Elemental Project

Nov

2023

Changes in Altitude

This week’s blog is being written in my family room instead of my second floor office, which is why the title today is changes in altitude. I didn’t say they were BIG changes.

I’m downstairs because I’m monitoring the pumpkin crisp that I’m making for Thursday and Thanksgiving. (And I wish you could smell it. It’s AMAZING. Hrm… I know what recipe I’ll be putting in the next newsletter!) I’m on the last few bits of prep. All the shopping is done, the turkey is in the fridge and (I think) defrosted. Tomorrow I’m making apple pie bars and apple muffins for breakfast while we watch the parade, and I’ll take the sides I made and froze last week out of the freezer. Wednesday I’ll be putting the turkey into the brine and making stuffing. On the day, the turkey will get roasted, and the sides will all be heated up (the only one that’s actually going to be cooked on the day are the roasted green beans.)

Surprisingly, the writing has been going well, even in and around shopping and cooking and cleaning and way too many other things. And given where I am in the story, I’m projecting maybe another four chapters before I bring Valley of Shadows and Heir to the Firstborn to a close.

Wait… Valley of Shadows?

Yes. The Patrons have spoken, and the new title of Balance of Power is Valley of Shadows. The Patreon will still say Balance of Power, because I’m not going back to change all the previous chapters or the tags, but it’s all good. When the book comes out, it’ll be Valley of Shadows. And since it may very well be done before the end of the year, I’m going to rethink that March/April release date and move it up to something closer to the end of January/beginning of February. We’ll see how the editing goes, especially since I may be juggling Cookiepocalypse, edits for Valley of Shadows AND edits for Morrigan’s Heir!

Speaking of the Patreon, last week I got the sad news that one of my original Patrons passed away after a sudden illness. They had been a friend for years, even before I started Heir to the Firstborn, and they were part of the Patreon since I started the entire thing and it was still all called “The Elemental Project.” Valley of Shadows will be dedicated to them.

The final bit of news this week is that copies of Written in Water are back in Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, FL. They’ve just reopened in a larger space, closer to the historic district. If you’re doing holiday shopping in the Sanford area, shop small and local, and check out Spellbound!

Works in Progress

Valley of Shadows
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

59057 / 90000 (65.62%)

New Release!

Wait, a new book on a MONDAY? I thought books dropped on Tuesdays!

Usually? They do. Because I can’t read a calendar, you get a new book a day early!

Snowbound — because brown paper packages aren’t the only things getting tied up…

Preorders are live wherever you buy books

Promotions!

First in Series Friday is THIS WEEK! Friday, November 24th (Black Friday in the US), the first books in Heir to the Firstborn, Rebel Mage, and Swords of Charlemagne will be on sale everywhere for 99 cents.

Then, on Cyber Monday, the sale continues! The Cavalcade of Authors will be holding a huge Cyber Monday sale, and for that sale, I’ll be adding in Forged in Fire AND Bones of Earth! To know when the link goes live for this one, you need to sign up for my newsletter. There will be one blast email on the morning of the 27th, letting you know the link is live.

May

2022

Thirty

Late Friday night, I posted this to my socials:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elizabeth Schechter (@schechterelizabeth)

That’s the final wordcount for Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. It’s done. This marks the end of the Heir to the Firstborn series, too (although it won’t wrap up in Patreon until sometime in November.)

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)

164465 / 170000 (96.74%)

Not gonna lie. It’s weird being done with this series — it’s been a constant in my life since June of 2018, when the worldbuilding started in Patreon. The first chapter of Written in Water went live in August of 2018, and I’ve been working on it ever since. Four years with these characters, who’ve grown and changed and amused me to no end.

I’m still getting my head around the fact that I’m not going to be writing Owyn anymore. Yes, he is my unabashedly favorite fictional child, and he took over darn near the entire series.

So… what now?

Would you believe… new edits? And new covers?

See, in March I was introduced to Book View Cafe (and by introduced, I mean I was very firmly told “You need to be working with them!”) Book View Cafe is a co-op publisher, and after their vetting period, I was welcomed into the fold, and the Heir to the Firstborn series will be my first books released under their aegis. The first three books are currently being read, and I’ll be making edits to them. I have the new cover for Written in Water and IT. IS. AMAZING!!!! And no, I’m not showing it to you yet.

Soon.

Now, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done in four years.

I’m taking the summer off. Not entirely — I’m horrible at doing nothing. But I’m not actively going to work on fiction this summer (with the exception of one short story that I started and haven’t finished.) I’ve got research to do, and a pile of fiction to read that is taller than I am. I have one more part to my business plan to finish, and a class I want to take. And vacation. I’m taking a vacation.

