Life Happens

Shortly after I made last week's post, it occurred to me it was time for me to do my typical "plans for next month" post.  Oops.  Before I jump into that, though, I want to take a minute to explain a few things.  

If you've been following this website for a while, you know that sometimes I set goals and deadlines that I don't always meet.  Last year, I was really hard on myself about this.  This year, for a lot of reasons, I'm keeping a more positive outlook on that.  OK, so I didn't post about my plans for May by May 1st.  My bad.  I forgot.  I had other stuff to deal with.  But no one died, and nothing caught on fire, so really, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Sometimes when I've gone in to write a post about why I haven't put something together in time, or why I'm delaying a project, it has come off as apologetic or making excuses, when really all I need to be doing is giving my readers an explanation.  Last year, I didn't get a lot of writing work done, because for the majority of the year I was spending most of my time away from work looking for a new job.

This year, fortunately, I have a new job with fun and supportive people that doesn't leave me drained at the end of the day.  So, yay, I should have time to write, right?  Well, yes, in theory.  But then life happens.  I got engaged last month - yay!  But that also means that now I'm spending a substantial amount of time working on wedding stuff, especially since we've decided on a short engagement.  I started going to a new writing group, which is good for me because it gives me a chance to get feedback, grow as a writer, and offer my own contributions to others' work or positivity.  But that's also time that takes me away from any big projects I could be working on at home, and it could also potentially have me working on more than one project at once.  

Life happens: we meet up with people for Easter, Mother's Day, and engagement dinners; work gets crazy during the week of finals and graduation; people get hurt; home improvement projects that were supposed to be a 1-person, 20-minute quick fix become a 2-person, 3-hour, worried dog ordeal.

And remember those 3 partial novels I was supposed to finish reading and decide which one to work on by the middle of April?  Yeah, guess who still isn't finished reading the third one...

Life happens.  Life always happens.  Yes, it's good to have goals, but I also need to learn to chill out a little bit when things happen that keep me from finishing those goals.  It has occurred to me that this is going to be the norm rather than the exception.  But, with that said, it also occurred to me that while I'm playing catch up, I have an easier project that I can work on.  Maybe what I should do, at least until I get more of the wedding details nailed down, is work on getting "Ashes"* published.

Putting the final touches on and submitting a story might be the ideal project right now.  The story is done.  It is solid and good.  It's about 5 1/2 pages, double spaced, so even doing a couple final read-throughs and edits is going to be a quick task.  Formatting a story that short for submission is easy.  Submitting is even more-so, now that a lot of websites use the same software to upload a piece for their consideration.  I can have Ashes ready to submit within the next week or two, assuming I can find an hour or two (not even together) to read, edit, and format (but that is also going to depend on if we go to Tennessee sometime soon to meet with vendors).  

Submissions?  Pfff.  Most submissions take less than 5 minutes, unless they need special formatting or have a different software.  I can reasonably submit Ashes to 5 literary magazines before the end of May.

I will finish rereading Brinyor first, though, because I'm almost done, and because that will help me determine my next big project, which, at this point, I will not make a guess as to when I can reasonably start working on it.

I will update you all around the end of May to let you know how I've done on the above.

*A little bit more about "Ashes" can be found in my previous post, here: 

https://www.iveyink.com/blog/2017/4/30/my-theatre-major-comes-in-handy

My Theatre Major Comes in Handy

It's funny how I look back on stuff now, stuff that I didn't realise years ago might be useful for more than just the reason I was doing it then.

As some of you reading this know, I was a theatre major.  As such, we did a lot of exercises about things like why a character does what he does, how to use your own memory (or imagination) of sensory detail to make your performance deeper and more meaningful.  At the time, I wasn't thinking about how I might ever use these sort of things other than in a performance.

But now I write.  And one of the things I've found is that a lot of what we worked on in theatre translates well to writing.  You have to know your character inside and out - things that the audience may never see or know about, you have to know about.  The audience might not ever have smelled freshly cut poplar wood, or heard the scream of steam escaping a boiling conch, or walked outside at night under a sky so far away from any lights that you feel like you can see to the end of the universe.  And maybe you never have, either.  But if it's a part of your character that's important for the audience to know, understand, or feel, you have to help them.  You have to deliver that sensation to them.

One of the things I've realized about my writing is that I am very good at this.  When I go to workshops and get feedback and critiques, one of the constant and pretty much universal observations is how good I am at folding rich, sensory details into my work.  One reader at a workshop once said that my level of description is cinematic; when she read the excerpt from my novel she could very clearly see the world I was describing.

