The ornery ramblings and occasional fiction of a former political science professor turned author
For Week 14 at More Odds Than Ends, AC Young gave me the perfect prompt to work in a snippet from Magic Abroad, Book 3 of Academic Magic. The prompt is: A hero who doesn’t consider himself/herself a hero; who is brave and courageous, but doesn’t consider himself/herself to be brave and courageous. It’s perfect for Zoe since she is someone who is indeed brave and courageous but does not consider herself so.
Continue reading “Magic Abroad: A Snippet”
Night Mage, Book 2 in the Academic Magic series is now live on Amazon! This one took longer than I expected. I realized a couple of weeks ago that I was procrastinating deliberately. When I finally sat down and forced myself to look at my reasons, I discovered they were a lot like the reasons Marty McFlys’ father gave for not sending his book to a publisher…what if nobody likes it? But, my beta readers liked it, and I trust them. And, I went back to my first book and realized that most people, including perfect strangers, liked it. So, people liked the first one, people I trust liked the second one…publish the damn thing!
I’m working on paperback versions of both books. I just have to get the manuscript formatted correctly and figure out the templates that Kindle publishing offers. Those templates for the covers and the manuscript are extremely helpful, btw.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Sarah A. Hoyt and Cedar Sanderson, along with everybody in More Odds Than Ends, and the patrons of the Diner for pushing me to finally finish.
Next up in my plans are a short story for an upcoming anthology along with the Cursebreaker novel. This writer thing is fun!
This week is dedicated to organizing myself and making sure I don’t fall down on any commitments. I realized I have a lot of things coming up, and a lot of due dates. On top of that, I need to quit procrastinating and get Book 2 out! So on that note, the Monday blog post is going to be the weekly prompt from More Odds Than Ends. For Week 13, Fiona Grey and I traded prompts. Hers to me was “I have a lot of work travel coming up and wanted shells in place.”
Continue reading “Gardens and Shells”
For some reason I haven’t been keeping up with things for the last week or so. Not overly busy, but just not feeling it for some reason. I did manage to send off a prompt last week even if I didn’t get around to creating a prompt response. It’s on the calendar to do for this week. I did, however, manage to get one done for this week. My prompt for Week 12 came from ‘nother Mike: She screamed, then smashed the bug in the shower stall in a tissue. Then she told her husband to unwrap it and find out what kind of bug it was. He unwrapped it, and found only a snarl of hair. Well crushed. My prompt went to AC Young.
Continue reading “Bugs”
The weekly prompt challenge has had an unexpected and beneficial side-effect for me. In addition to getting me to write at least something, and to stretch my creative muscles, it has forced me to become somewhat organized. I try to answer the prompt challenge on Monday even though it’s not due until Tuesday. I spent twenty years of my life explaining to students why they shouldn’t start a project the day it’s due. The least I can do is follow my own damn advice! Now, I just have to make sure I can organize the rest of my week as effectively. But, I am pretty happy with getting Mondays organized!
Continue reading “Flying Rabbits”
Once again, I am astonished at how fast time flies. We are already at Week 9 for the MOTE prompts. My FB memories feed is filled with comments and stories about spring break. No more spring breaks seems strange. But, I like it. I am a bit scattered, and it’s been something of a challenge to organize myself according to an internal rather than an external schedule. It’s a bit of an adventure. Will this work? No? Okay, try this. But! The prompts continue. I will use that to begin my self-scheduling.
Continue reading “Week 9 for 2021 prompts”
I had the privilege of being the subject of the Superversive Sunday Spotlight by Richard Paolinelli over at scifiscribe.com. Somehow I missed it when he originally posted it, but here it is!
I have a short story out now on Amazon! Inside Out & Upside Down is something that popped into my head a while back. I think it will become a series, and while this story has no fantasy elements in it, the series will have them. I’m not quite sure where this is going yet, and it’s going on the backburner for now until I get Book 2 out. But for now, I hope you enjoy it!
I didn’t manage to send in a prompt on time this week for the More Odds Than Ends challenge. So I ended up borrowing the one that ‘nother Mike created and which was given to Fiona. This ended up being a snippet for Book 3 in my Academic Magic series and gave me an excuse to revisit Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland. It’s a picturesque little town on the Atlantic Ocean at edge of County Clare. It’s got a world-renowned links golf course, and tasty waves.
Continue reading “Moonbeams on the tide”
The Week 7 of the More Odds Than Ends prompt challenge brought me back to a prompt from late last year. I have always liked straight up swords and sorcery fantasy. You know, the kind that feels medieval but with real dragons and magic. These two prompts have joined together in my head and appear to be forming the basis of a short story at least. I will have to take some time and follow this thread to see where it leads.
Continue reading “Dragon Invasion”