (though you may say it's deep into madness). 

So I love both of these stories very much, for two very different reasons.



What is your favorite food?

Food is largely an unfortunate necessity for me and I don't really care for it as a whole (excluding chocolate. That does not count).  But I quite enjoy rice and various ways in which it is prepared, especially with bell peppers. 

Who is your favorite author?

I- I don't know.
I... don't know.
*returns to my crisis from earlier* 
I love so many authors. I have consistently enjoyed the majority of Jane Austen, Miranda Marie, Brandon Sanderson, and L.M. Montgomery. I know there's more but I'm just gonna cut it off there otherwise we really will be here forever.

What gives you inspiration for your books?

I always find this to be a bit of a silly question. What doesn't inspire me? A literal jar of soap inspired me once. Here I might actually have a picture...

Yeah that's poor quality but there it is. Literal cylinder of soap.
It inspired a mermaid story.

Anything and everything has the potential to inspire me. Once I heard a lady's name, and that sparked a whole story. Sometimes a random phrase will pop into my head and I'll turn it into something. Sometimes I'll hear a song and get a story out of it. 
There's no exact source, it's just life itself, really.

Though I suppose visuals are something that tend to generally inspire me. I have a collection of pictures of things that just sparked something in me, but those things haven't been turned into stories. 


If we want to be more specific, what inspired the stories I already have established and am working on, then that's still a wide variety of answers. The original spark for Roslyn was a prompt that said something about a character being turned into an inanimate object, the example being a chair or something. "Well that's weird," thought I, "and sounds like it'd be the makings of a comedy."
Then I paused and was like "WAIT." as the story of Roslyn was born in my mind.

The Rising was sparked into existence via the Bible. I have long stood on the perspective that the Bible is a high-fantasy story that is real. There's a magic system - it's God. There's dragons. There's battles and wars. There's kings and queens and princes and princesses. Rival kingdoms. Blessings, curses. Angels, demons. Swords.  Mountains. Sacrifice. Love. Passion. Honor. Duty. All that good stuff. 
And now I'm working on a story all about that. Using these amazing people as characters, using this amazing story as inspiration. It's not a re-telling nor is it a novelization. It isn't allegory. I don't know how to explain it. It's kind of its own thing, but it would be nowhere without the Bible.

Unnamed (yes that's its actual name) was inspired by a game called "Off," and a few personal things.

The Experiment was initially inspired by a song.

The Little People of Their Place was inspired by the true story of the girls who "invented" fairies (they didn't actually invent them, but they're credited for it. They're two sisters who basically faked photos and stuff. Long story) as well as the novel The Silver Donkey. 


So once again, anything and everything has the potential to inspire me.

If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

Like Mattie, I will say the mountains. Mountains or tucked away in Ireland's countryside, surrounded by trees and possibly a marsh not too far away. Basically somewhere green and cool with privacy, away from roads and man-made noises, and somewhere that I can keep a garden. Preferably in a cabin or cottage.




Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

I dislike these terms as people use them for their identities, which is silly. But I am indeed an introvert; I introspect and gain energy from time apart from people via reading, creating, and praying. 
As all introverts are required to say (similarly to how all extroverts are required to say they do like time to themselves), I do love people and quite enjoy spending time with them. I also often "borrow" the energy of other people (an interesting survival tactic that comes naturally to quite a few people), but have a warm up period and can grow tired fairly easily depending on the time of social interaction I am having.

If you had a warning label, what would yours say?

I do not know. I live with me 24/7,  you see, and am desensitized to my own ways. Based off of my dear sister Liana's descriptions of me, perhaps something along these lines, "Caution: Appears to be a regular human. Is in fact a goblin. Goblin side will only come out after you have gotten to know the human very well with plenty of face-to-face interaction. To avoid exposure to the goblin tendencies, refrain from becoming close with this creature. Goblin is not inherently dangerous but can behave in spontaneous and occasionally hazardous ways." 




Ye Whom I Tag:

Julia from Julia's Creative Corner

Allie from Of Rainy Days and Stardust Veins

Libby from Thoughts from a Stumbling Saint

Alright my inky friends, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the post. If you're a blogger, please feel free to tag yourself and write out your answers on your own website. If you're just a reader but have your own answers you'd like to give, please feel free to do so in the comments below.


Until next time.

- E.P.

I Return From A Very Aesthetic Adventure

Greetings, reader.

Did you miss me? Of course you did. 

Well, not really. Because honestly my posts are usually this spread out anyways so surely you've come to expect this by now. 

Anyways.  

I have recently returned from my ten-day unofficial writing retreat thing with three of my good friends. It wasn't exactly meant to be a writing retreat, but more of a writers' retreat, and yet in between the occasional sword fight and long walk in the woods we spent most of the time writing together in our cozy cabin. It was quite nice. 

Over this vacation, I (as I've already mentioned) wrote, bought books, read, and generally had a good, cozy adventure.

