What's Next?

Honestly, throwing this together because I tried and failed to have PMC Spoilery Things Pt 5 done before today. So you're getting a little update into my life and the MANY projects that are currently on the table.

This week, I'm going to go visit my mom. Last year, my sister decided to take her and the rest of my close family across the country and I've been suffering for it since. I miss my mommy!!! I mean, I miss the littles too. (My sister and I talk weekly, so I don't have to miss her as much. But she does give damn good hugs...)

Anyway, I now have roughly 6 hours in which to write non-stop. (I rarely hook up to wifi at the airport, much less the plane, so now I'm downloading spotify playlists.) Therefore, I'm trying to figure out which of the dozens of projects I should work on.

To be fair, I know which ones I should work on, but I'm a mood writer and sometimes it just doesn't hit right. I'm also taking a book to read with me (which will probably happen in the airport, since I rarely pull my laptop out except on the plane itself).

Anywho, here are the options:

Option 1: The Bird & The Butterfly

Book 1 of the Birds & Butterflies series, this one has been written before. And again. And again. And now again! It's gone through several rewrites but none of them have felt quite right. I do hope this is the final pass. Why? Because it's the only one I've allowed myself to write like it's the first time: no word limits or pacing pressure. My books are slow. They require thought and attention to detail to truly enjoy. They're not action-packed and my pacing can sometimes be absolutely dreadful. Which was why the first two rewrites suffered: I lost the heart of the story. This time, I'm taking things slow and I'm packing it with as much detail as I want. Why? Because you can't edit a blank page, but you can trim the fat off the juiciest of steaks.

A brief synopsis and a quote for you:

Princess Auraina of Marsei may not live to be Queen. Until her eighteenth birthday, her father rules as King Regent in Auryn, while Auraina holds her own court in the south. The land is divided between father and daughter until the day of her coronation. Unless her half-brother, Prince Hathen, is able to fulfill the threats he levies against her. To thwart his assassins, Auraina needs to find a new kind of protection.

A hunter of the mountains, Sage takes unnecessary risks with her life in order to feel alive. When the offer comes to work beside the princess, it is a chance she will not pass up. Suited to the role through appearance and shared magick, Sage’s ambition will form her into the perfect double in imperfect times.

Bound together, the two women must trust one another completely. Only then will they learn that not every enemy is so close to home.

A bird is born to its wings. A butterfly must transform to earn its own.

Option 2: Demon Kin: The Lovers

This is the one I really should be focused on. After all, I already have it printed in my other books! I legit make it seem like it's available, and it's not even done yet. Like, dude, get your shit together!

That said, it's both difficult and easy to write this one. Which means, I hope, that it won't see too many rewrites or edits. I'm writing this one with care, so that I'm not constantly reworking things. The problem with that is that the inital draft takes longer. That's just how it is. Anyway, here's your blurb and snippet:

Before the Queen emerged, Noa Belin was a nomad. In the two years following the Crisis, however, she’s once more made Fading her home. After one fateful night in a bar, she’s beginning to question whether or not that was the right decision.

Musician is a member of the Artists, an elite strike team Fading uses to capture, kill, or interrogate demons. Two years ago, he thought he was a dead man. Then a Wife with a bullet in her mouth and a mean streak saved him from certain death. He fell half in love with her then and there. After two years, he finally gets a chance to thank her. But letting her go this time is not an option.

As a new, intense romance flares between the two, they set about putting the rest of their lives in order. Until the past comes to call. There’s a movement in the east determined to eradicate the FTA Wives and all they stand for. In response, the Queen calls on the Artists to help set things right. She also places Noa in charge of their future, and leaves her with an impossible choice.

Respect her lover and honor her commitments to the next generation of Demon Wives, or charge in with guns blazing?

Option 3: Metaphysical Attachment

This is a fun one I've been working on for a couple of years now. Started as a NaNo project that was going to be a New Adult college contemporary novel with some magick undertones. Right before I started it, I decided that I wanted a lot of video game kind of vibes. So I made a world where the moonlight isn't silver, it's blue. The ocean isn't blue, it's purple. And the clouds aren't white; they're pink. The college became a University of Magick inside of a towering castle situated on a beach, perched atop cliffs, framed in by a river, and beside a waterfall that stretches into the mists. I love everything about it. Of course, I just had to come up with a whole story and world to go along with it. So here we go:

Isolde Sterling has spent her entire life hiding in plain sight. Biding her time as a maintenance working at Gladden University of Magick, she hones her talents as a vessel while letting the rest of the world believe her to be hollow.

A lie that has settled into her bones so deeply, she no longer feels constricted by it.

Until the day she’s caught by the one person she can’t afford to know about her.

Cáel Blackwell isn’t just any other student at Gladden. He’s a Legendary scion, set to inherit his father’s place on the Tribunal. A fact he’s kept hidden throughout most of his college experience.

With their secrets hanging between them, the choice to trust each other is harder than going their separate ways. They do it anyway. And with each day that passes, their future looks harder to bear.

To have the future she deserves, Isolde will have to lay down the lie. To have the future she wants, she can never claim her birthright.

Anyway, those are the options and it's past time for me to be in bed. Big day!