No writing fiction. On August 10th, when school starts up again, I’ll be diving back into The Sea Prince, and I’ll be starting edits on The Way Home.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be new fiction this summer, though. The Chronicles of John Zebedee starts on May 30th on Kindle Vella with John Zebedee and the Heir to the Elvenlands.

(One week from today!)

And Where Home Lies drops July 12th, to finish out the re-release of the Rebel Mage trilogy. (You can still preorder this!)

Downtime. I’m not sure I know how to downtime anymore.

I think I need more practice.

Sep

2020

Oh, No. It’s Almost October.

Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

88415 / 150000 (58.94%)

***

John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town

23714 / 30000 (79.05%)

October. Why did it have to be October?

Yes, I know. It comes every year at this time, right after September.

I am not a fan. The only thing October has going for it is Halloween, and you have to get all the way through October to get there! (And who know if it’s actually going to happen this year? Which sucks, because Saturday+full moon+extra hour = epicly epic Halloween).

Okay. Enough complaining.

Today I am just off my last virtual convention for the year. (At least, I think it’s my last. I may be wrong — there are still virtual conventions happening, and I may see about getting involved.) Necronomicon/NecroNOTacon was a lot of fun — it was held on Discord and Zoom, and it was very well attended. I’m liking the virtual conventions — it opens access to people who can’t travel for whatever reason. The only thing missing is the hugging.

I miss the hugging.

Now, I do have one more convention on my schedule, but it’s not virtual. KeiserSupercon is supposed to be in person. I have no idea what’s going to happen with that one.

Since I was virtually at a convention all weekend, there wasn’t a lot of writing done. Which is par for the course with me — I can do one writing related thing at a time. Two, maybe. But actively writing at the same time I’m being Public-Writer-Lady? Not happening.

I think I’m still on target to have both Wings of Air and John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town finished by December, though. And possibly be a good way in to John Zebedee Meets The Witch-Queen of Elfland.

December is coming. Cookiepocalypse is coming!

But first we have to get through October.

Right. Stop that, Liz.

Here, have an excerpt from Monstrous Town:

“Then give me your right hand.” She held her hand out, and John put his hand into hers. He looked at his palm and frowned. “Mister Zebedee, how did you manage to misplace your lifeline?”

John coughed. “What?”

She tapped his palm with one finger. “It should be here,” she said. Then she held her right hand out, showing him a line on her palm. “It shows how long of a life you’ll have.”

John chuckled. “My hand isn’t big enough,” he answered. “I’m immortal. But you’ve noticed that.”

“How old are you?” she asked.

“Over eighteen hundred years old,” John answered. “Prudence, I was one of Joshua’s apostles.”

Her eyes widened. “No wonder there’s no lifeline,” she said with a laugh. “All right. Just stay there. I need to get something.” She stood up and walked away, going through an inner door. She came back a moment later with a small box. She took a seat again, and took a deck of cards out of the box, handing them to John. “Shuffle these.”

“Are we playing poker?” he asked, starting to shuffle the cards. “I’m terrible at it.”

“Cartomancy,” she answered. “Telling the future.”

“You can do that?”

She smiled and took the cards from him. She shuffled them again, then took the topmost card from the deck. She looked at it and smiled, laying it on the table. “The King of Clubs,” she said. “A man of dark complexion. He is upright and true to the bone. This is your card, John Zebedee.” She dealt more cards — a column of three to the left of John’s card, one above and below, and a column of three to the right. She set the rest of the cards aside. “The past,” she said, touching the left-most column. “The present, and the future.” She touched the center and the right column in turn. Then she turned over the card at the top of the left column. “The Nine of Diamonds. Traveling. You never did settle, did you?”

“When people notice you don’t age, things get complicated.”

She smiled and turned over the next card down. “The Ten of Spades. Imprisonment.” She looked up again.

John swallowed and nodded. “I was a prisoner of war. At Camp Sumter.”

She gasped, but said nothing more, turning over the last card in the column. “The Two of Diamonds. A secret engagement.”

John smiled. “It has to be secret. It’s illegal. But if I could openly propose marriage, I would. In a heartbeat.”

She nodded and turned over the topmost card of the middle column. “Eight of Spades. Danger from imprudence.”

John considered it, and nodded. “I wasn’t as careful as I should have been. I can agree with this. This is fascinating.”

