zoe_w

Yeah, I know, I've been bad about updating here lately. I don't mean to neglect this place, but being my personal journal, there's not much that I feel a need to discuss here that I can't cover on my Wordpress blog. I've also got the video blogging to keep up on, and I'm socializing more through Facebook, at the same time moving away from MySpace. Oh, and then there's my new found habit for tweeting. Yes, I joined Twitter, and I love it. ^_^

I had planned to continue to post links to my articles and stories here, like I do on MySpace, but somehow, updating this site always slips my mind. I do have a lot of sites to try and keep track of these days, so something is bound to slip.

Well, let's see...a brief update. It looks like I'm soon going to become a regular reviewer for a publisher, which is very cool. I have lots of material for the serial stories lined up, and there's a couple of editors sending me strong "maybes" on certain projects that I shan't mention yet. There's so much good news, it's almost possible to forget that my health is poop right now.

I'm not longer sure what prupose this journal serves, so I might let it go. I guess I'll ponder that some more another time. I'm feeling really tied, and I think I'm going to crash early tonight.

Later...

I got the story up to a third draft tonight. Hubby is reading it, and if he gives it a green light, I'll be putting out the first calls for beta readers.

Tomorrow, I'll be working to finish IS2 3: Teh Horror. I'll also try to finish up some other shorter projects in preparation of submissions opening up April 1st in a couple places.

I'm now on Twitter, under the handle Zoe_E_W. This is a random weirdness feed, and not intended as anything but a time waster. I just like figuring out how to write updates and make them 139 or 140 characters. I don't know it's it's got any use for promotions or not, but it is fun to play with.

S'okay, it's almost 7 am, and I'm tired. Off to couch with me.

Later...

Yeah, so I lost track of updating this journal, but mainly because I don't think that many people are reading this. Also, most of my progress reports sound very similar. I'm always working on something new, or submitting somewhere. Or I'm obsessing because someplace I've sent to hasn't sent a response recently.

And all of that is true this week. After I finished up the last posts of Blood Relations, I went back into short story mode. Yesterday, I wrote part of a story, and today I finished it and wrote another non-fiction article for AC. It's not official just yet, but I'm on the cusp of a clout level of four with AC. So, this means that sometime this month, I will earn $1.50. It's not much to get excited about yet, but so far, the few comments I've had are positive.

I've gotten word of a great review for Redemption Lost, which will be forthcoming in the April issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly. It's a positive review for the book, and overall it's a ringing endorsement for the trilogy. I'm hopeful that I can continue to build on this success with more positive reviews, but it's a very slow waiting game for now.

I have a short two part story about Vicky and Amber done for the site, but I'm also going to be making up some other short stories for the web site, and I mean really short, like one or two posts, at the most.

And finally, I have the submissions. I'm getting ready to turn in a couple of submissions for themed anthologies. The stories are done, and I'm just waiting for the opening date. Both would be at semi-pro levels, I think, though one of them might be pro. It's no secret that I'm harsh about my short stories, but I feel like this year, I've started to make some improvements, and I'm now able to write short stories that don't give away the endings too soon. So now its time to start submitting them to see if the editors agree that I'm making improvements.

And finally, I'm still waiting for the publisher to send word on my first novel. Yes, I'm sweating bullets over it, but after almost two months, I'm running out of ammo. (baaaad Zoe.) I'm still worried, and I'm not sure who else to go to if this fails. A 200K story is a tough sell anywhere these days, but even more so when it's a weird cross genre book from a complete unknown writer.

I'm trying to set myself up to accept another rejection, because after two months, I think that they probably either haven't read it yet, or they didn't, and now they hate it so bad that they can't reply. Just...angst and woe...you know?

So yeah, more of the usual. And with that, I'm heading back to bed.

Later...

I've posted chapter 21 of Blood Relations another background chapter, but one that quickly sums up a long pattern of wandering behavior for Vicky after the McCulloughs forced her to flee from William. Those of you who've been reading the story should now understand than it wasn't Amber's fault that Vicky is sterile, because that happened much earlier in her life at the hands of the McCullough clan.

I'm almost finished on the rough draft of Changeling, which was originally slated to become a free story. I've decided that this story will instead go out to make the rounds with some of the UF publishers, just to see if it will fly. I'm sorry for pulling the story from the online queue, but I think it might work as a pro or semi-pro sell for me. I prefer to post the shorter novellas and novelettes on the web site anyway, to make sure I'm always offering you something different every few months.

