I’m so excited to share a new short story you can read on my blog today! Even superheroes have to pay the rent. When Restoren “Glassman” starts receiving broken things to fix with his repairing powers, it may be just the job he needs. But not all his clients are as they seem, and he may find himself in a fix he can’t…well…fix. Continue reading
Guys, I have art of my character Tare! :O
I’d never commissioned art before, but I won a character commission from the amazing Hazel B. West of Midnight Coffee Art and so I picked Tare because he’s my favorite of my characters. (Don’t tell the others. Just kidding. It’s no secret. XD)
I was nervous about it but Hazel was AMAZING and so patient and helped me figure out what I was looking for in this art piece and she did an INCREDIBLE job taking my vague wishes and coming up with a piece of art that I absolutely adore. She totally blew me away with the result. LOOK AT IT!
I cannot! I love it so much! It’s Tare! :O Leaning on a wall being cool and mysterious and a little dangerous! IN HIS LEATHER JACKET. I JUST. *heart-eyes* I mayyyyy be a little obsessed with this art. 😉
I’ve been sitting on this piece since November and it’s been my computer desktop background (and phone wallpaper…) ever since. XD And I’m so excited to share it at last!
I also completely love this ADORABLE Chibi-style artwork of Tare which Hazel also drew for me. Tare will probably never speak to me again. WORTH IT. He’s so tiny! And grumpy! And way too cute!
Imagining what his friends known as “the Chess Club” would say about tiny cute Tare art has me in stitches. XD
I also made a silly little banner with Canva and the Cute!Tare art, just for fun. (Tare says “Thanks, I hate it.”) XD
If you don’t hear from me again, I’m probably being held hostage by my own character for having the audacity to parade character art of him in front of my readers. He won’t admit it but he does like the first art of him. 😉 (Even if the attention all this art is getting him is, in his opinion, the worst. Tough, Tare — the burden of having fans and an obsessed author. XD)
All of this also inspired me to make some new mock-covers of the books so far in this modern fantasy series I’m writing. It’s been fun and is inspiring me to work on the series again after way too long!
(These are just-for-fun covers, and for the record, the books are still not anywhere near publication-ready, but I’m currently writing the third book and they’ve been my for-fun writing project for over a decade now. One of these days!)
This also may be a good moment to mention that Tare has a Twitter account! There’s…not much there yet but one of these days I’m sure he’ll start posting. 😉 (Er…if I get inspiration for it.)
Anyway, this was a sort of belated celebration of one decade since finishing the first draft of book one in March of 2013, and eleven years since the first day Tare walked onto the page in April of 2012. One day he’ll hopefully make it onto a shelf as well, it just…may take a bit.
But in the meantime I’m just sooo pleased that he has this cool art by Hazel! ^_^ I love it so much!
Let me brag on Hazel B. West for a minute!
I highly recommend this artist for character art commissions and hope to have her do some more of mine someday! Do check out the commissions page at her Ko-Fi page! And art account on Instagram @midnight_coffee_art!
And author account @modern_bard67! And her blog! If I missed any links, they’re most likely HERE!
In addition to being an awesome artist, Hazel also runs an amazing Etsy shop (I love the journals she makes!), and writes incredible books I adore! If you’re impatient for Tare’s series, or, you know, more of Agent Sean’s stories, and it’s taking me awhile to share either . . . well, you can meantime check out some of Hazel B. West’s spectacular books for some modern fantasy featuring snarky guys in cool coats, action, banter, brothers, and humor — all of which are things I enjoy writing and reading about!
Click the covers below to check out my reviews for these books! Or go straight to the latest release, Sweet Vendetta Blues.
But seriously, Hazel is awesome and has been an amazing inspiration and writing buddy over the years. Do give her a follow if you’re not already! ^_^
Also! I’m hoping to (finally) start sending out newsletters very soon, with writing and life updates!
So if you’d like to make sure you get updates on what’s up with my character Tare — and, you know, other writing updates — you can subscribe to my quarterly (ish) newsletter!
(If you’ve already subscribed, you don’t have to re-subscribe! I’m just migrating it to a different provider and planning to dust off the newsletter and start sending it out next week, hopefully!)
What do you think about the Tare art? Leave a comment below to let me know!
Thanks for reading!
Happy 8-year blogiversary to my li’l ol’ blog!
Eight years seems so long ago and yet at the same time it feels like I’ve been blogging even longer . . . just not much recently. XD Still, 350 posts (351 now!) isn’t bad.
Anyway, I had plans to do something fun/exciting for this but haven’t really had the time, sooo this is just a quick post so it won’t go unmarked. 😛
For fun, here are some random search terms that have led to my site and some answers to them!
So there is your dose of humor/randomness for the day.
