Le Updates

Official Stuff and Nonsense

Update!!! All Cursed Prince posts have been deleted, for the simple reason that I am in the midst of revisions, with the intent of officially publishing the full, beautifully revised book within the next year or so!

Thank you to those who read it in its early slop trash first draft form, and please keep an eye out for further updates! (We’ll see if i can actually remember to post here… but whatever…)

All said, I’ll likely keep posting little rambles every now and then, but for the foreseeable future I think this lovely little sketchbook will be on the shelf.

Again, thanks to everyone who read the things!

Cheers, and see y’all around, soonish or laterish. Who really knows?

An Update and an Explanation

Happy September y’all! I’m not dead, so that’s a good thing, right? Also how TF are we in FRIGGIN SEPTEMBER ALREADY WHERE TF DID AUGUST GO!? Yike.

This summer has been, in a word, hectic. But in a good way. I’ve gone to two renaissance faires (legit some of the most fun things ever!) started a new job slinging coffee in addition to wine, and finished draft three of my WIP novel!!! AYEE! And with that development, that means I’m on the cusp of querying!

So what is this post for? Why am I here instead of doing my side gig and flinging queries at people? Welst, lemme tell you. Muse has taken it into her head to get down into the nitty gritty of a side project I’ve had on the back burners for months now, because apparently she wants to. (Also thank you, Brya, for encouraging me to do the two sentences a day for the month. It was because of that challenge that I overcame the tiny little knoll I was struggling to get over in regards to restarting the thing).

Now, what the heck is this side project? I’ve mentioned it in a few previous posts, but it’s time for some elaboration. Cursed Prince was my final project during my senior year of college (2021). It was a second-person POV click-through narrative game thingy developed on Twine, and I about died during the creation, conception, an execution of the story.

And yet I utterly fell in love with the characters and story and the world building. It helped that it’s set in the world of one of my other WIP series, just in a different age, and as such it was as much an exercise in general world building as it was a senior project. Things just clicked, and it became one of my favorite mid-length stories I’ve developed.

What’s it about though, you ask? Ha. That’s for you to find out through reading! My intent with this little project is to develop CP as a serial story. Dish and Spoon was sort of a trial run, but CP is going to be significantly longer. Hell, the printed version of the original is around 50 pages, which is essentially my skeledraft of this reiteration.

I don’t know how many installments there’ll be, so who knows? Maybe I’ll even be generous and share the multiple endings I wrote!

But enough of this chaotic, rambling update post. It’s time to get to the good stuff.

Until next time!

Beginnings

Hey hi hello, my lovely readers!!

How was your holiday season? Survive? Yeah? Okay. Good. I hoped so.

After three days of doing my level best to morph into a couch – reading, mostly, with some TV consumption as well – I’ve suddenly found myself back to desirable levels of energy *continues to drink water out of a bottle and dance around the apartment to medieval tavern music in flowy clothes*.

BUT ANYWAYS!!! Welcome to 2023! Can you freakin’ believe we made it through 2022? I certainly can’t. It feels like I was just screaming in 2020 a week ago. Fortunately, things have been on the up and up! In the last few months of 2022 I got a sort-of promotion at my day job selling happy grape juice, I finished my second draft of my full-length WIP novel, and beat my reading goal of 90 books by 21 (thank you, Dresden Files anthology for furthering my brain rot and obsession with my book husbando).

That all said, I figured I’d let y’all know that I have plans for this new, infant year! Plans for things here, and off-site. In addition to starting my second round of edits on the aforementioned novel (which shall henceforth be known as WIP1), I plan on working on/fleshing out a number of prequel shorts to WIP1, continuing to develop some higher level concepts for WIP2 (the sequel to WIP1), and probably get a little more into the development of at least two other WIPs (unrelated to WIP1). I’m also planning on starting my querying journey here in the next month or two as well!!! SO! Keep y’all eyes peeled for updates on that front.

But what about the blog! I hear you cry. To which I say: FEAR NOT! I’m not going to neglect this little story sketch dump! Even as I write this, I have a fresh little piece of emotional damage sitting in my notes, another sitting in my drafts here (tho that one is a little… mmmm… spicier than emotionally traumatizing :D). I ALSO!! promise that I’ll have the final piece of Dish and Spoon ready and posted here in the VERY near future, if only for my own piece of mind. Not having that story finished has rather been hanging over my head since September. But since I’ve promised here that it’ll be finished, I’m holding myself accountable on your collective behalf.

