Blog – Kit Campbell Books

Card Story Part 11 and My Family Has (Partially) Returned

June books: Still 1/4

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A note reading: Not sure--some sort of experiment gone wrong or something

A note reading: Have you considered the possibility that you're not actually in a different world at all and they're just lying to you?

A note reading: Why would they do that? Besides we're surrounded by forest & you're not

A note reading: Have you seen the forest, or do they just tell you it's there? Come on, what's more likely?

A note reading: Look, there's an easy way to check. If you come out that door at night & I can see you, that's that.

~*~*~*~*~

Two-thirds of my family came home yesterday, which on one hand is great, I was very happy to see them and they were very happy to see me, but it does mean that it’s been much harder to maintain the schedule I set for myself. Of the five main things on my schedule each day, I’ve only done three yesterday and today. Alas.

Now that my alone time is over, how was it? Well, it certainly was nice to have full control of my own schedule. I suspect I gained back several hours on not having to transport anyone anywhere alone. Plus I only had to cook every other day instead of every day, which also was a big time saver.

But I also, at times, felt purposeless. That bodes ill for later on in life when the kids have hopefully moved out. I had hoped that being able to focus on my own interests 100% would, if anything, be more fulfilling, and I did enjoy working on each item, but overall it felt like…like it was too late, almost. Like I should have done this stuff fifteen years ago, and now I’m too old to get any real benefit out of it.

Also concerning. I talked to my spouse a bit about this last night, this feeling of being too late on some of these things, but it basically boiled down to you can’t do everything in life, and choices were made, and regretting things you didn’t do earlier isn’t going to help anything now or in the future.

(And, if we want to be trite, the best time to start something is twenty years. The second best time is now. Or plant trees, or some such.)

So I wish I could come out of this saying that I feel amazing! But I mostly just feel a little sad about everything. And really it’s too bad that you can’t completely retool your life in two weeks because that would be great.

(It’s also ungodly hot so that’s probably not helping my mood at all.)

Do you ever feel a bit sad about roads not taken, squiders? The ironic thing here is that, with a lot of the things I was trying out these past few weeks, they weren’t on my radar twenty years ago anyway. Goals and interests change and cycle and all that jazz. So it’s all well and good to be like “I wish I had taken this up twenty years ago” but if 20yearspast!Kit didn’t care about them then who even knows.

See you next week, squiders!

Card Story Part 10, and How Goes the Alone Time?

June books: 1/4 (Siege and Storm)

I did the cards two days ago, took pictures yesterday, and am just now getting to the posting. There has to be a way to make this more efficient while keeping the physical cards.

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A note reading: I'm not really sure, we're not supposed to talk about it

A note reading: We're not supposed to know about you either

A note reading: I have a hard time believing you're really in another dimension or whatever

A note reading: From what I understand it's a time shift

A note reading: Something happened that pulled us apart--but it still connects in some places

~*~*~*~*~*~

This story needs more drawings. Something to ponder.

Well, squiders, we’re five days into my 12-day alone time. So how’s it going?

Well. Let’s discuss.

Over the past month or so I put together a schedule for myself. It includes a bedtime/wake up time, workouts, music theory and singing (for my own edification), and writing. I actually planned hour by hour for each thing to make sure I had time, and built in some catch up time because I know myself.

Am I sticking to this hour by hour time frame? Not at all. Most of the time I am mostly getting back on track by dinner (6pm) but not always. I am consistently waking up early and going to bed late, so that’s not great.

Content wise, the workouts, music theory, and singing? Going great.

The writing? Decent. Not great. I planned myself two distinct writing time periods, one right after work and one right after dinner. I do not know why I planned anything for the hour right after work, which historically is lost time because I don’t always leave work on time, I apparently did not plan in travel time, and sometimes I just want to sit/nap when I get home before I get into things. So the first writing period has been late every day, which then delays everything else.

