The Scary Surgery
Welp, as much as I love being right when I’m arguing with my husband, I kinda hate how right I was last Monday. I did indeed need major surgery. MAJOR surgery.
Walking you guys through it as my not-so-captive audience: I went in Tuesday for bloodwork. Only bloodwork. As we’re pulling out of the parking lot, I get a message “New Appointment Scheduled” It’s for two hours later. Turns out, they SUPER didn’t like the scans and the bloodwork clenched it. They moved my surgery up as far as they could. I went home and drank, to quote my mother “more apple juice than the Lord allows” and contemplated that they still wouldn’t say if it was or wasn’t cancer.
Welp, I can now say with mild confidence it wasn’t cancer. It was a growth. It strangled one of my ovaries to the point it had to be removed in a much more open surgery than the laparoscopic one originally scheduled. It means I’ll need to see an endometriosis specialist regularly for the rest of my life.
But I’m alive at the end of the day, and grateful for it.
Understandably, I got VERY little writing done last week. I was hopped up on pain meds most of the time and relearning basic things like walking and coughing. Literally, I had my first sneeze yesterday a solid week post-surgery and I still wondered if I was dying.
This week was a bit different. I’m still on pain meds, just not as many, and I’m off my ADHD meds, so my mind is all over the place. Still, I got some writing done on the Dating Show series and some last minute edits for Ace of Wands before it gets released to the Beta masses.
Next week, who knows. I’m hopeful I can start getting more productive, but cautiously so since my main focus right now is healing and getting my finances back on track.
With that, I’ll end the post for the day reminding all of you that things look bad sometimes. Really, terrifyingly bad. But the only way things get good again is if you push through the bad, because there is good on the other end.
Pre-Emptive Posting
Le Gasp! Can it be! I’m posting early instead of just leaving you in the dark while I disappear?
Yep, I’ve got a pretty good chance of not being able to post on Friday, so I’m preemptively posting today. So, good news: the mass isn’t cancerous. Huzzah! Bad news: it’s necrotic, which puts me at risk for sepsis! Not so huzzah. Worse news: to get ready for my operation, they had to take me off all my nice pain meds right when the pain is ramping up again. No huzzah whatsoever.
Thankfully, they caught it pretty quickly, meaning I’m already scheduled for my surgery where they’re taking it out. It should be a really simple in and out procedure, but I’m knocking on wood to be sure. As such, I’m getting cut open Wednesday, resting Thursday, and probably back to work Friday.
‘Then why aren’t you posting Friday’ I imagine someone asking specifically so I can keep the narrative flow of this post going. Well, I’m probably going to be hopped up on pain meds dealing with callers and getting ready for the training on the new system they keep telling me I’m getting.
As a result… I have no clue what I’m doing. Will I write while recovering? Maybe. Will I draw? Probably not. Will I listen to an unhealthy number of reddit stories on YouTube? Absolutely.
Everything’s pretty much put on the backburner for this week and possibly next. As a result, I’m thinking about pushing back the publish dates for Ace of Wands and Ace of Swords as a result, but we’ll see when I hear what my post-op is gonna look like.
All in all, this is a more dower and shorter post than I wanted to make, but it’s hopefully looking up from here.
Take your medicine
So, fun fact about having a growing mass on your body where it’s not supposed to be: that thing hurts. Like really hurts. And as someone already living with chronic pain, I brushed it off for the most part. As of this weekend, I couldn’t brush this off any longer though. Nothing was touching the pain, not even the fancy pain meds the cancer doc prescribed me.
Which meant I got to spend my weekend in the hospital. Yaaaaaaaaaay.
On the upside, I can now accurately describe someone “writhing in pain”. There’s a lot more leg twitching involved that I originally pictured. I can also describe the sensation of morphine hitting the system. Let me tell you, I can see why they keep that stuff under lock and key.
On the even better upside, I’m doing better now. I’m on regular over the counter stuff again and I’m still waiting for results from my last screening this week. Thankfully, this is one of those “no news is good news” situations, since the only reason they’d contact me before my appointment next week is if they saw something concerning in my scans.
On the writing front… I got so little done. These pain meds cut through the pain, but they’re atrocious on my focus, and I do still need my day job to pay most of my bills. As such, most of my mental power went there.
Monday, I forced myself to write for Ace of Swords even though I was super not feeling it. then Tuesday I finished the outlining for the Love Island inspired story. I’m still fiddling with the name, but I’ve got the characters the plot, and even a few chapters written now. Wednesday was doctors, and Thursday was art videos on getting back into the groove of drawing again. I’ll never be one of the greats, but I’m hoping I can get good enough to do the art for the confessionals like I’m planning. Otherwise, I’m gonna need to spend a fortune on commissions when I find someone with a matching style to what I’m wanting.
On the art front, I’m getting… better? I think? It’s always been awful trying to get proportions right, but I’m going for more of a cartoony style, so many that’ll translate over? I hope?
Either way, I’m in a mood for that, so that’s what I’m doing right now. I’m also planning on spending next week finishing the last edits for Ace of Wands and Biker Blues so I can release them into the wild for Beta readers and seeing if a good friend of mine can edit. Like keeps kicking me while I’m down, that’s fine. I’m gonna keep getting up.
I’m in the mood for…
Drawing, surprisingly.
I got into art years ago, but never really committed to it. I could probably get much better if I stuck to it regularly, but instead I’ve reached this atrocious stage of drawing where everything’s good enough the faults are upsettingly obvious and I keep getting frustrated.
But, for whatever reason, I decided I wanted to draw this week. So I dusted off my tablet, downloaded a new app and a bunch of new brushes, and got to work. I won’t post my first attempt. The colors are too much, the head is too small for the body but too big for the eyes, and I just don’t like the look of it. I already posted the concept art of the main characters in my new Gallery page, though.