If I start to sell work with the publishers, I'll have to slow down the rate that I release stories to the web site. I do it now because I'm not yet confident that I'm at a professional level of writing yet. But once I feel like I've reached that skill level, a story would have to be experimental to make it onto the web site. For now, there are still plenty of stories slated for the web site. Just, not Changeling. Sorry about that, and I hope you can understand.

First, here's the links for chapter 19 and chapter 20 of Blood Relations. Both are very short, and any knowledgable idiot would call the next chapter Epilogue and be done with it.

I, am something of a lower idiot, and so there are actually quite a few chapters left before we hit the epilogue. I know, it defies all convention, and frankly, anything after this point will be anticlimatic. It's not avant garde; it's not knowing when to shut up. But hey, that's why it's a free story, because I don't think this would work for most editors. Maybe I'm wrong, and years from now, some editor will walk up and smack me for writing this. (Boy, I sure hope they explain why after they hit me. 0.o ) But in any case, this ending clears the path for the next story, which will involve a lot more action and hot and sticky death.

So, if it comforts you to do so, consider the last part of 20 to be the close of book one. You can think of the rest as a novelette called Blood Relations: Aftermath, covering the days and weeks afterward. This will allow me to finish up Vicky's past as she slowly migrates to Arizona from Scotland, bringing us full circle to the present day. There's also some other juicy details left over, but I won't spoil them. I love you people too much to do that. <3

I'll be taking a short break from posting to start work on the revision of Dead End, and I hope to have the whole trilogy updated with free E-books by May. I'm torn on what to post next, but I think it will end up being a semi-bizarro science fiction story, Adopting a Sex Doll. After that, I'll be hitting you with another long story, Berserker. In that novel-sized story, we'll be getting back to Jobe McKenzie, Gavin Lebowitz and the werebear that just appeared from out of nowhere in front of their car in the epilogue of Erick's Journey. I'm sure it drove you nuts that we had to take this deviation in course to follow Amber first, but I needed time to let Berserker cool on the mental back burner before I could get back into it to handle doing the second and third drafts.

I'm already working on anther video, and that should be done soonish. I'm debating whether to let it go as is or add one more short skit to it. I'll have to compile the pieces that I have and see how close I am to the ten minute mark. The first episode required extensive editing to get it down to 9:59:29, and I felt rather proud of myself when I finally got it small enough to fit on YouTube as a single episode. I'll try to aim for that with each episode, and even when I'm trying to be informative, as in this case, I'll still also try to toss in some gratuitous and tasteless humor. The old motto of our show was, "If we haven't offended you yet, just wait. We're reloading." I intend to carry on that proud and noble tradition. ^_^

You have been warned.

Later...

I goofed off for most of the day, aside from lurking on forums or listening to music, I didn't do any focused reading, editing, or writing. That is, until half an hour before midnight, when I was staring at my background. I didn't feel like getting into either of the two books I'm reading. (Even though both have had good writing so far. Just wasn't in the mood) It occurred to me that I already knew the way out of my middle of the story woes with Changeling, and so I figured that I'd tried to get a few more pages down.

I finished up one chapter, and then I wrote another. The story will be getting back on track to the actual scam soon, but now with this side trip to meet Tommy's cousins and his great-great- great-aunt, (I think that's something like fifteen times removed, by I'll spare you) I understand how VERY complicated the storyline will eventually become for the shapeshifters.

For one thing, they all have two fully functional personalities, so that means writing two people who may, or may not be similar to each other. Tommy/Lana is pretty consistent through both personalities, but Jenny/Marcus is a character with a lot of contrasts. By day, Marcus has been a reclusive gaming nerd and a half-assed mage. Jenny has been a goth-clubbing social butterfly who adores the opportunity to know lots of people. During transformation, both personalities, "pass each other" in a mental corridor, an internally imagined safe place where the two sides read each other. So, what one personality knows, so does the other as soon as they change places.

Of these two sides, one of the personalities is known as the biological personality, and it's the one that the shapeshifter was born as. The other personality is considered the lesser half, and yet, it also has a soul of its own. This can make for a complicated situation in shapeshifter mating habits, because when a shapeshifter takes a companion, part of the mating act is the metaphysical merging of their souls. After that point, there is no way for a couple to separate, and no amount of distance can keep them from out of their companion's thoughts. in most shapeshifter couples, it is possible temporarily sever the connection by having one partner swap genders.