I was reminded of this recently when I started going to a new writing group.  I took a story that I knew was good, knew in my bones that it was strong and well-written, but was also concerned about sharing it with a new group.  I was concerned that the details might be too strong, the emotions might be too much to throw at people who didn't know me.  And you know what?  When I asked the group, "Is it too much?" the overwhelming response was that it was just right.  "Don't change a word," one of the ladies said to me.  Another thanked me for being brave enough to "dare to go there."  Two women who I had never met got teary while I was reading it, because it resonnated with them so strongly.

The peice I talk about above is a short story called "Ashes."  It's going to be the next peice I work on for submission (and as evidenced by the feedback above, it's pretty much ready).  So you won't be seeing it on here for a while*, but I promise, someday I will share it with the world.

*Most literary magazines require that submissions be unpublished, even on personal websites.  

Revisiting a Post from Last Year

I've had a lot to deal with this week, so instead of pushing myself to write something new by the end of today, I'm going  to re-post a blog from not quite a year ago.

I promise I will have an update on what project will come next at some point, but now that looks to be later rather than sooner.

Importance of Ceremony: Weddings (Post from May 23, 2016)

My boyfriend’s sister got married this weekend.

I’ve been through a lot of weddings: notably my sister, my best friend, and my boyfriend’s best friend.

I think it’s important to commemorate special events in life with ceremonies and rituals. But as a writer, and a history buff, I also find myself at these ceremonies thinking about the why, the history, and all that.

Why the white dress?

Have you ever been to a wedding where the bride didn’t wear a white dress? Unless you’ve been to a wedding that was of a different (non-Western) culture, odds are you haven’t. Why? Well, everyone goes on about the whole history and tradition of the white gown, how it stands for purity and all that.

But what most people don’t know is that the white wedding dress goes back less than 200 years. When Queen Victoria got married in 1840, she chose white for her wedding gown and started a trend that is still going today. Yes, that’s right, this grand tradition, that is pretty much a cultural imperative at this point, really only exists because a young political figure wore something people thought looked cool.

Somewhere along the line, this got tied into the symbolism of white = purity. But for much of Western history, your wedding dress was just whatever dress you happened to own that looked the nicest. Yeah, you might make or commission a new dress for your wedding, but it would be something you’d wear again after the event. In 1888, Laura Ingalls Wilder got married in a black dress – it just happened to be the nicest and newest dress she owned.

What really irks me is reading or watching a period piece that goes into great detail about the bride’s white gown and veil at a time or place that one or both would have been an odd choice at best, or even in some cases inappropriate. White actually is (or has been) the color of mourning in many countries and cultures. For much of medieval European history, blue was actually the color associated with purity and was a popular color for wedding dresses.

(Me personally, I would love to get married in a red dress, because I look smashing in red and not-so-great in white. When the time comes, I probably won’t get married in red, simply because of cultural norms.)

Why the veil?

The modern wedding veil is a vestige of a time when arranged marriages were common and the bride and groom often did not even meet until the day of the wedding. This is also where there superstition about it being bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding comes from.

The veil was partly there to show that no man had even looked upon the bride, let alone touched her, prior to the groom. How much of this was actually believed, and how much of this was just for tradition’s sake varies widely by time period and country. Obviously in a place and time where girls were married much younger, as young as their early teens, and emphasis on avoiding premarital sex was much stronger, this was something that was a lot more believable than a 30 year old woman walking down the aisle in a white dress and veil. No one even thinks about the symbolism behind the father of the bride lifting his daughter’s veil when she and the groom have known each other for years prior to getting married.

So how does all this tie back into writing, as opposed to just being a rant about an industry that has grown up around a an important ritual (like the commercialization of so many holidays that people love to complain about…)? I guess for me it’s finding the best balance between historical accuracy and the symbolism readers look for.

If you’re writing a strict historical piece, what can you inject in to show that this is a different time and culture without the reader saying, “what the heck is this weirdness?” Depending on how familiar the culture is, or how much you’ve built the world, it could be as easy as saying, “I was wearing red, as was appropriate to wear for a celebration.” Or you might have to build it up a little. “My father draped my head with a flame-colored veil. The bright colors were intended to confuse and frighten any evil spirits who might be nearby. My sisters led me through the town, scattering herbs to further purify the air and keep me safe, while friends and family lined the street and chanted hymns of protection.” The latter – a longer description of an unfamiliar ritual – might be better for either a time period that’s less familiar, or for a world that you have completely created, such as a sci-fi or fantasy setting.

