public displays of geekery

Nov

2024

Making It!

It’s Maker Faire Week and we are making it! Making what? Well… words. And making it to Maker Faire. I found out this morning that we will be in the Spirit building, in space SF6. According to the map, this appears to be Writer’s Row — we’re one of three authors in that aisle, and we’re next to a bookshop. So come and check us out and read all the things!

Tomorrow is Election Day. You’ve voted, right? Or you’re voting tomorrow? Remember, it’s important!

According to my wordcount, I am just over 75% done with King of Swords. According to the story… not even close. It might be closer to 50%, with the hinge coming in the next chapter. Which may mean this is two books. I hope not, but we’ll see. I’m just going to keep going until the story is done, and then I’ll decide when I edit if I’m breaking it up or just having having the third book be bigger than the first two combined. I’d like to see this book done by the end of the year, but… yeah, we’ll see how that goes. I’m not going to rush it — there needs to be some resting in and around the rest of the end of the year things.

Last week saw the first for me. Worlds Begin was #1 in two separate categories! (And, for the record, it still is! I took this screenshot two seconds ago!)

I have never before had a #1 in a category of anything — best I’ve ever seen was #2.

Once Maker Faire is over, I’ll be starting to reserialize the Heir to the Firstborn books on THEO. It’ll take me a bit to get all of the books uploaded, but once I do, they’ll be available to read the way I originally wrote them. (Mostly — the original serial wasn’t fully edited. Remember, the chapters were originally going live as I wrote them, with minimal edits. On THEO, you’ll be getting the finished and polished chapters.)

And that’s about all from my neck of the woods. Remember, if you come out to Maker Faire, let me know you saw this post and you get a discount on books!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

90396 / 120000 (75.33%)

Appearances

Maker Faire Orlando
November 9-10th
Orlando, Florida

Oct

2024

Once More Into the Beach… errr…Breach…

It’s a show week! Ready for Wizards, Witches and the Weird in Daytona Beach! Once more into the beach… errr… breach, dear friends…

Since we’re on show three of four, everything is still stacked in the living room, waiting to be loaded into the car on Saturday for a “what time did you say we have to leave???” departure on Sunday. I’m in space 38, which is along the left wall as you come in to the Ocean Center, and three from the end. Remember, if you mention you saw this post or that you follow me on social media when you come to the table, you get a discount on purchases!

I’m really looking forward to this show — it looks like it’s going to be a fun day, and the vendors look fantastic! (There’s a list if you go to the event link above.)

I’m also looking forward to the show in two weeks, which will be two days at Maker Faire Orlando. I don’t know where I’ll be setting up yet, but as soon as I know, you’ll know.

Before all of that? Early voting just opened today in Central Florida. We’ll be voting tomorrow. GO VOTE!

And then? What’s after Maker Faire?

A long rest before I start cooking for Thanksgiving. Cleaning my house. Finishing King of Swords. Edits on Morrigan’s Heir (and possible Morrigan’s Wrath.) And seeing what I’ll be writing for my first original piece for THEO. I’ll be starting with them with reprints, to give myself some time to get things planned and get started, but it’s looking like this is where my serial writing will be heading, and my serial writing is going to be a bit more spicy in the future! Since they take all heat levels, my work there may be starting with rerunning the Heir to the Firstborn serial, starting with Written in Water. As soon as my work on THEO starts going live, I’ll let you all know. And if you’re an author interested in taking a closer look? Click the blog button at the bottom of the THEO page. There’s more information there.

And remember… Cookiepocalypse is coming…

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

84098 / 120000 (70.08%)

Promotions

Kobo is doing a Free First in Series promotion for the entire month of October, so you can grab a copy of Hidden Things for free! (You can find it free where ever ebooks are sold — not just Kobo.)

I’m also a part of Enchanted Realms, and this promotion also runs for the entire month of October — sign up for newsletters, get free books and enter to win a $30 gift card!

Appearances

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024
Daytona Beach, Florida

***

Maker Faire Orlando
November 9-10th
Orlando, Florida

Oct

2024

Cleaning Up.

The storm is over, and now it’s time for cleaning up. Which, for us, wasn’t too bad. The pile of hurricane debris on the driveway is definitely smaller than it could have been. And once again, the storm gremlins played Frisbee with the lid of our compost container. I’m not sure what it is, or how they do it, but some storms just manage to unscrew the lid and fling it around the backyard.

