Wow…4 days since I last posted!

That's the problem with my schedule being screwed with. I worked swing shift on Saturday, graveyard on Sunday, a late shift (8pm) on Monday, another graveyard on Tuesday, and then spent Wednesday recuperating. Writing? Maybe 2.5k. Website programming? Nichts. Most the spare time was spent getting used to hearing aids, trying to stay awake, or trying to get enough sleep for the next shift.

Back to the same ol' grind, now. Hit my 1k goal without a problem. The murder has happened, the funeral has been had, and now Father Castillo is getting some very bad news. There may have been a witness to the murder . . . or at least someone who saw someone else enter the library. (It was Col. Mustard in the library with the pipe!)

Home from work early tonight. Gonna finish my usual cruising and get back to work on the website redesign.

Well, the modem isn't the problem, it's the home networking system. It seems that whenever Anna attempts to go online with her computer, the modem automatically cuts out so NO one can get online. Furkin' weird, man. So, I've set up her dial up on her Mac and taken her off the network DSL. sigh

Either my roommate, Fred, (the talkative one) can walk through the issue with tech support and fix it or I'm going to cancel my networking payment. What the hel's the point if my wife can't access the internet? Duh. (Guess it's a good thing she hasn't canceled her dial up or the extra phone line, eh?)

Got news from Fortitude today – they’ve finally gotten a distributor. Which means I can actually send those people who are non-internet folks to real world bookstores. You can now order the books from Amazon.com or Borders or Barnes & Noble. Though, it’s preferable for people to order them directly from the publisher’s website. I get a higher royalty when they’re ordered directly from Fortitude.

Wrote 1k today. Poor Castillo. Jenna lost control of her emotions in his presence. She blasted him but good. Sent him into a seizure and made him hyper alert. He’s recovering in a guest room, feeling like he got ran over by a bus. He’s in the dark because light is far too painful. The doctor’s prognosis is a full recovery, fortunately. (Besides, I have plans for him.)

Additionally, he has to pass on the information from the Symbouhera – seems they’ve finally made the decision for he, Valmont and Margaurethe to return immediately with Jenna. Unfortunately for them, Jenna’s not in the mood to come running when the council snaps their collective fingers. She’s got enough problems where she is. And she knows that showing up before the Symbouhera will only give Bertrada a shot at killing her.

Next scene: a funeral for the unwitting victim.

As far as Orphan Maker goes, I’ve decided to shelve it, despite a chapter and a half written. I really lost track of Angels Deserve to Die by trying to write on two stories at a time. Had to go back over the last couple of days and reread the manuscript to get back into the swing of it. However, I’ll continue to work on world building for OM. I believe I’ll probably beef it up considerably before I even begin writing it. (And that should begin somewhere in mid to late August. I’m still on schedule with ADtD being finished by then.)

All right. Everybody's caught up now. LOL! Have a wonderful day!

Many, many thanks to Aries for the donation through my Paypal account. You’ve made my audiologist quite happy with her decision to waive her company’s financing requirements! Let me know when you need a favor in return!

And thanks to jrosestar for her wonderful review of Warlord Metal at my publisher’s site, Fortitude Press. I think my publisher’s going to have heart failure now. She’s been pressing me for reviews for months and suddenly she gets three inside of a week. You rock, man!

Oh, and you . . . yeah, you! You’ve got to learn some self control, woman! Stay away from EverCrack! It’s bad enough you’re hooked into Neopets! Just say no!

I spent this morning researching Orphan Maker. I’ve got a good idea about the Loomis homestead; what kind of out buildings there are, how big the cabin is, etc. Seven kids between the ages of 19 and 4 are living there when three more show up. Gonna be a jam-packed cabin, lemme tell ya. Most of my research has been at primitive living and survivalism sites. Some really good information availalbe.

Only four hours of work this evening. Afterward, I came home, and returned to slogging through my website upgrade. Finally finished my link page. I wanted to actually have graphics instead of just typing in something and creating a link to a site. That’s what was so time consuming about the whole thing – had to go to each site I wanted on the page and hunt down a graphic I could use as a banner.

