progress

Sep

2023

Convention Prep!

Convention prep is my week this week — getting ready for NecronomiCon. After I posted last week, I found out about a schedule change — the Writing Sex panel will now be held on Friday at 8:45 PM. This is still the earliest it’s ever been scheduled, so I’ll have to make sure to clear the room of minors before we start.

Friday, 5:00 PM — Make, Remake, Reboot
Friday, 8:45 PM — Writing Sex ( the earliest I think this panel has ever been scheduled…)

Saturday, 2:00 PM — Don’t Panic! Balancing the Two Worlds of of Life and Creativity
Saturday, 3:15 PM — Let’s Structure Your Story.

There may also be a reading — I haven’t gotten confirmation yet.

Now, if you stop in to see me at the convention, I’ll have a table in the far corner of Writer’s Alley (if I’m reading the map write, all the way to the left as you enter.) People who mention this post, or that they heard about the convention from my social media will get 10% off their purchase at my table. I also have special tote bags that are free with a purchase of $50 or more. (There may also be gluten-free/dairy-free baked goods, if I get a chance to bake.)

The Sea Prince
The Coral Throne, Book 1

53063 / 120000 (44.22%)

Balance of Power
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

26572 / 90000 (29.52%)

I’m hoping to get more words in this week, but with convention prep my main priority and baking my secondary priority, I may not get quite as many in as I hope. Thankfully, edits aren’t in my inbox yet… and watch me jinx myself and end up with edits on Friday as we’re about to leave!

….

And I just got a brain-bending email that has stopped me cold. In a good way — it’s not bad news in the slightest. Rather the opposite, actually — it’s nice when people hold you in high esteem. It’s something I’m not feeling capable of doing just yet, but… wow. Nice that they think that I’m capable.

Yes, that’s vague. Purposefully so. If something comes of it? I’ll tell you.

It’s time for me to run away and get more things done. Here’s hoping to see some of you at the convention!

Aug

2023

Here Comes the Rain Again…

Here comes the rain again. And the wind. And the pressure changes. Hurricane season in Florida is a pain in the sinuses. Right now, Idalia is a Tropical Storm, but by the time it makes landfall on Wednesday morning (I think that was the last projection), it will be a Cat 3 hurricane.

Now, this isn’t our first rodeo. We have our supplies. We have water, batteries and charcoal for the grill in case we have to cook outside. The porch is cleared, and all that’s left are a few things that need to be moved to the garage tonight after dinner. And we’re well inland and, like Obi Wan, we have the high ground. We’ll be good.

However, now that all the prep is done, the waiting starts…

In writing news, today is the last day of the Narratess August Indie Sale. Hidden Things is currently 99 cents, and there are over 300 other books to choose from.

There’s still also the Brave New Worlds giveaway, which ends Thursday, and where you can win a $20 gift card to the bookstore of your choice.

Writing is going slowly at the moment, mostly because my sinuses are yelling, “Danger, Will Robinson!” (I can’t remember starting to feel hurricane pressure two days before the actual storm before…)

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

49416 / 120000 (41.18%)

Balance of Power
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 7)

15803 / 90000 (17.56%)

I still haven’t gotten permission to show the new House of Sable Locks cover, but I do have a tentative schedule for edits for The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir, so the end of my year is going to be PACKED. Touch wood everything goes well with that and we’ll be able to keep to the 2023 release date.

That’s about all for me. Now, it’s just the waiting.

Catch you all next week!

May

2023

I Win!

Camp Nano, that is.

For the record, this win was for 30,612 words in 30 days. However, the book is still not done.

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

92924 / 108000 (86.04%)

Based on where I am, I figure that this book has about five or six chapters left. Yes, I know I said that last week. No, these are not eldritch chapters where you write a dozen and you still have a dozen left to go. Honestly, there’s nothing eldritch about that. That is totally normal. Really. I’m still on target for finishing this book by the 19th. I think. I did leave myself some wiggle room before the end of the school year, though.

And then? This house will be CLEAN!!! (Yup — the ritual “I finished a book, time to deep clean the house.”)

And then what? Well, research for Imaginative Anthropology. Worldbuilding for The Sea Prince. Synopses for the untitled Adavar book, and for a new thing that my brain fed me because it’s bored with ravens already and wants something new and shiny. Courtesans and merchant princes and intrigue, oh, my! Possibly set in the same universe as The Iron Virgin, which came about because of that trip to Nashville I took two years ago (the Gaylord Opryland had a Pirates and Princess event going on, and it percolated into something interesting…) The synopsis is written, and I’ll actually write that one of these years. The feel of the world is the same, so perhaps they are set in different kingdoms or something… I’ll figure it out once I know more about both of them.

It’s funny — I’m actually looking forward to taking the summer off. I haven’t in a few years, which I suppose was the downside of doing the serial. But that means I haven’t really had a chance to reset and refill my creative bucket. Now I’ll be taking that time. I’ll still be working on things, but I won’t be actively writing. And I’ll start back up in August with… something. Either jumping back into The Sea Prince, or picking up one of the new projects that are sitting on the back burner. We shall see what yells the loudest in August when I ask myself, “What am I working on next?”