There’s also the inside cleaning up — we have two leaks that are usually not an issue, but for a big storm, we have to prepare in advance. We go through quite a few towels. We’ll be getting those taken care of once the storm season is over, as well as getting the roof repaired.

Goals — finish this book before I have to abandon my office for potentially up to a week. Right now, it looks like the damage to the roof was minor — it just appears to be a missing shingle. But once the team gets up there, they’ll be looking for other damage. If there’s other damage, that means roof work, which means WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM directly overhead for DAYS. (When the roof was replaced in 2010, it took them a week, but it was August and like an oven on our roof, so they had to go slow.)

Finishing this book — King of Swords is short about 30K words, more or less. Assuming that the book comes in where I think it’s going to, and doesn’t meander off into the weeds for another couple of thousand words. I mean, there are scenes that I want to include, but that I’m not sure will advance the plot. However, I want to write them because they make me happy… So I’ll write them, and then cut them in post if they’re not necessary. That’s what editing is for, after all. Right?

I’m still working on plotting out the Covert Saloon series — if you missed me talking about it, it’ll be another Weird Western. The pairing that I thought was going to be book three is apparently going to be a slow burn through all three books. The book 2 pairing is now taking over book one, and a third pairing in book three with a character I didn’t plan for. Yup, I just take dictation for the voices in my head.

Time to go listen to what my characters want to do next.

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

79220 / 120000 (66.02%)

Promotions

I’m also a part of Enchanted Realms, and this promotion also runs for the entire month of October — sign up for newsletters, get free books and enter to win a $30 gift card!

Finally, I’ll be participating in a Stuff Your Kindle event from October 18-20th. There are over 400 books that will be free or discounted for that weekend, and I’ll have Written in Water up for free!

Appearances

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024
Daytona Beach, Florida

***

Maker Faire Orlando
November 9-10th
Orlando, Florida

Sep

2024

Ready…Set…Wait….

That’s the current mood on our house. Ready…set…wait…wait…wait… We’re almost entirely ready for Necronomicon. We just need to pack. But there’s a blob that’s soon to be named Helene in the Caribbean right now. She’s heading for the Gulf of Mexico at the moment, and she may ALSO be heading for Tampa this week.

Driving into what projections say might be a Category 2 hurricane doesn’t seem like my idea of a good time. Hence, the “wait” part of the program. Right now, IF she comes to Tampa or the area just north, it looks like it will be Thursday. But we will see, and then we will decide.

Welcome to Florida in the Fall.

If there is a convention and we attend, then we’ll have a great time. I have five panels — two on Friday night and three on Saturday.

Friday, 9PM — Guess the Spec Fic Author By Their Sex Scene (Mystery Science Sex Scene 3K)
Friday, 10PM — I Want to Verb Your Noun (the annual Writing Sex panel returns!)
Saturday, 10AM — Author Quarters 2 (Reading from something non-spicy)
Saturday, 5PM — Gardening vs. Building (Pantsing and Plotting)
Saturday, 8PM — Cosmic Construction (Worldbuilding)

In addition, I have a table in Author Alley. Remember that if you tell me you’re a newsletter subscriber or follow me on social media, you get discounts! In addition, I’ll be running a Necro sale — 25% off everything except digital items and book bundles.

If things end up being wet and squally and we stay home, then I’ll run a Necro sale on signed books through my website, and I’ll put things up on sale on Smashwords (easiest place to put up a coupon.)

So… ready…set…wait…wait…wait….

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

68776 / 120000 (57.31%)

Promotions

This may very well be the last week where Counsel of the Wicked is on sale. There are only three books left in my SPFBO cohort, and mine is one of them. I’ve seen the other semi-finalists, and I’m really not sure I’ll be joining them, so I think I’ll be out shortly. If you want to grab it while it is still on sale, now is the time!

Coming up on October 11th, I have Chains of Light available for free in So Queer To My Heart, a spicy queer romance event. Link to the event page will be coming soon.

I’ll be participating in a Stuff Your Kindle event from October 18-20th. There are over 400 books that will be free or discounted for that weekend, and I’ll have Written in Water up for free!

I’m also going to be a part of Enchanted Realms, and this promotion runs for the entire month of October — sign up for newsletters, get free books and enter to win a $30 gift card!

