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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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the carpet cleaner

Robert's Carpet Cleaning Service arrives at his favourite client's only to be greeted by a rather confronting scenario. Find out what happens in new #shortstory, "The Carpet Cleaner". #amwriting #fiction #crime #writerslife

Robert liked his job. Well, most of the time. He didn’t like going to uni student share houses to leech booze and dried vomit off every plush surface the day before a rental inspection; and he didn’t like going to Ms McTavish’s place because she had ten cats and let them pee on the carpet until it was sodden and the house smelt like piss long after he’d shampooed and shampooed it again. He…

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#creative writing #crime fiction #fiction #indie writer #Jessica A. McMinn.#literary fiction #literature #short fiction #short story #writing

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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#011

Cat: Miyu

Human: Helen

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#cat #cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #Caturday #crazy cat lady

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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#010

Cat: Dante

Human: Amy of amyecasey.com

Amy is a fellow writer. Connect with her on Instagram.

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#cat #cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #cats #Caturday #crazy cat lady #submission

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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#009

Cat: Jax

Human: Jade

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#cat #cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #cats #Caturday #crazy cat lady #submission

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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008

cat: suzu

human: j.a.m

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#cat #cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #cats

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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Cat: suzu

Human: j.a.m

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#cat #cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #cats #Caturday #suzu

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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Cat: suzu

Human: j.a.m

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#cat #cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #Caturday #crazy cat lady

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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#005

Cat: snugabug

Human: j.a.m’s sister

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#cat #cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #cats #Caturday #crazy cat lady

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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#004

Cat: suzu

Human: j.a.m

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#cat #cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #cats #Caturday #suzu

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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[caturday] 003

Cat: Miyu

Human: j.a.m’s mother

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#cat lady #cat lover #cat lovers #cat people #cats #Caturday #miyu

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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[caturday] 002

Cat: Tori Human: j.a.m’s sister

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#cat #cat lovers #cat people #cats #Caturday #personal

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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[caturday] 001

Cat: Suzu Human: j.a.m

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#cat lady #cat lovers #cat people #cats #Caturday #suzu

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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[blog] welcome to caturday

Who run the world? [blog] welcome to caturday #blog #catlover #cats #writerslife #catlady

I’m a cat lover from way back. My family had always been dog people. Mum grew up with dogs; Grandma still had dogs right up until she passed. My parents had a dog before they had kids. My aunts had dogs. My cousins had dogs. Dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs. All I ever wanted was a cat. Well, actually a pony. But that’s another story. In truth, my family just love pets. We all have them. Dogs, cats,…

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#Blog #cat lady #cat lovers #cat lovers anonymous #cat people #cats #Caturday #crazy cat lady #personal

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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Happy Easter Long Weekend!

Being the end of March, we are now officially one quarter of the way through the year of twenty-eighteen. How did that happen, right!? I wish I could jump on here and tell you all how fantastically productive I have been in achieving all the goals I set out at the end of 2017. The reality is, however, (and who is surprised?) while I have made progress I’ve still ultimately fallen short of all I intended to do. Winning!

Who feels good about themselves coming into April? Certainly not I but oh well. Progress is progress, no matter how small, right?

Just to review, the goals I laid out for myself in December 2017 were as follows:

Finish Torn Sky The Ruptured Sky

Build online presence (that means more content for this bad boy!)

Decide between traditional and indie publishing options

In summary, Ruptured Sky is not finished; three blog posts hardly count as building an online presence; and I’m no more committed to indie or traditional publishing as I was three months ago.

But not all has been a complete failure.

So, as usual, let’s break it down.

I need this blown up to A1 and plastered on my wall. Source: bobby-nash-news.blogspot.com

What I Wrote

My novel may not be complete and ready to roll out to beta readers as I originally planned, but I have made significant progress and changes that will hopefully fix a lot of the grief I was having. The first major change is perhaps the most obvious: the project has been rebranded to Gardens of War and Wasteland, and the first book will be titled The Ruptured Sky. Why, you ask? Well other projects (albeit not particularly well known ones) already existed with the previous titles–Garden of the Gods: Torn Sky–and I wanted something more original and with more punch. I think I have that now. I hope. Time will tell, I suppose.

