Three Years of Bleeding Ink - if this goes on much longer I may need a blood transfusion

 

Hello hello hello. 

Bleeding Ink is now three years old (happened a few days ago). Huzzah. We made it. Congratulations us. Woo hoo. Such celebrate, very party. 

What are we going to do about this momentous occasion?

I don't know. Eat cake, or something. Probably not. I'm saving my money to build a bookshelf and thus can't afford cake. But you can buy yourself cake if you want. 

Anyways. 

I should probably get on with the yearly review thingy thing that we unofficially do every year, right?

Okay. Updates and then celebration stuff.

Order of things

Updates:

Writing

• Year of writing
• Project updates

Bleeding Ink

• Giveaways
• Statistics
• Slow going activity
• More WIP updates to come
• The kinds of posts to expect

NoQu

Life

Celebration:

Support these people

Spam comments!

• Spam comment 1
• Spam comment 2
• Gary's Blogs
• Conclusion of the Gary Segment 

Post Conclusion + An Excerpt

Upppdaattesssssss

Writing

So like. *sips tea* This year was really not-productive where writing is concerned. 

Why is that? 

Well.

*straightens bowtie* 

I don't have any good explanation. 

Something to do with a lack of motivation. Although when I had that adventure back in August, my companions helped me write via percussive maintenance. The rewrite of Roslyn is now at 74,173 words long, which is probably a third of the way through the book. I've done a lot of condensing and cutting, and yet still am on the path to making this draft even bigger than the former one. 

I do have some updates on all of my projects though, so here's that

Projects

Updates on my current leading projects and where what's going when and the like.

Roslyn - Halted

A brick wall fell on top of me and I now do not know how to get up and continue with this project.

I know where everything needs to go, I know why, and I know how. I just can't seem to write. It is deeply frustrating and discouraging, because I love the characters in this story and I know them and the world so very well. 

But many doors have shut when it comes to the project, that aside, and so I'm taking a break from it. It genuinely pains me to do that, but it also is genuinely paining me to force the process while its so presently discouraging. 

Hopefully I will return to it soon and be able to get it going again. I believe I was just starting to break real ground for the first time in five years, so I am eager to get back to it when I'm, for lack of better terms, better.

The Rising - Simmering and Plotting

The Rising is my newest story idea. And it actually isn't new. I came up with the concept about three years ago, and let it kind of hangout rent-free in my mind for a time. Then something happened - don't remember what - and I was thinking about it more and more.

Due to the nature of the story, I'd like to be able to say it was God's calling. Whether it actually is or not I couldn't say for certain, because people in my life have had conflicting reactions to this particular concept, but an awful lot of convenient things fell into place to motivate this project for it to just be coincidence. 

But who knows.

Currently, I'm letting the idea simmer as I begin to loosely plot it. This is a very precarious process due to this story specifically, so I'm not rushing it right now. 

The Little People of Their Place - Revisiting

Now that's a name I haven't heard of since... well, a long time. 

For those of you that have snooped around my blog, you may be aware of the fact that I have a project with this name. What you may not be aware of is the fact that I have had this project even longer than I've had Roslyn.

This story is a simple and endearing one for me. It's about two sisters and a whole lot of magical creatures. You can read the early synopsis for it on my "WIP" page. 

It's somewhat of an unofficial tradition for me to come back to this story every so often and reread chunks of it. Even as early of a draft as it is, I have always thought it flows very naturally and holds a lot of potential in its delightful simplicity. 

The reason why I halted the project originally was because I hit a wall and didn't know how to progress, probably due to the fact that I didn't actually plot this story at all. 

But now, with several years worth of writing between me and the last attempt at writing it, I'm revisiting it. It's a simple little book, and I'm hoping to be able to rework it and maybe even finish it as I recover from the pounds of brick that Roslyn dropped on me.

What revisiting this project will entail is something along the lines of rereading the whole thing, lots of time brainstorming and time spent staring at the wall, and repotting. Kind of directing the whole thing and putting it back together again.

Murder on the Writerly Wreck - Off and On

This is my murder comedy that I started writing a year or two back. I think it was last year.  

