Showing posts with label legendfire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label legendfire. Show all posts

Monday, June 12, 2023

Bedlam & Baths

Ah, the neverending adventure of the historical writer. I dived down the rabbit hole recently during my research, and a dark one it was too. Mental illness is a theme that features strongly in my current WIP, and it's fair to say that treatment for mental illness for much of human history has been horrifying. Because my WIP takes place in the 1870s, I had to dive into the practices of the day.

There's a reason why "Bedlam" has become a universal term in the English language. Chains, starvation, and squalor are just the highlights. In the current draft I'm slogging through, one of my characters experiences the "water cure." Maybe it's just me and my aversion to water (yeah, sure), but how such a practice was supposed to "shake lunatics out of their insanity" is beyond me.

A sketch of Bethlehem Royal Hospital, or Bedlam

On a lighter note, a contest at LegendFire got me writing a bit of flash fiction, and a major plot point brought those little wooden nesting dolls to mind. The perfect metaphor! But what the heck are those things called? "Russian nesting dolls" is okay, but I wanted the actual name. Turns out they're Matryoshka. I love feel smarter than I was yesterday.




Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Microfiction: Wendigo, A Report

Heavy wet snow is coming down by the bucketful. My cats, Jet and Inigo Montoya, are going stircrazy chasing each other from one end of the house to the other, and I'm supposed to get some work done. Between the cats and gazing out the window, I stand about a 40% chance of meeting my word count quota today.

Before I get started, I figured I better procrastinate a little more and blog a bit. The following work of microfiction is an appropriate post for a snowy day. Posted it on Mastodon yesterday and apparently ruined someone's lunch.

100 words, no more, no less. Prompt: "avalanche."





Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Microfiction: Moonrise

 This was one of my favorite micro-stories I wrote for LegendFire's weekly 100 Word Contest. One hundred words, no more, no less. It appeared in the 2022 issue of The Compendium. The prompt was "reunion."




Friday, January 13, 2023

Microfiction: Pristine

Every week, LegendFire holds a 100 Words Contest for its members. It's one of our most popular activities. It encourages spontaneous creativity and very tight writing. The idea of posting my entries didn't occur to me until I saw works of microfiction popping up on Mastodon. The identities of the authors entering the contest isn't a secret, so I won't be violating any rules by posting my humble offerings.

To help me protect copyrights (I can't imagine anyone wanting to steal these, but the world is full of jerks doing inexplicable things), I'll put each story on a free-to-use image from Unsplash.

Last week's prompt was "pristine." I totally went overboard with it. Not my best writing, but the competition was fun, nonetheless.



Tuesday, November 1, 2022

First Time #NaNoWriMo Participant


In an unofficial capacity, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time ever. I'm hoping the collective goal of 50k in one month will light a fire and provide excuses to focus and say no to distractions -- so that I can make major headway on my WIP.

I've crossed the halfway mark on Blackbird (no longer the title, but for consistency's sake), so I'm looking at the finish line at last. Problem is, it's taken me two years to reach this halfway point. The last half MUST NOT take another two. It's time to kick things into high gear. Now of all times. During the holiday season, which is the WORST time for me to write. Always has been. But if I can tell family, "Sorry, there's a writing competition going," maybe I'll get this thing done by spring.

I haven't joined the official NaNo site/forum. I'll be doing all my updates on LegendFire. And here. I hope.

Ugh. And by rambling on my blog, I'm proving my dread to begin. Stop procrastinating! Get writing!


Monday, June 28, 2021

"Down Phoenix Alley" Published

Exciting New Developments, Part 3

I love announcing publication successes. My short story "Down Phoenix Alley" is available online now through All Worlds Wayfarer

The story was a response to a contest prompt at my critique community at www.legendfire.com. After 3 years of being offline, LegendFire returned. And much of the old faithful crew returned with it. Enduring several months in pandemic lockdown caused even this introvert to feel the need for community, so the forum rebooted on September 30, 2020. In December, after we hit 50 members, we hosted our first contest. The prompt was "Rising From Ruin," which seemed fitting for many obvious reasons.

