Writers Roundtable Podcast Workshop

Today we take a break from the Blogfest to announce that my podcast debut has dropped as we say. please drop by the round table podcast and give it  a listen then comment. tell me what you think what you like what you don't. this is really important to me so Followers who are part of the writing internet cafe guild take part. then once you have given me a listen head over to their website and sign up to be one of their writers so you can get your book ideas workshopped too! Work shop Episode with guest host Seanan McGuire (and me you humble writer)

Buccaneer blogfest week 4 day 1

So after a long day of work (where I am really tired of fighting with those machines. if only i really was fighting with lasers. instead i can't get them to do what they are supposed to do! grr...*squiggly line over my head for frustration*) and applying for two new jobs (fingers crossed) I think to my self there is something i was supposed to do to day. Oh yeah I was supposed to blog about something what was it....

today the subject on the Blogfest is about Social media. well here are my thoughts:

1. Facebook is very helpful and annoying all at the same time. it is great that I can still keep in contact with friends from college, but then I have to put up with the stupid people who are very very loud.

2. twitter is fun. I haven't had any complaints yet. plus it's great to be able to connect with so many wantabe writers (which i mean with all endearment!)

3. I like blogger, if I didn't I would have quite a long time ago.

4. Podcasts and vlogs are something i would love to get in on. (Psst my debut is dropping tomorrow on the Writers Round table Podcast!) but I don't have the time to do one right now.

I think over all my experience with social media has been a positive one. So lets just all have fun together.

till next time God Speed and Open roads.

PS: don't forget to check out all these cool people who are also particpating in the blog fest!)

Buccaneer Blogfest: week 3 day 3

and another week is almost over ladies and Gentlemen. Can you believe it we have only one week left before we go back to our regular scheduled programming? Yes Yes I know what you are thinking, but Gloria you don't have regular scheduled programming any more. well we will see when this is over.

today's prompt is to recommend or review a book. and my book of choice should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following my blog. here are 5 reasons you should read the Neverending Story by Michael Ende.

1. how can anyone resist a book that never ends? Yes the book comes to an end, but each of the plot threads ends with "but that is another story to be told at another time." it is just rip for fans to take the world of fantstica and run head long into the imaginative world that has been created.

2. What Writer doesn't want to be Bastian? the world is clay at his fingertips, when he tells a story it becomes real!

3. Flying dragons that are good and talk!

4. It has a theme song. There are very few books worthy of a theme song.

5. If you don't read the Neverdending Story you can't follow along with me as I write my commentary/lectures.


Look I love love LOVE this book. And part of loving something is wanting to share it with others. So you should read it. it inspires me let it inspire you.

Buccaneer Blogfest: week 3 Day 2

Well guess what? my work schedule has changed, which means I have about fifteen to twenty minuets to write in the morning. and that means this post will be early and on time. So now on with today's post: my favorite authors and why.

Well I have talked about this before. I've already talked about why I love Scott Sigler and Stan Lee and how I really hope that I can be like them as a professional writer. but my favorite author and why? That is so hard to choose.... this is really hard... I guess if I have to choose I will choose....

Frank Edward Peretti

Why? Well Frank Peretti inspired me. He showed me what christian fiction could look like. When I read this Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness I understood the Spiritual World in a new way that helped me understand my own experiences. When I read The Prophet and Tilly my views on certain social issues was shaped differently, understanding the pain surrounding peoples decisions and what it really meant to say that a decision was right or wrong. The Oath opened my eyes to the horror genera for what it was, not a chance to be scared but to see what it was we are afraid of and know that it can be over come. House creeped me out even more. Last but probably most importantly there is his autobiographical work The Wounded Spirit. his transparency about how he was wounded helped me to understand my own wounded spirit. and it was nice to know that an author who inspired me had gone through similar situations and come out on the other side.

that is not to say that i plan to write "christian" Lit. But there is no denying where I come from and how it has informed who I am.

Till Next time God speed and Open roads

(Ps don't forget to check out all the people who are a part of this blogfest!)

