The Plan (And Newsletter)

The Plan. So ominous sounding, isn't it? Am I cooking up a grand scheme? One that will bring down cities and crumble civilizations?

Maybe.

Well, it's entirely possible in any of my stories. Destruction is fun (and legal if it's fiction and not the real deal). ;)

No, no, nothing so doomsday is being kicked up. Unless you consider a plan of attack for publications an end of the world matter. Who knows, it could be. I'm sure the Universe would be to no end amused at my dismay if I outlined my plan and it decided it was time for the world to explode right before it's implemented. Because the Universe can be a big jerk sometimes.

Guess I got to bribe the good, old Universe. Cookies? Everyone likes cookies.

What? You think I'm stalling? Just get on with outlining The Plan? Fine. I guess I should deliver as promised.

I've decided that I'm finally going to make more of a push with indie publishing. I just feel like I've been sitting on my hands and waffling back and forth with what I want to do, so I'm just going to do it. And I actually have dates. Yup. This is happening. And the best thing about the beginning of The Plan is you'll all get to read some stuff for free!

That's right, I'll be continuing and finishing "Dude In Distress" on Wattpad, and once that's complete, I'll be starting a new original novel called Chains of Nect. It'll only be a rough draft, so you may fall into some plot holes, have inconsistencies hit you on the head, or get knocked over by a direction/plot shift, but it should be enjoyable nonetheless.

Then come October, the Baker's Dozen Experiment will begin! *inserts evil cackle* Wait, I'm a mad writer, not a mad scientist.

I will be publishing one story per month on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and Smashwords come October of this year for thirteen months straight. Most will be short stories, but one may be a novelette. And the final one may even be a novel! I am still giving a response I haven't received a few more months before I set things in stone on that, but I'm tentatively planning to publish Mind Behind the Mind in October 2016.

"Dancing in the Wind" will also be getting a cover upgrade, as well as a formatting and back matter upgrade in the next couple months.

Here's what the current schedule looks like. All planned publications via Amazon are tentative--the order may be switched around or some may drop off as I do still plan to submit stories to other markets before I place them on the definite indie publishing list. I will make sure there is something every month though during the Baker's Dozen Experiment, and it will be confirmed at least a month ahead of each publication.

❦ Starting June 2, 1 Part Every Tuesday and Friday, Final Part July 10 - "Dude In Distress" Parts 2-13 - Wattpad
❦ Starting July 17, 1 Scene or Chapter Every Friday, Final Post Undetermined - Chains of Nect - Wattpad

Follow me on Wattpad to get notices of new parts--not all parts will be cross-posted to my blog!

❦ Fall 2015 - "Bloodstains" to be published in a limited time anthology by Dingbat Publishing - Amazon

❦ October 13, 2015 - Baker's Dozen Experiment begins! "Suicide Woes" and "Ode to Buses and Libraries" in the Fractured Fairies series - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ November 13, 2015 - "Dreams in Shadow" in the Fate series - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ December 13, 2015 - "Cold...Oh So Cold" and "This Is Where I Stand" in the Tales of Chyraine series - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ January 13, 2016 - "Love Fades" in the Fate series - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ February 13, 2016 - "Bound" - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ March 13, 2016 - "Hell Hath No Fury" (novelette) - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ April 13, 2016 - "Reversed" in the Fate series - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ May 13, 2016 - "SOL Air" in the Fractured Fairies series - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ June 13, 2016 - "Sunset Street" - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ July 13, 2016 - "Ace of Wands" (placeholder title) in the Fate series - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ August 13, 2016 - "Prince Upon a Black Horse" (placeholder title) - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ September 13, 2016 - "Bloodstains" and "Hair of the Dog" - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords
❦ October 13, 2016 - Mind Behind the Mind - Amazon/B&N/Kobo/Smashwords

That's a lot of dates and stories--right? Who's going to remember all of that? Well, clearly you don't have to, but if you'd like a reminder of upcoming publications, I've started a newsletter!

But that's not the best thing about the newsletter. Nope. Subscribers will get access to early sneak peeks and exclusive content. As a matter of fact, if you subscribe before July 8, you'll receive the Prologue to Chains of Nect on July 9 in the first newsletter (8 days before it goes live on Wattpad!).

I promise not to be crazy with the newsletter. No more than one per month will land in your inbox, and there will be times (when not in the middle of the Baker's Dozen Experiment) that there will be two or three months between newsletters. You can either subscribe using the form on the left side of my blog, or you can CLICK HERE.

Have you soaked all of this in? Are you excited? I hope you're excited. I definitely am. Time to start rolling the d10 for my "Dude In Distress" RPG turned story revision! June 2 is right around the corner!