Appearances

Necronomicon
September 27-29th, 2024
Tampa, Florida

***

Not So Spooky Hallowfest
October 6th, 2024
Deltona, Florida

***

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024
Daytona Beach, Florida

***

Maker Faire Orlando
November 9-10th
Orlando, Florida

Aug

2024

Raise the Wordcount!

It’s time! I have reached that point in the manuscript where the numbers don’t add up! It’s past the midpoint in the projected wordcount, but I haven’t yet hit the hinge — the midpoint in the book where we start moving toward resolution and the end. What does that mean? It’s time to raise the wordcount!

It’s not the first time I’ve done this — in truth, I think I do it at least once in every manuscript. I start out with a target of 90,000 words. That’s, on average, a good goal for fantasy romance, and makes for a decent sized novel. As I write, I reevaluate that goal. Is this book coming in short? How short? Is it a novella and not a novel? Or am I running long, and need to bump my numbers up? For me, this is more likely. I tend to be wordy in the first draft, but the story get refined and pared down in edits. And sometimes, the wordcount gets even higher in edits, because I missed things! (I think it was Haven’s Fall that had six entire chapters added in edits. That’s about 18,000 more words.)

Right now, I’m working on the edits for The Sea Prince, and I don’t think the wordcount will change too drastically, but I do have to rewrite one particular part that might have been less objectionable when I started this book, but these days? A 34 year old man marrying a girl he thinks is a few weeks short of 18 is… hinky, even if it is a marriage for alliance and to stop a war. (She is older. I need to move that confession earlier in the book, and still make it make sense.)

Once the edits are complete, I need to find a sensitivity editor who can check me on disability representation — The Sea Prince features a character who is a double amputee, and I need to be certain I’m writing him properly. (If anyone has a recommendation on a sensitivity reader, hit me up!)

I need to get these edits done as soon as I can, and get them off to a sensitivity reader before the end of September. Starting the last week of September, I’m going into six weeks of non-stop conventions/shows. Necronomicon is the last week of September, followed the next week by the Not So Spooky Hallowfest. Then I have a couple of week to restock and recover before Wizards, Witches and the Weird in Daytona Beach. My year wraps up with Maker Faire in Orlando, and I can take a deep breath before Thanksgiving and Cookiepocalypse 2024.

Just a few irons in the fire, no?

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

50061 / 120000 (41.72%)

Promotions

The Narratess Indie Book Sale is winding down, but you can still grab a copy of The Chronicles of John Zebedee for $1.99 (down from $8.99) There are over 300 books in this sale, so make sure you check them out!

Counsel of the Wicked is still a contender for SPFBOX, which means that it is still on sale wherever ebooks are sold.

You still have a few days left to get Written in Water on sale via Kobo! For all of August, start the series for only $1.99. (And because I’m fond of you guys, the sale will be wherever ebooks are sold, not just Kobo.)

Appearances

Necronomicon
September 27-29th, 2024
Tampa, Florida

***

Not So Spooky Hallowfest
October 6th, 2024
Deltona, Florida

***

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024
Daytona Beach, Florida

***

Maker Faire Orlando
November 9-10th
Orlando, Florida

Jun

2024

The Mondayist not Monday Around

Today is technically the middle of my week, I think. I didn’t have a weekend — I had a reading on Saturday, and a book signing at a local bookstore yesterday. So my brain doesn’t think it’s Monday, which means that I’m writing this rather late in the day because blogs only happen on Monday, and it’s not Monday, but wait, it really IS Monday! So that makes it the Mondayist not Monday around, I suppose.

It’s also the weirdest Monday I’ve had in a while. I mean, it’s not every day that someone does a U-turn so that they can flip you the bird from EVERY possible angle. (I didn’t do anything, I swear! I was waiting at a red light to make a left turn to go to the grocery store, and this person LITERALLY made a right turn to flip me off, then made a U-turn to do the same from the other side of the car! And I have no idea who they are or why their bad day is my problem!)

So, we’ve determined that I’ve had a strange Monday. This follows after a fantastic weekend, though. I had a live reading of my SPFBOX entry on Saturday evening. You can still see it here

On Sunday, I had a signing at The Writer’s Block, which is an independent bookstore in Winter Park, right near one of my favorite museums — the Morse Museum. Because I had limited time and space, I just brought the Heir to the Firstborn books with me, and I had a wonderful time! (And nearly sold out of Written in Water! I went home with one copy.)

