Long road to travel.

This morning I was up bright and early at 5 am.

I am not a morning person.

So why was I up so early? The hub started a new job this morning and I needed to take him to work. With only one car and him working a 10 hour shift it was decided that I should take him in case I had to go get the kids from school or had an emergency.

It is going to kill us for gas until we can find a place to live closer to where he is working. Thankfully the hours put him before traffic gets crazy on the way there and back so the trip only takes 30 minutes or so.

It is still a crazy long drive at 5 am.

Thinking about it got me thinking about the crazy long road I have chosen to take to become a full time writer of words and teller of stories.

I recently chatted with some folks on twitter about the author ad spam that is a constant stream through the feeds. I have chosen to stop doing any “major advertising” there. You should just get regular ol updates about my day and crap I am going through from now on.

Full Moon Station is doing great on Smashwords. I was really excited to make it available for free. You can still get it on Amazon for $0.99. I figure that is a good way for folks to help out if they like my work. Until I can get set up with a donate button at any rate. Just purchase a copy of FMS or Lost Hope on Amazon and all the money goes toward helping me get the edits paid for and ensures another book in the future.

I am working on getting an official “IniribaGreyMyst.com” set up so that I can do what I want with the page. Donate button, sneak peaks and a storefront for book and art purchases. Not to mention links to fun things that inspire me.

If you want to contact me, I have set up an email for fans and friends to be able to reach me.

iniribagreymyst@live.com

As soon as the website is done I will also have a mailing list you can sign up for.

Anyhow, that is it from me today.

More FullMoonStation

Since putting up Full Moon Station on a free promotion, several people have asked for more from the story.  It never seemed to speak to me beyond the first part but the story was so great I wanted to give it more. Here is what I have so far. Maybe after Beast Within is completed and uploaded to Amazon, I will be able to finish Mark and Ted’s story.

 

The sun reflected off the chrome of the ‘64 mustang, straight into the eyes of Detective Theo Logan as he pulled up to the gas station, It was in a ditch about forty feet away from the pumps. Local police and state patrol hovered at the edges of the vehicle trying to peek inside without actually looking in the window, a couple of the officers glanced his way as he parked next to one of the state patrol SUVs.
Ted was no where to be seen, but then they may have taken him into town to the station or the hospital. Positive thinking was a plus.
The desert heat poured into the car as he opened the door. It smelled like dust and dried weeds. It was only ten in the morning. “Detective Logan?” a younger female officer approached she was almost military in her uniform. Her black hair was pulled tight in a bun. Olive skin and flashing brown eyes took in everything about him and more.
Despite her small frame she seemed to radiate an aura that said “Mess with me, I dare you”. Her name badge read Hernandez. Theo unfolded his tall frame from the rental then leaned back in and grabbed his white stetson hat from the passenger seat popping it onto his head. He held out his hand, nodding his head in reply.
“The sheriff wants to see you before you get started. Could you follow me please?” the only reason Theo caught the accent in her words were from years of having a proud Latino partner.
He followed the young officer into the gas station. The front window had been broken out. Small shards of glass glittered in the sun like a million diamonds scattered across the pavement. There was a dark red patch of blood on the grey pavement just outside the window. He knew the body was already on the way to the local morgue.
He stopped himself before his mind raced around in circles with the thought of his son lying cold on a steel table.

The managers office was little more than a closet at the back of the store. Toilet paper rolls lined a small wire shelf packed in next to a file cabinet and a small desk. There was an ancient computer complete with green screen monitor and a small stack of three and a half inch floppy disks.
The sheriff was a roundish man with thick grey hair and a clean cut goatee. His dark brown sheriff hat sat atop the monitor while the man himself filled the small office chair beside the desk. Theo stood in the open doorway. Hernandez had dropped him off at the door then did a sharp about face and headed back through the store and out the front.

“Sheriff,” Theo said in greeting nodding to the man in the chair.
“Detective,” he replied. “ You wouldn’t happen to be the same Theodor Logan on the registration and insurance from that mustang out front now would you?”
Theo nodded.
The sheriff said. “Well, I spose that means you want in on this deal then?” again Theo nodded. “One thing first Detective Logan…” the sheriff glanced down at his hands then back up at Theo.

