Childhood’s End

The State of the Writer: 9/4/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 8/21/22         The State of the Writer: 9/18/22–>

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

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Updating background information on Scrivener

By SilviaMarti (Deactivated DA Account)

I decided my male MC wasn’t suffering enough, so I made things worse before they got better?  I can’t really say better.  It’s more just less bad?  Or probably more eventually you get used to the pain.  Anyway, I ran into another slight snag in needing to know what’s going on in the background, so I’m working on that right now.  It’s actually making the series title more relevant so I can’t complain.

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Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

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Title: Childhood’s End
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Date Added: April 19, 2017
Date Started: September 13, 2018
Date Finished: October 19, 2018
Reading Duration: 36 days
Genre: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Classic

Cover of Childhood's End by Arthur C. ClarkePages: 224
Publication Date: August 1953
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Media: Paperback (Library)

The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city–intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.

But at what cost? With the advent of peace, man ceases to strive for creative greatness, and a malaise settles over the human race. To those who resist, it becomes evident that the Overlords have an agenda of their own. As civilization approaches the crossroads, will the Overlords spell the end for humankind . . . or the beginning?

Childhood’s End is a Arthur C. Clarke’s vastly different take on the “alien invasion” trope.  This is no bombastic War of the Worlds or Independence Day narrative, but inversely, neither is it covert in vein of They Live or The Thing.  Because the fore mentioned narratives have the extraterrestrials show blatant hostility, one might be inclined to think they seem less ominous; however, because both the intentions and even appearance of the Overlords is unknown, their endgame could be far more malicious than any world destroying alien race.

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The State of the Writer: 8/21/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 8/7/22         The State of the Writer: 9/4/22–>

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

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Updating background information on Scrivener

“The Sorrowful Lord”

I’ve spent the last week or so thinking up new ways to torture the above character, my poor main, “dark angel” Uriel. I’m very much a “make them suffer for their happy ending” type of writer even after the happy ending, because happiness doesn’t last; joy is a lie, and all shall end in despair.  I even wrote a poem about it, buuuut I’m not willing to share that yet haha.  After I finished writing about how I was going to torture him, I had to sign off for the evening, because it cut a bit close to the bone (…also literally).  There’s self-mutilation for reasons that would make anyone sad.  This was all in service of bridging the gap between my first novel and the WIP.  I had notes on it, but more details needed to be fleshed out.

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The State of the Writer: 8/7/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 7/24/22         The State of the Writer: 8/21/22–>

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

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Updating character pages on Scrivener

This might be a bit bare bones this week because you have a grumpy TSN.  I stayed up until six this morning watching small animal vlogs and I didn’t wake up until seven so I’m cranky, hungry, sore, and out of sorts.  Anyway, let’s get this done.

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The State of the Writer: 7/24/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 7/10/22         The State of the Writer: 8/7/22–>

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

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Updating character pages on Scrivener

Ysmay by Evniki (Alinor Avae)

What’s a story with an antagonist?  Well…she’s not the antagonist of the WIP but rather the first novel The Serpent’s Tale, and she doesn’t show up until the second half of the duology.  I need to do a lot of work on my first novel to get it up to my current standards, but re-reading it, it definitely has good bones and I’m still proud of a lot of the lines in it.  That either means I’m still substandard as a writer and haven’t grown at all if I think some of my crap sounds good, or it actually is pretty good and just needs a clean up. I’m trying to side with the latter.

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The State of the Writer: 7/10/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 6/26/22         The State of the Writer: 7/24/22–>

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

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Dimension details

What’s a fantasy universe without some mythic creatures?  I had to figure out which ones were “sentient” vs not, but that’s such a weird question you know?  Like even though my cats can’t speak English they still know plenty of stuff I don’t.  So I started thinking more of “which ones can talk to humans/humanoids” vs not and that made more sense.  Then I created another planet called Astrid that’s a gigantic forest with “doorways/portals” to the main world of the story filled with both.   There are “regular” animals that inhabit the world of the winged humanoids I’ve talked about before, though they still have a fantastic appearance and the “regular” means “similar to earth animals in terms of the speech thing” like this little guy below

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The State of the Reader: 10/24/18

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<–The State of the Reader: 10/10/18          The State of the Reader: 12/5/18–>

A weekly 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.

Books Purchased: 3

Books Finished: 4

Title: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
Series Title: Montague Siblings
Author: Mackenzi Lee
Date Added: August 18, 2018
Date Started: September 24, 2018
Date Finished: October 16, 2018

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and VirtueMedia: eBook/Kindle

This book was not remotely what I expected, and that’s a wonderful thing.  It was spectacular.  Even though it took place in the 1700’s, there was nothing occurring that’s not relevant today.  Racism, sexism, homophobia, ablelism, etc. were perfectly represented along with how people can have both privilege and oppression as well as the intersection of it to navigate, as is the case with Percy as the half-black son of an English gentleman and a woman from Barbados.  While he has wealth and the privileges that go along with that, he has more than one obstacle to navigate.  Monty showcases how you can completely not understand someone’s point of view if you insist on only viewing it through your own lens, and it was often Felicity who completely got where Percy was coming from even as she herself had some seriously problematic views about homosexuality.  None of the characters were perfect and that’s exactly what made them so.

