Chasing the Skies and Conquering the Skies - Available Now!

 

IT IS DONE.

I started my blog post of July 13, 2022, with that same exact sentence. (Yes, I actually looked something up!) A smidge over a year ago, I had finished up the actual writing of the Searching the Skies series and sent it off. Now, after editing and cover design and whatnot, the entire series has now been published. PHEW.

I'll get to the blurbs in a moment, but since this feels like a pretty big achievement, I'm going to take this opportunity to recap the history of this series, especially since I've picked up some new readers along the way. If we're going allllll the way back to the beginning, I might as well start in late 2010, which is when I got laid off from my then-job and got back into writing fanfic.

Fanfic was fun enough, but in time, I wanted to see if I could write something 100% original. E-readers and indie publishers were on the rise, and I thought I had a halfway decent shot at getting something published. By this point, I don't even remember where the original idea for Geneva's space adventures with her two doting men came from, but I wrote it in the fall of 2011. I submitted it to a publisher I had in mind...and was rejected. Not terribly surprising, actually. But I kept at it and eventually got a "yes."

And then I started learning how much I really didn't know, and I will forever be grateful to that first kind editor who started gently whipping me into shape.

The first edition of Searching the Skies released in 2012. I'd started working on my next book by then, since everything I'd read said the best way to sell your first book is to write a second. Even though I was focusing on other projects, my mind kept wandering back to Geneva & Co. When I plotted out the first book, one of my big concerns was how to make it realistic that Ash and Marcus would be willing to engage in this threesome. I had some ideas for a dramatic rescue mission, but since Searching the Skies was my very first book, I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew, so I abandoned that plot line and kept it simple.

Then I thought about revisiting the characters and making the throuple more "equal" - as in instead of Geneva always being in the middle, the two men engaging in intimate activities with each other. I combined that with the aforementioned plans for a dramatic rescue mission, and Defying the Skies was born. I admit that when I wrote my very first book, I had zero plans for a sequel, yet once I had the plot fleshed out in my head, I wanted to write it. The first edition of Defying the Skies released in 2013.

Back then, I did sort of have a rough outline for a third book, but a lot of other things were going on. First, I had other shiny new book ideas that I wanted to write. Second, I finished up my coursework for my career change and went back to work, leaving me with a lot less free time. Lastly, while the original publisher I was working with wouldn't shut down for another few years, by that time, I kind of saw the writing on the wall and had concerns about its future even then. I sent one more sequel to them (The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, the sequel to Disintegration) and decided that would be it.

Time passed. I wrote other things. I had two kids! (At the same time, but still!) As the years went by, somewhere in the back of my head, I vaguely remembered the rights reversion clauses in the contracts and knew I was approaching the point where I could request that. Again, though, I was working on other books, and while it was an interesting idea, it wasn't a priority. 

Then...the decision was made for me. The publisher was shutting down/being absorbed by another company, and unless we wanted our books relisted with the new company, all rights reverted back to us. Well, that turned out to be easier than expected, I guess. I was glad to have my books back with me, but I needed to figure out what to actually *do* with them.

I focused on rereleasing the Disintegration series first before revisiting Searching the Skies. And what I found...oof. OOF. Don't get me wrong, there was still a lot of good stuff going on in there, and I guess it's nice to see how much you've grown as a writer, but I was cringing all over the place. Like, a tiny part of me wanted to reach out to everyone who read the first version and apologize to them. It was painful. But, I sat down and got out the electronic red pen. It was tough at times, and I did consider giving up once or twice, but I wound up with a better version of my original book baby. Thankfully, Defying the Skies didn't need *as* much work.

The rest of this saga has already been documented more recently, but to wrap up this recap: I did write that third book, decided it wasn't a satisfying ending to an entire series, plotted out two more books, and offered the whole thing to Decadent Publishing, who I'd always enjoyed working with. (Really, they're great! I highly recommend them to anyone who's looking for a smaller romance publisher.) They accepted it, contracts were signed, and my first book and its sequel found a new home.

So, here we are. This has been a journey of almost twelve years. That's older than my kids. That's older than this website! It's kind of crazy and surreal to think about, but anyone who knows me will tell you I rarely give up on projects and I like to finish what I start. And today, the Searching the Skies series is officially finished.

Thank you for indulging me in that bit of rambling. As promised, here are the short blurbs for the last two books in the series!

Chasing the Skies:

Geneva’s new job as a private investigator leads Marcus to contact her when Adele witnesses some potential illegal activity at her office. She reluctantly agrees to look into the matter, all while fighting her lingering attraction to him and missing Ash, who has been deployed on a dangerous mission with the military. Can she keep her loved ones safe while navigating her new roles?

Conquering the Skies:

Big changes threaten to disrupt Geneva’s comfortable routines, forcing her to make significant decisions about the future she wants. Throughout weddings, new jobs, and travels to distant planets, will she finally find a place in the galaxy to call home?

All five books of the Searching the Skies series are now available on Kindle Unlimited!

To the Skies!

I've mentioned a couple of times over the past months that the first publisher I worked with has shut down, all the rights to my books have reverted back to me, and I had to figure out what to do with them. I took my planned writing break following the completion of A Flame Among the Stars, but then it was time to decide what to start next. As always, I had a number of ideas to choose from, but one possibility called to me the loudest: I wanted to finish off the Skies series.

