Disappointment, Celebration, and Self Expectations

June is a big month in my house. The first two weeks there are either a birthday or anniversary most everyday. It also marks the first half of the year gone and I can't help but look at what I've accomplished because it affects the second half of the year. The produce garden has been planted. We started on some landscaping for the front of the house that had to be put off on one side because a robin decided to nest in the clematis.

Our 23rd anniversary is this coming weekend and a couple days afterwards is Jason's birthday. He'll be 48 and he's already worried about turning fifty. 

The last couple of days I've been lamenting my inability to write shorter standalone stories. I think I have a plot that would fit well into a 25k story and low and behold it's turned into a 175k trilogy. Not what I was looking for. I wanted something where I could get in and get out in a couple of weeks, and I wouldn't have people waiting on me.

Normally, I'm pretty cool with writing longer stories that need more than a couple of installments to tell the whole story. But I've been feeling guilty since people are still waiting for Prometheus to be found or they want the last book for Sumeria's Sons or "wait, is that another series called ION?". It's like I can't help myself.

Writing series can be daunting and being in those character's head space all of the time can burn me a bit. I have to take a break from the characters and worlds because I can't read another word. 

On the other hand, there are these bits of advice that eat a me. Like, you should only write trilogy because you lose your audience after book three. Or, you should have the release of the series in quick order while the buzz is still hot and you have people's attention. 

By some professional's estimation, I'm doing this all wrong. I have to remind myself that it might be wrong by their standards but right for my wellbeing. I don't write well on schedules. I have to switch it up or I'm throwing away all the words I'm writing because I'm dissatisfied and hate it. There are times in the middle of a manuscript when I crave writing a marriage of convenience between an human and alien. And I can't. I can't stop what I'm doing to go off on a tangent (even though I'm positive that tangent would be yummy good). Then I get upset because I'm not writing fast enough because, you know, tangent is breathing its fiery breath down my neck. There are a dozen stories I want to explore and I have to make myself wait or nothing would get done.

That's what everyone wants... to get to the end and see how things are resolved, right? 

Well, I'm really close with coming to that ending with the final book in the Sumeria's Sons series. I had hoped to have Releasing Chaos wrapped up by the end of May. That date flew right on by. But definitely sometime this month I will have the first draft finished. I just might cry my eyes out. Partly because of the story, and partly because everything but 40k is hand written. I'll have to type up somewhere between 60k-90k (estimating right now. I might be lowballing it). I'm such a mediocre typist that I dread it even though I console myself with editing while transcribing.

Some of my other accomplishments in the first half of the year, Kenzie Cade and I have completed Devil's Heart. Now we're working our way through it (slowly) between our other commitments. Death Mask and the 2nd ION book are coming out sometime later this year. I don't have any details yet. 

What is still yet to come. Darksoul... I had planned to have the book out before now. There have been complications out of my control. Even though I'm unsure at this moment, I'll be making some decisions soon to get this back on some kind of schedule. Fate & Destinies is being self-edited. I'm not sure if I'm going to self-pub or if I'm subbing it somewhere. Bespoken is my next writing project. I also anticipate starting on the second book in the Devil's Dawn series with Kenzie. Somewhere in there I want to insert time for writing the tangent story. :)

That's it. The disappointment in my limitations. The celebration of not only anniversaries and Jason's birthday, but of what I've accomplished so far this year. Last but not least, what I expect I can complete before the end of the year. :)

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!

Looking Back and Going Forward, Writing Goals for 2016

January of 2015 I set up an "agenda" for the year, and it was the first time I put a plan of action in writing. I was so sure  I could accomplish everything on my list and went forward into the great beyond... 

Yeah, not so much. 

I did accomplish part of my list, but at the end of the year when I looked back for some reason I felt I hadn't accomplish much. So, before looking forward, I'm going to recount what I accomplished. (This is more for me than anyone else, a trail of positive thinking to help me set up 2016.)

