Author: shawnaborman

Perks of Plotting

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are about the same as usual. The dumpster fire is at a constant simmer with random public flare ups whenever the administration wants to distract us from whatever evil they’re working on that particular day. Trying to destroy the budget? Oops, the public is getting interested. Let’s turn the protests in LA into riots and activate the Coast Guard then immediately send in the Marines! Ugh. Anyway. I’m not here to rant. I’m just here to talk about writing. If you’ve been following along, you should know I tend to be a pantser when it comes to writing. I hate outlining. It feels too restrictive to me. But apparently plotting has some perks! So, I’m going to ramble about that today.

I’ve been feeling like writing lately, so I decided to pull out the Unnamed Cozy Mystery (UCM) and try getting back into it. Since I’m usually a pantser, my main concern was that I wouldn’t have any clue where I was planning to go with it, but I had approached this novel differently when I started it. I did a beat sheet for it (go read Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder or any of the Save the Cat! Writes a… Novel interpretations if you don’t know what that is). It’s a vague and messy beat sheet, but it’s mine and I understand it. And boy howdy did it save me a lot of stress. I wrote 1,100 words on Monday with no problem other than the usual “did I use that super common word that I use every day right?” or “is that one word or is it hyphenated?” etc. crap.

My favorite part is that I even included page numbers of where specific stuff is supposed to be given the length I’m aiming for in this novel. But that sounds super restrictive! It’s not, though. It’s just a reminder that those beats will most likely fall somewhere around that point. It doesn’t have to be perfect. If it’s too far off, the book length either needs to be rethought or my pacing is too wonky. This is just the first draft, so it’s not something I’m adjusting for right now, but if I ever finish the book, it’ll help me make decisions during the editing process. For now, it’s all just helpful reminders of what direction I was planning on going when I came up with the story.

As far as the actual story goes, I have a few beats that are super clear because those were the triggering ideas for this book, but most of them are like “Rainn and her cohorts track down loose ends and question suspects, crossing people off their list left and right. Meanwhile, renovations begin on the hotel and outbuildings.” which is meant to take up about 80 pages. This makes the pantser in me happy because it allows the story to grow organically with pretty minimal directions.

Anyway, I’m enjoying the structure I built for writing this story despite preferring to wing it most of the time. Let’s see if I can keep it up. Have you tried a beat sheet before? How detailed do you get? As always, feel free to share your thoughts and questions here or on my social media pages!

Happy Pride Month!

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are okay. That book review I was supposed to do today has been pushed back because there are issues. I don’t know. That’s between the author and publisher. When/If it gets a new release date, the marketing people are supposed to let me know so I can review it then. So, that means I have nothing to ramble about today. But I do want to say happy Pride month to everyone! I’ve seen a lot more hatred than usual on social media this year. It’s gross and disheartening. The MAGAts are out there, loud and proud. Stay safe and remember you’re loved and worthy of living your best life despite what they would have you believe. I’ll try to remember it too. Happy Pride!

Thoughts on THE WHISPERWOOD LEGACY

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Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? I’m not going to complain. After all, it’s the last Wednesday of May and you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I decided to go with some dark fairy tale vibes. The Whisperwood Legacy by Jo Schulte was released yesterday (May 27th) from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

The Whisperwood Legacy follows Frankie through the turbulent time after her grandmother abruptly closes the family amusement park, the main source of the family’s income. Frankie spends most of her time carrying groceries and other necessities to her grandmother after the rest of the family basically disowns the old woman unless they need something from her. After a scene at an unwanted celebration, her grandmother disappears and things start going very wrong at the park, but Frankie and the rest of her family are trapped there along with the mysterious new groundskeeper. It’s up to her to figure out what’s going on and fix it before everyone dies.

The plot is interesting and there was a lot of potential with it. The story is built around fairy tale magic and family legacies and all that fun stuff. It sounds like it will be great. But the pacing is off. There are tiny hints of maybe magical things, but then the blatant magical stuff is just plopped on the page without any natural growth towards it. It’s abrupt and jarring and a bit unsatisfying. Also, there’s this big reveal that Frankie knows exactly what’s happening with the park even though she’s clueless about other things, but there’s zero foreshadowing to clue in the reader, so it totally feels like an afterthought. I was afraid I just missed something, but other people complained about it as well. Things are just awkwardly timed or have little to no build up. It’s meh.

As far as the characters go, Jem is pretty much the only decent person, but he just feels like a caricature of the “ideal dude.” Everyone else is disgusting and I wanted them all to die. If mommy/grandma was such a horrible person (which she was), then cut ties with her and get a job instead of relying on her money. Don’t just sit around wishing her dead, then get pissed when you’re left out of the not-will. And Frankie isn’t much better than the rest of her family, despite the fact that she pretends to be. The book itself was meh, but the characters ruined any chance I had of actually enjoying anything about it.

