Today was one of those crazy whiplash weeks where writing wasn’t the best, and then encouragement brought it all back! Keep chasing the dream.
What I’m Writing:
I basically skipped a section of Take Me Yesterday and continued to write in it, so I am moving forward, but I’m still struggling with it. (I always struggle, eh?) I wrote about two, very rough chapters. That being said, I worked on short stories for Bad Bloods this week too…which I’m going to talk about below, so let me know what you think!
What I’m Publishing:
My publisher is working on some awesome swag for you all, and I worked on the proofreads once again. I’m thinking about putting up short stories on Wattpad leading up to the book releases. Basically, it would be a prequel to show how all the bad bloods found one another and created their flocks. What is a flock? A flock is a group of 12 bad bloods who come together to survive. In Bad Bloods, there are four, but only two are left: The Northern Flock and the Southern Flock. Since each flock has 12 characters, you’re looking at 24 side characters alone. The short stories would only show 21 of these stories, so I would start posting them toward the end of February. Let me know if you think you’d be interested in this. And, of course, the #1lineWed winning preview is below. This week’s theme was old.
“I may be a homeless old man, but that doesn’t mean I’m worthless.”
Add Bad Bloods to Goodreads: November Rain and November Snow
Visit the Facebook, Pinterest, and the Extras page.
What I’m Reading:
I started Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass, but I’m only about 100 pages in, so I’m barely into the competition. So far, it reads a lot like The Hunger Games, but it’s not dystopian and a hundreds times funnier. I’m enjoying it.
I started and finished Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, V. 10 by Naoko Takeuchi. As many of you know, I love this series, but this is my favorite arc by far. We see so many aspects finally come together, but I think something no one ever thinks about regarding Chibiusa is answered in this volume. While it’s just a theory, I think one of the reasons she “feels” for Mamoru is because he’s tied into Helios’ soul. Of course, it’s up for interpretation, but that’s just my lil ol’ opinion. You can read my 5-star review here.
What I’m Listening To:
Mambo Italiano radio. This might be why I finally had a dream in Italian. I used to listen to this radio a TON when I was in college studying Italian.
What I’m Watching:
Shadowhunters. Yes, of course I watched it. As I said on my FB page, I loved it. I think it has a lot of potential to grow into itself, and I’m hopeful. I particularly loved Alec and Simon. (And of course Magnus.) But I wasn’t in love with Clary or Jace. The super-techy institute bothered me the most, but I can see it getting much better as the show continues on. ::fingerscrossed::
The Revenant Okay. So I’m not normally into historical, non-fiction entertainment. (You caught me.) But my roommate is. He eats it up. (Which comes in handy when I need to know historical events for my novels. He does help. A lot.) So, you guessed it. I saw this masterpiece, and boy, is it a masterpiece. The beginning is VIOLENT. (All capitals.) The bear mauling is WOW. (It takes a while.) The rest of the film is slow, but in a way that I think the average historical piece is. And considering, in real life, he CRAWLED 200 miles (rather than walked like in the movie), I can imagine it was much slower in real life. Here’s my thing with historical things like this. I get so into it, but I don’t TRUST it. I know it’s lying somewhere, so I always end up Googling everything and learning the truth, and I almost always love the truth MORE. I don’t want to spoil it, but the movie is great. The ending is really cinematic, but the real-life story—to me—is so much more chilling. (Even though it’d be boring as hell to watch on the screen.) So, check this movie out. My love goes out to Leo. My roommate’s love always goes out to Tom Hardy. (I’ll give him love for his signature grunt.)
What I’m Baking, Making, and Drinking:
I made beef stew. That’s it. I’ve been surviving this week. My services have been crazy. So glad so many of you are meeting your writing and editing goals in 2016 already!
What I’m Wearing:
Long socks. They go up to my knees. And they are so warm.
What I’m Wanting:
Episode 3 of Shadowhunters! On a side note, this is actually the hardest section for me to fill out. I rarely “want” anything…other than sequels to books.
What I’m Dreaming Of:
I had my first dream in a foreign language, which was pretty funny to me, because my old Italians teachers used to say you were finally fluent when you dreamt in Italian. It’s been two years since my last formal class.
