why-the-writing-is-slow

Apr

2025

It’s So Quiet!

The new windows and doors are in place, and the inspection happened this morning. If we leave out some trim that had to wait for the inspection, then the job is 99% done. We’ve been in this house nearly 19 years, and the windows that we had were original to the house. They were old, single pane, and not well installed to begin with. If there was an owl in the tree outside my window, I knew about it (and once, so did the person in my Zoom call.) Now, the one thing I’ve heard said most in the house this weekend is that it’s so quiet.

Very little writing got done last week. Between all of the powertools and the noise, and just the fact that there were six very lovely contractors all over the house for an entire week, there was very little focus. (seriously, they were very lovely contractors. If you’re in the Central Florida area and need windows replaced, use FAS Windows and Doors.)

Not everything was neglected last week, though. Layout for The Sea Prince is ready. I’ve ordered the cover, and I’m waiting to see what the cover artist comes up with. I’m looking at a June 10th release (or thereabouts) so that I can order my books and have them for the June Renaissance Festival in Oviedo. I’ll hopefully have something to show soon, and a preorder set up by the beginning of May. Edits for Dead Man’s Hand are also done, and now I need to get into rewrites. Or I could save the rewrites for summer, and send two complete manuscripts on to my publisher in the Fall.

Decisions, decisions….

Now Available!

Kidnapped from his home and sold as a slave in Rome, Raven-Prince Lorcan must survive in a world where entertainment is murder, diplomacy is betrayal, and love is a commodity. And where a raven who is only supposed to ever have one mate will somehow find two…

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 4)

28615 / 90000 (31.79%)

The Coral Throne
(The Sea Prince, book 2)

32294 / 90000 (35.88%)

Appearances

6th Annual Mother’s Day Bazaar
May 10th, 2025
Ormond Beach Elks Lodge
Ormond Beach, FL

***

Enchanted Knights: Summer Solstice
June 21st, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

***

3rd Annual Summer Artisan Market
June 29th, 2025
Brannon Center
New Smyrna Beach, FL

***

Smut Lovers: The Conference
September 17th – 21st, 2025
Orlando, FL

***

Necronomicon
September 26th – 28th, 2025
Tampa, FL

***

Page and Pen Festival
October 4th, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

Apr

2025

Schedule? What’s That?

Window install starts today. Between 8:30 and 9:30, they said. So tell me why it’s 11:00 and we haven’t started yet? Schedule? What’s that? Next, I’m fully expecting them to tell me that they’re not starting on the second floor the way that the project manager said they would. Which… even if they come in and say they’re not starting on the second floor, they’re starting on the second floor. That’s the floor that’s prepped and ready for them.

This is the kind of thing we call the joy of home ownership.

The annoying thing is that I really can’t get started on anything because they might show up at any minute now….

…….

That was your cue, guys!

So, while I wait, I’m getting the blog written. Let’s see if I can finish before they get here.

I’m starting to prep the files to start layout for The Sea Prince. I still need to write the author notes and the dedication, and I decided at some point in the past week that there needs to be a pronunciation guide because how do you say Tarjiaan?

(Break for the installers, who finally showed up. And the lead has no idea WHY the project manager told us they were starting on the second floor, because the installers always start on the first… why am I not surprised???? However, lead is open to starting on the second floor, and they’re now underway.)

Back to pronunciation guides. I have to break down the names the way I say the names so other people can say them, too. Which is interesting because of that double-a — it’s in most of the names in this book (Why? Because I was a baby writer when I started this book and they looked cool!) But now… how is that pronounced?

It’s Tar-zhahn, where the second syllable sounds like the French name Jean. Tarjiaan. Jean-Luc Picard. Same sound. Got it?

(Second break while the installer runs off to get the ladders he didn’t think he’d need because they don’t start on the second floor….)

Now I need to do this same sort of breakdown with all the names, because almost all the names in The Sea Prince and The Coral Throne are like this.

