Publication Update - 2/25/16

I posted The Plan back in May of 2015. Clearly I've been trucking along and rolling things out, if you've seen some of my snippet posts. Some things have changed or been shifted around, but for the most part I'm on track with publishing one short story per month since October 2015.

I figured I was due for an update here on Born to Write, though. So here it is! Below you'll find the titles I've published since October 2015, links to the snippets you can read on this blog, and my publication schedule through October 2016. Usual disclaimer: things may change! Even this list doesn't reflect the original Plan exactly, as I've rearranged some things and decided to replace at least one story with another.

Also, as a side note, my original intention was to take my stories wide, but I instead decided to try KDP Select out. I won't assess going wide again until likely after I've published Mind Behind the Mind. In all likelihood, I will go wide in 2017, but I want to see how KDP Select treats me through the rest of the Baker's Dozen Experiment.

Publications from October 13, 2015 through February 13, 2016

❦ Fractured Fairies: Immortal Woes & Ode to Buses and Libraries [October 13, 2015] - Amazon and Snippet

❦ Dreams in Shadow: A Fortunes of Fate Story [November 13, 2015] - Amazon and Snippet

❦ Tales of Chyraine: Two Short Stories [December 13, 2015] - "This Is Where I Stand" and "Cold, Oh So Cold" - Amazon and Snippet

❦ Love Fades: A Fortunes of Fate Story [January 13, 2016] - Amazon and Snippet

❦ Hell Hath No Fury [February 13, 2016] - Amazon and Snippet

Upcoming Publications

❦ Bound [March 13, 2016] - Already up on Amazon for Pre-Order!

❦ Blood & Booze: Two Short Stories [April 13, 2016] - "Bloodstains" (an end of the world dark fantasy) and "Hair of the Dog" (a 20's urban fantasy)

❦ Reversed: A Fortunes of Fate Story [May 13, 2016] - (epic fantasy)

❦ S.O.L. Air: A Fractured Fairies Story [June 13, 2016] - (humorous fantasy)

❦ Sunset Street [July 13, 2016] - (portal/urban fantasy)

❦ Beguiling Moon: A Fortunes of Fate Story [August 13, 2016] - (epic fantasy)

❦ Void of Intuition: A Fortunes of Fate Story [September 13, 2016] - (urban fantasy)

❦ Mind Behind the Mind [October 13, 2016] - Book One of Trinity Torn (dark romantic epic fantasy)

And remember, if you want to be updated once per month (probably a little less once the Baker's Dozen Experiment is complete) with my upcoming publications, please consider subscribing to my Newsletter.

I'm refraining from reporting any statistics until at least a month after the release of Mind Behind the Mind. There have been some ups and downs, of course. I've also tried a couple free promos, one for Dancing in the Wind: A Short Story and another for Dreams in Shadow: A Fortunes of Fate Story. I may do one or two more promos this year, but nothing's confirmed!

All in all, I'm happy to be on this journey, and I'm ever curious at how things will unfold. Happy reading!

Deadpool - My Kind of Humor

***WARNING: Oh, yes, there are spoilers in this post. So, if you haven't seen this hilarious movie yet, go see it now. Or I'll hire the Merc with the Mouth to make you. I mean, you can always read the spoilers without seeing the movie, but it's just not the same. So, go see it already. And if you have seen it, go see it again.***

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Copyright Info on Deadpool Poster

Deadpool was a great fucking movie. Yes, I felt the need to use the expletive. In honor of Deadpool. ;)

Now, I've never read a Deadpool comic (if I had the time and money, I'd be tempted to now, though), but I have a husband who is better versed in a multitude of comic book characters (his hay day of buying comics is long past, but Deadpool has been around a while). Since he knows I'm a geek who enjoys comics, superheroes, villains, and the like (even if I can't afford to buy and read them, I like to hear about them), he filled me in long before the movie was even a thought on what type of character Deadpool was. I was intrigued then.

