Flash Fiction will be updated tomorrow night — starting at 7 and posting at 8. I woke up this morning and didn’t feel all that well, so I rested this morning and then edited some Counting Stars. Still a bit tired, so I’m going to write this post and then go back to sleep. Patreon perks will be up tomorrow sometime.

Poll Results

With 92 voters and 117 votes, Kismet & Fool Me Twice tied (each received 31 votes). For the Broken Girl and These Small Hours were in second and third, separated by a few votes. Then, rounding out the results, Burn in Heaven and Malice received less than 10 votes.

When I opened the voting, my head was kind of pulled towards Malice and Kismet, thinking that Fool Me Twice, while ready to write, is a really intense ensemble story that might be better suited for the winter because the fall is so crazy on my schedule. I was curious to see where the readers fell in their interest. I’m not entirely sure why Malice got so few votes considering it’s a sequel to a story that a lot of people have told me was one of their favorites, but it might have been the scene I posted. I wanted to post a Liason scene for all the options, but that story might have been better served if I’d given you the Zander/Brenda scene that ends the chapter.  Maybe that scene was just too sad.

Either way, Kismet and Fool Me Twice are my next writing projects.

Fall Writing Schedule

Kismet needs a bit more work before I start drafting — I have the Plot Sketch for Act 1 done. I have to finish Act 2 & 3’s Plot Sketch, then do the chapter breakdown. September is super demanding on my time and my energy. It always takes some time for me to shift back into the grind of teaching, so I wanted to be sure I picked a project where I could make progress without losing momentum. I kind of always knew I wasn’t going to pick Fool Me Twice, especially once August got away from me. I didn’t get enough of my school work prepped (I have to write two units — the student materials and the teaching slides) to really dive into FMT.  But I still wanted everyone to read the samples, and I wanted to dip my toe back into writing this world, since it will be next.

Here’s the schedule for the next four months (I’ll have a video out later this month).

• September: Editing Beta Draft of Counting Stars (Deadline: September 30); Discovery Draft, Kismet (Deadline September 20).
• October: Editing Posting Draft of Counting Stars (Deadline: October 31); Alpha Draft, Kismet (Deadline December 31).
• November: NanoWriMo
  • I have two four-day weekends in this month, so the hope is to really push Kismet writing. Ideally, I’d like to finish the draft, but it’ll depend on what October looks like.
• December: Completing Kismet.

Flash Fiction continues on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. At least for now. We’ll see if we need to adjust.

In 2023, tentatively —

January – March – Fool Me Twice Alpha Draft, and editing Kismet.  Also prepping a project for April NaNoWriMo.

Release Schedule

• November-December 2022: Counting Stars
  • Firm Publication Date: November 7. 3-4 Chapters a week until completion. Should take most of these two months, might go into January.
• April-June 2023: Kismet
  • Depends on writing/editing.
• Summer 2023: Fool Me Twice, Book 2

Thanks to everyone who voted and read the samples! I wish I could write them all right now, lol. There are definitely times when I miss those old days when I would write, then post and had a few stories going at once. I think, overall, we’re all happier that I don’t start posting until the book is complete.

Update Link: The Last Time – Scenes 24-26

Happy Saturday morning! Since I updated like eight hours ago, not a lot to report here, lol. I did finally update the Recent Updates page, so it’s current through yesterday. I want to edit some of the styles so it’s little more readable, but I’m going to try to do better to keep that updated. I was doing okay for a week, but I stopped after the first week of August when my month took that, uh, nosedive, I guess we’ll call it.

See you tomorrow for another update to Scars!

Update Link: Scars – Part 21

Oof, two days back and I am exhausted! And a bit frazzled — most of our supplies didn’t get delivered, so my classroom isn’t set up yet. And for some reason, it’s my job as an advisory teacher to track down locks and find enough lockers in my hallway to assign to my kids. (Why this isn’t something that just gets assigned for us, but whatevs), and dealing with the existential fear that my copies might not be made because our district makes us give the copies to  a separate person, and they haven’t hired anyone for it yet (apparently, it’s a union thing, we can’t do our own copying, it is the DUMBEST thing I have ever heard in my whole damn life). I feel like I ran around all day and got nothing done.

Anyway! We’re kicking off our new Flash Fiction fall schedule. I haven’t done a Friday flash fiction in years, so let’s see if we can manage it. I usually drag myself into Fridays. I’ll be back tomorrow morning with The Last Time, and then Scars gets updated again on Sunday morning.

I have to update the Recent Updates page, which I promise I will do at some point.

Thanks for all the votes in the poll so far! I’m pretty convinced which project I’m going to work on, but I want to think about it a bit more before I pick it. See you tomorrow!

This is annoying, because I’ve used Opinion Stage for AGES and they’ve messed with their free plan. I could only have 25 responses. So I created a new poll with my plugin, and added in the votes from the last poll so that no one has to vote again.

Excerpts: These Small Hours | For the Broken Girl, Book 2 | Burn in Heaven | Malice | Fool Me Twice, Book 2 | Kismet (NEW)

All six stories have been posted! If you are a Patreon or you purchased the sample chapter bundle, check for the updated list of chapters. If you’re interested in getting access, the bundle is $2.