I also plan (hopefully) to get more into the development, writing, and posting of a longer continued story. I mentioned it a few updates back, but don’t know how much I shared. All I’ll say about now is this: it’s called The Cursed Prince, it’s high fantasy, I developed it for a narrative game dev class, fell in love with the characters, and decided to flesh it out and share it here! It’s more or less completely written (with multiple endings, no less!) and now it’s only a matter of fleshing it out and making it prettier to read. I only hope I can do Moreän, Sari, Vargos, Daer, and Kelnar’s collective, chaotic story justice.

As for the Hero/Villain pieces and other miscellaneous ramblings? Eh. They’ll come as they come, hopefully with more feral gremlin energy and exploding strawberries.

Phew. That is quite the wall of text, something that would horrify an old professor. If you managed to read all that, good on you.

As always, thank you for reading, and please don’t hesitate to reach out in any way, shape, or form!! I love interacting with people about my writing, and would love to start doing that a little more here.

On that note! May your year be filled with success, triumph, joy, and all the little pleasantries that life has to offer! *Uncle Iroh voice* Like tea *slurps said tea*. See you on the page, my dear readers!

Cheers, and Buon Anno Nuovo!

An Announcement

Good witching hour, my lovely readers.

As I sit here, staring into the blinding blue light of my computer screen without my glasses, I find the need to make *an announcement*. As some of you may have read on a previous post, sometime in January, you may recall a promise I made. A promise to write and post more light-hearted, silly, and absurd pieces. That promise has remained unfulfilled.

Until now.

A few days or weeks ago (really, who’s counting anymore?) I started a new piece. I knew it was going to be longer than the usual Hero/Villain pieces, and from the outset I knew it was a different type of story all together. I was in a place where I needed fluff and happy endings, and what do you know, Muse was kind enough to prompt me to begin what is shaping up to be a three part story.

Dish and Spoon (formally When the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon) started off vague, little more than drivel about a soup bowl who was lonely and just wanted to be useful. But as I started working on this idea in earnest, I discovered I had inadvertently began a retelling story. It was unintentional, but I’m pleased with where this story went.

It’s lighthearted and fluffy, with zero to no stakes, and so so different from my H/V pieces. But I love it. It’s allowed me to be indulgent and loquacious and overly verbose, and to tell a story that’s pure. Another thing that sets it apart from pervious posts on 2 Hour Tales is that it’s a serial. The first part will be published tomorrow, and hopefully the other two parts will follow very soon afterwards.

And it’s not the only serial story I have in the works. I have another that requires a little more work, but one that I enjoyed developing in a different format, over a year ago (but that’s all I’m going to say on that matter. Its time will come).

Anyways. That is my update. I leave you in anticipation.

Now let’s post this before I can be distracted by any more texts from a fellow sleep-deprived writer friend.

Sweet nightmares, my darlings.

Una Nota

Ciao, Belli. Just another brief note that should be taken into consideration when reading any of these lovely Hero/Villain pieces.

I’ve written them with the intention of being vague. The technicalities of the dynamic is up to you, my lovely readers. These pieces are essentially exercises for working on tone, character dynamic, dialogue, and brevity.

Hero/Villain aren’t chronological, and can technically be read in any order. A Treacherous Path could follow Dangerous Temptation, or could be considered an alternate version, or read with a completely different set of characters in mind (this is how I’ve intended them to be).

So. That’s all from my end, for the moment.

Go forth and enjoy the day, my lovelies!

Oh look at that!

She’s alive!

Yes. I am alive. And thriving, for the most part.

See, I figured it’s only fair to give you lovelies an update after 6 months’ absence. So here we are! For the most part, I’ve been doing the working mid-twenty-something thing, working full time at a tasting room. I mean, what could be better than selling wine (or, as I call it, the adult happy juice?) well… getting paid for writing could be better, but that’s something that will come.

And come it will! Hopefully. Soon. But who knows. Ya see, I finally finished a first draft of a novel!

*throws confetti and glitter*

And while that’s a wondrous milestone for me (who has like 12 working drafts they’ll happen eventually okay?) I don’t think I fully appreciated the Herculean task of editing. *cries writer tears* It’s not that I don’t want to do it. I do. A lot. It’s just that I didn’t realize how much more work there was to do to make this story what I want it to be.

HOWEVAH! All is not lost nor is it hopeless. I’ve done a fair bit of editing thus far, and while I recognize that I’ll have at LEAST 5 drafts before the thing is finally done, I’m loving the process. I’ve had at least one beta reader finish and give me feedback, and knowing that someone (even if it’s my mama) enjoyed the story, makes it all worth it.

So that’s what’s up. Wine, and words (both of the written and read variety). I do want to get back to writing my little pieces here, and hopefully as things further settle for me, those will come sooner and more frequently than they have.

