Happy Halloween!

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When I was a kid, I liked Halloween. I enjoyed acquiring bags of candy and my mom always made us kick-ass costumes, but Christmas was better because presents. Now that I’m an adult, Halloween has replaced Christmas for two reasons:

1) Any gifts acquired during Halloween are edible and therefore do not take up any real space in my house.

2) Costumes.

Since getting into anime and cosplay, Halloween has become the best non-convention excuse to showcase some of the awesome costumes that I’ve put together over the last five years. On Wednesday this week I wore a dark blue yukata decorated with white butterflies I bought at Katsucon, complete with a very simple white obi, tabi socks, and black wig. On Friday I wore my latest iteration of steampunk. (Yes, I skipped Thursday because I didn’t have anything else prepped. My closet is in a state of disarray.) And today I wore a lovely green and white vintage medieval-style dress that my friend Storm Elf bought for me years ago, but I’d never worn it before because it’s too fragile to survive the Renaissance Faire.

Damn, it’s fun to play dress-up. Not only is it fun to see the expressions on people’s faces and receive compliments, but it also helps one’s writing. Getting into clothing you normally don’t wear helps improve descriptions and enter a different head-space, even if you don’t really act like a different character. And every visit to a thrift store because a treasure hunt of possibilities. Part of me wishes I had more time, energy, money, and talent to create and wear better costumes more often. Alas, it can be both expensive an exhausting after a while, so I don’t do it very often. I’m starting to value quality over quantity.

Even though Halloween has history and traditions far older than the current (sometimes chintzy) version, for me the main draw is being able to transform into something different. Something new. I’m hoping that sense of excitement and adventure carries over into November as NaNoWriMo begins.

Enjoy your All Hallow’s Eve! I’ve included a list of awesome Halloween-esque songs with links to their respective youtube videos. Enjoy!

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Awesome Halloween-esque Songs:

“Moonlight Shadow” by Mike Oldfield (Remix by Blue UltrasGE)

“All Souls’ Night” by Loreena McKennitt

“Shadow of the Moon” by Blackmore’s Night

“FullMoon” by Sonata Arctica

“Mitternacht” by E. Nomine

“Ghost Love Score” by Nightwish

“Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo

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Continue reading “Happy Halloween!” →

I’m Still Alive!

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Hey.

Do you know what day it is?

Yes, it’s a Tuesday. What else?

Okay, the date is October 13th. What happens on October 13th?

Why, the birthday of one of my favorite fictional characters:

Continue reading “I’m Still Alive!” →

Long time, no see

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Um… hi?

*waves*

Wow. I… haven’t written an entry in a while. In fact, I haven’t really posted anything online for at least a month. No blog entries, no Audio Editions, no #ThrowbackThursdays, no new fanfic chapters… I regret that last one, especially since I’d made a point to say I wouldn’t make my readers wait years for the completion of a fanfic.

But, obviously, I haven’t kept up with much of anything online. Because reasons:

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Slouching Towards Despondency

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Hi all.

I’m sorry that I’ve been so bad about keeping up with The Cat’s Cradle, the Audio Editions, the #ThrowbackThursdays, the fanfiction chapters… pretty much everything that I somehow managed to do in the depths of depression but now find almost impossible to focus on. Part of this is because I have been doing a lot of editing work on Ravens and Roses. Any free creative time I have goes towards that. The other part is because of a lot of tension at home which I find difficult to mentally detach from. So pretty much anything creative has fallen by the wayside, and I apologize for that.

I don’t know how long this funk will last. I really want to get back into the groove and get all these things done, plus transcribing my dad’s stories for publication and writing more short stories of my own… I think music by David Arkenstone is the only thing keeping my muse around at all. (Absolutely gorgeous.)

Anyway, yeah. Updates will be sporadic, if they happen at all. I will make every effort to keep up, but Ravens and Roses has top priority.

I hope to have better news and more inspiration soon. Thank you very much for your patience.

Updates On The Fly

Greetings all!

My apologies, but the Audio Editions of The Cat’s Cradle, including #ThrowbackThursday, must be put on hold for a while. I’ve (finally) started taking anti-depressants, and a pernicious side effect is not being able to read text, any kind of text, for more than a half hour without getting a nasty headache. (Sometimes I can’t even manage five minutes. So far painkillers don’t touch it.) And even though I am ecstatic about the arrival of spring, the changing season wreaks havoc on my sinuses. I tend to be out of commission for a week or two, trying to keep my head from exploding.

As a result, I must be very careful with my time, and finishing Ravens and Roses is more important to me than anything else. So, it may be a while before I write another substantial blog entry or record an Audio Edition. Depending on whether or not this side effect diminishes, I may not do another month of LeNoWriCha for a while either.

The upside is, having a limited amount of time to write has really focused my attention. A scene that has been eluding me for over a year has finally been written! (I knew what needed to happen, I just… hadn’t bothered to actually write out the scene.) Less really can be more. I am more motivated to do things, so I feel like life is starting the long, slow slog towards improvement.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Stay awesome, read often, and keep writing!

Throwback Thursday is coming!

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Hi everyone!

