Katie Runyon

As some might know, I was sick about 2 weeks back. I took the few days of antibiotics that I was prescribed at the hospital and started feeling better. During that week when I was feeling miserable and could not concentrate on anything but the crapiness, I didn’t complete my chapter as I’ve been trying. And while the antibiotics made me feel a little better, they didn’t seem to completely cure me. Now, my health is regressing back to that period before the hospital visit. While I’m not to that stage just yet, it feels bad enough. (And let’s hope it doesn’t get that far.) So far, I have gotten little done in the way of writing. For the most part, I’ve been trying to keep my mind off of how I’m feeling. I want to write, I really do. I want to finish up this story and finally see the whole series finished. And I want to move on and work on others things as well. But there is also the lazy/procrastinator part of me that feels it is a good time to just lay back.

So is my crapiness just an excuse or am I justified in resting both my mind and body?

In my case, I feel it may be both. While it is probably true that my mind in its current state would not be able to concentrate long enough to create a study stream of genius, I might be able to squeeze a little something out eventually. It may not be the best, but it would be something. But I guess the question is: is something better than nothing in this case? Is it worth going through forcing myself to commit to it, even if I’ll have to change the little I did manage in the end? Should I listen to that little part of me that just wants to sleep the days away or perhaps escape into some TV or even a movie?

It is an awful thing being torn between whether to write or not. The urge is there, as it always is, but at this point it is like clouds obscuring the sun; just enough to light things up, but not enough to make you venture outside to lie in the sun.

One of the bad things about not writing because I’m feeling bad is feeling even worse because I’m not writing. What a dilemma. Either way I think I’m stuck–stuck feeling like poo.

It has almost been a week since my symptoms have begun sprouting back like weeds that were broken off instead of pulled out with roots and all.  I am glad I was able to finish the last chapter before things became worse. But I fear this week will be worthless when it comes to writing…or anything at all.

Don’t you just love when the need to write grips you-even at 4am when you should have been asleep hours ago? And you’re filled with excitement and enthusiasm? Your mind keeps churning away and you can’t even think about anything else? Well that was me last night. Besides the temporary high, something good might just have come out of it.

It might have all began around 11 last night, when I started getting the rest of my scene summary figured out so I could actually get chapter 7 of Legendary Race finished today. So the juices were flowing a little late anyway. Then when I finally shut off the TV and rolled over to sleep…as it sometimes does…my imagination got the best of me. I began writing things down, bits that might be included in my current story or even in another one down the road. The first bit read like this:

She saw a shadow emerge on the wall. The figure hunched over, reaching for her. She could feel it creeping ever closer.

Then my mind just jumped from here to there. I wrote down anything that came to me-never knowing when something might actually be worth remembering after I’ve had around 4 hours of sleep…It is a bit embarrassing, but I’ll include it for your enjoyment anyway. The little bits and random thoughts went something like this:

It seems my best ideas-or at least a constant flood of semi-coherent ones-come when everyone else is asleep and I’m awake in the dark with my imagination running wild.

Which I used for my Twitter/Facebook accounts this morning.

There are so many stories to tell, so how do you choose just one?

That, I still don’t have an answer to. And if anyone else does…kindly let me know!

I’ve never hated any of my characters-even the innately evil or insane ones. They may be flawed, but they are only human after all.

This probably stemmed from a question posed in the Have You Ever? thread in my forum which asked, “Have you ever killed off a character because you hated him/her?”.

Where is the honor in dying? If you want honor, find a way to pull your ass out of the fire and survive instead.

This is something that seems like one of my characters might say. It’s also something I’ve thought about from time to time.

If falling on ones sword is so honorable, why not show them [your enemy] honor by helping them fall on your sword instead?

A variant of the bit above.

But I also moved beyond these random, silly thoughts and onto something bigger….A possible new story idea!? It would be my first modern day story and probably more supernatural than fantasy.

Have you ever caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye? It bet you thought it was just your imagination, right? So did I. But now I know better. And soon, so will you.

