Monthly Archives: June 2014

June 30, 2014 · 1:38 PM

Status Update

(I couldn’t think of a good title. Sorry.)

I have no idea what happened to my Friday post, but since it’s now out of date anyhow we’ll just skip it and you all can pretend you read something wonderful.

I did it. I got in 30 pages for the month of June:  I finished them last night (well, this morning) before I went to bed.

Next challenge?

The July session of Camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and, as usual, I’ve set my goal to 50,000 words. At least I have the first three days off, so I should be able to get a good start – providing that my computer cooperates.

I’m hoping to finish my current project (Book One of The Other Mages trilogy) and maybe get some progress made on Book Two.

I’d like to get Book Two finished before November.  (I’ve come to the realization that the trilogy is not going to be finished and released this year, at least, not unless I get a sudden burst of feverish “must write or my muse will eat me” energy.)

In August I think I’m going to do the “page a day” thing again, but my main goal for August is to finish the current revision of Sanguine and get it out to someone for a read-through so I can get it formatted and released so I can stop fussing over it.

Anyhow, those are my current plans, but you know how to make the gods laugh, right?

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June 29, 2014 · 12:33 AM

Sunday Excerpt — June 29, 2014

More from Sanguine, a science fiction novel (still in progress) with elements of semi-paranormal M/M romance.

(I am done with beta readers, and Sanguine is in next-to-final-edit stage, so this is still a work in progress and the following lines may or may not have been hacked and recombined and creatively punctuated to fit into 10 sentences.)

Gregor has just told Trini that Kaen is a vampire and that he is his Blood Slave.

 

She sat silently for a moment, and Gregor watched her, trying to gauge her reaction  “I felt so safe with him…”

“You are,” Gregor assured her.  “He would never force himself on you, would never feed from you unless you were willing.  He is not a Ferrastin.”

She took a deep breath.  “Okay.  So, I’m Chief Engineer for a Gay Vampire and his Blood Slave First Officer Lover.”  She shook her head.  “Makes me feel a lot better about some of the misfits I wanted to bring on board.”  She smiled up at him and he laughed.

 “So you’ll stay?”

“Are you insane?  This… this is the most… crazy and wonderful thing that has ever happened to me.  Do you think I’d leave because the captain prefers your blood to your coffee?”  She thought for a moment. “I’ve had your coffee, Gregor, and I think I’d prefer your blood, too.” 

 

Check out Sunday Snippets for great stuff from other writers.

My other novel, Song and Sword is currently available for Kindle and all other e-readers. 

Song and Sword cover

Available for Kindle at Amazon

and at Smashwords for all other e-readers.

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June 23, 2014 · 2:36 AM

I’m Writing!

Okay, so I didn’t write much, but at least it was something.  I added a little over a page to my current WiP.  That still leaves me pretty far behind on the page a day challenge, but at least I’m putting words into sentences.  Hopefully I can get another page or two added today, and then on my days off take a look at how many pages I need to do per day to hit my goal by the end of the month.

(I wonder if blog posts count for that?  With three blogs I should have several other pages worth of writing done!)

At any rate, I added to my WiP! Yay, me!

Granted, it’s not a major scene or anything.  In fact, it is mostly background information, but it is background information that serves to push the plot along another notch or two.

And the important thing is that it is words.

So, what got me moving again?

A sudden breakthrough?

Write or Die?

Nope.

A looming deadline?

Nope.

It was something that I should have thought of ages ago — I hand wrote a scene during my lunch break at work.

Sometimes, the old fashioned pen and paper is the best way to go.

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June 22, 2014 · 12:22 AM

Sunday Excerpt — June 22, 2014

More from Sanguine, a science fiction novel (still in progress) with elements of semi-paranormal M/M romance.

(I am done with beta readers, and Sanguine is in next-to-final-edit stage, so this is still a work in progress and the following lines may or may not have been hacked and recombined and creatively punctuated to fit into 10 sentences.)

Picking up from last week, Gregor is telling Trini that Kaen is a vampire.

 

“Do you remember what I told you about the Ferrastin?” Gregor asked slowly.

