Welcome to the latest edition of Time Flies! It’s my version of a monthly update, where I recap the past month’s accomplishments and articles, share news and random things from my offline life, and hint at what may be coming in the month ahead.
It can’t be fall. September can’t be over. I refuse to believe it!
See? Even Pikachu agrees!
Ah, well. Denial only works for so long, right? And in some ways, I really enjoyed September. But in other ways, I ran myself into the ground halfway through the month. You probably noticed the massive output of articles over the past two months, not only here but at DIY MFA and other guest posts. In short, I demanded too much from myself over a short period of time – which led to a case of blogging fatigue. (A crazier-than-usual work schedule also didn’t help things…) I still pushed through it to stay on top of my writing, but I let a lot of other things (visiting other blogs, commenting on posts, etc.) slide because I’d simply lost the energy. And it’s not the first time I’ve done this to myself, either.
This time, I need to ensure I’ve learned my lesson. Which, in this case, means no extra blogging assignments for a while, apart from two October guest posts I’ve already committed to for DIY MFA and The Sprint Shack. More on both articles when each goes live.
All right. Let me give you a chance to catch up on the past month’s posts now:
This Month’s Posts
- The Character Evolution Files, No. 3: The Journey Through the Character Arc, Stage 1 – The Trigger (Inciting Incident)
- The Dragon’s Loyalty Award
- Stacking the Shelves, Vol. 18: The Birthday Haul, Part 2
- Interview with Mackenzi Lee, Author of “This Monstrous Thing”
- Waiting On Wednesday, Vol. 10: “This Monstrous Thing” by Mackenzi Lee
- Stacking the Shelves, Vol. 17: The Birthday Haul, Part 1
- The Premio Dardos Award
- Recent Reads: August 2015
- 5 on the 5th: Five Things I’ve Learned In the Past Year
- Two Upcoming Literary Events in the Boston Area
- Waiting on Wednesday, Vol. 11: “Dreamstrider” by Lindsay Smith
Interviews, Guest Blogs, and Columns
- “A Case Study on Family as a Literary Theme” (DIY MFA)
- “On Soccer Coach Dads and Passion Pursuits” (Coach Daddy)
- “Tea Time at Reverie: Tea From Taiwan’s GABA Oolong Tea” (A Bibliophile’s Reverie)
- “Tea Time at Reverie: Teasenz’s Love At First Sight Blooming Tea” (A Bibliophile’s Reverie)
- “Writer’s Digest Conference 2015: Recurring Themes About Today’s Writing Career” (DIY MFA)
Site Updates
- The Story Structure & Character Arc Alignment Chart is now available for download at Worksheets for Writers.
Offline Happenings
First things first: The Boston Teen Author Festival on Saturday was a lot of fun! I won’t say too much more right now, since I’m working on a combo Field Trip / Stacking The Shelves post where I’ll share photos and insights from the event and gush about the books I bought there. But I had a great time, and I’m already looking forward to seeing next year’s lineup once it’s ready. 😉
Apart from that, September was a relatively quiet month offline. I spent my birthday working on TKC (*big smiles*) and then had dinner with my family in the evening. And the following weekend, I met some friends at Fancy That (the local tea room I visited in July) for tea and freshly baked scones. The scone flavor of the month was raspberry white chocolate chip – yum!
A quick update on The Keeper’s Curse: As of Sunday, I’m about 44% through Draft #2 (Page 179 out of 407). Thanks to some strategic reorganization and other revisions, the manuscript is now under 122,000 words – meaning I’ve cut almost 10,000 words!!! 😀 Maybe getting close to 110K really is possible with this draft. But we’ll have to see. As for the next Chronicling The Craft, I’m hoping I’ll have it ready to post sometime in October. It’s all a question of when I hit the 50% mark.
