Imaginative Anthropology

Apr

2023

Sniffle

I have no idea what this virus was that hit me like a ton of lead-coated bricks. It wasn’t the flu, and it wasn’t Covid — the tests for both came back negative. If it was a cold, it was a much beefier cold than I have ever experienced before, because it’s been over a week and I’m still dragging. I’m better than I was, but still… the brain fog is real. And the fatigue. There was a lot of sleep last week. And surprisingly, there was a decent amount of words. I can’t remember what I wrote for most of them, but my word counter says I did actually write.

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath
(The White Raven duology, book 2)

64046 / 90000 (71.16%)

I have a month and a half to finish this up before the end of the school year. And Camp Nanowrimo started on the 1st, so I’m observing National Novel Finishing month, and I’m going to get as much of this done in April as I can.

Once this book is in, I’ll be done for the summer, at least until edits on Morrigan’s Heir come in. So I’ll be working on the worldbuilding for The Sea Prince, so I can get a better handle on that book, as well as the synopsis for the book I didn’t think I was going to write — Heir to the Firstborn, book SEVEN. I remember distinctly telling someone that I was done with Adavar. There were no more stories to be told in that universe. And then the main character walked out of my subconscious mind and said “Really? What about me?” His name is Kaspin and he’s just as much of a brat as Owyn. Once I have a story and a title, I’ll start writing and putting this up a chapter at a time on Patreon, the same as the original books. I don’t anticipate starting back with either The Sea Prince or this unnamed Heir to the Firstborn book until fall, but we’ll see how it goes over the summer.

I’ll also be working on putting together an outline for Imaginative Anthropology over the summer, so I can start planning out more targeted research and reading. That’s something I can do while traveling, which we have planned for the summer. This way to the college tours!

Jan

2023

Rabbit, Rabbit!

So… here’s 2023. Let’s see how this goes. Here’s hoping for better than the previous three years.

Back to work for me today. There was a little noodling around with words over my break — it’s hard to stop. But on the whole, I really took time off for the first time in ages, and I feel so much better for it.

What’s in the cards for 2023? Well, I’m back to working on The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath.

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath
(The White Raven Duology, Book 2)

20875 / 90000 (23.19%)

I have edits to work on for The Chronicles of John Zebedee, which should be coming out in March, and edits for The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir will be coming in at some point. I’m keeping a list of things that I’m noticing need to be updated in Book 1 as I work on Book 2. Things like… I wrote Morrigan’s Heir before I wrote Heir to the Firstborn. Now that Morrigan’s Heir is going to be published, I really need to change the name of that one character… Lorcan has a friend in book one named Owyn. Nope. Can’t use that name again. Needs to be retired. So once those edits come in, I’ll make the changes. I found some stock photography that I loved for the cover, and sent it on to the designer. His mockups look amazing and I can’t wait to see the finished cover!

In other news, I’m still working on Imaginative Anthropology, reading through various anthropology and folklore texts. The outline is slowly coalescing, and at some point, I’ll actually start writing the book instead of just researching. Rebel Mage will be published wide next month — I’m taking the ebooks out of Kindle Unlimited and putting them up everywhere. That should happen sometime around February 10th or thereabouts. And I’m still working on figuring out what’s going to happen with my Patreon, and if I’m keeping it open or shifting my serialization over to Kindle Vella. I should check in with my Patrons about that. I’m still not sure what the next serial will be — maybe I should serialize The Sea Prince? I don’t know. I have to get back to poking away at that one. It was moving when I put it to the side again. I need to open the file again. But not yet. I’ll wait until John Zebedee edits are done before starting back in on The Sea Prince.

What else in in the cards? ICFA in March, and I’m not sure what else. I haven’t heard anything from Boskone about being a virtual guest, and it’s too early to plan Necronomicon. We will be doing some traveling this year because Teen Boy has college on the horizon, and there are some colleges that we should tour. And at some point, I should really decide what I’m doing about going back for my MFA (the two real questions are If? and When?) I should nail that down this year.