Except for the time when we had to walk from nigh five miles by the side of a street after accidentally snubbing a semi-rude coachmen. That was a less cozy adventure and a more "questing to Mordor" style adventure. Except for it was only 4.7 miles, we had no cursed jewelry, we were headed home, and we actually did have an eagle (well, sort of) come rescue us about halfway through and take us back to our cabin. We also had a lovely conversation with a darling human who allowed us to stay on her porch whilst waiting for said sort-of-eagle. Looking back on it, it reminds me of the Hobbits staying briefly with Tom Bombadil. Though this human was just a human (not to insult the human race or anything) and she was a she, and she also was not magical (although it is very possible that she in fact was magical and simply had no reason to use said magic while we were present). 

That was quite fun, all things considered, though I was having a dreadful time breathing as I have two dreadful curses: exercise induced asthma, and a lack of athletic ability in general. Supposedly the former can be solved with breathing exercises and a legendary artifact known as an "inhaler" (which I don't have any great desire to go on a quest for any time soon), and the latter with something called "exercise." Though as you may have noticed, my asthma is the kind that is induced by exercise, and so I can't rightly exercise without the legendary artifact, and so I won't. 

(*cough* this is only semi-true as I can actually get through most physical things without the legendary inhaler so long as I can rest before it gets too bad and drink lukewarm water, but we won't discuss that part as it makes too much sense and will expose me for the *lackadaisical goldbrick that I am.)

*Why yes, I did find this words through a thesaurus in attempt to make my lack of physical strength more amusing, and yes, I do intend to use these two words far more often as I find them hilarious.

In any case, we survived the half-trek to not-Mordor, my companions fairing better than I as one is an elf, one an immortal who I am convinced can face anything with only the mildest of "oh dears" and tilts of the head, and one a quite muscular *she-hobbit **shadeslayer. 

*Forgive me for making another joke regarding your size, ***Arya

**Yes I did just merge Eragon and LOTR, what of it?

***I can neither confirm nor deny the fact of whether she is or isn't a descendant of Arya, or if she is Arya herself, for I don't rightly know. If she is the former, she is a combination of hobbit and elf, which is intriguing. 

How I managed to secure such whimsical friends when I am a mere man, I knoweth not. 

Moving on from that ramble, the she-elf and I had cause to visit a grand collection of documents, scrolls, and legends which may or may not be true. That is to say, we visited a book shop. Two, to be precise. The first was large, and in addition to being a place where one could purchase and study documents, it was also a place in which scribes sat to write down their various prophecies, legends, record the happenings of the world, and weave the key to existence into words which they printed on paper. 

We then visited a smaller one, where I nearly purchased a rather pricey yet pristine, finely-bound copy of Great Expectations. But the she-elf, having the wisdom of her kind, helped me to later choose a different and inexpensive copy of the book, which worked out wonderfully later on as I bought two more classics which were all in the same series. 

Later, when our trip was moseying on to its close, our Immortal had need to return to... well, wherever Immortals go. I think it highly likely that she needed to fade into a crowd, lest her immortal-ness be noticed (I can speak of it here for I have not used her name, so you do not know that Jane is the secret immortal. Wait. I just. Drat.) 

As I was saying, the Immortal needed to go do immortal things, and once we had seen her off on her dragon, we elected to go to another bookstore, similar to the first one we attended, whilst we were out and about. 

There, the shadeslayer bought an excessive amount of books while the she-elf and I encouraged her to (we are wonderful influences as you can see, and I reminded her many a time that one simply cannot have enough books, and that indeed books should not be counted as material items and an overflow of them is perfectly acceptable). 

She she-elf struggled, through each of these visits, to find a book which contained information on phoenixes (I do believe it highly likely that she is attempting to locate, tame, and fly a phoenix, though you didn't hear that from me). While she didn't find any (perhaps the archives are incomplete), she did manage to find another book which I hear tell she has become quite smitten with. 

I myself found three books (tallying up each bookshop trip) which made fine additions to my brand-new classic collection (for I didn't start collecting them until that copy of Great Expectations crossed my path), and one action-adventure low(?)-fantasy potentially-fiction novel (for you never know when a work is fictional and when it is actually a retelling of true adventures in a different light, aye?) which contains several things that made the shadeslayer, the elf, and myself all agree this book may very likely have been made for me. 

These are the books which I obtained on this fine expedition: 

The top three are my classics, which I am quite happy to possess as they are three of my favorite classics! I am debating whether or not to remove the sticks of Alice and Her Adventures in Wonderland and Pride and Prejudice. I think I'll remove them since Great Expectations doesn't have one. 

(By the by! Did you notice that the clock on Great Expectations is stopped at a certain time that directly relates to a certain cooky old woman in the book?? BECAUSE I MUST SAY THAT I DID AND I FEAR MY COMPANIONS THOUGHT ME RATHER RIDICULOUS FOR BEING SO EXCITED ABOUT IT.)

The book below them is the curiously me book, which I have only begun but am quite enjoying.  

What else do I have to tell you... Oh, yes, writing. 

