Influenza

She's a bitch. I've been down for the count for several days and anticipate several more. Stay well!!

And happy new year! ☺

You haven't lived until...

...you've taken a laptop into a PumpItUp! or SkyZone or other indoor playground and tried to write a novel.  The screaming, oh the screaming, and the random ball flying precariously close to the laptop.  Goodness. And yes, indoor playgrounds are a thing.  At least they are in AZ where it gets to 120F in the summer (45C or so for everywhere other than the US). It's 70F right now (22C or so), so that's obviously not an issue, but they offer discounts when school is not in session. My boys love it, so why not? Perhaps it will tire them out...

So why am I here?  I'm trying to make a big push and finish Earthquake and get going on Rarity. I need to work on the cover for earthquake and none of my ideas are going to look very good with my limited photoshop skills (yes, I make my own covers). So I'll be trying to brainstorm that. I want the lightning circle again, but I'm having a hard time integrating that with my earthquake pictures from photoshop. I'll work on it more once Earthquake goes to my beta readers.  And try not to cry when I get too frustrated.

I've heard a lot from family and friends this holiday season.  It's been humbling, for sure.  Family who I'd never considered telling about my writing have found out about it from other family members. And they've read my stuff.  We're talking baby boomers here.  I've received a lot of compliments from them, which is great.  And I like the advice (mostly). And rest assured for my stepdad's cousin, there will be fewer visits to the dressmaker for Lora in Rarity.  In fact, she may not get there at all! At least half the book will take place outside of Glimmen. And I will rectify the lack of page numbers in my paperbacks.  It's something I never noticed. I own my books in paperback, but I've never looked through them other than to see how the map of Ydris looked.  That's pronounced EE-driss, btw.

Anyway, enough tangents.  I need to keep a lookout for flying balls and write some more. I hope you all had a merry Christmas, happy chanukah, happy kwanzaa, or other holiday (or no holiday... just a great weekend), and I wish you the best for a safe, happy, and healthy 2018!!

Fear not!

Hello readers!

Thank you so much for your patience.  Rest assured, I am still here and working hard on Sara's adventure and will be continuing with Lora's as soon as I send Earthquake out to beta readers. I am editing the first 50,000 words of Earthquake right now. Don't even get me started on book covered. Photoshop is not easy for me, and Earthquake is going to be at the edge of (or beyond) my meager skills.

This fall.... I bit off way more than I could chew.  I didn't have time for anything! And since writing is my "hobby," it got pushed to the back burner. Here in AZ, winter is our busiest season in medicine because of all of our winter visitors (aka snowbirds). But my hours at the clinic don't change much, just the busy-ness of my days! I mean, I used to have time to write over lunch...  I have 2 weeks left in the semester at the university where I also teach. I'm behind grading for them too.  Fall sports are over-- did I mention my two boys were in five sports???? Never again! My husband was coaching every single one, so I usually needed to wrangle one kid while the other was playing whatever sport while also trying not to fall too far behind grading papers. I have had a doctor's or dentist's appointment every single Friday (my day off... ha!) since September began. I think I kinda gave up and buried my head in the sand a bit.  What does that mean for the future?

Well.... I'm trying to figure out how to organize to where I'll have time for everything.  I know I have disappointed some of my loyal fans by being 3+ months late with Earthquake and however late I will be with Rarity. As I said before, I appreciate your continued patience. I am only teaching one class this spring.  Nothing is changing at my clinic. I have no appointments other than getting my hair cut/colored and my eyebrows waxed for the foreseeable future. I refuse to not have time! Or be so overwhelmed and tired that I can't be bothered to "work" even on my fun job (er... hobby).

So that's it.  That's what's been going on.  Thanks for listening to me vent and whine. Excited for what I'm reading. Hopefully not too many big changes to be made and I can get more books out to you soon :)

I have enough room for one...

... maybe 2 secondary character point of view chapters left in Earthquake. I don't want to have too many. I've had 2 so far. They're characters that we know, but don't know super well.  They were not the same POV's as in the short story anthologies published prior to Wildfire. Secondary characters are basically anyone but Sara. We know her story. I hope.

Anyway.... does anyone have a preference as to whose POV I use? Any favorites? Yes? No? If I use your suggestion(s), I'll mention you in my acknowledgements... Hopefully it'll get me out of this darn writer's block!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I mention?

In order for the way I want the Program series to work, I have to change the POV.  I was really struggling with how to do it.  Do I just wait until the moment and do it? Do I do it a few times before I make the big change?

Well, I consulted a group of writers I chat with. A lot of them questioned why it needed to happen.  It does, trust me. Sara doesn't die-- I'm not pulling a Divergent and killing my main character (sorry if that's a spoiler to you), but someone else needs to talk for awhile. Anyway, the ultimate consensus was that it would make the most sense if I had a few chapters here and there in Earthquake with more in the next book and a huge chunk in the final book.  Yes, I think it's going to take 4 books to finish.

I wrote the first secondary character POV chapter a while ago.  It was really hard to write because I'd never written that character before.  For those of you who don't know, Wildfire was initially a short story from Sara's POV. It ended right after she gets to Montana. Then there were 3 other short stories. These were published in anthologies by Horrified Press's YA imprint Sinister Saints. The books are only available in hardcover.  3 of them can be purchased on amazon (and lulu.com) and the other only from lulu.com. There are links to all of them on my website as well as my amazon and goodreads author pages. The second book is Luke's POV and the third is Sean's.  The fourth is a prequel, and it's from Jake's POV. The three short stories that made Wildfire are slightly different than originally published due to further edits and the POV's reverted to Sara. This is why I felt comfortable writing the other POV's.

So whose POV's are they? Not telling.  The first is a semi-new character.  He's got a tiny part in the beginning of Wildfire and is mentioned throughout. The other I'm currently trying to write.  The character is being stubborn, so I might have to abandon that and try from another character. The whole book is being stubborn.  I had this 20k word surge and I had thought that the rest would fall in line like that.  Silly me! I'm getting to the good part of Earthquake.  I think I mentioned the beginning is fairly slow paced. I am writing. I appreciate your patience.

Now I'm going to go see patients.  You know, my whole doctoring day job. I'd so much rather be writing!!!

Editing and writing

I am nearing the end of writing Earthquake. I just edited a big chunk of it. I have some beta readers lined up.  Looking good!

Angst

I read a review of a YA book somewhere where the reviewer complained that the MC was too angsty. I never thought that was possible.  I mean, they're teenagers. It's all drama all the time, right? Well, I read a book today (I've had strep throat and have been doing more reading than writing this week), and I was about ready to give up on the MC about a third of the way through.  But I decided to stick with it because I liked the idea of the story. I'm glad I did.  It ended up pretty darn good, and I'm now waiting for book number 2.  So, there you have it.  Maybe too much angst.

I bring this up because the ad-pro's are fighting.  And whining. And doing all kinds of attention-grabby things right now.  Is it over the top? Yes.  Is there a purpose? Also, yes. I'm also 2/3 or more of the way through the book so I'm not trying to world build. But yes. There's a method to the madness.

Since I'm feeling better, I plan on writing more tomorrow.  After my son's birthday party. I was productive today and set up my online classrooms at the university where I teach. So unless I get sick again (a real possibility since I am a physician, exposed to two germ-infested schools through my sons, and exposed to germ-infested university students), there's not a lot stopping me between now and... whenever Earthquake is done. It's coming easily when I write. I am still faster than GRRM.  Thank you for your patience.