Tag: editing

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

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.

Time Off is Important Too

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Beth and I try to make certain each of us takes time off. Even if it’s just a couple of hours. Back in February when I started setup,  Beth had been working two months straight. She had taken an hour here or there, but even while out, she was on and focused on her writing. 

It drove Dorian crazy. He likes all the attention focused on the conversation when he’s there. I swear Beth does it just to mess with him, but their friendship is like that. 

He pokes her, she pokes him. Like a big brother, little sister thing.

Anyhow, as of Saturday I’m off work for a week across my birthday. Thank goodness work was okay with that. I’m not exactly the most stable person on my birthday, which actually has little to do with getting older and more to do with having no family to rely on. 

An entire week, no writing. Whatever am I going to do with myself? 

I’ll be back to work July 31st, restarting a novel August 1st. Along with editing and combing through formatting on Taken and Broken.

I’m supposed to be walking all over next week. Exploring the city to keep myself busy. Dorian promises to keep me out of the apartment and busy the entire time (out of his apartment too,  we tried that last year and it didn’t work).

Exploring could be good for the creative flow. 

Knife Play is a ‘no’

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Yesterday at work I somehow managed to get my little finger caught between a hard place and a sharp object, almost skinning the pad off. It’s the kind of incident that no one expects to happen. 

Which, in my experience, means I’ll be the one to do it to myself.

I’m fine, I should add. 

But afterwards everything got dopey and slow. Having been a part of that lifestyle for a while, I recognized the drop. If I had been playing, it would be called sub drop. Apparently it’s not my reaction to playing itself, but the crash after pain has been caused.

Interesting. Thankfully it was only a little drop.

Because Dorian is out of town until next Sunday. I don’t do well with a big drop and being by myself. Did that with my ex, when I had no idea what was going on. 

When I found out he did know what was going on and ignored me on purpose, I broke up with him. While shouting and throwing things and going on because I was still in the middle of it all.

Anyhow. 

When I got home all I wanted to do was curl up with a stuffie and be petted and kissed and taken care of. Recognizing what was going on, I ordered pizza (with the little brownie bites) gorged like Dorian never lets me (because his rules don’t apply when I’m weepy and on my own) and after two brownies found myself with Contract Renewed open on my laptop.

I got that last chapter done after four hours. It took my mind off the finger until I tried to save. Apparently the left little finger is used exclusively for ctrl+s. 

Also, apparently I went four hours without saving! Thank goodness I didn’t lose progress, or I’d really be in a bad spot.

I didn’t write the entire time either. No, I spent about half the time wrangling Trixie.

Off the laptop, away from the wireless keyboard, away from the mouse. Then away from markers when I took a short break to try to fill out the planner again. And off the planner, then away from the planner,  then to the scratching post because she seemed intent on digging her claws into everything.

I first tried petting and cuddling her, of course. That didn’t work.

So now I have leftover pizza, brownies and pop. I let Dorian know, mainly so that he doesn’t order pizza next week. 

Then only reason he restricts me is that if I’ve dropped and there’s pizza available,  I’ll eat until I’m in a food coma, then feel terribly lazy all the next day.

So, long story short, Contract Renewed is almost ready for the beta reader. I’m planning on starting over on D.o.t.A in August. Taking the last week of July off… 

And I really think Contract Taken could be up on Amazon as early as September. Just have to contact the cover designer.

On Tuesday I’m headed out to get my desk.

… and two bookshelves. I have zero, in my defence. Books are just laying around all over the place. Stuff ends up on the floor because I have nowhere to put it. It’s also hard to argue with that price. 

Oh, and I’m putting the shelves on either side of my mantle to keep Trixie off of it so that I can out the TV up there where she can’t reach it.

My only problem is that everything will be white, to fit in my budget, and I have a strong dislike of all furniture that is white. 

Sounds like I’ll need to spend a day getting crafty, which is fine. Once Contract Renewed is off to the beta, I could probably use a nice day off from all the things.

Spaces

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I bought a planner yesterday to keep track of my hours and life, etc. This morning I tried to fill in some stuff while the laptop loaded. 

My work space is my couch. It’s a small L shaped couch about four feet across the back and four feet deep. I have a small table to the right of it which is taken up entirely by a table lamp. It’s also a high back/sided couch so I can’t exactly access the top of it. 

I’ve got two cats, Trixie and Grover. Trixie has been with me since February, when I adopted her from Kijiji. She’s been abandoned three times in her two years of life. So she has abandonment issues and every once in a while just loses her freaking mind.

Grover was with the same owner for sixteen years, then abandoned at Dorian’s complex in May when his owner moved suddenly. Dorian just happened to be walking by when the owner of the complex was cleaning out all the other abandoned items and asked after the cat.

I had been looking for a second cat to keep Trixie company as I had suspected there’d be a full-time position opening up. Just working part-time she had become very needy and I didn’t feel right about leaving her completely alone.

