Writing Tables

Back in the late 90s and early 2000, there was something popular among fan fiction writers called "Prompt Tables". It was basically a table of 100 random words, and the goal was to write 100 drabbles using those words as a prompt for each one. It could be the theme of the story or a random word tossed in for whatever reason. So, way back when, I went out and found three of these prompt tables and put them together. After removing the duplicate words, I have a very large table with 253 random prompt words, which I have used a few times in fan fiction writings just to see if I could structure a story around this wild and Frankensteined table.

The answer is yes, by the way.

Since I was having trouble getting the sequel to Second Anniversary to work for me, I decided to print out one of these tables, tape it into a notebook, and then armed with a pen and a highlighter, I've started writing little stories that will fall between the main three novels and possibly before the first one. I've only gotten one hand written right now, but I'll probably be typing them up and selling them in an anthology form.

Of course, during the process of writing that first story, the characters have evolved a bit more on me, explaining a bit more about why they were acting a certain way in the first story. Eventually, I'll probably go back to the Second Anniversary and quite possibly rewrite parts of it to polish it even more as well as show the characters as something more than the slightly two dimensional beings they currently are.

In a way, The Second Anniversary was me pushing my limits on my writing as I had never written about an abusive relationship or drug abuse before. I only hoped I could do it justice with the research I was able to do on such topics. I hope further stories will let me push myself as a writer a bit more.

Slight irritations

I haven't been working on the sequel to The Second Anniversary because for whatever reason, it just won't flow. I was having trouble even putting a pen to paper to write even a word, and I couldn't figure out why. Was it one of my other stories wanting to be worked on? Well that wasn't right because I had a distinct lack of enthusiasm for any of those stories, even the ones that I reread in anticipation of working on them.

Then last night as I was starting to fall asleep, I realized what was wrong with the story.

I was rushing everything including the serious relationship in the story.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized this was my solution. What I have written right now is that Lucien and Abel go to a soiree held by the king and queen, are introduced to someone, and that night, a mere few hours after they met this individual, decide to pursue a relationship with them. And this starts less than a year after the ending of The Second Anniversary.

Needless to say, I'm not going to get rid of the other scenes that I wrote, but there will be some rewriting of them to make them fit into the new story. This will also let me show how relationships have changed and introduce a whole new culture to my readers without it feeling like I've thrown them off the cruise ship with a cannon ball around their ankles.

A Webpage and a Camping Convention

A friend of mine has been helping me put together a webpage because I'm sorta clueless about how to go about doing such a thing these days. It's still got some spots that need to be filled out and information dropped in it, but for now, here it is.

I'll be adding some things to it, and my friend will be double checking to make sure it's good to be seen on a phone or other platforms.

This past weekend, I went to something called Geek Out 4.0 that was a geek convention at a rather nice camp ground with my husband who had bought booth space to promote and sell his books. It was rather nice if a touch warm. After we pitched our tent, we set up the table and just relaxed as he or I would try to entice someone to either buy a book or take our cards to check us out on Amazon later. I got plenty of writing done on the sequel to "The Second Anniversary" when I wasn't just relaxing and zoning. The mosquitoes weren't out at all around us, and both Friday and Saturday we were able to lay on the grass and watch the stars come out. It was glorious and very relaxing.

The Second Anniversary

It is official. My latest book, The Second Anniversary, is now available out at Amazon. Also, for a limited time, "Crimson or Gold" is free for anyone who wants to pick it up starting tomorrow.

Writer's Retreat

This past weekend, my husband and I went to a Writer's Retreat at a place called Ravenwood Castle, which is a delightful bed & breakfast out in the middle of some beautiful land. The Retreat itself was organized by a delightful woman, and all of us with children left them with either a spouse or a relative (Grandparents are *wonderful*! Gene had so many adventures with hers!)

There was a First Page workshop where we submitted the first page of a story and the other's said what was good and what needed work. I received some very nice feedback on one of my stories, and there was a *lot* of writing going on this weekend. *laughs* Everyone had a laptop and was pounding away at something. I also had a notepad I had picked up from the Dollar Tree because I needed something to start scribbling story ideas on.

The bad news about the retreat was that Saturday afternoon/evening, my laptop wasn't getting a charge from being plugged in, which meant that there's a small break somewhere in the cord, so I was racing the battery for a while until I started pulling the cord straight until I got the little icon that said the laptop was plugged in.

But at 11:45pm on Saturday night at a little over 40k words, I am proud to announce that my novel, "The Second Anniversary", was fully transcribed to my thumb drive. Last night, I transferred it to Google Drive and sent the link to my editor who did a first read through last night. So I have the first round of edits to do today, and then see if I can get a couple of beta readers lined up for a second look through.

Today, the plan is to get the first edits done, and tonight, I'm going to be putting together a home made light box for my various cover photos. Then, if I can find beta readers who can get it read in a timely manner, I may be announcing a release in a week or two.