I am checking in with the best of all possible news. I finished Fool Me Twice’s first draft tonight around 8 PM. Like — done. Last chapter. It’s a really great feeling because, of course, the hardest part of any draft, is just getting all the words out.  The final draft clocks in around 495 pages and 184k in Word, it’s about 180k in Scriv. If you’re a Adored or Obsessed tier supporter at Patreon, I uploaded the last four chapters tonight for you guys. All Patreons at $3 get the Alpha Draft on Monday.

I did a livestream that I meant to be for the Patreons, but I was so tired that I forgot to make it unlisted so I go into the details a bit and you get to see me all loopy and weird lol.  Other than that — here’s the road map for publication –

January 1 – Construct beta draft.

January 7 – January 31 – Write beta draft.

Feb 1 – 15 – Posting Draft.

Aiming for Publication Feb 16. It might also be Feb 23. It will depend on the beta draft work.

Over the next two weeks, I am not planning to do any creative writing. I will not be bring Flash Fiction back before January. I’m sorry about that, but I’m exhausted. I wrote 50k just in the last week, and 180 k in the last 78 days. I’m really looking forward to not spending a lot of time in my office.

What I am planning to do is to look over the flash fiction, reset the schedule going into January, and then also do some planning for Mad World Book 4 and Broken Girl Book 2. But, at the moment, I’m not even planning to do my usual holiday updates. I really just need the break, you guys. I wrote four novels this year because Mad World Book 4 has a draft that exists — most of you just haven’t read it yet, lol.

Sorry this post is messy, but I don’t want to do any of this tomorrow. After I’m done teaching tomorrow at 2:50, I’m leaving the office and not coming back until like…Sunday. LOL. I AM TIRED.

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Hello 🙂 So, I’m going to miss my FMT deadline by a day or two. I was hoping to finish up between December 14-16, but I had a minor issue this weekend and I lost two days of writing. On Sunday, all the pipes in my house got massively backed up, and I had to deal with the plumber, the city, and my dad to get it fixed, and they always seem to show up around the time that I usually write. So I couldn’t write on Sunday or Monday. It’s Tuesday, the problem is sort of fixed, or least that I can try to get back on track on the writing. If I get back to a chapter a day, I’ll finish on December 17. I’m hoping to manage an extra two chapters over the next few days — I usually can do this by just writing an extra two scenes or so every day. We’ll see.

I’m starting my next exploratory cycle with my students tomorrow, but I’m actually feeling super great about it. I’m completely prepared — I’ve even posted three days worth of materials so that all I have to do is show up for my classes until Friday which gives me all of my prep time to get ready for NEXT week. If that works out, I can use more of my weekends to relax and write. This is great, and what I’ve been aiming towards for weeks.

To thank you guys for your patience and support, I’m posting the opening scenes of the alpha draft — they haven’t been edited for typos or content and might still change. I’m giving you the very first scene as well as three scenes from the end of Chapter Two.

FMT Previews

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Hey — no surprises here I’m sure! Flash Fiction is officially on hiatus while I finish Fool Me Twice’s first draft. I made great progress last week, and then did my usual mid-draft reset where I took a look at what was left and reworked based on what I’ve rewritten and what I want to see happen. I ended up adding two extra chapters, LOL, so we’re at 34 and not 32. I’ve written eighteen chapters, so I still need to write 16. That puts me at roughly around December 11 to finish up, which isn’t terrible considering I got a new job, I was put on quarantine and just the general anxiety, LOL.

I’ll be back with Flash Fiction towards the end of 2020!

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Your Update Link: A Shot in the Dark – Part 12

It has been a crazy week, honestly, and I don’t know that it’s going to get any better. Let’s catch up 🙂 So – one, I tested negative. Super good news there. I kind of thought I would, but I was still a  bit nervous. I’m still on quarantine to be safe, but that’ll be over on Tuesday.

