30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 12

12. In what story did you feel like you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?

I feel like I kind of answered this already somehow. I've done the best job at world building with the Destiny series, although the world is no where near complete. I've created a new language (simple but it works), several kingdoms and cultures, religions, the creation myths of several cultures (including the actual creation of the universe), a detailed list of three different levels of creation, a complete history of two of the kingdoms, made maps, flags, animals, and a lot more for it. It's pretty awesome. I like it.

This is the Coat of Arms for the King of Traldon, created for the decendants of the Royal House of Arkand after the Great Civil War of Traldon.

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 11

11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?

My least favorite is easy -- Lord Geoffrey in the Destiverse. He's Bal and Est's dad and is officially the worst villain in all of space and time in every universe and dimention. Seriously dude, he's f*ed up. I tried to make him a real bastard and over did it. Whenever I think of something so horrible, so terrible that no human being with any kind of soul could ever do it then not only has he done it, he's bought the T-shirt and worn it out. I always try to get inside my characters heads when I'm writing them, even if I'm not writing it from their perspective, but he's the one character I refuse to do that with. I tried it one and had to spend the next three days scrubbing my brain out. And the worst part is that I can't enjoy killing him off because even his death f*s people up! He kills himself in the end, which is a preordained death that I can't change for plot reasons, so when I ever I really want to beat the character up I just write an alternate universe story where various people get to kill him in slow and painful ways. On the plus side he's clearly a villain that everyone will hate. Bonus?

My favorite character to write is a little harder, because I have so many characters that I dearly love. I love writing Zarc, and the Silverstone sisters, and France Wah. I also like writing Terri Madison from Eidolon cause she's awesome. But my two favorites are in the Destiverse, and I think I'm gonna have to call it a tie between Ketlan and Molly & May.

In the original first draft of the book the only character that didn't really have character was Ketlan. He had the personality of a squashed grape. When I had to slash the book in half by changing it from third-person omnicient to third-person limited, the only character that made sense to follow was Ketlan, since he was the hero of the book. But since he was the most boring character this was a problem. I think I spent over two years trying everything to give him character, including writing a first person diary of his life, answering detailed questions, giving him quirks, but nothing seemed to work. I simply could not find his voice. So I decided that instead of trying to find something in him that I could connect to to find his voice, I decided to give him some of my character traits and in some ways kind of give him my voice. That worked, finally! Now Ketlan is kind of like my paper twin brother because we have an almost identical voice (only one other character has a "voice" so close to mine, most of my characters voices are totally different). Some of the traits Ketlan now has are a tendancy to babble and go on tangents, he can't spell, has no sense of direction, and gets annoyed by having too much internal angst. He's so much fun to write now -- I can't even tell you how much fun I have writing him. I ended up having the same problem when I started re-writing Part Two where the reader starts following Melantha as well -- suddenly her voice was boring now, when compared to Ketlan's! Here's a bit from Destiny, Part 2 that sums him up pretty well:

"Esteban you are my past and Melantha you are my future." There was a long pause, then Ketlan frowned. "And I swear I had a point, but I lost it somehow." Silence. "For some strange reason the only thing I can think of is peanuts." Ketlan mumbled to himself. "Thinking…thinking…oh, that's right!" He grinned. "Melantha, do you want to get married today? I don't know how that relates to peanuts, by the way."

My other favorite character to write is actually two characters (sometimes three when I'm writing the OOPS): Molly and May. When Ketlan meets Molly & May they are will Milly and the OOPS and appear as hapless bandits who try to rob him and fail. In reality Molly & May are very old, very magical and highly unique fairies who spend most of their time working as secret agents/spies for the Goddess of Fate. They can temporarily take any form they chose (human or non, male or female) but almost always appear as blonde humans, one of which has glasses (Molly). They're wacky and goofy and have their own highly distinctive voice and often talk about very random things. I love writing them because it's just so fun to be crazy and goofy and random and I love the way they interact with other characters. The fact that they, more then any other character, are inspired by the amusing antics and fun sense of humor of two of my favorite people is just a bonus.

