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Want to see the other challenge days? Here you go! (you're welcome): The Writing Challenge Series
Today's challenge: Your go-to writing spot My bed or my desk. Usually, I start at my desk, then my buttocks get sore, so I move to the bed, then my legs go to sleep and I move to the desk, then my back starts hurting and I move back over to the bed, then I flop onto the floor until my hips start killing me, then I go back to my desk and etc... This can go on for quite a while, depending on how wrapped up I am in my writing at the moment. Honestly, I need an extra wide La-Z-Boy chair - one of those chair & a half ones, or something. That way, I can prop my legs up on a stool and write, slide a sofa table up and write, recline and write, sit cross legged and write, or whatever! I could sit (or lay) in any position I want and keep on writin'! Anybody want to donate a chair & a half for the cause? Or a chaise? *Listens to the crickets in the audience* So, is that a "no" or a "I'm thinking about it"? ![]()
Hey everyone! Have you kept up with the writing challenge? Well, in case you have missed a day or two, here is where you can find the entire challenge! - The Writing Challenge Series
Today's challenge: Your go-to writing snack. I don't snack when I'm writing. I may have a drink (coffee, root beer, tea-hot-Earl Grey...), but I don't snack. The only time I snack is when I have writers block. I'm a boredom eater. I eat when there is nothing going on in my brain and I'm bored. When I am writing, there is a LOT going on in my brain. I went two days without food one time because I was so wrapped up in my writing. When I have some writing to do, I will turn on some forest, river, or storm ambiance, grab something to drink, and sit down and write. If I brought food into my writing area, I would spend my time eating. I wouldn't be able to focus until the food was consumed. Once I vanquished the food, then I would want more, and I wouldn't be able to focus until I got more. It's a vicious cycle. When there is food in my writing zone, I don't get any writing done... like, NONE. At all. In fact, food is the best weapon my family has. If they notice that I've been missing for a while (three or four days), they'll make some tasty Italian dish that just makes your nose melt, it smells so good. Then Kris will come upstairs with a bowl of it and nonchalantly start eating it in front of me. That's when my concentration goes POOF! Appetite takes over and drives the wagon off the cliff and I eat a whole lasagna, six loaves of buttered garlic bread, three cheesecakes, and the boxes they came in. Yeah. Food is the only thing that can drive a big solid wedge between me and writing. In fact, it doesn't even have to get in-between me and writing! Food can just stand behind Writing and wave at me with a smile, and I'll run Writing over with a dump truck to get to Food. Yeah. It's bad. ![]()
If you haven't been keeping up with the challenge so far, no sweat! You can catch up here.
Today's challenge: All social media sites go down for 24 hours - You can still do things like searching on Google in order to research relevant things for your book, but that's the extent of what you're able to do on the internet during that time. How much writing do you get done during that 24 hours? I would get a LOT done. Like, no kidding. Well... unless I decided to go outside and finish one of the many unfinished outside projects I have. Still, I can't work outside for a solid 24 hours, so yeah. I would get a lot of writing done! Weeeellll.... Actually.... if I started doing ANY research of any kind, then any and all writing would go down the drain. I'd get nothing done all day long. I love to research stuff. I get lost in research. I can spend DAYS researching just one single thing. I just love to learn new things. However, I draw the line at research about Jack the Ripper. I spent one entire day researching Jack, and that night, after my shower (and spending my entire shower time thinking about Mr. Freaky-Creepy Jack the Ripper), as I was leaving the bathroom, my sister, Kris, decided it would be fun to jump out from around the corner and scare me. I NEARLY KILLED MY SISTER. I thought she was Jack the Ripper come to slit my gut open! I flew into self-preservation and self-defense mode. I was going to turn Jack the Ripper into Jack O' RIP. Good thing for Kris, I realized who she was before I really damaged her. Good thing for me, Kris has a wonderful sense of humor... most of the time... she is very forgiving anyway... most of the time. Good thing for Jack he doesn't exist in my timeline or ever tried to take on a girl like me. Anyway. Moral of that story is: unless you need to do the research, it's best to let Jack the Ripper be. ![]()
I am really excited about today's challenge, because I get to share something from book #2 of the Tales of the Wovlen series - The Dragon's Due (the book that everyone has been waiting tirelessly for). But first, if you haven't been keeping up with this challenge so far, you can catch up by clicking "The Writing Challenge" category.
