Update Link: Scars – Part 12

Happy Friday! I’m pretty excited to be bringing back Scars, which was last updated in November. I had hoped to have it back much sooner, but we’re here and ready to go! The story has been plotted out and will be updated twice a week until it completes in early September. I’ll be back with Part 13 on Sunday.

If you’re having trouble keeping up with the daily updates (totally understood), don’t worry 🙂 The updates will slow down in September when I return to week and return to a permanent Friday-Monday updates until August. Any non Flash Fiction updates will be made on Mondays all at once, and I’m going to do a much better job of keeping the Recent Updates page up to date.

Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to make it easier for you to find stories if you’re catching up later 🙂

I’ve finished plotting our Monday Flash Fiction, Invisible Strings. It will be 22 parts and will go on hiatus after August so I can finish Scars and The Last Time, then it returns in November to run alongside Watch Me Burn. Watch Me Burn is the only story that doesn’t have a plot sketch, so I don’t know how long it will be. I’m going to do a few parts to see how it feels, then have it figured out by the end of the summer. So glad you liked the relaunch of that yesterday!

And, saving the best news for last, Counting Stars is completed! The Alpha Draft clocked in at 27 chapters and 96k words. It’s really different than I’ve written — a narrow focus on the romance and characters, with a straightforward main plot. Looking forward to what the Patreons think so I can make adjustments for the second draft.

Patreon Updates

• Added Counting Stars, full Alpha Draft, for Crimson Obsessed tiers. The weekly post for Crimson Stalker was also updated with Chapters 21-27.

I’ll be editing Counting Stars in September and October, and posting will begin on Monday, November 7, 2000.

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Update Links: Mad World, Book 4 – Chapter 103 | Watch Me Burn – Part 1

Today, I’m starting the rewrite of Watch Me Burn. I appreciate your patience and willingness to go along with my insanity. I promise you, it will be worth the wait. The Flash Fictions are meant to be my version of an Alpha Draft, but writing and posting as we go to get your feedback, so I can adjust for the revisions. I was really happy with how Signs of Life came out, and I think Watch Me Burn could be on the same level if I take my time and do it properly.

In other news –

• Recent Updates is actually up-to-date. I had two months of updates to add. I’m going to try to do better at updating it at least once a week.
• Counting Stars, the alpha draft, is almost done! This afternoon, I’m going to write the last two chapters. I’ll be posting that in November & December.
• Mad World is scheduled to conclude on August 25, when I post Chapter 115 & Epilogue. It seems weird to be finally at the end of the journey, but I’m excited to close this chapter and work on the next project.

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Update Link: The Last Time – Scenes 1-4

I hope everyone is having a good week! I feel like this summer is basically me just going back 15 years and finally writing stuff from 2007. I’ve never really dipped my toe in this era of Liason because I wanted to slap Elizabeth around most of the year. It took me a long time before I felt like I could get a handle on her voice and POV.

The Last Time was the second-place runner up in the Patreon poll which rewrites the paternity reveal. It’ll pick up kind of halfway through the elevator scene (literally after the marriage proposal). It’s a unique Flash Fiction in that I’ve designed it in the style of my stories like Karma, If Don’t Try With You, Shadows, etc with song lyrics and numbered scenes. There are 56 scenes. (Listen). The plan is to hit the timer and write as many scenes as possible in 60 minutes, then post what I finish.  When we’re all done writing 56 scenes, I’ll clean up and repost. Hopefully that makes sense.

I usually manage 4 scenes in 60 minutes, but it depends on how long the scenes are. Tentatively, I’ve scheduled this to conclude September 11, but it might be sooner. Might be later. But definitely around that point.

Tomorrow, we relaunch Watch Me Burn! (and another chapter of Mad World!)

And on Thursday or Friday, expect a video and post for Site & Story Status – Summer 2022.

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Update Link: Mad World, Book 4 – Chapter 102

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Update Link: Invisible Strings – Part 6

Hope everyone had a good weekend! I finished Act 2 of Counting Stars, so only seven more chapters to go! I also set the release date — November 7. I’ll be releasing four chapters all at once for seven weeks. I think that works better than the way I’ve been posting Mad World — you can check out all the chapters for that week at once and read at your own leisure.

I finished the Jul-Dec 2022 posting schedule. I’ll be updating the Production Schedule page soon, but you can check out the update here.

See you tomorrow for Mad World!

Patreon Updates 

• Added Counting Stars, Alpha Draft Chapters 13-20 for Stalker
• Added Crimson Discovery #22
• Added Crimson Check #26
• Added Mad World, Early Access Chapters for Love (Chapters 102-104)

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Update Link: Mad World, Book 4 – Chapter 101

I sat down to figure out the schedule for Flash Fiction for the rest of the summer, including plotting out the rest of Scars, which I hadn’t done since it was on hiatus.  With two updates a week, Scars will complete in early September. I’m working on actual calendar for you guys to look at with the schedule as we move out of the summer and into the fall.

ETA:  Jul – Sep 2022 Calendar

Counting Stars is going great. The chapters are shorter than my norm, at least in the alpha draft, so it’s been easier to write two chapters a day. I’ve completed 17 and have 10 more to go. When it’s done, it’ll be the size of a typical romance novel, which makes sense since it’s a straightforward romance. We haven’t had one of those in…I don’t think I’ve ever done a project where the entire conflict is the Liason romance, so that will be really fun. I have 9 days left to write 10 chapters, so finishing on schedule by July 31 looks great.

