Your Update Link: Desperate Measures, Part 7

Other Links: Crimson Glass Survey | Ebooks

Hello! I’m continuing my work on the Crimson Glass site, and I’ve relaunched the Ebooks page with the updated links for the ebooks I’ve published in June as well as organizing the older books.  There’s still more design I work I want to do, but it’s far enough along that I can give it to you.

One of the suggestions I received in the survey asked me to talk about the benefits of ebooks so I added a section for that as well. There are some instructions for using Calibre, the Nook, and the Kindle for the books but these are external links at the moment. I’ll be working on writing my own with screencaps or maybe even a video.  Honestly, the biggest benefit to using the books I’ve published is having offline access. One of my regrets is not saving enough of my older favorites and just trusting they’d always be online. For a while, Crimson Glass was offline and my stories were inaccessible.

The other reason I like making ebooks is that I’m treating myself like a traditional writer. Writing fanfiction, particularly of the length and (in my opinion) quality that I do, is a second career for me. I even make a little money from it. So making ebooks allows me to feel like a real writer and it treats you guys like a traditional audience. I love the idea that some people might have my books on their ereaders stored with other more traditional authors. My stories will always be available with the chapter by chapter posting, but as I move to releasing them in full at once, I want you guys to have the ability to read on planes, in bed, and away from your computers or iPads.

I hope that explains why I’ve been putting energy into ebooks. I always wanted to do this kind of scale with them and have them available, but until I started using Scrivener to format them, it was a lot harder to do.

In other news, I’ll be publishing the Site & Story Status post and video tomorrow. Camp NaNoWriMo kicks off tomorrow, and I’m really excited to finish Mad World this month. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!

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Your Update Link: An Everlasting Love, Part 7

Other Links: Crimson Glass Survey | Production Schedule

Thank you so much for those of you who have responded so far to the survey! I’ve had a lot of great feedback, and I’m already starting to implement them. This morning, I rewrote the introduction to the site so that it features a list of links to find stories as well as more update information. Let me know if you think this helps!

I’m also working on redesigning the Ebook page so that it’s updated and more helpful. That should be done for tomorrow’s Flash Fiction update.

I updated the Production Schedule with the rest of 2020’s novel schedule. Flash Fiction does not feature on this page. The schedule also has a Google Calendar for you to look at if you want. I’m still working on the Calendar.

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Your Update Link: Darkest Before The Dawn, Part 2

Other Links: Crimson Glass Survey | Bittersweet sub-site

Happy Sunday! I worked late last night and finished the preliminary version of the Bittersweet sub-site. The layout is a bit different than either Mad World or For the Broken Girl, so let me know you if you have any suggestions or issues accessing parts of it. I still have some content to work on — I’ve been having weird website errors and upload issuse so it just took longer to get the theme ready.

Five years ago, I asked my readers to give me some feedback on the website — about a year after I opened it up as a WordPress Archive, I wanted to see how everyone was using it and to get some ideas. I got some great feedback from that survey — I added the Recent Updates and Alphabetical List of All Stories pages. It also helped me de-clutter the sidebar I had at the time.

So five years later (wow!), I’m looking to get some more ideas. So for the next week, I’ll be linking the survey in all my updates. It should take no more than 4 minutes and it’s anonymous so be completely honest!  I’ve got a few anniversaries coming up — this July is the 18th anniversary of my first Liason story, Deserving (lost to the wilds), and September 19, 2002 is the 18th birthday of my original fanfiction website, In A Perfect World. Crimson Glass proper opened in April 2004, but I don’t celebrate that because I just moved it from one home to the other.

Since I turned 36 year this year, the 18th anniversary of these things means that for literally HALF my life, I’ve been writing Liason fanfiction. I want to make this a special year 🙂

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Your Update Link: Whatever It Takes, Part 6

I’m working on the Bittersweet sub-site but I’ve run into a very strange problem. I test all my new themes on a different WordPress installation, but every time I try to upload it, the site stops working. I’ve put in a Support ticket, so hopefully that will take care of it, but for now — that’s been put on hold.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another flash fiction update 🙂

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Your Update Links: An Everlasting Love, Part 6 and Desperate Measures, Part 6. 

With this update, we’re caught up to where I would have been if I hadn’t taken Monday off. I’ll be back to my usual one a day schedule for the foreseeable future. The newest series, Darkest Before the Dawn, might see some extra updates on random days because I can easily fit another 20 minutes in around 8-9 once I get my routine really set.  Remember to follow me on Twitter to find out when I start my timer — it’s generally in the morning!

I’m working on the Bittersweet sub-site. I’ve worked on the images, the layout, and ebook. All that’s left is getting the theme up and running and getting the pieces of the site organized. That should be done on Saturday or Sunday. After that, I’ll be taking a week off to just look at the site and doing some minor housekeeping things. After that, I’ll be overhauling The Best Thing, then A Few Words.

