Katie Runyon

With finishing chapter 9 in two days, I was well on my way to completing my goal. Of course, life tends to throw a few surprises your way once in a while and that seems to be just what happened. So needless to say I was a little busy/distracted for the rest of the week to get much done. I do have it all planned and at least a scene done for chapter 10, but I probably wont be able to get to it until at least Tuesday. Needless to say, I wish it were otherwise, but things happen. But so many things seem to be happening, my August deadline seems to be feeling a bit tighter these days. I will get it done somehow. If these quick completions keep occurring, then I should have no problem. So, chapter 10 should be finished sometime next week and hopefully life won’t give me anymore annoying surprises until after this series is complete!

Chapter 9 is finished and uploaded for your viewing pleasure! Which marks a new record for me. This chapter was completed in two days! Three was my best until now. I’m sure it helped that I had planned out the basic details of it on Sunday, so I had an easier time. I still changed some things around and wasn’t able to fit all of it in the chapter, so everything I planned will finish up in chapter 10, with some newer things added in there. But this is all good, because it means I should be able to get this next chapter done this week too. But I can’t say I’ll be able to get this much done next week as I will be busy for the first few days. Still, I’m excited and feeling good. So, pat on the back to me! Now, according to my progress meter, at 46,049 words, I am 41% done with the first draft of A Dark Within. I’m nearing the halfway mark and it feels good!

I’m still plagued by this sickness working its way through the house, but at least it’s manageable. I did what I felt might be impossible to do, I finished chapter 8. It’s not my best, that’s for sure, but it’s done. The last scene was much easier to write and stick with. This led me to find out the secret behind why writing has been so hard for me recently. It’s not because of my sickness, but I’m sure it played its part, it’s the lack of @ss kickery (and yes that is the official term). I realized that so far, my novel has been less gruesome and violent than the first and those are some of the best parts to write. So if I turn up the dial on the @ss kickery, I should be fine. Of course, it’s not the two chapters I was hoping for, but at this point something is better than nothing. I still hold out a smidgen of hope that I can somehow make that happen in the coming months.

This whole week I have been very distracted and a little bored. I decided to make a little “Link to Us” page with some banner choices and such. This little icon is what you’re looking for. It’s on just about every page (except it’s in my signature on the forum instead of in the footer). This link will bring you to the Link to Us page where you can choose a banner, text, and other things to add to any website or forum to let people know about this site. If you have any requests, I’ll gladly do my best.

Well, I’m off to update the website. I’m looking forward to being more productive next week!

If it’s even possible, I’m somehow much worse than I was last week. This is just horrible, but somehow I will work through it. So sick am I, that I spent most of yesterday in bed instead of pampering my poor mother. Sick or not, I need to get back to writing. Not just because I want to get this finished and said I would, but because I literally HAVE to. Not writing for so long is really starting to bother me. Sometimes I forget how much joy I get from it and how much a part of my life it has become. So now more excuses, only work. I will get some done somehow. At least this next scene that I have playing in my head, that would be a nice accomplishment for today. Expect my signature to be updated later on to reflect my progress and the little (potato) man will be doing something other than throwing the poor computer, as he has been for over a week now. No matter if I can not breathe or stop coughing for 5 minutes and have barely gotten any sleep between the last two nights, I will labor through it!

While I was hoping to get back to writing this week, fate seemed set against it. I’ve been sick all week and stuck with a malfunctioning brain. Still sick now, but I’m able to function for the most part. This means that *crosses fingers* I should be able to get back to work on chapter 8 on Sunday. I’ll be attempting to put my Sun-Fri plan in action and hopefully have chapters 8 and 9 posted by Saturday. Of course my optimism usually leads to disappointment, but oh well.

Since today was a decent day, without all that rain, I was forced to do some yard work while I can. Afterward, I took a walk back to the ponds behind the house. The way I take is across a stream and through the woods (I don’t like having to walk down the street to get to the main trail). So the deer trail through the trees is the path I take and today, I wasn’t the only one. I wasn’t paying all that much attention, but I looked down as I went to take a step and there was a snake. I almost stepped on the little fella. He’s just sitting there sticking out his tongue to get a sense of me and reeling back his head. He wasn’t all that big, just a checkered garter snake. After studying him a bit as he studied me, I picked up a stick and used it to gently relocate him out of the way. He was gone a few minutes later when I came back that way, which was probably for the best.

Then later, my step-father saved a little snapping turtle who was trying to cross the road. I took him back to the closest pond in the back, with him struggling the whole way. And I’ll tell you one thing; he could really stretch out his neck! My little brother followed me, of course, and we let him go. After a few minutes, he finally slipped into the water with all the other little creatures (like the frogs popping their heads above the water and blinking at us). Then on our way back (I chose to go through the woods), I almost stepped on another snake. I showed him to my brother and a few seconds later, it slithered away and slid into the water. I guess in the middle of the woods, there are plenty of creatures to be on the lookout for.

At least we haven’t seen anymore of the massive black bear that ripped off one of our cellar doors. He had been a nuisance for weeks prior, but it was the first time we actually saw him (and heard him as he rustled through the bushes outside my second story window). My step-father called about it and it seems we weren’t the only one.

Well, enough about my boring week of being sick and my excuses. Don’t forget, if you are reading my work please leave some kind of feedback. If you do it on FictionPress, you don’t have to sign up and it can be completely anonymous. Be honest and even a quick line or two would be appreciated (especially for The Dark Within, since it seems a little lonely without reviews). It would probably be helpful in keeping my butt in gear.

This week has been a failure in regards to my writing. I seem to be lacking the extensive inspiration and motivation I had only a week before. Don’t ask me where things turned south, because I have no clue. This week consisted of a lot of false starts and only once scene completion, which isn’t all that great. I expected a lot more from myself. And this is all on the tail of me deciding I was going to start writing on Sundays to try completing two chapters a week. But I guess you can only rise so high before the inevitable crash. Somehow, I’ll retrace my steps and get back on the road to the completion of The Dark Within. I’m thinking of holding off on the Foreseen edits for the moment, at least until I can get back into my groove. But things can change at any moment with me, so be prepared.

I’ve been doing some little things with the forum so the week didn’t seem like a total waste. Some of them are things that the users might never even see (like the new post/topic deletion and automatic user reminder emails), but they are something that makes things easier for me. But the new Mood setting and last post in user profile can be seen/used by everyone. For more, check out the News forum.

I also added a few new posts in the General Discussion forum to help things along. Most of them are fun/simple things to get users comfortable with the forum and so people can get to know each other. Feel free to post your own game/topic or take part in one that is already there.

I added a new photo to the Foreseen Gallery today. It’s a horribly rendering of Kari’s dagger. I’m not very good with those sorts of things, as you can see. I’m trying to think of things that can be done for The Dark Within, but so far I have not been able to think of anything from the story that can be put up in the gallery. Any ideas on that front are welcome.

There are also a few newish book based avatars in the forum’s avatar gallery (under “Elementi Series”). Nothing totally new though. I was going to use the dagger and the map to make avatars, but they seemed too small to be decent enough. I was also thinking about trying to make character/couples avatars using the actors I have in my head that match closest what I see when I think of my characters, but that seemed a bit silly when I thought of it. Some people might not be able to see past who the actor is, plus I would probably do a horrible job. But if anyone has any ideas/requests I’m open to them (even if you’d like to try a hand at your own, you can send me an email for any help/input). Hopefully next week will hold more. I’ll guess we’ll have to see.