Busy, Busy

The last few weeks, because of work and the holidays getting in the way, not to mention the weird weather we've been having lately, its been a bit difficult to get anything substantial on book 3 done. Like, seriously, this book is taking far too long to write.

A lot of that can be chalked up to my sleep schedule and work interfering with each other so that by the time i wake up for work, I've got really no time to do anything. And I'm usually too tired after I get home for much of anything coherent. It's a bit of a problem.

Thankfully, along side a bout of insomnia that's not letting me sleep at all the last few days, I've managed to get close to five chapters done in the last three days. So now, for a change, I'm actually progressing rather smoothly and quickly. It helps that there's been a bit of action in the writing, and that almost always goes well in general anyway.

Still, its a good sign. If I can manage to fix my sleep schedule to give me back the time before work, and get rid of this insomnia, I may be able to finish up this book, or at least the first draft, and move forward with what needs to be done.

Admittedly, the story has gone through a lot of changes already from what I'd initially intended. It had too. Something had to be toned down enough that I could write past the same spot over and over and over again. Like seriously, I've had to start over so many times. I am not doing that again. At least not in this book. I've gone too far, and put in too much work. I'll make it all work somehow.

I think.

Confidence :)

I've got quite a few plans moving forward anyway, and I'd really like to get started on them. But to do that, I need to finish what I'm working on right now. Got to progress the story, got to move the whole of the world forward. If I don't, nothing else is really going to matter all that much.

Very Productive

So far, this weekend has been very productive. Outside of a few bumps in the road during the week, I've actually managed get a hell of a lot done. A three chapter scene is done, and i can move on to the next part. The ball is definitely rolling along now.

Am honestly surprised that this particular scene went this long. Was expecting a chapter, maybe two, but things just kept going and going and going. Not in a bad way. it's an action type scene, and they do tend to fill up rather quickly. And I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out. It's a good way to amp up the threat of the antagonists and show just how dangerous the situation really is.

 Plus it gives a good bit of reasoning behind some of the backstory in the world. Kinda explains just why things are the way they are sorta thing. Always got to fit in some world building when you can. It helps flesh out the world and it makes the story better when you're able to understand the why of it all. Why things happen, why characters look at things the way they do. Plus it does kind of illustrate why Heaven found herself in the position she was in for so many years as well.

That's always a good thing. Builds up the world, threads out plot points here and there, and gives me ideas for the future that I can work with. Even if I wasn't initially planning on taking the story or characters (Heaven especially) in a certain direction. It's all a neverending work in progress. And that's a good thing.

At least I think so.

Pushing Past

I don't know why this story is giving me so many problems. It's fighting me, and I'm really not sure how to handle it. Haven't ever had this much problem writing something. Every step of the way it seems I'm running into something that's getting in the way. Not just r/l interrupting things, though that has been an issue. Hard to write much when you can't seem to get enough sleep.

It's more than that though. I got past the first trouble spot, though I will have to go over it all again later, but something just seems off about it all. Not sure what it is, or even how to correct it. Best thing i can think of is to try and power through it and maybe get some insight when the first draft is finished. Not sure though.

I'm really struggling with this, and I'm at a loss on how to fix it.

Silver lining though, I am managing to actually get some work done. Actually quite a bit written down today, but its just tooth and nail every step of the way. Will have to see how it all comes out in the end. I like how it's looking so far, but it's just getting it out in the first place that seems to be the problem.

I dunno, I foresee a lot of heavy edits when I get to that point. At this rate though, that's going to take forever to get to. Maybe I just got all caught up in how easy the first two came to me. Probably doesn't help that the first two , and quite a few after that come to think of it, have been rolling around in my head for years. This is entirely new.

I just had to feel the need to slip something in to change things up. Alter the timeline so to speak. And now I gotta deal with everything that goes along with that. Lucky me.

I'll figure it out. Even if it kills me. though I really hope it doesn't. Even still, what a way to go, huh.

Forward, always Forward

It's taken me a while to fully get back into the swing of things. Outside of somehow catching the flu during the holiday, I seem to keep running into a wall with this one. It's actually kind of aggravating how this keeps happening. I don't think I've ever had this much difficulty writing before. And all of it comes down to the interaction between two characters.

I've thought about removing the character from this story entirely, but the problem with that is, if I do that, the whole story would end up following after her. This character is integral to the story, and the overarching story so she's kind of important. Problem comes in with having to deal with her interactions with Heaven. Which isn't getting any easier.

I do think I'm getting past the bump finally though. A lot of it has to do with initial feelings and preconceptions. Which is draining as all hell to write, but once I can work my way past this and get over the speed-bump, then everything else will eventually fall into place and everything will start coming together like it should. Just got to get to the top and then everything (as far as this point is concerned) is downhill from there so to speak.

Just gotta get to that point. And that's taking quite a bit of time. Sad part it, I'm gonna have to go through all of this all over again when I get finished and start going back chapter by chapter to edit and rewrite. that's a ways off so I can kinda ignore that for now. But it's gonna be there waiting for me.

Gotta keep at it though. Do NOT want to have to start all over for a fourth or fifth time. That will just make everything take longer and I'll never get out of the "slump". I think it's actually going better though. just gotta keep focused and keep myself pushing forward. That's the key.

Work In Progress

It's taken a while, but I think I'm finally back in the swing of things.This was a very productive weekend for my writing. I think I've finally managed to get past the block that was holding everything up.

Thankfully it wasn't anything like writers block. that would have made everything a lot worse. No, this was just something that kept getting in the way of the story moving forward, and I think I've finally, after four rewrites, found a way to get around it. I just had to change up a few things, actually a lot of things, but I think this way it actually makes the whole story and how it effects everything a lot better.

I hope so anyways.

I'm finally past that part though, and tomorrow I can start on progressing the story farther than I've been able to thus far. Hopefully the ball will get rolling again and I can speed things along and get back on track. That's the hope anyway.

I honestly didn't think that writing this type of emotion was going to cause that much of a problem. Unfortunately, for the characters that are involved, there's no way around it. It has to be done. I just have to be able to write it in a  way that doesn't throw a wall in front of the whole story. i do think I've got it though, and with a few tweaks going forward, I shouldn't run into the problem any more. At least that's the plan anyway.

I tried taking the whole thing out, and not writing it at all, but honestly, its a necessary part. It's what would logically occur so not having it in just seems forced to me. Trying to make the characters do something that they wouldn't actually do never works when I write. Don't know why.

Not that it's a bad thing exactly, it just makes things more difficult and causes way more time to be spent on certain aspects than i'd prefer. Oh well, I guess that's just how it goes.

3rd Rewrite

Working on the 3rd full rewrite right now. It's aggravating. To have to toss away so much work and restart as many times as I have so far, is making it difficult to get any progress done. Not quite sure what the problem is, but I keep getting to a certain point, and it all just seems to stop.

It's not writers block, not by any stretch of the imagination. It's more like reaching a point where the story is starting to go off in a direction and with a feel that I don't want it too. Part of it has to do with certain character interactions and reactions to said interaction. It starts to bog down and get overwhelming to the point where continuing on with the path its on is no longer tenable.

That's not good. I'm looking on the bright side though, and taking it as a learning experience. Each new successive draft gets easier and easier to start writing on, and I'm getting better at avoiding the same pitfalls I've been falling into. Hopefully this will work out all for the best in the end. Though, kind of hard to tell from where I'm at right now.

But, I've got a full weekend to get as far as I can, and I plan on taking full advantage of it. So far so good. We'll have to see how far I get and how the story progresses.

I know what has to be done, and where I need to go, just getting through all the stuff that keeps getting in the way is the issue. But, I think I've got a good handle on it. Just have to keep at it and keep plugging away. This is a very difficult book so far, but I think It'll all turn out for the best. Gotta keep at it, and keep positive.

