End of the Year Cleanup, Anyone got Spare Change?

New Cover Art 2019

Don't you wish you could have an online blog garage sale?

I am not getting to this. I am not going to do that. I have too much stuff clogging up the system. My virtual closet and under the bed boxes are all filled up. Maybe someone else can use it?

Unfortunately, that is not how it works. So I have been cleaning up my links and reverting to draft areas of my writing path that are on hold until I see if that is where I would like to go in the future.

I want a lean and productive site. What I am working on. What I want to work on.

I feel like a little kid cleaning her room and deciding which toys to keep and what needs go to charity. I am having to make some tough decisions, but good ones to propel me forward. I cannot be bogged down with what could be. I only want what is going to have the most positive and impactful effect. 

My readers and fans have already seen some of the new cover art I have done for 2019. Wait until I get everything said and done. Then I am going have a great New Years... because there will be nothing else to do!

What do you do on your blog or website at the end of the year? 

Have a great and wonderful day!

Support Indie Authors

Vote with your dollar and purchase from Independent Artists and Authors.

Winter Frost Seasonal Reads... Nocturnal Redemption: In the Eye of the Beholder.

Sonoran Dawn Studios Fiction Spotlight on Lulu. 

Seasonal Reads Program Link Ring Submissions

Are you an author with a seasonal read that would fit into Undawnted's reading program?

What Undawnted is looking for: two authors/books for each season.: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Fiction, Nonfiction. Poetry. All good to go.

For example:
Winter... holiday stories, or Valentine's Day love story
Spring... nature, or Celtic Heritage
Summer... novellas action/adventure
Autumn... horror, vampires, werewolves, oh my! 
 

Undawnted wants good quality writings with a PG-13 and less rating, if it were a movie. Good clean fun. Good stories. Fun characters. True love stories (no erotica, please).

Links to other authors blogs and websites are a must so that the link is not broken.

If you believe your creativity fits the bill, then please contact DL Mullan via her Undawnted Facebook page through the Private Mail feature.

     

Want more information? Check out the Winter Frost Seasonal Reads page on the menu to the right. 

Thank you, have a great and wonderful day!  

 

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Undawnted has updated our Seasonal Reads program, please visit our Unleashed Materials: Publication Classification page. 

 

We are no longer doing the link-ring to other authors and artists at this time. 

 

Thank you for considering Undawnted for your reading and entertainment needs. 

 

Learn. Grow. Master... with Undawnted. 

Yuletide Jingle 2018 is Tomorrow! Don't Miss Out!

Join Undawnted's DL Mullan and various other authors like Kaye Lynne Booth, Robbie Cheadle, Alexandra Forry, Riley Skye, and Chele Pedersen Smith at Sonoran Dawn's My Yuletide Gift. 

Undawnted has Returned!

Get your badge!

After a long and difficult technical glitch search, Undawnted is back in circulation!

I am still in the middle of some updates and repairs, but I am hoping for a clean site before the All Hallow's Eve: Dead Man's Party I am hosting on Facebook with Sonoran Dawn Studios. 

So sign up for our party/book event today! 

Support Our Favorite Charities!

Buy a ticket through our Event Tickets page, support Sonoran Dawn and/or our favorite charities!

Can't you feel the excitement? 

See you there.

DL Mullan will Now Be Available through Library and Subscription Services

Are you a library card holder or a subscriber to a book service?

                                                                                                   

Then you have access to Hode: The Legend Lives Again, if you are a participant of these services:

24 Symbols

OverDrive 

So next time you want to relax and read search for DL Mullan.

More titles are on their way throughout the rest of this year!

Have a great and wonderful day.

Making the Switch

During this year, the cover art will be making a switch from my full name to DL Mullan. 

This change is not unusual since my digital art has always been signed this way. I did my new Hode: The Legend Lives Again cover art and ran a poll on my Facebook page as to which looked better. With a resounding YES! DL Mullan signatory won out. Thus the migration over to the new image platform has begun. 

My Facebook Page will also change to DL Mullan. That way everything is in alignment and will avoid confusion. 

Welcome to the new year and the re-imaging of the brand. 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Storytelling: Character Development

When I am in writer's forums and groups, I see concerns about how to write believable characters. 

One of the exercises I like to employ is writing in fanfiction. Every once and awhile, another person's universe intrigues me. I have written for Babylon 5, which is online. It needs a good polishing but I can still live with it. 

In that universe, I can play with characters. I can use the already made universe to stretch my writing muscles without having to do all the heavy lifting. I can see how close I can come to recreating the characters of someone else. 

I make note of my thought processes. What do I need? What am I missing? How close can I get? 

I then take what I learned trying to mimic and apply those lessons to my own creative world building. 

I implement the same brainstorming ideas to develop original characters in a universe I created from scratch.

Writers can use any character out of literature or film they wish to try their hand in character development. 

That is one exercise, but character development is a more involved process than one exercise. To make three-dimensional characters, a writer has to take the time. Write a description. Give your character some real life quirks. Don't make your characters perfect. 