To recap: Searching the Skies was my very first published book, featuring Commander Geneva Greyson and her attempts to balance her career goals with her family life, along with having to choose between two men who show a romantic interest in her. (Spoiler alert! She chooses both, and the three of them live happily ever after.) As this was my first major writing project that wasn't fanfic, I didn't really think too far ahead beyond "can I get something published?" I don't even remember what made me want to write a sequel, but I did, and it came out a year and a half after the first one. I did have plans to write a third book and had a pretty solid outline for it, but for a whole long list of reasons, it never happened.

So, here we are. Before starting the shiny new book, I wanted to go through and edit the first two. I'd skimmed through them back when the rights first reverted back to me, and I knew I had some work to do. As I wrote in a previous post, Searching the Skies was...ARGH. Ergh. Bleh. I guess if nothing else, it's nice to be able to say I've so obviously improved as a writer? Some of it was downright painful to reread, to the point where I almost want to track down everyone who read it and apologize to them. Honestly, there were points where I considered scrapping the whole thing, but if this were easy, everyone would do it, right?

I believed a good story lay hidden in there somewhere and slogged through to the end. Next up: Defying the Skies. While not flawless, I'm pleased to report this one held up considerably better. Sure, there were some errors that had been missed the first time around, and a few instances of lazy writing and awkward phrasing, but there were a few points that made me say "oh, damn, there's some really good shit in here". Us writers are often known for doubting ourselves, so those moments where the opposite happens are quite nice, I must say.

Okay, so the first two books are edited. Time to start the third! I started a new file two nights ago and I'm easing back into writing these characters I first created almost ten (!!!) years ago. But wait, there's more! As I said, I'd outlined the third book (and even titled it!), and it had a clear beginning, middle, and end...but then I realized that the ending I'd planned wasn't the most satisfactory, especially considering the series as a whole and comparing it to the previous two. I mean, it's an ending, in that it concludes the story the book tells, but I don't think I can leave off there. To make a long story short, I've decided this trilogy is now going to be five books long, and everything will be finished off with a pretty little bow on top by the end.

It sounds like a lot, and I definitely have my work cut out for me. I also have to decide on the best route for publication, and while I have some ideas/strategies, I need to get a bit more actual writing done first. For now, though, this is what I want to focus on, and I'm looking to more fun, sexy space adventures. Because I firmly believe the world can always use more of those.

Structure/Pacing in Romance (specifically THOSE scenes)

I'm still happily chugging along on Elemental Forces. I passed the 20K word mark and have plenty of story left to tell. While I don't have a firm word count estimate just yet, this is shaping up to be the longest book I've written in quite some time.

Believe it or not, I don't have a written outline here. At this point, everything's plotted out pretty well in my head, so maybe I'll never get around to making one. But as I've been thinking over the structure and pacing in this project, I realized that I have two distinct categories for my books, and most romances probably fall into one or the other. And those categories are differentiated by...wait for it...*drumroll*...the sex scenes.

(The rest of this post will probably not be sexy. Sorry to disappoint.)

Category 1: One Sex Scene

All the novellas go here, which makes sense. (Hey, sex scenes take a lot of words!) I guess in these books, the primary plot/conflict/focus/whatever you want to call it is the good ol' "will they or won't they?" and everything gets wrapped up in a pretty little bow at the end when the characters finally bang. Excuse me, get their "happily ever after." Sure, other plot stuff happens, but it's all leading up to the big moment. To be fair, in some of my novellas, the one sex scene doesn't come right at the end, as the characters still have to work out their relationship issues before riding off into the sunset, but the concept stands.

Nothing is absolute, though, so there are some slight exceptions. Elysium, while novella-length, *technically* has two sex scenes, but they're back-to-back, so lumping them together is fair. Likewise with Seductive Suspect, which hovers on the border of "long novella" and "short novel" - the two sex scenes are adjacent to each other, and then the resolution of the mystery part of the plot comes afterward.

Category 2: Multiple Sex Scenes

It's not a surprise that the longer books go here, and then that got me thinking about various plots and their purposes. "Happily ever after" is still always the primary goal of romance, but the length of the route to get there varies. I admit this is where I sometimes struggle with the pacing. When the main characters get together relatively early on, the plot has to keep moving. It's easy to say "time for a sex scene, yay!" but the scenes also have to mean something and not feel gratuitous. I also realize this is highly subjective, as a look at any book with conflicting reviews will indicate. This also probably gets into the topic of romance vs. erotic romance vs. erotica, which I'm not going to touch here.

When writing Disintegration (which I'll likely re-release sometime in 2021), I was extra super careful while plotting out the progression of the sex scenes in the book, of which there are many. Almost, if not all of them are relevant to the plot, each building on the one that came before it. On the other hand, in Fire Beyond the Frost, there might be one or two in there that aren't necessarily relevant to the overall plot, but hey, they're fun, so why not. Then, while I was reviewing The Edge of the Sphere for its eventual re-release (no date set yet), there was even a sex scene I'd completely forgotten about. OOPS.

So, those are my two categories I've discovered. Is one better than the other? No, of course not. Does one take more careful plotting than the other? Eh, possibly. Most writers have cut huge chunks of work out of their final product, and I'm no exception. As noted above, there's no right answer for when to include these scenes, or how many to put in, and so on. If it works, it works, and I try not to ask too many questions when it *does* work!

Summer!