The writing was fine. It relied far too heavily on pop culture references that are already becoming dated, which I don’t particularly care for, but I guess some people like that kind of thing.

Ultimately, I was not a fan of The Whisperwood Legacy. I was originally just glad to be done with it, but the more I think about it, the more I actively dislike it.

Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. More like 1.5, but I rounded up. If you’re super into everything fairy tales, check it out. Otherwise, you’re not missing anything.

Bad Writer

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are quietly terrifying. Nothing is particularly bad for me currently, but we’re still in a dystopian horror story, so I can’t feel anything near calm. Anyway, as you well know, I’ve been a horrible writer for a long time now. A couple of short stories and random scribblings over the past couple of years do not a writer make. I’ve tried different things to get back into it, but I’ve failed repeatedly. I don’t really know why. I’m just lazy is what I keep telling myself. Writer’s block is a bitch. I just need time after so many rejections. Etc. But how do I fix this? How do I fix me?

I’m not just lazy. I know I’m generally a lazy person, but not when it comes to work. I went through something similar with reading when I was younger. I spent a few years voraciously reading everything, then one day I just stopped. I had no problem completing reading assignments for school, but whenever I picked up a book for fun, I couldn’t do it. Over the span of like 5+ years, I only read a handful of books for fun. Then, I randomly got back into reading. I don’t read anywhere near as much as I did, but I still read at least 20 minutes a day for fun on top of the time I spend reading for the monthly reviews. I don’t hesitate to write letters or stuff when I need to, so I know it’s not laziness. I don’t think it’s burnout either. I don’t know what it is.

I also know it’s not writer’s block. I know what I want to write and I’m not even opposed to doing it on most days. It’s like my brain prioritizes the book review reading and won’t let me write until I read, but then doesn’t want to write so late in the day. It’s more like self-sabotage than writer’s block. I suppose I really need to decide on a schedule and stick to it, but it’s hard.

Needing time after all the rejections is a good excuse, but I know it’s not really a factor at this point. Maybe the first six months or so it was. I’m not that sensitive, but hundreds of rejections (granted there were some really nice ones in there) with only a few acceptances is bound to get anyone down and questioning their life choices. But when does it become too much time? I’m well beyond that point and I know it.

Anyway, enough rambling. All I really wanted to say was that I opened the file of the book I’ve been thinking of getting back to and I had one of those moments. You know the one. That “Where’s the rest? Fuck… I have to write it…” moment. I’m not promising I’ll write it, but it was a nice feeling and I have been fiddling with the outline to update it.

Reading List

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’ve been trying to think of things to blog about, but everything will either make me angry or sad. The administration and how they’re apparently taking blatant bribes (a fucking jet is a sus as hell “gift”) right there in front of everyone and the MAGAts are apparently okay with that (and so much worse). There’s also some cripple stuff I thought about sharing, but it’s depressing and no one wants to hear about that kind of thing except maybe other cripples who would appreciate knowing they aren’t alone (you’re not alone). I also briefly acknowledged (in my head) that it’s my mother’s birthday, but she’s dead and doesn’t deserve anymore emotional effort on my part to explain what a horrible person she was. So! I suppose I’ll just give you a list of books I’m going to read in the foreseeable future.

I currently have a review book for May that I’m working on, plus two books for June and one for July. Here they are:

1. The Whisperwood Legacy by Jo Schulte.

2. R.A.T.S. Revolutionary Army of Teens by Claudia Daher. This is supposedly due out the beginning of June, but apparently there are issues so there’s not even a GoodReads page yet and I can’t find an official cover release either, which is making me question if this book is even happening. We’ll see. I’m reading it anyway just in case.

1. A Magic Deep and Drowning by Hester Fox.

4. Murder at the Wham Bam Club by Carolyn Marie Wilkins.

I don’t usually plan ahead with my for fun reads, but I do have a few I will definitely get to soon.

1 and 2. Rogue Community College by David R. Slayton. The fourth Adam Binder book comes out later this year, so I figured I’d check this one out in case there is character crossover. I also have a second Slayton book (unrelated to this one) that is on my list. Dark Moon, Shallow Sea.

3. The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna. I finally read book two of the Gilded Ones a couple of months ago and want to finish the series.

Beyond that, I have a couple of other series I should finish and a bunch of cozy mysteries I’ve collected and never read, but it all depends on what comes out and if I’m forgetting books that I pre-ordered. What’s on your reading list?