In theory, what is supposed to happen is that a couple clicks, and they mate through their dominant personas before shifting genders to merge the souls of their lesser halves. However, there is the possibility for a shapeshifter to become involved in a permanent love triangle, which sets this initial plot up as an erotic UF, easy.

So, here at chapter 12, the triangle is set now, with (don't hate me for making this ridiculously complicated) Marcus/Jenny, Tommy/Lana, and Kevin/Laura. So, all I have to do is figure out how to get through the scam without being too slow or dull, even if the real story is the constant visits of Jenny's suitors. Yeah, that's the joke. Both the guys want Jenny. But Tommy is soul bound to Jenny, while Kevin is soul bound to Marcus. (Told you it was complicated)

Why is this important? Okay, while Marcus has taken over control of the body, he can't hear the thoughts of Tommy. If Tommy wants to keep himself hidden from Jenny, he has to change into Lana. Now add in Kevin and Laura, and what I have is a complex trio of bodies who carry six linked personalities between them. They ought to be able to carry at least two books on their own before I merge them back into the main story line as bit characters again.

This is the part of my experiment that sometimes worries me. I worry that people might get into one set of stories, and not like the others. Or, in a worst-case scanario, they read something in one genre and don't like it, and they avoid all my other stuff, assuming it's all the same. And really, how do I help try to distinguish "No, this is Urban Fantasy, with erotica elements, while the main series is dark fanstasy with strong horror and mild UF elements." Oh sure, that's as clear as mud.

But, I am having fun writing this stuff, because it's a great way to keep everything from getting too forumlaic. Just as folks are getting used to a pattern in a trilogy, I'm going to "flip the script" and try something new.

This is of course assuming that I ever get more than twenty readers. =^P

Okay, I'm babbling, and I need to get to sleep.

Later...

I'm now down to the last chapter in the second revision of A Perfectly Empty Vessel, and there's been a lot added on this draft. Everyone in the story has had their subplots fleshed out, and the events leading up to the big gunfight at the end are now more detailed. Most of the research I did has been incorporated into the story, and I think it may require adding in a few more scenes in the third draft to help seal the deal, so to speak.

I have one chapter and the epilogue to finish, and then I'll probably set it aside for a while again. Then, after this, I think I'll try to get back to writing Changeling. I think I might have a way to carry out this story to a conclusion, at which point, I have to get started on something new.

And here, I'm stuck. Do I pick up one of the stories already in progress, or do I back up to update more on what the bit characters are up to? Or, do I set the whole series off to the side and write a standalone story to cleanse my palate? All are valid options that I can easily get excited about, and that's the problem, with all three being good choices, I'm unable to make a choice. And because I can't, neither can the muse. Eh, we'll see what happens when I get closer to the point of clearing out my current workload.

Later...

Chapter 14 of Blood Relations is another short post, so I will try to have another chapter up on the 7th.

This week I got an email from the webmaster of a site called Sad Quotes, and he was politely requesting a link exchange. In keeping with my consistent policy to be the lousiest marketer ever, I don't use link exchanges on my site. But instead of just saying so, I decided to check out the site.

The basic premise is, it's an index of sad or dark quotes, and by reading these dark thoughts, you often find some very deep and meaningful statements about life and the human condition So in this way, the aim of these sad quote isn't to depress people, but to inspire them.

I really like this concept, and so I thought I'd post up a link for Sad Quotes, and give them some free advertising. So, if you have a few minutes to spare, give them a shot.

And, for those of you who do exchange links, the webmaster is looking for people to exchange this link, plus another link for his other free site.

Chapter 12 of Blood Relations is late due to me having to take a day off to assemble my new desk with hubby. It's very nice, and combined with my new chair, I think I'm going to enjoy working in my new creative space for the next few years.

Getting back to the story, we've got the boring sex stuff finished, so now it's time to introduce Dimitri. Readers of Erick's Journey will know him already, and this chapter will probably make a lot more sense if you have. If not, some of this story will be a mystery for two chapters.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a paying job sitting in my e-mail inbox, so I need to get cracking on that.

Sometimes, when I find a place in the rough draft that I don't like, I've taken to saying, "Rough draft is rough." I'm amazed at the stupidity of my stress reduction techniques, but if it works, I won't complain...much. ^_^

I had to stop where I'm at in chapter nine, since my brain is mush. This time, it's that ebil cat's fault. I had to put up with a lot of "heat" meowing this morning, so I was functioning on less sleep than I would have preferred. But I got one and a half chapters revised, and I shuffled around the order of the scenes. I'm calling that a victory, and as such, a good day. Fuck the cat. =^P

I MIGHT have an editing job coming up this week. This is likely to be a mid-sized job, something to pay around 250 Euros. That's not enough to get my editor back on the clock yet, but it is a good start, and I already have a bill in for a much smaller job that should be paid around the same time next month. And those two together should be enough to pay her.

