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Thinks To Done: 2019
It’s coming up hard on the end of the year & naturally I’m freaking out about everything I haven’t gotten done, WHICH IS WHY I’VE BEEN KEEPING A LIST OF WHAT I *HAVE* GOTTEN DONE
I wrote most of DEATH ON THE GREEN and all of DEATH OF AN IRISH MUMMY, the second two books of the Dublin Driver series (launching in January)!
DEAD IN DUBLIN
Book One of The Dublin Driver Mysteries
American-in-Ireland Megan Malone has always enjoyed her job driving limousines…until one of her clients ends up DEAD IN DUBLIN.A friend who fears she’s culpable for the death begs Megan to look into it, and between her irate boss and a handsome Garda who’s both amused and annoyed by her persistence, Megan has her hands full. But if cockles and mussels aren’t to blame, can Megan find the real culprit . . .before another fishy death occurs?
Preorder Now!
Amazon || Barnes & Noble || GooglePlay || KoboI also wrote a chunk of SUNMASTER, the fourth (and hopefully final) book of my YA epic fantasy Guildmaster Saga (here is a link to book two, released this year!):
STONEMASTER
Book Two of the Guildmaster Saga
It’s good luck to earn the king’s regard…isn’t it?Seamaster journeyman Rasim’s quick wits have helped to save his beloved home city and earned him the dubious honor of studying with the diplomatic Sunmasters. But not everyone is happy that magical knowledge is being shared, and when the king orders the guilds back to the Northlands on a sensitive political mission, it may well cost Rasim his life.Seamaster-born, Sunmaster-trained, Rasim now faces a fight that can only be won by a Stonemaster…
Available now!
Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Apple || Kobo…and wrote a NEW UPCOMING PARANORMAL ROMANCE which will be out early next year!
So that’s about the equivalent of 3 books written in 2019.
But wait! There’s more! I wrote a novella set in the Heartstrike world. That, too, will be out relatively early next year, and wrote 10+ words of fic for my Patreon.
I wrote two short stories, one in the afore-mentioned Guildmaster Saga world & the other, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale, set in, um, the future.
“Siryn”
a fairy tale of The Rising
Cities have drowned and the future has changed beyond recognition. But something new has been born–or perhaps something impossibly old has been released.She does not know how she came to be, only that the oceans are her favored home…until a man from the world above nearly dies in her domain, and she is drawn toward the soft and easy life he seems to possess. But there is a price to pay for love, and in the end…
…you will never be part of her world…
Available Now!
Amazon || Apple || Barnes & Noble (Nook) || KoboI ALSO *majorly* revised the first book of the Strongbox Chronicles and minorly revised the second one.
THE CARDINAL RULE
Book One of The Strongbox Chronicles
When CIA Agent Alisha MacAleer’s cover is blown by ex-lover Frank Reichart, she’s forced into a spy game that draws a curtain back on a world she never even suspected existed. No matter which way Alisha turns, she faces new dangers and heartbreaking betrayals. In the end, she has no choice but to adhere to the cardinal rule…Trust no one but yourself.
Now Available
Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Apple || Kobo
THE FIREBIRD DECEPTION
Book Two of The Strongbox Chronicles
Agent Alisha MacAleer has put the past behind her as best she can, but when a mission goes sideways, she is left with an impossible choice. She can follow orders, or she can strike out on her own to discover the hidden mastermind behind the game she’s been drawn into—a mastermind whose identity she suspects, but could never guess.With no support, no resources, and no safety net, Alisha must believe that honor can survive a trial by fire….
Available now!
Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Apple || Koboand revised the paranormal romance due out next year. I revised about a third of a science fiction novel. I ran a crowdfunding campaign & wrote 4 more pages of comic script for it due to its success!
I *released* 5 books and 2 short stories; here are the ones I didn’t link to above. :)
“From Coffin to Grave”
a Heartstrike Short
Saoirse O’Cathain should have died on the coffin ship that took her from famine-torn Ireland to the dubious safety of the Canadian coast, but an ancient immortal–a man who claims he doesn’t care–saved her by Awakening the Timeless immortality she harbored within. Perhaps it was a gift: Saoirse might have all of eternity to watch the world change, now……unless she has been Awakened only to travel from coffin to grave…
Available Now!