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The State of the Reader: 10/10/18

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<–The State of the Reader: 9/26/18          The State of the Reader: 10/24/18–>

A weekly 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.

Books Purchased: 6

Books DNF: 1

Title: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
Series Title: Road to Nowhere
Author: Meg Elison
Date Added: September 22, 2018
Date Started: September 28, 2018
Date DNF: October 3, 2018

The Book of the Unnamed MidwifeI did not DNF this book because it’s poorly written.  I DNFed it because it is too fucking real and I couldn’t handle it.  Meg Elison (whom I didn’t realize I followed on Twitter until I started reading this) has written the most realistic depiction of the world after an apocalyptic pandemic where 98% of the population dies and the ration of men to women is 10:1.  It’s fucking nightmarish if you’re a woman, and yet nothing in either history or current events makes it ring untrue.  It is exactly what would happen and the main character, our unnamed midwife, does everything she can to avoid the horrific fate of other uterus bearers by pretending to be a man, stocking up on weapons, and hiding.  She carries thousands of birth control shots with her to administer to those who can’t escape assault, and it was after a recounting of a horrific childbirth that I knew I had to call it quits.  It was too triggering for me.  So if you’re set off or bothered by that, rape/sexual assault, genital mutilation, suicide, disease, and just general grimdark, this is not the book for you.  It’s an important book that needs to be in the zeitgeist, but no one should potentially harm themselves by reading something potentially damaging.

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My Name in TBR Books Tag

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Here we have another awesome tag I saved a long time ago from Ignited Moth.  Using Goodreads (or whatever TBR list you have), you pick a book based on the letters in you name.  Like the lovely blogger I from which I borrowed this, I’m going to use my blogging name as well, but you can do whatever you choose if you choose to participate 🙂

T – Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

Tigana coverI’m pretty sure I went out and bought this right after I read the sample.  It has that eloquent language I love, and within just a few pages, it presented characters you couldn’t help but care about.  Definitely a book I can’t wait to read.

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The State of the Reader: 9/6/17

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<–The State of the Reader: 8/30/17          The State of the Reader: 9/13/17–>

A weekly post updated every Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and where I am with them in addition to what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads to make it easier for interested parties to add any books that might strike their fancy.  I attempt to use the covers for the edition I’m reading, and I’ll mention if this is not the case.  If you have a Goodreads account feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Samples Read This Week

  1. The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima: Kept – I remember picking this up in the bookstore on one of my many trips there.  It was a bit pricey (over $10), so I didn’t just purchase it, but it was interesting enough for an add, and any story that has a secret and evil amulet is usually good enough to hold my interest.
  2. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket: Kept – Despite not liking the movie with Jim Carey as the villain (and I haven’t yet seen the Netflix show), I like the charm and laissez-faire voice of the book.
  3. The Grim Company by Luke Scull: Kept – I’m kind of blanking on the samples I read this week.  I remember I liked this enough (and it was inexpensive enough) to buy it, and from reading the blurb I can see why.  I’m fond of stories where the heroes aren’t shy about killing if necessary, and a world that suffers for the pettiness of the gods in their eternal warring always makes for a rousing tale.
  4. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke: Kept – Though this is a classic by a renown sci-fi author, I wasn’t immediately intrigued by the beginning, but the premise of humans being a “child” race forced to grow up is something I’ll utilize my library for.
  5. The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyne Keene: Kept – The first book in the Nancy Drew series…drew me to it not the least for nostalgia’s sake alone.  While it shows its age plainly before the end of the first page, this in now way dissuades me from adding it to my (growing) library list.
  6. Coal by Constance Burris: Kept – I knew I was going to keep this, because I’m pretty sure the main character is a Black kid, and while fiction/fantasy is definitely getting a lot better, it still needs support.  The fact that the book was literally free meant I have yet another novel in my Kindle collection.
  7. The Field Guide by Holly Black: Kept – This was one of the rare samples that never reached the sample text.  It ended right after the table of context.  I put it on my library shelf.  It’s the first book in The Spiderwick Chronicles.
  8. The Survivors by Nick Farmer: Kept – It reminded me of The Last of Us a little bit, but with more “immune” infected I suppose.
  9. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: Kept – I believe an IRL friend said she would lend me this book/series.  It’s an interesting concept, literally receiving prettiness at the age of 16 like a driver’s license, and there’s quite a bit of social commentary that can be made about such a a thing.
  10. Red Harvest by Joe Schreiber: Kept – A Star Wars novel.  Why the hell not?
  11. Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis: Kept – I never knew Lewis even wrote sci-fi until a certain bookish Mage told me so.  I’m sure I can procure a copy from my local library.

Books Purchased This Week: 6

Title: The Grim Company
Series Title: The Grim Company
Author: Luke Scull
Date Added: April 18, 2017
Date Purchased: September 1, 2017

Media: eBook/Kindle
Price: $2.99
Retailer: Amazon

Title: Coal
Series Title: Everleaf
Author: Constance Burris
Date Added: April 23, 2017
Date Purchased: September 2, 2017

Media: eBook/Kindle
Price: $0.00
Retailer: Amazon

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