I have moved my blog to http://www.carriefulkvaughn.com if anyone is still interested in following me. While I appreciated my time with WordPress, I have moved on to another venue.
You can find all updates about me on this new site. Thank you for your continued support.
State of the Author
My days lately have been filled with work, crafting and gaming preparation. I’ve been posting pictures of what I’ve been working on via Twitter. Marcon and Midorifest preparations have taken me down a peg or three and I feel as though I’ve been doing nothing but prep work for those events.
I have spent a lot of time recreating all of the blog posts I lost through my book blog being shut down. The link at the top of the page for Yeah Books! has been updated to the new site. For as much time and effort as I put into those blog posts, to have it shut down out from under me really hurts. I individually formatted each and every post to my blog. Yes, some of the content was similar, but each and every post was hand entered, hand linked and formatted and checked for accuracy. I spent time on what I did. A lot more than I spend writing “original” posts for my blog.
Yes. A little bitter. I’ll be over it soon.
I have been writing for not only the D20 Girls magazine, but also for the Caffeine Crew and those posts have been going relatively well. I just have to keep up on them and not let deadlines pass me by. Like the encroaching deadline for my blog post on the D20 Girls website. I write about mobile games on the Caffeine Crew, I write about ball jointed dolls for the D20 Girls blog and I have several different articles available for the D20 Girls magazine. In the upcoming edition, I have written a book review, manga review and an article on Japanese street fashion.
Off of the article I wrote, I will be presenting a class at Midorifest on street fashion and what makes a decora style. I will also be running Hunter the Vigil and World of Darkness at Midorifest. I’m considering it a mini-run for Marcon since there’s only a month between them.
And I’m nervous as hell.
Normally when I am in a position of authority, my social anxiety is abated. Hopefully this holds true and the nervousness is just excitement.
We are only a few weeks out from spring. Maybe then I won’t feel so bleh about everything. Maybe I should look into a tanning membership for the next couple of months.
Blog Suspension
Currently my review blog, Yeah Books!, has been suspended until WordPress conducts a review of the terms of service in regards to my blog.
We are not just a tour blog site. We do reviews and I have just added two more book reviewers to the site. I will contact each of my blog partners and see what can be done. If all else fails, I will be signing up with blogger instead and posting all Yeah Books! reviews on Blogger instead.
I’m seriously disappointed that WordPress is banning promotion efforts by authors.
MidoriFest 2015
I will be attending MidoriFest this year and running Hunter the Vigil and perhaps Vampire the Requiem or a World of Darkness humans campaign. I might also be convinced to bring some Magic cards and play one v one when I’m not running games. Come visit!!
The event will be located at:
Shawnee State Park
4404 Ohio 125
West Portsmouth, OH 45663
The event runs from:
Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 10:00 AM
Sunday, April 19, 2015 at 2:00 PM (EDT)
MARCON
I will be serving as one of three game heads for MARCON 50. We will be at the Hyatt convention center in Columbus, Ohio. When I’m not running games, I will be participating in panels and working game operations. If you’re into science fiction, fantasy, write either of those things or you want to come game with us, pick up a badge!
Columbus in Darkness will host a Live Action Role Play (LARP). We have an Amptguard team on staff who will be training us how to fight. (And you know I’ll be in the middle of that as long as Branden will have me.) We have tabletop games, we’ll have computer and system gaming and board games available all weekend.
The panels this year are really interesting. There are several writing oriented panels as well as gaming and general science fiction geekery. I had to severely limit myself on how many panels I wanted to participate in. There are panels I want to attend because I know absolutely nothing about the subject and I want to know more. And that’s not even talking about the presentations.
We have been hard at work putting together prize packs for the various tournaments. I don’t want to let too much slip, but there have been rumors of a super awesome giveaway by the Amptguard group and I also heard rumors of super awesome dice bags. Not to mention what I’m making and giving away. You all know I’m a massage therapist, right? I’ll just sit here and nod knowingly at you while you figure that one out.
We have an entire area specifically for children’s gaming and I will be running Faery’s Tale. Parents and children can play together in this tabletop RPG and I’m SUPER STOKED to play with you guys. Seriously stoked. I even made little prizes for the kids who play. And the parents. Because I would TOTALLY want one of these things. It doesn’t make a lot of noise and it’s pretty. And some of them are sparkly.
Plus there will be NASA things there. I can’t tell you what, but it’s super awesome!
