Ishness: Random Things I’m Enjoying Edition

Posted on February 15, 2023 by Deborah O'Carroll

Long time no blog, eh?

I thought it would be fun to toss a random list onto the blog, of some things I’ve been loving lately, in an attempt at something upbeat. *nervous laugh* And because blogging! It used to be a thing! So here we are.

In no particular order, and with no attempt at being an exhaustive list, here are . . .

Some things I’ve been loving lately:

Book

The Windward King by K. T. Ivanrest — I recently finished this and it was SUCH a delight! Buddy story, shapeshifting, castles, pirates, fabulous characters, betrayal, royalty, snark . . . it had everything! ❤

Music

The Rose (Cara Dillon) — Replace “love” in this song with writing and it felt . . . something. I could also listen to Cara Dillon’s voice all day long!

My Land (Celtic Thunder) — This makes me think of returning to my storyworlds and hanging out in my WIPs again. ^_^

Movie

I’ve been catching up on some movies including several superhero things. It’s been fun. 🙂

The Batman (2022) — I finally saw this one and aside from some dark stuff I just . . . really enjoyed how Batman-y it was. Just. Yesss! Because Batman. XD

Blog Posts

I really enjoyed this amazing post about Noblebright Fantasy and a return to blogging. Let’s do this, people! Wonderful read from K.M. Carroll.

I related so hard to this wonderful post by the lovely Emily Grant about being stuck. I feel like she said everything so much better than I can and sort of summed up a lot of how I feel about being stuck on blogging, writing, etc. It made me feel less alone, so maybe it will help others who may be in those trenches. ❤

Upcoming Events

FicFrenzy (March 15-April 15) — I’m super excited for a writing challenge my dear writing buddy Christine Smith is hosting! Check out the page about it here. ^_^

March Magics — The creator of March Magics (a celebration of the books of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett) is hosting this one last time and I’m sooo looking forward to it. I even tracked down another short story by DWJ that I hadn’t read yet and I’m saving it for that.

A Kickstarter

The image kind of says it all, but I had the chance to read The Orb and the Airship early and it was definitely one of my favorite reads last year! I am SO excited about this gaslamp fantasy series and I totally recommend checking out the Kickstarter page and following it to be notified on launch (which is February 20). Any interest or sharing is sooo appreciated! I love this world and these characters SO MUCH just from the first book and I can’t wait to see where they go in the rest of the series. It’s seriously so good. 😀

A snippet from one of my WIPs

“What are we doing, again?” I whispered, quieter this time, as we turned a corner and made our way up a steep, narrow white marble staircase up toward a gallery of white stone columns.

“Being very, very quiet,” he breathed in my ear, giving me the urge to smack his face even if it might result in both of us toppling off the steep stairs. “And,” he went on, “avoiding the honestly alarming librarian. But mostly,” he finished, as we came out on the gallery and hid in the shadow of column, “looking for a book.”

“A book,” I repeated, and looked at him. He raised one eyebrow very slightly, as if in a shrug.

As one, we craned around the pillar, poking our heads out to lean enough to see over the long gallery railing of white marble—and gazed down from our new vantage point at a literal maze, so large that it looked a little shadowy and hazy at the far end. A literal maze built of bookshelves overflowing with books.

“Well,” I said, a little scathingly, “I think you’ve found one.”
unedited snippet I wrote last month for my WIP The Other Half of Everything

Thanks for Reading!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little look at some things I’ve enjoyed lately.

Normally I’d try to make it perfect, extensive, with more pictures and other proper-marketing-things but . . . I just want to blog. A bit. And not worry about perfectionism or likes or any of that sort of thing. (We will not discuss the writing update post I haven’t posted due to its now-out-of-date nature… Ahem.)

Have a lovely Wednesday, readers. ❤

#WIPobsessed & Middle-earth Day!

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Deborah O'Carroll

G’day, my Roadlings!

Today there are two exciting things going on!

MIDDLE-EARTH DAY

March 25th has been dubbed Middle-earth Day and Tolkien Reading Day, in celebration of the day the Ring was destroyed. (It’s also more or less New Year’s Day due to that, as decreed by Aragorn, so . . . let’s brush up some new New-Year’s-Resolutions, shall we?)

Here’s a huzzah for all things Lord of the Rings and Tolkien!

(I’ll be celebrating by smiling over the two Tolkien books I’ve read so far this year and crying over how I haven’t been keeping up with my History of Middle-earth book-per-month personal challenge. 😛 *cough*)

Anyway, I had to mention because I’ll never not celebrate a Middle-earthean holiday! 😉

CALLING ALL WRITERS

The other thing is actually a three-day-long thing:

#WIPobsessed, an online writers’ retreat hosted by Liv K. Fisher!