Amazon || Apple || Barnes & Noble (Nook) || Kobo
THE QUEEN’S BASTARD
Book One of The Inheritors’ Cycle
Belinda Primrose is the unacknowledged daughter the unwed queen of Aulun. She is a spy, an assassin…and a danger to her mother, should she ever be discovered. As she infiltrates the glamorous royal palaces where her mother’s rivals scheme, a new power awakens in Belinda. The witchlight she commands could bring down everything she’s worked for when she finds a teacher in Javier, whose claim to the Aulunian throne ranks him highly among Belinda’s enemies.Belinda has never wavered in her mission, but love and loyalty will collide as her secrets are revealed…
Available Now!
Amazon || Apple || Barnes & Noble (Nook) || Kobo
THE PRETENDER’S CROWN
Book Two of The Inheritors’ Cycle
Belinda Primrose has lied, murdered, and seduced her way through the deadly courts of Echon, and now she has come into the strength of her witchpower, a magic she shares with Prince Javier, pretender to her mother’s throne. Their craft has been used to manipulate, shape, and evolve the future of Echon…but even a power from beyond the stars cannot break the will of a daughter betrayed by everything she has ever known.After a lifetime of service, Belinda will finally shape a future of her own…and change the destiny of a world with her choices.
Available Now!
Amazon || Apple || Barnes & Noble (Nook) || Koboand also wrote an actually ridiculous number of book proposals, like, five or six of them. One is the paranormal romance coming out next year, the rest didn’t stick. But I did write ’em, and that’s a lot of proposals to do. And I did about 20 pages of a screenplay, too.
I also read 35 books, went to Disneyland, to Dublin Worldcon, was sick for 3 months, and have made a truly prodigious amount of fudge. :)
It’s been a really busy year. I WANTED to get at least one other book finished, and two more revisions finished. But I’m trying to look at everything I HAVE done, and be impressed with that, instead of dismayed that I didn’t get Literally All The Things done.
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March Thinks To Done
I literally only made two posts in March, one relating my February thinks to done and the other, halfway through the month, explaining my otherwise total radio silence. Now, for the March thinks to done post, I explain the REST of the radio silence. I mean, like, man, I even went to movies! But I didn’t picoreview any of them because I was too goddamn busy!
In March I did a much deeper-dive revision on THE CARDINAL RULE than I expected to. I mean, I’d gone in with the vague intention to Honor The Writer I’d Been and make as few changes as possible. That lasted to the beginning of the first sentence, after which it was clear that NOPE NEWP FIXING THAT WHEE ZOOM THROW THAT AWAY AND MAKE THAT BETTER was actually the name of the game. If I’m understanding the ‘compare documents’ thing I did correctly, there are 6727 lines in the manuscript, and nearly 6000 changes. Almost every paragraph has been touched. Hell, almost every *sentence* has been touched. Entire scenes have been added and clunky parts have been removed.
And yet: the changes should be just about completely transparent to you, the reader. Nothing about the book’s plot has changed at all. There’s one word that couldn’t have been in the book in 2005, when the original edition was published, but aside from that one word, I don’t think that, unless you’ve either read the original dozens of times or read the two books side by side, you’ll see the differences. So that took two VERY SOLID WEEKS of work and I confess I’m really, really pleased with the effort. The book is about 4000 words longer than it was, but I cut at least that much, too, so I’d say there’s probably 10K of (completely invisible, I think) new content in it. It was a hell of a project but I’m super happy with it and can’t wait for it to come out TOMORROW for EVERYONE TO READ!!!
