Update: Signs of Life – Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35

Eek! I didn’t mean to miss two days. On Tuesday, I was busting ass to get things done — grocery shopping, ACTUALLY cooking LOL, paying bills, and by the time I got that done — it was almost 6:30 and time to write for NaNoWriMo, and honestly, I’m doing really good at meeting my goals. I prioritized it over posting the chapter. Then on Wednesday, I had a late meeting, had to hit the store again (because I forgot cooking spray, ugh), and the day just got away from me.) So I decided to catch and just post the whole week at once.

On the NaNoWriMo front, I’m keeping pace. I’m not writing a lot every day, but the goal is really just 1667 words a day. Outside of 1 day when I wasn’t feeling well and wrote 624, I usually get between 50-300 words over the goal which keeps me on pace and really helped on that one day. This is also the first year where I’ve gotten this far into the month and wrote every day. These Small Hours is only planned at 30 chapters, and I’ve completed 8 which puts me at 26%. That’s actually really great for only two weeks! That puts me on pace to complete by December 31 with just slow and steady pace.

I know I can write 5-9k a day when I’m focused and have the time, but I struggle with remembering that I don’t have to do that and that it’s actually more beneficial to all of us if I just focus on making this slow, incremental progress and keep writing every day.

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Update Link: Hits Different – Part 3

First, I need to tell you that Becky — as in REBECCA HERBST AKA MY QUEEN — has tagged me on Twitter thanking our Twitter group for sending flowers to her studio which Kim did (and graciously put all our names on the card) after the event last Sunday. This happened last night and I nearly lost my mind. Literally made my whole weekend.

In other news, today is the last day of my break (sad face) but I only have to work for 7.5 school days before ANOTHER four day break because November is the best month of the year. Our Thanksgiving break is just a week away.

I did some light housekeeping last night — finally updating the sidebar to make it a bit more navigable. I kept the widgets that list individual updates for Flash & Signs of Life, but also added links in for the story pages. A friend of mine had trouble finding Signs of Life (the non-Flash version), and I realized it wasn’t actually linked anywhere.  Plus, I updated the header to move the images because they felt like they were clogging things. AND I updated the Alternate History page so that Counting Stars is listed as completed, Signs has a link, and I added a link for the new Flash. (I need to do some more updates, but we’ll get there).

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Update Link: Hits Different – Part 2

Hope everyone is starting their weekend off well 🙂

I always enjoy the first four day weekend of the year, but there’s this one minor irritation in it. My niece’s birthday is Nov 3, and my sister-in-law ALWAYS schedules her birthday party for this weekend — which means family members who are mostly teachers/parents can never schedule any vacations. Like I get why she does it for her own schedule — in NJ, all teachers get the second weekend as a four day weekend to attend the NJEA convention, but we’re not contractually obligated to go. And our second November four day weekend is Thanksgiving. It’s just frustrating to have TWO required family events on both weekends off. Not that I could afford to take a vacation, but honestly? I adore my niece, but I don’t want to deal with kids after spending all week with them. Does that make me a bad person?

Anyway, that’s just me whining because I have to go to that today, and I don’t know anyone who actually enjoys a child’s birthday party once those kids are old enough to invite screaming kids that you’re not related to. At least this year, our winter break doesn’t have us in school on December 23 so that we’re diving RIGHT into Christmas Eve. We’re done on Dec 22 this year.

That being said, I’m making really good progress in getting prepped for the rest of the school year. I have all my content prepped for the month of November, and I’m going to start working on December next week. This really frees up my evenings and I’m mostly in the routine of writing from 7-8 PM every night which is great for when NaNoWriMo ends.  NaNo is going well — I’m at just under 18k which is right where I’m supposed to be at this point. Most days I write to the target which I think is making it all more sustainable. This is the first NaNo event where I’ve written every day so far.

I’m planning to do another Flash update tomorrow but if I don’t post by noon, I changed my mind 😛 Enjoy!

