RS: I Haz Planz 12/02


Yey, Thursday again! Time to chat about goalie stuff. ^_^ I’m feeling pretty spry right now because even though my chest is tighter than a mermaid’s arse, I’m slowly picking through my goals. Have a look:

Actions Last Weekblank calendar from OpenClipArt

~Finish Deep Edits on ‘Second Base’
Done. Finished earlier today. I have no idea how many words I’ve added, but it will be interesting to see what the original 49.5k turns into. Guess I won’t have any trouble meeting the new minimum guidelines with Breathless Press, eh? 😉

~Format ‘Malcolm’ for Smashwords and release by February 10
Sorted, as you saw this morning.

~Approach Angie regarding full ‘Meeting Each Other’ cover art
Done. Although I’ve gone to somebody new this time. I want a slightly different look to these covers, so I had a look around and found a lady called ravenink.I figured that was a good omen. Ha. I’ll let you know how it goes.

~Complete Deep Edits on ‘When Vicki Met Malcolm’
No… DSB took the piece to her critique group last Saturday and their comments were so helpful (as usual) that I’ve decided to wait until they hear the whole thing before starting. That should make the process of Deep Editing much smoother as a whole.

Activities For This Week

  1. Check new front and back data information for Meeting Each Other series, ensure it’s ready for formatting
  2. Transfer half of the ‘Second Base’ Deep Edits back to Scrivener
  3. Complete Deep Edits on ‘When Vicki Met Malcolm’ following feedback from Phoenix Writers
  4. Send this month’s newsletter

Thoughts…

goal shooting goals from open clip artIt’s probably going to be a bit of a squeeze getting even the digital version of Meeting Each Other ready by the end of Feb. Week after this is going to be packed solid with all sorts of family commitments that DSB has. Anything I can get done this week to take the pressure of there is not a bad thing. But that would be a pleasant extra, not an actual goal.

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RS: So… Fifty Shades of- Nah… Something Else!


‘Tomorrow It Begins…’

Yes. I was going to talk about FSoG today. I was going to talk about the Joined Up Writing Podcast and DSBs special rant over the trilogy and the movie that releases tomorrow. But I’ve decided not to. I don’t need to. I don’t think I can give any more of my brain space to something that has consumed so much of the world already (if you really want to know, then listen to the podcast). So…

Something Else!

Remember last week’s goal list in which I talked about rounding up the Meeting Each Other series? Well I’ve finally managed to do that. It really didn’t take long to format what I needed for Smashwords, so I guess it’s time for a snippet of the sixth and last story in the series.

Presenting:

cover for Malcolm short story

DSB showed this to her sister. She was not impressed. *snerk*

This is probably newest favourite in the series. Given that FSoG is out tomorrow, it’s worth mentioning that this is a BDSM story, but BDSM done right (as far as I’m concerned). I’m learning that what was once a ‘soft spot’ for kink is turning into a ma-huusive fascination and that there are more of these stories waiting to fall out of me.

After all, with my Deep Edits on ‘Second Base’ done, I’ve had my head in the BDSM pool (so to speak) for at least four weeks. More given that I was working on ‘Malcolm’ before that.

Now all that remains is to treat you to an excerpt and then you can go on your merry way. 🙂 Enjoy!

When Christina walked back into view, her breasts heaved. A gleam filled her eyes and a cute, pink flush washed across her neck and chest. She grinned, tucked the handle of the flogger into the side of her knickers and crossed her arms. ‘That’s a warm up. We’re going to have fun now. Remember; ‘banana’ and ‘almond’.’

‘Why those words?’

She shrugged. ‘How likely are you to use them in conversation tonight?’

‘Not very.’

‘So when I hear them, I know you mean it. Clear?’

Malcolm nodded.

Licking his dry lips he watched Christina walk out of sight once more.

He made fists, forcing his body to relax against the soft padding all around him. That done, he closed his eyes, letting himself drift on the sounds around him. He sought the subtle swish meaning Christina had pulled back her arm for another swing.

