Tag: D.o.t.A

On Running Behind

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I’m a lazy, lazy bum. Or, at least, I feel like a lazy, lazy bum.

The advice all writers are given, especially going into indie publishing is, “Just keep writing.” That’s not just to mean that you write forever and a day, but that you write, publish a book, then write some more.

I haven’t really been doing that. I feel like during the summer, I’m not myself. At least, not my productive self. All I want to do is head out into the sun, or clean my apartment. Thanks to two cats fighting over territory, it seems there’s always hair and kibble everywhere.

I need to start another mass edit of Death Mask, which was supposed to launch August 9th. There’s still a chance that it will launch on time. It’s a very slight chance, but still a chance.

I have almost a week in August off and I plan to write Fragments. This is the much waited for second book for the Daughters of the Alphas series. I thought that Masked Intentions received mixed reviews at best, but I keep getting questions on when the next book will be coming out, so…

When people ask for something, give it to them, especially if it was already on your to-do list. Just jump that sucker up some. Unless you were having issues for another reason.

I’ve fixed everything up so that I can edit at work. I’m so flipping pleased with myself. New tablet. Old one… uh… yeah, I could use it for writing if I was super patient.  But I couldn’t use it to edit or access pretty well anything except Facebook… ish. That’s the problem with that kind of tablet. Without the ability to install new tech, the thing became obsolete. And I think its company realized its mistake because the new ones can be upgraded.

In the meantime, the old one will sit to the side and gather dust but it’s still useful if necessary. I can breathe again, I can do my things again. I can touch a button and see all the things. Darn it, when I come on the new tablet, it’s like viewing the sites from a laptop instead of getting a mobile version that makes me pick up and shake the tablet in frustration.

I feel like I’m ready to get back to work. Like, maybe, I was a little burnt out from so many words so quickly, so much work while working the full-time job. Now the only problem is all those nifty ideas that I’ve had over the past year, that I haven’t gotten around to? They’re all arguing over which gets to go first.

Have you ever seen the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns gets told that he has pretty well every illness possible? I feel like that almost. Except instead of diseases, it’s ideas and I’m the doctor and Mr. Burns is my muses humming and skipping away instead of listening to me and just fixing the problem.

I swear, if they toss me one more idea… I’ll… I’ll…

I have no idea what I can do to them that they wouldn’t enjoy. They were the ones giggling at the back of my mind as Mr. Wrightworth beat on someone ruthlessly.

Setting Goals

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

If you only ever do… well, whatever, you’ll never get anything done.

My projects stand as follows: 

At Death’s  Door – complete

Cheating Death -3/4 written and still going strong. I’m just taking today to write a blog post before updating that more.

Death Mask -in planning stages.

Contract Signed -written, not yet edited. I’ve decided to do the second trilogy the way I did the first. As a lump sum, basically. 

Contract Sealed -1/4 written. While I should be working on this project, it is a BDSM erotica involving two men. One of whom is a Sadist. I have no problem reading what I’ve got, it’s quite entertaining, but I am not in the mindset necessary to continue on at this moment.

Contract Delivered -sort of planning stages.

His Grace -I started this as a side project over the weekend just to do something not attached to anything else, but found myself working on it last night when I tried Contract Sealed. So I’ve added it to the table. 

Rebecca – working title only. I think I’ve labeled this Pieces or Fragmented in the back of books. I’m trying to find the time, especially since it seems Masked Intentions isn’t going over poorly.

“Isn’t going over poorly” is as egotistical as I can manage at the moment. 

I could also add Prototype and a new book or two to the Vampires books. As well as two or three to D.o.t.A. 

Basically, I have all the plans in the world, but it’s that beast I’m starting to loathe that’s getting in the way: the day job. 

Let me just be clear on that, I only hate it because it’s in the way. I never quite intended on fully quitting. I want to be able to work part time there and write the rest of the time. Without a part time job, I can’t see me continuing at this pace. Those hours at work, the writing goes on the back burner and boils down or rises up. Like a good stock, or a loaf of bread.

