Update Link: Mad World, Chapter 77

Forgot to post this morning! Chapter 77 went live at 7 AM.

Update Link: Signs of Life – Part 30

Recent Updates: Mad World, Chapter 76 | Karma, Parts 1-4

News

• Mad World, Book 4 kicked off. Thanks for the great initial reviews. You guys know I’ve put my heart and soul into this final installment, so I cannot wait for you to see what I have planned.
• Karma was completely posted here at CG.
• It’s April and Camp NaNoWriMo! I’m usually a bust at the April entry, but so far it’s been going great. I’ve completed three chapters and around 17k.
• Getting back into the swing of things for April after a really rough March. Appreciate your patience as things were a bit all over the place.

Patreon

• Posted Early Access, Mad World Chapter 77 for Love and above Tiers.
• Posted Crimson Discovery #14 for Obsessed and above tiers.
• Posted Counting Stars, Chs 1-3 for Stalker tier.

Update Link: Mad World – Liberty, Chapter 76

It feels almost surreal to be posting this update. I am beyond ridiculously excited to finally kick off Book 4. It’s about six months later than I wanted it to be, but it’s okay.  We made it.  New chapters will be posted every Wednesday at 7 AM. I really hope you enjoy it!

Book 4 is named Liberty, and here is the synopsis:

Set in February 2004. The city of Port Charles weathered many scandals and tragedies in 2003 — from the nearly tragic kidnapping of Carly Corinthos and attempted murder of Elizabeth Webber to the serial rapist that stalked the city for months, leaving victims broken and shattered in his wake. The PCPD, having sworn to protect the city, faltered when they learned one of their own was the villain all along.

A few months later, the city tries to recover but they should be careful what they wish for. Ric Lansing still haunts the dreams and memories of the people he damaged — has he really left Port Charles behind for good?

Dante Falconieri breaks under the weight of family secrets and his own weaknesses. Kelsey Joyce wants to find out who murdered her father—no matter what the cost. Carly Corinthos just wants to move on with her life and keep her family safe. And Elizabeth Morgan wants to forget that Ric Lansing ever existed as she awaits the birth of her son.

It’s time close the book on this mad, mad, mad world.

Update Link: Karma | Karma – Part 4

Just a note that Karma has been completely posted. I hope you guys enjoy it! I’ll see you guys on Monday for the first chapter of Mad World, Book 4. (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S ALMOST HERE?????)

 

Update Links: Signs of Life – Part 29 | Karma Story Page | Karma 3

News

• Mad World is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, April 6. Chapter 76 will be posted around 7 AM. Updates will be every Wednesday until June, at least.
• Karma is now being posted at CG. This was a Liason Haven exclusive for the last three months. Parts 1-3 have been posted. The conclusion will be up tomorrow around 7 AM.
• I started writing Counting Stars, and crossed the 5k mark last night. April’s work is for Camp NaNoWriMo.
• There was a weird code issue that was messing with the way the stories on Alternate History and other pages were listed. I’ve mostly fixed it, but I need to go through the site and do any other clean ups

Patreon Updates

• Crimson Check #14, the weekly newsletter for all Patreons has been posted.
• Crimson Discovery #10, the deep dive for Obsessed & Stalker was posted.
• Mad World, Book 4 – Love Access post. This is the early access post for chapters that will be up that week. Of course for now, the updates are just one chapter but they should increase by June.

Update Link: Karma Story Page | Karma – Part 2

Sorry for the quick update yesterday! I legit forgot that I was supposed to start posting this yesterday, lol. April completely snuck up on me. I hope you guys are having a great week!  I went through and updated the character images on the Karma story page so that they’re more appropriate to the time period, December 1997 (outside of Elizabeth, whose image, I think is from sometime in 1998/99). That’s probably not a detail that would bother anyone else but me, lol, so there you go.

I also went back and embedded the song for Part One. The soundtrack for all four parts is all Gabbie Hanna, one of my absolutely favorite artists, and I must have played these four songs a thousand time while writing this last fall, so I definitely recommend checking her out.

In other news, I finally completed the reread of the beta draft for Mad World. This took me five weeks because I went incredibly slowly and started editing while I was doing the reread. There are a few storylines and beats I decided to reorganize and that’s what has slowed down an edit that I had hoped to be done already and why the release schedule went from daily Monday-Friday to weekly, starting next Wednesday. I promise you, I think this is worth the wait.