I'm too lazy to look, but I'm pretty sure I make a post every year about how I usually don't get a lot of writing done during the summer. I am still plotting my next project, I'm getting The Edge of the Sphere ready for re-release by the end of August, and I'm also working on some website/marketing/behind-the-scenes stuff that is either boring or not ready to be unveiled yet. So, while I guess that all counts as being productive, I haven't written any new words since the short fanfic I finished at the beginning of the month.

We did make it up to Cape Cod last week, which turned out to be great. I was worried about how the trip would go, both due to the virus and my mom not being there, but overall, everything went well. One of my biggest concerns was stopping at the rest areas on the travel days, since it's too long of a trip to make without stopping at least once. I intentionally picked the smaller ones, though even the big ones looked less crowded than normal, and everything was fine. I wouldn't want to travel anywhere outside the northeast right now, but as our neighbor who lives up there full-time told us, everyone's pretty much been behaving themselves in our town. We usually ate the vast majority of our meals at the house anyway, and we're lucky enough to have a small private beach at the end of the street.

To be fair, our house isn't in one of the super-touristy areas, and we've decided not to do activities like mini golf and go karts. We did, however, drag the kids out hiking with us, and while there was some whining, they did well for the most part. We'll investigate some new trails next time we're up, especially since the ones we went on were not crowded AT ALL in the morning.

Yeah, I'm not stepping on those wooden planks again.

We could definitely tell there's fewer people around than is typical for this time of year, but hey, I'm not complaining. I know of at least three families who canceled their rentals up there because they're "restaurant people", which is fair. (Or, as one of them told me, she wasn't going to pay a lot of money to listen to her family whine about not being able to do anything they wanted for a week. You can get that at home for free!) I wouldn't say it's completely empty up there, but there's definitely a decrease in traffic.

The reviews for this trail said it looked like something out of The Hobbit. I wouldn't know firsthand, but sure!

I kept saying that we'd see how the first week went and then make our decisions for the rest of the summer. When I was stressed out up there last year, one of my coworkers/friends summed it up perfectly: when the kids are young, it's not a "vacation", it's a "family trip". This was probably the first time in a long time I was really sad to leave. The current plan is to go up again on Sunday, stay for two weeks, come home for a week, and then go up for one more. I'll be bringing my work equipment to work remotely if necessary, and if school is going to be mostly virtual, we might even stay a little longer.

No one else was here when we visited. NO ONE.

I might as well mention that I finally read two books last week I'd been meaning to get to for a while and liked them both, so that was another plus. There are quite a few ebooks on my to-read list that have no waiting list at my library at the moment, so I'm hoping I'll be equally lucky this trip. I also picked up my knitting project I'd abandoned around February in favor of the baby blanket, made a big mistake, but then managed to fix it without having to rip it out. Everything seems to be going so relatively well, maybe I should attempt to write a few words!

As always, I hope everyone's staying safe and healthy. Enjoy your summer as best you can, and be sure to take care of yourselves, too.

So, Now What?

Since last checking in, the world seems a little bit less on fire, but not significantly so. Throughout the whole lockdown, I saw a lot of authors and fellow writing buddies posting on social media about how they didn't feel like writing AT. ALL, and dude, I totally get that. Trust me, I do. And even though we all have a whole laundry list of valid reasons for not being able to be creative and productive, that didn't save us from the shame spirals.

People have also been talking about "the new normal" and what that's going to look like. Considering how much is still up in the air, I think the answer is pretty much: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But even though a lot of things still suck right now, and I wouldn't say life is much less stressful than it was a month ago, maybe some of us are starting to adjust to the world in its current state.

I am still playing the hell out of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and it continues to be both the escape I need and just a plain ol' GOOD piece of fiction on its own. After poking around the fandom a bit, I started writing some fanfic. Then I wrote some more. For a while there, I was in a pretty good writing routine, for once. Which then led me to think...is it time to start applying this creative burst to my own original projects?

The answer: still ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And then that leads into the next obvious question, what should I write? I haven't touched Sonata for Springtime since last September or so, and I already have the first third done, so that was a possibility. I've had a dystopian romance mentally plotted out for a couple years, and I'd planned on that being my next project following Hunting Astrid, but I think it's understandable that I am NOT in the mood for dystopia right now. And there's another old project/idea I thought about revisiting, which I'll eventually dedicate a blog post to, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet.

So, I thought about what's been making me so happy about and motivated to write FE3H fanfic. Although Hunting Astrid is in a totally different setting, I realized there were some similarities that made me excited about writing: fast-paced, plenty of action, and, above all, FUN. At this point, I definitely need my writing to be FUN right now. Sure, it can be fun to write darker stories, with all sorts of Very Important Feelings, and I still plan on doing that sometime in the future, but FUN is taking priority at the moment.

I could go on for another several paragraphs about the age-old "where do ideas come from?" but two days ago, I came up with the most basic of plots in the most basic of settings with three basic characters, and since then, I've been fleshing those out. I'm in no rush to start, especially since my free time is being devoted to a crocheted baby blanket that has a very firm deadline that is fast approaching, but the details are gradually surfacing, so I think I'll be good to go soon enough. I've blogged before about how I have a tendency to not write a whole lot during the summer months, but this is a new world, so who knows what will happen. But I have a plan, and plans are good. Plus, even if the writing goes slowly, I know I'm not alone.

New Project, and a New Year

Fire Beyond the Frost is still doing well, I'm happy to report. It's fun to see what other people have highlighted!