The last bit for this week is that with the new recording setup organized, I’m going to do weekly research streams. This is basically me throwing up clip compilations to watch to get the idea of a story and ideas for characters and what not. This week, I’m doing a deep dive for Kismet (set in 1997), so I’m watching Jason Morgan from fall of 1997. Next week, we’re jumping forward to These Small Hours, so it’s Liason in summer and fall 2008. If you’re a Patreon subscriber at the Obsessed and above level, you know I’ve been working on deep dive discovery for several projects to have a range of options ready.

We’re going to be going live at 6 PM EST tonight, but the stream will stay public if you want to check it out later.

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Update Links: Signs of Life – Epilogue | Not Knowing When – Part 6

It feels so bittersweet (ha) to be finishing up Signs of Life. I added it to an already overloaded writing schedule in September 2020 because I wanted to do something to mark the 18th anniversary of the site. It’s taken me two years and a few breaks to bring it to completion. I’m so proud of this story — it’s definitely my best flash fiction — and I’ve been overwhelmed by the support you guys have given this one. If you’re one of my wonderful readers who aren’t into replying, please give me a thumbs up if you’re happy with how the story ended. The little icons are at the end of the chapter.

It’s also the last day for (re)posting Not Knowing When. I hope you’ve enjoyed revisiting this flash fiction. I’ll be cleaning up Signs of Life and getting it ready to repost and distribute to the other archives.

And in the last bit of news, we’re juggling the flash fiction schedule a bit. For the #Becky25 project,  I was organizing clips from Jake’s kidnapping and got sucked into the summer of 2007 with my clips which is something I should have done before writing Watch Me Burn. I think this was probably the wrong story to put into a slot where I only write 20-40 minutes — it should definitely be a 60 minute story. It wasn’t until I wrote yesterday’s Jason/Elizabeth scene (Part 5) that I think I really found the voice for Elizabeth and the path I want to take for Liason. Plus, I have some of my timeline wrong for the summer. So the first few parts honestly don’t work for me. I hurried some scenes, and it’s going to drive me insane, which usually ends in tears for me, lol.

So, starting next week — here’s the schedule:

• Monday – Invisible Strings 
• Tuesday – Scars (returns!) Skipping this week, though because I have an interview for a history job (yay), but after this week
• Wednesday – Right Where You Left Me – rewrite of Metro court hostage crisis, picking up from the elevator. Part of the original Patreon vote and nearly won until Watch Me Burn slid in from behind.
• Thursday – If it’s ready, Watch Me Burn (relaunched and rewritten)
• Friday – Scars (returns!)
• Sunday – Watch Me Burn

Mad World continuing to be posted on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

When Scars ends, Watch Me Burn will slide into that slot. I’ll be updating on Tuesdays starting August, and Scars will be updated twice a week. I’d like to finish that before I go back to school.  Right now, I think I’ll be bringing back Flash Fiction Weekend — one story updated on Fridays & Sundays, and a second one on Saturdays. The new story is already planned down to the ending beats. Watch Me Burn is more like Scars and Signs of Life — I don’t know how long until we get into the story and develop the situations.

I hope that makes sense to everyone. Apologies for the switch up, but it’s an important part of my process to do what feels right in the long run, and I think this is the best decision. I’m making up for it by adding more updates.

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Update Links

Flash Fiction: Watch Me Burn – Part 5

Mad World: Chapter 100

Not Knowing When: Part 5

I know it’s been a busy posting week here at CG, and thanks for your patience! Let me know if you guys enjoy these double/triple postings or if you’d rather I posted Not Knowing When all at once. With Signs of Life coming to an end tomorrow (sniff), I’m already working on editing and revising it to distribute on Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own. I can split it in parts there and toss it up whole here.

See you tomorrow!

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Update Link: Not Knowing When, Part 4

Hey! I had an MRA this morning on my head. I don’t know if anyone has ever had one of these (or an MRI which I’m told is similar) but I basically spent 15 minutes in a white tube that felt like an isolation tank from Stranger Things. I made the mistake of scheduling it at 7:40 thinking it would be good to get it out of the way, but now I’m tired and worn out and a little off. So I’m moving Flash Fiction to tomorrow.  I still have to get an MRA of my neck and MRI of my spine (yay…) so I’ll know better to schedule them later in the afternoon. I think there’s just something about starting my day off with it that messes me up.

In the meantime, enjoy the next part of Not Knowing When, and I’ll link all the recent updates again.

• Mad World: Chapter 99
• Not Knowing When: Part 2 | Part 3
• Invisible Strings: Part 5

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Today’s Update Links & Round-Up

• Mad World: Chapter 99 (NEW)
• Not Knowing When: Part 2 (Yesterday) | Part 3 (NEW)
• Invisible Strings: Part 5 (New)

Yesterday was such an annoying day, honestly. Back and neck flared up, so I woke up late, and then I got stuck on hold with my doctor’s office and insurance companies — ugh. By 3 PM, I had just about given up on it being a writing day. Then, I did some videos for Patreon, and got my energy back (adding videos has REALLY helped creatively), and I ended up writing a chapter of Counting Stars, so I stayed on track which is great news.  Most of the videos are for the Discovery blog, but I’ve been putting up Random Writing Chats for all tiers.

This Saturday and next, I’ll be doing some research streams for future projects. I’ve put together 1997 clips for Kismet and 2008 for These Small Hours.  Subscribe to the YouTube channel if you want to hang out and watch some classic GH.

See you tomorrow!

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