That's the only way to go.

Slow and Steady

This is taking me a lot longer than it should, and I'm not sure of the reasoning behind it. I'm not stuck at the same spot I was last time, and the writing is actually starting to go a lot faster now that I've had to go back and start all over, but something still seems off and I can't quite put my finger on it.

Every time I start to write, I get this feeling of almost dread I want to say, coming over me. Like I know what's coming and I don't want to get into it. It's making it difficult to proceed any further. I know I'm not going to get caught up in the same trap that got me doing a full rewrite this early, but that doesn't seem to be stopping the feeling from rearing up and getting in the way.

Very annoying. Especially since the actual writing is actually coming out a lot better than what I had down on paper previously. Which, when you think of that part, makes no sense why I'd be apprehensive about going forward.

Hopefully it's just a phase that I need to work through. The important part is getting to work, keeping to the schedule and not letting whatever the hell this is distract or interrupt the process. Because aside form that, I'm really liking what I'm getting down on paper so far. I think it's turning out nicely, and I know where and how to avoid the pitfalls that dragged everything down last time. So that shouldn't be a problem.

Plus I've got plenty of coffee so that helps.

Book three is starting out very action intensive, and that's actually pretty easy and very quick to write normally. I just need to make sure everything flows together like it's supposed to. Having to constantly stop and put letters in the correct order aside, I'm making a lot of progress. It's not as fast as it usually is, but still not all that slow either. It's steady.

Probably won't be getting this one out as fast as the last too, but speed isn't a goal, the story is. So that's what i have to focus on. Getting the story out and told in the way that I'm happy and satisfied with it. So far so good. Just have to push through this little voice in the back of my head is all.

Stupid voice, go bother someone else.

First Rewrite

There were just to many problems I was having with this draft of the new novel for me to work my way around. The whole thing just wasn't coming out how I wanted it, and no matter how much I tried, for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to fix it all. It was going to be more than just a few changes here and there.

The whole tone just seemed to be off to me. It wasn't what I wanted. So, in order to fix everything, I did something I've resisted for about a week now, even though I knew this is what was going to end up happening anyway. I've scrapped the whole thing.

Well, let me revise that a bit, I kept the prologue, because that came out fine. Everything else though, had to go. I think most of the issue was, that the tone I wanted with a certain character, went a little to far. And once I got into it, it changed how everything else was being written. It actually got to the point where the interactions i wanted to have, that I actually need to have for this story weren't going to be possible.Just a little bit overboard turned into full blown spiraling descent.

Not what I intended. The good thing is, I get a fresh start at everything, and not everything that I wrote couldn't be salvaged. I'll end up probably using a lot of it, just re-written to fit better in with what I envision in my mind.  Everything is going to play out in the same order, and mostly in the same way, but the tone is going to be a bit different. It needs to be if I'm going to get anywhere and if I want to avoid the same problem.

I hate writing myself into a corner. That's never any good.

And this is nothing new. I had to do something very similar with Nightwalker. I got to a certain point and it just didn't feel right. So I went back and redid the whole thing. Thankfully, I wasn't as far into this novel as I was into Nightwalker when I started over. Still, losing twelve chapters and a few weeks of work is a bit upsetting.

The hope is however, that something better will come out of all of this. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes. That's the hope anyways. It could go very wrong, but it also could go very right. It all depends on how I approach things.

And truthfully, the more you write, the better it gets anyway. Usually. We'll see how it goes with this one. It's actually flowing a lot better already. That's always a good sign.

Progress

I'm managing to get in some good writing time so far this weekend. I got past the chapter that was taking me so long. Though it does seem like I'm going to probably have to do a lot of work on that chapter once I get to the revision and editing stage. I'm not altogether sure about the chapter as a whole as of yet, so I pressed on and figure I'll go back over it later.

The important thing is to get back into the swing of writing on a consistent schedule. And being able to write something worth being put down on paper for that matter. It's a good thing that I've got a lot of coffee with me.

That being said, I'm just over 21k into the next entry into City of Angels. Already i can tell this one is going to be another one that is going to be over 100k when it's all said and done. That's fine. Aside from apparently being on the low end of any sort of Paranormal/Urban Fantasy writing anyway, if it fits with how the story needs to be, then so be it. At least as far as I'm concerned.

And this one is gonna take a bit. There seems to be a lot of emotion going on in this one. At least so far anyway. Poor Heaven is being put through it again so far. Not in any sort of physical sense, though that's bound to come later, but more of an emotional sort of way. She's got to deal with something that's disrupting everything she thought her life was. So there is that. The physical stuff is going to come later.

There is going to be a few parts with a certain black panther after all. That should be fun. Though I know at least one character who isn't going to enjoy that all that much.

Actually, i'm pretty sure that there is going to be a lot of physical violence. Though I'm not to sure how much of it Heaven is going to get herself fully involved with. She has grown a little bit, especially in Cherubim, as far as physical violence goes, but I'm not sure she's going to be ready enough for whats coming up. I may have to keep her out of some of it, which would fit both where the character is and where the story is going. I'm not too sure though.

What I do know is that the world is expanding by quite a bit so far. That's a good thing. Got a lot of nice little threads that I can pull on here and there. And some things that will help with the companion series and the trilogy I'm planning on adding at some point. Not sure when all this will happen, but it will at some point.

I have a whole interconnected set series planned. How much of that will happen I don't know, but some of it definitely will. I just have to get everything all sorted first. Not only that, I have to get this book finished before I can even think about starting something else. Don't want to be getting ahead of myself after all. But it's good to keep things in mind for later.

That's what notes are for.

Got two chapters done today, and I think it's time to take at least a little bit of a break. May go back later and add more, or change a few things here and there. But that's for later. For now, I'm rather pleased with my progress.

Mental Tangent

Writing is still going a little slower than I really would like it to go. Problem is, with my wake/sleep schedule as messed up as it has been, the writing I've been able to get out has been little more than fragmented mush. And that's never any good.

 But, I think I've got a pretty good handle on getting that all fixed. I did manage to get about 2500 words written down on page tonight. Which is good, because I've been working on that chapter for a few days now. And I'm still going to have to go back probably tomorrow and change a few things up that aren't really sitting all that well with me. 

I'm thinking, and hoping, that when the weekend comes around I'll be able to get back into the full swing of things and at least make an attempt to catch up a little and get some good writing sessions in. That's the plan anyways. Whether it works or not is another story entirely.

 What I have gotten down, is actually pretty good I think. Getting into some expanding of the world. At least a little bit. A few hints dropped here and there about the rest of the world and how things are everywhere outside of LA as far as supernaturals go. That's always good. And it fits in with the main plot of the story, so that's a plus as well. 

I've also gotten a few ideas for other things that may or may not show up at some point in later stories. I tend to do that when I'm writing. I'll get something down on paper, pause and think about the far reaching implications of some innocuous piece of information, and come up with another thread that I can pull on at a later date. I don't know if I'll ever use it, but it'll be there sitting in the back of my head just in case anyway. That's just how things work sometimes. Mental tangents.

Insomnia Strikes Back

I'm starting to realize how difficult it is to get any writing done when you're battling with insomnia. I've been working on two chapters the entire weekend, and haven't gotten much, if anything done at all.

Ok, strike that. I've actually gotten a chapter and a half done, but it's nowhere near where I should be. Not after four days in any case. This has been a very unproductive weekend. And if I can't fix this sleeping problem soon, this is going to take me forever to finish.

Normally I'd think, more time awake means more time to write. Which would be true if anything I was able to write when I'm exhausted as I am was going to be salvageable. I've already had to go over what I've written this weekend a few times to correct and revise parts of it. Trying to write while you're zoning out is definitely not a good idea. I'd like to have something legible down on paper, not some sleep deprived ramblings. That's just a personal preference there. Takes a little bit too long and a little too much work to go and fix everything after the delirium has passed.

