The Book of My World, on #LisaBurtonRadio

Attention all you writers and dreamers, lovers and readers, avatars and NPCs. You’ve reached Lisa Burton Radio, the only show on the airwaves that interviews characters from the books you love. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl. Today, I’m proud to welcome my very special guest, Tiernan Hartwell. “Welcome to the show, Tiernan.”

“Ah, hello, Lisa. I’m happy you’ve agreed to see me and help me find Dyre.”

“Tiernan, my bio says you’re on a self imposed quest to find the woman you love. My interns leave something to be desired. Does this mean you’re looking for any old woman to love, or is someone special missing?”

“No, no…hardly any old woman at all. She’s a loan goddess, one of our champions loaned from another world to help us fight against our greatest foes. Without them, we would have been crushed under Llyr’s might. But she’s not the only one of them missing, they all are.”

“It sounds like a pretty worthy mission. What’s your next move.”

“I…I don’t know. Somehow, some way, I need to make my way to her world, to find her, to make sure she’s okay, even though it’s never been done before. They come here, we never go there. Something must have gone wrong, she would have never left us…me…like this. I don’t even know if it’s possible, though. I’m not the right sort of mage to do this, it would take years to learn what I need to know…”

“Sounds to me like someone needs a steaming hot mug of Man the Hell Up here. She could be in trouble. If you don’t rescue her, who will?”

“No one will. No one else can. I just don’t know if it’s possible.”

“This sounds like there’s more here than a soldier rescuing his aristocratic master from peril. you have feelings for Dyre, don’t you?”

“Absolutely. Dyre…well, she made me everything that I am now. I love her, I’ve been with her for a decade…my entire adult life. She is everything, life without her is empty. I can’t imagine having gone through this, to be victorious, and then not have her here to celebrate it. She won, we won, she should be here to see the fruits of that. All of that. We owe it to her. I owe it to her.”

“Well, you have to go after her. What’s your next move?”

“It…well, it might be possible. I’d have to go back to Llyr, the kingdom we fought…there’s a font of great power there. But it’s dangerous, there are a great many terrible things left behind from the war. The friends who could help me do this are few…I can only think of one or two who could even try to make the journey to that font. After that, it would only be me. I’d have to do it alone. And…well, I’ve never done anything alone in my life. Dyre was the one who made the decisions. The one who took all of the risks. I just followed her. I’ve always just followed her lead. But I’d do anything to be at her side again. Even if things change, even if she has a man from her own world, someone who is able to be what I couldn’t be for her… I would still want to be in her household. It’s my place. It’s what I was forged to be. I am adrift here, I have no meaning or use alone.”

“Awww, poor guy. Why are you still here?”

“I am…afraid. This has never been done before. Dyre is a warrior, and I’ve been trained to be a warrior’s companion. I kill our enemies. I burned down that which stood in our way. I’ve never, ever been taught to do portal magic. I don’t even know if I can. If I can’t, I will not survive the attempt. But I can’t survive staying here, no matter how fine a place she has left me in. What good is luxury when I feel dead inside now?”

“Those are some terrible choices. Give up an accomplished and comfortable life completely, for only a chance to be with the woman you love. I feel so bad for you. I wish you all the luck in the world in deciding what to do. Do you have any closing remarks for our listeners today?”

“Wish me well. I know that, either way, nobody here will know if I make it or not.  But I have to try. Maybe I can find her and bring her back. Maybe I can’t, but there’s only one way to find out, and that is to do this.”

“You can read all about Tiernan’s decision, and his adventures, in The Book of My World, by Melissa Cuevas. I’ll include the purchase link on the website.

“It would really help Tiernan and Melissa out if you would use those sharing buttons on the way out today. It helps out my show too, so I appreciate all of you.

For Tiernan and Dyre, and for Lisa Burton Radio, I’m Lisa Burton.”

