Good Grief - More Tornado C!

Hullo, hullo! Time for another update. How's your writing coming along, folks?

First, the bad news. Due to certain circumstances beyond my control, I'm informally dropping my self-imposed challenge to finish Tornado C before August 15. (I'll explain my usage of the word "informally" in a moment.) There are three reasons for this:

1) Tornado C is going to be a significantly longer book than I expected. I've finished five chapters out of twenty-five and my current word count is 15,290. Continuing on this trend, my novel will be, at the least, 70,000 words, if not longer. It may well be over eighty thousand, actually. And after revisions, who knows? This is just the rough draft estimate.

For instance, I just finished writing chapter four. (I have a prologue; thus chapter four is the fifth chapter.) The outline for chapter four was a mere 87 words long, whereas the word count of the actual chapter was over four thousand.. Most of my outlined chapters are at least twice that length (200 words or so), and one or two are three times that much (300+). I'm hoping that the written chapters won't be doubling or tripling in size!

In addition, some longer chapters in my outline may have to be broken up into two or three smaller chapters, such as my story climax.

2) Life is hectic. Besides having my grandparents here (and thus limiting my time on the computer, since I want to spend as much time as possible with them), something unexpected has turned up that will effectively stop my writing at the beginning of August. In order to fully concentrate, I'll have to write little to nothing for most of the month. I'll tell you about it when I can.

3) Also, I really don't want to push myself so hard that I write pure junk. For instance, here's a pre-revision sentence from chapter four: "Then, like a wall, he realized what was different." Needless to say, I stopped writing for the night soon afterward. Junk makes for a lot of revisions, and if I were to enter Tornado C into the OYAN novel contest (granted that I had finished it at all), I'd be entering a little-revised novel.

On the other hand, however, the sour feeling I have with yielding the challenge is somewhat eclipsed with the satisfaction I have in what I've written so far. This is going to be, by far, the longest and most epic fantasy novel I've ever written. With a vibrant story world and a long history combined with one of my best plots and strongest themes, this'll be a novel to remember! :)

And besides, something good did come out of this: I managed to start of the novel with a respectable 15,000 words in nine days.

Also, I have yet to write an "epic". My longest finished novel to date is a mere 55,000 words. (The Prophecy of Einarr is unfinished and just over 50,000.) I'd LOVE to write a 300-400 page novel, but I've never had enough material to write a long one. It seems that Tornado C will be the first!

Since Tornado C is standalone, it will also be an excellent novel with which to test the traditional publishing waters. ^_^

Now, to explain the word "informal": I said that I'm "informally" withdrawing from my challenge. That means that I'll still be participating, but not "in it to win it", so to speak. I'll still be writing at any chance I get, but I'm not going to write with a NaNoWriMo-type drive. I'm setting no daily quota; my only requirement is that I write some. And who knows? Maybe I'll end up finishing it after all. We'll wait and see - my withdrawal is open-ended.

Now, for some good news! To make up for the rather disappointing news of my drop-out, here's an excerpt from chapter four to keep you happy. Keep in mind that this has had very little revision, and let me know what you think.

--

"Good night." Daren gazed at the still figures. "I still liked the fiery death idea better."

"Too late now." Elijah ran his gaze over the fields. There was no sign of Wilker and his wife. He gave a quick prayer that they would have a safe journey to Vanaro and then returned his attention to his conversation. 

"Now that this business is finished, we need to get out of here."

"Good idea. I vote south."

"You would." Elijah smirked. If they headed due south from their current position, they'd be near a ford over the Vandar River and almost to Celamarian soil. "We probably should have interrogated one of the soldiers before knocking them out, but from what I overheard, they're planning on pushing us to the river. They've got a picket line farther north and scout teams scouring the area west to east and south to north."

Daren muttered a curse word under his breath. "That complicates things. How many people do they have out looking for us?"

"The officer talked like an entire half of the army was scouring the countryside, but he didn't say any numbers."

"Wonderful. So they're driving us to the river." Daren stared off into the east, as if trying to see Terrilon itself.  

"Is there any way across?"

"No. The nearest ford is dozens of leagues north."

"Even better. The narrowest point?"

"Geryon's Gorge. It's a bit south of here, but totally impassable. Terrilon passes through it and runs for twenty leagues before emerging."

