Category Archives: Site News

July 10, 2020

Your Update Link: An Everlasting Love, Part 10 & Desperate Measures, Part 10

Don’t forget that today and tomorrow are both a double update for Flash Fiction. I’ll be working on the site move on Sunday, and not having a flash fiction scheduled that day will make it easier.

In other news, I’ve got some interesting progress to report about Mad World. Yesterday, while working on Chapter 18, I was struggling with the chapter I had planned. Characters were feeling stilted, the situation felt a bit wrong–and it has felt that way a little bit all week. Not a lot — just a little. So I sat down for part of yesterday to figure out why.

I knew that the draft was messy and would need a lot of revisions when we got to August. What’s happened is that we’ve reached a point where my brain knows that the amount I have to rework and shuffle around is starting to feel almost overwhelming. This is mostly because the timeline isn’t working, and some of the characters are a bit off. That’s okay — it happens, and part of the problem is that while writing this draft, I discovered a lot more about characters and plot ideas that will make the final product even better.

That being said, I’ve come to a point where I have to actually stop and rethink. I have to think about how I’m going to revise so that I can plan the last third of the draft properly. There are two ways this can go — 1, I can sort out the ways I’m going to change, figure out what those changes mean for the rest of the draft, then save those changes for the revisions. I can then finish the full first draft and get to the ending. That’s best case scenario for me moving forward and finishing the story. 2. The amount of revision needed is actually going to change the characers enough that I need to write large parts of the revisions to properly envision the end of the story which means I need to leave the alpha draft process, go into beta for a bit, then come back to finish the draft.

The good news for all of you is that none of this changes my deadlines. I’m about 75% of the way through the original plans for the draft, which is a great place to be halfway through July. I would have likely finished this draft sometime next week, ahead of schedule. We’re still seven weeks out from general release — so starting revisions now isn’t a terrible idea and might actually be good in the long run.

Patreon deadlines are still scheduled to happen, and so is the general realease. I’m just having some interesting writing problems, lol. I’ll keep you guys in the loop and update you tomorrow how it’s going.

July 9, 2020

Hey! Dropping a note to let you know I’m not working on Flash Fiction today. I’m feeling a bit tired, and running behind in a few things. I baby-sat for my sister yesterday, and of course, everything took twice as long and I didn’t sleep well. So I’m going to get caught up today.

I’m going to make life easier by doubling up on Flash Fiction tomorrow (so we stay on schedule) and again on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, I’ll complete the site move so that I can take the site down briefly and move things over without worrying that people haven’t had a chance to read that day’s update.

So I’ll see you guys tomorrow at 10:30 and 11 AM for your updates! Thanks!

July 8, 2020

Your Update Link: Whatever It Takes, Part 9

Hey — I’m delaying the site move a day so tomorrow’s flash fiction will be posted here, and I’ll start posting at the new address on Friday. My sister asked me to babysit for an hour today, and I want to make sure I still finish writing Mad World — that’s obviously more important. So just to be on the safe side, I’m going to start the big part of the move tomorrow. If you’re not sure what I mean, please check out yesterday’s post.

July 7, 2020

Your Update Links: Desperate Measures, Part 9 & Darkest Before the Dawn, Part 5

Hey! I’m starting the move to the domain today, so it’s important that you guys read this update in case you have any questions about how it’s going to work and if there’s anything you need to do as visitors.

The Move – What I’m Doing

It turns out that moving the WordPress installation from one address to another is both simple and difficult. It’s simple in that there are only a few steps. It’s difficult because I have to do them in  a specific order to prevent data loss and minimize downtime.  I also have to do a lot of clean up after words to make sure all my internal links are corrected.

  • One of the main things I’m doing until I clean up my internal links is leaving this address open. I won’t be putting up a redirect right away — if I have a link to a story here on the Dear Isobel address, you can still read it.
  • That means that you won’t see updates reflected here, but older stuff will be accessible.
  • Today, I am dowloading all the files for my site to my computer, then uploading them to the new folder on my server. This is basic and requires nothing from you guys. This is just the static files moving over.
  • Tomorow, at 4 PM, I am exporting my database from Dear Isobel. This is where ALL the content is stored. The posts, pages, comments, plug in data, etc. After 4 PM, any comments or material posted here at Dear Isobel will not be moving over.
  • I will be then importing all that information to the new site and updating the installation. All of that is happening tomorrow (July 8) between 4 and 6 PM.
  • On Thursday, July 9, Flash Fiction updates will resume on the new domain. You will not be able to read Flash Fiction updates on the Dear Isobel address AFTER Wednesday, July 8.
  • I will be cleaning up links for the rest of the month. I will be doing this systematically and will let you know in my daily update posts what’s been done and what hasn’t been. Like I said, all the stories will be available at the Dear Isobel site, but no comments will be available.
  • By August 1, I expect to have the move completed

