Writing Update for May 28, 2015

Not a bit blog post, but at least I’m still writing. I was really afraid that with the move and everything, the stories would be shoved to the back burner, so to speak. It’s nice to know that isn’t happening. I’ve got a pile of other things on my plate too, and I think I’ve found a schedule that incorporates all of it and still leaves me time to do other things. Like eat and sleep.

Novel: The Saints of Belvedere Road (paranormal)
Is off at the editors. Finally this book will be unleashed to the public. I’m thinking of a late June/early July release so keep your eyes peeled for this cover.

Novel: Survival Rules (zombie)

I’ve managed to work a bit more on this novel, but it’s not getting the attention it deserves. Partly because my day is distracted, but that won’t be forever. Once things are more settled around here, I’ll be able to focus more. I would like to get all three books in the series done by the end of the year, AND I came up with a plot idea for a fourth stand-alone novel in the same universe as the series. I’ll be adding some crossovers for sure.

Word Count: 93,972 [fourteen chapters written]

Novel: Down Finnegan’s Hollow (paranormal horror)
Revisions have begun. This is the first stand-alone novel I’ve not only finished, but I think, ever written. Well, you could include SAINTS in that category too, but as I added it into a series so I don’t think it counts anymore. I’m sending this out to a small publishing house and I hope everything works out with it. I’m taking my time, revising two pages per day. I don’t have an overall word count on the rough draft, but I’m hoping it’s about 70k or so.

Word Count: 12,398 [three chapters revised]

Novel: Cache (cyberpunk)
Yup, you read that right. Muse poked me with it last weekend and I’ve been working on it all week. This one too, is part of a series, but I’m not sure yet if it’ll be three books or five or a series or not. I have three plotted, but that’s about it. Maybe it’ll be a crime novel series. Not sure.

Word Count: 4,071 [one chapter finished]

How is your writing coming along?

Writing Update for February 20, 2015

I booked my editor for May. It’s been almost five years since I finished this book, and finally, it’s going to be out in the world. I’m so glad I didn’t decide to publish it back then. I think adding it to my paranormal series was the right thing to do.

Novel: Survival Rules
This is going to be a long book. I’m up to chapter twelve already and about 2/3 finished. Mind you, this is just the first draft. I’m positive there will be a lot of editing when it comes to revisions.

This has been an interesting story for me to write. The research I’ve done, has at times, left me a bit unsettled. Not so much about a plague wiping out the majority of the population, but the aftermath and survival. We rely so much on modern technology and infrastructure, that to have it all collapse around us is a frightening situation, but an interesting one as well. What would you do if there was no clean water? No food? None of the modern conveniences that we’re so used to? Would you know how to purify water for drinking? Keep warm? Find adequate shelter? Many apocalyptic novels I’ve read deal with survival in warm climates, but as I like to base my stories in Canada (Ontario to be exact), the stories take on new dimensions. Not only do my survivors need to look for all the same things as other zombie novels, but they have the added problem of weather and climate. This also will have a direct effect on the creatures as well. It’s been an interesting journey, and I hope people will like it too.

Wordcount: 80,019

Short Stories
I’ve got a couple requests to write shorts for two anthologies. One is a horror one, and the other is with the same publisher that I worked with before. I have an idea for the first, second might be a little harder. I have several ideas, but it’s collecting my Muse long enough for her to help me figure it out.

Writing Update for May 30, 2014

Book Five: The Prophecies of Mortals:

As we speak, my beta is looking over it right now. I had hoped to have it ready by mid-June, but there’s been a slight hold up. Nothing I can’t fix, but it’s just another pain at this point. I think I’m going to stop giving release dates for my books and just announce when it’s up and post links. Less pressure that way.

Book Six: Awaken the Herald

First chapter of this is written, and the second is looking good. I’d like to get the first draft done by the end of the summer, at least, that’s my goal. Summer always has a way of messing with my plans.

Companion Novels: The Saints of Belvedere Road, Crypt of Souls

The Saints of Belvedere Road – This book is a bugger. Nothing to do with the story itself, but rather the punctuation around the dialogue. For some odd reason, it’s different from anything I have in any of my other books, so I have to replace all of them. Ugh. I’m also cleaning up the format as I go; getting rid of extra spaces, tab indents, making sure there are the proper amount of spaces between the lines, etc. Makes things so much easier when I go to upload the file. I think this is the reason I don’t have any problems with the Smashwords ‘meatgrinder’.