Once more into the breech… this book isn’t going to write itself!

Apr

2023

Race to the Finish Line!

It’s Camp NaNo! Every April and July, the people behind NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, aka November) run Camp NaNo, which is a slightly more relaxed version of the November madness. More relaxed, in that you can set your own wordcount goal. Going in to April, I noticed that I was short about 30K works in The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath. So, I pulled up the Nano website, set up a project in Camp Nano, and set my wordcount goal at 30K words.

In nine days, I’ve written 9062 words. (I haven’t written yet today.)

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

71379 / 90000 (79.31%)

Since my primary goal is to have the book finished by May 19th (one week before the end of school), I’m not too worried about getting all 30K words in my the end of April. But if I do, then yay!

And then… I wait. I need to let the book settle before I go back and read through for edits, and I need to wait to see what the edits on Morrigan’s Heir look like to see what, if any, changes are needed so the books are consistent. So final delivery on the book will be contingent on when I get edits in on book one.

Speaking of which, I should check with my editor on how things are going with book one.

Once that’s done, then I’ll spend the summer putting together an outline for Imaginative Anthropology, finishing the worldbuilding for The Sea Prince, and writing up a synopsis for the unnamed Heir to the Firstborn book that is percolating. And maybe adding in some of the research I need to do to plot out Children of the Swords. We’ll be doing at least one college tour over the summer, too.

I think I’ve said before that I don’t know how to downtime. Like, at all.

Mar

2023

The Space Where Fandom and Academia Collide…

That space is the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA), an annual conference put on by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. I’ve been attending since their first October conference in 2021, and it is seriously where academia and fandom collide. Four days of panels and readings and talking and networking and realizing you’re sitting right across from a writing LEGEND and trying not to die (okay, maybe that one is just me…)

I started going to conventions at 16, and I started with Lunacon, which was the New York regional convention. And I remember panels where experts spoke at length about different aspects of fandom and meaning and symbolism, and the panels at ICFA remind me of being at that sort of convention. I’m not sure how many of those are left — the old regionals seem to be passing to younger hands, and becoming more media focused. Which just shows that I’m part of the graying of fandom, I suppose.

No, I am not shaking my fist at clouds.

I was nominally supposed to also be on a writing retreat while at ICFA. Ah… that did not go as planned.

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

54813 / 90000 (60.90%)

I didn’t get nearly as much writing done as I’d have liked. Which means it’s time to turn up the daily wordcount target if I intend to have this done by the end of the school year.

And since I’ve been playing catch-up all day, that means I need to get started on daily words. Here’s hoping for many more words this week!

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.

Sep

2022

This Is Getting to Be a Habit

I used to post this blog early on Monday. Maybe one of these weeks, I’ll get back to doing that again.

This is not that week. Today has been a very Monday-ish Monday, and about midday, I hit the “No spoons, ONLY KNIVES!!!” point. I’m a little less frazzled now, but I still have this blog post to write and two more chapters of Children of Dreams to rewrite.

Speaking of that, I’m about halfway complete with the rewrite on Children of Dreams. I still think it will be ready for the November sale date. but I’m not setting up the preorder until I hand the book off to Darling Editor. Which I hope will be sometime next week.

The new edition of Forged in Fire went up for sale this week, and the ebooks look like they’re available almost everywhere. Paperbacks appear to be rolling out, too — Barnes and Noble says they have the new paperbacks, and Amazon has the new cover but the old book blurb. If you order and get a copy with the old cover, that’s the old content, too. Same with Written in Water.

I should have Bones of Earth ready to go sometime late this week or early next.

I love these covers, but you won’t get to see my FAVORITE until we hit book 5. Which I’m not showing you yet.

John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town is starting to wind down — there are two chapters left to go in this middle part of The Chronicles of John Zebedee. Then we hit the final portion — John Zebedee Meets the Witch-Queen of the Elvenlands, which will take us through to the end of the year. And at some point I have to give all of these images to a cover designer for the collected Chronicles of John Zebedee. Which may include bonus material, but I haven’t decided yet. I’d have to write it, and writing brain is still not entirely functional.

Proof that I’m LOUSY at marketing is that I’ve been completely forgetting to promote the collected Rebel Mage ebook, which will be coming out on October 4th! This will be Amazon only, and includes Counsel of the Wicked, Haven’s Fall and Where Home Lies.

There are still eleven days to go grab the updated Written in Water for FREE through the Fantasy Frenzy. Click the image and grab a pile of free books. Did I mention they’re free?

Back to the revision grindstone. Catch you all next week, with hopefully some new news to share!

Jul

2022

Relaxing… sort of…

I am relaxing! Really!

Well, sort of…

I’m not actively writing. Except that I am messing around a little with The Sea Prince, because I was bored. I redid the outline, and am messing with things to see where they go. It definitely falls into the realm of my favorite trope — “These Two Idiots.”

