Linda Kage's Works in Progress

STORIES LINDA HAS IDEAS FOR OR IS IN THE MIDDLE OF WRITING
(WARNING: Everything on This Page Does and Will Change!)

Running Updates for All the Books

10/25/2024

ZERO CHANCE – 47,000 words written.

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10/18/2024

JUST THIS ONCE – So, yeah… I guess I had nothing to worry about with my first editor. She got the book back to me the very next morning after I whined to y’all about how much she had to be loathing the manuscript. But I do believe she liked it. Claimed Parker was her favorite, anyway. Because, obviously. And I have gone through her notes and read the story through again. I sent it off to editor number two yesterday, and she’ll probably have it through Thanksgiving. We’re at 129,209 words right now.

ZERO CHANCE – Dude, when I said writing out Waverly’s more depressing thoughts felt kind of cathartic, I was not lying. I felt…I don’t know…so much more at peace with myself after getting all those dark, terrible, ugly thoughts off my chest. I just felt GOOD, you know. The inside of my own head wasn’t so negative and miserable anymore. No idea how much of what I wrote will actually stay in the story for my heroine’s character, but it was a very nice release for me personally. I worked more on Just-This-Once edits this week than anything, but I got a little bit in on Zero Chance done too. It’s holding strong at 40,000 words today.

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10/11/2024

JUST THIS ONCE – Oh man, you guys. I really thought my first editor would have this manuscript back to me by now. This is the longest she’s ever worked on one of my books before. It’s making me nervous. More time means more edits, right, more problems to fix? Lord, I hope she’s just busy with other things and not struggling with my story. Because I was just beginning to think it was the trifecta of the series. I had Oaklynn from Book 1 as my favorite heroine so far. Then Hudson from Book 2 and my favorite hero, and the plotline of Book 3 as my favorite story. But Just This Once was my favorite on all three counts: heroine, hero, and story line. Except now...now I’m really hoping it wasn’t just all in my head, and Ms. Editor is going to slam me with a big ol’ dose of reality, showing me all sorts of issues I need to work through. Someone, hold me!

ZERO CHANCE – Writing about a depression is weird. It kind of sucks you down to that low place and feel zapped along with the character, and yet it’s cathartic and kind of freeing. Not sure how it can be both, but it is. Trust me. We’re 33,000 words into this story, and the first eight chapters have been completed!

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10/04/2024 -

ZERO CHANCE - I am now 27,000 words into this story. Some parts have been like, YES! Definitely. This. And other parts have been like...er...maybe. But I've been writing all the parts down, regardless, knowing I can go back to change them later if I want.
    
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9/27/2024 -

THE LIFE WISH - Everything is ready for publication, so it's leaving the WIP page and heading out into the real world. 
    
    ZERO CHANCE - I really didn't think I'd get much writing done on this one this week, but today turned out to be a good day, so we're now up to 16,000 words. I think I have Waverly figured out how I want her. It took a minute to decide her personality, but I think we're got it now...maybe.
    
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9/20/2024 -

JUST THIS ONE - I read through it a fourth time, and this one is now with the first reader! EEK! I don't know if it's because these have been my current work-in-progresses and still fresh on my mind or what, but each story in this series just keep getting better and better to me. Parker really fought with Hudson to become my favorite hero in the series, and he might've won. I'm not sure yet. But it's close. And Hope... I do believe Hope is my favorite heroine to date. She's like nothing I've ever created before. She's salty, bold, not-particularly-nice, never backs down from anything, and if I ever met her in real life, she'd probably scare the crap out of me. But I like her! I just really, really liked creating her from the ground up. It was super fun to come up with what kind of sharp-tongued vitriol she was going to say next. Anyway, the story is sitting at 129,719 words now.

ZERO CHANCE - Got through Chapter One. 8,700 words written.

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9/13/2024 -

JUST THIS ONE - Third read-through complete. I am going to do a fourth before sending it off to editor number one. 129,472 words long.

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9/6/2024 -

JUST THIS ONE - Alright! I've read through it twice now and plan to go through the story one or two more times before I send it along to the next person. Currently at 129,740 words long.

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8/30/2024 -

ZERO CHANCE - I pretty much deleted everything I had written for Keene's story and started fresh. Got the prologue done! And now we're 4,200 words into it.

JUST THIS ONE - Started my read-through of Parker and Hope's book. I still have a few chapters left. But it's up to 127,700 now.

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8/23/2024 -

THE LIFE WISH - Proofread done! This story finished up with 130,022 words.

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8/16/2024 -

JUST THIS ONCE - 126,688 words written. Rought draft complete. Like the last two stories, this one is 40 chapters long with a prologue and epilogue. I love it already, even before I've read through it. The characters were just so different from what I usually write. They kept me on my toes!

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8/09/2024 -

JUST THIS ONCE - 106,000 words written. Making lots of progress with this one. I'm really loving it. Parker and Hope are forces to be reckoned with, I swear. I foresee that I'll finish their rough draft in the next two to three weeks, as long as something else in real life doesn't steal my time.

THE LIFE WISH - Foster and Raina are with the last reader now, and I still just adore their story more and more every time I go through it. They're just complete sweethearts. Here are things my last two readers said about their story: #1 "This book is way more emotional than the last two. They’ve all been good, but this one is heavier emotionally." and #2 "Death is so tricky to read about because it could sour your mood when you’re wanting to relax and read a book. I thought you touched on everything you needed to make the story complete but it was never too sad. There was always an element of something beautiful about explaining death. I really appreciate that in this book."

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8/02/2024 -

JUST THIS ONCE - 95,000 words written. First 30 chapters completed.

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7/26/2024 -

JUST THIS ONCE - 85,000 words written. First 27 chapters completed. I know I'm going to have to revise a lot of what I wrote this week but it's written so I'll at leat have something TO revise!

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7/19/2024 -

JUST THIS ONCE - 74,000 words written. First 25 chapters completed.

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7/12/2024

THE LIFE WISH - I read through it again after the first reader. And now it's off to the second reader. This one is hanging in there at 130,113 words.

JUST THIS ONCE - 61,900 words written this week. Yay! Still working on that first sex scene, though. LOL

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7/5/2024

JUST THIS ONCE - The only writing time I had for this story this week was at 2:00 AM one night when I couldn't sleep and wanted to jot down a few lines that came to me before I forgot them. 57,800 words written.
    
    THE LIFE WISH - I got this back from the first reader. She called Foster and Raina the most adorable couple. I'm starting back through it for another re-read before shipping it off to the second reader. The word count’s at 130,045 now.

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6/28/2024

JUST THIS ONCE - 56,700 words written, the first 17 chapters completed, and my last two lines of Chapter 17 went a little something like, "And I knew then; I wasn’t going to have sex in that bed tomorrow. I was having sex in that bed TONIGHT." (Hopefully that wasn't too much of a spoiler). So it looks like I'm gonna need to bring the heat next week. Or maybe the week after that, since I already foresee next week being busy with other things.

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6/21/2024

JUST THIS ONCE - I don’t typically write about topics I have a whole lot of experience with but rather stuff I want to understand more, stuff I can explore in a safe, fictional world...that I control completely! But I have a feeling I might’ve delved a little too deeply into the anger inside both Parker and Hope. I found myself getting short-tempered and impatient with family and coworkers this week, just like they would. Kind of gave me a headache. I think that’ll be my big challenge in writing this book because the plot has pretty much outlined itself. But capturing the emotions correctly? Ugh. That’ll be the tricky part. Regardless, I had a productive week, word-count wise. I once again stretched out what I wanted to be only the first chapter into being the first SEVEN chapters (Just like I did in "The Life Wish"), but I think it works well that way. I now have eight chapters and a prologue done, totaling 40,000 words written.
    