By May 2015, I had somethings marked off. Dragon's Eye was accepted by Less Than Three Press in February, as was the Interlude, A Child's Wish. Also accepted around the same time was the second book in the ION series, Werewolf's Tale and a Druid's Sword.

I was feeling pretty gung-ho and volunteered to write two free stories for the GoodReads M/M Romance group.

After reading a slew of Motorcycle Club books, I approached Kenzie Cade to co-author with me an urban fantasy version, and in June we brainstormed a six book series

with a possible spin-off. On Sept. 1st, we began writing the series, Devil's Dawn.

Around that same time I approached an editor for my poor Fate and Destinies manuscript that had been languishing on my hard drive for over a year. She gave me some great feedback which I'm only part way through establishing because of... stuff. And that stuff kept happening so that I pushed back working on it.

Round midyear I got a bit overwhelmed because I took on too much at once. It was great learning experience, one I will try not to go through again. Less Than Three was awesome and worked with me. Ruby Red Booty Shorts and a Louisville Slugger which was supposed to release in September was pushed back.

In July, I went to Rainbow Con in Tampa, Florida and met some really great people and was reacquainted with old friends. July was also the month I played catch up, trying to get back on track so I could accomplish the second half of my agenda. That didn't go as I expected. 

Releasing Chaos was/is giving me fits, and it was the first time I rued writing a book in first person. I guess you could say that is the issue of being a 

pantser instead of a plotter--not being able to foresee all the many details of the final books in a series. But on the flip side, I don't think the ending would have been as good if I set everything in stone from the beginning. On the upside, in November I woke up in the middle of the night with a resolution to a part of Releasing Chaos's problem.

In the meantime, prints were made of the illustrations of the Valespian Pact around the time Alpha Trine and Striker came out

on audio book. I was interviewed for the first issue of the MCB Quarterly. In May, the anthology Keep The Stars Running released. My short story, The Aurora Conspiracy, was included with other fantastic shorts. The anthology went on to receive and honorable mention in the 2015 Rainbow Awards and later tied for first place in the LGTB Anthology / Collection category. 

In June, Salvaging Toby's Heart was released for the GoodRead's M/M Romance group Don't Read In the Closet event. In December, the book was nominated for Best Sci-fi/Futuristic/Post-Apocalyptic/Steampunk and Best Love is an Open Road Story.

In August, the second DRitC story, Darksoul: Part One was released, and it too received a nomination for the Best Action/Suspense/Adventure story. 

I went on and completed Darksoul, moving the story from 44k to 112k. Currently, the manuscript is with an editor. It'll need to also go through proofing and binding before I can self-publish the story in 2016.

Keeping Faith was a finalist for the Best Gay Book in a Series and Playing for Keeps and Keeping Faith released together in the paperback title, Unshakable.

Several of Sumeria's Sons made The Romance Reviews Top Picks and Dragon's Eye made several favorite reading lists for 2015.

If I wanted to look at the bare bones of 2015 releases, the list would look like this:

January - Songs of the Earth

March - A Leap of Faith

March - Audiobook for Alpha Trine

April - Dreams of the Forgotten

April - Unshakable released on paperback

May - Audiobook for Striker

May - Keep the Stars Running

June - Starting Fires

June - Salvaging Toby's Heart

July - Surrounded by Crimson

September - A Child's Wish

September - Darksoul: Part One

October - Dragon's Eye

Okay. Wow. I have no idea why I was thinking I hadn't accomplished much. What a busy year!

Now the question is, what will happen in 2016?

In this first quarter, Darksoul: The Complete Novel will be self-published. The Novel will have both part one and two published together in one volume. There were changes made to the first part of the book, additional information, changes made to race names, and such, as well as the last couple of chapters moved further back in the story.

This is where I'm laughing at myself because I thought that self-pubbing would be quicker, but honestly, not so much. It's been a learning process and I don't see myself doing this very much in the future. I like spending my time writing. :)

Ruby Red is back on the release schedule! Whoot! It is now up on the LT3 Press website for pre-order, releasing on March 2, 2016.

