Introducing Some New and Expanded Content!!!

For quite awhile now, I've been toying with the idea of bringing together more of my creative endeavors into one place.  I intended for this to be solely a blog about writing, but I've encountered a few problems with that model.  One is that I find it hard to find time to write, let alone come up with a blog post about the process, on any sort of regular basis.  Another is that I don't usually wish to share my ideas and drafts before they are formed better in my mind and - preferably - on published paper.  But then looking back on the process and trying to come up with something to say about it all after the fact isn't the easiest thing, either.  By then I will have moved on to some other project or two, as well!

And speaking of other projects, I've got a lot more on the go lately than just writing my next amazing novel.  All of which is what brought me to the decision I've now made - to join together all of my little side projects into one incredibly well-rounded blog.  A place I can pull together all of my ideas and wonderings and exciting pieces of news, in a reader-friendly venue, so that it can all be shared with as many of you as possible, and maybe even pick up a follower or two along the way!

So sit back and take a look at what all is coming up for your reading, viewing and listening pleasure from now on, after the jump below!  :)



Where to begin?!  I'll start with one of my biggest projects, which also happens to be one of my newest:  The Mind Reels blog and podcast.  Co-created with our showrunner, Timothy D. Rideout, The Mind Reels is our way of delving more into the things we love most: television, movies, books, conventions, etc.  All of the pop and indie culture areas that have grabbed our attention and our hearts, as well as the people involved with creating them.  We just got started in October 2011, but already our little site is climbing up the charts, and is eclectic enough that it literally covers something for everyone along the way.  Yet at its core, the site is - very disctinctly - us, and we're both learning and growing so much from the experience that I can only imagine it gets even better from here!

Another huge side project has been the starting of my own little store on Etsy, Conjoined Soul Geekery.  Started just over a year ago in December 2010, CSG is where I let my not-so-inner geek all hang out, in the form of handcrafted, one-of-a-kind goods.  At the moment, my focus has been on fridge magnet poetry sets based in the universes of Firefly and Serenity, and the Hunger Games book trilogy.  The Browncoat set comes packaged in a wee Chinese noodle box container, while the Hunger Games set is wrapped up in a small silver parachute.  Each set contains over 500 words and phrases recognizable to fans, and - so far - loved the world over!  The sets have been selling almost faster than I can make them, so I haven't had much time to branch out yet, but you can be sure that I will!  The ideas aren't near run out yet!  ;)

One that I have been working on (and it's taking forever) is clay candle holders.  Handmade in the style of the Circle of Friends candle holders, these ones are created for Browncoats everywhere:

They are highly detailed and made of sturdy Sculpey and Fimo oven-bake clay, hardened only once all of the details have been put into place.  The ring in the centre even glows in the dark!  Like I said, though, these are taking a really long time to make, so they won't be selling regularly until I get better (and faster) at making them.  But they're on their way!  :)

Finally, I have a few CafePress stores, some of which I've linked to on the homepage of this blog, because they have products related to Carving The Light and Ebon Black and the Seven Dryads.  But I have other things on the go there, as well.  I hope to soon pull them all together into one store that has several different lines, but for now, there is one sweet design I want to share!  It's in honour of the original miniseries, V, which aired in 1983, and starred (among others) Marc Singer as camera man-turned-rebel hero, Mike Donovan.  This particular design is devoted to him. 

As with everything else, there is even more to come, but only once I finally get some time to work on it all!

In other writerly news, I do have a new project in mind, but it's much darker than I'd ever intended to go with my writing, so we'll see.  I have spoken about it out loud, but I have yet to actually make notes for it.  It's still churning in my brain, for now.  And, in case you haven't heard, a slightly revised version of Carving The Light has made it into Round Two of the ABNA contest again this year!  I ran out of time before submissions began, but my general aim was to make the beginning stronger and hopefully more exciting, to draw in potential readers.  I also altered the timeline to make everyone younger, but now that I've had more time to think about it, I am not sure I like it that way, so I may change it back later.  I'd like to work on the beginning more, as well as the overall manuscript, before I'd consider re-issuing it yet again, however.  One thing at a time, I guess!

So there you have it.  Hopefully there will be more regular posts coming from now on.  Feel free to check out this blog and all of my side ventures, and I'll make a point of updating everything a lot more often!

Until soon,

SAM