Seven Years of Blogging

Audio Edition Coming Soon!

To escape the sweltering heat that descended upon the East Coast this weekend, I took the opportunity to stay inside and organize my filing cabinet. Like many writers, I’ve got bits and pieces of thoughts and projects scattered across notebooks and folders, empty envelopes and not-longer-sticky Post-it notes. Sometimes I forget just how much paper I’ve generated and accumulated over the years, how many projects are still works in progress and how many handwritten scrawls have not been transcribed into a more legible medium.

And I wonder: when will I have time to deal with all of this?

This year, I turned thirty and I’m astonished at how quickly the months have flown. Sometimes I feel like I’ve hardly gotten anything accomplished, that I’m still were I was at eighteen when I’d just started to take the idea of becoming a professional author seriously. But the piles of paper and notebooks on the floor, the finished manuscript on the desk beside me, and the list of blog posts on my computer suggest that I haven’t been spinning my wheels quite as much as I thought I was.

It’s hard to believe it’s been seven years since The Cat’s Cradle began. My very first published entry was June 22, 2011 with a shiny new Blogspot URL. In March 2013, I moved The Cat’s Cradle from Blogger to WordPress, having a slightly better idea of what I was doing. Over the years, I have continued to learn, adding new sites like LeNoWriCha for the Legendary Novel Writing Challenge in January 2014 and then new features with my Audio Editions in November 2014. More recently, I added Second Unit Reviews in May 2018. As of today, I have 200 followers of The Cat’s Cradle, 32 for LeNoWriCha, and 5 for Second Unit Reviews. (I’m sure a few lurkers stop by and read, but haven’t left any trace of their passing.)

I cannot express how much it means to me when folks read or listen to my entries, who follow any (or all) of my blogs or my Twitter feed, who “Like” my entries on WordPress or Facebook, or (best of all) who leave comments. I know not everyone has the time to do that, so for all those who have stopped by and enjoyed this, thank you so very, very much. I deeply appreciate all of you. I know time is precious, so I’m grateful you decided to spend some time here reading (or listening) to my rambles. To my friends, family, and fellow writers who have been so supportive of me and my work over the years: you have my undying gratitude. Thank you.

So what are my plans for the future? Well, to keep writing, obviously. I still have more than enough novels to work on and I’m still trying to practice short stories to send to online magazines. The Cat’s Cradle will continue to have a new entry posted every other Monday to talk about writing or to give updates on that status of my various projects. LeNoWriCha will pop up for the spring and summer editions of Camp NaNoWriMo and for National Novel Writing Month each November. Second Unit Reviews will keep posting older content every Friday at least through the end of the year and new content will pop up sporadically, whenever the mood strikes me. Alas, my work on Fanfiction.net has not been updated every other Monday as I had originally hoped… Maybe I can change that, but with so much original fiction and blogs to occupy me, it currently isn’t as high on my priority list.

I’ll also continue to record and post Audio Editions for my Cat’s Cradle entries, although I know I am woefully behind at the moment. They take a great deal of time and attention, which is often absconded with for other things (sometimes writing-related, sometimes not.) I’m hoping to record and post #ThrowbackThursday Audio Editions for content published before I was computer-savvy enough to use Audacity.

Here’s to another seven years of blogging! Until then…

Expressions of Gratitude

Click HERE for the Audio Edition!

It is far too easy to focus on the negatives in life, too easy to see only the flaws, to complain about what we do not have or how we wish things would be. So I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for that which I am very lucky to have.

I am grateful for being able to live when and where I do, despite its flaws. For having a place to call home, for not needing to worry about where my next meal will come from, and for having the time and leisure to write at all, even if it sometimes feels like that time is scarce or that leisure is unearned.

I am grateful to have lived in areas with easily accessible libraries and for always being encouraged to read without boundaries. I know not everyone is so lucky. Being literate and having access to books is a gift that I never, ever want to take for granted.

On that note, I am grateful to all of the creators of books, movies, television shows, music, and art I have had the pleasure to experience over the years. Your work has inspired and improved my life immeasurably, and I thank you for sharing it. Art of all kinds makes the world a better place, so keep making it!

I am grateful to my family for being so supportive of me and my work:

~ Thank you to my brothers Richard and Daniel, who, despite much teasing about my writing and English degree, always have my back when the chips are down.
~ Thank you to my super-amazing and talented mom, who never ceases to impress me with her fortitude and ever-expanding repertoire of skills, both artistic and practical.
~ Thank you to my awesome and talented dad, who knew the value of writing skills combined with a good education and ensured that I received both.
~ Thank you to my adorable cat-babies, Diego, Phantom, Chaos, Zuko, Sokka, and Bunny, who are so freakin’ cute and cuddly and mommy loves you so much!
~ Thank you to my adopted Aunt Nancy, who is probably the sweetest person on the planet.
~ Thank you to my onii-san, David, for basically everything.