I won’t make a page for the Love in the Wild series until I’m at least done with the first draft. It’s something I’m thinking of doing the art of myself, since I want to have little mini chapters based in the confession booth I might draw myself. I’m not sure yet. I just know as I was feeling out the characters, I tried my usual Picrews to design them, but kept getting frustrated. There was a specific style I saw them in (something that’s never happened with a character for me before) and while some pieces would have the right hair styles or colors, the eyes wouldn’t be right or the lines would be too complicated. This isn’t their final iteration, but I’m hoping if I keep at it, I can get the version of these characters I want to create.
It’s still going to be a written story—no way could I ever commit to a comic—but it’ll have far more art than anything else I’ve written so far. And if there’s one thing I need to remember, it’s that age-old adage that got me into writing in the first place: if you want it so badly, make it yourself.
On the health front, still no news. I have more tests next week, but I’m currently in a debilitating amount of pain and still have to go to work every day. Work which got incredibly backed up and difficult to have time for anything lately. Still, I persist, and as long as I’m creating something, I’m getting closer and closer to my final goal: getting published and starting this as a career.
That’s pretty much it for this week. Hopefully I’ll have more (and better) news this time next week. For now, my dear lords, ladies, and lieges, take care of yourselves and each other.
The Big C
So here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: I might have cancer. Yeah. The big, scary C I grew up thinking was the deadliest thing in the world, and it’s staring me down like a bull and I’m the idiot wearing red in the ring.
I know I talked last time about getting back on schedule after my husband’s medical stuff, just to not post on Friday like usual. Well, that’s because I was off getting a series of tests and screenings done to see exactly what we’re working with here. An answer I’m still waiting on. Yep, it seems that for all the advancements we’ve made in medicine, a LOT of cancer screenings is “take this test; now wait.” Which, let me tell you, is driving me absolutely batty.
For seemingly obvious reasons: I haven’t really gotten any writing done. Monday was a mess of medical treatments for me and hubby. Tuesday was catch up at work, then Wednesday was the dreaded phone call and a bunch of calls back and forth culminating in two days of testing that I played a lot of Love Island: The Game to distract myself from. All to find out that, while there’s a mass somewhere in my body it’s not supposed to be made up of stuff not meant to be there, they can’t say with full certainty that it’s cancer yet.
Which is resulting in two very different parts of me. The calm, rational part that deals with medical stuff and insurance all the time. I don’t even often deal with serious stuff like cancer, so I know they want to be 100% before they give me that news, before they say the terrible, awful part out loud.
On the other hand, I have ADHD and patience is something other people have to tolerate in their lives, not me. I want my answers now with the ferocity of a child stomping her foot over a golden goose. Thankfully, only one version of me is winning out. I would love to say I’m pushing through this. That I’m sticking to my goals despite this news and I’m not going to let it get me down. I’ve been so busy running around I’m well off my meds though, so until they kick back in, I’m going to be realistic.
I might get some editing for Biker Blues done. I might get a beta for it. That’s going to be entirely dependent on how much of my social battery gets drained talking constantly to doctors and nurses in the coming days. If I’m being completely and totally honest with myself, I’m probably going to spend a majority of the next few days on the Love Island inspired series that I didn’t think was going to exist but apparently will now.
All in all, this was a rough last few days and time will tell if the following days are going to be rougher. Either way, I’ll pour as much of myself into my writing as I can and keep working towards that goal of getting published.
Marketing
I hate it. It’s, I think, my least favorite part of publishing. For the entire week I’ve been trying to post more on TikTok, Threads, even Istagram, an app I swore I’d never use for… some reason. Gonna be honest, I’ve had a whole kid since that decision, so what prompted it, I can’t recall.
Still, I’m planning on releasing one book this year and three books next year. I’ve got to get that marketing train on the tracks. Which means making posts about the upcoming books and looking into what it actually takes to get published. For now, I’m not even settled on if I want to have a traditional paper option for the tarot mafia series, since I’m not 100% sure what the upfront cost on that will be or what the demand for it is.
Lucky for me, my uncle literally teaches classes on business, so when he returns from his vacation, I plan on cornering him and bribing him with blueberry coffee in exchange for help with the logistics and legalities of it all. It’s hard, doing these things on your own, but I’m hoping the light of being an official published author at the end of this tunnel keeps me going.
On the writing front, I got not bubkis done, but it feels like it. Over 2,000 words in Ace of Swords, but it feels like nothing in the long run considering how much I have to write for that collection. I knew this would happen though. There’s some massive changes at my job right now, so it’s all hands on deck, and I’m not getting the time I normally get to write during the day. I could write when I get home, but that’s been spent catching up on some much needed sleep after the chaos of the last two weeks.
No clue what my next week’s going to look like. They’re launching a completely new system at work (hence all hands on deck) and I haven’t even gotten trained on it yet. As a result, I’m keeping my expectations low. I’m spending this weekend recharging and getting ready for the storm ahead, and next week I’m buckling down on writing Ace of Swords and editing Ace of Wands so I can get a beta for it. Hopefully next week or the week after.
With that, I’m signing off for now! See you all next week when I hopefully get back to administration work instead of taking all these calls!
The Horrors Persist
But so do I!
I know, I know. I’m terribly late with this post. In my defense, it was a hectic few weeks. The day I was meant to make my post prior to my vacation, my husband’s body decided to just randomly become allergic to seemingly nothing? Two hospital visits, multiple shots of epinephrine, an extended hospital stay, and a boatload of drugs later, he’s fine, but we have a multitude of doctors we need to see to make sure his body doesn’t randomly decide to kill him again.
Then I spent the next Friday spending time with the In-Laws and getting to meet my newest niece. Then last Friday it randomly turned out I wasn’t working because of the holiday, so no computer access for me.
All in all, it was just bad timing in terms of getting posts done, but I still got writing!
First off: Lucky is officially finished on its first draft! Huzzah! I still need to go in and do hard edits for the second draft, then subject it to a beta and my husband for the third. After that, I’m dipping my toe back into the query pool for it. If no one bites, I’ll get an editor and just self-publish like I’m planning with Wolves and Rain.
