Your Update: Mad World – Chapter Twenty-Five.

I have some minor announcements and writing updates over at Crimson Glass’s main update post so check that out if you haven’t already.

Here’s your Thursday update: Mad World – Chapter Twenty Four.

August is a special month for the Liason fanbase, and following the #Liason20 hashtag at Twitter will keep you up to date on all the screencaps, videos, and memories being shared by active members. It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty years since that day in August when our favorite couple saw each other through different eyes — they didn’t meet on August 27 for the first time, but it’s definitely the day Jason stopped being just Emily’s brother.

I’m writing this on August 14, and it will be posted on August 15 — two landmark anniversary dates for us. The Vista Point Kiss in 2002 and of course the Night of Passion in 2006. I was spoiled for the NOP and wrote Choose Your Moment in anticipation, thinking that we weren’t going to get anything all that great. This was the one time when GH’s writing far out paced anything I could have written for Liason. Guza went above and beyond in those glorious scenes. A love letter to those of us who had waited for so long.

I’m nearly finished editing the posting draft of Mad World — I finished Chapter 40 today, and will get through four more chapters tomorrow. I was hoping to finish on Friday, but I ended up adding an extra chapter at the very end of the story which might end pushing my final date to Saturday.That’s no worry– that’s the date of completion on the Production schedule. I was just hoping for a day off, ha.

I start writing Fool Me Twice‘s alpha draft on Sunday, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m working on the chapter breakdown now as well as putting together a preliminary soundtrack. So far I’ve broken down 12 chapters — based on what I know is left, I’m thinking it might be around 30 chapters, give or take a few in either direction. It will definitely be split into two books, the second of which will be coming later in 2020 or 2021.

You can check out the soundtrack now on Spotify or YouTube if you’re interested.

Hey guys! It’s Monday, so that you means you get an update of Mad World. This is the first chapter I’ve labeled with a content warning for the final scene. You can skip that scene if you need to, or read half of it. There will be probably two or three other chapters labeled with a warning. For more details (and minor spoilers), you can check out the Content Notes page at the Mad World sub site.

In other news, thanks for the feedback on the Production Schedule and new Patreon tiers. I’m on schedule to begin the first draft of Fool Me Twice next Saturday, and I’m super excited about it. I’ve been breaking it down all week, and I’m actually looking forward to writing a story that requires a Sam POV. A lot of my recent stuff has all been set prior to her arrival in 2006, and she’s not been a major character in any of that. FMT will have four POVs characters I’ll be following, and Sam is one of them. I’m going to be trying for a sympathetic view of her, akin to the way I’ve written Courtney in A Few Words, Bittersweet, and The Best Thing.

A couple of housekeeping notes: The Currently Working status has been updated with the list of all the projects I’m scheduled to work with for the next four months as well as links to the Production Schedule and the Future Projects page. Future Projects (Coming Soon) has been reorganized alphabetically. I’m working on refining the copy.

I also created a GIF for Fool Me Twice to serve as the story’s featured image for CG.

I’m hoping once Mad World, Books 1 & 2 have been fully formatted into an ebook, I’ll be able to go back and work on ebooks for the rest of my backlist.

Enjoy today’s chapter and I’ll see you guys back here on Thursday!

Mad World – Chapter 23

I actually have a lot of things to say, so if you’d rather skip to the update, I’ll put that at the top and you can come back.

Mad World – Chapter 22

Production Schedule

I’m implementing a new production schedule at CG — giving myself six months with each novel length project. Two months to write the first draft, a month to read it over, another month for beta reads and revisions, and then a month for any catch up, formatting and what not. Giving myself six total months builds some leeway for getting sick, getting busy, etc.  I’m actually completely capable of writing an entire first draft in a month, but most of the time my life doesn’t cooperate with me, heh. (True story: I wrote both Book 1 & Book 2 in about three weeks or so)

So what does that mean?

That means that I am currently wrapping up Book 2’s production schedule, during which a few phases are overlapping. I finished the first draft in mid-July, and only gave myself two weeks for post-production work. That wasn’t long enough. I’d rather have been done everything so I could be writing the next project while I posted. I’ve learned a lot about my process, and I think this is finally the one that’s going to work best.

