writing – Page 6 – Linda Nelson

You know someone is a bona fide writer once you hear them speak. They don’t even need to read an excerpt of their work for you to know how good of a writer they are. When you are done listening to them you will walk away not just saying wow, but you will feel inspired to continue with your own works.

That is how I felt today when I left the meeting at my local writers’ group, The Monadnock Writers’ Group. Our speaker was James Patrick Kelly. Do I need to say more? – Fabulous speaker –

Actually, I had never heard of him before today. At least, I don’t remember hearing of him, even though I used to subscribe to Asimov’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine years ago. From what I learned today, James is a regular to that magazine.

He spoke about the differences between Science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Then he even touched a little bit on playwriting. Each subject he spoke about struck a note inside me, the kind that awakens the Kraken – the Muse. Having my Muse awoken was a welcome feeling.

Dragon background design provided by: NVT Office Clips

He touched the subject of Slipstream. Before I had written Aaron and Keja, I didn’t know what Slipstream was or that it existed. It took someone to tag my book Slipstream for me to go and investigate what that term meant, and then I still wasn’t sure about it. I thought it was just for books that used portals between worlds. I didn’t know that it was for stories written without a set of rules to adhere. As when the Orcs find Aaron and suddenly they have no problem communicating with her without the help of the talisman given to them by Arch Lankus.

Thinking about this causes me to rethink why she can do this. Well, if she can read the minds or hear the minds of the creatures – big and small, then what is there to keep her from being able to understand the creatures and humanoids of the other world?

If you have ever read fantasy books, or epics, then you will know that each world has its own set of rules. So if Aaron does not follow the rules of the world, then that must mean she is a rule breaker.

Now that I know that I have a rule breaker on the loose in Orgarlan, I know that anything can go.

So here is to the letting go of realm rules.

May the Gods, Goddesses, and Dragons have mercy on the inhabitants of Orgarlan in the coming pages.

Who rules that world? Frankly I don’t know, but all the inhabitants have their own opinion on who is the overseer of their world.

Original image via Bing Creative Commons, courtesy of 55Laney69 on Flickr Photos

Spring is about to be sprung in my part of the States. After going through such a cold, seemingly long winter, I am ready for the warmer weather. It may have had something to do with the reason why I had stopped posting and work on my work in progress slowed down to almost a complete halt.

I kept saying, next month I will get my butt in gear. Well, you know what? It is the next month, and it almost passed me by in a blink of an eye. It is April, and I need to get myself in gear and get some writing done.

So what have I been up to during my little disappearing act?

I worked a little bit on the next book in my Orgarlan Saga. I am eating that elephant one bite at a time. There is not much to say at this time, except I am meeting my character and relearning them. Aaron is bored, and I need to find something for her and her friends to do. I could burn down the tower where they are staying, but how many times are you allowed to burn things down before your characters are accused of arson?

In the meantime, I have begun exploring Wattpad. That is right! I joined Wattpad back in 2010, and I never went any further with the site other than creating a profile, which I have since then have changed. They have a neat feature on the site. You can post short stories you are working on or even chapters of a story, one at a time. Readers can then vote and comment on your stories.

I hadn’t done anything like this since posting on Myspace back in the heyday when that social media site was bigger than Facebook. It changed when the site began leaning toward music after Tom left the site he built from the ground up.

This past weekend I began working on a side project I want to build on Wattpad. I’m calling it, Sleeping on the Beach. It is about a woman who hears strange noises in her home when she is sleeping. After making a few discoveries, she begins to believe she is sleep walking. I’m hoping readers will help me brainstorm this story line since I am panstering instead of plotting.

I’m hoping to post a new chapter once a week.

My free book promotion period is over. All three books did better than I had planned. Now if only the reviews would start coming in, that would be neat.

Thank God the Brain Fog has finally lifted!

Original image via Bing Creative Commons, courtesy of Lida on Flickr Photos