Hopefully though I can get all this sorted out before too long. It's been about 2 weeks now as it is, and its making getting and writing done a major chore.

The story itself is progressing, albeit slowly. I can already see a few changes I'm going to need to make when I go back through for the second pass, but for now I have to put that thinking out of my mind so I can concentrate on just getting everything out.

So far there's been a lot of emotion and confusion from Heaven. Only about 50 or so pages in and she's already conflicted by the wrench I threw at her. I know I said I was gonna take it a little easier on her this time around, and give her a little bit of a break, but I still need to do something. so instead of what she's previously been going through, she gets to experience a little emotional issues. Not to much, but it'll be good for her development overall I think.

She thinks her life is going one way, and then this big ol' wrench smacks her in the back of the head and turns it all upside down.  I can almost feel her glaring at me up off the page. In my defense, it was going to happen eventually down the line, but I think breaking the whole scenario up into separate parts is going to not only make things easier to write, bit make it easier and more enjoyable to read.

I'll have to see. Something that sounds good when I'm sleep deprived might not sound so good later on. Lot of work left to do.

The Outside World

It's been really slow going as of late. With the outside world continually conspiring to get in my way, I haven't been able to get much work on the new novel done. About two weeks into the whole process, and I'm staring at 40 pages written. That's it. Just 40 lonely little pages. Most days I've just been to exhausted to be able to write coherently. That's not a good sign.

Add onto that, the few moments of peace I have to start writing, I find myself going back over what I've already written to see where exactly I left off, and I end up having to go back and revise a few things here and there before I even get started on new content. Everything just seems to be off for some reason.

It'll pass though. This is just a little rough patch I have to get over. I've got a great story rolling around in my head, I just have to be able to get it out. That may take having the outside world settle down a little before I can fully get into the swing of things, but I'll get there.

The important thing, is to even if its only a few hundred words and not my usual writing amount, is to get something down. To keep writing. Keep trucking along and keep to my writing schedule the best I can. I can't give up, can't let things get in the way. It may take a little while longer than my usual speed, but that's OK. I'll get there in my own time.

Besides, I'm having a lot of fun, and enjoying being able to put my writing out there for the world to see and enjoy. Well, hopefully they like it. I do.

Back to work. Want to get at least a little more down tonight so I can set things up a little more. This is probably going to be a very involved story. We'll see how it goes.

Beginning Again

The first two chapters of the first draft are complete. It took me a little bit to get the rhythm going again, but I think I managed. After I went back and read through both chapters again, I can already see some spots I'm going to have to flesh out a little more at some point. But that's going to have to wait until later when I have a little more of an idea of what I'm working with as far as the story goes.

That being said, I think I'm going to go with a working title of Nemesis. It fits in with what the central theme of the story is going to be about, and it just kinda sounds cool all on its own anyway.It's giving me some cover ideas to go along with it as well. Which I may have to wait on until I'm certain of the overall direction I'll want to cover to go into.

But, two chapters in, and already a fight scene between Sasha and another wolf. That's the scene that I may have to flesh out a little more. Just because there are some elements I'm going to want to be sure to highlight. Not just for the story, but for future reference and world building reasons as well.

World building is really important to me. The modern world with supernaturals introduced to it, and I think I've mentioned this before, would have a lot of changes. Most of the world we'd be able to recognize, but a lot of it would be so dramatically different from what we're used to. Just the introduction of werewolves and other shapeshifters would alter military history and how wars are fought just on its own. Then when you start adding other supernatural elements all out in the open to it, a lot of other things are bound to change.

A lot of it is going to be background stuff. Finding where certain elements are going to be able to naturally and logically fit into the world. Since the series is so far taking place in the United States, it's already been established that until the mid 1800's, people thought that shapeshifters and vampires were more of a European problem, and not something they had to worry about. It helps set up that, unlike in White Wolf type settings, the supernaturals aren't like some shadowy figures manipulating the world from behind the scenes. And there is actually an in world reason for why that doesn't/hasn't happened to any large extent.

I'm actually fiddling around with the prospect of having the supernatural world have some influence, to what extent I'm not sure, over the two World Wars, I'm just not sure how much of an influence. Some factions in real world WW2 were heavily involved in occult and the supernatural, so that would fit. I just need to decided how they would all fit in with a world that not only knows these types of creatures exist, but has been struggling against them for most of recorded history in one form or another.

The good thing about Nemesis, is that a large portion of the backdrop, is about how one particular group of supernaturals fits into the world, and the role they play on the world stage. Well, the supernatural world stage anyway. And it all should tie into the overarching theme of the series as a whole. That's the intent anyway.

For now, everything seems to be going good and moving along smoothly. Let's keep this going shall we.

Back To Work

With Cherubim out for reviews and available on Amazon, Smashwords, and a few other places already, it's time to be getting back into the swing of things and get back to work. Can't let up and slack off. That's one thing I've learned is you got to keep at it and keep continually writing. Got to keep to the same writing schedule.

I did take a few days off just to rest up and take care of a few things for Cherubim, still not happy with how the thumbnail for the Paperback is turning out on Amazon, but now it's time to jump right back in on the next book in the series.

Which actually isn't going to be too difficult to do. I've been steadily working on a plan, and an outline for the next in the City of Angels series. I've even written up the bare bones beginning of the story prologue. So things are well on their way.

The good thing is, I've got so much of the overall arc of the series all planned and mapped out, that all I'm having to do is figure out where to put all the pieces. Plus I've got maybe a trilogy thats going to come up that I've been steadily planning out, and maybe a secondary series set in the same world that might end up being kind of a companion series to City of Angels. Not quite sure yet what I'm going to do or where I'm going to go with that.

It's definitely going to be a smaller scale than what's planned out for City of Angels, at least more contained. But we'll see how it all goes.

For now I have to finish up outlining what I want for the next story. I've got several new characters I have to work out, not to mention the protagonists and the overall goals. So it's going to take a little bit before I'm actually starting the writing process itself and putting the story out on paper. Should be a good one though.

I've been toying around with cover ideas, just to see what looks good and what I want the overall theme to be. I don't think it will be as dark as Cherubim, but there is going to be some violence in there. Plus, there are a few other things I need to touch on relationship wise with some of the characters. Not sure how much in depth that's going to be, but I'll get there when I get there. Some ramifications and consequences need to be addressed here and there. Nothing to major as of yet, but we'll see.

Sneak Preview

Ok, outside of another quality pass through, the edits and revisions for Cherubim are finally completed. I actually stayed up all night to finish out the last few chapters, but I got it done.

As I expected though, the last few chapters had to be heavily revised to change how a certain character was presented and finally dealt with in the end. It took a lot of work, and the scenes actually left me feeling a bit drained in the end. It was a tough scene to properly write out, let alone get it where I wanted it to be. I think it worked out well, but we'll have to see how it all turns out when all is said and done.

That being said, apparently I didn't completely mess up the cover file, was just a collapsed frame that was making it look like all the layers were all smooshed together. That was a relief. I still had to redo it, because Cherubim clocks out at 370 Pages, and over 105k words. That's quite a bit larger than Nightwalker was. Granted Nightwalker has a larger format, so the page count is going to be higher in Cherubim. But it's still over 30k longer just in story regardless.

I think Nightwalker was just over 71k, so with this next installment it's like I added a whole other half to the word count. But, the story required it, and it's actually not that much in the grand scheme of things. A lot went on in this story. And now it's time to do all the behind the scenes work that goes into publishing.

That may take a little while longer. But we'll see how it goes. For now, here is a look at the new and improved cover.

Almost There

It was a busy night tonight. I got almost eight chapters of editing and revisions done and I'm that much closer to being finished with this phase of work. Problem is, the next chapters are going to be a bit more involved, and are going to take quite a bit of work to get through.