 

Crypt of Souls – Okay, for now, this is the title. Knowing me, it will change. This is the second side novel and once you read PROPHICES OF MORTALS, you will know who’s in it and what it’s about. I’m just on the first chapter and doing something I don’t normally do; winging it. Well, as much as I can. I have a rough outline of where the story is to go, but just letting the characters dictate, is interesting.

 

Slaughter Rules

Have I told you about this? This is my zombie story. It follows a group of people who cross the border into the States looking for survivors of the zombie outbreak and…well…run into some scary individuals. That’s all I’m going to say.

 

Scripts:

Two new things on this. First, I’ve take my paranormal flash story and put it in script form. I want to enter it into the Canadian Short Screenplay Competition. I’m not sure what to expect from this, but I thought it would be fun.

Second, I’m working on the pilot episode of a paranormal show based in Kingston. It’s a combination of Ghost Whisperer meets The Dead Files, with a bit of Paranormal Activity thrown in for good measure. Again, I’m not sure where this will lead, but it’s fun writing it.

 

NEW PROJECT ALERT!!!

Guess who’s writing a pirate book! It’s not a romance, just a somewhat honest depiction of life in Port Royal during the 17^th century. There’s a strong paranormal element (naturally, it’s one of my books), and I’m lining the plot up with actual events and situations that occurred in the port. I haven’t started writing it yet, still working on the outline, but so far it’s about ten chapters, but I’d like it to be closer to twelve. Also, this might be a three book series. So much happened in the forty years of Port Royal’s existence. I’d have to break it down to the beginning, middle and end.

 

How is you writing coming along? Anything new to report? What are your writing goals for the summer?

Friday Writing Update

This has been a long time coming. It’s been seventeen weeks, just over four months since I did a writing update. Wow. I didn’t think it was that long. I’ve managed to get some writing done, but not as much as I do when Sithboy is in school, and not as much as I hoped. Summer has too many distractions and not enough quiet time. I couldn’t write upstairs either because it’s still a mess from renovating the spare room and I have no place to plug in my laptop. The summer wasn’t a complete loss, I may not have written as much as I wanted too, but I did get some things done.

 

The Watchtower Series: Omens and Portends (Book Five)

This story is going to be darker that the others, especially when it comes to Daniel. His backstory is coming out, and there’s more than one reason why they put a spell on him. The revealing scene was hard to write, partly because I had no idea how to word it, but also, it’s Daniel. I always considered him the heart of the group. Writing out his past was intense. I just hope people understand. Good thing about this revelation, I’ve come up with scene idea’s for his side novel. That’s always a good thing.

I’m looking at getting book five and the first side novel ready for the holiday season. Gift cards are still a great present, and I’m hoping to cash in on the post-holiday spending. I can’t really work on the side novel until a rough draft of book five is done. Ugh.

The Watchtower is doing great in the free category. Not a month goes by that it doesn’t make it into the top 100. That makes me feel good. What’s also good is that I have sales of my other books as well, enough so that I should be getting a payment from Amazon soon.

Scifi Series: The Carriers

I fell a little behind on this. I blame the hot weather. I’d like to get the last few parts done, wrap up the chapter and then start again with a new chapter it in the New Year. I think I have three or four parts left to write. It’s been a wonderful experiment for writing short fiction. I really should keep it up.  

 

Gothic Romance Series: The Possession of Mercy Moreau

Oh Goddess, where do I start with this one? I’ve been revising this story like crazy. I want to send it off to Indie press when it’s done, but it is such a mess. I thought about an agent, but I’m not sure. YA is still so hot, and with the new Twitter hashtag #mswl all I see is calls for YA or MG or even NA. Rarely do I see Adult. There are some Indie sites that publish Adult. I’ll have to make a list in a few months.

Steampunk Series: Gutterchilde

Another novel that I’m ripping apart.  I decided to put this in more of a familiar setting rather than make up a world. I don’t know why I didn’t think about this before. For this series, it will take place in Upper Canada. I also want to explore the world during the Victorian Era and visit places that aren’t normally written into Steampunk. One story will take them to France, another to India, and another to China. The final books will be more fantastical as it happens in Atlantis.

I still want to get my Steampunk zombies in there, somewhere…

Short Story: Date Night

I sent this out to an erotic anthology a few weeks back. Still waiting for a reply. No biggie if it doesn’t get accepted. I’ll just go back to the original plan and have it the first short in my own erotic anthology.