It runs March 25-27, and the idea is to pick a goal and work on some writing during these three days, and share your progress and updates with the #WIPobsessed hashtag on whichever social media you prefer!

(Here’s the info on Liv’s Instagram, and on her blog.)

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been far too busy all month to do much of anything remotely writing-related and it’s been devastating. So even though Camp NaNo is around the corner, I thought this would be the perfect excuse to push me into at least dipping my toe back into the writing waters. I can make time on three days to write, right?

Since I’m also terribly busy this week, and my saner half (sorry, my saner 3/8ths) says I have no business even thinking about writing, I’m going to set a low but hopefully achievable goal of one hour per day for a total of 3 hours of writing. Maybe that will add up to 3K words. We can hope!

I’m setting a secondary goal, if I pass the first, of finishing writing KW2 during #WIPobsessed (which I calculate, or rather hope, has about 5K left).

So there!

I’m announcing this which means I have to work toward it and at least try to set aside this time, even during an insane week, to do a little writing.

I hereby give myself permission to write for an hour each day for three days. Because that’s the only way writing is going to happen.

(Isn’t it dreadful it has to come to this? XD)

And besides, it’ll be good practice for Camp NaNo starting in exactly one week. 😉 (Please tell me I’m not the only one who is TERRIBLY PLEASED that April is starting on a Monday! XD)

SO WHO’S WITH ME? Why don’t you commit to writing even ten minutes or 100 words per day for the next three days? Join in the glorious swirling of creativity/mutual support!

It’s not like it’s a month-long challenge like NaNo. Just three days. Because every day counts!

I’m not sure how much I’ll be sharing or where, during these three days, but hopefully at least an update or two over on my Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!

Go forth and join in, and get #WIPobsessed! May the words be ever in your favor!

Midnight Fear: A Flash Fiction Spooky Story

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Deborah O'Carroll

Hey everyone!

I’m back from vacation (did ya miss me? :P) and I’ll be doing some NaNo-ish posts soon (eek!) but today I’m doing something… different. XD

Jenelle Schmidt has a Spooky Story Challenge again this year (check it out!), flash-fiction edition, aaand I decided to join in.

I’ve been kind of enjoying writing flash fiction — works one thousand words long or less — lately (like We Otter Do It and Mentor Problems). Only problem is, spooky/scary stories are NOT my thing at all. XD

But I did have a flash-fiction piece around that I wrote a few years back and recently rewrote, based on a nightmare I had. I kind of wrote it as “therapy” and after I got it down “on paper,” it didn’t scare me anymore — but I wasn’t really planning on posting it lest it scare other people! 😉

So be warned, if that’s not your thing.

But I decided to share it anyway.

Enjoy!

Midnight Fear

Deborah O’Carroll

Night shrouds the world. Black as ink, the dark sky hangs overhead—the roof of a giant safe or vault, locking me into this world of nightmare. A car screeches somewhere. The city block stretches before me, with but a few yellow street-lamps to shine small patches of imagined safety onto the pavement—bits of light, small, pitiful, feebly trying to push back the night.

The wind is on the move. It drives grey rags of clouds across icy stars, slips cold fingers of air down my collar, shrieks relentlessly through the branches of a tree I walk beneath. The twigs chatter together like teeth. I shiver and hasten my pace, casting glances this way and that. I should have been home long ago.

Someone runs up the road—whisks past, a shadow under a street-lamp. He calls back from behind me in a hoarse whisper: “It’s coming!”

I don’t need to ask what “it” is.

I break into a panicked run, clutching my skirt, my shoes pounding a war-drum’s call, my heart a fluttering bird trapped between metal bars. The street stretches on forever. I must reach home before it finds me.

My house appears in the darkness. Relief floods me. But as I near my yard, I freeze. Terror grips me in an iron vice. At the crossroads where my street meets the next, a shadow moves.

Round the corner with slow deliberation pads the embodiment of midnight fear.

The black panther.

It’s twice as big as I had heard. It stops in the midst of the crossroads, shadowy head swinging slowly as if deciding which street to take. Not my street. Not— Motionless save for the twitch of its tail, its gleaming eyes full of quiet malice fix on me.

I stand transfixed as we stare at each other for a short eternity. Then, with slow, measured steps, it pads up the street toward me. Panic breaks me free of my terror-induced paralysis. I tear across the road, stumble up my sidewalk and front steps to my house. Safety lies in wait for me behind the door. I claw frantically in my pocket for the key. Not there. It has to be there—

The key is gone. I can’t get in.

Nowhere to hide. I must find somewhere . . . I dart a glance over my shoulder. The beast still pads slowly up the street. I run across the porch, down the steps, and heave myself over the side of the bed of the pickup truck. I hunker down low with my head down, breath coming in ragged gasps, heart running a marathon. Perhaps the panther will pass by, continue down the street . . . Perhaps it will not find me.

