Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 45

It’s amazing the difference 24 hours, tons of ice packs, half a bottle of ibuprofen and two doses of medication can make. Plus a full night’s sleep. Light years better, though still a bit tired and sore. I can actually focus now!

I hope you guys enjoyed the first two chapters of FMT. I really love this draft, and I’m excited to get back to writing it this afternoon, hopefully getting a few chapters done. And thanks for the response to Signs of Life! Honestly, giving that story a full revision process and not just cleaning it up was the best decision I could have made and will definitely be a consideration going forward with the Flash Fiction series.

Starting tomorrow, all weekend Flash Fiction updates are going to move forward an hour — I’ll start writing at 11 and posting at noon. It gives me a bit more time in the morning and I think it’ll work a bit better.

I hope you guys enjoy today’s update, see you tomorrow!

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Link: Fool Me Twice – Preview Chapters

Why Flash Fiction Is Delayed

Hey! I was planning a trio of daily updates for Flash Fiction beginning today and ending on Sunday. But then – ugh. Because I switched districts, I lost my health insurance for two months, and I wasn’t able to get a refill on the meds I take for my TMJ or my migraine medicine. I ran out a few weeks ago, and was mostly managing because at home, I can control the triggers – you know, keeping rooms dark and cool, not a lot of stress. But back to work means less control. The bright overhead lights always trigger migraines and I had a lot of professional development this week where I had no choice in the lighting (I NEVER use those lights in my classroom). And always terrible seating which messes with my neck – ugh. Just generally miserable.

Anyway, my body has a way of managing just long enough to get to the weekend — that survival mode kicking in on schedule. I guess it gave up last night since I have the next four days off. My neck was so sore I wanted to cut it off, my jaw was sore, I had a migraine — just generally miserable.

BUT today is September 1 and my health insurance is back in effect! I already called in refills on the meds. I’ll have the TMJ ones tonight, so relief will come soon. Migraines have to be ordered.

The plan is to shift to tomorrow and update through Monday, but I wanted to give you guys something today just in case I have another night like tonight and I have to cancel tomorrow.

Preview Chapters & Patreon Perks

I posted the two chapters in the FMT Section of the Free Digital Shop on Patreon. FMT Book 2 is going to have split storylines — most chapters will take place in Port Charles with Book 1’s cast, but we’re also following the more Cassadine focused crew that I previewed in the flashbacks in Book 1 — Valentin is in Istanbul, and Lucky and Luke went to track him down on behalf of Jason and Drew and the WSB. So we’re following their story and what secrets they’re keeping.  That’s the first chapter of the book — setting up that storyline. The second chapter is more traditional with Jason/Elizabeth, Drew/Sam, etc.

In other news, I posted the August update for the Adored tier ($7 and above) and it was so much bigger than I was expecting! I compiled the July update, and it was only 54 pages and about 32k. Respectful for six days of writing. But August — I was nervous. I’ve been struggling with writing since August 21, so I figured three weeks wouldn’t have that same rate — except I still managed to produce 91k which is, uh, pretty damn good, lol. I’m halfway through the second draft, and really hoping to get back into daily writing once I get the new school schedule settled. As always, I appreciate everyone who supports me on Patreon. You make it possible for me to spend so much time writing in the summer because I can pay my property taxes without working as a tutor which is why I was able to write 122k in 28 days (lord, no wonder my brain hurts, lol).

Anyway, enjoy the preview chapters and let me know what you think! I’m really interested in your reactions to the Istanbul storylines!

See you tomorrow (fingers crossed!)

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Update Link: Signs of Life – Chapter 9

The first new chapter since February! All of the scenes in this chapter were originally part of the flash fiction series, though it’s been edited for consistency.  I’m going to fix the design issues on the site this weekend, but life has been a little crazy the last few days!

First week at work has been, uh, interesting. I met my World Languages department chair on Monday, and it really feels like she mostly forgot they were adding French. It’s been a stressful, busy week though I did manage to write half a chapter on Tuesday.  It’s a little frustrating — there wasn’t a lot of money left in the budget for me, and I wasn’t able to spend anything on classroom decor, so my walls (which were damaged from previous posters and not repaired) look like a beige prison, ugh.

