Citron is an arsonist. He likes to see things (not people) burn. He is also a gawky teenager who works to pay the rent for his aged parents, while trying to act cool around his coworkers. He dresses sharp. And he's employed by the mob. He's got plenty to fear, like keeping his fragile world together for as long as possible.
Lesser fears?
Girls. It's not like he can talk about his hobby or his job or comic books with them.
Well, not exactly. His boss is around his age, though a heck of a lot more mature. She especially likes how he can be all business and turn off his ego. She's incredibly cool, like that time she handled the constables that had been tipped off about their evening delivery. Best of all, she likes his talent. (Spoilers: It's magic.) Calls him her power-pyro.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 10 Nbr 10 — Do you revise and add more plot if you feel your story is too short?
Inklings was supposed to be a sudden fiction story, but 800 words proved insufficient to express a shy person's predicament with attraction. Adding more words developed the characters to where I could see a further ending, first to where they might misinterpret themselves into bed, and then again to where the love interest's past breaks into the present and the MC has to save his life with her magic. Now I see an epilogue, too.
Yes. Each change required a revision and backfilling earlier parts to create foreshadowing. This allowed me to add more plot.
Was it because it was too short?
Um... except for the 800 words in the beginning, well... dunno.
I don't understand writing something using AI tools. For me writing is fun because of the entire process. From coming up with an idea to writing, rewriting, and editing it. AI takes the fun out of creativity.
#WritersCoffeeClub
How do you select ideas from all the ones floating around?
My stories usually come when some person, or an image of them, an action they're doing, a location they're in, etc, gets stuck in my head. Usually there's a strong emotional feel attached. My new book, for instance, started when I was dozing away one morning and in my head a woman woke up next to a dead body and said, "Oh, no. Not again." That made me sit up.
Wintereyes, the MC, is kind and considerate, and really wants to help, but when it comes to love she thinks like the wolves she's lived with over a decade. They don't have the concept. The closest is companionship and sex, which misses the point. Learning the concept of love is one of the many reasons Her Highness is forcing Wintereyes to live around people.
Caramello, the SC, fell in love a couple years ago. He knows that if he to return her interest in him, she'd be caught up in the succession war he's living in exile to avoid. The women since then have been substitutes. Wintereyes, however...
Wintereyes doesn't realize she could discover human love. Caramello doesn't realize that his dangerous past might learn about his present because of Wintereyes' kindness.
None of this bodes well for either romance novella character.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 10 Nbr 09 — How do you select ideas from all the ones floating around?
I require a character I can relate, to with an agenda to fulfill and a problem to solve. If that generates an ending I can write toward, it's "Tag yo it!"
Sadly, I sometimes write without an ending. Those rarely end well.
#WordWeavers 2406.09 — Who has the best meals in your story?
The main character's first non-vegetarian meal was crab cakes. Her marathon trainer insisted she needed more protein in her diet. Since then, her diet has been more like a day angel's than her own kind, which is a problem because day angels live on the top of buildings and any good day angel restaurant is going to be a rooftop restaurant. Her day angel friends and team mates fly her up to the best fish and chips places. I think she eats pretty tasty food, both sky and earth cuisines.
You'd think her antagonist would have the best meals, since in the worst case she could choose takeaway delivered from ten different worlds. (Okay, all but one of the colonies are non-earth-like planets, but still.) Problem is she prefers dessert. Not a meal.
Spent most of the day in "waiting mode". Which makes it very hard to actually do something productive.
I did get groceries and some dye for tie-dying shirts (which I also ordered). Planning to make some nice tank-tops for summer that are not plain white.
Didn't write. Did edit, at least. And played Valheim. Getting a little frustrated with it - Mountains is boring atm. Need to find caverns.
Btw, my friends, "A Wolf's Fury" is still on sale on Amazon COM.
(Yes, I'll get full royalties, even if you buy at a reduced price. It's an Amazon thing.)
Grab it now, even if you only want to read the series later. Price will go up eventually - and I don't know when. Amazon does not tell authors these things.
“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.”
Octavia Butler #writing#writingcommunity
The main image may be mirrored, but fascinating anyway. Elites provided tax relief for followers all through history. Don't forget why people do things for powerful friends.
#WritersCoffeeClub 5.7 — What do you do first when you start a new writing project?
I... err... write.
That's usually what I do. The world tends to grow as I write, the characters begin to show themselves, and eventually, the full plot is revealed.
I don't plan.
I know a few things (for the Wolves, I started with the three McMullen siblings), but with Connor? I just knew he took over bodyguard jobs, as told in Book 3.
#PennedPossibilities 339 — Does your MC learn from their past, or are they prone to repeating the same mistakes?
My MC is way too prone to making mistakes. Repeating them, not so much. Somehow she survives.
From the current work, this:
..."Better not to get hit?"
"Definitely. Though the direct route through an obstacle is sometimes more unexpected."
And:
Were my trust misplaced, I'd learn something about myself. But, then again, that seemed to be my method of operation: win—or get hurt, pick myself up, make different mistakes.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 10 Nbr 08 — Do you agree with Michael Moorcock, who said: "Ignore all proffered rules and create your own, suitable for what you want to say"?
The advice boils to down to learn how to write and practice enough that you understand the basics (items 1 through 9), and understand what about all that gets in the way of you telling your tale... then tell your tale the way you need to tell it instead. I kinda agree...
To the extent you can be truthful with yourself and keep your ego at bay. This took me decades.
#WordWeavers 2406.08 — Where would your SC go if they had a bad day?
She's a day angel. Solitude is easy. Near sunset on the always hot world she lives on, she can always catch a thermal and spiral high into the sky. Gliding way above it all, the city she's trapped living in seems so peaceful, so devoid of people. She can make believe for a few minutes that the boss doesn't hold blackmail that would frame her for murder, and that she can soar off into the coming purpling dusk and start anew. The dry air swiftly dries all tears.
Ugh! I found someone had scanned and uploaded a copy of my book to the Internet Archive, without my permission. When wanting to find a review to recommend a book to someone, I found that copyrighted book there, so looked for mine. I still own my copyright. This interferes with me creating an author-preferred edition (instead of the publisher's vision) as planned.
In their terms of service, you will find:
While we collect publicly available Internet documents, sometimes authors and publishers express a desire for their documents not to be included in the Collections (by tagging a file for robot exclusion or by contacting us or the original crawler group). If the author or publisher of some part of the Archive does not want his or her work in our Collections, then we may remove that portion of the Collections without notice.
You can only contact the Internet Archive through email as their telephone number is voicemail. AFAIK their website doesn't list take down procedures.
I have emailed them a takedown demand, with their identifier for my novel, and left the same message on their voicemail.
Please boost so your circle of followers will see this, especially if they are authors.
PS: Yes, they consider themselves a library. I don't mind if they loan an original paperback from Del Rey in paper form. I don't give them permission to scan and then display, or display someone else's scan of my book.