Category Archives: Dark Mystic Quill

How big are those bathrooms, anyway?

WorldCon 76 is just about a month away, and we plan to have a large presence there. There will be not only my books–Grimaulkin Redeemed is now available and it’s a really nice contrast to the dark colors of the first two, a great eye-catcher.  There will also be books by J Dark in her Glass Bottles series, Building Baby Brother by Steven Radecki, and Children of the Wrong Time by Flavia Ada.  And dragons. And card readings.

I had an event yesterday and sold one book, which I was happy about. These small fairs, though, are a real crapshoot. Most of the people who come to them are older folk looking for stuff for them or their grandchildren. I happened to get lucky and get a 15 year old who was so excited to read his first “New Adult” book that he kept saying, “I can’t wait to read this!” He probably started reading it in the car.

After the event, I decided to sit down and start War Mage again. I’m following my own advice and making up stuff based on research. The history is all wrong, there is no Firebase Jackson, there is no Colonel Parlance, but there is a 10th Mountain Division. I just put them there because from what I’ve read, those guys kick ass. I have the sinking feeling, though, I’m not going to get 50K words out of it. We’ll see what happens.

A new podcast is up at Dark Mystic Quill. It’s about magic and writing. Together.

Fire is on hold until after WorldCon while the publisher gets things ready for that. All I care about is fitting in the bathroom on the plane. If I don’t, you’ll see me on youtube and CNN as the idiot lady who got stuck in a JetBlue bathroom. I’ll be famous! And sell lots of books!

 

Writing and editing and appearances–oh my.

I might be back in the saddle again. This week was very busy with editing and writing. If I was working, I would never get all this done.

First, there’s a podcast waiting over at Dark Mystic Quill about whether or not you are a writer if you write. Well, duh, you might think. But there are some people that don’t believe you’re a writer if you just write–that you have to be read. Sometimes, that’s not the important part.

I finished “Taurus”. It’s not a typical romance, it has just a little erotica, but I think it’s pretty good. You’ll see Earth–maybe–June 15 or definitely by July 15.

July 1 is the date slated for Grimaulkin Redeemed. Also, maybe by July, will be the audiobook of Grimaulkin.

As for appearances, I will be at the Shastea Lounge in Pawtuxet Village (pronounced in Rhode Island as “P’tuxet”) on May 31 with one of my poems during open mic at 7 pm. On June 26 I’ll be the featured author there (did I mention this already? Sorry if I did) reading “The Joint” and I’ll have books for sale.  I won’t be at Poetry and Beans in Coventry on June 16 because I actually have a social engagement.  Surprise!

And, of course, WorldCon in San Jose August 15-20!

 

 

Life suckage

I’m up to 27K words in Grimaulkin Redeemed–almost half way there! About half-way. My goal is 60K words, but with my luck, the story will end between 50K and 60K.

Life has been getting in the way recently. Suffice it to say I’ve had to scale back some things. One is the game, not because it’s a bad thing, but because I only have a finite amount of time during the week and weekends, and I’m trying to concentrate on writing and my hoarding issues here at home. I haven’t played the game in 3 weeks (one week was due to no electricity). I’m feeling guilty, but there was only one person I played with on that game. Unfortunately I haven’t seen him when I’ve checked in, either, so maybe he’s running into the same issue that I am–Life intrudes.

“Capricorn” is finished and gone through its first editing pass. The as-yet-unnamed story tie-in for Grimaulkin Redeemed also went through its first pass and was just returned. The publisher and I are not in a hurry for that one, but the novels are what I’m being pushed to deliver. Gee, wonder why? (laugh here)

I plan on trying to get a podcast out this week or next weekend, and it will be about this statement: “A bell isn’t a bell if it hasn’t been rung; a song isn’t a song if it hasn’t been sung.” This statement pisses me off.

I’m in a real store!

I’ve just brought my book to a real bookstore and it’s on a real shelf for sale! It’s at Stillwater Books in downtown Pawtucket, across the street from Slater Mill and (hopefully) near the new Pawsox Stadium. It’s actually down the street from where Scott’s store is located.

I’m going to do a podcast about a subject near and dear to my heart: Guns. It kind of crosses the line into political, but it has to do with the “woe” part of my podcast. It should be up soon.

Grimaulkin Redeemed is up to 22K, but I’m working on the short story that will come out in conjunction with it. It’s an old story I did on my old Champions Online Stories blog, rewritten and updated.  It needs a title.

Otherwise, things are quiet.

 

California, here I come!

