Your Update Link: A King’s Command – Part 7

Happy Friday! I, for one, am relieved it’s the weekend. This was a very long week, LOL, even though I had off on Monday and was remote teaching today. I had my nieces with me today because my sister is out of town, and I am so glad I didn’t have to juggle teaching and homeschooling these last six months. I was in meetings and in classes, and they kept trying to kill each other. They’re with my parents for the rest of the weekend, and I am LOCKING my door for the next two days.

Sorry for completely disappearing this week, both on the site and on Twitter. I really just kind of needed to clear my mind and concentrate on other things, particularly my job and my course content. I’m still writing the course content and creating the digital content which is fun and mentally exhausting. I really want to do the best job I can so that if there’s a place for me next year, they’ll keep me. Right now, it’s a one year contract, but it’d be great to be back.

I was writing all week — I made time on Tuesday and Wednesday to write, and finished Chapter Three of Fool Me Twice. I’m definitely staying on track there — I’m at about 17k, and the Pacemaker Word Count plan suggests I be at 8900k this week — so I’ve nearly doubled my pace. This makes it easier for me to skip a day here or there when things get tough because I don’t lose any morale. I think I’ve said this before — but using the “start small and build to a finish” has been great for me. I don’t feel like a complete failure when I can’t write every day because when I do write, I typically go over the suggested word count.  I’m planning to dedicate large portions of this weekend to FMT actually, and hope to be at Chapter Five by the end of the weekend.

I’m finishing up my first cycle with my students on Tuesday and kicking off the next cycle of new kids which means I’m getting closer to having the bulk of the course written and I won’t have to exert so much mental energy on research. Not only that, but the cycle after this is my turn to do coverage which means I’ll be a sub in the building for 15 days. This is even better — I’ll time to refine the course after having taught it twice, plus I’ll have some break from running my own classes since I’ll be somewhere different and won’t have the usual work to take home.

I appreciate your patience as I got through this first month 🙂 The Flash Fiction schedule is going to change again when we get to November, which I want to talk about more when we get there. I don’t know yet how much until I get some more information about days that we’re off, the exact date of the next cycle, and whether our remote teaching days are in building or at home. I’ll see you guys tomorrow with Signs of Life.

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Hey! I had my entire weekend planned down to the minute, but it feels like it’s been off track since I started, LOL. I spent my entire morning off working on digital content for my remote kids only to realize once I had worked for 3 hours that it was the completely wrong way to deliver this to the kids at home, and then had an anxiety attack about wasting all of that time and needing to start over. I forced myself to take a break and relax. Once I did that, I came up with a much better solution for my remote kids AND the kids in class and it actually ultimately makes my life easier in the long run. Plus, I have some great ideas for building on the changes to make the rest of the week easy.

But it’s 3:30 and my brain is beyond exhausted. I’m not even sure I’m up to writing Fool Me Twice today even for 25 minutes much less Flash Fiction. I’m trying hard not to be too mad at myself and I’m not going to apologize (much). I honestly did shoot myself in the foot a bit when I took on four hour long flash fiction sessions a week, LOL, but I am sure that once I get things sorted, it won’t be a big deal. It’s just harder than I thought it would be to not only create all my content from complete scratch (I don’t even have a textbook or digital resources). I spent all week putting together this Prezi so if you want to see why my brain is dead, you’re welcome to look: https://prezi.com/view/fXYyr2L2NwOzP2inWyUJ/ (Only Canada, U.S., Mexico, Caribbean, Middle East, Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia are done)

I also have the added challenge of my kids being split into groups. I have one set on Mon/Tues, and another on Wed/Thurs, then all on Fri for remote Zooms. It’s smaller class sizes, but I have to create digital doubles of all my lessons because when Group A is in the classroom, I have to have lessons for Group B at home, and it turns out it’s just more time intensive than I thought it would be to do both. Like I said — I do think this method I developed this afternoon is going to save me so much time in the future. There’s just not enough hours in the day to do all the things I want — even when I have the day off.

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Weeks ago, before I got the new job, my brother asked me to babysit from like 3-5. I was, like, sure, no problem! And then I got the job. And then suddenly it was 3-7 which was…a lot more time out of my day. Then I got the idea to grab my sister’s kids because the last time I brought them, they played together and I got some work done. That was the plan and then I figured I’d do Flash Fic when I got home around 8 or 9, late by on time.

