Mondaily

Never Traveling Alone is up for subscribers at Torn World now! Here's an excerpt:

Birka squeezed Anler's hand with one mitten, and Fala's with the other.

Spring was creeping in, faster than it seemed possible; the sun was finally strong enough to soften the top layer of snow and even make little rings around the trees. The further they walked from the village, the more obvious it was that winter was losing its hold on the land. There were no green sprouts yet, but the sun was high and even warm on lifted faces, and there were even little icicles where snow had warmed enough to melt and refreeze. The age-set knew it was their last chance for the winter tests. Tetefii had not had her first moon cycle yet, but if she were to do so that summer, they were not sure that any of them wanted to wait until the following winter for their chance to become adults.

The path narrowed, and Birka had to let go of her age-mates. Fala took point, at the heels of Reqem. Did it have to be Reqem? Birka had hoped fervently that gentle Ivara would be the one to issue the first of their winter tests, not gruff Reqem, who could freeze blood with a glare.

You can sponsor this for public viewing for $20, or read the entire thing at Torn World with a subscription ($5/month or less, with longer subscriptions!). The nifty thing about subscriptions is that you get most of your payment back in 'spending credits' that you can use to directly support the work you enjoy the most. And if money is tight, you can earn karma by leaving comments or submitting work, and you can spend that karma to view reserved work!

I wish I'd been slinging my good camera when this shot presented itself. Alas, just an iphone snap:



She's "reading" to herself at my feet right now, which is adorable.

I finally figured out how to make my Patreon link something intuitive: http://www.patreon.com/ellenmillion (And look! Supporters! *shocked and delighted!*)

Lunch plans!

Inspiration again...

Eeeeeeeeeeeee! I had lunch with laylalawlor today and procured plants and brainstormed.

I have been so, so, so stuck with Torn World. Not the whole world, but definitely with the over-arcing North-meets-South storyline. And my mire was basically holding everything up. And guilt over not figuring that out was keeping me from writing the fun things I wanted to.

See, I wrote a script for a graphic novel a hundred years ago. 2006 is a hundred years ago in Internet time. And Laura Melis, the amazing and talented, illustrated the first 11 pages. Four years later, I launched Torn World as a whole, and since then, we've added more than a thousand items. Not exaggerating! In the intervening eight years, the world went in directions I never anticipated. Part of that was the incredible creative team, and part of it was the fact that I was growing and changing as a creator, too - and there were a lot of the bits and pieces I never even thought about. It was exciting... but the graphic novel pages acted like a thumbtack - I had to take the story THERE, in exactly THAT way, because I didn't want Laura's work to go to waste. And as the world expanded, that staple point sort of buckled and warped. It kept the fabric of the world from lying neatly, and it started to make unsightly ripples out in every direction. I tried to write the things that came later in the timeline, hoping to skip past the problem spot and get enough momentum to come back and fill in the gaps. I was really happy with some of these future stories, but every time I approached closer to THOSE events, I balked.

See, that script I wrote? Frankly, it sucked. The pacing was wretched, the writing was stiff, the story was eye-roll-worthy, the characters flat. Nothing happened, everything was explained. I have, since writing it, improved drastically in crafting short stories. A few hundred thousand words of writing will do that. Editing another several hundred thousand words of writing will help a lot, too! I can't say for sure if I've improved in scripting, but I have at least advanced to the point that I recognize I wasn't very good. Laura did incredible things with the framework I gave her, and I still don't want her work to end up shelved... but I am going to release the ideas that were constraining me, outline what OUGHT to happen to connect all the dots, and salvage what I can of the artwork moving backwards from that.

And oh, the ideas that spawned.

Clouds parting and golden shafts of light from heaven-type-stuff. The muse sitting coyly in my lap whispering suggestions in my ear. Little fire ants of inspiration crawling up my legs and tickling all my skin.

Okay, some of those metaphors are more appealing than others, but they all apply.

I have some writing to do. And I am so excited to do it.