NEW PROJECT ALERT!!!

Yes, there’s a new project on the horizon, and it’s another Steampunk. I’ve already outlined some of the plot and three of the characters, but this won’t be erotic. There may be love scenes, I’m not sure, but I’ll fade to black if I do. With this story, I want to focus on the fantastical with brooding characters, sexy villains, weird gadgets and some interesting twists and turns. Oh yes, and the two main characters are in their late forties. Yeah, I can’t write for popular trends.

So how is your writing coming along? Have you written a lot this summer?

Friday Writing Update

Friday Writing Update

Three weeks after my surgery and I’m finally getting back into writing blog posts again. I did a bit in the days/weeks afterward, but I just didn’t couldn’t get into the feel of it. No motivation at all. I haven’t felt like that in years.

 

The Watchtower Series: Sympathy for the Demon (book four)

I sent the MS to my editor. I’m still on schedule for a May release. I must drive her nuts. She’s American (I’m Canadian, btw), and she email me this morning and asked if I wanted the American wording of certain words or Canadian, as I’ll use both. Whoops. Sorry Karen.

 

Omens and Portends (book five)

I have one chapter written so far and I’ll start working on this again come Monday.

 

The Saints of Belvedere Road (Side novel)

I’ve gone through the first five chapters, and so far, there’s not much that has to be revised. I’ve gone through this novel I don’t know how many times, that I hope I’ll remember to add in where it needs to connect it to The Watchtower series.

 

Scifi Series: The Carriers

A slight boo-boo with this. I stated one character’s name at the beginning of the story was Marcus, but then, somehow, I changed it to Alan. Not good. Anyway, easily fixed. There’s supposed to be two adult male characters so I’ll just make them brothers.

 

Steampunk Series: Gutterchilde

I re-wrote the first chapter of this story. I took out the rape scene, and killed off a character. The character death was something I didn’t expect, but as I was going through the revised outline, I realized I would have two characters doing the same thing. Can’t have that. I’ve also introduced both romantic leads in this chapter, and the paranormal element as well. It’s a big chapter.

 

Erotic Romance Series: The Possession of Mercy Moreau

Re-wrote the first chapter of this story as well. I put the MC in more of a dire circumstance that forces her to take the job in the mansion. I’m still unsure about the haunting; whether the spirit should be Victorian era or not.

 

So how is your writing coming along? Anything interesting pop out at you this week?

 

Friday Writing Update

I haven’t received a reply from the twenty or so queries I still have out. It’s still early for some of them, so I’m going to wait until the beginning of July before I consider the rest of them dead. That would be a full three months for the ones I sent out at the beginning of April, and a full four months for the ones I sent out in March.

In other news, I should have enough money saved up by August to purchase copyrights. If I do it in late July/early August, that means I could self-publish something as early as September. That extra time will give me the chance to make sure the story is edited and polished.

NOVELETTE: Echo Lake

Got a crit back for the first chapter, and there are a few things I need to fix. Just continuity, I think. I would really love to have this revised by the end of the month, then I can work on editing it.    

 

SHORT STORY: The 25^th Hour

Did some work on this, but the last weekend was too busy and I didn’t get in the amount of words I wanted. Next two weekends don’t look good either. This weekend is Mother’s Day, and the following weekend I’m going to Toronto.

 

SERIAL: The Watchtower: Terror Tower

Really moving along on this project. I’m hoping to have this done in the next couple of weeks. I’ve also decided to take out any mention of a girlfriend for Martin. I played with the idea, but I’m finding it hard to bring her into the story and I don’t want to write a forced piece just to get a character in. Besides, I wasn’t planning on her being in the story for long anyway so why put her in at all. If I keep to my schedule, I should have the first and second instalments of The Watchtower done by the end of July. 

Friday Writing Update

NOVELETTE: Echo Lake.

I portioned out the story this week. I’ve got about six chapters altogether. Most will have to be heavily revised/edited, and replaced with new stuff. Stuff that makes sense. I’m hoping to have it all revised by the end of May. 
 

SHORT STORY: The 25^th Hour

This is turning into a creepy story. I’ve combined an idea that Sithboy and I worked on last summer, and I might have a sequel to it, with a gargoyle idea. Now that would be cool.

I’m working on it only on the weekends. I’ve said in the past that the weekends were for family, but I can squeeze in about 500 words a day. They don’t mind. It’s better than me going crazy because I have this creative energy and no way to explore it, and writing out blog topics only uses up so much.       

