Kristin Helling @ordinarywriter - Tumblr Blog

NaNoWriMo 2016 Project Reveal

It’s that time of year again! The time of year where red and orange leaves fall from their trees, scarves and boots come out of the closet, and crazy writers such as myself make the commitment to write 50,000 words in 30 days!

This will be my 4th year participating, and it sort of kind of snuck up on me. This year, my business plan lead me to starting a new novel on September 1st, so I acted as if THAT month was my nano and wrote 60k words, then self-edited it between the months of Sept and Oct. Therefore, when ACTUAL nano started to approach, I debated whether or not I wanted to participate this year.

I decided that I just love the nano community and excitement too much NOT to participate. (Also, the theme this year is just so badass!)

I am tempted to start new words, as I've always done with nano in the past (and also it's more fun), but I've decided that I need to finish several projects before I dive into more new words. I have two full novels of a series that need ripped apart and self-edited, as well as the planning for the third book in the series.

I will be using this NaNoWriMo as an opportunity to catch up on my thriller series "The Idea Man Series". I will be self-editing the first book, "The Idea Man" and the second book, "The Marked Man". I will also novel plan out beats (an outline) for the third book in the series.

How I will calculate words:

1 hour of extensive editing = 1,000 words.

**Unless I write chunks of new words, in which case I'll count those as new words (I plan on filling in holes within these novels with new chapters, and will count those words towards my 50k goal as well.)

Cover Reveal! It’s essentially a mash-up of these two novels covers, “The Idea Man” and “The Marked Man”:

So get your writing fingers, snacks, and creativity at the ready- because we are about to embark on another crazy month of writing like a maniac!

If you’ve never done NaNo before, my publishing imprint WORDWRAITH BOOKS and I hosted a virtual Nano Prep workshop that you can watch for free, HERE.

If you’d like to follow me on this journey (or you are writing too), join my mailing list HERE, or connect with me on nanowrimo.org. My buddy name is: kristinhelling (It’s so creative!).

<3 Kristin

#nanowrimo #nanowrimoprep #indieauthor #projectreveal

99 Designs for Book Covers

(This is a repost from OCTOBER 13, 2016 on WORDWRAITHS)

What is it?

Need a book cover? None of the pre-made covers you’ve scrolled through are fitting the vision for your story? Don’t want to break the bank commissioning an illustrator?

99 Designs is a great alternative. And I wanted to try it for myself.

First off, what is it? 99 Designs is a website where you can go to run a contest for a project, where designers submit their work to you and you get to choose the winner. It’s not just for book covers, but people can go there for any kind of graphic design work (i.e. logos, website, t-shirt design, etc.). You put up prize money, and then whomever you choose to be the winner- gets it. Though you also have the option of walking away at the end, not choosing a winner, and getting a refund of your money.

How does it work?

Basically, you choose a package (price point). I went ahead with the cheapest option, the Bronze package ($299, which seems like a lot but any author knows that is a bargain when it comes to a custom designed, quality cover). You can also choose from: Silver ($499), Gold ($799), and Platinum ($1299). You can visit their website to see the perks of the different packages.

I also went ahead and used THIS LINK, which got me a free “Power Play” package. This is basically an upgrade that makes your contest bolded and easier for designers to see (that way you get more designers interested in your contest).

The Brief

After you choose a package, you want to set up a brief of your project. The more detailed you are, the better your results. Here’s what I included in my brief for my novel cover:

-The text I wanted on the cover: Title, Name, Tagline

-The genre and category my book will be listed on Amazon

-The mood

-A general synopsis

-The fact that I was looking for a conceptual/metaphorical design, not necessarily the obvious

-That I wanted to work with someone that was willing to tweak and provide editable files at the end

**I didn’t do this, but you could also include photos of inspiration or examples, a link to an inspiration Pinterest board, or anything that will give the designers an idea of exactly what you are looking for.

