SO very busy

Yup been writing like mad. I have 18 stories going through editing, adding chapter headings, formatting and cover creation. Which feels good as you can imagine. Only thing is in today’s world you need to put in disclaimers, spice level and trigger warnings. Something else I have to figure out along with blurbs and teasers for social media. it is really never ending. Honesty the easier part is the writing. Even the editing isnt so bad since I use two different computers for it with two different word programs. If I could get the online editors like Prowriter or grammerly to work on my old as the hills machines it would be better but we do what we do right?

Now I will be using my other writing blog to post up first pages of everything as I want to pea interest. Both in my older series and the new ones I have started. After going through and condensing the over 20K worth of files I then started placing work into series One bad habit I had was making back ups in new folders instead of just over writing the old ones. It made finding things oh so much fun, not.

So stay tuned. i might even post up full first chapters, depending on the stories.

Now as for the series. I have a lot of new Guardians stories. They are set in both Nashua and Barrie with a few in the background for Manchester. I will be putting up a reading order on the stories for that very involved universe soon. I realized that having over twenty stories set in the same universe it might be wise to give a reading order. Never mind all the pending ones. That universe I made is quite a bit bigger than I intended way back at the turn of the millennium when I wrote Harry’s first short story. Who knew that a little halloween story would go so far right?

Now the new series I have are both filled with erotic elements, so not to be read by kids. Games of Rebirth as stories based very loosely on video games I have played over the years. A big theme in them is your character coming back to life after all. So I started tales that just poured out. There are three in that series that as mostly finished. Now they are not a shared world really. The thing that ties them together is the fact that the main characters are reborn into a world that is not the one they died in. These are an adult looking at the fact that being reborn into a healthy and strong body is going to do more than run around doing quests. It is not the main foucs of the stories of course but I get to explore a lot of themes that I don’t in my other work.

The second new series is Angel City stories. A fictional west coast series filled with beings living under the radar. shifters, weres, fae of all kinds, living vampires, gods, demons and more. I have four in various stages on this series. Not as erotic as the Games series it is still filled with lots of spicey parts, so no kids.

As I work through my old backlog of story ideas new series will come about. In fact I have three romance tales all set near the sea that I am trying to come up with a good series name for. Never mind my Angels series, Fantasies in fur and the others.

I have noticed the older I get and lets admitit I am almost sixty, the more I add romance to my stories. Not because it might help them sell, but because that is where the stories go. Yes I would love it if one of these series took off and sold a few hundred if not thousands of copies, but for you ten or so faithful readers You can expect a lot more to read. Thanks again for being aptient with me after I had those years of sickness and lack of drive.

Flash fiction: The Golden Glow of Home

Standing below the skeleton tree I looked up at the golden glow coming from the window. It had been too long since I left her side, wandering the world in search of my destiny. So many miles of road beneath my feet, yet my path brought me back here, ending up in the place I had started.

It had been winter when I walked away, the world blanketed in soft white that reflected the glow from her window. She had sent me away, angry at my choices. I swore then I would never return. Spring had found me far away, yet my heart harked back to that window, longing curling in my belly for her sweet face.

I fought my way through summer, splashes of red staining the bright green that flowed across fields. Men and boys dying meant less to me than the home I could have had. The song of a single bird echoed with my memories of home.

Fall called me back, the dying of the colors bringing memories of times lost. Finally I came back to where I started, standing here working up the courage to climb those stairs and ask if I could come home.

zooming along or am I?

When working on a new story the speed the story flows is important.  As you readers know I write mostly short stories but I have been working on longer pieces of late.  With one novel coming out next week, I decided to start working on my next book seriously this week.  Some days I flow really well with typing up over 3K at a shot and other days I sit back and struggle to move forward to the next scene.

In Where Angels No Longer Tread I had started this story as an erotic tale but as quite often happens when I really settle down the story evolved.  Yes it still has two scenes so far of really erotic content but I am working now on chapter eight.  This story has rolled around quite quickly.  At the moment I think too quickly.  I am only at  22K yet I can see the ending in sight.  Time to slow up and that is the hard part.  How do you go from fast moving action to a slower more introspective section without seeming like you are padding your story?  This is the part that I struggle with.

Many authors tell me that they have an issue with doing a tighter, less hefty story and it is the opposite with me.  This is where I sit back and try to fill things in.  Back stories are rather important to the type of story I am writing.  Paranormal romance is a huge genre but as I write this I am wondering if I am really doing a romance?  Yes i have two lovers, I have introduced both a second male and a twist that I didn’t see coming myself but the story is building more like some of my other fantasy works.  So if there is a lot more fantasy than romance can I still call this a paranormal romance?

I am taking the day today to sit back and think about how I want this story to go.  The mystical part of the tale has come up and slapped me in the face again and that twist I mentioned has made for a bit of confusion.  This is actually fun!

What did I do with my umbrella?

Yeah walking every day is good for you.  Gets your muscles warmed up (um sure it does) gets the heart pumping and today got my joints yelling.  The rain that I was hoping would hold off till after I got back from the walk to school was coming down hard this morning.  My umbrella has decided it needed a vacation somewhere warm so I came back pretty drenched.  And I thought my joints were made before I left!

Yeah that is way I have been a bad writer.  I haven’t blogged like I should, haven’t written like I should or pushed my work and anything I should be doing.  Been aching and cold but well I am planning on pushing through it today and getting some work done.  Yes I have actually been working on Sudden Disappearances.  Right now there is over 12K in words typed up, so it is moving along good.  I had to do a lot of research for this one.