So "Down Phoenix Alley" is about a crusty soldier in a post-apocalyptic setting who finds a new cause for hope. Read the whole story HERE for free. 




Tuesday, April 4, 2017

National Poetry Month - Kick Off


What's better than an entire month dedicated to the celebration of poetry? At LegendFire we have a month's worth of poetry-writing activities planned, with new prompts daily. That means, it's really bad poetry time.

Today we were asked to learn a new poetry form. I had never written a cinquain before, but it looked simple enough to try on a limited time schedule.

Here goes:

words
passionate, woven
inspiring, convicting, changing
from synapse to revolution
imagine




Thursday, September 24, 2015

New Writing Stuff ... And Stuff ... Because, Yeah, I Need A Great Title

Definition: STUFF [stuhf] 

n. Things for which no one can think of a word for
n. Umbrella term for random things


So I've been doing more Twitter lately, which I thought I would never do, but it's been fun and weird and fast, so like most folks, I feel I have time for it. Find me @Court_Ellyn

In other news, I was sure I could write the last few chapters of Cry of the Falcon this month, and certainly by Thanksgiving, but now I am coming down with a head cold, which may slow me down for a few days. Plus, I am embarking on an online writing course from the University of Iowa. Not sure how basic it will be, nor what the assignments and discussion will be like, but if it ends up taking up too much time, I will have to drop it and give priority to finishing Cry.

The course starts today and runs through Thanksgiving. The best part is that the course is free. What?! Can't pass that up, right? The next best part is that several other LegendFire members signed up too, so we will have each other for support and discussion.

In non-writing related stuff, I got a new car this week. I had been driving a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder, and she was on her last leg. At the dealership I hopped into a 2014 Subaru CrossTrek and knew it was the one. So I got to bring her home, and she looks great on me.

Hoping for many amazing road trips in this kewt lil' thang.


Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Rest ... Recuperate ... Write

I had no idea my novel project would last as long as it has, nor that the material would grow and involve so many books and so much time, sweat, blood, and tears.

"Dreams" by Whisperfall
The holidays provide the perfect excuse to relax a bit, write when I can, and stop forcing it. January has provided another excuse to rest. LegendFire's annual Legends Contest has kicked off, and it's given me the opportunity to write something new. New characters, new crises. It's invigorating to escape the ogre war for a couple of weeks. Since the contest is still running, I can't mention titles or plotlines. Yet. Suffice to say, I'm excited about this story. And once the votes and critiques are in, I look forward to revising it, expanding it, and submitting it. If editors don't want it, they're crazy.

Is that ego or truth speaking? Time will tell.


Monday, April 1, 2013

April Is National Poetry Month!


.

I'm so excited to devote some time this month to exploring and celebrating the time-honored and universal art of poetry. Is there a culture who has not sung its traditions, histories, and mythologies in rhythmic lines accompanied by a harp, a chorus, a dance? Today, we prize "To be or not to be," odes to nightingales, candles burning at both ends, and Bukowski's lines of drunken bitterness. Powerful, memorable, evocative, expressing our darkest hours, our brightest victories, like little else can.

For months now, I've been so driven to make progress on my novel rewrites that I have neglected all other written forms: short stories, poetry, even blogging. But thanks to LegendFire's poetry forum leader, I have the perfect excuse to pause for a moment each day this month and spend time with a poem or a poet or scratching out a few lines of my own. This innovative forum leader brought National Poetry Month to our attention over the past couple of weeks and has put together a month's worth of activities for our members. I'm sure we will be challenged to read, write, and stretch our skills. Will I be brave enough to post my own attempts at poetry here? Or will I keep them tucked away on the forums? I'll post as the whim hits, shall I?

For more information about the annual celebration of poetry visit POETS.ORG
.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Website Blues

.
Up down up down. The roller coaster is giving me ulsers. So what does this fantasy writer do during writing breaks throughout the day? She makes sure her online writing community is functioning properly. Recently it's been rough going.