Note to any baby writers in the audience? Just because it looks cool doesn’t mean you should do it!

The installers have started. It’s time for me to stop. Catch you next week when I will hopefully not be as stressed.

Now Available!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 4)

27896 / 90000 (31.00%)

The Coral Throne
(The Sea Prince, book 2)

31207 / 90000 (34.67%)

Appearances

6th Annual Mother’s Day Bazaar
May 10th, 2025
Ormond Beach Elks Lodge
Ormond Beach, FL

***

Enchanted Knights: Summer Solstice
June 21st, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

***

3rd Annual Summer Artisan Market
June 29th, 2025
Brannon Center
New Smyrna Beach, FL

***

Smut Lovers: The Conference
September 17th – 21st, 2025
Orlando, FL

***

Necronomicon
September 26th – 28th, 2025
Tampa, FL

***

Page and Pen Festival
October 4th, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

Apr

2025

Not Enough Caffeine

Some Mondays, there is just not enough caffeine in the world to get going. Today is one of those Mondays, and I am dragging. It doesn’t help that there isn’t anything on my schedule today other than my usual Monday things — I could totally blow today off. But that puts no words on the page, and I’ve hit scenes in both WIPs that I really want to write, so more coffee it is!

This is the last week before the new windows go in, which means that it’s the last week I have before I have to be distracted for a week or so. I have no idea how I’m going to work next week, or how much I’m going to get done. And that goes double for everyone else in this house — Darling Editor works at home, and College Boy has classes all next week. I’m going to try to arrange the major disruption in his room during times when he doesn’t have class, but we’ll see. They start on the second floor next Monday at WAY TOO EARLY in the morning. Whee! Once it’s done, the house will be more thermally stable, and it won’t get as hot on the second floor in July (and the windows are all hurricane rated!) We just have to get through next week.

The only way out is through. That’s true for a lot of things, not just first world problems about home renovation. While there might be a lot of complaining about it, all that complaints do is provide a pressure release. After all, there’s a reason they call it venting — you have to release the pressure before the vessel explodes!

So this week, I’ll get in my words and get ready for next week, and when next week comes? I may not get as many words on the page, but that’s okay. I’ll be focusing on family/domestic stuff. Words will be there when I get back to work.

This Sunday, you’ll be able to find me at Spring is in the Air, in Leesburg, Florida. I’ll have the entire catalog there, including shiny new copies of Raven’s Fall! And yes, I will have the hardcovers!

Now Available!

Promotions

Today is the last day of the Narratess Spring Sale. Grab a copy of The Chronicles of John Zebedee for only $1.99!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 4)

26997 / 90000 (30.00%)

The Coral Throne
(The Sea Prince, book 2)

27792 / 90000 (30.88%)

Appearances

3rd Annual Spring is in the Air
April 13th, 2025
Venetian Center,
Leesburg, FL

***

6th Annual Mother’s Day Bazaar
May 10th, 2025
Ormond Beach Elks Lodge
Ormond Beach, FL

***

Enchanted Knights: Summer Solstice
June 21st, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

***

3rd Annual Summer Artisan Market
June 29th, 2025
Brannon Center
New Smyrna Beach, FL

***

Smut Lovers: The Conference
September 17th – 21st, 2025
Orlando, FL

***

Necronomicon
September 26th – 28th, 2025
Tampa, FL

***

Page and Pen Festival
October 4th, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

Mar

2025

Yawn….

I think it goes without saying that the Monday after a conference is the longest Monday to every Monday. Yawn….

ICFA was fantastic, and I’m sorry to any of my friends who I know were at the conference but that I did not get a chance to see and say hello to! I didn’t realize that having something scheduled every day (sometimes two things scheduled every day!) would mean that I barely saw anyone! Despite that, it was an amazingly productive conference.

