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 |  My latest blogging endeavor to catalog my activities here on WdC |
 ~Myself~ My name is Cat Voleur and, as you've probably guessed, I'm a writer. I worked as a freelancer for a few years, taking several ghostwriting positions before finally deciding to start doing stuff under my own name. I've had a handful of small publications and am working on some bigger stuff now. ~My Blog~ This is my second WdC blog. I'm starting it because I just went through and renovated a lot of the things from my portfolio and I thought it would be a good time to get a fresh start. The book is titled after a song from one of my favorite Coheed and Cambria albums. It's mostly going to be about my and what I'm up to on the site. There will sometimes be other stuff like promotions for cool stuff that I find on other sites that I think you guys might be interested in as well as promos for cool content that I find on here. ~My Other Projects~ If you're interested in checking out some of the other work that I do, feel free to check out some of the following links: In Defense of the Horror ~ My Horror Blog hosted on WordPress https://indefenseofthehorror.wordpress.com/ And there's also a horror tumblr, for those of you who are interested: http://in-defense-of-the-horror.tumblr.com/ Toxic Bubblegum ~ A collaborative project I co-founded that provides free resources to creators. http://www.toxicbubblegum.com/ |
 Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog It's still a few weeks away, but it's getting close to that time of year for me to start wrapping up projects, getting queues set up, and preparing my social media life for NaNoWriMo hibernation. That will include WdC for at least the first couple weeks. I want to get off to a strong start this year. I'll still be checking in for events, but it's going to mean no new items, no contest entries, and I'll be putting my review requests on hold.  Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing Things in my personal life are not great. They're never great. I feel like I'm getting better at identifying the problems that I have in communicating with other people, but that's not really the same thing as knowing how to fix those problems. It's a step, but it's still exhausting to think about all the work I have left to do. Also, I'm still sick. I'm coughing terribly and it doesn't seem like it's going to be going away any time soon. Hopefully it won't last more than another week, because writing an entire novel while sick is something that does not sound appealing at all.  Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com In an attempt to make all of my time lying around on the couch trying to recover from my now perpetual state of cold-having, I put together a breakdown of Netflix Horror for my WordPress. (And I haven't announced it yet, but I've actually got a Hulu version planned as a follow up for next week) Here's a link to that if anyone's interested: Netflix and Chills: 2018 Streaming Breakdown  Got to make the best of bad situations, right? I also have some exciting podcasting updates: My creative advice podcast, Unsolicited Advice, has a new episode posted after a short recording hiatus: Unsolicited Advice Episode 27: MMMMRRRRRR In this episode we breakdown different social media platforms and how creators can use them to self promote content. There's also a new episode of Adventures! up. Adventures! Episode 15: Carprac: Irolt Dies at the End  Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here I have a couple bits of exciting Writing.Com News. First up, I got an Awardicon for "Invalid Entry" which won Weekly Winner in "SCREAMS!!!" It's very exciting, because it's one of the entries I was really proud of and it's good to see that wasn't misplaced. The next is that I have joined "NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon" again this year! I am on the green team, which is very exciting. Not only will I be on a team with some awesome people, but I also love green.  I still haven't decided what project I'm going to do, but I do have it narrowed down I think. It's something I'll probably be posting about soon, once my final decision is made or once I get some feedback from friends/collaborators.  Reviews A place for me to share reviews I've done and received I've only done a couple of reviews, as responses to requests, and you can find those here: Invalid Review  Invalid Review I also received two really awesome reviews from Angus  if anyone wants to check those outReview of "Murmurationis Cotidie" Review of "Murmurationis Cotidie" I'm going to have my review requests open for just a couple more weeks before I go on a month-long review hiatus, so if there's anything you guys want feedback on, now would be the time to ask.  Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings I think that's about everything. Just getting things together for a very exciting November's worth of writing.  |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog So... As always my personal life is a mess and I'm drowning in a bunch of projects that I signed up to do in order to avoid my personal life, so things are pretty much on par for me there. But, the good news is, projects. I'm working on a wide variety of things that I'm actually pretty excited about, and I've got plenty enough ideas to keep me busy for awhile, which I guess is a big part of what I want. I've been trying to work on myself, but a big part of that is going to be focusing on my career and taking this sort of big, creative chances. Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing It would be nice if things in my life were better. (This section might get a little more personal than would be ideal, but here we are.) Last week I had sort of an existential crisis and some serious doubts about my friend group. This week it's more about the very unsatisfying aspects of my relationships in general, with friends and family, and especially with my boyfriend. I'm in this weird spot where I feel like people always want more from me than what I can offer them - but it feels really hypocritical because at the same time, I want to start asking more from some of the people close to me. I feel like in an attempt to be a good person, I've let certain people use me in ways that was just wearing me too thin emotionally. Now I don't know how I can reel that back in without seeming selfish. It's something I need to work on, but it's just one area of my life that I need to work on. One of many. First thing, I'm going to work on getting my projects in order because, I know from experience that's ultimately going to be what pulls me through. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and get to my next section. Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com As always, I've been putting a lot of effort into my horror blog which is slowly gaining followers again. That's pretty exciting for me, since I was starting to think I had permanently plateaued.There are new episodes of Adventures! up: Episode 13: Critical Conversations Episode 14: The Ruins and Remains And speaking of Adventures... I ended up scrapping my NaNoWriMo project from last year because I wanted to do something bigger and more collaborative with the idea. Here's the partial rough draft that I'm still hosting from last year:
This version (which had four more parts than what's hosted there) followed the events of the podcast, just trying to tie things together as neatly as I could. Instead of cleaning that up, I got permission to take the whole thing in a really different direction that I'm very excited by. I'm considering attempting that for NaNo this year (although I'm not sure I want to do another collaboration this year.) I have a couple other vague outlines for things that I might do instead, all of which (surprisingly) are horror novels. So we'll see what I'm in the mood for as the date gets closer, I guess. Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here I do have some cool news on here, because I had an item featured in the most recent Horror/Scary newsletter:
was featured in "Horror/Scary Newsletter (September 26, 2018)" There was also a story I wanted to promote, but sadly when I went to link it I saw that it was an invalid entry. Reviews A place for me to share reviews I've done and received This has been the only review I've really done, but I suggest that if there are any Mystery/Thriller fans they go check this one (and the item I'm reviewing) out. Even as I was leaving feedback I felt like there would probably be some people on the site who fit better into the desired demographic. Review of "Foxvalley Chapter 2 & Chapter 3 re-edit" Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings And that's about it, I think. I've got a lot of stuff to be working on, so I'm going to keep the wrap up short and just get to it. Thank you guys as always for reading. |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog Hey guys! I know in my last entry I said that I was going to try and get more involved in activities and stuff on here to help get me through a rough patch, and that didn't really happen. I didn't snap or vanish or anything though, I just got a little cold that knocked me off the computer for a little bit. That sounds terrible and not fun, getting sick and not working for awhile when I was already not feeling great about myself, but it actually sort of worked out in my favor. I got a week to just turn my brain off, watch TV, drink more water, and when I came back I had to play catch-up, which kept me busy like I wanted (without me having to make a bunch of commitments that would stress me out later down the line.) I'd like to elaborate on all those things in this entry.  Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing While I was sick, I got really inspired. I was laying around on the couch, and at first I was just really bummed out. I spent the better part of a day dozing on and off through terrible Netflix shows just feeling terrible and it was not fun. After a bit, it got worse because my anxiety started to creep in through my medication and I started to worry about how I wouldn't be able to look after blog things if I got sick, how I would lose followers and it would eat up a bunch of time from writing my manuscript if I had to do another promotion to get them back, and how I can't really afford to be slipping up on the horror blog right now because it's the closest thing I have to having done something productive for myself this year. Then it sort of hit me that the whole reason I started running a horror blog is because I love horror. It wasn't something I should be stressed about, it should be something I look forward to doing. I started the blog because ever since I was a kid, I loved