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6/14/2024  
    
    THE LIFE WISH - I actually got this read all the way through a third time...and then a fourth time this week too. It is now off with its first reader, and I still adore it. Every time I read through it, I just love it more and more! Currently 131,000 words long.
    
    JUST THIS ONCE - I was able to work on Parker and Hope's story some too. Just barely eeking along, but there is some progress.  And these two...I'm telling you. They're nothing but trouble together. I swear. 26,000 words written so far. 
    
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6/7/2024    
    
    THE LIFE WISH - I thought I’d get this read through a third time by the end of this week, but nope. It’ll probably be next week before I do. Then, I’ll see if I can move it on to someone else to look at so I can get back to work on Just This Once. But, ooh, you guys…I seriously love Raina and Foster’s relationship more and more every time I go through their story and tidy things up. They’re just so freaking sweet together. And this plot…I feel like it’s a good, strong plot. I hope that’s not all in my head, anyway, because I seriously can’t wait until it comes out in physical form, so I can just...hug it.  This book makes me want to literally hug it. –It’s at 130,817 words now. 
     
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5/31/2024    
    
    THE LIFE WISH - Nearly done with my second read-through. I'm liking it more and more.  At 130,160 words long. 
     
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5/24/2024 
    
    THE LIFE WISH - I finally, finally, after completing the rough draft nearly a month ago, finished reading this through all the way. It's got some parts I adore and parts I want to fix. But it'll get there! It's up to 129,284 words so far.
    
    JUST THIS ONCE - Oh man. This book. Parker and Hope are quite the pair. They went straight for each other's throats and have been bickering ever since. But boy, is it hard to write such delightfully catty characters. I'll be going along, thinking I've worked so long I must have thousands of words written, only to check the count and realize I'd only gotten through about 500.  But it's creeping along. We're at 20,000  now.
     
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5/17/2024
     
     MY ENEMY’S BOYFRIEND – It didn’t feel as if I did much last week, so I didn’t report any updates, but I did read through MEB two more last times, hoping to catch all the oopsies. Whether I did or not, it’s finished now and submitted to the vendors, scheduled for release, so it’s leaving this WIP page. Catch Hudson and Faith out in the reading world next Thursday!  Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

THE LIFE WISH – I’m still slowly making my way through the first re-read of Foster and Raina’s story. And while I personally had more fun creating Hudson’s character, the plot line of this one is probably way stronger. I’m definitely enjoying the re-read more than I did the original writing of it. It’s at 128,292 words now.

JUST THIS ONCE – So I powered through the first draft of The Life Wish pretty quickly, but the beginning of Parker and Hope’s story feels like it’s taking me 4EVER to pound out. The characters are just so different from the main characters of the last book; I need a minute to change directions and sharpen up their edges to give them more cutting, sarcastically pithy wits. I currently have Hope’s tagline as “She’s not difficult; she’s just always right,” which gives me the challenge of making her likeable enough to actually root for while not backing down from any argument, ever. Their story’s at 15,500 words now.

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5/10/2024 - 
    
    THE LIFE WISH - I haven't had much time to do much of anything with writing lately but I'm starting back through this story to reread it. At 127,256 words now. 
      
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4/26/2024 - 
    
    THE LIFE WISH – Rough draft completed! Whew! It’s 126,765 words long with a prologue, 40 chapters, and an epilogue.

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND – Done with the 2nd editor. I’ve read through it two times since it's been with editor #2, so I sent it off to the proofreader.

JUST THIS ONCE – I had a couple of ideas for this one, so I jotted them down, and it has 10,000 words under its belt now!
    
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    4/18/2024 –

THE LIFE WISH – Yes! I finally felt it, that moment where I'm like, "THIS! This right here is what it's all about!" I mean, it was in chapter 37, but damn, there it was. SO okay, getting excited about Foster and Raina now.  Loving them...finally!  We're at 116,000 words in right now, and getting close to being done.

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - So my second editor hopes to finish her second round in the next few days. We're at 128,802 words now!

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4/12/2024 –

THE LIFE WISH – Well, I’m making good progress on word count. If I didn’t have to switch my attention over to My Enemy’s Boyfriend for a bit, I’d probably finish this rough draft in another week or two. Otherwise, it’s—hmm. It’s happening. I can’t tell how the emotions are hitting in it, though, which sort of feels as if I’m writing it blind. For this one, I’m going to have to just read through it after I’m finished to figure out how it actually feels and reaches into a person’s soul and tugs on their heart. Because at this point; I honestly don’t know. So I’m really hoping it isn’t just words, blah, blah, talking, actions, words, blah, blah, the end. Fingers crossed! It’s 105,000-words long now, and the first 34 chapters completed.   I predict that I have around 25,000 words left to write and maybe five chapters.

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - So my second editor finished her first round of edits on My Enemy’s Boyfriend, and hip-hip hooray, she said The Seven series is now tied with The Love Mark series as her favorites from me (she’s always been a sucker for my fantasy books), so that’s awesome. I’ll probably get back into this story next week and read through it again. Then I’m hoping to send it off to the proofreader.

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4/4/2024 –

THE LIFE WISH – 82,000 words written, 25 chapters completed, and Raina’s coma is about to come to an end. I’m back to being unsure how things are going, but I keep pushing ahead, anyway, because you gotta write the words first before you can fix them, right? Right!

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3/29/2024:

THE LIFE WISH - 62,000 words written and the first 19 chapters completed.

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3/22/2024:

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - Done with the first reader! And editors definitely keep me humble, but oooh... I still just love this book so much! Every time I read through it, just…yes! Love it. It’s at 128,635 words now.

THE LIFE WISH - I read through what I had so far and, wow, I'm not sure what I was so worried about. I think it's going well!  45,400 words written.

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3/15/2024:

THE LIFE WISH - This one continues to challenge me. For most of the week (and all of last week, I guess), it felt as if I was just aimlessly wandering along with no rhyme or reason, going in a direction I didn't think this story should go, but I kept going anyway, typing words, and... whew! I'm finally starting to get some order for it in my head. I think I can start to steer the plot toward a more seamless flow now. Thank goodness, huh? Anyway, we're 38,600 words into it. (And by “we,” I just mean me, but I wanted you to feel included too since you keep coming back to follow the journey...which I appreciate so much!) We got this, right?!

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3/8/2024:

THE LIFE WISH – 28,000 words written and the first nine chapters completed. So far, this one is...not at all what I was expecting, but it’s definitely developing into...something. Stay tuned to learn if I ever decide whether it’s a good something or bad something.

MY ENEMY’S BOYFRIEND – This bad boy is off with its first editor right now!  Eek. It’s currently at 128,724 words long.

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3/1/2024:

THE LIFE WISH – (Oh boy. I just typed out The Wife List the first time I tried to write this title…it’s going to be one of those days, isn’t it? Anyway…) We’re up to 16,700 words written, and I finished the scene that I wanted to be chapter one, but it ended up being the first FOUR chapters instead (I’m still not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing). I don’t know about this book yet. I’m already stressing over Foster. He’s supposed to be the sweet, all-star, hometown hero that everyone adores, and that just sounds really boring to me.  I gotta figure out how to spice him up some, yet keep him HIM, you know. And then the storyline…Yeesh. Every time I start plotting out ideas in my head, I just start crying…which is weird. Thinking of book ideas does NOT make me cry. So I’m also going to have to do something to lighten things up a bit or else this is just going to one big, sad, depressing mess. So I’m starting out with a rough battle ahead of me already, but you know what? Bring it on!

