Update Link: Fool Me Twice, Book 2: Ashes to Ashes – Teaser

Hello! I’m so excited to finally share with you some sneak peeks from Fool Me Twice, Book 2 and announce the official release date! Chapters will be posted on Monday and Friday beginning on March 4 (the day Steve returns!). I’ll be posting 2 chapters a week for a few weeks until the story picks up steam, and then the updates will vary a little bit. 1 chapter on Monday, then 2 on Friday, or 2 on Monday, then 1 on Friday. I wanted to break the updates at good cliffhangers 🙂

Enjoy the sneak peek at upcoming scenes! I’m so excited that we finally get to return to this! I hope you’re as excited as I am!

See you on Wednesday for Flash Fiction!

Catch up with Book 1 now!

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Update Link: Hits Different – Part 22

Production Schedule | Posting Schedule

February feels like it’s taking FOREVER. And there’s still another week! Like WHAT.

Lots of things happening behind the scenes here at CG. March is going to be an insanely productive month, half of which you guys don’t even know about yet, but you will as soon as I can manage it. I took the results of the survey and developed a posting schedule for Fool Me Twice, Book 2 that will take us from March 11 through June 12. I’m hopeful that These Small Hours will be ready by mid July.

We’ll be wrapping up Hits Different  in the first week of May. For classified reasons, I don’t anticipate any double updates for the next two months, other than MAYBE during spring break in April.

I’m SO excited for the week of March 4! Steve’s first week back and a lot of great #Liason stuff happening. Make sure you’re following that hashtag and our special anniversary tag, #25YearsOfLiason. We’ll be welcoming Steve back, Liason style 😛

See you next week!

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Update Link: Hits Different – Part 21

Hope everyone is having a good week! Sorry this is late. I’m tutoring my nephew in math, and we had to review his study guide tonight. Do you know they call it “decomposing” fractions now which messed me up, lol. I feel like we just used words like simplify and reduce, but that’s why I don’t teach this for a living.

I caught a minor cold — mostly a sore throat and stuffy head. I took off today, hoping it would help. Last thing I needed was to spend six hours on my feet, speaking. I just have to get through tomorrow and Friday is a half day (and our music day so it’s really laid back).

I wrote a lot over the weekend, but slowed down this week — not surprising since I got a little sick. I usually get sick this time of year, so hoping it’s just something minor. I’m still able to get through FMT, and I’m about halfway through the draft. Tentative release date is March 11, I’ll have more details on the schedule in another week or two.

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Update Link: Hits Different – Part 20

In Case You Missed It
Fool Me Twice – Release Survey
Digital Shop: Fool Me Twice, Book 2 Beta Draft ($5)

Hello! Halfway through the week and it’s going, uh, okay. Not really sleeping well, so by the time I get home, I’m dragging a little, so I haven’t worked as much on These Small Hours as I’d like, but I’m not so worried about it. I’ve got time. I did however finally finish breaking down Hits Different by scene and tentatively set a finishing date around the first week of May. It might go faster as sometimes I throw an update up on the weekend, and it also might not since I may add scenes here and there depending, but all things considered, we’re definitely looking at May as an end date.

I put up a poll on Patreon to choose the next flash fiction series, mostly because I don’t have one that’s remotely ready so I need some time to brainstorm, and I’ve got a busy spring planned 🙂

Don’t forget to vote in the release survey for FMT. So far all the answers are pretty even, lol, so I need some tiebreakers!

See you next week! Or this weekend, who knows?

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UPDATE LINKS
Fool Me Twice – Release Survey
Digital Shop: Fool Me Twice, Book 2 Beta Draft ($5)
Alphabetical Master List, Alternate History, and Recent Updates
One Single Glimpse

Hello! Another surprise post from me, and I’m so excited to tell you that I finished the beta draft of Fool Me Twice, Book 2: Ashes to Ashes last night!

I wasn’t planning to finish this weekend — I had about sixish chapters left for Act 2, and then I figured another week to complete the 8 chapters in Act 3. But I was watching a marathon stream from my favorite streamer yesterday, and it was really great background noise. Plus, the back half of the story just needed a lot less work. So I zoomed through and finished!

Thank you so much for your patience on Book 2. It’s been three years since I published Book 1 and I never planned for there to be THREE years between the releases. Books 3-6 will come out much more regularly. Book 1 was written as I started my last teaching job, and you guys know that district was…well, I’m in a new and better job now and it’s shows by how much writing I’ve been able to do this year as opposed to the last three fall semesters.

What’s next?

I sent the draft off to my beta reader, and I’m going to keep to the final deadline I gave her to be fair — which was Feb 29. I never thought I’d get through Act 2 and Act 3 so fast.  While that’s happening, I’ll be doing my own read through, checking one last time for typos and consistencies. I don’t expect there’s a lot in this draft since I’ve read this so many times.

I’m releasing a survey to determine the best update schedule for this draft so that I can post chapters at a time when the majority of my readers are available to read. Please answer the questions 🙂

Book 2 will be published starting sometime in March. I’m hoping for the week of March 11, but it might be the week after. I’m so excited for you guys to get to read this. I’ll be editing book 3 this summer and releasing it next fall.

I’ve posted the beta draft for my Patreons. It’s available for free for Crimson Devoted tiers and above ($5) and can be purchased for that price from the digital shop.