I split the links up according to writing, geek stuff about my writing, and then the research links for each of my published book. I’m really looking forward to creating links for several I have in editing or writing works right now. Orphan Maker alone should be worth quite a bit of link space!

Tomorrow, I write 1k on Angels Deserve to Die. Probably officially plot out the Loomis homestead on graph paper. Begin working on the characters for the new novel.

I have a hearing appointment tomorrow afternoon. I hope the doctor will be better than my last one (“Gee. You’re going deaf. Don’t know why. Here’s the bill.”) I’d really like to know WHY I’ve lost my hearing. And if there’s a possibilty of getting part of it back. We’ll see how it goes.

. . . how that story idea was bugging me to death? You remember that I finally broke down and began inputting the data into the Writer's Dreamkit?

It's gone beyond that. I'm already over 2k into the story. sigh

Not to worry! I'm writing 1k a day (in the morning) for Angels, as planned. It's just that I've been getting home fairly early from work, the entire city of Portland insists on going online at 9pm, I get dumped from hoovering the cat online, and I get bored! I have to do SOMETHING! So, I started writing.

I've never written two novels simultaneously before. It'll be interesting to see what happens. As it is, right now I don't even have an outline. I'm going to wait until I've exhausted the Muse first before I plot one out.

In Angels news, the character I've dreaded killing is dead. Poor thing. Throat ripped out at the jugular. Very messy. Gonna be a hell of an impact on Jenna when she finds out . . . which is being written tomorrow morning! Oy!

Happy writing!

This story idea is bugging the hel outta me!! So, I'm working with the Writer's Dreamkit and getting the bare bones down so I don't forget them. One thousand words of worldbuilding rather than writing. (Tentative title: Orphan Maker.)

It doesn't help that I have to kill off a character in Angels Deserve to Die, either. I'm not looking forward to that scene and keep veering away from it. I've only just discovered it's from that character's POV, as well, so at least now I have something to mull over.

Providing this other story idea leaves me alone long enough!

sigh

My website programming is looking good. Finished the home page, the author bio, the faq page. Now I'm working on the links page. After that I plan on hitting the personal pages – lists of my favorite books and stuff. I'm going through it alphabetically, actually. The last group of pages are the ones on the books. Those are going to take some time because I have to put up the graphics, reviews, links to where to purchase them, and the like.

Anybody willing to send me an email reviewing one of my books? I'll quote ya!

I've also got to figure out forms. I want to remove my email address from the website itself and put it in comment form. Getting tired of unsolicited spam for Viagra and men with big breasts. This will stop those stupid programs that harvest email addies for spam mails.

No writing today. I work too early and haven't been able to get into the mood. Amazingly enough, I feel pretty confident that I can make up the wordcount without a problem. Hope it's not over confidence!

Thanks to feath for that wonderful script! Now all I have to do is program in my quotes instead of the ones already there. It's made my life a hel of a lot easier!

And, I've finally figured out where to change the title page on the frames. I downloaded a handful of templates that I'm adapting for my new, professional image. The problem is that I've never worked with frames before. Spent a disgusted two hours last night trying to locate where to change the title but couldn't do it. I thought I'd have to reprogram each and every frame by hand. Started doing that this morning; opened each frame separately, code view only, and scoured the thing for information. Finally located the one in the index that I hadn't gotten to. Voila! Instant 'Redhawk's Realm' in the title bar! YAY!

Came across another story idea over the last couple of days. A friend of mine has made mention of a New Zealand kids' program called 'The Tribe' that seemed pretty interesting. I checked it out on satellite. It's alright. Nothing I'd watch. But the premise is damned cool! Similar in tone to the original Star Trek episode, 'Miri' – all the adults die of a plague, leaving the kids just below the threshold of puberty and younger to grow up on their own. The difference between that and the Trek ep, of course, is that it's a fresh occurence and as the child matures, he or she does NOT contract the disease that killed the adults. Of course, 'The Tribe' has taken these kids and given them mass weapons of destruction, enough brains to keep the electricity running, and computers. Not too realistic to me (at least not from MY childhood.)

So, I've been playing around with that idea. Already have a couple of main characters and three supporting. I'll probably have another handful of supporting characters by the time I'm finished dallying around with the concept.

Okay. Off to work.