I love my writing community. It's a haven for so many beginning writers. There are so many of us addicted to the site and to keeping it running that when things go bad, I'm devastated for the members. Well, the site has been growing so much and we've been blocking so many evil spambots and inputting so much information there that things had started running slowly. Dragging, actually. Painfully so. It's my job as administrator to keep things functioning as smoothly as possible, and my husband's job to implement all those things because the backbone of such a site is beyond my comprehension. He is good about drawing little pictures on scrap paper or napkins snatched off the breakfast table, so I can have a visual of how this box connects to that piece of information so that LegendFire can function at all. It's an amazing, dizzying network.

Last week we decided to upgrade our firmware (which is always stressful because of unforeseen complications), in the hopes of fixing the dragging load times. Alas, no success. We turned our magnifying glass elsewhere, to finding excess information that was being loaded during every click anyone made and archiving that. Turns out our spam blocker had blocked over 10,000 ip addresses. Now, that's a lot of evil spambots trying to access our insignificant little community. A positive step forward. So, just as things started running quickly and efficiently again, our webhost has a "major outage" which keeps taking down our site. My author's website is hosted by the same host, and has likewise been up and down, up and down, which can't be helping how I'm perceived to readers (and potential buyers) who know no better.

There are some things that one must learn to release. Control over uncontrollable situations being one of them. It's been hard not to panic over the past couple of weeks. Once the issues are all resolved, they won't matter one bit. The roller coaster will come to a stop, and my upset stomach will settle down nicely.

In the meantime, what can I do but write? Right? :D Woe! Woe to Aralorr! In the next few pages, innocence shatters forever.
.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

How Do You Write Dialog?

.
We receive a lot of questions about writing at LegendFire. How do I ...? What do you think about this idea? Am I doing this right? What's the proper grammar rule for ...? Recently, however, I've noticed that the most-repeated question over the years has been, "How do I write dialog?"

This question has always struck me as humorous and, honestly, astonishing. It's like the "What does your watch face look like?" kind of question, where someone says to you, "Cover your wristwatch with your hand and describe your watch face."

How many times a day do people look at their watches? Yet every time I've seen this experiment done, most people are invariably stumped.

So it must be with writing dialog. How many conversations do we take part in everyday, much less hear to our left and our right throughout the waking hours? Most of us are continually surrounded with the sounds of conversation and the visible signs of body language. We even have conversations on candy:


So how does a beginning writer capture conversation on their pages?

1. Actively listen. As in: "What does your watch face look like?" Go sit in a busy place (where you won't be caught eavesdropping) and really listen. Don't think, don't analyze, turn off the phone (ironic tip, that), and just listen. How does a conversation evolve from small matters to hitting the heart of someone's problem? How do the speakers stop and start, hesitate, stutter, hammer their points home? How can you tell if they are nervous, angry, in love?

2. Note the body language that accompanies a conversation. Actively observe.

3. Read. How do the pros capture dialog? Actively read. Note how the author of your favorite book filters through the chaos of real-life conversation to make dialog useful for their storyline. If you're writing a Romance era romance, you'd better be reading a lot of Jane Austen. Her characters never respond with, "Okay."

4. Practice. If you're nervous about writing dialog, write a script. Forget the exposition and the action descriptions for a while. You're obviously comfortable with those. So write your story in script format. Minimal scene direction. Meaningful dialog that moves the plot-line forward.

5. Read what you've written. Aloud. Really. Can a human tongue easily and naturally pronounce what you just wrote? Given the era and subject you're writing about, do average people really use those words on a daily basis? Remember, you actively listened already. You should be able to answer that question.

These are the same tips I find myself repeating over and over again when LegendFire members ask, "How do I ...?" Have I missed anything? Does anyone have any tips to add? Because what works for me may not work for others. How did you learn to write dialog?
.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Falcons Saga - Progress Report #5

.
Well, last Monday I thought, "This chapter is going to be a breeze. I'll bet I get it finished, plus part of Chapter 6." That was until I saw the need for a new scene, and remembered that I had a contest entry to write for LegendFire. So my contest entry took up the last few hours on Friday, meaning Chapter 5 didn't get finished after all. This is the first week that I've not reached my chapter goal (given normal circumstances). Bummer.

