Winging It

Monday Mind Dump

(ChatGPT running with a short little description of a series of shorts I intend to put into a collection…after I wrote all the things below. I realized I had sold two of these to Spurgle collections and there is a third…and these are very easy to write, as they are pure chaos. I can write more without it involving the other novels and have content for a book. I’ll recreate this in my own style. :D These are a little more adult, even if they’re not crass or vulgar, just not for young kids. )

I’m under a lot of pressure right now, but I’m doing what I normally do, because I can DO that once again. What is that? Put my head down and plow through the problem.

Right now, dealing with the eye surgeries and I also need to go on a trip for business AND because you know, almost died last year. So, I need to see a lot of family members. It coincides with my eye surgeries and I’m in a hole. Need to spread things out a bit more because I can’t handle THREE eye doctor visits in a month for two months in a row and it’ll likely end up being three month like this…then I’ll be free. So realized that I need to get the first round, explain my situation, then put off the second round of surgeries by a month.

I sacrifice attending P-con, and that’s okay. I’ll be more free next year.

Then, there’s another thing to do. I have quite a few short stories that I can put up for sale at .99 after I revise them. There’s also the three Dragonfae Cycle novellas that would be easy to revise, turnaround, and publish for 2.99 each. Longer projects are of course, Arcadian Ascendant (needs revision to cover up where I split it in half) and Bloodstone (It’s in copy edits right now!) And there’s a romantic comedy that’s just a NORMAL NON FANTASY novel. It Always Starts With Coffee. So, I do have things I can do.

I’m balking…because I obviously can’t afford the editing I’ll need. Most likely going to depend on beta readers for the novellas. I put out a very clean copy, but it’s not perfect by any means. I love editors.

The other issue that keeps grinding me to a halt is that those three (four) novellas are what I call a prequel. While I wrote them AFTER I wrote a bunch of other novels within the Dragonfae Cycle, they form the roots of that world…with some spoilery parts that happen directly in its pages that my MCs (their children) discover in their own stories. I’m rewriting the old stories to fully mesh around it all.

I wanted readers to read the primary stories which are essentially Classic YA Fantasy like Blood Diamonds. Suitable for pretty much all ages. The supporting prequels…are Classic Adult Fantasy. :D Now, technically, in the past, they would have been the same thing, just Fantasy. Nowadays the marketing is different. I don’t use the YA term because it brings with it expectations I will NOT fulfill. The same for Romantasy. I won’t use it, because I worry I’d disappoint the readers looking for that.

For one thing, I refuse to write any kind of detailed sex (or heavy romance for that matter) involving underage characters. I’m not a fan and believe I’m fine with how I choose to tell a story. Nobody will notice unless they’re LOOKING for that.

Still thinking about it, but likely to at least get some short stories posted.