Busy ones, at that. Two glorious days off and I only got one nap out of the deal! Durnit!

Saturday was spent catching up on all the chores I hadn't done because I was working my butt off the previous six nights. I only just got the mountain of dishes done this morning! No writing to be had (and haven't had time for two or three days before Saturday, either.)

On Sunday, I buried myself in Castle Walls. ARGH! I thought the LAST time was the last time! Six hours of heavy duty editing. Gods! I hope I only have to read a proof now! I’ve been through this manuscript seven times!

Nobody told me that writing was work! LOL!

And to cap the night, I found a really cool set of templates for my revised website. I'm going to give it a professional appearance. For those of you who enjoy the writing there, I'll warn you – I'm not going to have links from the main site to the stories. I will, however, leave the stories there. The reason for this is that there are several places where the links to the individual tales are listed. I don't want to cut off people from reading what's already online, but I also don't want to turn off potential publishers by having fanfiction on my site. It's a sticky situation. I mean, if anybody REALLY wanted to find the stories, all they'd need to do is search.

Fanfiction is my skeleton and I'm constructing the closet. LOL!

Anyway, if and when the Sanguire series is published, I'm also going to put the Sanguire Encyclopedia online. And now I'm going way beyond simple html programming. The templates are frames and I spent a couple of hours futzing around until I fgured the links out. Now I've got to consider MySQL and PHP programming. Yikes! I want to remove my email address from all areas of the site and simply put a comment form down. It'll help divert the spam I've been receiving. I was also thinking about using one or two line quotes from my stories as a teaser on the main page – that's why MySQL. I want it a random quote to come up every time someone goes to the site.

AND I'm writing 1k a day, editing On Azrael's Wings, brainstorming my future media kit, etc, etc, etc.

I wish I didn't have to work full time!

Have a good day, people!

124 words. Yesterday's? None.

I was too damned tired yesterday to do anything. Ended up going back to bed to doze for an hour and a half. Then ran around like a mad woman getting chores done and prepped for work.

At least I finally figured out where the next scene is going to start. Now that Reynhard the Spy has informed Jenna and crew of the existence of an assassin, it's time for the ol' Padre to report to the Sanguire council about it. I've already shown Lionel Bentoncourt at the office, in council chambers, and at his stables. I needed someplace fresh for him to receive a phone call, someplace that would give a little more insight to him as a person rather than a two dimensional cut out.

Castillo woke his ass up at one am! Hah! If that doesn't show what kind of person you are, nothing will! Lo! and Behold! Bentoncourt has a wife! They've been together for eighty-four years! Imagine!

Off to shower. And dress. And pack lunch. And do dishes. And fold laundry.

ARGH!

It's a biggie, too…3420 words long, total. Had a lot of characters in one scene and that made it grow quite large.

Margaurethe and Jenna have kissed and made up. Hopefully, Margaruethe's desire for Valmont's blood has been quelled to some degree. I'm surprised he actually survived their last encounter. Reynhard the Spy has reported on the likely Mysterious Councilor who wants Jenna dead (other than Bertrada Nijmege, of course, who would rather do it herself than send an assassin.) He's also told them of information regarding a new contract out on Jenna's life. Which means Father Castillo will now be reporting back to the chief councilor to tell him of this little kink in their plans.

Which will come right around and warn the Mysterious Councilor that Jenna knows of his assassin's existence.

Reynhard has also given Valmont enough hints that he's aware of Valmont working for Nijmege. Valmont almost had a heart attack when Reynhard mentioned he had 'one other thing' to bring up in their meeting. He was certain Reynhard would uncover him as a spy in their midst. But it didn't happen. Now he's got a lot more food for thought – primarily, why didn't Reynhard report him?

It's one big mess, if you ask me. I love it!

Gotta leave early for work today. My shirt had a fight with a pen a couple of nights ago. My shirt won because there's a lot of ink on it . . . the shirt got first blood on the pen, I think. Unfortunately, I don't have any more white shirts! The last two have bit it in the POS dryer. sigh

Happy writing!

First week down, and 7314 words! I’ve also finished one complete chapter.

