A. B. England
  • Home
    • About
    • Writing Credits
    • Calendar
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Written Works
    • Paperbacks
    • A.I. Universe
    • Icarus
    • Myth & Science
    • Secrets and Stones
    • Supers
    • Yekara
    • Leave a Review
  • Store

Quarterly Goals Update

6/2/2020

0 Comments

 
The title of today's post is kind of a misnomer. I will be giving an update on the quarterly goals "series," but it's not the kind of update you'd expect.

Actually, the whole update can be summed up as quarterly goals will be suspended indefinitely. Details are below the break if you are interested, if not, that last sentence is what it all boils down too anyway.

Read More
0 Comments

Changes Incoming

3/3/2020

0 Comments

 
You might have noticed a few changes happening here on the website over the past month or so. The home page is no longer static. The buttons at the top of the page have changed. There are now paged dedicated to the A.I. universe, Myth and Science universe, and Supers universe. 

Those have been occurring slowly over the weeks. I'm here today to give you a heads up about more changes coming over the next few months. 

Read More
0 Comments

Flash Fiction Fridays are Changing a Little.

1/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Today's post will be a short one. I just wanted to let you all in on a change coming to Flash Fiction Fridays for the foreseeable future.
Picture of a grumpy looking cat with the caption,
Neither do I, but it's not a bad one.

Read More
0 Comments

Back at It

8/18/2018

0 Comments

 
Not long after my last post, things got turned on their head for our family. The contract C. L. was working ended earlier than expected, so we found ourselves scrambling to find steady work with which to support ourselves. We had already purchased three more gallons of paint before said contract ended. So our time was split between applying to several different postings every day and working our way through as much of the home redo as we could with the supplies we already had between assessments and interviews.
living room before image, living room makeover
Living Room Before
Living Room After, living room redo in transition
Living Room Now

Read More
0 Comments

Cutting Back

2/13/2018

0 Comments

 
My mom, mother-in-law, grandmothers, and C.L. have been getting onto me for a couple years now for spreading myself too thin, and I've been fighting them on it the whole way. But they haven't been wrong.

When something didn't work out or wasn't working as well as I'd hoped, my first instinct has always been to do more. No matter how stressed out it made me or how little time I had to put into something, just pile more onto the to do list. I ought to be able to do it all and then some, or I'm a failure all around.

Read More
0 Comments

Filling the Hiatus Void

1/12/2018

2 Comments

 
As I announced last Friday, the flash fiction series is on hiatus for the next three months to make more room in the schedule for getting back to Icarus and writing fiction in general. However, I do want to keep the Tuesday and Friday posting schedule. I just need something non-fiction I can write up in an hour or two.

Since I'm not writing this blog for myself but for you lovely readers, I want to know what you'd like to see here on Fridays through the beginning of April.

Would you like journal like entries? What about some more genre and trope based articles? Maybe you'd prefer some tales from the convention circuit or slice-of-life story time posts. Should I go in a completely different direction and start posting recipes or DIY tutorials like I do over on Contented Comfort's blog, or should I try to rustle up some guest bloggers to post?

Let me know if the comments below.
2 Comments

Flash Fiction Friday On Hiatus

1/5/2018

0 Comments

 
C. L. and I talked over some issues I've been having trying to get back in the swing of writing fiction the other day, and we decided it would be best if I placed the Flash Fiction Friday segment of the blog on hiatus until the first Friday in April.

You know how "everyone" always says "write every day" when people ask for advice on improving their writing? Well, if the last half of 2017 taught me anything, it's that staying in practice is key. After not writing anything but lesson plans from July to the end of October, I've been finding it very difficult to write much of anything, but fiction is proving more difficult to return to than articles. It's just a completely different way of thinking behind the process, you know?

Because of this, I end up spending a huge chunk of the week trying to write the flash fiction for that week, so I'm always running last moment instead of getting anywhere close to ahead. If this keeps up, the chances of ever getting caught up enough to get serious about returning to drafting Icarus before the end of 2018 are slim to none. So in pulling the plug on the expectation of having a new flash fic up every week, I hope to free up enough time and "thought space" to get back to work on Icarus and use that to try and get back into the swing of writing fiction again.

On a not quite related note, I know I mentioned our plans to begin redecorating C. L. and my master bedroom suite this weekend in Wednesday's post and how that would probably be our vlog this week. But then the sinus infection I've been trying to ward off since early December broke free and hit me like a semi yesterday morning. Work is being done, but there's no way I'll manage to scrape enough of myself back together by tomorrow to even go and purchase the paint and supplies let alone handle all the prep and get paint on the walls.

