Life in progress

Tag Archives: fiction writing


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What Day is it Anyway? Monday, May 18th, 2020

My day today so far–10:29pm: 

Today was Victoria Day in Canada. Did it feel like a holiday? Absolutely not. Although I’ve gotta say, it does feel like a Sunday, because Alex had no hour of school work this morning. Which he usually finishes before I’m out of bed anyway.

I’ve spent most of the day being funny. At least I hope I have, since I’m editing another romantic comedy. I need to get the cover done for it, but I can’t decide on a title. Maybe you can help.

Book 1, Saddled, is about a male stripper who dances in bar called Woody O’Flanagan’s Pub. The stripper’s stage name is Saddle McFleshbomb, which is where I got the title of the book from.

The one I’m working on now is the prequel. It’s about the owner of the bar, Cal O’Flanagan, and it takes place as he’s getting the bar open and ready for business. At the time of this book, the pub is just that–a pub/restaurant–so there’s no stripper name to go with. I want to keep the title to one word. I’ve considered Nibbled and Swallowed, the latter because the romance is about Cal meeting his future wife. She’s in a position where she has to convince someone she’s dating Cal’s brother throughout the book, therefore, someone has to swallow the fake relationship, plus, well, you swallow food and drink at a pub, right?

Thoughts? Is Swallowed too weird for the title of a book? Keep in mind it just may have a shirtless guy on the cover.

Why I’m writing this post:

Because if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.

I want everyone to know that you can start discussions with each other in the comments, and if you’d like to write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post, you can link to this one. Hashtag #WDIIA.

Let’s keep in touch!


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What To Do, Part 2

It’s been two days and I’m already going stir crazy, not having something to post daily on my blog. It’s habit-forming, damnit!

But there’s something else bugging me: whether or not to publish the Second Seat series.

If I turn it into a book to sell on Amazon (I’m leaning towards 99 cents and making it exclusive to ‘Zon so Prime members can get it for free), I’ll have to change some of the characters’ names. I can’t make money off Edward, Bella, and Alice, even though they’re really nothing like the Twilight characters. I’ll be sued to Forks and back. Whether or not I can get away with the ads that are referenced (Grey Poupon, anyone?) and Sylvester (ssthufferin’ ssthuckotash!), not to mention songs that are mentioned in a few episodes is also up in the air. I think most of them are vague enough, but I’d still need to consult a lawyer or take them out.

But the real question is, would anyone read them in the form of a 365-chapter book? I’m too close to the whole thing to see it clearly. Most of the episodes are only around 100 words, so it won’t be novel-length.

I just don’t know.

So here’s a poll. Let me know what you think.

If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. Ta!

 


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I’m Being Followed

Do you ever wonder if you’re being followed? Or at the very least, feel like you’re being observed? I do.

It all started with the Daily Post last Thursday. The word of the day was “obvious.” I follow their prompts on my fiction blog, so that day I wrote a post entitled “Obvious.” Obviously. It’s a very short fiction piece about a car accident. You can find it here. The next day – Friday – the Daily Post prompt was “witness.” Hey, that’s handy, I thought. I’ll just write a part two for Thursday’s post. Here you have “Obvious, Part 2.”

When the prompt came up on Saturday, and the word of the day was “mistake,” I was tempted to keep going on my little car accident story, but I didn’t. Instead I wrote about a cheating husband. So what happened? Today’s one-word prompt on the Daily Post is “cheat.”

I wrote a story about paranoia.

We’ll see what tomorrow’s Daily Post prompt is.


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Writing Random Writing

I’ve been writing. Actually, I’ve decided that it’s about time I turned this writing career of mine into an official profession, and to do that I need to be paid for what I do. To this end I’ve begun to look for writing jobs that are paid. On Friday I submitted a story for an anthology based on fairy tales, or specifically the continuation of fairy tales after the point at which the story ended as originally told. I decided to tackle Alice in Wonderland. We’ll see where that goes.

My current project is to write ten 100-word stories under the category of speculative literature. I thought that with my recent foray into writing 50-word stories, twice that length would be a breeze. I’ve written one so far, nine more to go by the end of the month. Whatever doesn’t fit into the genre (or whatever I can’t get to stretch all the way to 100 words) will likely be posted on my fiction blog.

On the novel front, I’ve decided to have it professionally edited, so the first third of it is off having that done to it. (It’s like a week at the spa!) In the meantime I’m hoping the lovely person who I’ve asked to design the cover (one who might be reading this) is well on his/her way through the reading of my novel. On my end I’m working on the eighth edit of said novel; part 3 of 3 left to go, and then I’ll work on finishing the first draft of the sequel.

With all this writing and editing, by the time A-Z April rolls around I think I’ll need to spend a week getting edited. (If this makes no sense, you weren’t reading closely enough. Go back.)

And that’s my recent news. What are you working on?


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JusJoJan 7 – The Importance of Pop-Culture

I used to hate people who told me, with their nose seemingly turned up in disdain, that they didn’t watch TV. That was back when I used to do barely anything else when I got home from work at night. Knit and watch TV. Every single night.

Fast forward to now: I never watch TV. I don’t turn my nose up at people who do – I understand that their leisure time is as valuable to them as mine is to me – they just choose to do something different with it. But I do have to say that I’m really feeling the effects of NOT watching it. Why?

Pop-culture can be very important in any work of art. It has the ability to connect the artist to his audience in a unique way, like, remember where you were when the last episode of M*A*S*H was aired? Or when we heard those famous words, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”? Can you? I can. But do I know a damned thing about what’s going on on “The Office”? No.

While there is much to be said for spending every minute of my spare time creating fiction, there is still that value in watching TV. My own fiction is evidence in itself. Read this: http://lindaghillfiction.com/2014/11/18/43-scenes-from-the-second-seat-on-the-right-sylvester-and-harry/ and tell me you “get it.” Please. Okay, so maybe you do, but it would still be nice to have something current to refer to.

So I’ve decided to add one more thing to my list of New Year’s Resolutions. Watch more TV.

I am so freakin’ backwards.

P.S. Please leave suggestions in the comments on what’s on that’s good. I’m totally lost.

This post is part of Just Jot It January: https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/01/just-jot-it-january-pingback-post-and-rules/ Jot something down and join in the fun – it’s never too late!!

JJJ 2015