Update Link: Chain Reaction – Part 34 

Update Link: Chain Reaction – Part 33

Happy Monday 🙂 I have only two weeks of summer vacation left, which is a little said. August 26, I return for a week of PD and teacher prep and the kids are back September 3. I got my preliminary class schedule, and it’s actually worse than my old middle school schedule. I’m teaching five classes in a row from 8AM to 11:40PM, and then I have two periods off (lunch & prep) until around 1PM, when I have two more classes. In the old school, I had a 3omin duty in that 11-1PM  time slot, so I can’t decide what’s worse — an extra class or cafeteria duty. We’ll see, lol.

In case you missed it, These Small Hours got a release date! Well, release dates, lol. I’m already working on the posting draft for Book 1, and I’ve finished marking up Chapters 1-7, so those edits are coming along nicely.  Check out Saturday’s post for more information.

See you on Wednesday!

Happy Saturday! I’ve got some great news about These Small Hours, and it’s probably not a surprise if you know me at all, lol. I split this post into three parts so you can concentrate on what you want to know.

• Behind The Scenes
• Release Dates & Book Information
• Early Access & Patreon Schedule

Behind The Scenes

After finishing the first draft in April, I’ve been working on the second draft all summer. It’s been slow, mostly due to outside influences, but it’s been good. The story is so much better than it was, and much deeper than I had envisioned. It’s one of the frustrating, yet amazing parts of writing soap opera fanfiction is the way stories can spiral if you set up the umbrella event and let it ripple out fully.

Because I chose Kate’s shooting as my inciting incident, I ended up with much more story than I had planned. It was initially designed as Jason/Elizabeth & Johnny/Nadine vehicle, but I’ve had a lot of fun deepening Patrick & Robin, Jax & Carly, and even adding in more Sonny & Kate. Audrey, Bobbie, Spinelli, Lucky, Maxie, and as well as the Zaccharas are also featured. Like always, I ended up sort of rewriting the show.

The size of the story has ballooned as a result — from 29 chapters in development to 42 in the first draft to 72 in the final plan! That’s insane, lol, and far too much to write and edit at once. So, unsurprisingly, I am splitting this story into a trilogy (you guys should have taken bets as SOON as I said this was a tightly focused story because I am incapable of such things.  The really amazing thing is once I split the story into those separate pieces, I found that I really did have three separate narratives already in place!

Release Dates & Book Information

Only Book 1 has a preview at this point since, well, spoilers 😛

These Small Hours: Book 1 releases Tuesday, 17 September.
Set September 2008. In the days and weeks following the shocking shooting of Kate Howard as she walked down the aisle, Port Charles is engulfed in chaos. No one knows who committed the crime, but the Zacchara family are at the top of everyone’s list. Johnny’s trying to stay off everyone’s radar, more worried about Lulu’s mental health than his own safety, but that might not be possible with Sonny on the warpath. It falls on Jason’s shoulders to keep the peace, but tragedy strikes again and Jason’s faced with another devastating loss. How much more will he be able to stand?  Chapters 1-32

These Small Hours: Book 2 releases Tuesday, 5 November.
Set October 2008. Chapters 33-56. 

These Small Hours: Book 3 releases Tuesday, 24 December.
Set November 2008. Chapters 56-72.

Early Access & Patreon Schedule

My Patreon is an easy way to support me and help defray the costs of my hosting, any writing & design software, and keep me from taking an extra job in the summer, so I have more time to write!

• Digital Shop
  • Alpha Draft: This ended up being the alpha draft for all three books. It’s available now in the shop.
  • Beta Draft, Book 1:  Aug 13 for $5 (the price of the Devoted tier). 349 pages, 132 pages. This covers material from Chapters 1-22 of the alpha draft. 
  • Posting Draft, Book 1: Sep 10 for $5 (Devoted tier). Length unknown.
• Stalker Tier: Available now.
• Obsessed Tier: Available now.
• Devoted Tier: Aug 11
• Fan Tier: Sep 16

Update link: Warning Shots – Part 31

Hope you guys enjoyed that cliffhanger on Wednesday! For both Chain Reaction and Warning Shots, I’m pretty much pantsing it, plotting as I go, so the last three or four endings of both stories have been completely a surprise to me as well as to you guys. Just hope I can keep it up.  I did sit down about an hour ago to work out today’s update and it’s pretty ambitious, so just hoping I can pull it off for a REALLY good Friday ending 😛

I’m also relieved to report that this is the last late start for the Phillies for the entire season. They play at 8 and 4 this weekend, which is muuuuch better than 9:40 and 10:10 (stupid time zones) so I can go to sleep like a normal person and wake up on time.

See you on Monday 🙂

Update Link: Warning Shots – Part 30

I hate these west coast trips — and for some God awful reasons, the Dodgers start a half hour later than the Mariners, so it’s a 10:10 start Monday – Wednesday — and I’m afraid to go to sleep when they have the lead because MAYBE I can keep them from losing. (I know, I know.) We’re back at 9:40 tomorrow and that’s slightly better for my sleep schedule.