“Thank you,” she said, and turned over the base card of the column. “Five of Clubs. Danger from a capricious temper.” She met his eyes, and they both spoke as one. “Wraith.” She nodded, and turned over the top card of the last column. “The Eight of Diamonds. A happy marriage.”

John smiled. “In his world, men can marry. I can wait.”

She turned over the last two cards, and her brow furrowed. She touched the middle card. “The Nine of Spades is a horrible card for your future. It means ruin and death. Which makes no sense with this last card.” She touched the final card. “The Ten of Hearts. Health and happiness, and children.” She looked up. “Death and ruin, and they all lived happily ever after?”

Aug

2020

Works in Progress and New Releases and RWA stuff.

Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

62110 / 120000 (51.76%)

***

John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town

2481 / 30000 (8.27%)

It’s been a busy week. Which is kind of odd to say, since…. well… (gestures in 2020).

Part of the busy was that we had a week between end of summer courses and starting the school schedule, so we hauled everything out of Teen’s room and deep-cleaned it. It took four days, because we broke it down into smaller chunks that still allowed for Minecraft. Priorities, right? (Seriously, he was in the middle of a major mapart project, which I’ve internalized as “My son is doing digital crossstitch. Far out!”)

School starts next week, so I’m anticipating another busy week, one full of tech support issues and screeching at laptops. Funtimes!

I still managed to get a decent amount of writing done. Not as much in Monstrous Town as I’d have liked, but the RWA Board meeting ate my weekend. (More on that later.) I’ve hit one of the scenes I’ve been waiting for in Wings of Air, and I’m starting to wonder if this series might not actually be five books. There’s a LOT going on in this outline! I’ll make that decision later, once I see where the story is once we hit my word goal.

In other writing news, I got another short story up into KU.

Infernal Machines was originally published in Carnal Machines, under the name Elias A. St. James. It was released as a standalone story by Forbidden Fiction, and it came back to me when FF reverted my rights last month. It took me a little longer than the others to find a cover image that I liked, which is why it’s a week behind the other three.

This past weekend was the last RWA Board meeting of the interim board. Over the past five months, we did a job of work. But I’m pretty confident that we’ve set a firm foundation for RWA 2.0, and I’m running for reelection as DAL, so I’m ready to keep on working. Given the number of people of running (exactly twelve), it’s pretty much a given that I’ll be serving again — the only question is will I be serving for one year or two?

How much did we get done? Well, in five months, we redid the Code of Ethics so that it actually made sense and was enforcable. We revised the bylaws so that more people were eligible to run for office, and to cover contingencies and disasters such as the one we just went through. The Chapter Affiliation agreements have been reworked so that they’re more equitable to our chapters. We’ve shored up the financial side of the RWA. And, last but certainly not least, we built an entirely new contest from the ground up, one based on objective literary benchmarks, not on “didja like the book?” The inaugaral Vivian will launch in the Fall, I think (I don’t have the dates in front of me). Having worked on that Task Force, I’m really kind of proud of the job that we did there, but the proof will come next year in Nashville, when the first Vivians are awarded.

(I hope this works!!!)

Last week I also recorded a panel for the RWA National Convention, which will be held virtually August 28th through the 30th. Authors to Know will be part of the Librarians Day slate of panels on Friday the 28th. For the record, my authors to know are Jen deLuca (Renn Faire Romance!), Janella Angeles, Martha Waters and Farah Heron (BARBERSHOP SINGING ROMANCE!!!!)

There’s not much on the schedule this week, which means absolutely nothing anymore. I can have a busy week without ever leaving the house! So I intend to make this week busy by writing all the words.

Stay safe, everyone.

Jul

2020

“I’d Like Some Dull Now…”

Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

51671 / 120000 (43.06%)

So, can we stop living in interesting times now? I’d really like some dull now.

Granted, the whole “staying home and not interacting with people you don’t live with” thing is getting really old and boring. But the reasons that we’re doing that haven’t gone away, so we’re going to keep on staying home and not interacting as much as possible.

And, in my case, I’m going to keep focusing on writing. Because I know everything will be all right in the worlds I’m creating — they’re romances, after all. The HEA is guaranteed.

Wings of Air is progressing nicely. I’ve FINALLY gotten them out of Terraces, and I’m heading for a scene that I’ve been waiting to write for a while.

The synopsis for John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town is done, and I’ll start putting together the synopsis for John Zebedee Meets the Witch-Queen of Elfland once I’m not with something SOOPER SEKRIT and very exciting.