On the surface they are mere comic relief, but the more we learn about them the more we realize that the goofball pair are quite serious at heart and have a very interesting and tramatic past. They tend to finish each other's sentances, banter and joke, and to the reader they appear almost identical in their voice. But they're not, and when they are alone with just the two of them (or w/ Erion) and they drop the comic mask you suddenly see them as they really are. They're not at all the same. I would go into their detailed and very interesting past and reveal the greatest secret about them that only two people know (Erion and Belatee), but it would take way too long. So instead I'll leave you with this scene from Destiny, Part Three where Milly, Molly, and May (also known as the Miglets) wake up Ketlan by serenading him:

The sun had fully risen when Ketlan finally fell asleep. His mind was so full of thoughts that he didn't know if he could, but he did and rather abruptly. One minute he sat on the bed and closed his eyes, and the next he woke up with a face full of pillow and half his body on the floor. There was a grating, cacophony of sound above him and it took him a minute to realize it was singing. He looked up to see the Miglets serenading him.

"Stir the cream (stir the cream)! Light the candles (light the candles)! And that's why I love Pud-ding-time!" they sang. May looked at Ketlan and grinned. "Dude, he's awake!"

"Took long enough," Molly muttered. "We sang twenty-four verses of Everyone's Pudding."

Ketlan pulled himself up, then stretched and realized he was sore in some strange places. "I think I fell off the bed."

Milly reached out her hand towards the other two. "Pay up."

"Dang!" Molly cried, fishing some coins out of her apron.

"Thanks a lot, dude," May said to Ketlan as she handed her coins to Milly.

Ketlan frowned. "What did you bet on?"

"Whether or not you always sleep that way," Milly said.

"Doesn't everyone?" May asked.

"I know you don't," Molly said, then looked at Ketlan. "She sleeps sideways. I sleep standing up."

"And I want to know that because...?" Ketlan asked. Molly and May shrugged in unison. The prince yawned and stretched again, then glanced around the room. "Where's Isian?"

"He's downstairs," Milly said.

"He left after verse ten," May explained.

"Dude, you didn't even move until verse seventeen," Molly added.

"How many verses are there?" Ketlan asked.

"Sixty-three," May replied.

"Sixty-three verses about pudding?"

"And why we love it so," Milly agreed.

"Pudding!" Molly and May cried in unison and did a little dance. Ketlan grinned and decided he liked the Miglets.

The ever lovely Molly & May (made using this dollmaker)

. Ketlan thanks me for finally giving him character.

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 10

10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!

Oh, this is a fun one! Let's see...some of the weirdest situations in Destiny (the book) are a direct result of it having been cut down from third person omnicient to third person limited. I know what everyone is doing when but now that we only see Ketlan's point of view he walks in on some very strange situations that aren't really explained, just made fun off (dude you should see some the scenes I cut from part one, they're pretty awesome - and they still happen we just don't see them). The best one is when Ketlan walks into a room and sees Elaina sitting on Balthazar's lap while taking tea with Melantha, Telana, and Esteban. He jokingly assumes that since there obviously aren't enough chairs he can sit on someone's lap too, so he sits on Melantha's, the chair collapses and in the process of getting up he grabs the table and knocks it over ending up covered in cucumber sandwiches and hot tea with a sugar cube in his ear.

Pandora's Box has some fun situations that the characters end up in. One of the best, but most surreal scenes is in Episode 23 when De Carlo and Fenric (both soldiers and now enemies) sit down and discuss heated politics over tea and muffins, then compare methods of government to different flavored muffins. That's just an awesome scene. There's also a psychically induced cream pie fight in an episode of Pandora's Box that was written, but never filmed, and there's a scene in a story that was never finished where Cat and Turlo are forced to get married to save Turlo's life but only have about five minutes to do it and after it's over Diyara insists the Druids have no form of divorce (of course she's lying just to annoying them).

I'm sure there are others, but those are the main ones I can think of right now.

De Carlo (Chris Hutchens) and Major Fenric (Diana Neatrour)

take time out from fighting each other to discuss politics over

tea and muffins in Together Again, Part 3,

Episode 23 of Pandora's Box (co-written by Diana Neatrour).

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 9

9. How do you get ideas for your characters?

Describe the process of creating them.

Oh gosh...um...I'm not sure how I first get the idea for them. Some just pop up like Alaine De Rocher (Cursiverse/State Line Road), some are based on archetypal norms like Ketlan and Melantha (Destiny), some are inspired by a scenario or plot like Becky Flynn (State Line Road), some are inspired by a simple idea or concept in a book like Amelia and Amalthea Johnson (Color Me Crazy). A lot of characters are also inspired by the people I know or the actors who have played them, such as Queen Catherine played by Michelle MacLeod (Destiny), Minerva and Peri played by Morgan Thomas and Brittany Ann Whalen (Gift Bearer), Atropos played by Syndi Eller (Cursiverse), General Leffridge played by Annamarie MacLeod (Pandora's Box), and most important of all - Erion/Milly, Molly, and May played by Jen Weber, Kate Weber, and Rachel Anderson (Destiverse).