I finally reached the halfway point for These Small Hours, yay! This means Act 1 and Act 2, Part 1 are FINALLY done! These needed the most reworking story wise — I basically rewrote the entire main conflict and that took a lot of work. It’s still rewriting the Russians/fake drugs storyline but I changed my mind on how to write it during the first draft. In the second half of the book, there are a few pieces that I’m rewriting, but for the most part, I can keep what I have so yay! The first half of the edit took three months, which I wasn’t expecting, lol, so let me get into the second part before I start really setting deadlines and dates.

I’ll see you on Friday!

Update Link: Warning Shots – Part 29 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I just finished watching the last of the Artistic Gymnastics finals, and I’m a little sad, lol. I follow a lot of the sports, but gymnastics is always my favorite. I also just had to wrestle my poor cat into letting me put drops in her ears because in addition to everything, lol, this girl picked up an infection there, too. You’d think she’d run away and let me write in peace, but as I type these words, she’s slowly walking forward, one step at a time until she lays down in the space between me and the keyboard — and if I try to limit the space by pulling the keyboard closer, she just lays directly on it, basically this YouTube short in real life.

I’ve made some good progress on These Small Hours this weekend, finishing up another four chapters. The Phillies are playing really late all week (10:10 for three straight night kill me now) but it gives me more time to work since I have to stay up.

See you on Wednesday!

Update Link: Chain Reaction – Part 31

Happy Friday! I’ve embarked on a three-week regimen of tackling my poor cat and giving her meds for an ear infection and some other health issues. For a 15.5 year old cat, she’s a champion wiggler.

This is the last day of Chain Reaction — next week, I’ll be back with Warning Shots. I’m making really great progress in These Small Hours. Over the last four days, I’ve edited 7 chapters, and I’m hoping to get to the halfway point sometime this weekend.

Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Update Link: Chain Reaction – Part 31

Hope everyone’s week is going well 🙂 My day is a little busy once I finish this up. The Phillies play early, and I have another vet appointment for my cat at 3. The Olympics have been really fun to follow, so that’s been getting a lot of my attention.

I’ll see you guys on Friday!

Update Link: Chain Reaction – Part 30

We’re back, and in our old summer time slot! I’m writing at 11 and posting at 12, because it helps me remember to actually leave my office and stop working, lol.

I’m really glad I took off last week from scheduled writing. I finished summer school on Wednesday, and then spent the last four days relaxing, sleeping in, watching the Olympics, and playing the Sims 4. (The new expansion dropped on Thursday, and I am OBSESSED). I also got caught up on the last few assignments for my online class. All that’s left for that class is the unit plan, which is basically done, and the paper due in two weeks. I’ve even just about finished the content and materials for my first two weeks of classes! The goal for the rest of August is to finish the first units for both classes which would be AMAZING.

I did, however, do some really important writing work. I finally sat down and finished figuring out the changes for the second half of These Small Hours. The book is going to be about 70 chapters long with an epilogue, with 20 chapters edited. Starting today, I’m planning to work on editing at least 2 hours a day until I return to work on August 26. I don’t know yet how much will get done, but I feel fantastic about this second draft, and I hope you will too when you get to read it 🙂

Thanks for your patience as I navigated this summer and the changing demands on my schedule. It was so worth it to teach summer school and write curriculum — the extra financial resources are going to make so much about this upcoming year even better!

See you on Wednesday!

Hello 🙂

I’m going to be taking this week off from updating Flash Fiction. I haven’t really slowed down since school let out on June 13. As you know, I went straight into writing curriculum, completing 52 hours between June 14-June 30 in addition to prepping, then teaching summer school. I’m also finishing up an online class I need for my French teaching certification.

I was doing okay, but I really just hit a wall last week and struggled to get anything written or edited. I couldn’t even focus on my coursework. I really need to let my brain rest. Summer school ends this week (on Wednesday!) and the final three days are already prepped and scheduled. This is the last week for coursework for that class, and my final projects are about 2/3 finished (and I have until August 11 for the piece that’s the furthest away).

I’ll return for the final month of my summer break (Jul 29 – August 25) with regular Mon/Wed/Fri updates for both flash fictions. Chain Reaction during the weeks of Jul 29 & 12, and Warning Shots the week of August 5 & 19.

In other writing news, I’m planning to split These Small Hours into two releases. Not two books, lol, but two releases. It’s a super long book (we’re looking at around 60 chapters). Part 1 will be Chapters 1-32, and Part 2 will be Chapters 33 – Epilogue. Right now, I’m planning to spend this week finishing up the long overdue process of mapping out the second half of the edits and figuring out how many chapters I need.

I’m hoping to have Part 1 ready for release by mid-September, then Part 2 in mid-October. I’ll know more about those dates when I come back next week.

While you’re waiting for me to return, make sure you’ve checked out the Recent Updates page which has everything I’ve completed in 2024 (and it’s a lot!). Catch up with Chain Reaction and Warning Shots or check out my Crimson Swift collection. I’ve released folklore as well as two singles from evermore (“no body, no crime“) and Red (“The Last Time“). Oh! And I published an entire novel: Fool Me Twice, Book 2.

If you’re looking for something new to read, check out my rewrite of 2002, Bittersweet, or rewrite of 2006, For the Broken Girl. There’s plenty to tide you over until next Monday.