Instead, today, they decided to try to kill each other. All day. The oldest is 9, almost ten, and she thinks she’s 15. Then it’s an eight-year-old and two six-year-olds, and a four-year-old. They fought over toys, over bikes, over slime, over movies, over food, over who got the purple plate and the blue plate, and then where to put the chairs, and then over who hit who in the face with the plastic tub, and then whether or not Shut up is a bad word. And my night still isn’t over.

My brain as officially given up. I’m sort of working on the Beta Draft for Book 4 because I’m still doing chapter breakdowns which doesn’t require a lot of energy but I mostly want to go go home and  get drunk.

I don’t have kids, and today is a good day for remembering why. I’ll double up if I can tomorrow, or catch up another day this week.

ETA: I also fixed a massive error in Chapter Seventy-Five where the Jason/Luke/Sonny scene was doubled up for some strange reason. I swear, I don’t know how that happened.

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Your Update – A King’s Command, Part 6

Hope everyone had a good week! I’m so excited everyone who finished Book 3 enjoyed it. I found a strange typo in Chapter Sixty-Nine near the end of the chapter where half of the line was deleted. It’s fixed now 🙂

Letting you guys know that starting next week, there’s a slight adjustment to the Flash Fiction schedule. I’m found myself scrambling to get things done on Wednesday. It’s kind of a mid-week craziness, I think, LOL. So I’m moving Shot in the Dark to Sundays, starting — NEXT week. So this week’s entry is done. And you’ll get your next one on October 19. I’ll update four days straight – Friday-Monday, then have three days off in the middle of the week to get things done, relax, etc. I think this will be a lot better.

I did some sidebar work — I added an Instagram feed for the CG instagram account which is basically just a Sasha fan account, LOL. She always manages to sit right in front of my computer when I need to work or write. I also added a link to follow me on Spotify and embedded FMT’s soundtrack.

I’m working on my Site & Status post and video which is going to be for October & November. That should be up Sunday. And finally – I updated the Production Schedule. I rewrote the page, splitting it into two sections. The first is just a simple list of dates and releases. The second is a more streamlined writing schedule.

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Your Update Link: A Shot in the Dark – Part 6

When I made the decision to release my books all at once going forward, I think I maybe overestimated just how attached I am to the chapter by chapter gratification I get, lol. You guys are reading this like an actual book — which means I’m getting reviews like a book–at the end. Heh. I think it’s a better way to release books. I picked Tuesday as a release date because it’s release date for real books, but I was thinking maybe I should do later in the week going forward?

This next part is a long-winded explanation, so you can skip to the TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) note at the bottom and then come back if you want to know more. 

The other thing I wanted to bring up is when to expect Book 4. When I initially split the draft in August, I had this idea that I would release Three in October and Four in December. When I sat down to start really thinking about Book 4, I realized I wanted to make some big story changes. The plan had been to focus on Book 4’s beta draft in October while getting Fool Me Twice going slowly, then switching focus in November when 4’s beta draft would be done.

Then I got a full time job that started immediately. I no longer have the mornings or even afternoons for writing. It’s mostly between 5-8, and I have to be careful about those hours because I also have to eat dinner and make sure I’m not just writing allll the time.

I wanted to let my schedule sit for a week to get an idea of how much time I can devote to writing, what my energy level would be at night, etc.  A week into my job, I have a better idea of how much time I need to for grading and lesson prep, and the fact is that I can’t really focus on Fool Me Twice, Flash Fiction, and Book 4 all at the same time. I need to decide what book is going to be released in February, and I’m afraid if I push all three, I’ll get burnt out and I won’t have anything. It’s what happened last year when FMT wasn’t working and Broken Girl wasn’t working — I missed February last year because I didn’t manage my schedule or my own creativity very well.

Basically this means that in order to make sure I have a novel to release in February, I have to make some difficult choices — and the difficult choice is that Book 4 is probably not coming out in December, and that I don’t currently have a release date in mind. I’m not willing to push FMT down the road again when it’s already a year later than I had wanted it to be, and I’m enjoying writing it so far.