As I said that I said that I said earlier, I wrote on this holiday. And what did I write, you may be wondering (though you probably are not as it's quite obvious if you have ever received my letters before or know me personally). Why, Roslyn, of course! 

I have made significant progress. It turns out that having three of my favorite humanish creatures together actually made me more productive, not less. The occasional sword fight and walk as a break was especially helpful, as it cleared my mind right when I was starting to need it to.

I have so far condensed Roslyn's amount of chapters and cut a few scenes, and yet somehow the word count has still managed to increase. I do believe that reading so many classics has effected my writing, and that Tolkien, Austen, and Dickens (and to a degree, Carroll) are largely to blame for my very lengthy document. 

Still, progress is progress! And I am now about at the halfway point from my old draft (which you may recall was unfinished when I stopped it). I have changed up quite a few scenes, gotten to know my world even better, and seen my characters grow significantly between drafts. Although this doesn't always show; I believe at times my scenes have actually become worse than they were before, which is rather discouraging. But still, this is only a rewrite of the first draft, so I am hopeful! 

My current word count is now 60,364, which about 5,890 more words than the last draft was at this point. And once more, we're only about halfway through, with the last bit of the book being unwritten, so I cannot even guess at how long it'll be once it's done. The ideal length will be 300k (ideal for me, not for my poor alpha, who was a member of my adventure's party). 

While on this adventure, I got practically no reading done. I read a bit of the Curse of the Specter Queen, and I also read work of the Immortal, the Shadeslayer, and the She-Elf, but that aside I read very little other than my Bible and my own work (for the sake of rewriting said work). 

Now then, what's the plan for moving forward? Well, I need to get back into my grove of regular existence, which hasn't been too difficult. I've been working on cleansing my disastrous living quarters, writing nightly with the she-elf via magic mirror (for she, the shadeslayer, and of course the Immortal have all returned to their sadly distant lands), and today is the first day I will be returning to my job as the keeper of schedules for a local business.  Oh, and I really must return to my studies, for I am pathetically behind on them.

And of course, I will be continuing Roslyn throughout this journey of routine life. And I have some exciting things for Bleeding Ink as well, which will hopefully be ready in time for the anniversary this December. 

Speaking of, happy anniversary to R.M. Archer of "Scribes & Archers." Her blog is now four years old, and you should absolutely go read her post in honor of the exciting day. 

Mary of Wild Writing Dreams  and Julia from Julia's Creative Corner both had anniversaries recently, as well! And Julia has started a writing channel, which you should most definetly go observe with your lovely eyeballs.

Also, Christine Smith has returned from her hiatus, and Maple//JHD Paul's last post was a really beautiful, unique poem that you should go read!

Lastly, Fae Crate has announced that Dragons' Bane by Melody Jackson will be September's featured ebook in the coming month's crate! How exciting for the slowly growing fandom!! 

Is that enough links for you? No, well then, have one more.

I do believe that is all for now. How has your existence this past week been? Have you any exciting news? Would you like more links? What have you read recently? Do you know how to yodel? 

I'd love to hear from you. 

In the meantime I remain, most strangely and humbly, 

- E.P. 

P.S. Will I ever include thumbnails in my posts again? Will I ever continue to actually read through and edit my posts before I post them? Who knows. In the mean time, I make no apologies. 

oh, look, it's been another year (more importantly: updates on "Roslyn" and a new page to BI)

 

Hello reader,

Yet again, I have forgotten that Bleeding Ink's anniversary exists (well, more accurately the anniversary of when I first posted; I can't remember the day that I officially considered the construction of the site"done"). It was back on December first. 

I am quite late. 

And I am still not doing anything to celebrate it. But I'll wear a party hat while writing this to pretend that I am. 

Instead of doing anything festive (because I don't see reason to), I want to have an intellectual conversation regarding various events this year that are related to Bleeding Ink. 

A Book Collection + Recent Indie Reads

Early last year, I began an exciting adventure to collect all of the books from certain indie authors. Those authors include...

-Miranda Marie

-Mattie May

-Melody Jackson

-R.M. Archer

And I did it. Almost. I got all but two. And I didn't just get them, I read them. I read all of them. Which isn't saying too much, as that's only nine books, but I still did it. And a fair amount of those books were books that had been on my TBR for years before hand, so this is quite the personal accomplishment. 

These writers all have very different styles and themes and genres, but in good ways. I enjoyed all of them, and I'm very happy to have been able to support them. I also acquired the respective signature for almost every one of them. I only have one that's yet to be signed and I hope to remedy that erelong. I also intend on getting those last two books quite soon. 

I highly recommend you read as many of their books as possible, starting with any one of these authors and with any of their books (though if it is in a series of some sort please for all things decent start with the first book). 

Another indie author I've really been enjoying (thanks to R.M. Archer's recommendation) is Hannah Heath. I've read all of her The Terebinth Tree Chronicles, and I absolutely loved them! I also read her short story Skies of Dripping Gold, which was also very good. 