I'm not writing anything new for Changeling yet. I have a solid opening, but the muse is still trying to insist on shooting too big with this first effort. I try to focus the plan back on the main scam, and the muse keeps trying to go with a big twist. Someone (me, probably) forgot to give her the memo that big twists went out of fashion a few years ago. -.-

I'm sure I'll get there. It's too good of an introduction not to keep it going. But it will have to come later, when I'm thinking clearly. Right now. I'm thinking...fuzzy. Z_Z

Later...

Chapter 11 of Blood Relations has been posted. It is another short chapter. As I mentioned is a post a few months back, part of my general plan for the web fiction is to get the posts down to an avaerage of 4-7 pages per post, with less chapters clocking in at 9-10 pages.

But, is it improving my writing? I'm not sure. My traffic is up, but there's still not that many comments from anyone yet. *Shrug* Well, anyway, there is steady traffic, and all of the free e-books are being downloaded at a steady rate. So maybe if I just keep going, someone will publicly admit that I'm their guilty pleasure. ^_^ (Either that, or someone will beg me to stop. -.- )

I'm recovered from brain drain, and I had a somewhat productive day working on the second draft revisions for A Perfectly Empty Vessel. It's occurred to me that I need to add an extra day of time near the end of the story. This is to allow for several events to shape up with more detail, and there's some things that I want to do before the big fight, which will require at least that one full day.

For one thing, I'd feel more comfortable with the final gunfight if Wendy had spent at least a few hours at a range practicing with her new weapon. As I am big on reality, the one point that still stands out for me in the rough draft is how Wendy is comfortable with the shotgun she's using in spite of the fact that she hasn't had any practice.

In a lot of cases, Wendy has gotten around this before by being a "special case." She was trained to fire handguns and revolvers, and she HAD a near photgraphic memory. But her memory is shit, for reasons that I can't explain, and the new shotgun is a weapon that she has no background or proficiency with. So I'd like to see her take a belt of homemade shells out to a range to blast some paper targets before she gets to live targets.

I also need the extra day because Davis had dropped off a set of inorganic samples with a lab technician, and in the rough draft, there is no concluding scene to explain what the samples were. I supposed I could wait until the next book to uncover this, but I think it makes more sense to handle it earlier. Besides, this also gives me more of a chance to develop the budding friendship between Davis and lab technician Kira Nakamura.

There's some other character development issues to sort out, and there's an accuracy problem involving one of the daemon scenes near the end. But anywho, it is a rough draft, and after I'm done with the second draft, it can go back on the burner to cool while I look for test readers.

What I'll be looking for is whether or not this story stands on its own, and whether new readers just coming in feel lost or bored. Both of these are bad, m'kay?

And that's my main focus right now. I'm going to take tomorrow off from writing this to edit another chapter of Blood Relations, and to devote a bit more time to the beta reading project I've agreed to do. So far, I've not regretted offering to help, so you know it has to be a good story. ^_^

And with that update out of the way, I'm off to bed.

Later...

But I didn't really plan on getting anything done. I still managed to edit about four pages from a novella, and I hung out on a forum most of the day, talking shotguns with some guys who really know their gun-fu. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't making the story unrealistic by arming Wendy with a Mossberg shotgun in the next book.

But in explaining how she intends to use it, I found that the Mossberg 500 Bantam may be the best bet after all. Anything low bore is going to break her arm. The Bantam is a gun made for so she's going with a 20 gauge model, with a sling strap and a Knoxx SpecOps Folder stock handgrip. Hehe, oh yeah, the next rounds of stories are going to have a few hints of gun porn. ^_^ As I said on the forum, i might write at the amateur level, but that's no reason not to do basic research.

Of course, I still have for the brain drain to wear off to do any writing to enter this information into the second draft revisions of A Perfectly Empty Vessel. And before I can get to that, I still have to finish writing Changeling. And if this post seems to make me seem not so scatter-brained, I should mention that it took my four hours to write this. 0.o

The thing is, normally I get REALLY bitchy and cranky when I get brain drain. But this time, I'm just mildly cranky. Okay, I can't write, right now. But it's just fatigue, and not a lack of idea that's keeping me away from the blank page. Well...except for here...and the forums...and my other blog.

