Busy Busy Bee

This past year has gone by in a whirlwind!  I have found myself meaning to come on here several times to update you on my bookish progress, but then I disappear again and forget this semi-regular blog still exists.

Today I come to give you good news and bad news.

The good news is, I have two books to release (one in a week, and one in six months).  They are ya sci-fi/colonization/survival books in a duology (maybe a trilogy.  I have a third story in mind, but it depends on the response the books get.)

I am also working on two books (one of which is the Five Tribes adjacent book I mentioned last year) and plotting a book.

Writing is happening and I haven't disappeared completely.

The bad news is, I'm doing school right now, which is going to significantly cut into my writing time.  When I first started writing, my kids were babies and I had a chunk of time in the morning where I could write and edit.  Now they're big and I'm moving into a different space of life where I decide what I want to do.  Obviously, I would love to just write, but it doesn't pay the bills. haha  It's a nice addition to my fun money, but I'm interested in getting out into the world again, because that's where I get all my story ideas, in any case.

The next year of my life will be particularly busy, but like I said, I have two books that will get released, hopefully giving you a bit of something to cling to while I slowly work on finishing the books I've started.

Here is the book release happening next week:

Description:

They were society's cast-offs, a prison population, sent from a dying earth to discover whether an unknown planet was habitable. After a planned mutiny on board the colony ship by one group of prisoners, the delinquents find themselves crash-landed on the planet, abandoned by the other adults. Stranded on a harsh, alien world, they must fight for survival while evading the ruthless criminals who betrayed them. Former privileged teen Cale Kincaid and conflicted mutineer August Bismark find themselves leading a band of survivors as they navigate the treacherous landscape. With no food, no supplies, and little practical survival knowledge, will they be able to live through one night, much less survive long-term?

Happy Reading!

I Take it Back

 So in the world of unexpected things, I've come across something I didn't foresee myself doing for quite some time yet.  I'm writing a Five Tribes book.  Except it's NOT a Five Tribes Book.  I don't know how to explain it yet, and maybe I'll never figure out how to properly describe it. 

It has Five Tribes magic, but no Five Tribes characters.  Yeah, that's the best I've got.  I'm really excited about it, though, and I hope you are too.

Just wanted to quickly update you.  Now, back to the grindstone.

Happy Reading!

-Kate

New Things

 I have not stopped writing as some rumors have stated.  I'm still here, every day, plugging away.  In fact, since finishing Universis, I have written three books and almost finished plotting two.  I'm just not sure what to do with them yet.

While I figure it out, there won't be much released under my name for a bit.  I'll keep you updated, but I'll tell you right now, none of them are Five Tribes stories.  I don't have any ideas for how to expand on that universe as yet.

I have a sci-fi series in the works, and potentially a "we're in the real world" fantasy series getting plotted.  When I know where I'm going with those, I'll let you know!

In the meantime, you can track me on goodreads to see what books I'm currently enjoying (Murderbot Diaries, anyone??) and keep an eye out for news.

Sorry it's been so long!

Happy Reading!

Holy Carp!

Finally, after months of work, the edits are finished.  I'm dead, readers.  But the story that I wanted to tell is done and I can't help being immensely pleased by that.  Wow.  Just this series alone was about 800,000 words (maybe more, I haven't done the math lately) and when I started I had no idea where it would end up.

My writing may never be perfect (is anyone's?) but I'm really satisfied with the way it turned out.  There are stories still untold, but those who matter in this journey had their day.

So now it's off to my proofreader, and I'm hoping to have it back in another month or so.  This book is 180,000 words, so it's going to take a while.  In the mean time, I wanted to share the cover with you.  I love it, because it represents everything this story has come to mean to me, and gives a hint about where it's going.

I hope to have more good news for you soon.  Happy reading!

A Final Wish

 Hello readers,

I am happy to report that The Five Tribes series is finished.  Whoa.  I can't believe I just typed that.  This series has been 12 years in the making, thanks to various life hiccups and my inability to write any novel for this series in under 100k (barring that first one, of course).