I also read Healer's Bane by Hope Ann recently, and it was pretty good as well. I did a review on Goodreads, but I may do a more thorough one here explaining why I wasn't a huge fan of Kynet's. Maybe. I don't want it to seem as though I'm dogging on Hope Ann, because I really enjoyed the story, but I think it would make for an interesting discussion. 

A New Page to Bleeding Ink

I was going to hold off sharing this one until I'd read all of the indie books on my TBR, but it's been over a year since I dreamed up this idea and so I'm going to share it now. It's a birthday (sort of) after all. 

The new page will be called "Independent Book Recommendations" and (if you couldn't tell) it'll be a page of indie recs. I'm going to update it every time I have a new indie book that I recommend, and you will be able to give me recommendations, which I will read, and if I like it I will add it to the list in the proper genre and whatnot. 

The goal of this page is to support indie authors, especially (but not limited to) younger authors. So, that page will be up no later than a half hour after this post if it isn't up already. Then tomorrow I will release a post concerning it that I'd appreciate your help with.

Booktube?

A family member suggested that I start a booktube channel (a YouTube channel in which the host talks about books, reviews, releases, interviews, and in some cases their own books). As you can likely tell, I have a hard time keeping up with posting here, so I'm not sure if I'd be consistent on booktube. 

But it might be fun. So I'm tossing the idea around. If you've got any thoughts on this, please do voice them. Well don't voice them, because I can't hear you, but write them. 

The Path to Publication

Would you believe it, I actually have made genuine progress. My novel Roslyn is officially in its second draft! I didn't finish the story all the way through in the first one - so much had changed that it was driving me crazy to continue on. 

So, per a certain wonderful writer's advice, I said "forgeteth this" and promptly began the second draft. Now my alpha is no longer swamped with 119,648-ish words that she has to plow through, and is instead taking it scene by scene as I write it. Which is more fun for me personally, because it's easier to talk about that way. It's also helping me stay accountable with writing, because I'm supposed to have a new scene for her every day. Which is much easier than writing the first draft, because I have something to go off of (though as I said, many things have changed). 

With the momentum I've been carrying, I believe that I may have the rewrite portion of the draft done a little over a month. For finishing the actual story, I'm not sure, but I'm hoping it won't be over a few weeks. For the sake of having something to work towards, I'm going to try to have it done in two months and one week. 

Before we move on to the next subject, here's a comparison of word counts between the first and current drafts as of chapter four:

Draft One: 19,749

Draft Two: 23,144

That's an extra 3,395 words. They literally grow up so fast.

Another Anniversary

Recently, it was also Maple Quill Penning Magic's birthday! So go check that out and wish Maple a happy-belated blog birthday, *or else! 

(*Or else I will be very sad that you didn't because Maple is wonderful and her posts are always lovely and deserving of attention.)

Other Bloggers:

Last year (well actually not "last year" because we're in the new year, but the last anniversary), my anniversary post said something along the lines of

"So let the day go on, and if you can find a spare moment, think of this humble page and use it to remember and appreciate all the writers and authors who started small, and all the writers authors who are, now, still small."

(actually it wasn't "something along the lines of" this, this is exactly what I said, typos and all.)

Well this time I'm not asking you to think about them. I'm asking you to actually go support them. By buying their books (when applicable and if you can), by sharing their blogs, and even just by leaving them a nice comment on their blogs. 

So for that, here's a list of writing bloggers worth your time.

Sarah at The Sarcastic Elf

Christine at Bright Words In Darkened Worlds

Julia at LitAFlame 

Mary at Wild Writing Dreams 

Ariel at Scribes & Archers

Maple at Maple Quill Penning Magic 

Allie at Rainy Days and Stardust Veins 

Adria at The Works of Adria Avalon

Elyra at A Beautiful Journey (Wandering To Find My Way Home)

Mattie at The Blossoming Writer

Jane Maree at Jane Maree Author

A Surprise 

There's something BIG - *clears throat* sorry, I meant BIG - coming this July! July 1st, to be exact. So please do make sure to come back then (or possibly the day before), because I mean it, it really is a pretty big thing (for this Bleeding Ink, at least), you may benefit from it, and I really truly am going to post it on July 1st. 

So.

Come back then if you don't come back tomorrow. 

Conclusion

So I actually didn't wear a party hat while writing this because I did not have a party hat. I did try balancing something on my head for a bit to pretend that was a hat, but it didn't work. So this anniversary goes very much so uncelebrated on my end. Oh well! 

Do you have any thoughts about the above matters? Do you also forget/don't care enough to celebrate birthdays/anniversaries? Do you follow any of those writers I mentioned?  (*eyes you suspiciously* Are you one of those writers I mentioned? If so, you are a good writer/blogger human! Carry on being your awesome self!) If so, I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Ever, 

- Edna Pellen (author of Bleeding Ink for two uneventful years)

P.S. I sadly didn't get any spam comments this year (not one), so I don't have any of those to go over. Please share this blog and post and whatnot so that we can get the attention of scam companies and bots so we can review their comments next anniversary.