The contest promises to be a fun one, however. We've never done one exactly like it. One of our members proposed a Character Creation Contest, in which we choose between two prompts, flesh out the character in a profile, then write a brief excerpt showing their, um, character. I can't give away too much about my entry before the voting is over, but it resulted in my first-ever piece of flash fiction, so I'm doubly excited about it.


THIS WEEK'S PROGRESS
Chapter(s) of the Week:
Pages Revised: 7.5, which became 17
New Scenes: 1, 4.5 pages worth
Good things that happen: Kethlyn and his royal cousin conduct a successful kitchen raid.
Bad things that happen: They end up stuck in a dark, haunted place.
.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Interviewed!

.
A few weeks ago LegendFire received a new member who called himself by the mysterious username "The Bearded Scribe." Because it is my job to keep an eye on new members, mildly stalking them, if you will, until they prove themselves benevolent, I checked out the links that the Bearded Scribe posted and engaged him in conversation (it may sound creepy, but I'm Momma Bear where our members are concerned). Lo, and behold! Who would have guessed that my investigation would lead to a valuable network with a fellow fantasy author and an interview and guest bloggerhood?

The Bearded Scribe is a relatively new blog at Blogger that will focus on speculative fiction, writing it and reviewing it. If you're curious, check out my interview there. It's lengthy, but it provides a thorough overview. A little about writing, a little about administrating LF.

About that guest bloggerhood bit. I'm flattered and astonished. I always wondered how that happened, and now I know. Not sure when I'll be posting there, or about what, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers!
.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

My Heartfelt Wish For All Spammers...

.

This post has absolutely nothing to do with writing, sad to say.

Spammers are evil. Up there with lice and the bubonic plague. I haven't posted much this month because the invasion over at LegendFire has really sapped my enthusiasm for almost everything internet-related. They even became a problem at LiveJournal, so I'm probably going to shut that blog down. 

LF's ban filter is growing longer by the day, tons of ip addresses and suspect email addresses that are used to spread useless ads all over the world's unsuspecting forums. The best solution? Dig into my savings envelope and upgrade LF's license so we can have a spam filter. That sounds like a painful process. I am not looking forward to it, though I'm sure the results will be worth the trouble. Better than nailing one spammer after another on a tedious individual basis.

I really loathe spammers. Even more than the taste of cough medicine and hitting my funny bone. If I knew who these people were and could find their computers, I would pour a million hungry, genetically-engineered rats into their cubicles (or secret warehouse basements) and cheer the little beasties on while they chewed every cord in sight and treed the quivering spam people atop their desks for all eternity.

Ahem ... tea, anyone?
.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Contests and Progress Report, 12-14-2011

.
PROGRESS REPORT
Project: Blood of the Falcon
Pages Cut: 18+
Pages Revised: 16
New Scenes: 3 (pretty sure I made up those 18 pages cut with new stuff. Oh, well.)
Good Things that Happened: Fairies deliver messages really fast. Better than texting!
Bad Things that Happened: Poison ends all hope for peace

In addition, LegendFire's biannual Legends Contest (can you call it biannual if you only had it once this year?) launched yesterday. Lots of participants have already signed up, so I'm happy. Our prompt is "Redemption" which ought to work well for Fiction and Poetry but will likely be tough for our Non-Fic writers. I haven't got a clue about what to write. Well, maybe a clue. As far as Non-Fic goes, all I can think of is writing my testimony. Not sure a contest at LF is the best place to submit that. Or maybe it is the best place. But I seriously doubt one's testimony is a proper contest entry. Ah, well.