What You Can Do

  • Update your bookmarks now to the new domain: http://www.crimsonglass.org. It is active and, for the most, redirects to the Dear Isobel address. I’ll be taking that redirect off Thursday morning as long as things go well tomorrow. If they don’t, this site is fine and backed up. I’ll have an update thread at Twitter to keep you in the loop.
  • Remember the dates. July 8 is the last day to read Flash Fiction updates here on Dear Isobel. Tomorrow at 4 PM, all comments left on this site will not be moved over.
  • August 1, I will be putting up the redirect for the Dear Isobel address.
  • September 1, I will be deleting the the files for Dear Isobel. I’ll leave the subdomain active for a year, and then close it down in 2021.

As you can see — most of what you guys need to do is just update book marks and be patient. Other than that, it’s on me to take my time and do everything right the first time. I’m excited to make this move — I never thought CG would be big enough or active enough to warrant its own domain or I would have made the move back in 2014 when I reopened. That’s largely because of you guys — without you, I wouldn’t still be writing about this couple in 2020. #Liason20 as a great celebration, but I have a feeling #Liason21 is going to be even better —

And I’m kicking it off with daily flash fiction updates from August 1-August 24 to make sure all current flash fiction series are finished before I scale back the updates during the school year. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!

July 5, 2020

Your Update Link: Darkest Before the Dawn, Part 4

Hope everyone’s weekends are going well and that those of you who celebrate Independence Day had a safe celebration. I spent a little time with my nieces and nephews (and had to wrestle the four year old into clothes because he’s a big fan of just wandering out naked, lol) but I got a lot of work done yesterday! I told you I was going to spend the weekend thinking about what I had written and planning the rest of the story. I have some great stuff planned for second half of the novel and will be getting back into writing again tomorrow. Today, I’m going to finalize the chapter breakdown for the next group of chapters.

In other news, this week, I’m also prepping for the move to the new domain. I haven’t updated the Recent Updates page with last week’s posts because I don’t want to create more links to fix. Because I’ll have a redirect, none of the links will actually be broken, it’ll just send you to the CG home page. I’m going to try to make the move as painless as possible. Crimson Glass might be down for a day this week — a few hours at most while I download the files, reupload them, and change links. I won’t do it until the afternoon due to Flash Fiction, so I’ll warn you the day I make the move.

July 4, 2020

Your Update Link: Whatever It Takes, Part 8

Hey! Another short & sweet update for you. I finished Chapter 14 yesterday, and have hit about 17k for NaNoWriMo, and 85k overall. I’m taking the weekend off from writing so I can plan the rest of the novel because we’re about 40% of the way through (I think, lol). I hadn’t completed any chapter breakdowns past Chapter 14 because I wanted to stop, take stock of what was working, what wasn’t, and how I want individual story beats to go. I’ll let you know how it’s going when I do flash fiction tomorrow.

If you want to know when I start my timer for Flash Fiction, make sure to follow me on Twitter @crimsonglass. I generally write between 10-11 AM every morning. You can also check my Twitter feed in the sidebar around those times as well. I try to start very close to either the :00 or :30 minute mark.

July 3, 2020

Your Update Link: Desperate Measures, Part 8

A short update post for you today! I finished Chapter 12 for Mad World yesterday, adding another 6131 to my total. The chapter I’m writing today is going to be insanely wild, and I can’t wait to see how next week’s chapters unfold. By the end of next week, I ought to have a firmer idea of exactly how many chapters I need to get through the story. We’re a few chapters away from the midpoint.

 

July 2, 2020

Your Update Links: An Everlasting Love, Part 8 & Darkest Before The Dawn, Part 3

Other Links: Bittersweet | Ebooks

Yesterday was the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo and it was also my single best day for writing. I wrote 7139 words and completed Chapter 12. It’s pretty much the exact first day I needed to set the tone for next thirty days to come. I’m continuing my Mad World vlog and in the video embedded at the bottom of the post, I talked about how writing went in June and my hopes for the next month. I filmed it on June 30, so it doesn’t talk about yesterday.