Anyhow. Grover sleeps a lot, but isn’t comfortable anywhere but right beside me. I suppose he too might have abandonment issues now.

Hey, we could start our own support group!

So he takes up one side of the couch. I can move him, but he sort of oozes back into place, which would include somehow getting into my lap, or on top of the laptop if I move him to set it down. 

The other two feet by four feet goes to me, my laptop, Trixie, and cushions. I can’t set anything down. Which sucks, really and I don’t feel is fair to Trixie. She can be quite comfortable laying on my right, but if she does I have no space to work.

This morning when I pulled out the planner, Trixie was having an episode of “you don’t love me, you’re going to abandon me,” so I was trying to accommodate her as Grover climbed onto the couch beside me, and I had the planner out and the laptop loading.

And trying to drink my morning coffee.

It occurred to me that I need more space. 

My apartment isn’t huge, but it also isn’t small. And I don’t have a lot of furniture. In the “bedroom” (it’s an open concept type of apartment) over half the room is empty. There’s a mantle and a fire place in the wall on one side, and my bed on the other.

I’ve been meaning to put my TV in on the mantle for months. Up where Trixie can’t knock it down again. I was going to move the whole couch in there, but same problem, different room.

I need a desk. 

I could build one, there’s a hardware store nearby who has pallets stacked outside free to take. My problem there being that I’m not very good at building things. I can do it, but it takes several attempts to make it work.

That option is free. My main concern really is the legs. How do I get the legs on that sucker to be even if I’m building them? I don’t have access to a saw or anything. Just a drill. 

Or I could buy a desk. So I looked at ikea because they tend to be the least expensive. They definitely have desks in my price range (awesome) but I don’t like how any of them look (*Enter expletive of choice here*).

As this is my first true home, ever, (please don’t ask) I’ve been particular about what I bring into it. 

Even if I can get two storage drawers, solid ones, I could get Dorian to help me cart away a couple of pallets, build the desktop itself, design it to my choice and then almost free desk! With storage! 

But I get the feeling I’ll have to buy it. Then save up for an all-in-one computer. I have the keyboard of my laptop to thank for that. Being able to sit back and write, instead of sitting forward a little hunched as Trixie ventures behind me, trying to ‘hunt’ Grover is distracting.  

Sitting properly last night, I managed to write quite a bit. Instead of leaning forward when I had a thought (because this is a rewrite, so it requires contemplation) I simply immediately started typing. Nothing was lost because I had to lean forward and find my keys, then struggle with a failing keyboard. 

When I told Beth, she was jealous. She does have the space, but hasn’t committed to the idea. She and I have birthdays near each other, so if I could get the almost free desk to work, I could just have Dorian split the ‘legs’ with me and have him deliver it. If I delivered it she’d kill me, but he’s twice her size. 

And they’ve known each other longer… I might just see about that. Storage ‘legs’ sort of like file cabinets but not. Wonder where I could find them? 

With the desk and a swap of furniture I could up my productivity even more! 

Which means I can write more, which I may crave more than air sometimes…

On Planning

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

My original plan was to set up preorders for the Contract trilogy three months apart. Of course, I’m being guided by Beth, who is a planner. She makes me research everything. Or… nearly everything. 

When it first came to the preorder she was completely on board with the idea. Three months would give me a ton of time to market and build a readership. 

But the other day she stumbled on a discussion between authors. One of them was in a situation similar to mine. A trilogy was at the ready and this person was debating between doing preorders or launching all three books at the same time.

The author was advised to launch the first immediately, then do a preorder for three weeks for the next, and three weeks for the one after. The idea is to drive readership. And this will help you start off strong. 

Except I’m not certain three weeks is enough. What if something comes up, what if I need to make an alteration to the second or third books? How is three weeks going to help me, as a new author, to build readership? 

I, of course, went to Beth with these questions. So she sat me down and we had a discussion of our own.

See, Beth views writing as a type of business. It is still a hobby for her, she is not making enough to live off of it, but she hopes to one day. 

The way you would treat a customer in retail is how you should treat your fans. Or, if you can, treat readers better than you would customers. Now, she works in retail so that imagery works very well for her, and I can see where she’s coming from.

Businesses who treat their customers well, do well. If you were going to buy a suit and the salesperson was rude, would you still buy the suit? Most cities have multiple fine clothing stores, you don’t have to be limited.

Most people would go to another store. The same is true for indie authors. You aren’t the only one writing stories like that.

Of course, I adore my readers so for me that part isn’t really a problem. 

The part that deflated my ego was the next bit: it takes five years to build a business and about a minute to destroy it.

Beth, when she first published, wasn’t even close to popular. After two years she’s finally seeing some traction, but has to take a break because she can’t afford editing costs at the moment. That means her… cloud? Is slowly going to get smaller unless she gets the next book written  and finds the money for editing. 

