Note to my dear readers: This was supposed to come out well before today. I had been working on this post for an entire week in between school and work and still somehow it never got published. So please excuse the future tense as we move in....

Greetings from the cave! 

Guys! The FallFicFrenzy is set to begin on Saturday!! 

And I am not ready for it. 

(Are we surprised?)

As I have mentioned previously, I'm alternating between two projects this challenge. You all know what the first one is (except maybe a few newcomers, which I will direct to my recent posts) but the second one is one that I haven't talked about in nearly two years. And so, it merits another introduction here on the blog. 

And what better way to do that than with Christine's Know the Novel Linkup??

And considering I haven't done one of these since 2020(?!), I say, it's high time! 

And so, let us commence with the festivities! 

1. What first sparked the idea for this novel?

The first spark for this novel was the Rooglewood Five Poisoned Apples contest in 2017, which was for an anthology of Snow White retellings based off the original Grimm version. Many of my blogging friends at the time were entering into this contest and I wanted to join in the fun. And maybe try to build the author platform a little. 

2. Share a blurb (or just an overall summary)!

This is a perfect opportunity to update the blurb that I have been using for years, lol

Queen Heulwin's death could not have happened at a worse time. 

Just shy of her majority, an angry Princess Eirwen is forced to watch as her father contracts another marriage in order to quell a rebellious people anxious for a male heir. However, the marriage falls apart in the most scandalous of fashions, and the Lady Ceinwen seeks revenge...by the form of blood. 

When a hunting trip turns deadly, Eirwen is forced to flee into a decaying orchard. With the help of a neighboring prince and a cadre of rogues, Eirwen seeks to take back her kingdom. But will the hidden seeds of her anger be advantageous for her cause or will it cause disaster for the kingdom of Glywysing? 

Still not my best blurb ever. 

3. Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?

It takes place in Wales, which is a little unusual for a Snow White retelling. 

Unfortunately, I didn't document online why exactly I chose Wales as a setting. Which is an egregious offense for a novel-writing historian (of all people) to do. Most likely, it's hidden in one of the myriad of notebooks that's currently hiding under my bed. 

However, as I was doing a little bit of digging, I remembered something about...Welsh apples. And so I dug a little further and discovered that apples do get mentioned in Welsh legends, and were a valuable commodity. If I had to guess, I probably went looking into countries with a lot of apple production, and Wales happened to be one of them. Being that it was a semi-familiar culture but *just* different enough, I decided to go for it. 

My favorite aspects of the setting have more to do with the Welsh culture more than the physical setting. Wales is quite pretty though. 

4. Tell us about your protagonist(s).

Princess Eirwen is the oldest child of King Aneirin and the late Queen Heulwen, and she is just about to reach the age of majority. She has really long dark hair, dark eyes and a rather slender 5'5" figure. She may have a stern shell, but she does have a warm heart for those she loves. She is an avid hunter, but she is also a very talented needlewoman. 

5. Who (or what) is the antagonist?

Ceinwen is a suitor of King Aneirin, and the illegitimate half-sister of the Lady Lilliwen, another suitor of King Aneirin. Ceinwen is much younger than Aneirin, which infuriates Eirwen. She has straw-blond hair and is tall and willowy (about 5'8").

6. What excites you the most about this novel?

I think coming back to it has excited me a lot. There were a lot of good things in the snippets that I once wrote and I'm ready to incorporate a plot to this story. 

7. Is this going to be a series? standalone? something else?

This will be a stand-alone work. Unlike most of my other stories, this plot has no continuation - it really is a "happy" ever after. And yes, the "happy" is in quotes for a reason. 

8. Are you plotting? pantsing? plansting?

Plantsing, as usual. I have a working plot summary which I can then write off of. Which really needs to be updated, lol. 

9. Name a few unique elements in this story.

- Wales 

- Illegitimate siblings (which is...an interesting dynamic to deal with in a medieval setting) 

- a motherly step-mother figure

- Anger as a theme rather than just a character fault

10. Share some fun “extras” of the story (a song or full playlist, some aesthetics, a collage, a Pinterest board, a map you’ve made, a special theme you’re going to incorporate, ANYTHING you want to share!).

I've been sharing my avatars throughout the post, but I have a few more extras here. 

I have a shiny new Pinterest board that I can share: 

And then I have a Spotify playlist (fair warning, there is a lot of Welsh music in here): 

And that concludes the post! I'm very excited to start writing this story on Saturday, and for you to see it as it occurs on Wattpad rather than being in the background. 

And now, I would like to know....what stories are you working on this fall? 

Scribbingly yours, 

Catherine

Greetings from the cave! 

Yes indeed, the Motherly Writer has struck again with her motherly metaphors. I can't help myself, lol. 

Recently, I've been sprucing up my WIPs page. Those of who who have been around for a while know that for up to this moment I have 9 active WIPs. Some of these are novels, some are novellas and others...who knows what they were intended for. 

But 9 WIPs is a LOT to juggle for even a full time writer. And I certainly am not that. Heck, TWR alone is keeping the muse busy enough as it is, even if she's being sulky at the moment. 

So, I've made the decision to "retire" some of the old WIPs off of my WIP page. Many of them have had little or no progress in over five years, nor is there any plans in the near future to pick them back up. Therefore, it is not conducive or relevant for me to have them on the page. 