That’s pretty much all I wrote on. I realized the end was in sight and put my nose to the grind for that one. I’ve been hammering it out for a little over six months now. A massive improvement from the whopping three years it took me to finish Wolves and Rain as well as Howls and Thunder. It seems with every first draft I manage to force myself to finish, my turn around time gets faster and faster.
Someone (I cannot for the life of me remember who, but I suspect Brandon Sanderson—I listen to a lot of his writing advice) said that you start to find who you are as a writer after your third book. By that point, you really get down your process and what kinds of stories you want to tell. Ignoring the first book I ever finished which will never see the light of day, I think that’s very true. I’ve really got my stride going on my writing, and I’m far more confident now with both my outline and writing process than I was when I started this journey.
Also, for the whole six of you who visited this site before now, you’ll notice a massive upgrade in the look and design. The colors are a little more legible, the fonts are better suited for what I’m aiming for in my personal style, and the logos and designs for the books/series are more professional and clean. I did a lot of research while timing my husband’s direct to IV Benadryl treatments, and I think it’s resulted in a much cleaner and smoother experience overall.
You’ll also notice Marriage in Reverse isn’t listed in the novels anymore. That’s because that novel is far from completion and I’m wanting to start having this website only show novels either properly planned in the series, near completion, completed, or published. I might still talk about works in progress here in my blog, but the actual sites will be relegated to novels for fans to get excited about.
You’ll also notice publishing dates on some of the novels. That’s right! I’m holding myself to a standard. It’s the only way I’ll get this ball rolling. Wolves and Rain has a tentative publish date of 2027 (since the exact month I’ll publish will depend entirely on my funds for cover art and how long editing will take) and Ace of Wands has a publish date of October of this year since I’ll be self-publishing that one no matter what.
Now I’ve got to get my running shoes on and get started. First, I have got to get Ace of Swords finished lickity split. I’ve got a lot of books in the Tarot Mafia collection to cover and not a lot of time. I also need to get on designing those covers. I have temporary covers up right now but, being honest, I hate them a little. I want each cover to tie into the story and be a recognizable cover, but I also want the covers to look like actual tarot cards. Like, I want readers to be able to use the collection like an actual deck itself. Which means looking at some Canva courses on youtube and figuring out why the ones I have now look so unbelievably flat.
So that’s my goal for this week. No concrete plans about how much of each one to get done, just something, since there’s some big changes happening at work that’ll take up a good chunk of my time, but I’m still determined to write when I can. In the meantime, we’re back on an every Friday blog post barring another life-catastrophy.
For the six of you checking in with me and following me this early on the journey, thank you. For anyone dipping in later who scrolled far enough down to find this post. Any and all support means the world to me.
Revamp
Open Menu
Revamp
Jun 12
So I’ll be completely honest, I’m typing this post a 4+ hour training session, so my brain is absolute mush. Thankfully, I got a lot done this week, meaning I can rest and relax this weekend.
Firstly, I revamped a lot of the website. I color corrected so it’s easier to read, and I made images for the headers and logos for the series to make them look more professional. I also completed the mock ups for Ace of Wands, Ace of Swords, Ace of Cups, Ace of Pentacles, and The Fool. I contemplated the idea of paying a cover artist for them like I intend to pay for cover artists for Ridgewood Rattlers and Wolves and Rain, but I did the math. Assuming I low ball it and get a cover artist at $50 (which is criminally low for artists, and we do not underpay people in the house) that still means I’d spend almost $4,000 in cover art on the series over time. I don’t even want to try the math for industry standard (around $250). That might be an option one day, but it certainly isn’t right now.
Instead, I’ve got the cover self-made. I also looked at another writing program. It’s a one-time payment so I can get rid of my subscription service, and they have an anti-AI stance I appreciate, but they’re $140 upfront that I just don’t have. Fingers cross for next month, though!
In even better news, I got a lot done writing/editing this month between calls. I did several hard edits on Biker Blues, even adding several scenes that total in 4,500 words added to the word count. It’s not quite at the level of a second draft, but it’s closer. Once it’s at a third draft, I’ll look at finding Beta readers and an editor for it.
I got some writing done for Moonlight and Storms, but only around 1,300 words since I’m also hard editing Howls and Thunder to get it ready for Beta readers since this’ll be the third draft. I’ve also been busy writing Lucky. 7,500 words later, I’m about two scenes away from only having the last quarter remaining. Which then means I can leave it alone for a bit before the first hard edits to the second draft.
It’s a never ending flow, but that’s what I enjoy about writing like I do. I always have something to work on when I’m in the mood for something specific. I’ve even got a sports romance dancing around my skull right now, but I’m not entertaining that until I get Wolves and Rain or Ridgewood Rattlers finished.
As for this week, I’m hoping to finish Lucky completely and maybe get some more written for Moonlight and Storm or Ace of Swords since I haven’t touched anything in that series in a few weeks beyond transferring the information over to my new data center.
With all of that said, I’m spending the rest of today resting and relaxing. I’ve got a bunch of new songs queued up on my Spotify, and I think I’ll indulge in an audiobook if I can sneak a bath past the fish I call a toddler. Happy summer, and, coming from someone who only cares about basketball in terms of college-level women’s teams (Go Cardinals), fingers crossed for the Knicks and the Cyclones tonight!
I still live…
… despite the best efforts of whatever plague my husband brought home.
I swear. Everyone warned my that my toddler would come home inundated with disease when we sent her to daycare. So explain why the last three times we got sick, it was from people in the office! Thankfully, the toddler escaped the stomach bug, so my mother took her Monday and Tuesday so I could just shrivel away to nothing in peace.
Unfortunately, instead of being able to use Wednesday and Thursday to catch up on the writing I couldn’t get done before, I spent it training new people at the office. Not a hard job, but I think they might frown on me writing borderline steamy Fae romance at work when I’m supposed to be an example of professionalism.