Mad World: All of Me will be completed on November 7, 2019. I am tentatively scheduling Fool Me Twice for January/February 2020. Below is a preliminary production schedule for the rest of the year, including release dates for Patreon supporters (which is the second part of my announcement.

August 2019

• August 17: Complete posting draft of Mad World, Book 2; Complete discovery draft of Fool Me Twice
• August 18: Begin writing alpha draft of Fool Me Twice
• August 24: Complete ebook of Mad World, Book 1 & Release to Patreon Crimson Fan Tier on 8/24; Public 8/31)
• August 31: Complete ebook of Mad World, Book 2

September 2019

• September 1: Release Mad World Book 2 to Patreon Crimson Adored Tier

October 2019

• October 20 : Complete alpha draft of Fool Me Twice
• October 22: Begin discovery draft of For the Broken Girl
• October 31: Release Mad World, Book 2 ebook to Patreon Crimson Fan Tier

November 2019

• November 7:  Last chapter of Mad World, Book 2 posted; Public release of book of Mad World, Book 2
• November 14: Begin writing alpha draft of For the Broken Girl
• November 30: Complete beta draft of Fool Me Twice

December 2019

• December 31: Complete posting draft of Fool Me twice

January 2020

• January 1: Complete ebook of Fool Me Twice
• January 2: Release ebook of Fool Me Twice to Patreon Crimson Adored Tier
• January 31: Complete alpha draft of For the Broken Girl

February 2020

• February 1: Begin discovery draft of Next Project (TBA)
• February 3: Begin posting Fool Me Twice

If this schedule holds, I’ll probably have, at best, a month break between posting Fool Me Twice & Broken Girl. I won’t know for sure until I know how many chapters each of these stories will be. I’ve created a production page that I will keep updates and explain some of the terms above. I’d love to be able to post three chapters a week or even a chapter a day which I can do if I can decrease the time between projects.

I’m going into this detail into my writing schedule because a lot of you guys are supporting the site through Patreon and you deserve more regular content updates. I’m in a position to offer a bit more stability now for a couple of reasons.  I finished graduate school which literally took over my life between classes, papers, and reading. I have a job with regular, steady hours that is going to allow me to schedule writing time every single day. With no night job, no graduate work, there are less demands on my free time.

Plus, my parents are moving out of the house we share and I’ll be taking over the house on my own. No interruptions!

Patreon Benefits to be Revised

This site costs about $25 a month to run, with an extra $10-15/year. In addition to those costs, I’ve also invested in a few pieces of software that keeps this site going, like graphics and web design. I’d like to branch into video editing at some point to make better promotional materials for my stories. (I love how The Best Thing‘s video came together, but the program I used is outdated and buggy now). Not only that, but I’ve been able to expand my GH DVD collection which makes it a lot easier to write and plan the stories as well as create graphics for them.

I’ve done a lot of this through the support of my Patreons who I absolutely adore. I hope they’ve found the benefit as well 🙂 Starting September 1, I will be revising the tiers as follows:

Crimson Fan ($1)
– New chapters posted every Sunday while I’m publishing a story. I usually post 1-3 chapters a week depending on story length. You’ll get the entire week on Sunday, before everyone else.
– You will get all ebooks a week before everyone else on Crimson Glass. I release these ebooks for free and am working slowly on converting my entire backlist into ebook form.

 Crimson Love ($3)
– In addition to the Fan benefits, you will also get the alpha draft of every story I write, except for flash fiction. The alpha draft is basically the version that exists when I type THE END. I haven’t reread it yet  which means there are lots of typos,  missing chunks, and chronologically inconsistent.

Crimson Devoted ($5)
– In addition to Fan & Love, you get the beta draft. This is the version of the story I’ve reread and edited. New subplots and scenes might be added, the prose is cleaned up. It’s not quite the posting draft, but it’s pretty close.