And, have fun with your characters. Show their sense of humor, pet peeves, phobias. A character should reflect the time and place s/he is being written for. So take different aspects of people and a little of yourself, a character needs to be built for the task at hand... make your character worth the read.

Character development does not have to be a dirty job. Create exercises that appeal to you and brainstorm a new character. When a writer takes the time, characters can virtually write the novel themselves. 

I actually prefer a feisty and spirited protagonist... it makes writing less complicated. 

Have a great and wonderful day!

Journals, Minders, and Calendars

It is not too late to pick up coordinating essentials for your writing needs.

Choose your color scheme from Modern Dance to Perfect Harmony.

Undawnted through Sonoran Dawn Studios has produced different designs for this year.

Check out the Sonoran Dawn -- Essentials store for more info!

Have a great and wonderful day!

A Return to Authorsden

With my illness and subsequent disability from it, I had to let go my association with Authorsden many years ago. My page remained up but I could go now further. 

I deleted the old and put up some new ones! I uploaded my three books: a novel, essay, and chapbook. 

I also published two new poems with more still to come.

Dawn L. Mullan on Authorsden.


I hope you stop by and leave a review!

Have a great and wonderful day~ 

Chapbook Page Updated

I took some time and divided up the chapbooks into their own singular pages. So I could add the book covers in a large form too!  

I have also uploaded two new chapbooks and pushed back a couple others. Now the time line makes a little more sense.

Reiteration received a polished book cover. The art is now dynamic. This chapbook will be my 30th year anniversary of being a published poet, but it will not happen until 2023. 

An extra few years means more poetry to be added! 

So have fun on the Chapbooks page of Poetry! 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

On Holiday Schedule for the Rest of the Year

It is time to kick back and relax! 

Oh, who are we kidding? I am busy editing and writing Nocturnal Redemption for a winter release. As well as I have updated Sonoran Dawn Studios, Poetry, and Publishing sites. My personal site has also seen a good scrub. 

With the temperatures decreasing, it is time to bundle up and write! Winter is always a fun time to sit and write. At night, when all the shows are repeats due to the holidays, I have dedicated nights to polish for next year's release. 

2017 appears to be going to the fictional side of writing. 2016 was nonfiction essays and recipes for the most part. This new year should see two new chapbooks as well as one novel plus the second book to In the Name of Blood series. 

By the end of December, I should have a great list of publications ready for their debut. Then Sonoran Dawn's Schedule page will be updated. 

But for now, I will write and create and edit. So I will update the blogs in between this last push of the year. No more releases are expected until 2017. 

As you can see my vacation has been all work and lots of play! 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Inspiration for Booklets

What inspires the writer inside? 

I was asked this question recently. What inspires me to write my booklets? Mainly it is frustration. 

Surprising? It should not be. 

When I chat with people online or read comments at the end of articles, I get frustrated with the lack of information in respondents' remarks. From the complete lack of knowledge on current events, science, or just using common sense, I can see that people are not looking into for that which they speak, but parroting what they hear on television or reading online. 

That is frustrating. 

So I have been mad and upset when I try to inform people of what is fact versus fiction. [Insert laughter here.] Believe me, that is the truth of the matter. So I came up with this concept. Instead of using the direct approach, I should use the educational approach. 

People do not want to read long, heavily footnoted books. People want a quick read that can be done after dinner, before school, or during lunch at work. My booklets fit those scenarios. 

Under 50 pages so far and with a bibliography of online resources, usually from the historical or original document, my booklets can be easily read, discerned, and researched by anyone. Problem solved. 

So the next time I go online and read propaganda, I can paste the url to one of my booklets and educate people. No more frustration. No more anger. No more propaganda. 

I love it when a plan comes together! 

Have a great and wonderful day.

Busy Little Bee

Well I don't know how I am going to top yesterday's blog post: marijuana is a hot topic! Smoking hot topic? 

I was busy again... building a new website: Visual Studios Productions. Now you can see the artistic arm of this organization as I plow ahead. Nothing lost here. 

Also we have all our book/booklet projects green lighted. That is very exciting. I have to finish up two different books this month. One for a June 20 publication date and one for July 19. (see our Schedule page.)

It is nice to finally get some writing into the public sphere again. I am as eager to open a dialogue on fronts that are taboo and/or button pushers. I believe that if we get passed talking points and religion, we can sit down and make calm, rational decisions about the topics of the day. 

So I hope my take on subjects helps move our individual and national conversation forward. 

Have a great and wonderful day!

New Book Cover Art

The upcoming books: In the Name of Blood , Nocturnal Redemption, and Density Horizon received new book cover art. 

What I have been up to: 

Have a great and wonderful day!

Making the Old New Again

Once upon a time, in a place when i was healthy, I had a website dedicated to all my shite...

I tried getting my information together: biographies, bibliographies, vitaes, and other business like data onto Undawnted, and it didn't feel right. So I sat down to plot out a new strategy.

I have multiple interests that i would like to see take off in the near future: designs, art and writing, and well marketing and selling books, prints, designs, media, and apparel. I did not want several different storefronts. I wanted just one. 