I wanted to announce that I have started converting older entries from The Cat’s Cradle into Audio Editions. Every other Thursday, one of these older entries will be uploaded to The Cat’s Cradle‘s YouTube channel. I have created a separate page on my website called “Audio Editions” which compiles a list of links to those recordings so you don’t have to scroll through the entire blog looking for a particular entry. You can find it next to my “Editing Services” page on the top right hand side of my blog. At the same time, I will also add the link to the respective text entry, and post a link on Twitter with the hashtag #ThrowbackThursday. You can expect the first of the #ThrowbackThursday Audio Editions to be released on January 15th.

Also, I am taking a break from writing fan fiction in January. However, I have asked my readers and watchers from Fanfiction.net to vote on which story they would like me to work on next. I have several fan fics that have been languishing as “works in progress” for years, and I would like to complete them before I start posting up any new projects. All of those stories will be completed; the only question is in what order? Should I work on my Inuyasha fan fic first, or continue with Naruto or maybe Fullmetal Alchemist… you get the picture. If any of my blog readers would like to take a vote, there are a few ways you can do so. If you have an account on Fanfiction.net, go to my Starsister12 profile and vote in the poll or send me a PM. You can also send me a tweet @kvclements or leave a comment below. Voting is open until January 31st.

That’s all the updates for now, and I hope you’ll tune in next Monday for a more substantial post!

2014: The Year in Review

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And so another year has passed. It can be hard to tell from year to year if one has accomplished anything. It feels like everything that matters is going so slowly or makes no progress at all, while everything else flashes by at lightning speed. That’s why it’s important to look back and see where we’ve been and where we’re going. I’ve undergone a lot of changes this year (such as embracing the mantles of feminism, atheism, and a child-free life), although I fell short on many of my 2013 goals. I’m still not especially good at handling time on the internet and depression has sunk it’s claws in even deeper. Still, I’ve accomplished more than I thought I would.

An enormous thank-you goes out to all of my readers, commentators, and followers! As of December, 100 people are following The Cat’s Cradle. You have my deepest gratitude, and I hope you’ll continue reading and sharing my entries! I literally cannot thank you enough.

Continue reading “2014: The Year in Review” →

The Cat’s Cradle Audio Edition!

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After years of research and development (or, more accurately, about three hours on YouTube), I finally tried recording one of my older entries from The Cat’s Cradle. Wonder of wonders, it worked! Sort of. Since I won’t be able to do a more substantial entry this week, I wanted to take this opportunity and make some introductions.

For those of you just tuning in, I’m Kat Clements, a fantasy author-in-progress. The Cat’s Cradle is my beta website and blog where I discuss topics related to writing, storytelling, fantasy, science fiction, and other geek-related material. For the past three years, my entries have been solely text-based, but now I’ve decided to create audio versions for people who either don’t have the time or inclination to read from the computer and for those with visual impairments.

Continue reading “The Cat’s Cradle Audio Edition!” →

Quick Update (and placeholder)

Sorry everyone; there isn’t going to be a more substantial update this week because I’m finally indulging in a vacation. However, I wanted to give a quick update (which will hopefully post on Monday automatically like it’s supposed to) on some things that are going on:

1) On Friday, August 8, 2014, my first autonomous article for the online magazine Scoop was published! It’s called “A Brief History of Steampunk” and I had a blast writing it. Steampunk is such a rich and fairly new genre, and I hope I managed to interest both newcomers and experts alike. Many thanks go to Mark and Jeff for giving me this opportunity.

2) Since “Okami Amaterasu” is complete, I’ve chosen a new fanfic project to work on. My Final Fantasy VII story, “Hidden Light,” has been languishing for several years while I puttered around with other projects. But now I’m ready to get back to it and complete the story. (The rest of it was already mapped out back in 2009…I just needed to write it!) It features Vincent Valentine, one of my first bishonen crushes, and my FC Hikari, who was originally designed as a prototype for my Mariner Sequence character, Marella. Thankfully Hikari and Marella have evolved into different people, but they share a lot of traits, and was my first experiment with writing a mentally damaged character. Chapter 10 is already up, and you can expect Chapter 11 to be posted Monday, August 18!

3) I’m hoping to feel more relaxed and recharged from my vacation. The last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle. Time to regain some equilibrium.

Milestones & Updates

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Hello, world! It seems like writers spend a lot of time soul-searching in Angst-ville (myself included) so I wanted to share some good news!

1) ARTICLES!

I got some articles published! Fellow writer Mark Squirek is a columnist for the online newsletter Scoop. He asked me to do a pair of articles for his column, “Cover Story,” which discusses the cover art of various comic books. I got to pick any two covers I wanted and write about them! I chose Space Family Robinson #23: “Menace from Uranus!” from 1967 and The Chronicles of Arcea #1: “The Athame” by Vyrhelle. Many thanks to Mark for asking me to write for Scoop and to Mr. J.C. Vaughn, editor at Gemstone Publishing, for taking a chance on a new writer. Also, my deepest gratitude to my friend Karen; editing all of those art papers paid off! Working with Scoop has been a lot of fun, and I hope I’ll be able to continue writing for them.

Continue reading “Milestones & Updates” →