On a side note, I also had this terrible dream where a zombie apocalypse happened every first Friday of every month. So, there were all these laws where you could kill people who turned into zombies, but only if they were a zombie in that moment (so only on first Fridays). Well, it was a first Friday, and I was trying to drive away from them, but there were hundreds on the highway, so I pulled over into a little cabin, thinking it was fine. Now imagine that scene in Jurassic Park where the water glass starts rippling. That happens. And a GIANT clown zombie entered.
That’s it. I wake up.
What Else Is Going On:
I hosted Author in a Coffee Shop, Episode 2 last night! Follow me on Twitter via @AuthorSAT next Friday at 7 p.m. CDT for the next episode. If you’re wondering what Author in the Coffee Shop is, it’s just how it sounds. I sit in a coffee shop and tweet out my writer thoughts while…you know…I people watch…for inspiration. Here’s a sneak peek:
There is an uncountable amount of people to base characters off of…in this coffee shop alone. #writerproblems
— Shannon A. Thompson (@AuthorSAT) January 16, 2016
~SAT
I was featured on BuzzFeed Books, 31 Funny Tweets That Are Way, Way Too Real For Writers! I was #22. I’m not going to lie, this was pretty insane for me. I read BuzzFeed Books daily. In fact, I actually was reading the article myself when my face appeared. It was surreal.
The Timely Death Trilogy hit 500 ratings! Thank you for reading and for taking the time to post a review. You mean a lot to me. If you haven’t checked out the Dark yet, Minutes Before Sunset is FREE!
Minutes Before Sunset, book 1:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Goodreads
Seconds Before Sunrise: book 2:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Goodreads
Death Before Daylight: book 3:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Goodreads
After reading, you can come get your books signed on February 13, from 1-3 PM! I’ll be one of several featured authors at a Barnes & Noble Valentine’s Day Romance Author Event in Wichita, Kansas at Bradley Fair. I’d love to see you!
You can even read The Timely Death Trilogy on your new Kindle Fire! Clean Teen Publishing is giving one away. Enter here.
Shannon A. Thompson 
Am Wanting… 5th Wave movie!
Most definitely! I’m dying to see it.
~SAT
I cant wait till the shadowhunters comes to the UK channels, I loved the books watched the movie and now am going to go all fan girl on the series, hopefully.
I think it has a lot of potential! I enjoyed the first two enough to get excited about the third one. I hope you enjoy it too!
~SAT
Reblogged this on firefly465.
Congrats on the Buzzfeed thing. I’ve been curious about Shadowhunters, but I never read the books and the movie didn’t really grab me. Sounds like the series is better than the movie. Might put it on the viewing list, which I should probably pare down if I want to get any work done. So, how easy is it to go back to a section when you skip it? I’ve never done it out of fear of making a mistake, so I’m really curious if there’s a trick to leaving a gap and filling it in later.
Did you watch Zombieland recently?
The books are amazing! Definitely worth checking out. I don’t normally skip sections in books either. The only reason I “skipped” is because I know exactly what needs to happen in that section. (It’s only about three short chapters long.) I’m just not “feeling” it as of right now. I know *something* needs to change, but I also know it’s nothing major. It might be a character’s attitude, but it won’t, overall, affect the rest of the story too much, which is why I feel confident enough to skip it and return to it later. I hope that makes sense! Funny thing is, I haven’t watched anything zombie-related recently. Strange how that works.
~SAT
That makes a lot of sense actually. Fairly common problem with authors too. That ‘off’ sensation that will probably reverse itself on its own or something.
Really strange how the zombie thing works. Reason I said Zombieland is because of Columbus being scared of clowns more than zombies. Your actually has me wanting to watch that movie again. 🙂
Strangely enough, I discovered (just last night) that handwriting this novel is helping more than anything else. I have no idea why, but the computer is not working. Funny how our brains will do something like that to us. Wish it was easy to figure out the solution! Most of the time I find myself stumbling upon the “solution.” Zombieland is a classic! I love that movie.
~SAT
I’ve noticed that with editing. Almost like you become more aware or simply take on a different perspective. Haven’t hand written a story in a long time, but I do it with outlines. Hopefully you stumble onto the solution soon.