feeling scared, or scaring other people. I used to be allowed to pick the movie's we watched on Friday nights and it was always something scary. I'd look forward to that horror movie all week, and I'd spend all next week thinking about it and talking about it and delving into the mythology behind it. I used to keep notes on how to survive different monsters and collect creepy poetry. Horror was something that kept me going. My dad got really into movie reviews for awhile, and one of the first homemade gifts I ever made for someone was a notebook ranking all the scary movies I'd seen, so he'd know which ones were worth watching. Blogging about horror was something that I wanted to start doing because I wanted to chase that feeling of excitement that I had as a kid. That was how it started, and somewhere along the way it got to be sort of a chore. It's been stagnant for awhile, and I realized that was probably why. So for a few days I just watched whatever scary movies I could get my hands on, which was quite a few with a Roku at my disposal. Instead of talking about why I loved the genre, I spent some time just enjoying it for awhile and it was really refreshing. I got a little frustrated because while I was doing that I had so many ideas for things I wanted to do. I had scary story ideas and thoughts about how to improve my manuscript and things I wanted to do for my blog and I just wasn't feeling well enough to do any of it. Whenever I sat up my head started throbbing and my nose started running, and I was just so scared that by the time I was feeling better that inspiration would be gone and things would go back to normal. But amazingly, it wasn't. I turned my passion for movie reviews into a series of posts on my blog called "Gut Reaction" reviews. They're just short, little, 100 word reviews with a rating and information about where to stream the movie. I've written about 60, posted about 5, and they're going over really well. I'm in the process of turning my movie theories and notes into some deep-dive articles ranging from ancient mythology to modern horror franchises. I'm compiling notes for a series of articles called "American Horror History" which covers the real-life inspiration for American Horror Story. As soon as I can get the necessary artwork together I'll be back to doing "Phobia Fridays" where I just educate people about different phobias. None of it's big stuff, it's just little projects that I'm excited about - the sort of weird hobbies that made me want to start up a horror blog in the first place. I feel really passionately about this kind of stuff, and since I've re-discovered that passion, my readers seem to be a lot more engaged. It's been keeping me super busy, but that's sort of what I wanted, and honestly, it feels great. This is better than I've felt in awhile about anything I've done. I've had some similar inspiration relate to other projects, but I'll wait to talk about those until I see how they all go over.  They're mostly for my collaborations, so unlike the horror blog (which I run by myself) they're not just big decisions where I can jump in the deep end. Once I get approval (hopefully) from my fellow collaborators, I should have some other exciting things in the works. Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com First off, I'm going to link to my horror tumblr, for anyone who might be interested. In Defense of the Genre Secondly I wanted to link to a video: Unsolicited Advice Episode 26 This is the latest episode of a podcast that I've been doing with my best friend and collaborative partner. The series, Unsolicited Advice, is mostly us talking about different aspects of the creative process and, well, giving advice to other creators. It's a very, very small project at the moment but we're about to get our website back up and running, so I'm making an honest effort to promote the show more. (I'll be sure to share the website link when it's up, because it's going to have a ton of resources for creators, and I think it's going to be really cool.) We're also going to start recording a new series this week called Devil's AdvoCat. It's a show designed to make people hate me  No, but in all seriousness, we'll be covering controversial media topics where I try to defend things in the media that are generally perceived very negatively (Usually with good reason). In our pilot episode we're going to be starting things off with Netflix's Insatiable which was terrible, but which I will be attempting to make a case for since it has just been picked up for a second season. And my last tidbit of podcasting news, is that I'll be doing a Game of Thrones podcast by myself, that I'm pretty sure no one will listen to. I haven't titled it yet, but essentially what it's going to be, is Game of Thrones recaps, lore, family histories BUT it will all be in High Valyrian. I don't know if there's an audience for that, or if there ever will be, but it's a good way for me to practice the language for myself, and I'm really excited about it. Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here I don't have a ton of news regarding WdC, but here it goes. I have added a new folder to my portfolio