What happens to Book 4 now is largely dependent on how Fool Me Twice goes. The last two books I’ve written needed extensive revisions, but I honestly think FMT is in the best position it could be. I’m sure I might need a scene or there, but I’ve done a really thorough job plotting, breaking down, and getting it organized. I haven’t really had a moment in writing it where I feel stuck.  If FMT’s beta period doesn’t take as long as Mad World’s, and if I finish the alpha draft on time, I can work in more time for Book 4 and have it out in March or April. I’m just not sure. I could also push Broken Girl 2 and Damaged down the road, too. There’s a lot of options in front of me.

I’m also contemplating a change to my writing process — I’ve always said I’d love to leave a first draft alone for a full month so I can look at it with fresh eyes. I could finish FMT’s first draft, leave it for a month, work on Book 4 in December, edit FMT in January, and not really miss my deadline. It’s something I’m playing and I’ll have more information for you on Friday when I hack away at my 2021 Production Schedule.

ANYWAY. TL;DR – Mad World Book 4 does not have a release date, and I can’t promise a new one unless I push another project off the schedule. I’m going to try to take a look at the process and see what I can do to improve things. Will have an updated 2020 – 2021 Production Schedule on Friday. 

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Your Update Link: Mad World – Book 3

Words cannot express how excited I am for you guys to read this book. I really poured everything into this and tried so hard to make it the best I could. As you read this book, I think it’s fascinating to note that none of this was in my original plan for Book 3. What is ultimately going to be Book 4 was the original plan for Book 3. But as I wrote the first draft, I knew I had the wrong starting point so I added fifteen chapters in front of what I’d already written. During the beta process, that eight chapters ended up being expanded into twenty-five, and before I knew it — my draft was split into two.

Reading over this book, it’s insane to me I was ever going to skip this time period between November 2003 and January 2004. I’m so glad that I went back and fleshed out this story, and I hope you guys will be too!

A note on the ebook: I haven’t finished it then. My plan is to finish it for Patreon supporters this weekend for early access and then have it for you guys in November.

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Your Update Link: Not Knowing When – Part 6

Happy Monday! I had a fun surprise at work today — turns out there was a faculty meeting that kept me there until nearly 4. And I still had to go grocery shopping. Heh. Anyway, I’m home — I cooked dinner and even finally got to vote because my ballot came today. The only thing I didn’t quite get to today was my FMT 25 minutes. I should have done it around 5 but I simply couldn’t get it in. That’s okay — to keep pace with my Pacemaker plan, I need about 400 words today. I stopped writing yesterday in the middle of a scene, so after Flash Fiction, I’m going to try to finish that scene up and get close to it.

I fixed A Shot in the Dark – Part 5 which I accidentally put into the Mad World series last night, lol. I spent the whole day scheduling chapters so I think my brain got confused.

Mad World is going live tomorrow! I can’t believe we’re so close! After Flash Fiction, I’m typing up the post that goes live at 7 PM. I’m so proud of this book and so happy I get to give you guys another book in 2020 — I don’t think I’ve ever published two full novels in one year, so at least one thing is going right this year.

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Your Update: A Shot in the Dark – Part 5

I’m happy to report that as of this post — I’m not planning to take a week off from Flash Fiction. I was able to organize and get everything for this week ready, and I’m hopeful to get into a routine the way I did last year. By the end of January, I was doing most of my work in the classroom, and able to keep my weekends free, and able to write at night. I’m teaching an exploratory course that starts over every three weeks or so which means once I get through this first cycle, I’ll have a better sense of what works and what doesn’t work. I’m not going to do an October status post because I can’t really set any plans or goals just yet. We’re going week by week — this week, I’m comfortable saying that as long as I’m not too tired, I’ll be working on Flash Fiction.

I scheduled Mad World’s chapters today! I did it slowly, a few chapters at a time so it didn’t feel overwhelming. To make sure they post in the right order, they’re scheduled a minute a part, starting at 6:39 AM on Tuesday, and posting steadily over the next twenty minutes until 7 AM.  I’m posting five chapters a day at FF.net and Archive of Our Own, starting Tuesday afternoon, and ending on Saturday.  I also wrote another scene for Fool Me Twice today, so we’re moving along on that.