The Contest Begins!

After your brief is complete, all you have to do is sit back and watch the designs start to flow in (or constantly refresh the page over and over again while hyperventilating from excitement).

Here is an article that explains how many days each round of your contest lasts:

https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204109459-How-long-do-design-contests-take-and-what-s-involved-

During the qualifying round, you want to rate (on a 5-star scale) and leave feedback for each designer, so they know if they are on the right track or they need to modify. You can leave a comment on the design for all to see, or you can send a private message. I didn’t realize this until my contest was almost finished- but I actually ONLY sent private messages. I probably would have done this differently if I realized. However, I pretty much messaged each designer individually- unless the design was REALLY off.

Make sure to archive designs that you would never choose, to keep your picks organized.

Be prepared for negative messages from designers as well. After I archived designs, I would get messages like, “Why did you hate my design?”. I would just politely respond, “Thank you for your design, it just wasn’t right for this particular project”.

Finalist Round

After the qualifying round time runs up, you must choose 6 finalist designers to work with.

At any time during the qualifying round or the finalist round, you can run a poll for your friends and family to vote and help you decide (through social media, or a link to hand out in email).

TIPS AND TRICKS

Hold out on giving 4 and 5 star ratings early on. New designers will see this and feel like you’ve already chosen, or that the competition on your contest is too tight/tough for them to want to join.

Make sure you specify you want no repeat designs. What will start to happen, is that other designers will see what you are rating highly and some will try to mimic those designs. One way you can avoid this is if you run a CLOSED contest. This is where only you can see all the designs. 99 designs will not let you have a closed contest if it’s your first time. However, I have heard that if you email support, they may do it for you.

I didn’t do this and wish I did: Search the “Discover” section of the website for designers that you like. You can private message them and ask them to submit to your contest. You may get more quality designs this way.

Guarantee your contest. If you guarantee that you aren’t going to walk away- that you will indeed choose a winner and give away the prize money you put up- more designers will enter your contest, and more quality designs will as well. This proved correct during my run.

Let your contest run out its time. Don’t end it early. I ended up knowing which design I wanted about a day and a half before my contest was over. I was so excited to just get started working with the designer I wanted to choose as the winner. I also wanted to end it early to try and perhaps save time of those who would submit more designs, when I was already set on a winner. However, this pissed off some of the designers. One designer private messaged me that they had been working all day on a final design for me, but because I ended the contest early they couldn’t submit it and felt like they wasted time they could have spent on someone else’s contest. The exact thing happened, that I was trying to avoid!

Make sure when you are zeroing in on designs that you love, to click on the design to see if they are custom, or have used stock images. Stock images aren’t bad, but you don’t want to spend $300+ on a stock image that somebody slapped text onto- even if it’s a kickass stock image. Because you could do that yourself. Make sure the designer put effort into actually creating something unique for you. Also, if stock images are used, make sure you can acquire the rights to them (and are hopefully free- some are not).

Tweak the design as much as you want with your designer! A majority of the reason I chose my designer was because he was so easy to work with, and was a great communicator.

Make sure you get editable .psd files. That way you can tweak typography or the back blurb later.

My Stats

I ended up getting a total of 141 designs. And I am IN LOVE with my final product for my upcoming novel, “The Altruism Effect”. I wish I could share it now, but I am scheduling a public cover release date closer to the launch. If you’d like to be the first to see it- join my mailing list HERE.

<3 Kristin Helling

#99designs #novelcover #indieauthor

“Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream...”

[Original post is from http://www.wordwraiths.com/post/146042933421/mr-sandman-bring-me-a-dream]

(Image originally posted on www.wonderopolis.org)

I've had the same reoccurring dream off and on for the past 9 years, no joke. I had it again last night.

I'm walking through a hallway in my old high school (I graduated high school about 8 years ago), and I can't remember what my schedule is. The late bell is ringing, but I can't remember what class I'm supposed to go to or what the room number is. When I do remember what class (it's usually French class), I can't find my textbook. Or I can't remember the combination to my locker. There is never a conclusion before I wake up.

