Rissa Renae

Author of Teen Paranormal Fiction

Tag: spring

Cherry Blossoms and NaNo Prep

March 28, 2022 /

April is Camp NaNoWriMo time.

Here in the Lower Mainland, it’s also cherry blossom time.

Sakura trees line a small park in Burnaby (Photo: Author)

If I were to tell you that self-publishing my 4th novel, Blood & Water, book #4 in my Rose Cross Academy series, was a slog, it would be an understatement. Although enormous self-publishing success stories can give us indie authors hope, the process is unnecessarily complicated, riddled with pitfalls, and stacked against us smaller indie authors.

Amazon and KDP. I’m looking at you.

But that’s for another post.

This post is all about prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo under the canopy of sakura that’s currently covering my new home-city.

If you’re unfamiliar with either NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) or Camp NaNo, think of it as an online community for indie writers and those looking to publish their first or next novel. NaNo offers a place to connect with fellow writers, discover local or online writing communities, and find the motivation you need to write and grow your novels and writing habits.

Fallen cherry blossoms on a brick sidewalk. (Photo: Author)

Camp NaNo is a less structured and more open version of NaNoWriMo. Think of Camp as a place for you to set your own goals and work towards them at your own pace without the stress of meeting a daily word count goal.

I use Camp NaNo as another tool in my motivational toolbox, aside from my Discord groups (which I discovered during NaNoWriMo 2021), and my Zoom group.

For April, I’m aiming to flesh out a gaslamp/low-steampunk fantasy I’m just calling “Four Crows” right now. For this story, I have a beginning, middle, and end figured out, but I haven’t decided if this will be a stand-alone or a series yet.

Morning raindrops clinging to blossoms. (Photo: Author)

Now, I’m a pantser, 100%. Sure, I can create a novel plan, but heck if I can stick with it. I’ve tried. Oh, I’ve tried to stick to an outline. The writing comes out forced, boring, and reads like I’m just going through the motions of moving characters through a story line. My pantsing brain knows that Character A needs to escape City A, hide in the forest, then travel to City B, but if I have to constrain myself to the how’s and why’s of that journey, my writing and my creativity suffers.

That being said, when I say I’m ‘prepping’ for Camp NaNo, what I mean is that I’m developing a writing strategy similar to that which I’d follow during November’s NaNoWriMo. I have a list of scenes I’d like to write in order to connect parts I’ve already written. I don’t always know how those scenes will go, but this is part of my creative process.

The tools I use may seem very rudimentary for prepping–my writing notebook and several coloured pens. I have notes on ideas, what scenes need to be written, bullet points of what I think should happen, and a list of transitions between scenes I need to figure out. During Camp NaNo, I’ll go through my notebook and check off items as they grab my interest.

A typical page in my novel notebook, blurred since all my projects are listed. (Photo: Author)

As for my other projects, I mentioned earlier I managed to self-publish my 4th novel, after much hair pulling and spew-age of expletives. That’s one book down of two I plan to publish this year! For the remainder of this year, I’m thinking three projects will be occupying my writing time.

Project #1 – This is the second book I’m planning to publish, and it is tickling the 200K word mark. Ouch. The complete manuscript is about 85% done, and I may end up splitting this book into Part 1 and Part 2, then publishing them with months of each other. I’m still going to count this as a single release since this is a single, yet massive, story. And as per my brain (since I can’t seem to write in stand-alone novel mode), I’ve already written a good amount of a sequel to this novel.

This will be in the LitRPG genre as it follows a group of people stranded inside a virtual reality RPG game after the virtual reality gear suffers a failure. Think of this as the world of online RPG’s meets Battle Royale or The Hunger Games.

Project #2 – I’ve briefly mentioned my gaslamp/low-steampunk fantasy. This is my focus for April and Camp NaNo. This story follows a young girl navigating an 1800’s-esque North America after a war over magic tore it apart. Magic has always been commonplace here. As the industrial revolution looms and people begin relying more on technology instead of magic, war breaks out. Technology and innovationare wiped out along with books and the world’s knowledge.