And now, today's challenge is: A random sentence from your WIP So, forget just picking a random sentence. I'm going to give you a 2 whole paragraphs! This is part of a scene from Chapter 7, and we get to be inside the Crystal Witch's palace, hearing a conversation she has with her most trusted minions! She turned away, climbing back up to her throne. “Rise, my servants. There is much to be done and little time to accomplish it all.” She turned to face them, and the wraith all rose to their feet in unison. “I have learned that one of our old enemies has resurfaced, and there is a rumor spreading that he has found one of the ancient dragon blades. He is under the Dayspeaker’s blessing of protection, so none of you can kill him, but there is one who can.” She paused a moment. “It is time to release the Nightstalker. It is time for him to play his part.” She turned away, climbing back up to her throne. “Rise, my servants. There is much to be done and little time to accomplish it all.” She turned to face them, and the wraith all rose to their feet in unison. “I have learned that one of our old enemies has resurfaced, and there is a rumor spreading that he has found one of the ancient dragon blades. He is under the Dayspeaker’s blessing of protection, so none of you can kill him, but there is one who can.” She paused a moment. “It is time to release the Nightstalker. It is time for him to play his part.” Now, I can already hear the ever present question: WHEN IS BOOK 2 COMING OUT?! Soon. Very soon. Like, V-E-R-Y soon. It is going through the last stages of editing (YAY!) and I should be setting a release date any day! Hopefully it will be sometime THIS month! Whoohoo! I promise that I'll keep everyone updated on my progress. I'm really upset that it has taken me this long to get it on a roll (I wanted this book done and published in March... of LAST YEAR), but I guess it's better late than never, right? ![]()
Don't forget to check out the previous day's challenges here: The Writing Challenge Category
Today's challenge: A writer you admire. Oh man. Put a knife into my heart! I can't choose - I admire too many! Of course I admire J.R.R. Tolkien (did anyone see that coming?). He was a master at world building. I mean, he not only created a world and filled it with fantastic creatures, he also gave that world a history, unique technology, healing plants, special rocks, and it's own mythology and creation story. If you are an aspiring fantasy author, you would do well to read J.R.R. Tolkien's works and study the world(s) he built. Bryan Davis would be another author I admire. His story crafting BLOWS MY MIND. I don't know how he does it, but he somehow creates an elaborate maze out of his story line. Just when I think I know where the story is going, the path twists and sends me and the characters down a new road that comes to a dead end, but then a trap door opens up and drops us into a river which rushes us to a bridge and a cross roads, and you take one road, and the characters take another road, and just when it seems there is no hope, dragons come in to save the day, and then you look back and you see that all those roads you thought were separate were actually all just a part of the never ending maze! Yeah. Bryan Davis knows how to suck you into a story, blow your mind, and keep you glued to the edge of your seat the entire time. He also knows that all we readers really need in life is more dragons. *Nods* I could come up with several more writers that I admire a great deal, but I think I'll stop here. The rest of the authors I admire are alive and know me, and I don't want to make their heads swell. *Wink, wink*
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If you are just joining this challenge, you should check out the previous days!: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN and ELEVEN.
Today's Challenge: How would your writing habits change if the internet no longer existed? Haha! I would write a LOT more. Being a writer is 3% talent and 97% being distracted by the internet. True story. Without the internet as the distraction, I'd probably spend a lot more time writing. However…. without the internet, I likely would not be a published author. I published my book through CreateSpace. It was free for me to upload my book to, it assigned me a ISBN number, and it published my book in ebook and paperback - for FREE. The paperback books are printed as people order them (print on demand) so I don’t have to deal with inventory and I don't have to pay anything outright, thus the free publishing. Oh... I also get 70% of the royalties, as opposed to most big time publishing houses where the author only *maybe* gets 35%. Anyway. Elephant trail.... I don’t know that Createspace would be here without the internet, and I know for sure that my blog would not exist without internet. So, maybe I would actually write less if I didn’t have the internet to push me to keep writing. Who knows?
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Today's challenge is going to be a little bit exciting for all the Tales of the Wovlen fans out there, but before we get into it, if you are just joining this challenge, you should check out the previous days challenges!: day ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, and TEN.
Today's challenge is: The last complete sentence you wrote on your WIP This is currently the last sentence of the first chapter in book #3 of the Tales of the Wovlen series, which is titled "The Dragon's Foe": Walneff paused and looked at Keegan, his diamond blue eyes lighting up with a mysterious twinkle, “We must summon the Giants from their sleep. But first, we must call on the prophet Raefindal.” Oh yes. Big things are fixing to go DOWN in book 3! Giants aren't even the half of it. Honestly, I'm a little scared myself of everything that is cropping up in book 3 (and I haven't even gotten book 2 published yet... uhg!).