Crimson Adored ($6)
– This is a special tier. You are only charged when there’s a reward to be given. It is not a monthly charge. You can be a $1 patron all year, but then do a one time charge of $6 when is becomes available.
– Based on the production schedule outlined above, you’ll see places where I’ve singled out completing ebooks after the posting draft is done. On September 1, I will put Mad World, Book 2’s ebook on this tier (and the one above it) so you can get it two months everyone else gets the end of the story.
– Going forward, you will get the ebook even sooner — I’m scheduled to finish Fool Me Twice’s ebook by January 1. As a supporter on this tier, you’ll have access 4-5 months before everyone else gets the ebooks.
– Ebooks are really great for comfort reading — you can take my novels anywhere you go. Read my stories in bed, in a bubble bath, curled on the sofa, on car rides. It’s a lot better than sitting in front of a computer screen.

Crimson Obsessed ($10)

– You get Fan, Love, Devoted, & Adored tier benefits (without having to pay extra for the ebook on Adored)
–  I will also write a story of your choice.

You can always access my Patreon page by following the Support link in the header of the site.

That was a lot, I know! Heh. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask below! I’m really excited about all the changes coming this year and next!

I spent the weekend working on revisions and managed to finish up five more chapters. The first fourteen chapters required more work than the last seventeen or so just because I substantially rewrote two early subplots and added some more scenes I felt were missing. I already scheduled both chapters for this week — today’s and Thursday’s.

I know I said I’d have another sample chapter up for a second poll, but, ha, a funny thing happened. I wrote the Fool Me Twice sample and, um, I want to write it. I started working on the plot sketch and it’s looking like it might be about as long as the first two books of Mad World which means I think I might break it into two books overall.

If I break it into two, I’ll work on Broken Girl in between. That is…also a really long project that might end up as two books because of the narrative I planned. Right now, those look like the next two major projects. I won’t know what kind of schedule or release date until I dig into the draft. I still need to work out the subplots and timeline which I’m going to be doing at the same time I finish Book 2 revisions. Hoping to start writing by mid-late August.

Remember as you read Book 2 to note what characters you’re enjoying. I’ve written some bread crumbs in for Book 3 so I have lots of options. I have my Liason/Carson story, so I just need to fill out the rest of it.

Enjoy this week’s chapters and remember to reply and leave a review!

Chapter 21

Thanks for all your patience since I finished Book 1 in December. I know a lot of you have been looking forward to this release, and I’m so glad it’s coming out on time. I finished the first draft on July 12, but a ridiculously awful illness held up pretty much all of my revisions. I’m still finishing up some changes and rewrites, but the story itself is relatively done. It clocked in at about twenty-eight chapters, about 250 pages, and 145k words. It’s…long. And by the time I finish some of those revisions, I might add a chapter or two.

Thanks to Ang and Cora for the beta reads and typo searches.

The chapter numbers with Book 2 pick up where Book 1 ended, so please enjoy and respond to Chapter 20.

I cannot believe I finally get to schedule this update! I’ll be posting new chapters every Monday & Thursday.

I finished the first draft and preliminary edits on July 15, but I got super sick right after and wasn’t able to finish revising and rewriting some of the scenes. That’s not going to affect posting here but since I might be rewriting a few scenes right up against the deadline for another week, I will only be posting the chapters here at the site. It’s easier to update and fix any missed typos if they’re on one site. It should be done in another week or so.

A lot of thanks to Ang and to Cora for reading this over and for all of you that have kept up with the site and left reviews for Book 1. I’m excited for you guys to see where I take the story.

Book 3 is loosely plotted already, but a lot of the details and subplots haven’t been developed yet so I’ll be interested in what characters and stories you like in Book 2 which has more of an ensemble feel. I hope you like this!

Chapter 20

Hey! So the poll closed on Sunday night with For the Broken Girl and Fool Me Twice taking about 70 of the overall 122 cast. I was going to do a run off of the top four choices, but honestly — both those choices accounted for more than 50% of the total vote. So today, I’m posting a sample first chapter of Fool Me Twice, tomorrow you’ll get Broken Girl (a different version than last year’s), and then I’m posting Chapter 1 of Mad World, Book 2 on Thursday. The new poll will go live at the same time.

