Author Archives: Melissa

December 26, 2017

I’ve been playing around with a couple of plot ideas for rewriting the fallout of the two Jasons and the Friz engagement. I decided, for various reasons, to workshop this plot to make sure it works and to deal with any kinks. I’m not a Friz fan, and Franco makes me want to vomit, so don’t worry about that. It’s also not a straight Liason romance, though it’s a Liason friendship story.

I wrote it in 45 minutes. So enjoy, Fool Me Twice: Part 1 1. I’ll be back with Part 2 on Friday, and then Bittersweet starts up Sunday, December 31.

This entry is part 1 of 13 in the Flash Fiction: Fool Me Twice

Okay, so I had this plot bunny a few months about what might be the fallout of the current storylines of GH, but I hadn’t really worked out some of the details. The reason I’m workshopping this idea is that while I have a decent idea about the main structure, I’m not confident I can write the 2017 version of these characters, particularly an Elizabeth who is supposed to be in love with Franco.

So I wanted to see if I could work out some of the kinks.  I wrote this in about 45 minutes, and here is the setup.

I pick up the show from about December 22, 2017. Franco and Elizabeth are engaged. Danny has accepted Jason as his father, Jake wants nothing to do with him. Sam and Drew are together, Oscar is his son. They don’t know who the mysterious Faison traitor is, etc. This begins in February 2018.

It has not been spellchecked or reread for typos.

Monday, February 12, 2018

Webber Home: Kitchen

Elizabeth Webber wrinkled her nose as she tossed the last container of food into a brown paper bag, setting it next to the other brown lunch bag and an Avengers lunch box. Her two oldest were too cool for lunch boxes, but at least she still had one sweet baby.

“Mom, I’m not eatin’ the carrots. You can’t pay me enough to do that,” thirteen-year-old Cameron Webber declared with a sneer that announced her eldest baby was a teenager. God help them all if Cam was anything like Elizabeth had been at his age.

God help the world.

“Did you pack the cookies we made last night?” ten-year-old Jake Webber demanded as he climbed onto the stool in front of the breakfast counter and tugged his bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios towards him. “Franco and I made oatmeal raisin ones—”

Next to him, Cameron rolled his eyes, and seven-year-old Aidan Webber crossed his eyes, stuck a finger down his throat, and gagged.

“There weren’t enough for all of you, so no,” Elizabeth murmured. “You must have eaten more than we thought—”

“Probably only made enough for himself,” Cam muttered, elbowing Aidan in the ribs. The two of them shared a look that Elizabeth didn’t quite understand, but then again—she was an icky girl, and they were boys.

They were bound to start speaking languages she couldn’t understand, and Cam and Aidan just didn’t have the same rapport Jake had developed with her fiance, Franco Baldwin. Not that Franco played favorites—he and Jake just had so much more in common with their interest in art.

Cam and Aidan were into sports and video games in a way that Jake wasn’t.

“Where is Franco, anyway?” Jake asked, shoveling cereal into his mouth, then wiping it with the back of his sleeve. “He was supposed to drive me to school.”

“He’s not, is he?” Aidan asked with a scowl. He and Jake still attended the same school where Jake was a fifth grader, and Aidan a second grader. “Because I’m supposed to sit with Timmy today, and he was bringing his new iPhone. He got it for his birthday.” Aidan batted the blue eyes he’d inherited from his wayward father and a dimpled grin. “Can I get one for my birthday?”

“We’ll talk about it in July,” Elizabeth murmured as she started to wipe up the counter. To Jake, she said, “Franco had an appointment at the hospital, so you’re both taking the bus.”

She hurried the boys through the last of their breakfast, bundled them up into parkas and jackets, though both Jake and Cameron refused her help. Aidan let her adjust his scarf.

She walked them to the bus stop, missing as always, her home on Lexington Avenue in the Queens Point neighborhood. The new house was closer to the hospital, but she’d loved that house. It had been her first real home—she’d raised her boys there. Had lived around the corner from Patrick and Robin.

