Brought to my senses by a cat.

Here I am, sitting out in the glorious, buttery, golden sun with my laptop. My cat Remus is trying to eat my charger cord. I’m surfing through a dozen different blogs I follow, and a sharp pain in my calf — Remus has taken to biting my leg rather than the cord now — yanks me from my Internet-heavy haze.

Bad, Libby! Bad!

I have two weeks to meet my deadline for finishing my fantasy-esque novel (which is yet to be titled!) and I’m online? I have 10 more chapters to write (about 25000 words) plus editing and I’m looking at pictures of adorable shoes?

*hits self on hand with rule*

Bad Libby.

I believe I shall be disconnecting my computer from the World Wide Web until May. It is for the best, though I shall miss you. I reaaaaally need to spend the majority of my time with Arden Falconer and friends/foes.

And so, farewell, readers. I shall be seeing you either when I finish my novel (I highly doubt I’ll  get it done in time) or when May comes and I can work at my own pace again.

I leave you now with an article by Jon Tattrie. Enjoy, let them grumble, and watch out for Nargles (and other assorted creatures)!

I Endorse Nerds!

(Commissioned by me and created by my lovely sister.)

Behold — a badge a nerd like me can flaunt with pride. I realize that there are different types of nerds, but this kind happens to fall within my lightsaber-wielding, broomstick-riding, fire-breathing, Narnian-fighting, Hobbit-loving, Hunger Games tribute boundary of epic nerdiness.

So enjoy. Flaunt your inner nerd. Be proud. Feel free to share on Facebook or other blogs!

Nerd out.

 

I endorse nerds. So should you. Embrace your inner nerd and wear this badge with pride.

 

Cursed Comments

Spam comments.

*growl*

Why so happy, buddy?

Never had I realized (foolishly) that running a blog means sifting through spam comments. And, up until this week, spammers were far and few in between — until now. I’ve had nearly 100 cursed comments fill my spam folder in three days. It’s annoying. It’s inconvenient. It’s time-consuming. Mainly the commenters’ usernames are that of a business, or a seemingly random pattern of numbers and letters, and, to be honest, their comments are not harmful or insulting or advertisements.

They’re filler.

“Great post.” “I learned a lot.” “It was inspiring.” “It made my day.” etc…

I might approve these comments if they were on posts that made sense. For example, I’ve had a couple “Thanks for the advice” on posts starring the unpredictable Nova Scotian weather.

So, I’ve been deleting comments that are made by people with odd usernames (such as crane hire or skfjbsdnf34) and comments that don’t match the post they’re made on. If I’ve deleted a legitimate comment by you, I profusely apologize. 

And, while we’re on the subject of commenting, I have to confess that I’m a shy commenter. I follow more than a dozen blogs, and hardly have I ever made an attempt to make contact with the blogger. It doesn’t mean I don’t read your posts! I do, I really do. It’s just that I’ll open the comment box and stare at it for several minutes before typing something, deleting it, and instead ‘liking’ the post. It’s an easy way out.

It’s also a habit I’m trying to break, especially if the blogger has commented on my blog in the past.

Wish me luck. In the meantime, are you a shy commenter? Are you inundated with ‘cursed comments’?

• WordPress – Comment Spam
• WordPress – Combating Comment Spam

Out with Mina Greyfalcon and in with Arden Falconer

Admittedly, I’m only a little less than halfway finished my fantasy-esque novel. Keeping in mind this is since late February, I’m still generally pleased with my progress.

Now, a bite that’s a bit tough to chew: the name of my main character was beginning to annoy me. Don’t get me wrong! I love the name Mina. It’s so sweet and soft and delicate.

But my protagonist is none of the above described. She’s opinionated, fiery, stubborn, and hard as a rock. She doesn’t let anyone into her heart easily and is practical rather than emotional. She is destined for something large, important, political, and grand (though I’m not exactly sure what yet).

Originally she didn’t even have a name. I only knew that her surname was Greyfalcon and that her family bred and raised falcons atop a mountain. And, because I wanted to start putting her story to paper (or Word document), I needed a name. I settled on Mina not 100% satisfied, but I knew it could be changed later.