Being a new author, she told me, I need all the help I can get. That means that if three weeks will help me build my foundation, I need to swallow my pride and just do it.

It also would mean that I’d have two months or so before I was back where I am now. Growling about editing. In two months I could probably finish writing the Daughters of the Alphas trilogy. 

Or I could finish the first and finish its edits, putting it up for a three months and basically buying myself time to write and edit the second, then do the same to get to the third. If I really focus I could work another writing project in the background. 

Because I’m keeping up a free story somewhere, so it’s not entirely impossible. If I could get the freaking tablet cord, I could write at work and edit at home. Which is what I was doing before. 

On the Contract Renewed front, I discovered why I only had four chapters left when I swore I had five chapters worth of stuff. That was because in the first draft, I somehow created two Chapter Fourteens. 

Go me. I can’t believe I missed that in the first two reads. Checking that the chapters read appropriately is one of the first things I do before I start editing.

So now I have twenty-one chapters with the possibility of rewriting the introduction to be more of an introduction instead of just a short chapter. I can take the old introduction and probably mire it into Chapter One, I think.

Before I left the house today, I went through Chapter Seventeen (I think) and started Eighteen before I got listless. Had to get ready for work. It’s still possible that I’ll finish Eighteen tonight.

Who knows, with tomorrow off and only three chapters left, I could finish with Contract Renewed tomorrow.

*Enter Witty Title Here*

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Ah, the WordPress app. Beth suggested it while the tablet is having issues. You don’t even have to publish it, just put notes in a draft. I’ve tried all sorts of note programs and Office type programs but none of them really work. Or, if they do work, they don’t really make a file I can take to my laptop/tablet. 

Yesterday morning I edited a chapter. Then I did two blog posts first on the way to, then on the way from work. As soon as I got home I was on the phone with UPS because my package did turn up. 

Then I went back to editing and did another chapter, and another this morning.

UPS’S driver obviously entered the wrong city, which happens, I get that (and it turned up, so how could I complain?) And I was able to get answers and timely responses from them. 

I had, however, entered a ticket for my My Choice thing, because when I did the authorization apparently nothing took. I opened it under the tracking number for this package and was told to confirm I had entered it. I said yes and asked how I go about doing that again since obviously it didn’t work. And how would that work with Canada Post being weird? 

This morning the person responsible for the ticket responded with “I see your package was delivered to *wrong city* I hope you found our customer service helpful.” 

That wasn’t what this ticket was about.

With Canada Post being weird, I need to go through UPS to get hard copies of my books. The other service that runs starts with a ‘d’ and I can’t recall the name, but they suck. The drivers will not attempt delivery to apartment buildings. They drive up and idle for a bit, then leave claiming they were unable to make contact. As they did to me on four occasions for two different packages.

So my frustration at this dismal service does link into my writing. 

My local postman may mark something as delivered and then not deliver the notice for three days, but at least my package is safe at the local post office. It’s also about a third of the cost. 

I hope they resolve their issues soon. 

On the editing front, I’m now on chapter sixteen. I checked the word count today. I shouldn’t have.

Contract  Taken is about 87k words, Contract Broken is about 89k word. Currently Contract Renewed is sitting at 76k words. 

Going in, I knew it was shorter. When I started it was 66k words. I wrote its bare bones and knew that as I finished. The point was to get the skeleton out and to add the details later. Chapter fifteen was three pages of nothing but dialogue. It’s now five pages, but could probably be expanded on for physical reaction to emotion and stimulus. 

I definitely will need to do another go-through for editing and checking on that sort of thing. 

With four chapters left, I’m not even certain how I managed this because I swear there were two more chapters of sex and three more of other stuff. 

There’s definitely not enough sex. Of course I’m trying not to repeat too much, wouldn’t want to bore anyone. I think I’ve done well so far, but while I could easily add more, it’d probably be summed up by Izzy as, “a regular play session,” which kind of makes it sound boring. However, I’m concerned that if I go into details of a regular play session, the reader will find themselves bored because they’ve already had that.

I could add some suspension play, I know both of them are interested in that, but I have absolutely no experience with suspension. It’s something that Dorian isn’t interested in, let alone has the setup for, and I can’t play in public at all. 

I’d just start crying, like last time. 

It’s kind of funny how I’m very private about play (using an anonymous pen name to say I do play doesn’t count) yet I’m parading Izzy’s exploration of play before my readers. 

Once I go through the edit, I might ask Dorian for help. And I’ll be specific that I don’t mean seduce me for ‘inspiration’ purposes. He’s supposed to help me with Nathaniel’s trilogy as well. 

I know the male perspective of books can be well-received but Nathaniel isn’t like that. One book is about Izzy, I think. The other two are about before her. Everything that led up to his meeting her. 