For that matter, how far from the recognizable can you get before your audience doesn’t see any parallel between the modern Western marriage and the ceremony in the world you’ve created? I have a piece in mind where a child of the first humans to land on another planet marries one of the native aliens. How to handle that ceremony? How do the people of this planet symbolize binding a couple together? At the moment, what I have in mind for the ceremony involves the couple’s hands, arms, or possibly their whole torsos, being wrapped in a rope made many strands of string, each strand having being given by a member of the community. In addition, instead of rings, the palm of your dominant hand is tattooed with the symbol of your spouse’s family (so that when you clasp hands, the symbols touch). Is that enough to get the idea across of a meaningful ceremony of joining? Well, eventually I will write the rest of the story and we will find out! : D

Asking the Hard Questions

I've been mulling over what writing project to work on for a while now.  I've been in the process of rereading my 3 partial novels and weighing things like which I have written more for vs. which I would need to rewrite more for.  Sadly, it looks like the answer to previous comparison is the same piece.  

My 90+ page novel that I have been working on for about 6 1/2 years now (Bright Fire) is also the one that has the clunkiest writing, the most tangled narrative, the worst logic issues, and the longest passages of "telling not showing."*  I'm not done rereading this one, but I can already tell that it's going to take the most rewriting by far, and given that I have a 81 page partial novel (The Wolf and the Sheath) that's also going to need a good amount of rewriting, that's saying a lot.

I think part of why I'm still clinging to BF, is that several years ago I took about 10-15 pages of it to a workshop.  The response was overwhelmingly positive - glowing, even.  I think I got my head so wrapped around the fact that people thought those 15 pages were really good that I lost sight of a major factor: 15 pages of good material doesn't make up for another 75 of knotted mess.

I started going to a writing critique group last weekend.  I brought a short story I wrote about a year ago that is, with the exception of a couple minor tweaks, publishing-ready.  And, again, the response was overwhelming.  Between that and the fact that I am now also trying to plan a wedding and have to allow time in the week for that on top of my "real" job and writing, I kind of started to look at this a different way.  

Writing time is going to be a precious commodity from here on out, at least for the next several months.  Do I really want to spend all my writing time trying to fix something that is, in all likelihood, going to frustrate me a lot, for the sake of 15 stellar pages?  Or do I want to work on a piece that I haven't felt as daunted by, that is almost as long, that probably also has at least 15 good strong pages in it, and, even though it needs rewriting as well, doesn't have the depth of problems that Bright Fire has?

I have to remind myself that just because a peice I shared with a group is good, doesn't mean that another peice I haven't had feedback on yet isn't.  It may be time to accept that in order to actually make progress on something, I have to back away from the peice I've been so focused on for so long.  I'm not saying I won't work on BF one day, and I'm not saying I've definitely decided to workshop W & S instead.  I still want to finish rereading BF - maybe something just past where I am now will spark my imagination and inspire me to work on it anyway.  I also want to reread Brinyor (my third and shortest novel), even though it's only been a year since I was last working on that one.  I want to make sure I give all three the same amount of attention and contemplating before making the decision to work on what I hope to make my main project for the next several months.

So now I just have to ask myself the hard questions: even though I'm more emotionally invested in Bright Fire, is it the best thing for me to be doing right now?  Am I going to dread coming home and sitting down to the keyboard?  Am I going to drag my feet and find ways to stall the actual rewriting process?  I'm going to think about these long and hard after I finish rereading and then we'll see.

*In writing, you are supposed to "show, don't tell."  You show the action.  You show the characters' emotions by describing what their faces look like or what about their stance or fidgeting gives their emotions away.  This isn't Shakespeare where the king gets killed offstage and someone comes in and tells the audience about it.  (That's not mean to be a knock to Shakespeare.)

A New Storytelling Medium

I got engaged last weekend.  As you can imagine, that has kind of kept me occupied this week.  In the preliminary research I've started doing about wedding timelines, how to do what, what to avoid, etc., one peice of advice I have found is this: the wedding is an opportunity to tell your story as a couple.

I've done a lot of storytelling in a lot of different media over the years: theatre, dance, straight-up storytelling for kids, writing, tours, and even costume design.  It had never occurred to me before that a wedding could also be a storytelling medium.  

I was kind of in a panic this week - I'm not the most social person, and the idea of having to host a party for all my cousins, my finace's cousins, and our close friends was very unnerving.  But now I have something familiar to hold onto.  Now Jason has something familiar to hold onto.  As a long time role playing gamer, he's not unfamiliar with the idea of being a storyteller.  