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Update Link: Signs of Life – Chapter 32

I know I said I’d do a double update for Flash Fiction today, but I’m going to shift that to Sunday. I overslept today, and by the time I got up and moving, it was just a little too late to get myself in the right frame of mind. Plus, there’s a few work-related tasks I just need to get done every day, and I got really off track yesterday. I was following the Maya Kowalski trial and the jury came back with a verdict yesterday (such a sad case — there’s a great Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya” if you’re interested) and it ended up going all afternoon. Anyway — I basically took yesterday afternoon off, lol.

I’ll update Signs today, then Flash Fiction tomorrow and on Sunday to get that double update.

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• Update Link: Signs of Life – Chapter 31
• Patreon Digital Shop: Fool Me Twice, Book 2: Ashes to Ashes (Beta Draft)

Finally made it to the first big break of the school year — the four day weekend. I’m actually feeling strangely good about the next few weeks. My lessons plans and content are done, it’s a new marking period so I’m on track with grades — just feels like work has finally calmed down.

I posted last night’s update on Twitter, and was so happy to see how many people were excited for FMT to finally be finished. You’ve all been so patient — it’s been three years this fall since I finished the alpha draft of Book 1. I’m just glad that Book 3 won’t take nearly as long since it already has a first draft. I had honestly wanted to write the next two books back to back, but didn’t actually plan on doing it.

I posted the beta draft in the digital shop for anyone interested in picking up a copy of the beta draft (remember it’s still in edits and will have lots of changes before final!). It’s available for the same price as the Devoted tier, $5.  The final version will still be posted for free late this winter/spring, but anyone who doesn’t want for me to finish polishing it or wants to see early drafts is welcome to enjoy.

Just a reminder that on my break I will be writing double Flash Fiction updates on Friday & Saturday morning.  See you tomorrow for another Signs of Life update!

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• Update Link: Signs of Life – Chapter 30
• Patreon: Fool Me Twice, Book 2 – Beta Draft – Available today for $5 Patreons, and will be in digital shop tomorrow to purchase for same price.

Uh, surprise???

First, let’s start with the basics. Signs of Life is updated — we have a few more weeks of this — it’s scheduled to conclude sometime this month.

Second, so glad so many of you are excited about the new Flash Fiction story. It’s always fun to step out of the usual “let’s rewrite the dumbass ways the show ruined Liason stories” and do something different.

And third — Fool Me Twice, Book 2 has a beta draft??? What? How.

It’s a hybrid of an alpha/beta draft. After I finished the full alpha draft this summer, I knew it needed a lot of work and massive rewrites. I think around 85% of this draft is completely brand-new material. I reused pieces of scenes, but it’s pretty much a new version. But — it’s still a second draft of Book 2, so it qualifies as a beta draft. But I’m actually doing a third draft where I expect a lot of changes before we get to the posting draft. I could have just made it a new alpha draft, but it still feels like a beta to me.

And the reason you’re getting it today is that it’s not the entire vision I had for Book 2. As you know — Book 2 has been a pain in the ass for 3 years, and I’ve reworked it a thousand times. As I worked on this draft, I just had this feeling that it was too long. I took a look at the structure and realized my midpoint actually makes a really great stopping point. So Book 2 has been split in half — how many books are now in this series? Let’s not talk about that just yet, lol.

This actually works great for a few reasons — I’ve already written the first draft of what will now be Book 3 and I feel really good about what I have and what I need to add. That means once Book 2 is published, Book 3 will NOT take four years.

And it also means Book 2 will be here sooner than I thought, which is lovely for all of us. Here’s a brief plan of where I (think) 2023/2024 is going to take us

WRITING

• I’m drafting These Small Hours this month with a goal to finish it by December 31, and then I’m taking a little bit of a break again from drafting because I’ll have THREE projects to edit outside flash fiction.
• I’ll come back to drafting for Camp NaNoWriMo in April and focus on finishing what is now Fool Me Twice, Book 3.
• If I survive that, lol, next summer I’ll probably work on either Malice or For the Broken Girl, Book 2.

