1/5/19

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and a good new year.  So far, my new year is starting off well.  I have lots of news to share, but first I want to tell you my new years resolution for writing: Get all my edits done on time!  Conversely, if I'm struggling with the edits, contact LT3 well ahead of the deadline so we can work something out before it gets away from us both.  I'm not going through that again this year, and it's not right that I put LT3 on the spot like that.  2019 is a new year with a new start where I will juggle my real life and my writing life competently. 

With that out of the way, on to my news:

Edits have returned.  The Sentinel's Prophesy has arrived in my inbox to start the editing process, which I'm super exited about.  There's always a lot to do for the first round of edits, but nothing crazy jumped out at me after a quick glance through.  I started working on it already and I hope to get a big chunk completed this weekend.  By Sunday night I should know how crazy this round will be, and how many rounds of edits this particular story will need.  I want to get Prophesy back to LT3 quickly because I'm expecting edits for the two postponed stories to appear at any moment.  Both If A Butterfly Don't Fly and The Coup and the Prince went back for more edits.  I don't know what the timeline is for either story, which means I don't know when to expect them back, and in the interest of avoiding overlapping edits (which is one of the things I had issues with last year), getting Prophesy completed soon is a high priority. 

Two of my stories have had their contracts renewed.  Road to Home, book two of my contemporary spy thriller series, will continue to be sold through LT3 without interruption.  I will not be making any edits or changes, so if you own the book don't worry, and if you don't own the book, you have plenty of time to get your copy. 

The other renewed contract belonged to Wings of the Stars, a short sci-fi story I wrote for LT3's A Loose Screw collection.  Wings of the Stars is technically the second story in a series I've always loosely called Space Stars.  The first book in the series, My Truest Love, was written for LT3's Rocking Hard anthology, and it went out of print a few years ago.  Therein lies the dilemma.  If I wanted to renew Wings of the Stars, I needed to do something with My Truest Love.  I spoke with LT3 and they have accepted My Truest Love again.  I would like to have new covers made for both stories that reflect the fact that they're in a series together.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. 

The last bit of news is that the voting for M/M Romance's Best books of 2018 closed.  I have to wait until next weekend to learn how Ground of Insurrection did.  There was a lot of competition, but I'm still hopeful.  Thank you to everyone that took the time to vote. 

12/16/18

Today only, Magnified is .99 cents at LT3.  If you haven't read it yet, this is a great chance to get a copy: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...  Magnified is a vampire story and is probably the closest I'll ever come to writing horror, and is one of my favorite stories that I've written.  I think you'll like it too. 

Ground of Resurrection was accepted for publishing by LT3!  I'm really excited and I honestly hope this is a sign that I will be able to get back on track.  I'm still waiting for word on If A Butterfly Don't Fly and The Coup and the Prince, but having this small success is definitely helping me get my confidence back.  I'm hoping this week will therefore be a good one for writing.  I am soooo close to finishing writing Ge-Mi: Part Two; with a couple days of focused effort I just might be able to do it.  Wish me luck!

Ground of Insurrection, the prequel to Resurrection, is available to vote for at the M/M Romance Awards on Goodreads.  I'm trying not to spam your inboxes with this, but I'm still so stoked about being nominated and I really want Insurrection to do well.  I have recently learned you have to be a member of the group to vote, so if you are a member please consider Insurrection as your choice!  You can vote here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/181365-best-fantasy-you-must-click-on-the-book-you-would-like-to-vote

LT3 has confirmed receipt of Wounded Alpha, so it continues to be a game of patience on my part.  I have to wait for the call to close and for LT3 to go through all the submissions before I'll hear, but the story was so interesting to write and I just want to know now.  I can be patient, I promise, but it's definitely something I'm super excited about.  Until then, it's back to writing!

12/11/18

Ground of Insurrection has been nominated in the Best Fantasy of 2018 category in the M/M Romance Awards!  It's an honor just to be nominated, but now comes the real test: winning.  Voting is open right now and all you have to do is click a link on their Goodreads page to participate.  There's stiff competition from other authors I really respect, but I think Insurrection has a chance to beat them all!  I just need your help to get there. 

Please, if you have a minute, go check out the awards and vote if you're so inclined: www.goodreads.com/poll/show/181365-best-fantasy-you-must-click-on-the-book-you-would-like-to-vote

I really appreciate it! 

