IWSG Oct 2025: Love what you create?

More about the
Insecure Writer’s
Support Group here

The October question at Insecure Writer's Support Group is What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?
    There a lot of things I really loved that I had written but somehow I can't think of them today. Maybe it's the ideas I loved more than the actual writing. My mind at the moment is more focused on what I'm working on now rather on what I had written. 
    Before with only a few writing experiences, I thought most of what I wrote was pretty decent but now with more years of writing, I have different opinions. It's pretty easy to fall in love with your creations even when you don't realize it. So I have learned to be more brutal (probably too strong a word) on what projects (writing or otherwise) to give up once I realized I'll never get them to the way I want. Some of my stories do stayed with me even when I had decided not to continue finishing them. 
    I've redo a lot of my artworks because I thought I could do better so with my writings, I do the same thing - rework them into better versions of what I want them to be or abandon them if necessary. Although I am a habitual procrastinator so what I abandoned doesn't always stayed abandoned

Do you always love what you created (writings or other creative endeavors)?

Book Rants: Sept 2025

I would like to have more varieties in the books I read but I always seem to end up reading murder mysteries. I had tried a couple of none murder mysteries but I barely got past the first chapter but at least I did finish one science fiction. The more I dislike a book (or anything), the more I have to complain about so some of these rants are pretty long. It wasn't a great reading month but I did enjoy a couple of books. 
   I put in the spoiler alert text in red but is it useful? It's difficult to decide sometimes what is spoiler and what isn't. I think you cannot write your thoughts on certain books without some spoilers so yes, spoilers for all the books I mentioned here.
    Here are all the books I read in September and other stuff I finished.

Books I Read:

01 - The Night Singer (The Island Murders #1) by Johanna Mo
What's it about: death of a teenage boy, investigation, teenagers, family, old crimes
This is like two books in one but the same story told twice - one in the victim's point of view (Joel, which was told in the present tense which is odd but acceptable) and the other is the investigation with various point of views, mostly Hanna's (a cop). It seemed like one of the views is redundant. I don't like going back and forth, it cuts off the continuation of the story each time.
    I'm annoyed by how much useless information and how many detours the book made before getting to the end. Also, Hanna's father's crime/case hung over the entire book as it was constantly mentioned, constantly thought about by Hanna but of course no resolution but will probably be the last case of the series. But I do find that case more interesting than Joel's case.
    Also, they kept mentioning Hanna's height (over 6 feet) and that annoys me because she really had no personality other than her height, her father's crime and also being awkward around everybody. This is a socially, awkward woman who got a bit too emotional when she shouldn't and her so-call great cop skills were mentioned but never utilized. Basically throughout the book, she was trying not to break down and sob. I don't think she's fit to be a cop, at least, she shouldn't be working Joel's case.
    I wouldn't call this is a murder mystery or even a thriller, it's mostly about people and their emotions and thoughts. I guess titling this as The Night Singer seemed almost meaningless considering that was barely referenced twice but I guess in a way, it gives a certain mystery. I honestly expected something vile or ultra-violent or something unexpectedly better than this ending with that large knife shape on the cover. What actually happened was underwhelming and dumb and I wouldn't call it murder. I don't like this two viewpoints format so I'm not continuing this series.

Fiction: Until Next Month

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by River at her blog over here. This week's prompts are: olympian, support, tabby cat, mountain, fireplace, clothesline.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fiction: Until Next Month
Cody was no olympian god but he had the strength of one. He lifted the end of the station wagon and pulled until its front wheels were on solid ground then he dropped it. Hasty, he pulled the car door open and pressed the driver's neck. Assured that there was a pulse, he took out his phone and called for an ambulance. After he tucked the phone away, he looked around. It was nearly dawn and the sky was still dark. He veered his eyes toward the water. If he had been one second later, the car would have gone into the lake and he would have to swim. Cody hated swimming especially in winter.
    A giggle sounded. Cody bended to peek in the backseat. The toddler was grinning with drool down his chin. Cody waved at the boy. The boy waved his pacifier. Cody heard a moan and peered at the driver. He opened his eyes and started to speak but no words came out. 
    "Hey, what are you doing?"

Some Rants on Book Series

Almost every book is a series so it's harder to find standalones and even if you found one, there might be a chance the author will write another book to change that status. Even books published a while back gets sequels or prequels so there's really no escape from book series so you might as well enjoy them. Here's some of my thoughts and rants on book series.

01 - The first book will always cement the verdict for me whether to continue the series or not — If the first book is bad, then the rest of the series is bad but that kind of mentality is wrong but what the heck. There are so many book series out there that there's no reason to slog through two or three books to get to the good ones. I know not every book in a series will be great but I think if you want readers to read your series, you should put all the best stuff (or at least something that makes me want to stick around) in book one - don't wait until book two to put it in because I'll never read book two if I dislike book one.