Preparing for a road trip this weekend to visit friends who moved away in October. They just got into an apartment of their own this week, so things may be nice and chaotic when we get there. Hmm...hope the weather holds.
.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Spammers and Pen Pals

.
It's been over a month since I've blogged about anything! Since the last couple of weeks of October, a great deal of my free time has been combating spammers. LegendFire has been invaded, and I've been turning over options to keep them out. The trolls in the basement seem to have eaten their fill and are fast asleep, which lets the rest of the spammers through. My Anti-Spammer Sword of Doom is well-honed, yes, but my sword arm is getting tired. Even the Forum Leaders with their Anti-Spammer Laser Pistols are getting miffed by the influx of these creeps. Despite all our magical wards, these spammers must be wearing amulets that let them pass through. We're going to have to consider thickening the outer wall. Anything to make it comfortable and inviting for the members. If they only knew ...

On a more positive note, some of my usual blogging time has been used to resume correspondence with someone who might as well be called a writing pen pal. Though pens are no longer used to write letters, it seems. I "met" Martin through Hatrack several years ago, and while he was helpful in pointing me in new directions for my writing, it's been most rewarding to discuss writing and publishing with him on a more detailed level than I can with most of the members at LF. Our recent discussions have provided some writing-related material to blog about, so if these spammers are soon under control, I'll have some new things to post.

In the meantime, the study on Acts concluded last week. It was a great success. One of our members who has been a Christ-follower for only a few years confirmed my hopes when she said that she hugely appreciated this study b/c the Bible stopped being a collection of random, helter-skelter verses and finally became a whole, a story, a history told from beginning to end. I was thrilled. Reading Acts years ago also helped my husband come to the same conclusion, and he was raised with those random verses being shoveled down his throat. I remember, when Acts changed his view of God's Word, everything changed. His outlook, our marriage, his relationship with God and his coworkers. It was amazing.

So now, a break, in which I shall begin reading Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge, and dive back into writing. I'm ecstatic.
.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

No More, Please!

.
I'm starting to freak out. Last post I said that my plate was full. Now I think LegendFire's ezine layout person has quit on us. She and I had a very . . . strange . . . disagreement. Or misunderstanding. I'm not sure what it was. Typing private messages back and forth over a period of weeks manages to conceal the body language and tone of voice that would confirm exactly what transpired. She proposed layout changes to make the ezine look more professional. I said great! Send me your ideas. Then, come to find out, she expected me to have the vision for something she proposed. ???

We have four days till Issue 7 is supposed to be released, I sent the content to her three days ago, and I've not heard a word from her. Which isn't odd in itself. There are often many, many days between my PMs to her and her replies, and because of her busy student schedule we've never once gotten the ezine released on its release date,even after we rearranged the release schedule to accomodate. So I could be worrying for nothing. Or I could be putting up with too much crap.

In her last message to me, she said that she would drop the project then. Does that mean she's dropping the project of standardizing and professionalizing the ezine? Or does that mean she's dropping the ezine altogether? I don't know! So now I'm chewing my nails, waiting to see if she sends me a copy of the zine to be checked for final edits or if I have to scramble around and take up yet another project that someone drops.

There's no way I can afford publishing software. Getting to know something like Scribus, which is free, will take time that I do not have. So, yeah, I'm freaking out. If this falls through, I'm tempted yet again to urge the ezine staff to drop the whole thing. I will shout, I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!! Two years ago, some member proposed the idea, thinking, "Ah wouldn't it be great if we still received a newsletter every month." I turned around and asked that member (in slightly more PC language), "So you mean to take this project on, huh, b/c I do not have time to hold your hand and do all the unseen things it would involve." The member with the great idea says, "Uh, I didn't mean me." No, really? Yeah, I know exactly who you meant. I considered the matter dropped, until weeks later someone decides, "Hey, this would be a great idea! Not a newsletter though, but a quarterly ezine!"

I hold up my hands and say, "Fine, y'all industrious folks who have time, have at it. I can't take this on too."

