The Realms of a Fantastical Mind

Welcome to another Blog Ring of Power Friday, and a warm welcome to Suzanne Lilly.  Thanks for joining us in the Realm.   For the rest of her interview, don't forget to check out my BRoP buddies Part 1 with Terri Part 2 with T.W. Part 3 is right here with me Part 4 with Sandra Part 5 with Dean Author Bio : Suzanne Lilly writes lighthearted young adult stories with a splash of suspense, a flash of the unexplained, a dash of romance, and always a happy ending. Her short stories have appeared in numerous places online and in print, and she has placed and received honorable mentions in writing contests. Her debut novel is Shades of the Future , (July 2012, Turquoise Morning Press) followed by Untellable , (February 2013.) She lives in Northern California where she reads, writes, cooks, swims, and teaches elementary students. Section #3: The Creative Process BRoP:  Where do you get your story ideas? SL:  My stories come from all a...

I recieved a tweet over a week ago, I've been nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award.  Well... Whoot! The great and wonderful Kela McClelland had placed me as one of 15 that she named.  I've been busy, but I wanted to thank her for this awesome award. YAY  I hope everyone jumps over to Kela's blog after you read mine. Leave some comments, show some love. These are the rules of the nomination 1. Create a post for the Versatile Blogger Award. Ok, check.  2. In the same post, thank the blogger who gave you the award and put a link back to their blog. Check again! Oh and did I mention THANK YOU KELA! 3. Nominate 15 other people for this award and let them know. This may be the hard part. 4. Post seven random things about yourself. Will post below 5. Include these rules in your post. Check again.  Seven random things about myself.  Hmmmm 1) Ok, I guess I'll start with being a twin. Yup, I'm a twin.  Fraternal, which means not the same egg. W...

So I was tagged in another Meme, by Dean C Rich and Cherie, which is great cause they're fun. :) And this one is called Lucky 7s. My lucky number. Sounds good so here it goes. Lucky 7!   This one is quite easy, so without any delay, here are the rules: 1. Go to page 77 of your current ms. 2. Go to line 7. 3. Copy down the next 7 lines/sentences, and post them as they're written. No cheating. 4. Tag 7 other victims, er, authors. I'm going to ask your forgiveness in advance for my pg 77. Though I haven't looked at it, in a while, I'm doing a complete rewrite on my Work In Progress so this may be a bit rough.   From Second Nature Her curvy body was dressed in greens and browns of vines to cover her.  The lady’s feet looked like the roots of trees imbedded in the ground.  Nemune gasped in awe. From one side of Nature came Una and Endoria, from the other came Agasga and Rytharvin. Nemune watched as Dawveed got up from where he lay....

I've been focusing on tid-bits for writers on Wednesdays but this time I think I'm going to switch it up, again.  Don't worry, next week we will go back to our regularly scheduled tips and links.   I was tagged by fellow Blog Ring of Power host, Dean C. Rich and thought this would be fun.  The rest of the Ring has been tagged as well, I hope you check out their blogs to see the answers they provided. Blog Hopping Meme       1. What is your dream vacation? A week in a cabin, in the forest, with supplies to last us the entire time I'm there. While I learn how to hunt with archery. The supplies are for the fact that I'm not sure if I could really kill anything. 2. Are you spontaneous or do you like to plan ahead? I'm more spontaneous than I should be.  I try to plan, but the plans are always loosely set, just in case I end up doing something else.  3. Tell us one thing you want to do but don’t ...

There is a lot of information out there.  So much to learn and so many blogs that have the point down. Do I need to repeat what others have said? I could give you the run down in my words, try to hook you with my own voice, but I like sharing.  I hate thinking of the blog sphere as one big competition to get attention when I can do some research for you fine folks out there, hook elbows with my writer buddies, and show you insight from where I've spotted it.  So, in taking a page from the great and powerful Joyce Alton who does this every now and again on her blog Yesternight's Voyage . Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors K.M. Weiland asks the question: Does your story have too many Characters? Her blog has many interesting facts and tid-bits that have helped me personally, so I wanted to share the love. The Bookshelf Muse: Guest  C. S. Lakin writes The Plot Thickens    Get into the concept with C.S. on the importance of layering plot. Its a ...