"A geography fan, are you? Your company gets more and more interesting." Daren's tone was dry and sarcastic.

"Not really. My teacher drives me hard." Then Elijah added, "Besides having a decent grip on geography in all four countries, I can also quote fifth-century Meldese poetry in the original dialect."

"As much as I want to hear it, we'll have to save it for later."

--

I love dialogue. (:

How's your writing coming along, fellow writers? Give us a word count, perhaps? Maybe some snippets or quotes? I'd love to hear them. :)

Au revior, and happy writing!

--

Jake (because the signature thing was accidentally deleted)

Brief Update: Tornado C and My Strange Lack of Brevity

Hullo, hullo! I'm back, for a brief time.

First of all, how's the writing coming along, folks? Those of you I challenged to finish a novel before August 15: tired of writing yet? ;) I'm not, praise God!

All right, do you want the bad news or the good news? Well, they're connected, so I'll give them to you both at once.

The good news is, my word count is 5,586, and I plan on writing another 2k tonight. (Here's some more good news: when I say I'm going to write 2k tonight, I usually do. I have a 3/3 winning record right now. :D) The bad news is, my word count is 5,586.

How can it be good and bad, you say? Well, I'm pleased that the writing is going fairly smoothly; the words are coming along and I'm definitely interested in the story. The very best stories practically force you to write them, after all. The bad thing is, I'm still on chapter one.

Yes.

I'm still on chapter one.

I've written two of the three scenes I outlined for chapter one, so I have a good chunk yet to write in that chapter.

Granted, I have a prologue in this novel. But even with the prologue, my projected word count should be less than 4,500 at this point.

The way things are going, I'm going to end up with chapters longer than 3,000 words. While that's not bad in itself, it means that I'm going to have to write a LOT of words in a short amount of time...because I have 23 chapters left to write. I'm hoping that my shorter chapters will balance out the longer ones.

If the trend continues, however, my novel may very well end up past 80,000 words. That would be great - if I wasn't trying to write it in one month.

Eurgh.

To make matters worse, I just learned that, in all probability, I'll be severely detained past August 5th. Like, snatch-a-word-or-two-every-couple-minutes kind of detained. The kind of detained that makes writing extremely hard.

Eurgh.

Well, I've always liked challenges. Wouldn't it be glorious if God gave me the inspiration and stamina to write eighty thousand good words in a month? (:

So far, however, I haven't gotten to the I'm-going-to-drop-dead-and-my-writing-is-junk stage yet. That usually kicks in after day two or three, but I have no symptoms thus far. I'm loving the writing. Maybe it's the outline?

What about you? Are you at the do-or-die stage yet? How's the story a-coming?

Au revior - I've got to write another two thousand words yet tonight, and it's already eight o'clock here! (Looks like another late night of writing is ahead of me.)

UPDATE-1: The word count's past 6,000 now and rising. Still on chapter one, but the scene is nearing a close. I'm hoping to hit 8,000 words tonight.

UPDATE-2: The word count is 6,450 and chapter one is finished. On to chapter two!

UPDATE-3 Word count is 8,045 and I've just finished chapter two (which was, blessedly, a shorter chapter). Remarkably, I'm still not tired of the story. While I don't want to write more tonight because it's late, I still have yet to reach the I'm-writing-junk stage. But anyway, I'm going to bed. ^_^

[Post-script: This was written on the night of the 18th, by the way. Some statistics (such as my current word count) may be outdated.]

Writing Month, Anyone?

Today I had a problem. A big problem.

For some time, I've needed to start work on Tornado C, my OYAN novel for 2012. Unfortunately, a few plot problems and my general perfectionism have been hindering my outline progress (as you've read in previous posts).

It's been a general idea of mine to enter this novel into the 2012 OYAN Novel Contest once it's finished. Today, I checked the enter-by date on the contest.

August 15.

Gulp.

I have 31 days (exactly a month) to write Tornado C, revise it, and enter it into the contest. (I decided today that I was, in fact, entering....provided the novel's done.) I know for a fact that, under pressure, I can write fast enough - but finding time to revise it, too, will be a big problem. (Especially since my grandparents are visiting here in Liberia until August 1, so I will be spending precious little time on the computer.)

Sure, I've done 45k in nineteen days (my greatest literary accomplishment to-date) but churning out contest-quality work will be a problem. Still, since I have a detailed outline, I'm hoping that the plot problems that often come with hastily written novels will be somewhat diminished.

