I can't keep track of my blogs these days. I love them, but I really should pare down to something managable.

To update:

I have two sites going with Serial Stories, a Fantasy at:

http://www.greenleafesimon.com/

And a Romance at:

http://www.greenleafewriting.com/talldark/index.html

You might notice that the Romance serial is on a writing site, which I periodically find time to work on, as well. I add a short story here, an article there, and sometimes a Book Review.

Wow! I'm so busy these days with writing, that the only books I manage to get through are Audio Books. Just finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series and will write a blurb for Greenleafe soon.

Meantime, I want to bring Simon Simon over here to Writing.com and share my forty-or-so chapters with the Community and hopefully get some feedback on it. Putting a serial on the internet is all well and good, but most of the feedback I get from the ethers is SPAM. Ack!


 

After weeks of peering at code, brainstorming and tweaking, my online Serial Story website, Simon, Simon, is finished. It is at:

http://www.greenleafesimon.com

Woot!
 

I think I've found my genre. Well, that's not quite right.... I found my media: Serial Stories on the Internet.

It started quite innocently with a Blog - this one, as a matter of fact - then moved to Blogspot because there were more opportunities to 'dress up' the blog. It is still going with twice-weekly posts at:

http://greenleafetarot.blogspot.com

But even though I received permission from US Games to feature one of their Tarot Decks on my blog, I still found the whole thing very limiting.

For instance, I want to accompany the story with Character Outlines, Plot Tangents (my own term for when the plot goes off on a tangent) and even Maps. Plus, Introductions, Summaries and 'stuff'.

Well, over Christmas, I bought a $10 website - yes, you've read that right - which had very explicit instructions in the HTML code as to where to put what and what to put where. I got very enthused, because I'm the type of person who likes to take apart the toaster just to see how it works. I learned a bit of code and was able to get the site up and running in a matter of a week.

Wow! Thought I.... what a concept! What if I could do this with Simon, Simon.

So I learned a whole lot more code at a free online website - there's many of them - and trust me, it is really quite easy and took me only a couple of evenings to learn how to change the logo and re-arrange a few other bits, mostly colours and headings, to come up with a brand new $10 site which features Simon, Simon as an online, ongoing serial story!

Although it is still under construction, the bare basics are up on the 'net at:

http://www.greenleafesimon.com

I'm tickled pink! I've managed to combine several of my favourite passtimes - among them, writing, tinkering with stuff like graphics and web design, tarot and fantasy. You've got to love the internet!

 

In my Blogger blog at:

http://greenleafetarot.blogspot.com

I made a major change earlier this month (December) and began an online Serial Story, which I update twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 6:00pm. It is a story about a boy named Simon, and is loosely based on Tarot's life-path trials and tribulations. Added to this is all the accumulation of stuff from my own imagination. The combination results in a Fantasy World roughly resembling the Caribbean region. I'm currently putting together a website in order to outline characters, card meanings, plots, various side-plots and maps, etc.

Although it wasn't my original intent to write in this manner - my original idea was that old-fashioned item, The Book, but this seems to be working quite well for me. The installments are a bit rough - only slightly better than drafts, really - but eventually, I can turn them into a Real Book.

And guess what?! I've just received permission from US Games to illustrate the story with cards from their Hanson Roberts Tarot Deck, which spices up the blog considerably, as long as I don't use them for online readings, etc. The Credit Line is posted on the blog. Let me tell you, it was very exciting to get THAT email - I felt like a real person, not just an ethereally wafting entity in the general blogosphere. Woot!

http://greenleafetarot.blogspot.com

So check it out and perhaps leave a comment.
Cheers!
 

I've decided that keeping two blogs is too brain-bending, so I'm posting the link to my blog at Blogger and will post my book chapters here on Writing.com as I get them completed. Sounds convoluted? It probably is, but I've worked with Blogger lots and I like posting pictures and widgets and other blurbs there as well and feel more comfortable for the dailies. But you can't (or shouldn't) be posting entire novels there. Writing.com is the Bomb for that! So here is the link:

http://wrathofmool.blogspot.com

And my blog is called Wrath Of Mool, which is my working title. Check it if you have a moment and feel free to leave a comment if you wish.
Cheers!