This book, Universis, is actually coming in at 175,000 words!  I'd love to say that it will get back down to 150k, but I think what with being more descriptive and clarifying some of the plot, it will probably end up around 170k.  But it is chock full of everything you could want: love, loss, change, explosions, new characters, new worlds, and new legends.  This book is the culmination of everything I've been building since the very beginning of the series and I hope it will have the answers you've been asking yourself about the Five Tribes and its existence.

It's hard to know where to end a series, but I've done the best that I can to honor these characters we've all followed for so long, and to tell their story to all of you.  There is an epilogue and some loose threads, and who knows... there could be some books set in this world in the future.  No promises, but there are several characters who still need stories, to my mind.

For now, my plan is to do one rough pass through, where I make sure all the names are correct and double-check my scrivener file for inconsistencies before I hand this sucker off to the betas.  And while that project is marinating, I'll be starting something completely new.  I'm not going to talk about it now, but there will be a post in the near future about what I'm working on next.

Thanks again, to all of you for your encouragement, your comments, your emails, your reviews and ratings.  I've tried to take in as much feedback as I can and really consider what would make the books even better, but in the end, the story will be what it wants to be.  I'm just grateful that some of you have been along for the ride since the beginning and made my writing the richer for it.

Happy reading!

-Kate

Almost Big News

 When you're staring down the short end of 150k, people, it's time to celebrate.  That's right.  I'm at 145k, and that's not the only good news.  I've got three chapters and an epilogue left!!!  That's it!  Then I will do a rough draft editing pass before I send this sucker off to my beta readers.

I am feeling all kinds of good right now, about that.  I will also post the final cover for your enjoyment in an upcoming post (have to have something to look forward to!).

So, yes, good news.  Each chapter has three perspectives, and each perspective is a chapter length in itself, so I'm guessing it will take another couple of weeks to put that part in the bag, and it will probably be a month before the rough edit is done.  I have a lot of clean up work to do and I have to check everything to make sure it fits overall with the previous novels.  But I am seriously hoping for an end of the year publish date.  (I don't want to say earlier and totally fail, but who knows, it could happen!)

Hope you are all well and happy reading!

-Kate

I used to write so often...

 Oh life.  How unexpected you are in ruining all my plans.  Or not.  

Hello, all.  Those of you lingering few that have read my books and thought to yourselves... I wonder what Kate is up to these days, since she hasn't written a single entry in a year.  A freaking year.

Well, Kate has been busy.  Not writing.  Oh no!  She's been homeschooling her children, because of Corona and school closures.  So unfortunately, Universis has taken a back-burner to that mess.  But I did brush it off and look it over and the half of the book that IS written is stuff I like.  So I'll keep it.  There was a bunch of stuff I didn't like, and I cut it all out and started over.  I wrote more stuff that fit better, and now I'm back up to half and spilling over into finishing.  Yes, I can see the end in sight friends.  I'm not sure what sort of ending it will be, but it will be the END.  Because writing a series is hard, y'all.  

Not a fan, if I'm going to be honest.  The planning and the designing and the note taking so I don't mess everything up is exhausting.  On the other hand, watching these characters learn and grow over the past 10 years has been some of the best work of my life.  I will MISS them so much: Nikka, Luka, Zyander, Alea, Surgal, Alys, and the Vixen.  They've been such good friends to me, and I hope they go on to live good lives when I'm not there chronicling them.  I'll guess we'll see what the chances are by the time the book ends, huh?

I've got about 40k words left, but as long as I stick to my goal of 1000 words per day, I should finish this sucker up (barring sickness or major life events) in a couple of months.  So exciting!

In the meantime, I've been planning what I'll do next, and I think it will be very different.  It's only alive in Scrivener for now, because I'm not writing another word that isn't about the Five Tribes.  

Hope all is well with you and your families,

Kate:)

Ooops! Didn't even realize!