I was honored to be part of Wordier Than Thou’s Night of Paranormal Stories this past Friday. I read from Heart’s Master, which was fun to revisit. (and, of course, reread over the weekend!)

(Yes, that’s my office. Yes, that’s Super Grover.)

Not much else is happening. We’re having a quiet anniversary — 23 years for me and Mister M. (Well, today is 23 years observed. We were actually married by a Justice of the Peace on July 11th, 1997.) Apparently, we mark 23 years with manual labor — M and I got out in the garden this morning, and it’s looking good. Well, better than it had been. I’m still not sure just where those tomatoes came from, because they’re not the ones I planted. None of my other seeds started — well, except the peas, and they’re done. So I went out yesterday and picked up started plants and potting soil. We may have the repeat of the Year of the Eggplant — I got two Black Beauty eggplants and two orange bell peppers. I potted a couple of pineapple crowns, for when we redo the pineapple bed in the back of the garden. (That’s going to wait for cooler weather.)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elizabeth Schechter (@schechterelizabeth) on Jul 27, 2020 at 8:37am PDT

It’s thundering at the moment — not unusual for a summer afternoon in Florida. So I’m going to go off and get some offline stuff done.

Stay safe, everyone. Wear your masks and wash your hands

Jun

2020

Progress, and the lack thereof.

Echoes of Light

23004 / 50000 (46.01%)

***Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

20000 / 95000 (21.05%)

I spent most of last week plugging along, arguing with Amazon, doing promo for Bones of Earth, arguing with Amazon, prepping for the RWA Board meeting that happened this past weekend, and arguing with Amazon.

You know, the usual.

Why am I arguing with Amazon? Because the week prior, I did a giveaway of Written in Water, and a sale on Forged in Fire. Now, I can control the sale price, but setting Written in Water for free on Amazon is something only they can do, and only they can change it back. The prices reverted to $6.99 on every other platform last Tuesday. Amazon still hasn’t changed the price back.

Yesterday, I emailed them for the third time and asked them if they were planning on paying me royalties for the books that were downloaded for free after the price was supposed to have reverted. No answer yet.

I think, from here on out, I’ll be doing $.99 sales. Freebies are a pain in the posterior, and I have no control over when Amazon changes things.

(Note — I just went and checked and they’ve FINALLY put Written in Water back to the regular price. Apparently, telling them I expected them to made good on the consquences of their screw-up did something?)

Last week was also the last day of school — I now have a rising 9th grader. High school… eep!

Now, normally, this is the point in my year when I take time off — as much as I ever take time off, anyway. However, Heir to the Firstborn won’t wait. I’m going to keep on working to get Wings of Air up on time. Chapter two just went up on Patreon, and I’m working on chapter seven — I might be doing a little backwards writing on it, though. Owyn is in the kitchen, and whenever he goes to the kitchen, chapters tend start reading like a cooking show. Which is fun, but he’s not supposed to be taking over this book again.

(Owyn: “You only think so.”)

(Me: “Shut up, Mouse.”)

So I need to get out of Owyn’s head and back to Del’s. And I need to wake Treesi up — she’s sleeping in at the point where I am in the book.

Echoes of Light is coming along nicely. I’ve just revealed the big bad, and he’s being big and bad. I’m slightly more than halfway through the book, I think. So we’ll have a short novel (40K), which is good for a box set. I’m hoping to get this to a draft sometime this month. We’ll see how that goes.

And that’s pretty much all here.

It’s in no way everything. There’s a lot going on out there. Lots of fear. Lots of violence. Lots of hate.

I am in no way qualified to talk about it, other than to say this — in my social media, I will amplify the voices of activists, the voices of BLM, the voices of hope and the voices that call for justice. I will use y platform to spread their words, because it is their words that are important here. Not mine.

Stay safe out there.

May

2020

WIP and Book Birthdays and Stuff

Echoes of Light

19524 / 50000 (39.05%)

***Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

15683 / 95000 (16.51%)

It’s amazing how much writing I can do when I don’t have to be anywhere else.

This week, I set myself a goal of focusing on Wings of Air, so that I have a buffer in case of summer vacation pulling me away from the keyboard. (I was so tempted to write AFK there — I’m being slowly indoctrinated into gamerspeak!)

Summer vacation? Wait a minute, Liz. It’s still May!

Yes, it is. And in Florida, schools get out for the summer right after Memorial Day. Wednesday, we’ll be heading out (!) to school, to participate in a Drive through Graduation ceremony as our son graduates from middle school. It’s going to be interesting. And school next year is going to be even more interesting. We’ll see what happens when August comes around (Yes, we go back to school in August around here.)