After the first 13 chapters it was harder to write about her. HER NAME DIDN’T SUIT HER. I was becoming annoyed because her hard actions were reversed by such a soft name. It became more and more difficult to write her story.

I was actually looking up the meanings for some other characters’ names (a post for another time) when I found it.

Arden. Meaning: great forest, ardent, passionate.

Well, she lives in a great forest and is passionate about her work, her little brother, and her mountain. And, it sounds more of a fantasy name than the more common ‘Mina.’

Then came her last name. I could hardly have both end in *in* sounds, but I still wanted it to reflect her profession. So I swapped Greyfalcon for the simple, more effective Falconer.

Arden Falconer.

Voila.

I search and replaced the first 13 chapters with the name Arden. And, as I read back, I like her more as a character because her names suits her more.

Let’s call it victory.

Happy writing.

~

Read my post on naming characters here.

A little Dwarvish for you…

Here’s a little pixelated bundle of fun (okay, it’s a lot fun); one of my favourite fantasy authors, Christopher Paolini, speaking Dwarvish!

 His Inheritance Cycle finally wrapped up last fall with the release of Inheritance (Book Four), three years after Brisingr (Book Three) hit shelves. The wait was painful, but watching this video of Christopher erased any of my bitterness of the long wait. Reading his four, deliciously fat novels is quite the adventure. As he was only a teenager when he wrote Eragon (Book One), by the time you put the last book down it hardly sounds like the same writer! It’s amazing to go on the writing/magical/fantastical journey with Christopher, Eragon, Saphira, and friends/foes.

And, because of the Inheritance Cycle, dragons have tied for first with unicorns as my favourite fantasy creature.

I’ll probably be blogging more about the staggering and vast worlds of the Inheritance Cycle sometime later, but for now, enjoy!

PS: How do you like the new theme? I’ll try not to change again for another couple months, but sometimes change is good. In this case, anyway!

Selfish Characters Are Popular?

It’s been recently brought to my attention that many popular main characters are too selfish. The prime example given was Katniss Everdeen from Suzanne Collins’ bestselling Hunger Games trilogy.

I didn’t know how to take this. Yes, when you think about it, Katniss might be selfish. Then again, she’s a sixteen-year-old girl thrown into an arena of teenagers forced to fight to the death and trying to fulfill a promise to her sister.

Of course she’s selfish, especially in Book One. She’s trying to survive.

This got my mind whirring. Are other main characters selfish? I thought of Bella Cullen from the now-disgraced Twilight saga. Yes, she’s unbearably selfish, though no one really pays valid attention to her anymore. I thought of Harry Potter. While he’s a kid with way too much to handle and trying his best to be sacrificial, some of his actions betray the selfishness of a teenage boy. Eragon from the Inheritance Cycle — if you look at him deeper, he’s a selfish kid too.

Then I thought: are these characters selfish because of their youth? All of them are teenagers, and teenagers are inevitably selfish.

Are they selfish by accident of the author? Are they made that way?

Does it bug the reader when a protagonist thinks of nothing but him/herself? In poor Bella Cullen’s case, yes. That girl would have no self-esteem if she could hear people talk about her. In Harry, Eragon, and Katniss’s cases I don’t think anyone holds it against them because of their later actions.

Characters have to be flawed, but no one wants another Bella. So when do you draw the line and make a protagonist a little more selfless?

I’m figuring that out. Now I’m painfully aware of how others might read my character’s actions. Out of selfishness? Or out of love? I don’t want my Mina to be annoying to the reader. 

While I couldn’t care less of what other people thought about me, I want people to like my character. And, as Mina and I are still being acquainted and don’t trust each other 100% yet, I’m trying to be acutely aware of what her actions/thoughts might provoke in others. To a degree she is selfish — she wants to go home to her little brother and salvage her business. But I’m trying to make her see the bigger picture: maybe it’s best for everyone if she stays at the country’s capital of Naphiring.

I think she’ll come around. We need to get to know each other more; I need to figure out what makes her tick. Once I become situated with being in her head, I’ll be able to pull myself away and tell her to think of other people when necessary. “Think of Tristan and Ilex. They might need you more than you need your brother. Think about it, Mina.”

Just some thought. Take it how you will. :)