These last chapters are the ones that are going to need the most revising as far as some of the characters are concerned.I think I've gotten the previous chapters fixed up so that it's all going to lead up to where I want it character-wise, but I'll have to do another once over afterward just to make sure.

But, everything is getting really close. Unfortunately I'm going to have to go back and redo the cover. Somehow I messed some things up (flattened the entire image for some reason and saved it)  and it might not be suitable for how many pages Cherubim is now anyway. It's at well over 85k words and 357 pages. So I may need to adjust some things.

Shouldn't take too long to redo the cover, I already have a good starting point with how I want it. Maybe a few tweaks and adjustments are going to be necessary, but overall I already know how it should look so it's not going to be too much of a problem.

That's a bit far into the future though. For now, I just have to keep grinding along with this phase of the project and finish this part up before I can move on to anything else. It's looking good so far though, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Revision Weekend

Four chapters down, twelve more to go.

Now that it's the weekend, I'm able to spend more time going through Cherubim with the edits and revisions it needs. I just passed the halfway mark as far as chapter count goes, so I do have a little more to go in getting all of this reworked and up to as high of a standard as I can reasonably get it. It's going slowly, but it's getting there.

I'm hoping that by the end of this weekend I'm going to have a big chunk of it carved out and finished. Hopefully sometime next week, all 353 pages are going to be completed and I'll be able to start the line by line check just to be sure there aren't any errors I've missed. I really don't want to have to go back after everything is all said and done, and I'm working on the next project, and fix errors I missed after the fact like I've had to do with Nightwalker. That's just a pain is what that is.

As far as what I've got ahead of me, I have several big sections that I'm going to need to flesh out a bit more and revise to include things that have changed since I wrote it initially. I know one of the protagonists is going to have to be altered a bit more, which will change a few scenes going forward, but it needs to be done. The way the ending changed from what I initially had in mind necessitates going back and doing quite a bit of tweaking. Trying to get this character to be a little more sympathetic even if they are going against the main characters.

Good villains always have good reasons for doing what they do.

I've actually been adding a few lines here and there during the revisions to add to the world building. I have a lot of things in mind for it, because quite frankly, a world that is inhabited by supernatural creatures like vampires and shapeshifters, while on the whole it may be similar, and have similar events throughout history, its going to have some changes to it.

I don't want to go the White Wolf route and have vampires be behind the scenes responsible for all the bad stuff in the world, that just doesn't seem to fit with whats already been established anyways. But there are a few things in history, especially US history that can be altered slightly to have certain supernatural influences ADDED to them. Not being the cause of whatever portion of history I'm talking about, but being enhanced by it so to speak. Certain incidents may have actually been shortened by the presence of supernaturals, other things might have been made longer.

I'm going to have to go with a case by case basis in all of that. I know certain things in history and the modern world have/are going to change, just because certain characters are effected by it. I may leave it at that sort of thing. Don't know yet.

It's going good so far though.

Slow going

It's been pretty slow going as of late. I have managed to get a lot of work done, but other things keep getting in the way.

I had to go back and review Nightwalker, there were a few issues that had to be fixed, which took some time. But I think I got them all sorted out. At least until the next time I notice something wrong and have to go through the whole process all over again.

Unfortunately that means it had to be re-uploaded to Amazon for them to go back through and review, which for the Kindle version shouldn't take to long, but the print copy is going to take a little bit of time.

That's ok, it's going to give me more time to work on Cherubim and get this all sorted out. I'm on Chapter Thirteen, editing and revising twenty something more chapters is going to take a bit to do, especially with my work schedule, but I can handle it. Slowly but surely.

On another note, I've been jotting down notes for the next book, thinking of things I want to add, little conversation pieces and the like. I think I'm starting to formulate a pretty good idea of what I want the story to be and how to get to the ending I want.Problem is going to come in with the fact that this isn't a story I've written down before. Least not in its entirety. Certain elements are going to be gleaned from previous handwritten notebooks, but not to much. So this is pretty much uncharted territory.

I've also got some other ideas percolating here and there in my head. I'm thinking a spin-off trilogy that's going to take place in another part of the country, that has to wait until another book is out to set the scene for it. That's going to take a while. I think it might be a good idea to show Vampire society from within, and from the perspective of a single house, rather than how other characters are viewing it from the outside. Probably going to be something very political in that regard. Not sure yet.

The second spin-off I can actually do anytime. And this one I'm probably going to work on at some point. Just have to get a good jumping off point to go from. This one will involve how humanity reacts to and perceives the supernaturals from a law enforcement kind of perspective. Not sure how that's going to go, but it's already filling my head with lots of ideas. Probably going to be mystery/supernatural crime driven sort of thing. But I won't know fully until I get there.

Until then, lots more work on editing and revising Cherubim to go before I can get started on anything else. I am really enjoying the whole process though. As aggravating as it can be.

Seven down, twenty five to go.

Three chapters done today. I started with chapter 5, then figured, well the next two chapters all kind of tie in together and I don't want to start working on one or two of them, lose my train of thought and end up editing chapter 7 with a different mindset going into it. Plus, well it kind of ties up the first few incidents in Cherubim. They were relatively simple edits and revisions anyways. Mostly to do with clarifications and the flow of the chapters.

Is good to get them out of the way because I glanced over Chapter 8, and that alone is going to take some time. Looking over my little list of notes, there is a lot of work I'm going to have to do on this chapter. I have to add a few things, change how certain events, characters are portrayed, and maybe plant a few seeds for later use here and there.

Chapters 9 and 10 are, probably going to be a pain in the ass as well. Again, things happening later have an impact so some small revisions are going to be needed, but at the same time its two chapters of internal conflicts and in a few spots I'm going to have to shift the tone a little. A few parts have to be softened, a few others need to be hardened. I have to make sure it all fits in with what I'm going for in those scenes.

All three of the next chapters are probably going to be somewhat draining to get through, but I'm sure I can handle it. May have to only do one chapter at a time, take a break and maybe work on the next. Not sure yet. At worst its going to take a few days to get through this next section. At best, maybe I can get most of it done in a single session.

Will have to see when I get there.

Editing/Revision in full swing.

It's been a few days, but I have managed to actually get some work done in spite of a minor injury that took me out of things for a few days. Editing from the prologue all the way through Chapter Four of Cherubim is now complete. Only twenty-eight more to go.

I actually somewhat enjoy this part of the process. Not the going line by line to make sure that there aren't words there that aren't supposed to be. It's actually kind of aggravating how often all the spelling and grammar checks I use will skip over a word that is spelled correctly, but isn't the one that is supposed to be there. Quite often the S from she gets removed or just not put there in the first place, when it's supposed to have been there, and it gets a pass because it's a technically correctly spelled word.

Really hammers in the point of going line by line in a manuscript to check for those sorts of things.

Plus, when I read everything back, it gives me the opportunity to change a word here and there, remove or alter phrasing I've used, and even to completely delete or add whole paragraphs to flesh things out or make them more concise.

This is actually an important part of the whole process. Reading everything back gives me the opportunity to make sure how a passage reads, is how I intended it to read when I wrote it. Often enough I find a spot or two that while I may have known what I meant when I was writing it, it wasn't really clear about what the intent was to someone reading it who isn't inside my deranged imagination. So I have to go back and make sure anyone else reading it is going to be able to understand what I was going for.

That's the theory anyway.

It is moving along smoothly though, and at a good enough pace for me to be satisfied with my progress in this phase. I figure it I can go through 2-3 chapters a day, and I may have to make sure I limit myself to that just to give my poor addled brain a rest, I should make pretty good time getting through this phase of the writing process.