***

Blurb: Ten years ago, with the rise of the Llyrian threat, Mirach’s champions had come from their home world to stand in her defense as their ancestors had centuries before. Tiernan Hartwell’s life had changed then when he had been chosen as a holy companion to one of these champions, the great loan goddess Dyre Wrathbourne. He’d stood at her side for a decade, fighting for her and fighting for his own people during the darkest of times…or so he’d thought. But now he understood the true darkest of times with the sudden disappearance of the loan gods from his world, and the loss of the woman that he had built his heart and life around.

He has one choice…accept her loss, carry on with his life, or to challenge the very fabric of magic and his society by going after her, to bridge the gap between his world and hers.

Purchase Links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XKNBQ7C

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/717450
Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/melissacuevasauthor/

Today’s Efforts

You might guess that I spent a lot of my time today sending out blog tour posts. I have a bunch of them pre-written, but got a few requests for some custom pieces and wrote those too. I still have half a dozen to send out, and a few more to prepare. There are also some long term supporters who I haven’t heard from yet, and I expect them to show up too. These are people with lives, who don’t spend every waking moment behind a keyboard. I expect to custom write a few of these pieces too.

Preparing blog posts is easy enough on work nights. I’ll tap away at them throughout the coming week. It’s easier to support all of my hosts if they spread out a bit too. My posts are all unique, so watch this space to keep up with my personal challenges, Lisa art posts, and more.

Lisa Burton Radio is all scheduled for this week, and I know what’s going up next week too. I’m in good shape there.

I also cracked open a new book today. I didn’t get far, because Frankie needed a lot of poodle time, and we played a lot of ball too. I always miss the best events with my video camera, but posted the final few seconds of Frankie chasing the reflection of a wristwatch over on Facebook. It’s like cats with laser-pointers, but with a bulldog puppy. Unfortunately, I missed her lioness stalk, rush, and pounce.

I need to start my next Story Empire post, and have a vague idea of what I want to write. I have a week plus to post it, so it has time to take form.

My baseball team took a nosedive over the past week, and it feels like they need the Allstar Break to regroup. I hope this is the case, and they can return refreshed and tough for the second half. I managed to watch a few games, and pieces of others. I also played a few video games in the late evening.

Finally, this makes me happy. Maybe it will make you happy too.

A recipe for dead motivation

My critique group met last night, and we exchanged efforts. Everyone is loving Yak Guy still, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

I stayed up late last night playing Diablo III with my son. We downloaded a new expansion pack and created a couple of new necromancers to fight evil with. This is part of the recipe… up late.

At four AM, Nyx started barking behind my headboard. She squeezed back there and couldn't figure out that she had to go backwards to get out. She decided to try digging at my nightstand instead. I had to remove a king sized mattress, partially slide back the box springs, and motivate her with words I don't usually speak at four o'clock.

I tried to go back to sleep, but at six I gave up. Sleep deprivation, part of the recipe.

Otto returned to the vet yesterday, and he is doing better. He has good days and bad days, but there is nothing wrong with his bones or joints. More pain meds for him for the time being. Emotionally, part of the recipe.

I've hit it hard in the early part of my vacation. I even managed over a thousand words of a short story I agreed to write. The target is 5000 words by August, so I'm in good shape there.

In order to get this vacation, I agreed to a business lunch downtown today. I also agreed to proofread some things from my Executive Director. She emailed what she has and I marked it up and threw it in my truck.

This was the point where my mojo took a leave. I knew I had this meeting. I have to put on pants. From six AM through the meeting, I did virtually nothing. Nyx wanted to cuddle most of the morning and I let her. She never wants to cuddle, that's more Frankie and Otto's thing. Maybe she's being sorry for the headboard incident. I also read a few chapters of a craft book I've been picking away at.

