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Shinelle first draft: Chapter One

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Sliding down the banister had gotten more fun the more families Shinelle’s mother found on her trips. They each got their own floor, you see, so the banister got exactly eight feet longer with each move in. Another family was on it’s way. A note had put on the message board from Shinelle’s mother just that morning, and her aunt had added the floor accordingly. It was stretching her magic pretty far, but she hadn’t reached her limit yet as powerful as she was. Shinelle decided she was going to slide down the whole thing, just once, before she’d go and change the forest around the hideout that day. Before her mother returned and she wasn’t allowed to. As she ran up the stairs she passed dozens of the pixie families they’d rescued from the brownies trying to eradicate them. Approaching a hundred now. As she slid down she saw nothing but a colorful blur. Wind blew her hair around her face and threw her laughter in circles as she wound faster and faster down the spiral steps. The dizzin...
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The Vault: Banka and the Bitch

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 Today we're taking a stroll into the vault. On a warmup exercise I got a little carried away with. Banka and the Bitch Night Walker I couldn’t sleep again. Sitting by the window wasn’t helping, and the soldier enforcing curfew wasn’t leaving the street. The same one that had been on this street for months now. Since I’d been caught going to the convenience store down the street. He kept looking over at me watching him patrol. Even with all my lights off, he’d seen me there enough he could make eye contact. Something needed to change. Since the merpeople had sent their armies to dominate the land like they’d dominated the sea it was a whole new life. I just wanted a coffee. An idea popped into my head. It felt crazy, but wasn’t explicitly against the rules so I wouldn’t be seriously punished if I tried it. I hoped. I slid my window open and called out, “Hey soldier man! Come here. Please.” I knew the please sounded like the afterthought it was. Still, he came up the yard and leaned...
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Voice Dev

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 This week's post is going to be about It's Complicated, the announced next major project on this site. It's also including this subtle indicator that I'm working on other things too so while this is my active project, my actual next book might be something else. I was going to do that smoother. That's just not happening this week. Neither is a longer post. Because we have the flu at my house and I'd rather learn how to drive a motorcycle by doing donuts on a busy highway in a snowstorm that work right now. Whew. Now that's out of the way, I think I've finally nailed down the voices of my POV characters. I'm going to put them here. It's the same scene, but from the different POVs. Moira POV After being in several rounds on the fae mats, I was at least as surprised as everyone else I was still alive. While I wasn’t the only human sent to die off there, but I was the only one who made it through. Now I had to go through the tunnel back to the huma...
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I May Have Forgotten This Website Exists...

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 Dear Readers, Today you will learn something about me that I don't really talk about. I mention it to people when it's relevant, but other than that it's my little secret.  Before I tell you that, let me tell you this. My secret doesn't excuse me. It doesn't mean I think I'm blameless in any situation that arises due to it. It's just the reason it happened. I have an executive function disability. Part of it is that I cannot control when I remember things. It's not unusual for me to forget people exist, if I have work or not, whether my children are at my parents house or school, if I've eaten in the last who knows how long, even if I have things I use daily at home.  What does that mean, and why am I telling you? It means that muscle memory is the only reliable memory I have. What that means for you is that occasionally I'll forget this site exists. This time around it's because I've had my phone in Do Not Disturb and forgot to make sur...
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Can You See Me?

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Oh God I hope not...but since you're here I guess I'll have to deal. Seriously though, why does it feel like this knowing people are perceiving me and my work? Even if it's good attention it's too much attention. Don't look at me. Don't read my work. Don't acknowledge that we both exist. I got my first book review recently. It took a long time to actually read it, despite being a five star review from a writer I'm friends with. Despite knowing he isn't going to yank my chain in the review and that he himself is a good author.  Even as I was squealing over the rave review, I was slightly nauseous.  What are artists who don't want to be known supposed to do? I haven't figured it out yet. Because most artists want people to experience and connect with what they create, but people knowing it came from you is a completely different experience. This affects me strongly and I'm not even shy! There's something about making something and showi...
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From the Vault: Beast World. Like so much of it.

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 Every writer has a vault of abandoned projects, practice documents, and half formed ideas. Loose scenes and interesting dreams they wrote out so they don't forget the ideas. I've decided I'm going to be sharing mine instead of letting it rot.  This is one of my favorites. It was a fever dream, I'd been watching a lot of fantasy dramas at the time, and once I started I just kind of kept going. I have taken some of it out because it was LONG and I might need to dip into this brain dump for another post one day. It's not lazy, it's taking advantage of the resources I have. Enjoy the brain dump of the story I like to call Beast World (and please suggest better titles). Purely out of my boredom I decided to test something. I picked up a tiny cup from the tea set on a table, and threw it out the open window. It went through, even though I’d bounced back when I tried jumping out. Interesting, what else would go through? ‘What do you think you are doing?” The immortal ...
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Announcement: NEW PROJECT ALERT

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As some of you may know my ebook Shinelle just came out. ( Buy pls ) That doesn't mean the work is over, it just means it's time to work on something else. It's my favorite part of the writing process. It's new project time! I posted about this specific project when I was first inspired to create this world. There is one story coming out of the Vault. With no further ado...I present It's Complicated as my next book! The reasons for picking this project can be found in the latter half of my post last week . This is where I'm going to update you on how things are developing. I've sat down and done some outlining. My outlines tend to be more like a list of chapter summaries.  This gives me the freedom to try out every idea, see what doesn't fit, develop character arcs, and plan out my challenges. All without having to worry about actually writing the story.  Now I started setting this up last week. This part of the process means a lot of changes. Since thi...
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