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.

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