Unless something else comes up, that’s it for my appearances for the rest of the summer. Which is good, because we have a list of “Things To Do Before College,” and I have some revisions to do in The Sea Prince. I’m also still tinkering with what will either be The Covert Saloon books or The Crossroads books — I haven’t decided on the series name yet. But I did learn something really cool — the Oklahoma Panhandle wasn’t part of the state of Oklahoma until 1890. Until then, it was just a void of space in between several states, and claimed by none of them. The Homestead Act didn’t apply, so people who lived there were living there illegally, and it wasn’t really part of the United States, even though it was completely surrounded by it. It was called either the Cimmaron Territory or No Man’s Land. It was a liminal space… and where better to set a Weird Western?

So I need to do some research in that area during 1870, so I have an idea of what I’m talking about. I also need to research the Gullah Geechee people of that time period (one of the characters who already walked out of my subconcious), the US Marshals, and how people traveled in that time and in that particular part of the country. If you think that I fell down a transportation rabbit hole again, you know me too well. (However, this time, it won’t be trains! It’ll be a stagecoach — there wasn’t a train that ran through that area until much later. However, the Santa Fe Trail runs very close to where I’m thinking the fictional town of Crossroads will lie. I just need to find out how long it would take to get from the start of the Trail to that point. That requires math, so I’m putting it off for now.)

Oh, and I need to write King of Swords. Which I should get to, since it’s after 9PM and I haven’t written a WORD today.

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

6599 / 90000 (7.33%)

Promotions

Counsel of the Wicked is still a contender for SPFBOX, so it is STILL on sale! $.99 until it gets knocked out!

Appearances

Necronomicon
September 27-29th, 2024
Tampa, Florida

***

Not So Spooky Hallowfest
October 6th, 2024
Deltona, Florida

***

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024

Jan

2024

Do All The Things!

January is supposed to be quiet, I thought. The holidays are over, and we all have time for some boring. Right?

Maybe for other people. In our house? We must do all the things! Post holiday time is Highland Game prep! And today? Is Highland Game recovery day.

I’m not Scottish. Not at all (I don’t think my family even has any connection to the northern Italian town settled by Scottish mercenaries in the 1500s.) But I’ve been working with a small group of my friends of Scottish heritage at the Games since 2012, as the founders and staff of Bairn Care — a family tent so that parents can care for their kids in comfort. We have changing stations, a private nursing and feeding area, extra supplies because there are never enough diapers some days, and on occasion, we will watch your child while you run to use the facilities next door. We’ve been told that our Games are the only ones to offer this sort of service, and it’s been amazing to watch the families grow over the years. It’s a labor of love every year — setup Friday, two full days on site, and tear down Monday.

It was on a quiet morning at the Games some seven years ago that I wrote the outline for The White Raven books. So occasionally I do get some writing in. Not this year, but sometimes.

On the upside, I now have a tiny Highland Cow.

Now I have a couple of days to recharge before my first writing event of the year — my Meet and Greet at Spellbound Books! I’m ready for it, although the advance copies of Valley of Shadows may not make it here in time. However, I will have the complete Heir to the Firstborn series for sale as ebooks on a thumb drive.

I’m trying to get my brains to wake up enough today to commit words on The Sea Prince. There’s been three cups of coffee, and… maybe? I’m not holding my breath, though. This might just be a true recovery day and I’ll go for a thousand words tomorrow.

Preorders

Coming January 30th to all your favorite bookstores — Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

Print preorder is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which means you should be able to order the paperback at your favorite brick and mortar bookshop.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

66791 / 120000 (55.66%)

Appearances!

For ONE DAY ONLY, I’ll be having a Meet and Greet at the Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, Florida! I will be there for 3PM to 4PM on January 21st, 2024. Come out and support small business!

I will have a limited number of thumb drives for sale containing the COMPLETE Heir to the Firstborn series — including the not-yet-released Valley of Shadows! Get it from me before it’s available anywhere!

Nov

2023

The Plan is Afoot

The plan is afoot, a phrase that’s always attributed to Sherlock Holmes, but which he never actually says anywhere. Planning for the end of the year, and for next year is ongoing. I did my annual business planning seminar last week (and I highly recommend Amber McCue’s Planathon for anyone who is looking for business plan scaffolding. This was my third time, and I learn something new every time. The Planathon is free, and her other courses are pay-to-play.)

