Author: The Shameful Narcissist

The State of the Writer: 4/18/21

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<–The State of the Writer: 4/4/21         The State of the Writer: 5/2/21–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener

Sometimes you take steps back in a process, which is why I removed “working on Chapter 1 outline” from the status.  I’ve been hashing out more notes and trying to refine the connections between this and my first novel.  I’m trying to decide if I want to make a Scrivener for that prior to starting work on this.  Obviously The Serpent’s Tale is already written, but it needs a complete overhaul.  Because it’s the foundation of this story, I have characters and settings from it in Scrivener under “Past Characters” and “Past Settings,” but there’s a lot of crossover, and it might just be easier to make it its own.  Even if it wouldn’t help with this novel, it’ll help when I rewrite TST.  It’s really just deciding if I want to do it prior to jumping into this, and this all started because I needed to make a map lol.  I am absolutely awful at direction so a visual representation would really help; however, I’m also shit at drawing and measuring distances so there’s that, too.  All of the online map creators are either too complicated or cost money, so here I am doing it freehand.  I have notes about where certain places were located as well as the story’s starting and ending point.  It’s just filling out the details between.

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The State of the Gamer: 4/8/21

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<–The State of the Gamer: 3/25/21           The State of the Gamer: 4/22/21–>

A weekly post updated every other Thursday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

What I Purchased

Nothing these past two weeks.

What I Finished

Nothing these past two weeks.

What I’m Playing

Title: Bravely Default II
Series: Bravely Default
System: Nintendo Switch

Cover of Bravely Default IIDate Started: February 28, 2021

I started watching a Let’s Play of this while I’m playing it.  I’m far enough along that there’s really no danger of seeing something before I get there myself.  I don’t even think the streamer has reached where I am in his playthrough yet let alone what he’s posted on YouTube.  I’ll talk about it more in the What I’m Watching section, but I brought it up here to say I definitely could’ve done the jobs better.  I pretty much shoehorned Gloria and Elvis as casters instead of branching out, whereas in the LP he has Elvis (originally a Black Mage) as a Vanguard main with Black Mage subclass so he’s essentially a spellblade.  I wish I’d done that instead of pigeonholing both him a Gloria, but it’s not like it’s too late.

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The State of the Reader: 4/7/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 3/24/21         The State of the Reader: 4/21/21–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 1

Books Finished: 3

Title: Night Fire
Series Title: Night Fire Trilogy
Author: Catherine Coulter
Date Added: February 22, 2021
Date Started: February 23, 2021
Date Finished: March 26, 2021

Cover of Night Fire by Catherine CoulterMedia: eBook/Kindle

Rereading something you haven’t read in years is similar to rereading old writing in that you realize how much you’ve grown as a person.  Anything I wrote ten plus years ago is full of cringe (even if some parts might still be salvageable…at least that’s what I hope for The Serpent’s Tale lol).  That’s what reading this was like.  When I did so in high school I loved certain parts of it, but now that I’m more aware of problematic tropes, they greatly lesson my ardor.  This is one of those novels where I learn what not to do (especially in a hurt/comfort motif) by reading it.  It was also written in the late 80’s, which had a wildly different ethos for romance.  It’s grown up as much as I have in that time.

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The Broken Rose: Chapter 6 – Heaven’s Gate

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Update: Every new illustration from Bethany makes my jaw drop more, and I finally realized why I love her style so much.  I’ve always loved impressionism, the soft almost dreamlike quality of it, and it just works so well for this type of story, which I tried to give a soft, dreamlike quality to combat the horror.  The illustration is in the midst of the appropriate text, but you can find it here if you don’t feel like hunting.

The Broken Rose Page

<–Chapter 5                                                                                                    Chapter 7–>

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII, its characters, and settings are all property of Square Enix so I can take no credit nor claim any ownership of that. I do take some credit for the story’s plot.
Banner Artwork Disclaimer:  The featured artwork for the banner is entitled White rose I and was created by the very talented Deviant Artist RemusSirion who was gracious enough to grant me permission to use it here.  The picture has been slightly altered from the original. All rights belong to the artist, and links are included for both the artist page and the work.

*******MAJOR CONTENT WARNING*******

Consistent and sustained graphic descriptions and mentions of rape/ sexual assault, sexual slavery/bondage, slavery, human trafficking, physical abuse, graphic descriptions of violence, mental abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, body shaming, starvation, torture, forced pregnancy, forced childbirth, miscarriage, forced miscarriage, abortion, and other potential disturbing and triggering topics.

Aeris ventures briefly into the world outside her new sanctuary.  Though the promise of protection is ever around, the little maid still finds cause for terror.

00-chapter-6-heavens-gate

A picture of the shore at what could be sunrise or sunset. The sky is filled with blue clouds that match the ocean. There is a beach and a black cliff off to the left. “Chapter 6 Heaven’s Gate” in white is on the bottom of the cliff.

Day’s end in dusk stole through the “palace,” and curiosity caused Aeris shock.  Through her window, she’d seen both sunset and star, but never dreamed of venturing out.  Now searching the paths of crimson and gold caused the Cetra maid to consider.  The thought stayed but briefly before hollow chill filled her quickening heart.  Her great guardian was never far though, and his arms were always her shield.