The first thing I do when I create a character is find a name, then I make a physical description including height, weight, hair color, eye color, etc. After that I deal with the all important style of dress and costume choices. At this point I'll go find a character creation website like dollwizard.com or meez.com and design the character there. Then I give the character a profession and try to find the voice by writing some dialouge or a mini-monolouge. Sometimes I'll give the character a little quirk of some kind to make him or her memorable such as a nervous habit, a specific gesture, a really big grin, or a fondness for spoons. If I'm really trying to round out the character and get to know him or her in depth I will use my own version of a character creation sheet that I was introduced to in an acting class. The shortest form includes simple questions like favorite hobbies, favorite color, favorite food, etc. The longest form I have (the REALLY indepth one) is 6 pages and over 100 questions and includes everything from first word to finanical status to darkest desire. That's if I want to know everything about the character.

And since I love to create characters here's a couple of samples! The first is an example of my basic character descripts for the Gift Bearer novels. The second is a drawing of all the main heroes from the SFF TV shows.

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 8

8. What's your favorite genre to write? To read?

My favorite genre to write is definately fantasy and supernatural. I've dabbled in other genres, but I always come back to those. I love fairies, magic, kindgoms, ghosts, murder, mayham, sorcerers...you get the idea.

However, when it comes to reading I'm open to pretty much anything. If it's a good story I'll give a try. I am particularly fond of reading paranomal mysteries like The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, and great fantasy epics like the Harry Potter books by J.K.Rowling. I also am very fond of reading young adult books because they're short, fun, and very imaginative, especially the Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence. Anything with a well developed world and a good story is all I require. I've even been known to read a romance or two, usually Regency, because I get bored at my mom's house and they're everywhere. Some are quite entertaining like Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer.

I also really love to read books on "true" ghost stories, world mythology, fairy tale collections, and historical fiction, and non-fiction history. Some of my favorites of the above categories are Haunted Illinois and Mysterious Illinois by Troy Taylor, The Epic of Gilgamesh, English Folktales by Dan Keding and Amy Douglas, The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory, and George Rogers Clark and the War in the West by Lowell H. Harrison. Also I love Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, and I freaking adore Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. I just like books I guess.

However, there are some genres I don't read a lot. I'm not big on modern day murder mysteries without a paranomal twist, I'm not a big fan of sci-fi unless it's sci-fi/fantasy (one of my all time favorite books is a sci-fi book called A Wizard in Bedlam by Christopher Stasheff), and I try to stay away from "literary best-sellers" because I find alot of "great literary masterpieces of our time" to be pretty boring. I also stay away from Charles Dickens cause it's really hard to get through his books since he was paid by the word. I like Shakespeare though.

Like many authors I also read a lot of books for research and to improve my writing such as Castles by Philip Steele, The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, and The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes by Jack M. Bickham.

And now BOOKS!

These are only my favorite books and non-library books that are waiting to be read. I have WAY more books than this, but the majority of them are in storage.

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 7

7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind?

Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?

Yes. Yes I do. I have actually made dozens of playlists and CDs (before I had itunes) for specific characters, whole books, and even just historic periods. I love music and I love to have theme songs for my characters. If I hear a song that really fits a certain character I add it to the list and listen to that set of songs while writing a scene where the character is the main focus. I love having mood music, it just helps me get going. I like all kinds of music, with lyrics, without lyrics, just as long as it works for the character and/or book.

There are some specific songs that I relate to specific characters. The biggest one is "The Writing on The Wall" by Blackmore's Night - it's a perfect fit for how Ketlan feels through most of Part 1 of Destiny. I also think "I Decide" by Lindsay Lohan is pretty perfect for Princess Elaina (Destiny). I love "Barbie Girl" by Aqua for the early days of Peri before her adventures change her (Gift Bearer). And "Living Dead Girl" by Rob Zombie is totally Zoey Zurrell's theme song, the mood just suits her so well.

Here is a screenshot of my current list of writing-related songs (they change from project to project):

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 6

6. Where are you most comfortable writing?

At what time of day?

Computer or good ol' pen and paper?

