Month: August 2011

Of all the best intentions

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Blogging, Thoughts

I make plans to blog on Sunday, and that’s fine. I forget it’s Sunday when it is. I remember, and half-write a post. I get distracted and irritable, then watch anime for four hours (finally got around to watching Darker Than Black, and it’s all kinds of awesome). I forget it’s Sunday again, or forget I meant to blog, I’m not sure which happened anymore.

Monday morning, and I look back over the past week of taking a break from most major writing. I’m feeling the urge coming back, but I still have a handful of other responsibilities. I ignore half of them, and read the internet to see what other people were doing while I was asleep. Then I remember to blog, and come to write this post.

After walking beside the beach yesterday, I want to take a little more time. Relax, hang out. We’ve got something vacation-like booked in a week or thereabouts, but as with all organised holidays, it’s never really that chill for me. There are Things that we Will Be Doing. It’s planned. I enjoy going to new places, and it’s awesome that my husband gets so excited to be doing something different, but it won’t be the same as just sitting around outside.

Some people write long blogs, and I could do that. Keep going, talk more in-depth about my thoughts, my work, whatever comes to mind. But I write short, as just a window into my daydreams. As with all the best intentions, I’d like to go laze about under the rain, but I’ll probably get back to writing a story soon. I can feel it building.

~A

Sitting with Boobook

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts

I was graced with the beautiful presence of the boobook owl who lives at my workplace. He sat on the balcony’s handrail, peering left and right, fluffed up against the wintery night chill. He would turn his head to inspect new sounds, but he was content with me sitting and watching him from just a couple of metres away. Of course the sun had set and the few external lights are dim, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have been sitting there, so I couldn’t get any photos of his gorgeous form. In the darkness, I could still see his large shining eyes, and the typical “frowny” look of his kind.

I feel such contentment and affinity with owls, but after seeing the boobook, and hearing him call so frequently, I love them even more. They are a special and sacred creature (though I really do love all animals!), and while I sat with him, I just wanted to snuggle his feathers. My husband insisted that the owl would bite my fingers right off if I pet it, to which I fondly agreed. Of course he would bite them off. He’s that kind of owl.

I’ve been thinking of getting a second tattoo, one featuring an owl. Tattoos are really important things, and I would take a very long time in deciding what I want (just like I did with my first ink, my little bat). This might be done to mark my first publication, and of course, because I just want to.

In other news, I’ve updated my sidebar links/Favourite Reads to include a few more of the blogs I read frequently! I kept forgetting I needed to do that, what with my head being filled with too many stories. But now there are new additions, and there will undoubtedly be others again in the future when I find more awesome people and places around the internet.

~A

Surprise, this is what you’re writing now

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Writing

I have been absolutely consumed by a new story.

I was doing so well! A strong start on book two of the novella series, getting through a quick edit on book one, then all of a sudden I’m just hit with this idea. It came to me almost fully-formed, ready to go. Characters popped out of nowhere, with flawless interaction, solid personalities and reason for being. I kept interrupting work to write parts of it, and as soon as I arrived home, I got right back into it.

At this stage, from what I can tell, it’s probably another short story. Horror, maybe a little more “typical” than my other horror works, which tend to be very psychological with minimal blood and gore. I don’t know an approximate word count yet, but I’m hoping it won’t take too long to write. I was genuinely enjoying the novellas. The characters in that series are really exciting to write about, and there is so much potential. This, though… this is just stuck in my head, and I’m certainly not going to let it go to waste by working around it, even if I am somewhat torn between my stories.

There’s a good chance that I’ll write part of the story and come to a point where I don’t need to continue right away; there are plenty of others in my project list that have taken that route. Of course, with it already started, I shouldn’t have any trouble coming back to it at a later date to finish it off. On the other hand, I might just be stuck with the idea until I’ve written it all out.

One of the funniest things about this story? The characters came to me with names already, all except the main character. I have no idea what his name is. Maybe it will never be revealed. Maybe he is to remain nameless. We will have to see as it all pans out.

~A