Do read your old work.

Dear Reader,

I know a lot of people give writing advice. A number of them have told me over the years that I should not go back and re-read my old work. I am a rebel and ignored that advice. Honestly, while some of it was pretty bad... Ok, some of it was really awful compared to what I can do now, a lot of it was pretty good for where I was at at the time in my writing life.

I'm pretty sure that if I had a blog in 1996, it would look a lot worse than what I am writing now. I had less experience. But, for someone at that point in my life, I think it would have looked pretty good because I was writing all the time and focusing on trying to improve my skills all the time. I have kept all of my writing journals and all of my personal journals since I began journal writing. I'm only missing three out of approximately twenty five years of work. One was stolen. One was lost while moving and the third was destroyed right in front of me by someone who was angry with what I had written in it.

Why have I kept all of this stuff? There's a few reasons. One is I am honestly and legitimately terrified of dementia and losing my memories. That is part of why I started keeping a journal when I was a kid. I watched Alzheimer's disease destroy family members that I loved and it was terrifying. So, I started keeping a diary. That was the one that got destroyed because I was writing things that made someone angry. (Never leave your diary or personal journal out where someone who has a grudge can get into it. If you have no choice, put it somewhere that people can't tell which book it is. Alternate option, find creative hiding places.)

Another reason why I keep a journal is because it helps me process things happening in my life. My life has been complicated, tragic, and challenging at various times. My journal is a major tool for how I make sense of it all. I've used it as a therapeutic exercise to handle crisis and the fall out from crisis. As a person with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, my journal has been a really useful tool in tracking things like what trigger's flashbacks and getting to the heart of how to resolve the issues raised by the trauma.

Finally, I keep a journal because it is a place where I can experiment and grow with my writing style. This is what my writing journal is for. I confess, I have fallen out of practice from writing poetry and doing prompt writing. One of my goals for the new year is to get back into it. My old writing journals are a treasure trove of ideas. Some of them are just in need of a bit of polishing to be worthy of being shared with you. Others need some major overhaul and reconsideration. But, keeping a writing journal has been perhaps one of the most worthwhile parts of my writing life. It is where I have grown and experimented to grow some more.

If I never wrote another blog entry on writing, I would be satisfied with this one. Because the old refrain about 'never read your old work' is just plain wrong. Your old work is like a scrapbook of memories of where you have been in your journey as an author. It is a snapshot of what was going on in your life at the time you wrote it and it is special because you wrote it. Your work is special. It doesn't matter what medium it is in. It is special and valuable because you created it. 

Fountain pens, notebooks, and other fascinating things.

Dear Reader,

Please don't think I have forgotten about you. The holidays and influenza happened. At the same time. Right now, I'm the only one in the house who is upright and hale. I think they all caught it from me. But the last little while has been hectic and hairy. I have discovered that all of my calligraphy pen nibs are in a mint tin that I almost threw away in the midst of cleaning up the desk area in the living room. This was exciting and happy for me. Until I realized that I had thrown away the calligraphy pen barrels thinking that the pen nibs were gone. Then I found my dip pen nibs. Again, excitement to be dashed by my pen barrels being missing. (I have resolved to go to the art supply store and purchase a new dip pen to use in my sketching for the herbal/beastiary project. Ball point pens just are not working for me here.)

In the midst of holiday cleaning, I have uncovered yet more backstory and other notebooks. Thankfully, this was not all written in pencil therefore it is still legible. I even found some of my artwork that I had made to go with the very first version of the first book. The version that was actually a twenty page word document typed up while I was in seventh grade. Yeah, the artwork was pretty awful. To say the least, that got put into a safe place. I'm KEEPING this stuff because it'll be worth something someday.

Then there was the best holiday present that I have gotten this year. Beloved, seeing how distraught I was over the loss of my favorite fountain pen, bought me a beautiful steel fountain pen. He had it engraved 'My Inspiration'. The note he attached was very romantic. Going through my notebooks with this wonderful pen, I discovered that it does not get on well with cheap paper. Thus, my habit of using pencil in cheap notebooks is going to continue. This is getting used on editing manuscripts and my journal writing. Nothing but the best for this splendid pen.