Anyway. Ruptured Sky now sits on 69 417 words as of 31.01.18, a whopping 22 854 word growth so far in 2018. Admittedly, after starting the year super strong in Jan and early Feb, things have waned a bit due to being distracted by trash TV and video games BUT MORE ON THAT LATER.

In addition to the omnipresent novel WIP, I’ve also participated in two MadLib Challenges, at the suggestion of the ever-creative Serena W. Sorrell. I plan on doing this every month because the whole exercise has been wildly beneficial to my writing and inspiration in that it gives me a chance to explore different styles and themes outside of the third-person vocalised dark fantasy prison that is Ruptured Sky. (I love my novel. Really, I do. But most some days it makes me want to run from the house screaming.) While I have participated in the challenge twice, only one story has been published on my blog as I am still working on March’s edition. Patience, Young Padawan. Patience.

You can find February’s story, ‘Aunty Mim’s Lost and Found‘ right here.

What I Read

My reading has been off the charts successful this quarter. The combination of great choices and actually following my routine of going to bed at 9.30pm each night to allow for book time before ultimately zonking out thirty minutes later has resulted in me finishing a whopping eleven titles in three months.

Since January, I have completed:

His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire #1) – Naomi Novik ★★★

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) – Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★★

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth #2) – N. K. Jemisin ★★★★★

The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) – Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★★

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) – Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★★

The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) – Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★★

Puppet Master Vol. 4 – Miyuki Miyabe ★★★

Opal (The Raven Cycle #4.5) – Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★★

A Gathering of Magic (Shades of Magic #2) – V.E Scwhab ★★★★★

Puppet Master Vol. 5 – Miyuki Miyabe ★★★

They Both Die at the End – Adam Silvera ★★★★

LOOK AT ALL THOSE STARS! Can you tell I love Maggie Stiefvater and the Raven Cycle? If not, it’s made pretty damn obvious in my gushing review of the series.

Seriously, it’s been really good reading in 2018. Currently, I’m cruising through Holly Black‘s The Coldest Girl in Coldtown; the last installment of N.K. Jemisin‘s Hugo Award-winning Broken Earth series, The Stone Sky; and indie debut Cloaked in Shadow by Ben Alderson.

My motivation levels right now after such a long string of awesome reads. Source: http://cavereading.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/love-this-meme.html

What I Played

Yes, I game. I probably shouldn’t because it’s not constructive to my writing career, but hey, I’m a multi-passioned individual with interests outside of the written word. I’d probably be further through my writing projects if I wasn’t so preoccupied with other hobbies but that’s not going to change any time soon so I’m just going to roll with it.

While most of my game time has been devoted to Overwatch due to the vast number of friends who play it, I’ve also gotten back into the utter joy that is the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I dappled with Monster Hunter World because that seems to be everyone’s flavour of the moment, but the lack of actual storyline kind of killed my interest after twelve hours or so. To top things off, in what is going to be a horrible blow to my writing, I’m looking at getting back into Final Fantasy XIV after a two-year long hiatus.

RIP Ruptured Sky. It was nice knowing you.

What I Watched

Yes, I know one of my goals for 2018 was to read more and watch less but I actually like TV. Particularly trash TV. Gilmore Girls made it back on to my watch list as it seems to every year, and I also binged Netflix‘s new Queer Eye in one afternoon when I was home sick from work. I’m ashamed to say I lost a great deal of writing time to the horribly addictive trainwreck that was this year’s Married at First Sight. Thank God that is over so I can return to real life. However, coinciding with MAFS‘s completion, was the return of Shadowhunters Season 3 and I’m back to gleefully following Harry Shum Jr as Magnus Bane down the rabbit hole in to terrible scripting hell.

I did watch ONE quality piece of film in recent months and that was thanks to the release of Thor Ragnarok on DVD. I don’t get to the cinemas much (none in my location) and that’s really the only reason I haven’t seen Black Panther, or waited this long to catch up with my much-loved Thor franchise. And it was perfection.