Happy May

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone this lovely Wednesday? It’s super late and I have nothing to ramble about and I feel blah for no real reason except it’s another rainy, dreary day (Tuesday). So, I’m taking a lazy day and just saying have a happy May! I’ll figure out something to blog about next week. Ideas welcome!

Thoughts on LOVE AT SECOND SIGHT

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Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are still fine considering the dumpster fire we’re living in. But we’re not here to talk about that. It’s the last Wednesday of April, so you know what that means… book review time! I cheated a little. I picked a book by an author whose work I’m fond of, so I went in with the assumption that I would enjoy the book. It’s fluffy gay stuff wrapped up in a supernatural cozy mystery. Of course I’m into it. Love at Second Sight by F. T. Lukens was released yesterday (the 29th) by Margaret K. McElderry Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

Love at Second Sight follows Cam, a regular teenage human boy, who just wants to spend the new school year hanging out with his bestie Al, who happens to be a witch, and moon over his crush, Mateo (a werewolf). And most of all, he wants to stay hidden in the background. An unfortunate spectacle in the hallway ruins any chance Cam has of a normal year. He has an obviously supernatural episode that can only mean one thing: he’s clairvoyant. On top of bringing him some seriously unwanted attention, the vision he has is one of blood and death. Was it real? Who’s the girl? If it hasn’t happened yet, is there any way to stop it? Along the way, Cam collects a ragtag group of supernatural friends who might help or might hinder his investigation. The only thing for certain is he’s not alone and there’s no disappearing into the background for Cam.

The plot was great, if a little predictable. Some of the clues were a little heavy handed, like they didn’t want to be overlooked. But it was fun and had everything you can really ask for from a cozy mystery meets teen supernatural fantasy. Uncontrolled powers. The encourager of all the mystery shenanigans. That weird teenage compulsion to not involve the adults. It’s adorable. My only real problem with the book is the pacing. It starts out super slow for the first three quarters of the book, then everything is kind of crammed into the last quarter. There’s not even much character development early on. Some stuff happens then everything stagnates for far too long before things start happening again. The action could definitely have been woven throughout the story better.

The characters are where this book really shines. They’re all super relatable. It’s a fun group with someone for everyone to adore. Cam is the typical teen trying to find his place in the world. When it turns out he’s special but he doesn’t know what to do about it and his support system fails him, he chooses to let new people into his life even though it’s risky. Al grows a lot. Mateo proves that even seemingly perfect people need help. Gemma is nuts and I love her. Reese is probably my favorite, but I wish he could have had a bit more to do. Kaci starts as the mean girl, but abruptly changes into the spacey friend which could have been handled better. But overall, I loved everyone.

The writing was cute. There are a lot of references and current slang that will surely date the book in a few years (some of it is already dated), but I enjoy that kind of writing some times. Especially when I’m looking for something that I can look back on for nostalgia purposes.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed Love at Second Sight. It’s not my favorite book by Lukens, but it’s not something I feel was a waste of time. It was cute and that’s all I was hoping for.

Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. Probably closer to 3.75. If you’re not familiar with the author, I’d definitely recommend one of their other books first.

Who’s The Useless Eater?

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Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m feeling very ranty. Well, it’s Monday as I’m writing this, so hopefully I’m feeling better on Wednesday, but I doubt it. Why am I angry, you ask? (I know you didn’t ask, but let’s pretend you did). The current administration. Why else? I mean… you saw what RFK Jr. said about Autistic kids, right? Sure, he tried to frame it as caring because he’s going to figure out the causes of Autism and fix everything. By September. My dude… how much of your brain did that worm eat? Low blow. I know. I’m trying my best to be civil here. Anyway! In case you missed it, these are the exact words he said regarding children with Autism:

“These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go on a date, many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”

If this is what the administration thinks about Autistic people, it’s what they think about all disabled people. It’s what they even think of you two, Hot Wheels (Abbott) and Musk. You’re not special to them. But I digress. This statement that RFK Jr. made is nothing new or original. It’s part of the ableism that’s so deeply ingrained in our society that people openly agree with this bullshit. If you’re not capable of being worked to death by your rich overlords, then you’re just a burden on society and your community and your family. You’re what the Nazis called a “useless eater” which meant you were a “life unworthy of life.” It doesn’t matter that nature or God or whatever you believe in fucked up your genes and made you this way (or that you were involved in an accident or just got old or any other number of things), it’s somehow your fault and you should suffer and anguish over being such a burden. It sounds stupid when I put it like that, right? And yet even disabled people themselves are trained to believe this nonsense. I struggle with it a lot. I know others who do too. But to have a government openly spew this vitriol is deeply concerning.