02 - Maybe publish series all at once — I don't go about trying to pick series that are already finished being published before deciding to read them. I just decide when I see the first book. So it's frustrating to have to read a book or two and find the series is incomplete because of various reasons. One reason is the series not being successful enough that no new books will be published. Another is that the author has not finished writing them or worse, the author has died. So why not only publish a series after all the books in the series are finished being written? Maybe it's a waste of paper and money to publish a series all at once, maybe a whole series may be a bigger failure (financially speaking) than a single book but incomplete series are annoying. Of course I'm not saying if the series is 20 books long to published all 20 books at once but maybe half of it or have some sort of completion with the story to the first three books.
    I dislike how some books are released as standalones but only turns into a series because that book is successful and not because it needs a sequel. I have seen this and I have say, the sequel or the next book in that so-called series is never good.

03 - Make book series as standalone series — It's a bit crazy to have a series with sub series or even sub-sub series and so forth. Just make them all separate so people won't go crazy trying to decided which order to read. I'm all for book sequels using new characters in the same universe but maybe not put in things to connect to the original series. Authors should stop connecting all their books into a singular universe. Why can't book series be standalone series or does everything have to be part of a series?
     
04 - Shorter number of books is better — Three, four, seven or even ten books in a series I can tolerate but after ten, it's just too long. I do not have patience for long series mostly because I can't fast-forward a book like a tv show. I've seen series that are 40 books long and just recently I saw one that was 60+ books. I think the longer a series the less likely the stories will get better. You can only expand so much with the same characters. 
    But if a series has each book as a sort of standalone, I don't mind this as much. For instance, for murder mysteries (which I mainly read), each book has a case so that it can be self-contained so you can read them in any order. But sadly, even with this kind of setup, there are still storylines that are continuous (like character relationships changes or characters dying, etc.) but at least, you don't have to try to figure the order too much.
  
05 - Shorter books are better — As in length - 400 pages or less, not 800 or 1,000 pages. I have low patience for book series with books the size of dictionaries - they're too much and especially way too long if the series is 5 or more  books. If one or two books are long, it's fine but if all the books are long - who has the patience? I think long books are for standalones, not series. 

06 - Put numbers on the book or after the title so we know the order of the book — I know some book series are, as stated above, self-contained so you can read them in any order but I'm an orderly reader and I prefer to read a series in order so I need to know the sequence. So yes, any reader can go search online the order of any book series but why do readers have to do that? They should be able to tell by looking at the book cover or spine (in paper formats) or inside the book (ebook format). 

07 - Reprints of parts of a series in those so-called special editions have to stop — You might have seen one or two beautiful editions of the first or second book of a series that you love and thought hey, maybe they will print the other books in the series in that same beautiful edition but nope. This pisses me off. Not only because I spent money on them but that I have half of a series which I then have to get rid of because I don't like owning half series. 
    
08 - End the larger plot quicker — I don't like book series with larger plots for the entire series that doesn't get wrap up until the last book of the series but especially for long series. For instance, for murder mysteries, I would prefer the larger plot (or a certain case that involves the main character that is constantly mentioned in every book) to get a resolution in book 2 or 3 so that if we don't read the rest of the series, we get a resolution. I don't want to read 10 books to get that resolution. 

09 - Authors shouldn't continue a series of another (usually deceased) author's completed series — They made it sound like it's a continuation but it's really a redo or remake. These new books will never have the same flavor as the original so why do it? 

10 - No more new books (such as sequels or prequels) to already finished series — When a series is completed, that's it, don't go back and release a sequel or a prequel. It's harder to accept the new additions when you've read the original. More so when the sequels comes a decade or longer after the original was finished. Like I said in #9, they will never have the same flavor even with the original writer because it's written at a different time, different mind-set, almost like a completely different series so why do it?

What do you like or dislike about book series?

Seven Things: Thoughts & Complaints

Greetings From Brooklyn

Today is September 7th so I thought it is appropriate to post another Seven Things which I haven't done in awhile. Basically, these are just random thoughts, complaints, rants – stuff that annoys me enough to think about them a bit longer. (I created this new art (above) as a digital postcard for a pal so I thought I shared it. It said Free Cupcake on the little poster on the right.)

01 - A recent author was maybe considered a scammer because her book turned out to be crappy. She hyped up her book so readers were expecting something amazing and they didn't get it. Any book no matter how well is written or how great the author is, still have a chance to be crappy so why are people complaining? I can understand the disappointment of spending money on a book and then getting something crappy. But she is not completely to blame. I think it's your fault if you believe in the hype, right? I mean, a lot of books were hyped/marketed to be amazing and never delivered so why focus on this particular author? 

02 - Technology is a bit problematic if you can't get online. For example, once when I searched my computer for why I can't get online, the answer my computer showed me is to tell me I have to be online to see the answers - why is the help on your computer not on your computer but online? The problem is everything is online so if you can't get online, than you're screwed. But I suppose you can call someone instead...

