Update: Invisible Strings – Part 19

Today was the first day of the break I felt like doing anything other than vegging out 😛 I prepped some school work, finished a chapter of Fool Me Twice, did my laundry, and washed my hair — all before noon. Woot! Then I have to get an x-ray and clean the kitchen. Glad I have one more day of break that doesn’t have so much scheduled.

See you tomorrow!

Update Link: Invisible Strings – Part 18

Happy Easter! Hope everyone has a great holiday. A little bit sad here — I’ve only got two days left of spring break, which seems insane, lol. There’s talk of adjusting the schedule to match the surrounding areas. We’re a K-8 district, and our sister high school district (where most of our kiddos matriculate after they leave us) has a full week, so it’s hard for parents to handle childcare and vacations. Let’s cross our fingers because your girl really needs more than a long weekend. I feel like I spend most of these breaks resting and recharging and there’s not really a chance to enjoy myself.

Anyway, hope the day is good for you 🙂 Going to kick back and watch my Phillies sweep the Reds (rough start to the season but we’re back on track), then head to dinner with sister and family. Love you all!

No Flash Fiction today, but I did promise daily updates (I just woke up feeling a bit off, so I’m resting my brain). Last week, Susan told me that the ebook for Mad World, Book 1 had a chapter issue (Chapter 10 had been pasted in twice, one in place of Chapter 6). When I went to update that, I realized, I never formatted the second half of Book 4. So I spent about an hour doing that today.

All four books are available now as ebooks in the following formats: .epub, .pdf, and .mobi. Let me know if there’s a format you need for your reading device! I fixed my ebook compiling issues in Scrivener, so I’m going be looking at getting my older stuff updated into ebooks.

Download Links

• Mad World – Book 1
• Mad World – Book 2
• Mad World – Book 3
• Mad World – Book 4
• Complete Series

Update: Invisible Strings – Part 17

Happy Friday 🙂 Today is the first day of spring break for me (well, more like spring pause since I’m only off today, Monday, and Tuesday) so I’m going to do my best to update Flash Fiction once a day which should finish off this story (four more parts & an epilogue).

Looking forward to getting some much needed rest, catching up on some tasks around the house and, of course, writing.  See you tomorrow!

Update Link: Invisible Strings – Part 16

Hope everyone had a great weekend 🙂 I’m looking forward to this week — we have our last big break of the year, starting Friday. I wish our breaks were a full week like literally everyone else in the district, but I’ll take anything at this point. We’re only off Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, but it’s better than nothing.

I’m finally hitting the good stride in FMT where I can write an entire chapter in one sitting — takes about three hours, but I can finish it. The big problem is, of course, finding those three hours during the week. Really hoping that the kids stop mentally torturing me so I don’t feel like disassociating as soon as I get home, LOL.

Oh, I was just informed that Mad World Book 1’s ebook is missing  chapters. I’m going to put that on the list of things to fix and take care of that.

See you guys next weeked 🙂

Update Link: Invisible Strings – Part 15

Somehow we made it to April, though I definitely feel like March was a slog to get through. I did a lot of writing and prep work, but not a lot of it was ready for you guys to read, so I’m so glad I get to be back to posting here regularly. Thanks so much, as always, for the patience and support. I’m so glad you guys enjoyed the bonus reads I gave you with Kismet and Smoke & Mirrors. I love both those projects, and it’s great to see you guys will love them too when they’re finally ready.

April 1 is the anniversary of the show itself, so while we might want to slap it silly sometimes, it’s still a huge and important part of our lives — especially mine. It’s honestly incredible to me that more than 20 years after I wrote my first Lucky & Elizabeth fanfiction in 1998, I’m still here writing for Elizabeth and this show. Thanks for reading and making my hobby less creepy 😛

April 1 also kicks off Camp NaNoWriMo! So I’ll be hunkering down and focusing on Fool Me Twice — I’ve written some really good Liason material for it so far, so it’s been a lot of fun. The kids have been, uh, a lot this week. But I was also stressed with some other things at work and not sleeping well, so I’m doing more writing on the weekends. Spring Break starts Friday, so happy to spend more time then.

See you guys tomorrow for another Flash Fiction  update! Tomorrow, the update should be in the morning or afternoon. Right now, the weekend schedule is based around when the Phillies, play, lol. See you then 😛

Update Link: Smoke & Mirrors   | Collect Your Regrets

Hello! This is my last pop-in before regular updates resume next weekend. Starting April 1, Flash Fiction returns! I’m excited to get that back into the schedule.  I’ve been working on hard on Fool Me Twice, Book 2 and the final draft of Signs of Life. I ended up deciding to add a bunch of material to Signs, so I’m putting off posting it until I’m done. I’ll bring it back shortly with more regular updates. I wrote a chapter of FMT this morning, and as soon as I finish this update, I’m off to write another one. I definitely feel like I’m starting to hit the groove there, and hope to finish Act 1 in the next week, possibly two.

This week’s bonus is the last draft of Smoke & Mirrors I worked on in November 2021 for NaNoWrimo. I’ve been working on this AU premise for YEARS at this point — I can remember going to my practicum in the fall of 2017 and making notes, but I still haven’t quite nailed the world building and characters. I think this version is the closest, and there’s a lot that I like here, but I’m still unhappy with Anna’s character. I think it’s too far out of actual character for her, and you know that kind of thing bothers me, lol. But I want the trio of Robin, Elizabeth, and Nadine as cousins, so  don’t have any easy to fix this. I have some thoughts, but it’s huge obstacle at the moment, so please don’t hesitate to let me know.

