I'm Writing a Book. . .Kinda

Hello all! Hope you guys are looking for an episode with a hella long title (and, to be completely honest, this was the shortest version I could agree upon. . .with myself) So, I'm back at work. Shortest retirement EVER, which is fine, but does mean that I am not having as much time to write. That being said. . .I am writing a lot more easily now that I've pivoted back to the book that I was writing before this podcast started. Such is life, sometimes you just have to roll with the punches of what is happening and working at the moment. Sometimes I fight with fate too often. Not today.

Hey everyone, it's Ophelia! Sorry I've been gone for a couple of weeks. I've been out and about traveling with one of my sons. Things don't go as planned. We ended up in different locations (a different country than we had intended!) and I didn't write ANYTHING for "When the Sun and Moon Were Ours" as planned. But. . . .I DID write a good amount for another book that I've been working on. Find out about my misadventures and what this other book is about.

Hey there - Ophelia here! Today I'm talking about how I have nightmares. . .and how I genuinely think they are part of another reality. I know, weird. (Even I think it's a bit weird) Anyways, it's got me thinking about writing a character that can manipulate dreams. This sends me on a whole journey of thinking about the not so normal abilities that my characters and the setting can have. Love to hear from you all! Happy listening!

Hi, I'm Ophelia and I'm writing a book. . .kinda. Join me as I talk through my very self taught writing process and dish all the gossip on all the people, places and experiences that are soon to be people, places and experiences in my book.

Want to know my real identity? Well, get in line ;) Today I'm talking about expectations I'm failing at, how I'm coming to grips with that, how I can make my mute character communicate more and how nature is just constantly shaping my life and my book. (and I also talk about a million other things today - get ready for the ADD ride of your life cause I'm a little bit all over the place. . .hopefully in a good way.

Hello everyone! Well, I did it, I retired from teaching, and one week in I'm a little lost. I'm usually really good about keeping to a schedule and accomplishing goals and this week I think I've accomplished doing maybe one load of laundry. So, this week I'm talking about how I hear other writers handle this self-disciplined writing life and also about how I've come to view romance in the scope of YA novels. Oh yeah, also how I'm super gullible about stories of dramatic artists throwing themselves over the cliffs in the south of France. Ya know, classic Ophelia.

Hello my loves! Do you want to hear about my favorite author? Do you want to hear a podcast without a puppy running into every surface of a room? Well, you are in luck my friends, this is just the podcast. On this episode, I'm talking about how I'm trying to figure out what makes my writing voice. This is not something that I've really contemplated before, but I'm trying to be more intentional about it this time around. To do that, I'm looking at (and talking about) my favorite author Margaret Atwood.

I'm a week behind. . . .again. This time I have a fairly good excuse, and it has to do with a code red on our campus at school which got me thinking (a terrible habit, I know). Enjoy listening to how my life is continuing to not go as planned yet once again while I try to write a book. Love you all!

Today we took a field trip! Most of the podcast was recorded in my classroom, with two of my students as our guests. These ladies are awesome and attempting to write books in middle school (I hope they both succeed!). We chat about their books and process. Keep an eye open, cause when they are for sale I will add the link :)

Hello all! So this week didn't go as planned. What's new. Learn about how an accident in our family has inspired me to put a plot twist of sorts into the book. But where, when and to whom? That's the question. Also, I found more ghost teeth.

Hello all! It is I, Ophelia, with you today talking about this woman that I've met in community theater that has inspired me to use parts of her personality as the character of "Mims" in the book. Who is Mims? Who is this community theater legend? Listen and find out.

So, ya know how sometimes you make plans and they just turn out so beautifully you can't believe it? This was not one of those times. I got a big case of the doubts and never ended up sending my first chapter to my friends, and so I decided that (after chatting about that struggle) I would just read chapter one here for you all. Would love to hear what you think!

Howdy, howdy, howdy! Today I'm getting into my main characters, who they are, what parts of me they are (and what parts of others they are as well). I thought that this would be easy, but it turns out that getting deep into characters without giving away integral parts of the story is a little bit of a challenge. I also am getting into this idea that I have for the audiobook, and how I'm going to introduce some original music into the intros. Feeling brave to share one of them. Speaking of feeling brave - I'm going to be sending out one of the first chapters of the book to a couple of folks (and let me know if you want to be added to that fun!) I'm hoping to get their feedback in next week's episode. This is making me all kinda of anxious just thinking about it, but I feel like sharing it first with people that have my back is a good starting point. And, of course, I go tragically off topic several times and tell rando stories about my life. Maybe I should change the name of this to "I'm hosting a podcast about writing a book. . .kinda"

I love old fairy tales. The ones where the good people don't necessarily have a happy ending and where sometimes there's absolutely nothing to be learned besides sometimes life gets weird at times. So, for this book I'm exploring the precursor to "Sleeping Beauty" which is an old Italian Fairytale called "The Sun, Moon and Talia". I'm also chatting about how I'm planning to incorporate the fairytale with the new story (and generally going through how I'm actually planning this time along - what a concept.) Finally, I'm talking about how we are going to dive into some of the main characters next week and how I'm trying to use some people's crappy behavior as inspiration for villainous behavior.

There may be questions here. . .Who is Ophelia? Why is she writing a book? How does one "kinda" write a book? I'm here to answer these questions as you also get a chance to hear me ponder my life in general. Spoiler alert: there are spoilers!