12/2/18

I don't know what sort of crud I've got, but it's been a slow recovery.  The fever finally broke, but I've still got a bit of a cough.  The problem is, I'm still finding it hard to concentrate.  My body just wants to curl up and sleep it off, while I wanted to spend this weekend writing instead.  That's just not going to happen.  I need this crud to go away so I can get back to a regular routine that includes getting some writing done. 

I was able to get a last edit of Wounded Alpha completed and I went ahead and submitted it to LT3.  The call doesn't close until the end of January, so LT3 won't take a look until then, but now it's one less worry on my plate.  I can instead focus on all the other things I know will be coming, including a lot more edits.  Until then, I am going to continue plucking away at all my stories to see if I can get some completed. 

One thing I was able to take a look at was Thunderbird (one of the stories I'm hoping to submit with my fairy tales), and I'm concerned about it.  Way back when, I submitted it to LT3 and they rejected it.  They were kind enough to provide a reason why and after looking through the manuscript again, I can see that they were right.  I need to add a few more scenes in order to smooth out the issue, but I'm not finding that an easy task.  The problem is, as the story stands now, it flows nicely.  The plot and the world building both work as they are.  I just need to make a few tweaks to one of my characterizations, and one or two additions to the romance, yet I can't  decide where to cut into the story to start adding those changes.  Anywhere I try, I leave blatant hatchet marks in the plot and the flow immediately dies.  I don't want to scrap this story as I think it's the most unique one in the bunch, but I can't resubmit it as it stands, which means I've reached an impasse.  Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Aside from fixing Thunderbird, I have two other stories in my fairy tale bunch to finish.  A Heart's Dream started out as yet another Cinderella rewrite, but I'm trying to get it to go more of a Sleeping Beauty route.  I think that will fit better with the characters, but planning that out has been really slow going.  Trip Trop Trail, my Billy Goats Gruff rewrite, hasn't been worked on at all.  I was trying to get A Heart's Dream completed first, which has left Trip Trop Trail patiently waiting.  Unfortunately, it's going to have to continue to wait as I have a few other things I need to get done first.  Only once all three of those stories have been completely worked out can I start looking at final edits and formatting, which is months away. 

11/29/18

I am home sick today.  Sore throat, low grade fever, cough.  Ugh.  I keep waking up from a nap and wondering when I can take another nap.  It sucks.  Even if I had the energy to write, which I don't, I can't use my leave from work for writing purposes.  Instead, I'm hoping to read a good book.  Since I didn't have edits this past weekend, I got to read Mercenaries of the Stolen Moon by Megan Derr, which just came out.  I enjoyed it so much I went and reread the rest of the series...again...and bought Mercenaries in print.  Now I need something else to read in between my naps today.  I've got an overstuffed bookshelf in my apartment and a bunch of ebooks on my computer, so I'll figure something out. 

Here's some super wonderful good news: Ground of Insurrection has been nominated in the Fantasy category in M/M Romance's 2018 Members' Choice Awards on Goodreads!  The last book I had nominated was Hadash Aviv back in 2013.  Given I only have two books eligible for nomination this year, having even one of them chosen is amazing.  Voting opens next month and I'll post all the links you'll need then. 

I don't have any news to share about my upcoming books.  If A Butterfly Don't Fly and The Coup and the Prince are still in process, I know that much, but I don't know anything else about them just yet.  The Sentinel's Prophesy is also going to start the editing process sometime soon.  Ground of Resurrection has been submitted, but I won't hear whether it's been accepted for a few more months. 

As for writing, I've had a good week.  Ge-Mi: Part Two is almost there!  I've had to pause actually writing in order to organize and plan the final battle scene, but that's led to good progress.  I am hoping to have it completed by the end of the year.  Wounded Alpha, my story for LT3's Bound by Nothing call, has been sitting for long enough.  I'm thinking if I have some energy tonight, I might start giving it a final edit.  I've decided it would be better to get it done and submitted sooner, just in case I get drowned in edits again.  The last thing I want is for the submission deadline to arrive while I'm busy with other things.  This way it's one less thing on my plate. 

For now, though, it's time for another nap. 