In other news, I completed work on Bittersweet’s sub-site and uploaded the book. I’m going to be redesigning the cover, so you might need to redownload the ebook at a later date. I just forgot that Broken Girl was also a purple cover, and I like Broken Girl’s cover better. I tried to change the color, but it just didn’t work and I hate it now, lol. I continued working on the redesigning the Ebook section. The table layout has been updated and is hopefully a bit nicer to look at. It’s still not quite right, but I’m working on it.

I registered the new domain for Crimson Glass (http://www.crimsonglass.org). It looks like moving the site over is actually going to be easier than I thought it might be, but the site will be going down for a few hours sometime this weekend so I can do it all at once, then set up the redirect.

 

July 1, 2020

Life & General Health

  • Wow! This month had a lot of ups and downs. I finished teaching for the school year, and despite having two second interviews at both the high school and middle school, I didn’t end up getting a contact for next year. You win some, you lose some.
  • Classes ended on June 12, so for the last two weeks, I’ve been working on a routine, getting myself into a relaxed schedule where I’m still working but I’m also taking time for self-care.
  • NJ is slowly reopening back up (I went to Barnes & Noble for the first time in months!) but we’re all still nervous, of course, with cases continuing to rise in the rest of the United States. I hope everyone is staying safe.
  • I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. Thanks to my Ripped Bodice care package, I’ve been binging on Deanna Raybourne’s Julia Grey and Veronica Speedwell mysteries. I’m a traditional romance girl, but these books are great.
  • It’s funny to go back watch the video where I unwrapped the package because I definitely didn’t look excited to read the Veronica Speedwell book, but these are really great slow-burn romances with fun mysteries and really immersive world building. Each series has one primary romance, but they take place at a veerrrry slow pace, lol.

Site & Channel

  • I’ve been neglecting the channel to be honest, and that’s mostly because I generally have to put myself together to film things. When I’m not at work, I’m not blowdrying my hair, I’m not putting on make-up, etc. But I’ll be getting updates in this week and next, I promise!
  • The Crimson Glass Facelift is under way. I’ve been publishing ebooks at a fast pace, three of the stories have been converted to sub-sites and I gave out a survey to get some feedback on the site.
  • I still have a few more stories I’m converting over, and of course, more ebooks. I’m also working on the other site clean up I mentioned. Making sure all the stories are tagged, decluttering any parts of the site people aren’t using, etc.
  • I’m also going to be getting a domain for Crimson Glass again. I like the home at cg.dearisobel.org but CG is the larger project, and it should be on its own domain. The dearisobel.org domain is used for my book reviews and general blog.
  • Don’t worry! I’ll have a permanent redirect to the new address.

Currently: Mad World, Book 3

  • I just finished Chapter 10 today, and I’m fully expecting to swing into the chapter a day pace I need to finish the story on time. I wrote all of the chapter today, and can’t wait to write the next group of chapters.
  • Mad World is currently at 61k. I’m expecting to have about 20-25 more chapters. I’m about 2/3 to the midpoint and once we hit that, it’s all down hill from there. I expect the second half to go a lot faster.
  • I’ve been spending most June building up my stamina — starting with 2 25-minute writing sprints, then working my way up to 3. Over the least few weeks, I added the fouth. I usually need 4-5 to finish a full chapter.
  • The Alpha Draft will be finished on July 31, so I will be releasing it to the Crimson Love tier on August 1.
  • The Beta Draft is scheduled to be released on September 1 to Crimson Devoted.
  • The Posting Draft/Ebook will be posted to Crimson Adored on October 1.
  • We’ll have  general release to the Crimson Glass site on October 6, and then I’ll be posting a few chapters a day on Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.

Up Next: Fool Me Twice, Book1

  • Updated the Production Schedule with the dates. I’l lbe starting Discovery on August 1, then writing the Alpha Draft in October and November.
  • That puts me on schedule to start editing on December 1, and do a general release in the first week of February.

Flash Fiction

  • I added a new flash fiction series last week, so that you get a new part every single day, and then Darkest Before the Dawn will be updated on a random day through the week as a  double update.
  • I think An Everlasting Love and Whatever It Takes will probably be finished sometime in August. Desperate Measures may take slightly longer. I probably will not be replacing all three of them at once.
  • Daily Flash Fiction will continue until August 23. If I get a full-time job or a long-term position, most schools go back to work August 24, so I need to be ready to shift.
  • If I am back at work full-time with my own classroom, I’ll probably do flash fiction twice a week.
  • I’ll keep you guys updated.

I think that covers everything! Thanks for all your support! Let me know if you have any questions!