Evander L. Fragoso

Hello there, it’s me again, your local (to Earth) indie author. How’s your day going? Your week? I’m alright over here, although the migraine from work last night decided to try it’s way back into my head, even after the long awesome dream I had in my very rare 7 hours of sleep. I wrote down the last bit of it that I can remember, maybe I’ll drop it in a post soon.

Oh, here comes the puppy, whining to go out again. Just a second, void…

…Like I was saying…

What was I saying? That’s right, the dream. I usually don’t dream (I’m rarely in deep enough sleep for that) so it’s exciting when one breaks through, and I’m always interested in other people’s dreamscapes. Oh yeah, and the migraine; my sensitivity to the lights at work has progressed as the days have gone by. My poor eyes are tired from them searing into my retinas, and roasting my skin…

Alright, that’s enough rambling today. I’ve gotta get to making dinner anyway. Tell me something, do you remember your dreams often? Also, are you affected by bright lights like a fellow creature of the night?

Thanks for reading my words to the void. Don’t forget to like, share, and find a lesson in all that you experience. May your days be gentle, sleep fulfilling and full of delectable dreams, and may your creative spirit bathe in Meraki’s inspirational waves,

~E.L.F.

Explore books & socials: ELFlinks.Weebly.com

My latest post is up on Substack! Be sure to check it out, and subscribe to my Substack to get posts delivered directly to your email, no account needed. In this article I talk a little bit about the work that I have up on Inkitt that can be read for free. Enjoy, share, subscribe!

~E.L.F.

May your days be wonderful, sleep fulfilling, and creative spirit nourished by Meraki’s unending flames,

~E.L.F.

Explore books & socials: ELFlinks.Weebly.com

Subscribe: EvanderLFragoso.Substack.com

Check out my latest post on Substack, where you can subscribe to get updates sent directly to your email. This drop talks a bit about how my works are interconnected, and lays out a bit of the plans for my volumes of Shadowed Memories: Dark Shadow, which I'm currently working on outlining.

Don’t forget to breath, enjoy what you can, and bask Meraki’s cosmic waves of wonder and creativity, ~E.L.F.

A friend recommended his favorite story to listen to (he does audiobooks), so I've been reading it, and the story itself is interesting so far, but the writing is killing me. It's a serialized story on Webnovel where the author released about two chapters a day for four years, with the story having a big fanbase. Since then, the author has gone on to work on other things, but my gosh is it depressing to read. The story isn't bad, or the subject matter depressing, but I'm 49 chapters in and the writing is still so very amateurish. I can acknowledge that it's great to be able to write this continuous story, releasing so much on a daily basis, but there's ridiculously repetitious paragraphs, and there are crazy little things like introducing someone holding a "rapier sword." A rapier is a type of sword!

Anyway, the point is, I understand that we live in an on-demand world where everything has to be quick and punchy, and that's how people are able to write things like this and get away with it (not to mention the horrendous declining literacy rates...) but that doesn't mean I have to settle.

I'm sticking with my plan, plotting out the volumes for my continuation to Shadowed Memories. I may be weighing my options on putting out rough drafts of chapters out there, with plans to publish them on my Substack for paid subscribers on top of other behind-the-scenes content while I think about going back to Inkitt, but I don't plan on compromising my worlds.

I’ll try and use some of this anguish and disdain for more chapter plotting.

Don’t forget to breath, enjoy what you can, and bask Meraki’s cosmic waves of wonder and creativity,

May your days be wonderful, your sleep fulfilling, and creative spirit nourished be by Meraki’s unending flames,

~E.L.F.

Explore books & socials: http://elflinks.weebly.com

While my wife designed and made the fantastic cover for part one of Shadowed Memories (which I mirrored over and gray-scaled for part 2), I ended up making my own cover for the big-book version containing the whole story. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to toss onto the cover in the first place. “What’s something that could look good enough to catch a possible reader’s eye and give a glimpse of what they’ll find inside of these pages without giving away the whole story.” I ended up deciding that I wanted one of the shadow people on the cover. It’s an image that’s at least somewhat recognizable; if you haven’t experienced sleep paralysis and seen one of these humanoid shadows creeping towards you or leaning over your bed, you know someone who has. As you get deeper into the book, you’ll see the golden figure…

Anyway, I sketched up these cover ideas and my wife Katrina helped me settle on one design and gave plenty of feedback along the way, and that’s how I ended up with the final result. I actually thought about creating a few sketchy illustrations for the final book, the way I did for Making Contact, but decided against it in the end. I’m tossing around the idea of making a few for the next few books, there are already some scenes that I’ve cooked up while working on my plotting document that would be good candidates, but we’ll see what happens.

Well, that’s it, that’s the post for today. I hope it finds you well. Don’t forget to like, share, follow, etc. It really fills my heart with joy and helps with that drive to carry on with this big writing adventure. Let me know what you think about these sketches, my book covers, and my little illustrations in Making Contact.

May your days be wonderful, sleep fulfilling, and creative spirit nourished by Meraki’s unending flames,

~E.L.F.

Explore books & socials: ELFlinks.Weebly.com