Author J. R. DuBois: Unfiltered

I feel like I'm desiccating. Not that I'm not alive. Not that I'm sad or depressed. I'm restless . I feel like a suped-up car, throttle down, revved up, my wheels spinning into the ground, going nowhere despite how hard I'm pressing the gas. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of toiling. I'm tired of putting all of my efforts towards things which don't seem to appreciate the effort. ( Matthew 7:6 "...do not throw your pearls before pigs, for they will trample them under feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." ) I feel torn to pieces. I feel yanked in different directions. I feel like I can TASTE what I'm supposed to be doing, where I'm supposed to be going, how maybe I should be doing it, and yet stunted for trying to get all the answers now, and to do it my way, on my terms, in my time. When I was with my friends in Georgia, I felt... whole. Now, that's a lot to put on some friends. This is me telling them, in the event that they...

I just spent two hours staring at my screen, being distracted by my phone at hard scenes, being distraught that my cats didn't cuddle me as they usually do while I write on rainy days, and for all my trouble, managed to write about 150 words. (Of course, the moment I start writing THIS, my boys finally want to come cuddle. Praise God. There is something absolutely magical about a cat's purr.) There's also something absolutely magical about creative flow, when everything just WORKS. Today, I pulled teeth to write a measly 150 words of a scene which I may not keep when I join Nicole for a writing retreat tomorrow at our favorite cafe and creperie , but man, when the Muse starts yammering... I can write thousands of words in the same allotted timeframe, and it. is. magic. But today. Today, today. Today's been a decent day. I woke early for work, but not as early as I usually do, so I got to sleep in some, trained some fabulous clients, got a new one started, then jaunted t...

Hi again, from me & my Romeo. So a lot has been happening this last month-ish. Last time I posted was at the beginning of January, and thus far, my main efforts have been digging into this second book of mine (coined the Jezra Story for now), and selecting a platform for a monthly newsletter combining three seemingly un-related topics across fiction (duh), faith (double duh), and fitness (triple duh). ( Check out my Substack here ; second installment forthcoming.) But! Also, in addition to all of this mess, I've been *trying* to consistently post on social media (which is actually harder than you'd think, though, in theory, all I should need do is just share what I'm already doing), AND an agent REQUESTED A FULL COPY OF MY MANUSCRIPT . Now. This is a big deal. BUT. It still by no means means (lol, means means... English is funny) that I'll be offered a letter of representation, and now I'm in a waiting game for a couple months to learn whether or not they like e...

 Howdy Ho! ((Why won't this thing let me post a picture!? It says I have to sign into Google, but I did, dang it.)) Since my previous post, I've had some significant traction, where the creative process goes. I heard back from one agent, but she desired me to cut my words down from 173,000 to 120,000. Give that this story was already going to be a trilogy turned duology turned single book (with series potential), it had already had a plethora of words sliced from it, but I did my best. Instead of 50,000 words, I was able to slice a little more than 11k. Not too shabby, considering there was little I could slice from the plot. I did reach back out to her, but am still awaiting feedback. Additionally, I submitted to the last remaining agents on my list for 2024, and have already received one rejection. I am grateful I was even given an actual rejection, as ofttimes, you are waiting until a certain time passes to know if you were rejected. (Perhaps I shouldn't say YOU, but tra...

Hey there, conduits. It's been several months, after which I'd said I didn't want to do to this blog as I had all the others. Well, in this case, there wasn't simply one good reason, but three. If you all have been following me, you know that 2022 was a heck of a year where cat health was a thing. It started in January when my grandfather died on the same day that my eldest cat got diagnosed with IMHA. Throughout that year, my husband and I battled how to help serve our elderly boy without going deep into thousands and thousands of dollars in debt, all while having various issues with the others -- none due to environment; our house was and is fine and healthy to be in. So, Granddad died. Jynx developed IMHA. Ozzy (Oswald) suffered chronic UTIs throughout the entire year, developed stress-related cystitis, which he still has today (just brought him back from the vet for another round of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, but we're figuring it out). Romeo swallowed...

 Hello Conduits. There has been some development in my writing life/the progression of the books. I am all but running head-long into the climax of Book Two when I realized... I want to rework the ending of Book One. Nay, not only do I want to, I must. There are a couple things I realized while writing Book Two, and that is that, at the end of Book One, I made some promises to you readers which will never be fulfilled, given the rest of the story. So I got to scrub some of those. It isn't a big deal, might take me a wee longer than I want it to, but hopefully this back-and-forth gives you some insight into what it really takes to craft a book -- and not just a book, but a well-thought-out, full-fleshed story and characters with a plot and character arcs WHICH MAKE SENSE. So, respect all those books which do just that! Because *that* is the challenge. Anyone can tell a story and hit "publish" on Amazon. But I want to do more; be better. Alright. So, unfortunately, while it...

Heavens to Betsy, is Book Two's progress slowing down because I know I'm getting near the end, getting overwhelmed with all the stuff I need to make happen before the end -- which is fast approaching -- or is it because I want to tweak the end of Book One so Book Two essentially becomes Part Two of Book One, thus making Book 1 and 2 only one book? *grabs head and screams* Yesterday, I was certain that this (the latter) was what I thought I should do. But now... Eeeeuuughhh... As I've tried to plot and draft such a thing, I realize... well. Maybe yes and maybe no. I really could make this thing a trilogy, but I also want to try very hard to make it a duology with trilogy, prequel, and sequel potential, so either way, the stories are connected, but do I finish book two, finesse it as much as I have Book One, and then ram the two together with the neat little sections of "Part One" and "Part Two," and then leave the prologue of Book Two and some of the vill...

  My Backyard Writing Spot. Isn't it gorgeous?! "They" say it takes a village to rear a child, but I say it takes a village to write a book. I cannot tell you the number of times I thought Conduit of Fire was done. Finished. Finito. Fin. I cannot tell you how many times I was wrong. If I wait for this thing to be perfect, I will never publish it. So perfection is off the table. But there is this thing called "author blindness," where the creators of the work quite literally go "blind" to certain issues that arise in the text. These could be simple typos, where we gloss over them because they're minor, and we know what we're trying to say, to larger ones, where we're trying to explain a concept but it doesn't quite come across because we forgot that either a) we didn't talk about that yet, or b) we forgot what we took out that relates to it and we still think it's in there, or c) some combination thereof. Remember, Conduit of Fir...

God said, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." That's His very first commandment. Oh, but we are so GOOD at creating idols, aren't we? Even with the very GOOD gifts He gave us! TLDR: My priorities have been realigned; Book Two is coming along nicely; I'm about to answer the final major question about what's going on with the priesthood amidst the magic system alongside corruption and resistance (super frickin' hard); my CP Angela is helping me greatly finesse COF; I think I've decided to officially self-publish, though the thought grinds my guts about actually making it happen and marketing myself into a decent author platform; and I went to a wonderful wedding of two good friends over the weekend like a mini adult summer camp. TW: Long ramble about how I see/hear/interact with God in my life. So.. bunch of Jesus stuff, but hey. He's around, so what do you expect? So this last week, I had a hard reminder of priorities. It's funny, this wh...