Talking about adding to a story. Ruby Red Booty Shorts and a Louisville Slugger started out around 22k. I'd originally wrote it for a holiday sub call, and it wasn't accepted because it was part of a series but was published separately. Shortly after it was originally released, the publisher went out of business. LT3 accepted the little guy, but while going through edits, there were several suggestions made that I agreed with. The story grew from 22k to 49k. In order for me to spend time on it, things were pushed around last year. Even though I was a little harried at the time, I'm glad I took the time because the story is so much better than it was.

As I'm typing this up, book two in the ION series, Werewolf's Tale and a Druid Sword is waiting for me to get back to editing it.

What else is on the 2016 "agenda"?

Everything above the green line is what I would like to definitely accomplish this year. 

Death Mask is due in for the sub call at the end of the month. Fingers crossed. I'm not quite finished. I've been trying to work on it while editing Werewolf's Tale but honestly, the editing has been taking up my time. ION 2 needed some serious TLC. I'm praying that everything about Death Mask will fall into place later this month. Seriously, it's bad form to not submit a story to the sub call you asked your publisher to do. :)

Once Death Mask is off my plate, I'm going back to Releasing Chaos. I'm 30k into the story and I think I know what needs to be done (deleted) to get the story past this part. The good news is the last interlude is complete. I need to edit it and such, but short story is close to being ready to submit.

The first book in the series, Devil's Dawn, that I'm writing with Kenzie Cade is almost finished. If we pushed, it could be finished before the end of February. 

Fate and Destinies will be brought off the back burner. The changes from 1st to 3rd person completed and I'll be able to hand it over to the editor. (Someone please say, "About time, woman!")

Then comes the third book in the Valespian Pact. Is it crazy that writing this book scares me the most? I have a bare bones outline of what needs to happen in Bespoken, but I couldn't hear Prometheus's voice. Without that voice, the story would've been flat. The last week or so, he's been talking, which is excellent.

The rest of what is above the green line will come after the projects above are completed. I won't be participating in the DRitC event this year. If I get a wild hair then I can put that energy into anything below the green line. I'm pretty sure Wolfe's story will get told. Honestly, Salvaging Toby's Heart practically wrote itself. Oh! I'll give you a bit of information on my sci-fi stories, Salvaging Toby's Heart and Darksoul and The Aurora Conspiracy takes place in the same universe. So you might see some character crossover.

That's it! That is what I would like to accomplish in 2016. The little whiteboard will be marked up by midyear but did you know that there is a bigger board? Would you like to see what the next few years could bring? Haha! :)

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!

Deleted Phrases From Twin Flames

It seems that at the beginning of Twin Flames Tristan is a bit of a drama queen, and I the cliche' queen. (I think I need a shiny badge.) *preens* He and I make quite a pair. To smooth things out and make Tristan less cliched some of the over-the-top phrases needed to go.

The one thing I believe wholeheartedly is that I should NEVER become so enamored with the words I write to cause me to turn down good editing advice. A good editor is worth their weight in gold. Ignoring sound advice would be detrimental. So I will always take a step back and look at the problem through their eyes. The majority of the time I will agree, but for the others, I simply open up a dialogue to find a solution. Even though I love these phrases by themselves, I agreed they were out of place in the prose.

Enjoy!

I ignored the hole where my heart had once been.

The wound was so deep I wondered why I wasn't bleeding.

There were a couple of, "Oh, Goddess, help me!" taken away. *snicker* Oh, wait. *throws self on bed with a wail*

Could he not see there were too many pieces to pick up? That I was well and truly broken? I was bleeding to death right here, right now. Wasn't it obvious there was nothing he could do that would fix this, fix me, or fix us?

I couldn't scrub away what I'd seen, what I'd heard. I wasn't that strong. Maybe I was a bit of a coward .

I stared at him, my body numb with disbelief and grief. My shoulder throbbed and burned with the poison of being claimed by this man. My chest constricted with the pain of a broken heart. I bled for him because I loved him.

Each word he spoke was like a little death.

My heart bled.

If the little pinpricks weren't bad enough to make the skin break out, it was scratchy.