I write best at my desk because I hate writing out a story with pen and paper. My thoughts just move way faster then I can write, faster than I can type sometimes too, but at least I have a chance of catching up with typing. However, I like to use pen and paper -- usually a notebook so I can keep it all together -- to take research notes, draw maps, characters, and do general world building. I don't like to use a notebook at my desk for strange reasons that I'm not sure about, but any table is great for it. I always have a notebook in my purse so I can take notes wherever I am when an idea comes to me.

As for time of day, I tend to write at night because the daytime is usually used for work, taking care of or playing with my nieces and nephews, doctor appointments, things like that. However I tried writing on saturday afternoons and evenings in november and that worked pretty well, so I might to back to writing mostly on weekends just to start with. We'll see.

And now I will leave you with a photo of three of my current (and most beloved) writing notebooks for the Destiverse:

Left to right: My translation book for the Illisharian language,

my book about all things Illishar including history, rulers, and religion,

and my book on the history and culture of the kingdom/provence of Zanchin.

(all notes contained therein are protected under common-law copyright)

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 5

5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest?

How about "youngest" and "oldest" in terms of when you created them?

Oh gosh dude, I'm not sure who the youngest is age wise because my characters all grow up. I mean I have a lot of stories about kids and they grow up into adults so...um the youngest I started is I guess Esteban in the Destiverse book Deep Into Darkness Peering, the story of Esteban and Balthazar's childhood, where he starts to clearly form his character inside his mom's womb, same thing for Balthazar actually. I think those are the only two characters who are really talked about pre-birth. As for oldest character in terms of age. That would probably be Erion, also in the Destiverse, who is thousands of years old. Runners up are Molly and May in the Destiverse, who are twins that are only two years younger than Erion. They're both fairies (atucally they're both a mixture of fairy and something else) and we get the background story on all three of them when they were only about a few hundred years old (teenagers in the fairy timeline) in the book The Dawn of Time.

Youngest and oldest in terms of when they were created is a lot easier to answer. Obviously the oldest character I have is the first one I created: Albert F. Coldsman. (although since we created characters while playing on the playground I guess you could say Ruffles the cat is really the oldest). The youngest...hmm...who's the most recent character I've created? I haven't really written much for a long time and most of the things I've written recently are Twisted Tales where the characters are already from folktales and The Gift Bearer, where the characters were made 10 years ago.

I guess we'll go with the most recent character that I've spent a lot of time working on, although I haven't actually put her in anything yet because the TV show she's in never got off the ground and I haven't written the short stories about her I have planned yet. Her name is Alaine De Rocher and she's a reformed Ghost Hunter in the Cursiverse who was chosen by The Greater Order (in the form of the Catholic God) to fight against the Devil and his minions. She spent years capturing and torturing the ghosts/souls of people and is headed for hell until she hunts down a spirit in a monestary which turns out the be the Holy Spirit which relgiously kicks her ass. She wakes up in a hospital five weeks later with a new lease on life, a goal, white hair, and a killer headache. Her quest is to free twice as many souls as she captured if she wants to get to heaven, and defeat Lucifer a number of times along the way. She's sort of a Catholic superhero. She travels off and on with four ghosts who she has not yet been able to help but will. One is her mentor, an English monk who had a crisis of faith in the 15th century and committed suicide and now needs to help her in order to redeem his soul, one is the ghost of an 18th Century Spanish Colonial lady from St. Louis, one is a 1890s murdered showgirl from Boston, and the other is a 1960s hippee from California who traveled the world. She's a really fun character to play with and I really need to actually put her in something.

Alaine De Rocher, created using stock images from deviantart

http://illishar.deviantart.com/gallery/4416837#/d1dy2fq

Book Review: A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstong

This is not a formal review of this book of course, but I have to talk about it, because it's kind of pissing me off. The author, Karen Armstrong, is a best selling and well respected author, and I haven't read any of her other books so I can't speak about them, but this book is...well...I have mixed feelings about it.

It presents an overview of the history of mythology from the Paleolithic period to the Modern age (The Great Western Transformation, as she calls it). So it's very comprehensive and well structured. I like that. However it reads like a doctoral dissertation that is heavily biased and trying to back up some sort of thesis that is not overtly stated but appears to be a strange blend of feminist and anti-feminist bias. She talks about the earliest images of a Mother Goddess being a representation of a destructive force that men feared. It's all about death and destruction at the hands of the dominant female goddess and the harsh circle of life. Okay, so yes that's a valid point, but what about the life part of the cycle? She doesn't even mention the Goddess of Willendorf which is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) depiction of the Mother Goddess in the Paleolithic period. You can't talk about Paleolithic mythology without even mentioning the Goddess of Willendorf!!!

