How do you de-stress?

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So what do you do for fun while having to stay at home during this time of corona?

Ok, time to share something cool (and kinda nerdy) about myself. As I’m sure that many of you know, I’m a writer. I write urban fantasy and I have some books published and available for people to read.

But that’s not the cool thing. I write Fanfiction as a way to de-stress. What is fanfiction you ask? That’s where you take a story or character from an already established book (think Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings) and then write a story about it from your own perspective. Don’t like how the story ended? Rewrite it the way that you would’ve liked it to end. Want to explore a character more in-depth? Write a story about them and/or throw them into a totally different situation and try to predict how they react.

This is really fun for me, because it allows me to explore already created characters and worlds, but from my point of view. It’s been a great way to help take my mind away from the craziness that it currently our world. Also, I’ve had several people comment that it helped them de-stress and forget their problems for a little while, which made me very happy.

I mainly write in The Hobbit fandom featuring a female Bilbo Baggins, although someday I may expand beyond that into other fandoms.

Curious? Wanna check it out?

Here’s the link for my largest (currently at about 160k words), most popular fic, a “Fix-it Fic”if you will:

Only in My Dreams:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/21115682/chapters/50247068

And here is the link for a place where my various one shots land. These are story snippets that wouldn’t leave me in peace but didn’t quite have enough material for a full story by itself:

Female Bilbo Oneshots
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22775707/chapters/54423808

So what are you doing to unwind during these trying times? I’d love to hear from you!

Talisman

So today’s daily prompt is Talisman. This prompt both intrigued me and confounded me a bit. I know what talismans are, but how do they apply to me, to my writing? Although I know that other writers have their routines and their talismans that help them get into the proper mood for writing, I never had. I tend to be a pantser writer, one that waits for inspiration to strike rather that methodically planning out exactly what I am going to write and then write it. So no, no lucky pen, no certain coffee shop for my writing.

So then I turned my thoughts to how I used talismans in my writing. Here is a picture of a talisman:

Although this is much too ornate for any of my characters to possess, there is no limit to what can be a character’s talisman. A lock of hair, a family heirloom, a treasured missive from someone close to them. For my characters, a talisman is something that they draw strength from, something that allows them to keep going when they have given everything that they had.

This is something that comes up in my second novel in The Seeker Files: In Search of Healing. This book deals more with Aletta’s past and her coming to terms with her powers as a Sheridan. I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you anything more, but I will tell you that a talisman plays a very important part in this journey of hers.

So if you write, do you use talismans in either your writing routine or in your stories? And even if you are not a writer, what do you consider a talisman and do you have one that you use? Let me know, I’m excited to find out what other people think of Talismans.

Follower update: As of this point, I have five followers (so happy!) but this is quite short for my Friday deadline of 25 followers for an exclusive content from In Search of Justice. So I am moving the deadline back to Saturday evening as I really want to share these fun extras with you guys. Happy Thursday everyone!

Talisman