So that is what I am working on. I want to make my old site new again with an updated feel and energy.

I was born in the Sonoran Desert... so that is what inspired: Sonoran Dawn Studios! The outlet for products I want to sell. In time, maybe sell other people's items too that are fantastic and creative! I really do want to edit and sell books by new authors someday...

We will see what transpires! 

So I am here. I am just trying to do too many projects at once, like always, and that means more naps! 

Have a great and wonderful day!

Mind, Body, and Soul

My old art and poetry blog/website is now going under rapid changes.

Mind, Body, and Soul is a place where someone who is sick with Environmental Illness will find books, research, and much, much more.

Here is the link for Dawn Leslie Mullan's Mind, Body, and Soul.

Have a great and wonderful day!

Word Count

I was perusing the internet about word count.

Talk about confusing, every genre has its own definition of what a novel's word count should be plus no one wants to see a first time author write more than 100,000 words. 

Please, I have some novels way past the 100K mark. Of course those stories are trilogies and such.

I guess it's back to the grind for me.

Happy writing!

Proof, Placebo, and the Earth Effect

My brain is fried. I did too much watching of scientific research videos online. Oopsy!

From quantum physics to comparative mythology to Earthing, I have done it all and boy, am I tired. I didn't realize all these disciplines had opened up and now are talking to each other. I wish there had been more cross collaboration when I was in college.

Well, I did take a lot of classes. I felt that I had broached nearly every subject that was offered until I had to specialize. I remember taking a year off community college in order to take classes I didn't need for my associate degrees before I moved onto my bachelor's degree. 

Before I was made ill by my former employer, I was in the middle of attaining three associates and two (at least) certificates. Learning for me is no more difficult than breathing... until my body collapsed under the weight of heavy metal poisoning.

There is nothing fun about gasping to breathe for years.

So when I get excited that I had a good brain day, now you know why. I have spent too many days not having a well functioning brain because of the constant inflammation my body produces because of the toxic overload it possesses. 

One thing I did find information about is Earthing. I like energy work. Grounding oneself metaphysically as well as other energy healing modalities are interesting and produce results for me.

I don't want to be broken anymore. I don't have millions of dollars to get me well again, so I have to do it the slow, old fashion way.

With Earthing, all I have to do is find some grass or earth, stand there in my bare feet, and soak up the energy from the ground and sun. That, I can do. That is easy.

This afternoon I went out and stood in some grass coming up in my decorative river rock. I stood.   One of my outdoor cats came to see what I was doing.  James just lounged around as I felt the Earth under my feet. 

Funny thing was the inflammation I have been experiencing subsided for all the time I was outside and a half hour after I returned inside. I will keep seeing if this procedure works or not. I am a scientist at heart. I want proof, not placebo. 

One thing when I started this journey of self healing is that I wanted to see real results. Results I could pass onto others with MCS/EI/Mold. Knowledge is good. Healing is better. Free is the best, but results are king.

I can't wait for my brain to heal good enough for me to start writing books on my experiences.

Wouldn't success fly in the convention of serious illness? I hope so. I have a lot of people to show that you can hit me, kick me, and beat me down... but I will ALWAYS get back up again...

Don't you feel that way some days too?

Have a great and wonderful night!

Happy Yule Tidings

December 21st is the customary day of celebration for Yule. It's supposed to be the shortest day of the year. With the long night, the land lays fallow waiting for the warmth of the spring to come.

Pagans have celebrated this day of death and rebirth for as long as humans have marked the cycles. 

Other religions have taken the holiday and made it their own through political and religious might. So we have holiday after holiday during the winter season. 

I enjoy celebrating today because it feels purer than other days. I am not brainwashed to believe in a birth I know did not happen until March or pressured into being like everyone else. I can be me and celebrate what I chose, when I chose to do it.

Yule for me is about saying good-bye to the old. I have a lot of old to say good-bye to too. This year I have become quite independent as a disabled American. I have my ups and downs, my bad days and my good days. Everyday I am grateful that I can be who I am without ridicule, pressure, or disrespect from others. 

I am very ill. Nothing is really going to change that aspect of my life. There is only so many times your immune system can be collapsed, your liver compromised, your renal system infected, and your digestive system attacked to notice that your nervous system, heart, and lungs do not work as they should any longer.

Even though I am in bed more hours of the day than I am in motion, I still am grateful for every day that I am here. I have a lot to do! I am doing my art and writing my books. 

I am doubly grateful to be the editor and staff writer for my community online newspaper: the Villa de Paz Gazette. I only hope to continue writing great articles that impact the way people perceive reality. 

I am also helping my community fight off a vulture capitalist that wants to destroy our golf course for a housing development. It's nice to be back in the saddle again, even if it's a kid's pony ride. 

Yule like other holidays should bring out the best in you. 

Be happy. Be grateful. Be open. 

The universe is watching and waiting for you to open up to the possibilities that await. So take some time this busy holiday season and make a list. Check it twice. List all the things you are grateful for. 

With joy and gratitude in your heart, nothing is impossible: including a miraculous recovery...