Good morning, Readers!

This weekend was insanely busy.  Saturday saw my first morning teaching kickboxing and self-defence for the winter session.  It was great, as it always is.  It's refreshing teaching women as a woman.  You don't get people (guys.  It's always been guys) arguing with you when you give instructions.

I went home immediately after and tried to get ready to record a few sessions of a new Co-Op Let's Play for Silver Stag Entertainment that I'm playing with my good friend and Kung Fu brother, Jonathan.  I haven't decided on a name for the segment yet, but I'm thinking "JonSon Co-Opted."  If you can think of a better title for it, please let me know!

Following that was a game of Archery Tag with Archery Games here in Ottawa.  I've said it before, and I'll say it 'till the day I die, this was the most fun ever!  Three friends showed up to play, and then there was a team of eight, and a couple who booked independently.  They were all strangers to myself and my friends.  Our referee divided us into two teams.  They were teams "Long Shot" and "Bloody Arrows!"

I was on team Bloody Arrows! first, and we dominated, winning three of the three games played thus far.  Then our referee for the evening switched the teams around, and I found myself on team Long Shot.  We played three more games to tie it up.  With both teams scoring three games a piece, our final game (we chose to play Medic again.  It honestly is the most fun of the mini-games on offer) would be the tie-breaker.  Team Long Shot won it.

I'm unsure whether to be thrilled or sad.  The team I started on lost.  The team I ended up on won. *shrugs*

It was so much fun!  And, to make things better, I only snapped the bowstring against my arm once this time around, resulting in a much smaller bruise at my elbow than last time.

Go me!

Archery Tag had me so pumped, I was giddy by the end.  Dinner and drinks with my friends that evening was much appreciated.  Gods Saturday was a fabulous day!

Sunday saw the beginning of my foray into recording audiobooks.  I'm currently recording The Dying God & Other Stories for release this year.  I'm recording with the help of Éric Desmarais, who has both the space, equipment, and software for it.  He's essentially my producer and apparently editor on this project.  I owe that man so very much!

I'll tell you what, though, it's not easy.  I kept screwing up.  I didn't even get through the first short story.  It took half an hour to read just a couple of pages.  Still, I've made a start, and I will be releasing my very first audiobook this year.  I'm excited and nervous about it.

In that vein, I am currently auditioning for voices to read poetry.  I'm looking for deep, masculine voices and have approached a couple of people already.  If you know someone who you think has an amazing voice for poetry, let me know!

...Within reason, though.  I can't afford to hire Bendysnitch Crimpingnoodle.

Next on my list of things to do in regards to audiobooks is to find a way to get them onto various distribution platforms (like Apple, etc).  It's a lot more complicated than you think, actually.  I'll get it done, though.

Immediately following my first ever recording session, was the first ever session of filming for Silver Stag's Night at the Round Table.  We're in a new location for this season.  It's quieter, there are fewer interruptions, and the sound will be better.  At least, that's the hope.

There was an episode from filming last year that I didn't edit together and upload, so that will be the first episode of the new season.  It's uploaded and will be live at midday today.

It was a huge weight off my shoulders to be filming Nights at the Round Table again.  The feeling of relief was so visceral, I actually felt like I was standing taller.  I missed filming.  I missed the laughter, the geeky discussions, and my awesome friends who all volunteer for this show.  It's so nice to be getting back into it.

With the weekend being as busy as it was, when I arrived home Sunday afternoon, I collapsed into bed and slept for a solid three hours.  At least, I tried.  I was starving, and the cats were annoying.  Oh well!

The week before had also been productive, despite the sadness.

I have finished my first pass at editing Daughters of Britain.  This week I will be concentrating on the second and final pass of editing, before I put this manuscript in a drawer for a month or two.  I can then concentrate more fully on writing The Third Prince.  If it all goes well, in a month or two, I will pull out Daughters of Britain and do a third editing pass before sending it off to my first Beta Reader.

I'm really excited about Daughters of Britain.  About two-thirds of the way through writing this book, I thought it was the crappiest thing I'd ever put to paper.  It's actually not, and I'm actually proud of this effort, and I'm really excited to submit the manuscript to the publisher.  But I must not rush it, even though the end is in sight!  It's so close... but so very far away!

So, editing pass number two for this week.  I have my work cut out for me, and should really be getting to it.

Ciao!

I am still sad.

Good morning, Readers.  Sort of.

So, 2016 has proven to be a tough year already.

I'm sad today.  I just read the news that actor Alan Rickman has passed away after his fight with cancer.

I'm a little bit in shock.  I had no idea he was fighting the disease.

I've very upset.

I didn't know Mr. Rickman.  I've never met him.  I've seen only a couple of interviews with him.  I don't know why I'm so upset about this.  But I am.

It just seems so very unfair.

Anyway, the news this morning made me forget what I was going to blog about today, so I'm just going to leave off here.

I still have work to be getting on with.

​Ciao.

Good morning, Readers!

Hard yakka is Aussie slang for hard, hard work.

It is also a work apparel brand.

It's also apparently a salve for your muscles in New Zealand.  I've got to get myself some of this stuff.  I'm curious.

This is the first week back at my full training schedule.  For those not in the know, that means I'm training at least two hours a night (often three) four nights a week, and teaching for two hours a fifth day.  This also means that I'm back at weight training two nights a week.  My schedule looks a little something like this:

Last night was the first weights session of the semester.  I can safely say that I have lost a fair amount of strength during the three week break our school took over Christmas.  However, the loss is not as egregious as it was the first break I took from weight training.  I can't do a pull up any more, but I'm still able to at least lift myself off the ground.  That's good.  It means I have a shorter way to go to get myself back up to my minimum that I did last time.

