I managed to squirrel away some time and got a solid chapter out of the way. I haven’t been writing for very long, a lot of the experiences are new to me. The last chapter I wrote had some powerful stuff that had me feeling emotional for a while after I finished it. That was a new experience, and I hope that translates to the reader. I feel that “If I’m not excited about my story, then the reader isn’t going to be either.” So writing this chapter I am suddenly very curious if the reader is going to have half the reaction that I did writing it. Im not going to go so far as saying that it is my best writing yet, but I’m still gonna pat myself on the back for it. I am glad that I put off other life duties and let the moment go where it wanted. I think writing is a lot like golf, where most of the time it seems to be an exercise of futility sprinkled with little moments of glory, which is enough to make it worth it.
Before I finish the sequel to “Emergence Collective”, “Emergence Ascended”, you should probably read it. So far I have 5 out of 5 star reviews on amazon! So, you might actually enjoy reading it. If you don’t, I also appreciate honest reviews that are, ya know less than 5 stars (but I can take it as long as your constructive criticism is just that).
Honestly, I did not want this blog to be “A place where I discuss my whining journey.” Just when I was getting back into the groove of writing, ideas flowing easy, motivation up, inspired… Life throws a curveball. I had just been on holiday; I went camping in the mountains. I came back to work and found that a very valuable member of my crew is leaving the company. Of course, her reasoning behind it, I support and am happy that she is making a decision to improve her life, but it leaves me in a bind. Taking on the work that she does as well as my usual duties until I find a replacement. (By the way, anyone looking for a job in the Pacific Northwest?) That means working overtime and all of my side projects outside of work are getting sidelined… again. That being said, I have not been as diligent as I should be to posting on the blog, and I apologize to those that read my post and may have wondered why I haven’t been posting as much. (I want to post, if not every day, at least a few times a week.)
On another subject, sort of part 2 of “Ants in my brain”. While on holiday, I took the time to review my WIP “Emergence Ascended”. Stepping back and giving it a thorough review, I am actually very happy with it. So those pesky ANTs were just that. Keep that in mind, that “Nothing is as good or bad as thinking makes it so”. Of course, now that I am happy and passed the self-doubt, I am excited and motivated to get this thing finished. I will keep plucking away at it, knowing that the progress is slowed, it’s not stopped. Thanks for checking out my blog, I do appreciate your interest!
Sometimes I need some mental pest control. “I am visualizing a can of bug spray”…. There is something I heard from Dr.Wayne Dyer (A self-development guy) about “automatic negative thoughts”. Or “A.N.T’s The idea kinda stuck with me. I consider myself to be an unapologetic optimist. As a human, I am flawed so sometimes that optimism waivers a little. I am repulsed by perpetually negative people and do my best not to participate. That is probably why I struggle with social media. Since it is a fantastic platform to be heard, that opens the door and safety valve of every complaint or dispute that just clutters our environment social, petty behavior that should really be between only those intimately involved, and drowns out the positive stuff.
As an artist/writer/creative dude there is a near-constant buzz of ANTs in the background. My particular ant with my writing “is the pacing of the story on point, is the reader getting bored?” So… ANTs in my brain, I do try to stomp them out as soon as they happen, at the very least acknowledge that is what they are, and consciously try to push them aside. “Emergence, Ascended,” is coming along nicely, and (like I said, trying to stomp those ants) as I imagine the story as a whole, I think I am doing pretty good. The story itself seems to be getting longer and longer. There is a lot that I want to say in it, but I just have to get there. I reassure myself that this book will probably be about twice as long as the first, which is not bad. I am not expecting a particular length or word count; just keep writing until it’s finished. The ANT in that thought is back to “I hope the reader isn’t bored and waiting to get to the bloodshed. In the end, if the book isn’t very good, not many will know about it (Judging by current book sales of the one I think is good) 😉 So there is that
I’m back in that happy place of creativity. With the stress of adulting gone (well, of course, not entirely), the significant sources of stress have settled)) my creativity gets to retake control with art and my writing. I feel that by now, I should have finished this book, but life gets overcome by events sometimes. That being said, I’m back at it with full force! The story (Emergence, Ascended) is back to the flow state where the words are coming, I’m happy with the direction it’s going, and all the puzzle pieces fit together the way I imagined. Maybe I am feeling particularly optimistic now that it is summer and the sun rays are bumping my serotonin or whatever. I’m not going to complain about it, but I’m feeling pretty good.
