Experimental blog posts ahead

I'm going to be experimenting with different types of blog posts. Feedback is welcome as I work towards writing with a slice of life.

Blogfest Starting Now

Today starts KarenG's Labor Day Blog BBQ. I just left my comment over on her post and I'll be taking time this weekend to visit other participants. I decided to bring grilled chicken and veggies to the party, I've been eating a lot of chicken and vegetables recently.

And I also want to take this opportunity to say hello and welcome anyone visiting my blog this weekend. I did a little introduction on the blogfest post, but I can do one here as well for new visitors. I'm Claire, and this here blog in my main one. I blog about my writing, writing in general, and other things that interest me. My cats do pop in from time to time as well. My most recent novel drafts have been science fiction and fantasy. I also like to write mainstream. Heck, I just like to be creative and writing is but one way to do so.

I am thinking about other directions in which to take this blog so that it's not just a blog for other writers. The writing aspect is important, I don't want to loose that theme. I do want to make non-writers feel more welcome while giving my readers a chance to know me a little more as well. To me blogging is about community; getting to know and interact with others. In that vain I have decided to occasionally post some of my short fiction. I know I posted about my visiting local parks possibility awhile back and I'm still planning on doing that. It'll be a good break from getting ready for baby.

Yes I do have another blog. In addition to this blog I also have a blog for my beading work/jewelry. At some point I do want to open an online shop for my handcrafts; once I get set up with all the proper paperwork (sales tax and what not official stuff). I do like to post my works there either way, and I have some tutorials/tips planned as well.

And I have four cats, the ones mentioned earlier in this post. Two we went out to the local shelter to adopt while the other two found us through different situations. And I'm expecting my first child in February. It'll be interesting to see what my lap cat thinks of my expanding belly, and what they all think of baby. DH and I have fun guessing what each cat will do.

Feel free to introduce yourself here, and if you are on Twitter that would be cool to leave your @ here as well. It's fun to connect to bloggers on twitter as well. (I'm @Clairegoverts over there)

News: "I'm a riddle in nine syllables" +1

I know, my poor blog has been neglected as of late. I've had a lot going on and not much energy in which to do it. But I have good news to share. I'm pregnant, I'm expecting my first child in February of next year. I just started my second trimester earlier this month. I've gotten through the worst of the nausea and my energy level is starting to return.

I am planning on easing back into blogging soon. I miss reading other blogs and taking the time to write out posts for mine. I'm guessing blogging should be a little easier to do once I'm back on regular hours at work. This is the last week of summer hours, which means working longer Monday through Thursday to have a half day on Friday. I'll miss the half days but I'm looking forward to being done at 4pm again the rest of the week.

I am also thinking about posting the occasional piece of flash fiction. I figure writing time will be scarce once baby is here, and this will be a good time to exercise the ol writing muscles now with some short sprints. I can leave the more complex novel revision preparation for some time later.

And yes, the title of my post is from Sylvia Plath's "Metaphors" poem.

A to Z

I decided to join the A to Z blogging challenge, and I'm excited about the prospect. It sounds like a fun challenge to pick a topic to blog about  based on a specific letter. I am getting a little jump on things now so I don't face blogging block come April.

I decided to brainstorm topic ideas. While I'm going to try to focus on writing or reading related topics I'm sure some days will be random fun. I created a new document in Google with the alphabet typed out, a new line for each letter. Then as I get ideas I type them after their letter. I already have a bunch for C, and some for B, and H. (Things like creativity, books, character, hope, joy and such). As I said, I'm brainstorming. And yes, feel free to use any ideas if they strike the muse, they are just words/post ideas.

Updating

I feel bad for not updating my blog recently, especially with the monthly blog challenge going on. Though my last update is still this month so it's not to bad. This is the first night this week I haven't been involved in painting after dinner. So tonight I'm relaxing while watching an old episode of Doctor Who (Mind Robber). My new netbook just arrived today and it's great being able to be online and watching tv.

I am planning on doing a traditional Nano this year for national novel writing month. I had been planing on working on revisions then decided it would be fun to write a random first draft. I haven't done any planning at all, this year will be a "pants" nano. I need to install Office yet on the netbook, I figure it will help with writing. It'll be nice and easy to find a quiet place to write.

Happy October

It's October, which means two things to me currently:

NaBlogWriMo. I'm participating in this event for the first time the object being to write a post a day for the month of October. It looked like fun so I figured I would give it a try. I could use the motivation to update my blog more.

NaNoWriMo.  Short for National Novel Writing Month. It's a writing challenge to write 50,000 words for a novel (the novel draft doesn't have to be finished, only the actual 50k word count) first draft. Now I'm going to do something different this year and be a "rebel". Instead of writing something new I'm going to revise a completed novel draft. I'll be doing prep work this month and come November I'll set a goal for myself based on how October goes. If the NaNo site was online right now I'd link to my profile there.

Also a note, I enjoyed the Great Blogging Experiment. I'm still planning on responding to comments on my blog along with continuing to check out other posts.

So what plans do you all have for this month? Rest of the year? Writing or otherwise. :)

Time and days off

Why do days off meander away from relaxing to a multitude of things to do? Here I have this nice block of time but I keep switching from task to task to random amusement trying to fit things in. Though I haven't started the Wii up yet today, yesterday I spent some time on Mario Cart. I wanted to update my blog, the dishes can wait for later.

I want to be more regular with my blog. I do enjoy blogging and it's a nice way to keep up with other bloggers. Plus writing regularly is a good thing. I've been pondering the direction of my blog recently and I came to a realization this weekend. I like the general content I've been posting, and I'm still looking forward to the character conflict series I mentioned awhile back. I even have a post started saved as a draft. The tricky part is I have some really great thoughts while away from the computer for post wording that seam to evaporate once I'm at the keyboard. I'm tempted to buy a voice recorder to save said thoughts. That would be handy for things like cleaning and gardening.