Yeah, so apparently the last time I update was last year.  I can't believe how long I've been writing this book. T.T

Look, I'm at the halfway mark!  Yay!  It's gonna be a long one, judging by my wordcount, which is about 90k.  But I am determined that this will be the last one, as I planned, so I'm working hard to wrap things up.

Nothing more than that for now, just getting over the flu, so I'm off to drink some tea and try to write another chapter.

Happy New Year and sorry I haven't updated recently.

Plodding Away

Well, hello.  Here is my obligatory "Yes, I'm still writing," post.  It's been more than a month, but you won't hold that against me, will you?  Especially since I've been plugging away over here with such determination.

This is about how I feel my skill level is sometimes...

But it's all good news!  I've tripled my word count.  Currently, the book is weighing in at 32,000ish words.  And pretty much all my spare time is carefully, CAREFULLY, working out plotting details.  Just because I have the overall story doesn't mean every detail has been worked out yet.  I mean, even though there are only 3 character perspectives, I've got about 9 people with separate plots and motivations and storylines that have to be touched on and played out.  As I keep telling my writing friend in a whiny voice, "Series are so HARD."  And long series are harder.  I don't know what I was thinking.

So yeah, that's me.  Sitting over here, thinking about how I want to end this book.  Unlike JK Rowling, I didn't write the epilogue before I finished the whole series.  It's funny when I think back on what I was planning for the overall series... IT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than that now.  Like, not even close to the shadowy plot in my mind at the beginning of the first book.

The characters have mostly done what I wanted, but the world they live in has insisted on changing all over the place.  Of course, the more things get messed up, the more fun it is to write.  Now I know why Pierce Brown insists on breaking apart all his plotlines in a spectacular way. :D

Next update I'll talk more about my Word Of The Year, but if I keep going this post will be waaaaaaaay too long.

Happy Reading!

Happy New Year!

Well, despite my doubts, I started writing in December.  I know! 

There was a lot of stuff going on up here in Norcal what with the #Campfire and all.  I think I just needed a way to pour out my emotions.

Anyway, that's all good news for you.  As with all my books, I start with the strongest voice in my head first.  Imagine my surprise that it wasn't Luka this time.  Instead, it was Alea.  That's right, people.  She's back.  Her character is going really interesting places in this next book and I wanted you to have a front seat in observing it.  I think she's the only new perspective we'll be getting, though.  I promise I'm not going to be like GRRM and shove a bunch of new characters into my books.

I'm about 12k into Universis (in case you missed it, that's the name of the last book).  I wasn't meaning to be epic with that last title, but it's meaning is what I feel about finishing up this series.  I mean, guys, I've been writing this series for almost 10 years.  My son was a toddler when it started and he'll be in middle school next year.  Holy Hannah.

Universis is my own word, but sort of derived from the Latin word for "All Together", which is what these books will be when it's finished.  It's also what the Five Tribes will be once things settle and Nikka's changes go into affect. 

That's all I'm going to let slip for now, but I will be coming on here to update my wordcount occasionally (hopefully once a month).

Happy Reading!

Casual Update

So, here I am again.  I've gotten enough subtle digs from readers that I felt compelled to come here and let you know what's going on with the book.

To be frank, not any writing, as yet.

I know, I know!  Don't hit me.  I read on one review that I was potentially alienating readers because I can't write books fast enough.  Well, I'm sorry!  I am!  If I could write 8 hours a day, then I would be popping out these suckers right and left but I only get 1.  That's right.  I get 1 hour a day if I'm lucky and if I feel like getting up at 5 on that particular morning and if the entire universe lines up perfectly.  Which it rarely does.

That being said, I have started PLOTTING the last book.  Guys, this book is epic.  I mean, it has to wrap everything up in a pretty little bow, right?  (hahahahahahahaha)  It has to make sense.  It has to make sense for the characters and the world that I've spent 9 (good god, nine????) years building.

So, yes, it's going to take time.  I'm hopeful that I'll be writing by the new year, but until then, I have a lot of careful considerations to make before I go off putting a bunch of sentences together.

