R.F. Gammon Author: January 2019

THE RISING AUTHOR TAG//in which I steal a tag from my friends because I need a post

by R.F. Gammon - January 28, 2019

So apparently I'm a hardcore tag thief now. Whoops.

I have a giant list of ideas for things to blog about, but I don't really feel like writing about any of them at the moment. They're all big deep things that will require a bit more time than I have available (I'm writing this late Sunday night planing to put it up Monday morning...hee hee), and I just wrote a really deep post last week, so...for right now let's all enjoy a little tag (because it has genuinely been FOREVER since I've done a tag. Whoa. This is not okay.)

I stole this tag from Lila Kims (if you want, go check out her post HERE; her writing is always amazing).

Rising Author Tag

1. What is the weirdest thing someone has ever said to you about your writing?

Oh, sheesh. I don't even know.

All I can say is, get you a best friend who will scream at you when you tell her the plot of your fourth book, calls your male lead "Fishy," and apparently finds one of your villains super hot. That was a pretty weird revelation xD

2. What is the worst thing you ever wrote?

I want to say my story "An Odd Emotion," which was a romance novel I wrote at the tender age of about 11, but I think it would be topped by a tie between these two stories:

1. "Giraffe School," a story also by 11-year-old me about a giraffe who was afraid of heights and had to learn to overcome that fear by watching tons of Star Wars (with a (R) or (TM) after every usage of the name) and by kicking a lion in the head

2. "With this Sword," the earliest incarnation of "The King's Daughter" that was literally just a blatant ripoff of the Wingfeather Saga, featuring long-lost royalty, a crazy guy who turned out to be family, a hidden world in the nearby forest, a factory full of innocent slaves, and a break-everyone-out-of-the-fortress scene.

Yeah, I've written some pretty bad things in my day. Good thing those days are long behind me. *laughs* *chokes*

3. What is the most awkward scene you've ever written?

Too many! *cringes just thinking about half the scenes in most of my writing*

I know I wrote one scene where my male and female lead had the whole "only one blanket and so we have to sleep huddled together" thing, and that was pretty awkward.

Also, in earlier versions of the Pentegreens, there was this relationship between two characters...actually, most of the "cut relationships" between characters were super awkward and need to get THROWN IN THE GARBAGE. But especially the one with my assassin chick and a spoiler character. And that's all I'll say about that.

4. On a scale from 1 to 10, how often do you end up writing more than 3 chapters of the stories you start?

Ummm....probably a 7? If I'm committed enough to a story that I actually start it, I'm usually going to get a little further in. If I quit, too, it usually happens further in than just 3 chapters. Unfortunately.

5. What is the hardest thing for you to write?

Torture scenes (and ugh, there's a lot of them in my current series.)

Any scene that involves my non-canon ship being together and not doing anything, erm, romantic

Parts of Pentegreens Book 3 that involve unrequited love where I want to just scream at both characters to STOP BEING IDIOTS ALREADY

Scenes in Watched where there's lots of politics and/or family drama

Action scenes

...everything apparently?

6. When you look back at your early writing pieces, what's one thing you can see you've improved in?

Plotting. And not as in outlining, but as in coming up with an actual plot. Realizing that I'm a character-driven author has really helped with this.

7. How do you name characters?

If there's a specific nationality I'm looking for, I'll look it up on BabyNames or something similar. But most of the time, the names just come to me. Coming up with names for my Venarian characters, an ethnicity in Pentegreens, is especially hard, because a rule of the language is that every male in their society has to have an "sh" somewhere in his name, and the girls' names, preferably, all start and end with "A". So that makes my life more difficult for sure.

8. If you had to pick one genre to write in forever, what would it be?

*coughs* Imma cheat and say speculative.

Fantasy, dystopia, (not sci-fi because that's not my jam, but ya know), alternate history...all that stuff. I have a couple of ideas for contemporaries, but I don't think I'll ever get around to writing them. Give me alllll the lovely spec-fic.

9. Which of your characters do you feel most guilty about?

*coughs so hard she literally chokes* Ummm.....

My sons really should not make the decisions they make. That's about all I'll say.

But...fine. Derek and Rish need to choose their life trajectories more carefully, and nothing that happened to Mel and her little brother Win is their fault. So...the four of them, especially.

10. Which of your characters deserves everything you've given them?

The good, the bad, or both?

I mean, if we're talking good...it would have to be Lucas. Man, I love that car thief/spy/dyslexic heart-throb with a vengeance.

But in terms of bad...

*rips everything out of my villain's hands and throws him in a corner* I want you to THINK about what you've done to my poor babies!

Fine. Miss Anna Woods deserves everything she's got, both good and bad. She hasn't had the easiest life, but she's not the nicest person, either. And she gets a good balance of both good and bad out of it.

I'm not tagging anybody, but if you'd like this tag, feel free to steal it!

