Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 26

Happy Wednesday! I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do Flash Fiction in the morning when I woke up, lol. I was watching the All-Star Game and it didn’t have a pitch clock so the game ended up being until 11:30 (I AM OLD NOW THIS IS VERY LATE). And I couldn’t stop watching because the Phillies closer, Craig Kimbrel, was due to save the game (AND HE DID! NATIONAL LEAGUE WON!). My Phillies boys did us proud, but my voice is sore, lol. While I was watching, I was annotating Book 2’s alpha draft and got on a roll. I was only going to read Chapters 56-66, but I ended finishing all of Act 3, which puts me ahead of schedule. I stayed up to 1 AM which was…probably a poor decision, lol.

But I’m making great progress on all three editing projects — July is super busy, but August should be a bit more laid back — I’m only working on the beta draft of Book 2 and writing Flash Fiction.  I’m really enjoying the editing for Signs of Life because I’m in the part of the book where I’m adding more material — and getting to write old school Liason from 1999-2000 is so refreshing. It can be exhausting to be writing in the later time periods, like 2018, when our couple has so much more baggage. They’re both older, more cynical and jaded, so it can be harder to strike that balance you need between realistic older adults who’ve been making terrible decisions for twenty years but still the sweet, light Liason stuff that we fell in love with. So, yeah, going back in time to 2000 is much more fun.

With the next Flash Fiction (which will be winter probably), I wanna go to this time period again — but more like between August 2000 – December 2001. I don’t have really anything set during this period, so it’ll be fun to expand there. If anyone has any ideas, let me know!

Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 25

Digital Shop: Fool Me Twice, Book 2 – Alpha Draft ($7)

Happy Monday! I hope you guys had a great weekend! I kept busy even though my Phillies decided to tie our franchise record for games won on the road and then immediately embarrass themselves by losing two in a row. It’s All-Star Week, which means I won’t spend about 3 hours every day with my mental health depending on a bunch of guys hitting a ball. I have A LOT of updates  and news for you, so I’m tucking it under the Read More tag Each topic is linked so you can skip around.

Continue reading →

Update: Watch Me Burn – Part 24

Oof, I didn’t know if I’d made it this morning. I tried to stay up for Speak Now TV’s release at midnight, but I gave up around 10:30 when I realized not only would I have to make it 90 minutes to release but an additional hour and 45ish minutes to listen. So I laid down, dozed, and my brain just woke me up at 11:48. Absolutely wide awake.

So naturally, with all the maturity in the world, I went to go await the midnight release and listened to every glorious minute. Then I dragged myself back to bed, and didn’t get to sleep until 3.

But here we are because I promised, lol.

All is good with the world. My new hire paperwork is FINALLY completed, the Phillies just swept the team with the best record in baseball, and there’s new Taylor Swift to enjoy. Oh, and I finished writing a whole ass book.

See you on Monday!

Link: Free Digital Shop – This is where downloads of free books, previews, and other bonus features will be. Right now, there’s a Mad World ebook and previews from Fool Me Twice.

Hey! I’m just dropping in with two pieces of news.

The first draft of Fool Me Twice, Book 2 is FINALLY completed. I’ve been working on this draft since January and last night, around 11 PM, I finally finished the last chapter. It’s really messy and needs a lot of work, but I’m happy with it. It clocked in at 503 pages and around 191k words.

The next step is to let the draft sit for a few days while my brain recovers — I really covered so much ground since June 16, and it was a huge push towards the finish line. On Monday (July 10) I’ll start my beta draft reread, so I can start making notes about how to edit and what to add or cut. Then, the following Tuesday (July 18), I’ll start the beta draft. At this point, I can’t tell you how long the draft will take because I don’t know the scope, but I figure around six weeks, until around September 1. Then we’ll go into the posting draft edits, which is my final cleanup. This means we are on track for the October release, as I hoped 🙂

If you’re a Patreon supporter, the Stalker tier has all the chapters right now.  I’ll be posting the July chapters for the Obsessed tier tomorrow, and then the full Alpha Draft will be available for the Adored tier. Once the draft goes up for the Adored tier, it’ll also be available in the digital shop for $7 (the same price as the Adored tier). If you want to check out the Alpha draft, you’ll also have the option to participate in my beta reader survey so you can help me shape the next draft.