03 - Some bloggers have made their blog to allow only members of the blog to leave comments which I thought is a form of exclusivity. This is saying 'you can only participate if you're a member' which irks me but it shouldn't because everyone have the rights to have their blog read only by the people they want. 
    When new readers comes along, how are they to comment? Supposedly, would-be readers can email the blogger but for me, I'm a bit of a shy reader when it comes to new blogs (or even blogs I have read for years) so I don't go about asking permissions to comment on blogs. A while back, when some bloggers closed a blog and started a new one, they left a post about sending them emails to get their new blog's url but I never did that either. I don't know why but I feel a bit awkward asking for permission or their new url when I didn't need it before. I guess on a personal level, I'm not good at asking such things when I don't know if those bloggers even remember me as one of their readers. 

04 - Recently, I saw a video about tips to living a better life and the first thing is to clean your toilet - does it sound like your life would be better if you clean your toilet? It might be true but it's not the kind of advice I care for. I think if you're a clean freak, that might actually be your first choice but I don't know. I think they probably should have listed it lower on the list because I didn't want to watch the rest after that advice.

05 - Last month, I had to sign out of my kobo ereader and then when I signed back in, all my preferences are gone. What happened was I accidentally removed a library book while trying to remove a different book and somehow hit on the wrong book. Then I tried to retrieve it but it wouldn't work. Even when I returned and re-borrowed the book, it wouldn't re-upload when I synced the device. So I signed out of Kobo and then re-signed in but damm, all my preferences (text sizes, margin width, brightness settings, words I saved when I looked up their definition, etc.) are all gone. I have to reset every preference I had ever changed. I used the same kobo account and everything but it was as it was treating me like a new user. Why aren't my preferences saved to my device or account? It didn't make sense. Supposedly signing out of something can fix problems because when there is no other option and I wasn't going to reset the whole device but I might as well have done it since I had to reset every preference anyway.
    I was dumb not to try to sign out of Overdrive first which might have saved me some headaches which hadn't occurred to me. Maybe my brain isn't working too well these days but not being able to have your saved preferences when you signed out of the device is just  stupid. 

06 - Sadly, I have exceeded my holds at the library because some of the books I had placed are taking a really long time. The longest one will take 20 weeks until it is my turn to borrow it which makes me wonder how I have the patience to wait for books. The longest time I had waited for a library book is a little over half a year and that book was such a disappointment but I still continue to wait. I don't know where I get the patience but I have plenty of it when it comes to waiting for library books. (Note: I read only borrowed library ebooks.)

07 - Do you ever hit the wrong keys on your computer and your screen or app or window that are opened does some crazy or inexplicable things you can't undo or fix? That's me most daily now. It's especially annoying when I'm using Firefox because they added features I didn't want and can't turn off because some of them have no turn off option and some makes no sense to me. 
    I hate it when users have to adapt to do things in new ways instead of doing it their way. Sometimes I think app creators or technology-related creators likes to annoy users by forcing them to do things their way or how else to explain why updates and upgrades are always so annoyingly dumber or worst?

What's on your mind these days? 

Fiction: Dinner on a Cloud

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by River at her blog over here. This week's prompts are: conviviality, adoration, willpower, mellow, gentle, guitar.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fiction: Dinner on a Cloud
Vida's annual dinners were famous for their well-planned, delicious menus as well as their quirky and sometimes perilous locations. Always, Vida was a convivial host who never failed to delight her guests' tastebuds. For ten years, Vida's dinners had long been the neighborhood's most anticipated fall event.
    This year, Vida sent out invitations months before September but told no one of what she will be serving or where it will occur. People who had previously attended her dinners had such adoration for her cooking that no matter what, they would always show up. Rumors had it one of the guests missed out on the birth of his first child just to attend Vida's dinner. 

IWSG Sept 2025: Motivation, Procrastination

More about the
Insecure Writer’s
Support Group here

Supposedly I lied to myself because I thought I would be submitting some of my stories to literary online journals but all I managed to do is submitted one story and that's was it. So now I'm thinking I'm too cowardly or something. I don't think it's rejection that's stopping me.
    It would be nice if someone would take my stories and do the editing and the submitting because I certainly don't seem to be doing it. And I have a hard time deciding which stories to submit considering most of them I can't submit. (Sadly, most online journals do not accept stories that had been posted on your blog - that is considered published. And some have so much requirements that I'm not qualified.)
    In terms of writing and pretty much all my projects, I am constantly putting off what I can finish right away. For some odd reason, I seem to be waiting for something but I don't know what.
    I think it's due to lack of motivation that I haven't submitted more stories or finish writing them. I'm not as motivated as before. I keep  procrastinating thinking I'll get back to it. But of course if you keep procrastinating you'll probably never get to finish anything. But I think finish/do what you can and worry about the rest later but maybe that's another form of procrastination - you think later but there seems to be no later. I don't know where the motivation went. But hopefully, motivation will find me again or I'll find it somehow.
        
What do you do when you can't find that motivation? Do you like procrastinating?