So I did wind up starting a new project after all. And...I like it. It's fast-paced, exciting, and...dare I say it...FUN! Okay, maybe the emotional impact of this one won't be huge, but it'll make up for it in other ways, I promise. I just finished off the introductory chapter, and I think I hit the right balance of setting the scene without a giant info dump, letting the relevant details come off naturally. My original plan was to have this be a quick little novella, maybe in the range of 20K - 30K words, but more and more ideas are coming up, so it might wind up a little longer. Yay.

Not everything is going 100% smoothly. But you know what? That's fine. I'm struggling a little bit with the balance of Main Character 1, between being a badass and showing some vulnerability, but I'm sure the more I write her, the more solid she'll become. (MC2? Total badass. At least 99% so.) My current outline has some gaps and I'm still moving things around, but I'm confident it'll work out. I used to be more of a pantser than a plotter, and maybe this will help me just get the damn words onto the page.

I definitely wanted to finish this opening before the end of the year, and I'm glad I hit that goal. Next week will be the usual holiday season craziness. I'm hosting Christmas Eve for my side of the family. (My mother claims I'm getting off easy because there will *only* be 17 people. Only. <_< ) Then Christmas Day at the in-laws, which is going to be kind of small and low key this year. (As low key as my mother-in-law gets, anyway.) Then the buffer day I insisted on, and then we're taking the girls to Disney World for the first time! One of the reasons I planned this trip was because I was practically on death's door this time last year, so everyone's super excited, and even though I know it'll be insane, I'm looking forward to it. I doubt I'll get any serious writing done during those five days, but I might slip a notebook into my backpack just in case the girls crash early one night and I need something quiet to do in the hotel room.

On that note, this will likely be my last post for the year, so I wish you all a wonderful holiday season, and here's to a great 2020!

Brand new tag for the new project being created in 3...2...1....

A Little Rusty

Which skills am I referring to with this title - my writing skills, my decision making skills, or a little bit of both? Probably both. Both is almost always an accurate answer.

So I finally got back to Sonata for Springtime, which I started over a year ago, and then life got in the way. (Ugh.) I finished up the stupid transitional chapter that had been plaguing me for most of that year (ugh again), and one would think that now I'm on to more exciting things, the words would be flowing freely. Ehhh. I'll get there, I just need to get into some better writing habits.

Following the flurry of the last edits and subsequent release of Fire Beyond the Frost, and then cleaning up some short stories that still need a home, I did think long and hard about whether to shelve this one temporarily. Part of it is a confidence issue - do I really love the plot and characters as much as I once did? Can this work be as good as I want it to be? Do I think readers can/will love it as much as I do?

Then as all writers know, there's always the allure of shiny new ideas lurking around every corner. Starting a new project is always exhilarating...until you realize you actually have to finish something every now and then. I'll admit it, I was thisclose to starting something new, and I even had another idea from my list all picked out and ready to go. FBtF was heavy on the sci-fi setting, and I had the urge to create a similar fictional world. The plot and characters would have been a bit more edgy and fast-paced, and my projected word count was lower. Sure, I didn't have every single plot point outlined perfectly, but that can always be figured out as you go along, right?

Ultimately, what it came down to is I haven't quite figured out the emotional core of that other idea. Not every character has to have some deep, dramatic history, and there's nothing wrong with a light, fun novella, but there's still a certain spark missing in my head for these characters. I haven't figured out what motivates them or all the facets of their personalities, and I don't want to wind up relying on tropes or cliches. Aside from that, I'm thinking I might need to rework some of the initial setup for the plot, so it's going on the backburner for now, and SfS has emerged victorious. Believe me, there's plenty of well-planned characterization and all sorts of emotions going on there. I just need to actually WRITE it all down.

Stop Overthinking Things

A couple months ago, writing/blogging buddy Krystal Jane posted a graphic depicting a (real) conversation between Stephen King and George R. R. Martin. Save yourself a Google and go here to read her post. If you scroll down to read the comments, you'll see me lamenting my similarities to Martin and swearing to be more like King for my next project.

I did start my next book. (And yes, I did wind up going with Option 1.) And I'm trying. I really am. I'm trying to just make myself write write write write write write write write write, and worry about everything working out with editing later. It's been...okay. I got a solid, fairly lengthy (for me) opening chapter done in about eight days. And I started Chapter 2 today, even though I'm not 100% sure where it's going, other than "leading into Chapter 3 on my outline".

It's so easy to slip back into overthinking things, though. Even if something's not perfect, I'm trying to commit to just getting the damn words on the page, but then I'll be distracted by the possibility of word repetition, or varying sentence structure, or other things that can TOTALLY BE FIXED LATER ON. I don't know if it's necessarily a *bad* habit, since everyone writes in their own way, but I'm not crazy about being like this.

I used to just WRITE and worry about everything later. However, as soon as I started submitting things for publication and working with professional editors, it seemed that the more advice I got, the slower I wrote. The more I learned, the more I realized how much I didn't know, I guess. :P And while some have been better fits than others, every editor I've had the opportunity to work with has been super nice and supportive, so it's not like anyone's ever yelled at me for not being perfect. Maybe I need to frame my writing goals as keeping editors employed....

(Abrupt topic change! I think I'm set for the title on this one, so I'll make it official with a new tag!)