And that pretty much sums things up for the opening quarter of twenty-eighteen. As always, I will endeavour to update this thing with more content for the readers out there. I do have two teaser stories for Gardens of War and Wasteland, which you will hopefully see over the coming weeks months. I am also looking at publishing a online novella, with regular chapters rolled out to subscribers of my mailing list (which will also be set up soon).

Things are happening. I promise.

j.a.m

PS: I’m just going to leave this here…

(Courtesy of tumblr)

One quarter of a year down! Read my quarterly review to find out what I wrote, read, played and watched in recent months! #writerslife #amwriting #blog [blog] q-one in review Happy Easter Long Weekend! Being the end of March, we are now officially one quarter of the way through the year of twenty-eighteen.

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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Never had I been so invested in a group of teenagers until I met Blue and her Raven Boys.

Ah, Maggie Stiefvater and The Raven Cycle.

Where do I begin without obscenely gushing all over the place? This series has raised the bar for YA fiction and given me a love for the genre which was previously only an occasional interest. Having annihilated all four books in the space of a month–a truly astounding feat for turtle-reader me–it’s safe to say The Raven Cycle shot straight to the top of my favourites and Stiefvater has well asserted herself as one of the premier authors of YA fiction.

No one can summarise a book quite like the author herself, so without further ado:

A host of co-dependent teens with a battery of psychological issues comb rural Virginia for a dead Welsh king with dubious magical powers. Trees talk; hitmen put down roots; dead people live; living people die. Cars are described in loving detail. Fuckweasel. A house full of psychics tells everybody the future and drinks a lot on-page considering it’s a young adult series. Nobody kisses anybody, which is weird because everybody loves everybody. There’s rich boys! Poor boys! Sad boys! Angry boys! Raven boys! Collect them all!

Sadly, this is not the blurb featured on the dust cover of The Raven Boys. While it seems like Stiefvater is taking the piss, the above is actually a rather accurate depiction of what you can expect to find in the quartet. Steifvater is a masterful storyteller who weaves multifaceted plot strands into a unique and intricate tapestry. Despite each book containing its own arc that is wrapped up within the volume, the throughline of ‘Find Glendower’ is strong and remains the central driving force of the story at large. Each resolution rolls into a new conflict with such momentum it throws the reader into the next installment with enthusiastic force. My one relief about being late to jump on this fabulous bandwagon is not having to suffer between cliffhangers. (Though I am currently suffering pretty hard waiting for the upcoming Dreamers trilogy release date.)

Like all great books, The Raven Cycle comes equipped with a fabulous cast of characters who stay with you long after the final pages are turned. Never had I been so invested in a group of teenagers until I met Blue and her Raven Boys.

The Raven Boys: pencil sketch by the author herself.*

Blue Sargent is everything I wanted as the sole female character among a main cast of men: strong, principled and relatable. She is witty, kooky, and painfully original, having been brought up in the anything-by-ordinary house of psychics at 300 Fox Way. For me, everything hinged on Blue being likeable: despite being a multi-focalised ensemble cast, Blue was the piece that was different–the outsider who shook things up, brought them together and propelled the story forward. I did have my reservations about a 1:4 female/male cast split as I expected (and dreaded) the thought of every male character inevitability falling in love with Blue. Thankfully, this tired and polarising trope was reinvented, and Blue remained the likeable character Stiefvater no doubt intended her to be.

Gansey is equally pivotal, given his role in recruiting other the Raven Boys—Ronan, Adam and Noah–on his quest to locate the ancient Welsh king, Owen Glendower. Gansey is also a remarkable success in character crafting: underneath this quintessential entitled rich boy is someone who is fearful yet brave; ignorant yet willing; and confident yet doubtful. My feelings for Gansey grew throughout the course of the series, and while I never disliked him as such, there were moments that had me (briefly) rolling my eyes in disbelief whenever he did something outrageously rich. These moments were few and far between and possibly only disjointing to someone who has never been exposed to the truly wealthy.

If asked to name a favourite character, I would–unreservedly–answer, Ronan Lynch. My love for him was strong and immediate; his foul-mouthed, rebellious bravado is hilariously endearing. He brings tears, loud-out-loud moments and a delicious amount of salt to an already appealing cast of characters. While a lot must remain unsaid to avoid bombshell spoilers, the layers to Ronan‘s character are intricate and never-ending. He is so much more than just an arsehole. But let’s be real: even if he wasn’t, I’d probably still love him anyway.