I’m hoping to get back to the beta draft for Book 4 this week, but it’s lower on my list than FMT and Flash Fiction at the moment, at least for this week.

Note: Something that is not up for debate is the fact that I write a variety of Flash Fiction series. I don’t plan to stop writing any to concentrate on just one. It defeats the purpose of doing the Flash Fiction which was to give my brain regular breaks from working on the same novel for eight months at time. I’m convinced that I was able to write Mad World this summer at the same speed I did because I added Flash Fiction. I never got bored because I had so much occupying me between all the stories I worked on. It was a happy compromise and I have written more in 2020 than I have since 2003. It’s not a coincidence. I love my readers, especially Patreon supporters who make this something I can justify taking so much time to work on, but supporting my work does not entitle you to direct it. I love that you have favorites, I really do, but it puts pressure on me that I don’t need right now. Please do not leave requests when I haven’t asked for them. Thanks!

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Your Update Link: Signs of Life – Part 3

I hope everyone is having a good weekend 🙂 It’s been a wild few days in the world, huh? I’m getting settled in at the new job, and I spent this morning organizing my lesson plans for next week. One of my assets is my ability to organize and do it quickly — that definitely comes from the last few years of juggling two part-time jobs, full-time graduate work, and writing. I have my structure done for the course, and tomorrow I just have to finalize this week’s project and film instructions for my remote students.

Right now, I’m leaning towards being able to write Flash Fiction this week – or at least having time for it. What I’m less sure about is honestly energy. It’s been six months since I worked in a classroom, and I lost the ability to be on my feet without bathroom breaks or a minute to breath for hours at a time. That’s going to take a minute for me to get back, so let’s say that I’ll keep the schedule but I might skip a day during the week and make it up on the weekend. We’ll see how it goes.

I finalized Mad World, Book 3 today and actually compiled all the chapters. Tomorrow, I’ll schedule them and they’ll go live on Tuesday. I’m so happy to finally show it off to you guys! I also did a lot of work for Fool Me Twice today. Chapter 1 is finished, and I’m happy with how it’s starting. I’ll be updating tomorrow with Shot in the Dark, making up Wednesday’s Flash Fiction.

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Your Update: A King’s Command – Part 5

Hello! Thanks for understanding about skipping Wednesday. I’ve been literally running around like an insane person for the last three days, and honestly it was all I could do just to get some sleep. I think I finally have myself mostly sorted. I still have an insane amount of work to do this week, but it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as it did on Wednesday. I have a plan for the course, I’ve met most of my students, I survived my return to Zoom meeting this morning, and I can find my way around the building — sort of. It feels manageable.

At the moment, I think I’m taking next week off from Flash Fiction just to get myself truly sorted and make sure I stay on track for Fool Me Twice and Mad World. I love Flash Fiction, and I am obsessed with all my series, so I don’t want to kill myself trying to fit them in right now when taking a week off means I can really get a good sense of everything and set myself up for success. Once I’m through next week, I’ll have created most of the templates I’ll need for the rest of the course. I also might change my mind and keep writing. It depends on this weekend. I’ll let you know on Sunday when I make up Wednesday’s A Shot in the Dark entry.

I’m also going to be finalizing Mad World, Book 3’s release for this Tuesday. I’m scheduling chapters on Saturday and Sunday, so they’ll go live on Tuesday at 7 AM EST. I’m working on Book 4’s beta structure as well. I haven’t touched it in a few days, obviously, but I’m scheduling time to get into it tomorrow.  I’m working on graphics to promote all three books, so see this post for more information on how you can help!

And in the best news — I started writing Fool Me Twice yesterday! I use Pacemaker to to track my progress because it lets me set all kinds of writing goals. I can decide whether I want to write steadily (same writing goal everyday) or start small and build my stamina. For the first time, I’m selecting the second one. Yesterday, I only had to write 85 words, lol. I wrote 825! My total goal is 160k, which is 5k averaged over 32 chapters.  I wrote the first scene which is a flashback scene, and it was so much fun. I just wrote for 25 minutes yesterday, really the only fun thing I did all day, LOL.  Earlier tonight, I wrote two more scenes and added another 1300 words.

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