New Things For Spring

(almost nailed the rhyming title, but not quite)

Lately, it seems that all of my creative-minded friends have been talking about what new project they want to embark on. I would say something poignant and poetic about it having to do with the time of year, with spring just around the corner, and everything waking up and getting ready to bloom, blah blah blah, but I'm in the part of the country that got smacked by a number of storms in a row and not all the snow in my yard has melted yet. So we'll save that for another couple weeks. ;) 

My writing fingers are getting itchy already, even though it feels like I just finished up the most recent novella and sent it off. Usually I take a break to read some books, play some games, and see what's new and exciting on Netflix, but other than a couple books I'd wanted to read for a while, nothing else is really calling to me. I guess I might as well start something new, then!

Of course that leads to the all-important question...what should I start next? As any writer or other creative-type knows, there are always plenty of options and not enough hours in the day to tackle them all. Some of my ideas have been bouncing around for years, while others are fairly new. Some are pretty fleshed out, while others are nothing more than little snippets yet. Here's my list of mostly-baked ideas (all romance):

Option 1
Pros: Except for figuring out the order of some scenes in the middle, I basically have the major plot points outlined. The characters are fleshed out in my mind. I realized lately I haven't written anything in a male POV in quite a few years now and I'd like to go back to it for a change. One plot thread is something I've wanted to write about for a while.

Cons: It's...fluffy. Not that there's anything wrong with fluff, but nothing about the plot is particularly earth-shattering or ground-breaking. Also, it's in a contemporary setting, which I've been finding myself writing in a LOT lately, even when the stories have sci-fi or fantasy elements.

Option 2
Pros: I was so excited about this one, I almost started it over the summer. I even did some research with a friend. It's got a dystopian setting, alternate dimensions/timelines, and all sorts of more complex stuff to wrap my mind around. The two main characters are pretty well established to me.

Cons: All of that aforementioned complex stuff takes a lot of plotting, and I'm not quite all the way there yet. There are also some big issues I have to decide how to tackle - stick with familiar tropes, or throw caution to the wind and do my own thing? (The latter takes more work, of course.) While I have the major plot points figured out, there's still a looooooot of blanks to be filled in.

Option 3
Pros: Action! Sci-fi! Edgy smartass main characters! The plot is mostly done! Pew pew pew!

Cons: I don't feel like I know the main characters well enough. I still need to figure out their goals and motivations beyond "I want to meet someone attractive and bang them." 

Option 4
Pros: I know the characters and the plot. Though it's mostly a contemporary setting, there are some sci-fi elements to play around with. Also, the romance is a menage, which I haven't written in yeeeeeeeeeeears.

Cons: Even though everything is plotted out for the most part, I haven't 100% convinced myself that the plot is a good one and something I should commit to writing. And even in my head, the female lead seems a little bratty, and I need to work on ways to tone that down.

I guess this is a good problem to have, right? Nothing's set in stone, but as of right this second, Option 1 is calling to me, fluff be damned. And if it's calling the loudest, I should probably listen!

I should also probably save this list for the next time the same issue arises, but who knows how many options I'll have to add by then!

Just Pacing, No Racing

Since I last checked in 20 days ago, I did, in fact, finish the novella-in-progress. I'm wrapping up proofing/editing now, and then I'll write the %#$&-ing blurbs, and then I guess it's ready to ship off. Yay.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm not 100% thrilled with the pacing in parts. It is a bit back-heavy, but a lot of that is due to the romance scenes. I know, I know, the obvious answer is "go back and fix it!" I even know exactly where I should add another scene/chapter to help balance it out. (In between Chapters 4 and 5, if anyone's keeping track.) The problem is, I don't know *what* that scene/chapter should be about. And if I'm forcing it, it's probably not going to be my finest writing.

On the other hand, though, I had similar qualms about another chapter I inserted into my original outline to help with pacing. (And, um, hitting the minimum word count.) And that chapter wound up being one of the better ones, and I'm definitely glad I included it. But that might have exhausted my reservoir of logical scenes to include.

So...I don't know. I think I'm going to leave it for now, and then if wiser people tell me to go back and add something else, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I guess this could go either way - either my instincts are right, or I'm totally overthinking this. One day I'll have all the answers, right? (haha no.)

Multi-Tasking (or maybe not so much)

So I've been plugging away at the novella-in-progress. Not as quickly as I would have hoped, but it's moving along. I'd given myself the tentative goal of finishing the first draft by the end of 2017. It would have been a stretch, and I'm not sure I would have succeeded, but it was within the realm of possibility.

But then! (And this is a good excuse, I swear!) Every so often I remember to check my usual spots for anthology submission calls. Admittedly, it's been a long time since I submitted anything like that. With the calls I see, usually one of two things happens: either the theme/content doesn't interest me that much, or by the time I see the call, the deadline/word count combination is near impossible. 

Last week, I finally stumbled across something that caught my interest, had a short-ish word count requirement (2K - 8K words, though 3K - 7K is preferred), AND the deadline isn't until February 1, 2018. Woo hoo! Totally manageable! I can do that!

Except...I'm in the middle of this novella. And I'm sure I've said dozens of times on here that working on simultaneous projects isn't really my thing. But new shiny fun submission call!

My plan is to finish up this current chapter of the novella, and then knock out the short story. It might not be the speediest "knocking out", but I'm confident I can get it done well before the deadline. I already have my idea and my outline, so I'm hoping everything will go smoothly. And once that's in, I can get back to my novella and hopefully pick up some momentum again. Wish me luck on my multi-tasking!