So, those of you who are left, thank you for your patience.  Thank you for your reviews.  Thank you for your faith in me.  As always, you are the reason I put in the effort day after freaking day.

Happy Reading!
Kate:)

Cause for Celebration

Hey kids, it's happy dance time!!!

(yes, this is exactly how I dance)

I am happy to report, that Ignis is finished!  AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

It's pretty much exactly the length I thought it would be, 120k.  Well, actually it's 126,000ish words, but considering I'll probably be doing a LOT of cutting, come editing time, my first guess will probably be the more accurate one.

What can I say about this book, guys?  It's my favorite yet, I think.  Probably because EVERY. SINGLE. THING. that I've been laying out for the past 3 books is finally coming to pass.  Reveals that I've been holding to my chest, relationships that I planted as a tiny seed will finally blossom, events that I've been mulling over since I planned this book will finally blast through your brains as you read them.

Exciting times.  

It was probably the toughest one yet for me to write (I know I say that every time) because of all the build up.  And I'm not gonna lie, the last 5 chapters of this book wrung me out like a wet washcloth.  Just for the sake of my ability to edit, I'm going to have to put this thing aside for like a month and let my brain breath.  

But it's finished.  And it's glorious.  And I'm sooo sooooooo soooooooo happy with where I took the characters this time around.

So yay!

It's WOTY Time!

Every year about this time, I make myself a mini-pledge of a sorts.  I pick a word that I want to exemplify my writing life and stick with it like a goal, to spur myself through another year of ups and downs, stops and starts.  Last year, if you recall, my WOTY last year was FEARLESS  (with Fighting! being a close runner up, of course).  I tried a lot of stuff last year.  I also failed at some and succeeded at some.  I put out four audiobooks, I wrote some obsessive kdrama fangirl fiction disguised as contemporary fiction.  I wrote over half of Terris, the next book in my Five Tribes series.  I got a new job.  I wrote Buzz Worthy News for Cuddlebuggery while they were on hiatus.  And it was fun.  So fun.  I had a great time last year, for sure.

This year, my Word Of The Year is FLEXIBLE.

If only.  I pretty much suck at yoga because I'm the total opposite of this girl right here.

A short explanation: since getting my job, my time has been really limited in the writing dept.  I have lunch break and naptime on the weekends and that's about it.  I don't have time to sit down and lose myself in the world I've created as I did in the past.  And that's cool, you know.  I'm rollin' with it.  But I need to let go of the idea that writing has to be done a certain way, at a certain time, with a certain plan in mind.
This year is the year to let freedom reign.  Let my preconceived notions of what being a writer means GO, once and for all.  My task for myself is just to be as flexible as I can be with the writing times I've been given.  Do I have an hour, here or there?  Awesome, I'll just squeeze some words in, if I can.
Overall, my goal this year is to FINISH TERRIS.  Because of my writing, I hesitate to give an actual set in stone month deadline (as I have a feeling that will lead to epic amounts of FAIL), but here's hoping that by say... August, I've got the rough draft done.  If I can just get to THAT point, then the rest will follow.  I'm also hoping to have one more CR under my belt by then, but if it doesn't happen, then it doesn't happen.  I'm fully committed to Terris, at this point.

Anyway, that's all from me, for now.  Happy Reading, all!

Good News

Hey all,
Sorry for my slightly ranty post previously.  It just sets off my "fairness" radar when Gooreads would just DELETE hours of effort on the part of readers and without any warning.  How is that respect for users who have used the site for YEARS?  Not cool.  Decidedly not.

However, let's move past that now.  Let's pretend such things don't exist for the moment.
I have some great news!  Well, lots of great news, actually.  Firstly, part one of Terris is done!

It's been a long time in coming, I know.  Apologies to all my fans and thanks to their patience.  :)  Let's hope the rest of it goes fast!

Announcement number two: The first fifteen minutes of Compis' audiobook is done!  There will be a lot more good news on that front.  The audio is amazing, I'm so happy with it.