He could tell by the look in the sheriffs eye that he knew who was driving Theo’s car last night. “It was your kid wasn’t it.” It is a statement rather than a question.
“Yes, sir. My son borrowed the car so he and a friend could go to the concert out on the coast yesterday.”
The sheriff nodded his expression saying he already knew that as well. “Well, I suppose if you can report to my lead detective, I will let you get involved in the case.”

“That works for me.” Theo said.

 

I hit the “Save and Publish” button.

Today I set out on a new adventure.

I hit the “Save and Publish” button in KDP.

If you have been following me for a while, you will recognize the story.

Full Moon Station. The short story about a couple of guys making an innocent stop at the gas station who end up running into a world of trouble when a werewolf kills everyone in sight.

I wanted to make it available for free because it is such a short piece but that was not an option. It is $0.99 and should be available sometime tomorrow morning.

If you choose to purchase the story, THANK YOU! Any money made from this will go toward helping finish Death’s Hope. I want to professionally edit the novel length story. Making sure you all have the highest quality book available.

I chose to publish Full Moon Station because I wanted to familiarize myself with the way KDP works. I don’t want any surprises popping up when I publish DH!

Again, to all who have chosen to support me, Thank you so much! SHARE the book with a friend.

Full Moon is just the start of another series I have in the works called Shifters and Sorcery. These books are going to be available through KDP as well. Keep an eye out for “Sunrise” (the story of a sorceress named Charlene Talon, the last living descendant of Merlin and prime suspect in several murders of supernatural people) and “Beast Within” (the story of an Alpha Shifter named Elizabeth new to her powers. Her town is being terrorized by a sociopath werewolf who wants Beth for his mate.)

Today on Adventures of a Busy Mom…

 

The youngest came in to the bedroom at around 5 am. Crawled up across the bed, over the top of his older brother who had already snuggled in beside me. Making sure he was between be and the 4 year old, he firmly squeezed himself in making sure there was no more brother anywhere near mom.

I can not get my children to keep cloths on for more than 5 minutes if we are at home. So when he wedged himself into the already crowded bed, his bare back was pressed against me. His skin was hot to the touch.

If you have followed my blog for a while, then you know I am a mom of 7 wonderful boys. This gives me plenty of experience in the ‘fever and sickness’ department.

We got up, heading out to the kitchen and the medicine cabinet to grab the thermometer. After spending a few moments getting him to stick out his tongue (This is the secret to getting an oral temp from a 2 year old) his temp read 101.3.

Fevers in young kids are, for the most part, not something to freak out about. It is the bodies way of killing of something that might otherwise cause them to be extremely ill. If you are a new parent of a toddler, have courage. As long as your little one is still smiling and playing, let them be.

(Disclaimer: I am not a Doctor. I am just a Mom with experience. DO NOT take any advice I give as proper medical advice. Always trust your instinct as a parent and speak with your child’s doctor.)

If you are worried about how high their temp is,  give them some Tylenol or ibuprofen to help bring down the fever. Usually there is no need to freak out unless your kiddo seems lethargic and their skin is red from heat. Make sure you have talked with your child’s doctor about when to call him if your munchkin does get a fever, Most of the time you can wait a few days before needing to take them in.

So, now it is 6 am. The teen is awake. He will be getting out the door for school in the next 30 minutes. I have a can of Red Bull at my side. Madagascar 2 is playing with the two youngest children watching.

I have given my friendly Mom advice for the day. I shall see you all in Twitter Land. I am off to work on Crowd Funding Rewards.

Have a great day!

Writer tips, tricks and fun.

I have come across many tips, tricks and cheats for assisting the would be author on the road to publication.

I have shared a few of these over twitter and thought it would be a great idea to add them here as a blog post.

One I found that was fun is a picture of editing marks. Common and not so common.

Who can wear the badge of writer without knowing the basic keyboard shortcuts?

And the most helpful thing I found was this…

#JustaGamer

It has been going on for years.

Female Gamers get mocked, harassed, abused and ridiculed.