The first blow still caught him off guard.

More a stroke than a real impact. A gentle brushing of fluffy strands over his shoulders and across the top of his back. Without leaving his skin, the tails slithered over his spine and passed his tail bone, gliding over his boxers and then his thighs and calves.

A shudder rippled through his body, following the path of the flogger.

‘That’s nice,’ he whispered.

A sound that might have been a smirk came from his near his left ear. ‘Good.’

The flogger came down again, across the backs of his thighs this time and Malcolm twitched against the frame.

The strikes continued in this fashion for a few minutes, light, teasing brushes, touches with long gaps in between that left his skin tingling in the cool air.

Then, just as he began to fall into the rhythm of it, the tails cracked down against his right shoulder, a stinging blow that made his eyes fly open. Before he could make a note of it, a matching impact cracked against his left shoulder. Then the right. Left again.

He moaned, twisting his wrists in the restraints as the strikes continued.

Not hard . . . they were no more than ‘fours’ on his self-generated scale, but they came so fast. With no recovery gap in between, the sensitivity climbed steadily.

Within six more strikes what was once a ‘four’ felt more like a ‘seven’ and he toyed with the idea of calling ‘almond.’

Before he could speak the flogger began to travel again. Down his body, teasing the skin all over his back with quick-fire strikes.

Malcolm allowed his forehead to rest on the padded slab before him. With his fists clenched, he gritted his teeth and tried to understand what he felt. Not pain exactly, though that was certainly part of it, but a curious blend of that mixed with something else he couldn’t pin point.

From the corner of his eye he saw the woman in the swing finally sit up. She kissed one of the three men clustered about her and hopped down. Though the men stayed close she paid no attention to them. Instead her gaze fixed on Malcolm. She smiled.

A particularly solid strike against his rear made him yelp like a spanked child. He jerked against the restraints, but could do no more than twist from side to side.

‘How you doing, Malcolm?’ Christina’s voice seemed to come from miles away, edged with laughter.

‘It’s good.’

And, strange though it was, he knew it was true. The heat began to spread through his body and the air, once cold, now formed a welcome respite to the heat in his skin. The impacts against his backside increased, even through the barrier of his boxers. Soon the gentle warmth became a burn.

‘Fuck,’ he whispered.

Then it stopped. All of it.

Hope you enjoyed that, guys. ^_^ If you want it, well you know what to do by now.

 

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IY: Mah Plans 09/02


goal shooting goals from open clip artWhat a weekend. -_-

Would it surprise you to hear that I’m ill again? No? Didn’t think so. Lots of coughing, spluttering, chesty coughs and sweats. Oh, and Sprog1 is ill too. *sigh* Temperature through the roof; spent all of yesterday with me on the sofa. I feel worse for him than I do for me.

And yet… when I’m ill, depending on the type of ill, I get mammoth amounts of work done. It’s insane, right?

Actions Last Week

Write 10k of the new novella ‘Dead or Alive’
14k. I should feel pleased about this but, instead, I’m scared. I should be two thirds of the way through the tale by now and instead I’m only half way. I won’t finish it in the week I have left, that’s for sure and it’s sprawled further than I wanted it to go. Kinda should have known.

Activities For The Week

Given the tightness of the schedule for ‘Dead or Alive’ I need to give time this week to doing what I can to get as close to the end as possible.

  • Write 10k of the new novella ‘Dead or Alive’
  • Send this month’s newsletter to subscribers
  • Contact Karen regarding ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ formating
  • Meet with Dave about ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ cover art

Thoughts…

It’s going to be a rough week. Not for the amount of work to get done, but for the fact that I might not manage it. I’m ill, Sprog1 is ill, DSB has her sister visiting until Wednesday. All of these things will affect writing time.

What I need to do, perhaps more than work my arse off, is be prepared for the fact that I might not get everything done. And allow myself to not feel guilty about it.

Ha… can you say miracle?