On another note, the next book that I initially had in mind, a story that when I was still writing everything down in notebooks went next, may have to wait a little while before I can get to it. As is usual for me, when I let my mind wander a little bit the other day, a few random scenes popped into my head and planted the seeds of another story that will actually do a lot of world building, while at the same time move the overarching story forward in a bit of a different direction.

So, as I've got it planned out right now we've got Nightwalker and Flavius' arrival (kind of setting up the whole scene so to speak), then Cherubim and which is planting a lot of plot seeds. The next one was supposed to involve a bit of history coming back to haunt the Supernatural community, and take place outside of Los Angeles (which may or may not spawn its own spinoff trilogy, haven't decided yet). That story is what was supposed to go next in the series. It's not going to anymore. That will probably be Number 4

In its place, I think I'm going to write something that I haven't actually all plotted out years ago and add a bit of a backstory to why certain things in the world are the way they are. Plus introduce a character a little early for a one shot before they are fully introduced some time later. I have a tentative title in mind, just not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. We'll see how it goes.

For now, still got lots of work on Cherubim to go through. Yay me.

Revisions Day One

The First Draft of Cherubim is finally finished. It took me a bit longer than I expected, but then again it is about  thirty or so thousand words longer than Nightwalker was when it was finished. And now its time to start thinking about revisions and editing. Which is going to take quite a while I'm thinking. Not as long as the original draft, but a fair amount of time is going to be needed.

The ending changed significantly from what I had in mind originally. So, that's going to mean having to go back and re-thread certain elements into a whole lot of the earlier parts of the story just to make everything fit nicely together. The most significant part is going to be having to revise how one of the character is portrayed. The new ending changed the character just enough to require going back over the parts she is in and tweaking how she's represented.

I think it's going to make for a better character, and may end up changing two other characters as well. There's already some ground work for at least one of them all laid out already, so that won't take as much work. But enough that it's going to present some challenges.

And it all starts with the prologue. the prologue, which I've heard some people don't like for some reason or another, is where the character at the end is kind of introduced. It sets the theme up so to speak, so i have to be careful with the revisions so that I don't' disrupt how I want the whole thing to feel.

Thankfully, the prologue spills kinda roundabout into the first chapter. So I can make the fixes to the character early on. It makes the list of changes I need to make a little easier to manage.

That's one of the things I've noticed about how I write. The further along in the story I get, the more things need to be altered slightly here and there to previous chapters to fit in with the idea I'm going for. It means the story is almost constantly evolving, and until the very end, I'm never really sure how the whole thing is going to completely turn out. Oh I have a general idea, but its the little details that tend to change more often than not.

A conversation in a later chapter will often cause me to go back to re-evaluated or change/expand on something in the earlier chapters. Which can lead to going back to where i was originally and altering that a little bit here and there etc, etc. Problem I run into from time to time is getting into a never ending loop. So I have to force myself to back off or I'll be editing and revising forever and the book will never get done.

Got to avoid that just one more syndrome.

Tonight was a productive night in the editing and revising. Going through the prologue and the first chapter, I caught a few mistakes I'd missed previously, and managed to hit on the character interactions I needed to tinker with at the same time. So far so good.

Got a lot more to go. Thirty Two chapters in fact. It's going to take me a while I'm guessing. But I have the weekend coming up so I should be able to get a nice chunk finished over the weekend. Maybe.

We'll see.

Coming to the End.

It's been a long road so far, but I'm coming up on the last few chapters of CHERUBIM. The ending has taken a turn I really wasn't expecting, but for the most part it's all falling into place how I want it. The fun part is going to come after the first draft is all written out and I get to go back and start tinkering with things here and there while I go through the editing and revision phase.

There are quite a few things I'm going to have to go back and touch up once I'm done here. Most of which have to do with the fact that developments later in the book, that I wasn't aware of or didn't think of when I started writing, have to be matched up with previous chapters so that everything is going to be nice and cohesive. I have a few notes to work off of, and a few things I want to clarify here and there as well.

Part of my writing process usually involves writing out a chapter, and then sometime later while I'm doing other things, adaptations and revisions will often pop into my head sometimes days after i wrote the original. A lot of times these are little bits of conversation, or details that I then have to make sure I go back and add into things.

Last night for example, after i finished up the chapter I was working on and headed off to work, I started thinking about how everything in the story was going to effect certain characters in the long run. Add that with there are a few shattered preconceptions certain characters had about others and a few ideas hit me. But since I wasn't at home, I had to jot them down as little notes that I could use later on when I was home.

If the events in this book are going to have a lasting effect on the characters, which, if I want character growth long term they have to, I figured I would need something that could serve as a callback to previous book int he future. Something that can bring back a memory and evoke some emotion later on down the road.

That's the plan anyways. It's going to take a little bit more tinkering to fit my idea in with the rest of what's already written, but even though it's probably going to be somewhat time consuming, it is a relatively minor and innocuous change. One that will hopefully have some payout in the future.

I'll have to wait and see for that though. I think it'll turn out nicely, and CHERUBIM already has some future threads being spun out there anyways. Lots of things to work with.

Two, maybe three more chapters to go and I should be good to go.

The Endgame

I'm very close to the endgame here now. I just finished Chapter Twenty Nine of CHERUBIM, and it's already topping out almost 20k words longer than NIGHTWALKER. I'm not sure how much longer this is going to take though. I'm at the end of my weekend writing schedule with the workweek coming up, and I'm figuring maybe 4-5 more chapters are going to be necessary to finish up the story. Maybe one more than that to wrap things up a little, I'm not sure yet.

But it's in the final phase of the first draft, and that's a good thing. I may take a few days after I get finished with this first phase to just let everything sit so that I can tackle the editing and revision phase all fresh and bright eyed so to speak.

Besides that, I'm waiting on the review copies I sent out to come back so I can see how well NIGHTWALKER is being received. I put a lot of work into it, and I'm curious to see if I should have kept it all to myself like I've done with all my previous writing. Have only sold a handful of copies, but that's ok. As long as I can say I sold at least one I get to keep the title of Author. I think that's how that works. I might be wrong on that.

According to Booksprout, I have til next Sunday to get at least 3 reviews. Good or bad I'll take them as long as they're honest and aren't troll reviews. It would kind of suck to have the only reviews I get be along the lines of "you suck!"

I mean lets be honest, I already think that about my writing, so other people telling me that isn't really going to bother me all that much, but it will aggravate the hell out of me knowing that's the only thing that came to mind after they read it.

Oh well, can only wait and see.

256 Page Mark

I'm now onto Chapter Twenty Six of CHERUBIM, and the story is just about to hit the final phase. The big climactic ending is coming. Or, at least, what I hope is going to be a big and climactic ending anyway.

This is very likely to be a very long multi-chapter scene that I'm actually going to have to plan out a little bit. That's probably going to take up a good portion of the next writing session is just planning out where I want to go and how I want to get there. I have quite a few ideas, but I'm not sure what I'm going to fully do as of yet. But it will be helpful in getting a rough idea of the flow of things.

I generally don't do much of an outline before I start writing. It's more of a bare bones type of approach where I just map out the very basics of this is the main plot, this is the villain, I want the story to start here, end here and maybe put in a few scenes in between that I know have to/want to put into the story. Then I just basically start writing and go from there and see how everything fits together when it comes out.

I really don't map out scenes, I like letting them flow out, then go back and tinker with them afterwards, but this time it's going to include a lot of people so I have to be sure I'm able to keep track of who and what is where. Plus there's this particular part I'm going to need to have written, so I'm going to need to make sure everything is kind of working around and with that part of the scene. It's kind of integral to the plot and how everything all has been building too and working from. So it is kind of necessary.

Other than that, we are steadily moving into the endgame. Should be fun, and hopefully it turns out how I want it to. I'd hate to have to do a major rewrite when I'm so close to the end of the first part of the process.