I’m planning some interesting villains for this novel/series–one which we’ll kinda be able to figure out early on. This antagonist will suffer a nearly fatal injury early on in the novel, but recover in time to start laying waste to the world. The other villain will be a “slow burn” villain, meaning they’ll start out as a protagonist, then as things happen to them throughout the story, will start turning evil. This character in particular has been fun to write!

The frog guardian of Cherry Blossom Garden, Burnaby. (Photo: Author)

Project #3 – Other than finishing my current YA series, The Rose Cross Academy, I’ve been shying away from YA as I haven’t been liking where the genre has been going in recent years. Many of the novel’s I’ve thumbed through rely on the same tired and unhealthy tropes, all the while still romanticizing toxic relationships, especially when it comes to female main characters. I’ve had an idea for a YA novel in the back of my mind, but have left it on the side due to the above reasons.

I am fascinated by the paranormal, so this will be another novel where ghosts and demons provide the underlying conflict. This will be an end-of-days type of novel leaning heavily on the ideas of the Biblical Apocalypse. Since I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s and gobbled up anything manga studio CLAMP put out, I’ve always had a Tokyo Babylon/X1999 tale rolling around in my head–two factions facing off over the fate of humanity: one that thinks humanity is too far gone and must be purged from the Earth, and one that thinks humanity may still have hope.

I plan to be busy this year, and I’ve already kept my fingers moving quite briskly. If Brandon Sanderson can produce four extra novels in a couple years while still cranking out best seller after best seller, I think I can at least make a sizeable dent in my “creative debt” of novel ideals.

We’ll see where the months take me!

Take care, everyone.

-Rissa

I wrote a chapter a week in Feb. Here’s what happened.

March 4, 2022 /

Well, if you’re thinking the TL;DR of this post is that writing a chapter a week all month produced four chapters, well, you’d be half-right.

One of my New Years Resolutions was to work every day, in some fashion, on one or more of my writing projects. That includes everything from pounding out 10,000 words a day, to simply opening a wiki file and reading through my notes. I find that if I do something as simple as read back what I wrote previously (something older than a week), that this triggers my creativity and I’m able to write more than I set out to.

Wild crocuses blooming by the tennis court

In February, I set aside an hour in the evening every day to do “something” writing related. While all through January, the “Do Something Everyday” exercise produced good results, I thought if I could up my game to at least a brand new chapter every week, I’d be able to start a healthier writing habit than just writing something random every day.

In my January experiment, I found that I COULD NOT…

  • Write to a To-Do list (e.g. Finish Chapter 7, Write Chapter 10), and
  • Keep to a schedule of social media posts (blog, Twitter, etc)

… but I found that I COULD

  • Keep a running list of scenes or transitions to write, and then pick-and-choose what I wanted to write,
  • Write nearly full chapters if I allowed myself to bullet-point slower points (scenes or transitions), and
  • Use my wiki to inspire scenes or transitions.
What blog post would be complete without my goodest girl, Mochi!

So for February, I threw out what didn’t work for me, and added one more goal:

Finish one chapter a week.

That chapter could be for any writing project (I currently have four on the go. I know, bad author!). The chapter did not have to be perfect. The prose did not have to be publish-worthy. As long as said chapter was all words and no bullet points, I would consider that chapter “finished” in terms of rough draft-land.

February came to an end, and I had finished the aforementioned 4 chapters. But something pretty cool also happened. On the side as I completed a chapter and still had the writing bug in me, I continued to write. I managed to final-draft one whole novel, final-draft Part 1 of a 2nd novel, I came up with an idea for a 3rd novel (maybe/maybe not it will be a series… cuz I love my series’), and put a good dent in my high fantasy series.

A walk along the seawall in Stanley Park, downtown Vancouver

As for word count, I didn’t really blow any of my old records out of the water. I’d say I was writing NaNoWriMo-level word counts every day.

Round about the time I was writing this post, one of my favourite authors, Brandon Sanderson, announced his next Kickstarter–because somehow he found time to write four “extra” novels (aside from the million-other novels he wrote)–and pretty much broke the internet when it comes to the self-publishing sphere. I think as authors, we all strive to be as prolific as authors such as Sanderson, Koontz, and King who can crank out multiple novels in a year. It’s impressive when one of these prolific authors pops up one day and goes “Hey guys, guess what I did?” Needless to say, several of us are very jealous.