Though at this point, I’m so close with ‘Dead or Alive’ that I’m almost prepared to U-turn; if it isn’t finished before Feb 16, depending on how much there is left, I may get those words down before I start on ‘On A Knife Point.’

Phew! I’ll let you know next week. ^_^new ileandra signature,

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IY: A Writer’s Ego


I may have touched on this a while back but I wanted to talk about it again because I’m curious about it. Especially in myself. So this is a personal character study as much as a blog post to interest you fine readers. Sorry…

Ego. We all have one, on a small (or larger) level and as a writer, mine is larger than most. Not in a conceited and mean sort of way, but in a confident ‘hey-I-wrote-this-and-I-think-it’s-good-enough-that-other-people-might-want-to-pay-for-and-read-it sort of way. And we all have that. Or at least I hope we do… otherwise every single one of us is a literary and emotional masochist on some level. o.O

strutting cat meme

This cat… this cat KNOWS he’s bad-ass.

Queer thought.

So is it ego that keeps us doing what we do? And is this part of what sets us apart from mere mortals (:-p)? What is it in ourselves that we see and recognise that goads us to write and polish and publish? Especially now when the internet has opened the entire world in such a way that thousands of people can praise (or slam) your efforts without ever showing their faces?

And what happens when that ego gets bruised? Two weeks I talked about Angry Robot and the week after that I talked about Caladria and Fab Fables. Two very different projects/subjects, but both examples, I feel, of ego.

Fab Fables #1 Cover

YEY!

Yes, DSB is the one working on the Caladria gubbins, but you know how that works by now. So I feel it too and her successes are mine. That was an incredible boost to my ego; seeing that first issue go live and watching sales tick through (which is still happening by the way! ^_^). But Angry Robot’s (very kind and positive rejection) left me reeling for an entire weekend, mainly because nobody told me ‘Thanks, but no thanks’, for quite some time (‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ is a special case I suppose, but let’s gloss over that for now).

Is that ego? Is that just confidence? Or are the the same? Interchangeable? Or is it case of flying, blind narcissism brought abruptly back to earth?

On Wednesday I spent a good half hour talking about ‘Dead or Alive’, nattering non-stop because I was just so crazy excited about the words I’d produced. I was patting myself on the back over and over, for a particularly amusing line, which I’m still, even now, giggling over (sorry, I’m not gong to share it just yet, but just know it’s a good’un!). Ego? Or just relief at not producing dross?

-_-

So this post has been a lot of questions – sorry about that – but I’d love to know what you think about it all? Are us writerly types ego-maniacs, or just quietly confident in what we do, the same way a car salesman quotes his sales and satisfaction figures at a potential client?

What do you think?

what do you think, obama meme

Well?

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RS: I Haz Planz 05/02 & January 2015 Round Up


First Thursday in February! I’m not sure how the time managed to go so fast but things are getting done, make no mistake about that.

Did you enjoy this morning’s diversion by the way? Going forward, I’m hoping to have far more writers coming over to visit here. It’s going to be nice seeing what other people are getting up to and sharing in various successes.

Actions Last Weekblank calendar from OpenClipArt

~Finish the remaining third of last week’s Deep Edits on ‘Second Base’
Got it. Hard to really knuckle down and hammer at it, but I did it. Apparently, this section really, really needed some work. But now it’s done I can move on to…

~Complete Deep Edits on a further 12k words of ‘Second Base’ (which takes me to Cindy threatening to tear Dan a new one if he doesn’t tell her why Karen was so upset when she called).
This went much faster than the last chunk. I think, by this point, I must have known exactly what I wanted while drafting. It’s much cleaner and required less work. All good!

January 2015 Round Up

~Complete ‘Malcolm’ and have it selling on Amazon and Smashwords by the end of the month
Oops! I just forgot this. It’s ready. All I need to do is fine tune the formatting on the Smashwords file and it’s done. I could have released the Amazon edition last week. -_- Fail.