Which of your characters do you feel most guilty about the things you do to them? Should I ever share some of my old cringey writing? (I feel like that's a bad idea.) Do you feel like writing tags are sort of dead at the moment? Because that makes me sad (even if I don't have time for them most of the time.) Chat with me!

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Free Indeed

by R.F. Gammon - January 21, 2019

I'm not sure how long they were looking at me and thinking about how much they wanted to be somewhere else.

How many months before the axe fell passed where every smile they turned on me was painted on? How many times did someone say, "Oh, today's not going to work, I suppose we'll have to come up with a different day," and then hang up the phone and breathe a sigh of relief? Was there ever malice? Was there heartbreak? Did it hurt them to drive away that day; did they have any idea how much they were hurting me?

Did they feel keen relief? At this point in time do they still feel that relief? Do they feel guilt? Do they feel nothing at all?

I'll tell you what I feel: I feel freedom.

~~~

Even driving into the parking lot of a hospital, looking up at those bright windows and the dark doors, triggers it. The fear. The memory of waking up in a bed crying for Thai spring rolls, sending frantic texts to a friend in a drug-induced panic, sitting in a wheelchair as my dad pushed it down the street as we went to get food.

Hearing a doctor say the c-word in relation to me. Having my entire life thrown into disarray.

Then learning that what I had was not cancer, but something else. The relief, followed by the terror of the unknown.

Last week, a doctor gave me the all-clear for six months. The surgery is past; the shame is gone. The fear lingers occasionally, but I no longer feel the same terror.

I feel freedom.

~~~

What were they thinking when they looked at me? Them and their white sneakers, their laughter as they bent low over phones, discussing things of which they had no idea. Things that I did know, that made my blood boil.

Sometimes I found myself wondering: Was I the problem? Was it really me who could never find the answers, who messed up the experiments, who was clueless about the class material? It was them, my brain hissed. They were the ones who set me to crying in the bathroom.

Perhaps it was all of our faults. Perhaps I trapped myself in that darkness, putting myself on the edges by refusing to compromise. Perhaps they were the ones who did not reach out to the girl who had no idea how to socialize.

Either way, leaving was one of the best things I could have done.