I think that also lit a bit of a fire under my bum as well. I’ve mentioned before I was hoping to make a “big leap” from self-publishing one novel a year to a whole TWO NOVELS A YEAR, but now I’m wondering if I can step up a little more. (High fantasy series, I’m looking at you!)

A view off the edge of the world from Grouse Mountain, Vancouver

Now it’s March and I’m heading into the month with a new passion, a new determination, and a hotter flame under my bum. Formatting the eBook for my next release is slowly sucking the life out of me (seriously, who thought it would take this LONG!), and I’m acquiring ISBN numbers like Pokemon. The keyboard is calling me, and the muses are coming out of their winter hiding. This spring is looking promising.

I know some say it’s not necessarily a good thing to have multiple projects on the go, but my brain doesn’t think linearly, nor does it think in-universe. So, we’ll see what I can crank out for March. At least another 5 chapters. Hopefully all in the same novel.

Until next time!

– Rissa

It’s Not a Cotton Easter

May 18, 2019 /

A little back story:

This past weekend, Mother’s Day weekend, I gave an associate at the local home & garden centre something to chuckle about. You see, in the front I have these nice shrubs planted between my columnar aspens, and wanted to plant the same in the back yard. These are hardy, fast-growing, and turn beautiful colours in autumn.

When last I purchased these, I had a quick glance at the tag and moved on. Cotoneaster. Odd name. Cotton-easter. So when I asked for a shrub of the same name at the home & garden centre, I received a puzzled look from the associate.

“Pardon me?” he asks.

“Cotton Easter. They’re all over Bowness Park. They turn rainbow colours during the fall.”

“OH!” he exclaims, followed by a hearty chuckle. “You mean cotoneaster” (pronounced koe-TOE-knee-ASS-tor).

“But it’s spelled “cotton easter” I replied, then immediately thought of this Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketch about Mr. Luxury Yacht.

My point exactly!

We both had a good chuckle (I may be dating myself with that Monty Python reference), I purchased my shrubs, and got to gardening.

I have lots of little plans for the back yard this year, and hopefully the Fates let me finish them. First up is finishing the two shrubbery beds by the fence with shrubs. These were the beds I plotted out and had planned on finishing last year but came down with summer pneumonia instead.

So this year, I’m determined to get the shrubs in so they’ll grow into a nice living fence.

Apart from finally getting my bum in gear to finish last year’s projects, I also received a few more unexpected gifts for Mother’s Day.

A few of the neighbourhood birds let me get up close and personal . . .

This American robin kept a watchful eye on me as I gardened.

While I worked, an ominous shadow buzzed by: A raven! It snatched up a field mouse just on the other side of the fence! I was too stunned by the sheer size of this bird (it’s wingspan had to have been four feet!) that by the time I stopped cowering in fear and picked up my camera, he was already across the pond with his catch. Man, that was a massive bird!

This common raven could have taken off with my cat!

And the Hubs bought me an egg chair for the deck, upon which I may lounge and rule over my kingdom (a.k.a. my garden).

Straight from the garden to the chair!

There I sat and caught a little sun (and a little sun burn) while sipping my iced coffee. Even Boo liked my new chair, mostly because it was close to the bird feeder where she could surprise the sparrows.

After all was said and done, I realized my lovely new manicure I worked on Friday evening had been ruined. I suppose I need to trim my nails back to a more reasonable length if I’m going to be gardening regularly. The eagle talons were fine for winter but summer will demand a shorter length.

Three hours of work ruined by two hours of gardening.

Now that the weather is turning, hopefully for the better, it’s time to start planning some more projects for the back yard to get it summer ready.

Oh, and I need to take more bird pictures. Ha!

Aren’t I the cutest little field sparrow ever?

-Rissa

Snow and DSLR’s

May 5, 2019 /

Well, it snowed. Again. This side of the Rocky Mountains, I guess we should be used to it by now. It could also be why us Canadians are such a hardy bunch. The Great White North. It’s not just an SCTV sketch.

Mother Nature has been on a regular schedule lately. During the week, she’ll grace us with decent weather. A bit of a flip of the nose from the weather gods since we must enjoy those nice days stuck inside working. But when the weekend rolls around . . .