All is quiet. I wait forever. Silence. I dare a quick glimpse over the side of the pickup bed. My heart trips and falls and skips a beat.

I had heard no sound. Yet the panther pads toward me across my grassy lawn, as silent and graceful as any of its smaller kin. In horrified fascination I watch its dark bulk make its slow, sinister way toward me, a deeper black beneath the tree shadows cast by the moon. Instead of leaping, the creature circles the truck. A long wooden plank forms a ramp from the ground up to the tailgate of the pickup’s bed. A path straight to me. The panther sets a fore-paw on the plank and begins its slow relentless ascent, fixing near-hypnotic eyes on me.

I seize the end of the ramp with frantic prying fingers, trying to flip it over. It doesn’t budge. The panther takes another step.

I scrabble desperately about in the dark in the back of the pickup. My hand touches an object. A hammer. I fling it with all my strength.

It strikes the beast between its gold street-lamp eyes.

I hold my breath. The panther pauses, shakes its head once, then comes on. Its teeth glitter under the moon. Its paws tread softly pad-pad-pad up the plank.

In a final surge of mind-numbing panic, I grab the next object my hand finds—a large heavy mallet—and fling that too. Then another—a length of pipe—and another and another, I know not what, flinging them in quick succession. I shut my eyes against the terror and only hope one of them will make it stop coming. Just make it stop coming toward me. I am out of things to throw. Dark despair seizes me, but no claws. I open my eyes.

The panther still stands on the plank. It does not move. Then it sways.

And

The shape of terror hits the ground with a thud. It lies still.

Relief tears a gasp from my lungs as I remember to breathe again. I collapse in the bed of the pickup truck.

***

Time follows in a blur. They come at last to find the beast, and find it dead. I climb shakily down into my lawn. People surround me, despite the midnight hour, praising me and my non-existent bravery for the death of the terror. Voices roll around me, talking of taking me to dinner, of celebration. I don’t listen to them. I can only stand beneath the trees, swaying like their branches, staring down at the panther. It lies on the grass, a sleek pile of black fur, motionless. Dead. But without losing its menace.

Unthinking dread still fills me, and I can’t look away, despite knowing that it’s dead from the heavy metal things I had thrown at it. I wish I’d thrown heavier ones.

I keep staring, half expecting the panther to move.

It does.

Original Tag: Writerly Spring Cleaning Challenge!

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Deborah O'Carroll

springcleaningwritertagchallenge

Happy Spring, my dearest Roadlings! ^_^ *frolics*

Since today is, in fact, the first day of Spring (for those of us in the northern hemisphere), and this is, in fact, a writing blog (little as you may notice with all the bookish things going on from time to time. ;))… I’ve decided to combine the two in a fun way!

Behold, my very first original tag!

I’ve created a tag challenge for writers, themed around Spring Cleaning, and I hope you’ll join me in trying it out!

It’s fairly short (only three and a half questions, though some are multiple choice or just jumping-off points, so it’s rather flexible actually) and I just know it’s going to be fun. 🙂

Spring is that special fresh-and-new time of year when everything gets brighter and warmer and greener and more alive—there’s a new LIFE to everything and a sort of brilliance to it. While that time may not be here yet in actual weather, depending on where you live, what better time than Spring to get re-excited about writing?

So I encourage you to get your mop and duster (er… pen and pencil) and dive right into the . . .

Spring Cleaning Writer Tag Challenge

springcleaningwritertagchallenge

Rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Share the picture
3. Answer the questions (naturally…) or even pick and choose which ones you answer
3.5. Tag 3 other writers and inform them that you tagged them (via comment/message/email or hey, even carrier-pigeon or smoke signal; I’m not picky)

THE QUESTIONS

1. Dust-bunnies and Plot-bunnies: Reorganize Your Writing Goals (Or Make New Ones)

Remember those writing goals/resolutions you made on January 1st or thereabouts and then stuffed under the bed to gather dust-bunnies and plot-bunnies? Well, it’s been nearly three months since then, and as that’s approximately a quarter of the year, it’s about time to pull those out and re-evaluate them (if the plot-bunnies have left enough to read after their chewing, or the dust-bunnies enough to make it legible after all this time of accumulating).

Which goals/resolutions have you accomplished? Which need to be re-focused on? Which are totally not happening and need scrapping? What new goals do you have? Give an update and get your goals cleaned out and reorganized!

Or, if you like, scrap them all and make some new goals to share—especially if the Deadly Bunny Duo of Dust and Plots and Doom have left no other options… which is okay! Spring is for new starts, anyway!