This week is going to be catching up and trying to get things finished before the end of the quarter. I want to get the series development of Covert Saloon wrapped up and off my to-do list — I’m on the last book and I have an idea of where it’s going. I just need to write it down. And I think I can get the edits of Dead Man’s Hand finished this week, too. Which will leave me open to get The Sea Prince ready to release at the end of Q2. That’s the plan, anyway.

I also need to do some research before putting together a call for submission for the Ruthven Literary Bulletin. As part of my first year as LRA president, I pulled the operating documents so they could be revised. That was when I discovered that the LRA is supposed to be putting out a journal! I’ve never compiled a journal, but I know people who do it on the regular, so I talked to them at ICFA, and after several meetings, we have a plan. However, I still have to find out what the Bulletin was like before it stopped being printed. That’s this week, and once I know, I can write a call for submissions for the new Bulletin. My aim is to have the new Bulletin out by the end of the year at the earliest, or by next ICFA at the latest.

I think it goes without saying that there was NO writing done last week. (Okay, very little. I write 351 words on King of Swords.) So I’m not updating the wordcounts below.

Okay. Time to go get caught up!

Now Available!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 4)

22670 / 90000 (25.19%)

The Coral Throne
(The Sea Prince, book 2)

25166 / 90000 (27.96%)

Appearances

3rd Annual Spring is in the Air
April 13th, 2025
Venetian Center,
Leesburg, FL

***

6th Annual Mother’s Day Bazaar
May 10th, 2025
Ormond Beach Elks Lodge
Ormond Beach, FL

***

Enchanted Knights: Summer Solstice
June 21st, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

***

3rd Annual Summer Artisan Market
June 29th, 2025
Brannon Center
New Smyrna Beach, FL

***

Smut Lovers: The Conference
September 17th – 21st, 2025
Orlando, FL

***

Necronomicon
September 26th – 28th, 2025
Tampa, FL

***

Page and Pen Festival
October 4th, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

Aug

2024

A Long Day

Any Monday that starts with a visit to the dentist is by definition a LONG DAY. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Thankfully, it was a routine visit, but still. Long day is LOOOOONG.

It’s currently 7:22 PM on the East Coast, and I’m just now sitting down to write this. I have written perhaps a grand total of 50 words in King of Swords, and if I make it to 500, it’ll be amazing. I’m not sure I will, though. The next part of this involves a ritual, and I need to write it.

Maybe I’ll write another scene, just to get words on the page. Maybe. Or maybe I won’t push myself too hard on what’s already been a long day, and stop wherever I stop. That’s more likely, to be honest.

I have the DNC on in the background — I thought it started at 8PM, but it actually stared at 6:30 PM, so I missed a bit. (And you thought I wasn’t going to talk about politics!). Remember to check your voter status. And if you’re not registered, remember to do that. Do you have a primary tomorrow (or soon?) Remember that the down ticket elections are equally as important!

All right. Time to get some words on the page.

Work in Progress

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

45654 / 90000 (50.73%)

Promotions

The Narratess Indie Book Sale is this weekend, and you’ll be able to 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 (I’m at the point of holding my breath and looking very much like the Kermit the Frog meme where he’s chewing his fingernails). Counsel is still on sale wherever ebooks are sold.

Starting on August 1st and running through the entire month of August, Written in Water will be 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

Feb

2024

It’s Blursday

I had my eyes dilated at 8:15 this morning. It is now 1:41 PM and I still can’t see clearly out of my left eye. The light sensitivity is better, but I had to turn down the brightness on both of my monitors. And I couldn’t see to drive a certain young man to class, but attendance isn’t mandatory so rather than pull Darling Husband out of meetings, we all just stayed in because it’s Blursday.

With everything going on last week, it wasn’t as much of a word week as I’ve had. I still made my target of 500 words a day for six days (words on Sunday are bonus words), so it wasn’t a bad week. It just wasn’t as prolific as the previous weeks have been. But that’s okay.

