It has been a while since my last writing update, hasn’t it? While I aim to do these quarterly, to be honest… there hasn’t been much to update? I originally had this update on my calendar for July. Then I pushed it back to August. Then I just decided to scrap the summer update and …
Tag: Fantasy
Novellas In Series: Necessary Or No?
Lately, I’ve been reading series that include novellas alongside full-length novels, which has brought up questions about the roles that novellas play in the overall story of a series and whether or not I think it’s a valuable practice. Specifically, back in July, I read the three Skyward Flight novellas connected to the Skyward series …
Where Did Whitman Court Come From?
Great question. It’s a bit of a murky journey. Here’s a fun fact about me as a writer: most of my story ideas that I’m actively working on came to me in high school or earlier. Unfortunately, though, it’s difficult to determine when an idea first occurred to me or when I started working on …
What I Write
Every year around my birthday (August 11th), I try to write a self-reflective, personal post for the blog. This year, I decided to take a step of courage and talk more in-depth about my current writing projects–something that is, surprisingly, difficult for me. I was on the fence about doing this because I didn’t want …
Writing with a Day Job: Find Your People
Welcome back to part two of four on “writing with a day job,” or writing for busy people. Whether you’ve got a non-creative or creative fulltime gig, you’re a freelancer seeking to make a living while working on your novels, or a parent with a novelists’ dream, you’ve come to the right place. Two weeks …
April 2022 Writing Update: Secret Project, SCBWI Conference, and More!
I’ve got a lot of ground to cover with this overdue writing update, so let’s dive right in! There’s a lot going on with my writing projects, plus I attended a regional conference with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) last weekend! Writing Updates: The Queen of Whitman Court: Back in March, …
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Rereading the Tolkien Canon (The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, & The Lord of the Rings)
It had been a while since I last read The Lord of the Rings—just about four and a half years, to be exact. Same with The Hobbit. And, to be honest, I couldn’t give a timeline on when I last read The Silmarillion; I just know it was sometime in high school. Since I’ve been …
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Happy 20 Years to Kingdom Hearts, My Favorite Video Game I’ve Never Played…
Okay, given the fact that I’m technically the one who got my brother into Kingdom Hearts because I picked up re:coded for the Nintendo DS all those years ago, the title of this post is a little misleading. However, it is true that I haven’t played all of the Kingdom Hearts games. Just re:coded, Kingdom …
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Fools Friday: Holding the Dream
As one final Fools Friday post, I wanted to share a video from December 2020 when I received my first proof copy in the mail. This was a special moment for me because it’s the first time I held a physical copy of my book in book form and saw how the cover art would …
Fools Friday: Failed Sequels
Oh boy. Today’s a fun topic. If you read my post last year summarizing the history of Our Company of Fools, you might remember that I mentioned my attempts at a sequel never panned out. For today’s Fools Friday, I want to dive a bit deeper into the directions I considered for a sequel and …
By Madelynn Orion 