And third announcement: I will be the Cuddlebuggery.com Buzz Worthy News correspondent starting tomorrow.  This week's news was a lot of fun to write, so I hope you'll hop on over and enjoy.

That's all for now.  But enjoy the fact that Terris has 75,000 words written.  I know I will be.

Happy Reading!

The Switch-Up

I used the almost title of one of my books for today's post because I have that itchy skin feeling again.  Do you ever get that, readers?  Like if you don't do something new or different or fundamentally life changing you will have the sudden urge to scratch a layer of skin off until a whole new you emerges underneath?

I am going through some life changes.  Perhaps they might seem minor to others.  My son just started his first year of school.  My youngest turned two and officially left babyhood behind.  I'm making some changes in routine and job and well, LIFE I guess.  It's exhilarating and terrifying, which is pretty much life in general around here.

But mostly, I've just been thinking about how life changes your plans all by itself.  When I remember Aeris, for instance, and all the work I did on Zyander's story that I had to then go back and RE-FREAKING-WRITE and I almost have a heart attack when I think about it.  Then there is my still-in-progress audiobook.  *sigh*  That has actually ended up for the better, too, but when my first contract fell through, I was pretty bummed about it.  Thankfully, I already had another voice actor I was pretty excited about and when that went through, I felt like all was smooth sailing again.

So, yeah, changes come whether you bring them or not.  Learning to roll with each change is my big work in progress.

As far as the writing front goes, yeah, I have three of my stories under contract for audiobooks now and I'm pretty pleased with who I've got for what.  I am three, count them, THREE chapters away from being done altogether with part one.  One chapter for Nikka, one for Zyander, and one for Luka—who made a little change in his storyline that necessitated adding a chapter.  I have really been kicking butt in the past week.

I have learned not to take that for granted, however, so on that front, I've decided to join up with ROW80 again.  This summer I was way too busy to continue with it, but I love supporting the other authors and being a part of all the mental creativity.  Maybe it will help me to get Terris finished once and for all.

I hope all the changes in your lives of late have been good ones!  Happy Reading!

Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Ahhhhh... regret.

Have you ever ignored that still small inside that warned you not to do something?  If you're human (or like me, addicted to chocolate) then I know you have!  Then some time later, you are sure to wind up like me... bleary eyed and full of regret.

Regret can come from anything.  Forget to send that Netflix DVD back?  Well, now you have to wait through the WHOLE freaking weekend to get the next disc in True Blood Season 5.  Eat a giant piece of chocolate cake at the birthday party when you said you weren't going to (anyone seeing a theme here)?  Enjoy seeing the scale go up instead of down.

In my writerly world, I often regret wasting time.  Whether it's not mapping out the story well enough before hand or figuring out half way through that I made a wrong turn with a character, I HATE having to go back and rewrite huge sections of book.   I also regret it when I play around making my perfect playlist for writing to instead of actually writing.

Thankfully, my writing regrets are fading for the moment.  I've got three, count them THREE chapters left for Zyander and Nikka's Part One.  I also, surprisingly, added a chapter to Luka's Part One.  Then I'm on to the second half of Terris!  Exciting times, people, exciting times.

Happy Reading!

Heck Yeah!

Well, guys, I don't want to brag here, but I am seriously kicking ass.  My kid is sleeping. I'm getting good sleep (for once!  Seriously, I'm so paranoid right now that something is going to happen to ruin my wordcount that I'm constantly crossing my fingers.) and my creativity and output are at an all-time high.

I'm writing two, sometimes three times a day and the results are showing.  I finished up another side project, and started a new one, which is great.  My main focus has been Terris, though.  I'm almost finished with part one of Zyander's story and almost halfway through part one of Nikkas.

At this rate, I will more than make my goal of finishing all of part one and will hopefully be a significant amount of finished on the rest of the book.  And boy am I excited, because part two of this book is where stuff gets crazy!  Seriously, the second half of Terris sets up what goes on for the rest of the series.
It's a lot of pressure, frankly, but it's also really exciting!  When this book is finished, it's all downhill from here(in a good way).  Which makes me take a few deep breaths and tell myself to be CALM!!!

