Update Link: Foolish Games – Part 1

Happy Tuesday! Yes — that is a new story. Let me explain –

Short Explanation: Need to sketch out the next section of You’re Not Sorry because I’m winging it, and didn’t want to miss a day or several. Not Sorry will return either on Thursday or next Monday. If I’m not ready to start writing again on Thursday, I don’t want to write the new story for three days, switch to Not Sorry for 1 day and come back to the new story since it’s the new weekend story.

Longer Explanation

You’re Not Sorry has ended up being a deeply complex story with several strands and subplots that I didn’t plan for and I’ve been winging the last few parts, which I don’t like. (For example: the entire teen storyline has been a massive addition and was not planned in the slightest. I don’t mind the detour because it’s given me more motivations for Kristina, but it has been a detour, and I haven’t been able to sit down and plan the rest of the story.)

I’m taking a little time (1-3 days) to take a moment, and finish sketching out the story — without complicating life more. To avoid messing up my marathon, I’m going to start the story I had planned next. It will be your Flash update for today and maybe for a few days, and then we’ll make it the weekend Flash story until You’re Not Sorry is done.

Origins of New Story

As for this story, Foolish Games, it’s set in late 1997/early 1998. I’ve been mildly obsessed with this era for some time. I got inspired by a gif someone posted back in 2018 about the 20th anniversary, about Liz being at the shooting at Luke’s the night Jason saved Nikolas’s life, and I got struck with — what if she was a nurse and in Jason’s age range? Since Becky Herbst is actually older than Liz, it doesn’t feel weird to go back and age her to be about 22 since she was 21 at that point.

That particular plot bunny morphed into a story Kismet, that I wrote a little bit for an old Flash Fiction (Part 1 | Part 2) and was the November 2022 NaNoWriMo project. I started to write it according to my plot sketch — and then detoured into a mob storyline I hadn’t planned and that would either make Kismet super long — or I needed to rethink what that story was about. I recently decided that I was more interested in telling the story I’d started and not the one I’d planned. Kismet began as the “What if Elizabeth was part of the Michael story, not Robin?” and it’s become “What if Jason didn’t get involved with Michael’s paternity at all?” At least that’s the new plan.

If you’re interested in Kismet, it’s the $5 reward over on Patreon, and for Dec/Jan, I’ll be doing 25-minute writing sessions on Sundays to get it moving and then decide which story is going to be the weekend Flash Fiction series on Patreon (where I write first drafts of novels in flash fiction sessions). Right now, the choice is between Kismet and For the Broken Girl, Book 2 (the $10 Obsessed tier reward).

(I’ve also written another 1997/98 story: Karma).

A New Direction

Since I decided to remove the Michael element of Kismet, I had two choices: let the storyline I’d planned fade into the ether or….spin it off into its own story, and that’s what we’re doing here. Foolish Games begins after Michael’s death and the lie has begun, with Elizabeth as the NICU nurse and Carly who has already taken off.

I hope you guys are okay with the mild detour while I get Not Sorry in order 🙂 It might serve as a break to those of you not particularly invested in current day GH, to back to a simpler time. Writing about 1997 feels like historical fiction at this point, lol. No smart phones, wheeeee!

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Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 59

Happy December!

I posted the December Patreon Perks this morning, and thought I’d summarize the tiers because every tier is getting new content this month 🙂

• Free: Crimson Swift Song Videos. 3-5 minute descriptions of the songs and my ideas for writing. Starts Dec 4.
• Fan ($1): The first 11 chapters of Malice, a first draft flash fiction I worked on last year. Will be posted Dec 3.
• Devoted ($5): First 6 chapters of Kismet posted Dec 2. 25 minute writing sessions on Sundays in Dec/Jan.
• Obsessed ($10): For the Broken Girl, Saturday Flash 25 minute writing sessions. Starting Sat, Dec 6.
• Stalker ($15): Out of the Woods, daily 25 minute writing sessions. Started today!

See you tomorrow! Should be earlier, I hope.

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Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 58

Happy Sunday! Going into the last afternoon of the break before three full straight weeks of classes. We’re in school until December 23, but that last day is a half day when the majority of the day is the teachers vs. students in our annual volleyball tournament, so it’s not even that bad. I’m looking forward to this December — I managed to finagle the content schedules so that French II & IIII are watching media from December 5-December 19 — and only French I is still finishing up a unit that second week. It’s going to be a much more laid back month than normal.

The Praxis went okay yesterday — I feel better about the writing than I did the last time, and slightly better about the speaking. These are my weakest areas because I still rely on doing a lot of preparation and the spontaneous creation of the language is more challenging when you can use notes or resources. I scored like 4/18 on both those sections last time, but this time I made the word count on the writing without issues, and while I don’t know if the writing was as complex as they wanted, I was able to get my point across a lot more confidently. The speaking section, I also got 4/18 last time and I *think* I did better on the first two tasks than last time.