The second writing period is happening haphazardly and sometimes much too late, when my brain is not really braining anymore. The dinner back into productivity transition is not smooth.

The writing is suffering from some unfocusedness as well. (I know that’s not a word.) I’m not done with my short stories from earlier, so I’m still working on those. I made a checklist of single-time things that should be done, like sending out short stories, queries, and dealing with SkillShare’s BS. And I did plan out a new novel idea to start. So, in theory, I should just be writing the shorts til they’re done and then moving on, but my brain has decided that one writing session can be working on the stories, and the other can be working on everything else.

This is not efficient, but things are getting done. So trade offs.

Overall, my executives are mostly functioning and I think things are going well! We’ll see how I feel next week as we get closer to my family returning.

Have a good weekend, squiders! Do something fun for yourself!

Card Story Part 9(?) and SkillShare is Up to Shenanigans Again

June books: 0/4 still (but I have played some video games)

The one things about the card story is that it takes a bit to do the pictures, which makes the blogging overall take just a little bit longer. Also, I’ve noticed that the my ratio of purple cards to yellow cards is not great, so I’m not sure what I’m going to do at that point.

Still just going wherever we feel like on any particular day.

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A note that reads: I don't understand why you can't be out during the day. We're here all day every day and nothing happens. Or why you can't go home.

A note that reads: This is our home--well, it's where we live, at least

A note that reads: But your family? You never get to see them?

A note that reads: I haven't seen my family since I started school

A note that reads: As you get older, they move you farther out

A note that reads: Farther out towards what?

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In frustrating but not unsurprising news, I got an email from SkillShare yesterday saying they were stopping and reducing content in a few categories, including Writing & Publishing, and that they’d be removing 7 of my 8 classes as part of this. (The last class, my oldest, has always had 10x the students of any of my other classes, which I suspect is mostly driven by when it was put on the platform, before they started messing with discoverability and other logistics.)

SkillShare has been actively working toward removing all but the most successful teachers over the past few years, so, as I say, this is not a surprise, though my newest class is all of a month and a half old and hence hasn’t had time to really gain a lot of traction. I guess they got sick of driving people off by making it harder and harder to get paid and are just doing it straight out now.

So that’s yet another thing to have to deal with. Yay.

My two weeks of alone time starts Sunday afternoon, so I do need to spend some time over the next few days making sure I’m ready to go. I am not quite done with my short story project, so I’m not sure if I should finish them first, or just switch over to the new project I brainstormed at the writing retreat. Something to decided, oh, tomorrow.

Wish me luck, squiders. See you next week!

Card Story Part 8 (And Retreat Thoughts)

May Books: 5/5 (How to Write Romantasy and Shadow and Bone)

June Books: 0/4

Hi-ho, squiders! It’s now June, and it feels like it came out of nowhere.

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A note reading: I don't know what you mean but I had to anyway, it was so dark.
I found the door but it's locked. If I knock on it, will you hear?

A note reading: Not sure--we're not supposed to be near the door during the day

A note reading: Let's try. I'll cut out of math tomorrow. Say 10:30am?

A note with "I don't" scratched out, and then reading: Okay

A note reading: OMG something knocked back
Please tell me that was you

A note reading: I wasn't sure you'd be able to hear

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I don’t have nearly as many purple cards as weird hole cards, which might become an issue, depending on how long this goes. Always a bit interesting, storytelling through a restricted medium.

ANYWAY.

My retreat happened! We were at a new location this year, as the one last year failed us. Pros and cons. It was up in the mountains, so I went on a lovely early morning hike Friday morning with barely anyone else in sight, and the views were gorgeous. But we were just one group on a larger property, so it was much louder and logistically a bit overwhelming (such as during meals). And there was a giant group of teenagers–like hundreds of them–who were everywhere all the time that didn’t help, and in some cases facilities we tried to access turned us away because of said giant group.

Honestly, I’d go back to the old place in a heartbeat. I’ve got a survey in my email that I need to take and which I should. The old place is apparently under new management, so maybe all can be fixed.