Buccaneer Blogfest: Week 3 Day 1

Today we answer the question that is as old as the literary world itself. What are you Reading? okay maybe it's not that deep and meaningful of a question. Maybe it is only a question that comes into normal conversations where the participants of the conversation are geeks. (Yes I prefer geek, and I am an unashamed geek) well that seems like a good enough seguay.

 What am I reading. well I have Seven books listed on my goodreads page.
1. Storm of Swords By George R.R. Martin (My husband and I are listing to the audio version)
2. The Colonists by Jack Cavanaugh (well I started it, it is book two in the American Portrait serise which I read back in High school but the library wanted thier book back so I probably wont finish this time.)
3. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett (this is the book that my husband is reading to me. yes he reads to me while I knit.)
4. The Little House in the Big Woods By Laura Ingalls Wilder (Yes I read this series several times when i was a Kid -including the summer I lived in a tent because we were building our house. after listening to the History Chick talk about Laura Ingalls Wilder during their first season I decided I needed to re-read this one so I am, during bath time. yes I read in the tub, don't judge me!)
5. The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende (This is my very favorite book. I read it about once ever year. this year I decided I would write some commentary on this book on the blog, but that hasn't been going so well. it has really slowed down my reading and well I'm generally lazy so I've only gotten a couple of chapters done. but you can see what I have done here.
6. From Homer to Harry Potter by Matthew T. Dickerson and David O'Hara (this is the only non fiction book on my list right now.)
7. Canterbury tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (I read this book last year, but I didn't finish writing up my thoughts about it so It is still on my list assuming that I go back and finish the series I was writing about it.)

well there you have it my Current reading list. Till next time God Speed and Open Roads

(Ps remeber to check out the other cool people who are a part of this blogfest!)

Buccaneer Blogfest: week 2 day 3

A Day late and a dollar short. I feel like right now I'm dragging my feet in this blog fest, Actually that has been my life for the last several weeks. Mostly it is job related, let's just say that on a good week I only want to quit once, on a bad week I want to quit at lease once a day. Yesterday was bad, I spent most of it convincing myself that I need a paycheck and well that was the only reason I could for why I stayed. (I've had two emotional break downs in the last two weeks. crying at work is not cool, being put in a position where you can't stop crying is worse.) but that is not the focus on today's post.

Right today, or rather yesterday, the prompt is Light bulb moment. How did I come up with the idea for this work in progress. well this story has had several Light bulb moments so I am going to have to tell you it's story.

I was in college it was either 2004 or 2005 and I was in church with some friends. As we were standing and singing I had an image pop into my head. there was a storm and a girl with purple hair and a lime green trench coat was standing next to what used to be a road. she was staring at a dilapidated house and while she stared a light came on in the window. That day -ignoring the sermon completely- I wrote what would be the first draft of Breadcrumbs the first book of the Utopian Chronicles. It was to be a science fiction in a very small universe, a planet with five moons. the girl in my vision was Thea who's last name was Job to begin with but then changed to Keziah.She was going to be a female version Han Solo and King of Bandits Jin these books were to be a series of high thrill adventure and the first six books would be origin stories for the cast of six characters who were created. I wrote Bread Crumbs, When Doves Cry (Ki's story) and started on Truth (noel and Nehim's story) and I got bored with origin stories. So I promptly decided that I would move on to something more exciting and just leave the world of Utopia alone.

So Second Light Bulb moment: I was in the car with some friends on our way to kings Island to ride the roller coasters and we were listening to the radio when Kelly Clarkson's song Because of You Came On. This was Noel's song. her story was about over coming paralyzing fear. and as I listened to the lyrics I had a new vision, the paragraph you read earlier this week was born. I decided not to worry about origin stories and write the books I had wanted to write in the first place the rescue of Noel seemed like the perfect story to get this group of people who hated each other to become on single unit. that was the book I wrote for Nanowrimo 2010. (although that year I was in the middle of wedding planing so is it any surprise I didn't finish?)