The other piece of news is just a Flash Fiction note. On Monday, my mother called around the time I was setting up the update, and she’s impossible to get off the phone, lol. And I had a busy afternoon getting my new hire paperwork completed for my new district. By that point, I’d eaten up all the extra time I usually use for Flash Fiction and had to use my writing time for Fool Me Twice. And of course, yesterday, I wrote 14k for Fool Me Twice.

Today, I am exhausted from writing around 100k for FMT over the last three weeks. I’m taking today and tomorrow off just to rest and recharge. On Friday, I’ll come back, and we’ll have our Flash Fiction schedule back on track.

Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 23

Happy Friday 🙂 A couple of housekeeping announcements, so I’m tucking them under the Read More tag.  There are some notes about Fool Me Twice, how and when everyone gets to read, and some really awesome Patreon news for anyone interested in some free perks. I go into more detail in that section, but all Patreon support goes to into supplementing my paychecks, so I can put away more money during the summer. As a teacher, I don’t get paychecks in July & August. I used to have a part-time job, but I was able to quit it in 2018 due to the year round support 🙂

Continue reading →

Hey! Just checking in really quick to let you know I’m postponing flash fiction tomorrow. I’ll either skip it all together and come back on Friday, or post on Thursday and Friday.

I have to get a physical for my new district and my immunization records. For some reason, we can’t find my record, so I have to get blood work done to confirm for my doctor. I’m getting that tomorrow morning and I just know it’s gonna make me feel like crap tomorrow morning, so I’ll really only have one writing session in me tomorrow, and I need it to be Fool Me Twice. I’m struggling a bit with the writing stamina this week. I think it’s just the pressure of knowing I’m in Act 3 and the massive edits that have to go into this. Maybe part of my brain is like, well, if we never finish the edit — ha. Anyway.

Whenever I postpone Flash Fiction, I like drop some previews or excerpts to make up for it. I’ve shared some decent Liason material already, so I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at what the teens are up to in this story. The scenes in the file below are taken from different chapters. I hope you like them!

Fool Me Twice – The Teens

And if you missed it — Fool Me Twice – Liason 

ETA: Links are fixed!!!

Let me know if you’re excited for this book! I’m working hard but it has so many moving parts and people that it’s killing me, too, lol.

Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 22

Hope everyone had a great weekend 🙂 I worked on Fool Me Twice Saturday, and finished Act 2 (a huge thing — it’s taken me most of the last two months, but we’re finally making progress) so I decided to take Sunday off to sleep in and relax a little. I’ve written about 53k since summer vacation started, just on Fool Me  Twice, not counting the 8k or so for Watch Me Burn. I want to make sure I’m pacing myself.

As we get closer to July, I’m still contemplating whether I want to add a second story for Tues/Thurs. I think I might just focus on editing Fool Me Twice & Signs of Life this summer so that both can be ready asap to post and give me more content next fall. I love writing the Flash Fiction, but if I don’t get Fool Me Twice done this summer, I won’t have a novel out this year, lol. And that would be the first time since 2017, so yeah — Book 2 is the priority.

Act 3 has about 18 chapters, which should be done sometime next week. I’m going to miss that June 30 date unless I get on a roll one of these days and write more than 2 chapters, but I’m not pushing myself. I tend to rush the ending of the books because I’m so tired of looking at them, lol. Then I have to go back in and rewrite.

See you Wednesday!

Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 21

Another late update, lol. I went to bed at a normal time, and then my brain was like, nah, we’re not tired. So I overslept again. Irritating, but not surprising. Let’s just state from now own if I don’t update by 11 AM or 2 PM on Mon, Wed, or Fri, then there’s no update for that day.

I finally manged to write the breakdown of Act 3 for Fool Me Twice — my brain was just really scattered, and I couldn’t really figure out chapter breakdowns for some reason. Book 2 is going to be Chapters 39-102 — which I know sounds really long, but Book 2’s chapters are about 20% shorter than Book 1. For example, Book 1 was about 235k words in length and 38 chapters. For book 2, I’ve completed Chapters 39-80, so that’s 42 chapters, and it’s only 131k in length.

Still hoping to finish it off by June 30 and spend the summer editing.

See you guys Monday!

Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 20

Apologies for the slight delay in today’s posting! I’m still working on adjusting my sleep schedule, and I find if I don’t wake up until 8 AM, it’s hard to organize my energy to get going in the morning. I’m oversleeping right now, which I can tell because I always feel groggy for most of the day. I want to get myself adjusted to the 6 AM schedule I usually use in the summer because I can actually use that next year. The new school where I’m going to work is literally a three minute drive from my house if the traffic lights are green, so I can leave for work at 7 and still be a half hour early, lol.

Fool Me Twice is coming along nicely — I’ve had a few doctor’s appointments this week (trying to get as much in before my health insurance expires on June 30 — the new one doesn’t kick in until August 28). I’m planning to finish Act 2 this week (I wrote Chapter 78 yesterday, there are four chapters left, so Friday is the final deadline). We’re still on schedule for my June 30 deadline, which makes me happy because I’ve been itchy to dive back in and start making changes which I can’t do without finishing first, lol.

See you on Friday!

Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 19

Happy Monday and happy summer vacation!! We made it! I’ve been done work since last Tuesday, and I’m still absolutely exhausted, lol.

The last two years, when I packed up for summer, I only took a few things home because most of it was just stored away for September. This year, I had to pack EVERYTHING. Six huge boxes full of materials — I dragged them to the car, to the living room, and then abandoned them for the rest of the week lol. My living room looks like a nightmare. I’ve been slowly moving through them, trying to sort through what needs to be repacked because I don’t need it, and then pulling out things that don’t have to go back — ugh.

I spent the first two days (Wed & Thurs) sleeping, reading, playing The Sims, and enjoying my beloved Phillies — their best road trip since 2010! This is the first year since my grandmother died in 2018 that I’ve had both time and energy to get into the season. It was something we shared together, and it was hard for a while to watch without her. But the post season run just brought it all back, and when I’m really missing her, I make sure to sit in the armchair I inherited. It was her mother’s chair, and was in her living room all my life. It was the only thing I ever wanted, and now it’s in my office 🙂

Since Friday, I’ve been focusing on Fool Me Twice and catching up to where I wanted to be — In the last three days, I’ve written around 25k and five chapters. I feel fantastic about the material coming out, though it needs a lot of work. It was always going to be a messy draft, so I’m ready for the editing to be insane, ha. Hoping to finish it up around June 30.

Today, we’re kicking off the summer posting schedule! I’m starting with Watch Me Burn on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This will definitely be the story of the summer, as we’re barely halfway through. In July, when the FMT draft is done, I’m either going to add a new Flash Fiction story or more Watch Me Burn. I’m not sure yet — if it’s a new story, I need to make sure it’s a shorter one that will only take the eight weeks I’ll have of summer (so roughly 16 parts).

I’m still working on Signs of Life, and was planning to do more beta editing this month, but I got so behind FMT (and you’ve all been waiting WAY too long for this book), so I put it on the back burner for now.

Last bit of business! I’m working on my summer plans for the site, the channel, and Patreon, and there are still a handful of stories that haven’t been given the unique theme approach (like Fool Me Twice and Counting Stars). Let me know which story you think deserves to get the makeover next!