The good news, though, is I have today to get to writing. I also got to spend the weekend working with the responses my Beta reader gave me for Wolves and Rain to get the last draft finished before I send it off to my editor in October. She pointed out a lot of small details I never thought of, and helped me really pin down some of the issues.
See, when I first wrote Wolves and Rain, it was a duet. It was past tense, third person POV from strictly Selena’s story. That thing was a whopping 140,000 words, not including the companion book I was half finished writing from Dominic’s side. I split it in two, figuring I’d make the series a saga instead of a duet. I also remembered dual POV and present tense are things people can do, and that flows way better.
The problem is, for all that I thought I caught all the inaccuracies, I missed several. Also, without some of the scenes I cut, Selena doesn’t come off the way I want her to. The best example I can give without spoiling is when my beta said, “She’s too smart later to be this dumb now.”
These are things I don’t see as someone literally in Selena’s head all the time. I know why she’s doing this, but I need to make sure I put in lines and details that make it clear to an audience without hanging a flashing sign over her head that says “Wasn’t Hugged Enough As A Child”.
All in all, this week was another wash, but not a total one. I still got a lot done and have more to go. The Oliver Notion account I have now is set up completely with everything moved over. I tried out a few new writing options over the weekend, but nothing really stands out to me. I need something I can write on a web version at least, which cuts out several options like Word, Google Docs (not allowed on the work computer), and Scriviner. NovelPad’s done well for me, but my kingdom to do away with subscription services and to just have one time payments for things again.
For the next week, I’m still working on Lucky and Moonlight and Storms a bit since I’m hoping to have the Wolves and Rain series finished by the end of this year so I can start publishing next year. I might get some work done on Ace of Swords, but I’m trying to be realistic. Until I get a lot of writing and publishing under my belt, no publishing company is going to sign onto a series that’ll be, bare minimum, 50+ books. Those are probably going to need to be self-published. That’s fine in the long run, though. I can make it work.
Hope you all have a wonderful summer and, coming from someone on the other end, take a deep breath and appreciate if both your nostrils aren’t stuffy. You never appreciate that feeling until it’s gone.
At least my ducks are in a row
So I’ve mentioned this several times in previous posts, but unfortunately WIPs do not put food on the table and editors and artists are (RIGHTFULLY!) expensive. As such, I spend my week working a full time gig with a two hour commute. As such, my writing time is heavily impacted by the state of my office.
Which is why this week, when I’m brimming with ideas and plans, they decided to launch a system-wide change that crashed the entire way we handle our tasks.
I still got things done though! A whopping five new chapters in Lucky and putting that novel firmly in the latter half! I also got the entirety of my outlines for all my finished works and WIPs moved over to that new system. It took three days of copying and pasting, and there’s a tiny peeled off circle in the middle of the C key on my keyboard, but it got done!
The filing system on that program works fantastic, and I’m so happy with it since I can now sort my stories by status. universe they’re set in, and the characters who show up across multiple series can be connected without me having to slam different series all together.
Which is a big deal because as someone who regularly watches Game/Film Theory, I’m a little obsessive about timelines. After all, if I have a story like Wolves and Rain where the full moon is a big deal, I don’t want three or four full moons happening per book but only mentioning a few days passing each chapter.
As for the next story I’m writing, I finally put my foot down. I don’t want to take anything by half measures now that I’m getting serious and professional with my writing. So, I’m putting a rule in for myself. Do I have two separate ideas for new series? Yep. I won’t touch them until I finish either Wolves and Rain or Ridgewood Rattlers. Stand alones are untouched until I finish Marriage in Reverse or Lucky (which is looking more likely). Two stand alones and two series. No more or I’ll keep skipping between WIP and never finish anything.
It helps that if I have any ideas for new stuff, I can stick it in the Untouched tag on my new system and it’s there for later. I’m not losing it just because I’m not actively working on it and prioritizing what I have working currently.
As such, I’ll probably start working on the second Ridgewood Rattler novel is I start working on anything other than Lucky for next week, but I’m in a big Lucky mood and I’m really hoping to buckle down and finish it off for the first draft before the end of June. I’m also hoping to get the second Ridgewood Rattler first draft finished before end of August, and I’m really wanting to get Moonlight and Storms first draft done by October so I can work on in in tandem with working with my editor for Wolves and Rain.
I’m also hoping this tickle in my throat is just allergies, but I fear I’m only lying to myself.
On the up side, I’m finally able to afford Spotify Premium again! Which means soon enough , I’ll have working playlists for the stories I can post! In the mean time, I hope everyone reading this now or whoever long later have a wonderful summer, and I’ll see all of you next week.
Best Laid Plans
You know, every time I set a firm goal, I tell myself I need to stop doing that because I almost never get it done. A million other things, yes, but never that one thing.
Last week, I said I’d finish at least half of Ace of Swords and maybe get some editing done for Biker Blues.
Instead, remember how I went a solid month saying I needed to work on Lucky? And other things kept getting in the way? When I finished the first 12,000 words of Ace of Swords, my brain finally decided to focus on Lucky again. Not that I’m complaining. Lucky sits at a pretty 32,000 words now. A little under half its total word count by my estimates.
Just goes to show exactly how I wound up with so many WIP over time. Fingers crossed my plan works, and this results in me having a nice stash of books to publish one after the other when I get started.
In more good news, I’ve got a new platform to keep my information on. It’s a one-time payment instead of the subscription service I’ve been using. It also lets me keep all my stories on it instead of making me keep them separate. It works like my own personal wikipedia for all my writing. Meaning stories like Ridgewood Rattlers and the Tarot Mafia series that exist in the same universe but stay mostly separate can have only a few connecting links that I can reference back to without the pages getting bloated. It’s already making a huge difference in the way I’m keeping track of everything.
The downside is, I lost two days to transferring the information to the other platform. I’m still not done moving everything over sufficiently, but I didn’t want to take too much time when I still need to get writing done. My long-term goal is to get at least the first four books of Tarot Mafia, Lucky, Moonlight and Storm, and the second book of the Ridgewood Rattler series done by the end of this year. Editing and worldbuilding in between is important, but I need to get things written to have anything published.