I’m also doing an open call for Patreon benefit suggestions. If you’re not currently a Patreon supporter, is there something that might change your mind? This post is open to the public, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions let me know.

Mad World is coming along well — I hit 47k yesterday and finished Chapter 8. We’re really getting out of the setup part of the story, the hardest part to write, and I’m about to launch into the huge stories so I’m hopefully that next week is our week to start churning out a chapter a day. That’s another reason I’m taking the week off from structured website work to make sure I give myself the time in the afternoon.

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Your Update Links: Whatever It Takes, Part 5 and Darkest Before the Dawn, Part 1

Hey! You’re not blind — that’s a new Flash Fiction series I’m starting today. I was, in no way, planning to do this, LOL. But then Tania asked me to rewrite a story from 2016 yesterday, and my brain basically exploded. I couldn’t imagine waiting another month before one of my current series were done, so I’m going to update this new one Sundays and then pick a random day throughout the week to double up.

I’m really excited about this — it’s set in 2012 and is basically — what happens if Steve Burton doesn’t leave? Because we know that his leaving wasn’t planned and they had to cut a ton of story and rewrite things to make it happen.  I’m going to write this in three parts — each part rewrites a terrible Elizabeth story from 2012-2017, but it’s all set as if Jason doesn’t reunite with Sam and go off the pier.

In other news, I’m working on the Bittersweet subsite. I created the images and cover today, and started on the ebook. I suspect it should be done on Sunday. I hope you enjoy the new updates and I’ll see you guys tomorrow for another double update.

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Your Update Link: Desperate Measures, Part 5

I honestly wasn’t going to write today, but then I got a great story idea from Tania (Thank you again!) and it just made me want to write it. I might be adding a Flash Fiction on Sunday after all because I don’t want to wait. The idea just made me want to write, so here you go! I’ll see you tomorrow for Whatever It Takes.

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Another postponed Flash Fiction — sorry about that! I found out last night that I didn’t get the high school job, and this morning, got the double whammy of not getting the middle school job. This means I need to kind of regroup. I spent most of the morning checking other districts and making other applications as well as looking over my budget to make any cuts necessary to get through September. With COVID, I might not be working much in September, and bills still need to be paid.

With that in mind, I updated the Support page with some new options — you can also find a menu on the side with new donation links for Paypal and Venmo (@melissasmchugh). All work on Crimson Glass remains free but if you can toss me a buck or two, I can hopefully keep from crawling back to my night-time tutoring job during the school year and spend my evenings writing. For the Broken Girl was only written and released in seven months because I was able to teach all day and come home to write. Any one-time donation will earn you the opportunity to suggest an idea for an upcoming story or a flash fiction.

Flash Fiction will be back tomorrow annd I’ll be making double updates on Thursday and Friday to get back on schedule. I just wanted to make sure I was able to write Mad World today.

And because I do feel terrible about missing two days this week, I went through my draft for Mad World to find some Liason fluff that was spoiler free. Enjoy this scene of Liason on their honeymoon, picking baby names.

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Your Update Link – An Everlasting Love, Part 5

Thanks for your patience and understanding yesterday about skipping Flash Fiction. I actually didn’t write anything at all yesterday, even Mad World. I’d been stressing about this particular job for over a week (my first interview was Wednesday, the second yesterday), and didn’t realize just how much stress and anxiety I was carrying until it was done. I came home afterwards and just basically vegged. I read three and a half Deanna Raybourne novels (the Julia Grey novels which are incredible), and I want to get back to her Veronica Speedwell series I had started.  It’s been a while since I took a day just for reading, and it was great.

Now I just have to wait to hear back. This is the same district where I had the ELA interview a few weeks ago, so I’m in the running for two positions. This most recent one — this is the dream job with the dream grade at my own high school.

With that out of the way, I’m eager to get back into my schedule. I’m thinking I might have some stamina issues with Mad World — I was hoping to start hitting 5k days this week, but I’m really tired today and didn’t write yesterday. I’m going to go back to making sure I’m writing 2-3k this week, and working on 5k next week.

I fixed the spacing on the Mad World, Book 2 ebook. The paragraphs were all smooshed together on my Nook, and I didn’t realize it. The new copies have been uploaded.

The next story to get the makeover will be Bittersweet. I’m not touching the story itself — the content is going to stay the same but it will get a new layout, an ebook, and I’ll set up a second to get ready for the sequel when I finally write it in, like, two years, LOL.

I’ll be sure to let you guys know if/when I get news about the job.

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Hey! Just a quick note to let you know I will not be updating today. I had a job interview this morning where I had to put together a mock lesson. I spent most of the last three days agonizing over it and after it was over today, I just kind of don’t want to look at my computer anymore, lol. I’m also just still kind of riding the anxiety because I really want the job and it’s kind of hard to focus. I’m taking today off and staying mostly offline. I’ll post two updates some day this week to make up for it!

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