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The State of the Writer: 4/4/21

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<–The State of the Writer: 3/21/21         The State of the Writer: 4/18/21–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener & Working on Chapter 1 Outline

I really want to start writing as soon as possible.  I feel like I’ve gotten most of the important details hashed out or at least enough of a foundation that I can begin.  I think I’m in that annoying place where I’m getting too much in my head and too worried about starting so I’m becoming nitpicky about details.  The next time I have the energy to work on this, I’m going to put together the first chapter outline.  I really, really want to write the “first meeting” scene, though that’s not for several chapters after a lot of grief.

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The State of the Gamer: 3/25/21

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<–The State of the Gamer: 3/11/21           The State of the Gamer: 4/8/21–>

A weekly post updated every other Thursday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

What I Purchased

  • The Innsmouth Case – $4.94 ($0.00) @ Nintendo eShop
  • PlayStation V Console – $499.00 @ Sony Direct

What I Finished

Nothing this week.

What I’m Playing

Title: Bravely Default II
Series: Bravely Default
System: Nintendo Switch

Cover of Bravely Default IIDate Started: February 28, 2021

I was mostly avoiding grinding and that was to my own detriment.  I was barely getting through boss battles usually after the second or third time trying, and I finally wound up googling how to defeat one.  The strategy involves things I haven’t done yet with skills I don’t have.  I picked up a ton of new jobs and was trying to learn them as I went along, but really I should’ve been using the “bait” items that cause you to get into multiple battles in order to earn Job Points (JP).  If you give two characters the JP up abilities you’ll earn like six job levels per battle session.  Since there are twelve levels per job that means it only takes two.  I was also not doling out my armor properly so I’ll remedy that.  I’m really trying not to use a strat guide for this game and figure it out myself, but sometimes you need that little nudge.  I’m wondering how many jobs there will be.  Every time you beat a boss you get a new one.

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The State of the Reader: 3/24/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 3/10/21         The State of the Reader: 4/7/21–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 0

Books Finished: 0

Currently Reading

Title: The Oedipus Trilogy
Series: The Theban Plays
Author: Sophocles
Date Added: July 25, 2020
Date Started: March 18, 2021

Cover of The Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles

Media: Paperback
Progress: 7%

As mentioned last week, I’ve read Oedipus Rex, but not the other two books in the Cycle, and I’m obviously reading/rereading this for research purposes even though I’ve already used it in an essay.  Oops.

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Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award

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I was nominated* for this award by Petra Jacob who is one of my favorite indie authors.  She has three books published currently (from what I can see on Goodreads, so don’t quote me!): Peddling Doomsday, Riddled With Senses, and Supernice: Smile. Or Else., but we should all entreat the word gods that she’s not going to stop there.  Not a one is even in the same genre as the other, which is a feat most authors only dream of.  I managed to respond to this nomination before it hit a year old, so now I’m going to answer her questions.

Do your dreams ever give you inspiration for stories? If so can you describe one that has?

Yes…?  I know they have, but I’ll need to ponder one that did so.  Oh!  I can check my story idea notes…yeah, I got nothing.  It’s one of those “I know it happened, but I can’t remember the details.”  Silly brain.

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The State of the Writer: 3/21/21

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<–The State of the Writer: 3/7/21         The State of the Writer: 4/4/21–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener & Working on Chapter 1 Outline

I feel like I’m nearing the end of my set up (maybe?).  I got a bit of everything worked on late last night.  I think I’m worrying too much about certain things becoming problems if I don’t hash them out before I start writing, but I’m literally trying to figure out how to make the best society when I’m living *gestures at everything* lol.  I need to finish up language notes and information on minor characters then I believe I can switch my efforts to the first chapter outline, and maybe even write it.

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Northern Lights: Chapter 1 – The Flowers Blooming in the Shadows (Audio Recording)

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Blurb/Teaser

Author’s Note: I know it’s been a long time since I posted the blurb/teaser (over two years), but in my infinite foolishness I decided to make it not only an audio project, but an audio/visual one.  That…took a lot of time, and I went through numerous growing pains with the procedure I hope will facilitate faster turnaround in the future (the story has 25 chapters.  If each takes two years, well, you can do the math lol).  I am hoping to have a way for you to view the visual part of it soon, but I’m still figuring out the intricacies of that as so much of the work is not mine and I don’t have the legal acumen to fully comprehend fair use.  I have trepidation just posting the audio portion of it due to the music I use even with credit.  It’s all…very frightening.

So because I am how I am, I may drastically change the format of how I do this, but right now the way I want it to work is to have the written chapter here for anyone who requires text in which to follow along.  If I were posting on YouTube, I’d add subtitles as I had with the blurb as well as all of the music and art credits.

What I’m hoping I can do in the near future is find a place to upload the video that goes with the audio and then figure out a way to give people access.  I’m still working on this aspect.  I just downloaded Dropbox though so things look promising.

Anyway…you don’t need to know my problems lol.  Onward to the actual content, though I need to apologize in advance.  The sound quality is…not great in some places.  The beginning sounds a little weird, and there are definitely parts where you can hear some odd stuff because I’m neither talented nor a movie maker lol.  Like that’s the only excuse I can give.  This chapter is so full of growing pains, and I learned a lot while working on it, which I’ll use in the future.

I also have to apologize for any place where my accent is just terrible.  My “formal” speaking voice sounds a particular way and I really, really try to practice my RP so it sounds legit, and I looked up a tutorial on the other accent, but…yeah I just apologize.  It’s my favorite accent and I hope I did it some justice.  When I used to sing we were taught to modify our vowels to sound less nasal because the part of the states I live in has that issue, and let me tell you, singing with that accent sounds awful.  I realized it makes a nice reading voice, too, so yeah…I guess that’s really all I can say.

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