11/18/18

I've seen some questions regarding where If A Butterfly Don't Fly is.  It was supposed to come out last week, and it has instead vanished.  The short of it is, the edits were too much.  I couldn't rewrite entire sections in the two week timeline before the story had to be back to LT3.  Missing that deadline meant the story couldn't come out in time, so LT3 had to pull it.  That said, LT3 is still moving forward with publishing, but are (understandably) not going to decide on a new release date until we are 100% certain the story will actually come out on that date.  I have since returned the completed story to LT3, so I believe the next step is copy edits.  I'm hoping to see them soon, and once those are done I should have release information to share with you. 

Given my working flat out on Butterfly for three weeks straight pushed back my ability to complete the edits for The Coup and the Prince, that story has also been temporarily pulled.  I returned the edits to LT3, where it will go on to even more edits.  I guesstimate Coup will now come out sometime in 2019, possibly second quarter, but again, no release date will be decided on until we're certain Coup will actually be ready for it. 

In happier news, I have had some writing success.  I submitted Ground of Resurrection to LT3 this morning.  I should hear whether they accept it sometime in the next few months.  I have also completed Wounded Alpha, the story I wrote for LT3's Bound by Nothing call.  All of my worry about whether it would be long enough or even get completed in time was apparently baseless and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  It's not due until the end of January, so I'm going to let it sit until after the new year, and then start editing and formatting it for submission.  I have also added over 5k words to Ge-Mi: Part Two, which means I'm getting to the finish line.  All I have to write is the last confrontation with the bad guy and the wrap up afterwards, and this story will be complete.  I'm hoping to get it done in 2018, but this last section might be the hardest to write so we'll see how it goes.  

11/3/18

You've got to be tired of hearing about my edits by now.  I know I'm tired of talking about them.  I think the last twelve plus months have been almost exclusively edits, with zero progress on writing.  The good news is, I am definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  I am very much looking forward to a break in editing so I can finally spend some real time on writing.  Here's where everything I've been working on lately stands right now.

I was finally getting to the end of the second round of edits for The Coup and the Prince when I had to stop.  LT3 sent me the third and final round of edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly and, given it comes out in just over a week, I have to get Butterfly done ASAP.  I would say this set of edits are easier than the previous two rounds, but a lot of it is time consuming.  For example, every time a space is changed to a dash, a deleted comment and a red insert appears in my manuscript's track changes.  That requires I accept the change for both, which is an extremely tedious and time consuming adventure in mind-numbing boredom.  There's a dozen changes like that on each page and for a 40k word story... You can see where I'm going with this.  Of course, there's also a few changes that will require a bit more effort as well.  My goal is to have all the changes fixed by the end of today, so I can spend tomorrow giving the story one last read through.  If I can get it back to LT3 tomorrow, Butterfly will be in good shape for release on November 14th. 

Which means I get to return to working on Coup tomorrow too.  I fully admit that if I had gotten Coup back to LT3 early, or even by the exact due date, there wouldn't be this overlap.  It's my own fault I'm stuck like this.  That said, I do need to get Coup back to LT3 also ASAP.  There's a little over a month before Coup is supposed to be released and I don't know if that's enough time for editing round three.  It's a little nerve wracking, but I'm hopeful. 

Writing, as I said earlier, has been sporadic and far between.  However, when my brain starts hurting from all the editing, I have been switching to work on my currently untitled story for LT3's Bound by Nothing call.  The story currently stands at 18k words, which means I will get to the minimum 20k word count required by the call.  It's a lighter story without a lot of twists and turns, which makes it easier to write and a nice change from the tangles my brain has been stuck in from the edits.  I have not had time to give Ground of Resurrection the final edit it needs before I submit it, so when I get free time again that story will have to be completed first, but my Bound by Nothing story is a close second.  Only when the edits are done and those two stories are off to LT3's submission box will I have the time and energy to return to tackling the bigger stories patiently waiting on my to-do list. 

10/18/18

As usual, I am behind on edits.  The second round for The Coup and the Prince are stuck.  I can't figure out how to do what the editor has recommended, so I think the unfortunate solution is I won't be doing it at all.  I can see how the change would benefit the overall story, but it requires 15k words added in such a way that it doesn't disrupt the overall plot.  I just can't figure out a way to finagle it without essentially destroying the story.  I've tried and failed, and, given the edits were due yesterday, I think it's time to move on.  I do think Coup is still good without the change and am really looking forward to December 12th when it finally reaches my readers' hands. 