I probably don't really need this, because I barely use the romance folder I stuck this in, but I had an 18+ piece I decided to upload, and I didn't want to just stick it in my romance folder with the one fluff piece I had, so I made a new folder. Plus, technically, I do write more erotica than I do any other kind of romance, although I can't imagine sharing a lot of it. Anyway, that's a thing that I did. Reviews A place for me to share reviews I've done and received I've only done a couple reviews in the past couple weeks, and they've all been requests, but you can check them out here if you want. Review of "Happy Nights Inn" Review of "Missing Murder Mayhem" Review of "Yawara" Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings I talked a lot about horror, but then again, I guess that's usually what I talk about. I'm really excited about some of the stuff that I'm working on, and it feels nice to be so genuinely stoked for something that I'm doing. -Cat |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog I'm really burning the candle at both ends lately, but I feel good about it. I've gotten a lot done, I'm following through on more things, taking bigger risks, and for the most part I feel like it's paying off. Even in instances where something doesn't happen like I wanted, I feel like it's improving me as a person. I'm learning a lot and getting more disciplined, more courageous, and it feels great. That being said, I don't think it will last. I don't feel like I'm going to burn out any time soon, but then again, I never do. This is a pattern I fall into a lot where I get really busy and really productive right before I crash, and it scares me that's what this is. Being aware of it is a good step, but have no idea how to break the cycle and the best I can think of right now it to take a day for myself, and then try to make the most of this good feeling while it's here. Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing My personal life is never great, but it's not terrible right now either, and I'm determined to look at that as a positive thing. There is not a lot to talk about however, because at the moment, almost all of my life is writing. Writing and studying pretty much sums me up right now. Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com Offsite I'm mostly working on, well, work. I have a part time job that I'm trying to keep on top of right now, but I'm still interviewing and sending out some feelers for other positions that might suit me a little better. I've also been posting more original fiction to other sites in an attempt to expand my reader base. Networking has proven to be waaay more time consuming than I remembered, but the hustling makes me really feel like I'm getting my head back in the game. I think it's about time to start setting some bigger things into motion. Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here There's a really big event starting today that I am not participating in. It's very difficult for me, because even though it was an event that was not good for my sense of self or my mental state, there's a part of me that still wants very much to be a part of it. I thought about taking a break from the site again until it was over so I didn't see as much stuff for it, but working on contests and interacting with the people on here has been a really positive experience for me lately, and I don't want to give that up. I think my new plan is going to be to get invested in some other events around the site, see what other things I can get into. I can do some reviews, spruce up my portfolio some, and just generally try to stay busy in ways that don't interfere with my anxiety. Reviews A place for me to share reviews I've done and received Here are the reviews that I've done since my last post: Simply Positive: Invalid Review Review of "Audrey Hepburn Facts And Her Life" Review of "What happens next?" Review of "Enlightened" Review of "Links In The Chain" Review of "Darkness" Review of "Self love" Review of "The Silver furred Guardian" Review of "The Big Halloween Heist" Review of "We That Were Friends" PDG: Review of "The Other Side Of The Mirror" Review of "Mum's the Word" And I also wanted to take a moment to include a quote from a review I received: Not gonna lie, I'm a little afraid to go to sleep tonight for fear your dreams may have rubbed off on me by osmosis or something. -From DJill  in his review Review of "Dreams of Auschwitz" ^^ As a horror writer, this is one of the nicest things anyone could possibly say to me, and reading it made my day. And finally I just want to add that this would be an ideal time to ask me for reviews if you're interested, because I'm looking for projects to undertake. I am working this weekend, and then I'm going to be really getting into it. Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings I think that's everything. It's where I'm at, what's going on in my life and what my plans are. One final thing is that I will be looking for things to take part in this month (more than usual) so if anyone has any contests that is need of some entries, I'm open to trying all sorts of new things. Thanks for reading, and I hope to update again soon. -Cat |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog I've been feeling really inspired to do more things lately. And when I say do more things I mean, you know, finish things I was already doing or have had plans to do. This has been a wavering sense of motivation that I've been feeling since my vacation, and I think a big part of it was just the lessened burdened of my homesickness, for even a brief amount of