I think, if I must be brutally honest with myself, that I have been holding on to these past WIPs a lot more than I should have. I felt that since I talked about them, I should keep them. But keeping those stories around is like having a to-do list, when in my heart, I know that I don't have the capacity to do much with them. 

This is not to say that these WIPs couldn't be picked up at a later time, whenever the rebellious muse decides to strike. This just means that they're going down for a nap. They, like the little toddlers that they are, will decide when they will get up again. 

The WIPs I have decided to retire fully are: 

Ancora Spei: 

This WIP was created for a school project and it was basically an exercise in world-building. I did create a plot for it back in the day, but it has not aged very well. And, to be honest, my opinion of utopian literature has soured in that time period. So I very much doubt that it will ever grow up to be anything satisfying. 

Rose of Culmore: 

This story is an incomplete draft, part of which was on my Wattpad account. My downfall with this story was trying to turn it into a novella. If I had stuck with it being a short chapter story like I had done with the Snow Dancer of Iclyn, I betcha I would have finished it. As it is, I haven't touched this WIP in many a year, and recently I decided to unpublish it from Wattpad. There is still a lot of potential in the story, but I believe the time has passed for me to do anything decent with it. 

Plain and Simple Truth: 

Like with Rose, I believe the season for this WIP has passed. This story was a very old WIP from high school which I tried to resurrect while coping with some struggles at the dairy back in 2018. While I love the characters and the few scenes I have written, the plot was an absolute nightmare. Conversion stories are really tough to get right, anyway. 

The Wade Girl:

This one isn't from lack of interest, however, but a logistical problem. When I initially conceived the idea of doing this screenplay, I bought a couple of books: a general book about Jenny Wade (my subject) and a book of correspondence between Wade and Jack Skelly, her boyfriend. Unfortunately, Amazon screwed up the order for the latter book. Which leaves me only the first book to work with right now and I am not sure what the proper legal standpoint for heavily using one book as the basis of a screenplay (film rights, etc). So until I get that second book (and maybe some more research materials) in my hands, I'm going to table this project. 

But this is only four of the nine WIPs. What is up with the rest of them? 

Well, obviously, everyone knows what's going on with TWR. That one is not going away anytime soon. *sigh*. 

The other four have a slightly more...complex status. These are ones that I am much more motivated to publish in some shape or form. Therefore, they are staying on the WIP page, but the order is being switched up. 

There are two WIPs currently on active hold:

The Midnight Cave: 

This one has a simple reason for being on hold - it's the second in the Epics of Verden series after The White Rose. Obviously, it doesn't make sense for me to eliminate this WIP entirely, but I can't finish it until I finish the first one... 

Fair Winds

Of all my WIPs, even TWR, this story deserves to be published. Because this story was created in a creative writing class in college, and my professor wanted me to publish it. She still asks about it sometimes when I go out to visit. I want to place a copy of it in her hands one day (though that won't take place after TWR is published). Which is why I decided that this WIP is not destined to go onto Wattpad, although the idea is tempting sometimes. 

Speaking of Wattpad, that is a platform that I have pretty much neglected these past couple of years. Not that many people have been paying attention to it much. But I hope to change that very soon with these two WIPs: 

Shattered Chandelier:

Well, okay, SC was always ON Wattpad. I felt it was a little too zany to be published in any other way (although if I ever write those three sequels I have planned for it, I may do an anthology...). And this one is a little weird because it's "finished" in the sense that the first draft has been completed and published. However, that draft is in sore need of editing one day. 

Hidden Seeds: 

This story was originally conceived as an entry for Rooglewood's Five Poisoned Apples collection (wow was that a very long time ago), and has gone through a couple of reincarnations over the years. This one has a semi-decent plot, a great setting, and some halfway decent characters. Re-reading it has given me a smile, and I'd like to share that with others. That and I want to justify to Lia the obsession that I had with Welsh music at the time of creating this story. 

That being said, I don't think it's a good candidate for indie publishing, simply because of the older writing style I was using and the story seems to fit a short chapter story format than a full length novel or even novella. 

Therefore, I have decided to publish the story on Wattpad. And much sooner than you all probably expect. 

As some of my writing friends already know, I am participating in Christine's Fall Fic Frenzy Writing Challenge! 

As part of that challenge, I will be doing two projects: 

1) TWR edits. Of course. 

2) Drafting Hidden Seeds. 

You see, a few years ago, I tried doing the second draft of Fair Winds while I was working on one of TWR's drafts. This worked against me at the time, as I wanted to work on Fair Winds but ended up on TWR. I'm hoping to repeat this process, except on purpose. And if I work more on Hidden Seeds than I do TWR, I won't complain that much. 

The point is, I need to get back into writing more. And if that means that I need to trick or bribe the muse, by golly I'm going to do it. 

I feel like I should re-introduce this WIP on the blog because it has been SO LONG since I've talked about it. But this post is already really long, so I will save it for next time. In the meantime, do check out the WIP page, because I have some new mock covers to show off! 

But before I go, I have one last announcement to make....

Because I am participating in the FallFicFrenzy, that means....I'm on Discord now!! 

My username is RebellingLass71, and the profile pic is the same as my regular one. So if you're on Discord, I would love to be friends with you! 

Whew! That was a LOT to cover in one post. What sort of new (or old!) WIPs have you guys been digging into?

Scribblingly yours, 

Catherine