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Queer Stories with Happy Endings

Happy Thursday, readers! My latest draft of Eli Cinderfella has been sent off, read, and talked about with my publisher. She really enjoyed it and is spurred on to help me make this next draft even better, the two of us having spent quite some time trading notes with one another about how to better finesse the nearly nonexistent foreshadowing and some of the character relationships in this…

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Let’s Talk Drafting

Welcome back, readers! This week we’re going to discuss what it means when I say I finished this draft of Eli Cinderfella. What it means for my writing process. What it means for the process of eventually holding this crazy notion in my hands as a physical book. We’re going to talk all the things. So, strap in and let’s do this! Please appreciate this nearly ethereal glimpse of Lilo enjoying…

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Books and More Books

What is there to do besides read and write and read some more? I’ve been over here quietly celebrating the completion of my Eli Cinderfella manuscript. While I’m so excited to tell you more about it and go further in depth into this wild process of bringing together a book, I need a little break from Eli and the nerves of knowing it’s in the hands of my publisher. (Which is basically the coolest…

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Me, Myself, and 80k Words of Eli

What a week, readers! Welcome back, settle in, and let me fill your mind with a moment or two of my last several days with Eli Cinderfella. Tea and Cinderfella is a must. I’ve drunk at least a hundred cups in the last couple of months as I craft these pages. Hitting Goals: Let’s start with the big, big news. I’m way ahead of my original timeline for writing this draft of Eli Cinderfella.…

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A Recipe for Disaster

Welcome back, readers! I stared at my writing screen for far too long this week trying to figure out what to say without saying too much to spoil all the secrets of Eli Cinderfella. I am nearly bursting at the seams with the desire to tell everyone everything all the freaking time. There is so much magic and mayhem crammed into a current 70k words that I am struggling to keep the details all to…

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The Craft of Creating Eli Cinderfella

Welcome once again, readers! As the days become weeks and surely turn into a full month, I have been asked over and over again how I can confidently show up to the keyboard to complete Eli Cinderfella. So, let’s talk about it. The way writing works for me, the oddball schedule I adhere to, and how, day after day, word by simple freaking word, a novel is built. There are rarely moments I’m…

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Reading Update

I think Stephen King has been attributed more times than I can count that the best writers must also be readers. I think it’s more than that. Reading is the gateway into the story world, it’s the cracking of a door to let one glimpse the possibilities of what could be done with ink and paper. Writers start with reading often, but they should be searching for stories everywhere: in books, in…

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The Cast of Cinderfella

Happy Thursday, readers! I hope you’ve had a fantastic week and have been more than excited to read the next Cinderfella correspondence. Since I gave you a brief overview of Eli Cinderfella last week, I thought it would only be appropriate to introduce the rest of the cast this week. Eli may have main character energy, but he wouldn’t get anywhere without the rest of the characters to antagonize…

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Let’s Talk Cinderfella!

Hello, readers! Thursday is here once more. Last week, I slipped back into the habit of writing blog posts with a simple thought piece on a local event, but I’m ready to start talking about what I’ve been up to and greater plans for the future. So, let’s talk about Eli Cinderfella and that book promotion I’ve been pushing. My life revolves around this sweet girl. She was among the first to…

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Tomorrow Will Be Better

In response to the results of yesterday’s elections, all I can say is that I’m frustrated, but not surprised or shocked. My entire adult life has been eclipsed by the workings of rich men in politics. This is just another day in a long line of days in which the government does not work in favor of its people or for the betterment of the country.  In lieu of adding to the pile of negativity we…

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Reynard The Fox

This was so not implicated in the terms of the deal I struck with a desperate fool in the tavern. It was an easy job. No murder, no casualties, no harm to another being. It’s incredibly rare for such conditions to fall into my lap. I just had to be able to disarm a couple of traps, pick a few locks, and skip my merry way to the locked closet at the back of this antiquity shop.  The owner had…

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Stopped Trial

“And you poisoned the Prince?” I shrug. The man in question is sitting right next to the judge reading out the list of crimes I’ve committed since crossing the border into the Empire. Only partially. If the prince had been more interested in his drink rather than my bodice, this night would have gone quite differently.  There’s no point in speaking for myself. These people have already decided…

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Lore Edits Week Seven

Still here. Still editing. Another three chapters done. It’s a hard week. I barely carved out the time to stare at these pages in between work and family obligations. There’s some good stuff here, things that made me smile amidst everything else. Ashby and Lucy star in their own revised reproduction of Hamlet. It’s epic. In a way that I don’t even remember writing it. There’s details in here…

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Lore Edits: Week 6

A month and a half in! We are still doing this thing. Editing has become a weekly companion, a promise to look forward to rather than dread. These are my characters, this is my story, now I just have to organize my thoughts enough to figure out how it really needs to be told. This week we covered chapters 16-18. For those who have been following this story since the beginning, this is the…

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Lore Edits Week 5

We’ve done it again, readers. Chapters 13-15 have come out of their nifty hiding spot in my desk and then shuddered beneath the harsh weight of a colored pen. Here’s the thought dump: This section deals with Ashby returning to work, specifically for Ivan (big problem since Ivan is supposed to be a villain rather than antagonist and is opposing Ashby’s big brother). There’s a lot of cute…

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Forever Home

Sixteen other agents have tried and failed to sell the house at 104 Fern Street. Sixteen less ambitious agents have walked in and then immediately fled the location. All sixteen have a different horror story to tell.  It’s not real, though.  Stepping out of my car, I let it chirp loudly as I lock the doors. I have potential clients coming in half an hour. There isn’t really anything I can do…

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Lore Edits Wk. 4

It’s that time of week again, readers! Edits happened. More or less without my consent, the week passed and edits happened. Chapters ten through twelve are complete. Here’s the thoughts off the top of my head: Ashby, Ashby, Ashby. The dramatics just don’t stop with him. We covered the end of the carnival, a nearly deadly stab wound, and then family members moving in to interrupt his attempt…