The Geek community has made a huge launch to abolish abuse of female community members.

It is time that the Game Community join this movement.

I am a Girl. I am a mother. I am a writer. I am a Gamer.

Back in the early 80’s I would ‘role play’ Thundercats with my brothers and the other neighborhood kids. Or G.I. Joe (Gotta hand it to them for making chicks badass, too bad they were still side characters). I was very much a tom boy, out kicking ass and not taking any crap from the bullies and boys in the area. Thankfully this was not discouraged by my parents and I was never pushed to be anyone other than myself. The girl who loved make up but would kick your ass if you picked on her little brothers.

I would spend mornings before school at a friends house playing Super Mario in the NES. I knew all the tricks.

I was not formally introduced to pen and paper games until High School where a group of us discovered The World of Darkness. Vampire, Werewolf and Mage.  This was after a personal family tragedy that left me doubting my own self worth and the young, strong me was forgotten.

I would hear comments from the male gamers under their breath about how “It figures.” My character description was an attractive woman, confident in her own skin.

Introduce LARPing. OMG! I was in heaven!

A society filled with women notoriously drenched in low self esteem because they are not the Cheer Leader body type. Who have decided to handle that with an overly aggressive attitude against anyone who might threaten “Their” position as a woman among the boys and men of the group.

Women are competitive against other women by nature. It is our need to be the best possible mate match that drives us.

Some women will deny this by saying “I don’t care what other people think of me.” but when you are being honest with yourself you understand that you can’t get away from the desire to be “attractive”. Whatever that means to you as a person.

I am not fat. I am not horribly disfigured.

So naturally the aggression I received as a female in a “mans world” was from the other women who had discovered this wonderful world of make believe. Ignored, back biting, rude rumors flying.  Accusations of ‘sleeping my way to the top’ because I was friends with the guys who started the group and took time to help with the running of things.

I just wanted people to like me.

I will admit I had my own share of aggression due to feelings of social inadequacies. I know that this attitude did not help me gain friends and fellows among the other women of the group.  I like to think that when I return to a LARP community I will be able to look at the other players and say “Sup” with a friendly nod and only receive a nod and “sup” in return.  (Personal growth and all that stuff)

Enter MMORPG’s and the Wonderful World of EverQuest.

At this time I moved from Seattle Wsshington to a tiny little town called Northome Minnesota. Talk about Culture Shock!

EverQuest became my social outlet. My husband (Boyfriend at the time) and I would take turns playing on the one computer we had in 1999 early 2000.

Our son was born in May of 2000.

So new boyfriend, new place, new baby, new everything.  I was feeling disconnected from everything and escaped into EQ. My life became Work, baby, EQ.

Over the years things changed and I spent time in many other MMO’s.

Star Wars: Galaxies, Minions of Mirth, Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Asherons, Call, Anarchy Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, E.V.E Online and I am sure I am missing some here.

As you can see I have become a fan of the MMORPG world. I love the stories. I love the social interaction with other people from all over the world. I love that we get the chance to make our own stories in these worlds and share them with others.

What I don’t like is the harassment from other players telling me I am not good enough to join their group because I am not in the top 100 on my server. What I don’t like is logging into voice chat and hearing a dozen male voices go “Oh My God!” when I just say Hello.

What I don’t like is when they find out I am female they start explaining what basic terms mean or that I would be better at my job if I used THIS equipment instead of what I currently have on.

The need to correct my game play when all I want to do is figure it out without the condescension.

As a mom I also get the “We don’t want her in the group because she will have to go afk.” (SO Sorry I am interrupting you by taking care of my kids and practicing good parenting, but that is a different blog about Parenting as a Gamer)

How often has a female player made a male character in order to avoid criticisms? I know of a few.

What can we do as a community to change the Gender Bias that plagues our game play?

Should we be given social tools in game to ‘silence’ players who are offensive?  How would abuse of this be handled?

Can speaking out against the Problem help? What about the players who don’t understand what they are doing wrong? There are those who honestly do not see the damage they are doing. They really don;t understand that asking for a pic to prove you’re a female is insulting. (What does this do to a transgender person?)

