Rotisserie Chicken

Huzzah!

So, btw... I have another blog for writing stuffs, it's fairy tale soup for when I can't focus on my more serious writing and play with short stories old-school styles.

Duck.

"Never shall I Ever be a Soup!"

Illustration for the opening story @onceuponasoup

Digital painting using GIMP :)

A Note:

This blog is something of both background and introduction to the (fictional) (fantasy) world of Bennuma, to contain things such as historical notes, facts, legends, fables, myths, or other sorts of stories or longstanding traditional tales, as told from the point of view of people from the world of Bennuma.

Less of an exhaustive compendium and more like a selection of excerpts pulled from various sources and abridged, translated, or otherwise compiled into what is hopefully a beginner-friendly form.

To begin with, and until otherwise noted, this blog is to be written from the point of view of Hadimer, someone who was in many ways one of the most notable scholars in the later ages of a particularly significant Life of the world of Bennuma, writing during what later would be designated as the time of the IceGem.

Also note, Bennuma is what can be called a Phoenix World, which means that it literally is destroyed and remade from time to time and in between these destructions, each is referred to as a different Life of the world, or WorldLife. Some are very different in many ways, though it is the same world and many things will be the same. Some WorldLives are very similar to each other, having very similar things happen at similar points in the Life of the world. Note that these cannot properly be considered to be parallels, because they aren't happening at the same time in different universes (nor can one expect to find parallel versions of the same people, etc.) but it literally is the same planet re-made, in the same place of the same universe, only at a different point in time. (it's not a sci-fi multiverse parallel worlds thing) (nor can one expect individuals to be re-incarnated into parallel versions of themselves or any other form, from one WorldLife to the next... that's a thing for other worlds, not this one. In the rare instances where anyone might come back to life, it won't be via re-incarnation... and even if it looks like an exception where it might be re-incarnation, it technically isn't... unless it is an exception to the exception and really is, but that would be something that would never happen... unless it might if there were one exception to it, but even then, it might not really be that after all.)

Done. Did It.

It has been a very common thing in my life, that the list of things that I need to accomplish on any given day, will far surpass what I am capable of actually accomplishing.

At the end of the day, it's easy for me to get overwhelmed by all the things I hadn't managed to cross off the list, especially when other things that hadn't started out on my list crop up during the day and end up taking place of priority for legitimate reasons.

So, although I may have spent all day keeping busy doing things that needed to be done and having minimal break time, I may have ended up accomplishing almost nothing that was on my list at the beginning of the day.

At such times, I've found it is helpful for me to keep a list of the things I did that day, everything I did accomplish regardless of whether it was on my "To Do" list or not. Seeing my "Done" or "Did it" list at the end of the day can help me feel less like a failure, and focus on the positive-ness of having spent the day accomplishing things that were worth doing.

Worth a try for anyone who may experience some of the same anxieties about never having enough time for everything that needs to be done.

Guess What?

I finally finished another section of my WIP novel set in my fantasy world called Bennuma, work-in-progress titled as "The Crossing" ...check it out @bennuma-crossing (newest part labeled "3.3" as in, chapter 3, section 3)

Also, as I tend to do, I have added the same to my old blog on Blogspot/Blogger, just in case anyone might prefer reading long posts from that sort of format instead of on Tumblr (easier to locate the oldest posts instead of scrolling all the way down through them all, if you are new to the story)

Someone makes an appearance who hasn't been seen yet in this story. :)

I know I have OCD issues...

...when I edit a tiny part of a larger section of writing for something small, but have to re-read over the entire thing several times in a row in order to check for typos; and the nagging feeling that I've missed one remains. This after having already done so many times back when the section was originally posted, and... also when it was originally written out prior to making a blog post for it.

Learning more tumblr and I find it's weird how the phone app and computer/browser versions work differently...

I usually post things from the computer because that's where I copy writing from, but I tend to look at other things on the phone and like or follow from the phone more often than the computer...

So how about instead of copying links like I did on a previous post, I will offer this:

The Crossing WIP novel found here:

@bennuma-crossing

And Legends of Bennuma history and shorts:

@legends-of-bennuma

A Couple of Notes

In The Crossing (current WIP novel) I hesitate to refer to the camp of travelers as refugees or exiles, since although they left their home in order to escape war and being threatened (also raided, plundered, etc) by local armed forces and mercenary types... they weren't specifically evicted or told to leave, nor forced out because of their culture, race, beliefs, or any other such sort of thing. Not... directly.

