Lots of Appts, Busy Bee, BUT… A GOODIE

Have a lot of running around to do, but I didn’t want you to miss out on two exciting things happening:

ONE: It’s Read an eBook Week over at Smashwords (click on the image for a link) and you can get hundreds of thousands of free books. You’re sure to find something awesome to read for 100% off or even heavily-discounted goodies. HINT: All of my currently published books? They’re in that latter category – 100% off. Hurry though, because it ends Saturday, 9 MAR 2024.

TWO: My not-yet published book, Altered Pathways, is available for pre-order. It will be out on 15 MAR 2024 (that’s just a little more than a week away!). AND… it will be available for $1.99 US until it’s published. Go get it while it’s hot. ANOTHER HINT: Head over to Smashwords for Clones Are People Two, my short story set in the same universe.

Busy Like A Bee

BEE-attitudes – Bee kind to one another.

This is me, busy like a bee… I’ve been going pretty much non-stop for the last few weeks that it’s nice enough to sit down and write a simple blogpost.

So what am I up to?

• Storytime Blog Hop resumes in October, and you’ll find a link to the latest 1000-word flash fiction installments when they’re ready. The date is slated to be 26 OCT 2023, but I’ll let you know for sure closer to go time.
• COVERS! If you joined my free newsletter then you know that voting is going on for the covers of Waking Dread (Book One of Eater of Dreams). After I’ve announced the winning cover there, it will show up here, along with a link to preorder. The date of the announcement here will be 17 OCT 2023. The book releases on 31 OCT 2023
• Books in progress: I’ve written quite a few novels, though I have published relatively few. Well, that’s changing as I put my rear in gear and revise. I’m in the middle of revision now of a “cyberpunk noir” and will provide more updates on progress in my newsletter. The story takes place in the same “universe” (worldbuilding-wise and literally, seeing that it’s science fiction) as Clones Are People Two. It’s on Kindle Unlimited, so you can read it for “free” if you take advantage of the program. The novel won’t be on KU, at least not right away.
• Speaking of which, there’s also a cover for that story too, which will be released closer to when it publishes.
• I also opened a survey to my newsletter readers on which of the stories they would like to see after I publish the cyberpunk noir, and the answer was overwhelmingly the sequel to Umbra: Shadows Over Hinge (originally published as Umbra: A Post-Apocalyptic Mystery). That revision commencing depends on the progress of the cyberpunk noir, which, barring any kind of emergency, should be done by the end of November, and a date of publication will be chosen before then.
• Totally unrelated to the books, I have to shore up my chickens’ coop before the weather gets too cold. It’s great that it’s more math/geometry/non-word hands-on, something to do when my brain gets rut-bound on parts of the revision. An hour or two with a saw and measuring tape and paintbrush can loosen up the old muse.

So that’s it for now (as if that is not enough).

Crossing the Finish Line – Not-So-NaNo Day 19

Well, there it is, folks. Clocked in at 50084 on Day 19. I’ve made the decision to shelve it at that word count, and will come back to it after I finish the other project I’m working on.

What I’ve discovered: I’m not a planner, I’m not a pantser, I’m more of a plantser.

I read somewhere recently that they write like planning a journey. Perfect analogy. You know your destination, and which route you are going to take (roughly). What I’ve found were some stops along the way I hadn’t considered, where I “got out of the car” and explored a little. A few of them I will probably end up cutting out of the “return journey” but there are some spots I hadn’t even considered, some surprises, that I definitely need to delve into a little deeper for some richer storytelling.

There are a few things I learned about the main character, depth that wasn’t apparent in my initial ideas. Some of his backstory won’t survive the revision but I needed to go there to flesh him out, and I like what I’ve discovered. Hopefully you as my reader will like him too.

He’s got a more-or-less permanent nemesis, one that hadn’t existed at all in the rough outline or my concept ideas. It was going to be “solve a murder and go home” but this guy rears his ugly head and I knew I’d have my Moriarity for this cyberpunk Sherlock.