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New Journals
A Quick Note!
Summer is almost over, (aww) but Autumn is arriving (yeah!) School has now returned and I feel like my schedule is back on track. Though I suppose that I could’ve kept a schedule going throughout the summer but I was either hunched over my computer writing my first draft to my latest novel (Prince Noralv: Edge of Shadows, Book Two!) or I’ve been going on family outings and gatherings. My summer has been full and I am grateful.Now with Autumn (Fall as some prefer to call it) on the horizon, I am so very in the mood for sweaters, books, stationery, fire in the fireplace, pumpkin spice everything, but most of all Halloween. Soon, my pretty, soon.
My wish for you all is to have a fabulous end of summer and to embrace the pumpkin of autumn.
Cheers!
New Journals!
Do you love journaling? I know I sure do! I love putting pen to paper throughout my writing process whether I’m brainstorming descriptions or working through a scene in my story I always have a journal next to me. Plus, it’s great to be equipped with one while I’m out and about because I never know when an idea will strike next.
For my love of stationery, I decided to make make a few journals. Some of the journals I’ve created have a plotting guide at the beginning and the others are plain lined paper.
Please check them out here:
http://jtharriswriter.com/?page_id=537
There are lots of different styles to satisfy many different personality types and I hope to make some more in the near future. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if there are other styles or ideas you’d like to see. I’m always creating.
Free Short Stories Coming Soon.
I’ve got a couple of new short stories that are coming together nicely and will be available for free to my newsletter subscribers. If you are already a subscriber, thank you so very much. The new short stories will be showing up in an inbox near you.
Lost in a Dream is still available for free when you sign up for my newsletter but will be retiring soon.
To get it while it’s still available please follow this link.
https://www.subscribepage.com/jtharriswritershortstoryoptin
Until next time, keep creating.
JT Harris.
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Hooked on Stories and a Giveaway
The Stories That Started It All
Every reader (that I know of) all remember that one (or two) story/series that sucked them into the world of reading. For me, it was two series’. The first was The Mandie Mystery series by Lois Gladys Leppard, a light-hearted mystery following the life of Mandie Shaw and the puzzles that she either stumbled upon or her curiosity that got the better of her. She and her friends became determined to figure it out which usually led to some sort of trouble and excitement. For a young girl (like I was) I truly fell in love with all of her lively adventures.
The next series that enthralled me was the Cooper Kids Adventure Series by Frank Peretti. These stories hooked me on the action-adventure types. This story followed the lives of Jay and Lila Cooper as they went on archaeologist exploits with their father. It was like an Indiana Jones story but for kids. The description was phenomenal and just enough to make me feel like I was there. I was truly addicted and could not put these down. I devoured them.Since reading these two series’ I have been a book (story) fan ever since. I have made it my goal to create amazing stories of my own. Action, adventure, drama, and mystery, mixed with fantastical worlds, these are the stories I fell in love with and desire to create for as long as I possibly can.
What are the stories that you fell in love with that sparked your passion for books and reading?
Cheers!
February Giveaway!
I’m getting super close to releasing my very first young adult fantasy and in the spirit of my excitement, I have decided to do another giveaway.The book I have chosen this time is none other than Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling! The reason for my choice is mainly for my love of fantasy but also, it contributes to my love for creative, world-enveloping stories that add to my obsession with books and reading. Amazing fun!
For the chance to win Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling all you have to do is subscribe to my newsletter by February 21st then on February 22nd I will contact the winner via email. I will give the winner one week to respond and if I get no response I will draw another name. My subscribe button is in the sidebar of my website. (Don’t worry. I only send out one or two short emails a month.)
Best of luck!
JT Harris.
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Making an Action Dream Board
Happy New Year, my friends!A new year is now here. Time for a fresh start, resolutions, and setting goals. Everyone has their own ideas about resolutions and goal setting and I’m not going to claim to be an expert on those things. I will, however, be trying out a dream (vision) board to see how well they work. I’ve heard them called action boards with the hopes that you’ll be spurred into action instead of just dreaming. I love dreaming so I will be dubbing mine an action dream board – cause I will be taking some serious action! It’ll be an experiment for me.
Vision, Action, Dream Board.