The convention runs May 8th, 9th and 10th. I want to meet people!
Cover reveal! Silent Shadows Come
I received a very exciting email yesterday. The cover art is finally finished for Silent Shadows Come, the anthology I’ve been long awaiting the release. I wanted to share the cover with everyone. It should be released by the end of February for purchase from Circlet Press.
State of the Union or somesuch
I haven’t been on much since the end of October and I thought perhaps an update was in order. Hopefully this is something interesting for everyone, although I can’t promise.
November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month, for those unfamiliar with the insanity). I am one of the municipal liaisons for Columbus, Ohio, which means I get to host events for the region, monitor the forums, keep up with participant email and forums and do word sprints with the twitter feed. All this in addition to writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I managed to get my novel written in addition, but I didn’t get much else done outside of Thanksgiving dinner. My house looked like a disaster zone. Thankfully my housemates take pity on me in November and at least kept everything picked up.
I believe I’ve posted once before about my dad. He was diagnosed with late stage esophogeal cancer. He has been undergoing chemotherapy and while the tumor shrunk slightly, once he goes off chemo, there is a chance the tumor could come back violently. If that happens, he would probably be gone within six months from that date. I wanted to spend the holidays with my dad this year, just in case it’s the last holiday season I get to spend with him.
To keep mom and dad from having to cook dinner, I hosted Thanksgiving at my house this year. I made a 20 pound turkey and enough food we were eating leftovers for two weeks. We played games after dinner and I actually got mom and dad playing for once. They normally sit around watching TV for the holidays.
Christmas was another story entirely. Mom and dad didn’t want to cook Christmas dinner, either. My aunt offered to host. But because my sister decided she wasn’t going, mom and dad cooked Christmas dinner, then the day after we were to go to my aunt’s and then that Sunday was dinner with the inlaws. Christmas day mom ended up being sick with the wicked flu that’s been going around. It made rounds around my house the week before Christmas, but the girlfriend hadn’t caught it yet. We stayed home. We went to my aunt’s. My cousin came home from work and he was sick. At least no one was sick at the inlaws. I ended up visiting my parents the Monday after Christmas once mom was over the plague.
I had the brilliant idea to make a hand crocheted scarf for each of my coworkers and the ladies in my family. I began this on December first, just after NaNoWriMo. I finished eight scarves, four children’s scarves, hats and blankets and a hat for my coworker. I have fifteen more scarves to make. My goal was a little much for me to complete.
I also wrote, illustrated and coloured a handmade book for my niece. It was time consuming, but she loved it once she realized the main characters in the book were she and her little brother. It turned out really well and I told her I would write a book for her every year if she liked it.
During the holidays, my work schedule gets crazy. We close the office I work at and they fill the schedule for the other office with volunteers. I normally take time off, but my paychecks suck in December from November and January from December. (We’re on a month pay delay. Oh the joys of being an independant contractor.) This year I volunteered to work all the available days and volunteered for extra shifts I didn’t normally work. I’ve also upped my workload at my day job so I can pay off my insurmountable credit card debt. Now I just need to keep myself from spending any money.
I also got a promotion at my day job that takes up a little bit more of my time. Mostly I have to carry out the simple things my boss needs. Decorations, make sure people don’t slam doors, keep people from being petty bitches to one another…
Which is a funny story in and of itself. The whole reason the position was created in the company is because I showed my ass. One of the girls at work is a habitual door slammer and when she’s off schedule from everyone else, the door slams half way through a massage just as I’ve gotten my client relaxed. They come off the table with their head whipping around. Which infuriates me. I’ve talked to her, other coworkers have talked to her. I flip my shit and start slamming doors. Totally passive aggressive and petty like a child. My girlfriend works the front desk and as soon as I came up front, she landed on me like a ton of bricks. We didn’t speak to one another for the rest of the night because I was absolutely furious.
I emailed my boss. And when she came back to me with the offer of the lead therapist position, I felt like an even bigger asshole. I accepted and at the meeting where they announced the promotion, I fessed up to being a child and apologised to the other therapists and my boss for being an ass. Which my boss confessed she already knew because my girlfriend had emailed her telling her she needed to step in.