She and Patrick had traded off the bus stop duties back then, but like so many other things in her life—that was part of a different life. Robin and Patrick were happily living and practicing medicine in California, while Elizabeth…

Elizabeth was planning a brand-new future.

“Mom, are you really going to wait here?” Cam said with a huff. “I’m not a baby. My bus comes last. I can make sure these idiots get on there. It’s not like I’m gonna let Jake get kidnapped. Again.”

Elizabeth grimaced at the memory. “Cam—”

“You’re just jealous because I’ve been kidnapped three times,” Jake shot back.

“Jake!” Elizabeth flicked her son’s shoulder. “That’s not something to joke about.” Where had her little boy gone? He’d been doing so well—really blossoming over the summer and into the fall.

Until Jason Morgan had come home. For real. And the man Jake had grown to love and adore had been revealed to be the missing Quartermaine twin brother.

Almost four months later, Elizabeth still couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it. Most days, she put it out of her head. Jason and Drew belonged to a different life. A different Elizabeth. Jake was all they shared, and even that was a tentative at best these days.

Jason and Drew had been preoccupied trying to find out who had kidnapped them both and tried to have Jason killed. Drew had reached out once or twice to Jake, but he spent most of his time with Oscar Nero, the son he hadn’t known about.

And Jason….

Jake was only tolerating Jason because of Danny. And it broke her heart that Jake might never get to know the kind of father she knew Jason could be. Though it was hardly her fault Jake didn’t have many memories of Jason.

Elizabeth might have started the lie, but Jason had been the one to walk away from all of them.

“Was I ever kidnapped?” Aidan asked with worried eyes. “No one is going to take me right?”

“You got kidnapped once,” Cam said with a furrowed brow. “When you were a baby, right, Mom?”

“Yeah.” Elizabeth sighed, hoping that would be the end of it.

Though she imagined one day…they’d have to find a way to explain to Aidan that Elizabeth had married the man that kidnapped him.

She grimaced at the memory, but put it away almost as quickly as it had emerged. She didn’t like to think about those days. About that Franco. He’d been a different man.

The tumor had changed him. She believed it.

She had to believe it.

Even if things had been difficult since Jason had returned and Franco had been…sensitive about him. And it was likely going to get worse before it got better because eventually Jake would open his heart to Jason, and Jason would be a more permanent fixture.

Franco was just going to have to suck it up, because Elizabeth wasn’t going to turn Jason away from his son. Not now.

“I don’t remember what happened though,” Cam continued. “I was seven, I think. But you were gone. And then you came back. It wasn’t like Jake. He was gone for years.” He sobered at that memory. “Why did he get kidnapped so much, Mom?”

Thank God, the bus arrived before Elizabeth had to go into the sordid details of Jake’s various kidnappings.

She waited while Jake and Aidan climbed onto their bus and then it left. Cam’s arrived a moment later, and she saw her eldest off. He was getting so much older.

So much harder to pretend he was a little boy that couldn’t understand what was going on around him.

God, she hoped her boys wouldn’t need therapy one day.

Pozzulo’s Restaurant: Office

Jason Morgan rolled his shoulders and set his hands at his waist as he stood in front of Sonny Corinthos’ mahogany desk and waited while his best friend and partner went over some paperwork from the Puerto Rico run.

He had taken on some of his previous duties the month before when the trail into Cesar Faison’s mysterious partner and traitor had gone cold shortly after Christmas. He would never give up trying to learn who had kidnapped him, stolen his memories, and set up his twin brother to take over his life, but…

Jason had to get back to some kind of life. He had family here, and if he didn’t try to build some sort of relationship with his sons, then he was never going to feel like himself again.

Danny had been easier, but Jason wasn’t surprised by that, and he was just so…completely in awe of the miracle that Jake was alive at all…he would put up with any attitude from the boy if it meant Jake was still breathing.

Even though Jake lived with a man who personified evil and thought he was a good guy. It still didn’t make sense to him how anyone could believe Franco could change, that he was worth a second chance.