Been reading a book called Guerrilla Marketing for Writers. It’s somewhat interesting; talks about the need to market one’s self (something I’m woefully lacking in,) and gives many suggestions for same. It’s not bad, but not exactly what I was looking for, I guess. Very general overall. I suppose it would be much more helpful if I was writing how-to or self-help books. Then I could go like gang busters with the ideas there.

Last week was a stress free, few work days kinda week. Loved it. Had five glorious days off overall. This week, I’ve got one day off and no going home early. So . . . which week did my editor return Castle Walls for ANOTHER go round? Why, this one, of course! ARGH! I’ve only gotten 50 out of 195 pages done. Thank gods, I’m not currently on a deadline!

Off to do dishes, change sheets, pack lunch, get ready for work, blech!

Margaurethe is not a happy camper with Valmont! Imagine! In other news, Father Castillo is witness to a physical attack by Margaurethe upon Valmont's person, and he gets to meet the famed and mysterious chief spy, Reynhard Dorst. Lucky, lucky!

Castillo bowed perfunctorily, and filed past Jenna to the kitchen. The stranger held the door and Valmont followed. When they were safe inside the next room, Castillo sighed mightily and turned his attention to the newcomer.


He looked like a picture of a clown done in black and white. Three dark Mohawks striped his head, and he wore shiny leather, vinyl and chains. Castillo wondered if this was someone Jenna had met at Tribulations last night, but a glance at Valmont’s suspicious expression denied it. Surely the archon would know this man if they did.


“Archon Valmont!”the man said with an obsequious grin and a bow. “It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen you. Tell me, how’s the winery business these days, eh? I hear the crops are doing quite well this year.”


Valmont peered closely at the Gothic buffoon. “Reynhard?”


“Oh!” Dorst patted his chest in a parody of joy. “You remember. I’m so pleased.”


Castillo tried to remember the name, finding it vaguely familiar. Where had he heard it? He looked at Valmont for clues, surprised to see a disgusted curl to the man’s lips.


“Who could forget Elisibet’s chief spy? Tell me,” Valmont said, “Why is it that you never knew of the plot against her? I’ve always wanted to ask, but you disappeared before you could be put to the question.”


“Ah, well, you see,” Dorst said, eyes twinkling, “That would be revealing secrets, wouldn’t it? Not something to be done in my line of work, you know.”


Castillo’s eyebrows rose. “Reynhard Dorst?”


“Father Castillo! It’s such a pleasure to meet you. The Basilissa has had nothing but good things to say about you.” Dorst reached out and firmly shook his hand.


“Just how long have you been back?” Valmont asked, pushing rudely forward.


Dorst’s humor faded into mock seriousness. “Well, just an hour or so this time. I’ve been away on a little errand for the Basilissa for the last few weeks.”


Castillo saw a spark of fury in Valmont’s hazel eyes, something that had not occurred throughout Margaurethe’s attack. More secrets to be learned then. What was the story behind these two? And did Margaurethe share Valmont’s opinion, or was she comfortable in the presence of Dorst?

Basilissa is a Greek word for queen or empress. As I've mentioned earlier, I've mixed up Greek and Maori to create the Sanguire language. More Greek than anything, however. Archon is the closest to 'Lord' I could find, a word the Maori never had.

1k today. Then I went to Lloyd's Center and wandered the mall. Found a couple of books at Barnes & Nobles. I'll let you know what they are after I've read 'em.

Also got about two thirds the way through the Writers' Dreamkit with On Azrael’s Wings. That's why the thanks to my friend, Shawn. She helped immensely in a couple of places. It's not as easy to plug in a story that's already written, especially since it was written on the fly. With her help, I was able to pull back a bit and see the bigger picture. I'll finish that up tomorrow.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

So, Jenna and her best friend, Gin, are hanging out at the mansion. Our heroine has decided to 'fess up to Gin about what she is. It ain't an easy prospect, however. (Go figure!)

“I’m not a vampire, Gin,” Jenna insisted, rolling her eyes. She did not release her friend, squeezing the fingers holding hers. “I’m Sanguire. There is a difference.”


The sincerity in her voice must have triggered something for Gin peered closely at her.”What are the differences, muchacha?”