That being said, I’m still expecting to miss the 162 score by a few points. You only get 20 seconds to read the questions on the listening section, and I missed answering 2-3 questions because I was rereading the choices and lost track of the timer which I don’t remember doing the last time. Still — progress. And I can get away with failing it again because the state just needs to see that I’m trying to finish the certification because French teachers are like unicorns. We don’t really exist, lol.

ANYWAY.

December starts tomorrow, and it’s going to be great to be able to come home and not feel like I have to do a ton of work at night! I have so many plans for this month, writing wise. Let’s hope I can make it work. So far, I’ve nailed every day of Flash, even when I was tired. I’m trying to rebuild my writing stamina so I can write 1-2 hours every day 🙂

See you tomorrow! It’s a grocery run day, so I’ll be updating closer to 6 or 7.

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Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 57

I can’t believe I had to pay almost $180 for the privilege of taking an annoying three hour French test. Leaving in a few hours for the torture, and hoping that I pass this time so I can move on to the LAST step I need for my certification — the OPI interview which is going to be the worst experience ever. I love teaching French, but the certification process is a nightmare.

ANYWAY.

I can’t believe we’re at Part 57 — that’s insane, lol.

I did finally get a really good idea for the next flash fiction series — it’s related to another story I’ve been developing for a long time, but I couldn’t quite work this idea in without making the story three times as long (lol, shocking right?) so I decided to spin it off and make it its own thing. I want to sit with it a little while before I’m completely sold on it or share some info with you.

See you guys tomorrow! I’ll probably be posting around 2!

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Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 55

Every time I make the smallest attempt to stay up a bit late and then sleep past 8, Lizzie the Terror reminds me that I have mouths to feed no later than 8 AM. Literally slaps at my face with her paws until I give up and feed her. I respect the commitment, honestly.

Tomorrow’s update will definitely be early! I have to take my French Praxis again at 2PM, so I’ll be leaving my house around 1. I’m not looking forward to it, though I honestly might accidentally pass it since it’s been about two years since I took it last and I’ve been doing a lot more advanced French prep since I’m teaching higher levels. Man I wish I’d just taken it back when I graduated. I was so much more fluent in the advanced stuff back then, but oh well 😛 I was 12 points short of passing last time, so you never know. But it’s a 3 hour test, so I won’t be home until almost 6 and I will likely just stare at the wall afterwards. It’s excruciating and I hate it so much.

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Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 55

Hope everyone had a great holiday! I devoured Stranger Things last night — it was sooo good! And it was really great to just shut down social media, put away the phone, turn off the lights, grab some wine, and just enjoy one of my all-time favorite TV shows.

I should be updating mid-day tomorrow, but we’ll see.

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ETA: Happy Thanksgiving!!! I’m moving today’s update to later this afternoon. I’ll probably write at 7 or 8 and post at 8 or 9. I stayed up to watch Stranger Things, and listen LISTEN I was too pumped to go to sleep until like almost 2, and then overslept. 

See you tonight 🙂

Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 54

Early update because I AM FREEEEEE (until monday). Admin let us out at noon today because again, I work for one of the districts in the area. Came right home and decide to get the update out of the way so I can prep for Stranger Things. I can’t believe it’s on tonight, we’ve waited so long!

I’ll be posting early tomorrow, probably at 11 or noon because I’ll head to my sister’s early.

Hope you guys are enjoying our binge-a-thon!

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Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 53

Almost Thanksgiving break! And the worst part of my week is over! Tomorrow is a half day, I’m just tossing on Nailed It France! and letting the kids run wild while I catch up on some grading. And then wheeee four days off!

I’ll start tomorrow’s update between 1:30 and 2 — depending on what time I get out. We’re scheduled to be done at 12:25 but pep rally days tend to finish a bit early and my principal is literally a king among men — we got out at 12:05 last year for winter break.

I’ll update and then I’m heading downstairs to finish watching Season 4 of Stranger Things before Season 5 premieres at 8. If they kill Steve or Dustin in the first four episodes, don’t expect to hear from me for at least six months, I’ll be too devastated.

See you tomorrow!

OH and the style issues were fixed so that chapters look pretty again, whee!

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Update: You’re Not Sorry – Part 52

I stepped out of my classroom to do afternoon hall duty and immediately stepped in gum. Welcome to Mondays.

Tomorrow should be much earlier — I got caught in Thanksgiving grocery madness and didn’t get home until almost 4:30. Glad you guys are enjoying the marathon 🙂

I did a little investigating on the style issue, and it looks more irritating to fix than I was hoping, so I’ll tackle it tomorrow.

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Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 51

It feels very weird for it to be 12:30 and everything is already done for the upcoming work week (not my laundry, shhhhh).

I’m aware that there are weird style issues on the individual updates that look like this:

I think the plugin I use to make my chapters link into series changed the name of that element in the style sheet, so I have to play with it a little later. It’s on my list to investigate.

I’m doing a grocery store run tomorrow after work, so I should start writing around 5 and post at 6, or at 5:30, posting at 6:30. It just depends on how long it takes. See you then!

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