Two Hearts

The State of the Writer: 6/28/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 6 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 6/14/20         The State of the Writer: 7/12/20–>

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

Finished Projects: 3

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 252,087
Prior Word Count: 251,669
Word Difference: +418
Status: Editing
Progress: Prepping to post Chapter 24

I probably could’ve posted the next chapter prior to this update, but I want to do one more mini edit beforehand.  I was also waiting to hear back from the artist on the picture I wanted to use, and it took me forever to think of a chapter title.  I’m pretty happy with it, but it could still potentially change in the future.  I’ll probably have it up before the end of the day.

Project: Story Audio Recording
Title: Northern Lights
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Length: Novel
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Status: Editing
Progress: Adding pictures for slideshow

I’m over 50 images at this point and a little over ten minutes.  It’s been going pretty smoothly since I’m at the part where she goes to the church, and there are a shit ton of images of that especially with the Remake out and all.  I ran into a bit of a snag because there’s a part where I’m thinking of a picture I’ve used before.  Now, this isn’t technically an “issue.”  I’ve already repeated an image, but I did it for a specific reason.  I’m trying not to repeat unless I’m attempting to make a specific point (whatever visual point I could possibly make as a non-visual arts person ugh, I’m going to just apologize profusely when I post this lol), so I have three options.  One, think of another image for the latest; think of another image for the older, or three, use the same image for both.  I’m leaning towards the middle choice, since I think the image would better serve where I am now and I might already have another image for the prior.  I left it last night to give myself a day to ruminate.

I’m trying to figure out ways to post this where I can just give people the password if they ask, because I know it’ll probably get flagged on YouTube for copyright stuff.  I’m not making any money off of it, nor do I want to.  I just want to share it, but it’s tricky when you’re pretty much using other artists’ stuff to showcase your own.  What’s weird is I’ve seen people selling books of their fanfictions, but I believe they’re only charging for cost, though I think that can still get dicey.  I’ll try to figure it out.  Speaking of which I have thought about printing out more copies of Northern Lights and doing some for The Broken Rose (I did NL and gave it to a friend), but I’d have to see how much it would cost.  It would be a fun project especially since my illustrator friend wants to do a picture for each chapter ♥

In Progress

  • Game Reviews: Final Fantasy VI – I’m finally on the World of Ruin, which is taking less time to summarize as I knew it would.  I’m hoping to be done with the summary soon so I can move on to the story analysis, but that’s going to take some organizing lol.
  • Blogger Tags: A Sunshine Blogger Award from A Geeky Gal – More catching up on blogger tags with yet another Sunshine Blogger Award lol.  You’d think I actually liked the sun with how many of these I get, but I appreciate everyone ♥

I’ve been thinking a lot about self-publishing my short story.  I think that’s going to be my next project after I get The Broken Rose finished up and posted.  I want to start work on my original novel after that, and I’m hoping I’ll be done TBR in time for that to be my NaNoWriMo project.  I feel a bit disorganized right now, and I hate it lol.  I have this fallacious idea that if I could just put everything in order/plan it out, my life will fall into place, but I can never quite manage to do that because life is messy.  I think I could outline a game plan, buuuut it’s not like I haven’t done that before lol.  Oh well, you have to keep your plans up to date with the times, so maybe another “WTF Am I Planning to Do Now” post wouldn’t be a bad idea.

<–The State of the Writer: 6/14/20         The State of the Writer: 7/12/20–>

Two Hearts by Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn #1.5)

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 6 Comments

Title: Two Hearts
Series: The Last Unicorn
Author: Peter S. Beagle
Date Added: August 24, 2014
Date Started: July 27, 2018
Date Finished: August 10, 2018
Reading Duration: 14 Days
Genre: Short Story, Fantasy

Cover of Two Hearts by Peter S. BeaglePages: 36
Publication Date: October 2005
Publisher: Online
Media: Website

Coda to The Last Unicorn – a novelette. Available for free on the author’s website.

Do not be ashamed of me because I am old.