For this week, I’m hoping to get more of Lucky finished and get the rest of the information moved over to the new platform. That’s literally it. Nothing else since I’m also dealing with health issues and visiting family on top of real-life work stresses.
I’m posting a little early this week since tomorrow I’ve got doctor’s appointments lined up and won’t have access to the website. Best of luck to you all and have a wonderful summer!
New companion unlocked
So I didn’t get 1/4th of Moonlight and Storms done. I got the first chapter, but not nearly the first 1/4th. That wasn’t a realistic goal, but that’s on me for being too hype. Then I got deathly ill, so I’ll take the win of getting anything done at all.
On the upside I got several good things handled.
For one, I finagled things to make the payment on my first commissioned piece of art for Wolves and Rain! I’ll be posting that soon as it’s done! It’s just a sketch piece, but I’m in talks to get a full colored piece done as well. That’ll be more expensive, though, so I’m looking into options with the artist.
I also, through sheer luck, found an editor! That’s actually where most of my time went this week. I didn’t anticipate it since I wasn’t actively looking for an editor right now. All the ones I kept coming across were far outside my price limit (as they should be it’s a service and thus should be paid for). I stumbled on a TikTok of hers and decided to try seeing if she had any openings.
So what time I’d normally spend writing this week was spent hammering out details of the contract with her and the few more details with the artist.
She won’t have an opening to edit until October, but that gives me plenty of time to finish Moonlight and Storms and possibly Fangs and Tempest. If this works out, I might have an editor for those three as well, which is a huge relief. Friends and family are good help, but I know I need someone with a critical eye to look at the books and give genuine feedback.
This is a huge deal for me. I’ve put a lot of work into all of the books I have listed on the website so far, but none more that Wolves and Rain, and none closer to my heart. Seeing it get closer and closer to actually getting published makes me so unbearably happy. And terrified.
I know what i said…
But hear me out…
So, obligatory warning, those issues I mentioned at work last week? They doubled this week. Because of course they did. I am allowed no peace. I literally am making this post instead of my lunch before heading back into the (metaphorical) mines.
But I said I’d drop a blog post/update every Friday and I’ve got to stick to something!
I did get more editing for Howls and Thunder done. It’s almost done on the first hard edit and, hopefully, the Beta I found for Wolves and Rain will be willing since she’s loving Wolves and Rain so much. I still have the last quarter of the book to do because the later half needed some hard edits, but I’m pretty sure I can get that done this weekend.
Then I’m determined to get at least the first fourth of Moonlight and Storms done. I’m letting myself switch between that and Lucky since I’m finally out of the slump for that one. It’s nice to be excited for that story again since I really do want to get some of the stand-alone stories I have.
I mentioned I got some writing done for Ace of Wands, but I just realized I never specified how much. It was only 1,300 words, but I also did some edits on another book that’ll now be joining the Tarot Mafia series.
See, a while ago I was talking with my husband and joked about how hilarious it would be for a mafia don to have a wife that just… didn’t realize he was a don. Not because she’s stupid, but because she just believes the best in everybody and never thinks twice about what’s going on. Are some of the guys around her husband ex-cons? Sure, but being an ex-con shouldn’t define someone! Does her husband own a few shady businesses, sure! But he makes sure all his employees are paid fairly and treated well!
So I wrote Daisy’s Darling, a novel about 55,000 words long centering around Daisy and Luciano Drake. The problem is, I loved all the characters. They’ve got these rich, interesting backstories I just didn’t feel like I had time to flesh out. Changed a few things here and there, and now Daisy’s Darling has a new name: The Fool. It’ll be book 1 in the Major Arcana series, which are all going to be stand-alone stories that tie into each other and the Minor Arcana books as well.
There also might be some art coming to the page for Wolves and Rain. It depends on how finances shake out the next few weeks, but I’ve put out some feelers and my hopes are high. All in all, while the last two weeks weren’t the great jumping off point I hoped for after taking my much needed mental break, I’ve got high hopes for next week.
When it rains
Imagine me kneeling over and just panting desperately like I’ve run an entire marathon.
So I had not-so-grand plans last week. Get a Beta Reader and finish editing Howls and Thunder. And I… got most of that done. Through no fault of mine.
So to start: I have a Beta Reader. They’re not far, but they’re already catching those little things I just don’t notice because I’ve been polishing Wolves and Rain for over a year now. It’s also a freaky experience, having a totally random person I’ve never met read my story. I’m liking the feedback, though.
Now for the editing of Howls and Thunder: I’m halfway done. Normally Wednesday and Thursday are my best editing days. Problem is two things happened at work. I can’t clarify much because my job involves some security and privacy, but suffice to say editing was not happening. Not with the same time I normally have.
Then on top of everything else: construction had me stuck at home with no internet Friday so I couldn’t get to work and couldn’t drop my daughter off at daycare. All in all, everything lined up just right to make sure I got very little done.
But it did get something done. Like I said, I got a lot of editing, found that beta reader, and started the first few chapters of Ace of Swords. I’m actually very excited for it because, while Ace of Wands is my favorite story of the four main houses, Ace of Swords has Wren, my favorite Queen of the series. I also started some writing for The Fool, but not much was done there. I already have an idea of the story for both The Fool and The Lovers based on two other abandoned stories, but I need to take a better look at them before I’m 100% sure they fit in this universe.
So that’s it for this update. Maybe one day I’ll have sustainable internet at the house, but today is not yet that day. Thank you all again for following me and my writing journey.
Take your time
So the last few weeks were a whirlwind of changes. From creating this website and my Patreon, making my other social media accounts, creating my logo and the images here on Canva. Then I finished Ace of Wands and Biker Blues. It was… a lot.
Possibly too much.