You guys don’t care about logistics.

I made friends! That may have been a side effect of the new location. The past two years I’ve been social during meals and a few designated social times and then disappeared into my room or wherever to write. I’ve always tried to mix up who I sit with so I can make a larger swath of acquaintances, but it does mean I haven’t particularly clicked with specific people (though it does mean that I know and am friendly with a good majority of the group at this point). (I did make a friend last year who unfortunately lives on the other end of town and had to cancel coming last minute this year.)

I did do that to some extent this year as well, but because we were just mixed in with the general populace, sometimes it was just easier to be like “I recognize and like this person, so I’m just going to sit with them.” But I feel like I made some real connections, and when I get my life together, I shall reach out to them.

(Why is it so hard to be productive after something like a writing retreat? I’ve gotten nothing done all week.)

Writing was less productive. I did do some writing, and I edited a story off of some editorial feedback and sent it out (very optimistically, only to have a form rejection 24 hours later), and I did do some admin stuff. It doesn’t feel like a lot, but I am trying to remind myself that 1) it is always harder to make more progress if working on multiple things, and 2) the last two years I was there for longer (I had to leave a day earlier because I had concert tickets) AND I was revising, which skews word counts because a lot of the words aren’t new.

(It was an excellent concert.)

I would, of course, go again. But hopefully we go some place quieter.

I’m mostly annoyed about my complete lack of progress since returning Saturday afternoon. School is out. I’ve gained close to an hour and a half of my day back because I don’t have to take children to and from school. Some of our extracurriculars have also stopped for the summer. I have time. But I’m not using it.

Very frustrating.

And, of course, we’re a little over a week out from my week and a half on my own, and I’m worried that I’m not prepared enough, or that I’m going to waste that time no matter how much I prepare. I should be fine, but I’ve just been so tired lately, and I’m worried I’m not going to be able to turn things around.

Anyway.

Hope you’re doing well! See you next week!

Card Story (Part 7, probably) and My Retreat is Today!

May Books: 3/5 (still, I think)

(Look it’s the last week of school and there are birthdays and graduations and also issues with the oldest’s new school–which no one is called me back from–and it’s all a lot.)

(Also I started this post yesterday, sigh.)

I actually made these cards last week and then I finished The Elves of Cintra instead.

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A map of a gym with an arrow going under the bleachers

A note reading: Under the bleachers? But they're always folded against the wall

A note reading: Look or don't, I don't care

A note reading: omg there is a door but it's all dusty and full of spiders under there
And then what? another door?

A note reading: Take a flashlight
There are things that lurk in the shadows

~*~*~*~*~

This section gave me strong flashbacks to a YA horror project called What Lurks Beneath the Bleachers that I originally started as an epistolary project with a friend, and then went on to write both a full first and second draft on my own (with that friend’s blessing, of course). I do hope to go back to it sometime, as it has some of my very favorite characters in it, but it has tonal issues that I need to figure out before I do another draft (it was sometimes a comedy and sometimes a horror, and I did not do a good job of blending the two).

I don’t know what my deal with bleachers is. Though the bleachers in WLBtB were the outdoor ones. Do schools even have outdoor bleachers anymore? They must.

~*~*~*~*~

My writing retreat starts today! (I’ve already gotten a text from the resort welcoming me, which is exciting) I have packed my clothes and necessities but not yet my working stuff (as evidenced from me being here, writing this blog). Also a hiking bag, but my hiking bag is essentially already packed, so I can basically just throw it in the car.

I wish I were more prepared for it this year. I mean, holy moly, am I ready for a few days to myself, but I haven’t really planned out what I’m working on or anything like that. I think we approach it from a reset sort of standpoint–recharge, consider my projects and plans, think about writing in general, plan out the June time period–and otherwise just kind of relax and make new friends and have a good time (and finish my short stories. Hopefully).

And also maybe do some administrative stuff, some minor edits on other stuff, maybe some submission materials for side projects, blah blah blah.