Okay, I think I'm heading to bed. I'm just babbling now. ^_^

So yeah, brain drain hit. It's to be expected. I've finished a lot of major projects, and I've sent off my biggest novel to a publisher. Tonight they've sent back an acknowledgment of receiving it, and they didn't balk at the higher word count. So the only thing that can go wrong now is that the novel isn't right for them.

I'm not writing at this point, and I'm doing very little reading. In fact, hubby turned on the TV, and I got pissy because I don't have the attention span to watch the TV. As you can guess, this means that I either have to sum stuff up, or my attention wanders.

So...oh, brain drain almost made me forget. The first review of Redemption Lost is up over at MonsterLibrarian, courtesy of the lovely Angry Princess. (I've seen her pics now, and I can speak with authority. ^_^ ) It's a good review, but a lean one due to it being 100% spoiler free. Still, I am very happy because all three of my books made through one reviewer with mostly high marks...had some dings on the second book, but they were all fair cops. Writers often don't say this enough, but I want to take a second to say thanks here to the Angry Princess. Sure, she'll probably never see this post, but it's the spirit of the thought. =^P (I'll thank her properly on face book too, where she will be far more likely to see it.)

Okay, I'm giving up and going to bed. Maybe tomorrow the brain fog will lift. -_-

Chapter 8 of Blood Relations is another short chapter about bloody vampire sex, this time in 1938.

Okay, with the link posted, I now want to pitch a premise to you. If you take the time to read through this, just reply with pass or fail, though you can add extra comments, if you like.

(Not if You Were) The Last Straight Man in Galveston

The year is 2025. Both the polar ice caps have melted, and the added water has caused an unprecedented tectonic plate movement. Most of humanity perished in a great flood, while many people survive on small islands. One of the few large land masses left with a high population is Oregon. Miraculously, the whole state was pushed above the water line, and no one died in the resulting earthquakes.
The problem is, due to Oregon passing gay marriage laws, everyone in the state turned gay. So the men won’t touch the women, and aside from a few “breeder sissies” who used fertility clinics to have children, the population is starting to stagnate.
Lawmakers in the state use the few surviving satellites to broadcast a message to all of the United Islands that Oregon will take in men or women as breeders, provided that they can be bisexual.
Eighteen-year-old Carlos Sanchez is the youngest surviving male on Galveston Island, the only land left of the once land-proud Texas. Desperate to get laid, Carlos decides to fake being bisexual to get into Oregon, where he meets the perfect woman. Greta Parks is smart, beautiful, stylish, and charming. But Greta is happily homosexual, and while she will have sex to procreate, she makes every “mating session” feel awkward.
Carlos meets another “bisexual,” Joe Colburn, who is being hounded by the Homo Police for not having a boyfriend. Joe and Carlos decide to buddy up in an apartment together and act as a couple, even faking sex by groaning in their room at night in case the neighbors are secretly working form the HP.
Their comfortable relationship is ruined with the arrival of Lucy Von SexKitten, a Las Vegas porn star, and a true bisexual. But Lucy is hiding a big secret too. She’s sterile, and the HP would consider her a “gender outlaw” and deport her if they found out that she's only in Oregon to get laid. Carlos falls in love with Lucy. Then Joe falls in love with Lucy. A manly battle ensues...too manly, and the HP are soon suspicious that both men are really straights after all.
To make matters worse, Greta finally gets pregnant, and now she’s having straight romantic feelings for Carlos.
In the end, will Carlos choose Greta, or keep fighting for Lucy’s attention? Or will the HP get wise to the scam and deport all three of the gender outlaws?

___

So, would it fly? Or would you turn your nose up at it? I'm just floating the idea, so there's nothing beyond this loose outline right now. But I wonder if maybe it's too goofy for a Bizarro sci-fi story.

Chapter 7 of Blood Relations has been posted. In this chapter, Charles and Lucas take collections from their pets and discuss Amber's secret power. This is a short chapter, so there will be another update on the 14th.

Later...

Chapter 5 of Blood Relations.

Chapter 4 is online. It's a shorter chapter, so the next part will go up in two days instead of three.

Chapter 3 of Blood Relations has been uploaded. I'll be posting the next chapters more frequently now that the holidays are over. And right now I'm working on several different projects. So I'm not really doing much to "blurb" the individual chapters. I'm kind of rushing on the update because I want to get back to work on my other projects, so I hope no one minds.

Later...