About Me

Life and Writing Updates | Goals for 2021

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Greetings, readers and writers of the Blogosphere! Remember me? I took another unplanned hiatus from this blog, Twitter, and the internet in general, so now I get to write a giant update post explaining everything that happened in my absence.

Let’s start with life stuff:

I think we can all agree that 2020 was a weird year. If you can’t agree with that statement, you should probably go read something else. Here’s a quick rundown of my 2020 experience:

  • I went into isolation in March due to Covid and haven’t really emerged yet. I’d rather not find out what Covid would do to me when combined with my multiple autoimmune disorders.
  • The previously mentioned multiple autoimmune disorders decided to act up after being mostly controlled for a while. It made me pretty dysfunctional for a good chunk of the year, (which is mostly why I took an unplanned hiatus from the internet), but I was able to stop some medicine that I thought I’d never be able to stop, so it turned out to be a good thing.
  • I learned that taking three English classes simultaneously, (one poetry class and two literary analysis classes), is a terrible idea, but I’m doing it again next semester anyway. It’ll be fine… my fingers probably won’t fall off from typing so much.
  • I have decided that I really, really like online classes. It’s easier from an accessibility standpoint, (I’m blind if you’re new here), and not traveling to and from campus allows for more reading and writing time.
  • I started a job which is another reason for my unplanned hiatus from the internet.

Now, the writing update:

2020 was actually very good for my writing. I wrote a lot of words while I was avoiding society and the internet, and I’m actually pretty proud of those words. Here’s what I accomplished:

  • I finished another round of revisions on “Scarred Flawless”. I’m not totally happy with it yet, but I’ve decided to put it down for a while and work on other things. It still has some serious issues with world building and tone that I’m not sure how to fix.
  • I outlined “Indie Blue”, wrote half of the first draft for NaNoWriMo, and am now in the process of fixing all the plot holes. My plan is to have the second draft done by the end of January. I don’t have a synopsis up on the website yet, but it’s about a killer manatee cult. That’s all you need to know for now.
  • I wrote a short story called “Stars Fade” that I am currently submitting to literary magazines. It’s about a girl named Nova who burns her mother’s Tarot deck as a way of grieving her mother’s death.
  • I started outlining a short story called “Your Name is Evangeline”. I have no idea how to describe it yet, so more on that later.
  • I wrote two poems called, “The Snow Globe Can’t be Fixed Anymore”, and “Bitter Liquid”, that I am quite proud of even though I do not consider myself a particularly good poet. Those are also being submitted to magazines at the moment.

Writing Goals for 2021

I am only giving myself one writing goal for 2021, and that is to finish revisions on “Indie Blue”. I’ve got a couple of other projects that I’d love to finish, but Indie is my priority right now. I’ll be working and taking creative writing classes as well, so I don’t want to create a ton of writing goals that I probably won’t be able to accomplish. I am quite confident in my ability to finish Indie by the end of the year if not earlier.

What are your writerly plans?

Let’s chat in the comments. Tell me about your works in progress, your 2020 writing achievements, and your writerly plans for the new year.

2019 Writing and Reading Recap

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Hello, people of the Blogosphere! I very obviously did not stick to my 2019 goal of blogging regularly or even at all, and i am not making that a goal for 2020 because college and adulting ate my life, and when I’m not doing either of those things, I usually want to be writing books instead of blog posts. however, I have returned to the internet after almost a year of silence for my annual recap of writing goals and favorite books of the year. I do genuinely hope to post more in 2020 because exciting writerly things may be happening in the upcoming year, but no promises!

Let’s start with a recap of my 2019 writing goals…

◦Finish editing Scarred Flawless: I’m calling this one a partial win! I said in my last recap post that Scarred Flawless had a lot of major developmental problems pertaining to world building because the geography of fictional worlds is one of life’s great mysteries, and maps are hard. Well, the developmental edits are DONE as of a few hours ago!!!! I think the whole thing is logical and coherent now, or at least it will be once I finish the line edits and eradicate all the strange sentences I created at 3 AM.