I crashed this week. Completely. I finished the editing for Wolves and Rain and got only 8/63 chapters into editing Howls and Thunder (because that draft is rough I tell you). To a certain degree, it feels like sliding back. like I’m not keeping up the momentum, but I’ve lived with my ADHD long enough to know what’s actually happening. I’m burning out, and my body and mind are slowing down to avoid it.
So I didn’t get a ton done, but I still got something. That’s one of the biggest lessons I’ve needed to learn while writing. Perfection doesn’t just take time; it takes a product. It takes practice.
Because of that, I’m not calling this week a wash or a break. I still got things done. I made major changes to Wolves and Rain and did some very good editing. I’m finally at a point with it where I’m comfortable letting a stranger read it, so this week, while I edit Howls and Thunder, I’m going to finish the second part of the goal I set last week and find a Beta reader.
I don’t exactly have the funds for a paid editor, but I’ve got a few feelers out in subreddits to try. I’m also putting a few bucks per paycheck towards saving to commission an actual artist for Wolves and Rain. I’ll start with cover art and, if I have funds after that, maybe some promotional art too.
It’s not the update I want to give, but it’s the one I have. Like I said in my last post, I need to be realistic about the situation I’m in. Yeah, I’m creative and I have good ideas, and I like to think my writing is fun and interesting, but writing takes time. Time I don’t always have right now.
But I will. One day.
Another one down
Okay, wow. When things get moving they get moving. Last week I finished my first draft of Biker Blues and put it to the side so I can go back and edit it with fresh eyes. I still wasn’t quite feeling Lucky and I gotta be in a specific headspace to work on Marriage in Reverse. That left me either Moonlight and Storm or Ace of Wands.
So I sat down, started typing, and when I blinked, the first draft was finished.
Don’t take this the wrong way. The Tarot Mafia series is going to be a mammoth one, so the books are all much shorter. Ace of Wands is only 40,000 as opposed to both Wolves and Rain books I’ve written, which were 80,000 a piece by the time I finished. If I’m being honest, I took a lot longer to write Ace of Wands than I wanted, but I’ll get into that and the nitty gritty of the story on another update blog.
So, since I finished two first drafts in as many weeks, I did something I’ve been avoiding: I made a Patreon. It has terribly named tiers and no real content yet, but I made it! It exists in the world now!
I’m not under the impression this is taking off any time soon. I have a lot of books and ideas, but no cover art, no promotional art, and, sadly, no funds to commission something at a price to compensate the artists (because we respect artists in this household). Right now my writing update posts are getting minimal engagement, and I have no clue what I’m doing marketing-wise.
But I saw a post on reddit that really got me thinking. I can’t remember the whole kit and caboodle, but the gist of it was “is anyone here writing just for the love of the game?”
Yes, I want to make money off my books. I want to get some kind of income to supplement everything else, but something I always say to friends, family, coworkers is “we work with what we have”.
I write these novels either in the bathtub as I hide from a Velcro toddler or in between calls at a job that, thankfully, doesn’t mind me writing Fae romance as long as it’s on a machine with no camera.
Can I, theoretically, write the next great romance like this? Yes. There is a non-zero chance.
There’s also a non-zero chance I’ll win the lottery. If I gotta pick, I’d rather the latter.
So, for today and this weekend, I’ll just relax. I’ll read terrible but entertaining Time Travel Fix It fanfictions. Maybe write a couple of chapters of my Dragon Age Isekai fanfiction that will never see the light of day, and just let my brain rest. Next week, I’m tackling line by line editing for Wolves and Rain and Howls and Thunder so I can get started on Moonlight and Storm. I’ll see how much writing I can get done for that the next few days and go on from there.
I’ll also start looking for a Beta reader. My husband and friends are great, but I can’t meet up with them often, and if I make my husband listed to the first quarter of Wolves and Rain one more time it might drive him clinically insane instead of just socially.
Another one bites the dust
I put my nose to the grind this week and, accidentally, finished a book. The first draft at least.
I tried working on Lucky since it’s the only stand-alone I’m interested in right now. I really, really did. It just wasn’t happening. Lucy and Alastor are on vacation in my brain and did not want to be disturbed. Instead, I got some writing done on Biker Blues. I figured I’d buckle down and do some writing, maybe get it through the next fourth.
Instead, I’m looking at the finished draft somehow. There was supposed to be a whole drawn-out tense exchange with a character and Venom took one look at the guy and slugged him. Which changed the entire dynamic of the interaction and turned that scene into the climax instead of just ramping up the tension.
I’ll need to go back and do some heavy edits to change previous scenes so everything ties up nicely, but I already needed to do that because I changed a lot of backstory and character relationships while I was writing.
That’s not to say I didn’t plot out Biker Blues, but there’s an entire kidnapping scene that just doesn’t exist anymore and another scene is going to get WAY longer. My current word count is about 60,000 words, but that’ll probably get closer to 65,000 or 70,000 when it’s done.
I’m going to take a break from Biker Blues for a minute now. I know I’m terrible about editing when I’m fresh off finishing because they’re all my darlings and I love them and I don’t want to change anything about them. I gotta let the shine on the story dull so I can look at it with the cold, calculating eyes of a psychopath as my English Teachers raised me to.
What am I working on next week? Absolutely no idea. Like I said, I’m still not feeling Lucky, so it’ll probably be either Ace of Wands or Moonlight and Storm. Who knows.
As far as social media goes, I finally figured out how to change my name on TikTok so I can get that more writing focused. I also did some searching for artists I can commission for promotion art once I get the ball rolling.
Lots of denial Queries back for Wolves and Rain, but one comment from an agent really stuck out to me. She made a point that I’ve never published anything before and, while my writing and query letter have an interesting and engaging voice, I’m an unknown. Not a lot of agents or publishers are going to want to take a chance on a four-part story with an unknown writer when two of the four books aren’t even written yet. As such, I’m gonna put a pause on submitting anything for Wolves and Rain, get some promotional art, and maybe look at writing some stand-alone stories so I can get a following and some credibility in the publishing world.