In the next two days, I'll have started Tornado C. My projected word count is somewhere beyond 40,000 words, so this will be a - ahem - a big project to undertake in just 31 days.

Still, if God is for me, what can stand against? A deadline? Psh.

So here's the deal: I'm planning on finishing this novel before August 15. Unlike NaNoWriMo, however, the only reward I'll have by the end is a finished novel - and my only motivation is the satisfaction of a good word count.

That means I need some good friends to help me along. I challenge you— *cue gauntlet-slapping* —to a WriMo of epic proportions: finish a novel before August 15. The novel can be already-started and unfinished, or it can be a completely new work-in-progress. Your choice. But the race is to the finish line, regardless of where you are on the racetrack.

If you happen to finish before me, you'll get a reward.

Well, in all technicality, it won't be much more than a hearty congratulations in a blog post and the reward of a finished novel. But hey, if Tornado C ever gets published, I'll mention all the contestants in the Acknowledgments, too!

So what say you? Take up the challenge?

Whether you're with me in pen or spirit - it's time to write!

Charge!

EDIT: I've STARTED TORNADO C. Repeat: I've finally started it! The word count is 1085 and it's time for bed. 'Night!

Writing Like There's No Tomorrow

"Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." —Matthew 12:34b-37

Words are a pretty big deal in the Bible. With words, God created everything. With words - and His Word, the Bible - God communicates to us. Jesus himself is the Word who became flesh. Matthew 12:37 even says that by our words we will be acquitted or condemned. It is through words that we preach the good news; it is with words that we can tear up and break down.

Words are important to anybody and everybody. But especially to us, the Christian writers. Words are our craft. They're our trade. Our entire business is with words. So if the above passage applies to anybody, it applies to us!

By our words we will be judged. Our words are just one of the different evidences of fruit in our lives. Jesus repeatedly talks about fruit, as do the Epistles; by the fruit you bear will you be known. Evil people bear bad fruit. Good people bear good fruit. That's the way it works.

So how does this apply to us?

Ask yourself this: what kind of fruit is evident in your writing? What kind of words are you speaking?

Every time I read this passage of Scripture, I'm drawn towards verse 36: we will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word we have spoken.

If you're like me, that hits hard. Because with words, it's so easy to say something carelessly. Granted, that's somewhat harder to do with writing, but still...everything counts. Whatever we do...we are to do it for Christ!

So if this is true, then we don't have time to waste, to put it bluntly. We can't waste our words! If Christ is not in what we write or speak, should we be doing it? If Christ can't be found in our current work-in-progress, should we be writing it? If we are not wholly devoted to Him who created the CONCEPT of words...what are we doing to rectify that?

But it's hard! The Bible has so much depth to it; how can we possibly compare? We don't. But we try anyway. We are to capture the echoes of our Gospel and the intangible joy of our Good News. That's what being a Christian writer is about.

We will have to answer for every careless word we speak - and every careless word we write. Every time we had an opportunity to share the Gospel in our stories but didn't; every time we waste words on something that will never last; we'll have to answer for that.

So what will we say on that day? That we didn't want to risk offending someone in our writing? I hope that you see the absurdity in this. Either we believe it or we don't; if God calls you to put something more "preachy" in your writing, then do it! Otherwise, do we really believe this at all? If we aren't willing to give up this novel to Him and write this novel FOR Him - then why claim the title of Christian writer?

Dear writers and fellow believers! I want to tell this to you as lovingly as possible, but I don't want to sugarcoat it. We cannot write without Him. He is the one who enabled us to write in the first place; so why would we, as Christian writers, write something without first committing it to Him? And if we've truly committed our writing to him, will we be writing fluff fiction? Or worse, fluff fiction with a cardboard God?

I'm not trying to guilt you or make you write something explicitly Christian. My question is, are you writing what God wants you to? Are you following His leading? If the answer is yes, then the Christian content in your writing is between you and God, not you and me.

However, my statement still stands: our lives are too short (and our Commission too great) to waste writing petty things.

Don't be afraid to write something that others will call preachy. Listen to this:

"'Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" (Romans 10:13-14)

They cannot hear, and thus believe, without someone preaching to them. And if we're writing typical escapist fiction that has no depth whatsoever and no meaning to the reader...how is that preaching?

