about me · Author · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · writing

Back in the saddle

Ahh, things are getting back to normal, and I’m getting in the writing groove.

My work life is settled; there are high-stress times of the year when I have to be 100% adulting, and my focus has to be laser-sharp. That being said, everything else has to be pushed away to maintain focus (due to Attention deficit disorder)…. Um, where was I? oh yeah. My home life, though it’s not in a bad place, but nature decided to kick me in the jewels, and during a windstorm, my neighbor’s dead tree decided to fall on my house and vehicle. *Side note, there is an interesting story about that vehicle. It involves bullet holes, theft, robbery, meth addicts, and sadly the death of a policeman. Comment if you want to hear that one…* oops getting lost again.

Anyway, things are mellowing out, and I’m feeling the creativity swell, and I feel good about the direction things are going with my next novel, The sequel to Emergence collective. (You should probably read it) I am still keeping negativity (anxiety, confidence, is this as good as the first?) tamped down (or trying). 

If anyone out there likes to do beta reading and Id be happy to share send me an email to hello@hand-printofdarkness.com 

Thanks for visiting

about me · Author · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · writing

Salvageable

Not all was lost. That chapter that I repeated,(Here is where I talked about that) or I wrote two separate chapters that said the same thing, was salvageable. Only had to delete a thousand or so words and the rest was organized to lead back in the direction I was intending. Whew!

Now I am back at it. I had been thinking hard about my current progress and adding things here and took some stuff out there. Not that I was unhappy with the progress but I felt there were some subtle things that add to the feeling of the story that I think were missing. Not completely there yet but I have more writing to do so I have time.

I am still having slight anxiety about making the sequel to Emergence collective as good, if not better but I am trying to push those negative thoughts out of my head. Can’t let those silly ideas grow. I just need to trust that I can be consistent with my writing and the rest will follow.

about me · Author · Emergence Collective · writing

This might surprise you

There are some surprises in Emergence Collective that I have been careful not to mention in my blog. Although I have been tempted to spill those beans. When I was writing it (the secret surprise) I was constantly thinking “Is this way out there? Are the readers going to enjoy this?” When I asked the editor what she thought of the book (as she was the first person to actually read it), she mentioned it right off, and that was something that she really enjoyed. So all my waffling over it was at least for one person, enjoyable.

It’s more than you think it is….
about me · art · Author · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · Horror · painting · poetry · writing

Don’t follow me I am lost too.

Actually, do follow me, I could use the company. Being an introvert, I don’t have much use for social media. I never got the “thrill” of people “liking” or “Following” my social media profiles. Most of the stuff I post is really for my entertainment and I never really much cared if anyone else is entertained. I hope that they are, just not my priority. Now that I have to have a “presence”  I find that the likes and follows have meaning. But (I imagine) that its different from most peoples experiences.

I do enjoy gaining another follower, and seeing people enjoy my content and throw a like my way. But I get a fair amount of what to me is non-value-added likes and follows. I want people to be moved or entertained genuinely. If you like one of my posts, you actually took the time to read it and digest it find your own meaning in it. That is the thrill I get from it. I get a lo of likes a follows from marketing companies and sales, that are only there to get my attention, maybe use their service. I see no value in padding my numbers with followers and likes, that are not here for my content, just another potential client.

I wanted to take the time to acknowledge those that I see, are “active” on my blog. I see the likes and comments from some of you on a consistent basis. I sincerely appreciate your time, and spending it on my content.

The Worlds Worst Writer (Maybe)

SMVLTRUDEAU

Lifesfinewhine

Edge of Humanity Magazine

Bridgette Tales

ACountryBoy

Hardknocks Hobby & Streetwear

Take the time to check out their blogs! Thank you for visiting!

about me · Author · poetry · writing

Yee olde Correspondences

I grew up in rural Alaska. It is a beautiful, brutal, vast, and sometimes boring place to grow up. Boring for a kid at least. Living on a homestead at the end of a homemade road in a cabin, there are not really many things to do. Of course, I did the usual kid things, made forts in the woods, climbed trees, and did some fishing, but at the end of the day, all these activities were done solitarily. I have a sister, but when she is your only company to play with it can get kind of dull. Our tiny town of Wasilla Had a decent library so books became a thing. I discovered, that you can travel to faraway places with adventures and mysteries to uncover. I started reading a lot. I discovered H.P Lovecraft (Specifically “the strange case of Charles Dexter Ward” and He blew my mind, I was instantly a horror fan. My Dad encouraged Isaac Asimov, and that threw me into the Science Fiction rabbit hole.

My First Favorite Author was H.P. Lovecraft however and I read everything I could get my hands on. I learned about how he would correspond with other authors, pen-pals as it were. Long conversations, that took months and years to have. But as a reader, I, of course, could not have conversations with the authors I read, (Obviously the dead ones were the hardest to reach) But in those days there were very few resources to tap into to even get the conversation started.  So I only could dream of talking to an author about the books I was reading, asking questions, and getting insight into the stories that I may have not picked up on.  Ah the days before the internet. Thank you, Arpanet (the first internet for you youngins).

Fast forward to the future. I grew up, trying my hand at writing, to realize that writing is for the soul, not the pocketbook (or google wallet (again for the youngins)). Make an Author page/blog, get your name out there and see if that works. Not so much yet, but its still new.

The Blog. The point of starting the blog was to promote me, my books, and my writing.  One side effect of writing a blog is that suddenly you are in a community.  Gone are the days of isolation in the Alaskan bush. I have started having great conversations with other authors, trading insights, asking questions, and just getting to know others that are afflicted with the same obsessive need to express our insanity to the world.  I look forward to more conversations, with other authors, and especially if you are a fan of my work, I would very much like to hear from you.