It's a fun parody of sorts of Murder on the Orient Express and various other stories of that nature. It's actually heavily inspired by a true situation, as well.

The comedy partially relies on the visual affect of things; fonts and spelling and the like all add to its tone.

Because of this, it's a very loose and free project that's easy for me to use as a break from other projects. I'm not dedicatedly working on it at the moment, but I am using it in-between writing. 

Reading

Oh stars I read a lot this year. Well, I read a lot for me. 

I read 13 indie books (one of which is unpublished but is going to be published next year I believe), which makes me very happy and also very confused because it feels like that happened two years ago and not this year. But I'm happy about it because that means my indie author book rec page has been fairly active on my part this year. I've had two recommendations, one which I've read and one which I intend to read, so I think it's not been terrible all things considered. 

As of November (who knows if I'll update this draft of the post before publishing it to correct this) I've read *27 books. I'll do my year-in-books thing sometime in December or January maybe probably possibly, so I won't go into all of that now. 

But generally speaking it's been a good year for reading. 

(*It's actually 29 as of today.)

Bleeding Ink

Giveaways

We hosted two giveaways this year, both of which were for indie trilogies that turned five years old  *party-blower thing that rolls out when you blow into it noises*  Happy birthdays once again to Dragons' Bane and The Fire Rain Chronicles. They're some of the coolest YA books ever. 

We didn't get a lot of interactions on those giveaways, but what we did get has been valued and will hopefully be doubled a hundredfold by the time we come to the next giveaway. Which will be.... *digs through piles of papers* Ah, it will not be until August of 2022.

Anyways, that's how that went. 

Statistics and Updates

I wrote like eighteen posts or something. We got like 3.31k views this year, and we have 5.1k views since being created, which means we have progressed a lot in that regard, even for so few posts. How, I don't know. But thank you to ye lurking followers of the blog who read all and say little. 

As for updates on Bleeding Ink *long inhale* noupdateshavebeenmadeonthenewwebsiteasI'mstrugglinggreatlywithunderstandingeverythingandworkingonmybrandandblahblahblahstillwanttodobooktubeprobablywon'tforanotherfewyearsbecauseyyeaahhhhhcamerascostmoneyandstuff.

Also indie rec page will be on-going as perusal. 

(Wait, what's this? Thinks Editing Edna. That's not true, I have many updates now. I'll just insert those here, and perhaps no one will notice that it was written weeks after the prior part was.) 

Slow Going Activity

I'm currently very secluded when it comes to writing. Due to things, I no longer have a writing group which I can rely on, and my individual writing friends are all occupied. My family is occupied as well, and isn't able to offer any direct help either. 

So it's just Marvin, Erwin and I, sitting around a typewriter and trying to figure out what to do with it (Marvin and Erwin are my inanimate assistants, if you didn't know). 

Because of this, I'm in a very strange place, writing-wise. That includes blogging, and running NoQu. I am trying to maintain everything at a slow but intentional pace so that I don't overwork myself or burn out, but it's very likely I drop some things here and there.

I ask for your patience concerning posts during this time, and if you'd like to help, commenting on both Bleeding Ink and NoQu's blog and forums truly does help. 

I also ask for your patience when it comes to things such as my Indie Book Recs page and general indie reading and support. I have every intention of still putting that to good use, but financially and mentally can't presently afford to maintain them to the degree which I would prefer.

More WIP Information

There have been several blogs spring up over the course of Bleeding Ink's lifespan which very quickly surpassed BI as well as several other blogs which I frequent. It's no wonder why they're doing well - after all they are very good blogs - but the wonder is why the other very good blogs, the ones which I frequent, haven't gotten as much traffic. 

Well, I don't know for sure. But it seems that the popular blogs are certain personality types, and they either do more "how to write [blank]" type posts or they talk more frequently about their own projects.

I'm not about to change my whole personality for the sake of improving Bleeding Ink, of course, and I'm really not the best at giving instructions (though I do mean to give more "my process for [blank]" type posts here and there), but I do believe I could stand being a bit more open about my projects. 

