October Writing Challenge Days 11 - 17

October is speeding by faster than I could ever have dreamed. We haven't done much of anything it seems, but I'm still so busy I can hardly keep up. I haven't gotten as much planning done as I'd hoped and to find myself already at the mid-month point is, to be frank, quite frustrating. How did I do all this planning before? How did I manage to fill my schedule to this level which makes it almost impossible to do anything but minimal planning which amounts to a bare-bones sketch? To be honest, I don't hold out much hope for success in this coming Nanowrimo. I'm going to try, though.
Enough worry! On with the challenge responses!

#1WordPromptChallenge Days 11 - 17

Here's the run-down:

• Day 11 - Farm - Outh'n Durr is raised on a farm outside a small village in Shinnoah. He's a secondary character and part-time antagonist in book three of my series, and the MC of one of the short stories I'll be tackling for #nanowrimo2019.
• Day 12 - Black - One of the MC's in the novelette I wrote recently is a Genzetti who is the color of shadows. He's pretty epic, Kol Udota is.
• Day 13 - White - Shinnoah boasts several coastal towns. The ships are all fitted with sails. They aren't the only clan with merchants and sailors. M'Neshunnaya has a few ports, as does Bot'ha. And while Clan Ikhel'dur doesn't ever sail far from their island homes, some of their sea vessels do boast sails. Theirs are colorful, though, whereas the other clans use white or ivory sails. The Shinnoahn sailing ships make an appearance in one of the first short stories I wrote.
• Day 14 - Cold - A recipe for you! Well, it's for you if you just like semi-sweet snacks. :) Since learning of my fructose intolerance, I've had to make tons of changes to my diet. I modify most things so my body can process what I eat more easily. I can't just buy any already-blended or added-to yogurt. I can't eat fruit pectin, honey, and many fruits. So I usually blend my own additions into either plain or vanilla yogurt. When using plain yogurt, I add regular granulated sugar or maple syrup in small amounts to sweeten it a little. Here's the recipe for the yogurt in the photo above. 1/2 cup plain no-fat yogurt; 2 Tbsp diced and sugared strawberries (I diced a whole pound of strawberries and sugared them with one or two Tbsp of granulated sugar. If you've never done this, dice your clean and hulled strawberries into a bowl. Add the sugar. Stir until it's blended pretty well. Let sit in refrigerator for about 30 minutes up to a couple of hours. Then they're ready.); 1 tsp chia seeds; 1 Tbsp pepitas (mine are raw but roasted/salted works well, too); 1/2 tsp honest-to-goodness for-real maple syrup; a dash of ground cinnamon. I topped mine with five almonds. (Yes, I have to count and measure everything.) I do stir it before I eat it. :)
• Day 15 - Hot - I do enjoy drinking tea, usually in the evenings. This cup was a stop-gap for the time-between. I was out of coffee and still wanted something warm to drink. I've been trying to keep my coffee down to 3 cups/day and that's going well. This is a cup of peppermint tea, but I've lately enjoyed raspberry leaf tea quite a lot.
• Day 16 - Many - There are many characters in my world already. And I have 'many' stories started, though only one of them is actually published for real. There is one short story out (on Wattpad or you can read it here on the blog) and another of my novel-sized stories is still available on Wattpad for now. I'll probably take it down soon, though. It still needs too much work. I got most of the photos in this collage from either Pixabay or Pexels Photos. They provide royalty free photos which I can use free commercially, too.
• Day 17 - Few - During Nanowrimo 2019, I'll be tackling a collection of short stories. Most of these will focus on one character or a short series of events. The largest cast is in the story "A Tale of Storm & Shadow" and the focus is on four individuals. I'm only writing three stories to add to the collection because I already have three in mostly-complete, rough draft form. I hope you enjoy the title pages I created for each story! These are only a few of them, as I can't share one because it may spoil another story. This book won't be published until much later, so by that time, it'll be safe to share. Just not yet... :) I made all these with Gimp using clip art elements I gathered from Clip Art.org when I started working on the art for my first book in the series. I'm so glad I grabbed lots of elements then because the only other site I've found offering royalty free clip art doesn't seem to work with Gimp. I haven't figured out why yet. The photos I'm sharing here have been altered from the black and white format in Pixlr. When the title pages go into the book, they must be black and white to make it more affordable for both you and me. I do like how these came out in both the black and white and these colored adaptations of the format. Also, I created a new front cover for 'Purpose' because I'd like to update the boring one I have up on Wattpad. If you click on any of the title page photos, you can check out the little video clip I shared to IG.
  

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Thanks for your continued support as I keep on walking this path. This year has been an uphill battle but I hope to end it on a high point.