I apologize for the delay in new stories, but I hope this hiatus will result in better stories later in the year as well as a new novel by the end of the year.
0 Comments

Returning to Normal

11/14/2017

0 Comments

 
I announced the reason for the blog's slow down back at the very beginning of August, complete with the mention of a hope things would return to normal once I settled into teaching, but that never happened. As it turns out, my perfectionistic tendencies didn't mesh well with trying to teach three classes and keep other "balls" in the air, juggling work, writing, and running a small business the way I've done in the past with more typical administrative positions. To put more of a point to it, I didn't mesh well with classroom teaching, so I ended up leaving my position at Foster Academy at the end of October.
Nichole and her beans spring 2016.Nichole was proud of the beans she sprouted for science class back in 2016.
The way my brain works, my memory in particular, is excellent for working one-on-one with students as a tutor, mentor, or a homeschooling mom. However, without a carefully written and laid out script to follow each class, it makes me the kind of teacher kids hate in a classroom setting. You know, one of those teachers whose train of thought jumps the track every few minutes, so they're impossible to follow?

Yeah, I was that teacher the first week or so until I learned to start writing myself scripts to follow in the form of slides presentations. You see, I remember things by association. One fact links to another and another and another because of similarities between them.


Read More
0 Comments

Change of Plans

5/16/2017

0 Comments

 
One of my biggest goals for this quarter was to finish the Icarus rough draft, but plans have changed.

It's not something I can really talk about at this stage, but I'm helping on a big project that will be ongoing. I might talk about it once things are more settled, but suffice to say the most intensive part of it will take place over the summer this year. Because of this, my time is going to be very limited. Things here on the blog won't change much, if I can help it, but I'm going to have to put drafting Icarus on hold until at least mid-August.

I apologize for the "secrecy," but rest assured, I'll let you in on what's going on when I can.
0 Comments

Holiday Sales are Coming!

11/15/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Normally, I would make this kind of announcement closer to the date, but I didn’t want to upset the posting schedule for the back to basics series yet again.

This is only my second holiday season since establishing this website, and I don’t think I mentioned anything about either my annual Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale or my Christmas sale last year on this blog. While the sale is mostly for Contented Comfort, the small business largely responsible for supporting my writing habit, the books are included in the sale. Because of the larger overhead for books, especially printed copies, I cannot mark them down by the same margins I do the bath and body products or even the few crochet items in stock. However, a 20% markdown is still pretty good, and that includes the signed paperbacks as well as the ebooks!


Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Author A. B. England, science fiction author, fantasy author, novelist
    A. B. England is a small business owner, mom of two, novelist, all around geek, and avid crafter. She loves mythology, fantasy, and all flavors of science fiction.

    Subscribe


    Categories

    All
    AI Universe
    Back To Basics
    Blog Updates
    Book Reviews
    Character Archetypes
    Common Tropes
    Community
    Creative Writing Free Course
    Editing
    Fantasy
    Flash Fiction Friday
    Icarus Universe
    Meet A. B.
    Myth & Science Universe
    Publishing
    Quarterly Goals
    Remembering Audience
    Science Fiction
    Stones Universe
    Super Heroes
    Supers Universe
    The Icarus Trilogy
    The Yekara Series
    Throwback
    Upcoming Events
    Writer's Block
    Writing
    Writing Method
    Writing Technicals


    Work Que


    ​Yekara Series Book 2
    Prewriting/Outlining
    20%

    ​The Icarus Project

    ​Rough Draft Progress
    77384 / 75000

    ​Myth & Science Collection
    Planning Stages
    38%
    Supers Collection
    Planning Stages
    23%

    ​Icarus Series Book 2
    Sketched w/ Some Drafting
    Icarus Collection
    Sketched
    Yekara Series Book 3
    Sketched
    Myth & Science Collection 2
    Intent Only at this Time
    Icarus Trilogy Book 3
    Sketched
    Supers Collection 2
    Intent Only at this Time
    Yekara Series Book 4
    Sketched
  • Home
    • About
    • Writing Credits
    • Calendar
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Written Works
    • Paperbacks
    • A.I. Universe
    • Icarus
    • Myth & Science
    • Secrets and Stones
    • Supers
    • Yekara
    • Leave a Review
  • Store