Which story do you want to see me work on for the fall? I’m not guaranteeing that the winner will be the one I choose, but I’m kind of torn between a few of the projects, so you might help push me over the edge.

ETA: Had to swap out the poll — I had 25 votes on the old one which apparently is the max allowed on the free plan, so I used a different service and added in the old votes. You don’t have to vote again.

 

Update Link: The Last Time – Scenes 21-23

Excerpt: Fool Me Twice, Book 2 – Chapter 39

Welp. Here we are at the end of my summer vacation. I’ve already reset my alarm for 5:15 AM (which is UPSETTING), and packed my school bags ready to head into my classroom tomorrow morning.

I’ll have an update for you guys tomorrow — the last sample chapter for Kismet. But it won’t be up until later because I have *sob* work, so I can’t finish it until after 1 — so it looks like you get to keep your daily updates a little longer 🙂

See you tomorrow!

Update Link: Scars, Part 20

Sample Excerpts: These Small Hours – Chapter 1 | For the Broken Girl, Chapter 33 (Book 1 was 32 chapters) | Burn in Heaven | Malice

Felt a bit scattered today — didn’t sleep well and my jaw is always sore when that happens. And my principal kept sending emails! Like, dude, I know my vacation is almost over. Honestly, he shouldn’t be allowed to contact us outside of contract hours. (I know I could just turn my email off, I have issues.) Anyway, I did manage to work on the colors and tweak the layout for the Fool Me Twice subsite.

See you tomorrow for the last day (*sob*) of summer. I might do the update in the morning so I can mourn the end of my spare time properly tomorrow night. Relinking the excerpts for anyone who missed them. Hopeful to have another one up tomorrow.

Update Link: Invisible Strings – Part 10

Sample Excerpts: These Small Hours – Chapter 1 | For the Broken Girl, Chapter 33 (Book 1 was 32 chapters) | Burn in Heaven | Malice | Unlock full chapters

After today, Invisible Strings goes on hiatus until October.

When I posted the first excerpt last night and set out the plan for daily updates to continue throughout the week with excerpts from the chapters I was using to pick the next project, that really was the plan.

And then, after posting, I thought I’d get a head start on today’s chapter, For the Broken Girl. I finished the whole thing. And then I wrote the entire chapter for Burn in Heaven (and accidentally posted it to the Site News category, which triggers the emails. And after that, I wrote Malice. I don’t even know anymore, lol.

Once I’d accidentally posted an excerpt, I decided to hell with a schedule, lol. Let me throw all four of them at you to keep you busy in case I don’t finish the last two chapters quickly (one of them is Fool Me Twice, and you know that story plagues me).

Getting them up early is actually going to work out for the best, since I’m going to ask you guys to vote on which story you want to read. I’m not guaranteeing the winner will be the project I pick, but I’m curious if you guys will pick out the one that I’m leaning towards (there are two, I think, that are in the lead right now).

Update Link: These Small Hours, Chapter 1 – Excerpt

Get access to full chapter and the other five stories going up this week for $2

For the month of August, I planned six projects to give me a lot of options for the fall writing project, then I would write a sample chapter for each to help me decide. I had always planned to release these samples to the Patreons on all tiers, and excerpts (my favorite scene) to the entire CG audience, so daily updates continue through next Sunday, even after my daily Flash Fiction schedule ends on Wednesday.

Since I’d had a few people contact me privately asking to make a one-time purchase for the copy of a draft, I looked into making that a bit easier for others who want to support the site and get access to early drafts. You guys already know about Counting Stars, the Alpha Draft.  I decided to find a way to open up these sample chapters for the same access.

I will always list the drafts at the price my Patreons pay. Since the Patreons on the lowest level ($1) have access and these will post across two months, I’ve priced the entire six story bundle at $2. Each day I will update the zip file and send you a special link to download/read the newest chapter.

Like I said, I will never paywall anything that would have been offered for free. These are chapters of a first draft, and one of these stories will be picked for my fall writing project, which means you’ll get this story sometime in the spring. Before Patreon, these would have stayed in my Scrivener files. There’s actually still a lot of stuff I’ve never posted.

I know it probably feels like I’m shoving this new feature down your throat trying to get money from you, and I’m sorry for that, it’s not my intention. Counting Stars was done last month, but I didn’t think of this feature until this week.  These offers should only happen once a month, or maybe even less. I’ve just always offered a ton of behind the scenes stuff on Patreon, and I’m looking for ways to give access to others who don’t want to do a recurring payment. I hope that you guys understand 🙂

Update Link: Watch Me Burn, Part 10

Purchase: Counting Stars, Alpha Draft

A reminder that the summer schedule ends on Wednesday! This is the last update for Watch Me Burn until Saturday, September 17. Next weekend, we’re launching the fall schedule.

• Friday, September 2: Scars
• Saturday, September 3: The Last Time
• Sunday, September 4: Scars
• Friday, September 9: Scars
• Saturday, September 10: The Last Time
• Sunday, September 11: Scars
• Friday, September 16: The Last Time
• Saturday, September 17: Watch Me Burn
• Sunday, September 18: The Last Time

See you tomorrow!