Update Link: Masquerade – Part 7

Happy Saturday! This is my favorite night of the year — the night I get the hour of sleep the universe stole back in the spring. I’m hoping it’s going to help me get my weekend sleep schedule back on track, and I’ll be back to waking up at 7 AM, not 8.

Busy week coming up! I have three days of work, Tuesday will be a professional development day and then I have a meeting that night. My grades are due on Wednesday, and then it’s a four day weekend (in which I have the electric & gas company to replace my meter) and work prep to be ready for the rest of the fall semester.

Oh, and NanoWriMo started?

I’m not doing the official site this year — they’re adopting AI as a legit form of writing and it boggles the mind (like can you imagine going into Chat GPT and telling it to write me a GH fanfic? How is THAT real writing???) so I’m not comfortable putting my work through their word verification anymore. I don’t want to be training AI with my content.

I’ll be doing livestream writing sprints every night between 7-9PM over on Patreon. They’ll be free for all members (including the free tier) so check that out if you’re interested.

Update Link: Chain Reaction – Part 40

It feels surreal to actually be posting this but Sam McCall is dead. Dead dead. Like DEAD DEAD DEAD. They literally had Alexis holding her dead body, Jason sitting at the corpse’s side. Like Emily dead back in the day.

*happy sigh*

PLUS Elizabeth got to be part of it. In the room, there when Jason learned the news, talked him through what happened, how to talk to the kids. Just so damn good. Steve was just amazing today. Really great acting choices. And Nancy Lee Grahn hit it out of the park. And no one does dead corpose like KM.

*cackles*

ANYWAY I’ll be back tomorrow with another update and more news. I’m running a bit late to set up Flash tonight 🙂

Update Link: Masquerade – Part 6

Welcome to a late-night flash fiction update (late for me!) I’ve been working all day on school related prep, determined to do absolutely everything before I walk in the doors on Monday so that maybe I can actually take my lunch and read a book. Groundbreaking, lol.

The plan right now is, I think, updating on Monday and Friday. I have plans the rest of the week 😛

Update Link: Chain Reaction – Part 39

Well, this week has been a mixed bag. We’re having a slight heat wave here in South Jersey (high 70s and low 80s in October is wild) but I already took out my AC so the nights have been muggy. I’ve been sleeping like absolute crap which is really frustrating. Weather’s getting slightly better before a warm day next week and then hopefully in November, it’ll finally be seasonally cold at night.

But I was able to get a lot of work done yesterday because the kids were testing and they didn’t put me on a duty roster, so I had the morning to work in my room. I got a lot done — and then today, I took a mental health day because I was starting to feel the edges of burnout. I worked pretty much until 3PM, then took a break. I feel a lot better and more organized. It’s just been a lot these first few weeks. I’ve never had two subjects to prep like this, both from scratch, and it’s really been a learning curve. Every time I think I’m okay, lol, something switches. But maybe this time it’ll be different ;P

In happier news, Elizabeth has been on so much lately! She was in more episodes in September than anyone else! I don’t remember the last time she was in the top 10, much less the number one spot. And we’re pretty sure we’ve seen Kelly’s last scenes as Sam as she was wheeled into surgery today. I can’t believe we’ve finally reached the end of that gravy train. I didn’t think she’d ever leave, but I’m looking forward to her death.

Right now, the plan is come back tomorrow around the same time and update Masquerade. See you (hopefully) then!

Update Link: Chain Reaction – Part 38

I was hoping just taking a break from writing this and going into a different genre would clear my head, and it did 🙂 I mostly have the ending visualized in my head, so I just have to sit down and plot how many parts I need to get there and resolve my loose ends.

I finally got around to updating my Recent Updates page by adding Masquerade. I’m gonna be REAL sad when I have to archive that page for 2024, because I wrote so much. It’s actually kind of stunning, lol, when I look back at it. I really think over the last two years, I’ve really taken the Flash Fiction category which really only began for fun and is now the big draw for new readers. It makes it a lot easier for me to take my time with the longer novels.

I haven’t forgotten my Taylor Swift project! I’ve been super busy at work — it’s a lot this year with two subjects to prep, but I’m working on it behind the scenes, I promise!

See you guys next week (probably Mon/Wed/Fri again, but don’t quote me :P)

Update Link: Masquerade – Part 5

Hope everyone’s having a good week! I really wanted to update last night, but I just got slightly off schedule when I got home from work, and then I was just too tired. The good news is I finished another chapter of Book 2 for These Small Hours, so that’s a good sign. And I didn’t do any work after I left school today except printing an assignment I need to make copies for. Yay for me, lol.