MY ENEMY’S BOYFRIEND – (And every time I write this, I want to say My Boyfriend’s Enemy…which would be a totally different book!) So I read through the rough draft and…oh my goodness. I have no idea what it is about this one, but every time I’m in it, I experience this super-happy, uncontrollably giddy sensation. It just makes me feel good. And it’s not all sunshine and roses either. Plenty of bad shit happens. But it just… Mama loves it, okay? I blame it on Hudson. I can already tell he’s going to be one of my personal hall-of-fame favorite characters, enough though he’s far from perfect too. But I love him anyway, flaws and all. So yeah, updates: The first read-through flowed surprisingly well to me because I wrote so many scenes out of order, and I kind of had to choppily piece it all back together again. I’ve started the second read-through, and then I hope to pass it on for someone else to work on next week. It’s at 128,564 words long right now. And I’m really sorry I’m so chatty today. It’s all MY ENEMY’S BOYFRIEND’S fault. I’m telling you, this story just boosted me up with a bunch of chatty energy—chatty HUDSON energy. But I’m going now. Linda out!  Love you guys.

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2/23/2024:

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - Starting my first read-through. Over halfway into it. At 126,170 words now. Still excited about it so...that's good.

THE LIFE WISH - Finished the prologue. I feel as if I got the scene down the way I actually saw it in my head. YAY!  The story is 6,800 words written.

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2/16/2024:

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 123,862 words written with a prologue, 40 chapters, and an epilogue. I think I'm done with the rough draft. This was a good writing week. I just hope I was able to translate how vivid and alive everything was in my head into written word! Aiming for a late May release day.

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2/9/2024:

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - I have hit the sweet spot. The words are flowing. 109,000 words written. Woohoo!  Feeling good.

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2/2/2024:

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - I feel like I made some good progress this week!! I mean, I didn’t break any records on word count. But I have the first 28 chapters completed (plus a prologue) and 93,200 words written, plus I have the pieces of chapters that aren’t completed put into a cleaner, more-organized order so that I think I have maybe ten or so chapters to go, meaning I guestimate that I’m 77% of the way finished and the final product should be around 120,000 words. And I’m super excited about some parts to come...EEK! I'm lovin' it!

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1/26/2024:

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 83,500 words written! No end in sight yet. I have no idea how long this is going to be.

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1/19/2024:

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 79,000 words done! And...I changed the cover.

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1/12/2024:

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 74,000 words done! I'm barely creeping along, but there IS movement. Just finished chapter 21, and now poor Hudson is about to get a rude awakening of cat claws straight to the junk. Yee-ouch...

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    1/5/2024:

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 70,000 words done! And my Hudson vibe is still going strong. I seriously love this guy.

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12/22/2023:

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 64,000 words done! First 18 chapters completed.

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12/15/2023:

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 55,000 words done! Just when I think, "Ooh! I should have more time to work on my story this week," life answers, "Oh, do you now? We'll see about that!" And life wins that argument. But maybe next week...maybe I'll get to work on Hudson and Faith more next week.

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  12/08/2023:

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 50,000 words done! First 12 chapters fleshed out. If I had more time, I just know I'd have more words in by now, but work and family stuff is just exploding with busy-ness.  But I have snuck in just enough writing time to learn what a playful smartass Hudson really is.

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12/01/2023:

VACANCY - This one's edited and formatted and already available in paperback and hardback, so it's leaving the Works-in-Progress page.  Good luck out there in the real world, Vacancy! Hope you find your place.

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 45,000 words done!

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11/10/2023:

VACANCY - And we've finally been sent off to the last proofreader. At 128,455 words.

My ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND  - 40,000 words done!

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11/3/2023:

VACANCY - What a week! The oldest kiddo is sick and the day job is getting ready for a reception, so between the busy-ness of both, I'm behind on everything else. I wanted to read through Vacancy one more time before it went to the last proofreader, but...I started changing things, and only got to chapter three...It's at 128,428 words now.

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10/27/2023:

VACANCY - Reread through the story again. At 128,552 words.

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10/20/2023:

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - 36,000 words written. First nine chapters completed!

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10/13/2023:

VACANCY - Things are better this week; I read all the way through Vacancy and have it sent off to the editor. Release day is planned for December 13th. It rose back up to 128,290 words after this last round.

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - Didn't get much written, mostly just re-read what I already had. At 23,500 words, but I still love Hudson.

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10/6/2023:

Didn’t get any writing done this week. Too much depression in me to think in a straight line, people I’ve known for years committing suicide, family getting sick, reviews crushing my will to live, rejections making me think I’m the worst writer ever who should never bother the world with another one of my awful stories, who should stop bothering the world with my entire existence because no matter how much heart and soul and thought and dedication I put into every word I write, I still learn it's full of problems. It’s worthless. I’m worthless. I know nothing, understand nothing, say nothing valuable. There’s only pain and suffering and hate out there, and it’s hard to breathe and smile and carry on through the muck like I’m fine. But this will pass. Maybe next week will be better, and I’ll be able to get out of my own oppressive thoughts and feel like writing again. So fingers crossed for that. Hugs to everyone else going through hard times.

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9/29/2023:

JUST THIS ONCE - I wanted to get the prologue written for this one, but didn't get very far. 6,500 words written.

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - The prologue, first three chapters, and a basic outline is completed. At 22,000 words today!

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9/22/2023:

VACANCY - I heard back from a reader, and hooray, she seems to love it as much I do! #HappyDance!! I did make a huge change in the overall plot and announced something  in chapter 4 that wasn't originally revealed until chapter 30. Hopefully that was the right decision. I now have 40 chapters with a prologue and epilogue, and I actually went down in word count to: 127,204.

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - Which means I didn't get much time with my current crush, Hudson, this week. But I've been plotting in my brain, and his story is really building momentum in my head. Fingers crossed that I get more out of my head and onto a screen next week. Currently at 10,000.

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9/15/2023:

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - This week kicked my ass with a too-busy day job, but I managed to sneak in a few words on this story while I was waiting for my Vacancy readers to finish up. It's at 7,800 words now, and mmm...I am liking me some Hudson Ivey. He. Is. Yummy.

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9/8/2023:

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND - Getting started on the prologue. Nixed everything I had written already and started over. 4,500 words written.

THE QUIET - The 2nd proofreader should finish this tomorrow, and then we've got ten days until release day, so it's leaving the WIP page now! Goodbye to The Quiet...time to get loud in here again! (sorry, I love pun jokes...couldn't resist)

VACANCY - I've finished the second read-through and sent it off to its first readers. If they don't love it as much as I do, I may have a minor freak out session. But I'll deal eventually...let's just hope they like it, though! At 128,100 words.

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9/1/2023:

VACANCY - I've finished the first read-through and started on a second. At 127,571 words.

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8/25/2023:

THE QUIET - The first proofreader is finished with this, and it's off to the second proofreader. At 98,994 words now.

VACANCY - I've started to read through it again but haven't gotten very far yet. At 123,131 words.

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8/18/2023:

VACANCY - So I might've possibly gone on a writing bender this week and finished the rough draft. I've even started to read back through it, and wow. It's hitting all the feels for me. I'm loving it. I almost don't want anyone else to read it and ruin its purity by pointing out all the, you know, mistakes. But I'm also super excited to share it with everyone in the freaking world, which I know are strange, contradictory emotions to have. But there they are, anyway!!! It's currently 122,487 words long and is composed of 38 chapters with a prologue and epilogue.

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8/11/2023:

VACANCY - 100,000 words written. I've gotten the first 29 chapters fully fleshed out. I have parts of seven more to go. It's getting pretty intense now. I'm really into it.