I originally didn't want to do this because I figured either no one would care, or someone may inadvertently take inspiration from my own work and produce a project similar. But you know what, that doesn't really matter. 

So I intend to do posts and tags that allow for more conversations about my leading WIP, whatever that would be considered right now, and which will hopefully attract more reader interaction. 

Because while I really don't care for blogging, I do like sharing my thoughts and projects and getting feedback on it. And, I do like the idea of publishing, which certainly won't go well if I don't first have an audience of some sort. 

So moving forward, you can expect more openness regarding my projects.

Types of Posts

I want to talk a bit about what posts you can expect to see more of in the future, though like I mentioned at a slower pace. I'm going back to why I made Bleeding Ink, and trying to tailor my post types to match that. Because really, only occasional posts of mine accurately represent why I started Bleeding Ink in the first place.

My Approach

I've recently found that I'm really not the kind of person that can supply you with writing advice. And really, it was never my intention to be one of those anyways. 

I wanted to be a person who shared my experience, not a person who guides other people through theirs. And so I am going to continue the "My Approach" post series, which details my approach to various things as a writer as well as a reader. 

My main goal is to just let you in on my own journey, but if you find that it helps you along yours, then we will have accomplished quite a feat. 

Concerning Classics

Before I started this blog I was talking with my mother about a blog post we were reading together about Anne Shirley. I remember saying that this was the kind of thing I could do, and the kind of thing I wanted to do. 

But I'm a writer as well as a reader, so I made this blog to promote myself and build an audience, totally forgetting that I wanted to talk about other books, not just my own, from the very beginning. 

And now I find myself coming back to that; the older I grow, the more I come to love classical literature, and the more and more I find myself wanting to talk about them and dissect them and collect them. I want to explore past literature in more ways than just reading it.

So I'm getting back to those roots., and now intend to really focus on that more than I have in the past. I've already begun this; you may remember I recently began a post category called "Concerning Classics" (or "CC"). I will be continuing on with that, talking about everything from classic authors to their books. Diving into the culture around the books, studying characters, that sort of thing. 

Indie, New, Young Author, and Blogger Spotlights

Though I am trying to reign the focus of Bleeding Ink in to once again be Bleeding Ink itself, I still have every intention of supporting my comrades in the writing and blogging field. 

So I'm hoping to do a post, perhaps once a month, that is spotlighting a particular person who fits these categories. It will include things like all of their works, my favorite things about them, quotes, a bit about their history even, my favorite posts by them, things of that sort. 

It's kind of like the "Upcoming Author" book tag that I invented, but not limited to authors, and it won't be a tag. 

Tags

I do not intend to doing any more blog tags, unless they are directly related to writing and/or reading. While blog tags are often a quick and easy kind of post to do, I find that they're very unfulfilling and actually take me more time than usual, because I have to go find other bloggers. I also don't think readers really enjoy them all that much, so they're not really good for any of my purposes.

So unless the tags are on-topic, I do not plan in participating in them any longer. 

(Oh yeah, Editing Edna thinks. That was seamless.)

NoQu

So NoQu is a thing I did this year.

We (that'd be just me) haven't (*hasn't) gotten a whole lot of interaction, but that's to be expected given we (I) didn't even know the site would be live in time for November.

SO. That's going well all things considered.

Life

I have a new sword, started a collection of pretty classics, I've decided to stop building that desk I began two or three years ago so that I can instead build a whole room (sort of), I discovered I loved goblins, work has been going well, I met three people who I knew for a long time and that was awesome, learned how to make ink, I have a new niece, I worsened my caffeine addiction, annnnnnddd I have a tophat now.

So. 

*thumbs up*  

Okay the part we all hate is out of the way so now onto the cellebrattionnnn

and by THAT I mean it's time for me to be bossy and tell you to support THIS PERSON and THIS PERSON and THAT PERSON OVER THERE and whOOAAHH that PERSON who is RIGHT BEHIND YOU AND HAS A KNIFE!!

just kidding. 

well, no, she does have a knife (a sword, actually) but she's not like, going to stab you with it. she might throw a rock-hard baguette at your head though. She's nice like that.

also 

THAT PERSON and THAT ONE and THAT ONE. 

