On my way back, I met many people and passed through many places I had seen while heading in the other direction. I realized that their stories hadn’t ended when I left, any more than mine had, and I wondered what had changed in the home I left behind.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Maria and Tia to explain what had happened to them. They had, after all, o...
2022-12-07 14:59:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe man tore off one of the beast’s arms, and chased it into the darkness. While I was certainly grateful for his intervention, I did feel that perhaps the monster was somewhat misunderstood, since as far as I could tell, it was only protesting the rather raucous nature of the party.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
As they walked, Tia carrying Maria within the shelter of her cloak-covered arms, the two l...
2022-12-05 14:55:52 +0000 UTC View PostOf course, once I decided to go home, I still had one final journey to take. Let me tell you about the adventures I had after a mountebank slipped a sleeping potion into the evening wine at the castle of Baroness Elisabetta von Hasenpfeffer.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
Once both kittens had eaten their fill, they dragged the remains to a patch of nearby moss. Once they were on the spongy, forgiving surface, Tia ret...
2022-12-02 14:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostNext week I have a project that will take all of my focus. I'm trying to get ahead by a few chapters, so hopefully you won't even notice. After that, my goal is to get at least four chapters of GT out each week. I expect it to be less than fifty chapters (which is about how long each of the LF books were before I merged them according to PoV). That means GT should be finished around the end of January, or mid-February at the latest.
What would you like next? The unfinished threads and u...
2022-12-01 16:35:03 +0000 UTC View PostI once spent a month lost in the jungles of Pallapalla. The indigenous peoples were lovely, if you ignored their propensity for eating each other, and while I could not convince them to change their culinary habits, I did at least lead a cultural revolution in hair bows. By the time I managed to return to civilization, the Pallapallans, male and female alike, were wearing bows as large as their heads, and probably do to this day.
-Lady Chatterwick... 2022-11-30 18:45:42 +0000 UTC View Post
While traveling, my choices were generally spur of the moment, or driven by little more than boredom and idle curiosity. It took me years to realize that in spite of all my adventures, I was still running away from home.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
“What?” Maria sat down in the dirt abruptly, so shocked that already weak legs gave out. “I can’t… That’s not… I mean, my mother is allergic to cats.” It...
2022-11-28 17:15:10 +0000 UTC View PostI made a couple of images of Maria and Tia on Artbreeder (with a little help from Photoshop, especially Tia). As always, take with a grain of salt, but they're close to what I imagine they look like.
The lord of this place was known as the Vashmatallafinisthia, and while his title was terrible to pronounce, his given name was even worse. I shall not mangle it here, but suffice to say that after a pleasant meal of crumpets and jellied eel, he kindly permitted me to call him Vashie.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
That night, Maria and Tia decided to rest when they found a cat-sized hollow beneath a fall...
2022-11-23 17:09:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe longest journey I ever took was the two hours I spent locked in a carriage with my father on the way to my wedding.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
Tia hugged Maria a little too tightly as she watched the carnival wend its way down the narrow road toward the town. Maria understood, but she found that the longer she was a cat, the more she felt like a cat, and cat’s didn’t particularly enjoy being hugged.
...
2022-11-21 19:12:25 +0000 UTC View PostHome is defined differently in every culture. Some believe it’s wherever your family is, while for others, it’s a building, or a country. The giants of Malla Palla, however, believe that they are the dreams of a sleeping god, and that when they themselves sleep, they return home to their god. How this translates to painting themselves purple and spending each morning hopping on one foot was never adequately explained to me, but they were by far the happiest people I met durin... 2022-11-18 19:50:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Any morning you wake up is a good morning, but I still prefer a nice lie-in with a cup of tea and someone to rub my feet.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
Sunshine streaming in through the opened canvas flap woke both girls, and Tia jerked up straight with a squeak, nearly dumping Maria from her lap. Maria found she had recovered enough to dig her claws into her friend’s bare legs, which caused Tia to scr...
2022-11-15 21:24:54 +0000 UTC View PostAs I'm sure you all remember, toward the end of LF, FantumHat aka Philip Clayton Harris III is holding a gun on Bree. At this point, he calls her a bitch. Now, I've waffled quite a bit about this. The books are rated age 12+, and I know 'bitch' is a word that kids - at least here in the US - hear far too frequently, so to me, it's not much worse than 'damn', which I sometimes have my adults use. Also, the word is very appropriate to the context and the character. Honestly, anything e...
2022-11-15 00:40:47 +0000 UTC View PostWhen faced with an impossibility and an improbability, the impossible is almost always more entertaining.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
Maria lay curled up on something soft and warm. As she blinked her eyes open, she realized that that something was Tia’s lap. The girl’s hand lay on Maria’s back, and her head was tilted back so a tiny snore escaped her lips each time she took a breath. As she thought this, Mar...
2022-11-10 18:43:04 +0000 UTC View PostOn the other hand, it is when things seem the darkest, that we discover what we are truly made of. Hopefully, only in a metaphorical sense.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
Maria held her breath for as long as she could. The wet bag surrounding her tugged and pulled, and she knew the strong current was whisking her down and away. The pressure on her lungs increased, and finally, she opened her mouth, gasping in. C...
2022-11-07 17:35:52 +0000 UTC View PostI don't have any chapters of GT written ahead, so I won't be able to maintain a daily chapter schedule. I will do my best to get three chapters written a week, but it will probably only be two sometimes. Still, I'm writing as much as I can, and I hope you're enjoying Grimalkin!
2022-11-02 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe ebook for Harvest is up on Amazon for preorder, and will go live on November 15th. Which is a Tuesday, because apparently major publishers release new titles on Tuesday, so People In The Know look for new books on... wait for it... Tuesdays!