Lauren is an18 year old girl, just finishing high school and thinking about going off to college. For as long as she can remember, she’s seen things out of the corner of her eye and felt as if something was there in the dark. Of course, Lauren dismisses it, thinking she’s either paranoid or her overactive imagination is to blame. But one day, she finds that it is all real. What Lauren has really been seeing is glimpses into another world as the veil between them thins. But now it has split open and creatures from the other side are slipping through. Being the only one who knows, she decides she must do something. But she is terrified and at first no one believes her. Until she finds out that she is not alone after all. There are some who know about the other world-who have seen what is happening. And with their help, Lauren will attempt to stop it before the veil is torn open for good and all the evil of the other realm is unleashed on Earth.

So, that is basically it…all I have. But it is something and possibly the next book on my plate after A Princely Betrayal (but I’ll only get to that one after I’ve finished Legendary Race). I think some of it may have been slightly influenced by this. It is a bit different of course, but it might have helped snap things together after reading through it earlier in the day.

So I don’t know…what do you think? Have you seen something like it before? Does the idea sound silly? It is a waste of my time?

A little over 2 weeks ago, my mother and brother drove over to the Delaware River. The last time we visited it, little black tadpoles clogged the shallow water edge. And when they went back, they were still there. So my mother scooped up a bunch and brought them back home. Of course, I took care of them (as I can’t seem to go for long without having some wild creature to take care of around here!). We had plenty of different fish foods left over from our fish owner days and used some of that to feed them. Every day, I used a turkey baster to suck out their poop floating on the bottom and added some fresh water. When they started growing their back legs, I transported them from their little container to the 5 gallon tank. I added a big green leaf from near the stream in our back yard, a large rock and a floaty popsicle stick or two.

A few days ago they started growing their front legs! And soon enough, we found one standing up on the rock all toadlet-like. So I made up our 10 gallon tank with the dirt my mother had used to for her tomato plants last year (the plants have been dead, so it’s not like she was using it!). I also added a rock, some clumps of moss, some tree parts and a little lid filled with water for their own underground swimming pool. Between the dirt and everything else, there are lots of different little bugs running around for them to attempt to eat.

By yesterday morning, we had 4 tiny toadlets in the 10 gallon tank and 2 more on the verge of being transferred out of the tadpole tank. The 4 before had no troubles climbing out of the water and onto the rock when they were ready. But these two didn’t seem to have the smarts for that (I think maybe they are males). So the one I placed on to the rock myself and he was smart enough and stayed. The other, no matter what I did, seemed to want to drown himself. I tried multiple times and finally I stuck him in his own little container with a center that bulged up out of the rim of water. I figured this way, he wouldn’t drown himself and he could just wait out the couple hours until it was time to transfer him.

Then, about 2 hours later, my brother says to me, “Did you put him in the tank?”. Of course, somehow he had gotten out of the container-even if he couldn’t seem to figure out how to get himself out of the water. We searched all over the desk for him, carefully picking things up and inspecting them. We even looked on the floor and the bottom of our shoes! Thankfully, my brother found him after moving some things underneath the desk and I decided the suicidal toadlet was going to be put in the tank for his own good.

At this time, there are 6 toadlets in the 10 gallon tank and 8 still in the tadpole tank. At least 3 have all 4 legs and will lose their tail and be ready for the “big boy” tank in the next 24 hours. Hopefully they will be smart enough to drag their butts out of the water and onto the rock this time.

My mom found a crap load of aphids this morning and I cut a piece off the plant-after flicking all the ants off first. I wrangled most of them toward the plant and now they are gathered around, having thanksgiving dinner. Watching the first one scramble over and grab a bite reminded me of my cat after a toy. They seem more like cats or dogs than toads. They will lift their back legs up and scratch at their little tale stub or wipe at their face. And their little head movements when something gets their attention can me hilarious and sometimes even creepy…especially when a whole bunch of them sitting together turn and stare at you like they did this morning.

I grabbed a few more pieces with aphids, since we’ll have a few more hungry mouths to feed soon enough. And the aphids are small and slow enough for them to begin on.