I’m making the best of it. Usually I keep my cellphone in my back pocket so I can snap pictures of the birds coming to the bird feeder. But since I was getting cabin fever, I decided to grab The Beast: my older-than-dirt Canon DSLR equipped with its “paparazzi lens”.

I camped out at the kitchen table with hopes of snapping shots of the local wildlife. I typically only get two species of birds: my favourites, the adorable black-capped chickadees . .

. . . and the annoying wetland birds I’ve dubbed “The Trolls”: the ear-splittingly-loud red-winged black birds. Not only do the RWBB’s make a mess out of the feeder as they search for sunflower seeds, their calls are like car horns when they get too close.

squAAAAAAAAAK!

I’m not sure if the RWBB we have in the foothills of Alberta are different than those I was used to seeing in Ohio. Back home, they had distinctly orange shoulder fluffies, even when perched. Here, they have a white stripe. Their shoulder fluffies aren’t visible unless they’re in flight, or screeching at the top of their little birdie lungs.

Apart from the Trolls, a pair of loons took up haven in the wetland pond. The loon is one of Canada’s national symbols as they’re meant to symbolize the rugged wilderness of Canada (or the fact that it can snow 12 months out of the year. You pick).

Between the loons and the Canadian geese, we’ll have a busy pond this year.

I wonder if the mooses (meese?) will come back this year.

Two juvenile moose from last spring.

And to round off the sightings, four deer caught my eye as they grazed on the hill.

Eventually they made their way down to the pond area before trotting off.

Well, at least the wildlife is enjoying the snow. I know they say we need the moisture, but maybe I’m a traditionalist and prefer my precipitation in the form of thunderstorms at bedtime.

Until then, I’ll just have to make sure the coffee is extra hot!

-Rissa


Caught Talkin’ Smack

April 28, 2019 /

Well, call it Murphy’s Law or Mother Nature just being unreasonable. No more than 24 hours after I issued my glowing report on the first signs of spring, the weather gods decided we needed a blizzard to round things out.

Snapped this pic of the blizzard warning on TV, courtesy Global News Calgary.

Ya know, when you’re watching the news and the meteorologist starts throwing words around like ‘winter storm warning’ and ‘blizzard warning’, then you look out the window and there’s not a cloud in the big blue sky, you sit back and think, “Wow, the weather woman had a bit too much coffee this morning”, then go about your day. (Wow, that was a run-on sentence to beat all run-on sentences!). Until that chance glance outside and you see . . .

Woah, what the heck? Because yesterday it was like . . .

As the day wore on, the snow came heavier and heavier. But still, we were determined to go out for dinner. Although we were snow-blasted just running from the front door to the car, we pressed on. And although we couldn’t see more than a block down the road, we pressed on. It wasn’t until we hit the highway and realized visibility sucked that we decided to turn around, head back, and make dinner ourselves for a night of Netflix and chill.

All went well with dinner. We queued up a show and sat down to watch. Soon, the lights started to flicker. And then all went black. The power had gone out. Lucky for us it wasn’t a long outage. We used the time to shovel snow from the gazebo.

Blowing snow left quite a mess underneath the gazebo.

After a night curled in the heated blanket, I awoke to this . . .

My baby’s breath was just starting to sprout, too.

Yup. Got the message, Mother Nature. Watch my mouth. Noted.

From the back deck, I spotted some odd patterns in the snow. On further inspection, I’m guessing this was a falcon or an owl hunting the voles living under my concrete patio. Looks like he got one too!

A bird of prey mark in the snow . . . or an alien facehugger lives under my porch.

Despite the copious amounts of snow, morning walkies were still lovely. With the pond still thawed and the untouched snow, the morning felt magical. The plentiful sunshine sure didn’t hurt.

Mother Nature, I can’t stay mad at you when you give me views like this!

And Mochi sure loved the snow too.

Super Mochi dashes to the rescue of a bacon treat.

Our only saving grace is that the snow will be melted in two days, and no, that’s not a challenge, Mother Nature!

Now, it’s time for a nice warm mug of matcha while my boots dry out.

. . . and to be cheeky, I brewed my matcha in a Santa mug.

-Rissa

© 2024 Rissa Renae

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