Except I burn myself a great deal less.

So at the advice of Christina Quinn, I’ve set myself a word goal. 3k words a day. On a story, not a blog post or social media. 

It’s really quite easy, a couple of hours for me. I’ve knocked off that many words in the morning before work when I’m really focused, or into it. I can do that on the commute to work, then add some more on the way home. 

A goal set, is typically a goal kept with me. Every day I will aim for 3k words and I will try not to beat myself up when I inevitably fail. 

At that rate, I could write a book in a month, two if I do 3k on commutes and at home. But for now, it’s just 3k total. 

I did that last night, then was going to try another 3k. Then I looked up and spotted the video game controller I purchased weeks ago with the intention of taking a break and playing a game. Instead of pushing forward, I opened the controller  (because it was still in the box) and played a video game. 

I have set a goal, and until I’ve adjusted to it, that’s as far as I’m going. 3k words a day, then work on other things. Marketing, editing, covers, playing video games, even cleaning my apartment. Something besides writing.

I can do this.

Just Keep Writing 

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Three weeks, I could not work. Which is now totalling about six weeks out of work. Driving me crazy, is what it is. 

Masked Intentions goes live in nine days and I don’t have the final draft up. Not because I have been lazy or because it needs more work, but because I haven’t been capable of work for six weeks. 

I think I had two days around Christmas before everything went to hell.

I haven’t been on social media or marketing or anything. My sales reflect that. And I can maintain that…

If I can work. 

So now I have to make that all a habit again. Get back to working on all the things.

The moment everything was fixed, I went back to writing. But I’m now six weeks behind on my plan. That really messes with everything. 

I couldn’t even write on my phone, so Death Mask isn’t written yet, it’s in a perpetual state of half-done chapter one. So I’m skipping ahead to chapter two and will return to chapter one later on. 

On the computer, I’m writing the Signed trilogy, which resides in the Contracted world. This is Nate’s story, so m/m and bdsm, and all that explosion of crazy. I completely blame Nate and his Master. They kept messing with me so I figured I’d start the world up again to torment them and it all just came spilling out. 

At Death’s Door will probably have to wait until March for release, so that I can do all the fixes that I was supposed to do over the last six weeks. It’s going to take longer because I can no longer remember what the fixes are. So now I need to read the entire thing before I can start edits so that I can get the bigger picture again and catch all the problems.

So annoying.

Because all I want to do is write. 

Sure, I could ship this work out to someone else, but that costs money I don’t have, and I’m not earning from the books themselves. In the last month I’ve only sold one book.

Probably because I couldn’t do anything or access anything or get my head to work. 

I’m on kdp select, and discovered that Contract Taken was up for free days. I’ve grabbed three and have moved a few free copies with the help of marketing and some from social media.

This morning the book was sitting at #9 on Amazon’s free-romance section. Suppose that’s good, but we’ll have to see how that goes.

A review blog somehow picked up my book and listed it. It’s weird because I don’t recall applying to them or anything of that sort. I’m not certain how I landed on that page, basically. They also made a “review” on Goodreads that was just the description.

I have no idea what their plan is, but I’m afraid to ask.

When everything was in the middle of breaking, Dorian did something stupid. He booked a trip to Cuba for the two of us at at five star resort.

I’ve never been to Cuba, and we all know I’m not comfortable being gifted expensive things. Hence why he’s stupid. 

I appreciate it, I will try my darndest to enjoy the trip, but accepting such a gift makes me uncomfortable. Even if I had purchased the ticket myself, I’d probably be uncomfortable. That’s money I could put into covers or marketing.

I’m starting to sound like Beth. While I’m not certain that’s a bad thing, it does sound a little crazy. If I had the money to go to Cuba, I should go to Cuba. Experience for an author is absolutely necessary.

Who knows, it could spawn a story. I could end up writing a best selling novel because I want to Cuba.

Oh, but think of the promotions I could have bought with that money… Bookbub and ENT and all the things. Such shiny things.