The Writerly Sibling Tag

Hello there,

Yep, I disappeared. NaNo was weird. I'm momentarily back. I'll be posting a Path to Publication update soon. Maybe. I'll also hopefully be adding a banner to this post at some point in the future to make this easier to pin on Pinterest but as of now cannot. 

Meanwhile, I've been tagged in The Writerly Sibling Tag. Thanks, R.M. Archer, for tagging me! 

Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who tagged you and provide a link. 

2. Answer the inquires, including any ones added by means of rule six.

3. Always use your own characters. No exception, unless you don't actually have sibling characters (in which case you need to go write up some) or you don't write (in which case you need to start ASAP). 

4. Tag three other bloggers. 

5. If you happen to have any siblings who blog, they are automatically tagged and cannot count towards your three.

6. Add one question or prompt to the list of questions that the person before you answered relating to siblings and/or characters. Answer the question, and provide a list of all the questions that you answered so far.

7. Close out the post making some statement or other glorifying the King of kings.

Questions: 

(well they aren't actually all questions, only four of them are, the rest of them are more like demanding statements but yeah anyways)

Name the most annoying sibling character in any of your stories (Either annoying to you as the author or to any other characters).

That would likely be Torin, from my leading story Roslyn. But he isn't annoying to his actual sibling (well, he kind of is, but they don't interact much) so much as he is to his two basically-younger-siblings. They're in no way blood related, but at this point they are all siblings in my head. 

So that's a bit of a cheat, but oh well. 

Name the most caring sibling character of any of your stories.

Again, technically not actually a sibling to anyone but basically is, Michael (also from Roslyn). The lad is such a thoughtful and caring basically-big-brother and I love him. So do his basically-siblings. 

Name the most entertaining sibling character in any of your stories.

Hm. Most of them are entertaining when they're together, when they all have each other to ride off of and poke fun at and such. 

But, I can only cheat so much, so I'm going to say it's Bayron (whose last name is apparently "Rees" even though I have a distinct memory of his last name having the meaning of "lettuce", and "Rees" does not mean lettuce), a supporting character in another novel of mine, Paradox. He's a good-guy arsonist and a softy, despite his tendencies to light stuff on fire and blow stuff up. 

Name a sibling character who was inspired in some way by an actual sibling.

Another character from Paradox, who is unnamed. Like, I haven't forgotten to name him, but he is literally nameless in the story. He's based off of my oldest brother, who helped me come up with this story and continues to do so.

Name the largest character family (talking family, not family tree) in any of your stories.

Weirdly enough for someone who is one of eight siblings, the families in my work are all rather small. The biggest would be Bayron Lettuce (yeah we're just going to call him that for now because "Rees" makes me uncomfortable, given that I know it isn't the right name), which is a family of four.

If I can count the basically-family in Roslyn, it would be them, which is a family of five (if you could the wolf that Torin adopted).

Provide one to three excerpts from your sibling characters' dialog from any of your stories.

Ohh I had the perfect one for this but it's too spoiler-y. 

So I'll settle for this small one instead:

“Will it be too heavy for the horse?” Clare looked over the beautiful creature, her brow furrowing. 

“Not at all. This is a (strong horse), he can take far more weight than this. Besides, you’re a stick, you won’t be a heavy burden for him.” Torin held his hand out to her to help her up on the steed. 

Grumbling, “I’m not a stick,” Clare accepted his help up and swung her leg over the other side in an awkward movement.  

“Sorry, my bad. You’re not a stick, you’re a twig.” Torin winked and patted the horse’s neck, then headed over to Sebastian. 

(Yes I know "strong horse" is terribly specific, but this is a first draft. I still need to world build more and rename horse breeds and all that.)

Name three published books which have an amazing portrayal of siblings or family.

1. The Dragons Bane by Melody Jackson trilogy for siblings; there's several sets of siblings, I think, and they each show a different type of relationship from the others, it's great.

2. The Fire-Rain Chronicles by Miranda Marie for siblings and families in general (yes I know Archer already did this one but it's a good one so I'm using it anyways). 

3. The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan, because Halt is the best dad, Gilan is the best sometimes-annoying but awesome big brother, Will is the best baby brother, and pretty much every character somehow works its way into being part of what I call the "Arrow fam". I ship them as a family and I will go down with this ship.

But as none of them are actually related, my alternative would be The Hunger Games, because the whole thing is Katniss trying to protect her sister. But, that comes second to TRA because actual sibling/family content is not very common in it.

Name another author's character family that you wouldn't mind jumping into.

The aforementioned Arrow Fam. All the way. Without a doubt. Although I kind of wouldn't want to join it because it would crash the broship-ness of it by adding a female. Also it would be weird to hang out with them because I love watching them all interact, so I'd just be sitting in the corner, giddily watching, and being totally weird and potentially creepy in their eyes. 

But again, they're not family by blood or even adoption. So, I would have to say... Maybe the Pevensies from The Chronicles of Narnia. I haven't actually read Narnia, but I have seen the movies (I know, I'm terrible, but I have no regrets as the movies were a vital part of my childhood), and if they're anything like the books than the siblings are a lot like how my siblings and I were when we were younger. 