The audiobook is coming along.  I have my voice actor, and Compis should be ready in a couple of months, hopefully.  I've never done this before, but I'm hopeful.

That's all for my ROW80 update.  We'll see how things are going next week, but hopefully, they are still going well.  :)

Hope all of my fellow authors are doing well.  I'll have to check around and see.
Happy Reading!

I am Invincible!

Well, no, not really.  This is more like me:

I don't get it.  I try so hard to be tough, but in the end, I have a knot in my stomach and the blazing cheeks of someone who'd just gotten told off.

Have you ever met a meany in real life?  They're rare, in my personal experience.  I have to be careful in my descriptions here, because I don't want to make it seem like I'm picked on or that my minor experience is somehow more tragic than someone who has really been bullied.

I can stick with the word meany, though.  Meanies like to be above the rules.  Meanies like to be in charge.  Meanies are vindictive and boy did I run into one on Friday.
I won't go into details, but if you don't know me, let me assure you... I'm not the type of girl who enjoys public confrontation.  In fact, I will pretty much do anything to avoid it.  But when a meanie went out of his way to ruin my day on Friday, I found myself wanting to never go back to that place again.  I wanted to change my whole routine to avoid him, because I suspect, having been given a rather large dose of his vindictiveness, he will go out of his way to make my day hell again.

Sometimes, I wish I was invincible.

It made me think about this book I'm reading right now called, "To Name the Wind."  I've heard a whole lot of good things about Patrick Rothfuss, and I greatly admire his sense of humor... but his book is so dark!  So dark that I wish I could find more evidence of the humor in it.
In any case, I read about this main character and how he comes up against his own meanie.  And like me, he absolutely refuses to back down.  Except that he can't avoid the guy, he sees him everyday.  And so a vicious cycle ensues where the MC and the meanie have a throwdown every freaking day and the meanie basically makes his life a living hell, because he's rich and powerful and has a flipping lot of connections.
And I just get so exasperated with MC, because I end up feeling like he's just an idiot!  Why poke the bear over and over again.  I mean, I get the impulse and the guy is basically the world's worst human being... but you aren't gonna win!
Should he give up, then?  Should the meanie be allowed to triumph?  It's such an interesting question to try and answer in a book.  I'm not sure this is the right book in which to answer it, but there it is.

How do you deal with meanies, when you come across them?  Do you rise above?  Do you ignore them?  Do you avoid them?  I think I'll definitely be avoiding next time around, because I don't enjoy feeling shaken and weak afterward.

On a lighter note, I decided to join up with Camp Nano, which is pretty much basically ROW80 on a different website and without blogs.  But you can pick a word goal and you have cabin mates to cheer you on, and you get to see a nice little chart that shows where you're at and how far it is to reach your goal, which is always nice.

It did help, as I got a few thousand words written last week.  Yay for me.  Little C. has some kind of cold that has led him to not sleeping, so boo for that.  Seriously can't wait till cold and flu season is OVER!!!

That's all for me.  Hope all my fellow ROWers are doing well and meeting their goals!
Happy Reading!

Eeny Meeny Miney Moe...

Sorry, there was no official end of ROW80 posting last week.  Because my family celebrates holidays on days other than holidays.  So last weekend we did Easter Egg hunts with the kidlets and had a generally fabulous time with the family.  Little C. was a sight to behold.  He may be 18mths old, but that kid totally gets the idea of stashing loot in a basket. hahaha

So, how was my last ROW80 round?  Not great, honestly.  It could have been much worse, so for that I am thankful.  But MAN ALIVE did I get railroaded by the sick.  And just when Little C. started sleeping, too.  I'm much more hopeful that I'll get some major words out next round.  It will be warmer out and the cold and flu season will be nearing its end.

In case you were wondering about ME, I'm going to be just fine.  Got to the doctors just in time to figure out that I'd completely recovered from my own malady.  Isn't that just the way of it?  Like trying to take a twitchy car into the mechanic but your car won't reproduce the symptoms.