And then the previews for the movie started. It was seriously hard to contain my excitement. I am a sarcastic, snarky person by nature. I like my humor with an edge. Heck, when I write humor I try to have that edge. Oh, Deadpool has lots of edge.

This movie couldn't have gotten away with a lower than R rating. I am so glad they didn't try to wrestle it into a PG-13 rating. It would have been bad. Deadpool is the Merc with the Mouth. And what a mouth!

OK, this might be a bit of a gushing post. Sorry about that, but the only things stopping me from going out and watching the movie several more times are two children who can't see it (we drove all the way up to my mother-in-law's last weekend so she could watch the kids while we went to the movie). I was laughing even at the opening credits.

From breaking the fourth wall, to poking fun at Reynolds' past roles as Green Lantern and Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (seriously, why the hell would you sew Deadpool's mouth shut -- that's the best thing about him), the hilarity was infused throughout the movie. Heck, even my husband probably didn't notice all the little Easter eggs because there were so many! That little action figure you see at one point? That's the Deadpool figure from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. No clue until my husband told me about it, and that was after he read it somewhere.

Anyway, I know there are some critics out there that think the villains were a bit weak, and that the plot was a bit thin, but honestly I think the villains and plot worked for this type of movie. The core of such a movie is the humor, the character. Deadpool is larger than life, and he's supposed to be the central focus.

True, his motivations were mostly selfish. First he wanted to cure his cancer so he could spend the rest of his life with Vanessa. Then he wanted to hunt down Ajax to fix his deformities because he thought Vanessa wouldn't love him anymore the way he looked. Not very noble, huh? But Deadpool is not a hero! He's a mercenary by trade. And that's one of the things that makes him so great. Even at the end, when you expect him to grow, become the hero, as Colossus is expounding about the moments that make someone a hero, Deadpool blows Ajax's brains out. I mean, I saw it coming, but that didn't make it any less awesome.

And as far as the villains go, knowing that Ajax had performed the experiment on himself which led to him being physically and emotionally numb was enough of a backstory for me. Right there, you have exactly what makes him tick -- he has no regard for human life because he can't feel anything.

Also, the non-existent backstory for Angel Dust didn't bother me either. This movie is as close to first person as you can get, and everything is colored by Deadpool's point-of-view, a point-of-view that's self-centered. So, it makes sense that we don't get large chunks of information on the other characters.

Finally, I wanted to mention Vanessa. I was quite happy to see what they did with her. Mind you, she's not in a lot of the movie, but it was nice to see a love interest that clearly wasn't an innocent damsel in distress. When she was kidnapped, instead of pleading for her life, she cursed them out -- a reaction that showed she was a lot like Wade/Deadpool. And she managed to escape the container by using the knife. Once she escaped, she went straight for Ajax! Supposedly in the comics she's a mutant called Copycat. I'm kind of hoping that she kicks some more ass in the second movie.

Speaking of the second movie...I can't wait!

Have you seen Deadpool? What did you think about it?

Hell Hath No Fury Snippet

Hell Hath No Fury releases in two days! It's currently available for pre-order from Amazon, if you happen to like what you read below and need to make sure it's there for you to read ASAP on Saturday! ;) It will be available through Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Owners' Lending Library as well.

This one is a novelette, so a little longer than most of the short stories I've been publishing. It has humor, snark, and romance. What are you waiting for? Just read the snippet already and see what you think!

❦

Now Jared stared at me.

"What?" I asked. "Do I have a third eye on my forehead or a zit the size of a tomato on my nose?"

He shook his head.

Then the knowing feeling settled in my chest. He had prodded me in here. Jared might be dead, but there had been only one thing he wanted whenever he tried to get me alone.

"Don't even think about it," I said.

He stepped up to me. "You think that's what I want? Please. If dying the way I did wasn't enough, being dead does nothing for one's libido. I just wanted to get you out of there. It's good to see you, Moira." He touched my cheek.

A thrill shot through me at the feel of his skin on mine -- so warm. It felt alive. A knot tightened in my belly.