You’d think after 9 years, dream Kristin would have found a way to remember where I’m supposed to be. And when dreams like this happen to me, I can’t help but wake up and analyze them to no end. I must be in the wake (ha ha, see what I did there?) of a big event that I feel unprepared for. In my life, I am generally an organization freak. Perhaps being unprepared is part of my unconscious anxieties.

Apart from having dreams about unconscious anxieties, I’ve also had dreams about loved ones who have passed away. My Mom has always told me that if the loved one appears older than you remember them and they talk in the dream, then you are experiencing a memory. However if they appear younger than you remember, and they don’t speak- then you are having a vision. By vision, I mean that they are visiting you from the afterlife or have a message. No matter what your spirituality is or what you believe, there’s something comforting in this thought. I’ve also known people to be able to predict future events based on dreams they’ve had. Call it coincidence. Call it intuition. Whatever it is, the mind is such a power thing, and everyone experiences this world and processes this life in different ways.

It’s easy to place symbolism on dreams, especially if they pertain to your everyday life. Sleep dreams are one of my top favorite subjects to talk about. But it’s such an abstract topic, that there is really no proven facts about why we dream, or how to interpret them.

Some people don’t dream at all. Or at least they don’t remember them. I’ve never been one of those people. I dream/nightmare intensely. I remember every detail, and on the rare occasion that my dreams are fragmented and sporadic, they are mostly full stories. This is where I feel extremely lucky. Because I’m a storyteller. And if my subconscious mind can do work while I get the much-needed sleep my body needs to function during the day, then I can double time my creative process.

This is why I fully recommend keeping a dream journal. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just a spiral notebook or something. After you open your eyes and take a few deep breaths of the day, just lean over and grab the notebook to jot down what you remember from your sleep. This can be a ton of fun!

The thing that blows my mind, is that dreams are mostly something you can’t control, since they are in your subconscious. Of course there is the infamous “lack of control” dream, where you begin to lose one or more of your senses: your peripheral vision is blacking out, your legs can’t run quick enough, etc. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the fact that you can’t even control whether or not you are going to have a dream to begin with.

My friend told me that after she had her son, she stopped dreaming while asleep. This could be due to exhaustion, to the point where her brain didn’t have the energy to produce pictures while she was sleeping. She’s since said that they’ve come back- but this got me thinking. I have no control as to whether or not I’m going to continue to dream. So I must appreciate every moment of it, because I’ll never know what I’ll experience when I close my eyes in bed each night, or when it might just go away.

The possibilities of the mind are infinite.

<3 Kristin

ConQuesT Story in a Bag

During ConQuesT on Memorial Day weekend, I participated in the writing contest, Story in a Bag. You have 1 hour to write a story using 5 elements you blindly choose from different bags. The story also can’t exceed more that 5 pages. It is quite the challenge! The most exciting part is that two of my friends, and one fellow Wordwraith-er ended up winning the contest in their categories!

Here is my story in the purest form (I typed it up from the handwritten original, EXACTLY as it was on that day. No editing, which was tough.)

My story elements included (I also bolded them in the story):

First Line: Father shared his most closely-held secret on that fateful night.

Setting: Old Apartment Building

Character: Professional hit man or woman.

Prop: Motorcycle

Plot point: The people just found out that the warships are on their approach to Earth.

Homebound

Father shared his most closely-held secret on that fateful night. I listened with intent from the creaky, dust caked floor of the old apartment building we’d taken refuge in. It’d been weeks since we left home. The arches of my feet still ached from the miles we trekked on foot. I wanted to take the motorcycle, but Father was right in saying it’d be too noisy.

I didn’t quite understand what he meant when he said that we had to go into hiding because there was a professional hit man after us. I didn’t understand that there was a difference between a professional and an amateur hit man.