And that’s my 2023 in a nutshell.

Nov

2022

First Day of Taking a Break

I’m not counting last week as taking a break, because I spent all week cooking. A little relaxing — I do enjoy cooking — but not exactly restful.

I did start on my “I need to catch up on reading/watching all the things I’ve missed.” However, I started slow. I caught up on Tasting History with Max Miller, and I watched (and was very unsatisfied by) Behind the Attraction: Haunted Mansion. (they kept stressing how if an attraction works, then you don’t change it, but completely fail to mention the major renovations and changes made to the Haunted Mansion in Florida in the early 2000s.) Then I watched the first episode of Lost Treasures of Rome, which was fantastic! I need to watch the rest of that series.

I’m also into a new book for my Imaginative Anthropology project. I finished The Art of Being Human by Michael Wesch while on jury duty, but hadn’t had a chance to pick up the next book on the pile, which is Folklore 101, by Dr. Jenna Jorgensen. I started it yesterday, and I can already tell that this is going to be pivotal in showing the role that creating folklore has in worldbuilding, and how much of effective worldbuilding rests on having a solid foundation in your world’s folklore.

(insert anthropology geeking here…)

Cookiepocalypse is coming up soon, and I still am not entirely sure what I’m making. I’m trying to keep it reasonable this year. Three color cookies are definitely on the menu, and a white chocolate oatmeal cookie (because I found dairy free white chocolate chips and may have bought too much…) I’m not sure what else. Maybe chocolate chip cookies? Maybe? But I’m the only one who can eat them so not a lot of those. Biscotti? Maybe those, too.

Trying to be reasonable is hard.

I’ll be doing a deep dive into my office and cleaning it up. There’s a lot of stuff in my office closet that should not be there, and if I can get that out, I can get the show supplies out from under the day bed and make them more accessible. But that might also take the rest of my break.

And in the meantime, The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath is buzzing away in the back of my head. I have ideas and scenes that are going to be coming up, but they have to wait until January. I’m refilling my tanks.

Sep

2022

Now.

This is basically where I live these days. Now. I’m not really thinking more than a week in advance, because so much can change in a week. So, I live in the now. The future? That’s Future-Liz’s problem. Now-Liz has enough to deal with.

As you might imagine, this makes planning anything… interesting. I’m still sitting down with my planners on Sunday, but I’m not looking any farther out than the following Sunday. Meal plans? Those are suggestions that may or may not happen (especially since my oven has decided it’s going on strike, and replacing a gas oven? That’s an interesting undertaking…)

On the upside, I’ll have an all new oven for Cookiepocalypse, when Future-Liz gets to that point. On the downside, I won’t have a new oven in time for next Sunday dinner. See why meal plans are suggestions?

So what’s happening in the now?

I’ve finished my read-through of the first four Heir to the Firstborn books, and passed them on to Darling Editor. New editions of the books will be going live in the next month or so, leading up to the release of Children of Dreams in November. I’ve updated the covers on the website, but I won’t be updating the covers in Goodreads or on any sale sites until the new content is available. Then I’ll do them all in one swell foop.

Today I start the read-through and rewrite on Visions in Smoke, which means that I should get into the read-through and rewrite of Children of Dreams sometime next week. At that point, I’ll probably set up the preorder for Children of Dreams. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Also in the now, I’ve confirmed that I can’t package and sell a book of compiled Vella episodes until 30 days after the last episode goes live. So that means that The Chronicles of John Zebedee will be an early March release, and I need to engage my cover designer at some point soon.

I’m doing another newsletter builder giveaway this month, with copies of Written in Water up for grabs, along with 30 other titles. Click the graphic to go over and see what’s available, and enter to win a $25 gift card.