Author · Emergence Ascended · writing

Go with the flow?

Alright! Saturday morning, I’m up early, got some good coffee in my mug and I pull out my laptop. Im feeling good, feeling inspired. It’s been way to long since I wrote anything substantial in my WIP but I am inspired and ready to go. When I am not smashing keys and making words, I’m thinking about the next scene or character development. Saturday I was gonna write a pretty important scene that I have been ruminating about.

I start writing. the clacking of the keyboard is near-constant, except for the occasional breaks to sip more coffee and keep the flow state rolling. Wow, the words are pouring out of me in a fluid stream of consciousness. I write the chapter in one go. Wish I could write like this all the time. I finish the chapter, and by that time, my quiet solitude is coming to an end (as my family is now getting up. I write in the morning before every in the house gets up and starts expecting me to acknowledge their existence).

Before I close the laptop I give a quick skim over the chapters to make sure that everything is lining up and the story is going where I want. I start reading chapter 5, and it’s very familiar, I keep going and as it turns out, It was almost identical to the chapter I just wrote. Really? Of course, I have been thinking hard about this part of the story, cause it’s an important plot thingy, but how could I have actually forgot that I already added it in? Maybe I should read my own stuff more often. Really, more to the point, I shouldn’t allow myself to get so distracted that I forget where I am at. Sheesh. Have any of you ever done something that silly?

writing

Wild speculations on Recursive time loops

Imagine if you will, that time is shaped like a vinyl record and we all sit in our groove. But the record is liquid, a still pond. When you toss a stone the surface ripples outward in all directions. The ripple expands and eventually comes into contact with your groove. What happens? Now, we have not experienced the event of the stone striking the surface (event) but only the ripple of the event, a collective emotional energy wave crossing time-space.  Perhaps, for whatever reason, some people are subtly aware of the ripple. Maybe they get a strange sensation of unease, but since they did not experience the event itself, they have no awareness of the details of the event, just that they know that something did/will/had happened. Also depending on the extreme nature of the event, or events, that happen all the time to some degree or another (like raindrops on a pond, and then the large event like a stone) most people may or may not notice the ripple at all. How far did the ripple travel before it came to our awareness? Do the ripples from the past get negated by the future ripples, fading them from our memories?

 I remember, for a long time (6 months) before Covid, that I had an intense sensation of some coming dread and doom that increased in intensity. I could not pinpoint the feeling nor could I possibly know, but when the pandemic actually happened, that sense of dread sort of caught up and I no longer had the weird sensation. I am not saying I predicted anything, or that there is a correlation to the pandemic. But this sensation got me to think about potential future events that may have people feeling the same thing I did.  I am again feeling that weird unease feeling like something is building, another big event that is going to create chaos.

Honestly, I am on the fence about precognition or psychic ability. I have a scientific mindset and a non-theist, all the woo woo hippy stuff, I tend to disregard, but the irony is that the more we learn about how the universe works the more connections can be made that could prove that some of these phenomena have less to do with chanting Latin and burning sage. To my writer’s mind, these musings give me material to work with. The concept of casual and recursive time loops has given me a few story ideas that I am excited to get down on paper.

about me · Author · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · writing

Fresh perspectives, everything you want in life is on the other side of fear.

Getting my head back into the game, thinking about my current work in progress.  I have not written anything significant on my WIP for a month (wow time flies) or so. Chapter 8, of Emergence Ascended, is not what I want it to be.  I’ve been thinking of a rewrite, putting in additional details and what message this chapter sends, and how the story will progress from here.  I suppose this chapter is a pivotal moment in the storyline. But rethinking what I am trying to express, has made me start to rethink some of the earlier chapters, and nearly a complete rewrite of one of the characters. Don’t get me wrong, I am not struggling with it but there are things that I wanted to illustrate in Emergence Collective that I don’t think I clearly articulated.

There are some pretty complicated concepts that are the meat of my “Hippy Scifi” (thx for coining a new genre name, T.A.Walker) narrative that needs to be described. The character also have a tangled mess of interactions and relationships that need some serious thought, (starting from the earlier chapters.)

I have never done a rewrite. What you see is what word vomit spilled out at the time. Only a few minor changes in sentence structure or grammar stuffs, maybe I rewrote an entire paragraph once or twice. As a new writer, I am not sure if this is considered normal or not. My fear is that if I start to rearrange my thoughts (that I had at the time) when I wrote it, that I will lose what my intention for where the story was going.

How many of you rewrite your work? I am hoping that maybe I am starting to mature as a writer and these little fears about ruining it by rewriting are simply that, a silly fear.

about me · Author · writing

Prairie Doggin’

I never promised anything. Nonetheless, I feel bad that I have not been active on the blog as of late. It’s the work thing still, it just keeps dragging on. I don’t want this blog to be a place where you are just reading about me complaining about it. (Honestly, it’s not that bad). I enjoy what I do, it is an exciting time in history to be involved in some of the projects that I am involved with. It is just keeping me busier than I want to be currently, and there is bit of stress that is repressing some creativity. That being said I thought I would just prairie dog my head out of my bubble and say hi, and reassure you that I am not abandoning the blog! I’m just distracted. I have full intentions of getting back to posting regularly. Feel free to drop a comment, ask a question or just say hi!

art · Author · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · Horror · writing

Totes!

Ever have a day where you have too much to hold on to with just your hands? maybe all of those 80’s classic horror VHS tapes and Philosophy books are too much to handle at once. You might need to sort a Tote bag!

this is the first rendition, I am not great at digital art. My photoshop skills were never developed. I tend to use analog media for my art. But I am pretty ok with this design. This will make much more sense (once I finish and publish) when you read the Sequel to “Emergence Collective,” “Emergence, Ascended.” I like “easter eggs” in books and games. shhhh………