You guys know it’s been getting crazy here in NJ — today, my school district opted to go to 100% remote through learning through January 8. This is, honestly, a huge relief for all of us. We had another positive case late Tuesday night, and last minute remote learning for two days for just my school was crazy for parents and students, as well as teachers. I’m glad that my district is just making a sweeping decision — we are out and not even going to reassess until the new year. It gives all of us some certainty in a crazy time. ALSO! Teachers, right now, have the option of working from home which means I can continue isolating like I did last year which really does improve my own stress levels.

The other thing is that I got handed a class to cover for a few weeks and there was, uh, no lesson plans set up. I had to scramble to put together some science lessons. With parent/teacher conferences, I couldn’t write last night. But I’ve got the new science stuff mostly under control, so hopefully I’ll be back on track. I did write another chapter of Fool Me Twice this week, and I’m going to try to write two more this weekend.

This weird writing Flash Fiction whenever I want is gonna continue probably until FMT’s first draft is done, and then I’ll pause them to reassess. It’s 2020, y’all, we’re just trying to get to January.

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Your Update Link: A King’s Command – Part 11

Hey — not much to say in this update. I’m starting to get a routine back, but I have conferences tomorrow, so I’m not even thinking about it too much to be honest. This has been a weird month — my district just put out the “closing down is imminent so make a plan” and I’m just thinking about my cursed headphones.

Last year, in early March, before the world shut down, I ordered a new set of headphones for my classes for independent work. Delivery was delayed and my kids were very impatient. And then they finally arrived — on March 16, 2020. The day the district shut down. We never went back and headphones sat in my house, brand new and unopened.

This year, I didn’t bring them in right away. I waited — and brought them in on Thursday. Kids loved them, they worked great, and I went home on Thursday to work remotely on Friday, planning to return on Monday because that’s how this works.  Then on Sunday — I got the call that put my into quarantine.

So anyway, my headphones are cursed. See you guys on Friday for more flash fiction!

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Your Update Link: A Shot in the Dark – Part 11

Thanks for your replies yesterday.  I’m relatively hopeful that I’ll end up testing negative, but it’s been a strange experience. We had a staff meeting by Zoom where our principal was pretty blunt — – it’s looking like a matter of when. We found out exactly what standard the superintendent is working with, and as soon as our region tips into High Risk of community transmission, we’re shutting down. There’s some evidence that’ll be this week so I might not even return from quarantine. I don’t know yet, so we’re just taking it day by day.

I wasn’t able to work on Fool Me Twice just yet — obviously with things up in the air, it’s just hard to get back into a routine on that one. I’m hoping just to win NaNoWriMo and manage 50K this month. Trying to finish the last 19 chapters in the next fourteen days is just not happening. I’m going to revise the production schedule once we get a sense of what’s going on in the district. That’s not me justifying or apologizing for the delay because I think we can all agree that putting out anything is a miracle right now, LOL. That’s just me keeping y’all in the loop.

See you tomorrow with A King’s Command!

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Hey guys! Quick check in to give you an update on my situation. I wrote Flash Fic on Saturday and then a chapter of Fool Me Twice on Sunday, feeling good about things. Just around the time I was going to start prepping for the evening Flash Fic I was hoping to do — my principal called. One of my students tested positive for Covid, and because of the classroom we were in, I was exposed.  I’m on quarantine until next Tuesday.

I’m mostly okay — I mean, no symptoms which is good. My mental health is taking a strange turn because even though my brain is like — we were masked, so odds are in my favor and I’m fine — I also can’t quite turn off the rest of my brain that’s thinking of all the people I came into contact with (which is really just my dad and the guys at the car repair shop and people at school — so not like I was living wild). It’s just a different world than last year when we were all sent home early on and I was able to organize my life to literally stay inside until the worst of that first wave.

On the bright side, I don’t have students to worry about not being in the room with. My principal is supposed to be arranging work for me to do on my quarantine since I’m not available to do the building coverage I was supposed to be doing these next few weeks, but he’s probably a bit distracted by the world. I’m just taking it one day at a time. Tomorrow, I think my brain will be in a better place and I’ll be able to try and use this time more positively. For now, no flash fiction tonight but I will be writing tomorrow.

