2023... when did you leave me behind?

 

I'm pretty sure there's some kind of time vortex that swallows up hours, days, months... There's gotta be. It can't possibly be anything else, right?

Anyway, there was another anthology last winter from the Dublin Creative Writers Cooperative: 

 

Lots of scary/spooky stories in this one! 

And there's another anthology coming out later this year as well from DCW. I'm so excited!

In real life news, everything has been a bit more hectic than usual, but I'm optimistic about getting back to a steady writing routine. We'll see how that goes.

Hi there, 2022. Please be kind to us.

 

Let's start with: Happy New Year! 

A lot has happened in 2021, hasn't it? And covid is hanging in there, going strong--unfortunately. 

But it's not all bad. It's not like our daily lives have been placed in a weird limbo alongside our vacation trip from May 2020.

As for me, I made some new friends, got engaged, finished a few stories... and got to see the finished anthology printed and looking great. 

 

  I'm not optimistic about us being rid of covid this year, but I'm hoping we do a better job collectively of slowing down its spread.

Please continue to be careful out there for yourselves and for everyone around you.

Stay safe.  

Final steps of an Anthology coming together

I hope this finds everyone well (and on their way to getting vaccinated). It's been a very long, weird year, but hopefully, we're coming to the other side of the curve (the declining side). 

On the story front, for the past few months, I've had the wonderful experience of participating in an anthology put together by the Dublin Creative Writers Cooperative. 

They're a wonderful group filled with such talented writers!

I can't recommend their first anthology enough (Broken Promises: An Anthology - you can find it on amazon). There's a little bit of everything there. 

Anyway, their second anthology is in the final editing stages now and I'm really excited to have my stories published alongside these awesome people!

Hugs to all! Stay safe!

Apparently prologues are "out"?!?

  I did not know writing was akin to the fashion industry where things went in and out of fashion, but apparently that happens. Recently, I heard some writers from my writing group talking about how the prologue was now seen as undesirable, and it got me thinking... Who decided that? 

 Was there really some huge reader outcry saying that the prologue was an annoying tool they'd rather live without? Were there lists with millions and billions of names added to it demanding the removal of this vile thing?

 As someone who writes stories, I like the prologue. I use it to tell a piece of the story that is either set in the past, the future, or that hints at something that I won't be able to go into for a while (looking at you, Shattered Dreams). 

 As a reader, I've never once read a prologue and thought: "I wish this scene wasn't in this book". 

That's about it for these random thoughts for today. 

Also, here's a shameless plug to the Dublin Creative Writers Cooperative website.

 

Take care out there!

And... time for a check in...

Hello all! (or random person who stumbled on this)

First, time flew by, again. It always does, doesn't it? And more and more as we get older. :)

I hope everyone is doing well in 2020. This has probably been the weirdest year in most of our lifetimes.

Some quick updates:

- Finished the first draft of Recurring Nightmares (Book II of In Dreams)

- Started thinking up things (aka, piecing random dreams together) to form another story about a girl and a labyrinth

- Joined an AWESOME writing group

- Finished a post-doc

- Got a new job

- Read a ton of random things including some manga/manhwa/manhua

 I've been working hard on editing Child of Moon, Daughter of Sun (when real life lets me), so hopefully I can get it to be as good as I wish it were. :)

 I decided to set Stargazer aside for a bit until I'm comfortable working on the sequels. There's a lot of backstory and plotting that gets interwoven along several books in the series, so I should probably work on it only when I can go back and review all my notes and get all the planning settled. 

Now let's see if I can update this within 5 years.

Stay safe out there! 

Yes, blogger had locked me out of posting...

But that's not why I haven't posted in over a year.

Time flew away again.
 Or rather, I fell into an interdimensional hole where the passage of time does not occur normally... Who else has had that happen to them?

Anyway, bulletin-style updates:

 -  I finished In Dreams - the first one
 - Back on KDP (at least for Grace and Cameras, still figuring out what to do with In Dreams)
 - Proofing Vanishing Act
 - Finishing up Sun & Moon
 - Trying to remember where I put the kindlegen instructions...


Okay, that's it for the month. :)
Hugs!

Quick warning - I'm getting kicked out of KDP, kinda...

I'm taking a break from reading about horse embryos - why on Earth am I reading about horse embryos, even I don't know - to tell anyone who might be interested that my books will no longer be available on KDP. I hope they'll still be allowed to remain on print form at amazon. I don't remember what the tax requirements were like for that one.

This is what happened:
 I got an email saying I had to fill out some form to figure out which type of tax forms I needed to fill out for the IRS. Since I have never dealt with the IRS and have watched enough series and movies to be scared of them, I'd rather not fill any forms I do not comprehend. Especially not when I'm focusing on a dozen other university-related things...
  Maybe in the near future - or in 2015 - I'll manage to get all that sorted out and I'll be able to get back to KDP. I also plan on looking for alternatives as soon as I get enough time to think.
Maybe freebies don't require tax forms? That would be an alternative, I guess...

Anyway, ebooks won't be there starting on Dec 4. If you wanna read it after that, email me and I'll send you a copy. How's that sound?

I'm still struggling with getting In Dreams finished by the end of the year, but real life is really not helping.
If you don't hear from me by the holidays, have a nice Christmas and may the next year be always better than the one before.

Hugs to all!