THE QUIET - The second editor is finished with this, and it's off to the first proofreader. At 99,408 words now.

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8/4/2023:

VACANCY - 86,000 words written. I think I have the amount of chapters I have left to write mapped out now, and I predict the total word count will go to about 118,000. So that would make me 76% done with the rough draft...if I have any prediction skills at all!

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7/28/2023:

THE QUIET - I read through this one again, and now it's at 98,911 words!

VACANCY - I started rereading this from the beginning and reworked a few scenes, so I didn't go up much in word-count, but I made quite a few changes. At 76,100 words now.

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7/21/2023:

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - Last proofreader finished. Formatting finished. ARC's sent off and everything ready to go, so this one will be leaving the pre-order page!! Bye, Year of the Fledgling; we'll see you in the real world!

VACANCY - 75,000 words written!

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7/14/2023:

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - I only got to work on my last read-through of this story this week. But it's with the last proofreader now, and it will be finalized and ready for formatting next week! Only two weeks to go until publication!  EEEK! Word count ended at 118,222 words.

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7/7/2023:

VACANCY - 71,000 words written and the first 19 chapters completed.

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - Proofreader #1 finished. I'm going to read through it again and then send it off to the final proofreader.

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6/30/2023:

VACANCY - 63,000 words written and the first 13 chapters completed.

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6/23/2023:

THE QUIET - Holy cow! Those edits were brutal, but wow...the story feels so much better now. It moved up to 98,090 words long, and I just sent it off to editor number 2.

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 117,390 words long and off to proofreader number 1.

VACANCY - Yay; I am finally able to get back into this one after going through edits for both Year of the Fledgling and The Quiet. So hopefully, all my attention next week will be solely for Damien and Oaklynn. It's at 56,000 now.

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6/16/2023:

THE QUIET - Done with the first editor, and she says she loved it but—wow—now I have an overwhelmingly LOT of stuff to fix. So this one is on the back burner until I finish going through Year of the Fledgling first and can then focus on it completely.

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - Done with the second editor! And she made my heart happy with comments like, “I think you’re a great contemporary writer, I really do. But your fantasy is probably the best I’ve ever read, for business or pleasure!” So yeah...jazzed about that. I just need to read through it again and send it off to Proofreader #1. Currently at 116,988 words.

VACANCY - 53,000 words written! It’s flowing well, the words are really coming, and I haven’t been this hopeful about a story in a while! But ugh, I must pause and take a short break to do some editing on both Year of the Fledgling and The Quiet so I can send them along to the next people in the editing line. I'm eager to get back to it again, though.

------------------------------

6/9/2023:

THE QUIET - 93,756 words written. And it's off to the first editor.

VACANCY - 38,000 words written and the first six chapters are completely fleshed out.

-----------------------------

5/19/2023:

THE QUIET - 88,936 words written. Rough draft done! Whoop! Looking at a September 19th release.

VACANCY - 28,000 words written.

-----------------------------

5/12/2023:

THE QUIET - 82,000 words written. 27 full chapters completed. And wow, I think I was closer to my first guess on the total word count that I thought I'd be! I'm pretty sure I only have a couple of chapters left...if that, so I'm thinking it'll end up to be around 90,000 words long.

-----------------------------

5/5/2023:

THE QUIET - 64,000 words written. 19 full chapters completed. And okay, I'm finally getting, like, eager and excited and into this book. I mean, the characters started having this super meaningful connection that I totally vibed with. Not sure how anyone ELSE will experience it, but I was fully involved!  LOL.  Anyway, Pretty sure The Quiet WILL be my next release after Year of the Fledgling. I'm shooting to have it out in September 2023. But I don't really know how long it'll end up being yet. My guestimate: 80-100K. Well... maybe not. It feels as if there is way more than 15K left. So maybe 90-110K...ish, but maybe I'm over-estimating.  Honestly, I don't really know.  We'll just wait and see!  Okay, I think I've stopped making sense. Back to writing now. Love ya!  Until next the update.

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4/28/2023:

THE QUIET - 45,000 words written.

VACANCY - 20,000 words written.

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4/21/2023:

THE LIFE WISH - 2,700 words written.

THE QUIET - 34,000 words written.

VACANCY - This one is fighting to be the next book I publish. I just love how the ideas are flowing for it, but I'm not sure yet. I feel like I should get The Quiet finished first and complete my alphabet challenge, so then I can really concentrate on this new Seven Series that's completely captured my attention! 16,600 words written.

WHAT HAPPY LOOKS LIKE - 1,000 words written.

X MARKS THE SPOT - 1,000 words written.

ZERO CHANCE - 1,300 words written.

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4/14/2023:

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - First editor done! Sent off to editor number 2!

THE QUIET - 30,000 words written.

VACANCY - 7,500 words written.

JUST THIS ONCE - 4,500 words written.

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4/7/2023:

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - The first beta reader has finished it! Thankfully, she said she loved it and didn't want it to end, and that the setting has a very "Princess Bride" feel to it, which totally made my day.  And now that I've read through it again, it's off to the first editor. Currently at 116,694 words long.

-----------------------------

4/3/2023: I've been spring cleaning over here! LOTS OF CHANGES

I retired some ideas that I'm pretty sure I'll never write, and those were:
-Endless
-Just One Date
-Assimilation
-Uncaged
-Witch Klutz
-Won't Anyone Marry Mikayla?

And I added some new idea, plus I have a whole new series plan in the works now:
-Vacancy (I'm currently most excited about this one!
-Zero Chance
-The Diversion Ploy
-The Final Play

And some old titles got some big overhauls:
-The Real Fake to JUST THIS ONCE
-Last Time to UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN
-Second Best to X MARKS THE SPOT

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3/27/2023:

THE QUIET - 20,000 words written; and the first four chapters completed.

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3/21/2023:

THE QUIET - 10,000 words written.

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3/20/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - It's off to the first reader and sitting at 115,822 words now.

THE QUIET - 7,000 words written!

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3/9/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - And the rough draft is done, weighing in at 112,861 words!  I'm planning on July 29th as the release day.

------------------------------

3/7/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 111,000 words written. I would be done right now, except I'm adding one last epilogue chapter--I know, I know!! It just keeps going--so...I'm halfway through Chapter 36, I think, and I'm pretty sure I'll finish the rough draft tomorrow! Yay.

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3/3/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 100,000 words written.

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3/2/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 97,000 words written. The first 30 chapters are completed. It looks as if there will be 35 chapters in total, and the final word count will probably end closer to 110,000 before it's all said and done. So, yeah...I'll stop being all happy and celebrating about how far I've come now and get back to actually finishing the dadgum story!!

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3/1/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGING - 93,000 words written.

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2/28/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGING - 86,000 words written. I've finished 26 chapters and have seven or eight more planned out (unless some run long and I cut them up into more), which I'm estimating should give me about 105,000 words by the time I finish. At the rate I'm going now, I hope to have a complete rough draft done before the middle of March! Whew... For the longest time, it felt as if I'd never finish this story. But now that it's rolling along, I'm getting all excited about it.

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2/24/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 75,000 words written.

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2/21/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 65,000 words written.

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2/16/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 60,000 words written.

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2/2/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 45,000 words written.

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1/19/2023 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 35,000 words written.

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12/26/2022 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 30,000 words written.

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - Leaving the WIP page; it's all ready to publish in two days!

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11/09/2022 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 26,000 words written.

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10/26/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - Finished with all the proofreaders, it's formatted and ready to go at 70,460 words long, so it'll be leaving the Works in Progress page, which is kind of bittersweet; it's been on this page since I created it. Sniff-sniff!

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - Still re-reading it before I'll send it to its first proofreader near the end of November. At 124,142 words long now.