Suppose a beach and all inclusive resort stay will have to do. 

Publication Schedule

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Snagged the app for my new phone. I’m quite pleased with this thing.

Any who, with the app and data I can make blog posts again! 

I’m supposed to be writing Death Mask to finish that series off. I’m not certain that I can get the same effect from writing it on the computer as I can on my phone. It’s the focus that the phone draws in because I don’t have so many other things going on. 

My main problem with that at the moment is that my autocorrect is new, and not yet driven insane by my style. I’ll bring it around, though. Soon it will be writing full sentences and actually capitalizing after periods!

You’d think capitalization would come standard.

With Contract Broken launching today at midnight, it’s gotten me thinking about my publication schedule. 

I want to publish often, that was the point of writing a book a month. It’s always been the editing that catches me up. Another problem is that every once in a while, things just stop working. It happens, and it sucks.

The past two and a half months have been an example of that. I’ve written At Death’s Door but that was on my phone during commutes. I might as well have been reading the thing for the first time.

And that’s why I want to continue writing on my phone.

At the same time, nothing got done at home. stuff happens, you end up playing games because the words just don’t come.

So I don’t think I’m going to be able to maintain one book a month. Okay, that’s fine because that’s how that goes. Guess those are now the rules. 

I still want to launch as often as possible. At least I’m writing full novels and not ten thousand word snippets.

Oh, and then there are the snippets, starting to come to me and I may just give in and publish those too.

I like my day job, I’m just tired of getting up at 6am every day and being exhausted and walked all over for a job no one but me even cares about. I’d rather work part-time, and snippets are faster to write and edit.

I’m considering it, is all I’m saying. I definitely would not stop writing the novels. Me? Stop writing novel length works? Ha!

At this point the plan is: 

Masked Intentions – January

At Death’s Door – February

Morgan’s Story? – March

Death Mask – April

Maybe snippets throughout. Maybe Signed in between. 

Signed is a trilogy I’ve been debating writing. It’s basically Nathaniel’s story but is not a complete recounting. The first comes before Izzy, the second during the events of Contract Broken, and the third afterward. I’m just not certain yet if anyone would be interested. 

Oh, and maybe Angel in between or afterward.  I didn’t start it last night, so okay, let’s set this up for me.

I will start working on Angel on December 1st. December is the busiest month of the year for us at the day job, so I’m not expecting to write it in a month. There.

See?

There’s already that tingle down my spine and the whining voices of the muses at the back of my mind. This is what they get for not writing for two months. 

That’ll also give me more time to plan the series out. Which means I could be cast out to May, maybe June if I can get Cheating Death written. 

I was talking to at friend recently who knew I’d be getting into Romance publishing and she inquired so I told her about the next launch.

“Oh? Is that all? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“And another next month, editing one for January, planning the world of another, writing another, have one sitting for editing, oh and the side project.”

“That sounds like you! At least you’re publishing them instead of just writing them and then leaving them on drives laying about my house.”

“Is that like my telling you to stop tearing up your drawings?”

“Shut up, they’re terrible.”

“That’s totally why I’ve got them hanging on my wall.”

…

The long and the short of it is that I have plans for more launches and very soon. Well, soon in publishing. 

Beth publishes one or so books a year. I’ve got three this year and six planned next year. Different genres, though. Different authors too. 

Good luck to me, I feel like I’ll need it.

*Unitalisized titles are working titles.

Updates

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

What have I been up to?

Well, Prototype in a month was a bust. I seem to be missing something to tell the story, even though I know how it all ends. That kind of sucks, but I’ll keep working on it and maybe do a re-write. That seems to work well for me recently.

I’ve almost written another book, At Death’s Door is part of a trilogy called Wraith’s Rebellion. All the writing is done on my phone. Isn’t that a nifty thing? More like crazy as could be, but I have long commutes and haven’t wanted to read anything. It doesn’t even feel like work because it’s doing a great job at distracting me from hours on a bus.

