On the Road... Again, Maybe...

I used to travel. ComicCon this time of year, I would jaunt over to San Diego. I would go here and I would go there. Every place was a new adventure. 

Now disabled with a collapsed immune system, everyday has become the adventure.

It is days like this one I wish the adventure would stop and I could get off the ride for a breather. If I need a day off every once and awhile, then my characters might feel thus inclined as well. Characters are supposed to be people too.

Our imaginary friends, the characters in our stories, must be treated as though their lives were real in order to maintain continuity within the scope of our world building scheme. If we have a personal life, then our characters have a personal life. If we go to work, then our characters should have some sort of career. If we go on vacation, well, shouldn't our characters too get a day off? 

I may be sick in bed with food poisoning from an onion I ate, but I can still use this situation as a character driven application. Because if we are using the schema that characters are people too, then someone is going to be reading about food poisoning in the near future in a story that I will write. 

But for today, I am going to rest. I am not well enough for the tilt-a-whirl.  Maybe tomorrow I will feel like riding around again.

Have a great and wonderful day.

Name Calling

It was one of those days. You know those days. Days that the most rudimentary application flees your mind as if drinking and writing were habitual. 

Needless to say, I don't drink. 

Future Banner for Nocturnal Redemption

So what was the authorian infraction? Names. Names to my characters to be exact. I spent so much time working out plot lines, characterization, and dialogue that I forgot to give more than half my characters surnames. 

The travesty! 

Not really, but the situation did give me another prescription in my bid to edit and polish Nocturnal Redemption: In the Eye of the Beholder. 

So I went out on a discovery expedition. My antagonist, Chloe, needed a dark name. One that showed where she was in the story. I wanted to do: deWinter, but thought the name too closely resembled the Dumas character in The Three Musketeers. 

Since one of the scenes is and others will be in France, I decided to investigate the French word for winter, which happens to be le hiver. In my rounds on the internet I discovered place names like de l'hiver, and l'hiv. That gave me the idea to name her: Chloe de L'Hiv (of the Winter). 

Neat, right?

To name a character in one's story takes a little time and effort. Many new writers are overwhelmed by the task. There are an innumerable amount of baby name websites to choose from. The way to go about naming your characters is to know who your characters are and where they come from. 

Doing the brainstorming first before researching the name for a character cuts out the middle man so to speak. 

I went from panic mode to a quick afternoon's jaunt into France. The internet is a wonderful place. A writer can now venture any where in the world. 

So do not get stuck naming your characters, get proactive with fleshing out your characters and researching those ends online. 

Have a great and wonderful day!

Memory Lane

I have been updating my credentials on Sonoran Dawn Studios.

The books, courses, lectures, and other learning mechanisms I employed over the years were a lot lengthier than I had given myself credit for. 

In a word: wow! 

I am glad I availed myself to not only study but to travel. I have been to numerous historical locations, locations in general, as well as touched history. 

Different points of view is an important skill to have as a creator. I wish I could have done more before I became disabled but while I was healthy, at least I did not hide in my house. I lived. Moments of time, I experienced eras and cultures. I felt time.

So memory lane has really bolstered my passion for knowledge and experience. I hope that one day I can return to what I enjoyed: living out loud. 

For now, I will live to express. 

What have you done today to break out of your comfort zone? 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

 

_____

 

A writer at heart, Undawnted's own creative spark, DL Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, Ms. Mullan has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. Ms. Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. As an independent publisher, she produces her own book cover designs as well as maintains her own websites. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet. In 2022, DL Mullan begun sharing her knowledge via A Novelist Idea Newsletter. If you too want to become a Fearless Phile, then subscribe to her newsletter at her Substack.

Learn. Grow. Master… with Undawnted.

Vultures and Telemarketers

Vultures. 

We all know them. We have had these people in our life but have you ever seen one? A  real, wild vulture? 

I have. 

I was able to cross this item off my bucket list before I had a chance to put it on. One day someone brought me a gift in his hands. Someone had discovered a baby vulture. I petted its head and then washed my hands for several minutes just in case. My close encounter with the carrion kind was over 10 years ago, but I still remember it. 

To pet a wild, carrion bird is awe inspiring. So fragile but so grand. Carrion birds are necessary to the ecosystem. To meet one is a very humbling experience. 

So earlier this week when I viewed six vultures gliding on the air toward their nesting trees a couple miles away by the river front, I remembered my personal introduction to a baby one. 

But there are other types of vultures. People vultures. With my illness and being disabled by it, I have had my fair share of vulture run-ins. Even now, I have to deal with a situation I should not have to because other people feel entitled to what is not theirs. Vultures.

As I slept in my bed one night, someone called at almost 3am. I did not bother to even pick up. After days of incessant ringing, I answered. The sad situation was it was a telemarketer. The Asian sounding woman on the other end was looking for a Josh. Really? Josh Gates, perhaps?

After I trashed her dreams of finding Josh, she made the travel opportunity available to me. Wait for it... I'm sorry, I am disabled and cannot travel. Let the guilt trip for calling my ass begin. Well, I doubt that company will be calling my unlisted, Do Not Call List number again. 

Vultures. 

Have a great and vulture free day!

On the Road Again

It's just not a Willie Nelson song.

Of course, I feel like I have traveled this road one too many times. The street names are all the same and you never cruise above 55 miles an hour. There's something wrong with this road. 

So I have to off road from time to time. I pick some unfamiliar exit and make a mad dash for it. I usually end up in some forest. 

I'm on TV! But, it's not Survivor. It's Finding Bigfoot or Call of the Wildman. 

It seems to be all about the hunt for me. Travel down a road to nowhere for only so long and you are on the prowl. Good thing in reality I do my hunting at the grocery store. 

Things could get messy if civilization wasn't so civilized. 

Still civilization has its drawbacks. We, humans I mean, don't get to nourish our primal instincts, our wild side. 

Movies, tv shows, and marketers like to psychologically target and overemphasize the sexual motivation of our species, but they do not realize that that is not the basis for our urges. It's survival. 

I know a little bit about survival. 

So the next time you write remember what drives your characters. Is it sex? Is it escape? Or, is it the basic instinct of survival? 

One of the best survival mechanisms is to know yourself, and your character. 

Have a happy haunted day! 

Soul Talk and the Christ Consciousness with Truth Frequency

The universe is not what it seems.

I like listening to others who have traveled beyond this plane of existence in order to share with the rest of us what the universe is truly like. 

Have a great listen:

Truth Frequency with Chris and Sheree Geo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLSuuU6V8c&list=UU1CW21KbWnF2M1poLwq59Dg

Funny, in this discussion Chris Geo explains about a rift in the fabric of our universe by an evil entity, which is fed through evil acts on our planet. That rift is a plot point in one of my speculative fiction novels. I began writing it ten years ago. So there was no influence from his talk. 

How the soul talks to us when we think we cannot hear it.