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - At 21,000 words long.

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10/03/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - Finished with the second editor, and on to the first proofreader. It's at 69,787 words now.

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - Finished with the first editor.

---------------------------

09/30/2022 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 18,000 words written.  And I added an excerpt of the first few chapters of my rough draft to share.

THE QUIET - 5,300 words written. And I added the prologue of the rough draft to share with you.

THE BOY'S GOT HEART - 3,000 words written. I feel as if I have a lot more ideas in my head for this story than I do for DISTRACTION, though it seems as if I should write DISTRACTION before this one, which means I probably won't and THE BOY'S GOT HART will come before it.  But we'll see.

---------------------------

09/26/2022 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 16,000 words written.

---------------------------

09/23/2022 -

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 12,000 words written. The first two chapters are completed.

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09/21/2022-

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - And it's heading off to the first editor today. Currently at 123,014 words long.

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING - 6,800 words written. Changed the hero's name back to Theron. Changed it to young adult fantasy and went from 1st person point of view to third.

---------------------------

09/09/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - I've finally gotten a chance to go through the story once, and yay, it wasn't as sucky as I was worried it would be. So it's currently 121,634 words long, and I think my favorite lines are right at the end, which I must share with you now:

"I sent a prayer out to Caine Spinnaker, wherever he might be, thanking him for being a fucking asshole. I really owed that douchebag one."

I should have it ready for release on December 28th!!

---------------------------

08/28/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 118,000 words written. I think I have the rough draft done. I'll probably find a bunch of holes and scenes I need to write...or delete. We shall see. Anyway, time to read through it!!

---------------------------

08/26/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 112,000 words written. I'm on the last chapter and then I still need to write an epilogue, and that's it. I'll be done. I'm still kind of in disbelief over what I've just done, but well...it's out there. We'll see if I keep it or change it!

-----------------------------

08/24/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 103,000 words written. The first 31 chapters are completed. I'm thinking there are three to five chapters left from here. And eek! I'm getting excited about this one, although I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to end it yet.

-----------------------------

08/22/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 96,000 words written. The first 28 chapters are completed.

-----------------------------

08/18/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 86,000 words written. The first 23 chapters are completed.

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08/12/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 69,619 words. Finished with the first editor, and headed on to the second.

BY THE RIVER - Getting another title change to THE QUIET. 4,200 words written. And The hero's name changed to Zac Topper!

RISE OF THE WARDEN - Is also going to get a new title: YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING, but I don't have a new cover for it yet. Still working on finding one I like right now!

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08/08/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 74,000 words written. The first 20 chapters are finished.

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08/05/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 69,000 words written.

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08/03/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 62,000 words written. The first 16 chapters are finished.

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08/02/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 55,000 words written.

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08/01/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 50,000 words written.

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07/30/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 48,000 words written.

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07/26/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 42,000 words written. The first eight chapters are completed.

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07/22/2022 -

EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS - 38,000 words written.

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07/19/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 68,216 words written. Release day should be November 8th.

THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN - Title changing to EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS. New cover coming soon. 28,000 words written.

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07/14/2022 -

THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN - So I finally decided to change the title for this and figured out what I wanted it to be. So that will be coming soon, along with a new cover with the new title on it!  We're at 26,000 words finished now, first six chapters completed!

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07/12/2022-

THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN - At 20,000 words now.

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07/10/2022-

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 65,108 words written. 34 chapters with an epilogue, done. And this story just moved up to being my next release.

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07/07/2022-

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 56,000 words written. 29 chapters completed.

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07/06/2022-

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - And...I went back to pulling more stitches and patching in new scenes because I once again didn't like where the plot was going.  Ugh. This story seriously needs to make up its mind about which path it wants to take already. It's so freaking maddening! But the good news is that it didn't seem to be a HUGE change I had to make, so I could still get to 50,000 words written with 25 chapters completed. I have a feeling this is going to be a terribly SHORT book, too, which is weird because of all the trouble it's given me.

----------------------------

07/05/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 47,000 words written.

-----------------------------

07/01/2022

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN -  45,000 words written. First 21 chapters are completed.

-----------------------------

06/30/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 39,000 words written. First 16 chapters are completed.

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06/29/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 36,000 words written. First 14 chapters are completed.

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06/28/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 32,000 words written.

--------------------------------

06/27/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - 29,000 words written.

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06/21/2022 -

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN - I think I've made a royal mess of this one! #DucksFaceInShame. So all these beautiful, encouraging letters from Samantha made me look at Never Gonna Happen again, and I decided I wanted to make changes. So I ripped out about four chapters (roughly 10,000 words) and then took away another chapter the next day (another 2,800 words gone), only to start piecing them back in again, in a totally new order, keeping some parts out to change up the tone and adding some new stuff along. Which means, it's now at 17,200 words, but I like where it's going more this time around...I think.  We'll see, anyway.  OH!!  And I changed Spencer's name to YORK.  York. He's York now. (please don't kill me).  And that's where we are now.

THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN - At 18,000 words now.

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06/07/2022 -

ALL MY LOVE - Moving off the grid; releases on Friday, June 10th! Opposite of Forbidden is now the current manuscript I'm working on!

--------------------------------

05/27/2022

THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN - 14,000 words written and the first four chapters done.

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05/23/2022

ALL MY LOVE - Okay, so two people have read the story now. The first editor was like, "It was so fun to read," while the second went, "Linda...Let's talk about what's wrong with you? Why do you make characters, just to kill them in gruesome ways? Who hurt you?" So either my story is fun or just plain gruesome and wrong. I don't know. But then, I guess some of my favorite shows are Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy, and Santa Clarita Diet, which are all fun...but also filled with lots of gory death scenes, so I guess my writing choices kind of makes sense! In any case, I've read through the story again, and I like more each time I go through it. It's currently 134,645 words long.

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05/12/2022

ALL MY LOVE - First edits done! On to the second editor now. Word count at 132,420.

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05/11/2022

THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN - I worked on Luke and Chloe a bit today, and finished a scene from their teen years.  I have no idea what anyone else will think of it, but I LOVE IT!!  10,000 words written.

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05/06/2022

ALL MY LOVE - The story is with the first editor now. I think it'll be July before it's released. Even though I really wanted to have it out in June, since the first book in the series came out in June.  But we'll see how everything goes! At 131,191 words now.

BY THE RIVER - Got the prologue done!  2,915 words written.

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4/22/2022

ALL MY LOVE - So my guestimate to finish this story at 125,000 words was eerily close. I'm at 124,652 words right now, and I'm tapping out. The end. Finished!  Whew. Took me nearly seven months to write this story, but it felt more like EONS. I can't remember taking this long to write anything. But it also feels like one of the roughest rough drafts I've ever written, so there are probably miles and miles of more words to add. and delete. And change. But I at least have something to fix and edit now!  So it's time for me to dive back in and see just how many plot holes and strings I left dangling around. Check back in later!

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4/21/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 121,000 words written.

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4/19/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 112,000 words written.

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4/18/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 108,000 words written.

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4/14/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 101,000 words written.

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4/13/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 94,000 words written! The first 27 chapters are completed.

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4/8/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 85,000 words written! I'm splitting this book up into three parts, and I think I'm a page or two away from finishing part two (chapter 24), which would mean, I can estimate this story to total around 125,000 words by the time I'm done! I think!

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4/7/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 80,000 words written!

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4/4/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 76,000 words written!

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3/28/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 72,000 words written!

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3/25/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 68,000 words written!

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3/24/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 66,000 words written, and the first 18 chapters completed!

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3/17/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 60,000 words written. The first 15 chapters are completed.