On that note, I do have one final piece stockpiled in the notes. And after this wee little update, it only seems fair that I share it.

Consider it as a teaser. And a promise. A promise that The Modern Bard will get back to her shenanigans.

Love you, my dear readers!

See you in the next post.

P.S. I just noticed that I have 392 readers (or so wordpress tells me) and I cannot express my gratitude, nor my appreciation and awe, that so many of you dearies have found my blog through one means or another. So, from the bottom of my ink-stained heart, thank you.

I must get the kettle before it starts screaming in earnest.

ANOTHAH! Wee Update

Greetings, my lovely readers.

With the holidays and the chaos that was 2021 behind us, I figured now was as good a time as any to drop in and say hi.

HI!

Okay, now that that is out of the way, a few comments:

Clearly posts have been scarce, few and far between, and rarer than an honest burglar (they exist, I promise.) And I’m okay with that. These past few months have been chaotic, and not entirely the best. But such is this life.

THAT SAID! I started writing a book in earnest. I read 100 books in 2021. I worked two fabulous jobs, that I have since quit so that I might pursue TWO other fabulous jobs somewhere else! Which means I will be moving soon.

I can’t tell you what this will mean for the posts here on 2HT, but… eh. Let’s just say that when the muse strikes, she strikes hard and fast. I may or may not have another Hero/Villain piece lurking, written but unedited, in my notes (but we’ll see if that one ever sees the light of day. Or computer screen.)

Don’t get me wrong, I love these pieces. I love exploring the dynamics and different vibes these little vignettes give. Besides, they’re fun as sin to write. But they’re dark. And I realized, in the course of a Hinge conversation that I’ve sort of lost the initial intent of this blog.

Which – obviously – isn’t a bad thing! But my hope is to start posting some more good, pure, fun, nonsense pieces in the near future. Tales written in two hours or less, right? Right! So let’s hear it for flying avocados, adventurous socks on a quest to their missing mates in the horrible realm of Maytag, and many more Hero/Villain/Sidekick/Minion shenanigans.

Thank you, Hinge dude. Your contribution is worth the hoard of a thousand dragons.

As always, I hope you enjoy your time here, and here’s to a year filled of adventure, physically and imaginatively.

XOXO

A Small Update

My friends, I have an announcement.

As of about three weeks ago, I graduated with a B.A. in video game design, concentrating in writing! As such, and with a nullification in academic writing, it is my hope and goal to start posting updates more regularly.

The past three weeks have been, in a word, chaotic. But rest assured that there will be new content coming in the very near future. I currently have another Hero/Villain piece in the works and hope to get it up within the week.

Beyond that, who knows how, when, or in what manner Muse will strike? I only hope you enjoy what I’ve been posting, and look forward to future installments to 2 Hour Tales as much as I look forward to writing them.

Thank you for reading, and may the well of inspiration never run dry.

A New Beginning

Hello again.

Sitting here, I have to laugh at the Kat that made this blog nearly 6 years ago. She was optimistic and naive, but a storyteller at heart. Her idea for a reader-based prompt site was somewhat ill-conceived, but not entirely without merit. All she needed to do was commit to the idea, and perhaps this blog would be different from what it’s morphed into. But she was filled with doubts, and wasn’t entirely convinced that she had what it took to be a writer.

Now she knows better. She has lived a little more. She has travelled the world. She has written at least one rough draft of a story, has plotted and half-written about 4 more, and has written any number of short stories, one-shots, scripts, narratives, poems, and bard songs. She is 13 weeks away from finishing college with a BA in Game Design and Art and a concentration in Game Writing (yes, it’s as badass as it sounds). She is a writer, and she believes it with every fiber of her being.

This blog, while it started as something of an ill-fated experiment, is a place for her to share some of her smaller musings. The title, Two Hour Tales, is a comment on the nature of the impending content: everything here will (hopefully) be written in two hours or less, with minimal editing. Things will be messy and error-filled. Things won’t make sense. And yet, sometimes, it’s best if they don’t. Everyone needs a little nonsense in their lives.

So there you have it. Kat has returned, armed with a plethora of ideas and a dedication to provide the world with a little more prose.

I hope you enjoy your stay.

First Time!

Hello world! This is a blog i have set up for writing prompt purposes. The point of this blog is to allow other people to comment ideas or prompts and i write them. still not exactly sure how i will go about doing so, but that’s the fun of it, right? maybe i’ll just post the finished prompts here. yeah, i guess that works.

anyways, hope you all enjoy!

kitty