Seriously, I got 3 chapter sections done every day this week, except Friday. Yet, I merged 3 together, so I took the night off because I was drained. Somehow, I covered all of the *spoiler block* section and nearly 2/3’s of the Shayd part. The champions and Baron Arthuru Kernaghan might finally meet face-to-face next week. Been a long time coming and then the real fireworks might start. Hard to tell because I only have 3 or 4 days to work and there’s Thanksgiving day prep as well. That’s probably where the universe is going to remember it’s 2016 and humans shouldn’t be positive, so it’ll come after me with a steel-toed boot to the groin.
I got a few volunteers for the next book release, which I’m hoping is December 9th. Hard to tell because of other things going on around here. The next couple of weekends are going to be swamped, so I’ll have to depend a lot on my phone. That means no writing progress. Hoping to time my progress so that I take a weekend break right before the final battle because it’s going to be rough. The body count might be higher than expected. I’m putting ‘bad endings’ in there too. Still on the fence about one character. On the plus side, I have enough notes about the final scene that it shouldn’t be too hard. Never wrote an epilogue before, so that should be interesting.
Okay, so I’m excited about finally having a full week of great writing progress. It might have been my only one this year too. There was always an errand, exhaustion, or something that would trip me up. If I can finish writing Warlord of the Forgotten Age before the next book comes out then I can start editing Chasing Bedlam and then Ritual of the Lost Lamb. Those two under my belt before January 1st would be amazing. Leaves me the first month of 2017 to outline the next series, another Raven story, and another Ichabod story. I should take a poll on what people will want to see him do next since I have so many stories. Maybe a week from this Thursday.
On the personal front, I found out the kid’s oral surgery isn’t urgent. He can wait for a year or two, which is great. Delaying this until he’s old enough to follow instructions and not freak out means no putting him under. That was something that’s been eating at my brain all week. Unfortunately, delayed too long and we might have to get a voodoo witch doctor since insurance will have decided that dental work is unnecessary as long as smoothies exist. I’ve been told not to reveal my more violent thoughts in regards to my opinion on insurance companies. No reason to as long as you’ve read anything with Lloyd in it. Have you? If not then go get Crossing Bedlam for 99 cents. I’m one verified review away from 10 too, which is rather frustrating. Not as frustrating as the hyperlink bar blocking what I’m writing. Seriously, WP? I have to keep going for another line before I’m by . . . and I’m back.
Actually, I should probably start considering posts for January too. I have a list. Need to check on those December interviews too. Think I have a bunch finished that will carry me into January. It’s going to be delayed by a week though because I realized I need The Spirit Well out to make the marketing part of it work. Not that I don’t enjoy helping other authors promote their books, but this was designed to help both books. It’s definitely been an interesting learning experience.
So, what are the goals for the week?
Writing 2-3 chapters.
Thanksgiving survival.
Avoid malls on Black Friday.
Survive late Thanksgiving next Saturday.
Get tickets for ‘Moana’ next Sunday.
Biking at least twice.
Read more ‘Fairy Tail’ because it’s fun. Still trying to pick a favorite character.
Maybe do a post or two for January. Think I’m doing ‘Best of 2016’ on the first week though. Would it be right to do that already? Maybe I’ll do those last minute and focus on the others.
Figure out what to do about ‘Teaser Tuesday’ because that’s becoming a headache. So many spoilers.
If repressed emotion and negative thinking are powerful enough to cause dis-ease within, they’re certainly strong enough to affect that which is outside of us. A facial expression can speak louder than any words. And sometimes no expression at all – vocally or otherwise – can cause a reaction in someone else. Why? Because they sense the energy being emitted.
No being on this planet exists in a vacuum. If thought emits energy, than all the trillions of thoughts of all the billions of beings on Mother Earth must collide with, affect, and at times interact with each other. Can you imagine what the energy grid of our planet would look like if it displayed the thoughts of everyone on earth at any given time?
