Tag: vampire

Back to Work (again)

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Seven weeks behind, I think it’s safe to say I’m throwing out some expletives in frustration. I need some project I can tick off as complete before I start getting disoriented by this pile of work that’s building up.

Need to get back into the routine. Death Mask on the phone, Contract Signed at home. Whatever I can manage at work.

Today “whatever I can manage at work” is formatting for both Contract Broken and Contract Renewed. I got the wraps back, thankfully my cover designer found time among planning a wedding, working full time, and running her own writing job.

Thinking about how much was on her plate does not make me feel better about me being seven weeks behind.

Seven weeks! That’s like two books written and one edited with how quickly I normally work.

I’m also concerned because I have another doctor’s appointment next week. My concern, of course, being that the last appointment took me out for a week. My skull was vibrating like a tuning fork even on Saturday.

I do have a plan, but I also had a plan last week and it did not work.

Then again, I didn’t expect to have two trips to a lab and an extra trip to the doctor because she forgot to tick a box off…

Still, I’ve never done this before and don’t know what my reaction will be. 

So there’s that concern. 

In the mean time, if my bus ever shows up, I am going to write on my commutes, I’ve got the tablet to do the formatting at work, and I do have a plan for edits and writing once I get home. I even had a plan to write this morning. 

I find, however, that I can work better if I read the last chapter to get in the mindset sort of thing. So I drank my coffee and read chapter eleven of Contract Signed. 

I don’t recall writing it, but my goodness.

There are so many things I could be doing, if not for the day job. It’s aggravating because all my energy when I get sick or injured… or have no water for three weeks… goes towards the day job because the bills have to be paid.

Gotta get back to work. That’s my mantra now. 

Gotta get back to work.

Second Round of Edits

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

At Death’s Door is going through another round of edits. I just finished the read through and I can see the spots and holes and problems. Then I can see things that are nagging as you read, like, you know… that’s not what he said before.

The timeline is definitely all over the place.

Here’s the thing, I’ve got two options. Do things and fix all the things, or use those slip ups to my advantage. Some of them may not have been slip ups, they could have been Quin losing track of time, or mixing up memories. I believe he says as much.

He also says a couple of times that they were instructed not to scare the delicate little mortals.

Then there were some nagging bits bothering me so I went to the character causing them and handed them to her and we looked at one another for a time. She considered not telling me, I could see it in her eyes. She’s not a character whose head I ride inside of, sometimes they surprise me.

In the end she told me.

There are nagging bits and burrs and seeing the end of the trilogy, I just kind of sat there for a minute, then started shouting at the characters.

Ah well.

Knowing that ending allows me to alter a few things. It kind of explains a few things, why things sat the way they did. Why that one was just like that, why that person was just so. I can smooth a few things over or rough them up in a few other places.

There were bits and pieces that I absolutely loved, but then the voice changed. So I need to go back and recreate that voice through the entire thing.

I’m on chapter two of that re-write (sure, let’s just call it a re-write instead of an edit) and I’m having difficulty moving forward.

I don’t want to do this again.

Quin’s is a story of abuse that spans centuries. It’s the kind of abuse that people normally give flowery names to. If he had been born a girl, he might have even been called a “child bride” instead of facing the truth.

And he’s completely unapologetic about it. You asked what happened, this is what happened, don’t get weepy or bristled about it, it didn’t happen to you. Unless it did, then respect that this is how he has come to terms with what was done to him.

He’s also at a critical stage of his growth. He hadn’t quite shrugged off his abuser, but he’s about to face the man for the first time in centuries. It could go either way. He could fall into that trap again, or make the next step and defy, finally coming to terms with the fact that he is in control, he can take control of his abuser.

Because this is a vampire, after that step he could, in theory, become the abuser. He could exact every revenge fantasy of every body in the world.

But I don’t think Quin’s like that. He’s thought of ending it all, but never torment or revenge.

He just wants it to end.

And I don’t want to go through his life story again, adding in more details as he dictates them.

But I will.

Because he asked me to.

If what he was asking me to add would alter that voice that dragged me into the narration, I would say no to him. There’d be no point otherwise. I’m all for a whipping boy, but even I can only take a character being subjected to so much.

Like pretty well all my stories, there’s probably a light at the end of the mine shaft I dropped them down. Things probably work out in the end. But that doesn’t change the fact that Quin spent fifteen hundred years, his entire life, in an abusive relationship because he didn’t have the support he needed to get free.

Not until Helen walked in, called him Mr. Fedora, and asked him why?

At Death’s Door

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I opened At Death’s Door and discovered that I was almost done with the first round of edits. These were mainly typos, autocorrect issues, and some formatting. The story is now on my phone in pdf form and I’m going to give it a read to check the global edits. This includes adding things that I couldn’t during the initial writing, going back and revisiting all descriptions, and such on and so forth.

I found a premade cover today that I quite like the look of, one from someone Beth has used in the past. They’re even offering to do the wraps now! Beth had to make her own… or maybe Beth didn’t read the entire site like she lectured me on doing several times. She gets like that sometimes.

So I need to rush through and get the edits set up so that I know the approximate length of the print book to get the cover ordered. Once I have the additions to it and the cover on order I’ll run back and start over as if I haven’t done any edits at all.

Which means a read and mark down edits. Then a read to make certain I didn’t create a typo in the mean time, because I do that because I’m stupid. Then through a grammatical editing program which does all right. Then another read to make certain I didn’t make a typo again, because I do that because I’m stupid.

Then I’m going to ask for a beta reader.

While they have the book I’ll read it again in the freaked out way I do. Which is basically as follows:

OH GOD SOMEONE IS READING MY BOOK WHAT ARE THEY READING WHAT DID I DO OH GOD WHY DID I DO THAT THERE’S A COMMA MISSING RIGHT THERE IM STUPID AND SHOULD JUST GIVE UP.

No punctuation whatsoever, just screaming at the top of my lungs inside my head as I start ripping it apart for more errors.

As Beth says, the editor in me hates the writer in me.

At Death’s Door

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

At Death’s Door was titled ‘Vampire’ until just a few chapters ago. This is written on my phone and will be extensively edited on a computer. Or, edited as any of my works are. There are two more books to be written, though I’ve not dabbled much in the plot of those so I can’t even give away the ending!

Vampires come out to humans and interviews are set up. Many humans are still skeptical as the vampires haven’t given physical proof besides some historical records. Those doing the interviews expect fluff and a little grief stricken darkness. A smidge of “oh, how killing mortals pains me!”

Most interviewers get just that. Boring vampires with boring lives (or at least edited for mass consumption) then there’s Quin.

Who probably shouldn’t have ever been on the list of interviewees. Like. Ever.

 

Continue reading “At Death’s Door” →

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.