Father told me that on the news, the people just found out that the warships are on their approach to Earth. But that wasn’t the secret. Everyone knew that they would have to come back at some point. They would need to restock on supplies, and fuel, and prisoners.

Ever since SpaceX began the manned missions to Mars, Earth was never the same. They were told that people taken to Mars, if they made the trip, were used to develop the civilizations set up there. That their bodies were tested and probed to see the effects the atmosphere had on people. It was barbaric.

Father was a mechanical engineer for the missions. When he realized what was happening, he ran. Though he already knew too much. As we sat in that abandoned studio apartment, I pulled my knees to my chest to try and harness warmth from the cold draft that was flowing from under the door.

That night, Father told me that by the end of the week, we were going to be on a ship. When I first heard the news, I protested. I pushed back from him and kicked and screamed. I ran from him to the door of the studio and reached out to grab the knob, but not before he scooped me up and held me. I let go and began to allow tears to leak from my eyes.

“But I don’t wanna go to Mars and be a slave.” I whimpered in between breaths.

“We are not going on the warships.” He assured me, calmly.

Through blurry eyes, I looked up into his shaggy bearded face. I didn’t understand.

“I have my own ship. And we are not going to Mars.”

My mind exploded into the possibilities of our escape. “Where are we going?”

As that, he put me down and walked over to the window, peering out into the starry night sky with his red eyes. “We are going home.”

End

If you want to try the challenge- use my story elements to see what you can come up with in an hour!

<3Kristin Helling

The Story of Coffee

(ORIGINALLY POSTED OVER ON WORDWRAITHS.COM)

I enjoy a good cup of coffee. Oftentimes, coffee plays the role of fuel for many. It helps you get through the day. It keeps you warm when it’s chilly or rainy. It helps you poop.

But to me, coffee is more than just a cozy drink that warms my insides and pumps caffeine into my veins.

Coffee is how I pay the bills. I manage a local coffeeshop in north Kansas City, and have been there for about four and a half years. When I started working there, it was merely a means to pay for college as I pursued my degree in English Writing. After I graduated, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I wanted to write books. I knew I needed a way to pay the bills while I wrote, and coffee made the most sense to me.

I’ve often reflected on why I feel such a connection with the dark, aromatic liquid. It occurred to me that the process of producing a cup of coffee was very similar to creating stories and manuscripts.

Last year I had the pleasure of visiting a coffee farm in the mountains of Puerto Rico, called Hacienda Pomarrosa. Here, I was able to witness the process first hand. It was eye opening for me to see how the coffee trees were grown. I imagined them in some sort of orchard or organized rows, like you would see apple trees or grape vines. This was much different. The trees were grown wherever they decided to grow, on a hilly mountainside in between other bits of tropical foliage, with orange and banana trees.

For me, these trees were like ideas. They are sporadic in where they sprout up, with story ideas growing amongst all the other thoughts of your day. These idea trees must be harvested, if you’re going to get any kind of fulfilling and healthy product out of them.

The trees sprout white flowers that in turn grow cherries, changing from green to red, and then grow the green coffee beans inside them. The maturation of the bean inside the cherry is like the development of the story as it’s written. Each stage of the coffee bean is like the stages of producing your best work: writing, rewriting, editing, beta reading, and editing again. There may be obstacles that threaten the harvest, like leaf rust, harmful insects or even worse, writer’s block.

Though once it’s time, so much hard work is put into picking the cherries with bare hands on uneven ground. So much hard work is put into getting your manuscript ready for publication.

After all the hard work of the cherry’s getting picked, it’s almost as if the process has just begun. The beans need to be extracted from the sorted cherries, washed, dried, and bagged up in burlap sacks to be shipped to my shop where we will roast, grind, and brew them.