Still, I told myself no new stories until I finish Biker Blues, so now I get to decide what to start with. I’m giving myself the weekend to pinpoint one of the many plot bunnies in my brain before I decide which one gets an actual outline next week. Wish me luck!
It all starts here
It All Starts Here
Insert cliche line about every journey starting with a single step here, ha!
While I started my writing journey ages ago, my publishing journey is still going. As such, I figure now that I’ve got three completed stories under my belt and more on the way, I need to start putting on my big girl pants and taking this whole writing thing seriously!
As seriously as I take anything.
So, every Friday from here on out, I’ll post here about updates involving my writing, publishing, and maybe sprinkle in a few tidbits about my life here and there.
If you’re joining now, when I manage to publish, or ages down the road when I’ve got a pile of written books high enough to make Stephen King weep, thank you for hopping on with me.
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Writing Updates:
Or, for this post, starting points. I’ve got several WIPs at this point.
Starting off, I have Wolves and Rain, the first book in the Wolves and Rain series. It’s 79,126 words, completed, and I’ve got a third draft currently out for query. The sequel, Howls and Thunder, is written with 75,570 on its second draft currently. The third and fourth books Moonlight and Storm and Fangs and Tempest are plotted and outlined, but not written just yet. Wolves and Rain is dual POV paranormal romance in the vein of shows like Teen Wolf, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or H20: Just Add Water. The magic mostly exists to make the interpersonal dramas even worse. Or, at least, more entertaining for everyone on this side of the page.
Selena Irving, a mermaid of only six months, is sick of her boyfriend Paul, which she swears has nothing to do with the sudden reappearance of Dominic Hart, her unrequited high school crush. She’s all set to dump him gracefully until she runs into Dominic, a werewolf, who tells her there’s a wrinkle in her plan: Paul comes from a long line of werewolf hunters and they won’t appreciate her leaving him. Especially if they find out she’s the first turned mermaid in the state in over 100 years.
Lucky for Selena, when her break up goes south, Dominic steps in with the perfect plan. They’ll fake date until he can get the Council to intervene. Which he swears has absolutely nothing to do with the unrequited love he’s held for Selena since freshman year. It’s strictly for her safety so she doesn’t wind up hunted for sport or worse.
I wrote Wolves and Rain because I wanted a story that shows how love can heal without being a magic spell. Selena and Dominic realizing they’re in love with each other won’t wave a wand and fix their problems, but it gives them the strength to stand and heal individually and together.
Wolves and Rain has a diverse cast. While Selena is a mixed-race bisexual woman and Dominic is a demisexual Romani man, there’s also characters who are asexual, trans, nonbinary, Asian, Indian, and all other walks of life.
Tropes in this story are: Fake dating | quick burn | mutual pining | friends to lovers | no third-act-breakup | forced proximity | pining | idiots (affectionate) in love
There are mild trigger warnings for abusive and sexist language and one instance of domestic violence between the FMC and a side character.
Spice rating: 3/5
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Next I have my WIP Marriage in Reverse.
Marriage in Reverse is only 12,944 words so far. It’s going to be a stand-alone and the only one in it’s universe. Marriage in Reverse is a dual POV Romantasy set in a fictional modern world where magic exists alongside technology in our own word. Think series like Darkest Powers by Kelly Armstrong or Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.
Luna Stellas doesn’t think twice about kicking her ex-fiancé Robbert out on the curb when she finds out he’s been plotting and sleeping with her twin sister, Carla. The problem is, she made an oath to a god to get married by that time next year, and finding a husband on short notice who won’t take advantage of the situation is a tall order. Thankfully, her childhood crush, Thomas McCarthy, is more than happy to help a girl out.
Thomas has his own reasons for a quick marriage. He’s got to get a respectable wife to challenge his distant cousins and aunts for his rightful place as Lord McCarthy, despite the Naga heritage his mother passed on. That seems like an easy task when compared to his new one: convincing Luna he agreed to this arrangement so he could marry her, not for the money.
I wrote Marriage in Reverse because, honestly, I like drama. I like telenovas and soap operas and anything where you spend thirty straight minutes screaming at the screen “how could that possibly happen?”, but you never turn it off. I also love stories about the reality of love. How relationships aren’t just a series of cute dates followed by a single fight and making up. It’s thousands of little ways two people can change each other over the course of any relationship.
While Marriage in Reverse isn’t as diverse due to it’s smaller cast, Luna is a WOC.
Tropes in this story are: Arranged Marriage | Contract Marriage | Childhood Friends | Mutual Pining | no-third-act-breakup | He-Fell-First-And-Harder
Trigger Warning: Infidelity (not by main characters) | Mentions of childhood neglect
Spice Rating 2/5
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I’ve also got a WIP called Biker Blues. It’s part of a series called Ridgewood Rattlers and focuses on a motorcycle club. A bit darker than the other three I’ve mentioned, the Ridgewood series is actually grounded in our reality. While I wouldn’t classify it as a “dark romance”, the characters definitely veer into the morally gray area both on and off the pages. If you’re a fan of stories like Rook & Rebel by Kate Crew or The Pucking Wrong series by C.J. Crew, you’ll like our boys in the Ridgewood Club.
Biker Blues is the first book and I’ve got 48,193 words of the first draft written so far. This book follows Blue (Lapis) Pewter and Venom (Alec) Pierce.
Blue Pewter swore she’d never get involved with a biker club again. Not after seeing what leaving did to her mother and herself. When her younger brother, Red, joins with the local club, she decides she can tolerate them from afar to support him and just him. Definitely not the sexy as sin Vice President-to-be of the club, Venom. When someone burns her apartment to the ground and puts her mother in the hospital, she gets moved into the clubhouse for her own safety, and keeping the club (including Venom) at arm’s length gets even harder.
Venom puts the club first. That’s how he was raised and how he lives. These people are his family, and their safety is his top priority. Meaning he doesn’t have the time or patience for Blue Pewter and her stuck up opinions about his chosen family. When he has to look after her for Little Red’s sake, though, he learns there’s more to her than the prim and polished face she shows off, and he has to make a decision on where she’ll stay in his life.