Nightwalker Cover update

I did a little bit of tweaking on the cover of Nightwalker after a conversation I had last night. There's an old saying about judging a book by its cover that is unfortunately very true in the publishing industry.

While the original cover wasn't bad per se, it was a bit too simplistic. And with the changes I've been doing with the cover for Cherubim, I'd like to have a nice even theme going for the series on how they look outwardly.

The cover is the first thing people see when they look at a book, and its what they use to judge whether they want to pick it up and look more closely at it or not. So its always good to put your best foot forward so to speak. Plus, this is going to help unify the overarching look of the series as a whole.

It's not a complete change, but it does look different, and better in my opinion. I've already gotten a little bit more interest since uploading the new cover, so we'll have to see where this goes.

Looks good though.

Heading into the Finale

I'm coming into the final stretch here. it was another light day, but I managed to actually get things set up for the next chapter where we can start the final push towards the end. I'm thinking this next part is going to take a few chapters just to set the final scene, and get everyone in place where I want them to be.

I'm pretty sure the finale for CHERUBIM is going to be pretty long, there is a lot of things that I'm going to have to get through to close out the story while keeping other things open, and possibly opening up new threads.

Well, there are a few threads that are purposely going to be unanswered, because I'm going to need them to lead somewhere sometime down the road. I'm just not sure when that is going to be. But i do have a plan in mind, and an overarching plot is starting to take form. At least in my head anyways. That's probably going to be a long ways away however.

In the meantime, I've been steadily working and sending out review copies of NIGHTWALKER, while I've been busily setting up other things on the back end to keep this whole thing moving forward. Who knew how much work behind the scenes all of this was going to be. It's worth it though, and for now I'm enjoying the process. Whether it gets anywhere or not is anyone's guess.

But i'll have all night to plan things and roll things over in my head. I think I've got the beginnings in my head for something I want to do with Heaven. I want her to grow and evolve, but I don't want it to be too fast or too forced. She's gotta improve herself naturally. Any other way just wont look right, and will probably screw something else up in the end.

On another note, I think I've pretty much finalized the new cover. We'll see how it looks later on.May need a few more tweaks, but I can worry about that later. So much to do.

Light Day

It was a light day today. It took me far longer than it should have to finishing up just a single chapter today, but I did finally get something done. I feel it was necessary to deal with and finish up the fallout from a few chapters earlier. I'm not sure how far this is going to go, but I have to start getting things set up for the next few chapters, and the final act of CHERUBIM.

I hit almost 70k with this chapter, and I've still got quite a ways to go. Book II is definitely going to be a bit longer than NIGHTWALKER is. This is actually a pretty good thing in my opinion. I'm getting back into the flow of writing and the story that's coming out is showing it. Hopefully I'm improving in my writing too.

Only time will tell on that part, but I'd like to think my writing skills are improving even if it's only a bit by bit. I'm also improving the cover for CHERUBIM too, I think I've gotten a pretty good feel for the novel cover, and I may have just a little bit of tinkering to do on it still, but I think all in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how it all turned out.

Things are coming together, and it's almost time to start the next phase of the novel writing process. But that's for a later date, as I've some work left to do on the first draft before I can continue on. Still, the project is coming together better than I expected.

Dream Sequence

I decided to go ahead and try out the dream sequence that I've been mulling over for a few chapters now. And I've gotta say, so far it turned out pretty good. I think I captured just the right amount of creepy mixed in with a bit of illusion and mind control. Plus, when added on to the other two chapters I managed to get through in the last 24 hours, I think it adds a nice little bit of character development for two of the three antagonists in the story.

And I think I'm slowly but surely getting into the endgame now. At least for the first run through draft in any case. As I'm writing, I'm still making notations about what has to be revised earlier in the story, and what changes the plans I have for later chapters. The first part is going to have to wait until everything is all said and done. The second part, well that's a work in progress.

Poor little Heaven though, is still going through a lot. Reminds me of something I read a long time ago about writing good characters and good stories. Pick a character, then beat them up, put them through hell, and beat them up some more.

A good story is about how the characters deal with the situations that are thrown at them. Reminds me of one of Mercedes Lackey's characters from her Last Herald Mage series. Boy did she beat the living hell out of Vanyel over and over again. Now I'm not doing that much to Heaven, but she's still being put through a lot of psychological torment. As I write, she seems to be dealing with it well enough, don't want to leave any lasting damage that I can't eventually repair after all. The finale is going to cause her enough pain emotionally as it is. May have to dial that back some, or give a particular burden to someone else instead. Haven't quite decided yet. Will have to see how it all feels when I get to that part.

If I do put Heaven through that last little bit of torment, I may have to give her a little break next time through. Don't want to break the little kitty. I'm not that mean.

Still working on the other side of this whole writing thing. Working on everything behind the curtains waiting for a few reviews of NIGHTWALKER I put in for to come through, and hopefully all the work I've been doing will pay off. It's slow going, but that's kinda how it goes with this sorta thing. Got to just keep at it.

Midway Point

I managed to get 2.5 chapters done today, passed the 60k mark, and I think I'm just a little bit past the midway point in the story. Maybe a little further than that, I'm not altogether sure yet. I'm going to have to wait and see what develops as I continue writing.

I do know the current scene I'm on is going to be at least one more chapter, maybe two more so I've still got a ways to go on it before I'm finished. Then after that I may go into the dream sequence part, but the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking I may just leave that part out. Still not 100% set on it either way, and I am wavering back and forth. I'm just wondering what it would add to the story if I put it in, or what the story would be missing if I left it out.

What I've got in mind for the dream sequence might bring a bit more tension into the story, and create a bit more of a need for quick action, but I'm just not sure about it still. If anything, I may just write it out separately and see how it works out before I make my final decision. I mean, if I do it right, it'll come off as all nasty and creepy, and that's what I want. That would mean though having to do a lot of adjusting to the parts that would come after it to make the whole thing fit. So, not entirely sure yet.

I got a lot of work done, and I'm pretty happy with it so far. As I get further into the story I see parts that are going to have to be revised, cut, or added to from previous chapters. But that's later down the road. Still got a lot going on before i get to that point, so outside of making notes here and there, I'm not worrying about it much.

Poor Heaven though, she's growing and evolving, but I'm putting her through quite a lot in CHERUBIM. I may have to give her a break soon. Maybe not in this story, but maybe the next one. Who knows.

Moving Forward

I had a few false starts in my writing sessions tonight. I managed to finish up Chapter Fifteen, but it took a while to get started on Sixteen. I kept having to delete and restart over and over again. It all came down to trying to make up my mind on how I wanted the chapter to start, and more importantly who I wanted the chapter to start with. 

I went through a few ideas, one of which is a dream sequence, that i think I'm going to use a little bit later if I can manage to figure out how to go on from there. But I did manage to get it all sorted out, and it's probably going to change a bit when I go through the revision process, but the important thing is to get the words down on paper. Metaphorically since I'm on a computer of course. 

Chapter Sixteen is a little bit of the fallout from the previous chapters, and a bit of character building with the new werewolves that have been added to Flavius' repertoire in this book. It's just a small pack, but I think they're going to be very important to the story moving forward in this book and beyond. I'm really liking how the Alpha female is turning out so far. Hopefully that continues. 

The next part I'm going to have to deal with more vampires and all their politics than just Flavius and Seraph. Hopefully I can manage to work through it well enough that it adds to the story , and does a bit of world building rather than just being filler. But i have high hopes for what I've got in mind. I'll have to see how it all turns out though. 

On another note, I got myself a new tool, a new add-on for Open Office that I've used a little bit on the first chapter, and it looks like its going to be really handy and very helpful during the revision process. Might make things go a bit smoother anyways. That's my hope. And hopefully it helps me evolve and improve as a writer regardless.