OH, or I would also love to be part of Anne's family from Anne of Green Gables. Not the family at Gables, but a family later on in the series which I will specify below, but if you have not read the magical series in its entirety, please kindly scroll on to the next question thing.

So, it's in Rainbow Valley, when Anne and Gilbert have started their own family. I'm not sure if I would want to be Anne or Gil's sister/sister in law (in no particular order) or their kids' sister. Because on one hand I think Anne and Gil and I would get along pretty well, and I'd also get to hang out with Diana and Fred occasionally, and I'd love to be an aunt to the kids.

But I also would love to be a kid growing up in Rainbow Valley, playing with the other Blythe kids and imagining and making up stories and all. 

And then that would carry over into Rilla of Ingleside, when they're all older. Which would be bittersweet given the war and all, but it would still be nice (though I don't think Rilla and I would get along too well). 

Provide an excerpt of sibling drama or camaraderie from any title (though be sure to credit it).

Supposing we're disregarding Rule Three and that this is not a trap to see if I paid attention to the rules or not, this excerpt from Dragons' Bane by Melody Jackson. 

"Blaze Montego!"

He wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked over at the little redhead standing there with her hands on her hips, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"That's my name, yes."

Elle frowned, apparently not amused by his joke. 

"How could you do something so stupid?" 

He lifted his sword, inspecting the edge with an almost lazy air. "And what 'something' are you referring to this time?"

I just love it. It's wonderful. Even more once you've reread the book. 

Name two characters from two unrelated books that you feel would make for great literary siblings (whether in terms of getting along, or being a constant head-to-head combat)

Yorsh from The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari and Will from The Ranger's Apprentice. Why? I have no idea. I suppose they're a good balance between different and alike, and Will would be a good big brother to Yorsh (be it to Yorsh when he is but a wee elf baby or when he is a adorkable teen elf; either way Will would definitely be the big brother).

I can also see Will getting frustrated with the ignorance of Yorsh. Lots of hilarious things would pop up, subtly but beautifully, maybe a few fights, and if my two favorite lads met I would so be there for it.

What sibling trope would you like to write in the future?

Well, so far I've covered quite a few of them. However, I haven't official writing the one that goes with Bayron and his sister, so I guess that counts. That one would be the sibling-who-hurt-the-family vs. sibling-who-hates-him-for-it. Their relationship and history and everything is really interesting and really warrants its own book, but that's kinda the point of it so that's okay (kind of hard to explain; if I ever publish it you'll see what I mean). 

Which one of your own sibling groups would you love to join?

None. Because as much as I adore these kiddos, I adore them from the outside. Being a part of their sibling group would feel so weird. Especially so when you consider that, though many of my characters are a fair deal older than me, I'm the authoritative one (hahaha get it because, because author, and authoritative? because I'm the author and have authority? hahahahhaaa) and being stripped of that power and placed as anyone's little sister would frustrate me greatly.  

But if I had to, it would be my not-literal-sibling group in Roslyn, which is composed of Michael, Torin, Clare, and Sebastian. 

If you could adopt only one of your fictional siblings as your own sibling, who would it be?

Like I said, I really wouldn't want to be siblings with my characters. But if I have to, it would be Torin. Michael and Clare are both two extreme extensions of myself, so being Michael's little sister would be weird, and being Clare's sister would be really weird because we're so alike. And Sebastian and I would communicate in wry humor that would end up being exhausting. 

But Torin is very not-like-me, except for in one area and in this case having that in common would be beneficial. He's also got a lot of traits from my real siblings, so I would know how to handle his Torin-ness. And I know that, despite his Torin-ness, he'd be a good big brother. Even if him being the older, in-charge one would make me angry because I literally made him. 

And now for my added question...

If you had to mix-match your sibling-characters, who would you swap with who and why?

I would swap Sebastian from his not-literal-siblings with Torin's literal sister, Serfena (so technically I'm cheating my own question because I'm swapping Torin and Sebastian even though Torin is one of the not-literal-siblings, but oh well).

(Maple, if you're reading this, skip to the conclusion because I want your first impression of Serfena to be when you meet her on the page.) 

I'm choosing this swap because Sebastian is a wry, sarcastic lad who is easily and openly annoyed. Serfena is a manipulative, conniving, and just overall rude character that not even Michael, my golden-hearted son, likes. 

Seeing these two deal with each other like siblings would be maddening and hilarious and really I'm choosing it simply because I would love to see Serfena get what's coming to her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag-ees:

1. Adria from The Works of Adria Avalon

2. Julia from Lit Aflame

3. Mary from Wild Writing Dreams

List of the questions for the above blogger's convenience:

-Name the most annoying sibling character in any of your stories (Either annoying to you as the author or to any other characters).

-Name the most caring sibling character of any of your stories.

-Name the most entertaining sibling character in any of your stories.

-Name a sibling character who was inspired in some way by an actual sibling.

-Name the largest character family (talking family, not family tree) in any of your stories.