Now we have the Third Light Bulb. I had decided that I would continue to work on The Rescue though out the year a because I really liked these characters. But I was more and more dissatisfied with the setting. I changed it from being one planet with multiple moons to being a solar system. But I was really getting tired of science fiction. I was listening to pod casts about writing and I kept getting discouraged by what I would hear them say about the genera. Things like making the universe scientifically actuate, how Science fiction writers should understand that they are teaching people about science and that they should work with scientists to make sure that the science is correct. okay Let me just say that I think science is cool, for years I wanted to be one kind of scientist or another, but when I write I don't care about the science. maybe I am lazy but the science fictions that inspire me are not the ones that about any kind of real science, and I was chaffing under the idea that I needed to put real science in my novel other wise I was stupid. (okay no one I remember said that, but it was the feeling I got) And I am lazy I didn't want to research what the current real world options where for space travel, or how light speed is understood to work today. So I tried making in a fantasy, I tried Steam punk, but neither of them worked so I resigned myself to have to research like hell to write the stories I wanted to. then one glorious day I listend to the C. S. Liewis Podcast about a theory behind the construction of the Chronicals of Narnia, all based around the Medieval cosmically. Now please remember Medievals did not believe the world was flat, but they did believe that the skies were full of life and the earth was at the center. Now I had my world structure. a purely fantastical world where I could have space ships and not worry about anybody saying I needed to research science. the Planets became worlds which orbited around the nexus or hub, the sun became an inhabitable place that rotated around with the worlds. the stars became living beings. Space outside of the protection of the ship was no longer inhabitable. cold still but not deadly. It was an idea the breathed life into my world and I sighed a content and happy sigh of relief.

One last Light Bulb moment to share. I was getting to a point where I was losing the story. Calling it running out of steam, call it boredom, calling writer's block, call it what you will, But I needed help. I don't have many writer friends around, I share my idea's with my friends but they are often encouraging but they don't always help me with I get in a spot where I don't know what to do next. So I went to the next best thing: The Round Table Podcast. There this very story idea was work shopped and they helped me see so much. There is no way to actually put down all the things they helped me see in a new light and the podcast hasn't dropped yet so I don't want to say too much yet but I will say this to Dave, Brion, Seana if they are stopping by, I have a big over arching villein, well actually four but the form a unit called the Quad whom the voice stands directly opposed to.

Okay that is all for now- lets face it i talked way to long today as it is, but now you know (and knowing is half the battle) probably more then you ever wanted to know about this WIP.

till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

(PS don't forget to check out the blog posts of all the other awesome people participating in the Blogfest Argg!)

Buccaneer Blog fest week 2 day 2: Character interview

(sorry I'm late this time, couldn't be helped)
Well last time I should you all the first few paragraphs of one of my WIP called The Rescue. Today's prompt is to write out an interview of a character from that story. Now it would seem most for me to interview Noel.  She is the character who showed up in that little excerpt after all. but no I am Going to interview my favorite character from the story Thea.

So here we go:

She sat at an empty table at the dinner, several empty plates before her the remains of her dinner, and ate a slice of Mark's famous pie, she wore common enough cloths which were punchurated by orange hightops, and a lime green trench coat. Her Purple hair was tamed back into a long braid, an uncommon color, most the natives on Kapa Prime had silver hair.

