I am now a week away from turning 49.
I never expected to see 30. I kept hearing as a teenager that I was going to have a heart attack before then….
So each year I am still in shock that I am still alive.
next week I think I will be taking a break. my blog will return the following week on Monday.
The Concert.
Okay. I have had time to calm down. We got dressed up. We looked amazing. We were so excited. We get there and find out that Falling in Reverse would not be there. Okay, That is only one of the TWO bands we were excited about. TBH we had not really heard Plush so we were ambivalent about them.
The Concert was half an hour after we were told to be there. We understood that was probably to give people time to find their seats. But People were arriving already drunk and loud. The idiot on the other side of Joe was screaming and smelled of beer. The smell of Pot permeated the whole damn stadium. (Not that I mind a good doobie but it was overwhelming.) When the concert did start it was not the order we were told. Plush came out first.
They were amazeballs.
I need to stress that because of how bad the rest was. The woman in the seats in front of us kept standing up to record with her cellphone. The screaming idiot did not stop for the music. All of the extra noise and smells sent Angel into a meltdown. So we decided to leave….And that is when I realized the woman on the other side of me was sitting on my dress. I tried to pull it loose and she just looked at me like I was an idiot. I literally had to ask her to please fucking get off my dress before she let me move.
We finally had to leave – we had only managed to handle three and a half of the songs. The rudeness of people ruined what could have been an amazing experience.
I don’t understand why people cannot just sit and enjoy the show. I only wish we could have stayed. Plush was amazing what we saw, and I imagine Disturbed were probably Better.
Someone asked me in a vague way about inspiration and why I chose the genre I did…
I don’t think I chose it.
let me explain. I write what is comfortable. For me that often is prose with a poetic bent. I am by my nature Goth and pagan… energy that follows me in my work. I am a gamer. that also follows me into my work. I am a parent. again it follows me. I think it’s just something we write what we know.
That is why you can’t write the same story I can. Even if you write the same topic. your life experience and your voice is going to be drastically different from mine.
So write it, that story buried in the back of your head…. I promise it is something that no one else has done.
Games.
Video games to be specific.
I have several that I am rather fond of.
Back in the early oughts I was so into Ultima Online that I learned how to code in C# just to be able to make a server to play with.
My friend group, though small, have a small selection of games that we cycle through that are multi player. This includes Conan Exiles, 7 days to die, Green Hell, project Zomboid, palworld, valheim, raft, subsistence, Stardew valley, and red dead redemption 2 online.
Of the ones that I listed… Palworld is the newest one and the one that I am most likely to be on a solo run with.
I used to love 7 days… the developers really ruined it. It looks great but they keep taking the game and wiping their backsides with it then when the fans try to make suggestions they are asinine to them. It makes it less fun.
Project Zomboid is complicated. 3rd person view and I keep dying.
Raft is fun. but I don’t like having the shark attacks on.
Conan Exiles rocks. Over all good multi player game.
Valheim… I don’t like the building mechanics in this game.
Green Hell is better now. The first time we tried to do multi player there was invisible natives and I kept dying.
Stardew valley is Farmville on crack. Lol
Rdr 2 I am struggling with this one. Not good at stealth. Not good at shooting.
Palworld is basically a pokemon clone with a better story.
I was searching for the theme…
I wanted Halloween Music. I came across this List.
I love it. When I had searched for the same sort of thing on Movies…Well I found I was disappointed in the list. Scary movies most of these are not…at least not to me.
Boyfriend says I am desensitized.
He might be right. I was reading horror books back in elementary school – like real ones. Steven King and the like. My parents did not limit what I read. (I was reading College level by time I hit 4th grade.)
I remember being scared by some really well written stories.
And My imagination is far richer than most movies.
So, I end up being disappointed by the movies because they can not live up to the full richness of the stories in my head. I get people who get mad at me when I say that I am not a video person…because the shows rarely are worth the time I have to spend away from my books.
And I have no way to explain that without sounding strange. I love music. I love books. Movies and television however often disappoints.
Old radio programs and Theater shows are amazing however…
I am a certifiable board game geek.
I love all sorts. Today I am going to introduce you to one of my favorites.