Today’s my last day of staff development, and then I have four days off before kids come in on Tuesday. I’ll see you guys tomorrow for a Flash Fiction update!

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Update Link: Signs of Life Home | Chapters 1-8

Hello and welcome to the first update for Signs of Life since last February! I took a break to properly edit and revise the story, adding around 35k in additional material, including some really great Liason scenes I’m really proud of.  Today, I reposted Chapters 1-8. There’s nothing new in these chapters, but I found a few extra typos and made some small edits to tighten and improve the material. The first new chapter posts on Thursday. I’ll do my best to mark which chapters have brand-new scenes.

The site itself is mostly ready, but it’s still bare bones. I ran out of time to finish it off, lol, but it should be done this weekend. There’s a few small design issues that are driving me crazy — I used a slightly different design, and it’s been a way since I played with the style sheet in my story theme. I don’t know why I thought this would be a good time, lol.

Anyway, check out the chapters and refresh yourself 🙂 See you on Thursday!

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Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 44

Well, a day late is better than skipping the update altogether, I guess. I suppose I’m just enjoying my last real weekend of summer vacation. I didn’t get to meet with my department chair last week, so I didn’t get the final word on what curriculum they’re going to use (which REALLY makes me hope they didn’t pick one, and I can just get them to use the program I’ve been using for two years, lol). But I’ll get that information this week, which means next weekend I’ll probably be planning, lol. Four days of staff development begins tomorrow, which includes a department meeting.

So I woke up late yesterday, and then I had my nephew’s birthday party — and the day got away from me.

In more interesting news, I’m putting together the theme for Signs of Life which I’m going to start reposting on Tuesday. I’m undecided on the color scheme, though, so if anyone wants to offer some feedback, check out the Practice Page and let me know. Non-Flash Fiction Updates go live at 7 AM because they are scheduled in advance.

Oh! And the next Flash Fiction series has been picked, thanks to those of you who posted in the poll. You guys voted Hits Different, a 1996 Alternate History/Universe hybrid story in which Jason wakes up after his accident to find out the Quartermaines have gone to extreme lengths to keep him under control, including divorcing the wife they never told him about.  That will be out in November.

Upcoming Posts This Week

• Tuesday: Signs of Life, Chapters 1-8 (Repost of Cleaned Up Chapters)
• Thursday: Signs of Life, Chapter 9
• Friday – Sunday: Flash Fiction – Watch Me Burn, Parts 45-47

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Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 43

Other Links: Patreon Long Update | Poll: Pick Next Flash

Happy Friday! I posted at Patreon yesterday with a check in (public post) on how orientation went, what I expect my writing workload to look like in September, etc. There’s also a poll to pick the next Flash Fiction series that closes tonight at 11:59. It was posted on Monday for Patreon supporters, then opened on Wednesday for anyone who’s signed up on Patreon (including the free tier), and now I’m linking it here.

Watch Me Burn should wrap up in October if I don’t miss any updates or early November if I do, so I want to be prepped with the next series.

I’ll see tomorrow for another Flash Fiction Update! Don’t forget, we’re finishing up our summer schedule next weekend with a Friday-Sunday trio of updates before settling into the Saturday weekly update for Flash and Tues/Thurs updates for Signs of Life.

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Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 42

Well, today is the unofficial last day of summer vacation for me. Tomorrow, I have orientation with my new district, and Wednesday is the day when I’m supposed to start reviewing my new curriculum and program, which means after that — I can start prepping for the first day of classes which is two weeks from tomorrow. Next week is Staff Development.  I have one more Monday off which is Labor Day, but I’m not committing myself to updating that day since I am planning to update September 1-3, which is that Fri-Sun.

The other piece of news I wanted to share today is that I’ve mostly figured out how to format in Adobe InDesign, but I’m having some issues getting converting the file to specific formats. If you’re interested in helping me test out of a file, check out this post on Patreon which has a test file to download. If you want, download it, test it on your computer or reader of your choice, then let me know what you used and how the file looked.