BY THE RIVER - So I heard the song "Hazard" again yesterday, and it made me remember the book--"Refuge"--that I wanted to write based on that song! And I started renaming all the places and characters and I gave it a new title and cover.  Ergo "Refuge" is now "By the River" and the hero will be named York Shelby and the heroine will be Marianna Ruiz.  But we can call her Mari for short.  And I jotted down a quick 500 words of story for it!

--------------------------------

3/15/2022

ALL MY LOVE - This new day job I have is sucking up way more of my writing time than I thought it would. But I'm going to keep creeping along and sneaking in a thousand new words here and there, and someday--SOMEDAY--I'll get this book done, I swear! It's at 58,000 words complete now. And I have my blurb done!

--------------------------------

3/4/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 55,000 words written.

--------------------------------

3/3/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 50,000 words written.

--------------------------------

2/26/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 48,000 words written. The first twelve chapters are complete.

--------------------------------

2/24/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 44,000 words written. The first ten chapters are complete.

--------------------------------

2/16/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 36,000 words written. The first nine chapters are complete.

--------------------------------
2/7/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 32,000 words written. First eight chapters are complete.

--------------------------------

1/31/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 30,000 words written.

OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN - 4,700 words written.

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1/9/2022

ALL MY LOVE - 28,000 words written.

FOURTH SON OF THE THIRD DAUGHTER - Title and cover changed to RISE OF THE WARDEN.

THE AWKWARD ESCORT - New cover.

WHAT HAPPY LOOKS LIKE - New cover.

--------------------------------

12/08/2021 - ALL MY LOVE

25,700 words written.

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11/16/21 - INSTA-FAMILY

The second editor had made it through the story once. She should be through it a second time and finished by Saturday. Then, it's off to the final proofreader. 111,182 total words.

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11/10/2021 - ALL MY LOVE

Manuscript at 23,000 words finished.

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11/5/2021 - MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND

Thought up a new story idea because, you know, I don't have enough in my to-be-written pile. Who knows what will become of this one, but I had fun making a cover for it and imagining a new plot in my head.

-----------------------------------

11/4/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

I went through the manuscript again. Editor 2 still hasn't started yet. Trying not to chew off my own arm from impatience! Story at 111,188 words now.

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10/26/2021 - ALL MY LOVE

Manuscript at 21,500 words now. First five chapters are complete!

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10/20/2021 - DISTRACTION

1,961 words written on this manuscript now!

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10/19/2021 - ALL MY LOVE

17,000 words written.

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10/15/2021 - WHAT HAPPY LOOKS LIKE

Changed title from "AND I HATE YOUR KID TOO" to "WHAT HAPPY LOOKS LIKE", then changed cover and character names on this idea. (Title and cover may still change again.)

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10/13/2021 - ALL MY LOVE

12,500 words written.

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10/12/2021 - AND I HATE YOUR KID TOO

After thinking about ideas for "The Opposite of Forbidden," this story may be changing A LOT as well. One of the main characters may become a 2nd generation Forbidden Men person, the heroine's name may change too (I kind of like Violet), plus the title "And I Hate Your Kid Too" is probably going to alter, along with the cover. What will stay the same? The bitter, depressed divorced woman is still going to get the single, widowed dad moving in next door to her. After that? Only Ahtohallan knows.

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10/12/2021 -  THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN

I think I know how I want the first few lines to go:

Well, it was official. 
My taste in men sucked ass. 
I sent a glare to the handcuffs that were holding my wrists prisoner and forcing my arms out to either side, and I blew at a bloody lock of wet hair that kept getting into my eyes. But movement like that with my mouth caused pain to scream through my jaw because I'm pretty sure Dax had dislocated it. 
I whimpered in misery and closed my eyes, feeling a tear trickle down my cheek and drip into my ear. 
At least I think it was a tear. That eye felt pretty fucked up, so I guess it could’ve been blood instead.
Whatever it was, now I had a wet ear on top of everything else. 
Didn't that just take the cake? 
It beat focusing on the fact that I was chained spread eagle and fully naked to the concrete floor of my psycho stalker ex-boyfriend's basement, though. 
Panic tended to get the best of me whenever I thought too long about that. So I went back to being annoyed about the tear—or blood—in my ear, while simultaneously listening for approaching footsteps overhead and wondering when he would return for more...cleansing...as he called it. 
I was still shivering wet with soaked hair from his last round of “getting all of the other men off me.” He'd turned a water hose on me and doused me from head to toe with icy cold water, nearly drowning me in the process before he'd scrubbed me down with soap, using one of those long, car wash brushes, and then rinsed me off again. 
And I hadn't gotten any wetness in my ears during all that, although plenty had gone up my nose and into my mouth, which I had to admit, was way worse. 
Ugh, okay. Fine... 
The wet ear was nothing to compared to everything else. And now I was thinking about everything else again. 
The panic was returning. A sob tore its way from my raw, dry throat. I was going to start hyperventilating any moment if I didn't get my shit under control. And that was going to help nothing. 
The floorboards above me creaked. 
My entire body jolted in fear. I swallowed harshly and held my breath, my muscles tensing as I peered up, praying that he wasn't coming back for more.

And that’s all I have written on this story, so far. Those 400 words. But I have lots and lots of ideas brewing.

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10/12/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

I've read through it a third time now, shared it with my second editor, and am planning for a December release! (I usually get one editor and two proofreaders to go through my stories, but one of my proofreaders wasn't available to look at it before January--and I was stubbornly wanting to get four books published this year to meet my own personal challenge--that I decided to go with two editors and one proofreader instead, so I could still have three different pairs of eyes on it.)

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10/7/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

First editor finished with the story. At 109,728 words now. I'm going to read through it again, then send it off to editor number two!

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9/29/2021 - ALL MY LOVE

9,100 words written.

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9/28/2021 - THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN

After writing Insta-Family, I think the plot for THE OPPOSITE OF FORBIDDEN may be changing. And also, I made a new cover. Haven't changed the title yet. But you never know; the day is still young.

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9/26/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

Finished first read-through. At 108,716 words now. Sent to 2 people to read. First feedback so far: "Would like to let you know I cried for basically all the first 5 chapters. But now I gotta get back to studying for a test in cell--darn exam!"

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9/21/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

Starting to read through it for the first time. Up to 105,000 on the word count.

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9/17/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

103,000 words completed. Rough draft done.

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9/15/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

91,000 words written.

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9/14/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

85,000 words written.

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9/13/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

82,000 words written.

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9/10/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

72,000 words written. First 26 chapters completed.

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9/9/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

65,000 words written!

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9/7/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

60,000 words written. First 21 chapters completed.

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9/3/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

52,000 words written. Working on chapter 18.

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9/1/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

45,000 words written.

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8/31/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

43,000 words written.

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8/30/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

40,000 words written!

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8/25/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

35,000 words written. On chapter 12. I'm feeling it. Words are coming. This is nice. Not sure if it's too cheesy and overly sentimental, but I'm just rolling with it for now. I guess I can always fix that later if I need to!

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8/23/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

30,000 words written.

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08/23/2021 - NEVER GONNA HAPPEN

The inspiration for this one just...died on me. So, I'm going to work on other stories until it returns. At 22,500 words right now.

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8/17/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

27,000 words written; first 8 chapters completed.

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8/10/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

25,000 words written. I might also have a blurb I like created... maybe.

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8/9/2021 - THE BOY'S GOT HART

And...I wasn't fully satisfied with the last cover, so yep, I made another. I'm feeling...better about this one. But honestly, who knows if it'll stick!

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8/8/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

22,500 words written. New cover made.

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8/6/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

16,700 words written and starting on chapter eight.