Frankly, that would have been enough Thinks To Done in March. That was big work. However, I also:
– prepped it for publication
– did final edits & revisions for STONEMASTER
– prepped IT for publication
– fulfilled the bulk of the STONEMASTER kickstarter
– wrote a 12K word book proposal
– wrote a 10K word book proposal
– wrote about 20 pages of screenplay
– revised a couple of other proposals
– wrote a little 1500 word thing for my patreon
– went as far as I could in restoring my newsletter that i accidentally deleted all of *cries*
– moved MAGIC & MANNERS from one host to another, a thing I’ve been meaning to do for 2+ years
– flew to liverpool to see Captain Marvel with a friend :)
– and a fug-ton of other administrative/daily life kinds of things that I won’t recount here but yeah I did a *lot* in March.But it’s okay, because now that I’ve gotten through it, April is almost as busy! O.O
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Thinks To Done, February 2019
A while ago I’d gone off to work for a few days and when I returned my sister said, “So how’d you do?” and I said, “Well, I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to,” and she said, “Do you ever?” and I felt really called out, like, y’know? @.@ So anyway, I’m going to try not to start these Thinks To Done recaps with “I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to” because…do I ever? :}
So the studio didn’t work out and I decided I’d move into the room in the house meant to be my home office. It took about a week, which is a lot of time out of February, and took the room from looking like this:
to this:
with bonus pictures of the Captain’s Chair, because everybody always wants a better look:
and the extremely important creation of my Wonderful Women Wall, which took a lot of the put-the-office-together time:
The big Rogue poster was a gift, nearly 25 years ago, from Ted and our long-time roommate Shaun. The little fairies are from a college friend, and the little dreamcatcher is from my long-time and best-beloved writing partner Sarah. The hard-to-see Beauty and the Beast print (top right next to the orange one) is an Ursula Vernon print, and the dragon below it was a gift from another college friend. Two more friends gave me the blue and green Gemini print beneath the gold mask, and the Ember pencil drawing on the bottom right in the white frame. I drew the orange “Virgo” myself. Since this picture was taken I’ve added a cross-stitched rose, which yet another friend did from a photograph I’d taken.This wall means a lot to me. ♥ I can’t, at the moment, find its final piece, which was a gift from my parents, and I’m certainly hoping it’s in a box I haven’t delved deeply enough into yet, because I’ll be crushed if it’s gone missing in one of our moves.
I also, as we all know, DELETED MY ENTIRE MAILING LIST (you can sign up for it again (or for the first time) here! :}) and I spent a lot of time that would otherwise have been spent writing (maybe) trying to recover it, or get new signups, or some combination thereof. I’ve still got another push to do for that, in fact, but it reached about 50% of its former carrying capacity in two weeks, thanks to the generous retweets and signal boosting from others, so that’s something, at least. I sang a chorus from “Livin’ On A Prayer” in thanks to the new subscribers, so there’s that incentive to go sign up… :)
I wrote more of my Rosie the Redeemer meets Captain America fic for my Patreon.
I wrote and delivered a book proposal.
I did a fair-sized chunk of revisions on a book that will soon be re-released.
I went to a few movies and wrote a few movie reviews and read a few novellas, which I’m currently loving (I’ll be writing about them in the next newsletter!).
I HIT LEVEL FORTY IN POKEMON GO!!!! I have never before in my life leveled out in a video game, so this is VERY EXCITING TO ME!!! :)
I did some coloring! That was nice. And a reader sent me a huge set of Prismacolor pencils she was never going to use (“they can spark joy somewhere else!” she said, AND THEY DO), and OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGG they’re SO PRETTY!!!
I watched all of Umbrella Academy, which I enjoyed very much, and, oh, I did some actual photography with the real camera, which was nice.
Huh. That’s actually a pretty decent month’s work & stuff, isn’t it? Which is what I was hoping doing a Thinks To Done post would help me realize… :)
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Thinks To Done, January 2019
Last year I tried to make a Thinks To
DoDONE post every month to keep myself from feeling like I was drowning under work and not accomplishing anything. I think I managed to post…twice…which wasn’t enough to make me feel very accomplished. :) Trying again!I finished the second Dublin Driver murder mystery, which was great. I wrote the next section of my REDEEMER/Captain America fan fiction for my Patreon.
(A few days after I posted it, Dad, suddenly, said, “I wish you’d write more of that Captain America story, it’s great.” *laughs* It’s got at least two more sections before I wrap it up, and I’ve set both part one and part two out for public consumption to tantalize you with. :))
I began final edits on STONEMASTER, and got some of the swag (postcards, bookmarks) laid out for it. I got the book jacket cover written and the back cover laid out.
It’s something. It’s not enough, because it never is, but it’s something.
(Oh, I also collected and emailed my comic artist with stuff I was supposed to send him in like November, filled out a long author questionnaire for my new publisher, did a little photography at the zoo, and contracted with a cover artist for new Strongbox Chronicles covers, so that adds up!)