*draws in a deep breath* okay what else. I feel like I'm forgetting something.

...

...

...

well. I guesswAIT NO I REMEMBER!

(Editing Edna tsks at her own forgetfulness, but decides to leave it in for comedic effect.)

we have recieved 

S̵̛̼̘͂̿̾͘P̶̙̻͉͔̉͑̏̈̅͑͝͝ͅA̸̺͊̊̇͑M̶͉͓͔̱̍͛ ̸̡̰̠͔̪̲̟͚̔͑̈́̊̿͘̕͝C̷̬̯̣͛Ò̴̼̖̠̅̅̊̄̈́̚͘͝M̵̠̼̳̱͍͒̕M̶̳̠̻͖̺̗̤̮͆E̶͙͍͕̹̥̰̣̣̲̒͆͒͑̉̍̓̌̕ͅN̵̹͍̠͈̱̭̪̆̀͜T̴̡̛͚͚̟̩̤̩̑̍͋̏͐̑̚S̵͈̦̻̪̬͖̻̪͛̅͜

Yes my friend, after a YEAR of no spam comments (making for a verrrryyyy boring celebration post) we have MULTIPLE SPAM COMMENTS! WOOOOO!

At least, I think they're spam. It could just be a confused person. Who knows. But yes, they are from the same potential human. And there are only two of them. So we're not just reviewing spam comments, oh no oh no oh no, we're going to review the blogs of this spam commenterererer.

Our Honored Spam Spotlight

My friends, meet the individual who I can only guess is referring to themselves as "GBY." That's a boring name, though, so we're going to make it "Geráld Butingham Yip." We'll call them "Gary" for short ( am assuming they are male given their profile picture). 

Gary left his two comments back in July on a post I had made in May. The post was a cover reveal for indie author Jenna Terese's new book, Ignite.

This is what our intriguing individual had to say about that in Comment 1:

"IGNITE: very passionate wurd, girl, one which describes the utter sense of ONEness in Seventh-Heaven... or the overwhelming sense decay in Hell Nobody but you can choose2utterly reject Jesus and fall into the Abyss or accept the Trinity and live in the Paradise sHe has created4u since time began.

CHOOSE everything...

or lose everything.

I hope our BlogOramma 

will help you choose." 

- Geráld Butingham Yip, 2021

So as you probably know, reader, I am in fact a Christian.

So when I beheld this comment with mine own eyes, I presumed momentarily that this may be an individual who is attempting to witness to me. Which would mean they have not been around my blog very long but that's alright. 

But our friend Gary has some fundamental issues in his theology which we will now go over, line by line. 

"IGNITE: very passionate wurd, girl, one which describes the utter sense of ONEness in Seventh-Heaven..."

Well first of all - thank you! I'm sure Jenna really appreciates that <3 It is a very passionate word for what I am sure is a very passion-led project on her end, though I have failed to read it yet so I can't know for sure.

Second of all, well, I'm a bit confused. You say "oneness," which is the belief that the Trinity is not three in one but is in fact just one, but theeeen you refer to the Trinity, so I'm a tad confused as to what kind of belief you subscribe to. 

Now as for "Seventh-Heaven," I think you have been mislead. Seventh-Heaven is actually not a thing. It is an expression we say for when we, for example, have a darn good piece of devil's food cake (devil, get it?). Ex. "*eats cake* *shuts eyes dramatically* *with my mouth full, says,* ohhhh, man, I'm in seventh heaven."

If you mean to refer to just heaven heaven, you should just say heaven to avoid the confusion there. 

Lastly before we move on, I don't understand what ignition has to do with onenesss. But okay! 

"... or the overwhelming sense decay in Hell"

(I'm guessing there was meant to be a period at the end of that.) 

I appreciate that you mentioned Hell! After all, what is the point in being saved to heaven if there's nothing to be saved from, right?

But mayyyybbbeee try a different approach when you're evangelizing, because that might make people think you're just fear mongering them into a cult, and not inviting them to pursue a relationship and religion that is beneficial to them in multiple ways. 