The Contracted trilogy is up for pre-order on Amazon, and I’ve reached out to the cover artist to do the wraps she had promised. Coming up with other options well, I know she’s very busy and might not have the time to put them together.

I’m considering getting Indesign as I’ve heard you can do the ebook formatting on there and have Amazon accept the fonts. I’ll believe it when I see it, but it’s kind of expensive. Its subscription based and would cost me the same to hire out for the work, and that’s a problem. So I’ll keep looking around.

My laptop was failing to the point where it couldn’t work with some web pages, WordPress included. It works on my phone, but I’ve been writing At Death’s Door on there. So that’s kind of why I’ve been absent.

I won’t accept large gifts from people. It’s never ended well for me even to accept gifts in general. Dorian knew that, and one day showed up with his brother’s old computer. He set it up before I arrived and absconded with my laptop. The act of it led to our first fight in months, because there were things on that laptop I needed.

Apparently, his brother upgraded to a full on gaming rig, and Dorian told his brother he’d recycle the old computer. His brother isn’t the sort to ask if Dorian recycled it or not.

So my computer issue was fixed, though the monitor is driving me batty. I may have to save up and buy a new one, but those are a great deal cheaper than getting the entire rig.

I’m thinking about working on an angel and demon story. Woooo scary.

Because it’s just not possible, and I should know better.

But then… I also said no vampires.

My list for October is simple. Finish Prototype, finish At Death’s Door, do the first edit for Masked Intentions, and get the final copies of Contract Broken and Contract Renewed up. Preferably, get the hard copies of the Contracted Trilogy settled so I can do a giveaway.

I am planning on resisting the urge to write. However, as I can now write on my phone, most bets are off.

I also have this nifty world building app, which I put At Death’s Door into before I started writing. It has helped immensely. I barely follow the plot I wrote up, but the few times I’ve gotten stuck, I’ve been able to refer to it. The chapters are broken up, and I’ve found it much easier to dart all over. No extra pulls or anything, all the chapters linked together and at my fingertips.

If there’s mention of Hitler or random insanity that’s inappropriate, that’s because I caught the person sitting beside me reading my screen. Most of them moved pretty quickly.

Except for the one woman, who is on the bus every day with me. The next day she also sat beside me.

People are weird.

Updates

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

My goal over the weekend was to write approximately thirty thousand words, I only made twenty-five thousand. I’m sure that if I wanted to do a dump and run type of publishing, I should be scolding myself, but I made twenty-five thousand words over the course of two days.

Technically over the course of about eight hours.

Saturday I wrote for two hours, then spent six hours running errands an the like. By the time I got back I all but crashed. Later in the evening I did get out another chapter. On Sunday, I wrote for an hour or so and then somehow got distracted.

About eight hours later I had a mailing list set up, though I can’t seem to link it through my blog like I’m supposed to be able to do easily. I haven’t returned to that to play with again, because I’m trying to get as much writing done while I can.

On my commutes I’ve been reading Contract Broken. There seems to be less errors in the book, though the ones that are there are pretty glaring. I don’t know if it’s because I did better at editing, or I’m doing worse at editing this time around.

Last night I contacted my cover designer, haven’t heard back yet. Contract Taken may be ready to go.

The rest of last night, I just crashed. That’s all. Crashed. On the couch, with two cats sleeping on me.

Dorian came over after a social event he had to attend for work. We were supposed to have some fun, but he found me sprawled on my couch, passed out as my streaming services played. He tucked me into bed and I slept until Grover decided to stand on my chest and lick my nose as he drooled.

Apparently I “overslept” and he was hungry.

I tried writing a bit more it hasn’t quite worked. So tired…

Dorian has suggested a day off. I think he’s crazy. I’ve been back at work less than two weeks and had a day off just last week. Pfft, over worked? How is that possible?

As I’m trying to edit Contract Broken, Nathaniel has been talking very loudly, he does that every time I try to touch the book. Probably because he’s barely in it. I now have a basic outline for the way the book goes.

Except he keeps popping in with random scenes he did with his Master and I squeak, hurt myself, or full on stumble in real life.