SERIAL: The Watchtower: Terror Tower

I plotted out the entire Watchtower series this week. I think 12 stories are enough to tell the whole thing. Even have a good idea about the final battle too, although I’m debating on whether or not to have it as a stand-alone novel, or part of the series.

All instalments will be no more four chapters per story and a word count of around 20k each. I was working on a story blurb for the second story, and came up with a really neat title, but of course, I forgot to write any of it down and lost it.    

I’m also wondering if I should change the name of the series. On an Agent Query Connect chat, I showed the mock up book cover to the group and a few of them said it reminded them of the JW magazine. I don’t know. I’m torn. The Watchtower seems so fitting as they are living in a tower and watching over the planet.

 

Friday Writing Update

NOVELETTE: Echo Lake.

Finished the first chapter this week. Just over 4,500 worth of words. It was difficult creating a whole new beginning to a story that was already written, but it gave me the change to set up the relationships better, especially between parent and child. It also allowed me to fill in a big plot hole; namely why the boys went to Echo Lake in the first place.   

 

SHORT STORY: Date Night,

Got back a crit for DATE NIGHT from a beta. LOVE the suggestions and I’ll be working on it this weekend. Once it’s done, out to markets it goes, but I don’t think I’m going to work on another erotic piece for a while. I think I’ll alternate between Dark Fantasy, and Scifi. I want to get The 25^th Hour finished and out. That would give me eight short stories published in three different genre’s. That’s so cool!

 

SERIAL: The Watchtower: Terror Tower

Got the first part of this done. It was fun re-working this back into a story from the script, and it’s not going to be as long as I thought. Maybe 20k, if that. I fiddled around with how many other instalments I could do. I have about twelve jotted down, and then I connect the story this story to my paranormal novel THE SAINTS OF BELVEDERE ROAD.

Friday Writing Update.

AGENT:

I have sent queries to all applicable agents. The waiting game begins. I’ve been told that I should wait about three months for those who don’t list any kind of a response time. I won’t be upset if I don’t get an agent for this novel. It could be that it’s just not something they could sell, and I’m cool with that. Too many options out there for me to become discouraged. I’ve already begun looking at small press. That’s going to be a longer wait, though. Some of them take months to reply.

NOVELETTE: Echo Lake.

With Husband home this week, I did manage to get about 500 words per day out. I would have liked more, but I’m lucky to have that. I’ve added over 2k worth of new words since I started revising, and I think I’ve really fleshed out the plot.  

SHORT STORY: Date Night, The 25^th Hour, Diary of a Succubus

Date Night-One word—DONE. I need to tweak a little near the end, but it’s done.

I’ve also been working on the 25^th Hour—another paranormal story. I think after the first draft of this is done, I’ll work on a scifi. I am slowly whittling down the list.

Worked on the Succubus serial this week too. It’s been poking at me for a while now, but I just haven’t had the desire to open it. I need to do a little research to nail down an era to start it off in. I think it has to be late middle ages, but I’m not sure yet. I know I have ‘diary’, and I’ve been playing with the idea of creating stories around true historical facts. Say a diary entry every hundred years? So if I start B.C.E (Before the Common Era) I’d have, what, twenty one entries? Did I do the math right on that? Gah, that sounds like a lot of work. A rather ambitious project, don’t you think?

Oh, and I sent a query email off to the editor asking if they received ‘FRIES WITH THAT’. Nothing yet. Geez, I hope that didn’t get lost too.        

SCRIPT: N/A

I will finish this f****** script before the end of my life.

   

Friday Writing Update.

 

AGENT

Been a very interesting week. More about this on Monday.

NOVEL: Guardian

Still trying to break my ‘edit’ mode. I’m managing about 500 new words a day on this, but I’m still working on piecing things into the old story. I have a rough outline for the next few chapters as well, or however many it takes to get them off the asteroid. I’m introducing the female character soon and will have a few parts in her POV, but I don’t head-hop.   

SHORT STORY

Sent STRINGS out into the world this week. That’s two now that I have out, one in revisions, and two in progress.   

SCRIPT: Marked.

Finally got some work done on the script. I don’t know why, but for a while, I just wasn’t into writing it. I know they say to push through, and I tried a couple times, but I don’t like forcing myself to work on something I have no interest in. I still like the story, but now I’ve set my completion date for the end of April.