It's not!

"But what if we turn them off from the Gospel?" is a typical reply. Here's the beauty of it: God's the one who opens the hearts of those ready to receive the Gospel. Not us. Our job is to preach what God tells us to. He does the rest.

So what must we do?

We must continue to write - but write for Him and write about Him. Out of the overflow of our heart our mouth speaks and our pen writes. Let us be so overflowing with Him and His goodness that our writing is bursting! Let the overflow of our heart overflow into others' hearts - so that everyone can taste, with every word they read, the glory of our majestic King!

This is your call, Christian writer! You have to write like there's no tomorrow, no words wasted, everything committed to Him who is worthy to receive everything we are.  

Two Awards, One Blogger, and Eleven Unfortunates

Wait, did I say "unfortunates"? I meant "lucky bloggers". *chortle*

Recently I was tagged in the "Liebster Blog Award" (by Sandy at Cake + OYAN = Sandy) and thus I must pass it on. This occurrence, however, also brought to mind the fact that Timothy at Middling had also tagged me some time ago with the honorable "Thanks for Writing" award. The result is one of literary chemistry, in which I attempt to bend the rules of both by combining them into one tag/award thing.

(If you want the picture for either award, you'll have to go to the aforementioned blogs; picture uploading time is terrible here.)

Since the basic premise for the "Thanks for Writing" award is very similar to the first part of the "Liebster Blog Award", I decided to simply do the Liebster award and hope for the best. Here goes!

The rules:

--

- If you are tagged/nominated, you must post eleven facts about yourself.

- Then, you must answer the eleven questions the tagger has given you and make eleven questions for the people you are going to tag.

- Next, tag eleven more bloggers.

- Tell the people you tagged that you have tagged them.

- No tagging back.

- The person you tagged must have less than 200 followers.

--

All right, showtime!

ELEVEN FACTS:

1) I listen to a wide variety of music, including rock, classical (mainly soundtracks), worship, etc. As I write this, I'm listening to "Phenomenon" by Thousand Foot Krutch.

2) I play the guitar. Somewhat. Being in Africa has not only rusted the clasps on my guitar case (it's the salt air), but has also rusted my abilities. Sometime (when I actually have time) I need to grab some sheet music from the internet to learn and practice.

3) I draw maps. Which is about the only thing I can draw. As of right now, I have 27 hand-drawn maps, five of which have been drawn specifically for Tornado C. (My favorite is a detailed battle plan that takes place over a hundred-year period across the entire scope of civilization.)

4) (This might take a while...) Someday, I want to buy an expensive hardcover copy of The Lord of the Rings in one volume.

5) I just got a new mattress. ^_^ For the past seven months, I've been sleeping on a two-inch-thick foam mattress.

6) Settlers of Catan is my favorite board game.

7) I own a mechanical pencil exactly like the Pen of Doom. The only reason that I don't use it is because I ran out of lead ages ago and was never able to figure out what kind of lead it takes. (Now it's in America and I couldn't use it if I wanted to.)

8) I've always tried to journal but I've never gotten more than a couple days in before the project fizzled out. (The sole exception to this was during a homeschooled year early in my life in which I wrote two sentences a day in what was supposed to be a much more detailed journal. I still have it. I stopped journaling after four or five months, though.)

9) I have a moderately large nose. (Hah!) As Cyrano de Bergerac says, "A great nose indicates a great man."

10) I've eaten rice almost every day for the past seven months and I'm still not tired of it. Cassava and rice forever!

11) I once cut myself with a table knife. (Y'know, the blunt kind that can barely cut butter.)

--

Now, onto:

THE QUESTIONS:

1. What was the last book you read?

The last book I finished was Beyond the Summerland by L. B. Graham. Too bad I don't have the rest of the series. :P I only reread it because I was desperate. Luckily, I've read the rest of the series already. (The eBook copies for the rest of the series are TWELVE DOLLARS each, though. Highway robbery!)

2. How many orange clothings do you have and what are they?

I own no articles of clothing that are orange.

3. What's a hairstyle and color you'd like to have?

The one I have in the way I have it. Why do you think I have it that way now? ;) However, I would like some David Tennant-type sideburns in the future.

4. Do you like waffles?

Yes. But I don't get any here. XP

5. Do you believe in unicorns?

Uh...no. Sadly. I'm not as imaginative as I'd like to think.

6. Do you like America and why?

YES. I love America, because it's my home country, and that's so much more relevant if you've ever lived in another country. I must never take it for granted again. You don't know what you have until it's gone; and for that reason I love America.

*spontaneous chorus of the Star-Spangled Banner*

Also, the people are awesome, the government...not so much.

7. Teeth?

I have them.

8. What's your journal look like and if you don't have one, what was the last notebook you used like?

How relevant. (See number eight on my facts list.)

I have a binder for my maps and genealogies. It's black, uninteresting, and has a washed-out and faded label that says "e Buller" on it (the Jake had water spilled on it). There's a rip on the spine, making it so half the cover is about to fall off, which means I need to find a new binder sometime.

9. Are you a creeper?

Sometimes. >:D

10. Geometry or algebra?

Geometry, by far. I almost loved the first half of it, surprisingly enough. (ALMOST.) Logic chains are so fascinating. But once it got to the complicated math part, I lost interest.

11. Myers-Briggs personality type?

It's been a year since I took it, but I think I was an INTP. I was an IN-something, anyway.

--

Now...to tag some people! To combine the two tags I've received, in addition to being tagged, you are duly thanked for blogging. :) The blogs I tag are awesome; if you do not already follow them, do so! The proprietors are worthy lads and lasses.

In no particular order:

1. Eldra at A Day in Daremo

2. Pathfinder at Pathfinder's Findings

3. Nathan R. Petrie at Whispered Roars

4. Squeaks at Hidden Doorways

5. The Director at Castles, Quills, and Cameras

6. Christopher at There and Blog Again

7. Vrenith at Drawings Anonymous

8. Galadriel at The Wordsmith's Shelf

9. Star Dreamer at The Pen and the Parchment

10. Manny at Manny's Memento

11. Noah at Heavenward Reviews

And my questions? Read further to see:

1. What's your favorite place in the world?

2. What do you think about Kansas? (>:D)

3. Favorite song?

4. Favorite quote?

5. G. K. Chesterton is, to you, what? Your opinion?

6. Best speculative fiction you've read recently? In absence of speculative fiction, what's the best book you've read recently, non-fiction or fiction?

7. Best kind of cookie?

8. Your opinion of pie?

9. What color is your favorite shirt?

10. Are you procrastinating?

11. If you're a writer, what are you currently writing? If you're not a writer, what big thing have you done recently?

If you feel that you don't have much time to do this lengthy award, feel free to do just some of the tag, such as a couple things about yourself and one or two of the questions.

Adieu! 

An Analysis of Jake's Paranoid Avoidance of Female Characters

Actually, to be specific, I usually avoid young female characters. Have you read The War Horn, or anything else by me, for that matter? Ever notice that there are no female characters under the age of thirty and above the age of ten?

Laugh if you want to, but I do have something of a paranoid avoidance of said characters. Don't take offense, ye y-chromosome-challenged, I really don't have anything against you. It's just a natural manifestation of my avoidance of anything to do with romance.

Inevitably, in almost every fantasy novel I know of, if there's a young male and a young female, there's attraction, and that's something I simply don't want to write. 'Sides, it's cliche and predictable. (That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.)

So I have this abnormal avoidance of female characters as a result.

However, my sisters have been prodding me to get over my weird writing streak and write some female characters. After all, they make up a full half (or more) of my audience! They say to write what you know (and that doesn't always include the opposite gender), but sometimes you have to write something that the audience will actually understand.

So I caved. Luckily for me, I was already thinking of adding a second character to my protagonist's supporting cast (see my previous post), so I decided to switch things up a bit, like, literally. I swapped the male character for the female, and viola! Problem solved, right? No romance, either; that, I can assure you. And to the realistic-ness of that romantic absence, well, I have that problem solved too, but don't ask. It has to do with a story twist. ^_^

Interestingly enough, I've noticed that writers of the female variety have no problem with writing male characters, or even male protagonists.

What about you? Do you avoid any aspect of writing consciously or subconsciously? Do you have any reason for doing so? Or do you just write what comes to mind?

And try not to laugh at me. Really.  

Boring Updates: in which Tornado C's outline is being stubborn, and Will Vullerman is climbing out of my ear.