The synopsis for The Coral Throne is coming slowly. Which, it can come slowly — I’m not in a rush to get to it, and I want to make sure I get things figured out before I get to the scene where X has to attack Y and how does that work exactly? (You’ll find out. I promise. But I have to work out the details.)

There’s also this other project of mine, which currently has the placeholder title of “Frog and Fae are Friends.” I put the excerpt that popped into my head and wouldn’t get out into my newsletter a few weeks ago, and it’s been percolating in the back of my brain since. I think this might be the next Patreon project if the sex stays behind closed doors, and I’m trying to worldbuild without pushing the existing Coral Throne worldbuilding out of my head. If you missed the excerpt in the newsletter, I’ll pop a short sample of it down below. It may turn into a fantasy Sherlock Holmes kind of thing, which would be new for me, but that seems to be the direction it’s leaning. We shall see.

Still waiting on edits for Morrigan’s Heir, but if my editor’s week last week was anything like mine? I get it. I TOTALLY get it. And considering that I’m maybe a chapter and a half from finishing The Sea Prince? I can wait — a delay lets me get this manuscript finished before diving into edits, and gives me the space to let The Sea Prince get out of my head before I go back to reread it for revision. It’s all good.

So, tell me what you think of the excerpt.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

92468 / 120000 (77.06%)

Placeholder title “Frog and Fae are Friends.” — Excerpt

Desperate times call for truly fucked up measures.

I know better than to mess with mages, let alone steal from them. I know. But I was at the very end of my non-existent rope. It had been a long, hard winter already, and there were still three moons before even an hope of a thaw. The benevolent shelters for the needy were full to bursting, and even I’d had the coin, the cheap inns were full as well. There was not a bed or a slice of floor to be had anywhere in the slums of Alatrea. Not for the likes of me.

What there was, though, was a mage, who’d taken residence in a posh, new, townhouse right before the first snow. He hadn’t been settled long enough to claim the place as his home-ground – that took at least six moons for the strongest mage, and a year or more for the average spell-slinger. That mean that the usual protection spells weren’t going to be foolproof yet.

I just wasn’t usually that much of a fool.

Jan

2024

An Advanced State of Higgledy-Piggledy

The first day of class is the perfect time to tell someone that their class isn’t at this campus, it’s at THAT one all the way on the other side of town. Right?

Needless to say, today has been in an advanced state of higgledy-piggledy.

I’m trying to convince my son that they’re predisastering the semester for everyone’s convenience. I’m not sure he’s buying it, though. Then again, I’m not sure I’d be buying it if I found out an hour before class that we have to drive half an hour to the back of beyond, to the campus with “Warning: Bear Crossing” signs on the walking paths. Oh, and if the person who was supposed to be doing the driving wasn’t home…

We made it work. The campus is pretty. There’s a Starbucks nearby (because of course there is), and the teacher seems to be a good sort.

But now you know why I’m getting to my blog post after 5PM Eastern… and since it’s after 5PM, I need to go start cooking dinner. Back shortly.

(time passes)

Two and a half hours later, I’m back to finish this post, and hopefully get some words in on The Sea Prince. Today feels like it’s been a lot longer than the clock says — the clock says 7:51PM. My body says 11:51PM and you should have been in bed two hours ago.

I’m not sure why we were all in such an all-fired rush to get older when we were kids. It’s overrated and I want my money back.

Off to attempt words. Wish me luck.

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)

64370 / 120000 (53.64%)

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!

Oct

2023

Fourth and Goal

No, I don’t watch football. Well, not anymore. I used to, but the last time I watched football really was… well, yesterday, to be honest. But it was the Funday Football on Disney+, where they did real time animation of the football game from London (it was hilariously glitchy.) No, In this case, fourth and goal doesn’t mean how far you have to go in football. It’s how far we have to go in 2023. October 1st marks the beginning of the fourth quarter. I’ve done my fourth quarter planning and my goals are up on my kanban board. It’s time to look toward bringing this year to a close.