"Excuse me but are you Thea Keziah"
She smiled, "yes."
"are you by chance related to Job Keziah"
"Yeah," she wipes her mouth and leans back in her chair, "He was my dad."
"He was the greatest thief of all time!"
"That's what they say."
"what are you doing here on Kapa Prime?"
"enjoying a piece of pie." then she shrugged, "and well working but I can't really talk about that."
"but aren't you from..."
"Delta Septus?, sure, or at least my mom was, we moved as soon as we got our generational debt canceled."
"How? I mean your family must not have had very much debt."
"oh no, Mum's family was one of the first settlers so her debt when back about 7 generations, and dad's went back at least five."
"but no one pays off their debt."
she smiled again, "well that is what the Elmiant want you to believe. but you know it's not like they make it easy or anything. you know having a star-ship helps."
"Can you tell me about your ship?"
"Sheol is a j13o41b class star ship so his engine can make 330 lo's an hour, I've had him up to to 400 once but that didn't last long. Um he can sail on water, sky, and through the cosmos no problem you know some star-ships have a really hard time with doing much more then taking off and there are some that can't even enter the atmosphere, but Shoel's got two Sails that can manage both the air currents and cosmo currents. I've out run just about everything out there. his forward gate is one of the most percis i've every seen, but then I might just be being bias he is my ship."

"what is the forward gate?"
"that is where the permanent rune gate is on the star ships, you know so you can zip real fast from one place to the next. if the season calls for it."
"you talk about your ship like it's a person."
"have you never been on a starship before? he is a person, a little over protective sometimes but Seriously "Did you think the carving on the main mast was just for show?"
"I guess so. You said you were working here, are you a trader?"
"In some respects, but I think smuggler is the word you are looking for. you looking for someone to help you move some property perhaps?"
"actually I am."
"well you will have to talk to my brother Thom about that, he deals with all the business, I'm just the pilot."

There you have it, an little about Thea, my favorite charecter in this WIP.

till next time God Speed and open roads.

(ps remeber to check out these other cool people who are in the Buccaneer Blogfest.)

Buccaneer Blogfest: week 2 Day 1: First Paragraph

Welcome to another day of the buccaneer Blog fest. now that we have gotten the introductions out of the way it is time to get down with the nitty gritty. the reason why all of us in the blogfest blog we all want to be writers someday. so we are going to start things off with the first bit of my current work in progress (also known as WIP) this little piece is currently called The Rescue and it is about cosmic pirates, kind of. I was lucky enough to workshop this piece with the wonderful people at The Writer's Roundtable Podcast, and the lovely talented Seanan Mcguire. it was an awesome experience and I will be blogging about it after the podcast airs. also if you are a wanta be writer and you are not listening to these guys you should. but enough about that what you want is the story so with out any farther a due: (well besides the banner)

Noel shivered from fear. Sweat crystallized against her ice blue skin in frost, tears bubbled from her eyes and turned to ice and gathered in her lap. In her fear she could not concentrate to control her elemental powers. In her terror all the moister in the air turned to ice and frost. She was having trouble breathing, it came in uneven whimpers.
The door opened and the Director walked in. He looked up at his notes. “why hasn't it been fitted with an inhibitor?” his assistant hurried forward and fastened the collar around her wrist and turned on the computer. Noel shrieked in pain as the device stabbed several wires under her skin. Immediately the room's temperature came back to normal and her sweat and tears melted.
The Director sat at his desk and took his time looking over the papers in the file he had brought in with him. After organizing them the folded his hands and said, “Noel Kahachet, you are charged with treason, theft, and accomplice to murder.”
Noel was too afraid to speak.
“The sentience is of course death.” He leaned back and lit a cigarette. “however, I have in my power the ability to let you got back to your normal life.”
She looked up at him then back at her feet.
“All you have to do is give me the names of the leaders of the Vedleofrom, and the location of their base.”
She looked at him she had started to cry again.
“Come now, your companions have left you to die, I would say you owe them nothing now.”
“but...but...”
“yes?”
“I.. I don't kn...know anything.” she whimpered.
The director laughed. “sure you don't.” he looked at his assistant, “Process her.”

And Scene. I hope you liked it tell me what you think then on the 31st give the round table podcast a listen as they delve into the rest of the story and help me turn it into Literary Gold.

Till next time God speed you along Open roads.

(oh and once again please check out the awesome people who are doing the exact same thing today)

A Buccaneer interview-Day 3

So today's prompt was to interview someone for the post. I got the lovely Emmy Neal. I would love to say that we got together at the local coffee shop sat down and just chatted for a wail. but, seriously I just sent her a Facebook message. (haven't decided yet if that was lame.) But here are the questions I asked her, her answer and some of my not so snarky comments.