The cancellations are ongoing — this past week, the RWA cancelled their National Convention. Work is ongoing into a virtual conference. Also this past week, KeiserSupercon announced the convention will be held the first weekend in December. Really! This time for sure!

(This is me, not getting my hopes up.)

And… tomorrow… this happens.

Bones of Earth goes live — if you’ve preordered it, it will be in your reader at midnight. (I think that’s how it works) There is still time to preorder — you can grab it from Amazon here, and from other booksellers here.

(Note: I really, really hope it goes live at midnight — there have been a number of preorders pulled by an Amazon glitch over the past few weeks. So if you hear distraught screaming coming from the direction of Florida tomorrow morning? The presale was pulled last minute. As of two seconds ago, it was still good to go.)

I got the most interesting rejection letter this morning for Hidden Things. The publisher liked it, said it really raised interest, but couldn’t find a spot for it in their lineup so they gave it a pass. That’s a new one for me. I have one more iron in the fire, and if that one doesn’t pan out, then I’ll get going on self-publishing.

And that’s about all for me. Stay safe, everyone.

May

2020

What Day Is It Anyway? Blursday?

Blursday? What day is that?

Well, it’s when you’re not sure what day it is. Actually, I do know it’s Monday. I’m blogging, therefore it’s Monday. Tomorrow, I’ll be doing a Circlet Press writing sprint, therefore it’s Tuesday (or Thursday — it might be Thuesday).

Days run together. Words don’t. The works in progress continue apace.

Echoes of Light

17706 / 50000 (35.41%)

***Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

10634 / 95000 (11.19%)

Bones of Earth drops one week from tomorrow, and I’ve decided to run a sale this week so people can get caught up! You can download Written in Water here, and you can buy Forged in Fire here.

Until the 26th, Written in Water is FREE, and Forged in Fire is 20% off the usual $8.99 ebook price (down to $7.19) The sale is running wherever ebooks are sold, so if you see someplace where Written in Water is not free and Forged in Fire is not $7.19 (or the equivalant 20% off price in non-US markets), let me know so I can fix it!

In other news, edits have come in (and gone back out) on Time for No Mercy, the short story that I sold to Riverdale Avenue Books for their upcoming Sexy Superheroes anthology. No data yet on when it will be coming out. As soon as I know, I’ll let you all know.

There isn’t a lot else happening. We’re wrapping up the end of the school year. Drive through middle school graduation is next week. I’m doing a million things for the RWA. I’m exercising. I’m baking. I’m cooking. The house is spotless.

I’m tired of quarantine, but it really is the only way to stop this damn thing.

Stay in. Stay safe.

See you all virtually next week.

May

2020

Works in Progress: Echoes of Light and Wings of Air.

Echoes of Light

15170 / 50000 (30.34%)

***Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

5067 / 95000 (5.33%)

Now that I’ve fixed the issues with Echoes of Light, I find myself wanting to play with it more than Wings of Air. Which… nope. Can’t do that. Need to work on them both. So what I think I’m going to have to do is work on Wings of Air early, and save Echoes of Light as a reward.

It doesn’t help that Echoes of Light is being fun right now. John and Ethriel are just so damned cute together!

He heard movement, and turned back, seeing Ethriel trying to get out from under the blanket. “No,” he said. “You stay in bed.” He held his hand up, palm out, and Ethriel flinched. John immediately dropped his hands. “No,” he said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not going to hit you.” He stepped closer, and pulled the blanket back up. Then he rested his hand on Ethriel’s chest and gently pushed him down. “Stay here.”

Ethriel frowned. “Stay… here,” he repeated. He pointed at the bed.

“Bed,” John supplied the word.

“Stay… bed?” Ethriel asked. Then he smiled. “Stay bed.” He laced his fingers together and rested them on his chest.

“Yes,” John said with a laugh. “You stay in bed.”

Ethriel nodded. “Stay bed,” he repeated. Then he looked thoughtful. “John… stay bed?” He smiled, his brows raised in a hopeful expression, and John was suddenly sure in his bones that there was more to that smile than just being friendly. That he’d known exactly what he’d meant when he’d tried to invite John to the bed the night before.

John felt warm. His throat felt tight. So did his trousers. It was tempting. So tempting. But Ethriel wasn’t hale. And John might not be understanding him properly. This could end badly.

But it was still tempting.

