So I set up the Fiction Graveyard page. All the stories are linked, only some of the them have content on the story pages. I’ll be added stuff slowly , particularly when it comes to Poisonous Dreams #1 (Yeah, I forgot the version I rewrote this year was actually the second one, ha) because that’s thirteen chapters, Aurora Dawning‘s first version is ten chapters and the original Shadows was at least thirteen, I think.

I also discovered one of my completed alternate universes never made it here — A Matter of Principles where Elizabeth is a cop married to alleged crime enforcer Jason Morgan. I’m not entirely fond of it, but it should still be here. I’ll add it at some point.

So in addition to the pretty Fiction Graveyard (located in the Readers section) page, two abandoned stories are posted:

– Bring Me to Life, of which there is only an abandoned prologue so it’s posted in its entirety such as it is.
– Silent Reverie, Prologue and Chapter One. There are two more chapters I’ll post tomorrow.

Plans for the rest of the weekend mostly include filling out some of the story pages to get ready to add chapters which will make life easier, working on the novella ebook collection, and doing some more writing.

0

Remember, remember the fifth of November 😛 I miss living in England so much, even though I’m so happy to be home. My third niece was born on Monday — Mackenzie Margaret, born 2:43 PM, 8 lb 12 oz. Her poor mama 😛 Haha. I love being an aunt. You get to enjoy all the fun stuff and get enough of a taste of parenthood while baby sitting to know that, dude, not in your lifetime.

First things first, The Best Thing Chapter Nine was added today. I have Chapter 10 done, I just didn’t send it to Cora yet because I wanted to send Chapter 11 with it, and I still have two scenes left. I haven’t had a moment to really sit down and do those two–I’ve been sick and it took me a while to really bounce back from October, which I spent mostly hacking up my lungs. My plan is to finish drying my hair, finish my laundry and then sit in Barnes and Noble for as long as it takes to do the rest of Chapter 11 and today’s NaNoWriMo entry.

Which brings me to my next point. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) started on Saturday. I’m going to do it this year, mostly because I usually had a shitty excuse before (busy with school, etc) but I got nothing going on this time.  The objective is to write 50,000 words in a month, I’m at just under 6000, which is about where you want to be. I’m actually doing a version of Tangle, haha, taking the disapearance of a mother as my starting point. I tell this to you because  the more you tell people, the more likely you are to finish it. So…be prepared for this site to be like my writing blog, haha.

Third, Damaged. I’m working on a format change that will allow me to update it more often and more easily. I’m just in the beginning stages, but will have more for you on that.

Next, my ebook project. It slowled down a bit while I hacked up my lung and I have to reset the release dates, but I’ll get them done eventually.

And lastly, the Fiction Graveyard stories are coming soon. I’m putting them together, and going to post them one at a time so it’ll be regular updates.  So…that’s where we are.

0

You aren’t seeing things 😛  I added Chapter Eight to The Best Thing today, woot! I’m halfway through the last chapter I wanted to finish for my buffer, but I knew I’d be finished that today or tomororw. My schedule for the next week looks dicey, so I didn’t want to wait any longer to post, because…you guys have waited long enough 🙂 Thank you for sticking around. I hope these next few chapters will be worth it.

I’ve been sick as a dog for most of October, a cold I just couldn’t throw off. Even though I’m feeling much better, those last residuals are still hanging around. That being said, since I plan to post chapters weekly, I built in a good recovery time so I am so glad I waited so now there will be no interruptions.

Hope you enjoy it!

0

So first, I’ve been hard at work at The Best Thing. I wanted finish up to Chapter 12 before I resumed posting once a week. I’ve finished Chapters 8 and 9, as well as Chapter 12. I’m about halfway through Chapter 10, and plan to finish Chapter 11 by the end of the week. So all things considered, I could resume posting as early as next week. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Second, I’m working on editing a collection of my novellas and short stories (specifically the song fiction) into an ebook. (With an eye towards the ficlets and shorter stories in another one. The preliminary list I have so far for this follows:

Novellas
A Second Chance
Rest in Pieces
Shadows
Come Clean
Noel
No Angel
First Do No Harm
What Would Happen
Good Intentions

Short Stories
Daughter to Father
Breathe
Cry Ophelia
Please Remember
Where Can We Go From Here
I Surrender
I’ll Believe It’s Not My Fault
Lizzie Does Thanksgiving

As you can see, I hope to have that ready by next Tuesday, but I may push it back a week. I’m certainly pushing back I Shall Believe, since I’m not sure what made think I could get it edited in a week. Haha, I’ll update the release date schedule when I get a chance.

0

I finished editing the ebook version of Daughters, and have uploaded it in .epub and .mobi format. I’ve tested both thoroughly on my own software, but please let me know if they don’t work for anyone else. I hope to have something new in ebook a few times a month.

Working on The Best Thing, and in my head, should return before Thanksgiving.

0

I remember once I read a quote from Nora Roberts, who writes like some people breathe (that is…constantly) that she doesn’t get writer’s block. Writing is her job and who ever heard of plumbers getting plumber’s block. There’s something to this, but hell if I’ve ever been able to adopt this mentality. I keep trying.