◦Start drafting Fractured Faith: This did not happen. I don’t even have Fractured Faith fully outlined, but it’s fine. Fractured Faith is the sequel to Scarred Flawless, and Scarred Flawless was my priority for 2019, so I am perfectly happy with what I did accomplish in regards to that series.

◦Start outlining Scarred Flawless Book 3: This sort of happened? I have a few index cards for it at least. Again, this is fine though because at least I mostly met my goal for the first book in the series.

◦Finish outlining Unmarked: That didn’t happen either because I started working on a new book, (Indie Blue), instead of Unmarked. I am quite happy with this arrangement though because i feel like I could sit down and draft Indie Blue right now whereas Unmarked still needs a lot of outlining and research before it’s ready to be drafted.

2020 Writing Goals:

I am only giving myself two major writing goals for 2020 because I am taking Creative Writing I in school this semester, and I’m not sure how much or what kind of writing that is going to require. My two goals are:

◦Finish line edits for Scarred Flawless and get it in the hands of beta readers

◦Finish the zero draft of Indie Blue

2019 Reading Recap:

I read 60 new books in 2019 and failed to review all of them because book review formatting is hard and adulting/school/Scarred Flawless took priority over that. So… here is a list of my top ten favorite books of 2019 with links to Goodreads instead of my own reviews!

1. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. The people weren’t kidding when they said this one was graphic and intense, but man was it good! Yet another work of literary genius from Leigh bardugo!

2. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie stiefvater. This one was my 20th birthday present to myself. It was well worth the audible credit. I don’t have anything more to say about it other than Maggie Stiefvater created another literary masterpiece, and I want to reread it now.

  1. The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang. This is an absolutely fantastic sequel to The Poppy War.

  2. Sadie by Courtney Summers. This is not my usual genre, but I absolutely loved this book! It is dark, and suspenseful, and it has a very unique writing style.

  3. Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan. This one has people who can talk to gods, and creepy mages, and it is amazing.

  4. How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow. This is the only book that made me cry in 2019. Kathleen Glasgow is really good at making me cry, but her writing is fabulous, and I will read everything she writes.

  5. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. To be quite honest, I really don’t remember much about this book because I read it whilst curled up in bed with a sinus infection trying to drown out my roommates with the audio book, but I gave it 5 stars, so it must have been fabulous!

  6. Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus. I will read everything Karen McManus writes because her first two books have both been 5 star reads for me.

  7. The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black. This was a stunning conclusion to Holly Black’s “Folk of the Air” trilogy.

  8. King of Fools by Amanda Foody. This was an excellent sequel to Ace of Shades. Amanda Foody did not disappoint.

2020 Reading Goals

My only reading goal for 2020 is to finish 75 new books. I’m not starting any other kind of reading challenges because I definitely will not stick to them. Feel free to leave some of your 2019 favorites or 2020 books you’re anticipating in the comments though, and I’ll add them to my terrifyingly long TBR! Also, if you’re a writer, let me know what you accomplished this year and what you hope to accomplish in 2020.

2018 Writing Recap | 2019 Writing Goals

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Hello, people of the Blogosphere! I disappeared from the internet for a very long while! To those of you who messaged me to ask if I was still alive: thank you! Y’all rock! To those of you who didn’t notice my absence: it’s fine! I’m not bitter at all…

Why did I disappear, you ask? Well, to cut a very long story very short, life happened. I started college in August, and let’s just say that being blind as a bat and having a variety of other strange medical disorders made transitioning to college… interesting… for lack of a nicer word. Because of that, I didn’t have the time or energy to dedicate to blogging or really anything other than classes and just enough writing to maintain what was left of my sanity. Next semester should be a lot smoother though, so to kick off 2019, I am going to attempt to return to the Blogosphere and the Twitterverse because I miss writing for an audience rather than just filling pages upon pages of composition books with words that will probably never see the light of day. I seriously doubt that I will be able to maintain a regular posting schedule like I used to, but I’d like to try to post at least twice a month. We’ll just see what happens…

Anyway, (life updates aside), it's New Years Eve, which means it's time for me to tell the world whether or not I accomplished my 2018 writing goals and outline some writerly goals for the coming year! Spoiler alert: I sort of achieved my 2018 goals, and my 2019 goals are probably a bit too ambitious, but I'm a Slytherclaw, so it's fine!

