The Spell of Binding

Once a powerful wizard, now an old man, Archibald sighed as he gazed upon his kingdom, now in ruins. He had summoned the elementals too often, using them as mere tools, never considering the consequences of his actions. He now understood the cost of such power and knew he had to make amends.

He locked himself in his tower, searching for the spell to bind the elementals. After many months of searching, he found it. He recited the incantation, his voice growing louder with each word. The room began to shake and the elements themselves responded, forming in front of him.

The air elemental was the first to appear, a funneling cloud of whirling air, but Archibald was ready. With a wave of his hand, he forced the elemental into a bound form, shaping it into a protective shield for his kingdom.

The earth elemental came next, a walking hill, but Archibald was ready. With another wave of his hand, he forced the elemental into a bound form, shaping it into a protector of the kingdom's crops.

The fire elemental was the most dangerous of them all, but Archibald was ready. With a flick of his wrist, he forced the elemental into a bound form, shaping it into a source of warmth and light for the kingdom.

Finally, the water elemental appeared, a cresting wave, but Archibald was ready. With a nod of his head, he forced the elemental into a bound form, shaping it into a source of life-giving water for the kingdom.

Archibald's eyes glimmered with satisfaction as he gazed upon the kingdom, now protected by the elementals. He had made amends, using his power for good, and ensuring that the elementals would never again wreak havoc upon the kingdom.

I did it! 🎉 I got up the courage and queried another agent.

Her wish list seems very aligned with my book series to which I expressed with enthusiasm.

So we will see. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 🤞

Wish me luck! 🍀

This is me waiting for an agent to pick my book.

Sometimes, it’s just so defeating getting a rejection email or even just going through agent want list after agent want list, only to find out that YOUR BOOK isn’t what they’re wanting.

I know I just have to keep the faith, but it’s not always easy.

After my last searches and set of rejections, I had to take a break from it all.

It was heart wrenching knowing how long and how hard it was to create this amazing story, only to find out that either there aren’t agents wanting to even look at my book or who pass on it when they do. 🙄

But I’m ready to get back to it now.

However, I’m not looking forward to the gut punches that’ll come my way. Fingers crossed that there won’t be too many at least. 🤞

It's time to get serious about all these blog posts and articles. 👩‍💻 I've got so many posts that are half done.

Fellow writers: Always remember that what you write does not have to be perfect. Just write it. You can always edit later. You got this❣I believe in you.

I just finished writing a blog post for @united-nations-of-influence. Through the first go around, it seemed pretty legit. I'm stepping away before doing any revision or sending it to the team. It's important with writing to wait a few minutes, hours, days, etc. before editing. The words are just too fresh. I hope it's well received. Wish me luck! ☘

Editing Update

I hate doing line edits. They're the freaking worst. As of Saturday, 9/1/18, I've finally edited 100 pages of book one of my young adult fantasy series. That's over 1/3 of the book edited. YESSS!! 😁

I procrastinate editing so much because it's just not something I enjoy doing, and it takes alot of work to turn something mediocre into great or great into freaking fantastic. (I like editing the works of others.) Sometimes I can't find the right synonym or can't come up with just the right diction and syntax to fix what's written. However, I find that perhaps my message and most of my words are good but only here and there needs to be tweaked.

Yesterday, I ran across a scene that was boring and too systematic, so I rewrote it. But I'm not sure if it's even that necessary. I had my husband read part of the scene (original and rewrite). While he thought it was well written, he doesn't think it assists the plot any. And to what he read, it doesn't. A few paragraphs later it does and the rewrite definitely helps. But I must decide if I want to keep the scene or cut it.

There are so many hard choices when you're a writing and editing your own book. The pressure's on.

Write what's in your heart and your dreams.

I’m doing line by line edits today. This will be me life for awhile. My hubby took my along to the gaming place, so he could play Dragonfire while I edited. 📑 I. Hate. Editing. So. Much. 😭😭😭😭 It takes so long and has so many parts to it. However, greatness is achieved by perseverance and hard work. 💪 . . . . .

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Welp, That was a bust.

I tried to record the intro to my YouTube channel today. It was like everything went wrong. (This will be a giant thought sentence.) I couldn't get the settings right on my camera; the camera was up too low then too high (then just right); I had too much clutter that needed to be put up; I got a different chair to help with the height problem; I looked fat but told myself I wasn't; the sound was low but thought I might be able to bring it up in post processing; and there weren't photos in the picture frames. Then, I found photos but they weren't the right sizes. I put one in one of the frames anyways. It's just so dark in my house. Yes, all my lights were on. I tried opening the shades and using candles to help with the light, but it didn't do much good. What little light I had, I lost. I think I will have to wait until I get a lighting kit or a new phone before I can record. I was recording on my old DSLR. It's a T2i. I have an amazing lens though. It's a Sigma Art. I know that it's weird that I can write to complete strangers on the interwebs but talking to them freaks me the f🤬ck out. Every time I think I am going to record, I get so anxious and want to cry. But, you know, I definitely believe that facing your fears is how you overcome them. So, I am working on it. I'm just not able to actually do that do to my lighting situation. I'll watch some videos and read some articles to see what I might need. I did some lives in a FB group I'm in. It felt okay. I think maybe if someone was there cheering me on and saying "you're doing such a good job" or "that's great but I would just do [insert change] differently," I would feel better. But life's not always like that. We have to say those things to ourselves. I mean, we can find people who might say those things to us after or during what we'retrying to accomplish, especially online, but not always. Just know that I'm here for you, fam. I know that struggle.

Listening to 🎶classical music🎶 & editing my book. 📑📚 Ah, the life. 💕