I also started treatment again for my anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. It came to the point I hated my job, I had to fight the feelings of resentment against my clients, even those I loved. I was angry most of the time, snappish, reclused into activities that took me away. I was convinced no one wanted me around, that everyone was walking out of my life, that no one wanted to talk to me or hear my problems. I thought people were just humoring me. I was upset about everything and I wasn’t able to sort out my thoughts. Everything was in the forefront of my head all the time and I couldn’t prioritize things like I should have been able to. It took me two months to get in to my doctor’s office, but I finally got on Zoloft. I feel like myself again without all the horrible side effects from the Lexapro I took a few years ago.
In short…. the last few months of my year have been pretty crazy, but I should be back at it. I have plans this year to do editing and writing with people from the NaNo group. I want to finish my novel from NaNo this year and get it published.
How have you all been??
Out with the Old and in with the New
I’m participating in a blog hop to share my new year’s resolutions and since my blog has been slow, I’m pleased to participate.
My goals for the upcoming year are to finish my NaNo novel, revise, edit and submit for publication. This novel is the first in a hopeful series. I’m afraid to jinx it, so I’ll keep to myself. 🙂
In 2015, I would like to start a writing group with WriMos from my area. Maybe with the added support of other writers, I can improve and earn more contracts under my belt.
I want to pay off my credit card debt. I’m horrible about putting things on credit cards and then only making minimum payments. No more. Some of the cards will be closed and cut up. I want to start saving for a house. That money has to come from somewhere.
I want to be more involved in the gaming community in Columbus and I think my relationship with the D20 girls will allow me to do that.
Next year I can do a recap and see if any of those goals happened. 🙂
What are your goals for the new year? How do you plan to attain them?
13 Things Introverts Say And What They Actually Mean
Every one of these is completely true. I’ve managed to keep myself grounded enough to mean what I say when I say it, but I also have places to hide. 🙂
Author Allies Autumn Mixer 2014
WHEW! Am I ever LATE to this PARTY!
Hello, I’m C.V. Madison! I’m a science fiction, urban fantasy, horror and steampunk author. Most all of my stories are romance. And my characters are a wide variety of sexualities, although two of my releases feature M/M leads. I’ve recently released With Proper Maintenance, a M/M steampunk novella from Jupiter Gardens Press and sometime before the end of the year, I have a M/F ninja story coming out in an anthology from Circlet Press.
By day I am a licensed massage therapist and I like to think I’m pretty good at what I do. I’ve been at my current job for three and a half years. I worked for a Massage Envy for two and a half years prior to that. When I’ve been asked how I got into massage, the answer is always the same: I heard an ad on the radio for my school and thought “I can do that”. I walked in my first day of classes and we did hands-on that very first day. It hit me then. “Yup. This is what I’m meant to do with my life.” All in all, I’ve been a massage therapist for six years and it’s one of those jobs you don’t really see as a job. I go to work and I enjoy what I do. It’s a blessing.
I have a LOT of hobbies.
- I collect resin ball jointed dolls. I have two dolls currently and a long wish list of dolls I’d like to some day own. I write about ball jointed dolls for the Caffeine Crew on Wednesdays (which I will be posting a new article for them shortly!)
- I cosplay. I’ve been a cosplayer for several years now. I’ve done mostly video game characters from Final Fantasy, but I have a Fat Princess costume planned for Ohayocon this year.
- I’m a gamer. I’m planning on running World of Darkness campaigns for the Columbus D20 girls at various conventions. I’m going to drop my schedule up on the webpage as soon as I have confirmation. I know for a fact I’ll be doing Marcon in 2015. I also play World of Warcraft on Steamwheedle Cartel. And I have a thing for Atlus games, specifically Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne. I have yet to get into Persona.
- I crochet. Last Christmas I made blankets for my nieces and nephews. I also make shrugs and sweaters for my ball joint dolls.
- I have a thing for coffee. I worked at an independent coffee house for three years. During that time, I was educated about coffee, tea and Burts Bees products. It’s become a passion in my life as big as massage therapy and writing.
I have participated in National Novel Writer’s Month for the last eight years. I am one of the Municipal Liaisons for Columbus, Ohio. Each November a bunch of us crazy writers get together and write 50,000 words in 30 days. Most of the time we meet at libraries and coffee houses or Panera bread.
I do book reviews for the Yeah Books! blog and Masquerade Crew as well as hosting book tours with Ally Nation and Goddess Fish Promotions. The best place to interact with me is on Twitter. I’m on there all the time.
I don’t know what else to say about myself.
Leave me a comment! Comments are moderated, but I get to them as soon as I’m notified. I’d love to chat with you all!
Carrie Fulk Vaughn 