When you think about the Holocaust (at least I hope you stop and remember it from time to time), if you’re like me, your first thought is of the atrocities that happened to Jews. But in 1939 (approximately two years before Nazis started mass murdering Jews), Nazis implemented the Euthanasia Program which became Aktion T4. In the beginning, they required all doctors/clinics/hospitals/etc. to report any children (newborns to age 3) who showed signs of mental and physical deficits, then the Nazis would encourage the families to turn these babies and toddlers over to special institutions for care. What was the care they offered? A gas chamber. The age gradually increased to 17, then Aktion T4 was implemented which broadened the scope of the Euthanasia Program to include adults in both public and private institutions. This phase of the program is estimated to have taken 70,000 lives. However, the program kept going in secret after Hitler publicly ordered its halt. It expanded to include people who were simply too old and bombing victims and more. They stopped using gas chambers, opting instead for overdoses and the like. But it kept going throughout the war and conservative estimates are that 250,000 people were murdered because they were deemed to be burdens on society. And I’m not even going to get into the horrible experiments that the Nazis did on disabled people. But I truly believe this is where we’re currently heading under this administration. It starts out with innocent enough statements and promises of help and it turns into “let’s murder all the cripples!”. Then things just get worse from there for everybody else.

And none of this is to say America has been innocent of shit like that. We have our own Eugenics movement, which we’re honestly still struggling with in a lot of ways. Murder has been part of it. Forced sterilizations. A push toward the “perfect” family, but only if it’s a mommy, daddy, and 2.5 kids. Etc. Yeah. It’s not a great part of history for us either. I don’t know why we’re letting it get a foothold in our government once again. Okay. I know why (because rich dumbasses just want to make more money for themselves without paying taxes and poor dumbasses believed the hype and decided the rich ones could run our country), but I don’t know WHY… you know? These are openly horrible people. Racist. Sexist. Ableist. Transphobic. Homophobic. Only keep the poor around to work themselves to death in their factories (jobs… whatever) for money they’ll never have time to enjoy (if they even make enough to cover basics). Cry and throw tantrums when anyone even suggests they pay their fair share in taxes. But sure. They have your best interests at heart.

Personally, I’m not convinced that cripples are the useless eaters in this country. Politicians make ridiculous amounts of money for no reason. They don’t even work most of the year unless you count schmoozing and going to fancy dinners and golfing every weekend on the taxpayers dime. They never come to any agreements. They dig us further and further into debt, then blame the few social programs we have so it seems like cripples and regular old people are to blame. Instead, they could take pay cuts, make the billionaires pay their fair share, and eliminate a crapton of the national debt in the process. The fact that they all suck at their jobs and don’t do anything remotely productive kind of makes them sound like the useless eaters and wastes of space, but what do I know? I’m just a scumbag cripple who’s a burden on society.

And now I’m getting uncivilized, so I’ll stop there. I’ll be back next week with the regularly scheduled book review!

Benadryl…

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? I intended to write a random post, but allergies and some extra hurtyness (nothing out of the normal range, just a bit on the high side of normal for some unknown reason) has me feeling blah. So, I’ll ramble about something next week (feel free to send me ideas).

Tattoo Ideas

~ shawnaborman ~ 2 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are okay, I guess. Trump’s America is hitting super close to home (like next door kind of close) and I hate it. But there’s nothing I can do, so I’m trying to think about better things. Dad and I were chatting (I don’t even remember about what) and he mentioned piercings, but I don’t want any piercings (on other people they’re great, just not a me thing), so we somehow got onto tattoos from there. Anyway, I always told myself I’d get a tattoo when I got published for the first time (anything, not just a novel), but I never did. Then it became “I’ll do it when I get my first full length book published.” We’ll see if that ever happens. Now, maybe it will just be an “if I survive the dumpster fire that is the current administration” reward. Despite never doing it, I still have ideas, so I thought I’d share them with you. We should all take some time to think of something happy.

1. The kanji for sakura (cherry blossom) with some cherry blossoms. Something relatively small. I don’t really have much in the way of an actual design. I’d just let the artist come up with something.

2. A Sailor Saturn inspired image designed by my little sis (Jenae). It would probably need tweaked by the tattoo artist, so I might be better off finding someone who specializes in anime tattoos (they do exist), but this is all just daydreaming, so it doesn’t matter right now.

3. A Sailor Uranus inspired image designed by my little sis (Jenae). There are also versions for Pluto and Neptune if I get crazy.

I also wouldn’t mind something Gambit/Rogue related. But no idea what. What kind of tattoos would you want to get? Are you a planner or someone who randomly picks something? Someone who needs their tattoos to be meaningful or someone who just likes pretty things? As usual, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments and questions here or on my social media pages!