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Ironheart: The Primal Deception
Coming May 12th 2016 Ironheart: The Primal Deception introduces a brand new world of science fiction and fantasy, where deities dominate a civilization dependent on steam-powered marvels. For Jack Booker, an orphan from the cutthroat streets of Victorian, life is about survival. The squabbles of the imperial aristocracy are of no importance to him; neither does he concern himself with the machinations of the empire’s gods, the Primals, who rule humanity with indifferent disdain. Power plots amongst the mighty mean little in the grungy alleys of the undercity, where the only rule that truly matters reigns supreme: Only the strong survive. It is a daily struggle. This struggle becomes even more deadly when Fist, an underworld mob boss with delusions of grandeur, embroils his gang in a game far above their league. Soon, Jack finds himself thrust into a web of intrigue, subterfuge, and rebellion when he encounters the enigmatic Freedom, a revolutionary with an uncompromising vision for the future and a deep hatred for the Primal Empire. Forces beyond Jack’s comprehension command subjects like pieces on a chessboard – and, somehow, he may have just become the most important pawn… ![]()
Dakota Kemp is a seriously talented author and has been listed on my "Other Authors" page on my website for a long time. You may have heard me talk calmly (rave) about one of his other books in my YouTube book review video "The Arrival by Dakota Kemp". The depth of his story and characters far surpass anything I've ever written, his story telling technique had me eating every word up, and his plot left me hanging and begging for more. So, as you can imagine, I am pretty psyched for Ironheart (it's not a sequel to The Arrival, though... *cough, cough-Dakota'sKillingMe-cough*).
Ironheart is a steampunk/fantasy novel said to be suitable for YA readers and up. The release date is May 12 and it will be available on Amazon, the Kindle version being about $2.99 - an excellent price! If you would like more information about Dakota and his books, please check out his website at www.dakotakemp.wordpress.com. Of course, don't forget to keep an eye out forIronheart! I have a feeling it's going to be a good one to read! ![]()
So, I feel like I am going to fail at today's challenge... BUT, I have made up for it with the previous challenges up till now, haven't I? If you haven't been keeping up with my challenges, catch up on them here: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT & NINE.
Today's Challenge: The first sentence of the first chapter of your WIP (work in progress). Let me tell you something: this challenge made me seriously reconsider all my opening sentences. They are TERRIBLE! Well, that's my opinion. They don't seem that catchy to me. Anyway, I have three WIP that I'll share the first sentence from... I actually have more than that, but I only wanted to share three with you, because the rest of my WIP don't have opening sentences (I start in the middle of a story and work my way out). Enjoy! "Keegan looked up and smiled as the door finally opened, and Alia and Brainna stepped out, faces beaming." Tales of the Wovlen Book #3 "Kyra stood frozen on the cold metal table, head tilted, and listening intently to voices coming through the ceiling above her." Plasma Chrysalis - SciFi book "The azure sky was bright high above the tall, green trees of Deepwood Forest." An unnamed fantasy story
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If you haven't already, be sure to check out DAY ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE & SIX of this challenge!
Today's challenge is: Your favorite character out of all the characters you’ve ever written. This is really hard. It would either be Pharrgon the regal dragon, Walneff Feldost the riddling prophet, Gillion the Jester, or Vliron Nightstalker the rogue assassin. If you’ve read my first book, then don’t worry - you haven’t met Gillion or Vliron yet. They are introduced in book #2, which is coming out really soon (No, really! It really is! I swear!). Trust me when I say that Gillion and Vliron are AWESOME. Because, they really are awesome. And you don’t have to take my word for it. You can ask any of the testers who have pre-read the 2nd book (or parts of it). I have heard that they think Gillion and Vliron are awesome, though, they are starting to split into teams on who they think is more awesome - Team Gillion and Team Vliron.... my awesome characters may end up starting a fan war.... Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes – favorite character. If I judge by which character is fun to write, I think Gillion would be my favorite. He is such a cut up! If I want something funny said or done, Gillion is my man. If I want something crazy or spastic done, Gillion is also my man. If I want someone to make some awesome ninja moves and kill monsters Legolas style, all while smiling and cracking jokes, Gillion is definitely my man. However, on the other end of the spectrum, I've had a lot of fun with Vliron. He is just the opposite of Gillion. If I want somebody to do or say something mean and cold, Vliron is my man. If I want somebody other than Pharrgon to scare the monsters, Vliron is my man. If I want someone to be a suspicious, sneaky, and befuddling character that the reader likes one minute and hates the next, Vliron is also my man. If I want someone to take a really bad beating..... then Keegan is my man. Though, Vliron has taken some really nasty ones as well. Picking a favorite character is impossible. I like them all for different reasons. I like writing them and learning their styles. I like torturing them and seeing how they respond. I like killing them too. Yes. I know. I have issues. I plan to capitalize on that though! Would any of you be interested in buying one of these T-shirts should I start an online shop?:
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Kathryn FoglemanAuthor of the fantasy series, Tales of the Wovlen, Kathryn spends a great deal of time in the world of her imagination, having tea with fire breathing dragons, writing books on flying space ships, and practicing her mad scientist laugh with gusto. However, on occasion,she returns to this world just to play with her dog and blog about her fun. My BookGrab a Button!![]() Archives
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