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8/4/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

14,000 words written. Writing Vaughn's POV is...different. I keep wanting to cry when I do.

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8/3/2021 - INSTA-FAMILY

9,600 words done!

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07/28/2021 - THE BOY'S GOT HART

Got a few words (794 words) written.

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07/28/2021 - DISTRACTION

Got a few words (718 words) written.

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7/27/2021 - ALL MY LOVE

I thought I'd play around with the beginning of this story today, and I ended up writing 6,100 words.  Yay!

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07/7/2021 - DISTRACTION

Got bored and started fiddling around with covers, so I made a new cover for this one. It's still going to have Pick and Eva's son, Trick, as the hero and a girl named Kennedy as our heroine!

BACK TO TOP

VISION BOARDS AND DETAILS

In Alphabetical Order
By Working Title

the AWKWARD ESCORT

Cover of Awkward

Main Characters: Harper Bryant – Riley Hart

Genre: Contepmorary Romance

Series: 2nd Gen FM Descendants

Word Count: none As of: 27 JAN 2018

the BOY'S GOT HART

Cover of The Boys Got Heart

Main Characters: Ayden Hart – Yale Hastings

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: 2nd Gen FM Descendants

Word Count: 12,894 As of: 3 APR 2023

RUNNING UPDATES:

09/30/2022 - 3,000 words written. I feel as if I have a lot more ideas in my head for this story than I do for DISTRACTION, though it seems as if I should write DISTRACTION before this one, which means I probably won't and THE BOY'S GOT HART will come before it.  But we'll see.

08/09/2021 - And...I wasn't fully satisfied with the last cover, so yep, I made another. I'm feeling...better about this one. But honestly, who knows if it'll stick!

07/28/2021 - Got a few words (794 words) written.

07/7/2021 - My title-changing-suggesting buddy really must NOT have liked "What the Heart Wants" as the title for this story because I got a whole bunch of more ideas tossed my way for new titles! LOL! There were some pretty awesome suggestions, too!  She went above and beyond in her suggestions! She rocks. And I finally got on board with the idea when she thought of making this book title close to the title for Ayden's parents' book. And so..."The Boy's Got Hart" was born!  And with a new title, it needed a cover change too, just because!  Will it stay this way? That's a good question. I have no idea. But I changed more plot ideas too! And that's where it is now!

02/11/2021 - Got a suggestion to change the title to What the HART Wants since Ayden Hart is the heroine.  I liked the idea until I found another book with that same title.  What the Heart Wants is generic and widely enough used to be okay, but What the Hart Wants would feel too much like copying, so I kept thinking and may consider Straight to the Hart...or I may keep it as What the Heart Wants. Not sure what I'll do yet!

01/23/2021 - WHOLE NEW CHANGES. Scrapping the 17,000 words I have written now and starting mostly fresh (might keep a 1,000 or so. Asher and Remy's youngest daughter is going to start college here! And meet Yale. At first, I was going to have him pursue her relentlessly, but...that's changing. Or hmm, maybe I COULD keep it with him chasing her.  He either tries for her hard or they totally don't get along at the beginning. It's gotta be one way or the other. It's just gotta!! LOL

9/26/2020 - The heroine in this story will be becoming Ayden Hart, and it will turn into a 2nd generation Forbidden Men story!

10/27/2017 - 5 chapters completed as well as a few spare scene ideas. 17,827 words written.

10/14/2017 - Final cover chosen for sure...I think!

08/08/2017 - 16,000 words written.

07/19/2017 - New Title: What the Heart Wants

02/24/2017 - 12,000 words written. New title Idea: What Yale Wants.

10/20/2016 - Idea started. 5,400 words written. Working title: The Strange Case of Yale Hastings Lust.

BROKEN THINGS

Cover of Broken Things

Main Characters: Thea Quimby – Gabriel St. James

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Series: Standalone

Word Count: 8,777 As of: 27 OCT 2017

CREEPER

Main Characters: Andee Babbitt – Caden Reeper

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Series: Standalone

Word Count: 1,640 As of: 3 APR 2023

DISTRACTION

Cover of Distraction

Main Characters: Kennedy Kim – Trick Ryan

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: 2nd Gen FM Descendants

Word Count: 1,961 As of: 20 OCT 2021

the DIVERSION PLOY

Cover of Diverison Ploy

Main Characters: Darcy Webster – ?

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: Webster Siblings – Book 3

Word Count: none As of: 29 APR 2019

the FINAL PLAY

Cover of The Final Play

Main Characters: Charlie Webster – Jose Rivera

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: Webster Siblings – Book 4

Word Count: none As of: 29 APR 2019

JUST THIS ONCE

Cover of Just This Once

Main Characters: Hope Langston – Parker Ohrley

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: The Seven

Word Count: 129,209 As of: 18 OCT 2024

RUNNING UPDATES:

10/18/2024 – So, yeah... I guess I had nothing to worry about with my first editor. She got the book back to me the very next morning after I whined to y’all about how much she had to be loathing the manuscript. But I do believe she liked it. Claimed Parker was her favorite, anyway. Because, obviously. And I have gone through her notes and read the story through again. I sent it off to editor number two yesterday, and she’ll probably have it through Thanksgiving. We’re at 129,209 words right now.
       
       10/11/2024 – Oh man, you guys. I really thought my first editor would have this manuscript back to me by now. This is the longest she’s ever worked on one of my books before. It’s making me nervous. More time means more edits, right, more problems to fix? Lord, I hope she’s just busy with other things and not struggling with my story. Because I was just beginning to think it was the trifecta of the series. I had Oaklynn from Book 1 as my favorite heroine so far. Then Hudson from Book 2 and my favorite hero, and the plotline of Book 3 as my favorite story. But Just This Once was my favorite on all three counts: heroine, hero, and story line. Except now...now I’m really hoping it wasn’t just all in my head, and Ms. Editor is going to slam me with a big ol’ dose of reality, showing me all sorts of issues I need to work through. Someone, hold me!
       
       9/20/2024 - I read through it a fourth time, and this one is now with the first reader! EEK! I don't know if it's because these have been my current work-in-progresses and still fresh on my mind or what, but each story in this series just keep getting better and better to me. Parker really fought with Hudson to become my favorite hero in the series, and he might've won. I'm not sure yet. But it's close. And Hope... I do believe Hope is my favorite heroine to date. She's like nothing I've ever created before. She's salty, bold, not-particularly-nice, never backs down from anything, and if I ever met her in real life, she'd probably scare the crap out of me. But I like her! I just really, really liked creating her from the ground up. It was super fun to come up with what kind of sharp-tongued vitriol she was going to say next. Anyway, the story is sitting at 129,719 words now.
       
       9/13/2024 - Third read-through complete. I am going to do a fourth before sending it off to editor number one. 129,472 words long. 
       
       9/6/2024 - Alright! I've read through it twice now and plan to go through the story one or two more times before I send it along to the next person. Currently at 129,740 words long.
       
       8/30/2024 - Started my read-through of Parker and Hope's book. I still have a few chapters left. But it's up to 127,700 now.
       
       8/16/2024 - 126,688 words written. Rought draft complete. Like the last two stories, this one is 40 chapters long with a prologue and epilogue. I love it already, even before I've read through it. The characters were just so different from what I usually write. They kept me on my toes! 
       
       8/9/2024 - 106,000 words written. Making lots of progress with this one. I'm really loving it. Parker and Hope are forces to be reckoned with, I swear. I foresee that I'll finish their rough draft in the next two to three weeks, as long as something else in real life doesn't steal my time.
       
       8/2/2024 - 95,000 words written. First 30 chapters completed.
       