I started writing the Ridgewood series because I like darker stories. However, I don’t think “dark” necessarily has to mean “depressing” or “upsetting”. You can challenge barriers, and get a little spicey, without making your characters wonder if they’re in a romance or a Saw movie. I wanted something that had characters who aren’t always on the right side of the law, but that you can enjoy reading even on a bad day.
Ridgewood Rattlers, like Wolves and Rain, has a stacked and diverse cast. There are characters of all different genders, races, and sexualities, and they all get their time in the light eventually.
Topes are: Strangers to Enemies to Lovers | Brother’s Best Friend | Motorcycle Club | Overprotective MMC | Morally Gray MMC
Triggers: Violence | Arson | Mentions of Drug Use | Non-fatal Motorcycle Accident | Mentions of Childhood Abuse and Neglect | Infidelity (not between MCs)
Spice Rating 5/5
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Right now, I’m working on my WIP Lucky, which has 23,466 words in the first draft. Lucky is a stand alone dual POV paranormal romance with sprinkles of spice. It’s reminiscent of stories like Death and the Last Vampire by Holly Roberds, Dark Prince by Michelle Hercules, or Bound in Blood by Sadie Kincade.
Lucy Wingate is the luckiest woman in the world. Or the unluckiest. It depends on who you ask, when, and if she saw a chicken on the left side of the road under the last full moon. When her brother, Louie, gets in over his head, she makes a deal to save his life and wins. Kind of. Almost. If you squint. See now, instead of having to worry about pesky things like bills, or finding a job, or the mob family her brother almost sold her to, she gets to think about new things, like if Fae can really steal your name.
Alastor Murphy has lived in the mortal realm for centuries, and he’s never seen anything like the Wingate twins. Lucy Wingate seems determined to deny him the answers he seeks about their mysterious family luck, but that’s alright. He has an eternity to coax it out of his little clover now that she’s bound to him.
I started writing Lucky because I’m a sucker for a deal gone sideways. My husband and I got to talking about what happens if you tie a Fae in a challenge, and he made the passing comment “you’d have to be the luckiest person in the world”. Everything spiraled from there. Lucky isn’t a quick burn like most of my other stories. Alastor and Lucy are two very broken individuals jaded by the world and how it’s treated them. The story I’m trying to tell with it is about letting go of past hurts and allowing yourself to feel to the fullest, no matter how things turn out.
Lucky has a WOC for the heroine.
Tropes: Romantasy | Enemies to Lovers | Obsessive MMC | Morally Gray MMC | Fae Lords | Sassy FMC | Fae Politicking | No Third Act Break Up
Triggers: Mentions of gambling addiction
Spice level: 4/5
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My longest series is Tarot Mafia (name in the works) this behemoth of a project is going to be 78 stories. Ace-X of the four houses being a series for four different couples, the Page, Knight, and Queen Cards being shorter stories about side couples in those series, and the King card being a “what if?” story to cap it all off. Then each Major Arcana cards will be stand-alone stories that entwine with the others. Familiar characters will show up, settings will reappear, and events in other books might get mentioned here or there.
Right now, I’ve plotted out every book in the Minor Arcana books (Ace-King of Wands, Swords, Cups, and Pentacles) and I’ve started writing the first book in the series Ace of Wands which has 30,313 words of the first draft written (a little more than halfway finished).
This series will be a dual POV with lots of drama, crime, mystery, romance, and all kinds of spice for everyone to enjoy. It’s the darkest I’m going, pulling inspiration from books like Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver, Lights Out by Navessa Allen, The Alliance Series by S. J. Tilly and anything by Evie Ross.
Ace of Wands follows Violet Williams, a jewelry maker in a neighborhood ruled by the Sanna family. For years she’s kept herself and everyone in her apartment building safe by keeping her head down and her nose out of business that doesn’t concern her. Until one fateful night she decided to defend Isabella Morelli and puts herself firmly on Brian Sanna’s bad side. Thankfully, Isabella is more than happy to offer her older brother’s protection.
Luca Morelli doesn’t trust anyone. Not since his parents were murdered, and especially not since he took over their mafia empire in the wake of his brother’s unsolved murder. So when Isabella brings this timid little mouse home, he knows better than to trust the wide-eyed persona she puts on. He knows Violet’s hiding something, and while he’ll offer her protection from Sanna, he won’t let her slot into his life (or his heart) until he finds out what it is.
I started this series as a challenge to myself. I pulled cards from my tarot deck to write characters, backstories, settings, and the plots themselves. I also wanted to write something huge and sprawling. While I think short stand-alones are fun, I’ve always had a weak spot for anything that gives itself room to breathe and expand so the world feels detailed and real.
Which has nothing to do with my tendency to ramble, I’m sure.
The Tarot Mafia series will have a humongous cast, meaning there will be characters from all walks of life. Different nationalities, sexualities, genders, and body types. For the minor arcana, the FMCs are all WOC and have varying levels of disability (Violet has PTSD, Ruby has ADHD, Justine uses a walking cane, and Michelle has PCOS).
Topes include: Mafia Romance | Protective MMC and FMC | Slow Burn | Quick Burn | Touch Her and Die | no-third-act-breakup
Triggers: Drug use mentioned | Murder | Violence | Gambling | Hospitals | Kidnapping | Child abuse and neglect mentioned | Guns | Knives
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And that’s it for now. I’m not letting myself start ANY new stories until after I finish any of the WIPs besides Ace of Wands because, I admit, I might be writing that series until I keel over.
Check out the socials section of the home page. I have a TikTok where I also do Monday updates and will post art, both my own and any commissions I can afford as time goes on. My Pinterest has boards for all the WIPs I have going. I also post random snippits and quotes on my BlueSky along with small updates.
Once again, I want to thank everyone who is starting on this journey from the get go like my captive audience members friends and family, and the agents who have given mee feedback to help me grow on my publishing journey as well.