As you can see by my playlist, I listen to a lot of hard rock when I write. It’s not necessarily the song lyrics that I pay attention to, but the cadence and rhythm of the song. “Coming Undone” and “Good Man” have pertinent lyrics to what I’m writing. I do know that if anyone ever makes a movie of Grimaulkin, I don’t necessarily want anything to do with the casting because I don’t watch TV or see movies, but let me curate the soundtrack!

I’m up to about 18K words in Grimaulkin Redeemed, and wrapped up one of the subplots. The muses are working on how to get me out of a box I painted myself in with the main plot. In the meantime, I’m writing another subplot, and I plan on stealing an idea from Twilight (yes, I know, that’s very bad).  When you read Grimaulkin Redeemed, you may not notice. First one who does wins a signed collection of all three (by then) Grimaulkin short stories. But I’ll run this contest after Grimaulkin Redeemed comes out.

I’m going to WorldCon 76 in San Jose! We just got approved for a table, so we’re in! I won’t be at the Loof this year (August 11) because I’ll be sending my table display to San Jose for August 15. Hopefully I will get everything back by Columbus Day in October so I can set up at the Autumnfest and Scituate Art Festival this year.  I won’t be at Narragansett or the Big E. I may be at RI Comicon in November if I can scrounge up the money for the table.  I’m going to try to set up at Richmond and Scituate Farmers’ Markets if they do them again, but not during the month of August. And probably lastly will be the Author Expo in December. I missed last month’s meeting so I don’t know what’s coming up.

I am definitely going to be at the Warwick Public Library April 21. Come visit!

Episode 15 of the Dark Mystic Quill is up and ready. Want to get rich? No, that podcast won’t help you with that, but it may help you pay some bills.

 

When the muse speaks, listen!

I decided this weekend to tackle Earth, to try and get it finished. As I talked with my publisher, he said, “How about you work on War Mage?”

Okay, for a different way of looking at things, sure. It’s been cooking for about a few months, so I should be able to get right back into the swing of it. A new story, a new character, new setting. I have an idea of where the story was going to go (after all, I’ve written eight drafts of the damn thing) so it should be easy. Right? Right?

I sat down, reread what I wrote up to the point I stopped and thought, “My God. This just sucks.”

I’m tempted to say, “To hell with the whole War Mage idea, let’s just not continue it.”

This made me reach for the comfort food to console my depression. After eating a few Belgian waffles, I went upstairs to my Windows computer (the computer that has Scrivener, Internet, and game on it) and did some mindless button-mashing in game.  Then I said to myself, “What happens if I start Grimaulkin Redeemed?”

I left the game, started a new project in Scrivener, and started writing. An hour later, I had done a thousand words (would have been more if I didn’t self-edit) and it flowed! This, this is what I like to feel when I write. The instant flow of words, the story just comes out, and it’s not work. It’s enjoyable. It’s play.

This is what every writer’s “zone” is. When the work takes over your life, and you enjoy it. It’s not a job. It’s not something you keep wanting to procrastinate. It’s a flow, a river.

I had a dream last night, and now that I think about it, I know what it means. There was a metal pipe that fed to a creek in the back of the house, and it was clogged, with water backing up against the foundation of the house. I had just grabbed a stick and planned on poking the end of the pipe to try and dislodge what was blocking it.

That’s Grimaulkin Redeemed. It’s unblocking the pipe of creativity. Maybe Grim will be my go-to for stories when I’m stuck. I still role-play him in the game (Champions Online–I’m @maulkin if you want to hit me up), so he may be around for a long time.

Further updates: Water will be an audiobook very soon. Grimaulkin is in production for an audiobook (yay!). I’ll be at the Cumberland Library Meet and Greet from 10-2 on February 17. Come down for some exclusive swag! And buy a book, even!0

Podcast is on hold for this week. I think I’ll try and get it together for next week.

Earthy writing

Finally locked myself downstairs in the cellar with my Hemingway Mac Mini, with no distractions such as the game or my kid, and forced myself to write for four hours on the weekend. I know now that I can’t seem to write cohesively during the week, so 8 hours on the weekend (if not more) should be enough to at least get 10K words a week out of me.

However, the whole novel is going to be a novelette by the time I’m done. It may be all the way up to 20K words. It’s at 15K right now as of this writing.

On February 15 I’m going to speak to high school students. This is a dream come true. This is who I wrote Grimaulkin for. I started writing what I’m going to speak about, and I plan on using it for my podcast next weekend.

After Earth comes War Mage. I’ll do the same thing with it, lock myself downstairs with it. I’ll also be sending out a newsletter with updates on what I’m doing, what’s coming up, and my appearances for February.