Your board can be about whatever you, well, dream about, but sometimes it can be about whatever feels good to you at the time. (You may learn something about yourself in the process.) I feel it could be used as a fun therapy evening with friends or even alone with a feel-good movie or music playing in the background. It is advised to be as specific as possible so I’m going to focus in and do my best to be as specific as possible.
There are many categories that could be put on a vision board.
- Family
- Financial
- Spiritual
- Creativity
- Projects
- Self-improvement
- Travel
- Love
- Knowledge
- Health
I’ve chosen ten common ones (in no particular order), but the list is truly endless. My main focus is on gratitude, giving, and goals. I do have wants, desires, and needs and will be indulging in my dreams, but my main focus will be the first three. I’ll check back in a year to see how much I have accomplished. Let’s see if this works!
If you wish to give vision, dream, action boards a try I will suggest youtube, googling, or Pinterest for tons of inspiration. Happy dreaming and lets put this into action!
Cheers.
JT Harris.
Top photo: http://Photo on <a href=”https://visualhunt.com/re/f87054″>VisualHunt.com</a>
Second photo: http://Photo on <a href=”https://visualhunt.com/re/f87054″>Visualhunt.com</a>
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September Goals
Hello, my friends. Happy September and welcome to autumn. (I love the fall!!!)Wow.
September has come so fast and is already a quarter of the way finished. School is upon us! Our household is alive with books, art supplies, and imagination. I am still gathering my homeschooling bearings but feel like I will be in the groove this week and I am learning just as much as the kids are (maybe more).
My manuscript has gone through a round of editing and I will be tackling another draft to clean up and fix things. My goal this month is to finish with my edits then move forward with round two. That’s it! One simple goal. A simple time-consuming goal. Hahaha! I can do this!
So, with autumn fast approaching I am thinking of doing another giveaway. Perhaps something spooky in honor of Halloween. Any of you have favorite spooky stories? The origins of the headless horseman is one of my favorites. Perfectly ghostly.
Thank you for hanging out with me.
Until next time.
Keep creating.
JT Harris.
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Editing everything
Well, it’s a long-time-no-post situation. Thank you for your patience.
I am currently working on re-writing my story ending but may still choose an earlier version. Stories sometimes have a way of writing themselves (in a matter of speaking). Also, the website is going through a bit of a transformation so please keep checking back to see all the new changes. If you’d like to keep up to date and be notified of all the new content before everyone else I will suggest signing up to my newsletter! Sneak peeks and free content should be arriving fairly soon.
Thank you and keep creating.
JT Harris
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Welcome!
Hello everyone. I am slowly learning this whole website thing. Slowly, I will be updating and changing this site and its pages and other content. I am looking forward to spending time here and letting you all know what I will be bringing to share with you.
Thank you for spending some of your time with me.
JT Harris.
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Goals for the Near Future
Just a quick post this week!
I am not a New Year’s resolution kind of person, but I do believe in goals. Goals can spark us to move forward to accomplish many great things. Telling a few people our goals can give us the fine kick in the bottom that we need because we don’t want to fail. (Having to tell our friends that we didn’t meet our goals is something most of us don’t want to do – besides, our friends can be great cheerleaders, right?)There are some goals that I would like to work on these next few months and am not sure if I am doing these goals in the right order or if I should be concentrating on others instead, but I will tweak accordingly if and when it suits my publishing needs.One of the goals I am hoping to do this month is to find a few more “alpha” readers to read and give me constructive criticism for the early draft of my manuscript. Even though I have many things I’d like to change in my story I’d like to have other peoples’ opinions and take on the story – to see if my opinions are the same as other’s opinions. I hope that makes sense. 🙂The next goal of mine is to start a newsletter for you all and any new “followers”. Fans? You lovely people who are interested in my progress! Yes. That sounds good.Right now, I am writing out character profiles for each of my support and background characters. I have compiled a list of questions and stats for each of my named characters. Let’s just say, it has been a very interesting learning time for me and for my story. Everyone is coming alive and layered and I want to hug them all. I knew my characters before, but now I am digging deeper and learning quite a bit more about everyone and everything. Every crack. Every corner. Fun times. Truly. I highly recommend trying this for your background characters. (I know it can be tedious, but in the end, it will be so worth it.) I suppose my goal for writing out each profile would be to finish all the profiles by the end of next week. (Kids are full of adventure and keep me quite busy, which is why it will take me another week.)Making goals for myself is one of the ways I keep myself on track. Procrastination is a deep, deep, well of doing nothing that I frequent. A lot. Everyone has their own process, and goals work for me.The summer will be here soon and I am determined to be published by then. Yay!What are some of your goals?Have a great winter, happy goal keeping, and keep creating.Inkblade Writer.PS. Okay, my post was much longer than intended. Apparently I had more to say than I thought. Thank you for spending some of your time with me. -
Setting Goals.