Put on the spot, Jenna did not know what to say at first. She lifted her shoulders in a slow shrug, mouth open as she tried to find the words. A sudden memory of Castillo breaking the news to her about her people almost made her chuckle with a wave of nervous laughter. It had sounded so ridiculous then; it certainly would not sound any less far fetched now.


“The differences. Uh, let’s see. We can walk around in daylight, for one. Garlic and crosses and shit don’t really work. We don’t turn into wolves or mists or bats. A Sanguire can’t hypnotize a victim or anything.” She leaned forward, pale eyes lighting with excitement as she ticked off more dissimilarities. “We can’t change a Human to a Sanguire by biting them! There are lots of differences, Gin.”


“Then how are Sanguire the same as vampires?”


Jenna, warming to her topic, said, “Well, we have better hearing and sense of smell and stuff. We can move faster than Humans can. We live longer.” She interrupted herself before Gin could. “But not forever. Sanguire aren’t immortal; we just take longer to age.”


“Do these Sanguire drink blood?”


Her enthusiasm waned, and she blinked at her friend. “Yes.”


Gin’s expression contorted in concern. “Have you drunk any blood, chica?”


Jenna did not understand the wave of shame slamming through her. Perhaps Valmont was right; she had been raised with Humans. She thought of herself as one of them, regardless of her circumstances. She stared at the floor, her answer evident.


Swearing in Spanish, Gin rose and began pacing the room.


“Gin-”


“No!” The agitated woman stopped to point imperiously at Jenna. “We are leaving, chica, and that is final! I don’t know what kind of people these are to fill your head with such lies. And I don’t want to know. Pack your things. You bullied them into letting you go last night; do it again.”


Jenna stood. She approached her friend, hands held wide at her sides. “It’s true, Gin. All of it.”


“No! These people are fucked in the head, J.D.! And you’ve always wanted to be a vampire or something cool like that.” She tapped her temple with a sun brown finger. “I remember what you were like after that movie, damn it. It was all you could talk about for weeks. These people are no good. They feed you bullshit and you lap it up.” Gin turned to the clothes she had discarded the night before, shoving them viciously into her backpack.


“Gin. Look at me.” Something in her voice must have cut through Gin’s fear as the woman froze. For that was what this was, fear. Jenna could smell it clearly. It was not the same horror that Misty had given off the night before. This was dread for Jenna, alarm for a friend who seemed to be mentally losing it. “Gin?”


“You believe this, don’t you?” Gin asked, her voice barely a whisper as she turned, still holding her backpack in one hand and a pair of stockings in the other.


“I don’t want to scare you, but I have to do this,” Jenna said. She held her hands out in a calming gesture. “You’re safe with me, okay?”


Gin’s eyes narrowed but she did not argue, only nodded her head in understanding.


Jenna opened her mouth, revealing normal looking teeth. With a thought, her fangs extended. It was a natural extension – no indication of fake teeth being popped into place, no masking her mouth as she popped a handful of plastic fangs into her mouth – and that was why she did it. Gin would know what she witnessed was real.


The backpack hit the floor. Gin’s eyes were wide as she stumbled backwards. When the back of her knees hit the bed, she sat with an inglorious grunt.

Poor Gin! Talk about rude awakenings!

Only 757 word count today. That after getting up at the crack of furkin' dawn (okay, okay. At 7am anyway,) and going to work for a MORNING shift. Good gods! How horrible is THAT!? Worked six hours, half of it in a department meeting, typing up the meeting minutes and inputting next week's schedule into the computer.

From there I went to my favorite-ist writing place (other than my living room) in the universe, Coffee People across from the South Park Blocks downtown. Something's wrong with their AC, however. Man, was it hot in there!

Last night, I burned through three hundred pages of Harry Potter V. Can I just say that Harry's a whiner this go 'round? I'm sincerely hoping it's not a permanent thing. Just, you know, puberty and perhaps picking up too much of Voldemort for various reasons. Cuz if he's this much of an ass in book six, I'm gonna stop reading the series.

I have another three days off and then six days working. Busy, busy, busy at work. So I'm going to be using these three days to write a minimum of 1500 words a day and get Azrael plugged into the Dreamkit and characters rounded out. Should finish a minimum of two chapters that way and also be well ahead of my word count for the Dare.

Off to read more of Harry!