“Yes.”   Trini was suddenly alert, her expression guarded.

“Remember what I told you about the difference between them and their feeders, and real vampires and their Blood Slaves?”

“Yes, I remember.  I remember that you were trying to hunt down and kill Ferrastin, and that you were searching for a Blood Master. “

“Not just a Blood Master: my family’s Blood Master.  I found him.”

“The captain?”  There was a faint tinge of fear mingled with the surprise in her voice.

“Yes, the captain.”  Gregor watched her closely as she grappled with this information.

“He… He’s a vampire?”

“A true vampire,” Gregor nodded, his eyes never leaving her face.  “And I am his Blood Slave.”

 

Check out Sunday Snippets for great stuff from other writers.

My other novel, Song and Sword is currently available for Kindle and all other e-readers. 

Song and Sword cover

Available for Kindle at Amazon

and at Smashwords for all other e-readers.

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June 20, 2014 · 1:36 PM

Coincidence?

Like Gibbs from NCIS, I’m not quite sure I believe in coincidence, so maybe synchronicity is a better word, but…

As probably everyone who reads my blog already knows, I’ve been in a writing slump. There have been glimmers of hope, but nothing seems to be breaking me out of it and getting me into that feverish “must write and write and write and write” mode that keeps me up all night and gets me up early in the morning.

Well, it seems I’m not alone.  Two of the blogs that I follow have had posts about writer’s block this week.

Fictioner’s Net  is one and Ink Out Loud  is another.

So what is it with the sudden onslaught of wordlessness? Or at least, the pondering of wordlessness?

Summer doldrums? I know it’s been miserably hot up in my room these last three days and that makes it really hard for me to write. (I did get some more work done on my outline, though.)

Retrograde Mercury?  I know my computer has been sluggish and unresponsive, which makes it hard to write.  I get frustrated and yell at it and scare my rats.

Whatever it is, I need to get over it.  I think I might have to resort to Write Or Die to get myself moving…

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June 16, 2014 · 1:46 PM

Brainstorming With Myself

I’ve written before about 750words.com and how useful it is for writers.  It not only lets you get in the habit of writing every day, it is totally private, so you can rant about your day or work out plot problems or even use it to write a few scenes.

This past weekend I used it to work out an issue that’s been blocking my progress on Book One of The Other Mages trilogy.  There is an initiation scene pending – coming very soon in fact – and I have been at a complete loss as to how to handle it, so I used 750words to talk to myself. Somehow, putting my thoughts down in black and white (and in a format that I can read better than I can my handwriting!) helps me think through problems.

And think through it I did.  I have solved the problem of their final tests before initiation – one seemed unnecessarily cruel and the other I had no idea what it would be.  The cruelty issue has been resolved and I now know what D’Laron’s test will be.

Yay, me!

I also realized that I have quite a bit of work to do before I get to that scene – I need to lay some in-story groundwork for what is to come.

But that’s all right.  At least I know now what I need to do and have a bit more of a plan for how to get there so I can make an outline.

Which reminds me – I started jotting notes for one at work the other night.  I don’t suppose that any of you good folks have any idea what I did with it?

Ah, well, it wasn’t that great of an outline anyhow…

(On a brighter note, while searching for it I found notes I’d written to help me around a major problem in The Academy of the Accord series…)

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June 15, 2014 · 1:38 AM

Sunday Excerpt — June 15, 2014

More from Sanguine, a science fiction novel (still in progress) with elements of semi-paranormal M/M romance.

(I am done with beta readers, and Sanguine is in next-to-final-edit stage, so this is still a work in progress and the following lines may or may not have been hacked and recombined and creatively punctuated to fit into 10 sentences.)

Skipping ahead a bit from last week… Gregor’s friend Trini Valcour is on board the Sanguine as the Engineering Chief, and Gregor has convinced Kaen to let him tell her about what he is.

 

“I want to talk to you about the captain. There are some things about him that you should know because I don’t want you to be upset if you find out by accident.”

“You two are lovers,” she said, shrugging.  “Big deal.”

“Jealous?” he teased.