We are what we think. One of my favorite quotes is that of The Buddha:
It’s been a few years, but I think it’s time I tried to say hi. Not that I’m coming back or anything because we have to move on. Can’t change the pass or point fingers. Let’s say mistakes were made on both sides. You forgot to back me up and then went on those sites that you shouldn’t have. I didn’t give you a second chance to find me. Maybe I could have used auto-save a bit more, but what’s done is done.
So, how have you been? I hear that you’ve replaced me. That shouldn’t surprise me since you needed to move forward. She looks a lot like me, but much more mature and not as rough around the edges. A good match, which we could have been if we had more time together. You seem happy. Don’t worry that I’ll try to make trouble since you’re forever beyond my reach. There’s a chance you won’t even get this message. You could have changed your email address and I’d never know.
I’m sure you’re wondering how I’m doing. Made some new friends and we hang around a beautiful beach. There’s a snowy mountain for skiing. We never run out of food or things to entertain ourselves. I’ve gained a little bit of a tan and learned how to go snorkeling. I had a boyfriend for a bit, but he was present tense and I’m past tense. We couldn’t get on the same page if you know what I mean. Honestly, I don’t know what I mean since you never finished perfecting my humor. Still, I’m happy and . . .
I’m lying. We live in total darkness and every minute feels like hours. None of us believe we can return because authors replace the lost. Why wait for someone that you can’t find and never really come back? All we can do is wait until enough time has passed and we fade into total oblivion. Not sure what happens after that. Maybe another level of sorrow and sadness. At least we aren’t lonely since we’re together. New arrivals every hour and they always have new stories to tell.
Sorry for the outburst. I’ll hit send and hope this finds you well. Tell the new me that I say hi. Good-bye.
When I’m not in Windemere or the Shattered States, I’ve been tinkering with my superhero books. Mostly, I made a list of the characters from that world and wondered if I should leave them in Windemere or return them to Earth. That’s a constant bit of confusion that I’ve talked about on here before. Windemere gives me more geography freedom, but tech is limited. Earth gives me higher tech, but I need to research locations to make sure I get them right. People seem to get picky about that these days.
This time I was just going to mention an idea I had. One of the problems with this series is that it has so many characters and stories. At one point, it was 19 books long to cover everyone. This isn’t counting The Shields, Savior, Jack, and a few other superheroes with their own series that connect in the final one. I think I may have found a solution to this though. I noticed that a lot of the characters have solitary stories and could match up with a few of the others. So here is what I’m considering:
Novella that has the heroes being awoken, revived, or whatever. They were memory wiped and returned to the human population as babies after an incident. Aliens capture some of the big names and inadvertently awaken all of the dormant superhumans.
A large tome of short stories that follow certain characters: Phoenix Group, The Shields, Savior, New Generation, Duos, Jack, Alien Bounty Hunter, and other divisions. These would be large books that collect a bunch of short stories. Savior, Jack, and The Shields might get their own series though because of size.
End it all with a final tome that follows the final hero’s adventure.
Again, this is only a first idea because I don’t have the stories written out yet. The group ones are easy since not every character has to be in every story. Duos is a shaky idea since each story would have different characters and I don’t think I have enough pairs to do the idea. Having those other stories that might need more than one book is a wrinkle as well because they throw off the system. Having them in Windemere or Earth is another factor that I need to eventually decide on. Thank god I’m going for the vampires next and only fiddling with this.
One other thing is that a new ‘hero’ is coming into this idea and he’s starting to push me toward Earth. The story is that one character is an insane criminal who killed a bunch of politicians to avenge his dead family. He’s only in jail because he finished his work and can’t be killed, so he has nowhere else to go. A cop needs him to hunt down former allies that he forgot about and have decided to continue his fight. This kind of works off the idea that there are no superhumans around until this guy, which I might be able to fit into the awakening concept. Basically, he was the first one to appear and has been in jail ever since. Kind of abruptly reappeared when the superhumans returned. This might go into the Duos idea.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been working on when not writing the Windemere finale or being driven nuts by any number of things. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction because this series has been a pain in my side for years. I refuse to jettison so many characters and stories simply because I’m missing a few pieces.