-Provide one to three excerpts from your sibling characters' dialog from any of your stories.

-Name three published books which have an amazing portrayal of siblings or family.

-Name another author's character family that you wouldn't mind jumping into.

-Provide an excerpt of sibling drama or camaraderie from any title (though be sure to credit it).

-Name two characters from two unrelated books that you feel would make for great literary siblings (whether in terms of getting along, or being a constant head-to-head combat)

-What sibling trope would you like to write in the future?

-Which one of your own sibling groups would you love to join?

-If you could adopt only one of your fictional siblings as your own sibling, who would it be?

-If you had to mix-match your sibling-characters, who would you swap with who and why?

Conclusion: 

Siblings are wonderful, some times aggravating, hilarious, treasured humans that I wouldn't trade for anything. I'm incredibly grateful to have all seven of them. And to show how grateful I am and how much I love them, I'll give them each a shoutout now (except I'm going to give them fake names because you know, safety or something. I'll give them Narnia-esque titles to make up for it.) 

Shout out to...

Black-Jelly-Bean B., the Generous and Sassy. 

Kiwi-wei, the Swift and Determined. 

Lamp, the Genie and Hip. 

Frodo, the Fighter and Poofy (if you saw his hair you'd agree). 

Liana (you get to keep your original fake name because the readers already know it), the Empathetic and Creative.

TKTKTKTKTKTKKTKTK, the Humorous and Kind. 

Nay-Nay, the Smol and Witty.

You all are really something. God assembled quite the squad, didn't He? 

Lastly, may all glory be to God, Who was and is and is to come, the Creator of all things, and the redeemer of all those who are willing. 

Brothers and sisters, both by blood and by species, please remember that He loves you, that He has made a way for you to be forgiven, and that no matter what you have done or will do, He will take you back.

That's all for now, folks. See you later maybe

- Edna Pellen

My 2020 NaNo Goals

Greetings, writer!

I know I said in my Path to Publication post that I would be doing Roslyn for this NaNoWriMo. A few problems arose (mainly the fact that the first draft still isn't done), and now I've decided that it would be best if I worked on a different project during NaNoWriMo. 

This project is going to be a little out of my comfort zone, which is to say it will be as far from Roslyn as humanly possible. That's right, I'm writing something based in the real world. So weird. But on top of that, it's a murder mystery. 

The decision to be as opposite my norm as possible was intentional. I had a handful of story ideas I could of gone with, but this one really is the best choice as far as letting my fantasy-side take a break for a bit. The only problem is that, while I love the premise of this mystery and I know I'll have a blast, I'm at a total loss planning-wise. 

Which is okay; that's what Preptober is for, right?

Another great thing about doing this murder mystery is that I am actually following NaNo's rules for once! I know in my "Peek at Preptober" post I said this would be about my unconventional goals, but that's because that was written before I decided on letting Roslyn rest.

So quite to contradictory to that post, this project will actually be the first time I have ever followed the actual challenge of NaNoWriMo, the challenge of writing 50k words of a first draft in thirty days, in my four years of doing it. 

Still though, so that I may hold the badge of NaNo Rebel, I may be working on another story with my sister off and on. 

All this is to say, my NaNo goals this year are the original goals for the challenge; write a 50k first draft within thirty days. 

Not nearly as interesting as my Roslyn goals were, but it's better than nothing. 

I apologies if this post is rambly or repetitive, I'm now in the frenzy of preptober and am writing this last-minute.

Are you a NaNo rebel or traditionalist? Got any specific plans for this November as well as Preptober? I'd love to head from you below.

- Edna Pellen

Updates IV

Hello, friends! 

I realize it's been quite a gap between this and my last post, but I assure I have not been inactive! 

Given I don't have much time to complete a full post at the moment, and I don't really want to make a new banner for one, I figured I'd just give you some updates (again). 

Reading Updates:

I haven't been reading much lately, as I've been doing a lot of alpha, beta, and proof reading. But the book I'm currently 'on', is book #3 of The Rangers Apprentice.

I'm also saving up to buy a lot of books (including: Azalei's Fall by Miranda Marie (third book in The Fire Rain Chronicles),  Dragons' Bane by Melody Jackson, the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce (sequal to Tricker's Choice), and The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles by R.M. Archer). It'll cost a small fortune, but it'll be worth it. 

Path to Publication Updates:

Ah yes, that great challenge I assigned myself. Your guess is as good as mine for how that's going.
I started this challenge, or more of I told you that I started this challenge, on the 7th of May. That post detailed my plan for this large task, and I can heartily tell you that I have not fallen behind. I've not written as much as I'd like to, but I still have a few months before October to finish this draft, so there is hope yet.

'Roslyn' is now at 66,430ish words, and still not done. I've come to realize that I don't like to rush through my story, that every travel-scene is important, that every character's point of view is important, and that each scene is, to some degree, important and not to be rushed through. 

But I'm only a little more than halfway through the actual plot, and so if this keeps up, I may either need to cut back on words, split it into two books, or I can just let it be 100k+ words and follow in Sanderson's footsteps. 