I hope you enjoy this sample chapter.

Fool Me Twice – Chapter One

So I’ve been trying to think about what to write next, but I like a lot of the story ideas I have and nothing is really jumping out at me. So here’s what I thought we’d do. Like last year, I’m going to run a poll, but this time I won’t put EVERY possible story in here. Just the ones that are fully-fleshed out and are ready to be written. Last year, you guys picked Counting Stars. I feel really bad about pulling back on that story, but it just wasn’t fully baked as an idea and no matter how much I put into it, I couldn’t make it come out just right.

It’s still on my list of projects to work on, but this time, I’m only giving you guys story options that have a full outline already done. So what we’ll do is two or three rounds of voting. The first will run for about three or four days (that’s as long as it usually takes for the votes to mostly get in.) It’ll be all the options.

And then we’ll narrow that down to either four or two options, depending on the vote counts. If we go with four, we’ll have a third round of voting that narrows it down to two. Last year, I posted sample chapters for the top four. We’ll do that again this year.

The poll is listed at the top. It opens now and ends on July 28, at 11:59 PM. You may select two answers.

 

	For the Broken Girl Set Spring 2006. Jason and Elizabeth are both in committed, if unhappy, relationships; any thought of romance lost since done. They’re barely even friends these days. That all changes when Sonny and Emily start having an affair and psychotic Manny Ruiz begins working at the hospital. Jason and Elizabeth are soon falling into old habits, leaning on one another for support. At the spring carnival, an anonymous shooter guns down Lucky’s partner and leaves Sam hovering near death. Jason is forced to make painful choices that Sam might never forgive him for. What’s more, he learns the true motive behind the shooting—one that will rock Elizabeth’s marriage to its core. When Lucky’s choices sends Liz packing with her young son after months of misery, addiction, and anger, walking out on him may be her most dangerous choice yet.
	Kismet Set December 1997. Jason is the newly minted, inexperienced leader of the Port Charles underground. Elizabeth is the black sheep nursing student at General Hospital. They meet over the bleeding body of Nikolas Cassadine, the victim of a drive-by shooting at Luke’s Club that might have been targeted at Jason. When they both end up at the PCPD, arrested for simply breathing, the attraction between them is immediate. But it’s never that simple, and Jason has a lot of baggage—an ex-girlfriend he might still be in love with, the ex-friend with benefits who is about to drag him into another crazy scheme, the woman his best friend stood up at the altar on his way out of town, and the controlling family still desperate to drag Jason back home at any cost. Can Elizabeth see past all of this drama and give Jason a chance? Or is there just one too many secrets to deal with?
No Image Yet	Malice Set Summer 2003. Sequel to Bittersweet. Jason and Elizabeth have been living and traveling in Italy for months, with minimal contact with friends and family. A devastating personal tragedy sends them home to Port Charles where they discover that nothing is what they expected. AJ and Courtney seem to be headed toward divorce, Gia is dating Sonny’s new smarmy lawyer, Carly is pregnant again, and Sonny’s dating someone new to Port Charles, a young woman named Sam that no one seems to like all that much. Before they know it, Jason and Elizabeth are neck deep in the drama. Then Emily gets a cryptic call from her ex-boyfriend, Zander, who needs help with a rescue plan. Can he be trusted? Can they afford not to when they learn the identity of the hostage? Jason and Elizabeth left Port Charles to escape the crazy, but are they strong enough to face the danger still to come?
	Feels Like Home Set in June 2024. It’s been more than a decade since Elizabeth Morgan vanished without a trace, leaving behind a devastated husband and three small children. A botched, biased police investigation quickly turned the case cold. Now, her children are reaching adulthood, and friends and family are encouraging Jason to declare her legally dead and move on. But Commissioner Lucky Spencer’s last ditch attempt to find his childhood sweetheart reveals the existence of a mysterious woman, a survivor a serial killer who has suffered amnesia and memory loss since her rescue. Is Corrine Markham really Elizabeth Morgan? Are her memories still locked away somewhere? Or is it time for the Morgans to let go of the dream of reuniting their family for good? Rewrite of Tangle