The plan for Friday is to update Chain Reaction because I know what the next part is going to be, but don’t be surprised if it ends up being Masquerade. I plan to sit down this weekend and finally tackle it now that I’ve had some space and the chance to reset, so if not Friday, definitely next week.

Update Link: Masquerade – Part 4

Finally made it to the three-day weekend! We had a half-day with the kids and then a two hour in-service. I’d rather have had the full day considering our instructional supervisors decided that the best thing for teachers to do at the end of a Friday is a scavenger hunt, sending us all over the school with clues to determine the next location. So much for an easy day, ugh. I’m so tired, lol.

Anyway — the Phillies got eliminated so I, uh, have a lot more free time on my hands now. I’m taking it a lot better than the rest of Phillies Twitter, lol. They wanna DFA the whole team (release them for the non-baseball readers). I also made some adjustments to my workload and I’m in a much better place than I described during the last update. I can’t wait to sleep in and relax a little this weekend, and actually do something fun. 

I should be able to update on Monday in the evening since I’m off, but I’ll update the sidebar with planned updates (and try to keep them a little better this time!)

ETA: I really wanted to come back tonight, but it’s just not in the cards. I definitely won’t be able to do it Tues/Wed unless my school closes, lol, I’ll see you Thursday!

Update Link: Masquerade – Part 3

I feel like the last month has been super frustrating in so many ways, and I am so irritated because I spent the entire summer trying to prep myself to make life easier for me. Ugh. Anyway, I’m gonna go into more detail below, so if you care, click the Read More link, but if you don’t, that’s fine, lol.  There’s nothing story-related other than an explanation for why some deadlines might not be met even though Flash Fiction gets posted.

I’m working very hard to make those These Small Hours Book 2 & 3 deadlines, and I have no reason right now to expect they won’t happen. Except the universe and I aren’t friends right now. If this was the price I had to pay for the Liason hug the other day and Sam’s imminent death–

Anyway. Right now, the plan is to do flash on Monday and maybe Thursday.  But I wanted to make up for not coming back on Friday (me and the printer had a fight, and then the Roku declared war, but I think I won.) See you tomorrow!

Continue reading →

Updated: Masquerade – Part 2

Hey! I’m glad you guys are willing to go on this journey with me 😛 I never write fantasy or paranormal, but I read a lot of it (when I can find time to read). This idea has been in the back of my mind since I moved the site over to the new domain back in 202o and contemplated rewriting Aurora Dawning (my one another fantasy story).  It’s just really good to break out of rewriting the show, which is pretty much all I’ve been doing for the last year or so. It’ll let my brain relax, and I’m sure I’ll be back to work on Chain Reaction soon enough.

A couple of questions popped up in some recent replies, so I wanted to address them there:

• For the Broken Girl, Book 2 – It’s plotted and broken down, it just keeps getting skipped. Fool Me Twice got expanded, and Hours was broken into a series, but I’m hoping to get to it after FMT3.
• Collecting Regrets Flash Fiction Trilogy — This was the Elizabeth story rewrites I did in 2020-22 (Darkest Before Dawn, Shot in the Dark, and Scars). Was there ever any more stories in the series? I did a short story set after the epilogue of Scars, thinking maybe I’d do more of it, but never got around to it. I need to link it somewhere on the site, but if you missed it: Maybe This Time

Had a really productive day at work, and caught up on a lot of paperwork, so feeling a lot better about taking more of my evenings to write again 🙂

See you on Friday!

Update Link: Masquerade – Part 1

Okay, so I can explain.

I’ve been dealing with a bit of block with Chain Reaction which is another reason that updates have slowed down and even when I have posted, we’re not really going anywhere. The story was in my head but when I tried to sketch it out, I just couldn’t quite make it work the way I wanted. So I’ve pushed updates and focused on These Small Hours (Book 2 is officially underway!) hoping it would shake me loose. But that means just not posting until I can get Chain Reaction working again, and pressure never helps. I’m hoping that if I start the next series that I had planned anyway which is wildly different than everything I’ve written for the last few years, it’ll trick my brain into relaxing and I’ll be able to figure out how to get where I want to go. So just a temporary hiatus.

The good news is that the postseason has started. The Phillies don’t play again until Saturday, and then they’re off on Monday, so I can guarantee Monday updates. And if they get out of the NLDS, there are built in off days the rest of the month. So right now, I’m tentatively committing to Monday & Wednesday updates. If I can get Chain Reaction moving, I’ll put in M/W/F updates and do what I did when I was juggling in Warning Shots. One week on, one week off.

I won’t know anything for sure until Wednesday/Thursday when they set the times for the NLDS series (Wild Card comes first!)

October is going to be a little funky, but sadly, the baseball season will be over, and we’ll settle into some routines 🙂

I hope you like this one. It’s been percolating in the back of my head for a while. See you Wednesday!