Seeing a toad in such a small form-some the size of my pinky toenail-is amazing.

Not really, but it almost feels like it. With 5 chapters down (about 1/5 of the 25 I’m planning to write), it is finally starting to hit me that it’s almost over. For years I have been working on this series (even if not continuously) and this book will most likely be the end. Knowing I will not write about these characters lives and struggles anymore is sad and even scary. I worry that I won’t get it right, that I’ll leave the series without the characters being fleshed out enough or in the right places. I love these characters and want to do right by them. The only thing that gives me a little comfort is the fact that I still have to edit all three books. And while doing this, I can relive their adventures and hopefully fix anything that wasn’t done right the first time.

Recently I’ve taken a look back on Foreseen and my thoughts were “Oh man!”. While the basics of the story may be there it almost seems as if I’ll have to rewrite everything to make it readable. I”m not saying I’m doing all that great at it now, since I’m worrying more about getting it done that it looking all that pretty. I know that once I go through it again, I will have the chance to pretty it up. Take it line by line and polish until it shines.

And who can I blame for this sudden shock into how close I am getting to the end? Onisepla! It is all his fault. I liked him from the very beginning and I always felt a certain connection with him that I didn’t feel with the others, not even Kari. Don’t get me wrong, I love them all, but there is just something about him. I usually love writing his scenes and writing this last one, it reminded me that I only have so many left. But at least I got some of his story out.

So now is the time to try and give everyone a bit of the limelight before the curtain closes for good. This is no easy task with such a large cast. I hope I can do it. But I need some filler, so maybe this will work for the better

There are so many things to cover, so many lives hanging in the balance. I hope I don’t let them all down.

So far, my next chapter is not even started yet. Things always seem to get in the way. Now that I have my laptop back, I figured I’d be good to go…but that was a false hope. While it is now as up to speed as I can probably get it at the moment, it is not complete. Yesterday I spent about an hour trying to change the power supply on my desktop computer (don’t ask) only to completely break it. I have not had the will to change back to the old power supply to see if I can get it running again. There are things on there that would make my life a lot easier if I had them (like the bookmark to my admin page for my blog here that I just took quite a while trying to find). But I have my book files and the program to use them, though like I said, other things keep getting in the way.

For example, the stray cat outside. Not only have I been trying to take care of her, but she in return has been leaving us little gifts in the form of dead rodents at our doorstep. One day my brother found her carrying a mole and was able to save it before she could get it alone. Since it was young, we kept it and I have been taking care of it. Then, about 2 days ago we found a baby mouse on the porch, only a little bigger than my thumb nail. This one is a little more difficult to care for as it appears that the little bugger’s eyes are just opening. But of course I could hardly say no.

And as I write this, not for the first time, the stray cat outside is clawing at my window. Somehow the other night she found a way onto our porch roof that sits just below the bedroom windows on the second floor and thoroughly scared my little brother when she woke him up by scratching at his screen.

Oh how I seem to be a sucker for all animals great and small. (Which is a main reason why Kari can talk to them.)

I’m hoping that between my usual cooking and cleaning, taking care of my new animal friends, too much TV, and computer woes, I’ll find time to finish the next chapter this week.

And now I need to go get the cat off the roof before she breaks in through the window.

Since you all waited so patiently…I took more than a 2 month break. So next time, don’t wait so patiently! How am I supposed to get any work done otherwise?

My return is bittersweet. That is, it’s good…it’s bad…it’s right…it’s, well not wrong for writing could never be wrong, but you get the picture. I always like coming back to writing after breaking away from it but there just doesn’t seem to be enough time! Before I know it the day is gone and so is my chance to write, none the less everything else I need to do. Thankfully, I got some good writing days in this week and finished off chapter 3. I’m just not sure how long my luck will last. This time, I had a detailed summary of both scenes. The next chapter might be doable, but after that…

I am looking forward to this book and especially finishing this series (even if it may not be the final ending to the series). Likewise, I am looking forward to moving on to other things. After the last chapter is complete I plan to work on editing Foreseen and maybe even Ariel(my short story). It will be my first real editing and it seems both exhilarating and cringe worthy. On one hand I will be (hopefully) improving my work, getting it up to par with my writing now (which has improved I’ve been told…thank god!), but it will also be a bit distressing changing my firstborn. I almost just want to skip the edit because I’m afraid of changing it from what it is at present, as if I may disfigure it with my horrid attempts at improving it. But most likely not much of the base story will change; I don’t think I have the heart for that yet.