1. what is your pirate name? and what is the name of your ship?

This. Is. Hard. Like, naming charaters hard! Ok ok, hmm, my ship would totally be something badass, like the Crimson Dragon. But my pirate name would probably be something lame like Captain Shadow. (I'm totally not creative under pressure!)

I don't think that sounds so bad, very nice ship name though, I can totally see it terrorizing the Caribbean

. 

2. what is your favorite thing you have ever written?

This changes pretty regularly based on just how much trouble what I'm working on is giving me! But I have this zombie apocalypse novella based on the French fairy tale The Blue Bird that I'm currently having a love affair with. It's about 30,000 words, but I wrote the whole thing in two and a half weeks! The words just flooooowed and it was incredible. 

Sounds fun good on ya for writing that many words in two weeks. It's a nice jive. 

3. what do you dream about?

Well I once had a dream I was running through a hedgemaze while being chased by a prince in a rainbow hot airballoon! Or do you mean Dreams, as in my future aspirations? That would be to have a community of geeky readers who love my books and buy enough of them that I don't have to work in Corporate America for the rest of my life. But that's probably every aspiring authors dream, yeah?

Eh I expected you to take it either direction. But both is cool too.

4. when you were a child, about 6, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Harry Potter. 

Really? huh, now I feel really old I mean I wanted to be Shirley Temple so i get it but really you were six when you first came in contact with HP, Yeah I feel really old. 

5. what is something that you are particularly proud of?

My bookshelves. LOL! What nerd isn't? I have four huge ones and they're packed full. Among my family and friends I am the go-to girl for reading recs and book advice!

Well that is pretty cool. 

6. Do you have pets? what do you call them?

I have two dogs, Oliver and Finnegan! Finnegan was *almost* named Gryffindor, actually, but my brother hated the name. Le sigh. We actually have a funny name for them! My mom calls them our 'little princes' because they get everything they want. No question who runs the house in our family! 

Oh, and I was *thisclose* to getting them to refer to their kennel as the TARDIS. *THISCLOSE* So when they go to bed we could go "ALLONSY in the TARDIS!" but my brother ruined that one too. 

*Chuckle* love Tardis!

Lastly and most importantly

7. what fantasy world do you wish you could live in?

Well, the obvious answer is Hogwarts. But if I was a muggle or a squib I don't htink I could handle the jealousy.... So if I'm not a witch, probably Lumatere (Marchetta) or Tortall (Pierce)!!

 Good choices!

well that is it for today. I hope you liked learning a bit about Emmy. I know I did. 

So till next time my God Speed you on Open Roads. 

(Ps. be sure to check out all the other nice people participating in the blog fest.)

Buccaneer Blogfest 2: more about me

so today is day 2 of  the Buccaneer blogfest, and surprise surprise it is another blog about me. isn't that awesome? (sorry you can't see it but this is my sarcasm face not my serious face.) but really today's prompt question is: Why you did you start blogging? What are your goals for your blog?

So let me think, well I was Shanghaied into blogging really. Yep the perfect story for our pirety themed blog fest right? I all started back in 2005 when I was still in college and wonderful sweet friend introduced me to all the things you could do on the inter-webs. forums were the big thing. but then she showed me blogs and convinced me to start one. there was no grand plan no this is what I will talk about but rather hey look it is a new toy I wonder how it works. Sense then my blog has taken many different turns covered many different topics and gone through many different looks. It will probably change again. But it has become that place where some of my idea's spill out. some times they don't make sense, some times they are masquerading around as pieces art, and other times they are just useless information that some how has found it's way lodged into the recesses of my brain generally which are generally reserved for quotes from The Princess Bride, storing old episodes of the Mickey Mouse Club (Back when Annette Funicello was on it. oh gosh I remember how pissed I was when I found out they were making a new Mickey Mouse Club and it was going to be in color! the nerve! Oh and I watched those as reruns I'm old but not that old), and every lyric from every musical performance I ever did. (Yes everything from Hansel and Gretel where I was a wally bird, to the Christmas one about the bugs where i was a butterfly, to Anything Goes, to Asbury life I remember them all.)