My immediate goals? Finish Balance of Power. Keep working on The Sea Prince. Edits on Morrigan’s Heir will be in some time this month, so I’ll be turning those around to get the book out by the end of 2023. And then I have to revise Morrigan’s Wrath to get that in to the editor. The anniversary edition of House of Sable Locks will be coming out soon (how soon? I don’t know!) and there are things to be done for that. There’s research that I really should get back to doing, although that’s lower priority to closing out the year and revisiting my business plan for 2024. I’m also considering pulling some of my short stories and getting them up for sale, but that may be a 2024 goal and not a 2023 goal.

Balance of Power
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

30416 / 90000 (33.80%)

The Sea Prince
The Coral Throne, Book 1

62124 / 120000 (51.77%)

Work on The Sea Prince has slowed down a little, and will slow down even more once the edits come in. Co-writing is much more of a juggling act than writing a book solo, because my interruptions rarely coincide with Danielle’s interruptions, which means that one of us is usually waiting on the other to look over things. We’ll eventually get the hang of this and get this book done.

The SPFBO judges have to announce their finalists by October 31st. This means that, at some point this month, I will find out if Written in Water will continue on in the contest. I’m surprisingly okay with either option. There are so many amazing books that have been cut already so if I am cut, I’ll be in fantastic company.

Keep an eye out for a special blog post/newsletter post in the next week or so — I’ll be able to show you the beautiful new cover of House of Sable Locks!

Promotions!

A new Cavalcade of Authors promo is coming this month, from October 13th through the 15th. Again, 200 books or more free for download. For this one, I’ve put Forged in Fire into the pot.

There’s also a single day event on October 27th, hosted by Stephanie Freeman. You can find more information on that and sign up here. For that event, you can grab free copies of The Chronicles of John Zebedee!

Jun

2023

Late Monday

It’s later than I usually write my blog, but today has been a day of errands and distractions. I haven’t accomplished much in term of either research or writing today. I suppose this kind of counts as post-novel ennui. Which is okay — I’ve been reading, and basically taking a brain break. Which I don’t think I do nearly enough of. I’m out of the habit, really. Writing a weekly serial on top of writing a series does tend to eat a lot of your free time.

I’m currently reading Babel, by RF Kuang, which is fantastic and the world building features a magic system unlike anything I’ve ever read. HIGHLY recommend this one. But that’s not what had me distracted today. Nope. Today I got into my files and was reading some old game posts from back before I was writing full time. If you’ve been around long enough, you know that I really started writing when I started playing The Night Court, a Play-by-email Role play game based on the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey. I still have all of those posts (saved from oblivion when Yahoo Groups went away.) Occasionally, I open the program that I had to use to download them and go back through them.

The Night Court was a grand time, and several talented writers honed their skills during the years the game ran. I’m not the only published writer who got their start in Yahoogroups, playing in Jacqueline’s sandbox (and with her blessing. She knew about the game, and her only rule was that we could not play with her characters. So our game was set several hundred years before the books.)

It’s fun to go back, on occasion, and revisit where you started. There was some good stuff in there, and now their find memories and a heaping helping of nostalgia. Back to where it all began.

But really, I need to stop revisiting the old stories and get on to writing Broken Feathers.

Tomorrow.

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!

why-the-writing-is-slow

It’s So Quiet!

Now Available!

Work in Progress

Appearances

Schedule? What’s That?

Now Available!

Work in Progress

Appearances

Not Enough Caffeine

Now Available!

Promotions

Work in Progress

Appearances

Yawn….

Now Available!

Work in Progress

Appearances

A Long Day

Work in Progress

Promotions

Appearances

It’s Blursday

Works in Progress

Placeholder title “Frog and Fae are Friends.” — Excerpt

An Advanced State of Higgledy-Piggledy

Preorders

Works in Progress

Appearances!

Fourth and Goal

Promotions!

Late Monday

Sniffle

Works in Progress

Appearances

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