I’ve gotten back into researching Imaginative Anthropology, but it’s hard to focus on even non-fiction at the moment. And I’m working on new edits on Swords of Charlemagne for Book View Cafe,

At some point, I may tell you what’s going on behind the scenes on this end, and WHY I’m so distracted. But right now, I don’t have permission from the others involved. Until that happens? You just get to know that there’s a lot of things happening here, and even vague good thoughts are appreciated.

Aug

2022

Late Post.

It’s late, but it’s here.

There was no post last week because I was on vacation. I enjoyed myself immensely, and got home Saturday. The laundry is all done and put away, and I think everything is unpacked. Now we’re in the last few days before school starts, and before I get back to work.

What work? Well, if things keep going the way that they were before vacation, I might be putting The Sea Prince to the side again. Not because of lack of story, but because I may have something else I need to work on first.

Yes, that’s very vague. But I’m not saying anything more until it’s written in stone.

I have several sets of edits that need to be worked on — I need to edit Forged in Fire for re-release, and edit Children of Dreams for initial release to my Patrons. I also may have new edits on Hidden Things… because BVC wants the Swords of Charlemagne books, too! I was planning on going over Hidden Things again, because working with Mark on the audiobooks pointed out a few things that made it past me and three editors.

I’ve been wildly distracted by things over the past month, so I haven’t done much on the Imaginative Anthropology project. I will hopefully get back to that, but it’s of lower priority at the moment. The research will keep.

So, for the next week and a half, I’ll be making plans and planning things out. On the 10th… we’re off!

And for now… I’m off to BED.

Jun

2022

Things and Stuff

That’s about the state of things right now in my word. There are things and stuff. Things and stuff are happening, and I’m doing things and stuff.

At the moment, I’m about half finished with the synopsis for book 4 of Flesh and Blood. There’s one book after that, and that will, I think, end the series (at least for the foreseeable future? It has the potential to go on longer, because, you know, vampires.) The short story is still in limbo, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s going to come together, because every time I look at it, my brain goes blank.

Research into Imaginative Anthropology is going well, although I’m realizing that the book I’m reading right now is dated — the next one on my list is a more recent publication, which will help offset the cringe I’m finding in sections on gender and sexuality.

Vacation is coming up soon, but I had to put vacation sewing on hold because the machine needed to be serviced. I should have that back next week. I might go ahead and cut the pieces now, but I might not.

Episode 6 of John Zebedee and the Heir of the Elvenlands went live today. People are reading it, but I can see why folks are saying that Vella isn’t really getting the traction that Amazon hoped it would. I hope they figure out how to make this platform work. I like it, but they really do need to do more to push it!

I’m waiting for more feedback from the beta readers for BVC, but it looks like I have a job of work to do with new edits for Heir to the Firstborn. Serials and novels really are two different beasts, and they don’t translate well from one to the other. That’s on my to-do list for 2023, because I think the only book that will need minimal edits is Written in Water! The new covers are ABSOLUTELY gorgeous and I can’t wait to reveal them — I just got the proof for Wings of Air and it’s beautiful.

There’s also a title change coming — Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads will be republished as Dreams of Smoke. I haven’t yet decided what the new title for Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home will be. It does need that Something-in-Something title to fit with the rest of the series (and there are three Something-OF-Something titles, so I need one more Something-IN-Something to balance. But I might not. We’ll see.)

I DO know that The Way Home needs to be edited HEAVILY — it’s way too long. There are subplots in there that may not make it to the final version, and there’s one character who told me more about them after I finished, so I need to change them up a bit. It’s still going to go live for my Patreon patrons in November, but I may hold off actually publishing book 6 in the wild until the BVC edition. Again, we’ll see.

Things and stuff. Stuff and things. Decisions to make.

I’m awfully busy for someone who is supposed to be taking it easy this summer. But, in the taking it easy part, I did binge the entire Book of Boba Fett yesterday (The Mandalorian, season 2.5?) Now on to the rest of my watch list — next up? Seasons 4 and 5 of She-Ra!