But somehow, he was unsurprised to learn that Elizabeth had decided to give him one. She’d always found the good in people, even if she’d had to make it up her in her head.

“Looks good,” Sonny murmured. He glanced up. “Things were good at the casinos? You didn’t have any issues?”

“Nah.” Jason shook his head quickly. “A couple of weird stares, but I guess…Drew didn’t go down there much.”

“Yeah, he never took to any of this. I guess…” Sonny sighed. “I guess there were a lot of signs. I just—I wanted you to be alive so damn much, you know?” He tossed the papers aside. “You get settled in? Carly didn’t over decorate the new place much, did she?”

“No.” Jason lowered himself into the one of the wooden chairs in front of the desk. He couldn’t stay at the Metro Court forever—he’d wanted a place where, if it was ever possible, that Danny and Jake could stay.  So while he’d been in Puerto Rico, Carly had found an apartment downtown for him and had it furnished. She’d finished rooms for both the boys and surprised him with a pool table in the dining room.

He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his own space until he’d tossed his duffel bag on the sofa and seen the table. How much he’d needed something from his old life to make him feel like he was home again.

“She said she got some things from Elizabeth and Sam to make the boys’ rooms feel like theirs,” Sonny continued. “You, ah, think they’ll be spending much time with you?”

“Danny probably,” Jason said. “But…” He shook his head. “Jake only…agrees to see me if Danny is there. And then he only talks to Danny.”

“He’ll come around. He’s been through hell, but you know that? Not only the kidnapping but the bullshit Helena Cassadine put him through last year. It sucks, but Drew was there for him. And—” Sonny grimaced. “Franco was the one who saw something was wrong. I’ll give him that. Something about art therapy and his drawings.”

“I hate it,” Jason murmured. “He lives with my son. I don’t want him near Franco, but what am I supposed to say to Elizabeth? You know she doesn’t listen to me.”

“Not about the idiots she lets in her life, no,” Sonny said with a shrug. “She’s been making self-destructive choices for the better part of her adult life, Jason.” He shook his head. “I didn’t understand it when Carly nearly married the psycho, but—I don’t know. Maybe I understand how she ended up with him. She told you that she lied about Drew’s identity, right?”

“She mentioned it the first day she came to see me. At the jail.” Jason shifted. “And someone else said—she nearly married him.”

“Yeah, Carly stopped the wedding to tell everyone.” Sonny rubbed his mouth. “It was…it wasn’t pretty. Pretty much destroyed her life. And then Nikolas Cassadine died. Patrick Drake moved out of town with Robin.” He hesitated. “Carly was like that after you went off the pier. I was….in my own head about Kate and Connie, and all of that. AJ ended up coming back from the damn dead and telling Michael every sordid detail of Carly’s life. Carly needed someone, and well…there he was. Plus, you know, he was supposed to be your twin.”

“Yeah, she said something like that.” Jason hesitated. “I don’t trust Franco. It’s only a matter of time before something happens. I just don’t want Elizabeth and the boys in the crossfire.” Like they had been when Lucky Spencer had been addicted to drugs or when Jason’s Russian enemies had driven them from their home and nearly gotten Jake killed.

Elizabeth and her boys had been through enough. Even if Franco was her choice, that didn’t mean he wanted her to find out it was a mistake the hard way.

He looked at his watch. “I’m meeting Carly for lunch, so I’d better get going.” He got to his feet. “Call me if you need anything.”

“Will do. Hey, Jase?” Sonny stopped him as he started out of the room. “I know there’s a lot still up in the air, what with not knowing who Faison was working with, and Drew not having his memories back, Sam sticking to him like glue—but don’t take on more troubles by making Franco your problem again.”

“He lives with Elizabeth and the boys. With my son,” Jason said. “As long he draws breath—he’s my problem.”

December 25, 2017

I’d wanted to write a story for Christmas for a few weeks but my schedule prevented from doing anything in depth. I really wanted to write a sequel to my 2014 AU, All I Want For Christmas, but I couldn’t quite settle on a plot.

So instead of writing a full-fledged sequel, I wrote a second epilogue in the style of Julia Quinn’s second epilogues for her Bridgerton series. It’s a peek into Jason and Elizabeth a year after the first epilogue.

So refresh yourself on the original: All I Want For Christmas and then read the second epilogue.

I also did some housekeeping and the soundtrack is now embedded on the main page.

Merry Christmas! I’ll see you guys on Friday for the Workshop.

This entry is part 9 of 9 in the All I Want For Christmas

I don’t want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don’t care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you
– All I Want for Christmas, Mariah Carey

One Year Later

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

It was already technically Christmas when Jason Morgan ushered his girlfriend through the front door of their penthouse, a pair of gold stiletto heels dangling from one hand, a matching evening clutch in the other.

Elizabeth Webber grimaced as she limped over the threshold and tossed the Manolo Blahniks on the sofa. She perched on the arm and wiggled her toes. “Men created heels, you know that right?”

He just smiled as he flipped a switch that turned on the lights of their Christmas tree arranged between the fireplace and the terrace doors. The white lights twinkled against the red and green paper chains they’d created from construction paper earlier that month.

She’d laughed when she’d brought home the materials, a bit embarrassed. It had been a holiday tradition at her grandparents’ house to make paper chains, and she’d thought it’d be nice to continue the tradition with him.

His family couldn’t offer much in the way of holiday traditions beyond pizza on Thanksgiving and arguments on Christmas, so Jason had happily volunteered to continue one of hers.

“You’re not going to ask me why I wear them?” Elizabeth asked as she straightened and joined him at the tree, naturally sliding her arms around his waist. He drew her closer with an arm around her shoulders, tucking her head under his chin.

“You’ll just tell me something about fashion and image, and I’ll regret asking, so we’re skipping that.” His fingers danced down the bare skin of her upper shoulder as they stood there a long moment—their first quiet moment in days with the holiday rush, the corporate parties, and the general insanity of being employees at ELQ this time of year.

“We didn’t get to do this last year,” Jason began as he pulled away with a hesitant smile, “but my father used to let us open one present on Christmas Eve. When we were kids, he told us it was the presents from him and—” His smile faltered a bit. “And the rest would be there in the morning from Santa.”

“That’s sweet,” Elizabeth said, gratefully letting the moment pass by. They both knew that even at Christmas, as a child, his stepmother Monica had likely made it clear any present to Jason would not include her. “I have just the right one for you.”

She moved past a few gifts for Nadine and Robin—they were going to have dinner with her former roommates and their boyfriends after brunch at the Quartermaines. Six months earlier, Elizabeth had moved out of their loft to live with Jason amid tears and promises that nothing would ever change.

But it had—Nadine had started to date Johnny Zacchara a few months earlier, and Robin was eight months into dating a doctor she worked with at the hospital, Patrick Drake. It was hard to believe that just a year earlier they had been single, commiserating their romantic woes over wine and chocolate. She missed that sometimes, even though they made it a point to get together once a month.

But living with Jason? Being with him for an entire year? Watching her best friends find love, too?

Some change was good.

Elizabeth plucked a medium rectangle wrapped gift and handed it to Jason. “Here. I mean, it might not be good or anything, but you said—”

He offered her an exasperated smile as he tore the silver wrapping paper away to reveal a framed canvas of the Piazza San Marco and the markets and vendors surrounding the Venetian square. “You finished it,” Jason murmured, holding it one hand and tracing his fingers over the market stalls with the other.

“I hadn’t painted in ages, but when we went to Italy last winter…I don’t know—taking photographs wasn’t enough, you know? I had to find a way to capture the way the light hits the water. I’m not sure I did it, but—”

He stopped her rambles with a quick press of his lips to hers. “Thank you. This is—I want to say it’s great, but I don’t know if that’s the right word. I’m—I’m not good at this. I can…I can remember walking through this square with you.”

Elizabeth’s smile bloomed. “That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to hold on to that moment, and like I said, painting does that for me. I never have much time anymore with everything at ELQ—and I love designing parties, I do—but this was always my first love.”

“You should do it more,” he murmured, looking back at the scene. At the market stalls. “And you know, I’m glad you gave me this one. Because…it goes with my gift.”

Jason carefully set aside the painting on the flat green surface of the nearby pool table and kissed her again, lingering over the softness of her lips, the faint taste of chocolate from the pastries she’d eaten at the party earlier that night.

Then he stepped back and drew a small box from behind another stack of neatly wrapped gifts.

Elizabeth stared at the box for a longer moment before raising her eyes to him. “Jason—”

Jason handed her the box, wrapped in shiny gold paper. “I saw this in Venice last year. I wanted—I wanted to give it to you then, but I knew—”

Elizabeth carefully tore back the paper, letting it fall to the ground, revealing a white box. She flipped it open to find a silver ring inside, with a crimson red stone.

She furrowed her brow at it before raising her eyes towards the table in front of the sofa where a vase sat. “This is—the glass from the market. I bought the crimson-colored glass from—”

“I know it doesn’t look like a—” He hesitated, feeling an uncharacteristic flutter of nerves in his chest. “I would have asked you six months ago, Elizabeth. A year ago. Because I knew.”

“Are you—” Elizabeth’s voice trembled. “Are you asking me—”

Jason took the box from her and drew out the ring. “I love you. And I want to love you for the rest of our lives. I want to have a family with you. I want to make paper chains with our kids.”

She laughed, the sound mixed with a sob as a tear slid down her cheek. “That’s what I want. I want that so much, Jason—” Elizabeth held out her hand, wiggled her fingers. “I can’t believe you’ve had this since January. I love you, too. Yes. Yes!”

He grinned, slid the ring onto her fourth finger and then caught her as she launched herself into his arms.

“When?” he asked, pressing his face into her silky hair.

“Tomorrow? Now? I don’t want to wait another minute.” Elizabeth drew back with, framing his face in her hands. “I don’t care how or when. Kiki can work magic and get everything together. I want to start on the rest of our lives.”

“Sounds good to me.”

THE END

December 24, 2017

I knew I had posted some original plot sketches and outlines at one point, but I lost the category for the longest time. I found them, fixed the page, and added it to the “Extras” section. It’s messy and I’ll come back to it after the holidays.

For now, it just has a discarded partial story that set up the Jake is alive and kept by Cassadines plot I had in mind back in 2014 before they cast Billy Miller as “Jason” and started down that path. Also, there’s an outline and beta conversation about All We Are and plot sketches for A Few Words Too Many that are really different. So check out Plot Sketches.

I’ll try to post more after the new year — some of The Best Thing stuff is available, and I have some other discarded material to deal with. I want to clean up what I already posted as well.

I’ll be back this week with some more news 🙂

December 8, 2017

I set my timer for 30 minutes, but I wasn’t quite finished the scene. So this was finished in 39 minutes. This is a second attempt at the magical story I started in October (Homecoming). I mentioned that the stuff in the workshop would be fluid and that if I didn’t like the way it was going, I would just start it again.

So, here’s Homecoming, Take 2: Part 1

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the Homecoming, Take 2

I went over time a bit — I set my timer for 30 minutes, this took about 39. This is a second attempt at the magic story I started in October.

The house on Cherry Blossom Lane had always seemed like something out of a dream. A two-story white colonial with black shutters and rose bushes clustered under the windows.

Elizabeth Webber hadn’t grown up here, but she had dreamed about it. Had desperately wanted it once.

But she hadn’t been welcomed here any more than she had been at her own home across town.

Still, it was to this house that she had come today.

Elizabeth switched off the ignition and tossed her keys into her purse. Then stared down at her palm.

The mark had appeared the month before—she couldn’t be sure exactly when but she had looked down one morning as she made lunch and there it was.

The small pentagram was tucked in the soft skin between her index finger and thumb.

She had never met her mother, but she knew Gracie Devane-Webber had had the same mark.

Elizabeth stepped out of the car and walked up the path, slowly. Deliberately.

But the door was thrust open before Elizabeth had even reached the steps. A tall, rail thin woman with dark hair and dark eyes stood there.

Of course Anna Devane had known her niece was on the front step.

Anna always knew everything.

Her aunt rushed forward to embrace her, throwing her arms around Elizabeth in an easy, natural expression of affection that always felt alien to her.

“Anna,” Elizabeth said as she drew back. “I came—”

“Because of this.” She turned Elizabeth’s palm over and sighed heavily. “Oh, my love, I was hoping you had escaped this. I cannot understand how any of this is happening—”

“I’m not the only one?” she asked, her heart pounding. “But—but Nona said—”

“I know.” Anna put an arm around her shoulders. “Come in. I’ll explain everything.”

——

Elizabeth accepted the mug of coffee her aunt handed her and sipped it as much as she could.

She hated coffee, but her aunt had never really known that.

“I wondered if I should call you when Nadine found the mark last month,” Anna admitted as she took a seat across from Elizabeth in the large, open, sunny kitchen at the back of the house.

“But we weren’t sure where to find you,” Anna continued. “You, ah, haven’t kept in touch.”

“No, I haven’t.” Elizabeth tipped her head. “Only Nadine?”

“So far, which leads me to wonder…” Anna hesitated. “If perhaps I escaped the curse because I am the eldest. We had hoped Gracie and Maria…had been enough sacrifice…”

“But they passed it on to us.” Elizabeth chewed her lip. “I don’t understand. Nadine and I didn’t get the mark until we were thirty years old. And I already—”

She closed her eyes. “When Cameron was born, you…you said he was the first boy in five generations. And then…” She looked down at her phone, at the wallpaper with the two smiling faces, and then slid the phone towards her aunt.

“And then I had Jake.”

Anna took the phone, looked down at the little boy, then raised dark eyes to her niece. “You had another son.”

“Yes.”

She swallowed. “You didn’t…tell us.”

“No.”

Anna cleared her throat. “I know that you…had difficulties before you left. That…things ended badly—I know mistakes were made…Elizabeth, he looks quite like—”

“He does.” Elizabeth waited a long moment. “And that’s why I’m here. I don’t know how the curse is going—we don’t know anything. It’s never…my boys are much older than Nadine and I were when we lost our mothers. And older than Nona was when she lost her mother. They’re ten and seven, Anna.”

“You must be worried about your boys, Elizabeth. But…perhaps there’s…I don’t know—”

“If the curse didn’t…manifest itself until now, I might have as little as a few months or as long as three years.” Elizabeth took her phone back. “Or days. We can’t know. So I came to Port Charles so my boys would—I need for Jake to know his father.”

“I—” Anna paused. “You’re sure Jason is his father, then? You won’t need—”

Elizabeth could see the doubt radiating from her aunt, the worry that Elizabeth was lying to herself.

And she mentally flipped the switch.

She didn’t want to know how little her aunt trusted her. How little she believed her.

“If Jason wants tests, that’s his prerogative.” Elizabeth lifted her chin. “I know what Robin told him.”

“I—” Anna paused. Her eyes darkened. “It was a lie, then?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll deal with Jason on my own. What worries me is Cameron. His father…” Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t know where he is. I doubt if he’d even be interested.”

“Of course I’ll look after him, but we won’t have to worry about that. We’ll find a way to make all of this go away—”

“I didn’t—” Elizabeth closed her eyes. “I can’t be sure of that. And you’re…I’m not sure if this is the right place for Cameron. I just—I don’t have many options. It’s the only way to be sure he’ll still be able to see his brother.”

“If this is about Robin, she would never take what happened out on your son—” Then Anna closed her mouth.

Because they both knew that was a lie.

“However Jason feels about me, I know he’ll be good to Jake.” Elizabeth rose to her feet. “I know you say we’ll solve this. But I can’t—that’s what Nona told my mother. And she was dead within weeks.”

“We didn’t understand the magic as well.” Anna stood. “But I’ve spent so much time studying. I trained Nadine and Robin—I would have trained you if your father had allowed it—”

“I trained myself.” Eventually.

After it had nearly destroyed her life.

“I have to go see Jason. To tell him about Jake.”

“Elizabeth, I know so much more about your magic now.” Anna touched her arm. “You were the first empath in the family in generations—we didn’t know how hard it would be—I should have pushed your father to let me in—”

“Dad wouldn’t have—”

“You only got into all that trouble cause you couldn’t control—”

“Anna—” Elizabeth held up her hands. “I get it. You’re sorry. I’m sorry, too. And yes, of course, we need to find a way to break the curse. I’m sure Nadine wants answers, too. But right now, I need to make sure my boys are safe. That they’ll be cared for.”

Her boys were the only reason she got out of bed in the morning. The only thing that kept her from screaming.

From giving up.

“Of course. Elizabeth—”

“I just wanted you to know I was here. In town. And that…I had the mark. I’ll—I’ll be in touch.”

Now that we’re passed the first week of December, I wanted to give you guys a better sense of where Crimson Glass is going in 2018.

Starting December 31, I’ll start posting Bittersweet. From December 31 to January 7, I’ll be re-posting Chapters 1-8. They haven’t been hugely rewritten, but they’ve been cleaned up and slightly to adjust to better suit the later part of the story. You don’t have to reread, but I would recommend. Re-posting them here at CG will just make it easier for me to re-post them at the other archives.

Then, starting January 8, I’ll be posting two new chapters of Bittersweet a week on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Bittersweet will run through March. After concluding, we’ll be taking the month of April off, and then in May, my hope is that Mad World will be ready. More on that in a second.

On Fridays, I’ll be posting a workshop item. I’m workshopping a few alternate universe ideas: the murder mystery one I started in the fall, the Scottish story, the magic story, and then I’m playing around with a few others.

Regarding Mad World: I’ve actually re-envisioned the story and it’s going to be almost an alternate version of the show set in the summer of 2003. It’ll be divided into three parts: a rewrite of the panic room and the kidnapping as the first book, and then the next two books deal with two more events set — the original Mad World idea moved back to 2003, and then a third one wrapping things up and dealing with the end of the Ric storyline.

There’s no reason to think I won’t be able to make the May 2018 publication date for Mad World. I’m scheduled to finish Bittersweet this week, and then I should be almost finished the first book in MW by the first week in January, and I’ll just plow through books two and three in January, February, and March.

I’m working on Damaged, it’s still a struggle to make storylines fit together and I haven’t given it enough attention. I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s not working for me, and I’m not there yet. I will be, eventually. It’s not the first time I’ve put Damaged on the shelf for awhile, but we’re at two years now and I feel super bad about that. I’m hoping that once I figure out why Season 3 is being annoying, I can plot that and Season 4 at the same time, at which time I plan to conclude the Victor storyline. There’s no thought for a Season 5 at the moment.

So in 2018, you should get about four full-length novels from me as well as various workshop items, short stories, and possibly Damaged. But you will be getting Bittersweet and all three books in Mad World. That’s a promise.

I’ll be back tonight to kick off Workshop Fridays 🙂

December 1, 2017

I’m going to make this quick and sweet because I’m pretty tired and it’s been a long week. It’s December 1, so where are we with Bittersweet?

The end of the semester seemed to sneak up on me suddenly this week and I had two ten page papers back to back, so I haven’t been able to do much writing. I still have about 10 chapters left to write, which I hope to get going on this week. I’m hoping for at least one day when I can just do nothing but write because I know I can knock out a few chapters all at once if I just had the time.

The good news is that I doubled how much I had for Bittersweet, going from 11 chapters to about halfway through Chapter 23. I have the first twenty chapters already sent to Cora, and I’ll be sending the last of it when I finish. Still on track to come back in January.