I still have a little anxiety over the pacing of the story. Maybe I am unconsciously “waiting to get to the good part.” Since I know where it’s going, perhaps I am impatient to start writing the fun parts. When I am on the cusp of knitting together all the plot points that lead to those good parts, I get excited.
Patience is my current lesson right now. Honestly, I am trying to suppress my impatience; I really want to finish this book! But for reasons that are a little silly. I mean, I want to finish the story because, duh. But I have several other stories that are tired of waiting in line to get written. SO far, I have about 13k words, and things are just now starting to make sense (I hope), and there is no telling how many more there is to the story. I have no idea how long this book will be, but it’s shaping up to be longer than the first in the Duology.
Call to arms… If there is any of you out there that wants to beta read, please send an email to hello@hand-printsofdarkness.com, comment or connect via my social media found on my about page. I would sincerely appreciate it!
I took a step back and really looked at what I had written so far In “Emergence Ascended” (The sequel to “Emergence Collective.” You really have to read, trust me it’s worth it.). I wasn’t satisfied with my character, as I wanted to add more character to the character. I have a specific idea of how this character is supposed to read. So, I took some time from adding new content to the story and dug a bit deeper into the character, and reinforced some of the more important character traits that I wanted to express. It is hard for me to show, not tell how you are supposed to perceive the character. But I gave it my best shot. I am somewhat happier with how it reads and even though I am blinded by the fact that I already know how the character is supposed to be perceived, (I have to pretend that I don’t, as I write it).
I think it is very important to the story overall, how the character is initially perceived since later in the story it explains a lot. (things that are not plot specific, but add important elements or subtext to the story.
One of my favorite Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens for those who know) quotes. “Eat a Live Frog Every Morning, and Nothing Worse Will Happen to You the Rest of the Day.” I am only mentioning this because its Monday. Monday is my frog, so after this, it’s all downhill. I had a relaxing weekend. Got some writing done, and I am getting excited about the story (Emergence Ascended) I spent some time working with my laser. Doing some fun side projects and managed to make 3 pendulum boards (Scrying boards). I upgraded my laser and I am very happy with it. My projects burn faster and I can do more with it. My next project it to burn some more Ouija boards, which usually sell (Etsy) out during the Halloween season so I am getting ahead of that, making sure I have the inventory to support demand.
I have another exciting bit of news, hopefully I will get the expected email today, and once that happens I will post all about it! Thank you for taking the time to visit! Don’t be shy, say hi in the comments!
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
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.
Sadly I still have a day job. I work in Aerospace and Defense as a Non-destructive test (NDT) inspector Level 3 and run the solutions analysis lab. NDT is a method of verifying the structural integrity of critical parts and in the solutions analysis lab, I monitor the chemical concentrations of the processing line (titrations). blah blah blah.That being said our company is involved with some pretty cool projects every once in a while (Nasa, Blue origin, Space X, Boeing etc..) But as of late we have been doing a lot of Space X work.
I am also a Cryptocurrency enthusiast and started buying Dogecoin. You may or may not know that Elon Musk is also very involved with Dogecoin and (because he can) Is launching the Falcon 9 rocket (Launch date is scheduled for JUNE 28th) with cube satellites, and one of the cube sats is the Doge-1 that will orbit the moon collecting data (and is rumored to be a dogecoin node). I feel very proud and honored to be involved in the Space X projects and the history-making event. It is the first space mission paid for entirely with Cryptocurrency ( Proving a use case as a viable currency that is not controlled by banks or governments)
Here is some news snippets …
A SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket will launch the DOGE-1 & IM-1/Nova-C payloads from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.
DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon is a rideshare mission to the Moon completely funded by Dogecoin, thus becoming the first space mission funded by a cryptocurrency. Elon Musk confirmed this news via Twitter. DOGE1 will be a minor 40kg rideshare payload on Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission.
The TO2-IM, or Intuitive Machines 1 (IM-1) mission objective is to place a lander, called Nova-C, in the Vallis Schroteri region on the Moon. The commercially built lander will carry five NASA payloads and commercial cargo.
“DOGE-1, a 40-kilogram — roughly 88 pounds — CubeSat that will provide a new use case for cryptocurrencies. The CubeSat will travel to a “stable lunar orbit” in order to obtain lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras that will be sent back to GEC for analysis.”
Hand-prints of Darkness 