 

Managed to get some editing done; slow going for a first edit. OT at work not helping as I fell into bed last night after a quick shower and was asleep in minutes.
 

Spouse usually goes out on a Saturday night, leaving me to my very pleasant solitude and quiet. Last night, however, was an "in" night and there was just no writing to be done with stereo, tv and conversation going on all at once. I did get a little editing done, but very little - only a page or two before giving it up to watch Jack Nicholson morph into a werewolf.
 

I made good progress yesterday, writing out my third-character synopsis until my hand cramped up and then going to bed with images and ideas galloping around my head. More research on the board today regarding "prophecy". I don't want the same old thing. I have a few ideas on how to bend the story, but have to get some solid background going first. Also, I'm only halfway through some editing of my rough draft and have already decided not to start with the originally planned Prologue - it seems to give too much of the plot away..... Not that I'm trashing it; just saving it for a more appropriate place later on.
 

Everyone was getting sick in the family the last couple of weeks - me included - and what with chicken soup, gym and helping out with grandson, Ryan, my writing tablet is still sitting on the corner of my desk. Taking things in hand again today and hopefully will have some progress to report shortly.
 

I got started on a First Edit yesterday, but only got three pages done - pitiful! - but relished it just the same. The first edit always means lots and lots of revision and it's here that my story really starts to round out with description and dialogue especially. A little task for today, is to get together something a little more portable for work. I picked up a zippered binder yesterday during grocery shopping - it was dumped at the cash register by someone else and turned out to be on sale for $3.98 so I picked it up. I'll carry my edits in there as the main binder is just too cumbersome to cart around everywhere.
 

Managed to do a little research regarding restaveks or restavecs in Haiti. This situation is revolting! I can't imagine how a country that was among the first nation to revolt against their oppressors in the trade of human slaves, primarily from Africa, has slipped back into such a low and repulsive form of slavery. I checked several sites for info and have decided that this subject must surely go into my book - my effort to have this shameful situation rectified.
Sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restavec
http://www.restavekfreedom.org
http://www.haitiantips.com/index.php/40

 

Not much so far today.... got two pages scribbled while waiting for a friend to come out of Giant Tiger. I hate shopping with a passion so I always have stuff on hand to keep me occupied in the car - just for such emergencies - and got the beginnings of part 2 of the first chapter started. A reminder to myself also to look up 'rekuvic'.... I'm not certain of the spelling. If Spouse doesn't talk my ear off this evening, I may even get more done even if it's just to fill in some blanks. Thank goodness for football!
 

With the enthusiasm of beginnings, I've managed to pound out some hardcopy from my written drafts of Prologue and the first part of Chapter One. And printed it out ready for a first edit; this I can do at work when it gets boring between loads.
Also, a little online research produced this tidbit: Control+2 results in double-spacing with Wordpad. If you want to go back to single-space, it's Control+1. Which means I don't have to run out right away and fork over bucks to MicroSoft for one of their expensive wordprocessing programs. Ha!
 

I spent most of the last two weeks getting my binder together. For me, that is one of the fun parts. I went to Staples and got a big 2" Robust white one, a couple of packets of lined note paper and some dividers. I picked out a new pen, too, a red Parker ballpoint fine, but I'll end up using it for work; it just didn't 'connect' for me. I'm very particular about pens, for some reason. I'm currently using an old Sheaffer cartridge fountain pen from school (40 years old this one is) and it is nice and smooth. The cartridges are a problem, however, and I'm on the lookout for a lever-type fountain pen that I can refill over and over.
So I had fun putting my binder together and spent some time last week scribbling out a Synopsis, making character notes, ideas notes and event notes. I started on the Prologue and also Chapter One. I'm very excited.