Want to join the community in speaking out against Gender Bias? Join the hashtag #justagamer on Twitter and tell us your story.

What are other gamers saying about the issues we face?

Follow:

@Ever_Cae  and @EverCast_Show

http://evercae.tumblr.com/

She was the awesome behind the hashtag #justagamer.

Or

Leave a comment and link to your blog about being #justagamer.

If this post does one thing, I hope it gets you thinking about how you treat other players in your gaming community.

Most started out as a bonding of outcasts from main stream society. Now we are the Main Stream. We need to be better than bigoted Gender Bias AssHats.

Rewriting is a…

Bitch.

Blast.

Thing.

All these words are accurate. If you are writing your first novel or even your 101st then you know exactly what I mean.

I am learning the hard way the rewriting your work is a must. Unless you are God giving the law to Moses on Stone, you will HAVE TO rewrite.

Especially if you are a pants-er like me.

I wrote 50k words for NaNoWriMo last year. 50,000 words. How?

One action sequence after another. My characters fought, had sex, fought some more and no one was really sure why or who they were fighting or screwing!

So now during the rewrite I have to untangle the bodies and figure out who is killing who and who is sleeping with who (or what).

It is Gloriously Aggravating!

I hope to have a decent book out of it by the time it is all said and done. I have taken out the sex for now. It may go back in depending on what the Beta Readers have to say. If they are not needed in the story then great! If the readers like the idea of some hanky panky time (And I am able to write a decent sex scene) then I will include them.

Mostly I just hope the story is good enough that people will want to spend their hard earned dollars on it.

Everything you have ever read, that was worth reading was NOT a first draft.

Rewriting in a MUST.

When gamers cry…an NPC is Born.

Do gamers cry?

Do they feel anything for their fellow players?

Who else but another gamer can understand some of the things we go through? YouMadBro? Dodging Trolls. Hours spent getting through dungeons to get that slot item or crafting the best gear! Making it to the top of the PVP lists! Mad skillz bro!

I read an article linked to Twitter today about a little girl who was honored by “MechWarrior” after she lost her fight with cancer.  A specially designed ‘mech chassie’ you can purchase for $10 was created. The money goes to the Canadian Cancer Society ( here is the link to the article http://t.co/hP1wveNIbI).

I took the time to read through the forums and found dozens of comments from gamers of all walks who shared their story of a friend, loved one, co-worker, who had been honored by their game of choice in a similar manner.

I myself have experienced 2 unexpected deaths of fellow gamers. One of which was a very dear friend of mine who I had never met in person but considered to be family.

His name was Bilin. (His given name was Chris.) He has an NPC named after him in the MMO game Dark Age of Camelot. http://camelot.allakhazam.com/db/search.html?cmob=3944

He died suddenly when his gall bladder burst. My husband and I received a phone call from his sister telling us the news. Our number had been in his favorites listed as Family.

The other was a guild member in World of Warcraft. Our guild was always thought of as our gamer family so when someone from his family took the time to log in and explain to the rest of us about his sudden passing it was like hearing a cousin or aunt had died. I was grateful that they understood how important this extended family was enough to inform us of his passing.

We RIP’ed his characters Information in the Guild Roster letting future members know his status and informing future guild leads to leave them on the roster.

I hope the the friends and family who don’t game learn what a wonderful community of people there are that play video games. That we are willing to come together in support of each other when times are difficult. Being a virtual shoulder to lean on during times of grief.

Most people see just a bunch of lazy boys sitting eating chips, doing nothing but staring at a computer or TV all day long. They don’t catch the social interaction that happened, because until just recently most of that was done through text.

Regardless of what game you happen to play, if you learn someone is also a gamer, your ideas about them shift. Gamers come from all walks of life (Take the woman who ran for political office who was a WoW player). So before you get the idea in your head that we are all lazy slobs who don’t have jobs and are too fat,ugly, stupid for society to want us, remember we are people (and some studies show we are SMART people!) Flesh and Blood Humans.

Video games have been a social outlet for the social outcast to the celebrity. The bonds forged in the Field of Bone on  Kunark, or the Triumph of Defeating DeathWing are made in the fires of a Dwarven Forge! Allowing people to be who they are and not judged by how they look or what job they have.

