What better way to interrupt my very silent Steem Week than to write up a random bloggy post? With cat photos galore, minimal talking about cats, and a whole lot of rambles.
It is what it is. Feel free to scroll for pics and ignore the words.
Sometimes I do that; I won't judge you.
I normally try to write something here at least twice a week, normally in #freewrite or #gaming form, and I suppose with the holiday season upon us I could be forgiven for neglecting my blog, but...
...it's not because of the holiday season.
I have a better excuse.
I've been writing my fiction again.
Hooray!
...which makes it exceedingly difficult to do much of anything, but I try anyway. In this case: writing!
I was attempting to do NaNoWriMo this past November, but that failed miserably. I was stressed, then I came down with a stomach virus, my partner was in Vanuatu for a week and I was home alone dealing with a hyperactive child and a new kitten, then @steemydave came home and he was sick with a stomach virus, then I was sick with a bizarre mini flu, then my partner got very severe bronchitis so bad we feared it would become pneumonia.
Then, just as it all seemed to be over. I got another weird Summer Flu Thing this week which is thankfully disappearing now before Christmas Day arrives.
I have never been this sick in my life. And. I blame it on stress.
My head nearly imploded yesterday. Figuratively speaking. I couldn't cope anymore and I ended up yelling and screeching very unreasonably, but I'd just like to say that I feel a helluva lot better today after my outburst!
Sometimes, I guess, we just need to let it out instead of bottling it all up inside.
Repression is bad, man.
Back to NaNoWriMo.
I failed.
All I wanted to do was finish this dang book that's been circulating around and 'round my head for over a decade, but with everything that was going on in my own little world it just wasn't meant to be.
It's okay though, because apparently I'm making up for lost time!
“It’s only a matter of time,” Kian muttered to himself, kicking his old, ratted boot into the parched dirt. “It won’t be long before those blighted Magisters take this from us too. Nothing is sacred anymore,” he paused, then released a harsh guffaw. “Nothing ever was.”
Misty clouds swept across midnight skies, momentarily shrouding the heavens before they faded to reveal the star-streaked expanse, and he clenched his fist, allowing his fingernails to bite deep into the calloused flesh as he glared across the horizon to where distant chunks of floating land tarnished the otherwise spectacular view.
The Sundered Isles.
He clenched his fist tighter, tighter, until his knuckles whitened and warm blood pooled within his closed hand.
“Sari,” he growled. “I’ll get you back, I swear it.”
It had been a season since he had last seen her wistful smile, so reminiscent of her mother’s; had last admired the soft black ringlets that curled down her forehead and obstructed her view, just as her mother’s had; as she would sweep her hair away with an irritated hand, just as her mother would; as, when she thought he wasn’t watching, she would gaze sadly into the heavens and dream of lives better lost and forgotten. Just as her mother.
He furrowed his brow until he could barely see through his slitted eyes.
The women in his long life had all been special, but Sari… she was the first mage and had been destined for a greater purpose than to become some disgusting Magister’s plaything, or worse, a mere tool to be used before simply being tossed and discarded as though she were a rotten chicken’s carcass.
Did they even know what they had captured —the prize they had claimed?
“Muhi vun theo’lu vin ba elasa,” he grunted beneath his breath, a small incantation from the ancient tongue that no ordinary peasant should have the means to know, and released the handful of blood.
If you were browsing the #fiction tag 2 years ago, you may have seen a very ugly rainbow painting adorned with the words: SKYSWEPT!
The story was practically freewritten and remains unfinished, but writing it filled in so many little holes in my overall plot expanding the entire series, gave me more characters, more events, more twists and turns, AND a re-written, polished, and finished version of Skyswept (to be renamed) is destined to become my Book #3 of this series.
Most importantly though, the little snippet I just posted only exists thanks to Skyswept and the STEEM blockchain. I would never have even started writing that if not for wanting to write a fictional series so I'd have something to post here every so often.
I wasn't very proud of it at the time.
I was over the moon that my first chapter was also my first curie, but at the same time, because of lurking in the wrong Discord group, I felt embarrassed about it.
"Oh, have you seen the quality, or lack thereof, in the fiction tag these days?" someone sniffed.
"Ugh. Some people are serialising works. They're awful," someone else laughed. "Don't even bother reading the tag."
"I curate the tag," another agreed. "It is pretty awful in there."
There were maybe three or four people serialising at the time. I was one of them. Needless to say, I stopped even looking at that Discord and instead focused on doing my own thing.
Charlie approves.
Anywho, I think I've babbled enough! Kudos for making it to the end of this ramble, hope you enjoyed the cat photos, doubly hope that you read and enjoyed my tiny fiction snippet, and may you have a Merry Christmas, or simply, a Happy Holiday!
⭐🎄🎅🎄⭐