She also talks about men tried to change the image by implementing a more patriarchal pantheon as civilization takes hold. Now, that's true but she's not really drawing on all of the evidence in early myth. She focuses on the myth of Hades and Persephone (which doesn't really apply there) but completely ignores the more appropriate myth of Ershkigal's marriage in Sumerian/Babylonian mythology. She also talks about the movement from hunting and gathering to sedentary planters and civilizations, but again she doesn't really talk about the myths that show this patten such as the destruction of Humbaba, the monstrous giant Guardian of the Forest, by Gilgamesh the God-King of Uruk. Come on people, you can't get more obvious of civilization winning over nature then that!

However, she does make a lot of good points, but the strange bias coupled with scant and subjective mythological evidence seems to override her credibility in my mind. Maybe I'm just being stubborn but she seems to be blatantly ignoring any art or myth that gets in the way of her thesis, which appears to be something about how evil mother goddess are. I found out she's a nun, so maybe that explains it.

To be fair, I haven't finished reading the book. I'm in the middle of the chapter on Early Civilizations, but every time I start to enjoy it she throws in some obscure reference and a bizarre twist on an accepted idea -- which would be okay if she presented all the various interpretations instead of just her opinion. But since she doesn't, it pisses me off.

Okay, I'm done ranting down. Please vote in the comments below as to whether or not I should finish it or just give up. Thanks!

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 4

4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!

I grew up with my dad telling me stories and have come up with little adventures pretty much all my life. I didn't write my first actual story until I was 12. In 6th grade I learned about Ancient Greece (I had fallen in love with Greek Mythology the year before), and I learned about the Battle at Thermopylae Pass, where the Spartans made their last stand against the Persians, allowing the rest of the Greeks to get away and regroup. I liked the story and talked to my dad about it and he told me that there was a monument to the Spartans at Thermopylae with this inscription:

Stranger, tell the Lacedomonians

that we stand here, obedient to their will

I've later discovered there's a lot of different translations of the famous greek phrase, but that's the one I learned. The epitaph means that people should tell the Spartans that the warriors are dead, having fulfilled their orders to fight to the last man and die protecting Greece. To me this conjured up the idea that the Spartans are still there, waiting to rise again and fight to protect Greece. So I wrote a ghost story.

The hero of the story is Albert F. Coldsman, a professor of history at some random college. I don't really remember what he looked like but I think he had graying hair and I know he had glasses. He is visiting Thermopylae Pass and ends up taking shelter there during a sudden storm. While there he hears the sounds of fighting and sees the ghosts of Spartans fighting the Persians. One of the soldiers (Leonidas) looks right at Albert and says "Stranger, tell the Lacedomonians that we stand here, obedient to their will". The fighting fades, the storm stops, and Albert moves on but never forgets. It was a hand written story that was eventually typed up but I'm not sure where my copy of it is. I made Albert into a man who is a magnet for ghosts and everywhere he goes he sees or hears them and helps to lay them to rest. The character was based, in part, on the stories told to me by my father about his friend, Pete D'Alessio. That first story became one of several ghost stories about Albert in a book called The Diary of Albert F. Coldsman. Ah, Albert, I remember you fondly.

I know I drew some pictures of him back in 6th and 7th grade but I have no idea where they are right now, so I'll leave you with a painting of the Battle of Thermopylae Pass by Jacques-Louis David.

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 3

3. How do you come up with names for characters

(and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?

For characters I usually rely on a book of baby names, or babynames.com. Sometimes I'll search for a specific meaning and pick the name whose meaning comes closest or sounds the best, or I'll just pick a letter of the alphabet and look up the names with that letter, then choose one. Some names are based on a name from a baby name book, but I'll change the spelling and sound to be something I like more. Mostly I go by the sound of the name. It feels right when it sounds right. I guess that makes sense. Some of my favorite names for characters I've created are Ketlan, Balthazar, Mordecai, Diyara, Zarc (Zarconia), Qadra, Zoey Zurrell, C.C. Montgomery, and Alaine De Rocher.

For places, I decide what kind of kingdom/town/country/etc. its going to be (or be like if I'm losely basing it on a civilization on earth) and then pick a letter and play with sounds until I get a name I like. Sometimes the name comes quickly, sometimes it takes hours or days to put together the right sound of vowels and consinents. My favorite place names I've created (and are under common law copyright of course) are Illishar, Traldon, Valdrondez, Jibah, Tariq, and Zanchin.

