With so much going on, of course I have to talk a bit about SPP's Fiction Unboxed getting underway and I finally weigh in on the Amazon/Hachette issue. Then it's all about the awesome Reading Rainbow Kickstarter blow out and my own memories of the show and reading as a child.

Progress Report: I've started writing the new first chapter for Aisuru, so yay. Have the first of it's three scenes done. I also got the whole story outline set up in Scrivener as chapters/scenes with the summaries from the outline so I have the "road map" in place.

Monthly Goals: Continue revising Aisuru. Start Tome 2 of my novel adaptation project. Get back on pace with TLW episodes!

Music Clip: Mozart's "Divertimento K131" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

After sharing a bit about my new glasses and talking about Will Weaton's awesome post on depression, I take you on a "behind the scenes" tour of the various tools and websites I use for my writing, research, making covers, running my website, and, of course, producing this show.

Progress Report: Finished reviewing Aisuru's outline and ready to start writing the two new chapters

Music Clip: Bach's "Gymnopedie No. 1" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

This week my main focus is Aisuru's new outline and the story changes that will be resulting from it, but I may also mention a bit about my recent reading adventures and my garden!

Monthly Goals: (for May AND June) Continue revising Aisuru. Start Tome 2 of my novel adaptation project. Get back on pace with TLW episodes!

Music Clip: Persphone by Snowflake CC BY 2.5 via CCMixter (http://ccmixter.org/files/snowflake/22364)

After briefly talking about the release of the season two episodes to YouTube and minor updates to the site, I give a shout out to the Self Publishing Podcast fellows (http://selfpublishingpodcast.com/) and their Fiction Unboxed event! Then I talk some more about my continued revision struggles as I begin The 90-Day Rewrite and the idea of outlining Aisuru, as well as sharing a few epiphanies I had while getting ready to talk about the confusions I had.

For this episode I'm sharing with you some of the many songs that I play as background music while I'm writing various kinds of scenes, such as action/fight scenes, sex scenes, sorrowful scenes, and death scenes.

Progress Report:

Monthly Goals:

My desktop computer is back online, but not for recording. So still using the iPad, I talk about my love/hate relationship with my birthday, Frozen, and the joys of lawn mower shopping. For the main topic of the show, I delve into a listener request and talk about where I get my story ideas, what my sources of inspiration are, and some of my upcoming/future projects!

Progress Report: Finished my alpha/beta feedback, and that's about it...so I talk about why using a cat food metaphor!

In this week's episode, I ponder whether I am too picky about editing episodes, the unintentional benefits of my main computer being down, the importance of back ups, and my continued difficulties in staying on task/schedule. I also talk about a little bit of writing news, including great rant on author vs writer from Indies Unlimited, the good and bad of the recently announced Amtrak residency program, and Indie Recon.

This week's episode opens with an update on my slump and a rant about the Little Women musical adaptation before moving into the main topic: narrative points of view. I talk about the general definition and features of each of three main points of view found in fiction, discuss some of the variations found, and give examples of the core three POV types using a snippet from Reconstruction.

Progress Report:

Monthly Goals:

In episode 21 I talked about having Alpha, Beta, and Gamma readers give you feedback, so this episode I talk about the flip side - being one of those feedback givers! So let's look at why you should critique others work, reminders on the general principals of being a good critiquer, and I'll give you an overview of my own personal critiquing methodology.

Progress Report: First tome of the novelization printed and gifted; Tome 2 not started. Aisuru on break for beta feedback while I plan to start some work on Reconstruction with a new revision process.

Randomness: Adaigo Teas, creators of the amazing IngenuiTEA and sellers of awesome teas (http://www.adagio.com/)

First extempore episode of 2014! In this episode, I talk about the first fiction work I read in 2014 and ponder why my reading has gone down so much in the last year or so. I also talk about my impressions on Final Fantasy XIII, give you the updates on the novelization project, and a little bit on future plans and ideas.