NEXT UP: "Dude In Distress" Part 2

Roland

This is a really hard post to write. I've posted about losing pets before, but at the end of April we lost our almost 14-year-old black cat. He was the sweetest and most loveable cat, and he was my Buddy Boy. Before we had our kids, he would make sure to nap in whatever room I was in. Even after the kids, when I was at the computer at night before bed, most times he'd be curled up near me on my husband's chair. Saying I was very attached to him is an understatement. So, I'm going to dive in with a list of all the things I remember about my unique kitty, a kind of kitty I know I will never likely own again. I reserve the right to edit this post in the future to add anything I forgot (there's just so much and my memory can be wonky).

❦ Roland was named after...yup, Roland from Stephen King's Dark Tower series!

❦ He was one of the meowiest (is that a word?) kitties I have ever known. We knew from the first night we got him as a kitten that we would never have a quiet night again while he was around! Therefore two of his nicknames were Mr. Meow and Meowhead. His purr was also crazy loud.

❦ He was also our Crooked Kitty. His tail had a notch at the base, and a couple notches at the tip. We don't know if he was born that way or if he got hurt as an itty bitty kitty before we adopted him. When I was taking a ceramics class in college, I made him a crooked bowl that said Crooked Kitty.

❦ He was our Great One-Armed Hedgehog Hunter! He loved to bring us presents--mostly sparkle balls, but one of his favorites was the hedgehog (which only had one arm). During the day he'd bring it downstairs, then at night while we were crawling into bed, he'd bring it back upstairs. Of course, he'd meow the whole way on his trek with the cat toy in his mouth. We knew he was coming!

❦ Oh, and he was part dog. He enjoyed playing fetch with his sparkle balls. AND he loved to dig. No, not in dirt, but in blankets. Many a time I ended up sitting on him on the bed because he dug his way under the blankets.

❦ He had a little black cauldron full of his sparkle balls. He loved picking those things out of there.

❦ We constantly had to clear sparkle balls out of his food bowl because he thought that's where he needed to deposit them. And he preferred to drink water by dipping his paw in the water and licking the water off his paw. NO cup filled with water in the house was safe. Many times I found an untended cup of water with litter in the bottom. Ew!

❦ He enjoyed chewing the tails off of his toy mice. He also enjoyed chewing string in half. He'd always ruin the ball of string for one of our other cats that's no longer with us. Pikachu loved them. Roland would not only chew the end off, but for good measure he'd chew it into several little bits (he never ate any of the bits, though).

❦ He was our Needy/Kneady Kitty. The first because he shamed those people that claim cats are independent. He wanted attention. And then he wanted more. If we locked him out of our bedroom temporarily, we heard his unhappy meows begging to be let back in. He insisted the first thing we did when we woke in the morning was give him itchings. The kneady part though was because he loved to knead. Especially our jeans...when they were ON us. I was insanely glad that we had his front claws removed because then we could allow him to knead to his heart's content (though he still managed to knead a hole into the corner of our current bed skirt--heh).

❦ Sometimes he would lie on his back and play with his tail. It was his way of trying to get our attention (it worked most of the time).

❦ At night, he preferred sleeping in between my husband and me, but when the kids took that spot, he decided sleeping on my husband's pillow was the next best thing. Who wouldn't want back claws tangling in their hair at night?

❦ That meow I mentioned? Yup, our little alarm clock...usually earlier than we intended to get up. And when going to bed, he would meow for a good 10-15 minutes too because, no it's not bedtime, it's love the Roland time.

❦ Being a silly human, I used to sing "Roland, Roland, Roland. Meow, meow!" to the "Rawhide" song.

❦ As mentioned he was my Buddy Boy--probably his most used nickname. Baby Boy Kitty, Little Black Cat, Monster Meow, Fuzzy Boy. More nicknames. He had so many! (For a short time at the end, he was also Demon Kitty, due to his glowing eyes in a picture I had taken of him.)

I feel like there should be a lot more to this list. We had nearly 14 years with Roland, but it's so hard to remember all the crazy, silly, lovable things he did. Perhaps this list is enough, but my heart says it isn't, merely because it will never encompass and truly show what kind of kitty Roland was. It'll have to do though.

NEXT UP: The Plan (What's this? Is the suspense killing you yet?)

Intermission - May 2015

Life has decided to explode a bit in the last week or so. An example is to the right. Wait, no. That's too pretty.

Perhaps more like this? Nah. Too silly.

Oh, yes. That's more like it. Got to have the mushroom cloud and the desolate landscape.

So, my apologies for having to put the next post on hold (which will be about a small slice of the explosion). Hopefully I'll come out the other end of this with beauty ahead. Like the exploding flower below, perhaps.

NEXT UP: That promised sad post.