Updated: Flash Fiction – Hits Different, Part 13
Hope you’re all having a good Wednesday. We’re back to school, and I am exhausted, so this is going to be a short and sweet post. Don’t forget to leave a reply letting me know what you think or leave a thumbs up on the post!
Update Link: Mad World, Book 4.5 – At Christmas Chapter 5
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Well, here we are on the last day of my winter break. Back to work tomorrow. Our BOE gave us an extra day off this year — normally we go back on Jan 2, but we’re off and honestly, it’s really making so much difference.
I wanted to share a little writing quirk I have that comes up in this chapter. There’s a scene with Dante, Lucky, and Cruz bantering over a hockey game. I’ve also referred in a previous chapter to a penguin movie that Carly and AJ took the boys to. These are real media events, lol. Whenever I can, I look up real details about the dates in which my scenes are set to match weather or media. Every time Elizabeth watched a reality show in Mad World, it was a real episode airing on that date. They watch a romcom on Valentine’s Day in Book 4 that was actually on that night in real life. In Bittersweet, Gia and Elizabeth watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and talk about an episode that aired that day.
I think I started doing that with Bittersweet — I was writing the opening chapter, and wanted to describe Jason heading to Elm Street, and I thought — well, what was the weather in upstate New York back then? Thanks to the internet, I can answer that question. I picked Oswego, New York as the location of Port Charles (on Lake Ontario, with decent elevation for the “cliff roads”) and since then, I drive myself nuts with small details. I know way too much about Istanbul Turkey, and the Schloss Sauerthal in Germany (Fool Me Twice spoilers!)
I always try really hard to get those small details right, even if they go pretty unnoticed. I never want to be that reader thinking — why are there cliffs in Jacksonville? (if you know, you know) and hear someone talk about the Bolivian coast (2002, Alcazar story, oh and Bolivia is landlocked) and be thrown out of the story, lol. It can also be traced back to reading a romance novel set in like 1817 and have the characters refer to themselves as the Three Musketeers (a book that wouldn’t be written until 1844). I put the book down and never went back, lol.
Anyway, the hockey game proved a little difficult because I could find the details (Rangers scored three unanswered goals in Periods 1 & 2, and the Lightning came back and tied it in first 3 mins of Period 3 and went on to win 4-3!) I couldn’t locate the time. A Twitter mutual, Steve Holley, located it for me. So there’s still hope on that hellscape 😛
I’m off to finish prepping for returning to work. I’ll see you tomorrow for Flash Fiction!
Update Link: Mad World, Book 4.5: At Christmas, Chapter 4
I think, as always, I was a little ambitious in saying I’d be doing daily updates until the end of my break, lol. I was doing pretty good, but then on Friday, I wrote in my schedule to spend about 25 minutes working with FMT Book 2, and I just got swept back up in that project. I haven’t touched it much since mid October, so I was able to look at it with fresh eyes, and I started working on it, and sometimes, you just got to go with those things.
I feel like I’ve got that under control again, and I’m excited to get into the beta draft of Book 2 so you guys can finally read it!
The plan for the rest of break is to do my best to finish writing At Christmas (I’m halfway through Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 is supposed to be a bit shorter so that shouldn’t take as long), but for right now, Flash Fiction is back to just Wednesdays, though it was fun to update it a bit more this week and get further into the story.
Thank you for spending time with me in 2023 and since the beginning! I hope you have an amazing new year! <3
Update Link: Mad World, At Christmas Chapter 3
Recent Updates: Hits Different Parts 10 & 11 & 12 | At Christmas – Chapter 1 & Chapter 2
Lots of updates since winter break began and right now, I’m scheduled to continue the daily updates. I suck at keeping my Recent Updates page, well, updated. Literally haven’t done it in over a year, lol. I’ll be going through to clean that up and doing a better job of that in 2024, I promise! That being said, after January 3, updates will go back to being mostly Wednesday nights until later this spring when Fool Me Twice Book 2 gets posted.
Flash Fiction: Hits Different – Part 12
I go back to work next Wednesday, so I’ll probably update Flash twice more on Friday & Monday with Mad World Updates scheduled on Thursday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, which would mean updates every day for the next week before going back to weekly updates on Wednesdays. I hope you’re enjoying Mad World and the Flash Fiction 🙂
Update Link: Hits Different – Part 11
In Case You Missed It: Mad World, Book 4.5: At Christmas Chapter 1 | Chapter 2
Hope everyone is having a good holiday week 🙂 I spent a little time today getting ahead of myself for the return to work next week so I can keep my nights free. The real hope is to get far enough ahead on break so that I can start taking the weekends off again, lol. I still spend Sat/Sun morning content prepping and grading. I’d like to eliminate at least one of those days.