EDITING

• Fool Me Twice, Book 2 is obviously the focus. I’ll reread this month (November), then edit in December & January. I’ll edit the posting draft in February.
• Watch Me Burn will be the next focus. I’ll start editing it in March with an eye to finishing a full beta/posting edit by the end of May/end of school year in June.
• These Small Hours will then be the next target and will be edited next summer.
• Fool Me Twice, Book 3 will be edited next fall.

POSTING

• Fool Me Twice, Book 2 has a target release date of March 2024. It could be sooner, but it won’t be later than April 2024 unless disaster happens.
• Watch Me Burn will be posted in the summer or whenever I finish posting FMT Book 2.
• These Small Hours will be posted next fall.
• Fool Me Twice, Book 3 next winter.

Ironically, with splitting FMT after I finished the first round of edits, I put myself into a position to be where I’ve always wanted to be — writing a year out from a planned release with content rolling out regularly. Plus, we’ll still be doing regular Flash Fiction.

I hope you guys are excited for this! See you tomorrow for another Signs of Life update!

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Update: Hits Different – Part 1

Feels like absolute ages since I started a new Flash Fiction story. I don’t know how long this one will be yet, so we’ll just see where the story takes us.  I’ll see you on Tuesday for more Signs of Life!

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Update Link: Signs of Life – Chapter 29

Finally made it to Friday! Here’s the update I promised since I missed Tuesday and Wednesday. Only the first scene is from the flash fiction. The rest is new 🙂

I’m up to 3500 words for NaNoWriMo, adding on to the 8200 I had already written. Chapters 1-3 are now done, so making good progress. I posted a Tracker/Vlog for anyone who wants to follow along. At Patreon, the Stalker tier is getting regular updates – when I finish a chapter, I post, so feel free to check that out. ‘

See you tomorrow with the first part of the new flash fiction series!

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Update: Signs of Life – Chapter 28

Meep! I didn’t mean to miss updates again this week. I got distracted on Halloween, and then yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment and then it was NaNoWriMo, so I was really focused on getting started there. I’ll update again tomorrow to make up for it 🙂

I hope everyone is having a good week. Things are cautiously good here. I left my brace off today because it didn’t fit well on my sweater and my arm isn’t really that sore which is a great sign. I’m going to wear it tomorrow and a little more next week though just to be on the safe side.

We had some tragic news in the soap world — another devastating loss. Tyler Christopher, who originated Nikolas in 1996 and played him the longest (and the best IMO) passed away. He was only 50. Coming only six weeks after losing Billy Miller, I can’t imagine what the cast is going through when you think that Sonya Eddy and Jacklyn Zeman have also passed within the last calendar year. Just tragic. I knew Tyler was dealing with addiction, but I wasn’t aware he was also suffering from bipolar disorder. And having that news only a few days after Matthew Perry on Saturday night — just a really rough week for fans of a certain age.

On a somewhat brighter note, I’m actually going to see Becky on Sunday! She’s coming to the East Coast for the first time in AGES, and it’s the first time since 2006 that she’s come to NJ at the same time I could afford to go. I bought my tickets ages ago, so I’m really excited. You guys know what the character of Elizabeth means to me and it’s so amazing to think I get to see my favorite actress in person. Plus, a lot of Twitter mutuals are going, so I always love to hang out with people who love the character as much as I do.

I’ll see you guys tomorrow for another update!

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Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Epilogue

As promised — A short epilogue that I timed myself with today. Wrote it in about 27 minutes, though I set the timer for 25. I wasn’t really sure how long it should be, and I kept writing and cutting back, but I feel really good about what I included and where I left it, considering where this story started over a year ago.

Thanks so much for taking this ride with me. I’ll see you on Tuesday.

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