If the book Nathaniel was dictating didn’t centre around his getting beaten up and forced to submit, I’d alter it just to screw with him for his annoying behaviour. There’s little I could do to him that his Master hasn’t, however.

Shut up and do What I Told you to do!

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Gah!

Stupid with the stupid and the stupid!

I’ve spent a better part of the morning trying to set up MailChimp. Okay, so the setting up was easy (but do you have to give my address? Really? Ugh) but the trouble is that I can’t get it on WordPress and had difficulty getting it on Facebook. Let alone setting up emails.

See, for some bloody reason it’s no longer about adding html. WordPress has a text widget which is supposed to let you put html onto the widget to create whatever. At least, that’s the way it sounds.

But that’s not the case.

No, that little “add html” widget has never worked for me. I have a brain, I have basic, minor control over html.

Oh, and I literally copy and paste. Copy and paste from there to here.

Beth has her Goodreads Author page linked to her blog. Apparently that’s no longer an option? Because try as we might, we can’t get it to work on mine (set up two years later, give or take a bit).

Don’t even get me started on this other thing I was actually trying to get to work today, which was a way to sell little stories through my blog or website or both. It comes highly recommended, so I figured I’d give it a go. It said to sign up, then download. I do and then nothing happens.

So I look up how to and it takes me to a blank page that… tells me to register and then download.

So frustrating.

And Rachel? My new MC? Stopped working. Why, you might ask, why would a character go off the rails and stop responding?

Because there’s no chance of interacting with Morgan, her male counterpart.

Whining, bratty, stupid, insignificant little…

Sometimes characters go off script. Actually, they go off script all the time with me, but at least they stay within the bounds of the boxes I set up. Rachel is basically sitting in a clothing rack (you know those circular ones?) hiding from the other two she is with because she wants Morgan but isn’t going to tell them she wants him so the chapter isn’t moving because I can’t get her out of the stupid clothing rack!

Because in the chapter, the clothing rack isn’t even mentioned. She’s not supposed to be there, this isn’t supposed to be happening. What is supposed to be happening is stuck in place thanks to her hiding in the damned clothing.

Somehow, I have got to get out of this funk. I need to get moving so that I can finish this chapter and then do the descriptions, then write the next chapter. Etc and on down the line.

Writing, My Dear Friend

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I’ve missed writing, I really have. Beth warned me that editing was time consuming and I didn’t doubt her. The return to writing is like great sex. 

Due to the throat infection, I have been very slow. Yesterday I actually slept until two in the afternoon, and was exhausted by my usual bedtime. Today my throat doesn’t hurt as much. I don’t sniffle as much.

My legs ache something terrible though. I walked with Beth for over an hour Monday night. We met up at a store and she walked me home before heading for her own. Beth doesn’t exactly set a slow pace, and thanks to a bum leg won’t walk at anyone else’s pace.

Not that I blame her. She simply can’t walk faster and if she walks slower she ends up limping for days. I’m fairly used to her pace, but not with packing around items as I’m going her pace.

She makes me feel like a lazy bum sometimes.

After getting up yesterday, I kind of used my sore legs as an excuse not to do much. I sat picking away at chapter two of D.o.t.A while watching television.

Today I almost did chapter three. The latter two pages were lifted straight from the original, so tomorrow morning I need to work them over while I drink my morning coffee. 

The chapters are longer this time around. Rachel tells a bunch, but I swear it’s all bitter and sarcastic. 

“Well, I wouldn’t be in this position if the Dom hadn’t killed my father. An act that was illegal until twelve years before.” 

I think that ‘ending’ for Morgan’s story wasn’t the end, I think it was the beginning which could be interesting. 

We’ll see. As I write Rachel’s story, Morgan’s will come to me.

Maybe it’s the Fever

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

But the end of Morgan’s story has come to me. It’s dark, sure, but it still amuses me to no end.

Of course I don’t have paper to jot things down because I only reminded myself sixteen times to bring a notebook with me.

And I’m going to be pretty near to late for work. Civic holiday but the only thing actually effected by it is the bus schedule.