Lighting candles for getting  a table at Worldcon!

Full Crone

You know you’re old when you have to wear glasses to drive now.

I just celebrated my birthday this Friday. I am officially supposed to be a crone (yep, showing my age), but I don’t feel that way. I write YA stories, speculative fiction, not tedious memoirs and cozy mysteries. I listen to hard rock from the 1990’s and 2000’s (Turbo and Lithium on Sirius XM). I play video games. I don’t feel my age. Go figure.

Episode 11 of the Dark Mystic Quill podcast should be up by the time you see this. It’s about altars and what goes on them. There’s also a cameo appearance from Tom, my cat.

I’m still writing Earth. I’m feeling the time crunch. I have some scenes in mind to put in, but they’re not sex-related, they’re story related. I don’t know if what I’m writing is erotica or a story with explicit sex. The sex is not what drives the story, the paranormal elements are. Oh, Water is going to be an audio book, and the narrator is wonderful. That, hopefully, will be available soon.

I got the cover for Grimaulkin Redeemed, and OMG…it’s beautiful. Just what I pictured. Now I have to write it. But I’m not going to write it until I get to War Mage. The publisher said he doesn’t think I’ll end at three books. I might not. But that’s all I have in mind, and I can’t see myself going something like ten or fifteen books like the Dresden Files. Eventually, you get to a point when both you and your readers are bored. Though I’ve had Grimaulkin around for ten years, so I  don’t think I’ll get bored with him anytime soon.

So, in the meantime, I get to yell, “Get off my lawn!” and be official about it.

Ah, the smell of new books!

I just got Grimaulkin Tempted in the mail yesterday, both hardcover and trade paperback. It looks so cool!

Although it’s officially not going to be released until December 1, I needed them for the Author Expo on December 2, which will be my launch party! I’ll have special bundles there, buy Grimaulkin 1 and 2, get $5 off. Or pay full price of the two Grimaulkin books, and you can get Homecoming for free. And, of course, you’ll get a copy of Mike’s origin story “Self Defense” for free. And card readings if you want.

I’ve decided to put aside War Mage for the display, although I still will have the dragons as eye-catchers. For the past week, I’ve been working on War Mage, doing some exercises to try and generate ideas for the story. I’ve got the trajectory, point A, the beginning, and point Z, the end. It’s how to get to point Z from point A that I’m having trouble with. I know what the theme is, but it’s really hard for me because I, myself, don’t believe in the theme.

Maybe I should change the theme into something I believe in. But that would make for a dark story. I wanted it to be uplifting. I want the main character to succeed. But the way I have it now, he fails in one way, but succeeds with the theme. If he fails in his environment, it’s the end of the series.

Maybe that’s what the muses want. I’ve been working on this story for 2 years now. It’s been on the back burner for all this time, and I really should get it going. I’ve written it three times. It’s a story that I’ve promised, but I can’t seem to deliver.

I’ll keep working on it over the Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe something will come to me by then that will make the 4th rewrite of the story an actual charm. I should have done it for NaNoWriMo, but I thought the memoir would have been easier. It wasn’t. Check out my podcast as to why.

So my homework this week is to keep working on War Mage, and get myself psyched up for selling Grimaulkin on December 2.

NaNo NoNo

If you’re new to this page, welcome!

I started writing the memoir. Then, I noticed something.

It read like a newspaper report. This happened, then that happened. There’s no guts. No feeling. No reason. No lesson. And when I cast back to try to remember, I don’t remember many feelings at the time. It was do this, do that, make sure this happens. If anything, I was angry at my family, at his family, angry at the world. That’s all that I remember.

So I put it aside. I know I need to go deeper, and I don’t know if I’m ready for that.

Instead, I’m working through the book 90-Day Novel, which requires me to write every day and answer five or six questions a day. Also weekly homework of contemplation on the world. I’m doing this for War Mage, since I’m so stuck on that novel. I have to write 1600 words a day for NaNo. I’m lucky if I clear 1000. So I don’t think I’m going to win this year.

“The Joint” which is my new short story, probably won’t be available at the Author Expo on December 2, but “Self Defense” will be. And also Grimaulkin Tempted! I have a special bundled price: Grimaulkin and Grimaulkin Tempted if bought together will go for $25, with a free copy of “Self Defense” AND a free card reading.

Well, there’s a free card reading with any purchase anyway.

Podcast will come out next weekend. Unsure of the topic, probably NaNoWriMo. Or spells. Or both!