Wow, did this hit with a vengeance! Soooooooooo cold!!!

And yes, the fire has been lit yet again! In fact, we lit it on Friday and all the cats abandoned us. When we got up yesterday morning, the embers were still warm!

Other than that, not a lot to say.

Updates

Clans in Conflict

Deadly Convergence – is out! This is a novella that happens 5 years before Dark Reign. It’s a story about a bank robbery involving Alex Travis (Dark Reign) and his partner, Chris McLaren. For those who have read Dark Reign, Chris is Alex’s former detective partner. That’s all I’m going to say.

Feel free to pick it up here.

The other Kindle Unlimited book is still being edited.

The Dark Road – still with beta reader.

Dark Beginnings – this is a story of where it all began. How Vlad became the Supreme and how Tordun grew. Still in development.

Bushland Castle Productions

The novella series of Otherworldly Emergence closes in July.

All of the information necessary is at the website:

https://www.bushlandcastleproductions.com/emergence

Join me in being part of this amazing opportunity.

Other Universes

Paranormal

I haven’t forgotten my paranormal pieces. At the moment, I’ve even added a ghost hunter to them. Which is interesting because he is using prayers to send ghosts onward to wherever they go after death. Matt is being built in a direction I have never gone before, so I’m challenging myself on his creation. While the concept is sound, I don’t really create characters like Matt for obvious reasons that everyone will see when his story comes out. No spoilers!

Shifters

I haven’t forgotten my shifter, either. He’s a bit on the backburner with the Otherworldly Emergence series coming out.

Malevictus

Same with Mal and his brother, Alloric. Although Alloric is exploring on his own – those who have been a part of this pair’s creation will know what I mean by that. I am working on that every now and then as well as editing Malevictus’s first story. Hmmf. Editing. Love to hate it.

Editing

While we’re on the subject of editing, there is one thing about editing that is interesting. It’s the place where you can learn to hone your craft.

I remember reading somewhere that one of the big name authors said – may have been Stephen King, but I haven’t read his book, so I’m not sure. Anyway, the person wrote that the first draft of any piece is the characters telling you the story and every other draft is you refining that story for your readers. Paraphrased, of course.

It’s also the place where, and this IS from Stephen King, you should not be afraid to kill your darlings. And we all know what he means by that.

Which I have done. I remember when I rewrote Dark Dimensions, I took something like 3,000 words out of it. Much to my dismay, it grew by a further 10,000 words. These things happen.

There are a couple of things that can cause issues with editing – like whether you’re a visual author or word-by-word. I am very much a visual author. I don’t see the words, I see and hear a movie while I write.

If you’re like me, this makes editing that much harder. Because an editor – and a proofreader, for that matter – both read word-by-word. It’s how editing works. At least that’s the end of the process.

When you’re editing your own work, you’re looking at trying to make the words work better, so sometimes you can still have that movie going while you’re editing.

But sometimes, you need to turn that movie off in order to edit what you’ve written. That’s where the hard part comes in. It’s a matter of being disciplined in seeing the words as well as the movie. It’s turning your whole thought processes around to see those words, yet still know where they fit in the movie.

Hence, I hate editing with a vengeance. But I do it. Because I want my work to be the very best it can be before it goes to the editor. I want my editor to see that I am growing in my craft. That my darlings are becoming more and more appropriate and useful and there’s nothing that I need to delete or change.

So, that’s my take on editing. But it’s only my take. You might have your own.

I dare you to go out and see what your editing can accomplish!

Happy writing until next time!