Good Morning Adventurers,
And good morning to you who stumble upon my coffee induced ramblings on this fine day(Because I am a madman who likes to write and post these at 4:30/5:30 in the morning). Anyways, let us get to talking about what has been going on so far this past week.
Today’s Content:
- New Approach to Writing
- New Short Story Released
- Publishing Old Works
New Approach to Writing
So this past week, I ended up writing over six thousand words! That’s a huge PR for me, since I have not done that in a really long time. Well, not since college anyways, nor in such a short amount of time. To be fair, I only wrote about three thousand words total for the new short story, but I would like to point out that I did that twice. The first draft of this new story was actually written out on paper. I then went and transcribed the whole story onto Campfire(the writing platform that I use) while correcting any mistakes that I had made along the way.
Not going to lie, while I was writing the story out, I found that it was easier to create the story with a pencil. Whenever I am typing, I can easily get distracted with other apps/entertainments on my computer. When I’m writing on paper, those distractions obviously don’t exist. Plus, I didn’t even realize the story that I had written down was so long. I just kept writing and writing until the story concluded itself.
So I hope that you can see where I am going with this, dear reader. Essentially, I am going to give it a shot at writing Project:Dancing Night out on paper first, then transcribing it as I finish the chapters. Does that mean that my deadline for a early summer release might get pushed back? Yeah, but I am ok with that. There are many reasons but the primary reason being that I am still waiting for my commissioned art to be finished.
I know that one character is over half-way finished. That artist has been very on it with communication and sharing with me her progress. The other, when I originally commissioned her, did mention that it usually takes her about two months to complete a commission. So I haven’t heard much back from that one yet, but they are a larger account, and it hasn’t even been a month yet. So there is no need to fret about releasing this novella yet. So I have plenty of time to finish this project still, and I still need to do some research on copywrite laws and ISBN’s and such. So once I figure that stuff out, then I can move forward with actually self publishing the book.
New Short Story Released
Alright, so if you haven’t read it already, then I would like to be the first to share with you that I have released a new short story. I called it: Monster of the Valley
(My Wife actually helped me in coming up with this title. I couldn’t come up with a good one myself.)
This is the story that I had mentioned in my previous section that I had so much fun writing. I based this story on a writing prompt that I had found on reddit, and once I began to write, I just could not stop. Plus, I needed a break from working on Project: Dancing Night. So this was fun and I got to go back to writing about monsters, which is something that I did quite a bit back in college.
Another thing about this story is how it is written. In the beginning of the story, hopefully, it comes off as if someone is telling you a story. Think of sitting around a campfire and you listen to someone tell you about their life. Then about halfway through, it changes and you are now in a moment of time and events. We start to see how our narrator has grown and changed over time, and I hope that as a reader, you are sucked into the moment as well. I think I was able to create something unique as well as hone in on the idea that our homes are sacred and worth keeping safe and protected. That idea wasn’t originally what I had in mine, but it sort of appeared and take hold of the story the more I wrote.
Anyways, I don’t really want to prattle on about the story, but if you are curious then here is a snippet for you:
Then came the Great Flames. They rolled down into my valley from the mountain peaks, burning everything in their path. I thought we were safe, that my children were safe, that life was safe. Then I watched as they died. I watched as my seedlings died. I watched as life died.If I had a mouth, then I would have cried as the flames devoured my gorgeous leaves, but I didn’t die. The heat split my trunk at the ground, but I didn’t die. Most of my roots shattered and burned, but I didn’t die. As everything burned around me, the core of my roots continued to drink deeply that well of life deep beneath the ground.
The fires burned and burned and burned, and my roots continued to drink from that well. Those fires killed everything that I had loved, and it was the first time that I ever felt pain. Both deep within the channels hidden beneath my bark and outside of it. It first began with the hardening of my bark, and I cried out from one of the splits in my trunk that is now my mouth. The more I burned, the more I drank from that deep well of life. The harder my trunk became, the more life I felt within my body. When the fires died and turned to ash, the well of life that had sustained me finally ran dry.
Publishing Old Works
Ok, so I am going to keep this part brief in order for me to have this entire post finished by five-thirty. I’ve been tossing around the of reviewing my short stories that I had written back in college and publishing them here. Part of the reason why I am mulling over this is because then it will provide me with more content to post on social media. The other reason is so that I don’t get distracted in creating another short story while I am working on Project: Dancing Night.
On top of that, there are a few monster stories that are in the same vein as the one that I just released yesterday. So I am going to mull over this Idea and re-read those old stories. I know that a few are heavy on the dialogue while a few other ones are just down right cringy. Either or, I just wanted to share that with y’all.
A.G. Flowers 
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