It was more like, they wanted to remain peacefully neutral and not join the fighting, and being in small unfortified villages and hamlets in the countryside, they simply were easy targets for people who wanted to pick up supplies in quick raids... because of where they lived, and not because of who they were (except for their choice to be neutral). The survivors of the raids found these conditions intolerable, and decided to pack up and leave instead of moving to join any of the (sort of) neighboring fortified burgs that were at war with each other. This doesn't quite fit with a lot of what I read about current common definitions of 'refugees' and I don't wish to confuse people nor in any way minimize the plight of people in the real world on planet Earth who have become refugees or exiles because of their religion/beliefs, culture, ethnicity, or other sorts of differences. I also hesitate to refer to them as 'nomads' because although they have taken up a nomadic sort of existence, it is more of a temporary thing (they hope) like pilgrims or pioneers traveling out of necessity while they seek out a new home to settle in, and not an inherited, cultural way of life like I think the word 'nomad' usually denotes. Likewise, I don't want to refer to them as 'travelers' because it seems in some parts of Europe, that word (in English) specifically is used (perhaps as slang) to refer to the Romani people and their cultural way of life, which is also not what is going on in The Crossing. Sometimes in hash tags I am putting 'traveling people' because I am not sure what else to refer to their current nomadic sort of way of life as, since although they might accurately be referred to as a type of pioneers (in Bennuma) that term could also be confused with a specific time period and the geographic area of North America... and similar issues with the term 'pilgrims' exist, in addition to that term typically also designating having religious reasons for traveling, or 'making a pilgrimage'.

Perhaps eventually I might figure out what would be a term to use that I'd consider ideal, or at least acceptable. For now, it's something of a muddle to me.

Also note: regretfully, I cannot currently be sure to post updates to the Crossing WIP novel @bennuma-crossing according to a regular schedule (as also, the informational, sometimes-containing-short-stories, worldbuilding sort of background blog @legends-of-bennuma) but I am trying to do so without huge gaps in time between posts. After section 1.7 of The Crossing, I plan to get into what I currently consider to be chapter 2... the novel being more or less a first draft, someday after the thing is completed perhaps the novel will be divided differently chapter-wise, I don't know yet... admittedly I sometimes get in a muddle over where to make chapter divisions.

Writing is Life

If writing is life to you, then you have a right to identify as a writer.

New Year's Declaration: I am a writer. I know this because I need to write, I am not ok when I can't write, or am otherwise prevented from writing. It doesn't matter whether anyone else likes my writing, but I do want to share it in case someone might like my stories. Likewise I don't care whether anyone says I can't call myself a writer if I haven't yet achieved official publication status or monetary compensation for my writing. Visual artists can call themselves artists because they create art, regardless of whether they have achieved a status of supporting themselves at it professionally. I believe in the same for writers. If you write and really care about your writing, then you are a writer if you want to be and believe you are, if writing is a part of you, in your soul.

New Year's Resolution: I resolve to no longer apologize to anyone for doing what I have to do in order to be able to keep writing, and commit to writing. If I don't keep in touch with people as much as they want, if I don't take care of my health as much as people think I should, if there is any other thing that I have to do or not do in order to keep writing, that is for me to decide, and no one else. It doesn't matter if people don't understand why I do the things I do; if it helps me to keep writing, then it is necessary for me, even at the expense of other things. I will not accept guilt based on anyone else wishing I were different. I have to be who I am.

Besides, there's not much else I can reasonably do anymore anyway. I have to write.

Writing is Life.

Legends of Bennuma poll

Ok, first time I've done an actual poll here on tumblr, testing it out...

(refer to @legends-of-bennuma for reference)

WIP novel progress

(see @bennuma-crossing for most recent and all previous sections of the story, skip pinned intro post if desired)

Starting chapter 3 of my WIP-titled story "The Crossing" ...about a camp of people who fled a bronze-age equivalent war zone in a magic-deprived portion of a fantasy world, who come across a traveler from a different (magic-rich) part of the world, who shows up and helps the people from the camp when they need it most, only asking to travel with them in return.

Who is this stranger, where did she come from, and what is her real objective? How will they find a new home where they can live in peace and safety, and what part will be played by the (arguably) most broken man in the camp?

(note: though originally intended to be an adventure story, future chapters may contain a love story, but rest assured I will be keeping it SFW)

also, if anyone happens to prefer blogspot format for reading long posts, you can find the same story on my blog here: