As an Urban Fantasy writer, I think the person who asked this question might not have known just [...]]]> Over at LiveJournal there is a prompt in their writing blocks asking “If you could design your own planet, what would it look like and who would live there? Describe the colors, the creatures, and the culture.”

As an Urban Fantasy writer, I think the person who asked this question might not have known just what goes into making a planet. I’ve made a few planets and let me tell you, planet creation is a bit more complicated than you might expect it to be.

You can, of course offer up a vague broad generalization, but there is a lot more to making a planet than following a makeshift “Toss this in…” recipe. Like any recipe there are certain elements that are required. I won’t go into details, but I will tell you that if you ever do want to build a world of your own you really need to check out World Building (Science Fiction Writing) and Aliens and Alien Societies (Science Fiction Writing Series), two of the best books I know on how to make a world of your own. Rather you want to create a world for a SciFi novel or a really unique setting for your fantasy series.

I will still be building on the skills learned (and relearned) in lesson two as [...]]]> I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I picked up lessons one and two quickly from memory of having taken them two years ago, so have advanced to lesson three of the How to Think Sideways course for this week.

I will still be building on the skills learned (and relearned) in lesson two as I work my way through lesson three and learn how to generate ideas while on a deadline. I remember doing this lesson, it was very fun and taught me a lot, so I can’t wait to dive back into it and work on getting some good ideas moving about that I will be able to work from.

My mom [...]]]> So, midlife crisis strikes and most people will go out and buy a sports car, or quit their job, or maybe get divorced. Me? I’m three days shy of the big four-oh and have come to the determination that I have to stop letting external influences sidetrack my dreams of being an author.

My mom never faltered in her belief that I would be a published author. She believed strongly in my writing, encouraged me to follow my dreams. There were more than a few months over the past six years when the only way that we got from month to month was by the margin I added to the month’s income from my writing work. And this came to be enough for me. My mom felt that I had made it as a writer when my writing earned enough money to pay the bills.

Still, I wanted to be a published novelist and she encouraged me to reach for that star.

After she passed away, in late 2008, I let my dreams slowly get snuffed out under the pressure of others and other needs. I worked at writing, kept working to pay the bills, but the dream to be a published novelist was a lost dream for well over a year now.

I am no longer going to be afraid to pursue my dream, my mother’s dream. I am going back to the How to Think Sideways course that I was a part of when my mom passed away. The course that she encouraged me to take, and take it over from the beginning. As I work my way through that course I will use this website to track my progress and share my thoughts on writing.

I would like to offer the most heartfelt of thank yous to Holly Lisle, the course creator, for creating the course and for giving me a chance to return to it all these months later to work my way back through it and move toward my and my mother’s dream of me being a published writer.

I’m in the process of organizing each chapter on 5×8 index cards and writing down the basic descriptive [...]]]> I’ve dove back into working on my novel, <a href=”http://www.heirtomagic.com”>Heir to Magic</a>, getting it put into <a href=”http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter4.html”>yWriter</a> and starting back into recreating the outline – which I lost in one of the many office moves.  ::sigh::

I’m in the process of organizing each chapter on 5×8 index cards and writing down the basic descriptive for each of the scenes in the chapters, that way I can flip through them and remind myself at a glance what was covered in each of the chapters.  I have also printed out the whole thing as it is so far – 55,000 + words and still lots of plot thread to cover.

I want to multitask today on working on that and getting my website for the novel updated with a new program I found that I like – <a href=”http://www.icyphoenix.com”>Icy Phoenix</a>.   It will let me create everything I think I have been wanting to include on that website, including a forum for people to talk about my writing.