And in other news? I’m still screaming. There is still no resolution for Forged in Fire. And, because of the way they’ve locked down the book in KDP, I can’t get at any of the data to see if there is a major error that needs to be fixed. I don’t know if a reader reported the book, or if it’s a glitch (I’m suspecting glitch, to be honest.) There’s been no communication from KDP Quality Control. I’m in limbo, and I don’t like it. It’s costing me money.

So… since Amazon isn’t letting me make money, Forged in Fire is now ON SALE on Smashwords — use the code TN86U for 20% off — good for the rest of the week!

Meanwhile, Bones of Earth is ready to drop on May 26th. I really hope Forged in Fire is back online on Amazon when that happens.

Over the weekend, I found out that No Safewords II won the Bronze in the IPPY awards. If you remember, I have two stories in that anthology. Blood, Lust was where I first introduced my BDSM vampire Itami Hiro and his beloved Daniel (or at least, their Marketplace alternate universe selves). And there’s Domestic Tranquility, a second Thomas and Eugenia story (the first being Oh, Promise Me! from No Safewords 1).

Not much else is going on here. It’s pretty much just exercise in the morning (Zombies, Run! three days a week, yoga and/or something else twice — you can follow me on Instagram for workout updates, if you’re interested), followed by writing and random stuff around the house. I’m not going out if I can help it — so I leave the neighborhood maybe once a week. Things are opening up around us — restaurants and hair salons and the like, but I’m not willing to be a test subject in how long before the second wave? Especially since the second wave is likely to be worse than the first — we’ve all seen the 1918 Flu graph, right?

If you can, stay in. Stay safe.

May

2020

Works in Progress: Echoes of Light and Wings of Air

Echoes of Light

10585 / 30000 (35.28%)

***Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

1207 / 95000 (1.27%)

Progress continues. Sort of. I started Wings of Air on May 1st, and it’s going… well, it’s going. It’s only been three days, though. That’s not a bad number for three days. And if you follow me on Twitter, you likely saw this tweet about Echoes of Light the other day.

A third of the way into writing my “the Wandering Jew in the Wild West” novel and I hate it. Well, I don’t *hate* hate it. But it’s going too slow. I think I need to rework this.

Good thing it’s not due until December.

— Elizabeth Schechter (she/her) (@EASchechter) April 30, 2020

I wound up writing backwards — ripping out most of a chapter and a half, and setting them aside. I can use some of it, so it’s not a total loss. But in a work of a projected 30,000 words, to be over a third of the way in and not have met the love interest? No, that’s too slow. The love interest now enters, dramatically, in chapter three.

Echoes is being another slow writing project, because I keep having to stop and do research. The setting is off the Arkansas River, just outside of Skullyville and Fort Coffee, in what was Arkansas after the Civil War. I keep having to stop and check maps, which is interesting because on the modern maps, the borders have moved so everything is now Oklahoma, Skullyville was a port town but has since moved inland, and Fort Coffee isn’t there anymore! (Now, granted, Fort Coffee was destroyed during the Civil War, but when the story is set, there were ruins. Now? There’s a sign.) So I have to compare modern maps to period maps.

Once I get them moving, it’s to a fictional town, so I won’t have as much map-reading to do. But for now? I’m doing a lot of Googling.

In other news… there’s not a lot of other news. Necronomicon has cancelled for 2020. I’m still waiting to hear about Keiser SuperCon, Megacon and RWA Nationals. I also need to decide what I’m doing if these events do happen. I mean, I’m asthmatic, which puts me in the higher risk group. I think that means that I really shouldn’t be doing conventions this year (unless I have no choice — with RWA Nationals, since I’ on the Board of Directors, I have to go to Nationals). Which means that if you want to see me in 2020… ummm… you probably won’t see me at a convention in 2020.

That being said, I just did my first ever online convention with FutonCon. It was run entirely on Discord, and it was interesting. There’s more panel interaction than when I did my live reading on Facebook, which is nice, but it’s still kind of hard to get past the feeling of “I’m talking to myself.”

I think I prefer in-person conventions, given my choice. And, you know, the option of not catching the never-get-overs.

That’s all from my neck of the woods. Stay safe. Stay in, if you can. And wash your hands.

Elemental Project

Changes in Altitude

Works in Progress

New Release!

Promotions!

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Oh, No. It’s Almost October.

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“I’d Like Some Dull Now…”

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What Day Is It Anyway? Blursday?

Works in Progress: Echoes of Light and Wings of Air.

Works in Progress: Echoes of Light and Wings of Air

Works in Progress

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