Of course my customers at the coffeehouse never see the process from the tree. All they know is the steaming mug of fresh coffee in their hands much like a reader holding your finished novel. They may not know the hard work and love that was put into your book, but the hope is that they enjoy the delicious, fulfilling product that they hold.

So next time you sip a satisfying cup of coffee, think about the culture of the country you are drinking as it warms your throat. Think about the women that handpicked the cherries that made their way across the world to bring you happiness. Allow yourself to feel the connection between that cup in your hands, and the process of the craft of storytelling.

<3 Kristin

Inspiration

When I originally started this blog many years ago, it was specifically a travel blog. I wrote narratives about my experiences of visiting places around the world. At the time, I asked myself what inspired me. It was easy to say that at that time of my life (and it’s forever ingrained in me), that traveling opened my world to endless possibilities.

Even now that my blog has morphed and grown into a space about many things, it still holds true that my biggest inspiration pulls from experience. I recently re-watched the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck movie, Good Will Hunting. One scene of the movie really struck a chord with me this time around. It was a scene between Matt Damon’s character- a book smart, college aged, orphan from the South side of Boston, and his councilor played by Robin Williams.

“So if I asked you about art, you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I’ll bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that.“ –Sean (Robin William’s character), Good Will Hunting (1997).

I love this quote because Robin William’s character is proving to Damon’s character that you can’t possibly understand experience because you’ve memorized a book or two. That is surface. You must pull from your own perspective and allow yourself to feel from deep within.

You see, some people don’t get the opportunity to travel or higher priorities take precedent in their lives. The only way for them to get the escape is through books, through reading. But I feel like experience can be a wide range of perspective. When I write my novels, I take from every aspect of my life to create new content. Yes, the places I’ve traveled and different cultures I’ve been immersed in have played a major part in my inspiration, but I also take from my experience of everyday life: connecting with other people, and relationships I’ve formed. Working as a barista is perfect for my craft, because I meet new characters every day.

You don’t need to travel far to pull in valuable experiences that can fuel your inspiration to create.

So my question is, what inspires you?

<3Kristin

#inspiration #good will hunting #amwriting #inspiring quotes

The “Launch” of Capsule

The excitement of launch week for my debut novel CAPSULE has ended and I finally have some time to reflect back on what I hope to be the first of many book releases in my lifetime.

Even though I took 3 years to write and edit the book and started my launching schedule 6 months before, I still felt the pressure and anxiety of the deadline (and had to push my deadline back a month). I made so many mistakes with this launch, but I truly feel like I was able to pave the way for myself for when I put my work out there in the future.

The scary and exhilarating part of the whole process was my perception of the unknown, as with any kind of “first” in life. I had no idea if all my hard work would pay off for me or be received well.

Though it’s only been 15 days since CAPSULE’s launch, I can say that my expectations have been far exceeded. I’ve learned that I have an amazing support system surrounding me; that of my family, friends, writing group (The Wordwraiths), coworkers, and fans.

After the launch, I planned to have a book release party- which is important because you must set aside time to celebrate what it took to get here. I was so humbled by the amount of guests that came to support me.

If you know me, you know that I love organizing events. The launch party was so fun to plan. I went with the theme of the book and revolved a lot of the party around space. I wore galaxy pants and played my noveling soundtrack in the background, which were songs that I listened to while writing Capsule. We had wine and cookies (of course frosted to look like galaxies). I had a 5ft tall vinyl poster of my novel cover to take photos in front of. I also held a contest to win a space capsule tea infuser if you picked up a copy of the book.

I had such a great time celebrating Capsule. But I understand that the hardest part is just upon me. After the excitement of its release begins to die down, I know that the challenge ahead of me is to keep my motivation alive. I hope to hear from readers on how they liked (or didn’t like!) my book, and to get the chance to speak about it at writing conferences and workshops moving forward. And of course, I will always continue writing.

Here are just a few of the many photos that were taken at my launch party.