Jun

2022

Productivity

It’s amazing how much you can get done when you take time off.

That’s not supposed to be sarcastic, but it might be, just a little. Because I’m zipping through things that I’ve been putting off while I worked on finishing up Heir to the Firstborn. I’m moving things to the completed column of my kanban board, which is cool. I’m going to see how many things I can get done before I reset the board for 3rd Quarter at the end of the month. So, since I finished the book, I’ve completed my marketing and my financial plans, wrote a series breakdown of Heir to the Firstborn because I have five DIFFERENT beta readers at Book View Cafe. (The only one not at a disadvantage is the person who has book one…) I updated the series bible for Flesh and Blood (the BDSM Vampire series) and realized that it is five books, not four. Wrote the synopsis for book three, and started on book 4. I’ve completed two finance classes and am halfway through a third. And I’m having fun with the research for Imaginative Anthropology, and I have a book on order for a research paper I’m considering on the evolution of the woman warrior. (Working title: From Britomartis to Brienne)

Oh, and I’m sewing for vacation. And learning to shuttle tat.

Now, this seems like a LOT of things, and it is, but there’s no pressure to do any of it. Most of it is really relaxing to do, so it’s not even like work. I’m busy, but I’m not stressed about it.

Episode 5 of John Zebedee and the Heir of the Elvenlands went live this morning.

I’m not sure anyone is actually reading, though, so I might put together an ad to promote it. I can see why people are saying that Vella isn’t really being pushed by Amazon, though.

And Where Home Lies goes live on July 12th. Once the entire series is out (including the box set that is coming in October), I’m going to move this over to be wide. So that will be sometime early next year for wide distribution of Rebel Mage. (I have to wait until the box set comes out of KU, which will be in January, I think.) But this series may move over to BVC, too, so we’ll see what that changes between now and then.

Counsel of the Wicked is a freebie until the end of the month over in the Love Me Now giveaway. There are some interesting spicy romances in there, so take a look!

And that’s about everything for this week, I think.

Jun

2022

Summer Thunder

It’s storming here in Central Florida. There’s booming thunder outside my window. The weather radio is going off every couple of minutes because of incoming alerts, which isn’t really necessary because my sinuses have been letting me know it’s going to storm today for about two hours.

Pretty normal for summer, to be honest.

Turns out that pushing to finish the book as hard as I did wasn’t entirely good for me. I have a slowly-resolving case of tennis elbow (which is a repetitive stress injury, just not the one that writers usually get.) So I need to take a break from working at the laptop… she says as she sits at the laptop.

Irony, I has it.

Taking it easy isn’t. Easy, that is. I’m not used to it. I remember reading something associated with Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books, that claimed that adrenaline addicting is irreversible after some short period of time. I wonder if that’s true about other hormones. Adrenaline is associated with excitement and fear, the evolutionary necessity to outrun that predator. What’s associated with creation? With the satisfaction of writing a really good scene? I don’t know. I don’t think it’s endorphine, but I’m not sure.

In any case, that’s a line of research for some smart person who isn’t me. I don’t do biochemistry. I’m into anthropology.

The research for Imaginative Anthropology is ongoing and interesting. It’s not going to be a quick project. I can tell you that now. But I’m starting to see how the pieces fit, and what areas I need to flesh out. This is going to be fun.

Episode 4 of John Zebedee and the Heir of the Elvenlands dropped today. First three episodes were free so you can check those out, then decide if you want to put in the 35 coins (Vella currency) for episode 4.

And that’s about it here. Which… I suppose this counts as taking it easy? If you squint?

I need to try harder to not do anything.

“Don’t just do something! Sit there!”

Imaginative Anthropology

Sniffle

Rabbit, Rabbit!

First Day of Taking a Break

Late Post.

Things and Stuff

Productivity

Summer Thunder

Works in Progress

Appearances

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