I had a much more frustrating relationship with Adam, who had me swinging between empathy, pity and the overwhelming urge to grab him by the shoulders and shake him silly. At first encounter, his character is not quite as original or engaging as Ronan or Blue, but he does undergo a fantastic, plot-integral transformation arc that I really enjoyed seeing unfold.

That leaves us with Noah, the last of Blue‘s Raven Boys. Sweet, silent and tragic Noah has perhaps the most interesting and important role in the story and yet, sadly, I didn’t quite connect with him as I did the others. Don’t get me wrong: all characters were beloved, but I was left feeling distanced from Noah as he does not receive a steady stream of focalised chapters like the rest of the main cast. Given the large fanbase Noah has attracted, he is still a wonderfully constructed character, just one that didn’t hook me personally.

Aside from the absolutely impeccable main cohort, Stiefvater continues to impress by bolstering the cast with quirky and lovable supporting characters in the form of psychics Maura, Calla and Persephone. Her villains are equally well-crafted and there really isn’t anyone I could label a ‘bad’ character in terms of writing and development. Hats off, Maggie.

Stiefvater’s descriptive prose is eloquent, original and deeply moving.

YA tends to have the misconception of featuring more simplified prose that makes it accessible to the younger reader. I myself am guilty of previously falling into the elitist assumption of YA = lacklustre and cannot thank Stiefvater (and the numerous other fantastic YA authors out there) enough for opening my eyes to the pure gems to be found in the genre. Stiefvater’s prose is simple in that its not bogged down with laborious run-on clauses or ostentatious vocabulary; instead, her mastery of the written word shines with emotive, beautiful exposition that is easily on par with more critically lauded adult-marketed literature.

I have no hesitation in proclaiming Stiefvater a queen of her craft: everything from the vivid descriptions of landscapes to the organic unfurling of complex relationships is handled with the confidence and precision. The Raven Cycle is everything and more that I could possibly want in a book and it now tops the list of my favourite reads ever.

Rating: Undisputed ★★★★★

j.a.m

BONUS:

Opal: A Raven Cycle Story was recently published in the US paperback edition of The Raven King and is a wonderful insight into one of my other favourite characters and a great bridge into the much anticipated Dreamers trilogy.

Available for purchase as an ebook on GoogleBooks.

* You can buy official Maggie Stiefvater designed Raven Cycle (and other series) goods from her Society6 page.

The Raven Cycle by @mstiefvater is my undisputed favourite book series. Read the ★★★★★ review, now live on my blog! #amreading #bookreviews #theravencycle #yafantasy #writerslife Never had I been so invested in a group of teenagers until I met Blue and her Raven Boys.

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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[story] aunty mim's lost & found

See if Lydia Gardiner finds her dog in new short story, Aunty Mim's Lost & Found. #shortstory #amwriting #loveozya #australianfiction #aussiewriter #australianstories #writingmadlibs #writingchallenge #indiewriter #writing #fiction

Miriam Sykes had been called many things and not all of them were kind. A witch, a gypsy. Hermit. Lunatic. Satan. But Miriam Sykes was just a woman—a woman who was very good at finding things. Miriam lived a good twenty minute walk from Sturtville station. Trains didn’t stop there anymore. Well, not trains for moving people anyhow. There weren’t many people left to move in bum-fuck…

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#australian fiction #australian stories #creative writing #fantasy #fiction #literature #LoveOzYA #outback #psychics #short story #supernatural #writing #writing prompt #YA fiction

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jamjamwriting-blog · 6 years

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[blog] what you need to know about garden of the gods: torn sky

What you need to know about GotG: Torn Sky #amwriting #IARTG #IAN1 #darkfantasy #newadult

As the beta roll-out looms, it’s about time I had a sit-down with myself and addressed some of the important questions that you, the readers, have about my upcoming novel, Garden of the Gods: Torn Sky. Li’Nea Wood: One of the many locales explored throughout Whyt’hallen. Images sourced from Pinterest. (more…)

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