If there was one work of fiction or fantasy I would recommend to everyone, it would be The Last Unicorn.  Ahead of its time and meta before meta was cool, it is not your typical fairy tale even though it contains all the elements: a mythic creature, a forlorn quest, an evil king, a hero prince.  Yet, there was an elusive awareness embodied in all of the characters not hitherto seen , as if they, too, were aware they lived in a story, but even with this knowledge, they were still beholden to the rules, tedious though they might be.  Written and published in the late 60’s, Beagle professes it took two years to write, and “it was hard every step of the way.”

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The State of the Writer: 6/14/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 10 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 5/31/20         The State of the Writer: 6/28/20–>

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

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 251,669
Prior Word Count: 251,992
Word Difference: -323
Status: Editing
Progress: Finished first edit of Chapter 24

I finished the first edit last night, but I still have a lot to add in.  I’m trying to do the initial edit first method, marking where I need to add additional text, adding it, then doing the second edit afterwards.  I kind of think of it like icing a cake.  You get the crumb coat on first, locate the trouble spots and fix them, then do another coat.  It makes sense in my ridiculous head lol.

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The State of the Writer: 5/31/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 5/17/20         The State of the Writer: 6/14/20–>

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

Finished Projects: 5

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 251,992
Prior Word Count: 252,140
Word Difference: -148
Status: Editing
Progress: Posted Chapter 23

Well shit…I made an oopsie.  I was so set on posting the chapter last night due to being encouraged by correspondence with my illustrator friend I made an embarrassing error.  I don’t repeat chapter pictures, or I didn’t before yesterday; however…

 

Ahhhhhhhh

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Top Books of 2018

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 8 Comments

Goodreads Challenge: 50
Books Finished: 51
Books DNF: 19

Last year I was ambitious and wrote out all the books I read.  This year I’m just going to talk about my top picks and biggest disappointments.

Top 10 Books/Series

10. Blister by Jeff Strand

Blister coverSurprisingly much more insightful than what it’s billed to be.

9. Two Hearts by Peter S. Beagle

Two Hearts coverYou can read this for free through the link.  It’s honestly the best I could hope for from a sequel to such an epic work.  It continues the themes without being trite and the resolution is beautiful if bittersweet.

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The State of the Reader: 8/15/18

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 11 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 8/1/18          The State of the Reader: 8/29/18–>

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: 2

Books DNF: 1

Title: The Paper Magician
Series Title: The Paper Magician
Author: Charlie N. Holmber
Date Added: June 17, 2016
Date Started: August 9, 2018
Date DNF: August 9, 2018

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. HolmbergMedia: eBook/Kindle

I wish I’d just passed on this based on the sample, but I probably didn’t read enough of it and what I read at the time was enough of a draw.  It’s a hard balance.  I want to read enough to know if I’m going to like it, but I don’t want to read too much because I don’t see the point in reading it twice (I wish I could make this make more sense, but I’m too tired to explain it any better…)

I didn’t have much of a sense of Ceony the main character except she’s a good student and wanted to work with metal not paper.  Usually students can choose what they want, but since there’s been a dearth of paper magicians or Folders, she was pushed in that direction, and once you bond with a material that’s it.

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The State of the Reader: 8/1/18

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 15 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 7/18/18          The State of the Reader: 8/15/18–>

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: 4

Books Finished: 0

Currently Reading

Title: Two Hearts
Series Title: The Last Unicorn
Author: Peter S. Beagle
Date Added: August 24, 2014
Date Started: July 27. 2018

Two Hearts coverMedia: Online
Progress: Unknown

If there was one work of fiction or fantasy I’d recommend to everyone, it would The Last Unicorn.  Ahead of it’s time and meta before meta was cool, this is not your typical fairy tale.  Two Hearts may very well be the longest interval between the original and its sequel written by the same author, but I’m too caution to take bets on that.  If it’s available online, I plan to purchase it since Mr. Beagle is still living and certainly deserves the credit.  The mien is exactly the same as the first book even though TLU is third person and TH is first.  Fans of the first will immediately recognize their favorite characters before they’re named and wonder about the fates of others.  It seems to take place some years/decades after the unicorn’s adventure when an antagonist even worse than the Red Bull terrorizes the land.

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