Photo via <a href=”https://pixabay.com/en/users/MannyvonKannen-699079/”>MannyvonKannen</a> via <a href=”https://visualhunt.com/photos/christmas/”>VisualHunt.com</a>As many of my friends and family know, I have won this year’s NaNoWriMo! And, I couldn’t be happier about it.I have been so busy with my writing and Christmastime that I have put a slight halt to my blogging. I love you all for your patience. Thank you!Christmas is almost upon us, again, and there’s so much to prepare, lists to check off, people to see, and, of course, writing to be finished. I have given myself a bit of time to chew over what I wrote in the month of November and am doing a bit more world building for my fantasy before I jump into editing and begin to mold and whip my story into shape. My editing cap is almost ready to be worn. 😉I have decided to give myself a deadline/ end goal for my manuscript to be finished. My reason for my goal is because I am a procrastinator and if I have a goal I will procrastinate less. The more I focus on my goal the more I will do. I may even wait until the bitter end before I throw myself into action, but I am determined to get the manuscript finished. So, my end goal is to have the book ready by the summer of 2017!Wish me luck. This is so new to me. And scary. And fun. And challenging. I will be updating my progress at most every step that I take. If you’d like to check my progress you can keep checking here on my blog or check out my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/inkbladewriter/Thank you so much for joining me today!Until next time.Keep creating and Merry December, Happy Winter Solstice, and have a joyous Christmas.Inkblade Writer. -
NaNoWriMo, Day One
NaNoWriMo is here! My post will be brief for sure this time for my fingers shall be busy typing my story.
I am here to say good luck and speedy writing. Drink lots of water eat lots of food, take the odd break to move around then get back to writing.
Happy Creating.
Inkblade Writer. -
Fairy Tales and Costumes
A few years ago, there was a missed opportunity for me to dress up my daughter as Red Riding Hood and my son as the wolf (a lumberjack-type werewolf to be exact) for Halloween, but my son had his heart set on being a different character, so I put the idea on the back burner. This year for Halloween the idea came back into my mind: I wanted to have a Little Red Riding Hood group to go out trick or treating. It would be fun. I tried asking my kids if they wanted to do the idea with me, but they are still young to understand the fun of being in a costume group. They have their own ideas and I love their imaginations and want them to dress-up as anything they wish. Alas, the Red Riding Hood group would have to wait.Who Am I kidding? As much as I love to write I also love to create characters, and costuming is another one of my creative outlets. If my son and daughter wouldn’t be part of the fairy tale group I would make one with my husband (the woodcutter/ lumberjack), myself (Red Riding Hood), and my dog (the big bad wolf). This group will happen!Fairy Tales have been apart of my childhood and probably lit the fire for my love of stories and, at the very least, kept me in the dreams and wonder of where the fairy tales could take me. As a child, the fairy tales told to me or read by me were often the lighter versions of their darker counterpart, but as I grew older I began to explore the origins of these stories and, my goodness, were these ever creepy and sometimes down right disturbing. (Halloween and fairy tales seem to be a great fit, am I right?)Despite the ‘grim’ stories (pun intended) there are gold nuggets among the pages. Many authors in the past decade have searched these fairy tales and put their own twist to these stories of old and have come out with amazing retold stories of their own. Red Riding Hood has been told and re-told time and time again, each with small changes that make it slightly different than the last. Some re-told Riding Hood stories have been changed so much that they are hardly recognizable. Two things remains the same. The person with the red hood and a depiction of a wolf.Any hint of the essence of fairy tales being told in a story, consider my interest piqued.Tell me, what are your favourite fairy tales of old or new?Until next time, keep creating.Inkblade Writer.http://Photo credit: chiaralily via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC
