Category Archives: Site News

September 3, 2015

So you might have noticed I didn’t post The Best Thing this week and those of you who read Damaged know that last week’s episode was supremely delayed and that I haven’t put up any teasers for this coming week.

I don’t want to bore you with any of the details except to say I have had a bit of a setback. I was planning to go back to school this year and get my teaching license, but funding fell through at the last minute. (And like seriously, the very last minute. I was due to start classes Tuesday and Friday was kind of the death knell for the whole project.)

It’s actually turning into a major setback and I have to rethink my whole timeline for getting my certificate. There’s also been some turmoil in my family. An in-law lost lost a member of the family, and I’ve been picking up extra baby-sitting shifts for my youngest niece, while baby-sitting an extra ton while my sister starts her classes on schedule (oh, the irony).

Anyway. This is all to say that the last week and a half have basically been a bust for writing. I’ve gotten next to nothing done, and what is done I mostly hate and feel like trashing. This weekend is going to be a bust for any writing — I’m baby-sitting again, shopping for dresses for the wedding, and Labor Day bbq. I’m starting work on Tuesday as scheduled — ugh. It’s just a whole lot of nonsense. I’m tired of it, but you know, life saps creativity from time to time.

I’ll post some scenes from Bittersweet that I’ve trashed — I’ve written several opening scenes and only just found the one I liked, but I won’t be able to use the others. So I’ll post them at some point this weekend as a peace offering.

I’ll post any further updates on my writing on Facebook/Twitter so as not to annoy you guys further here.

August 26, 2015

So first things first: Chapter 28 of The Best Thing has been posted. It’s the first chapter in Part Four of the story, and it’s taking us closer to the end. I’m looking forward to putting this one in the done column.

Second, I’ve been toying with taking a small hiatus when classes begin next week. I think I’ve mentioned how insane my schedule is going to be when I’m in school, then I go back to work the week after, I’m going bridesmaid dress shopping because I’m maid of honor, I have nieces and a nephew to help with because my sister is also starting classes (we’re going to get our teaching license and need some education classes before we can student teach) — and sometimes I might want to just stare at the ceiling.

So I want to give myself a chance to get into that routine and find space for writing without worrying I’ll run out of chapters of The Best Thing or miss a deadline.

So The Best Thing is on hiatus for about two weeks. Damaged will only be one week, because I can finish next week’s episode before I start classes and then we’ll just be gone on September 10.

Damaged is on schedule to be posted this Thursday at 8 PM EST. I posted some preview dialogue snippets over at Damaged and updated the cast list with some guest appearances, so check it out.

Thanks guys!

August 22, 2015

So it’s been about six or seven weeks since the last update. I wanted to give you guys some concept of how we’re going to go forward into the fall since I’ll be juggling five classes and a part-time work schedule (and baby-sitting nieces and nephews!)

Site Features

1. I want to add a new sort feature that will give better ideas on length. If you want a full-length novel (more than 50,000 words), you’ll be able to find that. If you want something shorter, you can go to novellas, which will range from 15,000 to 50,000 words. Everything else will be in that short story, ficlet range where it already exists.

I had contemplated reoganizing the site and moving stories around to reflect this change. For example, a story like Spinning On An Axis which has always been located in the Alternate History section would move to the novellas area, because it’s about 32,000 words long. But instead, I’ll just tag it with the word “novella” the way I would tag it with a character or couple featured, so if you wanted something that was mid-sized, you could get it.

Adding this feature may seem like a waste of time, but sometimes the chapter length doesn’t give you an accurate idea of how long something is. For example, Spinning is 15 chapters long. Shadows is only three parts, but it’s 20,000 words. You’ll have a better idea of what you’re getting yourself into.

2. On the subject of adding more usefulness to the sort features, I want to start working on adding summaries to the Sort By Title page. I think that this is probably the most visited page in that section, and while I do list where the story is located, it still doesn’t give you enough information to decide whether you want to read it. This is going to be kind of time-consuming, so I’ll be working on it on and off in a separate file. There are around 100 stories listed on the site at the moment.

3. I need to be better with ebook releases. I still haven’t added All We Are, even though the ebook for that is finished. It needs to be converted into two other formats. But I’ve been meaning to set aside one day a month to do ebooks so I can do a new release every month. I hope to fix that going forward, but we’ll see.

Those are the major site changes I’m planning. They go along with the normal stuff — I’m working on a fall layout, but it’s taking longer than I expected since I’m rewriting the WordPress theme code to better reflect everything I’ve learned.

Story Status

The Best Thing – So I’ve finished writing through Chapter 30. I’ve planned and storyboarded through Chapter 35, which with the addition of an epilogue, will complete the story. I’ve tentatively scheduled myself to finish the last five chapters this weekend and part of next week, but definitely by September 1. I’ll continue posting once week to give me a finish date (projected) of October 10.

Damaged – I have done a ton of work on this story this last week and have planned the major storylines through the end of Season 2 and Season 3, with some tentative work on Season 4. At the moment, there’s no plans to go beyond Season 4. I may do a wrap up Season 5 depending on how things unfold as I continue writing.

If everything continues to go to plan, Season 2 will finish on October 8. I’m not positive about when Season 3 will premiere. I took a month off between seasons last time, but it wasn’t enough time, to be honest. I’m thinking a premiere date of December 1 would be the best bet, but it might move up depending on how things move along.

For example, I’ll be finishing The Best Thing by September 1, so while I’ll be working on the next story, I might take the opportunity to write two episodes of Damaged a week. If I can finish writing the season sooner than October 8, I’d feel more comfortable bringing it back in early November.

I can’t make any promises since I don’t know how heavy my schedule will be.

Bittersweet – Because I’ve been concentrating on completing The Best Thing by September 1 and Damaged Season 2 by September 15, I’ve pushed Bittersweet to the back burner a bit. It’s the still the next story I’m working on, but I’m glad I decided not to start posting it this week. I’ms still looking at a mid-September, early October launch. I should know by the time I finish writing The Best Thing.

Other Stories

Up Next: Burn in Heaven, Mad World, and Feels Like Home are all on the roster to be written next. I know I’ve been saying this for a year, haha, but as I remarked before, I’ve been burnt out on writing Liason 2004-08 just due to the elements that have to be dealt with. I have no problem writing Sam and Courtney, I’m just tired of writing the baggage, and all three of these stories incorporate it to a certain extent. So I’ll be taing a break to work on Bittersweet, then coming back to these three projects.

These Small Hours – This story is still on my radar, make no mistakes about it. I’m eager to get back into it, but the outline is coming out right because it’s more ensemble than I had anticipated in the initial outlines. It was originally going to be straight Johnny and Nadine with Jason and Elizabeth as supporting characters, but I underestimated how much I would have to deal with Sonny and Kate, and when you deal with them, you have to deal with Jason and Elizabeth more.

So I’m trying to shift it so that it’s written more like The Best Thing, only in reverse with Jason and Elizabeth as the semi-main characters but it being Johnny and Nadine’s story. TBT has Jason and Elizabeth as the main characters with Sonny/Carly and Nikolas/Emily, with some Steven thrown in for good measure. Like Sonny and Carly, the Liason subplot will be fully fleshed out, but won’t steal the focus. That’s if I can make the outline behave.

Counting Stars – I’ve been tempted to sit down and just write this story because it’ll be less than a full novella. It’s kind of like All We Are with an even more narrow focus and less twists and turns. I could probably write it in about a week if I had no other distracts, and doing that and posting it would give me more space to work on more intensive story.

Any other stories not mentioned remain on the drawing board. 🙂

August 20, 2015

I’m going to be short and sweet today since I’m running short on time. I’ve added Chapter 27 to The Best Thing.  I’ll be posting Damaged 2.05 tonight at 8 PM EST so look for the email in your inbox if you’ve subscribed to updates.

August 14, 2015

Damaged was updated last night — I’m moving updates of that to Thursdays at 8 PM EST. This week’s episode was split into two parts (each about the average length of a suuuper long The Best Thing chapter — so like 15 pages.) Head over there to read it. I’ll be back next Wednesday with more updates.

August 12, 2015

So The Best Thing has been updated with Chapter Twenty-Six. It hasn’t been beta read, but I’ve using a text to speech program on my computer to read Damaged‘s dialogue to me (more on that on Friday), so I ran it through there and found a bunch of typos and a couple of sentences to fix. I’ll make any other changes when I hear from Cora 🙂

I posted a short story last night, A Line in the Sand, if you missed it. I haven’t had a moment to add it throughout the rest of the site, I hope to get it done today buuuut I’m going to go finish Damaged now and I think that’s a better priority, yes?

And I created a new survey. Not about the site, which though I’m sure you guys found boring — I think it helped clean up the site a lot and offer a few more features I think helped streamline the CG experience. 😛 This one is about the stories here at CG. What do you like to read? What you would like to read more about? Etc.

I created it because while I write for me, I want to write for you guys, too. So if you have a minute, it’s short — only a few questions.

August 11, 2015

So, I wrote a bunch of dialogue yesterday intending to flesh it out into an actual short story, and then I decided not to. But I liked the dialogue, so I edited it and posted it like a dialogue fic from The Adventures of Lucky and Lizzie.

I keep trying to avoid writing my own version of the Jake is Jason reveal, but ugh, I might if I could develop a decent enough reason for Nikolas to want ELQ and be willing to kill for it. I hate myself sometimes.

I haven’t linked this on other pages (short stories, title list, etc.) — I’ll get to that tomorrow.

A Line in the Sand

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the Fanfiction 101

If you’re a poster at Road to Nowhere and in the Fanfic forum, you know there’s been some kerfuffle with several authors deciding they won’t post there any longer due to bullying on the part of some of their readers.

I’m a different type of author, I’m aware of that. I don’t mind negative feedback (to a point) because it helps me grow and look at my stories differently. Some authors don’t want that, and that’s their prerogative. I only speak for me.

There’s a difference between having a negative reaction to a plot or a character and being a bully. I have never felt bullied or harassed in any way, and especially not in the last few years as I returned to writing and have built a rather amazing base group of readers, but let me clarify my point so that my POV at RTN is the same here as it is there.

When I wrote A Few Words last year, we all know the angst was off the wall. If you read some of my original plot sketches, you know I intended a great deal more of it. I scaled it back for a few reasons.

1. My outlines are just that — outlines. I try to visualize the whole story so I can lay the foundations for themes  foreshadow future events. I am never married to them, which is why I often post them so you guys can see how I might deviate.

For example, The Best Thing was pretty close to the outline right up until about Chapter 15. And while I kept some elements (the engagement party, the warehouse fire), the characters themselves are completely different from I had visualized. I never intended to write Sonny’s POV to the point where my heart breaks for the character. I intended Carly to the antagonist (but not the villain), but some of the material I’ve written for future chapters twists how I picture her.

When you actually sit down to write, the outlines are just a guide. Writing takes you places that you don’t expect, and you can’t force yourself into a corner in order to write it. I was doing that with All We Are a few months ago, and as soon as I eliminated a confrontation with Lucky and shifted him to non-confrontational, I finished the story in about two days.

2.  I do read and respond to your feedback. In A Few Words, I took a ton of heat for the angst level and for Elizabeth and Jason individually. I felt very strongly that their actions were in character, but I can see now I should have done more to put Jason’s POV earlier in the story, and I probably would have changed a few other things. But I stand by the majority of my story. The mistake I made was how I wrote it and communicated their motives. I attempted to clear it up and make it better for the second half of the story.

You guys were frustrated by their inaction, by their refusal to talk, and you wanted to punch me for the angst. Some readers thought the Liz/Carly fest was too much. And not one person was wrong. You guys were fantastic and I loved knowing how much you were responding to it, because you kept reading and hoping for better. I felt like we were all emotionally engaged and I hope the payout was worth it.

So I go into that detail to explain why if you read some of the feedback at Fanfiction.net (where people are brutally honest often), it doesn’t faze me. Someone responded to the first episode of Damaged at FF.net that they don’t plan to read it because Jason never would have rejected Jake if he were still alive. They didn’t bother to continue reading to learn why I had that plot detail in the introduction section. (Because of course, Jason wasn’t Jason, he was the missing twin brother.)

And I respect their decision not to read it, though I wish they’d give it one more episode 😉 You guys control your interactions with the stories you read. We put it there, you read it. And if you don’t like it, don’t read it.

But for me, in particular, I love all of my feedback. I love the people who just respond to tell me that they loved it. I like the guys who just tell me that this character was great, but ugh, this one is annoying. And I love those of you who give me several paragraphs to deal with.

I take fanfiction seriously. Because it’s what I write. I love to tell stories, but I love to tell stories in this world. I don’t write regular novels (every time I try, I always end up variations of the same characters I write for GH), but I do write academic nonfiction. So this is my chance to tell stories. So I approach my stories in a different way than some authors. You can ask my beta Cora, but you’ve seen the detail in my plot sketches. I plot and write dialogue months, even years before I ever write the scene. I think about the twists and turns in my sleep. I spend hours at my computer to write these stories.

I do it for me, there’s no mistake in that. But I do it more for you guys. Even those of you who don’t reply, I see the stats. And I know how often a post gets clicked.  I do it because you guys make it worth my while and make me think I’m not crazy for putting so much effort and love into fanfiction.

So respond however you like or don’t respond at all. You never have to worry if I’ll be annoyed or feel harassed. I have a supremely thick skin and I know the community we’ve built here at  CG is a safe one 😛

August 8, 2015

allweareNot much to see here. Except I posted the last chapter of All We Are.

Wait, what? I thought…Monday…what? 😛

I get bored.

So, yeah. I posted Chapter 17 and the Epilogue for All We Are. Just here at the site. I’ll post on the message boards on Monday, as scheduled, and I’ll also add the bonus material – original plot sketches, changes, etc.–then as well.

I do this sometimes because I want to encourage people to keep up with the site. You never know when I’ll post updates here much earlier than I get around to doing so on the message boards. I love the boards and Fanfiction.net and whatnot, but I’ve put my heart and soul and a ton of free time in this site, so the more I can encourage people to visit here.

So All We Are is finished. It’s been moved to the Completed Alternate History page, and the little image in the sidebar has been shifted. I want to thank you guys for reading this. I know I drove you all crazy with it, but, that was kind of the point. I tried some more interesting things with it (I think some of my Liason stuff was the best I’ve done, I love Chapters 5 and 6 in particular).

What else happend at CG this week? Well, The Best Thing, Chapter 25 was posted on Wednesday. And Friday, I damagedposted the delayed Episode 03, “Don’t Ask Me Why” at Damaged’s website.

Oh, and ha, surprise! I posted an article at Damaged where I interview myself about Season 2 and preview what’s to come over the next nine episodes and what I have planned long term.

Maybe there’s a reader who wants to take my place as interviewer for Season 3. Something to think about 😛

That’s enough for now. I’ll see you guys on Monday!

August 3, 2015

allweareSo, first things first: I’ve updated All We Are with Chapter Sixteen. Next week, we say goodbye to this story as I’ll be posting Chapter 17 and an epilogue, as well as the full ebook that went up for the giveaway winners and Patreon supporters this weekend.

I haven’t worked on All We Are now for a month (other than some editing issues) and I already miss it. It was a fun story and it worked out almost as I had intended. I’ll be posting some extra bonus material for that story next week as well — the original plot sketches, some of the ideas I tossed in favor of the final version. There’s already a handful of deleted scenes over at the Patreon site.

Secondly, as I mentioned in passing, I’ve decided to push Bittersweet back a bit. I’m going back to work in September, but I’ll be going back to school as well. I have my bachelor’s and master degrees in History, but I need to bittersweetmy teaching certificate — I’m taking a few years off before pursuing my Ph.D–so I’ll be going back for education classes. I’m taking five classes in addition to working three days a week. Not to mention my best friend is getting married in June, and I’m serving as maid of honor, so there’s stuff going on there. I have a full load of nieces and nephews–and then you know, sometimes I might want to just stare at the ceiling, haha.

So my writing time is going to shrink–I’m just being realistic about that. I don’t want to get into a position where I’m promising you guys updates that don’t happen.

I’m also going to shift into the update schedule I intend to utilize in the fall–the one I experimented with last spring. I’ll be scheduling updates on the weekend, and posting one round-up post a week to catch everything. Which means if you read my work on message boards or other sites than CG, you’ll get your updates on the weekend in the fall.

So, I’ll be finishing All We Are next Monday. Fiction Graveyard will move back to Mondays the following week, with The Best Thing on Wednesdays, and Damaged on Fridays. If I can get enough of TBT done, I’ll be bumping that up to twice a week.

I plan to finish writing TBT and Damaged Season 2 by the end of August, so then I’ll be writing Bittersweet and will probably post it sometime in late September, but I’m hoping no later than October. I’ll keep you guys posted. Bittersweet‘s schedule really depends on how well things go with The Best Thing and Damaged Season 2 this month.