Plus, that also gave me an idea for the theme for the wedding (or at least the invitations, ha!) - the idea of inviting our guests to join us on an adventure or quest.  Yeah, it'll probably come off as goofy to some people, but really, when you get down to it, the wedding is about us.  It is about this weird, goofy, somewhat anti-social couple and our story.

April Plans

Hi, everyone:  a quick update on my next project, as promised.

Though not quite what I promised last weekend, I don't have a definite project decided on yet.  I had really wanted to reread all 3 of my partial novels before I made a decision, and that has wound up taking me longer than I expected.  It's one thing to look over all my notes of what needs to be done and what the "problems" are, it's another to go back and reread what I've actually written and get excited all over again.  

I also didn't get a lot of feedback on my previous posts, aside from "option 5 sounds interesting;" so I didn't have the "3 people are interested in X, 6 people are interested in Y" comparison I was thinking I would have.

So, my plans for the the first half of April are that once I finish rereading Bright Fire and Brinyor (having just finished rereading Wolf and Sheath), I will then take stock which story really excited me more on rereading, and compare that to any other feedback I've gotten by that point.  Once I decide that I will update you all again, and what I decide on will be my long-term project for the next few months.

With that said, if you missed either of the other 2 posts, please feel free to go back and read them and give feedback:

https://www.iveyink.com/blog/2017/3/28/in-a-world-where-writers-write-stuff

https://www.iveyink.com/blog/2017/3/26/what-to-do-next

In a World Where Writers Write Stuff...

OK.  Let’s try this a different way. 

I recently tried an exercise that had you write the synopsis of your story as if it were the narration of a movie teaser trailer.  (“In a world where stuff happens, your main character must do things before bad stuff happens!”) 

So, because my previous post may have been too long and wordy, let’s try this instead:  Read the brief “teasers” below and tell me which one sounds the most interesting.  (Imagine Morgan Freeman narrating, and crank up some dramatic music while you’re at it ; )

1. The Wolf and the Sheath: In a world where women inherit, where peasants can rise to the ruler’s advising council, and where wolves can be trusted more than those you counted as allies, a young noblewoman must find her place and lead her people before her new realm loses everything all over again.

2. Bright Fire: In a world where suspicion and hunger can overpower sense and family ties, a girl with a frightening power must decide whether to risk her life to save her village – the very people who cast her out.

3. Brinyor: In a world where the old knowledge is hidden, where invaders can become allies, and where your own family can hide secrets, a young priestess and the descendant of her people’s oppressors must work together to protect their land from a new threat.

4. Juliet, Asher, and Ellen: In a world where scholars fight evil and students are capable of unimaginable power, a centuries-old evil awakens to terrorize a university – and only a part-time librarian, a B-rated movie star, and an unexpected guest stand in its way.

5. The Lost Heir: In a world where kings die without heirs and prophecies are a valid means of succession, a royal steward and the palace cook must team up to find the truth – before those who would rather bury the truth have their way.

What To Do Next?

Hello, readers!  I would like your input.

For those of you who are new to this site, this is something I do every so often.  Sometimes I will make a post requesting feedback or opinions on something I’m working on.  This is the first I’ve done of this type of post in a while, and the first ever on the new website format.

I am debating which project to start working on long-term in April, now that I’ve gotten used to my new writing schedule.  I am debating between the 5 projects listed below.  Take a look at the descriptions for each and let me know your thoughts.

These are the projects I’m currently the most interested and/or invested in.  They are in order by how long I’ve been working on them.  Keep in mind that these are just working titles, and basic descriptions; the title, character names, and/or synopses listed below are by no means the final versions.

Click on the working title for a more detailed description of plot, pros, and cons:

1. The Wolf and the Sheath

A young noblewoman inherits the reign of another nation from a distant relative. This rural land is very different from the urban court where she was raised, and she finds she has room to grow and learn. As she learns more about the land and people she now rules, she also begins to learn more about herself, outside forces at work, and surprising new capabilities.

Genre: Young adult quasi-history or magical realism. (You’ll see me use the terms “quasi-history” and “artificial history,” sometimes interchangeably. What I mean by this is that it’s a piece that reads like history - as in, not modern, and not all-out fantasy - but is not set in an actual historical time period or place, though it will be heavily influenced by one or more historical time periods.)