<3 Kristin

#book release #space #scifi #amwriting #launchparty

Good Morning Mrs. Helling, I have been on your website and cannot find "The Idea Man" short story that I have grown fond of and wanting more! Can I purchase the "The Idea Man"?

Thank you for your question! I’m so glad you enjoyed my short story, “The Idea Man”! I have removed it from my blog because it has been made into my bigger work, “The Idea Man” novel. I am currently in the process of editing and reworking it, and will hopefully have something ready to read by the end of this summer!

Do you find it easier to write short stories or novels?

Thank you for your question! I love writing both, though I find it easier to write a novel. When writing short stories, it’s always hard to decide where to conclude the story and I often feel like there was a lot left unsaid. With a novel, I have room to expand on my characters and get to know them better.

CAPSULE RELEASE DETAILS

(This was originally posted HERE.)

I wanted to hijack my normal blog post this week to share some excitement coming to you from Wordwraith Books!

I am proud and excited to bring you CAPSULE, the first novel to be published under the Wordwraith’s on March 1st. It is an adult fiction, soft sci-fi thriller.

Arcturus Holst is famous before he’s even born.

He’s the first human ever born in outer space, and if the mission is carried out correctly, would be the only human to experience what is beyond the knowledge of our existence.

Technological advances in space travel have allowed humans access to the outside of our galaxy.

The only thing is- it is a suicide mission.

Two married scientists sign up for the job. They needed Arcturus to carry out their life’s work. His importance to all of mankind was instilled in him from birth, but he can’t help but struggle with the fact that none of this was his choice.

Living his life alone, behind digital screens, and in the merciless void of interstellar space, can he discover the answer to his questions: Was he born as just a science project, or does his life have a greater purpose?

---

Starting March 1, CAPSULE will be available through amazon and other outlets. For those of you in the Kansas City metro, you are all invited to the CAPSULE book “launch” (pun intended) party on Friday, March 4th at 6pm at Parkville Coffee in the Northland. Come join us for a celebration of this release where there will be a full latte bar, fun giveaways with the book, and great conversation!

<3 Kristin

NaNoWriMo 2015 Project Reveal

This is the latest I’ve ever posted a project reveal in proximity to the start day of Nanowrimo, but at least it’s before November 1st- so I’ll call it a win!

This will be my 3rd year participating in National Novel Writing Month, an international writing challenge in the month of November where all of us crazy writer’s will write 50k words in just 30 days. The reason why I keep signing up for this, is because this process actually works. I know full well that at the end of these 30 days, I will not have a ready-to-be-published novel. But that’s not what nano is about. It’s about turning off your inner editor and getting the words down. It’s about collecting word count, and getting into the habit of writing every single day. It’s about community and joining forces with writers across the globe to motivate and inspire. It’s about smashing goals you never thought you were capable of.

For Nanowrimo 2015, after many pros and cons checklists, I have committed to a project. I am going to be writing the sequel and 2nd book to The Idea Man Series, and it will be titled “The Marked Man”. I would like to thank my husband, Austin Helling (his website), who once again pulled through for me in creating a masterpiece for my cover, even though his life has been so busy lately. I am proud and happy to announce the “working” title and cover for my next book:

Synopsis:

“If I found you because of your story, do not doubt that others will also. And they will never stop hunting you." It was as if she was telling Parker the truth before it happened.

He never realized the consequences of taking a large advance to write the life story of an Inventor on the run. Because The Idea Man’s location is secret, all the attention falls on Parker. This quirky, hipster writer from Kansas City finds himself hunted by the men that want the protagonist from his novel, killed, and they are willing to do anything to get him to spill more information.

When THE MARKED MAN contacts Parker to let him know of an invention he created pertaining to the extraction of thoughts and memories, blueprints he never decided to pursue, they discover the plans may have fallen into the wrong hands. Or is it just a trick to lure him into the spotlight?