Decisions, Decisions

In case you missed it (unlikely, I know), Seductive Suspect has been officially released. You can tell it's official because it now has its own entry under the Books tab. :D

They say the best way to promote your current book is to write the next one, so I'm happy to report I've finally gotten started on my next project. I hemmed and hawed for a while as to what to start next. I suppose it's nice to have too many ideas, but that just adds to the indecision. Here were my choices:

Option A: Fully outlined (a rarity!), projected word count not terribly high. Still a novella rather than a short story, but a short-ish novella. (Which might be redundant?) I know exactly how it will begin and end.

Option B: Somewhat outlined. The basic structure is there, but some details still need to be filled in and some dots need connecting. I know certain scenes I want to include, but I'm not positive about the order. I know how it will begin, and I have a general idea of how it will end, but not the exact words.

Option C: Still needs some baking. I know how the prologue will go, and I have a very basic timeline, but it needs a lot of work. Pacing is going to be a big one here. I know the general idea of the conclusion, but obviously books don't stop immediately after the climax. However, out of the three, this is probably the most unique, imaginative idea, and that calls to me.

I waffled between A and C instead of actually writing for a long time, even going so far as to do more research on C. Ultimately, I decided on A, figuring it won't take me *too* long to knock it out. We don't talk about how long Seductive Suspect took, even though I have plenty of valid excuses, so I felt like I needed an easy win, so to speak. It's coming along nicely so far, and while I don't have a specific set goal in mind at the moment, I feel like I can get a pretty decent-sized chunk of it done by the end of the year.

(Though I might have to take some time off in October for the upcoming Seductive Suspect book tour, shhhh.... ;) )

Nothing to See Here!

No, really, not much to see here. I finished Mass Effect: Andromeda, and it was very good; while I will replay it soon, I haven't felt the burning need to start over again yet. I've also been reading for a change, and paying attention to my neglected knitting. Edits haven't started yet for Seductive Suspect, so I'm trying to spread the love between my other hobbies in my limited free time.

I feel like I should start a new writing project soon, though. I have one idea pretty much completely fully outlined, and two more that need a little more baking. I'm debating whether to start the former and work on it whenever I feel like it (and try to get back into good writing habits), or wait until I'm feeling really fired up and attack it head on. There's no good answer, of course. And let's face it, with two rambunctious toddlers running around, a day job that's in an upswing on the busy spectrum, and some lingering issues with my chronic illness, sometimes I am just TIRED. But one way or another, writing always manages to worm its way back onto my list of priorities. I'll get there, I promise!

(Oh, and I suppose I could write a better follow-up post about ME:A, but all in good time!)

Forging Ahead Into the New Year

Happy New Year! Okay, I'm a couple weeks behind. I'll be honest - while I do love the holiday season and it's one of my favorite times of the year, part of me is really glad to be settling back into our usual routine. I was a creature of habit even before having kids, and now I have two little people who benefit from having structure. So even though it was great being around friends and family, celebrating and doing other fun stuff, I'm not terribly disappointed that it's all over.

With that return to normalcy comes a new burst of writing energy! I've noticed this for a couple years now. Something about the new year gives me the push I need and I get a lot done in the early months. I wish I could bottle up whatever it is and whip it out in, say, August, but I'll take what I can get. Who knows, maybe the darker, colder months just lend themselves to better writing when there's little else to do.

I'm moving right along on Seductive Suspect. The chapters are getting longer; I plan to finish one this week, and then I only have two more, plus an epilogue. I'm on track for my estimated word count, and I have very firm plans for the final chapters/epilogue. When I started this book, I had a pretty comprehensive outline for a change, but there were still some blanks that needed filling in, and I struggled there a few times. For where I am right now and one point near the climax, there's a couple minor little details I need to work out, but I think/hope it'll be smooth sailing until the end.

I'm all about realistic deadlines. Knowing real life can get in the way, I *think* I can be done with this and ready to submit by the end of February. I have a few weeks of wiggle room, but I NEED to be done by mid-March. Why, you ask? Some major life event? An exotic vacation? Vanishing in a glamorous poof of mystery?

Nope. Mass Effect: Andromeda comes out then. I pre-ordered it a while ago, and since I'll only be able to play in the evenings once I have it, I anticipate it's going to take me a loooooooooong time to get through it. As they say in the games before the final quests, I'd better wrap up any unfinished business before then, since I'll be disappearing off the face of the earth for a while. ;)

The Name Game, Part 2

I'm knocking out the next installment in this series because I just got a big, obnoxious assignment at work that is going to suck up a lot of time and energy for the next week, so I'm using the rest of tonight to pretend it doesn't exist. (But it should pay reasonably well, so silver linings and all that.)

Next up on the topic of names: characters who name themselves. I know what you're thinking - isn't the writer in charge? Shouldn't the writer have control over what the characters are named? One would think. After all, it's not like my children named themselves. (Though that could have saved a few days of strenuous discussion. And I do know more than one set of parents who went into the hospital with a name picked out, saw their baby for the first time, and wound up going with something completely different.)

Every now and then when a character first starts to materialize in my mind, there's immediately a name associated with him/her. I don't know why or how it happens. Sometimes I've even tried to fight back against that strong association between the character and the name, and it just doesn't feel right. The same thing has happened to me with titles. As regular readers here know by now, sometimes the title comes to me right away, while other times I struggle to pick a good one.