I didn't want this. I hadn't even felt this kind of passion well up for him when we were dating. Yes, the sex had been great, but this was a yearning that was hard to ignore.

I swallowed. "What do you mean?"

"That it's good to see a familiar face."

"No, no. About death and--"

He laughed, pulling back. The desire dropped without him so close.

"Oh, that. We're dead, Moira. We don't have needs like we did when we were alive. Are you hungry?"

I had to concentrate before I answered. No biting in my stomach, although I had been starving before the collision. "No."

"Thirsty?"

"No."

"Do you have to pee?"

That I'd think would be a yes. I mean, I was in a bathroom. It was stupid to have a bathroom if no one needed it, but I didn't feel any urge along that line. I shook my head.

He slipped up to me again, this time wrapping his arm around my waist. "Horny?"

His body pressed against mine flooded my lower regions with heat. From the questions he had already asked, I assumed the answer to the latest was supposed to be no also. My body spoke to the contrary, tingling at the feel of his fingers digging into my hip.

❦

Stuck in Hell with an ex-boyfriend. What's a girl to do?

Moira died. Of course, she never expected to appear in Hell once she did. But Hell isn't the fire and brimstone place so many people fear. More like a cross between an office building and a dormitory. And the devil, a sexy, disembodied voice in an endless expanse of darkness, sticks Moira with the job of Welcomer for the second floor of Hell. A job which comes with a skimpy little demon costume.

If that isn't enough to drive a strong-willed woman into fits, Moira finds out she's on the same floor with Jared, an ex she'd rather forget exists, only now she feels a strange attraction whenever he's around. Fun times.

To make matters worse, one of the new arrivals, Douglas, is a creepy old guy who stalks her and clearly doesn't belong. After a stomach churning confrontation with him, she decides she doesn't want to find out if she can die a second time. So Moira's got to find a way to shake Douglas, all while trying to come to terms with her conflicting feelings for Jared.

Who knew death would be as complicated as life?

GSD vs. Sickness

This post will be brief. Can you imagine what it's about?

G(etting) S(tuff - or Shit, depending how much of a potty mouth you want to have) D(one). It's ever the perpetual thing we humans strive for. Whether it be writing, cleaning, work, craft projects, heck even trying to relax so you don't stress out trying to get the other things done.

You devise a plan, a lovely plan that makes sense and you think won't be too far out of reach to complete. You're going to GSD, and you have it all mapped out in front of you how.

And then it happens. You get sick.

Now, there are people who can power through the sick and continue to GSD, even though I'd contest the quality of the work depending just how sick a person is.

Fevers knock me on my ass. And of course, that's what I woke up to Tuesday morning (after a long night of chills and me wondering why I was so damned cold). All I wanted to do was stay in bed, but I unfortunately had to at least minimally GSD. Get the eldest to school, make sure the youngest had food and clean diapers, pick up the eldest from school, fetch a naughty kitten from the basement, deal with toddler temper tantrums.

All the shit I listed above got done, but that lovely monthly plan for making progress on my writing tasks laughed in my face. And things had started off so well on Monday.

I'm still sick, unfortunately. Even if I don't have a fever, I have a headache that doesn't want to be touched by pills, horrible abdominal cramps, and the sweats. TMI? Sorry.

And clearly this wasn't what I intended to blog about this week. I was going to start the Adventures of Karriya the Wizard. That will now be delayed until the end of the month since the next two weeks are posts that shouldn't be pushed back.

Now, I have to admit, I also decided to post this because of an idea I have for a book. I hope to slowly write up some short essays on GSD vs. Various Things. I hope they will be humorous, even if they don't help overcome those obstacles to GSD, so a little humorous creative non-fiction. I'll be writing these up in between all of my other writing projects (funny, right? If I don't get sick). Of course I'll have a chapter on GSD vs. Sickness, though it won't exactly be this post!

What obstacles stop you from GSD? What would you like to see me write about in the book?