"Nobody but you can choose2utterly reject Jesus and fall into the Abyss or accept the Trinity and live in the Paradise sHe has created4u since time began."

True! That decision would be on me for sure, since Jesus' sacrifice made it so that all people can choose to follow him or not. Because before He came, we couldn't really choose that. We could follow the law, but we could never follow it perfectly, and anything less than perfect is not enough, because less than perfect = sin = Hell. 

So Jesus' sacrifice has made it so that we do not need to rely on the law, and our works in the law, to save us, for God knew that we wouldn't be able to do that. 

However, my friend, I noticed you said "sHe." It's spelled with just the H and the E :) 

Also, on the "and live in the Paradise He has created for you since time began" bit, that's not necessarily true. Genesis gives us a clear list of what things God created, and when He was making all of that - before time began - He didn't say anything about making me a paradise. 

He DID make the garden of Eden, which was perfect, because sin had not entered the world, but that has passed away. 

God has made a waiting place for us, though, and we will go to heaven when it is prepared for us. But that is not the permanent place for us, because God will create a new earth.

So close, but no cigar. 

"CHOOSE everything..."

Nono, friend, we do not choose everything. We choose one thing: God. And in following God, everything else that is good will be added to us. 

If we choose EVERYTHING, however, that will mean we also choose sin. And that doesn't work. But I think I see what you're doing. I think you are referring to God as "everything," which makes some sense, but it can be quite confusing. So being straightforward is a lot more helpful than being poetic when evangelizing, at least in my opinion. 

"...or lose everything."

Fair enough!

"I hope our BlogOramma will help you choose."

To be honest, my friend, I have no clue what you mean here, but thanks for the comment! 

Comment 2

On to Comment 2, on the same post:

"I'll be waiting for you Upstairs." 

- Geráld Butingham Yip, 2021

*eyes the floor above me*

Interesting, interesting.

Well, Gary, maybe don't say super ominous and vaguely threatening things when you're trying to evangelize. That's all I got to say on that one. 

But wait, that isn't all Gary has to say.

Gary's Blogs

If we follow Gary's profile, we will see this not only an intriguing bio which concludes with calling the reader "curly," but also a list of many, many, many blogs. Many.

A lot.

Now, is it smart to click on a list of links from a suspicious looking account?

Well no, my friends, it isn't. 

Did that stop me?

Well no, my friends, it didn't.

Gary's 20 websites all consist of the similar content and in a similar format. Usually his websites are only a single page, or a home page with posts, and they all are usually speaking of God, aliens, the "Upstairs," and generally attempting to convict and convert the reader.

This post is already long enough, so we're going to just review a few of Gary's websites. 

Each website reference will be linked to, but follow that link at your own risk. I've really only included them so that you know these things are in fact real, and not a fabrication of mine which came to me via fever dream at 3:04 in the morning.

Here's Website 1: cuTNToo 

This website starts off by saying Gary has information for us that will lead us in our writing journey. It tells the tale of Gary's time in purgatory(?) when he was in a coma. But he seems to get sidetracked as he tells it and then the website is telling us about all sorts of vaguely religious things and things about extroverts and metabolisms, referring once to Mork and Mind, and continuously referring to the Trinity as a "her." 

Here are my favorite quotes from this website: 

"So, gain altitude, not attitude." 

"Compelled by the ominous quality of my expensive genius (outta Pop's prodigious pocket), I'm at odds once again withe plastic reality of the present."

"Meet this intoxicatingly bombastic ex-mortal Upstairs."

I am absolutely going to start saying these things, swapping out some of the words when needed. Like the second quote, I'll just swap out "present" to fit the context. Because it's honestly comedy gold. 

Here's Website 2: GainAltitudeNotAttitude

I had to include this one because one of the quotes mentioned before is clearly a nod to this website. The former site and this one look very similar design wise, but surprisingly Gary has actually posted multiple times on this blog. Gary has been inactive on it since 2019.

Favorite quotes:

"Precious, precious RollyPollies in their black, RollsRoyce."

"I nominate YOU for bugOyear, every year (dragonflies would come in less-than-a-nanometer behind.)"