Here is a photo of the 1st and 2nd book in THE IDEA MAN series:

Connect with me on facebook, twitter (@ordinarywriter_), or nanowrimo.org (username: kristinhelling) to follow me on this November’s journey, or let me know about the project you will be working on. I’ll see you guys in December!

<3 Kristin

This blog has become somewhat inactive, however I have written a few blog posts on the site of my writing group, The Wordwraiths. Check out our blog for different perspectives and conversations on writing, as well as a few guest posts! Below are some links to the posts I’ve made over there.

My Invaluable Writing Advice

Keeping Connected in a Literary World

<3Kristin

Poetry is one medium of the craft that I don’t really enjoy writing. It just doesn’t happen to be the way my words flow when I write them. However, I used to write poetry, when I was a lot younger. I stumbled upon this poem while I was cleaning and throwing away papers in our office. I wrote this when I was in high school, probably about 15 or 16 years old and I thought I would share it.

I’m from a tiny, delicate seed

Carried in the wind.

I’m from water, soil,

And sunlight.

I’m from the butterfly that makes me feel beautiful,

And the refreshing, cool breeze.

I’m from sightseeing the clouds during the days,

And dancing under the stars at nights.

I’m from fields of family

That rolls off the hills for miles.

I’m from smiles on faces,

To glass bottles in the kitchen.

I am where I’m from.

<3Kristin

StoryInABag

A “Story In A Bag” is story that is written within the confides of 1 Hour, using 5 prompts that you choose essentially from a bag (In this case they were drawn from a box and story cubes/cards). My writing group uses these to warm us up when we get together to write, if we are in the mood for a challenge, or if we have writer’s/idea blocks.

I think SiaB’s are great, because at the beginning of the story, you are coming to the table with completely fresh ideas and have no idea what you are going to write. Then you draw your prompts. Generally, I freak out for the first few minutes as I stare at the prompts thinking what could possibly come from them. And then the gears start turning. The best feeling is when you finish your story, and you feel like you have the start to something much bigger.

My Prompts:

Seasons of Change

The pink glove lay on the ground, almost covered. The trees bled into the green with their hues of orange, red, and yellow. As with the changes of color in the foliage, also came a bustling wind that shook the trees naked. It wasn’t before long that the leaves veiled most of the dirt, and concealed that lacy, pink, glove into the ground.

Just before the Earth could swallow it whole, a creature scurried across the leaves, as it shivered in its skin. It brushed its whiskers up on everything that would allow it, looking for something tasty to eat. From across the field, the fat rat saw the corner of something pastel flapping in the wind. Something that wasn’t of a neutral color was something very interesting indeed.

The glove waved out to the moving creature across the yard, calling him over to help pry it from the muck under the blanket of leaves. Finally, after enduring the changing season, it had been noticed at last!

The being scampered over, and tickled the pointy hairs around its nose over the thumb of the glove. Although soft and tempting, it didn’t smell of food. Regardless, it burrowed in the sludge around the glove and pried it up with its claws.

And free at last, it was! The glove escaped from the grasp on the creature and picked up a wave current from a gust of wind that rushed by. It flew and tumbled and barreled through the tests of time- up, down, and all around.

As it settled upon the surface of a new season, with green blades of grass and blooming flowers that matched its own palate, it felt home again, though it was very far from home. And judging by the lack of settling in this new, exciting location, the glove must have gone backwards again. Backwards to a different time.

Perhaps there would be dinosaurs here.

Perhaps this was the time it would finally be reunited with its match that was held by the woman with the pink flowery hat to match. It’d been years since it last protected the dainty hand that yielded the power of traveling through time.

For the pink glove would always be there, fighting with the past, present, and future. It was a prisoner of war. A prisoner that stood against the test of time.

<3Kristin

ConQuesT 46

This was my 2nd year attending ConQuesT, a Science Fiction & Fantasy convention in Kansas City. And just like last year, it was a blast! I love this con because not only can I interact with other people that love the same fandoms as I do (Got to see George R.R. Martin & sit in the Iron Throne this year!), but there are also so many different writing focused panels and opportunities to network with other writers.