But I’m so excited! Wish me happy creative thoughts!

See you next week, Squider!

Shannara Readthrough: The Elves of Cintra

May Books: 3/5 (The Elves of Cintra)

If you recall, squiders, I finished Armageddon’s Children, the first book of the Genesis of Shannara, in March, and decided it ended cliff-hangery enough that I’d better go straight on to the second book. Here we are, two months later, and I powered through 50% of the book in the last four days, which should tell you how this is going to go.

It should not take me two months to get through a fantasy novel. Not even a 500ish page one.

And, just…look. I’m pretty good, when I’m reading, at turning off the author hat and being able to just enjoy the story. I don’t tend to analyze books as I go.

But what is going on here. From a writing standpoint.

This, and Armageddon’s Children, and I assume whatever the third book is (I looked it up, it’s called The Gypsy Morph), follows two distinct group of people, mainly defined by the Knight of the Word with each group. (Okay, at the beginning of Armageddon’s Children, they were more spread out, and they condensed into two distinct groups.) You have Logan Tom with the Ghosts, a street gang from Seattle made up of children, and you have Angel Perez with the elves (and you guys know how I feel about the elves being handled).

(If you missed my elves rant from the last book, feel free to go and read it, but the gist is that they were introduced badly and the whole thing is lazy and a waste.)

In a book with multiple viewpoints, I expect to jump back and forth fairly regularly between groups of people or viewpoint characters. You know, so as not to forget about other viewpoints and what is happening.

But I feel–and it’s possible I’m incorrect, because as I said, this was a slog and I did not read it very consistently–like each of the two groups had swaths of book where the other group was just forgotten. Like 50 pages at a go, at least. Maybe more. I just…from a writing standpoint, why. Were we concerned that switching more often between groups would disrupt the flow? Did one of the groups have less material, and would switching between them more often have made that apparent?

I’m not sure, but it made the flow of the story feel jerky and uneven.

Also, some of the events in this book feel…not important. I’ve learned the hard way, over the years, that things can’t just happen to have things happen. They have to connect to other events, or show characterization or growth, or reveal important worldbuilding information. And it’s possible that some of these things may be connected to events in the third book, but several of them seemed pointless, in retrospect. There’s a whole subplot about a kid from a different street gang that goes nowhere, and the kid ends up getting killed in what really felt like an attempt to get rid of a plot point that wasn’t working.

So, yeah. It was rough, squiders, I’m not going lie. I am disappointed in the worldbuilding aspects especially for the entire trilogy, because the opportunity was there to do something really cool.

Will I keep reading? Yeah. But I wonder if this disappointment will color later books that I remember more fondly.

I will probably pick up The Gypsy Morph sooner rather than later, though I’ve moved on to a different fantasy series for now.

How are you doing? Read anything good lately?

Card Story Part 6 (I think)

(I should never be trusted to keep track of things numerically. Invariably when I go back through my first drafts I have three chapter 12s and no chapter 9.)

May books: 2/5 (A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping and 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People)

How’s your week going, squider? Mine’s been okay–I finished the first of my five short stories (and they’re all outlined, so I just need to write them) and also got three query rejections.

We’re entering into the last few weeks of school, however, which is a madhouse and may hamper progress going forward. Today, for example, we have a honor roll presentation, an orchestra concert, and a Scout chapter meeting. I am at least on top of my teacher things, for the most part, though I still need to get year end gifts.

(I realized as I was typing the above, that the deadline for some of those gift was, in fact, today, so I’ve taken care of those.)

Still not sure what we’re working on for the writing retreat/June alone time. I hope to at least be done with my short stories before the retreat.

Anyway, on to the cards, which continue apace:

~*~*~*~*~

A note reading: If you don't go home & you don't stay here at school during the day--where do you go?

~*~*~*~*~

That’s it for me for today! See you soon, squider!