I also decided that it would be fun to blog about books on occasion. I have a "to-read" list on Goodreads and it would be nice to share my reviews in my blog to. And it would be extra nice to read/review books by people I've met through blogging and online communities.

Then there are my cats. I'm thinking they might be mentioned on occasion in my blog, and mostly from the perspective of including pets into a work of fiction. I love animals, especially cats. If I'm not careful I could easily right too much about them.

Well, that's my post. I'm still participating in the Blog BBQ so I will be hanging around blogs today.

Update in Progress

Yes, I decided it was time to work on the layout of my blog to do something different than the default layouts. I started with the Minima template and edited the code from there, starting with adding a background. Said background is from an image I made awhile ago, which matches my website header image. I'm using the same color scheme as well to tie things together nicely.

I still have to play with the colors a bit more along with the header for the blog, but so far I like how this is turning out.

Getting back in touch with...

The purpose of this blog.

After reading a bit of advice on blogging for writers via Twitter, I got to thinking about my target audience. Right now I'm not published, I don't even have a polished novel manuscript to send out query letters for. Given that fact I figure for the time being that my blog might be helpful to other writers in similar stages to me. What I've learned so far about the craft of writing, what I've found helpful along with not so much. And to it is a bit of accountability for how my novels are progressing.

But with keeping an eye towards the future I want to have some more details about my novels in progress. That way I can hopefully connect with some future readers as I'm writing and blogging. It also figures into my website. On my novel information page I currently have a link for each novel to the times I've tagged Live Journal entries with said novel. The idea being that if someone is looking at my website, they have a quick link to see related posts about the progress of said novel.

Then today I had a novel (pardon the pun) thought. What if I have a bit more detail here as I blog with various fun facts or extra images relating to the novels in progress. I do want to be better about using tags (or label's in blogger's case) then I was on Live Journal. I have enough tagged posts where I merely mention working on a novel without having much detail in the post. I'm not sure exactly what sorts of things to include, and they won't be in every single novel post. Just some randomly for fun. Though all posts tagged with the novel labels I do want to have a certain level of detail about the current stage I'm working on.

In addition to tags, I thought it would be fun to have little post icons when I'm writing about various novel projects. I chose 100 by 100 pixels because I'm used to Live Journal size icons, and because it's a nice size. Enough of a canvas to work on without taking up to much space. I'd been wanting to include a bit more images on my blog anyways so this works out. They are going to coordinate with the novel being blogged about. The icon for this post is for my Science Fiction group of related novels. I may tweak the planets a bit but I'm generally pretty happy with it. I'm also sketching out one for the mining mystery, one for the related short story, and ones for my fantasy trilogy.

Status of Starting (the blog that is)

With this blog being all shiny new, I figured a good thing to post is the status of my various novel projects. That way it'll be a good spot to check back on as I make more progress.

My novels thus far come in three flavors, my science fiction related novels, my fantasy trilogy, and my stand alone mainstream novel.

The Science Fiction:
I'm working on the first draft of one of these novels. Each one will have it's own cast of characters, and conflicts, they are only related in the fact they take place in the same "world". There may be a cameo or two of one major character making a minor appearance in another book. I have various notes on the other two books, which I'm holding off writing until I finish then revise the draft of the one I'm working on.

Blurb for the current novel in progress: Federated Planetary year 309, our intrepid heroine finds herself on a distant hostile planetoid keeping the mining machinery running. A few malfunctions she can chalk up to machine wear, but when things start breaking more frequently and not on their own she can’t ignore that someone is determined to stop the machines from running. In the confines of the platform, can she find the saboteur before it’s to late?

The Fantasy:
This one is a series, which may end up with either 2 or 3 books. I know what happens in the first one, seeing as how the first draft is finished, and it leaves the main character in a place for the start of book 2. I know the general conflicts that take place after the first book, but until I plan them out more I'm not sure if it'll be two books worth or not.

Rough blurb: In a land where women are forbidden to use magic, one woman can't keep herself from wondering about the subject. What must it be like to cast spells? Stuck in a job chosen by her family can she find a way to pursue something that interests her?

After I take some time to revise my science fiction novel next year, I'm going to spend more time working with the details of this world. I'll then make notes about where book one needs to be fixed, and write the first draft of book 2, possibly starting in November.

The Mainstream:
Dubbed my "Alternate Romance" I have the first draft of this novel finished and have been working on what direction to take it for the next draft. This started out with the idea of writing a romantic novel from the man's point of view, and part way through the first draft I thought that balancing out both points of view of the two main characters would add more tension. I prefer to think of this as a "slice of life" rather than a genre romance. The relationship is part of the conflict, but it's not the whole conflict for the novel. Once the characters do resolve the relationship conflict, everything isn't all wrapped up in one neat little package. Not to knock the romance genre, but I'm not a fan of the "finding Mr. Right = everything is perfect for the heroine" formula.

Welcome

Despite the fact that I'm the only poster, I was very tempted to write "first" in here. At least on it's own that is.

Moving on, I decided to create a blog specifically for my writing. I'm planning on writing about where I am with my various novel projects, how they are coming along, interesting thoughts about them, and such. I may also post my thoughts on the craft of fiction writing, and possibly post about books I find helpful.

I've left commenting set to the default of blogger: registered users (the OpenID) can comment, with the word verification. There is anonymous commenting with moderation, which I may switch to in the future. I'm still debating that yet, I get way to many spam comments on my Wordpress blog, which clogs up my e-mail with all the notification.