Update Link: These Small Hours – Chapter 1

Hey! I’m going to have to move Flash Fiction to Sunday or maybe skip it all together. Back in May, I got the opportunity to participate in feedback sessions with the company that develops my French program at school. At first it was just about their digital tools, but the presenter liked me so much that she’s inviting me back to another round of feedback about lesson plan creation. I get paid $25 for each session, so it’s totally worth it to have input on the development of future content in my subject 🙂

Anyway, it’s scheduled for today at 11, and I really didn’t have any choice because I am back to work on Monday, 8-3 all next week (save Friday).

SO! Just in case I don’t make it back on Sunday, I am posting the first chapter of These Small Hours! This is from Book 1, out on September 17. If you’ve read any of the story in the bonus chapters I’ve posted previous, I rewrote the entire first half of the book. (My original Chapters 1-16 became Chapters 1-32, lol). This was a last-minute decision, so I didn’t get a chance to finish the subsite.

Please let me know what you think, and I’ll see you as soon as possible, either Sunday or Monday.

Update Link: Warning Shots – Part 33

Happy Wednesday! I mentioned on Monday this was my last true week of summer vacation because I return to the building on Monday. That means the start times for Flash are going to change and we’re back to scheduling around the Phillies. Next week they’re all night games at 6:40 so it’s probably going to pop back to 5PM writing and 6PM posting. Stay tuned for that — I’ll know better when my schedule comes out for professional development at some point this week (one would hope).

See you Friday!

Update Link: Warning Shots

Well, it’s my last week of summer vacation. Next Monday, teachers report for 4 half days of prepping our rooms, meetings, and professional development sessions. The students are back two weeks from tomorrow.  I’m prepped almost all my content for the first month, and there’s just some things I have to do to get individual classes ready, but I feel good about getting back into it — except for the 6 am wake up. Boooo, lol.

A note on Flash fiction for this week and next. Warning Shots is edging close to wrapping up, so I’m going to put Chain Reaction on hold for the moment. Once I get back to work, I’ll be reassessing my Flash updates (we’ll probably go to 1 a week and increase as we move through the year) so I don’t want to be juggling two stories. I think I should be able to wrap up Warning Shots at the end of next week, if not a little bit earlier so we’ll see how that works out.

See you Wednesday.

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!