Cheyenne’s 2018 Writing Recap

I had three writerly goals for 2018. They were:
◦Finish the beta reader process for Scarred Flawless
◦Outline Fractured Faith, (Scarred Flawless Book 2)
◦Outline Nevermore Forever

Yeah… okay… obviously the first goal didn’t happen! The fact that I thought that was doable is beyond laughable! Scarred Flawless really needs an update post of its own, but I’ll try to condense it for now. Basically, fictional geography is one of life’s great mysteries, and fixing the disaster that was my first attempt at creating a fictional world is proving to be WAY more difficult than anticipated. I had to resort to making maps, and maps made by the blind girl are more entertaining than useful! I have world building woes, okay! I don’t know when Scarred Flawless is going to be ready for the eyes of other humans, but thank you to all the people on Twitter who have inquired about it! It makes me very happy to know that other people want to read my book based on a couple of quotes from it. In all seriousness, I do hope to have Scarred Flawless ready for betas by the end of 2019. I am currently in the process of finishing what I hope is my final read-through before I start making the final revisions.

My second goal was a bit more of a success. I don’t quite have a scene by scene outline for Fractured Faith, but it is detailed enough that I could start drafting if I so desired, so I’m calling that one a success!

My third goal is a bit more complicated. I did not outline Nevermore Forever, but I did start outlining Unmarked instead! The original idea for Nevermore Forever is still sitting in a Scrivener file somewhere because I do want to come back to it some day, but I care about Unmarked more right now. Unmarked is a young adult thriller, which is not something I ever expected to write, but I kind of love it! The fast-paced vibe is very refreshing after the deep darkness of Scarred Flawless. The outline for Unmarked is nowhere near done, but I have the big picture and a few drafted scenes, so I’m calling this goal a partial success.

Onward to Writerly Plans for 2019!

I only have four writerly goals for 2019. They are:
◦Finish editing Scarred Flawless
◦Start drafting Fractured Faith
◦Start outlining Scarred Flawless Book 3
◦Finish outlining Unmarked
Honestly, I will be more than happy is I only achieve the first goal. Scarred Flawless is my priority right now, and I am ready to be able to hand it over to other people. Outlining and drafting will be my reward for the many hours spent resolving my world building woes.

Share Your Plans

Did you accomplish your goals for 2018? Do you have any writerly plans for the coming year? I want to know in the comments! Also, please let me know if you want to see any specific kinds of posts from me in the near future. I need quick and easy stuff that I can write and schedule, because school is starting again soon.

Beautiful People | Author Writing Process Edition

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Beautiful People is a writing link-up created by Cait @ Paper Fury. This month’s topic is your writerly process!

  1. How do you decide which project to work on?
    I always write the thing that I want to read most. Usually this is the project that I’ve thought out the most and at least somewhat outlined, but sometimes it’s a completely new project that I know very little about but already love.

  2. How long does it usually take you to finish a project?
    That depends on the project… I can usually do a short story in a month. Novels take about a year, (with three months of drafting and nine months of cleaning up the mess that I call a draft).

  3. Do you have any routines to put you in the writing mood?
    I always diffuse peppermint oil when I’m writing because it helps me focus, and I usually listen to either my project playlist or nature sounds.

  4. What time of day do you write best?
    Either really late at night or really early in the morning… what is sleep?

  5. Are there any authors you think you have a similar style to?
    Ummm… no. My style is my own, just like every other author’s style is their own. I honestly think that you could give three different authors the same prompt and ask them to write a story, and they would come up with completely different stories because everybody’s brain works differently!

  6. Why did you start writing, and why do you keep writing?
    I started writing because I loved reading and telling stories, and I just never stopped. It’s so much of a habit to write every day now that it feels weird to not write in a day! I’ll keep writing as long as I have stories to tell, and I’ll probably cry if I ever run out of stories!