I probably got around 10,000 words written, total.  This is not a personal best for me, but it's better than nothing.  I'm not going to set a word goal for next round, but my goal is to be finished with part one of Terris.  That's about 30,000 words.  That means I'd have to do 10,000 words a MONTH, not per 3 months.

Instead, my goal this time around will be to write one hour a day.  In an hour I can write anywhere from 1,000-1,600 words, depending on my writing flow.

Will I make it?  I don't know.  Stay tuned to find out!  :)

Onward towards today's topic.  A week or so back I got a lovely fan letter from a reader of my Angelic Agents stories who wanted to know if there would be any new stories out soon.  Oh boy.

That really got me thinking about how my writing has gone thus far.  How do I decide what comes next?  How do I decide to do YA fantasy, or Western Fantasy Romance or Contemporary Romance or...

I'm a woman of eclectic tastes—in both my reading and writing.  So how do I choose what gets written first?

Well, I could go by what's popular.  I could say to myself... you know, those vampire books seem to be what everyone wants.  I should write a vampire book.  More likely, I should write a vampire, dystopian, New Adult book, if I really want to appeal to the majority of what's out there.  I should write more fan fiction about vampires and humans sexing it up.  I should write sci-fi about missile silos doubling as mass habitation(Hugh Howey's Wool, if you didn't catch the reference).

But I don't write what's popular.  I probably should, but it's hard to write well when you're just following a trend and not your heart or the spirit of your creativity.  Now if you have a brilliant story idea that also happens to be a popular trend (Angelfall comes to mind), then you've got it made.

I could also write what gets the most reviews.  Thus far that's my Five Tribes series.  But I don't write what I get the most ratings or reviews for.

I could go by downloads.  The Angel & Her Gun (permanently free) gets the most downloads hands down.  But downloads aren't an indication of READERSHIP.  Unless someone decides to READ that short story and tell someone else, or review it or email me... I have no idea if they actually read it or not.  I know that I don't read a significant portion of my freebies.  Some I'll start and discard, others I just forget about.  Sad, but true.

I honestly go by reader feedback.  What do my readers want more of?  So far, they seem to want more of The Five Tribes.  At least, if I go by the emails.  So, when the readers ask, I listen.

If you like something else, like The Angel & Her Gun then tell everyone you know to read it and email me.  It is free, after all.  It's not like it costs them anything.  If I get enough feedback saying that is what my readers want, then I'll break out my magic Wonder Woman notebook and get cracking!

And now, I'm off!  Happy Reading!

Better Days Ahead...

So, idiot that I am, I've decided to combine this week's big push (writing wise) with my determination to get Little C. to have more bedtime independence.  See, the problem is he goes down to bed just fine.  Nary a problem.  Unfortunately, trying to convince him to stay there has been a hardship.

While my husband is gone this week, number one son will move into our bedroom and Little C. will get a crash course on sleeping in his own bed.  Even if it means I get to be up all night convincing him that his bed is the best place to spend the night.  How this will affect my writing I have no idea.  It will be a fly by the seat of my pants week, and the end result won't even be published here right away because I'll be gone camping next weekend.  Ah well.

This week wasn't as bad as I feared.  I hardcore slashed Zyander.  As in, only 3 chapters of his story remained, mostly setup from the ending of the last book.  I started in on his new outline and got about halfway done with that.  I even wrote two chapters of his storyline and I'm much happier with where it's going now.
I also added about 4500 words to my other project, which made me feel like quite the success.  I mean, compared with what I've done in the past month, this week was a freaking miracle.

Once again, I'm so thankful for the readers.  You know who you are, out there, sending me encouraging emails.  You guys rock!

I found a new booknerd site:  http://tattoolit.com/
Seriously, guys, I might have to do this... or not.  I'm not a huge needle fan.  I wish I could do this.  I'm such a coward.
And I found some new writing music: http://officialbirdy.com/
This video in particular is so creepy and cool!

That's all from me this week!

Happy Reading!