Every writer needs a support group, a gathering of like minds to help that person grow and become more than just a teller of tales.  Most writers, I have noticed, are finding groups online or in their community.  With that in mind I had researched online and physical writers groups.  I've traveled the e-highways and was pleasantly surprised when I was searching for agents and stopped at Agent Query Connect. My search had ended, this was the perfect group for me. AQC is a forum for writers by writers.  This smorgusbord of information by hundreds of talented knowlageable and helpful people. It has been one of the highest assets of my writing.  Disscussing things such as the dreaded Query, (in short: a letter to agents asking for representation) to things such as what an agent looks for and how to make that pesky first sentence, paragraph and chapter able to hook the reader.  There is advice for any aspect of writing.  Each genre has it's own group...

Oh look, it's a guest, on my blog.  Wait... when did that happen?  Um, now?   I'd like to welcome Dean C. Rich to the Realm. I met him at AQC . He's part of the Speculative Fiction group I joined several months ago, where he does critiques for fellow members, and adds to the helpful silliness that makes me love the group. He has a blog called The Write Time where he has advice for us writers and several guests from AQC and beyond. You can also find him on twitter as @DeanCRich   And so without further ado and with now more delay I give you dum dum duuummm ... Dean Plotter or Pantster I once saw a sports commentator inside the football locker room showing the offensive line’s lockers. Everything was nice and tidy. The jersey’s were hung up neatly, the cleats were lined up. It looked like Monk’s closet. Then the commentators went over to the defensive line’s lockers. Those looked like tornados had ripped through them. They laughed and said this ...

The earth elemental rose up from the platform, towering over the companions.  Mavra had dashed to the opening as an opponent hovered in the archway.  Serral had broken off from his blood-blade to assit the dark elf, only to find Ladarious rushing past to break Mavra's stride with a tackle to the floor.  Now the blood-blade, Nimue` stood alone against the earth itself.  She swung her enchanted long sword and rapier with a dance of blades, chipping off chunks of the element.  She did not know whether her efforts would come to fruition but she needed to try. The foe in the door way dissapeared before Serral could attack it with the swarm of bats he had conjured.  He took a step to assist his fellow adventurers, but Mavra had all well in hand as he pushed up on the lion humanoid and with little effort Ladarious flew across the room. With the shadow-like creature gone, the companions focused on the shambli...

The tension is building up.  I find that I try to distract myself from what I should be doing.  If I should be writing or editing, I'm reading.  If I should be critiquing, I'm editing my own work.  If I should be looking up vow ideas, I'm playing on FB or checking my e-mail.  If I should be working on wedding things, I'm doing anything but. Yes, I've been putting off everything by doing everything else.  I guess when I really need to do something, my lazybones says no.  Sigh... and so I need to find a way to force myself to get focused.  I know there is much to be done in many aspects of my life.  I want to keep editing my book, so as to be ready to start really writing next month on the sequel.  I want to keep up with the crits, some of my critique partners have addictive stories and I hate leaving a good story left unfinished, either in reading or writing one.  I need to work on my vows, I bare...

I've been trying to get my crap together. Organize what I'm doing when and trying to get things running smoothly. And what happens but I find myself snuggled up to my kobo reading series after series of my favorite authors. Nothing I wanted to get done, gets done and my poor book is again neglected like the house plant that hasn't been watered for weeks. It sits with it's pages drooping over the edge of the table, practically begging to get picked up and revised fully into the 5th draft. 'Please' it whispers in the dark of night as I lay sleeping, 'please remember I'm here.' so after 2 weeks of my horrible behavior of reading, in which I've been poking and prodding at other writers work, only because I've done so much to my own book that I can't help but see what the holes are, I opened my critiquing folder and had a crack at a 1st chap of a MS that I should have opened the day I got it. I'm not even saying that out of duty, oh ...

So how busy can one person get that doesn't have a full time job, other then raising kids?  I can tell you, very busy!  I have to take care of the kids, like making sure my 12 yo has everything for school, first and foremost! Then there is the cleaning of the never-ending dishes, the floors need to be swept and mopped. The  bathroom... yeah that stuff that needs to be done, the kids, making sure they are doing their chores and keeping their space clean.  Cooking and then cleaning that never-ending dish pile again.  Sending my son off to kindergarten. Then 2 hours of me time, my youngest having nap-time.  Pick up my son, make sure my eldest has her homework done and making sure my son puts his school things away.  Then there is wedding planning and making sure I have everything done that I wanted to do that day, usually done when its my me time.  So my poor writing plans get pushed off to ...