  7. What’s the hardest thing you’ve written?
    Definitely my Shaman Novel! The number one piece of advice that you’ll hear as a writer is, “Write what you know”. I personally think that this “rule” is idiotic and hardly ever follow it, but it does have a tiny bit of value. When I started writing my Shaman Novel, I stepped off a cliff into the deep blue unknown, and that was the most terrifying moment of my writerly life! It’s one thing to create a magic system, world, characters, plot, and fantastical creatures out of your imagination, but it’s a completely different thing to combine fantasy and psychology when you know absolutely nothing about the psychological disorders at hand! Speaking from hours of experience here… Google is a writer’s best friend!

  8. Is there a project you want to tackle someday but you don’t feel ready yet?
    Nope! Now that I’ve written two drafts of my Shaman Novel, I can write anything!

  9. What writing goals did you make for 2017 and how are they going?
    Uhhhh… I’ll just skip this question! Just kidding… My main goal for 2017 was to have my Shaman Novel ready for beta readers by June, and clearly that did not happen! I have world building woes, ok?! Cut me some slack here! I still gotta name some fictional countries!

  10. Describe your writing process in 3 words or a gif!
    I absolutely positively despise gifs because gif + screen reader = BAD! So… here are my three words: messy, incoherent, somewhat insane. That turned into four words, but I’m calling it good!

Writing Up Wednesday #3: What’s Your POV?

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 2 Comments

Writing Up Wednesday is a writing link-up created by Lizzy @ The Bent Bookworm. The theme for this week is POV.

When I sit down to write a story, I usually just start typing a scene from my outline and see what happens. Whatever words flow from my fingers are the words that will dictate my narrative POV for the rest of the story. Those first words are usually the most unfiltered by my own mind because they are the foundation for the entire story, and there is nothing that comes before them to dictate what they must make happen. In the case of my “Shaman Novel,” the first words that appeared on the page were in first person present tense and told through the eyes of Niko Deverow, my main character.
Narrative POV is very important to me. The POV has to feel exactly right before I can continue with a story. I see many authors saying that they only feel comfortable writing in a certain point of view, and in my opinion, your story and narrating character should be the deciding factor in your narrative POV and not your writerly comfort zone. The wrong POV can kill a book’s success, just as the right POV can make a story magical. I naturally gravitate towards first person for a lot of things, but I can usually tell if a character voice isn’t working with the narrative. I feel like first person is perfect for this story because it allows you, as the reader, to understand a character who might otherwise be difficult to connect with.

My Favorite Writerly Apps

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 5 Comments

If you’re a newcomer to this blog and you haven’t already figured this out, I’m a self-proclaimed tech nerd as well as a writer and bookworm! I recently cleaned out my iPad, (no one needs 128 apps in their life when they aren’t using 50 of them), and decided to compile a list of the top ten writing apps that got to stay on my home screen. I am using the Mac/IOS versions of everything, but I’m pretty sure some of them have Android and Windows apps as well. Also, if you’re visually impaired, all of these apps are fully accessible with Voiceover! 😉

  1. Scrivener
    Scrivener is literally the best thing that has ever happened to my writing process! It basically lets me have all of the files associated with my WIP right in front of me in the same window! If you’re a writer and you’ve ever had to do a bunch of research for something, you know what it’s like to have multiple Word docs stored in multiple subfolders. It’s not exactly the easiest thing in the world to look at your research info and your writing document at the same time, and when it comes to reorganizing the scenes that you wrote in the wrong order, you’re in for a copy/paste party and lots of scrolling. Scrivener makes all that super easy because you basically get to drag and drop virtual index cards around your screen! It’s kinda hard to explain, but it’s amazing, and you should go download the trial!

  2. Dropbox
    Dropbox keeps your files synced between your phone, tablet, dropbox.com, and the Dropbox folder on your desktop! Also, you can put your Scrivener projects in there, so all your writing syncs with the Scrivener IOS app! If you forced me to pick only two writing apps, Scrivener and Dropbox would be my dream team.

