Tag Archives: life

The Long-Overdue Update

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Last August, my grandfather passed away. He had been ill with cancer for some months, but had not told anyone about it, and so by the time it became bad enough that he had to go to the hospital, he had very little time left. He was not in too much pain, and did not suffer for long, which I am very grateful for. He was my last remaining grandparent, and the one that I had been closest to; I was fortunate enough to live with him for six months following my undergrad graduation, doing an internship in the town where he lived. His loss has been very difficult for me, and even now I still struggle with it at times. For a few months immediately afterwards, I did not really feel much like writing or even editing, which is partly why it took me so long to get back to work on TWoS.

On a more positive front, I had more hours at work during the second half of last year, and as of the beginning of 2016, am full-time and even got a small raise. Since I really love my job, this is very exciting! It also allowed me to finally get my own place again (I had been staying with family since the beginning of 2014), but the moving/unpacking process then took up much of November and December, and some time in January. In addition to my full 40-hour week, this hasn’t always left me with a lot of time to write.

So, I have not been nearly as active with my writing over the past several months as I would have liked. I have at least been working on the latest edit of TWoS for the past couple months, which will be the last one before I send it to my editor. Once I have a final draft that I am satisfied with, I’ll be looking more into the self-publishing process (which I’ve put off because I didn’t want to let that research distract me from actually getting the story written!). Depending on how that process goes, and my time/money situation, I would like to have TWoS officially published sometime before the end of 2016.

I do have one more short story in my im/mortal series written, and another in the works. Some other snippets may be forthcoming as well, and I am going to start some planning and drafting of my next larger project once I’m a bit more settled on the TWoS draft.

Thank you again to anyone who has given me support or enjoyed my writing thus far, and know that more is coming. Hopefully soon!

~Ethelinda

Late Afternoon Storm

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Late Afternoon Storm

The gulls turn overhead, their feathers picked out in stark white against the deepening grey of the clouds beginning to cover the sky. In the failing light, the wheeling birds seem almost to flash in warning of the coming storm: “Turn back!”

But home lies ahead and not behind, where the afternoon sun and blue sky still hold. Home lies ahead, ever closer to the swift-running dark, the clouds broken and boiling like the waves of an oncoming sea. Wind comes first, a herald, gusting high and whipping with it the first of autumn’s fallen leaves. Next the rain, just a few drops, a last admonition to seek shelter. Flickers of lightning, white and distant, light the clouds.

Then the wind comes rushing back, stronger than before, and at last the black sky opens to let the rain pour down. It drenches all the earth, pushed into waves by the gusting wind, edged by lightning and accompanied by thunder. The world soaks…and then slowly, slowly, the storm is swept east by the ever-hurrying wind, and eventually the rain falls away into a gentler, softer pattern.

The storm passes on, leaving a quiet, grey evening in its wake.

(Just a descriptive short I wrote a couple of years ago, and the weather yesterday reminded me of it.)

Copyright (c) 2013 by Ethelinda Webb

Happy New Year!

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(Very slightly belated.)

Here’s to 2015: I hope that it will be a year full of writing and reading!

Thanks once again to everyone who is following The Wizard of Suomen. Look for both a completed first draft and hopefully a completed final version of that this year, as well as some other projects with a bit more variety once the draft of TWoS is done and posted. 🙂

~Ethelinda

Happy Veteran’s Day

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My thanks to those who’ve served!

Both of my grandfathers served. My maternal grandfather was in the Army for a little while towards the end of World War II. I believe that my paternal grandfather joined the Marines late in WWII as well, but he saw action several years later in the Korean War. He was a fighter pilot.

Writing a war story has gotten me thinking about the “after the war” part of the story as well. What do soldiers do once the war is over? Do they suffer from temporary or permanent injury? How does that affect their lives moving forward? Do they even wish to stop being a soldier? If so, what work would they rather pursue? All (to me, at least) very interesting questions, with very different answers depending on the character!

~Ethelinda

Progress!

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I was getting close and wanted to break 45,000 words for The Wizard of Suomen tonight. I actually made it to just over 46,000 words. It feels really good to be making such progress on this draft! 😀

Using a blog as motivation for working on this story more consistently has been an interesting process. It’s clearly helping, even though I’ve only been doing it for a short while. My life is somewhat uncertain and unsettled in a lot of ways right now (some good, some not so good), and in the past I’ve found it difficult to work on my fiction in those circumstances. It feels very good to be able to work on this story consistently despite that uncertainty, though, so I’m glad that this seems to be working as a motivational tool. Concrete goals and progress are definitely helpful.

~Ethelinda