Actually, I just figured the 15th would be good, and looked up the best day to release for fun, and it worked out that way. I'll put the print book in before I go to bed on the 14th, so it should also be available sometime on the 15th.
Yay...
2022-11-02 00:00:52 +0000 UTC View PostThe greatest danger comes when we feel ourselves the safest.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
The canvas top of the wagon was pleasantly warm, and once the two cats assured themselves that they were in no danger of being seen or rolling off, they settled into the slight depression created by their combined weight. The wagon rocked smoothly back and forth as the horses continued to ignore the driver, and moved...
2022-11-01 19:02:03 +0000 UTC View PostSadly, I have found myself in unexpectedly dire straits more than once during my journeys. While the actual experience of being chased by giant, carnivorous beetles was terrifying, the memory is quite invigorating. So my advice to any young adventurer is this: do whatever you must to survive to tell the tale later.
-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey
Maria and Tia ran. Buildings and streets flashed by as they raced, hearing the pounding of small, ...
2022-10-31 20:06:35 +0000 UTC View PostToday's chapter is a kind of a choose your own adventure (except everyone has to read what I pick). I've been pondering it for a while, and there are really three options for what to do next.
1. Have the boys find the girls, and resume a fairly sedentary journey, making the adventure parts happen after they arrive. This could be like a 'going to school' story, or a 'creating a new life' story.
2. Have the girls meet another character, who hasn't yet been introduced, which would cr...
2022-10-31 14:51:47 +0000 UTC View PostHarvest went to my formatter a few minutes ago. I expect to publish it sometime around mid-November, so people can actually have a little while to anticipate it, but I'm done with editing! Woohoo!
My daughter has tomorrow and Friday off school, so I'm going to focus on her for a few days, but I should be able to write on Monday, and hopefully you'll get a new chapter of Grimalkin!
2022-10-26 16:03:20 +0000 UTC View PostJust finished chapter 33 (out of what should be 41, or 40 + epilogue). Aspen has returned from the dead, and they're chasing Akuji. Part of the edits for that battle will include explaining more about how Akuji is much less (intelligent, strong, etc) than he was before Chester left, which is why the battle is relatively 'easy'. Hopefully that'll keep people from feeling that it's such an anticlimax.
Well, that and the fact that they can see there are several more chapters, so it's not a...
2022-10-24 19:44:40 +0000 UTC View PostBoth the ebook and the paperback are uploaded and being processed on Amazon. The ebook page looks a little wonky at the moment, so hopefully I just haven't looked at one at this stage before, and it'll be fixed when the book is live. I'm hoping the paperback will be done today as well, though it's kind of a toss up.
I'm a liiiittle bit worried about how well the cover will translate to paperback, because a certain chunk of it is a little lower res than makes me happy. Sadly, I'll just h...
2022-10-17 05:28:52 +0000 UTC View Post
When my formatter starts working on a book, the first thing we work on is the chapter header. Khor's arc is in this book, so he gets to be the star. I'm thinking about putting Rouge's Mambele in the last one. What do you think?
The fact that I have this means that Katherine is working hard, and hopefully Cultivation will be available on Monday, October 16. Remember that the paperback l...
2022-10-16 15:21:28 +0000 UTC View PostI want to get Harvest to the formatter by the end of October, so I can focus on other things in November and December. One of those things is working on Grimalkin. My goal is two chapters a week starting in November. By January, I should have enough to start posting to Royal Road, if I decide to do so. I'm buckling down and looking forward to just being a writer again!!
2022-10-13 14:41:12 +0000 UTC View PostI just finished editing Cultivation, which brings Rouge and Aspen home to the farm. I still need to work Khor's arc into appropriate places, but I should have this book to the formatter sometime today. Woohoo!
That means four books will be done, and only one more to go, which in turn means that I should actually get to start writing new material soon(ish)! Before the end of the year, for sure. I'm going to get you guys a full twenty chapters ahead before I start posting Gri...
2022-10-06 16:49:38 +0000 UTC View PostNot that I wasn't working, since I went to the ABC Day festival in Washington. Lots of people, but also lots of booths, so mine got a little lost in the noise. I did all right though, and it was fun!
My goal for this week is to get Cultivation edited and off to the formatter. Cultivation contains the end of what was originally book 2, all/most of Khor's arc (he'll also be the chapter header), and the first part of (old) book 3. It's looking to be even longer than Sowin...
2022-10-03 15:42:12 +0000 UTC View Post(Ha ha....)
I had a great time at Recruits Con, as did my daughter, who helped me hand out free bookmarks. I'm still working on Cultivation, and I'll be at All Bethel Community Day in Bethel, WA on Sunday, October 1!
2022-09-26 17:21:21 +0000 UTC View Post
A friend suggested pulling some LF quotes and making memes so I'd have something to post on a regular basis. I always feel strange acting like anything I wrote is "wise" or particularly funny, but the Head Librarian is pretty smart.
2022-09-23 18:21:03 +0000 UTC View PostI'm working hard on Cultivation, and hope to get it to the formatter by early October (I'm aiming for the 4th, but don't quote me on that). I do have a book signing this weekend at Recruits Con in Lee's Summit, MO. Next weekend I'll be in Bethel, WA, at All Bethel Community Day.
Hopefully these will go better than the last signing, where I sold two books 🤞😂 It was a good practice run, though, right?
Okay, back to work now!
2022-09-23 15:04:15 +0000 UTC View Posthttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BF2Z613Y
Aspen, Rouge, and friends have finally arrived in Bright. Aspen hopes to wrap up a few loose ends and head home as quickly as possible. Rouge still has a quest she needs to complete - a quest that will lead to murder, cultists, and... another quest? Can Aspen confront his enemies and his memories without losing everything he's gained?