The Best Thing is annoying me, so I’m going to write it out of order — pick out some of the key scenes, some of the more crucial stuff to get my juices going. Forcing myself to write some of this early foundation stuff is making my head hurt and I think it’s blocking me. I did this for A Few Words Too Many which stalled at some points, but I was smarter about posting that so you guys never noticed.

So as I work on that, here’s some relevant updating news.

– Some friends and I used to post a lot on a site called Liason Underground. With the resurgence of Jason in the guise of Billy Miller, we decided to restart the board. For the moment, it’s small and just general discussion and friends getting caught up. But we’re a friendly bunch and would not mind hearing from other fans. Here’s the new link: Liason Underground.

– Damaged is…on permanent hiatus. I have to post on that site to reflect that change. It’s just…not in my head anymore the way it was when I started, but I have a ton of ideas still for it, I just…have to step back and stop forcing it.

– Here’s the fun part of the post: Since I haven’t posted anything new in nearly three months for the most part, I feel ridiculously guilty about it. If you’ve visited the site much, you know that I’ve been on a mission to recover stories that were once lost to me in various computer crashes and…board bannings (ha, does The Canvas still exist?) Anyway.  I have portions of stories that were never finished and are unlikely to be continued. If people would like, I could  repost those pieces from the stories listed in the Fiction Graveyard so at least there’s something to read. I’ve posted a poll.

[socialpoll id=”2226726″]

– I started to repost Daughters at Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net. Beginning tomorrow, I will continue that process.

– If you have registered for this site and did not receive an activation code or password to start your account, please reply to to this message so I can sort it out. We did a bunch of this over the summer, but I haven’t gone through it since.

I assure you, my mind is usually on my stories, I’ve just been blocked in my brain. I am doing different things to break through.

0

So I’m still not ready to return to regular posting, but as a sign of good faith, a sign that I have not abandoned my writing, I’m posting a pretty crucial scene from the next chapter of The Best Thing. I was settling into a regular writing schedule when I caught a nasty cold that sidelined me of the marjority of the week.  I’ve been having some issues writing, and I think it’s because I’ve been staying particularly married to the scene outline I had planned in the beginning. The pace feels wrong, even sluggish, so I’m revisiting the way I’ve set up the next few chapters to see if I can fix that. I’ll keep you posted, but until then, here’s your preview for Chapter Eight.

0

I finished my dissertation this morning — the last of the editing, put the finishing touches on my bibliography. All that’s left is administrative — getting it bound and delivered to UCL on time and submitting it electronically.  So my life is my own again.

Other than finishing my resume and signing up for substitute teaching, I genuinely have free time. For the first time in six years, there’s no required reading, translations or papers to deal with.

It’s going to take me some time to really accept this, ha, but here are my priorities:

1. The Best Thing. I want to write about seven or eight chapters before I start posting again. Don’t worry — usually once I start getting back into a story, I usually can knock out one or two chapters a day. It’s just a matter of getting lost back in the story.  I’ll keep you guys updated.

2. Damaged. I’m keeping this one on hiatus as I want to do some plotting work and get some episodes written a head of time to offer me a buffer zone, which I did not do when I started it last spring, even though, ha, I know it’s how the world works.

Anything other than the above will be icing on the cake, but I have my eye on the HMD prequels, particularly Johnny/Nadine since I already started it and the rewrite of Tangle, Feels Like Home. Will keep you guys updated as to progress, but dude…freedom. No more dissertation!!

0

So I turned my first draft of my dissertation to my professor earlier this week and won’t hear anything about it until this weekend. I’m going to use this downtime to get back into my writing life. I’m not making any promises as these next two weeks are going be difficult — I’ll be packing up my life in London and heading back to New Jersey, and then settling back into adult life there. That being said, my life is no longer consumed with my dissertation, yay! All that’s left is revisions and edits.

I’m posting a cookie to a story I’m probably not going to write: Pictures of You.

Let’s hope this is the beginning of my writing flow 🙂

0

So you guys know I live in London right now, going to graduate school to get my Masters degree.  I leave here August 30, hopefully to return home to substitute in high school for a few months before getting hired to teach in a community college. In order for these things to happen, I have to get my Masters degree, which means I have to do the absolute best I can on my dissertation.

Right now, no matter what I seem to do, that saps all my creative energy. I just…don’t have the time to write or even the inspiration and I don’t want to churn out crap. The last few scenes I finished for Damaged were forced and I just…don’t want to do that to myself, much less the people who care enough to read it.

So, unsurprisingly, I’m just not making any promises. Once my academic life is done and my dissertation is turned in (September 14, 2014), I can turn my attention back to things that make me happy.

Just…bear with me.

In other news, I have added Chapter 7 to the The Best Thing, completing Part One (the shortest section of the story, ha), updated The Best Thing Soundtrack, Volume 2, and added the new featured stories as voted on by you guys.

So in the lieu of new updates, feel free to browse the site. If you haven’t read or commented before, please do so now. I hope you guys will still be around when my brain comes back.

0