"Decide, Mountain Dewd." (The pun here is not lost on me and I find it deeply hilarious.)

A less light note: This blog in particular has some directly disrespectful things to Christianity. The whole referring to God as a "sHe" and the Trinity as a "her" was one thing - inaccurate though not uncommon - but referring to Judas "letting one rip" as God eats stale bread and fish with a raggedy sheep, and the said "juicy" passed gas overwhelming Israel and Jesus asking people if they would like to see the holy magnitude of the "phart," isn't even humorously bad. It's clearly a mockery of scripture.

Here's Website 3: Audacious DNA

This website is designed in a way which looks distinctly Easter-ish. It's rather nostalgic and sad at the same time, like an abandoned CD from the 90s that your grandma's church has in its storage rooms for some reason, causing you to wonder about many things and yet nothing at the same time. This makes sense, given this post is about Easter (I think).

This website has only one post, returning to the usual for Gary. It has also been inactive since 2019.

Favorite quotes:

"MEEKness ain't WEAKness, bro."

"He [Christ] actually made that filthy, stank in Lucifer BOW!!! to the Trinity!!! WhahahaWhahaha!!!" (I don't include this because it is accurate but because it is hilarious. I don't recall a time in which Christ made Satan bow.)

"Make a stand. Stand thy ground. Speak-up, bro. Never back down."

The second comment on this post is absolutely hilarious. The poor lad is as lost and confused as the rest of us.

An Interesting Comment on Gary's Site 

On one of Gary's other blogs, Gary received this comment, and replied with the comment below it: 

Maria: "you are reading this massage yourself. God is preparing a great blessing for your life. God can do anything amen ....."

Gary: "I know, dear; sHe already has: my finite existence. Pray, pray, pray the Trinity would have mercy on them Satanists. Don't doubt prayer to our Mother - she has gobbsa lottsa powler o'er El Diablo. And I'll see you in Seventh-Heaven, dear. Love you. Cya soon. be@peace. - GBY!

Now what I find interesting about this is 1. Maria seems to understand what Gary is saying, and 2. Maria's profile picture. 

So I click on Maria's account to see further information about her. And I see that she has been on Blogger since 2014, whereas Gary has been on it since 2018. Maria's bio is all spelled similarly to the way Gary spells things. 

When you click on Maria's blog link, you may believe that this is because she doesn't speak English as a first language. Yet Maria's English in her comment seemed perfectly fine. Interesting.

Also, once you translate Maria's website to English, you'll find it very interesting as well. Her blog, in English, is called "Mary's prayers," it has 112 followers, and she seems to have a bit of a testimony. She mostly posts videos on her blog, very Catholic looking videos. And she posts very many each day. 

To the side of her page, she details how commenters have said that she claims her blog is new when really it's been around since 2014. She says that this is because that is when she made it, but that she only started using it recently.

Perhaps that is true, but I think the bit about the comments may not be, for I'm digging through her site and can't find any. I stopped eventually, for I was told that the website was not secure.

But anyways. That all is to say, I had thought maybe Maria was an account Gary made to comment on Gary's own blog, but unless Gary made this originally ages ago, this is not the case. Perhaps Maria is a real individual who just happened to agree with Gary's unconventional theology.

Concluding the Gary Segment 

Alright, we've spent a good amount of time talking about Gary. Now I want to say something which I find necessary: 

You may think that perhaps Gary is not a troll. That Gary is, instead, just a confused person. Or maybe a young kid who doesn't know what they're doing. Well, that I did consider, while I spent much time viewing his various websites.

First let me address the latter: Gary knows quite a big of science and historical people and things of that sort for him to be a child. Perhaps Gary is a very intelligent child, but if he were then I doubt he would have... well, done and said certain things. 

Now to address the former: Sure, it's possible. But many of the things Gary says are wrong, hilarious, or disturbing. And also due to the abundance of websites Gary makes instead of using one or two for all purposes, the nature of Gary's typing (which you have only seen a sample of), and the nature of Gary's comments, Gary is, by all accounts, a spam artist. 