… then it’s really not a civic holiday, now is it? 

I completely phased on it being a holiday, my fault for not realizing. Though, I’d like to blame what kind of feels like a fever. 

I don’t like being almost on time, it makes me anxious. What if the bus breaks down?

The one plus side of riding late is I did catch a bus with a man wearing a three piece, tailored suit. Just a little scruffy. Morgan’s a little scruffy almost constantly. He just doesn’t care. All the other Alphas are going around in suits and ties with their estates and sports cars.

Then there’s Morgan. “I only own a sports car because my father left it to me in his will and I can’t afford another. Da also says that if I sell or break it, he’ll break me.” 

Most of what Morgan does do is because his ‘Da’ (afford Alpha who is older and had a hand in raising him, who he is a dependant of) had an image to maintain. 

About four times in the original draft, Morgan motions between him and Rachel and says, “very different worlds.” 

As in, they grew up with vastly different expectations. Even the differences between Morgan’s upbringing and that of the Alphas Rachel knows are two separate worlds. 

One is an example of basically everything you’d fear would come from people like this. The other is what they were really meant to be. The first only even exists because the dust is still settling, everyone is still finding their places and young Alphas like Morgan, coming into their own, are not certain which traditions they should and should not question.

Or, perhaps they haven’t challenged the bad Alphas because they haven’t been given a reason to yet.

It’s Not Fair!

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Sick, sinus and throat infection thanks to “obvious irritation of the mucosal linings” or something like that. I’m not supposed to be around most fragrances. It’s not necessarily that I’m allergic, so much that my body basically has a hissy fit when subjected to it for too long.

Thanks for the reminder, guy.

I can’t afford to be sick, I’ve got a book to write.

Instead of writing, I’m basically staring off at nothing because it’s left me with no energy whatsoever. It had started by Friday but didn’t really hit me until yesterday as I was trying to deal with a client who was wearing a regular amount of cologne.

I almost threw up, then got dizzy. Stupid body having a stupid tantrum.

Dorian has not gotten me wine, obviously I need to recover before wine or writing or any amount of fun happens. He’s also headed back to work, so I’m being a whiney ninny because I’m suffering alone.

If you don’t count Trixie, Grover, and my stuffies.

Yes, I am a grown woman in a relationship (gasp, I can say that now!) and I sleep with stuffies. Though I move them for Dorian. Stuffies are like body pillows for me, except more awesome.

And when you are feeling lonely, sad, and you’re all by yourself, you can cuddle them while you watch television.

I know Beth has stuffies, but she hides them if she has company coming over, which is about as ridiculous as could be. Of all the things an adult has to be “ashamed” of, an adorable, soft, stuffed animal is not one of them.

Because of the sickness, I’ve managed to arrange for tomorrow off, which will mean I work straight through to the weekend. But as of tonight, I can sleep until sometime late Wednesday morning. Sleep is a marvelous help when my body’s having a tantrum. It’s like a timeout, except the body enjoys it.

I’d rather be writing. Except when I tried to re-setup the second chapter, Rachel, the MC, got kind of drunk and started stumbling around before she collapsed. Which could be a side effect of writing first person, I don’t know for certain, as I’ve never tried writing first person while sick.

The new setup for the office/ “living room” is freaking amazing.

My old setup had me in one corner, but flat against the wall, with the TV er… kiddie corner? Diagonally across an entertainment center set against the wall.

The new setup, the TV is a little higher, which could become annoying. But it’s straight ahead of me. I just have to move the couch in. It’s actually pretty light (thanks Ikea) so I can do it myself, but I’ve been so freaking exhausted.

I also need to figure out a lighting system. The overhead lights shine directly on the TV and can’t be moved. Nice fixture, but if I want it and the TV on at the same time, I’m not really going to be able to watch TV. There’s also a lamp at the bedside, which is okay, but lends more of a twilight and sometimes I want a brighter light.

I’ll figure it out. But first, work a shift and then sleep a day and a half.