I sound a little ramble-ly, I know. But doing a blog post helped me stay focused through the day yesterday, do I’m hoping it’ll help today as well.

When it Rains, it Pours.

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Remember how I said Canada Post was going on strike and I wasn’t going to get anything from anyone else for my birthday? Well, I had bought something for myself and was quite happy that it would be waiting for me when I got home today, as I had to pay for UPS. A pay service of that cost wouldn’t make a mistake,  would they?

… except they delivered it to the wrong city. 

I double checked all the addresses on all the statements. Yes, it was mine. The only one not showing my address was the actual delivery notification. 

The sound of the customer service representative’s voice when I told him where it had been delivered had that quality of genuine surprise. Even as he asked me to confirm my address and I stopped at the postal code and he read it out to me. 

“I’m just going to connect you to the investigation division…” two minutes pass and I can hear the frustration in his voice, “I can’t seem to get ahold of them, they’re probably very busy.” 

I’m already thrumming with frustration myself. Not by his actions, not even by the ‘theft’ of my only present this year (Dorian and I have a strict no gifts rule, we spend time together instead) but from a need to beat out a world a little more. 

The need to write always brings an ache to my chest and my hands tingle. Just need to get a few words down, then I’ll be able to focus again. 

…Maybe. 

It’s not even necessarily vampires who are aggrivating me. I haven’t written in weeks, I’ve been stopped up and now the itch is coming back. 

Yesterday I forced myself to write a new chapter for Contract Renewed, maybe that was what opened the flood gates. I’m on chapter fourteen of twenty, still need to add ten thousand more words. I can do that, I know I can. 

I just want to move on. I love the trilogy, I do, but this is more time than I’ve spent on any one thing. 

Maybe writing the whole trilogy and then editing the whole is a bad idea, like Beth said. Sure, I get the consistency errors fixed, but at a cost to my productivity. If I had done them one at a time…

Well, with Contracted I wouldn’t have been satisfied with the outcome. Or I may have been for a few months, but then I’d want to rip it to shreds for missing just that one little thing.

With Daughters of the Alphas I may edit as I go. Write one book and mull on it. Place it up on preorder and dive into another world. And then another… and another. I can circle back around to whatever keeps my fancy, just so long as I get the worlds written and available before they get mired in the fog that is my brain. 

We’ll see. Who knows, I might write the first book and immediately want to start the second. 

How many books can I write in a year? Oh, now there’s a challenge I’d like to take up.

An Author’s Bookclub

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

“Not what I want to read, not what I want to read, that’s another fucking shifter book. You know how uncomfortable shifter fiction makes me? It’s a step away from having sex with an animal.”

“I’m pretty certain they stay in man-form during sex.”

“It still makes me squeamish.”

“Okay, fine, don’t read it. What about that one?”

“The male MC mates the female MC by touching her? Wh… is that standard in their world? What the fuck?”

“My Gods, and I thought I was a picky reader. Look, if you’re going to be a jerk about your books—”

“I prefer the term specific reading requirements.”

“—and a whiney little bitch, then don’t read an indie book until you find the storyline you’re looking for. In the meantime, pick up some of the classics.”

“But they want fifteen to thirty dollars for those.”

“Not on Amazon, Gutenberg, and numerous other places. As long as it’s in the public domain you can get classic books for free in ebook or pdf form by knowing how to look for it.”

Beth has shown me how to find books to read. I grabbed about twenty of them while she helped, it was that easy, then I started doing the equivalent of running circles trying to figure out which to start with. So she suggested what she was reading, H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

It’s not that indie books aren’t good enough, but that I’m searching for something very specific in my romance area. Sci-fi on the other hand… Well, once I started looking at the classics I forgot all about sci-fi.

I feel a little better after finishing The War of the Worlds, but apparently not a hundred percent better. I’ve been picking away at the chapter all morning. Starting and stopping on and off. It’s a little frustrating, but at least it’s moving instead of just staying there, mocking me.

Beth refers to it as refueling, although she refuels by playing a simulation game while reading a book and watching television. I think she’s crazy, but at least she has something that works for her.

Then again, she’s also the one who babbles about book family trees, where every book can sort of be traced back to a ‘parent’ book that it’s very similar, if not outright based on (like 50 Shades and Twilight).

So I’ll keep reading as many books as I can while picking away at the chapter.

I haven’t had a chance to speak with my cover artist yet. She’s very busy, but when I see her, I’ll ask to proceed on the covers. Once the covers are done, I’ll begin the final stages of the pre-order for Contract Taken and move on from there.

I’m still not in a rush, I’d very much like to complete the whole trilogy before doing the first pre-order so that there’s no cliff or hang off point. Everything will link into one another and I won’t have to worry about the world again unless I decide to write another book for it.

Mm, books.

What are your favourite classic works?