Oh yeah so about my goals for my little corner of the internet. well I am thinking about adding a Vlog about once a month but I can't seem to get what I want to happen in that quite right, plus I need a better place to record it and well it is just going to take some more percolating. other then that, well hopefully on the day after thanksgiving I will have finished Ashes and Snowflakes because I am planing on publishing it here. plus (and Jessa you will be glad to hear this) there is a second story I am hoping to publish here about a little half-elf bard called Novalee. 

Okay I am feeling silly so if I get, um we'll say seven of you people who are participating in this crazy shindig ask I will post my first Vlog which will basically be me singing the Mickey Mouse Club March.  Is anyone else feeling that silly? 

anyway till next time God Speed your journey along open roads. 


(PS don't forget to check out all the other cool people who are participating in this shindig.)

Buccaneer BlogFest: Day one

I have been having a very dry blog year. I mean really I had gotten up to blogging daily and then something happened this year and suddenly I don't have the motivation to blog. So after giving it some thought I have decided (probably influenced by the lingering sickness that has kept me home from work, chiropractor, dance and may have made some people uncomfortable at church yesterday) to join the:

Here is a link to the blog post that will give you all the information you ever wanted to know about the Buccaneer blog fest, and here is the opening post about it.

Day one topic is to introduce yourself and blog so here we go:

Hello my name is Gloria Anne Cole Sigountos and this is my blog. 

A little about myself, I am originally from Wyoming (where I miss living it is such a wonderful little piece of heaven) I got my BA in Religion at what is now called Kingswood university (when I gradated it was call bethany bible college but I am over that now pretentious as it may still sound to me.) I got my MA in Theological Studies at Asbury Seminary. which is where I also met my amazing Husband who let me have is kick ass name. Seriously what competition am I going to have on the library shelf with a name like Sigountos? I Currently live in Kentucky where I slave away writing (or at least pretend to slave away) and play with lasers at my day job (if only it was really that cool.)

which brings me to my blog. It all started in 2005. -wait that is Wednesday's topic- Let's just say that I just wanted it to be this place where I talked about a bunch of eclectic topics. like religion, theology, popular culture, writing, books, fantasy, science fiction, history, church history...there is a ton of things I have blog about. and I kind of like it that way. I don't know if it is a good thing but every time i try to stream line what I post about I end up wanting to blog about something else. 

well hmmmmmm....what else should I tell you. oh yeah, I write Fantasy! So long as it comes straight from the world of imagination and is just past the possible I write it. Don't think that means that I am into paranormal romance (nothing against you guys who write it) but that is not the kind of stuff I right. I have two WIP that I am trying to work on and a third one I am bring out to see what happends, but a brief tag line for each is: 

Ashes on Snowflakes- an urban fantasy where the local demon hunters find out that someone is out to free the world ending Vampire queen from her tomb and prison. 

The Rescue- A fantasy set in a very different setting where our heroine (Thea) must help a friend rescue his sister and keep a group of mercs from killing eachother just long enough to rescue the damsel in distrast. 

the new one which doesn't have a title is a collection of short(ish) stories that take place in a generic fantasy setting. 

So I think that is all. No Wait I forgot to tell you all how to stock me through the wonderful socal media stuff. right well: 

On Facebook you can like my author page: Gloria Anne Cole Sigountos

On Twitter you can follow me as @GloriaSigountos

I'm on Good reads as Gloria Sigountos but i don't have an author page. 

other then that I'm  Glorificus on Ravelry if you are crafty and I am on My Middle Earth as Glorificus oh and I am on Pottermore as KnightDawn16326. 

I think that is it for today so till next time May God Speed your journey and may you always find open roads. 


(PS: look here are all the other awesome people doing this thing check them out!)