Basic info: This is the first piece I wrote for NaNoWriMo and is incomplete at approximately 50K words/81 pages. This is my oldest project at about 7 ½ years since I first started working on it.

Pros:

-I have reread this the most recently, which means it is probably the freshest in my mind.

-I have a list of parts that need to be written and or/reworked.

-It is good – some of the scenes and dialogue themselves are clunky, but the over-all plot and characterization are strong.

Cons:

-Because it is my oldest piece, it probably also contains my least-mature/weakest writing.

-Partly because of the above, it needs the most rewriting.

-Of my three partial novels, this one probably still needs the most research, and also still needs to have most (if not all) of the placeholder names for characters and places redone.

As one of three novels that I already have a sizeable portion written for, it may be better to work on this than one of my unstarted pieces (see 4 and 5 for more detail on those).

2. Bright Fire

In an insular village, a girl discovers that she has a strange power. As her power grows, tragedies and hardships become more common and the village begins to turn against her. Yet, even as some begin to fear her, others realize she may have an important role to play to save their village.

Genre: Young adult fantasy

Basic info: My second attempt at NaNoWriMo, this story is incomplete at approximately 63K words/95 pages. I started this piece one year after Wolf and Sheath, but have added more to it more recently.

Pros:

-This is probably the closest piece to being done (but that does not mean that finishing it would be quick or easy).

-I have shared small sections (probably a couple chapters’-worth) with fellow writers and a published author at workshops and received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

-This is possibly the easiest piece to slap a genre label on, and because of that, possibly the easiest to market (which doesn’t necessarily matter now, but is something I need to consider for the future).

Cons:

-For some reason, I feel the most intimidated by this one. I don’t know if it would be the sort of thing where working on it would make me feel accomplished, or if I would drag my feet about it.

-It definitely needs the most structural rearranging, and, being the longest, also proportionally the most editing.

-It has a glaring plot-hole that I’m not really sure what to do with.

As one of three novels that I already have a sizeable portion written for, it may be better to work on this than one of my unstarted pieces.

3. Brinyor

As an enemy gathers to invade, a young priestess trades her freedom so her family will have safe shelter. The fortress prepares for battle as an unlikely alliance begins to develop between her and a young lord descended from a previous group of invaders.

Genre: Possibly New Adult, quasi-history. (For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, this is the one that is based on late-ancient/early medieval Britain.)

General info: Written as a modified NaNoWriMo challenge (I only attempted 30K words that year instead of 50K), this incomplete novel stands at about 40K words. While it is the shortest of my partial novels, it is also the most recently begun (5 ½ years ago), and the most recently worked on (1 year ago).

Pros:

-Because it is the most recently worked on, it may be my strongest/most mature writing.

-Also because it is the most recently worked on, it may also be the easiest to jump back into working on.

-I’ve done the most research for this piece and have finalized most of the placeholder names.

Cons:

-But, with the above said, it still needs a lot of research.

-As the shortest of the partial novels, it probably also still needs to have the most written.

-Of both the partial novels and the unstarted pieces (see 4 and 5, below), this one may be the hardest to label with a genre (and therefore possibly the most difficult to market once I finish it).

As one of three novels that I already have a sizeable portion written for, it may be better to work on this than one of my unstarted pieces.

4. Juliet, Asher, and Ellen

Over 150 years ago, a great evil nearly escaped, but was contained with great losses from a small group of scholars. In the present, a university stands on the site. As the school prepares for a major anniversary event, two recent alumni and one current student realize that the evil has been reawakened.

Genre: Horror? I mean, it’s technically Horror, because they’re battling an evil that may or may not be able to be defeated, but it’s really not that scary : )

General info: This is a piece I’ve been kicking around in my mind for a few years; I even made an outline a couple years ago. But recently I realized it’s going to need either a lot of flashbacks, or two different stories in two different time periods that weave together. I have not actually started writing this, in the sense that I have no solid scenes typed.

Pros:

-I have a very solid grasp of the present-day time-line – to the point that I have events nailed down to within hours and any tweaking of these would be easy and minimal.

-Being my only modern piece of the 5 options, it could potentially require the least amount of research, depending on how much of the story ends up being either flashback or alternating past events.

-Recently, I’ve been very excited and enthusiastic about both this piece and option 5, below.

Cons:

-I would still need research for the past period, especially if I do decide to go with two storylines, rather than just flashbacks.

-Modern/contemporary pieces are a little bit out of my comfort zone.

-The conclusion as I currently have it envisioned may be too “easy” and/or happy.

