World-Building ups and downs

I am a little ashamed to admit this, but I have a hard time with world-building... I know, what kind of a fantasy writer AM I? I get myself confused and turned around trying to figure where things are and how long it takes to get there, and what happens in the meantime... 

Although I love being able to break "Earth rules" in a truly fantasy world, I find it's easier to set my fantasy on good old planet Earth, in exotic locations. The distances and basics suddenly write themselves! Of course, I still can't decide which island and town my MCs hail from... and that will matter in the long run... but at least I have a starting point.

My current WIP is set in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. I visited last year... of course, I've been smitten with the islands for years now. I first read about them in Mary Stewart's Merlin novels... then in T.H. White's Once and Future King... and then when I looked them up, I stumbled on Orkneyjar, the most rich and fascinating website! I've spent hours falling down rabbit holes and following my nose... and the research that I've done has really helped me to see the settings I'm trying to write about.

The Orkneys really are thrilling, beautiful, and full of folklore. Who could ask for a better setting for a fantasy? And then! Something amazing like this happens. I could've made that up, but having it be REAL is so much more exhilarating! Don't you think?

What do you do about the details of world-building? Does it come easy to you?

IWSG: Turning things upside down

This post is for Insecure Writer's Support Group, hosted on the first Wednesday of every month by the fabulous Alex Cavanaugh. Anyone can join. Sign up here!

Ok, ok, I don't have a good excuse for posting today instead of tomorrow, except that a few others have and I had this post ready YESTERDAY, so... here you go!

Sometimes when I'm painting I get frustrated -- I visualize where things are going versus where I want them to go and I can't make up the difference. I hate that. But then, if I turn the canvas upside down, I get a whole new point of view... and it's inspiring! That doesn't mean I'll leave it that way... but new perspective can help me get my vision back in focus, to realign my aim... and sometimes new and great things come out of it!

I want to figure out how to do that more with my writing... because things are not going at all where I thought they were going with my WIP and I feel pretty deflated about that. So I'm wondering what I can do to regain some inspiration. How can I turn my WIP on its head? Maybe my MCs motivations are more nefarious than I give her credit for. Or maybe my main villain is really my MC...

The cygnets are here and they are
the most beautiful ugly
ducklings I have ever seen.

What do you do to turn things upside down?

Goals being met!

Yay! I'm excited because I found a blogfest to enter... not only that, but it's a really cool one and will likely be a good challenge for the next month or so. For full details, see here:

WHAT IF?

Fairytale Madness BlogFest! 

AUGUST 13th – 17th 

I have these categories to choose from:

I have to pick a fairy tale and ask "What if...?" and then in 300 words show you what I think would have happened in answer to that question. Hmmmm... decisions, decisions...

One of my summer goals was blogfesting! I'm very excited to take part and hope I'll make some new blog friends in the process. You know I said I'd throw my own blogfest when I reach 100 followers. Won't that be fun?

7x7 award

Thanks to Nick Wilford over at Scattergun Scribblings for bestowing on me the 7x7 award!

I don't really participate in these kinda things anymore (because there are way too many to keep up with!) but this one had some interesting aspects that I wanted to follow through with anyhow. Kind of a blogging retrospective, introspectively... the following links are all to posts from my own blog that I think fit these categories.

Most Beautiful: I'm biased, but Big Island Dolphin Swimming, while not perhaps the most articulately written post, and not even the most well produced video, was the most beautiful experience for me...

Most Helpful & Most Popular: This post was incredibly helpful to me in terms of feedback I got toward my main character Lilith... and it comes in second for number of views on my blog.

Most Controversial: I don't know that I've posted anything "Controversial" yet... but this post with a flash fiction piece I wrote stirred up a lot of speculation...

Most Surprisingly Successful: Possessing the Secret of Joy. Without a doubt, this is the most surprising post. Not because of content, either, I expect. It's an emotional reaction to the novel by Alice Walker. But it has the most views on my blog of all of my posts... even still today.

Most Underrated: This post about my internship with the literary agency was a LOT of fun to write and full of information, but it didn't receive quite the response I was expecting/hoping.

Most Pride Worthy: My Name is Elisabeth and I am a Vegetarian There are some things that just need to be said, and this post says it.

You can feel free to visit or not visit them :) You may already have, if you've been following me for any amount of time.

If you want this award and haven't received it yet, I'm awarding it to you now!

Have a lovely week, all.

WIP inspired art

Knights of Microfiction!

Firstly! Hi to my new followers! I'm so glad you're here! Tell your friends to follow me too! When I reach 100 followers we're gonna have a party and I'll be giving away some prizes, too!

But now, down to business.

That's right, y'all! It's time for KOMF again! I'm so glad that Jessica and Kathy McKendry decided to start hosting this monthly blog hop again!

Anyone can play along. To join in on the fun, check Jess and Kathy's blogs on the 13th to receive that month's prompt, post your entry before 11:59 p.m. on the 15th of the month, and leave a comment on one of their blogs with a link to your post.  Then go check out as many entries as you can!  By the 17th, they will choose two winners to be featured on their blogs.

Here's this month's lovely prompt:

Write a 200 word or less flash fiction beginning with this phrase: Her eyes shot open...
You are free to change the gender and POV if you'd like.



Her eyes shot open and she blinked rapidly. Why couldn't she see? She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. They were wet. Wait, wet? That didn't make sense. She put out her tongue and tentatively tasted the liquid. Blood. Was it hers? She shuddered. She rolled onto her side and sat up. With a clang, her head came in contact with the top bunk. Ok. Ok. You're not crazy. You can figure this out.


She took a breath and wracked her brain for an answer. Of course. Heracleum mantegazzianum. More slowly, she rose and felt her way toward the door, one step at a time. She cracked her shin on the desk chair and cursed. Damn! I knew that was there. There wasn't much time. She had to reach Xavi before the effects were irreversible. Xavi would know what to do.

I hope you enjoyed my entry. I had fun writing it!

Big Island Dolphin Swimming

Not writing or YA related, but this is the vid of the totally awesome dolphin swim we did last month in HI. It was... incredible. I'm the one in the red shirt, and Noah's wearing a bright yellow shirt... we're easy to spot. Look how amazingly close they came to us!!! I swear, I could do that every day for the rest of my life and not get tired of it.