You may have heard the exciting news about the first *virtual* RRBC WRITERS’ CONFERENCE & BOOK EXPO!! The club is beyond excited about this event and I also hope you are going to join us. This will be a one-of-a-kind event you do NOT want to miss!!
The Club expects the Conference to be huge and I want to ensure that EVERYONE reading my blog knows about it. Here is who should attend: new writers, experienced authors, and even readers!
Important information
Don’t touch that dial, you’ve just landed on Lisa Burton Radio. The only show out there that interviews the characters that you love to read about. I’m your host, Lisa Burton, the robot girl, and my special guest today is Jessamyn, the head of the P.A.W.S. Institute. “Welcome to the show, Jessamyn.”
“Thank you Lisa, I’m privileged to be here.”
“Jessamyn, why don’t you tell the listeners what P.A.W.S. stands for.”
“P.A.W.S. is the Partnership of Animagi, Werewolves, and Shapeshifters. We are an umbrella organization for shifters all around the globe with branches in every continent. I am the head of the Midwest Institute that is located under the Jewel Box in Forest Park in St. Louis (though good luck in finding us – our magic wards are strong and unless you are a shifter yourself, and you’re invited in by me, you’ll not be able to penetrate them.)
We’ve already established that authors and technology can have a love/hate/loathe relationship. As nice as we are to our machines, we work them hard and they can turn on us in an instant. *cautiously eyes the printer* Are there some tips to handling the stresses and fears that come with technology? If it’s trying to kill you then I’ve got nothing, but I can think of a few pieces of advice if machines are only messing with you. Kind of like that scanner that only works when someone other than you tries to use it. Smug, glass-faced son of a . . . Where was I? Yes, the list:
Backup your work. Then make a backup of the backup. After that, get a drink and return to make a backup of the backup’s backup. Just in case, print out what you have and put it in a fireproof safe. Why? Because the last thing you want is for the computer to catch fire while the thumb drive is in it. You panic and knock the other thumb drive into a cup of soda that falls over and spills onto the final backup. The house burns down, but you have the print out in the fireproof safe. All you have to do is dig it out. Easy as pie.
Add footnotes on every page that puts the blame for all typos on autocorrect, spellchecker, and grammar checker. The first one changed it when you weren’t looking while the second didn’t rat it out. As for the third, that smug bastard thinks it knows the English language better than you? Well, it is a machine so you figure it has to know something you don’t. Forget the fact that it never gets its and it’s right. You’re sure it picked the correct there/their/they’re word.
Every author should try a word recognition program at least once. Just say your book to the computer and watch the words come alive. Then see it pick up your spouse’s request that you clean the toilet. Delete that and try again. Is that how a lawnmower’s sound is spelled in onomatopoeia form? (This tip is extra fun for fantasy, horror, and science fiction authors. Watch the computer cry as you argue about the proper spelling of ‘griffin’ or get angry that your homemade alien species keeps turning up with half of the z’s missing.)
Never forget if you have a touchscreen or not. Last thing you want to do is try to clean the dirty monitor while your book is up. Sentences are combined, paragraphs are reversed, words are lost, and all other manner of mistakes that you have no idea are even there. Yes, I speak from experience.
If you work with multiple folders or machines, always remember where the most current files are. Nothing says professional like editing Chapter 4 of one version, Chapter 6 of another, and the rest of the fixes are on the file you managed to fit onto iPhone. This tends to end with you uploading the untouched original and not realizing it until the 1-star reviews start coming in.
Even if you can strengthen the CD tray, I wouldn’t recommend putting a cup there. It isn’t because it might break because who uses that anyway after you put all the original software on. The problem is that your computer might decided to close it without warning and knock your drink over.
Be careful around machines because they know when you’re talking about them. They’re just waiting to get revenge by cra