  3. Simplenote
    Simplenote is possibly the easiest text editor I’ve ever used on my phone. All you have to do is open the app, tap the plus button, and start typing. It keeps everything synced in the ever mysterious cloud so you always have it on any device. You can even collaborate on notes by putting someone’s email address in the tag field! It’s kind of like Google Docs, but simpler and way more blind friendly. I put all my random brainstorm notes in Simplenote before I transfer any of them to Scrivener.

  4. Writer Lists
    This app as a list for pretty much anything you could possibly want. I use the name lists all the time, and sometimes I’ll shuffle a random list to get a quick writing prompt. I believe the IOS app costs $3 now, but it is well worth the money!

  5. Write or Die!
    This is for those times when you just really cannot make words happen. It’s for those of you who need some rather… threatening circumstances to get you through writer’s block, and it does its job quite well! I usually don’t need any incentive to write, but it’s super fun to just watch my score climb!

  6. Carrot To-Do
    Have you ever wanted an angry robot to yell at you for not completing items on your to-do list? There’s an app for that! I put all of my tasks into Carrot To-Do, (writing related or otherwise), and I’ve actually been a lot more productive since I bought the app. There’s just something about an angry robot screaming at you that makes you wanna do stuff so she’ll shut up and let you gain a level so you can unlock another function of the app…

  7. Due
    This app lets you create reminders and preset timers. I haven’t used the reminder feature much because I always either yell at Siri to make my reminders or feed them to Carrot, but the preset timer thing is awesome! I do a lot of word sprints, and I also use the Pomodoro method, so that means I set a lot of timers! I don’t always wanna yell at Siri to set a timer, and the little flicky time picker thingy in the IOS clock app gets real old when you change the time length 20 times in a given day, so having a list of timers set for various lengths of time that I can just tap to start is super nice! Also, it has cool sounds!!!

  8. Voice Dream Reader
    This is a text to speech app that was originally developed for the blind and dyslexic. Basically you can give it almost any document, hit play, and it’ll read it in a really good sounding computerized voice. You can also buy several other high quality voices, and some of them make your documents sound almost like a real audio book! I’ve used Voice Dream to read eBooks and convert stuff to blind friendly formats for a while, but I recently got the idea to use it to play some of my writing. I’m currently editing my “shaman novel,” and listening to it with Voice Dream Reader has helped me pick out some rough places, so I thought I’d include it on this list.

  9. Nature Space
    So maybe this isn’t directly related to writing, but I’m the kind of writer who cannot write in silence. When I just need a little background noise, this is my go-to app. It has a ton of super realistic sounding nature sounds, so I can slip on my noise canceling headphones, turn on some ocean waves, and write away!

  10. Spotify
    This isn’t directly writing related either, but I always make a playlist for the plot and characters of whatever I’m working on. I use Spotify to do it because it’s super easy to use, I don’t have to pay $1.29 a song, and it even shows me related content so I can find songs that I myself might never listen to but that fit my characters perfectly!

That concludes my top ten writerly apps! I hope y’all found this helpful, and feel free to ask me any questions about any of these! Also, tell me about your favorite writerly apps in the comments!

Beautiful Books 2017 Writing Goals

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 10 Comments

Beautiful Books is a writing link up created by Cait @ Paper Fury. Click here for instructions and links to other Beautiful Books blog posts.

  1. What were your writing achievements last year?
    I finished the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel!!!!!!! And now I get to edit it….

  2. What’s on your writerly “to-do list” for 2017?
    ◦Edit this mess of a thing I’m calling a novel.
    ◦Have it ready for beta readers by June.
    ◦Start writing the next book in the series for NaNoWriMo. I really would like to start that in July, but July is going to be crazy busy for me it seems!