I have not thought anymore about the next book(s) I will be writing, even though I’m pretty sure what it will be. I haven’t even thought all that much about writing at all and this story in particular I want to keep out of my mind for now. When I’m finished, and maybe editing, I should have some time to plan it out. This probably means that, even though I will technically be working on my stories, I won’t be putting out any new stuff for a time. Which will sadden all of you greatly I’m sure!

First and foremost, Legendary Race is in my thoughts. There is still a lot to work out and hurdles to jump over. But I hope it is everything I want (and you expect!) and more.

…or something like that.

Have you ever wondered about the longest book ever published? Or the longest word in the English language? Well, here are those facts and a few others.

What’s the longest book ever published? Marienbad My Love by Mark Leach is over 17 million words long! Of course there are some other giants, like The Blah Story by Nigel Tomm at 11 million words.

How about the longest word in the English language? Well if you want to be technical, then you can exclude the 189,819 letter word for titin and head over to dictionary.com and input the 45 letter word Pneumonoultramicroscop-icsilicovolcanoconiosis. Try saying that 5 times fast. Or even once.

How long is the longest published sentence? Well, there is some debate about that, but according to wikipedia the top contenders are The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe with 13,955 words, The Blah Story by Nigel Tomm at 2,403,109 words, and finally Marienbad My Love by Mark Leach again with a whopping 3,000,000 words. I can safely say that none of mine have or will ever come close to these behemoths.

Oddest book title? This is a tough one and since there is no technical way to figure this out (and I thought it would be an interesting question), there are many different answers. I can’t help but point out the title to the book shown in the picture above. Since there are just too many to name just one, here are two lists from the following places: 17 Unusual Book Titles and Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title.

17 Unusual Book Titles

1. How to Avoid Huge Ships by John W. Trimmer
2. Scouts in Bondage by Michael Bell
3. Be Bold with Bananas by Crescent Books
4. Fancy Coffins to Make Yourself by Dale L. Power
5. The Flat-Footed Flies of Europe by Peter J. Chandler
6. 101 Uses for an Old Farm Tractor by Michael Dregni
7. Across Europe by Kangaroo by Joseph R. Barry
8. 101 Super Uses for Tampon Applicators by Lori Katz and
Barbara Meyer
9. Suture Self by Mary Daheim
10. The Making of a Moron by Niall Brennan
11. How to Make Love While Conscious by Guy Kettelhack
12. Underwater Acoustics Handbook by Vernon Martin Albers
13. Superfluous Hair and Its Removal by A. F. Niemoeller
14. Lightweight Sandwich Construction by J. M. Davies
15. The Devil’s Cloth: A History of Stripes by Michel Pastoureaut
16. How to Be a Pope: What to Do and Where to Go Once You’re in the Vatican by Piers Marchant
17. How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title