I've been productive, and I'll include some details. I will be productive again this week. Today may not be the day. Here is the list I posted on friday:

Projects for my week off:

• Re-read The Enhanced League and make edits.
• Figure out how to add images to the back of the book and actually make them look good.
• Get the final MS out to the formatter, and pay her. Still waiting for an invoice.
• Assemble a guest post I agreed to host. Became two and I did both of them.
• Work on Lisa Burton Radio stuff as it comes in. Moderate success, needs more effort.
• Finish up a post I've been working on to appear elsewhere. Delivered it too.
• Start the word searches on Yak Guy.
• Read Yak Guy and start editing.
• Write blog tour posts for Enhanced League. Have five done, need more.

Depending on how well I do, I can get to some of these:

• Research and assemble something I'd like to post for July 4th.
• Publish The Enhanced League.
• Put out a request for blog tour hosts.
• Do some deeper research and start writing my time travel short story for an anthology. 1000 words and counting. Target is 5000.
• 
  

Looks like I need to focus on Lisa Burton Radio, the blog tour posts, and my short story. Yak guy can take a back seat while I get Enhanced League out the door.

I may find some scraps of motivation today. I'll update this evening. Right now I have to find pants.

***

Post meeting:

My daughter was supposed to give me a haircut this afternoon, but has misplaced her shears and her combs. She really does give the best haircuts, but aside from chewing the hair off, I don't know what she can do. This would have been the perfect day for it too.

Now one of her friends is here, and they're watching movies in the living room. Some days you just have to run up the white flag and surrender.

I still have four more days to work on projects, and my wife decided to go to Nevada this weekend. That will make for a nice quiet house.

A small chores update

Honestly, I'm starting to wear out on chores. I've been away from the paycheck job since Wednesday at quitting time, and don't have to go back until Tuesday. During that time, I've hit the chore list hard.

I'm not embarrassed to say I didn't get as much accomplished today. I managed to get my critique work done for our meeting on Thursday night. I put it in my truck, because that's my insurance policy against forgetting it when I need it.

What I didn't post about was pruning fruit trees. The sap is up now, so I stopped at about 2/3 to 3/4 of what I want to remove. After the trees adjust, I can trim the rest. They're all in a big pile in the back yard, and my son and I are hauling them to the dump tomorrow. Part of the peach tree must weigh 400 pounds, so I'm glad to have an extra back involved. This stuff takes time too, but it didn't do much to advance my author agenda.

Today, I worked on my beta reading project. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished now. If everything works out well, I may finish and deliver my notes tomorrow. (Maybe)

I also assembled and scheduled Thursday's Lisa Burton Radio. I have two other interviews out there in cyberspace, but it's Sunday night and the first guy finished became the first guy scheduled.

Honestly, I could have hit it hard and finished everything else, but I'm wearing a bit thin. I caught up with recordings of S.H.I.E.L.D., and don't regret it a bit. ABC scheduled this beyond reality for a working man, so I have to record the episodes and watch them later.

My other son and I also stayed up late every night playing Diablo III, and we had a great time. I think my wife is wearing out on us, but she's the one who surprised me with an X-Box. (So there.)

My so called vacation was a lot of work, mixed in with a bit of fun. We even worked two date nights into the mix. The good news is my path is cleared, or will be very soon, and my next day off may let me work on my novel.

Hope all of you had a Happy Easter.

WordPress is kind of slow today

I watched for blogs to read today, but there weren't as many as most days. I wonder if everyone is writing except me.

Let's liven this place up tonight.

This is my goat. There are many like him, but this one is mine.

I learned about a “game” today. I'm not much for gaming, because they are addicting. I usually have something better to do. When a beauty like this comes out, I just can't resist. This one is called Goat Simulator.

You get to drive around a virtual goat and break crap. That's it, nothing more. I found a YouTube video of this during lunch. I laughed so hard I cried. It comes with missions like getting run over by a truck. The goat files through the air, and acts like roadkill until you tell him to get up. He also gets to lick things. You get more points for licking things, but the people don't seem to like it.

The video alone sells this thing, but getting him blown up in a construction site is pretty fun too.

I have plans to write tomorrow, but tonight I'm breaking crap with my virtual goat. Bet you wish you had a virtual goat. This would probably be even more fun with another beer. See you later.