I haven’t been to the movies for a while (nothing new has grabbed my interest lately), but I did catch “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” earlier this month on HBO. WOW! I was never interested in the Planet of the Apes franchise before now, and I admit I originally watched the movie because “nothing else good was on at the time.” But thanks to the shaky truce between humans and apes, the apes’ ability to communicate using sign language and limited speech, and the themes explored, “Dawn” is more than just a typical “action-packed sci fi adventure.” It’s clever, engaging, and deeply humanizing. Not to mention the King of Motion Capture Acting, Andy Serkis (Gollum / Smeagol from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films), plays the lead ape. Need I say more? 😀
If you’re wondering, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is the second film in the current Planet of the Apes reboot. Based on my experience, I’d say you can easily follow “Dawn” if you haven’t seen 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” But I have every intention on watching “Rise” soon, and then geeking out over the final installment, “War of the Planet of the Apes,” when it comes out in 2017. 😉
Song of the Month: “Confess My Love” by Leah
On top of listening to lots of Josh Groban (the concert’s on Friday!!), I revisited Leah’s 2012 debut album Of Earth & Angels. Known as the “Metal Enya,” Leah is a Vancouver-based indie singer-songwriter who blends symphonic metal with Celtic and world music. She’s released two CDs since then, but Of Earth & Angels still resonates with me strongest. I love everything about it: the metaphoric yet evocative lyrics, Leah’s enchanting vocals with the right amount of power, and an elegantly arranged yet accessible blend of rock, metal, and pop. Don’t ask me to pick one favorite song, though; it changes every time! But right now, it’s “Confess My Love.” If you’ve liked the Within Temptation, Kamelot, or Xandria songs I’ve shared in the past, you might enjoy this one, too.
How Quickly Does Time Fly?
Does anyone know if Halloween is usually a low-traffic day for blogging? In case it is, I’ll wait until Sunday, November 1st to post the next Time Flies. Enjoy your October, everyone!
Sara Letourneau 
Ooh, Josh Groban concerts…I’m jealous! 🙂
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Sounds like a busy month, for sure! I’ve definitely had blog fatigue before… I worked hard this month to not add anything new to my to-do list, and it is paying off. My creative energies are finally returning, and I am finding myself sleeping better and in general, feeling more happy, again. All needed things with a grad school app season opening on Friday! Yikes! 😛
FWIW, your posts didn’t seem to lack from your fatigue, and that’s wonderful about Draft #2. Good job! ^_^
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That’s great about your creative levels and feeling better in general, Alex. It probably shouldn’t amaze us at how much overworking ourselves can affect our creativity – but we tend to forget and then realize it all over again when it does happen, don’t we?
Good luck with grad school applications! 🙂
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Yeah, hard to believe another month has gone by, and before we know it it’ll be a new year.
I haven’t had a chance to catch Dawn yet, actually! I watched the first movie of the reboot franchise and it was all right, but I didn’t love it. Maybe I should check out the sequel though, since you have such high praise for it 🙂
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*puts her hands over her ears* Don’t make me think about Christmas yet, please don’t make me think about Christmas yet, please don’t make me think about Christmas yet….
I definitely recommend checking out Dawn. It’s hard to say more than that, since I haven’t watched Rise yet… But I hope you like it!
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Don’t even remind me – I love October, it’s my birthday month, but I’m not ready to officially be a year older!
By the way, you’ve been chosen as one of today’s nine blogs in That’s So Jacob’s Ninth Month Blog Challenge (http://www.thatssojacob.wordpress.com)! I challenge you to find nine blogs you find interesting and give them a comment to brighten their day…well, eight other blogs and mine 🙂 Copy this message in your comment and enjoy your new blog friends!
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Honestly, I don’t know how you do it. You’re on so many blogs every month. I’m going crazy just keeping up with two blogs, and one of those is a once a month post. By the time I read some friend’s blogs, and leave a few comments, there’s only a fraction of the time I need leftover to make progress on my novels. I feel the need to cut back on the social side and the blogging constantly! I hope you find a good balance. And when you do, please share the magic formula with me.
