This month has been the most relaxing month I’ve had in a long time. It was really nice to have a reprieve after the extreme business of this year. What with the cool weather coming and a lot of deadlines met, I could finally have some time to be stress-free.
What I did:
1.) I took a two week break from writing to relax and now I’m back into it in the planning stage for extending Red Hood and for NaNoWriMo. I start extending Red Hood next month! I have to make 20,000 words longer.
2.) I decided to try going to an SCA (Society of Creative Anachronism, basically a group that still preserves medieval traditions such as rapier, heavy fighting, and others) fighter practice. I did some rapier fighting and it was really fun! I used to fence and I realized how much I missed fighting with a sword. I’m strongly considering becoming a member. ^ ^
3.) I finished reading Viral Execution by Amanda L. Davis. ^ ^
4.) I’ve finished Judah’s expressions from Subsapien for my Expressions Challenge and my Harlowe expressions are right behind him! I’ll update when I finish that one. I need to introduce you all to Harlowe. He’s from Starbloods.
5.) I did a bunch of reviews on Geeks Under Grace that I’ve been wanting to do for months now. I did a the Hunger Games: Catching Fire review, King’s Quest: Chapter 1 A Knight to Remember review, Divergent review, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials review, Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller Episode 1: The Hangman review, and I’d Punch a Lion in His Eye for You review.
The Geeky Department:
1.) I rewatched Wolf’s Rain and rekindled my love for the show. The ending is still really weird though …
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| Cheza and Kiba are so cute. |
2.) I’m all caught up on Sword Art Online and Naruto Shippuden dubbed. Feels, man. Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels. I also caught up up on Falling Skies. Ben looks exactly like my character Matt so seeing on him on screen is like seeing my baby character walking and talking.
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| My baby! |
3.) All of my favorite fall shows are starting so I’m beginning to watch the new eps! I’ve missed you so much, Doctor Who, Castle, Arrow, the Flash, and Once Upon a Time. ^ ^
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| I’ve missed this face. |
4.) I replayed one of my favorite video games to review on GUG King’s Quest: The Silver Lining. When are they going to release the last ep? Ughhhhh. I must know how it ends!
5.) I saw Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. I’m really conflicted about it … I like parts of it, but not others … Check out my review mentioned above for details.
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| Stare out epically. |
What I Learned:
1.) Breaks are really refreshing. I need a long one. This is the longest one I’ve taken since winter. I feel more rejuvenated and less burned out. I recommend taking a break between drafts.
2.) While at SCA I learned a lot about old Italian fighting, like about how they would wear gloves so they could grab the opponent’s blade to knock aside. I also learned about fighting with a rapier and a dagger, cloak, or buckler. So fascinating!
3.) So I got rejected by one of the publishers that I submitted to. It’s part of the writer life and I tried to handle it strongly, but I ended up crying and moping for a day. At least it only took a day to get back on my feet this time, so I am learning how to handle this.
4.) When one gets a rejection, get Starbucks. It will make you feel better. Pecan tarts solve problems.
5.) I’m working on extending Red Hood for a publisher so I’ve listed all of my scenes and now I’ve started picking ones to extend. I’ve made a list of possible scenes to add and write down any ideas I get as I go. I write each scene in the following format to keep organized:
Scene:
Pages:
Words:
POV:
What’s happening:
Status:
The process is a bit difficult, but I’m excited about adding more in another characters point of view. 🙂
What I’m Going to Do:
1.) I’m going to finish planning for extending Red Hood and for Subsapien Hybrid (though that may overlap with next month). Next month I begin extending Red Hood by 20K!
2.) I’m going to finish reading the Revised Life of Ellie Sweet by Stephanie Morrill and Blur by Steven James.
3.) I’m going to work on more expressions challenges next month. I believe I’m going to work on Ashlyn next. I want to get better at drawing children. Then perhaps Ingrid or Caleb.
4.) Enjoy the wonderfulness of fall that is cool weather, hot beverages, pumpkin everything, and pecan everything. I’m also looking forward to going to the Georgia National Fair next month and for Halloween! Yay for cosplay!
5.) I want to do even more reviews for Geeks Under Grace if I get the time. One a week preferably.
Last Month on Stori Tori’s Blog …
The top five most popular post on the blog for September 2015 were …
1.) Writing Lessons from Movies: the Lord of the Rings – I talked about the awesome things you can learn about writing in this post. I had a feeling it would make the top. ^ ^
2.) Beautiful People #13: Caleb – This month’s beautiful people with one of the secondary characters from my Subsapien series.
3.) How Sentence & Paragraph Structure Can Boost Your Book –
4.) Questions for Nzelt! –
5.) Interview with Nzelt (Red Hood) –
Coming Soon to Stori Tori’s Blog …
Another fandom set of teas will be coming not sure yet which one so it will be a surprise. ^ ^
October 2 – Questions for Sting – A call for questions for one of the villains of my Subsapien series and of my upcoming novel in the series I’m writing for NaNoWriMo Subsapien Hybrid. Sting is a crazy, bipolar sociopath and he’d love to get some Qs. His interview will be posted two weeks later on October 16.
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| This is what Sting looks like. |
October 3 – How Participating in Other Blogs’ Activities Can Drastically Improve Your Blog – A post about how I’ve discovered interacting with other blogs can help your blog and make blogging so much funner.
October 9 – Beautiful People – My favorite monthly link-up. It may be Beautiful Books this month so I’ll be able to tell you guys about Subsapien Hybrid. ^ ^
October 10 – A Book Review Failstate: Legends by John W. Otte – So excited to review this awesome superhero book!
October 17 – Writing Lessons from (Not Sure Yet) – I’m going to do another writing lessons post. I still haven’t decided what yet.
October 24 – So Your Character is Homeschooled … – A post about how to accurately portray your homeschooled character in your book.
I’m so grateful for the respite I’ve had this month. I really needed it. It did a little rocky near the end because of the rejection, but I’m still going strong. I have four more submissions out there. Thank you everyone for reading and for all of the wonderful comments. I’ve gotten more comments this month than I ever have in the history of this blog! It’s so much funner to blog when I have great people to discuss the posts with in the comments. Thanks again! Have a happy October!