Another reason I want to get Coup back to the editor is I'm expecting the next (and final) round of edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly.  We're under a month to release day, so it's getting to be crunch time.  I'm actually looking forward to seeing Butterfly again, as this round of edits is the culmination of a lot of work.  Seeing the story finally come together is going to be amazing.  I already know you're all going to love it, so mark your calendars for November 14th, or simply pre-order it from LT3 ahead of time. 

Ground of Resurrection, the story that has been patiently waiting for me to give it a last edit so I can submit it to LT3, will have to continue waiting for just a little longer.  All of my focus has to be on getting Coup back to the editor ASAP.  Only once that is done can I pull out Resurrection again.  I'm hoping this time next year I'll be complaining about editing it while eagerly looking forward to it being published! 

Due to a number of reasons (edits, holidays, real life intrusions), I haven't been able to get a lot of writing done this last month.  I have added a bit to the story I'm attempting to write for LT3's Bound by Nothing call, but I'm still not sure if, A) I'll have it complete by the deadline, and B) it will reach the minimum length requirement.  Still, the story is cute and fun to write, so I'm going to plug away at it for as long as possible.  Wish me luck!

9/15/18

Ground of Insurrection is 99 cents at LT3 this weekend only!  If you don't have a copy, now is the time: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...  Insurrection has been getting truly wonderful reviews and it has one of the prettiest covers I've seen.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it too, so get your copy today!

Heartbeat is now available on Goodreads. Feel free to add it to your to-read list if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41830430-heartbeat

I have completed writing Ground of Resurrection, book two in my Wizard Wars series.  I have set it aside to marinate for about a month, so sometime in mid-October I'll get it edited and formatted for submission.  I'm excited about how it turned out.  It answers some of the questions I know you had from book one and expands the world and the story.  I'm hoping you like it too!  Next for this series is book three, which I have the barest outline for.  I'm not planning on starting book three for a while (I have a few others I want to finish first), but I'm looking forward to it. 

Otherwise, I haven't done much the past few weeks.  I had a good new year celebration with my family, which was nice.  I'm behind on the edits for The Coup and the Prince.  I'm hoping to make some progress on it this week around Yom Kippur, but it's going to be difficult.  There will be more time to focus on the edits next week.  Once the edits are done I'll return to writing and will hopefully begin to make real progress on some of the other stories I know you're waiting for. 

9/6/18

I've have been making some more progress on my to-do list!  There's still a lot left for me to get done, but I like what I've been able to accomplish so far.  Here's what I did:

First, I was able to complete the edits for Heartbeat and get them returned to LT3 on time.  (Okay, one day late, but that hardly counts when you consider how late I returned some of my previous edits...)  Heartbeat is therefore complete and ready to go for October 3rd.  It is available for pre-order at LT3 and should be out to other retailers soon.  Heartbeat is a reprint, so only go get your copy if you don't own the original. 

Another big ticket item on my to-do list is finishing writing Ground of Resurrection, which I have almost completed.  The story itself is done, but I'm only halfway through the epilogue.  I'm of two minds when it comes to the epilogue.  On one hand, it's a cute bit of fun extra that I want to give to my readers.  On the other, it really serves more as a vignette rather than a full epilogue.  I'm still going to write it and include it in the submission, and then I'll see what the editor says.  If they think it's okay to keep it in, I will, if not I'll release it on my blog as a deleted scene.  Either way, you'll get to read it, which means I need to finish writing it.  Once the epilogue is done, Ground of Resurrection will be complete and all I'll need to do is edit and format it for submission. 

I have also written a few hundred words in Gi-Mi: Part Two.  I had the day off this past Monday, so I was able to spend a good chunk of time focusing on this story.  I really want to get it complete this year, but I still have approximately 15k words to write, so I'm not sure that's possible.  Hopefully I can get it done by early next year. 

Lastly, The Coup and the Prince.  The second round of edits arrived and are sitting on my computer waiting for me.  Now that Heartbeat is done, I've decided to take a few more days to complete Resurrection, and then all focus has to go towards getting Coup done.  I've read through the edits already and I know they won't be easy.  There's still a few things to rewrite and a couple of other things to tweak.  It's going to take time, which means I need to get cracking.  Wish me luck!