  3. Tell us about your top-priority writing projects for this year!
    My absolute top priority project is the “shaman novel” that I wrote for NaNo and have already written a lot about. I’m now referring to it as the “shaman novel” because it’s gone through numerous title changes, and I don’t want to confuse you guys as much as I’ve confused myself. The plot is a total complete mess right now because writing the thing in order the first time would’ve made too much sense, so here’s some basic info that you can apply to the whole book!
    ◦It centers around a bunch of corrupted politicians who call themselves “The High Council.” They pretty much rule the world, and if you’re not royal, you are less than nothing to society.
    ◦Naturally there has to be a “lower class,” and they are the shamans. They practice a different kind of magic than all the royals, and they are very much looked down upon.
    ◦There are various practices of magic in my story world, but the ones that come up the most in this book are natural magic, blood magic, and academic magic.

  4. How do you hope to improve as a writer? Where do you see yourself at the end of 2017?
    This’ll be my first experience editing a project on this scale and sending it out to beta readers that aren’t just friends or family. My end goal for this year is to be querying for publication, so I’m sure I’ll learn a lot and improve my writing in several different ways.

  5. Describe your general editing process.
    Well… Umm… Yeah… Ok… So… Maybe I don’t have a process right now??? I messed up the timeline of this story SO horrifically that I’m still moving index cards around to figure out the order in which stuff needs to happen! After I’ve got my skeleton outline on a bulletin board, I’ll do a read through and put everything in order in Scrivener. After that??? I am seriously considering exporting it from Scrivener, brailling it, and putting it all in binders so I can slap sticky notes all over everything. The flaw in that plan is that I wrote a lot of words, and braille is bigger than print, so that would be a lot of paper, and I’d probably need like five giant binders…. We’ll see if that actually happens! If not, I guess I’ll just put it in a Word doc and leave myself a ton of comments, but oh how I hate using the comment thingy! I don’t know, ok?! Please describe your editing process in the comments below this post…

  6. On a scale of 1-10, how do you think this draft turned out?
    I’m going to put this at a solid 3… I think the story is great, but… See my answer to the previous question!

  7. What aspect of your draft needs the most work?
    Plot and structure! My character development is really good because I created the characters first and then worked the plot around them, but multiple POV characters and a little bit of a dual timeline made for an incoherent mess because my brain just doesn’t write things in order the first time apparently!

  8. What do you like the most about your draft?
    I love my characters! I can’t really explain why because spoilers, but they’re awesome, and I feel like they’re my friends now, and I really hope they’re as awesome as I think they are!

  9. What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever?
    Beta readers, probably more edits, and hopefully querying by the end of the year!

  10. What’s your top piece of advice for those just finished writing a first draft?
    Are ya sure you want advice from me after reading this? Really?! Ok… If you’re gonna edit the thing, index cards, sticky notes, Scrivener, and coffee are your best friends!

2016 Wrap Up/2017 Goals

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 6 Comments

To continue with the theme of scatter-brained posts, I had goals for 2016 to wrap up, but I don’t have them anymore. They were on my MacBook which had to be wiped because of a malware invasion, and apparently the file wasn’t in Dropbox… The fact that I don’t remember most of them is probably a good indication that I failed at most of them, but here’s what I do remember!

  1. I did NOT win my Goodreads challenge, and Goodreads feels the need to remind me of that fact every time I open the app…
  2. I won NaNoWriMo for the second year running!
  3. I finished the first draft of my first novel! insert terrified emoji here It’s a total complete mess, but I finished the thing!
  4. I learned lots of programming stuff that I am not going to get into here because you most likely don’t care, and I don’t wanna explain it… Ok so really that wasn’t an official goal for 2016 until two weeks ago, but I made it my goal over Christmas break, and I accomplished it, so I’m counting it!
  5. Added together, all the writing projects I’ve completed in 2016 total up to 111911 words! I’m pretty sure my goal was 100000, so I’m proud of that!