Take care, stay safe, and wear your masks 🙂

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Your Update Link: Not Knowing When – Part 9

Hello 🙂 Sorry for disappearing this last week. It was another tough one, to be honest. Some things happening at work — usual job stresses, end of the marking period, final projects — with the rising case numbers and more and more students on quarantine in my district — in my own classes. My county is spiking harder now than it did in April with the first wave. My nieces were almost clear of their quarantine, but my sister’s best friend tested positive and my sister was at her house for a while last weekend.  As I was typing this paragraph, I literally just got a text message from her — she’s negative. I’m so relieved, but it was weighing heavy on me.

I was lucky during the last two waves in NJ — I had already mostly finished Broken Girl by the time we closed down so I just had to edit. That was stressful with everything going on, but it got done eventually. With Mad World, that whole process was a mess, but because I wasn’t at work — I wasn’t feeling the same anxiety. I knew I was safe, I knew my family was safe. But we’re all back to work (at least my nieces and nephew are able to be back at home) and forced to be back in the world full of people who don’t wear their mask and socially distance. It’s just been harder to treat writing like an escape. I can’t really turn my brain off.

I don’t know if Fool Me Twice is going to be done by the end of the month. If I had to venture a guess — I’m likely going to miss that deadline and will need to revise my schedule. That’s okay. Every first draft is different, and it helps to know that the story itself is not the problem. It’s going well — when I can write, I do. And the story works. But I’m trying to work in the middle of a pandemic that’s affecting me. I didn’t have to work in a school in a mask the first time and actively face all the people who just aren’t doing the work of protecting themselves or others.

But — now that I know my sister is negative, it means my nieces will also soon be in the clear, and that’s everything to me. I finished up my cycle with my students and grades are done. It’s just clean up now with last minute work being turned in. For the next few weeks, I don’t have students and will be doing coverage for other teachers who are out. So my life should be less stressful. I mean — the stuff I can control and that is normal.

Anyway — I’m trying to get back on track. I’m updating Flash Fiction now, and I really would like to come back tonight with another short sprint for Signs of Life before updating the other two tomorrow with sprints.  Thanks for your understanding and patience. Stay safe, wear your mask, and take care of yourself and your families.

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Your Update Links: A King’s Command – Part 10 & Shot in the Dark – Part 10

So I technically wrote A King’s Command yesterday afternoon, but didn’t get around to updating the main blog. I think it got sent as an email anyway because I put it in the Site News category by accident. (Emails only get sent when I update the main blog to minimize how much I annoy you.) I got the results of the poll and, uh, overwhelmingly, y’all wanted to pause the story I like the most, LOL.

So I decided I needed to reassess my priorities a little bit, heh. I’m not pausing any of my flash fictions, but I am taking them off the normal schedule for a few weeks. I’ll update when I can in 20 minute sprints and I’ll pick the story that’s interesting to me. I’ll try to keep the updates even and not favor any one story, but for the month of November, we’re just gonna have to roll with the flow. I know the 20 minute sprints aren’t really as a good as my 60 minute efforts, but I think all four stories are far enough along that I feel better doing smaller bits. Shot in the Dark ended up with 30 minutes because I had the time, and I wanted to get to a specific point.

In other news, I’m back to writing Fool Me Twice. Patreons at the $7 & $10 levels are getting weekly updates of those chapters, and I’ve given them the first 11 chapters already. I’m gonna work on Chapter 12 today. My brain just wasn’t in it this last week for a lot of reasons. The election didn’t help, but there’s also Covid issues — BOTH my nieces were exposed to Covid  and are quarantined for two weeks. They’ve only been back in school for three weeks. This is the district where I was teaching last year, so I’m worried about former students. In my new district, there’s more cases every day, and my county is having the worst spikes so far. It’s a lot to deal with, and normally writing distracts me. It got me through the first six months. But there are just days when you can’t push out reality, and last week was that week.

I’m hoping that I’ll get back on track fully this week and make up for the three lost days. I’m still on track to complete by November 30, I just have to shift around a few things. I know that the pressure to meet deadlines are created by me, and for the most part, this community has been incredibly understanding. I love you all and take care!

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