I have a penchant for creating grab-you-and-never-let-you-go titles, don't I? This one just screams "READ ME" like nothing else.

I'm also horrible at subtle sarcasm.

Guess what? It's update time - a time in which I shall bring you up to speed on what's going on in the writing section of my life.

So I was supposed to start writing in Tornado C. Easier said than done. I've told you guys repeatedly to write first, edit later. Now that I'm getting the hang of outlining, however, this terrible vice has come back to bite me.

How can I do that? you may ask. Well, it sounds more complicated than it is: but in essence, I'm revising the novel before I ever set pen to paper.

But not in a Doctor Who kind of way. I'm actually tweaking the detailed outline I've written for Tornado C. I originally started out with a mildly exciting outline. (My plot always gets better once I write it.) Once I had finished said outline, I had planned on starting the first draft ASAP.

One problem...I didn't think my outline was good enough.

So what did I do? I revised it.

Guess what? After I did the revisions, it was awesome. I tightened the plot and added some theme. I was so pumped to write this novel. Then I went to bed, woke up, and realized something.

It wasn't good enough.

So I revised some more, added a subplot, and generally made things better.

Went to bed, woke up, realized something.

It wasn't good enough.

Do you see the cycle? It's pretty obvious.

Now I'm working on adding another supporting character ("three's a company") and trying to figure out whether or not I actually killed off all of the remaining heirs to the Celamar throne. Gulp. That was a major plot problem. Tell you the truth, I hadn't actually realized that they were all dead until last week, even though I had killed them off (in my head) several months before. (Hey, when you're juggling half a dozen stories in your head at once, sometimes you overlook things!)

And also, the first three chapters of the novel (aside from the epic prologue) are pretty much run away, almost get caught, run away, almost get caught, and then we finally come to our senses and run away to a place that actually has to do with the plot. *headdesk* I still need to find a suitable subplot for that section. It's pretty much "butter scraped over too much bread" right now. It's trying to be more important than it is.

But that's one of the things I have found that I actually like about outlining: I can fix plot problems before I get to them. I don't have to go through the weary process of plot revision after the novel is finished; I can do it beforehand, in my head.

Except, outlining is still a major pain. If I write an idea down, I have to write down specifics, and that's something that my brain hates doing before it's time to actually write that idea into prose. Eurgh.

Aside from my fair-weather friendship with outlining, I've also been working on other writing-related things. Lately I've been shaping out the next four or five Will Vullerman short stories in my head. Included in this is the groundwork for an earth-shaking conclusion to Will Vullerman's saga, which I can't wait to write. I have no idea how many stories I'll write before I finish them off with the conclusion, but once I do, it'll be blow-your-socks-off epic.

But the next five WV stories are a 25k+ project, so I'm painfully abstaining from writing them until I actually get some prose work done in Tornado C. Gah! So much to do, so little time in which to do it!

Speaking of Will Vullerman, however, I've also been hammering out concept cover art with my sister, who does photography. We've got the cover for one of my stories (The Thirteenth Call) already finished and the rest are coming - I can't wait to show them all to you!

But cover art and, more importantly, publication, will have to wait. I have to do some extensive revisions on the stories first. And those edits come after I work on Tornado C. Blech. I've got my hands full this summer, no mistake.

But don't worry, I've gotten some solid writing done. My pen gets restless when I do nothing but brainstorming. So what did I do?

I've written and revised a 5,000 word short story titled The Flame That Does Not Burn, and yes, it tries to be as mysterious as the title implies. It's a fantasy-allegory chock full of little theme tidbits - and I tried out a new experiment. The story's narrator - and many of the other characters - use their native language pretty extensively, in little bits and pieces. If my style worked, then it'll add quite a bit of depth to the story; if not, it'll make the reader confused. Time will tell.

I sound busy, I know. But hey, it's the rainy season. Rain, rain, rain, 24/7. And it's cold. (By West African standards.) I actually have an excuse to stay inside and get some writing done!

How's your writing coming along? If you're not doing much writing (or even if you are), how is life coming along in general? I hear that it's hot! Y'know, right now, it's actually cooler here than it is in most parts of the States...

Oh, and do you have any writing topics that have been bothering you lately? I've been stumped about what sort of articles to write. I've exhausted quite a few topics and I'm looking for more.

Gotta go. Until next time!