We shall have to wait and see. 

Other:

On blogs: 

R.M. Archer released two posts  recently ("Why I Read YA (even though it often stinks") and "5 Things I'd Like to See in YA Literature") that really caught my interest. They're really well thought out and detailed, and for me, they really got me thinking. 

You should check them out, as well as her blog in general.

Maple from Maple Quill Penning Magic has this wonderful feature on her blog where she makes a poem and uploads it each week, and I got lost looking through them today. So if you feel like reading some short poems and looking at pretty imagery, check out her poems of the week archives. 

On life:

I'm resuming work on my desk! Now that the winter months are over and a certain country-wide annoyance is lightening up (...sort of... not really, but, one can hope) we can retrieve the remaining needed supplies for it. 
It's nearly done, building-wise, and soon I will begin decoupaging the entire thing and adding embellishments here and there. Then, I'll begin my quest to find a nice desk chair to replace my rather uncomfortable and slightly too tall stool. 

Well, that's all I have to say for this post.

    Adieu, 

                    ~ E.P.

On The Path to Publication: The Strategy

Hello!


I have begun an exciting journey; I am planning to publish a novel.
I'm not doing this soon, but I am doing this. I'm not letting that dream sit around anymore, but I'm not blindly running after it like all those inspiring quotes say.
Nope, I'm making a strategy.

This is it, so far:


May-October: Finish the first draft of Roslyn. 

I'm close. I'm really close. If you hop on over to my WIPs page, you'll see it has reached 50k words. That's a novel-length story.
But, I have a problem with that; I'm no where near the end.
How I managed to reach 50k when the story is just reaching the middle of the plot, I have not a clue. There's no way I can stretch it into two books, though.
So, I'm letting this first draft do its thing and will fix it later (which will likely involve cutting out a lot of stuff to make it a decent length).

I would also, ideally, finish this before October so that I can read through it before plunging into the next step.

November: Write the second draft of Roslyn for NaNoWriMo.

My plan for this is to copy my draft down and edit as I go. Ideally, I'd have it in a close to completed state.

December: Take it easy.

For December, I'm giving myself a break. I won't necessarily stop working on Roslyn, but I won't have any deadline to meet or anything.
I'm doing this for a few reasons:

• Holidays
• A tradition among my writing group to do a secret-santa short story swap.
• I don't want to get burnt out. This'll take a lot of effort, and I'd hate to complete the goal just to. become deflated and apathetic towards my story. 

I will probably at least read over Roslyn to be ready for the next step.

January: Edit the 2nd draft of Roslyn.

I'll be spending this month reading over (if I hadn't already) and editing the second draft of Roslyn.

February: Send  Roslyn out to beta-readers.

This will be a really important step. It'll probably be the most important to me, personally, before hiring an editor and spending money (which is a whole different matter that I will discuss and mention here when the time comes).


March: Make the appropriate edits to Roslyn.

These edits will be based on what my beta-readers suggest.


{This on down is very iffy and may change as I go. So from here on down, it's guesswork.}

April: Send to omega-readers.

I don't know if that's really a thing in the writing universe, but this set is the final set who will be reading it. Their job isn't to edit, it's to read like a reader. To be my test audience, almost. I may or may not edit my work based on what they say.

May: Gap month. 

This is the next rest stop for me.


June: Business begins.

This is when I will begin all the money issues and "official" stuff. An official editor, choosing traditional or independent publishing, figuring out the cover design, marketing, earning money for all of it, and so on.
That will probably be about a year in and of itself. And I'll make a post like this one when the time comes. 

~~~~

I fully recognize that issues may occur, and honestly, I expect it. I don't have the best background when it comes to deadlines and commitment, and money will be a problem.
But this time around, I have a crew to hold me accountable who are all working towards the same goal of publishment. 

What you can do to support me in this:

If you find that you'd like to support me, there's a few things you could do. You could share posts of mine that you like, post my blog on any social media that you have, pin my posts to Pinterest, etc. That will help be greatly, because the more people who read this blog, the more chances I have of getting an audience dedicated to reading my work.
And when the time comes, buy my book if you've got some spare change.

But the main thing I'm asking of you, is that you pray. 

This is a big thing, and there's a lot of things I'll need to balance with it. School, money, family, mental health, and just generally stepping into adulthood.
So if you could pray that God leads me to the path that He desires, that I don't lose hold of life in doing this, and that God provides me with ways to earn and do what I'll need, I would be much obliged. 

I will keep you updated as this process goes. This will be a series that I'm calling "The Path to Publication", and this is the first stage, The Strategy.
The goal has no date, but I want to do this within two years. I think that's a fair amount of time; one year to write, one year to start the publishing process.

Here's to hoping, hard work, and sneaking up on a dream than tackling it and pinning it down so it can't escape. 

Cheers, friends.

           ~ Edna J. Pellen

P.S. Fun fact: Blogger refuses to accept that "publishment" is a word. But it, in fact, is! It is the act or process of making something publicly known; publication.