~Take part in the Breathless Press blog tour arranged for ‘Slippers & Chains: Sugar Dust’ and be available on all blogs to converse with readers (more details on the stops nearer the time)
Sorted. I have reports for any and all responses coming to my posts but so far it’s been fairly quiet. But I have stopped in regularly to see what’s going on. It’s a big, wide world out there!

~Issue the next chapter of ‘Raven’s Diary: The New Pet’ to newsletter subscribers
Done. Folk seem to be enjoying themselves.

~Reach the half way point of my Deep Edits for ‘Slippers & Chains: Second Base’
Done. In fact, as of the time of writing I’m three quarters of the way through. Just 13k more to go.

~Outline the next ‘Raven’s Diary’ serial in eight chunks (for May-December)
Nope. Didn’t even look at it and I kinda know why. I’ll talk about that below.

Change That Shit Up!

I’m having a similar problem to Ileandra in terms of goals and targets and having to change things up. I also know that I’m having to give a lot more time over to working on what’s actually out there and promoting new material. So… it’s time to change that shit up.

These are the new goals for 2015, with changes highlighted in red text.

  1. Complete the ebook versions of the ‘Meeting Each Other‘ series by February 10
  2. Have compilation ebook version of full ‘Meeting Each Other’ series complete and on sale by end of February
  3. Have physical paperback version of ‘Meeting Each Other’ series complete and for sale by end of March
  4. Edit ‘Slippers & Chains: Second Base’ in its entirety and send to Breathless Press
  5. Draft ‘Slippers & Chains Three’ (and give it a damn title!)
  6. Begin editing ‘Slippers & Chains Three’ (at least as far as a Kindle Read)
  7. Start the new ‘Raven’s Diary’ serial and have first ‘episodes’ ready to post/publish by May 2015
  8. Switch to a more manageable newsletter schedule of quarterly postings with bonuses for new releases

The Raven’s Diary serial needs to wait. Just like Ileandra was having issues in keeping newsletters relevant and interesting, so to am I. But at least I have some releases to talk about. But, realistically, drafting anything new, even to test drive on subscribers, just isn’t feasible.

Something’s gotta give. That’s the one.

Also, given Ileandra’s experience in getting proofs for ‘Silk Over Razor Blades‘, I doubt I’ll be able to complete all the formatting and and have the cover complete for the print version of ‘Meeting Each Other’ before March. I can get proofs ordered, but I might not see them until the end of the month! Plus, I need the formatting done before I get the dimensions and- ugh, details. Don’t worry about it. Just trust me; it has to wait.

Targets For February 2015

  1. Complete the ebook versions of the ‘Meeting Each Other’ series by ensuring that ‘Malcolm’ is on sale on Amazon and Smashwords by Feb 10
  2. Have compilation ebook version of ‘Meeting Each Other’ series complete and for sale by end of February
  3. Complete all Deep Edits on ‘Second Base’
  4. Transfer all edits on ‘Second Base’ back to the Scrivener file

Activities For This Week

  1. Finish Deep Edits on ‘Second Base’
  2. Format ‘Malcolm’ for Smashwords and release by February 10
  3. Approach Angie regarding full ‘Meeting Each Other’ cover art
  4. Complete Deep Edits on ‘When Vicki Met Malcolm’

Thoughts…

goal shooting goals from open clip artI’m pleased that so much is going on here. I’m pleased that my targets are flexible enough that I can morph them to fit realistic time frames. Again, to ape Ileandra I’m far more relaxed this year than I was last. Despite how much I have to get done. In fact, I’m so relaxed that I even went out for lunch yesterday. No work until I got home. Take a look at this bad boy:

Lunch at St Martins

Yes… this was my lunch. And it wasn’t ALL cake, just… mostly.

That was what I had for lunch yesterday. A special treat from my dear friend who is also on the Vicki & Lara cover! She takes good care of me, does Celine. Thanks babe. By the way… the Funk Master enjoyed his butterfly cake. 😉

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