I performed fairly well during the weights session, is what I'm trying to say.  Not as well as I would have liked, but I'm still benching more than when I started, so that's a plus.  Double bonus, though I was feeling the pain last night at training, I can move around today with minimal ache.  So... Yay!

The hard work continues in other areas of my life as well.  I'm still working on a painting, adding details to the first of the features that need the details... the window.  I've been complaining about it all over social media.  This painting is the last I need to get done for my first of the more "artsy" videos I plan on putting on my YouTube channel.  I'll be very happy when it's done.

As much as I complain about it, though, the window is coming together nicely, and I'm rather proud of the effort... even if it took far too long to get to this point.

I mentioned yesterday that I'm editing Daughters of Britain right now.  I'm roughly halfway through the first pass of editing.  There will be one more pass, and then I can shelve it for a little bit.

Once that is done, I can concentrate more fully on the long rewrite of The Third Prince.  This is the first book of The Great Man series that began my whole writing adventure.  I'm rewriting the thing from scratch.  I just feel I can do better justice to the story now.  I'm more skilled than I was before.

It's a long story, spanning now roughly six books.  I'm aiming to contract that a bit during the rewrite.  It might end up longer, though.  Who knows?  My brain does weird things all the time.  There's a lot of stuff swishing around there.

On that note, there is a lot of work to get done.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Today I am celebrating.  For two reasons.

Yesterday I wrote the last words on the rewriting of The Daughters of Britain.  It was only the ending I was rewriting, but still.  It was a mess and needed to be done.

Now I am celebrating because it is done.  I have a completed rough draft, and I can now turn my attention to the first serious edits for the manuscript.  There will be a second pass to make sure everything makes sense and there are as few typos as possible.  Then I'm sliding this puppy in a drawer for about three months before I make a third pass with the editing eye and sending it off to my lovely Beta Readers.

Secondly, please join me in congratulating my good friend and wonderful human being, Éric Desmarais.  He signed a publishing contract this morning.

I am so proud of him!  I'm so happy for him!  I cannot wait to read this book.

I occasionally beta read for Éric, and this is a book I have not had my eyes on yet.  I'm really looking forward to it!

So, double celebrations!  Yay!

Right, I have a lot of work to get done today.  Here's to a bright future for everyone I know, and all those I don't!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Last night, I did something I've been meaning to for months on end.

Not the dishes.  Alas.

No, I vlogged.  I intend to be a little more active on my YouTube channel than I was last year.  Most of it will be paintings and stories or poems, but there will be a little bit of vlogging.  Anyway, here it is, in all it's low resolution, terribly edited glory:

So yeah.  It's a thing.  That I did.

Anywho, I'm off to get work done.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I'm a little ticked off at the moment.

As you know (or don't...?), I am a self-published author.  Still looking for that traditional contract, but I'm quite happy to write and publish myself in the meantime.

As you may also be aware, self-published stuff tends to have a bad reputation.  Much of that  is earned, to be fair, but self-published writers as a whole have been busting butt to erase that reputation.  We, as a collective, have been trying really, really hard to put out the best product we can.  And it's working, for the most part.  People are starting to take self-published authors more seriously.  We're appearing on panels at literary conventions, and several organisations have opened up their doors, permitting self-published authors as members where before they were denied.  Many writing awards are now open to considering self-published works. Yay!

Good job, self-pubbers!

Better yet, it has been a few years since last we heard news of poorly behaving authors as well.  Until Tuesday, that is.  When this gem of an article came to my attention.

For fuck's sake!  This is why we can't have nice things!

Self-published authors, what is it about this profession that makes you believe you can behave so badly?  I don't understand.  It's a profession.  Act professional!

There have been all sorts of scams associated with self-published writers, from sock-puppets to revenge reviewing, and now this, this trying to trick people into giving you a review.  You don't see this shit with traditionally published authors.  Sure, they get reputations for being grumpy, or racist or something, but they're never associated with scammers.

Too many self-published authors are.

This shit has to stop.

Look, I get it.  I'm there.  You're a self-published writer trying to get noticed without the support of a marketing team.  You're trying to get yourself heard amidst a cacophony of voices, all screaming just as loud as you.  For the most part, you feel like you're screaming into the void and no one is listening.  It's depressing.  It's hard.  It's really, really hard.

But guess what, bucko, that comes with the territory.  This is what you chose.  When you entered this profession, you chose the hard road (to be honest, there's no easy road with writing.  At all.  It's hard even for those with traditional houses to back them up).  This is what you signed up for.  It's tempting, I'm know, to try and cheat to get yourself a leg up.

But Christ, every time you pull shit like this, it reflects badly on the rest of us.  Those of us who are fighting the same damned fight you are.  Those of us slogging away every day to try and get noticed.  You're making it harder for us.  People will turn us away because they now associate self-published with scams.  And I'm not okay with that.

So stop pulling this shit.  Stop it.  Stop.  You will always get caught, and you're reflecting badly on me and my profession.

Do you know how you get to be a successful self-published author?  You work your arse off.  You get up, and you write, you write well, and you put out the best product you can.  You market and you hustle.  You don't scam.  Will this guarantee your success?  No.  No it will not.

But at least you won't be associated with the word "scam."

Now get off my lawn!