I’m not actively editing, either. Except that I’m rereading Heir to the Firstborn and making notes of all the things that need to be updated and expanded on for the new editions.

I’m not actively planning, but that’s because I finished the synopses for Flesh and Blood.

I am doing research, but that’s mostly reading, so it’s relaxing even though I’m kinda working.

And in and around that, I’m catching up on TV — we binged The Book of Boba Fett, and finished Obi-Wan Kenobi last night (viewer note — I came away from this series completely convinced in my bones that Obi-Wan is an IDIOT!) I think our next binge is getting back to She-Ra. We have two seasons left on that, I think. Maybe I’ll watch Gentleman Jack when we get back from vacation.

I’m catching up on my reading, too. I finished the main series of Bridgerton books, and I read the newest Valdemar book from Mercedes Lackey. I’m back to reading the Magic in Manhattan (Allie Theron) series, and I have The Tale of the Five (Diane Duane) series downloaded. I haven’t decided yet what book is coming with me on vacation, but I should do that.

Now, if you want to catch up on reading, chapter 8 of John Zebedee and the Heir of the Elvenlands dropped today. There are only three chapters left, then John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town starts in August.

And Where Home Lies drops a week from tomorrow, bringing the last Rebel Mage book back into circulation.

And I think that’s everything for this week.

May

2022

And Here We Go!

First, tomorrow is the re-release of Haven’s Fall!

There’s still time to preorder it, so you’ll have it tonight. Or you can start reading it tomorrow in KU if you’ve already read Counsel of the Wicked.

I sat down Saturday and figured out how much more there is to finish in Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. The answer? Six chapters. About 18K words. I’m calling is 20K to be on the safe side.

I have ten days, roughly, in which to write that.

Since I figured that out, I have written 2818 words.

Roughly 17,182 words to go.

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

151798 / 170000 (89.29%)

I’m almost done with one chapter, which will leave five more to finish. In ten days.

This is doable. I might have brains of tapioca in eleven days, but it’s doable.

And then Heir to the Firstborn will be finished. Which will be VERY strange. Well, not finished finished. There are still edits. And the series itself has been picked up by a co-op publisher, so there will be even more edits and new covers coming (there’s already a new blurb on Written in Water. It doesn’t take up the entire back of the book.) But that’s the end of the series. That’s it. There’s no more.

Well… I don’t think there’s anymore.

Edits may not happen until fall. I want to spend the summer working on business planning and marketing, and doing research for my Imaginative Anthropology project. Maybe planning out some other writing.

But definitely taking a break.

Ten more days.

Okay, words. Let’s go.

Mar

2022

Spring Flowering

Here we are, coming up on the end of the first quarter of 2022. And… I don’t know. Still feels very much 2020-ish in here.

I’ve been saying for years that normal is a setting on my dryer, but really, I’d like some normal at some point. Or at least… something closer to what was normal back in 2019. But… yeah, that’s not happening. 2019 normal is what got us into this 2020-ish limbo. Maybe someday we’ll have a new normal, but it’s still too soon for all the upheaval and the way things are now to feel “normal” yet.

Boy, I’m clearly in a mood today, aren’t I? I’m going to stop now before you all hit the ‘X’ on this window.

Work on The Way Home continues, and I had a really good writing week this past week. I’ll be heading into the final plot arc fairly soon. I think this one will need some heavy edits. I’m realizing now that there are some plot holes early in that need to be addressed. Will it be 170K words? Maybe not, but it may be close. Watch this space and see!

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

115906 / 170000 (68.18%)

We’re in the final days of the World of Fantasy giveaway. There’s still time to go and grab over thirty free books, and enter for the chance to win a $20 gift card.

Starting on April 1st, there will be another giveaway. Love and Romance will run from April 1st to the 22nd, and will offer the chance to win a $25 gift card, in addition to 29 free books. (I’m not sure why the graphic says Contemporary Love Stories, because there’s historical romance and paranormal in the list.) The link will not be live until Friday, but you can take a look to see what is being offered.

On the subject of new work, I haven’t yet gotten back to working on the short pieces I mentioned last week. I spent most of the end of last week working on a new school talk presentation for this Wednesday. Once the talk is over, then Tell Me is on my list for finishing up. I also need to tweak the cover a little. It’s almost there. Almost.

I’m still deciding on the next project. Right now, it’s coming down to Tower of Light (the Metropolis retelling) or Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand. But neither of those will work for Patreon, so I need to figure that out, too. I might possibly take up The Sea Prince again and see if I can figure out where that one went wrong.

Decisions, decisions.

progress

Convention Prep!

Here Comes the Rain Again…

I Win!

Race to the Finish Line!

The Space Where Fandom and Academia Collide…

Rabbit, Rabbit!

This Is Getting to Be a Habit

Relaxing… sort of…

And Here We Go!

Spring Flowering

Works in Progress

Appearances

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