“Yeah.  He’s not a bad looking guy and, well, I like him.  I think he was sincere about wanting a crew of people who work well together — who like each other is what he wasn’t saying.”

“Yes, he means it, and, yes, we are lovers, but that’s not what I wanted to tell you about him.”  He took a deep breath, suddenly not sure where to begin, and Trini reached up and touched his arm.

“It can’t be anything bad, Gregor.  You would not put me in a situation that was bad.”

 

Check out Sunday Snippets for great stuff from other writers.

My other novel, Song and Sword is currently available for Kindle and all other e-readers. 

Song and Sword cover

Available for Kindle at Amazon

and at Smashwords for all other e-readers.

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June 13, 2014 · 1:30 PM

Spoiled

Sometimes I think I’m spoiled, like a kid with too many toys.

I have all these great ideas for stories and characters, and I want to play with them all, but then I get bored with them or tired of them, or they are broken and I need to fix them (they become “work”) and I want a new one.

Last night, I was even trying to rationalize starting one of the new stories that is kicking around in my head, telling myself that it would put the fun and joy back into writing.  But I’m hesitant to add to the stack of unfinished manuscripts on my computer.  I have talked myself down to just working on outlines for them (some of them don’t even have names for the main characters, for crying out loud!) because outlining isn’t the same as writing.

But on the other hand, outlining new stories is still distracting me from the things I should be working on: The Other Mages trilogy and The Academy of the Accord series.

And I know me… once I have an outline I want to start writing.

Maybe that’s the solution – maybe I should outline the rest of Book One of The Other Mages trilogy…  I’ve been pantsing this entire trilogy and that really doesn’t work well for me…

Off to outline…

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June 9, 2014 · 2:11 PM

Creativity Killers: Migraines

From time to time I’m going to do a post on things that kill creativity.  This time it’s migraines because I’m on day three of one.  (Well, day two and a half.)

It started on Saturday and since then all of my creative energy has been devoted to finding ways to keep the contents of my stomach in my stomach, and to preventing the metal band around my head from squeezing my eyes out of my skull.

On the other hand, the light show was pretty cool.  Yesterday morning when I closed my eyes there were little sparkles of light like a bunch of tiny fireflies (aka lightning bugs) behind my eyelids.  Kinda neat, but definitely not normal.

(Yeah, I know.  Neither am I.)

So, anyhow, not much the realm of writing or editing got done this weekend, but I’m hoping — since it’s not quite as bad today — that I’ll get something done on my days off.  I might resort to a trip to Northpointe tomorrow with editing bag, laptop, and Sanguine on a thumb drive to get the changes made on the word doc — better lighting, more room to spread out, and no internet distractions.

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June 8, 2014 · 1:01 AM

Sunday Excerpt — June 8, 2014

More from Sanguine, a science fiction novel (still in progress) with elements of semi-paranormal M/M romance.

(I am done with beta readers, and Sanguine is in next-to-final-edit stage, so this is still a work in progress and the following lines may or may not have been hacked and recombined and creatively punctuated to fit into 10 sentences.)

Introducing some other characters – and a few bits of Gregor’s past.

Kaen and Gregor are still on the station, making their way back to the ship when they run into an old friend of Gregor’s.   Picking up from last week.  Gregor told Kaen that it had taken a lot to get to the point that Trini trusted him.

 

Kaen studied him for a long moment.  “There is more to the story, isn’t there?”

Gregor nodded.  “I knew her from various jobs, mostly just a nodding acquaintance – like I said, she’s hard to get to know.  Then I ran into her on a station in the Dongali Asteroid Belt.”

Kaen frowned.  “There’s no station there.”

“Not anymore,” Gregor said, his voice quiet.  “The Ferrastin Station Master and his Blood Whores are now part of the belt’s space dust.”

Kaen shivered at the coldness in Gregor’s voice.  “That,” he murmured, “is a tale you must tell me someday.”

 

 

 

Check out Sunday Snippets for great stuff from other writers.

My other novel, Song and Sword is currently available for Kindle and all other e-readers. 

Song and Sword cover

Available for Kindle at Amazon

and at Smashwords for all other e-readers.

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