And now, I feel freedom.

~~~

Our church pews do not burst, but they are filled with people who turn their faces to the sky and raise their voices in praise.

My dreams still haunt me, and yet the true faces of those I once feared to see no longer do.

My heart breaks occasionally, but I stand on my own feet.

Depression does not have the last word. The situations around us do not have the last word. Death and the grave and sin do not have the last word.

"In this world you will have trouble," Jesus said, "but take heart! I have overcome the world."

Not "I will overcome" or "I might overcome. No.

When Jesus said this, he had not yet gone to the cross; it was the night before his arrest, and he stood in the midst of his disciples, comforting them. Sin still held sway over all; the cup of God's wrath hung before Jesus' eyes, and he prayed for it to be taken away from him so that he might not have to drink it.

And at that point:

HE HAD ALREADY OVERCOME.

If, at that time, Jesus had already overcome, how much more now, 2,000 years later in a world where we see his fingerprints everywhere?

If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.

And even when it doesn't feel like it, friend, if you know him, you are free.

It doesn't always feel perfect. Sometimes the darkness presses close, and it's all you can do to stay on your feet. "In this world you will have trouble," Jesus says, and that is a promise.

But then there is the second promise, so much stronger and more powerful, as true as Jesus' victory over death and the grave: "I have overcome the world."

He's won. Let's believe that.

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Beta Call//If you've ever wanted to read my crazy novel NOW IS YOUR HOUR

by R.F. Gammon - January 11, 2019

38 comments

2019 Goals//THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM SOMEONE HELP

by R.F. Gammon - January 07, 2019

Greetings, everyone! Now that we have a foot firmly planted in 2019, all over the world (shoutout to my Aussies who got there first and my West Coasters who...didn't), it's time for me to share my Resolutions and Goals for the Year of Our Lord 2019.

And holy heck, there's a lot of them.

1. Keep up with my writing goals

This is the biggest of the goals I have for this year, and my Writing Goals in detail may get their own post at some point here. At the moment, I'll drop a couple of tidbits and a couple of details.

Tidbits:

-There's 14 goals this year (yes, Savannah, I actually counted them xD)

-6 of them are editing.

-7 of them have to do with the Pentegreen Series.

-None of them have to do with the Watched Trilogy.

Details:

-I'm getting to the end of my third draft of The King's Daughter! I'm about to start recruiting betas and looking for an editor! *shrieks forever*

-I finally am giving myself permission to start drafting the book I've mentioned here a couple times, known to you all as the Super Secret Project, but known to me as THE STORY I JUST WANNA WRITE

-My Rooglewood Contest story, once called Ink Storm and now called Sweat and Gold, is going to be edited, fixed up, and SENT INTO THE WORLD in one form or another (again, more on this later, but for now....*hysterical and excited screaming*)

This is a HUGE undertaking, and I'm still going to have to keep up on my school, my outside commitments, my travel, and hopefully another job towards the end of the year. But we're going to do this thing. It's going to be awesome.

2. Reach 500 Instagram followers

I'm not sure why, but my followers list fluctuates wildly like all the time? Like it is constantly swinging between 204 and 215. Never gets higher than that, never gets lower. It's ridiculously annoying, and if people are unfollowing me...I want to know what I'm doing wrong?

But anyway, I'm planning to post at least one time a day on my actual feed this year as one of my goals, and I'm really hoping that putting in that level of effort will get me to the big 500.

(Hint, hint: If you have Instagram and you aren't following me HIT ME UP xD My handle is @rfgammonauthor and I post some fun stuff. Occasionally.)

3. Start a ledger

Because I'm a spendthrift and I want to know where my money is coming from and where it's going?

4. Pray outside a Planned Parenthood/abortion clinic 10 times.

I only did this once this last year, and it was FREEZING COLD and I spent most of the time huddled in the car because I think it was about one degree outside and the windchill was brutal. This year, I'm going to have my license, which means I can drive, which means I can get myself to these places to pray. It's something very tangible I can do towards furthering my life goals of ending abortion.

5. Get my license

I'm getting there! I'm getting driving hours logged and I'm almost to the point where I could call the DMV and schedule an appointment. This is a very attainable goal indeed.

6. Work out 3 times a week.

Self explanatory. I want to be able to run a 5k and I want to be able to pump iron. That's it. xD

7. Make a college decision.

This is super intimidating, and I don't really want to do it in 2019. I'd much rather put it off til 2020. But I have to do applications this summer, and the fact of the matter is: I want to know ahead of time. I want to start reaching out to people at the school where I'm going, making plans, raising funds, working for scholarships, planning my dorms, searching for a roommate. Having a plan and a set decision will do wonders for my peace of mind, so I'm hoping to do that by the end of the year so that I know where I'm going and I can just focus on having a great senior year of high school.

8. Tell my friends how I really feel.

What do I mean by this? Well, I tend to be that kid who just sort of sits there and lets people walk on her when she feels ignored or hurt. I don't speak up about my feelings. This year, I'm hoping to change that. I'm not going to walk on eggshells around my friends--I'm going to be kind and respectful to them, but I want to open up to them as much as I force them to open up to me.

9. Read the Bible in a year

I'm doing the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan, which has me going from four books at a time, and even though I've only done a couple days so far (at the time of writing this post) I really like it. I think this is very attainable.

10. Sing like no one is listening

By this, I mean I want to be less self-conscious. I want to own myself. I want to walk down the street and just be me. I want to dance in the grocery store and not worry about what the old lady behind me is thinking. I want to blog about controversial things and not worry about losing followers. I want to become a confident, not-self-conscious person this year, someone who lives out loud.

11. Break a habit

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I have several little mannerisms and habits I'd REALLY like to get rid of.

12. Tell someone about the Gospel

I am very much a failure at evangelism. I don't do it anywhere near enough, I barely, if ever, breach the subject to my non-Christian friends, and I just don't have the courage to do it. But after being told at my workplace that I was "different" from everyone else, letting my kindness and politeness and the light of Christ within me shine on the people around me, I want to go further. I don't want to be afraid of what people will think--I want to share the Good News.

13. Stay under allotted daily time on phone

I have an app that tracks the number of minutes I spend on my phone a day between the hours of 6am and 9pm. My limit is 90 minutes, and I'm really bad about going over that. My hope is to whip myself back into shape and spend less time on my phone, and hopefully under 90 minutes a day.

14. Discover new music

I'm really bad about getting into a rut with my music, then getting sick of it and not wanting to listen to anything or anyone. My hope is to have at least one new artist or album per month this year. Maybe I can expand my horizons a bit--in 2018 I discovered Lorde and Bastille and my mind got blown right open. xD

In last week's post, I talked about the fact that my one word to sum up 2018 was growth. I grew and changed and challenged myself and was thrown into the arena in so many ways, and it made me a better person.

In 2019, I'm setting a word for myself now, ahead of time.

And that word is:

Risk.

I don't mean risk in terms of doing silly stuff. I'm not going bungee jumping or riding crazy roller coasters or getting a fake ID or anything like that.

My idea of risk is more along the lines of stepping out, out of my comfort zone and into the role Jesus has called me to. I'm ready to make a splash. To stop worrying what the people around me think, and instead to do what I want to do and what I'm called to do. I'm stepping out in faith, and I'm going to make a difference this year. I know it.

So here's the list of my goals for the year! Hopefully this wasn't boring to read xD I'll be posting next week about my writing goals in 2019 in more detail (along with a big announcement that will be coming then as well! ;))

What are your New Year's goals? Are you a resolutions person or not so much? What's your word for 2019? Chat with me in the comments!

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