I’ll see you guys for the next update on Friday!

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Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 41

Flash Fiction Schedule

It actually works out that I delayed until today — going forward, Saturday is going to be part of the update schedule. The Flash Fic schedule is going to be a little up and down for the next weeks as we close out August. Next week, I’ll be updating Monday, Friday, and Saturday. Then the week of August 28, I’ll be updating on that Labor Day Weekend — Friday through Monday. After that, it’s time to go back to school, and we’re doing one update a week. I know I keep talking about that, but I know that not everyone reads my updates, so I figure if I mention it every update, you’re more likely to catch it.

Next Flash Fiction Series

I was happy to see a few people interested in the story I posted yesterday (and thanks for the comments on Twitter, too!) That particular story idea was inspired by watching a lot of true crime. There’s a series on Oxygen about medical-related murders, and one of the episodes talked about a doctor who was basically a glorified drug dealer. She was prescribing what they called the “holy Trinity” of drugs that were the most lethal combinations. I took that plot idea, and looked around the GH timeline for a place for that kind of story, and the Connor Bishop story seemed like a good place because Jason and Elizabeth are between stories, so there’s no real baggage or stuff for them to handle. I ship off Sam in the prologue, and we can just have them enjoy their romance, deal with Emily, and go into investigation mode.  Anyway — story ideas come from weird places.

I have stories in development that might be a good fit for the next Flash Fiction series, so maybe it might be fun to do another poll as we wind down Watch Me Burn, which should be around the end of the year.

Ebooks

I decided to go with Adobe InDesign to work on ebooks after playing around with some tutorials. I finished up the basic tutorials yesterday, and I’ll be starting the page layout ones today. I already pay for the Creative Suite, so I can have Photoshop, Premiere, and Dreamweaver, so I might as well utilize something I already have.  I should finish the tutorials this weekend and start formatting ebooks for it this week. My priority is to get Fool Me Twice, Book 1 out in ebook first because Book 2 is on its way.

Speaking of..

Fool Me Twice, Book 2

I will definitely be moving the publication date. I don’t think it’ll be ready for November. I had hoped I’d be able to use substantial pieces of the first draft in the first round of edits, but the story is just better with me rewriting most of it. I have used scenes, and there’s a storyline later in the book that can lift right out of the first draft. But pretty much everything that’s not Jason/Elizabeth needed to be rewritten.

This is honestly the best choice — and those of you on Patreon who followed the alpha draft and are now following the beta, I hope you’re reading along and seeing the benefits. I absolutely love this draft so much more, and it’s just the best choice for the book.

The original deadline for this round of edits is September 30. I might still make that, but I need an extra round of editing before I do the final polish. I’m thinking December at the earliest, January at the latest.

Fall Release Schedule

Luckily, with weekly updates for Flash Fiction and Signs of Life coming this fall, I won’t disappear like I usually do! You might have read Signs of Life during its Flash Fiction phase, but it’s been substantially revised in edits. I added around 40k, scenes were moved around, lengthened, or even changed. I can’t wait for you guys to read the new material!

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Update Link: This is Me Trying – Prologue

Hey! I overslept this morning, and sometimes I wake up with migraines when that happens, so I’m moving Flash Fiction to tomorrow. I try to give you guys something to make up for missing scheduled updates, so I thought you guys might enjoy the prologue of a story I’ve been playing with a bit. I had an idea for a rewrite of Dec 2004/Jan 2005, and I’ve been plotting it in my spare moments. I had a really vivid idea for the prologue, so I wanted to get it on paper while I had it. It reads like the prologue — but it can also be a short story.

You can find it linked above — it’s a PDF download from the Free Digital Shop on Patreon. I’ve been moving all downloads over to the Patreon. You should be able to download this one without an account. I’d love to know what you think!

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Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 40

Hope everyone is having a good week 🙂  I’m feeling a bit more productive this week — must be my brain getting ready for classes again, lol. Can’t believe I start work next week. Summer went slow and fast all at the same time.

See you guys on Friday!

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