time. Usually that's a little stronger, but I've had a lot of stuff fall through on me lately, so all things considered I think I'm doing fairly well. Anyway, some more things on that topic: Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing I read a really neat story online about this woman who made it her goal to collect 100 rejection letters in 2018. The whole thing was that she was having trouble making that goal, because after she started submitting to more places she started getting accepted more. Right before I read the article, I had sort of decided to start applying to more things and taking wilder chances. So far I haven't gotten any more acceptances than I did before (in the entire week that I've been doing this, I know, shocker, right?) but I have been getting into some better habits. I've been doing a little less self-rejection, I've had a little less anxiety about my submissions, I have been in the habit of finishing things, and I think I'm getting a little better at time management. So far I've gotten one shiny new rejection letter for my collection, and all in all, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Even though I know this is just a technique to trick me into doing things I said I was going to do, I think it's really working - and it's a method that I encourage other people to try. Now let's see if it can help me in the long term as well, I guess. Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com As usual, a lot of my offsite stuff is unfinished stuff that I'm just trying to work on. BUT, hey, at least I'm working on it, right? I've gotten some site coding, some random chapters written of manuscripts that have been sitting in my office all year, and some podcast recording done. A lot of my offsite work has been going to my new day job (New ghostwriting contract - yay!) and wild submissions that I have little hope of getting into. One neat thing that I would like to elaborate on though, is a new thing I'm doing with my horror blog. I've been editing some of my contest entries from here so I can share more original fiction with the horror writing community on tumblr. So far I've only done this with one piece of my microfiction, but it's something I plan on doing at least once a week from here on out, and I'm pretty excited about it, honestly. Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here I uploaded a new piece to my portfolio:
This is just a little drabble piece that I wrote for an offsite microfiction contest (which I entered very last minute and lost.) I also won an awardicon for
I honestly wasn't thrilled with how it came out (I went way, way over the word count limit and had to make a ton of last minute cuts) but apparently enough of the premise came through that I was announced co-winner with some other amazing entries that maybe should have won Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings I guess the moral of this entry is write more and take more changes. You'll probably be glad you did both of those things. I know I have been so far. |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog I am back from vacation! Like I said in my newsfeed, I haven't been entirely gone from the site ~ I've just been doing a lot more reading than writing/responding. But that's all about to change because I am back in my office at last. Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing For those of you who weren't aware I just got back from visiting some family back in my hometown. I really, really have missed it there and it was good to be back, even if I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked. Plus, I think the distance was good for me. It helped me get some clarity on some issues I've been having, but that's a whole other can of worms for a later date. Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com I got a new job that I'm really excited about. It's part time, but it's ghostwriting in a genre that isn't romance! It's not horror, but that's okay too. I can do horror under my own name, and that's something I'm going to strive to do more of in the coming weeks. I'm also up for another position and I don't know if I'm going to get it or not, but I do know that it would be pretty great if I did. I got a lot of random inspiration things done while I was on vacation, and I'm feeling really good about buckling down to do a lot of work on a wide variety of projects - Starting right now. The one thing I am really sad about is that I didn't get to work on my fantasy adaptation at all while I was on vacation. BUT! That being said, there is a new episode of the podcast out (I'm so excited to be sharing these now that I'm finally in them!) Adventures Episode 10 (This one was also titled after one of my lines which is cool, that's the first time this has happened.) Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here Like I said, I haven't really gotten a chance to do much on here, although I did get to enter SCREAMS!!! once while I was out, and my piece won honorable mention, which I thought was pretty cool Reviews A place for me to share reviews I've done and received This is the one thing that I have gotten to do a decent amount of, all things considered. Here is a review that I did as a review request: Review of "A Dark Fantasy chap 1 part 1" And here were my simply positive reviews for last week: Review of "I Won’t Fall" Review of "The Year Of The Horse" Review of "Sweet Jeannie" Invalid Review Review of "Ode to California Beaches" Invalid Review Review of "bleeding " Review of "blue and plummy" Review of "Awarded" Review of "Personal Apocalypse" I also received a very lovely return review this week! Review of "The Dragon of Westmont" And finally, if anyone wants to request some reviews, I'll be getting to them in a timelier fashion this week because I'm not on the road or with family or sightseeing. Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings That's pretty much everything. I'd like to write some more about my vacation and some opportunities I'm thinking about pursuing, but right now I just need to go get caught up on stuff. Thanks, as always, for reading guys. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog So, my first week back has been a little hectic, but mostly positive. This upcoming week is going to be more hectic, and I probably won't be very active this coming week. I have some family coming to stay with me (including 6 very young cousins) so I am going to have my hands full. It will be amazing if I can keep up just with my job, honestly. I wanted to make sure I got at least one more blog post in before I go dark again for a few days - but don't worry! This is not another extended hiatus where I drop off the site for several weeks/months - I should be back shortly. Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing Most of the stuff in my personal life is really a little too personal to talk about on here. It's a stressful time between me and my close family, and I think with all the visiting that's going to be somewhat strained. Things with my significant other aren't the best either, but I suppose that's the usual state of things for me. The one cool thing I've got going on that I can talk about is that I went to a really cool event today - my best friend took me to see Princess Mononoke on the big screen. It was one of my childhood favorites, and seeing it in a theater was a nice nostalgic moment, as well as really inspiring. I had forgotten just how good the story really is, and the art of course is breathtaking. Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com I took my horror blogs off of hiatus over the last week as well. I've only gotten one review done on the WordPress (and as always, it reflected a very unpopular opinion about a recent horror movie that everyone but me seems to be in love with) but I've got a queue set up for the tumblr, and I'm steadily getting a few of my followers back. I really wanted to do a promotional event and some new content, but alas, that is going to have to wait until after my relatives leave and I have some space to myself again.The 8th episode of Adventures (the gaming podcast I take part in) has been uploaded. I'm also working on the collaborative novel for it this week. Tomorrow I'll be getting a bunch of resources for characters and lore building that the entire party is going to be working on, and I've got two chapters of the latest draft done (and a new prologue written for it.) I have gotten some work done on the creative advice podcast I'm doing as part of a creative project. Our new site hopefully will be up by the end of next month, which is something I'm really looking forward to. (I think it's something a lot of the writers on here might appreciate, there are a ton of resources for creators.) In the meantime, if anyone is on tumblr and is interested in following that little side project on there, I've started doing a little bit of networking on there. You can find us here: Toxic Bubblegum The biggest thing that I'm really lacking on is actual, paying work. I'm getting back into the freelancing game for a little while. I took some interviews this week, but things seem to be slow going. Other than that, I'm making some good progress. Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here Considering I've only been back for a week, I'm pretty proud of what I've gotten done. I uploaded a new portfolio piece - it's just a little character exercise I'm experimenting with, but it was nice to work on. I entered "SCREAMS!!!" twice:"Invalid Entry" ^^ This one was a little bit too speculative, I had trouble getting it cut down to under 500 words, but it won the daily contest, which was very exciting for me after being away so long (and always feeling really insecure on flash fiction day.) "Invalid Entry" ^^ This one needs a lot of work - but I'm really proud of how the rough draft came out, all things considered. There are a few really big problem areas (a lot of which had to do with time and word count constrictions - two things I always struggle with) but I tried to really push myself with this one, and so far the feedback on the concept has been mostly positive. It's inspired by the style of one of my favorite writers online, and something I've been wanting to try my hand at for awhile. I definitely wouldn't say that I'm a natural at it, BUT I think it will take my work in an interesting direction if I stick with it. And of course, my most exciting news - one of my items got an Honorable Mention in Quills (which I'm not going to lie, I had forgotten was a thing I had been entered in for.) I wouldn't say that it's one of my personal favorites by me, but it was such an honor to have been considered for such an exclusive contest on here. Hopefully I do something worthy of getting entered in next year.