It is my hope that the holidays have found you with the perfect gift in hand and tons of happiness. Or at least with good health and good cheer.

Cartographer wanted.

Dear Reader,

They say 'heavy is the head that wears the crown.' What they really should have said was 'full is the head that dreams up stories.' I am becoming increasingly exasperated with how afar afield I have gotten in my side writing from the main story lines of the Umbrel Chronicles. Not much of it is really ready to share just yet. But it is things like Dacia's War and the Iron Lily, side stories that take place in the world but are not directly related to the main story of the books.

I have been going through old notebooks and finding stories that I have written. I have so much material set in this world. It ranges from scenes of a few hundred words to almost a novella's worth of aborted attempts to work around plot problems. I feel like I am lost and wandering through the wilds of some other world. Unfortunately, there is no map. And I have the misfortune of being the native guide. It makes you, my fellow travelers through this little world, have a rather bumpy journey. For that I'd like to apologize.

As I am working on getting my life organized and everything ready for 2019, I have come to a few conclusions. One of them is that I am going to share some of the material from my old notebooks. Secondly, I am going to finish the Iron Lily and Dacia's War this up coming year and offer them complete as ebooks. You have been far too patient and I really need to get past my loathing of certain characters (like that uppity priestess of Julara who thinks she's better than the high priestess) to write the story. I will be returning to my schedule of posting updates to the serial stories on Tuesdays and Thursdays as of the first full week of January.

I will also be releasing ebooks over the next few months of the first trilogy in the series. I anticipate book four (which is a novella) being ready come spring. It will be released as both an ebook and a paperback. Book five is almost finished its round of edits. I hope to have it ready for release in autumn. By then, I think I will finally have finished the damn work on book seven so that I can get busy with editing that.

My plans for NaNoWriMo '19? Glad you asked, write book eight. Who knows, maybe I'll get luck and finish book seven over the next two months and get book eight done during Camp NaNoWriMo. Either way, next year two books are coming out in the Umbrel Chronicles, come hell or high water. Since I live on a hill, I expect that if Satan's knocking on my door, he's looking for a signed copy of both books. I'll have to remind him that he owes me a few months rent. That's prime real estate down there. It'd be a shame to have to kick the poor guy out over a few bucks.

By the power of Coffee...

Between coffee, Mucinex, and plenty of rest, I am finally starting to feel better. I have been looking over what I have written (what little it was) and decided that I was definitely feverish when I wrote it. Surrealism is great for some things, but not what I am working on right now. I have accepted the fact that I am likely not going to finish these two projects by the end of the month. That said, I am steadily making progress on getting my butt organized for next year.

I almost bought a new notebook to start a new writing bullet journal. I stopped myself when I looked at the massive pile of notebooks that I won last year at the spinning guild's silent auction. (I swear that the note said I was going to win 1 notebook not two tote bags FULL of notebooks. Beloved says I'm stocked for notebooks until Ragnarok. He might be right.) I have changed my relationship with my writing bullet journal over the last two years.

I started out trying to bullet and use it for EVERYTHING. Now, it's turned into a mess. If it were not for the fact that I don't want to throw it away because I'd feel guilty, I'd do just that. So, I'm going to stick a tab on there and draw up stuff for next year. I'm not doing too great on daily logging of my writing. So, I'm going to make some trackers to log when I make my blog posts. I'm also going to start doing one sentence summaries of blog posts. I feel like my blogs are a rambling mess after the last year.

I'd like to fix that for the up coming year. So, book seven of the Umbrel Chronicles may be delayed a month or two, but I'm going to get back to posting quality content again.

I have a little birdie...

I have a little birdie,
And her name is Enza.
I opened the window
And in flew Enza.

The above is a old rhyme that my grandparents taught me when I was a kid. It was one that was from when they were young and the Spanish Flu pandemic happened. I don't have the Spanish flu, but I do have the flu. It's sucking the energy right out of me. Words are not cooperating with me very well. I just kinda stare at the screen and try to think things up.

Writing when sick is hard. I want to get over this quickly so that I can move on to finishing these two projects by the end of the month.