100 Girls on Cheap Paper
A Tortilla is Like Life
Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology
Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter
An Intellectual History of Cannibalism
Bacon: A Love Story
Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 1741-1845
Bondage for Beginners
Briefs for the Reading Room
Budgeting for Infertility
Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich
Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes
Curbside Consultation in Cornea and External Disease
Cute Yummy Time
Dental Management of Sleep Disorders
Father Christmas Needs a Wee
Fluffy Little Kitten in Fluffy’s Brother
Food Digestion and Thermal Preference of Toad
Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots
How YOU Are Like Shampoo: For Job Seekers
I Stopped Sucking My Thumb…Why Can’t You Stop Drinking?
I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears
Is the Rectum a Grave?
Jokes by the Not So Famous Redneck
Map-based Comparative Genomics in Legumes
Mickey Mouse, Hitler and Nazi Germany
My Hare Line Meets the Brown Rabbit
Obama Guilty of Being President While Black
Peek-a-poo: What’s in Your Diaper?
Planet Asthma: Art and Acitivty Book
Plough Music
Plug-in Electric Vehicles: What Role for Washington?
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Bean Conference
Schoolgirl Milky Crisis
Soft Drink & Fruit Juice Problems Solved
Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing
The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
The First Home-Built Aeroplanes
The Great Dog Bottom Swap
The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin
The Origin of Faeces
The Quotable Douchebag
The True History of Tea
The Wild World of Girly Men and Masculine Women – And Why Americans Suffer from So Many Other Idiotic Syndromes!
Venus Does Adonis While Apollo Shags a Tree
What Horses Do For Us
What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua?

Who is the first author of a fantasy novel? It seems that the person most commonly considered the first author of fantasy as we know it today is George MacDonald, who was even a great influence on J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

In delving even further into my upcoming works, in a sense, I figured I’d share some future story ideas. Now there are only a few, since my thoughts have been mainly preoccupied with The Elementi Series, but I do have some fragments of ideas. At this time, I’m only sure that one will be turned into a book. The others are iffy and I’ll have to see how I feel at a later date. Still, I thought I’d share them and see which one(s) you think might make better novels. As ideas, they are subject to drastic changes. And if you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you can probably guess which one is my next book idea of Legendary Race. Anyway, here they are:

1. After a murderous betrayal costs most of the royal family their lives, the only remaining member, and heir to the throne, goes into hiding in order to bide his time. But it is not long before he happens upon a woman whom is much more dangerous than she appears. In fact, she is a member of a skilled and deadly order of magic users, or at least she was before they cast her out and left her for dead. Soon, they agree to help each other in their missions, one in the name of justice and the other in the name of revenge.

2. Afraid of their powers, all magic users are being rounded up and put into prison camps. But one woman decides to take matters into her own hands in an attempt to win their freedom once again. But what will be the cost?

3.When a girl gets the chance to have her wishes granted, she doesn’t hesitate. But nothing is ever that simple. As it turns out, her wishes are twisted in horrible ways, changing the world as she knows it. And on her quest to undo the terrible magic, she must face more death and darkness than she ever wished to.

4.A Seer is a powerful tool for those in power, or who wish to be. So many of those who possess such magic stay hidden. But one young woman had the horrible luck of being found and sold to the highest bidder on the black market. As his slave, she must struggle through intense pain as she attempts to force her visions to present themselves in order to please her master and stay alive. But those visions she receives at night, are ones she fights to keep to herself. Because if anyone finds out about them, it could give them the power to imprison them all.

Which one would you like to see written next?

Since, according to the poll I presented on my website, readers wish to know more about my upcoming works,  I am going to give out a few teaser facts (at least some that are relevant at this time). They can and may change at any time though, sorry! If you weren’t one of the people that wanted a few little, tasty spoilers, than you may wish to skip this post. Anyway, here they are:

1. At least 3 named characters will die by the end of the novel.

2. Kari will catch another glimpse of the future and it will shock her even more than the first time.

3. Someone makes a deal with the devil (aka Onisepla).

4. The Darkness isn’t acting alone.

Not much, but it’s a little taste. Hope it doesn’t spoil too much!

No, not lots, as in “a lot”. I am talking about Legend of the Seeker, the TV show that is based (only in broad terms) on The Sword of Truth series written by Terry Goodkind. I know many people don’t like the show for what they’ve changed, but I am able to see them as two separate things, which allows me to enjoy it every week. Today, after just watching the newest episode via Netflix, I was given this link. It’s a “recap” of the episode, but made as a joke and I found it pretty funny. So I figured some people, at least those that watch the show, might be interested in taking a look. So there it is, go and have a laugh. It seems the lead actress, Bridget Regan, does. At least according to her tweets.