Update Link: Ricochet, Chapter 25

Happy Monday! I’m super excited for this week — I have a three day weekend coming up, and on Friday, it’s a short in-service day. Plus, I just got my hair chopped and I’m so happy to have all that length off. I’ve been keeping it long through the pandemic because it was just easier to get it trimmed. I chopped six inches, so yay for summer hair!

I’m also excited because somehow I managed to avoid rewriting my entire program for the last cycle. I thought I was going to be able to do it, but I was worried I’d crack over the weekend, LOL. I didn’t. This is awesome — this means all my prep is done. All my teaching materials are set. I can really relax and go with the flow for the last fifteen days of school. I’m even bringing my personal laptop to school to write on my lunch break.

In other news, I set a date for Flash Fiction to return as well as a tentative schedule. I plotted out the end of Signs of Life. That will be returning on Wednesday, June 16, my first day of summer. That will be posted twice a week – Wednesdays & Sundays at 11 AM (I’ll start my timer at 10 AM).

The second story is Scars, the final story in the Collect Your Regrets universe. It’s the story that Tania asked me to write a year ago. She wanted me to rewrite Tom Baker’s return, but for me to set it in 2016, I had to decide if I was going to ignore the Jason stuff or how I was going to handle it. I settled for reunited Liason in Part 1, then bringing Jake back in Part 2. Now we’re going to do the Baker rewrite to finish off the series.  That will be posted on Tuesdays & Fridays, also at 11 AM. The morning Flash Fiction really fit my writing energy the last few months, so we’re going to see how that works this summer. I wrote in the morning last summer as well, so I’m optimistic.

Other minor housekeeping: I updated the Alternate History page because I hadn’t updated Mad World listing or added the link for Fool Me Twice. I also updated the side bar for June’s projects and schedule and the Recent Updates page.

Update Link: Ricochet, Chapter 24

I hope everyone is having a great week! These upcoming chapters are some of my favorite — honestly, I really adore the back half of this story. I spent a lot of time in the first part maneuvering pieces around to really start telling the story I wanted to tell and we’re finally getting into the meat of the story. I haven’t had a lot of writing time, but I’ve written three of the ten flashbacks I need and I’ll have time this weekend to really dig into things. I managed to stop myself from rewriting my course materials again, so everything is set up for the next cycle that starts on Monday. I haven’t done a lot of work at home which is great so this week was really about just relaxing. Starting this weekend, I’m going to the hit ground running and really put away some chapters. I want to be done with this book so I can move on.

I’ll see you guys on Monday!

Update Link: Ricochet, Chapter 23

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend! I got the official contract renewal for next year so I definitely have a job next September. That’s really great news for me personally, so I’m looking forward to a summer without interviews, lol.

I’m also really looking forward to the next few weeks. After this upcoming week, I’ll be in my final cycle and I finally have the materials I want so that I won’t be working on rewriting things. I’ll be (hopefully) more relaxed and ready to get back into writing at night. I really missing writing in the evenings, so I’ll be happy to get back into it.

Enjoy this chapter, and I’ll see you on Thursday!

Update Link: Chapter 22

Happy Thursday! I’m so excited for you guys to read this chapter. It was added in revisions as I wanted to beef up the Sam/Krissy storyline, add more Oscar, and deepen the Liason connection. This is definitely one of my favorite Liason scenes in the story so far.

In other news, I finally got the official word that I’d be back next year teaching French! It’s going to be such a different experience this summer, knowing that I have a place in September and a steady paycheck. If I get my French certification by next April (which is the plan), I have a relatively assured position in the district. Teaching French wasn’t the dream, but I love my students so I can make this work.

I’ll see you guys on Monday for the next chapter!

Update Link: Ricochet, Chapter 21

I don’t have a lot of time this morning, so I’ll check in on Thursday with more news. The story is back, we’re posting on Mondays & Thursdays. See you then!

Update Link:  Not Knowing When – Part 16

Happy Sunday and Happy Mother’s Day! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I’m looking forward to this upcoming week for a few reasons, but mostly because Fool Me Twice is finally returning! Chapters 21-29 are edited and scheduled to post every Monday & Thursday through June 7. I’m hoping to have Chapters 30-38 ready to go by that point.

I’m also hopeful because I’ve finished writing the content for my class this year, and I don’t feel the need to rewrite it like I usually do at this point in the cycle. I also get the final word on whether I’m being asked to come back next year to teach (just waiting for the superintendent to sign off!) so a lot of things are going my way. I’m still struggling a bit outside of the professional stuff, but I’m talking through a lot of things in therapy and I’m trying very hard to be kinder to myself and set more realistic expectations for my writing.

This is the last Flash Fiction update until around June 11. By then, I’ll only have two days left in the school year (two half days where the kids will be jumping off the walls, LOL) so we’ll start working on a summer schedule.