Housekeeping Notes

I updated the Alphabetical Master List for the first time since 2020 with all the updates since then. There’s 137 stories listed! I also found a short story I wrote in 2021 that I never linked anywhere, so it dropped off the radar after I posted. One Single Glimpse — a short story about Elizabeth being a frontline worker during Covid. I added it to the Alphabetical List and Alternate History page. I also updated the Recent Updates page with the last few Flash Fiction Updates.

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Update Link: Hits Different – Part 19
Vote: Choose Next Flash Fiction Series to Edit

Hey, surprise! I had a choice tonight between working on These Small Hours or, uh, this. And I chose this for two reasons. One, I figure no one would argue with me, and two, more importantly, the ending of the last part wasn’t the plan, lol, and I have a picture in my head of what happens next, and I’m sort afraid I’ll lose it if I wait until Wednesday. Like I said, I doubt anyone is going to be disappointed you’ll get this instead of a chapter no one is going to read for six more months.

I’m making great progress on FMT 2. I’ll be wrapping up Act 2 tomorrow, and then it’s just eight more chapters between me and completing the beta draft! The first Act needed the most work, but the rest of the book has gone really solidly. I put in a lot of work last summer, and it’s paying off now when I need it most. If I can finish it during the upcoming week, I think I can start thinking seriously about a release date which makes me REALLY happy. I haven’t released a brand-new novel since last year’s Counting Stars. Signs of Life was an edited flash fiction.

SPEAKING OF WHICH–

I’m picking my next flash fiction series to edit, and my Patreon community has narrowed it down to Desperate Measures or Collect Your Regrets. Vote for your favorite choice!

I’ll be busy in 2024 editing — FMT 2 Jan-March, Hours April-June, FMT3 July-September, so I’m picking a project to work on next fall. It’s kind of fun to have so much nearly ready to release. It’ll be a busy year.

As we get closer to FMT’s completion, I’m gonna post a survey asking for some input on what kind of update schedule works best.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter at @crimsonglass or sign up for our update posts!

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Update Link: Hits Different – Part 18
Vote: Choose Next Flash Fiction Series to Edit

Hope everyone is having a good week! It’s been a busy one for me. After eighteen months of foot pain, I finally made time to get to a specialist, and of course — putting it off just made it worse. I have tendonitis in the Achilles tendon, so I have to make some physical therapy appointments, use a night splint, etc. and hope I can avoid surgery. On the bright side, I get a doctor’s note to wear sneakers the rest of the year, so…yay?

I’ve made a lot of progress on both Fool Me Twice, Book 2 and These Small Hours. I’ve edited Chapters 39-59 of Book 2, and I have about 18 chapters left, so just a little over halfway. I’m moving pretty quickly through it because this half of the book was edited in the summer already, I’m just reworking a few pieces and editing. I expect my posting draft to go pretty fast all things considered.  I’ve begun working on These Small Hours again — I’ve written 2 new chapters and plan to finish it next month or early March.

Last, I’m choosing my next flash fiction to edit. My Patreons narrowed the choices down to Collect Your Regrets and Desperate Measures. Vote above!

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Update: Hits Different – Part 17

I don’t know why, but it feels like it’s been a lifetime since I updated this story. Anyway, happy Thursday. Hope everyone’s week is going well. If you missed it, I posted a preview of Chapters 1-3 of These Small Hours last night to make up for postponing this. You can check that out on Patreon, in my Free Digital Shop where I’m storing all snippets and previews.

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Free Digital Shop: Excerpts & Previews – These Small Hours, Chapters 1-3

Happy Wednesday! Flash Fiction is postponed tonight — I had an unexpected busy afternoon. I stopped by my dealership because my lease was up, and, well, three hours later, I walked out with a new car. Paperwork took forever, and by the time I got home, I was exhausted. So we’re postponing the update until tomorrow 🙂

But I didn’t want to leave you hanging, so I uploaded a PDF of These Small Hours, Chapters 1-3. Patreon readers already read Chapters 1-2 when we did the poll over the summer, so I wanted to make sure I uploaded enough that everyone got something new. Let me know what you think so far!

A few writing updates –

• Fool Me Twice Book 2 is coming along nicely. I finished up Act 1 which was 14 chapters, and about 34% of the story. Before I dig into Act 2’s 17 chapters, I need to reset that act, track some story details, figure out new material to add, etc. But I’m happy with the edits so far. I’ve really struggled with the Sam storyline mostly because I don’t like her, lol, and the show didn’t give her a lot of POV (they never really do and KM doesn’t really have the type of acting style that lets me headcanon much), so I’ve ping ponged all over the place. But this edit is definitely the right one.
• These Small Hours — I reworked the back half of the story and started Chapter 22 this week. I took a break to work on the Mad World holiday story, but I should be working on that draft more this month and next.

See you tomorrow! And let me know what you think of the Hours update!

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Update Link: Hits Different – Part 16

It has been a very strange week, lol. We’ve had two delayed openings in a row (Tues & Wed), and there’s a chance for more snowy weather on Friday. Still holding out for an actual snow day, lol, where I can just sit inside and enjoy looking at snow instead of hustling my ass to clean off my car and dig out to go to work.

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm 🙂

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