Already up to 51k words so far, and maybe 1/3 of the way through. Maybe a bit more. this is actually going really well. I'm really proud of it so far. 

Three Chapter Scene

So, it's looking at this scene that I'm working on it going to be over three chapters long. That's three chapters just for the action, and probably going to end up with at least another chapter added on for the aftermath. There's a few casualties in this one, so that's going to have to be dealt with in some fashion before I can move on and continue with the next part of the story.

And I'm remembering that this is just the first run through, the first draft of CHERUBIM, and when I go through it a second time in revision and editing phase, it's probably going to grow a little bit more when I add some things, remove other sections, and flesh the details out a bit more. Right now I'm just going with the flow and getting everything out, then I gotta go back around and make everything a bit more presentable.

How that's going to turn out, I don't know yet, and it may end up looking very different than I have it right now. As it is, this section of CHERUBIM is pretty violent and bloody. I may end up lessening or expanding that aspect depending on what I do with what precedes this section. Don't know yet. Will have to look into it when I get to that point in the writing process.

On another note, I'm going to have to go over and redo everything I have, or thought i had, all planned out for the cover. With the formatting change, mainly because I thought the dimensions of the NIGHTWALKER paperback were a little off to me, it takes revisions. The cover was going off the notion that the book was a certain size, and now that I've made that a bit smaller, the cover dimensions change. So that's going to be fun.

Can't really just resize it, because that would just make everything all messy. Going to probably have to redo the whole thing. But i'm sure I'll figure something out.

Going and going.

Chapter Fourteen of CHERUBIM is well on its way. A pretty violent and bloody little scene if I do say so myself. Still got quite a lot to go on it still, and unfortunately, no time left tonight to finish it up. The need to pay bills means I have to set everything aside for now, and come back at it tomorrow all fresh and ready.

Hopefully anyways.

I did get my paperback copies of NIGHTWALKER today. Not quite what I expected. They turned out great. The cover looks all glossy and neat looking, doesn't seem to be any print errors. But, for 197 pages, its a bit thin and at 6x9, definitely not what I was expecting. So I'm having to make some adjustments to CHERUBIM's formatting, particularly the font size and all that, to make it presentable for a smaller 5x8 which is more the size I was expecting from a paperback.

Oh well.

It's still a really good feeling being able to hold my own book in my hands though. This is gonna be with me the whole rest of the night.

Progress, is Progress

Now that the weekend is over, once again my writing time for the week is going to be limited due to having to go and do my night job. That's OK. I' think I've made quite a bit of progress today. I've got the stage set up for whats probably going to be a 2-3 chapter action type scene.  And that's not even going to be the last of the action scenes or anywhere near to the climax of the story of CHERUBIM

I've actually got something in mind for a dream-like sequence that may, or may not make it into the book. It's an idea that I may try out and see if it works. It might be a good idea, but then again, it may not fit in with everything else I have going or have got planned.

Heaven is at least being a bit more proactive this time around, and I hope that's going to be some character growth that moves forward with her. Admittedly though, I like how Heaven is right now, and don't want to change her and her personality to much. Get her out of her fear of everything, definitely, change to much of her playful personality, nah I think I'll keep that part.

On the plus side, I think I'm getting the cover of CHERUBIM looking pretty good. It needs a bit more refinement, but I still got plenty of time for that. It's looking good though. I'm even getting ideas for the next in the series too.

Which, by the way, CHERUBIM is giving me ideas to go off of for the next book. I've already got a basic idea of what's going to happen going forward, but I'm having to wait until after I'm done with CHERUBIM to move forward with that. Things in this book, are definitely going to change circumstances that will lead to the next book. It's going to change a lot for the secondary plot I got an idea for at the very least.

It's going to be a fun ride one way or another.

On a side note, been selling a few copies of the Kindle edition, and got quite a few copies out for review, so hopefully that will turn into something good. Let's hope so anyways.

Drama Out The Way

I think I've finally gotten a hold of the necessary drama that needed to be dealt with the last few chapters. As bad as it seemed initially going in, I think it's going to end up moving the story in a good direction. It forced a character to do something they normally wouldn't do, because of the fallout from said drama. Which is going to lead to some very interesting scenes coming up next.

Which, if i planned this out right, is going to involve quite a bit of action, lots of blood, and more than likely a whole lot of fire. So that'll be interesting. CHERUBIM is going really good so far, and is turning out better than expected. I am so not complaining about that.

That being said, I've got quite a few review copies out, so i can add at least some editorial reviews to the book details for NIGHTWALKER. And quite a few other people have picked up copies as well to read, and hopefully be inspired to give reviews and/or critiques.

It actually feels pretty good knowing that people are picking up, reading, and hopefully enjoying what I've written. I know though, can't please everyone, so I'm just taking everything as it comes. But so far so good.

Still waiting on the paperback copies to arrive. Hopefully sometime this week between TUES -THURS. That would be good. Be able to hold a physical copy of all of my work in my hands, and be able to feel the pages. That's going to be a good feeling. And something I've always wanted to be able to do.

As always though, one step at a time.

When Characters Don't Play Nice Together.

Chapter Nine of CHERUBIM is done for now. Took a lot longer than I expected or wanted it to, and I'll still probably have to go back and do a bit of revisions when I get to that step. I wanted to move past everything between Kore and Flavius, but then I realized, that's not going to happen. I'm going to need to deal with a little bit of fallout, so that's turning into Chapter Ten.

I probably should have envisioned Kore being a little more sensible, her stubbornness is becoming a real pain to deal with. But it's part of who she is, and at least as far as CHERUBIM is concerned, it's going to lead to a better narrative because it's giving me the perfect opportunity for Heaven to grow as a character. But still, it is a pain to have to write. Fun, in its own twisted way, but difficult.

True, I could change the characters to fit the story, but then it becomes forced. It's more natural for the characters to dictate how the story unfolds. Within reason anyways. And sometimes, doing that gives opportunities that you hadn't really thought of until they flew out and smacked you in the face.

Chapter Ten is about halfway done, and it's looking like it's going to lead into the next chapter going in a direction I hadn't thought of. Which is a good thing. It's going to pick things up quite a bit, and force some choices on a few characters. Whether they make good choices I don't know yet, I'll get there when I get there. Either way, it'll probably make for a good story.

Can't have everything going right all the time anyways.

On top of that, I'm trying to work on and settle on how the cover is going to look. Not sure if I like any of the ideas so far, but that is coming along nicely. It's fine for right now, still got a whole hell of a lot of time before its needed, but it's good to have an idea of how things are going to look.

We'll see.

Character Issues

Still find myself going through Chapters 7 and 8 and doing a bit of fiddling with them here and there. I keep having to go back and revise little bits of them because while I'm doing other things, little thoughts and ideas appear in my head and I have to go back and see if they're going to fit in , or actually work with what I have so far, and with what I have planned in the future.

What it's doing is making it very slow going in progressing any farther into the story than I'm already at. And it's becoming a little bit of a problem. I'm going to have to force myself to stop, and move on with the story. If I have to go back later during the editing/revision phase, then I'll do that. But i can't be letting all this impede and progress on the story itself.

So Chapters 1-8 are being put aside for the time being, and I am going to focus on Chapter 9 and past that. Which may prove to be its own problem. What I initially intended to be a simple conversation between Flavius and Kore about Heaven, is apparently going to end up being a little bit more involved and heated than I foresaw. I'm not sure if I want to go that route or not. The incident that spawned it is part of the main plot, but the fallout so to speak is more of a continuing the overall storyline of what I have in mind for the series, rather than a specific plot point. So I'm not sure about keeping it, or saving it for later.

Problem I have, is that Event A, has to effect Event B, and so on and so forth. If I want everything to logically fit together, the character reactions have to be taken into account. And yeah, I could alter the characters to fit the story, but that never works out for me. I much prefer the characters, and how they see things, what they do, changing the story and the world around them. It seems more natural and realistic that way. At least to me.