Goals for 2017:

  1. By June 1st, I hope to have my novel ready for beta readers. If it could be by March 1st, that would be fantastic, but school is probably going to crush that dream.
  2. I’m setting my Goodreads challenge for 30 books because I’m 90% sure I can meet that!
  3. I am going to attempt the A to Z reading challenge, which means I have to read a book starting with each letter of the alphabet. If you know of books starting with R, Q, X, Y, or Z, please leave them in the comments! Those are the only ones I haven’t found yet…
  4. For NaNoWriMo this year, I’m planning to write the second book in this series I have started. We’ll see if that actually happens because I may still be trying to sort out this mess of a thing I’m calling a novel if the unthinkable happens and I epically fail at my first goal.
  5. This is the thing that I really need to do, but don’t wanna do. I’m in the middle of learning Swift and Python, (which are both programming languages), and I have a ton of notes for both all over my phone, iPad, laptop, and two notebooks, and they’re gonna have to be combined and organized before I get much further into this. I was planning to do this over Christmas break, but I just added to the mess instead because I’m a nerd like that!

I feel like I should list my upcoming posts here, but I still have all those that got caught in drafts, and honestly the next couple posts are gonna be embarrassingly late stories for Short Story Society. How did you do on your 2016 goals, (writing or otherwise?) Got anything cool planned for this year? Are you planning to join The HP Writing Cup? Let’s chat in comments!

The Author Christmas Tag

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

This tag is so ridiculously late that it’s extremely awkward to post it now… I thought I was doing really good with getting stuff out on time and even scheduled a few things over Christmas break, but it turns out that every single post I wrote went to my drafts instead of publishing to my blog. I don’t know if something updated, something decided not to play nice with a screen reader, or if it was just an idiotic operator error on my part, but yeah… I almost took over all your inboxes by hitting post all, but I thought better of it, which explains why you’re getting a Christmas tag after Christmas. I am also very sorry to Lia and everyone else participating in Short Story Society! All of my short stories were in those posts that went to drafts. They are now for sure scheduled to post over the next few days, but I had a couple things like this that had to go out in a specific time frame.
I saw this tag floating around youTube, (it’s actually called The Author Tube Christmas Tag), and decided to do it because I had some super fun answers for my characters! It was originally created by Living Within Fiction, and the rules are simple: just answer the questions given for a character of your choosing! I’m not tagging anyone because it’s so late, but feel free to do it and leave me a link in the comments if you want!

  1. What would your main character’s favorite Christmas song be?
    Umm… My main character would avoid Christmas music like the plague.
  2. Pick one of your characters. What would be on their Christmas wish list?
    Nico would be quite happy with a new knife or sketchbook.
  3. Which one of your characters, as an adult, would still believe in Santa Claus?
    Honestly probably none of them… I guess Diana would be the most likely, but she’d only do it to irritate her sister.
  4. Would your MC drink eggnog? If not, what would their Christmas go-to drink be?
    I’m just gonna do all my POV characters!
    Nico would only drink it if it was mixed with alcohol or Bliss, which is a magical drug that I made up.
    Ela might drink the kind that has those weird sweet flavors like coconut and stuff in it.
    Adam would be more likely to drink something like a peppermint mocha.
  5. Out of all of your characters, who would be the best gift giver?
    Definitely Adam or Ela! They’d both put a lot of thought into the gifts for the people they cared about.
  6. Your MC got a gift that he/she hated. What would he/she do?
    Well Nico doesn’t ever show much emotion, so you’d never know he hated it unless you really knew him well!
  7. Does your MC sleep in on Christmas, or wake up early with excitement?
    Nico gets up insanely early every day.
    Ela would be the one you’d have to drag out of bed.
    Adam would be cool with whatever.
  8. What would be your MC’s favorite part about the Holidays?
    Nico would be excited to get out of school, but he’d also hate having to go to all his family gatherings.
    Adam would love all the shaman rituals and traditions.
    Ela would love being out of school and getting to party with her friends.
  9. Your MC and his/her love interest step under the mistletoe. What happens?
    Nico and his love interest, (I am not telling who it is), would just look at each other, and laugh, and look away, and then they’d probably just walk off in opposite directions because their rebels like that.
    Adam and his love interest would kiss because that’s just what you do under mistletoe.
  10. Which of your characters would you find in the kitchen making Christmas treats?
    Definitely Raquel Blackthorn! She’s kind of the grandmother of the whole group.
  11. Lastly, a question for the author. What are some of your favorite books to read during the holidays?
    Harry Potter!!! I’ve spent the last couple days reading Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The Playlist Shuffle Tag

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 1 Comment

Hey! So… I got to messing with some code, and somehow I accidentally deleted all my scheduled posts, and I am in the process of getting them back, but until than I bring you this random tag that nobody tagged me for! I won’t tag anybody specific since I wasn’t actually tagged, but if you wanna do it, you literally just shuffle your music library of choice, post the first fifteen songs, (NO SKIPPING), and write your favorite verse. I’m just gonna shuffle now before I write another run-on sentence! This should be interesting because my music library is pretty… eclectic.