And so, Gary, whether you are a real person or not, and whether you are or are not doing all of this just to spam people and get them to fall down the rabbit hole of your online activity, I hope we have no hard feelings. Thank you for the laughs! 

Post Conclusion + Excerpt

Alright my inky friends, that concludes the end of this year's celebration for Bleeding Ink's existence. I'm not really sure that this post actually exists; it feels like a very long, very strange dream, which I'm semi aware of being a dream, but can't figure out how to wake up so I just roll with it. 

Being very tired at the time of writing this probably doesn't help. Especially after spending so much time on Gary's websites. 

But there you have it; updates, celebration, and something else that happened at some point but I'm now forgetting it. *yawn* I'm very tired. 

Oh hey I just had a brilliant idea. I'm just gonna go like this real quick....

yAaAaAWWwwWwnNNnnn...

Okay now if you care to join in the fun, comment variations of that yawn below. 

Why, you may ask? Well because if Ariel ends up reading this for whatever reason, I want to mess with her. Typing "YAaAAwWWnNn" has never failed to irritate her and get her to yawn in the past, at least in my experience.

Anyways.

If you made it through this entire post, well, congratulations. I honestly don't know how or why you'd do that, but go get yourself a cookie or something to reward yourself.

But before you go, I have one more thing. I said earlier that I want to be more open with my projects now. And so to start that off, here's an excerpt from Roslyn. 

(For context: Roslyn is one of four Keepers of Elements; the Keeper of the Stars. The people of the world rebelled against their Keepers, and Roslyn was transformed into a small, flat, and circular stone. Michael has now been on his quest to see her turned back and reinstated for five years, and grows close to a milestone.)

He pulled Roslyn from his jacket pocket, then wandered outside the cave. He was tired, but also restless, and the rain had finally settled to a light sprinkle. So he went to the beach and sat down on a great stone. He craned his neck to look up at the stars, and his eyes fell on one that Roslyn always pointed to. He could practically hear her voice saying, “There it is - there’s my star.” 

The first time she said that he had asked her why, but her mother had sent him away before he could hear the answer. He’d stayed up that night, sitting by his bedroom window and watching that star as he tried to determine what it had done to make it so special to her. 

Now the star, once a strong light with a rim of purple around it, was glowing weakly. Beyond it he could imagine the smaller stars, the ones that required the powerful telescope in the observatory back in the palace to see, as they pulsed and changed colors to various rhythms. They were what made the sky so colorful, tinting the morning sky and bleeding across the night’s. But now, with the moon gone and more stars falling every night, with Roslyn gone… now the sky was just dark, and unbearably silent. Practically lifeless.

But not for long. Michael gently touched the star embedded on the surface of the stone. “We made it,” his voice was hushed, “We’re finally going to see Lennox.” He held the cool stone to his lips and closed his eyes. 

Roslyn would be back soon. The moon would return, new stars would be born, the world would be anew when she ruled as Keeper. And most importantly, he would hear Roslyn’s voice again, and see her smile, and watch her thoughtful look as she gazed at the sky, and listen to her joyful laugh. More important than the moon’s return to the sky was Roslyn’s return to Michael’s life.

Just a little longer.  

Alright, well there it is, my first risk with this story; sharing an excerpt on the internet where anyone can see it. Oh well! I hope you like it.

What did you think of this post? What was your favorite post of the year? What was your favorite part of this very large post? What did you think of our spam comments this year? What's something in your life that has reached a yearly milestone recently?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Best wishes, and in the words of Gary, "cya soon, girly." 

- E.P.

P.S. I challenge you to start saying one of Gary's quotes on a regular basis. 

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.

Update: Path to Publication

 

Hey there, 

In my last post I mentioned I would (probably) be releasing a update on The Path to Publication. Here it is, plus other updates. Huzzah.  

Path to Publication

It looks like the original plan is all being pushed back by a month or two. I'm not giving up on it in the slightest, and have no issue following this plan through some extra months. 

The hardest part with Roslyn, story-wise, is the fact that it's so very... big. The first draft is around 106,893 words and yet the story still feels very young. I have a whole other part of the book that will likely take that count to 200k or so, but I'm not entierly sure how that will go. 