Now the research in writing fantasy is an odd thing.  You need to look up myths and monsters, cultural stuff and weapons.  This can be fun and hopefully not put you on the radar of a government agency.  After all I am a pacifist except in my stories.  Yeah if a troll decided he wanted to eat my kid I would turn into the mother monster from hell but in general I keep my weapon work in fictionalized form.

But the hard part about research is trying to pull up reminders of what a neighborhood is called and where the exact boundaries are.  Since I am writing this series set in my home town I like to try and have some of it accurate.  Course the problem is pulling up a good map with things like the streams, rivers, ponds and parks on it.  Then remembering what neighborhood is called what.  Since I no longer live in my hometown I can’t just go take a drive around town and look for the signs.  I have to go online and pull up google maps and other searches.  Which can be good but not as good as being there.  I have seriously thought of asking old friends from back home to do a drive around, take photos of the signs and email them to me.  Heck that wold be a grand idea if anyone had the time.

I was pretty stuck on how to bring the connection together of two different cultural creatures in my story but wham it came to me while I was out doing the weekly shopping.  Surprising when things come to you.  You can be sitting on a bus, or walking in the rain or best yet taking a nap!  You never know when a connection will hit you.

Now I admit part of my issue this past week is that it is the first part of the month.  All the wonderful sales I made last month have been wiped off the charts and I have to wait for someone to be interested enough to pick up my titles. Took until day before yesterday so I was feeling rather in the writers dumps.  You writers know that is the time when you doubt yourself.  You doubt that anything you are writing is being seen by anyone, liked by anyone.  That you think why the hell am I doing this to myself.  Yeah I go through this almost Manic depressive episode once a month…no I am not manic depressive nor am I making fun of those who are.  I know it is a real illness and I know people who are living with it but I do go back and forth in my writing.  There are times I get all angry or weepy or just plain non-motivated because it seems why bother.  But then I get this idea, this wonderful you will write me or i will never stop bugging you idea and I am off to the races again.

Writing is an addiction that is both good and bad.  Mostly good because it allows you to express things you think and feel or tell stories of things you wish were.  It is a way for those of us who don’t talk a lot (yes I do talk people, just most times I can’t get a word in edgewise around my family and friends) so I write.  Poetry for those hard emotions and stories for other things.

Now back to Harry.  I totaled up the stories I have on Harry and realized that when I finished this current story I would have enough to do a collection.  No it shouldn’t be a concluding story to his tales because Harry will have many many many tales but enough for those readers who wanted a paperback before they read him.  Yes I have been asked for one.  So once this is done I will be working on different covers. One for the tale as a stand alone, one for the ebook collection and one for the paperback.  I think the collection will be called Harry’s Tales, A Guardians of the Gate city book.  After all I have side stories that will be told about other guardians in the Gate city.  Jackson has a story that is partially written that is just Jackson and I have Daniel and Maeve, two others who will be working to protect the city.  Then there is Angela, the stitch witch as some call her, Sheldon the dragon and a fun little side tale about Agnes helping some in danger creatures when Harry is out of town.  All fun and all set in Nashua.

Any of you wondering when i will do the next Loralil or Chaos Wars, dont worry I will.  Just not yet.  I need to finish up Traveler, The Price of Freedom and Whether to Save Face or Family first.  All three of those will be longer works and should hit a different audience.  Plus i have a sequel tale to Descents, my horror story in Gates to work on.  Next month I will find out if I get the rights to my Gates stories back or if I get a nice fat check.  Not sure which I prefer but at least if I get them back I can fix the editing issues and put them up as stand alones and or add them to a all ready existing series or make a new one.  I know that Descents and the sequel Man’s Roads will probably start a more horror type series and Seven Moons will be put into a series with Knight Protector of my fantasy romance stories.  Yes more series but it helps me keep track of ideas.

I have been reading lots of books but mostly by other established authors.  I should put together a section here of reviews of the indie authors I read so you can all lake a look at good books.

Fresh and brisk morning

Okay taking off yesterday to read and play games was a good down time.  Needed it.  I was getting way to wrapped up in my storyline for comfort.  Yeah it is a good idea to enjoy what you are writing but you need time to do other things and relax.  Pushing to get your characters through something can make the seem like they are being pushed.  I have the beginnings of a section with Avendale, a bit into her motivations and a bit into why she is so focused on controlling Jeffery.  Plus a few more hints about his mysterious background from before  she found him.  I know having a character who only remembers bits and pieces can be annoying to some but it will work out.  Probably should add a bit here and there about Jessica and Gregory but this is really Jeffery’s story.  There came into being in this paradigm, until Jeffery.
Realized after I had fiished up my spoiled time that I am behind on book trailers.  I mean five whole finished books, not counting A Water Grave which I am holding off for those pics from my daughter.  I need to do them for The Words That Bring Peace, Distance Means Little to Love, The Dream Wish, Endings and All That There Was.  Now four out of the five wont be an issue.  Distance…well that depends on if I go romancy or raunchy.  I dont know but I guess I will get them sorted out in the next few days.  Then a few more covers to do for the finished stories and oh yeah get the paperback cover to work for Endings so I can get that out.

So much to do, so little time till school starts.  Well back to work for me.