Slowly but surely, I inherited one task for the ezine, then another. Every quarter, I have to spend time hunting up members to write articles, which often feels like begging for someone to step up and take action. In the meantime, the member who first proposed the idea is no longer even a member, due to busyness that took them away. No, really? Then our original editor got busy editing in the real world and vanished, so I'm now the ezine editor too. Somewhere in there, we learned that hardly anyone was receiving the bloody thing in their email inboxes, so I had to involve my husband to try to figure out LF's bulk email settings and server issues, just so folks will receive the product of our efforts. It was so bad that some members didn't know we HAD an ezine the first whole year it was out. *shoot me now*

So, after all this B.S. I have the eerie feeling that our layout lady has dropped us. She only ever showed up once a quarter to do the layouts anyway, which means she's probably looking for any excuse at all to sever ties with LF, and I do believe this was her excuse.

Do I take up yet more slack? Or bury the ezine? I just don't know. Looks like I have four days to wait and see what happens. Then, the old red dragon may rear her ugly head.
.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

LeFiWriMo Begins Today!

.
LegendFire's version of NaNoWriMo begins today. Instead of a month to prepare, we have one week (though most members who will participate have been planning already). Instead of 50,000 words, we have a goal of 25,000 words. Back in March we held the same event, but none of our members were able to complete the challenge, so we're holding the event again, in the hopes that someone, this time will meet the goal.

Because of the novel project that I've been slavi
ng away on for a year now, I didn't have anything prepared for the March event. But there's a new idea spinning. I've been brainstorming on it since June, characters, structure ideas, dialog, etc. So I'm allowing myself to take time away from Falcons Rising to participate this time around. For want of a title on the LeFi project, for future reference we'll call it simply Cataclysm. Technically, since I only have to write about 850 words a day to meet the goal, I'm hoping to work on both Cataclysm and Falcons every day, but that's being very optimistic. I'm so behind on Falcons revisions anyway. What's one more month, eh? Blah.

.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Random Happiness

.
I just feel happy today, so I think I'll post random good stuff.

It's very encouraging when one's
small success inspires others to take a step in the same direction. Once I posted on LegendFire that "A Mournful Rustling" had been accepted by Dead Robots' Society, another of our members hopped on board and readied a story to submit to them. Another mentioned doing the same. I hope she does. I hope submissions stay open so they both have time to revise and send their work in. It's my greatest joy to know that all the time and learning and painful decisions (and often biting my tongue) that go into administrating and moderating a writing community may help some folks achieve their dreams.

Renovations: inching forward. Experimentation with chemicals plus sandblasting, we hope, will finally remove white paint from natural stone. At least, we think it's paint. It may actually be some alien substance engineered to drive earthlings mad. It's war now. There's no turning back. We shall conquer!

Reading: On Guard by William Craig. Apologetics. Defending one's faith with reason. Yikes. Apparently it can be done. Chapter three was a wicked piece of brain work. Cosmological defense of the existence of God. Or an introduction to it. Some of the points I can grasp; others, not even close. The last pages require knowledge of subatomic particles, believe it or not. Well, I thought, if that is what's required for me to defend my faith, I'm doomed. On the other hand, the average Joe on the street who asks me, "How can you believe in an all-knowing, all-powerful invisible God who lets all these terrible things happen to us?" probably won't know the ins and outs of subatomic particles either to be able to argue that aspect with me. So I gave up trying to understand what the heck chapter three was about. I hope chapter four is more on my level. I doubt it, but we'll see.

Also reading some free material from Smashwords that I've downloaded onto the Kindle. Some of it is really worth reading. Some of it ... well, I really wish the authors had submitted the material to LegendFire for crits. They went to all the trouble of formatting manuscripts for publication, even perfected SPaG, but, well, the story I'm reading right now started out too late, with a hook like five pages in, instead of five sentences in, and I'm not sure I'll finish it or not. Shame that.

Novel project: Typing in the revisions made to another fat section of paper. I'm making the story stronger, I'm sure of it now. But all the small changes are adding up to make big ones farther down the road. Snowballs and avalanches!

Hmmm ... better stop now and go work on my floor ... or walls ... or ceiling ... or something.
.