  1. Demi Lovato – Heart Attack

So I’m…
Puttin’ my defenses up
‘Cause I don’t wanna fall in love
If I ever did that
I think I’d have a heart attack

If you’ve kept up with me for a little while, you know that I match my main characters with theme songs, and this is the song for Vivien Deverow!

  1. Reiki Tribe – To The Heart

    This is instrumental but SO relaxing….

  2. Kellie Pickler – Tough

I wanted lace, I wanted pearls, to be a princess like
The other girls.
But life came hard, to my front door.
And I grew up trying
To even out the score.

  1. Demi Lovato – Warrior

Now I’m a warrior
Now I’ve got thicker skin
I’m a warrior
I’m stronger than I’ve ever been
And my armor, is made of steel, you can’t get in
I’m a warrior
And you can never hurt me again

  1. Lady Antebellum – Down south

I was born I was blessed
Right place, right time I guess
Ain’t no good reason why I left
Except to run and roam
Would you take me back and take me in
Let me be your child again
Kiss my cheek forgive my sins
And let me call you home

  1. Reiki Tribe – Sleep Therapy and Relaxation

Pretty flute music…

  1. The Band Perry – Independence

Patient anticipation
Up till now I’ve been hurry up and waiting
At a bus stop in independence licking an ice cream cone
I’ve been kicking I’ve been scheming
This is as close as I’ve ever been to leaving
Five blocks away, a stone’s throw from home
But I’m as good as gone
I gotta get gone, gone, gone
Shooting like a gun, a gun, a gun
Skipping like a stone, stone, stone
Far as I can run to where freedom is free
There’s a road like a long gray ribbon far as I can see
And it’s pulling independence out of me

  1. Selena Gomez – Kill Em With Kindness

The world can be a nasty place
You know it, I know it, yeah
We don’t have to fall from grace
Put down the weapons you fight with
And kill ’em with kindness

  1. Dean Evenson & Li Xiangting – Green Quiet Mountain

This whole album can take me straight to my happy place.

  1. Walk Off The Earth – Rule The World

They say no way, oh, I say I’ll rule the world
Ain’t afraid of the walls, I’m a break ’em down
They stay the same, oh, I’m feelin’ high as a bird
Ain’t afraid of the ground, I’m a stay up
I say yeah yeah yeah, they say no no no
They say slow slow slow, I say go go go
They say no way, oh, I say I’ll rule the world
I say I rule the world

  1. Lorde – Royals

This whole song kind of carries the theme of my story because my world is ran by a bunch of power-hungry royals, and these kids are forced into the royal life when they really do not belong there.

  1. Imagine Dragons – Demons

When the days are cold
And the cards all fold
And the saints we see
Are all made of gold
When your dreams all fail
And the ones we hail
Are the worst of all
And the blood’s run stale

And this one’s also on my writing playlist! I promise I did not arrange this!

  1. Cassadee Pope – I Am Invincible

I’m invincible
I’m unbreakable
I’m a diamond cut to last
I’m unstoppable
I’m a hero
Like a phoenix from the ash

  1. Miranda Lambert – Roots & Wings

I got red dirt stains
On my boots and jeans
Calloused fingers
From my guitar strings
Wild like the wind
In the tall pine trees
I got roots
And I got wings

  1. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens

We don’t deal with outsiders very well
They say newcomers have a certain smell
You have trust issues, not to mention
They say they can smell your intentions

This is possibly the creepiest song I have ever heard, but it’s on my iPod because it gets me in the mood to write those really dark scenes! insert dagger and pen emoji here