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I don’t really know how I do it, either, Robin. *lol* Maybe that means I’m going crazy…
I know what you mean about blogging conflicting with novel-writing. I tend to save my novel-writing for days off from work, which means weekends, holidays, etc. I’m not a good “nighttime novelist”; it winds me up too much. So, as a result, I do my blogging on the weekdays and novel-writing on other days. It seems to work out pretty well; I actually find I’m not that compelled to even visit my blog on the weekends, which helps with focusing on the current priority. But it also explains why I respond belatedly on any weekend posts or comments and feel like I’m trying to catch up with everything on Mondays. So it’s not a perfect balance… but I’m not really sure how to improve it right now.*shrugs helplessly*
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Nope, I’m still in that denial stage of it being September, haha. I refuse to believe it’s over. You are making such great progress on your second draft-awesome job! Halloween… I believe I’ve posted on Halloween and received the same amount of traffic, it’s always a different time somewhere out there aha
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Thank you, Alise! Gotta keep chugging along. That’s all you can do when you’re working on any stage of a novel, I guess.
Yeah, I wasn’t really sure if it would make a difference to delay the next Time Flies by a day… I think I’ll stick with 11/1 as the posting date, since I’ve committed to it now. But thanks for your input. 🙂
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It sounds like a fun month! I’m sorry you had burnout. 😦 I feel you there. September was pretty relaxing until like the last week for me. XD Hurrah for book progress! And happy late birthday. ^ ^ I’ve seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but now you’re making me watch the second one haha. Andy Serkis is the man.
storitorigrace.blogspot.com
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Thanks, Tori. The big word-cutting milestone came today, so it feels pretty good right now. (Well, about as good as it can feel when you’re also battling a head cold…)
Oh yes. Andy Serkis is totally the man!
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Poor Pikachu 😉
My brother has been trying to get me to watch Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for a while now. Maybe I’ll give it a chance . . .
Sorry you had such a busy month! It sounds like my August. I hate that burned out feeling. 😦
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As you probably know, I am ecstatic that it’s October, but I always miss September (it needs oh, 60 days, or something). Christmas is not allowed until after Thanksgiving, which isn’t allowed until after Halloween, which isn’t allowed until I have perfect a costume to work in.
I’m glad you made some book progress though! That’s always exciting. And I love being able to cut off words. It makes you feel so accomplished and productive.
Hopefully you’ll be able to chill a little in October! Or at least take a few deserved naps or have some peaceful editing sessions.
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Well, to top off the burnout, I now have a head cold.
So my blogging “life” is going to slow down for a little bit, I think. Those naps you talked about sound like an awesome idea, btw.
I like your thinking regarding the holidays. I don’t mind starting my Christmas shopping early – but no music, no decorations, NONE OF THAT until after Turkey Day has come and gone.
10,000+ words cut came today!! 😀 😀 And yes, I agree that word-shaving leaves you with a proper sense of accomplishment. 🙂
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I agree: No Christmas music, decor, ANYTHING allowed until AFTER Thanksgiving! 🙂
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That should be a law. 😀
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YES, let’s make it happen. 😀
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Yes… I’m with you. Eek! HOW can it be October, already?? My word – no wonder you’re feeling frayed around the edges! Your output during September was AWESOME. I’m playing Leah’s song while I’m typing, btw – and really, really enjoying it! All the very best of luck for October:).
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It probably explains why I’m paying for it now. I’ve got my first head cold of the season, and between that and a crazy work schedule the past couple weeks, October will have a slow start blogging-wise. Eh. What can you do about it?
Yay! Glad to hear you like the song. 🙂
Best of luck to you in October too, Sarah!
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“raspberry white chocolate chip” scones? *mouth drooling profusely* First I’m going to make those pumpkin scones though! I just got all the ingredients for it yesterday! 😀
Pikachu ❤ I will enjoy autumn and pretend winter does not exist until everything is white.
So happy for you that you've gotten so much editing done! With how busy you were, busy as a bee writing posts and things, I don't know how you managed it. 🙂
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Ohhhhhh yes. And when I went for afternoon tea in July, they had chocolate chip toasted coconut scones. OMNOMNOMNOM. 😀 I’ve been meaning to look for a copycat recipe – or maybe I should just ask Fancy That myself the next time I go in…
Good luck with the pumpkin scones! Let me know how they come out. 🙂
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Chocolate chip toasted coconut scones?! Ohmygoodness, I would love all those Fancy That recipes!
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