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.

Hey, just poking in to let you know that about an hour ago, I finished the first draft of Book 2. I’ve given it to the beta readers and will be spending the next two weeks or so working on edits and fine tuning it. I’ll also be working on the Book 2 layout for the website and getting the ebook for Book 1 finished.

I know it’s a long time between projects at the moment, but I think this way ends up working better. If I wait to finish the entire story before I start posting, you guys get reliable and steady updates. I prefer this to the long hiatuses 😛 I can’t wait for you to read Book 2, starting August 1!

Hello! If you follow me on Twitter, I said I’d be finishing this story this week after thirteen long years. It’s been sitting on the In Progress page since May 2014, so I’m glad to finally get it off my list and for you guys to get something new to read.  There’s a YouTube playlist that accompanies Come On Eileen, so check it out to truly enjoy the atmosphere of the complete fluff of this story.

In Mad World news, I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be posting Book 2 as of August 1 with new chapters on Mondays & Wednesdays. I’m still finishing up the first draft, but it should be done no later than July 15 (hopefully a lot earlier but that’s my complete deadline). I’ll be working on an ebook for Book 1 and and a new layout for the page.

Excited to finally start posting the next part of this story!

Hey guys! I’m still working out the right schedule to work flash fiction into regular rotation, but honestly most of my energy has been focused on getting into daily writing with Mad World. I got off to a slow start thanks to illness and technical issues. I’m happy to report that, thus far this week, I’ve written three chapters clocking in at 13k chapters total. I’m up to Ch 33, with seventeen to go. If I keep up this pace at a chapter a day, I’ll finish the first draft on July 6, which puts me in decent shape for an August release. I’ll keep y’all posted on how that’s going.

As to flash fiction, I got a late start tonight so I decided against working on a wrap-up to Fool Me Twice. I’m trying to leave myself an hour to wrap up the loose ends and put it back into novel development. So instead, we have a weird little idea I played with a long time ago but never posted. I hope you enjoy. It was written in 23 minutes and the ending is a little weird because I ran out of time and I honestly didn’t know how to finish it, ha.

Surprise Visit

When I was posting my new flash fiction yesterday, I realized how disorganized the Flash Fiction page had become. So I reorganized it by category and fixed it so that all the flash fictions I’ve posted have a place to go now.

I also went through and added all the Recent Updates from this entire year as well as finishing up December. I’m pretty bad at remembering to take care of that page, I know, heh.

In case you missed it, I did add a new flash fiction yesterday — an addition to the Desperate Measures flash fiction I posted back in March. That’s another idea I might take and push into a longer story at some point. I want to write a wrap-up flash fic for Fool Me Twice at some point so I can put that back into novel development.

Desperate Measures, Part 2

I hope you guys like the new layout! It’s simplified and I think the colors are easier on the eyes. I mean, it was to the point I didn’t even want to click on my own site, heh, so I can’t imagine you guys were happy with almost two years of orange and blue. I hope you guys like it.

I know I have to update the Recent Updates page. I don’t think I’ve touched it in months. It’s one of the small housekeeping tasks that has been neglected around here. I’ve been writing but I have had serious tech issues as my six-year-old laptop started to finally die. It’s still functional, but it’s crashed a few times.

The new one arrived yesterday and I’m hoping this will let me finally get into the full writing schedule I wanted to. I have written two more chapters of Book 2, and am working on completing Chapter 30 as we speak. I set a tentative deadline for June 30 which means I’d have to write a chapter a day to get it done. I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up that pace, but I’m going to try.

Anyway, I’m posting a follow up to Desperate Measures which I posted in April. I hope you like it! I really want to get back into a regular schedule of posting flash fiction, but to be honest, there are some days when I really don’t have any inspiration. If you have any prompts, please feel free to leave them in the comments!

 

 

I’m cleaning out my Scrivener files and while going through The Best Thing, I found two small scenes I had cut when I made changes to the story. Seeing them reminded me that I had never posted all the planning material and plot outlines for that story. So I put up a small series in the Workshop with my outlines, my thoughts, and my back and forth with Cora over some of the finer details. It includes the entire custody battle I cut as well, so if you’re interested, check out the Workshop (it’s at the bottom of the page) or click on the first post: The Planning Stages.

I’ve also blogged about my writing process at Dear Isobel, so make sure you’re keeping up there.