I am grateful for my most excellent friends, both far and near, who make me laugh and make me think. You guys rock! Special thanks to my writing groups, the Gburg Wrimos and Pens in Space for sharing both the trials and tribulations of literary life.

I am grateful to the following spectacular beta readers, fellow writers and sisters-in-spirit, who have been willing to suffer through various drafts of my work:

Foxglove Zayuri
R.E. Myles
Epha*
Storm Elf
Imp
Laughing Ninja

Thank you so very much! I appreciate your help and efforts more than I can possibly express.

Everyone… I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

* NOTE: Due to a spelling error, I accidentally pronounced Epha’s name as “Ephra” for the Audio Edition. Due to the time-consuming nature of recording and re-uploading, I have made the correction here on the print article, but the Audio Edition retains the mispronunciation. My deepest apologies for this error!

“Bright Sunshiny Day!”

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I can see clearly now, the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for
It’s gonna be a bright (bright) bright (bright) sunshiny day
It’s gonna be a bright (bright) bright (bright) sunshiny day

— Jimmy Cliff, “I Can See Clearly Now”

And so it is! Actually, these last two weekends have been ridiculously productive, mostly because I’ve been able to sit out on the front porch (like I am now) for hours at a time. (I just LOVE my Chromebook!) It’s astonishing how much something as simple as the weather can have such a massive effect on one’s psyche. While I don’t really consider myself and outdoorsy person (since I like, never go camping or hiking or boating or anything like that), I do gain great satisfaction and pleasure from being outside. And even if I have to hide indoors during the summer because it is too hot or humid out, I am still more productive, simply because there is sunshine. I think I may be part lizard and part sunflower.

At any rate, I am very pleased with my progress on All’s Fair. My characters are talking to me again, I’m filling in plot holes, uncovering motivations… it’s all coming together and that’s a good feeling. Granted, since I had to rip out or severely alter over two-thirds of the book, I now have no idea how to end the darn thing. I suspect something will occur to me after my subconscious has a chance to mull over it for a while. I plan on participating in Camp NaNoWriMo in July, since they have come up with a system to represent editing and not just vomit-typing. For Camp NaNo, an hour of editing equals 1,000 words, so I’m setting a goal of editing for at least an hour each day, which would be 31,000 words. I don’t think I’ll do LeNoWriCha this time since I’m not really generating new content. My ultimate goal this year is to have All’s Fair ready for the submission process by October.

Speaking of time… did you know that The Cat’s Cradle is now five years old? Yep, I started this blog back in June 2011. At the time I was just shouting into the ether from Blogspot without a clue of where I was going. Now I’m here on WordPress with a far more streamlined and professional webpage design. I update more or less every other week, I’m on Twitter, I offer editing services, and I’ve added the Audio Editions for people to listen to and download. I try not to look at stats because that way madness lies, but I’m ecstatic that, as of today, 138 people follow The Cat’s Cradle. Whether anyone reads it or not is another story, but I’m very grateful to everyone who has chosen to read, like, share, comment, or listen to these entries. I’ve learned a lot over the last five years, and I hope to continue improving so these entries remain informative, interesting, or at least entertaining for you.

I Finally Caught Up!

Click HERE for the Audio Edition!

Oh, my poor ears.

I think I have squeezed more audio editing into the last few days than I have more months. I was behind by twelve Audio Editions, ranging from 5-10 minutes in length, on average. (Obviously, some are shorter and a few are longer.) I know the finished product looks pretty simplistic, but five minutes of audio takes me about an hour to clean up, edit, convert into a video, and upload to YouTube. So please, have a listen if you haven’t already. All of the links on their respective Cat’s Cradle entries should be updated by the end of today.

Also, I got my first set of feedback from one of my beta readers, R.E. Myles! I was really nervous, but it seems that All’s Fair isn’t as broken as I feared it might be. She was really great about pointing out the story’s strengths and what she liked, along with some good suggestions on how to increase interest and drama. Some of the broader suggestions will be put into play immediately with further refinements as feedback arrives from my other betas. Thank you all so much for your time and attention!

Now… back to work. ^_^;;

UPDATE on 02/29/2016 @ 10:00pm:
Hooray, another beta reader arrived with feedback today! Thank you so much, Foxglove! I really appreciate your time and thoughts on All’s Fair.