I recently experienced this phenomenon when I was first planning for Out of Orbit. As soon as the heroine started taking shape, she became Jasmine. It's not like Jasmine is a name I particularly like (or dislike). I hadn't planned on it being symbolic in any way, though I did wind up running with it and using the flower meaning. I even tossed around a few alternatives, but nope. Always and forever, she was and will be Jasmine.

The same thing happened with April in Elysium. Again, I don't have any strong feelings toward the name either way. No hidden meanings there. She was just April. That's it.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a lot of characters to name in my new WIP. Sure enough, some of them named themselves. Several of the insta-names I adopted right away, while others I wanted to think about more. However, as I was plotting out certain points, I found myself thinking things like, "Oh, Paul will totally react in this way", when Paul was one of the names I wasn't sure about. I guess he's Paul, then.

So much for being in control.

The Name Game, Part 1

Since I got the contract for Out of Orbit sooner than expected, my writing fingers are already starting to get itchy. I read the two books I wanted to read, and for whatever reason, video games are not calling to me right now, so I've already started outlining for my next WIP. I'll go into more detail at a later time, but due to the nature of this project, I want a really strong outline before I even get started.

One of the challenges for this WIP is there are going to be a lot of characters: eleven "on-screen" and a couple minor parts/people mentioned in passing. And characters need names. The name nerd in me enjoys most of this part, but as I said, it can be a challenge.

Somewhere in my archives here (before I started tagging posts, oops) I wrote about how I wanted the three significant women in Disintegration to have names that were very distinct from each other. Similarly, when I was getting ready to write The Fall of the Midnight Scorpion, I initially worried that Ro and Reggie were too similar for my leads. After all, we don't want to confuse any readers.*

I've ultimately come to the decision that having a variety of ending sounds for characters' names is more important than first letters or alliteration. (As indicated by me forging ahead with Ro and Reggie.) Having pored over tons of name lists to prepare for the twins' arrival last year, I can tell you that a LOT of female names end with -a. That doesn't mean that you can't have two characters with -a names in one story, but as the number of named characters grow, it's something to watch out for. 

When first planning this WIP, I had a Laura and a Clara before realizing how close they were. Laura's name was more tied to her character in my mind, so Clara changed (to Ruth, for the curious). On the other hand, I'm okay with having a Laura and a Veronica, as those are juuuuust different enough for my tastes. There's also a Mary and a Brittany, but to me, those are wildly different names that just evoke different feelings and images, if that makes any sense.

When looking over my file of ideas for blog posts, I saw a lot of name-related notes, so I've decided to make this the first in a series. If nothing else, it should get me blogging more regularly, right? ;) Stay tuned for the next part!

*Somewhat relevant, but not really: In Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced (STOP READING HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS), part of the big!reveal! hinges on two sisters having very similar nicknames - Leticia and Charlotte are Lettie and Lottie, respectively. There's a clue when another character calls one by the other one's name. When reading, I did notice it...but this was in the early days of the Kindle and I'd just thought it was a typographical error made when converting the book, and didn't realize the name mix-up was significant. Oops. So I didn't solve the mystery, but then again, I rarely do.

Except for The Girl on the Train, which is one of the books I just read. Figuring out the ending ahead of time kind of ruined the fun. But I'll award points for the three main female characters -- Rachel, Anna, and Megan -- having names with different final syllables. There, I've come full circle. :D

Plop!

Almost a month since my last post? How'd that happen?

At least I can report that Out of Orbit is underway. I'm not going to lie and say I have an astronomical word count I can brag about, but it's coming along. Really.

It's been quite some time since I've done serious sci-fi and the extensive world-building that goes along with it. (And to be fair, The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions is a sequel, so when I was writing that, I was working within an established universe.) In the beginning of this book, I'm facing the expected challenge: walking the fine line between world-building and info dumping.

It's not easy, and since I'm still in the early stages, I don't even know yet if I've been successful. I'm going with my usual technique of "assume the reader already knows everything and doesn't need to be spoonfed all the information, and it'll eventually make sense". I've got all my notes on the way things work in this world, and they'll come out when necessary. Even so, I'm still stressing about the pacing in the first couple chapters.

I'm confident everything will eventually come together. If I have to cut later on, so be it. I feel strongly about this project, enough that it bumped several other ideas that have been bouncing around for a while down the to-do list. I just need to make sure readers will love the story as much as I do and not get bogged down in all the details.

Ducks in a Row

It's that time. My writing fingers are getting itchy and I think I'm ready to start a new project. It's an exciting moment - opening up MS Word, seeing that beautiful blank page, and going to "Save As". But am I really ready?

I don't have a formal checklist of tasks I need to complete before I decide that an idea is developed enough to become its own story. However, some things I need to have in place before I'm willing to start. Here's a random list in no particular order:

Character Names: The main characters MUST have first names picked out before I will even write the first word. Names can say a lot about a character right off the bat, and I want to make sure they're a good fit. Last names, though, I'm willing to be flexible on. They don't come up as often, and as such, I've used placeholders before if I just want to get down to it. And actually, when I finished the first draft of Elysium, I decided to change the male lead's surname for various reasons. (Thanks, search & replace!) I'll usually run a google search on the name combinations to make sure I'm not inadvertently naming a character after someone well-known.

Place Names: UGH. I HATE coming up with fictional place names for sci-fi/fantasy. Haaaaaate. Again, I've used placeholders here before just so I'm not sitting here, staring at the screen for an hour trying to find a name that doesn't sound stupid.