Card Story Part 5

May Books: 0/5

How are you, squider? I’ve been relatively productive from a writing standpoint this week (obviously not a reading one, ha), so that’s lovely.

We had a snow day on Wednesday and I couldn’t get to the cards, so we’re running a bit late. (Also I took the pics at, like, 10pm last night so apologies on the weird lighting.)

~*~*~*~*~

A note reading: The forest that surrounds the school?

A note reading: There's not a forest around the school ??

A note reading: Then how do they keep you inside?

A note reading: They don't? Are you saying you don't go home after school?

A note reading: No, seriously, you can just leave? Whenever you want?

A note reading: I mean, you're not supposed to, but I guess you could, yeah

~*~*~*~*~

See you next week!

Card Story Part 4 (and Random Musings)

April books: 3/4 (The Hum and the Shiver)

We’ll do 5 books for May, cuz why not.

It’s come to my attention that I will have 12 days in June to myself. Like, yes, I have to work and all that jazz, but the rest of the family will be off on various adventures and I will be by myself. For the first time in years and years and honestly maybe ever.

(Actually, no, I take that back, there were periods right after college where my spouse would be gone for weeks at a time for work.)

My instinct is to overplan the heck out of those days. That class on music theory I’ve been thinking about taking? A brand new exercise routine? A SCIENCE FICTION SERIES?

Alternately, I’m terrified that I will fall into my worst habits on my own. As I’ve gotten older it’s become more and more apparent that I am probably some flavor of neurodivergent that got missed because I got straight As in school, and I often joke that my family is my executive functioning, but it’s not wrong. My spouse makes sure I go to bed at a reasonable time, and chores and cooking and whatnot have to be done to make sure my children have a functional childhood. On my own I tend to slip into weird hyperfixations and bad sleeping patterns (case in point: my spouse and oldest are away on a campout this weekend, and youngest and I were up until 2 am).

(God, I am so tired. Also I meant to do this blog post on Wednesday.)

But there has to be a happy medium where I don’t get sucked into some hyperfixation for eight hours a day and can do some things I’ve been meaning to get around to. Just got to figure out how to do it.

I’m also going to a writing retreat May 28-30 (it goes through the 31st, but I have concert tickets on the night of the 30th and will have to duck out early). New location, so I don’t know exactly how it will go. But I could in theory do set-up for a big project I start those weeks in June.

Here are possibilities that I have come up with for June, thus far:

Take said music theory class
Spend more time working out (with, like, more of a plan than I’m doing right now)
Eat things that the rest of the family won’t
Start (and maybe complete?) a writing project of some sort

I feel like I had more but I’ve forgotten them at this point. Oh well.

The hope is, though, if I plan out my time, I shall stick-ish to the plan.

Anyway, on to the story. No planning has gone into this either:

~*~*~*~*~

A note reading: What is with you & plants?

A note reading: Oh, so you're talking to me again?

A note reading: What can I say, I'm a sucker for a creepy ass forest

A note reading: ...do they let you in the forest?

~*~*~*~

I’m vaguely reminded of a podcast I used to listen to called Tanis. Each episode was full of creepy and occult story bits, but when you stepped out of the episode and thought about it, it didn’t make any sense. Not in a “things are mysterious and aren’t supposed to be perceived by humanity” sort of way, but more of a “we’re making this up as we go and have no internal consistency” sort of way.

So maybe at some point I should figure out where I’m going, but that time has yet to come.

(Also, I listened to four seasons of Tanis, so obviously it worked well enough.)

See you next week, squiders!

Card Story Part 3

April books: Still 2/4 (in the middle of like five books, why do I do this)

Edited that science fiction short I wrote earlier in the year and sent it out to a market, and have been outlining the short stories from my class. But on to whatever these shenanigans are going to turn out to be:

A note that says: What? Cross over from where?

(imagine time passing here)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hm, I wonder if I should include the sketches for this in my art goals.

See you next week, squiders!

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Books by Kit Campbell