*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
This week has been pretty bad. I ate something that I was allergic to on Monday, leaving me feeling like crap for a few days, then I got a polio vaccine on Friday. (Side note, there is some preliminary research that the polio vaccine helps against some of the newer variants of COVID). Left me feeling bleh for another few days, so I didn’t get anywhere near as much writing as I wanted to. Either way, y’all will get two chapters today, and at least two next wee...
2023-01-16 04:46:07 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Work is blarg. That is all.
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I decided to create the first new layer to my Core a few hours after recovering from the Harpy attack. I placed two level five Beast Cores, one from the Dungeon and one that was Lightning Affinity, in the Inscriptions to increase the Aether density in my room by an order of magnitude.
I sat on my bed, breathing deeply to relax, then fell into my center. With a thought, I created the full Tripl...
2023-01-09 05:33:43 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
First couple days bac at work are always stressful after a long break. Gotta get back into my routine. Less sleep definiately doesn’t help. Oh well, gotta pay the bills. Health insurance ain’t cheap!
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“I do not know if Zimnodlot and I will continue to catch fish,” Sia said after a minute, once I’d stabilized the Skysurfer and checked our heading on the compass. We were aiming for a path thirty degrees to the left of th...
2023-01-05 04:54:17 +0000 UTC
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Attempt at AI art for Jamila!
2023-01-05 04:51:13 +0000 UTC
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Here’s a picture Joy I made using deepAI.org that is very close to how I see Princess Aleksandra. I posted it to Facebook too, but just in case you didn’t see it there, I wanted to share it with y’all.
2023-01-02 05:26:27 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
I got a ton of writing done this week! It was kind of a preview of what I could do if I was full time, as I got 12.5k words written since Christmas. At that rate, I could get the first draft of a story out in 8-10 weeks, giving a publication timeline of 12-16 weeks. Three to four books a year, and I would probably get even faster over time. Someday.
Either way, enjoy the chapter!
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
“Milenna!” I screamed, and I heard Lil...
2023-01-02 05:23:39 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Happy New Year’s Eve! I’ll talk to you all next year :-p
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Three hours later, I staggered into the Portable Home. Jon, Lilianna, Xiao, and Lea were all collapsed on the lounge cushions. The others had come out to train about an hour after I started on my Mist Clone Technique. I’d decided to rename that portion because I could now cut it out of the Dancing Northern Wind and use it with just quick dodges. Using Mis...
2023-01-01 02:24:59 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Sorry, meant to post this yesterday, but we were getting ready for my oldest’s 10th birthday. Enjoy!
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Two hours of puzzles and headaches had me sitting on a lounge cushion with my head on my hands. “What have you been up to?” Jamila asked, crouching next to me.
“Gathering Geist,” I whispered, then looked her over. “You?”
“Body weight calisthenics under Knight Kaminski’s direction,” she said, gestu...
2022-12-30 04:36:13 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
I hope everyone had a great holiday, and a merry Christmas if you celebrate it! Ours was pretty good, with a high in the upper forties after our ridiculous cold snap. Here is the next chapter! As a Christmas gift, I’m going to put out at least 3 chapters this week!
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
I woke up groggy, but the migraine that had dominated my thoughts before collapsing was gone. I shifted slightly, about to roll over and stand up when I realized ...
2022-12-27 04:52:47 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
Woo, it got cold! Temperatures in the negative teens with negative thirty+ wind chill. Thankfully, we brought in enough wood and had our wood stove burning like crazy for the last two days. This one's a bit shorter, need to go back through at some point and add some more details, but it should be fun.
Stay warm!
*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
Knight Kaminski was holding the compass and frowning at the horizon. “Master Narwan left after we discussed...
2022-12-23 22:03:22 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Sorry this is late! Enjoy
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“Hey Sia, we’re ready to leave whenever you all get back,” I told Sia mentally, “unless you need to run some errands first? We’ve packed a significant amount of food for the journey, but we’ll probably want to fish a bit too.”
“We are crossing the city now,” Sia said. “Five minutes.”
“Got it,” I responded, then repeated it to the others.
“Lampart’s armor...
2022-12-20 05:55:45 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Busy, busy week. My boss’s boss’s boss’s boss was in town to talk to my team and examine a new site we’re building up, and my boss’s boss and boss’s boss’s boss stayed an extra day to talk about strategic plans to move the program forward. As one of the engineering lead, I got pulled into these discussions, which was really cool, but left me with little time this week. Anyway, I’m still way ahead on chapters, so y’all get another one today!
<...
2022-12-16 04:44:33 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Pretty good week, just broke 50k total words in the story. Definitely going to be changing up what happens in the ruins, and make it so the staff gets used by the Naga to open a portal, where the team has to go through and close it. So the overall series will be yet again one book longer. Woot!?!
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
I pulled Aleks, Vaya, and Jamila off to the side. “So, I have something that literally everyone wants,” I said without preamble, ...
2022-12-12 04:49:40 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
Sorry about that! My page didn't refresh itself, so I accidentally posted chapter 8 twice. Here's chapter 9!
Happy Friday!
*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
Almost everyone bowed out of furniture shopping, leaving me with only Vaya and Jamila. Lindsay pointed us to a few different places, though we’d need to walk pretty quickly to reach them. Just as we were leaving, Aleks arrived in the carriage. “Hi, Aiden, Vaya, Jamila,” she said, sounding tire...
2022-12-09 18:57:02 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Well, I was hoping to have two posts last week, but I’ve not been in a great headspace. I’ll be putting two posts up this week, though. Looking like I’m definitely not getting through the entirety of the outline, as my personal backlog just hit chapter 15, and we still haven’t met the Minokawa. I’m almost leaning towards calling this book “The Journey Home”, adding in some conflict with the Harpies, and expanding on the fight in the ruined city. Let...
2022-12-05 05:38:49 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Sorry this is late. Bad migraines multiple days in a row. I’ve gotten exactly zero words written in the last three days, so blergh. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
The fourth level was, in many ways, easier than the third. The Beasts, Mountainside Boars, were just higher level versions of the Earthen Boar. Even at peak level five, I was able to outmaneuver the dumb creatures. Twice I took the final one out by letting it charge in...
2022-11-29 04:42:52 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Sorry this is late, y’all, but I’ve had a terrible migraine for the last 24 hrs. Still got a bit of writing done, but not enough to get caught up. Probably not gonna make 50k, but should definitely make 40k, which means it’s still going to be one of if not the best month of writing I’ve ever done! Anyway, enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Librarian Narwan took my team aside after breakfast, after getting Aleks’s and Ming...
2022-11-25 04:22:30 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
And I'm back from Vegas! Lots of things learned, hopefully a bit better stories afterwards. I'm a bit behind now in words, supposed to be at 33.3k, but I'm only at 30.5k, so I've got a bit of effort ahead of me to catch up. Still, I'm working on chapter 11 of the first draft now, and they haven't left the Ashkhas island yet, so either this book will be much longer than anticipated, or I'll have to reformulate how it goes. Might change the name to "The Journey Home"...
2022-11-21 04:32:16 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
So, Vegas is a blast, and I’m having a ton of fun and learning a bunch. I haven’t written as many words as I wanted to this week, and am gonna have to hustle to get back on track, but I’m sure that what I learn here will make me a better writer, and help all the people I can give advice to on what’s worked for me. I’m still fairly far ahead, so y’all should be getting two chapters a week for a while! Hope y’all’s November is going great and I’ll...
2022-11-17 05:51:30 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Thanks for the thoughts! I’m running pretty ragged keeping up with writing and getting ready for the 20BooksTo50k conference, along with my day job being busy, so I haven’t had time to respond to them, but I’m loving them and they’ll definitely affect the second draft!
I’m over 21k words written! Let’s keep this going, woot! So you’ll be getting a second chapter this week too!
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
He was directed to a different...
2022-11-14 01:01:02 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Progress goes pretty good! Still just barely ahead of my goal, so here’s another chapter.