Yesterday was April 1, which means we’re kicking off my third attempt at Camp NaNoWriMo in April. This year, we’re tackling Counting Stars, a project I attempted back in 2018 but abandoned because the plotting wasn’t quite right. I definitely think the approach I took this time around solved most of the issues I had with that first attempt, so I’m looking forward to it. I started that last night, and we’re about 2800 words into the draft.

See you tomorrow for Flash Fiction!

 

Update Link: Karma – Part 1

If you weren’t able to read this at the Liason Haven or you want to read it again, I’ll be posting it through Monday, one part a day. I’ll see you on Sunday for Flash Fiction!

TL;DR Summary

• Mad World Release schedule is being adjusted one more time. I had planned to release one chapter a week starting Wednesday, April 6, and continuing one a week until May when I would increase to M-F.
• We’re going to maintain that one chapter a week on Wednesday through May, and possibly into June.
• Flash Fiction is going to stay on Sundays, but I’m not promising it every week. I’ll either post at the normal time around 11 AM EST or I won’t.
• I’m releasing Karma, the novella I wrote for Liason Haven next weekend.
• All Patreon perks will be released on Sundays instead of Saturdays. I had a few things I was posting on Saturdays, but it just isn’t working.

If you’re interested in learning more about any of these things, you can click the Read More link. Otherwise, subscribe to the mailing list and get emailed when I release new material.

Continue reading →

Update Link: Signs of Life – Part 28

News & Roundup

• Official Mad World Release Schedule
  • Chapter 076 released Wednesday, April 6, and then every Wednesday until the end of April.
  • Starting Monday, May 3, chapters will be posted daily Monday – Friday until mid June.
• Counting Stars
  • Writing for Camp NaNoWriMo in April. Should finish the first draft somewhere in late May, early June.
  • Editing this summer.
  • Release in the fall.
• Fool Me Twice, Books 2 & 3
  • Drafting this summer, editing next fall, release next winter in about a year with a similar M-F schedule.
• Flash Fiction
  • Signs of Life should be posted until mid June, then a break.
  • Scars returns in July with more frequent updates (unsure, but definitely 3x a time to get it completed)
  • Planning to go on Flash Fiction hiatus in August.

Patreon Updates

• Crimson Check #13 posted for all patreons.
• Mad World – Final Edit
  • Weekly updates posted for Stalker tier started & Chapters 76-79 posted.
  • Monthly updates will be posted for Adored tier on March 31.
  • Full draft will be posted for the Devoted tier when it’s completed, sometime in April.
  • Weekly updates will begin for Love tier on April 2. They will get Sunday updates of anything that’s being posted that week.

Happy Sunday!

Dropping in to say that Daylight Savings messed with my sleep schedule and by the time I woke up, it threw off my whole day. So no Flash Fiction today, we’ll be back next week!

I’m making a slight adjustment to Mad World’s release plans. I’m still going to start posting in April but rather than beginning daily Monday-Friday posting, it’ll be a bit slower — one chapter a week until May when I’ll increase to five chapters a week.

I was proofing my second draft  and came to small storyline arc that just felt a bit superficial, and I realized that some of the characters involved had been huge beats going back to Book 1. It just didn’t feel like a satisfactory ending. I started to reorganize it, and along with some other changes as well as some real life complications, I just got about a week, maybe two behind my schedule. When we get to that point in the story as I post it, I’ll be more specific 😛

This is sort of similar to what happened with Fool Me Twice last year, except that was made a lot worse by the anxiety issues I was having and my general level of burnout and stress in real life and with writing. The entire editing process of that book got derailed and messed up because I felt such a deep pressure to maintain a posting deadline I had promised, and now I have some regrets on how I handled a few things in Book 1. Nothing major, just a general level of wishing I had made more time and given myself more space.

I’ve worked on Mad World off and on since 2014, and mostly on since 2017. The serial rapist storyline had been in my head since 2004. As we head into the final book in this series after nearly a decade, I just want to do right by myself and the universe, as well as the readers who’ve stuck by me this long.

Chapters 76-79, the first four chapters, are relatively solid. They need the last bit of polish, but other than that, they’ll be good to go. That’s why I feel really good about slowly building up  the posting schedule.  I’ll have an actual schedule ready in a few days.

I really appreciate your patience and understanding 🙂