I wrote a little last week about my plans for next year, but I never really went into how I plan. And honestly, I plan like it’s my job — I have to. Things of which I am currently keeping track:

My writing schedule
My publishing schedule
the schedule from my publisher (different from the previous)
Business plans (show dates and deadlines, mileage, tax dates)
My family schedule that comes with being a Mom (doctor appointments, due dates, vacations, that sort of thing)
Various due dates that come with senior year (college applications and scholarship information)
Personal schedules like my workout schedule.

These inform things like meal planning and grocery shopping. It’s a lot, and I’ve referred to it in the past as juggling chainsaws.

I have three planners. Four, if you count the electronic one. I don’t, usually, because if I put something into the electric calendar, I will never remember it. I have to write it down in order for it to be “real.” So I have one planner that lives in my kitchen, which is the master book that includes EVERYTHING. I have one planner that gets carried around with me, which focuses primarily on business and writing. And I have a small planner that usually lives in my purse. Of the three, the only one that doesn’t get updated weekly is the purse planner, because it’s out of sight and therefore gets falls off my brain on a regular basis. I have other ways of planning, too, I’ve shown pictures of my kanban board, but it’s the paper planners that really help keep me from over-scheduling myself and getting overwhelmed.

For the business, there’s a binder that sits on the shelf over my desk. In that binder are my business plan, my marketing plan, and my financial plan. There are two versions of each — the overall plan, and the annual plan. The annual plan is the one that I’ll be sitting down to review and revise in December, and which is reviewed and revised again mid-year.

(Narrator: She did not, in fact, review and revise midyear in 2023.)

Shush, you. It’s SUPPOSED to be reviewed and revised mid-year, and as needed throughout the rest of the year.

Now, these are the things that work for me, because of the way my brain works. I have a friend who is my exact opposite — they cannot write down their plans, because if they do, those plans will vanish into the ether. Everything must be put into an electronic calendar in order to be “real.”

So this is what works for me. What works for you?

Works in Progress

Balance of Power
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

51789 / 90000 (57.54%)

Promotions!

First in Series Friday is Coming! 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.

The sale has been extended to Cyber Monday, and will include one final Cavalcade event for the year! Sign up for my newsletter to keep up to date and for the direct links!

Sep

2023

No More Peopling.

I had a blast at Necronomicon — the Writing Sex panel was awesomely fun, and next year I’ll be pitching a panel I’m calling Mystery Science Sex Scene 3000, where we have audience members read snippets of our work, and identify the authors for fun and prizes.

I love conventions. Honestly, I do. But I spend the week after a convention recovering and avoiding talking to people. Partly because my throat is usually shot by Sunday — talking through an N95 mask is hard. (I did have a small air purifier for panels so I could unmask, but three days of talking is about two and a half more than I’m used to.) The rest of the reason is that I’m not an extrovert. I just play one at conventions. So by the time we get home, I’m ready for no more peopling for a while. My brains are spongy.

Today was a mellow day (see, spongy brains above). Only the essentials have been unpacked and most of the convention stuff is still stacked in the living room. I reconciled inventory records, paid taxes, and got somewhat caught up on things I missed over the weekend. No real writing yet today, and there may not be, but I did discover that there’s been a setting turned off in Scrivener for The Sea Prince, and it wasn’t tracking new words!

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

62021 / 120000 (51.68%)

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

27250 / 90000 (30.28%)

In other news, I’ll be doing another Cavalcade of Authors promotion in October. This one runs from October 13-15, and you’ll need to check every day because there will be new books EVERY day of the promotion! Click the graphic to sign up for more info. I’ve put Forged in Fire into this promotion.

Also, as of 5:19 Eastern on September the 25th, Written in Water is still in the running at SPFBO. It’s getting nervous over here…

And I think that’s about all I have the brain for today. Go sign up for the giveaway!

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!

public displays of geekery

Making It!

Work in Progress

Appearances

Once More Into the Beach… errr…Breach…

Work in Progress

Promotions

Appearances

Cleaning Up.

Work in Progress

Promotions

Appearances

Ready…Set…Wait….

Work in Progress

Promotions

Appearances

Raise the Wordcount!

Work in Progress

Promotions

Appearances

The Mondayist not Monday Around

Work in Progress

Promotions

Appearances

Do All The Things!

Preorders

Works in Progress

Appearances!

The Plan is Afoot

Works in Progress

Promotions!

No More Peopling.

The Space Where Fandom and Academia Collide…

Works in Progress

Appearances

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