See you tomorrow for another update of Flash Fiction at our regularly scheduled time!
Update Link: At Christmas – Chapter 2 | Start with Chapter 1
Feels so strange to be typing the subject line “Mad World” updated, lol. Blast from the past. I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday! As always, in my family, we do the big celebration on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day is spent with in-laws. I always spend it with the cat 😛 Sasha and I relaxed most of the day, binging Criminal Minds.
I probably won’t update this story again until Thursday. As I said, I’m writing this as I go which I haven’t done in YEARS, lol, and I only finished Part 3 today, so I want to get myself a bit more lead time. I’ll do some Flash Fiction updates on Tues/Wed.
Don’t forget if you read the chapter, to give me a quick thumbs up to let me know you were here 🙂 I know not everyone likes to reply, but it’s always good to see the readership numbers. I know there are some readers that wouldn’t mind a proper Book 5 in this universe, but I don’t know if there’s a large demand for it.
The site had a lot of downtime yesterday — that was from my webhost, Dreamhost. It’s been an issue since they did some server changes since March, and I’m just hoping that it doesn’t happen again. You can always find me on Twitter (@crimsonglass) so if the site has any downtime, check my status over there, and you’ll be able to find out if I’m alive.
See you tomorrow!
Update Link: Mad World, Book 4.5: At Christmas
Merry Christmas Eve to those of you who celebrate, and I hope everyone is having a great last week of the year. I always try to do something special for my readers this time of the year, but sometimes my schedule doesn’t allow for it.
I’m always reminded how incredibly lucky I am to be able to have what is basically a second career writing for our small, but fiercely loyal community. So many of the same readers’ names show up every update in the replies, and I’m so insanely aware of how rare it is to still have any kind of readership for a couple that hasn’t been together since December 2008, especially as the show’s ratings continue to fall. I started writing Liason fanfiction when I was freshly out of high school in 2002, recuperating from foot surgery. And almost 22 years later, through college, graduate school, a pandemic, and my first few years as a teacher, you guys have been here, and it’s meant a lot to me to have this place to come to.
In 2017, I started a semi-annual tradition of writing epilogues for some of my favorite stories, revisiting our characters during the holidays. I don’t always manage it, and it’s been gone for a few years, but I’m back this year with a special entry.
I wrote Mad World between 2017-2022 in a series of four books. I started writing in 2017 the story that would ultimately become Book 2, but I quickly realized to tell the story the way I wanted to, I needed to go back and rewrite the panic room, so I added Book 1. And then, well, as you know, the story kept expanding and the universe kept getting bigger until I had maybe half a million words, 115 chapters, and a world that I really loved spending time in.
I always planned to return to it with a few follow short stories (I hinted at Lila’s passing, but it was never written in the book), and I started working on a Christmas story last year. But it never came together because of my schedule at my last district. This year, I took another look at it, and well, here we are.
At Christmas is still in progress! I didn’t finish writing it yet, but I’m confident in my ability to complete it, so you’re getting sort of a mini-flash fiction type series. I have it planned and plotted, and I already went back and rewrote Parts 1 & 2 in some spaces. I’m expecting to write between 36,000 to 40,000 words in about six parts, and be done posting by January 1.
You should have semi-daily updates, except for Wednesday, when I plan to do flash fiction.
Previous Holiday Epilogues
NOTE: As I was linking these, I realized that the plugin I used to power my graphics broke at some point and a lot of character and banner images are broken. I’ll fix them as I come across them.
Update Link: Hits Different – Part 10 | Start at Part 1
I decided none of us should have to wait a whole week to find out what happens after Jason and Elizabeth go on that bike ride (I’m especially curious because I didn’t know they were going to do that until he handed her the helmet!)
Like I said, no idea how often I’m going to update during break. I’m hoping to have more than just Flash updates next week, but we’ll see. Hope you enjoy and don’t forget to tell me what you think! Happy Holidays!
Update Link: Hits Different – Part 9
Look, I remembered this week! Only a day and a half of work left before winter break, and I am ready. My kiddos are driving me nuts, even the ones I like, lol. But tomorrow, I planned a pretty easy day and we have a half day with a special pep rally that takes most of the day on Friday, so at least there’s that. I swear, I’m just going to sleep for the first few days, lol. Hope everyone is having a good week and that you’re ready for the holidays!
I don’t know yet if I’m going to update more often during the break like I usually do. I’m hoping to have something for you guys next week but a few things have to fall into place first. Either way, I’ll see you next Wednesday for more Flash!