Happy 8th birthday, Road of a Writer. *blows out virtual candles*
And thanks, dear readers, for coming along with me so far!
Have a nice Thursday. Cheers. ❤
13 years ago today, I finished writing my first novel.
Heyo, blog! It’s been a minute. Not having written in ages makes maintaining a writing blog, well, like a frying pan: hard. Who knew, right?
Anyway, August 31 is a special day, since in 2008, on that date, I finished my very first full-length novel.
It must have been pretty exciting, considering how many exclamation points I used on the page written in red pen in a spiral notebook when I wrote The End on a novel for the first time.
That was half my life ago now.
Since then?
I can’t help but compare my excited 13-year-old self who had just finished her first novel in a spiral-bound notebook (I think it was like 95K words), who was on top of the moon and enjoyed writing for the sake of it, to my half-my-lifetime-later mid-twenties self who hasn’t written in four months due to . . . something.
If I figure out what, that might help. Exhaustion both physical and emotional, busyness, lack of focus . . . something. I know I should give my writer self the benefit of the doubt — I’ve been dealing with a lot in my life this year and I have a job, neither of which my 13-year-old writer self would understand.
But the fact remains that my writing has been nonexistent or barely-there for a long time now.
My stories are not silent. I’ve had several brainstorms for several of my WIPs these last few months. They knock on the door of my mind, often without warning, sometimes without even knocking — simply barreling the door down and presenting me with new mind-blowing revelations about plots and characters and settings and storylines that I’ve been neglecting on-page for too long.
My stories are not silent. They are alive and bursting with new brainstorms — sometimes a torrential thunderstorm, sometimes a quiet flickering summer lightning storm if I’m busy or tired. But I’m always discovering new things about them as they simmer on the back burner like a patient oatmeal or a scientific experiment waiting to fizzle over and explode — not sure which.
My stories are not silent. It’s only my pen that is.
2020 was bad for my writing. 2021 has been worse.
In 2020 I wrote less than 40% of what I usually write. In 2021, so far, 2/3rds in, I’ve written less than 40% of what I wrote in 2020.
I have a coiled-threads mess of feelings about this that I’m having a hard time untangling.
I’m not sure which of these is . . . the real thing . . . if there is one.
Did I mention I overthink things? 😛
Dear 13-year-old-me:
I’m so proud of you for finishing that first novel! Ethan and company (okay, mostly your Duncan obsession, and the bears too) are in written-book form, and regardless of what happens to it in the future, that’s something awesome.
If you could write a letter to me now, I wonder what you would say?
Would you be impressed at what I’ve written since then? Would you be disappointed I haven’t published anything? Flabbergasted that I could go four months without writing a single thing? Confused at how I’ve managed to make everything that used to be a joy about writing and reading into a chore?
Would you tell me to find my joy again? To write for the fun of it? To breathe in and out and forget that I have failed so many times and instead to just start again?
Start again . . .
That brings to mind the song “Start Again” by Red. (Listen. Or lyrics.) It’s one of the theme songs for two brothers in my WIP The Other Half of Everything.
I’m singing it in my head, to you, past-self. (Even though you don’t like rock music yet.)
Can we start again?
Love, your future (now present) mid-twenties writer-self
Something a little different — today I’m sharing a writing assignment I wrote in a writing workshop earlier this year: 250 words of a Fourth of July memory. I thought it would be fun to post here.
Happy Independence Day to fellow inhabitants of the U.S., and a happy Sunday to international friends.
They say the stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas, and that’s never more true than on Independence Day.
Sitting in the back of a pickup truck or spread out on the ground, staring up at the vast blue-velvet night sky scattered with diamond stars which are already gorgeous even before the fireworks display. The expectation, waiting . . .
And there—an extra starry burst of explosions kaleidoscope across the night and fill the air with a bang. The colorful fireworks light up the night like memories light up the heart. Laughter and family. Pointing—ooh, there’s another firework—no, over there!
Prickle of grass, sandpaper-sidewalk feel where you sit, concrete still warm from earlier sunshine.
Fingers sticky with ice cream sandwiches, messy in the firework-lit dark, but worth it for the delicious taste filling your mouth with cool, creamy sweetness.
Then up and dance about (yes, safely), spinning with sparklers in either hand, showers of silver-gold sparks falling, writing your name on the dark or swirling fire circles before the flame winks out.
A night breeze cools the remembrance of summer heat, and with it a tang of gunpowder scent on the air, white-grey smoke clouds drifting wispy-faint across stars and fireworks and inky night sky.
Fourth of July, a night filled with stars of all kinds to light the shadows with brilliance.
A night when the firework stars are certainly big and bright, here deep in the heart of Texas.
Deborah O'Carroll (Road of a Writer) 