Title: Ha. Hahahahaha. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. The issues I've sometimes had in the past with coming up with the perfect title have already been well-documented on this blog, so I'm just gonna leave that there.

Plot: Since I primarily write romance, 99% of the time the endgame is going to be "happily ever after", so that's taken care of. Getting there is, of course, a much different story. In thinking it over, I guess I don't really have any hard and fast rules here for what needs to be in place before I start writing. Although I write in order, sometimes I get going and realize that where I've decided to start the story is not the best place, and changes have to be made. Other times I think I've reached the end, only to learn that nope, there's more story in there somewhere. I usually have a basic framework in mind, but any outlines I make don't take a firm shape until I get started.

So where am I now? My two leads have first names. When I first started composing this post, my heroine didn't have a surname, but as I was climbing into bed last night to go to sleep, the perfect name popped into my mind, so yay? (Google has confirmed it is a good choice.) I don't have a name for the fictional planet most of the story will take place on. I know how I want to start the story, I know what the climax will be, but I haven't quite figured out the denouement. Bits and pieces of the middle are fleshed out, and I have some specific scenes and character development in mind. I think I'm good to go.

The title, though? Ha. Hahahahaha. Watch this space in a couple months for the usual freakout about how NOTHING SOUNDS RIGHT. I suppose I'll have to name that new Word document something vague.

Coincidence vs. Influence

Back in September, I blogged (again) about those "oh, shit" moments I've had when realizing something I've written is very, very similar to something that already exists. It's happened to me a couple times, but I've reassured myself that there's always enough differences for it not to be a big deal. To recap that particular post, I'd just sent in the manuscript for The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, had played through Dragon Age: Origins, and to my surprise/dismay, one scene in the former bore a striking similarity to one in the latter.

Sometimes the reverse happens, and I fully acknowledge what has influenced me in writing. In a very old post, I freely admitted that the setting for the interlude between Parts 2 and 3 in The Edge of the Sphere came right out of one of the games in the Myst series. It wasn't an exact replica, and I did make some changes; even if someone who was familiar with the game read that scene (or vice versa), I doubt he/she would think, "Hey, that seems an awful lot like ______!"

Then there's a third situation that sometimes occurs, and it's where I find myself now: starting to write something and not realizing until the project is underway what, precisely, were the influences that shaped the ideas. My current WIP, about two-thirds of the way done, mostly takes place in a fantasy setting. There are dragons. From this post alone, it's not too hard to tell what helped inspire me. (I think my thought process was actually something along the lines of "Man, I really love Dragon Age, and there are some kick-ass women in that series. I should write something with dragons and kick-ass women!)

I planned, I outlined, I sat down to write. It wasn't until recently that I started pinpointing the other influences that snuck in. Granted, generic "fantasy" has a lot of common elements, but I noticed some more specific similarities sneaking in. The biggest one (that I laughed at) was when I went back to do some revising, I finally noticed that my heroine bears a striking resemblance to Princess Cassima from King's Quest VI, one of THE games of my childhood.

Minus the pointy hat/head scarf thingabob

I know, I know. At first glance, the "damsel in distress" thing has been done to death. But while both Cassima and my female lead are imprisoned and technically need to be rescued, don't underestimate them. In fact, the only way to win KQVI is to sneak Cassima a dagger before triggering the final sequence so she can bail your ass out in the final battle. (Didn't give her the dagger? Game over. Hope you have an earlier save state.) As for my character...well, I can't give away everything here. ;)

I can pinpoint the influence of other books/games/movies not only in this story, but in just about everything I've written. I don't consider it a bad thing - we all have the books/games/movies we love, and as long as it's not a blatant ripoff (and who's to judge what is or isn't), it's fun to pay homage to the fiction that's shaped us. After all, no one ever sets out to emulate crap, right?

Decision

In case you missed the facebook announcement and it's not showing up at the top of your screen, I first need to point out that this site/blog is now finally under its own domain, woo hoo! www.thealanden.com is up and running, and hopefully will continue to be for a long time.

Anyhoo! In my last thinking-out-loud post, I wrote about how I didn't know what to start writing next and rambled on for a few paragraphs about the pros and cons of each idea. I was getting itchy to start something, so after giving it some more thought, I decided upon the Disintegration sequel (which does have a working title, though I'm not married to it yet). As always, the day job has been busy, so I'm not all that far into it, but I did get off to a good start and I'm confident with my decision. My brain's chugging away like crazy with all the IDEAS I have for the book, and if I have to be kept awake at night by something, that's not a bad option.

Another reason I'm happy and excited about the start of this new project is that even after all the other stuff I've written in this past year (since I finished up the first Disintegration just about a year ago, minus the set of prequels), Ro continues to be one of my most favorite characters I've ever created and I'm already enjoying getting back to her. I can't even really put my finger on why she's my favorite. I don't think I'd want to be friends with her in real life, and she arguably sets out to intentionally irritate the people around her. I've written other snarky characters and other badass characters and so on, but something about her just speaks to me. (And before anyone asks, NO, she is not based on me, nor is she supposed to be some sort of depiction of what my subconscious wants me to be.)

I won't give too much away right off the bat, but the sequel is, in fact, from Ro's POV. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to write from her perspective and dig even deeper into her soul, and I'm hoping the results are everything I want them to be and more. Onwards!