2. Which Stage Are You At?

Everyone’s writing (and spring-cleaning) processes are different, and at different stages. Pick the one that most applies to you and tell us where you are in your writing process!

a. Remodeling layouts (planning the story)
b. Painting the walls in colorful hues (writing)
c. Polishing the windows and scrubbing the floors and putting flowers in vases (editing)
d. Blueprints (not to the cleaning or remodeling yet… just drawing up plans for the very beginning inklings of a story)
e. Some combination of those things (cleaning out a closet)

Speaking of cleaning out closets…

3. Treasure From the Back of the Closet: Snippet Love

This one’s for the “Oh, I forgot about that!” feeling of delight when you find something delightful tucked away. Those bits of writing you’ve scribbled off so far this year and need to be dug out of a pile and aired in the sun…

Share one to three snippets you love!

3.5. Bonus: Do Some Actual Spring Cleaning of Your Writer Self!

Organize your notebooks and papers if you’re a physical type of writer
Sort your computer files and tidy them up if you’re a digital sort
Do some real-life cleaning up of your desk or writing space or room in general, if you exist in the physical world at all (which I rather hope you do)

Not required, but you get bonus points for any or all of these (in the form of… er… virtual cupcakes?), and I promise you’ll be a happier writer if you do some organizational writerly spring cleaning of your own! 🙂

You can even use the excuse to share a picture of your writing space or notebooks or computer—please do, because pictures make everything funner!

Here’s a copy-pastable list

1. Dust-bunnies and Plot-bunnies: Reorganize Your Writing Goals (Or Make New Ones)

2. Which Stage Are You At? Expound!

a. Remodeling layouts (planning the story)
b. Painting the walls in colorful hues (writing)
c. Polishing the windows and scrubbing the floors and putting flowers in vases (editing)
d. Blueprints (not to the cleaning or remodeling yet… just drawing up plans for the very beginning inklings of a story)
e. Some combination of those things (cleaning out a closet)

3. Treasure From the Back of the Closet (Share one to three snippets you love!)

3.5. Bonus: Do Some Actual Spring Cleaning of Your Writer Self! (and share a picture!)

Tagging

I tag/challenge YOU if you’re reading this and are a writer!

Do give it a try, and then link me to your post so I can read it! Or answer in the comments. 🙂

(I’ll be answering these questions here on my blog next week, in case you’re wondering. ;))

I also specifically tag:

(No pressure, though!)

Meanwhile, what think ye, Roadlings? Fun? Complicated? Are you going to do it?? And what’s a writerly spring cleaning thing you’d like to do? (Yes, you may bemoan your lack of spring-ish weather in the comments-section if you like. XD)

Short Story, Boxes, Camp NaNo, & Inanimate Objects

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Deborah O'Carroll

Hi everyone!

Two things.

First:

I have a short story on a blog!

Hazel B. West (author of the amazing Blood Ties and An Earthly King) runs a cool website called Tales From a Modern Bard, and has writing challenges there from time to time.

The latest was “Inanimate Objects” and I couldn’t resist taking this excuse to write a story I’d been planning to write for ages.

So I wrote it for the challenge and Oh. Was. It. FUN. (Spoiler: Yes it was.)

And now you can read it!

My story is called A Tale of Two Boxes, about the adventures of… yes… two boxes. If you’ve ever wondered what the life of a cardboard box is like, and what they’re thinking, and how they get from one place to another, then this is the story for you. (If you’ve never wondered… well, few of us have, and now you’re wondering — I hope — so there you are.)

It also features some books arguing about how each of their genres is better than the others’. Yes. This did happen. XD

I’d be ever so honored if you’d pop over to Tales from a Modern Bard and read my story, and maybe tell me what you think of it! Thank you! ^_^

It was actually incredibly fun to write a story from the perspective of a cardboard box. You would think a story about a box would be boring, but… it was actually fascinating! (To me, at least. XD) I had so much fun and totally fell in love with my cardboard box characters. ❤

(Be sure to read the other challenge stories from the other authors at Tales from a Modern Bard about other inanimate objects, if you have some extra time, because they’re all quite interesting — some tragic, some funny, but all unique. :D)

The second thing has to do with the first thing.

Second:

I’m doing Camp NaNo!

Yes indeed. A couple of writer buddies dragged me into this. XD

Although I participate in November NaNoWriMo/National Novel Writing Month each year, I haven’t done a Camp NaNo session in positively ages. I kind of stopped doing word challenges for awhile there due to burn out.

But it’s been some time, and I wanted to try it out again. Plus you can set any sort of goal for Camp. So, hoping to get some small things like short stories done, I decided to go for it!

I… um… technically hit my goal and won Camp already? *coughcough* I set it for 5K, given how little I’ve been writing of late. But I’d like to keep writing as much as my busy schedule allows. 🙂

So far for Camp I’ve written 5,813 words this month (that was A Tale of Two Boxes, so far) and I’m having a blast! It’s a wonderful feeling to write again, folks. I’ve missed it.