Give me the Brain. You pay $4 get a pdf and print some cards. it’s neat as all get out. this is how I did it. The game is so fun. the concept is you are zombies running a restaurant. There is one brain between you. Some tasks require the brain to do. some don’t. The winner is the one who ends up with no cards.
There is a version of cards already made on Amazon…But I like my printed cards best. We went and had them laminated. Found a fake brain at the dollar tree that we keep with it and a six sided dice. (You need the dice) It has been hours of fun for us.
A single game usually takes around 15-20 minutes to play and can be anywhere from 2-10 players with no problems. The flavor text on the cards are a source of humor…and it really is good clean family friendly fun. (we got the deck when my daughter was around six. She loves it.)
Well it’s time for this again…
Help me choose what my new volume will be? I have less than 10 poems in Echoes left to write. Each of these are supposed to be Free Verse with no theme….
The writing on this new one will probably be done in November but the volume itself will not be ready for release until next year.
So Jenny Elliott – Friend, Intern, all around I cannot live without her in my life type person…asked me what the list was for the anthology publication. (The To-do List that is)
I told her it is the same for each book…and I sat and thought about what that means for the anthologies, for my books, and for each book I work with.
I often am the designer for the covers my company publishes. That makes having them easier. There are a couple of authors that provide their own covers but most just go with the ones I make.
The authors often just send me the written stories. I put in the formatting and edit it as I go. Many of them have the writing edited before I see it, but not all. Formatting is putting in order – Title page, a copyright page, Contents, Chapters, About the Author, About the Publisher.
Some authors write their blurbs, some expect me to write it. Either way, It is not as difficult as writing the entire story. The author list is an obvious thing…
The release date is based on how many others I have in the calendar at a time. The limitation is mostly me. I can only do so many of these at a time.
Okay I have the manuscript…now what? I use Draft2digital, Amazon, Google Play Books all for Ebooks. D2d has the best expanded Distribution. Amazon has the best reach in general. Google….well…why not? I do Not Like D2d’s Print. So for print I use Amazon and Barnes and Nobles press.
Then I have to deal with Marketing. I try to do the same type of images for every book. Do I always manage it? No, not really. I have way too much going on…and often this is where I drop balls. Ideally, I want for each book to do a cover reveal image set. I want to do 3 teaser images. I also want to share an about the author image for each book. Now the last one can be made once and often reshared for multiple books. An Author does not often change their bio. Mine has changed perhaps once a year. Mostly because I have changed where I am focused. Some authors never need to change theirs. I also like to occasionally do “Coming Soon” images…for example….
It’s simple and really only gives the link and the cover. This gives people the urge to go check it out. Then once you have them…spread those images everywhere.
So that is a peek into my world.
So I have started working on Serena’s Gathered Bones.
I have also started working on her Heaven’s Forgotten Tales. Which is basically a gathering of stories and poetry from her that she has published in various places. Much as Apocalypse athenuem is.
I realized that I am writing more – both as Patricia and as Serena Mossgraves. That I am doing a lot more daily work than I used to. So I might actually go through the future volumes I have prepared covers for…
So I am considering doing some covers for the fun of doing the cover design. And I am wondering if I should plan a future volume for Serena as well as for me.
It ends up being a little bit of a question as to whether or not I have been playing with the poetry with her or if she should continue to write it.
So…Harley Quinn.
Yeah she’s my favorite Batman villain. But is she really a villain? or more of an anti-hero?
It really depends much on point of view. The problem is always POV.
For Harley. She is the Main character.
For Bruce Wayne, He is.
And realistically the same is true in any story. If you pick up a book and look at it from another character’s view…that character is not going to see themselves as a secondary character. Would you? If say you were in the DC Universe and hanging around the Daily Planet…would you see yourself as a extra in the story? No! So, from your POV you are the main character.
Harley would not see herself as a villain…
She is crazy, but not entirely without a idea of right and wrong. I believe she would see herself more as an antihero or as someone with a really nasty case of bad luck.
Which opens up so many options for the character in storylines.
I think sometimes just understanding the POV helps us to understand and perhaps flesh out the characters we write better. I think it also helps us empathize better with fictional characters on a different level as well.
Pattimouse 