I’m so glad so many of you liked Kismet! I was so happy with how it was turning until I hit a storyline snag with Jason and the organization. I don’t know the 90s stuff as well as the 00s, so it’s been harder to write. I’m planning to do a rewatch of the summer of 97 to do some research so I can fix that and get back to it.

The other file, Collect Your Regrets, was a quick compile of my Scrivener folders for my trio of Flash Fiction series where I rewrote three Liz stories: the maternity lie, Jake’s return, and Tom Baker. I was asked by a mutual on Twitter for a PDF copy so she could read on vacation, so I figured I’d post the link for everyone. It’s SUPER messy without any real chapter breaks, but if you want it in one space, enjoy.

See you guys next week for Flash Fiction!

Update Link: Kismet, Prologue – Chapter 4

I need someone to slap my immune system, so it wakes up. I got sick AGAIN this week, but thankfully, it was just a head cold that cleared out after a few days. Still, the irritation of it all.

Anyway! I’m still writing, still making progress, but I haven’t had a chance to edit chapters of Signs of Life — I figured I should concentrate on Fool Me Twice, which is what I did. But I hate not having anything for you guys to check out, so I dug out Kismet, the NaNoWriMo project from last fall. I think my opening chapters are some of my best work, and I’m looking forward to digging back into this at some point this summer.

This is the Prologue and Chapters 1-4. I wrote two and a half more chapters, but most of the changes I need to make are in those chapters, so I figure this will hold you over 😛 It’s around 54 pages. I left it in PDF form because I want to go write FMT.

Some notes about Kismet — It begins with a prologue on the day of Sonny & Brenda’s wedding, and it uses actual dialogue from the Jason/Sonny scene with some tweaks, and refers to a scene that happened the night before. Jason’s story is mostly the same, but Liz has a new background (still a Hardy/Webber but aging her up means some new aspects to her backstory). I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

Update Link: Signs of Life – Chapter 8

Hello! I didn’t mean for my posting hiatus to take quite so long. Thank you for the patience and we’re back to updating Signs of Life more regularly. Since March 1, I’ve been back to working on Fool Me Twice and doing writing sprints during the week live on the Crimson Glass YouTube channel in the evenings. Flash Fiction will be back on April 1:) See you guys in a few days with more Signs of Life and news.

Hey, just checking in with an update on my status. I got really sick this week — even sicker than when I had Covid. I ended up with a version of a strep throat that doesn’t show up on rapid tests, so they missed it at first. By the time I had a diagnosis, the infection had caused literally the worst fever of my life. I spiked to 103.9 and it wouldn’t come down for a while. I was literally miserable from Tuesday night until maybe two hours ago (Saturday around 6 PM). The worst of the fever broke yesterday, but the throat pain has been literally unbearable.

I’m completely behind on literally every piece of my life. Thanks to the plumbing back up last week and getting sick, it’s been three weeks since I did laundry, I’m completely backed up on house chores, on work–it’s a huge mess, and I’m hoping I can start to pick at it this week. I’m on a four day break (so I still have off Monday) so that’ll help as long as I feel okay tomorrow and get some sleep tonight (which I haven’t managed more than an hour or so at a time in four days).

I honestly need to get all of that sorted and get things back under control before I can think about writing. The first two months of 2023 have not gotten off to a great start – I’ve spent a lot of time sick, which is really frustrating.

So I’m on a teeny hiatus from things for a bit. Definitely the rest of February.

While you’re waiting for me to come back, don’t forget the huge backlog of novels! I’m gonna link a few of my favorites in case you want reread or check them out for the first time.

1. The Best Thing – Choosing this one first because I finished it six years ago this month, and it’s my favorite Sonny story.
   1. Set in Winter 2004. Sam died giving birth to her daughter and left custody to Jason, whom everyone believes is the father. He and Elizabeth reconnect over the next year as he struggles to keep his promise to Sam while balancing his loyalties to Sonny and Carly. Even as they fall in love, a dangerous power struggle is building that threatens every one in its path.
2. Bittersweet – Has some of my favorite Liason scenes I’ve written 🙂
   1. Set in April 2002. After walking out on a disastrous wedding and unhappy relationship, Elizabeth Webber promised herself a fresh start. She moved into Bobbie’s Brownstone with Gia Campbell as an unlikely ally, and befriended AJ Quartermaine’s new wife and Sonny Corinthos’ long-lost sister, Courtney Matthews. When Carly Corinthos goes missing after a car accident at Vista Point, Jason Morgan is forced to return to Port Charles, testing Elizabeth’s resolve to put all her bad decisions behind her. AJ begins to plan for a custody battle for Michael Benson which pits brother against brother, and putting Elizabeth right in the middle.
3. Mad World – an obvious choice. the most ambitious thing I’ve ever written
   1. Set in Summer 2003. One night in June, Ric kidnaps Carly and locks her in a panic room, drugging Elizabeth to cover his tracks. Before long, Port Charles is embroiled in scandal, corruption, and trauma that hits home for everyone. It will be a long time before anyone forgets Ric Lansing’s reign of terror or the evil simmering beneath the surface of the city. An ensemble series that basically rewrites the entire show from from 2003-04 with nearly every character showing up at some point or another.