The characters have evolved and grown from what I first envisioned them, and I know them all, even ones not even mentioned yet, enough to know how they are going to react to certain situations. This causes issues when I want something for the story, that the characters themselves aren't going to cooperate with. So I have to make adjustments here and there to get around that.

I could for example, have Kore instantly trust Flavius and everything he does. It would just mean completely changing her character into something recognizable. Her mistrust of vampires, and Flavius specifically, is a part of who she is. And something hopefully I can get her to grow out of organically. Otherwise, it just feels forced to me.

Characters have to do what is in character for them. Even if it means more work for me trying to figure out how to make it all work. Flipping a switch on a character and making them suddenly ok with something they shouldn't logically be ok with, is just lazy.

Always gotta do things the hard way.

Insomnia Strikes Back

Haven't gotten a lot done today. Spent most of the morning trying to sleep before I gave up. So I got up and tried to do a little bit of writing, ended up going back and doing some light revisions on CHERUBIM. It's going to take me a long while to get things done at this rate.

On the bright side, I'll have the next three days after tonight to get some serious writing done. Hopefully I'll be able to do some serious writing.

27K down, who knows how much more to go.

Revisions

So, while I was working last night, I was going over what I'd written so far in Chapter Eight in my head, and it struck me that I already needed to clean some things up. Actually I have to clean up a few things perspective wise in a few of the previously written chapters, and I'll most likely have to go through the whole thing again at some point.

When I began writing CHERUBIM, I had an idea for a single perspective narrative, that now that I think about it , and now that I've started writing, probably isn't going to work. So I'm going to have to change some things up here and there to make it fit in better, and read better. It's really a real big pain is what it is.

Making changes right in the middle of writing, added to the decreased amount of time I have available to write is slowing things down quite a bit. I did manage to clean up and finish Chapter Eight, but that's about as far as I've been able to go tonight. At this rate, this book is going to take forever to finish.

But I look at it this way, I'm getting a pretty good rhythm down, and while it may seem slow to me, it may actually work out for the best as far as writing quality goes. So it may be a good thing. We'll have to see when how things go in the long run. I may have to change things up here and there.

So far, so good.

Editing

I did manage to run through Chapter Six of CHERUBIM. Turns out it wasn't as bad as I had initially thought last night, but it's still going to take some work when I get into the editing process later down the road. But I'll worry about that later.

Right now I'm just getting  focused on making sure the story is progressing how I want it too. I don't make outlines all that much anymore, because, well I tend not to stick to them. Like at all. An idea will often pop into my head, that i think will make things more interesting, or better in some way, and I add it in, and it changes everything else that is going to come after it.

For example, working on Chapter Seven today, and I remembered that this would be the second incident at the Armory in as many months. Realistically, that can't be very good as far as the Authorities go. So I got two options, ignore it and just pretend its either all swept under the rug and no one notices, or deal with it and have Supernatural Affairs show up and be all angry.

I guess I could do it all off-screen so to speak, but that just seems like a cop out to me. I can do better than that. And it will let me introduce some concepts into the story that were in NIGHTWALKER but not really fleshed out.

It might be fun, but will have to see how it turns out. I may just end up scrapping the whole thing, but I hope I'm not going to have to. But who knows. It may work out perfectly. But this is why I don't use timelines. Planning to far ahead with my writing never seems to work out for me.

Sleepy Chapter Six

Chapter Six of CHERUBIM is done in its first draft. I'm probably going to have to go back before I continue on, and do a whole lot of rewriting. I'm really not sure if I like what came out. It might be that I was tired when I started, and that didn't get any better as I was writing it. So the chances are I'm going to have to go back and do a massive rewrite sometime after I wake up before work.

That's going to be a lot of fun. But it's got to be done before I can move on and continue on writing the book. I need to be satisfied that Chapter Six is at least good enough for a first draft. Maybe I'll feel better about it when I get some sleep and am able to look at it with a pair of fresh eyes. Either way, i still got a lot of work to do, and my writing time is going to be more limited than it has been these last 10 days since my vacation is going to officially be over tonight.

Lots to do, but am still feeling good about the whole thing.

Chapter Five is done

Due to a little bit of a bout of insomnia, I've actually managed to get quite a bit of writing done today. Chapter Five of the first Draft of CHERUBIM is done and in the tank so to speak. I was a little leery of writing this part at first though.

I'm generally not a fan of writing any intimate type of scenes, just because a lot of times they feel gratuitous and not really needed for the story. But for the two characters involved, I felt it needed to be written in there, and I think it came out pretty good. I'll most likely revising a whole lot of it, but it's looking pretty good where it's at so far. We'll have to see when I get the rest of the story down on paper and make sure it fits in with everything else.

I usually don't think I'm very good at writing that sort of thing anyway. I've been told differently by other people before, but when it's in my head, it's in my head. I've got to learn to , not ignore that voice, but take it with a large grain of salt. There's always the chance i'm going to be too critical of myself and my work like I usually am, and that's never a good thing.

On an unrelated note, Amazon apparently thinks City of Angels, the series title, should be spelled City of Angeles. Which, I highly disagree with. So now I'm finding myself having to wait while the novel details of NIGHTWALKER get changed to how they should be. Why it's taking their system so long to change one little word when everything else has already been accepted is beyond me, but that's how it goes I guess.

i think i fight fiddle with the cover idea I have for CHERUBIM a little bit more.

Nightwalker Paperback.

It has been a successful day. Outside of getting a lot of writing done, the paperback edition of NIGHTWALKER is finally ready to go and is available to buy. I'm actually very proud of myself for going through all of that. It's a big step for me.

Now if I could just get the thing to be linked up to the Kindle Edition, and put on my author page everything will be perfect. This is a really big day for me, and I can't believe how excited I am right now. Getting even a single of the who knows how many books I've written on notebooks in print is kinda overwhelming right now.

Wow.

But that doesn't mean I get to just stop. gotta keep on writing, keep on going. CHERUBIM is going really quickly right now. Which is good because I'm on the last stretch of my vacation so my writing will end up slowing down just a bit. Not to much though, I think I've worked out a pretty good schedule for things. I just have to keep at it and hopefully not get burned out by things.

Yeah that's so not gonna happen.

Once I get started writing its hard for me to actually stop. So, lets keep this ball rolling shall we.

Cherubim First Draft

The first draft of CHERUBIM is going pretty well I think. Already working through the first three chapters while I deal with the paperback of NIGHTWALKER. Apparently there were some issued with the title page. That should be sorted out by now however. At least I hope so.

But like i said CHERUBIM is going really well. Got the short prologue knocked out with a nice little scene that sets up  the mood and basic premise of the story I think. Already had a gunfight and a car chase in the first chapter.

I think this one is going to be a bit more action and blood than NIGHTWALKER, but we'll have to see how it goes. The easy part is that I can hear my characters conversations and their personalities, so its making things a lot easier to put down on paper. A lot of it may not last once I get into the rewrite phase, but I'll worry about that later.

Back to work, back to trying to make sure NIGHTWALKER is fully published on paperback.

Debut Novel

NIGHTWALKER, my debut published novel, is now waiting on Amazon to finish up its review process for the paperback version of the book. I'm actually pretty excited about this whole process. I've been writing for most of my life, mostly in old spiral notebooks, but I just haven't been ready to go down the whole actually get something published path.

NIGHTWALKER is 297 Pages and over 71k words,of me put down on paper. I'm nervous, worried, and excited all at the same time. Just one step at a time.

I'm taking a big leap here, but I'm feeling pretty good about how everything has turned out so far. I've already gotten one chapter done on the next book in the series CHERUBIM. It's going good so far. Let's hope it stays that way.