We are Gamers! We are Family!

So, Do gamers cry?

Yes, we do.

Do gamers care about flesh and blood human beings?

Yes, we do.

Plot/Pants Eh? Thanks @MikeWellsAuthor

Long day on little sleep, Can feel myself winding down.

Feel accomplished however with 1,079 words of new idea that is Very clear 😀 

Should be an easy write (until 30k words where I beat my head against the desk asking God Why is this CRAP?!)

However, it should be easy to rewrite as well because I actually have plot outline (GASP!). So would be refining and perfecting.

With that said, I have been struggling with the rewrite of Death’s Hope simply because I sat down and wrote whatever came to mind for a month. Granted it was all about the same character, but there was no order. No reason behind the things that were happening beyond “Hey! This will really F*** up her day!” I have a dozen great scenes full of action and mayhem but nothing binding them all together.

So the task at hand for that book has become, TA DA! PLOTTING!

Thanks to the helpful tweet of a Mr. Mike Wells I found his Advice For Writers and  a wonderful bit of learning entitled “A ‘Secret’ Formula for Creating a Short Synopsis For Your Book.”

I have now managed to come up with a reason the main character is suffering. I even have a bad guy (or do I?) who is behind the mayhem. I have a way for her to get out of said troubles but it will require some serious soul-searching on her part. (I love stories of personal growth and discovery)

But! (You knew there was a but…) there is SOOO much more going on! I ended up with a tragically long synopsis of All the mayhem (ALL THE THINGS!) that I felt smothered by it.

I needed to get away from Hope and the world of the Pantheon for a while. I had stopped writing anything new because I was working so hard on finishing something I had already started.  Feelings of guilt would overwhelm me because I love this 50k of words and want to make them into a story people will actually want to read.

I am happy to say that again Mike saved the day. I started writing synopsis for the next two books I want to write involving Hope and the Crew. I am excited that they will have more focus and less mayhem when they are started.

I also managed to start a new book idea. Not sure if it will be short story or full novel. It has a great synopsis. The outline is coming smoothly and best of all?! I Don’t Feel Guilty!

Hope is not on Deadline. No one is tapping their foot at me waiting on the manuscript. I can ‘shelf’ her and move on to a different project that is better thought out.

The quote “Writers write.” (No I don’t remember who said it. Yes I am terrible for not remembering. Comment if you do please! I want to give credit where it is due!) is something I need to keep above my desk.

If you are not on deadline and a book is holding you back, it may just be that you are not in a place to understand what the characters need from you. Take a step back from it. Write something else. It can be another book about the same people. Or an entirely different genre! Just WRITE!

Don’t Let the Vampires Bite! Werewolves are Awesome!

More words! Less Crap!

Another day goes by and I am left wondering “WTF?” Where did it go? How did I only write a few hundred words rather than a few thousand?

Then I remember how the day went…

Woke up at 2pm (I didn’t get to bed until after 5am due to children with backward days) The house was in a shambles because the boys were given free reign. (To avoid getting into more personal matters I will just say the hub was busy.)

After getting things back in order, I was able to kick the kids outside and sit down to look at my computer screen. I organized my thoughts and figured out where and what to write next.

The children then burst in the door arguing with each other about who was suppose to do what and it’s not my fault he did it. Great. Take a few minutes to deal with that…

Realize I need to get dog food.

Trip to the store. (Won $2 playing a scratch ticket!)

Get home groceries away, kids outside. Ready to write!

Twitter has some great feeds about agents and their wish lists that distracted me. OK now back in the zone.

More kids drama.

And here I am! At least I am getting SOMETHING written down today.

Ok, I will be fair and say that I have managed to get a bit further in where Death’s Hope is going regardless of the lack of actual words being written. That, I guess, is a step forward in the process of writing a book and being a busy mother of 6.

More words, Less Crap. Spend time writing. Less time contemplating the crap. Even if all you get down for the day is to complain about not having written anything for the day, Hey! You got WORDS!

What keeps you from writing? How do you get through it to get the words down?