Reviews A place for me to share reviews I've done and received I got 4 really awesome reviews this week: Review of "The Writing Writer" by Angus Review of "Murmurationis Cotidie" by Angus Review of "Murmurationis Cotidie" by James Heyward Review of "Murmurationis Cotidie" by James Heyward Thank you so much to the wonderful people who gave me feedback on my writing this week - I got a lot of really great pointers and encouragement. I also did a handful of reviews myself: Review of "Return of The Banished Sorceress" Review of "Dead Man's Grin" Review of "Dead Man's Grin" Review of "Dead Man's Grin" That's only really two items (since one of those items is a book that I'm reviewing chapter by chapter) but they've both proven to be interesting reads thus far, if anyone wants to check them out. My review requests are still open (although I've got a bit of a line forming - and my week is going to be pretty busy, so this might not be the most opportune time to submit a request.) Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings And that's about it. I've got a few things I'd like to go get done before it's time for me to start my week of absolute craziness, so I'll probably be on for a little while longer. But if I don't talk to any of you guys until next week, know that I have every intention of being back. - Cat |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog It's been a few days since I've come back from my hiatus, and I just wanted to post this to say that I am slowly but surely getting into the swing of things - here and on the internet in general. (Except Twitter - I still haven't been back on Twitter yet, which I'm just now realizing. Oops!) Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing While I wouldn't really say that things in my personal life are great, I have to admit that getting back to working on projects and supporting my friends in the creative community does have me feeling a little bit more like myself. It's still a little overwhelming as I'm trying to play catch up, but mostly it feels pretty good. Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com A lot of my energy this week, like I said already, has gone into playing catch-up with everything I've missed. That also applies to my offsite projects - particularly my horror blog. I didn't lose too many followers on my hiatus, which is nice, but I did miss out on literally hundreds of creepypastas and countless promotional opportunities, which is always sad. I've had a ton of reading to do this week, and I've really only scratched the surface. In traditional Cat Voleur luck, I also got the information I've been waiting on to start my next draft of the Adventures novel, which means that I'll go from having no creative obligations at all to way more than I can handle. That being said, I really am excited to work on the book again and I feel ready to hit the ground running in order to stay on top of everything. My last bit of exciting news is super nerdy, but I want to share with everyone because, as it happens, I am a giant nerd. I finished my High Valyrian course this week. It's only in the beta, and there's still a lot of extra practice work to do before I'm fluent, but I learned all the basic vocabulary words and grammatical rules, which is a big step, and I'm very happy about it. Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here The biggest, most exciting news that I have on here is that I am finally caught up with my emails (aside from getting through a couple of newsletters I saved to read when I have the time.) It's been a good week of catching up with people, and hopefully I get the chance to do some more writing/reading related things soon. Reviews A place for me to share reviews I've done and received I am now officially accepting review requests again, both formal and otherwise If anyone has anything they'd like me to look over, now would be a great time to shoot me a PM. Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings To wrap this all up, I'm super busy but pretty happy about it. It's always good to feel productive, and that's something that Writing.Com has always been good at helping me achieve. |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog I took another one of my patented Cat Voleur hiatuses that comes with no warning at the worst possible time. Coming back from those always stresses me out because I feel behind and out of the loop and slightly guilty - and this was a particularly long one. I'm really sorry if there was anyone who was trying to get a hold of me or anything, but sometimes these breaks are just unavoidable. Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing Things have not been the best, hence my absence. Someone very close to me fell very ill, and then there was an unexpected death in my family. It's been a really hard couple of months and I'm just barely starting to feel like I'm ready to get back on my feet and get things back to normal. It's a little scary saying that. I feel like every time I do something worse happens. But I've got to keep trying, right? Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com I vanished from all of my social media platforms equally - so there haven't been an abundance of work opportunities or anything like that. Most of the writing I've been doing has been reflecting/journaling type stuff and writing exercises, nothing overly exciting. I'm hoping that's going to change very soon. The one creative outlet that I have really kept up with would be podcasting. I'm working on a creative advice podcast to get some material built up for a new site I'm launching with my friend soon. The tabletop gaming podcast that I'm in has also been recording, and as of this last week they're uploading episodes again (which means my character has finally showed up.) I'll casually leave the link to that here: Adventures Episode 7: Trash Ghost (And I know what you're wondering, yes, I am in fact the titular trash ghost.) For creative outlets though I've mostly just been doing art. Not particularly good art, but the stress free kind that I don't feel obligated to show to anyone, which has been nice. I've got big plans on things I'd like to start and or jump back into, but right now I've just got to see how well I can jump back into the swing of things. Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here As always when I return from these little breaks, help is appreciated. If I've missed any big things or there are any cool events going on, I could probably use a gentle nudge in the right direction. For this week though, I'm just going to try and get through some of my email, catch up with my friends, and see how it goes from there. Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings So that's it. Things have been difficult, but I haven't forgotten this site or the wonderful friend's I've made here. I am going to make an effort to be back, and fall into a more regular schedule with it because this is something that's really important to me. -Cat |
| Intro Leading you into the madness of my blog I wasn't really expecting to do a blog entry today, but I signed in to find a bunch of emails and congratulations. I couldn't figure it out at first, but then I saw that my suitcase is yellow. I guess I'm a preferred author now? I don't know what that means in terms of... anything really but I'm pretty excited about it.I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who was so on the ball with the congratulations that they had emailed me before I even knew this had happened: eyestar~* ~Minja~  bobturn Sum1  Choconut  And of course, thank you to Writing.Com for promoting me. It has been sort of a rough month for me personally, and a bit of a mixed year here on the site, but this was such a nice surprise, and it cheered me up, which is something I didn't really know I needed. Personal A little context about my personal life outside of writing I'm not going to dwell too much on my personal life today, because that's a big mess and I'm in too good of a mood to make myself sad worrying about that. What I will say, on a personal note, is totally random, so prepare yourselves. I miss titling my blog posts after songs, and I think that's something I'd like to get back to. To further elaborate on that, have a song quote that relates to the title of this blog post.  "I watch my yellow cat play with my red cat in the yard. The feline war has raged for years, so I assume it'd be too hard for me to drive my foot between them, I would never risk the scratch, just to prove to one or both of them a cat is just a cat."-Say Anything And I suppose that's about it. (Unless anyone would like to hear about the video game I was procrastinating with this morning - because that's sort of cool. It was Fran Bow, and I finally, FINALLY got my 100% completion for it.) Offsite Some information about writing that I'm doing off of Writing.Com I haven't done a lot of work offsite that I can share - mostly it's been contract work and submissions, which I'm not currently at liberty to host. (If I don't make these anthologies though, I'm going to be hosting some stuff I'm pretty excited about later on this year.) I can link you guys to a couple things though, if anyone is interested in some of the work I do elsewhere. I did a Top 13 list yesterday about my favorite female characters in Horror movie, which you can check out here. And Toxic Bubblegum posted a few more episodes of the podcast - we did a two part valentine's day special where we talked about tropes and the romance genre. The first part of that is available here. A lot of that first episode is just me griping about Grey's Anatomy, but the second part is better, I promise. Writing.com Updates about cool things I'm doing right here I guess the biggest Writing.Com news I have is, well, the whole yellow case thing. That's pretty exciting. If I get the opportunity over the next few days, I'll be uploading one or two new things to my portfolio to celebrate - I've been wanting to get more content up here for a long time now and this seems like a good sign that it's time for me to finally get around to that. I do have one other quick thing I guess I should share. Do you guys remember this:
Well, it was featured in "Horror/Scary Newsletter (February 14, 2018)" . Reviews A place for me to share reviews I've done and received I haven't been doing as many reviews lately (although, it's still something I'd really like to get back into more actively) but I have completed a few upon request: Review of "Foxvalley Prologue & Chapter 1 re-edited" Review of "The Coffee Shop" Review of "Chapter 1, Gideon, REVISED " Review of "The Spinster Of Claiborne Parish, LA." And I also received a couple of really nice reviews (for Silence of the Lamps, of course) that I would like to quote here: "I LOVE this. This sucked me in from the first line, as good scary stories are supposed to. The POV of the writer's spouse is a brilliant one. So glad I came across this." - gypsyheart89 "This is a wonderful story. The tone is full of fear and panic. It grabs all the reader's attention and makes them want to read on. The reader is wondering if Jane's fears are justified." - amy-Has a great future ahead  Thank you guys both so much for taking the time to read my story, and for these comments in particular which really made me feel great. Conclusion Wrapping up my ramblings I guess that about wraps it up. This is a really exciting opportunity for me. I'm honored to have been moved up and I'm going to do my best to live up to the title. Thank you guys as always, for the support and the congratulations and just generally for being an awesome community. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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There is a constant stream of stray cats in our area. I said three was my limit with also having our big dog to care for, too, but now my limit is four! 
This is a great review and it's good to have you back Kat. Also, thank you for reviewing my poem, I will catch you up on that as I am a bit behind with myself and work. Loves Ya. 