And to celebrate surviving November, I have a Micro Fiction for the Workshop. Written in 17 minutes without proof reading for typos: Micro Fiction: Tequila Surprises

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the Flash Fiction: Tequila Surprises

Written in 17 minutes.

Her least favorite time of the day was morning.

Specifically, it was the blurry moments that existed in the space between sleep and waking. When she was toasty and warm, the bed a soft pillow of cotton—

It was a moment before Elizabeth Webber realized something as wrong. Very, very wrong.

She was not toasty and warm, tucked into her comfy bed.

The mattress was a flat as a rock, the pillow might as well have not existed—and was that an arm over her waist?

Oh, what fresh hell was this?

She cracked her eyes a sliver and huffed—she was lying on her side away from the mysterious holder of the arm, but she could confirm she was in a crappy motel.

She slid slowly towards the edge of the mattress. If she could just get out of bed, she could find her things, ignore this ever happened, and go back to her boring life without ever looking at who over belonged to that arm.

But life was not on her side as Elizabeth set one foot on the floor and immediately tripped over a heavy shoe of some kind as she tried to extricate the other leg.

“Fucking hell,” she muttered as she flew forward, her arms flailing and her elbow catching the side of the nightstand.

“Elizabeth?”

Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no.

“Oh, what did you do, girl?” she murmured to herself, squeezing her eyes shut. It wasn’t his voice. This wasn’t happening.

She was a good girl. With a safe life. Who lived a beige, bland existence.

She was a good girl.

“Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth opened her eyes, because maybe it was someone else with that voice who knew her, a girl could dream—but nope. Nope, that was Jason Morgan.

Of course.

“Oh. God. Why me?” Elizabeth muttered, putting her head in her hands. “Was a I war criminal in the last life? What did I do—”

She heard sheets rustle as he spoke again, amused. “Hey. It’s not that bad—”

“Not that bad?” Elizabeth struggled to her feet—realized she was stark naked and reached for a corner of the sheet to drag across her—which only left him a corner of the same sheet.

She looked at him for a long moment, taking in that golden smoothness—could a man look so chiseled? Was it even allowed—focus, damn it. This was what happened when you let Lizzie take charge.

Because now it was all coming back to her. Going to Jake’s. Taking tequila shots. Taking a lot of tequila shots. Seeing Jason in a booth, looking alone, sipping a solo beer.

She had taken some tequila to him, feeling sorry for him. And…then…she’d clearly…done something to have this happen.

“Um, things are a bit foggy,” Elizabeth managed. “I don’t—”

“I don’t either,” Jason confessed with a sheepish half smile. “I mostly just remember the tequila.” The amusement slid from his face. “Did I do anything—I don’t—”

“Oh.” Elizabeth shoved her hair out of her face, blinking at him. “Oh, no. Listen.” He seemed genuinely worried he’d taken advantage of her, but it was way more likely to be the other way around. She had….a thing about tequila. Her inhibitions seemed to evaporate and she was almost sure she had…suggested something illegal in a few states.

But how did you tell a guy you’d lusted after him for the better part of a decade and save face?

“Um.” Elizabeth tried to straighten. “I should…I’m gonna get dressed, I think.”

“Okay,” Jason said slowly. “If you—” The smile came back with a hint of wickedness that she had never seen before. The man was sex on a stick, and now she’d never remember it.

Fate was a cruel, cruel bitch.

“I’ll just close my eyes.” She did so, squeezing so hard she was sure she’d have a headache.

She felt him slide off the bed past her, and then some rustling as he gathered his clothing. “I’m going in the bathroom—let me—let me know when you’re done.”

When the door clicked, Elizabeth dressed in lightning speed, shoving her legs into her jeans, tugging the black tank top over her head, and locating her sandals and purse.

And then did the sensible, sane, mature thing.

She fled the room.

Because she’d just slept with her ex-boyfriend’s twin brother after said brother had just eloped with Jason’s fiance, and she was pretty sure you went to hell for things like that.