Happy Halloween!

I don’t know who she is (or was) but this ghost dog* is FURBULOUS

WAKING DREAD released today! If you haven’t already gotten your copy, go check it out now.

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So… how many of you are accompanying the young’uns hoping to reclaim a little of that nostalgia (and schmooze a bit of the candy too, of course)? I loved (still love to, in fact) to get dressed up in the costumes and hang out with my friends and family to go bum for candy. And to hand it out as well. In fact, handing out the candy and seeing all the happy kids in their inventive costumes is one of the very few things I miss about living in the city.

While you’re here, don’t forget to check out some of the promotions on the sidebar (or below, if you’re reading this on a mobile device) as today, 31 OCT 2023, is the last day to get your Kindle Unlimited, Sale or Freebies through some of them. But don’t forget to check back, since they’re always being updated.

Halloween brought me a bit of a not-so-good scare yesterday with my last cat, Christopher, and I am dealing with his recovery today (and for a little while). That put me a little behind but as much as writing is a central part of my life, my loved ones–two legs or four or none, feathers, fur or fins or scales or… you get the picture–take precedence.

(EDITED TO ADD) One last thing: I am not taking part in this year’s NaNoWriMo or even my own PerNoWriMo or whatever I called it last year, but not because I won’t be busy. I am, quite, as I’m working on the revision of my Cyberpunk Detective Noir that I had written during a NaNoWriMo several years ago. 2017 IIRC. I revisited it several years ago and had wanted to get it out just before Cyberpunk 2077 was released but I didn’t because there was something that I was really unhappy with in the narrative. So I let it go for a few years and when I came back to it, I saw the glaring, gaping hole and exactly what to plug in. That’s all being remedied now, and I’m a good 60% of the way done with the revision. Currently it’s just called Vorsky, but I have a few definite titles in mind. If you want to find out the particulars early, join my newsletter. It’s free, and comes out twice a month so it’s not spammy. I hate spamminess.

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If you haven’t already checked it out, go over to Storytime Blog Hop for the October flash fiction, “Snakemouth“.

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*Anyone know who the dog is? I want to attribute it but the image keeps linking back to Pinterest. I despise Pinterest for a myriad of reasons I shall not go into here. But if anyone knows who/what/when about the image, please contact me. I would love to get the original photo owner some traffic on such an adorable image.

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New Day, New Year!

Happy New Year, one and all!

I wrote this a few days before but I can almost guarantee that I passed out in the chair* before making it to midnight (which has happened more often than not, even when I was a whole lot younger). I generally wake up a little after 12:05 and shuffle up to bed. After all, I need my sleep before the cat wakes me up at 0500 for his breakfast. At least the dog sleeps in.

I won’t be up to see the wonderfully bizarre drops in my home state. This here’s an article that’s more than a few years old, but does list some of the crazy ones in Pennsylvania. They drop a large Hershey’s Kiss up there in Hershey, of course. In my hometown, it’s a White Rose. York, if you’re wondering, and it only got a mention under Lancaster’s Red Rose. Hmph.

Anyway, I do get up early so I have time when all is quiet (provided I’ve fed the cat) and I can concentrate on writing. I’ve got a lot on my plate this year that I am counting on others holding my feet to the proverbial fire to keep me on track. These include:

• Eater of Dreams – finish the revision (you can check out a story from that universe in the sidebar for free, my gift for signing up for the newsletter)
• Start the revision of a Cyberpunk Noir, working title: Vorsky. It’s set in the same universe as Clones Are People Two
• Revising a set of short stories in the same universe as The Falconer & The Wolf

So it’s going to be a full plate. I have a lot of things on the burners, but I don’t want to burn out by making tons of goals and reaching so few, so my list will be updated as required. Call it a new year’s resolution if you will.

Anyway, I’m probably hard at work on Eater of Dreams, driving myself crazy with getting these things just right and arguing with myself regarding whether or not I should put it on Vella in pieces or save it for one publication or just chuck it all out of the window and start fresh. Yes, I have days like that. Compared to revising the darn thing, writing is EASY.

What about you? Resolutions? Any you’ve set and kept?

*Passed out just from being tired, not drunk. I don’t drink now, and back in my youth when I did, it was very, very lightly. If you do drink and go out, please do yourself and everyone else around you a favor: DON’T DRIVE. There are so many more alternatives than when I was young, so there are ZERO excuses to drive drunk/buzzed/impaired. I’ve seen the lives of too many friends torn apart as a victim, family of a victim, or as the drunk driver. It’s not worth it.

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.