Is it a bad idea to start yet another novel-length project when I already have three that are unfinished? Is it better to work on something I feel excited or enthusiastic about than to work on something that I feel is cumbersome (see 2, above)?

5. The Lost Heir

100 years ago, the king died without an heir but left a prophecy regarding when his “true heir” would be found. As the time limit specified in the prophecy comes to an end, the steward of the kingdom thinks he has found the promised heir. There’s just one problem: she works in the kitchen and is perfectly happy where she is.

Genre: Quasi-history

General info: This is another piece that I have not yet started formally writing, but I have a pretty solid outline. I’ve only been kicking this one around for about a year.

Pros:

-It’s probably the best/most complete outline of all the story ideas I have that I haven’t started writing (taking into account the fact that I haven’t decided on the 2nd storyline for 4, above).

-It’s a different take on the “lost heir” idea.

-Recently, I’ve been very excited and enthusiastic about both this piece and option 4.

Cons:

-I have a lot of questions to answer about character motivations and logistics.

-I have to write a poem/nursery rhyme for the prophecy, and my poetry is stupid : )

-Like 4, I’m concerned the climax/ending I have in mind may be too “easy.”

Is it a bad idea to start yet another novel-length project when I already have three that are unfinished? Is it better to work on something I feel excited or enthusiastic about than to work on something that I feel is cumbersome (see #2)?

Now, I’m not saying that I’m going to decide what I’m working on next based solely on one or two comments here (so don’t get too excited, Tina ; ) but I do like knowing what you all think.  I also feel like sometimes a writer can get so wrapped up in what they thought was a great idea that they can’t see the potential issues with that “baby,” or they overlook what might be better potential in another piece.

Which story sounds the most interesting (vague though some of those descriptions may be)?  Which one sounds like the most exciting to work on?  The most challenging?  If it were you trying to decide between the 5 options above, which would you pick and why?

Any and all feedback is welcome!

Regardless of what you all say and what I decide, I will post next weekend to update you all on which project I have chosen, and some goals for it.

The King

I recently finished reading The Gunslinger, the first book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.

While I found the story itself kind of hard to get into and follow at times, I liked the writing, if that makes sense.  I like his use of language.  He's not afraid to use $12 words that you have to look up.  He's not afraid to make up words; he describes one character's smile as "scarifying," and I think that's awesome.

But I think what I actually enjoyed more were his anecdotes about writing in the afterword.  He tells a story about how he and 2 of his fellow writing students in college (one of whom later became his wife) found several reams of oddly-sized, colored typing paper that someone had thrown away.  Being poor college students, and going through a lot of paper in the days before rewrites and editing could be done digitally, they kept them*.  All three of them became successful writers.  King jokes that it's like something out of one of his stories.

*I love hearing one of the most successful writers of my lifetime talk about being a paper hoarder, which I also am.

He talks about how he fell in love with moody Romantic** poetry his sophomore year in college.  I did too, though not with the same Romantic-era poet.  He seems to think this is universal to college sophomores.

**He's referring to the period in particular, though many of the works by the author he refers to are also romantic in the sense of being love poems.

I like reading introductions and afterwords written by the writers of the book I'm reading.  It makes me feel like I know them better.  Stephen King is one of those who I feel like I know well.  I feel like he, Neil Gaiman, and I are buddies, even though I have no closer connection to either than to following Neil Gaiman's Facebook posts.  But I feel they are cool, interesting, and genuine dudes who would be the sort of guys you could kick back and have dinner with (when you're not all hastily scribbling ideas on your napkin).

Presenting the New and Improved Ivey Ink!

Hello, and welcome back!

Over the past few months I've taken care of some things I've needed to work out, and now I am pleased to present the new and improved layout of Iveyink.com.

For those of you who have followed me previously, thanks for reading (and sorry for the wait!).  For those of you who may be new, welcome!  I normally post to this blog once a week, though I sometimes post more frequently if have something fun and interesting to say.  

For the foreseeable future, most blog posts will be on the weekends (Saturdays or Sundays).  I will be blogging about all sorts of things: book and movie reviews, progress on my own writing, history and holidays, and all kinds of wacky and weird theatre and writer musings.

Feel free to look me up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Iveyink.  I currently make posts to this Facebook page on Mondays, but I'm looking to expand that soon as well.

Keep an eye out for fun new additions coming soon, including: a snazzy Facebook button (ooh!), and an archive page for my old blog posts (ahh!).

Feel free to submit comments to this or any blog post.  Thanks for reading!