Tag Archives: writing

Fighting words

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I am, by both choice and inclination, primarily a writer of prose. However, from time to time my brain decides to throw a poem at me, which of course I must then actually work on until it is (eventually) finished, or it stays in the back of my mind bugging me.

Poetry does not come nearly as easily to me as prose does (probable in no small part because I practice poetry so much less), but I always make the effort anyway, if it really wants to be written. The current one has come up a couple times before, but was being more insistent tonight, so I have a very rough, awful draft down just to get some of it out of my head. This one is going to fight me for every line, though, since it wants to change rhyming scheme and rhythm in practically every verse.

You’d think, if it wants to be written so badly, that it would cooperate.

If I ever actually manage to finish it, I’ll probably post it. -_-

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Progress Update

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While my last batch of applesauce for the season cooks, here is a writing progress update! I promised myself a writing day over the four day weekend, and I got more than 4,000 words written on Saturday! Definitely my best day in a while.

All Land of Winds things, I worked on:

  • Land of Winds Book 2 – title probably decided but to-be-announced later
  • The Swordsman – A novella set before Book 1 that explores Alexei Vidari’s background
  • Untitled Short Story – set between Books 1 and 2, tells more of Elof and Maimu’s story
  • Untitled Short Story – also set between Books 1 and 2, tells more of Alexei and Ilari’s story

I’ll post some snippets of these at some point! (Anyone interested in any of them in particular?) The Swordsman will hopefully be out in ebook form sometime in the first half of 2019, and after that the publication order would tentatively be Elof and Maimu’s story, Alexei and Ilari’s story, and then Book 2. I have no real idea of a timeline on any of that just now, depends on how quickly writing and editing go.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend!

~Ethelinda

Thanksgiving

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It is difficult to know where to begin sometimes, with reflecting on what I am grateful for; I am fortunate that there is so much of that in my life. While family members have been going through some rough times lately, overall we are all well, and I am at least able to provide some support, even if it only emotional support and comfort.

I have a good home, and a day job that I love. I have family who love and support me, and many good friends, even if we are sometimes separated by long miles. My snake is healthy and just as inquisitive as ever.

And yet, as fundamentally important as all those things are, that barely seems to scratch the surface.

It was my great good fortune to be born into a time and a place that makes a thriving life possible: clean water, plentiful food, and advanced medical care are readily available to me. We have sturdy, well-heated homes to get through Minnesota’s frequently long winters, and air-conditioning to protect against the also sometimes-dangerous heat of the summer. More than that, we have amazing technology that allows me to talk to and see my friends, even though they are distant in place.

I had the freedom to choose what I wanted to do with my life, and to continue to choose that every day.

I know more than enough history to understand how rare and precious a thing all of this good fortune is.

And I get to write.

Writing is my first love, I think, though history is a very close second. There are so many stories in my head, I’m not sure I’ll ever get them all written.

But I get to try. Not only can I write stories with relative ease and speed on a computer, it’s now possible for me to get them polished into something good enough to share, and then put them out to the world myself, in case anyone else might enjoy them too. That’s an option that only barely existed a decade ago, and didn’t exist at all when I was little and just starting to understand all the stories in my head.

There aren’t really words to express how thankful I am to have all of this. The best I can do is stop and think about it from time to time, to put my life in perspective, and continue to work hard at all the things that matter to me.

I hope you all have things to be thankful for too, even if you are going through tough times right now. I hope that things get better for you, and for all of us.

~Ethelinda

Happy October!

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October has started out chilly and rainy for me, but that has made it a perfect day to curl up in my living room with my Halloween decorations up, the Green Dragon on the TV, and work on prep for the upcoming local author fair and formatting for The Witch.

I’m pleased to say that I’ll be able to do a cover reveal and announce a release date for The Witch (a prequel short story to The Wizard of Suomen) in the next couple of days! Stay tuned. 🙂

~Ethelinda