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
After an hour nap, I was still alone, and it was still dark outside. A quick glance out of the window showed the party was starting to die down, as the majority of people were at most Condensation level gatherers, so they needed more than the three hours of sleep that I’d gotten. “Well, I’ve still got a bunch of time. Let’s do an...
2022-11-10 05:02:26 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Here we go! I’ve gotten 11.6k words written so far, 10.9 of which were in November. So far, rocking NaNoWriMo, though I didn’t write anything on the second (Yay migraines!) Got over 3k written yesterday to make up for it, and 2k today! Here’s chapter one! One of the things I want to do on the second draft is add more detail to descriptions. Gotta work on show, not tell a lot too.
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
I staggered into my room, emotionally and...
2022-11-07 05:03:41 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
Well, I took y'all's feedback and redid the outline. Let me know what y'all think!
*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
Elemental Gatherers Book 7 Outline Draft 2
Chapter 1 - Night after big party. Still going on. He’s alone in room. Decides to investigate Legacy. Looks into cultivation techniques, find them to be a mix of gathering and tempering techniques. Finds a listing of Core runes, which work similarly to his, dozens of each Element from levels on...
2022-10-28 21:20:30 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 1 - Night after big party. Still going on. He’s alone in room. Decides to investigate Legacy. Looks into cultivation techniques, find them to be a mix of gathering and tempering techniques. Finds a listing of Core runes, which work similarly to his, dozens of each Element from levels one to five, with other, higher level combined runes as well. Finds a really good rune to replace his Fire rune with, along with a treatise on how combined runes can help with multiple Eleme...
2022-10-25 01:15:51 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Sorry this is late. I got a COVID shot on Thursday, and Joy one on Saturday, which made everything late. The first post is the raw notes I wrote over 2 weeks. In a bit, I’ll post the more final outline pulled from it. Let me know what you think!
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
First few chapters - aftermath of Legacy. Give Sultah Aleahil the portal plans, describe what happened. Explore the Legacy, find a few new and interesting things. Find the next few s...
2022-10-25 01:14:37 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
Patreon Exclusive post! A quick primer on gathering.
*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
Aether Gathering is the simplest of the levels to advance through, though it also forms the basis of how far you’ll be able to advance. To advance to the Aether Gathering Tier, you must first learn to feel and manipulate the Aether that naturally flows into your body from outside and bring it into your center. For most, it takes a few weeks to strengthen their mental musc...
2022-10-16 21:14:41 +0000 UTC
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*** Author's Note ***
Legacy of the M'Zee is done! Attached to this post is the pdf and epub final version of Legacy of the M'Zee! It is out on Amazon for pre-order now, located at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BH7TVM59 . I've been working on outlines and other notes for the next book, which I've been tentatively titling Depths of the Forest, but I've not been writing anything that could be construed as a chapte...
2022-10-10 04:30:41 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
I've received Legacy back from my editor, so my break is over! Hopefully will have the first round of edits on it done by this weekend! I've also clicked the pre-order button for Amazon to publish it! Legacy will be purchase only on Amazon until December 1st, which is also when it'll come down from here and go onto Kindle Unlimited.
*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***
I had a few minutes, and I let my heart rate drop while following the directions on my badge. ...
2022-10-04 03:02:50 +0000 UTC
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*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
Out camping with the family, really bad signal last night. Enjoy!
*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***
“What are you going to do now?” Nuan asked me.
“Go to the Administration building,” I said. “We both got what seems like a lot of points, and I want to see what we can do with them.”
“I’ll come with,” she said. “I was thinking of signing up for a job there. While we do have a bunch of points, I know how quickl...
2022-09-26 17:52:14 +0000 UTC
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Well, Legacy of the M'Zee, draft 4, is headed to my editor, Lector's Books, to get the final round of edits done. It'll be back in 2 weeks, I'll go through the changes and thoughts from her in a week, then post it here! I'll try to adjudicate any of the changes in the google docs between now and then as well. Tentative release date to Amazon of 14 October, but it will stay purchase only for around a month, so you'll have an opportunity to download a pdf or epub version of the novel before any...
2022-09-19 03:21:39 +0000 UTC
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