Monday, May 17, 2010

Peek in Rao’s Life

So I am in a silly kind-of-mood and decided to do an update newsletter-type thing on my life and what I am doing. Yes, I seriously doubt too many people are interested in the going ons behind-the-scenes.

First agenda - This weekend (May 22 and 23) I will be in Columbus Ohio for the two day concert, Rock on the Range 3. Four days and counting! Friday, after the boys get home from school, we will pack everything up and take them to my mom’s for the weekend.

My mother only lives about say about an hour or less from Columbus (actually doing this puts us en route). Once the boys are dropped off, the hubby and I will continue on our way up to Columbus to get our hotel and rest up for Saturday.

Who am I looking forward to seeing? Three Days Grace and Apocalyptica. They were the main two reasons I text the hubby about wanting to go. Plus! Rao here got field tickets which means I do not have to remain right in the stadium seats but the field closer to the stage.

Squee! Here’s the lineup: http://rockontherange.com/lineup.html . I just hope it does not storm and I can bring my Nikon camera so I can get some shots.

Second Agenda - Writing and My Current Works-in-progress

I have added yet another WIP on my “to-do-list” bringing the total up to three. This one, unlike the previous two, is much, much older. Heh, yes I have decided to bring Kheldin and Kiirri’s story out, dust things off, and give it a much needed face-lift.

Changes in my life prompted this decision.

One of the massive changes in the story shall be characters. There are several characters that just did not exactly fit well. No worries, Kiirri and Kheldin remain about the same.

There are a few characters that are going ‘bye-byes’ and brand-new characters slid in their places. Unfortunately those who are familiar with the sad first draft of Child of Prophecy will have to wait until I manage to write it to find out which characters got cut.

The remaining characters - a few got minor changes like shortened names, tweaked looks, necessary profession.

Another massive change in the story: the plot. Ehh, the bulk of it will remain about the same. The majority of the story’s content got scrapped and some chapters are salvageable on the new twist I want to take the story.

When I read over the pitiful attempt the story jumped far too much and the scenes inside, the interactions, came off too cliché for my peace of mind. Now the twist that I want to add the story will fill things out smoothly and better.

The last massive change in not only this story but Warrior of the Moon. Child of Prophecy and Warrior of the Moon takes place in the same world, one that I had help in its creation. Feiden does not solely belong to just me, but it is a collection done by myself, and my two friends RJ and Keeshe.

Last month, a good friend got me to thinking about long-term goals and possibilities. True, for now I have absolutely no desire, drive, or want to be published. I get discouraged way too easily and my skin is not as thick as I like.

But what about down the line? Once my youngest is in school? Ten years from now? Many of my works in progresses taking place in Feiden would need tweaking. Why? Well because I use DnD/Wizard of the Coast pantheon.

Instead of adding heaps of work on myself in the future, I decided to tackle that now. I even went so far as to email RJ and Keeshe about modifying and creating our own pantheon for Feiden. One jumped instantly on board, and so we are doing the slow but laborious journey of creating these Gods and Goddesses.

I still plan on writing Burning Times and I do not plan on stopping Warrior of the Moon. They, like Child of Prophecy, will come at their own pace. Possibly, I will not be writing too hardcore until my children are firmly in school, I have some “Rao time” set up.


Third agenda - I am currently reading two books: “Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones and Sword-sworn by Jennifer Roberson. Both books are fantasy which I have been sorely lacking in my reading of late.

I’ve heard glowing reviews about Howl’s Moving Castle, the book. Yes, I am aware that there is an animation. I had found the anime first, and then discovered years later, it was loosely based on a book.

Am I enjoying it? Yes, however, there was one part in the book (so far) that simply lost me. Oddly enough I am in the mood, once again, to put the movie and immerse myself in it.

Sword-sworn, the last book (currently) in Jennifer Roberson’s Del and Tiger series. Now Roberson is an auto buy author for me because her novels always satisfy the beast inside me that needs its fantasy fix.

This series, along with Roberson’s Cheysuli books, were highly recommended to me. I’ve fortunately got to finish reading the Cheysuli series a good many years ago. Not so with Del and Tiger because I was missing key books to finish the series.

However, this year I fixed that little problem by getting the one book I needed to finish the last two in the series from the library. This does not mean that I am ceasing in my search for that elusive book (may have to give up and order it from half.com).

But my intention this year, book reading wise, is to finish reading many of the series books in my collection. So far I have been doing really well. I’m currently up-to-date on Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels/Blood; Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark Hunters; JR Ward’s BDB; Gena Showalter’s Lord and all the Eve Silver books in my collection.

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