This year was great because I got to sit in the audience of panels that some of my fellow writing group members, The Wordwraiths spoke on.

I went to a panel called, “Creating Alien Languages” which was awesome because of the language diversity in my current work in progress novel. I also sat in on panels on world building, writing groups, nano, and authors/readers behaving badly. I got to hear the creator of Game of Thrones read a chapter from one of the books, and I participating in Story in a Bag again this year.

If you’re not familiar with Story in a Bag, it is where you pick prompts out of paper bags and you have write a story in one hour, using all the prompts. I did not win, however, I really enjoyed the experience and came away with the start of a story that I can edit and build if i’d like to.

Here are the prompts I had to work with:

FIRST LINE: “Stop,” I yelled.

OBJECT: A Jewel encrusted dagger

CHARACTER: A science fiction writer

PLOT: Discovering a lost tribe of vampires

SETTING: A circus

Below is the story I wrote in that hour. I left it exactly as it was written that day (It was so hard not to edit it as I typed it up, since we had to handwrite for the contest!).

Overall, ConQuesT was another great success, and I can’t wait for next year to come around!

<3Kristin

Puerto Rico + Coffee Farm

20 Facts about 'The Idea Man'

In light of finishing the end of this novel over a month ago, I decided to do another "Facts" post about the book! (You can read my previous one about "Capsule", here!) This time, I decided to do 20 facts instead of 30, because it was just SO hard to think of things (This is a great exercise to get the wheels turning about your story)!

20 Facts about 'The Idea Man':

1. This was the first time I wrote a novel using multi- POV (point of view).

2. Three different languages are spoken in this novel: English, French, and Spanish.

3. The idea for this novel stemmed from a short story I wrote, which stemmed from a photo my husband took while we were in Paris.

4. The story takes place half in my hometown of Kansas City, and half in Paris, France and surrounding metro.

5. One of my protagonist’s quirks is that he is a writer and works for a reputable magazine in KC called INK magazine, though he works as a paper delivery boy, not as a writer. So close to his dream but can’t quite reach it.

6. I wrote one of my character’s staying in the exact same vacation rental apartment in Paris that I stayed in back in 2009.

7. This is the first time I’ve intentionally ‘murdered’ a character in one of my works (character’s have died before, just not intentionally).

8. When researching what would happen to somebody who committed a crime in the Chateau de Versailles, I couldn’t find any information. It took a while to even find the police station. Violence is few and far between in Versailles, France.

9. My protagonists love interest ‘Noriana’, was named after the royals player Nori Aoki- because I was creating her while the royals were playing in the World Series.

10. While writing, I listened to drastically different soundtracks during POV switches.

11. When I wasn’t listening to my premade soundtracks, Halo music was playing in the background as my husband played while I wrote (I really enjoyed that game play music, haha).

12. I used google maps a lot to see where my characters were going visually. This was the first novel I’ve written where I didn’t entirely fictionalize the world.

13. I had to delve into a lot of research on ‘The Dark Net’ and crypto currency.

14. When I was in Le Centre Pompidou, the museum of modern art in Paris in 2009, I vowed to myself that I would someday put it in a novel- and this is it!

15. I wanted to have snippets of scenes pertaining to coffee, my other passion apart from writing.

16. Some of the hilarity of the language barrier problems that Parker faces in France is completely written from experience.

17. My Dad was a huge influence for me when writing this work, almost as if one of the drives in me was to write this action novel for him.

18. My protagonists name was originally Parker Colins, but after a while I realized it sounded too close to “Harper Collins”, so I changed his name to Parker Rubec.

19. This was my 2nd time winning NaNoWriMo.

20. The book ends with a cliffhanger, which was not planned and not expected.

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Kristin Helling