And once I've created a character or a kingdom, then I draw a picture of it (or make a pic using a website creator thingy) or make a flag!

The Flag of Traldon

created using dollwizard.com

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 2

2. How many characters do you have?

Do you prefer males or females?

Wow dude, I can't even count that high! Between all five main universes (not even counting the 20-25 other stories and books I've got half started), there are at least...I don't know...probably close to 500? I mean there's a LOT of characters, which happens in a TV show. The Destiverse alone has 135 characters that have names (spread out over the course of 10-12 books though, so not all at once!) Hell, Ketlan's family tree has 61 characters in it! (theyre not all well defined though.) I like to make characters, and I probably have way too many but I enjoy the process of creating a character so even some of the "guards in the hall" have names and backstories (that no one will ever really know about though).

I tend to prefer females simply because it's easier for me to write females more believeably since...I'm a female. It makes sense. I will say that I don't have a lot of female villains though. I need to work on that.

The main characters from Destiny

30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 1

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe

that you’ve worked with and why.

Dang dude, way to start off with a hard one. I've created...let's see...I'd say there are 5 main universes that I've created over the years: the Destiverse (from the Destiny Trilogy), the Pandiverse (from Pandora's Box), the Cursiverse (from Curse/Dream Chasers/Eidolon), the Berryverse (from The Gift Bearer), and the Yibbleverse which is basically all the other half-formed, partially conceptualized universes in my head.

My favorite is probably the Destiverse. I love the Destiverse, I always have. It was the first real universe I worked on, and I've been working on it for fifteen years now. The Destiny novels are my babies and someday I will finish the first one and get it published (damn it!). However, even though I've been working on the Destiverse for so long, I still only have a basic idea of it. I've put in a lot of detail, but there's still a lot of questions I have about the universe and problems that I'm sure I haven't even run into yet. The biggest challenge, and yet biggest freedom, is that I'm building the world from the ground up. All of my other universes are based on earth, but in different times, alternate universes, different magic systems, etc. Destiny is the only one I've really created where I started from scratch. That means I don't have to do as much research since if anyone says "they didn't have mini-horses in the middle east!" I can just say "well, they do in my world." But then you have the problem of having people say the word "God" - what does God mean to the people of the kingdom, what religion do they have. And I don't just have one kingdom, I have several. In the first book alone the hero visits three very different kingdoms and there are hints about a fourth. I haven't fully explored this world and every time I play with it I come up with new ideas. I just need to start solidifying things so I know what I need to know when I need to know it. Does anyone else have that problem with their universes?

I just have to add that I also love the Curseiverse because I've spent so much time playing in it that I finally have the basic world and magic system set. I feel on very solid ground when I write in that verse so it makes me want to play in it a lot.

Just for fun (and bored SFF members like myself) I created a quiz to help people determine which SFF universe they belonged in:

http://quizilla.teennick.com/quizzes/3120812/which-part-of-the-yibbleverse-do-you-belong-in

I'm also going to provide a picture every day to go with my writing post because I like pictures. A lot.

"Has anyone else noticed that this map of Traldon

looks a lot like Southeast Asia?"

Deblocking

Once upon a time I was a prolific writer of various forms of fictions (short stories, movies, tv shows, novels, etc.). Then I got sucked into a portal of editing...ness, and have mostly abandoned my writing ways. Now I'm getting a little burned out on editing SFF stuff (not work stuff obviously, just the SFF stuff), and the writer midget in my head is screaming to be heard. Also I'm about to begin an intensive month long Final Cut Studio class and won't be able to even think about editing in my free time so this works out well. In the next 30 days I will be wrapping up the SFF stuff for the 15th year DVD while working on getting back into the groove of writing by doing the Thirty Days of Questions for Writers. Just to get the ol' writers block, unblocked, and help me find the worlds in the words again. And it all starts tomorrow. So...um...look forward it? I guess?

FYI: I got the questions list from friend's blog. Thanks Keiran!

http://ciaranrr.blogspot.com.

Welcome

So I have three blogs now -- four counting the SFF one and I never really update them, so guess what?!? I'm starting another one! Let's be honest, I just enjoy cluttering up the internet.

I decided that instead of having separate blogs about specific subjects that don't get updated that I'll just consolidate it into one big blog with different categories and tags and such.

I'm sure only my friends and family will read this, but if you're not related to me or personally know me and want to read it that's cool to. Just remember two very important things -- I'm bipolar and I can't spell. They have nothing in common, but you'll figure out they both play a big role in my posts.

Thanks for reading!