       7/26/2024 - 85,000 words written. First 27 chapters completed. I know I'm going to have to revise a lot of what I wrote this week but it's written so I'll at leat have something TO revise!
       
       7/19/2024 - 74,000 words written. First 25 chapters completed.
       
       7/12/2024 - 61,900 words written this week. Yay! Still working on that first sex scene, though. LOL
       
       7/5/2024 - The only writing time I had for this story this week was at 2:00 AM one night when I couldn’t sleep and wanted to jot down a few lines that came to me before I forgot them. 57,800 words written.
       
       6/28/2024 - 56,700 words written, the first 17 chapters completed, and my last two lines of Chapter 17 went a little something like, "And I knew then; I wasn’t going to have sex in that bed tomorrow. I was having sex in that bed TONIGHT." (Hopefully that wasn't too much of a spoiler). So it looks like I'm gonna need to bring the heat next week. Or maybe the week after that, since I already foresee next week being busy with other things.
    
    6/21/2024 - I don’t typically write about topics I have a whole lot of experience with but rather stuff I want to understand more, stuff I can explore in a safe, fictional world...that I control completely! But I have a feeling I might’ve delved a little too deeply into the anger inside both Parker and Hope. I found myself getting short-tempered and impatient with family and coworkers this week, just like they would. Kind of gave me a headache. I think that’ll be my big challenge in writing this book because the plot has pretty much outlined itself. But capturing the emotions correctly? Ugh. That’ll be the tricky part. Regardless, I had a productive week, word-count wise. I once again stretched out what I wanted to be only the first chapter into being the first SEVEN chapters (Just like I did in "The Life Wish"), but I think it works well that way. I now have eight chapters and a prologue done, totaling 40,000 words written.
    
    6/14/2024 - I was able to work on Parker and Hope's story this week. Just barely eeking along, but there is some progress.  And these two...I'm telling you. They're nothing but trouble together. I swear. 26,000 words written so far. 
    
    5/24/2024 -  Oh man. This book. Parker and Hope are quite the pair. They went straight for each other's throats and have been bickering ever since. But boy, is it hard to write such delightfully catty characters. I'll be going along, thinking I've worked so long I must have thousands of words written, only to check the count and realize I'd only gotten through about 500.  But it's creeping along. We're at 20,000 now.
    
    
    5/17/2024 - So I powered through the first draft of The Life Wish pretty quickly, but the beginning of Parker and Hope’s story feels like it’s taking me 4EVER to pound out. The characters are just so different from the main characters of the last book; I need a minute to change directions and sharpen up their edges to give them more cutting, sarcastically pithy wits. I currently have Hope’s tagline as “She’s not difficult; she’s just always right,” which gives me the challenge of making her likeable enough to actually root for while not backing down from any argument, ever. Their story’s at 15,500 words now.
    
    4/26/2024 – I had a couple of ideas for this one, so I jotted them down, and it has 10,000 words under its belt now!
    
    9/29/2023 - I wanted to get the prologue written for this one, but didn't get very far. 6,500 words written. 
    
    4/14/2023 - 4,500 words written. 
 
    04/03/2023 - Title changing from THE REAL FAKE to JUST THIS ONCE. New main characters are no longer Aly Xnos and Zane Carlisle but Hope Langston and Parker Ohrley. And I'm adding it to a new series idea I'm brewing = The Seven Series. Basically the only thing that stayed the same was the look of the cover!

07/7/2021 - Made a new cover for this one too!  I may change characters' names someday too!  We shall see!

06/11/2018- Idea came. Cover made.

the THICKENING PLOT

Cover of The Thickening Plot

Main Characters: Izzy Webster – ?

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: Webster Siblings – Book 4

Word Count: 2,880 As of: 27 NOV 2019

RUNNING UPDATES:

9/26/2020 - I changed the cover back to what it was before this!

11/27/2019 - 2,800 words written!

05/15/2019 - So I had an idea for a story between Izzy and Cannon, right?  Right!  I began to think the plot through... should this happen or that happen? And suddenly, things took this turn and this other guy I never met before popped into the story (just in the planning, not-write-anything-down, thinking stage) and--bam--he immediately started flirting with Izzy and clicking with Izzy and just...I don't know how to describe it, but I don't think Cannon can be the hero of this story anymore!! (GASP) Someone else just swept right in and stole his girl (Well, not really his girl, but I kind of thought they would hook up)! And I haven't even written a single word of the story yet!  But I already have other plans for Cannon, so he'll be okay...eventually. But with this turn of events, a new cover will be coming.  "The Thickening Plot" title remains for now.  I also have an idea for Darcy's story after Izzy's with a cover and title of "The Diversion Ploy".  Then after that, for Charlie, the cover is made and title so far is "The Final Play." I know who her hero will be but I'm still working on what the actual plot of the story will be!!

04/29/2019 - New title: The Thickening Plot. (Maybe this one will stick!) so, of course, it got a new cover!

04/25/2019 - New title and cover: "Absolutely No Idea"

03/29/2019 - Idea created. Current title: Cutting a Deal. Cover made.

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN

Cover of Until We Meet Again

Main Characters: Nova Ortiz – Thane Eisner

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: The Seven

Word Count: 2,946 As of: 3 APR 2023

WHAT HAPPY LOOKS LIKE

Cover of What Happy Looks Like

Main Characters: Julian Ryan – Violet Jackson

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Series: 2nd Gen FM Descendants

Word Count: 1,000 As of: 21 APR 2023

X MARKS THE SPOT

Cover of X Marks the Spot

Main Characters: Alec Younger – Xander Union

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: The Seven

Word Count: 1,000 As of: 21 APR 2023

ZERO CHANCE

Cover of Zero Chance

Main Characters: Keene Dugger – Waverly Frank

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series: The Seven

Word Count: 47,000 As of: 25 OCT 2024

RUNNING UPDATES:

10/25/2024 - 47,000 words written. 
    
    10/18/2024 – Dude, when I said writing out Waverly’s more depressing thoughts felt kind of cathartic, I was not lying. I felt…I don’t know…so much more at peace with myself after getting all those dark, terrible, ugly thoughts off my chest. I just felt GOOD, you know. The inside of my own head wasn’t so negative and miserable anymore. No idea how much of what I wrote will actually stay in the story for my heroine’s character, but it was a very nice release for me personally. I worked more on Just-This-Once edits this week than anything, but I got a little bit in on Zero Chance done too. It’s holding strong at 40,000 words today. 
    
    10/11/2024 – Writing about a depression is weird. It kind of sucks you down to that low place and feel zapped along with the character, and yet it’s cathartic and kind of freeing. Not sure how it can be both, but it is. Trust me. We’re 33,000 words into this story, and the first eight chapters have been completed!
    
    10/04/2024 - I am now 27,000 words into this story. Some parts have been like, YES! Definitely. This. And other parts have been like...er...maybe. But I've been writing all the parts down, regardless, knowing I can go back to change them later if I want.
    
    9/27/2024 - I really didn't think I'd get much writing done on this one this week, but today turned out to be a good day, so we're now up to 16,000 words. I think I have Waverly figured out how I want her. It took a minute to decide her personality, but I think we're got it now...maybe.
    
    9/20/2024 - Got through Chapter One. 8,700 words written.
    
    8/30/2024 - I pretty much deleted everything I had written for Keene's story and started fresh. Got the prologue done! And now we're 4,200 words into it.
    
    4/21/2023 - 1,300 words written.
    
    4/2/2023 - Cover made (used to be from LAST TIME cover, but that got a new cover and I still liked the old so I used it for this story!). And decided to put it in with the Seven series.

7/22/2022 - Title idea made: Zero Chance.