	These Small Hours Set Fall 2008. The attempted murder of Kate Howard on her wedding day sends shock waves rippling throughout Port Charles. Sonny swears out revenge on Johnny Zacchara and his family, creating headaches for Jason, who recently replaced Sonny as the local godfather. Sonny going rogue is the last thing Jason needs after going public with his engagement to Elizabeth. A shootout on the docks changes the power dynamics at play when Johnny ends up marrying Nadine Crowell to protect her from his family and Sonny. Jason and Johnny will have their hands full trying to keep everyone safe as Sonny’s desire for revenge clashes violently with the the Russians and Jerry Jacks making a play for the territory.
	Burn in Heaven Set Summer 2007. A sequel to A Few Words Too Many. Four years after Ric Lansing’s reign of terror, Port Charles has moved on. Jason and Elizabeth are married now, struggling to balance their careers, their relationship, and two active young children as a newly single Sonny flits from relationship to relationship, piling work on Jason. Everyone is blindsided when Brenda, working in Rome, is injured in an acid attack, a seemingly random tragedy. But Faith Roscoe has never forgotten the wrong done to her. She returns to exact her revenge on Jason and Sonny for the death of her husband. She will take their lives apart, piece by piece. No one will be safe from her wrath. By the time they see Faith coming, it may be too late to stop her.
	Signs of Life Set December 1999. No one even knew they were friends until Nikolas Cassadine announced Jason and Elizabeth were sleeping together at the annual hospital Christmas Party, and now, suddenly everyone wants to weigh in on the subject. It’s not true, of course, but that’s never stopped Port Charles before. At first it’s amusing when her grandmother and his sister pass judgment, but things quickly get serious when Anthony Moreno’s body surfaces in the Port Charles harbor, and their fictional relationship might be Jason’s only chance to stay out jail. Elizabeth can alibi him, and after all, only Bobbie and Carly know he was shot. They’re not telling anyone, right? Until Carly decides she needs Jason’s help to get out a yet another desperate scheme and promises to use any leverage she can to force his hand. No matter who gets hurt in the crossfire.
	Fool Me Twice Set October 2017. In the wake of the explosive revelation that Jason Morgan had a secret twin who was sent to Port Charles and implanted with his memories, the residents of Port Charles attempt to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and seek out answers and retribution for the wrongs done to them. Drew Cain struggles to balance the answers he finds about his past with the future of his fragile marriage. Sam, eager to prove to the world that it’s not just about the name, leaves newly returned Jason in the dust, and clings to Drew while Jason tries to rebuild his life on the ashes of the old one, including the sons he never knew. Elizabeth grapples with secrets of her own as she tries to navigate her rocky relationship with reformed serial killer Franco and old loyalties to Drew and Jason. Someone has to pay for the lives destroyed by the twin swap and memory experimentation, but in Port Charles, sometimes it’s hard to tell friend from foe.

 

Looking forward to your answers! The first chapter of Mad World, Book 2: All of Me drops on Thursday, August 1!

Hey! I updated the layout. One, it desperately needed it. I always intended to come back and make a better header image so with Book 2 coming in August, it seemed like a natural time to just give the whole thing a refresh. Let me know if any colors don’t work for you.

I cleaned up the Cast List page because there were some typos and also posted the skeleton page for Book 2 so I can start creating the cast list and getting it ready. It will premiere August 1 and will be posted for about three and a half months on Mondays & Wednesdays.

Feedback is going to be really important in this second book because I haven’t done much with plotting Book 3. I’ve got a huge ensemble cast for Book 2 (but don’t worry — Jason & Liz are playing big roles and all the stories come back to them at the end) so I want to know which characters and stories you want to see more of in the third book.

I’ll be in and out, posting content and tweaking a few things. I also added a subscription box so that you can subscribe to updates here. If you’re already subscribed at Crimson Glass, don’t worry — you’ll get updated there. But if you’re only interested in Mad World updates or you want to make double sure you don’t miss an update here.