I’m not entirely sure what project I want to work on after I’m done editing FMT. I had Smoke & Mirrors going, but there’s some hitches in the process that I’ll get into with another post or a vlog at some point. I’m toying with Mad World Book 4 because I think there are reasons I needed a break, but I also think there are reasons diving back into either that or Broken Girl will actually be good for me.

I’ll see you guys tomorrow with the return of FMT!

Update Link: Not Knowing When – Part 15

Where do I even start? This has been the absolute strangest year and I feel like I’ve bouncing around so much mentally. I’ll have a few good days and I’ll think I’m back on track, then I’ll have an entire week of just terrible days where getting out of bed is the worst. I’ve been trying hard to deal with it on my own, but honestly, it’s kind of beyond me to handle. So I started therapy through Better Help this week. I have a counselor who specializes in anxiety and stress and her first big piece of advice was to be more mindful and to set tiny, realistic goals that are attainable every day.  I thought I was doing that, but my idea of realistic is, uh, the opposite, LOL.

What does any of that mean for the writing? I’m not sure yet. I love writing, but it takes mental and creative energy that’s been difficult to find these days. Especially when I need to use a decent amount every day at work. One of the other things I have to work on is my constant drive for perfection in everything I do, whether that’s in the writing or in the materials I create for my students. You guys might remember that I walked into this job without zero preparation or materials. There wasn’t even a textbook or a program for me to pull resources from. The curriculum is pretty vague, so my program is one hundred percent teacher generated. Since I turn over every fifteen school days, I’ve been constantly rewriting it. This last cycle I finished on Friday was the best one yet, but there was one major piece of feedback from my students I couldn’t ignore — so I’m rewriting my materials one more time to create a full fledged textbook of my own that I’ll be able to build on.

I’m so happy with the end product of an entire year of experimenting but you might imagine it’s been incredibly stressful and exhausting to be writing my program every month at the same time I’m trying to deliver the content and write in my spare time. You also know that I tend to be my own worst critic and I never feel like anything I write is good enough. I made a resolution this year to be kinder to myself, and I haven’t been very good at keeping it. I’m going to try again and hope this time, I actually listen.

My plan for May is largely to finish what’s in progress. Not Knowing When will be completed next week, and then after that I’ll be taking May off from Flash Fiction just to reset and look at my two remaining projects to make some plans and a new schedule. I’m still not finished editing Fool Me Twice — I’ve been stuck on writing Chapter 30 (the last brand new chapter) and then after that, I have to finish the first round of edits on Chapters 31-38 before completing the second round of edits on Chapters 21-38.

I know it’s highly unlikely I’ll finish that before I’m scheduled to come back on May 9, so I’m adjusting my expectations. I’m going to finish the second edits on Chapters 21-29 and bring those back. We’ll be posting on Mondays & Thursdays, twice a week. I’ll have nine chapters, which gives me about a month of posts. About that point, I’ll be winding down my school year so I’m hoping to have finished enough chapters to keep posting through the end of the book. If not, we’ll deal with it at that point.

After I finish posting FMT, I’m going to take some time off — probably whatever is left of June and the first week of July. I’m going to rest from the year, reset, do some work around the house, and just try to figure how to devote time to writing without setting insane schedules (like writing three books a year, what is wrong with me, lol). I may be writing Flash Fiction during that period or I might not. We’ll see how long it takes to finish editing FMT.

As always, thanks for your support and patience! I’ve got a huge backlist of stories while you’re waiting for me to get myself together 🙂

I messed up the first time and it didn’t push out the update to the blog — so I opened up my Scrivener files to write and my brain said nah, and I briefly considered quitting writing (I don’t know why) and instead, I looked over my brainstorming file and then this happened. Spent about an hour and ten minutes or so. Don’t know what it is. Let me know if you want more.

A Weird Thing But You Can Read It If You Want

Hey guys! I don’t have a Flash Fiction for you today, and Fool Me Twice isn’t returning on Tuesday. The last two weeks have been a real struggle because I’m going to physical therapy twice a week right after work and it’s exhausting. I’m really sore and my neck really hurts sitting at my computer. I haven’t really been able to write or edit all that much.

I don’t have a Flash Fiction today because I spent all day with my family yesterday putting together a surprise party for my father’s 60th birthday and I am just so exhausted today. I do, however, think I should be able to have one next Sunday because I’m not doing anything on Saturday.

Fool Me Twice will be the weekend week of May, around May 11. I’m finishing physical therapy this week, so I’ll have the week after to get caught and get some work done. I’ll see you guys next week!

Update Link: Not Knowing When – Part 14

Running late today so no time to blog! I’ll be back next Sunday!