Given that fantasies are known to be bigger, this is a first draft, I refuse to split this into two books, and this will be self-published, I'm not too stressed over the word count (though I am still endlessly confused as to how it's that big) so much as I am the pacing. Pacing is something I need to work on, for sure.  

After the holidays I will (hopefully) get back into full swing with writing Roslyn, and may even share some excerpts some time soon. Maybe. We'll see. 

In the mean time, I'll continue writing little bits here and there.

NaNo

As you may recall, I didn't do Roslyn for NaNoWriMo. I had been pressing myself to finish the draft by October so I could read it through during Oct. and then write the second draft during NaNo. But I talked to some friends and listened to common sense and decided not to do that and switched to another story for the month. 

So how did I do on that story? 

Well, it wasn't good. 

Daily tracker:

As you can see, I was doing really well for eight days, and then the struggles began. Then my motivation chord was pulled and I flatlined. Yaaaaay. 

Stats:

Story experience:

MoTWW was alright. I enjoyed the parts that I actually wrote, but I really wasn't feeling it. Writing just hasn't been the most fun of late, but that's okay. This story is fun, and I know I'll enjoy it when I'm more in the swing of things.  

Final word count:

In the end, my final word count was 16, 481. Some of that may have been for another story, too (because I ended up missing Roslyn too much and would occasionally work on it instead), but the majority of it was for MoTWW. 

General Writing

My overall writing lately has been nonexistent. I've written a few poems and worked a very small amount on a short story for a secret Santa swap in my writing group, but outside of that I've written nothing. 

I have edited Roslyn a bit, as well as some other stories of mine that have never and likely never will see the light of day. 

Reading

I have been reading a lot today, which is wonderful. Currently my leading reads are...

Healer's Bane by Hope Ann

It's very short, but due to the next book I've yet to finish it.

I'm really enjoying it so far, especially the atmosphere of the story, and look forward to writing a review for it. 

Dragons' Hope by Melody Jackson

I recently finished re-reading Dragons' Bane and Dragons' Might by Melody Jackson in preparation for the third book. DH (Dragons' Hope) has been out for two years as of the 15th, but I'm only just now able to read it. 

So far I'm loving it as much as I do the first two books, and really look froward to getting deeper into it (as right now I'm not even a third of the way in). 

My minor reads:

The Naming by Alison Groggon

I'm a little deeper in this than I am DH, but have halted it for DH. It's a great story so far and I'm really enjoying the world building (from what I can tell, it's wonderfully vast). 

The Icebound Land by John Flanagan

This is book three in The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan (aka one of my favorite series every even though I'm only three books in). I'm over halfway through with it, and absolutely loving it.

This is a minor read because I'm buddy-reading it with a friend of mine, and we aren't in the same timezone so finding a time to read it together can be a bit tricky. 

The next books on my list: 

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

This book has been pretty high up on my TBR for a while, so I was thrilled to finally get my hands on a copy. It's a pretty thin book, so I imagine it won't take me too long to read. 

Echos by Miranda Marie

This book is a thick one, so it may take me some time. But Echos has been on my TBR for years now and it's high time I read it. I've also heard amazing things about it, and Marie's other works (The Fire Rain Chronicles) were wonderful, so I'm sure I'm going to love this one. 

Though I hear it's a really painful read, so we'll see if I survive. 

The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan

This is book four in The Ranger's Apprentice,  and if the name is anything to go off of... I fear how book three will end. 

Bleeding Ink 

Lastly comes Bleeding Ink. I have one change coming to it soon, which I'm really excited for. It may take me until around January to make public, given the holidays and that I have a few more things I need to do before it's ready, but I'll get it up here as soon as I can. 

This update is something I'm really excited for, and I hope will be a great benefit to my audience and writer friends.

Other than that, BI is staying the same, inconsistent, messy corner of the world that it is.

----------

Alright, I think that's everything.  That's my writing/reading life right now. If you have any questions, thoughts, comments, etc., I'd love to hear from you. 

 - Edna

P.S. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I have a GoodReads now.