Still Riding the Wave

Not much to report on my end, hence the longer than usual break between posts. Things have settled into a nice rhythm at the day job, especially where my commute's concerned, which is a godsend. What helped was the fact that my preferred bus line changed their schedule so that the bus I need to take back home now arrives at the train station at a more reasonable time. Anyway, that's all boring stuff on the whole, but it's made a world of difference to me, and I'm no longer looking for work closer to home. 

I've also been dipping into a side project that may or may not see the light of day, publishing-wise. I'm just doing it because I want to keep things a little interesting from my end, and tackling something that's way out of my comfort zone is (I hope) going to help keep the old writing joints properly greased. Not that they desperately need it right now since I've got enough book ideas for the next two years. 

This is more about me stretching myself, so to speak, and getting something good from the mental and creative exercise. 

Now if I do decide to publish it down the line, I'll mention it here. Another thing is that I'll also be using a different pseudonym if things went down that route. We shall see.

Positivity is all around me right now -- energetic, cautious, and determined. I'm talking about the upcoming elections here in the US, and I'm helping one of my sisters out in sending postcards to swing states. I've never done that before, and now's as good a time as any, and we've been texting each other excitedly over this. She just sent me my packet, having ordered 600 postcards, which she divided between the two of us. She even sent me the stamps, so bless her. I'll have to take her out to lunch sometime. 

After years of not visiting for a variety of reasons, I'm back to checking out some of my favorite political sites like Joe My God (I forgot I still have a Disqus account, which I had to dust off, so I could participate in threads though I'm really back to just liking comments and lurking).  Being a childless cat lady (child-free in some circles since I chose not to have kids because I never felt the maternal need), I'm fully buoyed by what's happening around me and elsewhere in the world. So I'm riding the wave of hope but am still keeping my eyes wide open so I can fight tooth and nail for this country's soul. 

That's that for now. Hope to come back later this weekend for more meandering blather.

And She's Off! Plus Updates on an Update (You Know the Drill)

Okay! Two chapters done for The Perfect Rochester, and I'm cozily back in Nightshade heaven. Give me dry, dark humor, please! I love writing the stuff, and while I know it's not everyone's cuppa, I still enjoy working on it. At any rate, it's great to be getting inside Narcisse's head this time around. 

You'll also have to excuse me as I post more and more songs that make it into the book's playlist as they're all very chirpy, which is the mood I'm aiming for in this book from start to finish. Unlike Nightshade's Emporium, which has a bit of an angsty edge since the focus is on Viktor and his role as (peaceful) Death (it does end happily for all involved), The Perfect Rochester is happy all the way through though I'm sure Narcisse won't appreciate having his romantic drama made light of. 

At any rate, yeah! We're on it, and I'm looking forward to spending the coming Fall Season finishing and polishing this book for next year's release. Oh, fuck it, lemme post a second video. I'm just in that mood, y'know?

And as a final note, regarding the calendar situation I posted about last time...

We're moving forward with the calendar as is because I finally wrangled Compline into submission, and we now have a solid plot to work with. We'll be back to a classic ghost story there, and it'll be Victorian (as you can only expect from me when I write something historical) -- however, I can still change my mind to something else entirely at least in terms of setting. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, which won't be for a while.

---

And to double back to the subject of music, I've been culling my downloaded songs in my phone and buying songs that go beyond just stuff that I listened to and enjoyed. Given my family's recent losses of my youngest nephew and then my oldest sister, so many things I used to take for granted now demand special attention. Gone are the songs that I bought because my interest in them were more spontaneous but not really lasting in terms of impact. 

All of the songs I'm now keeping are a mix from my childhood (songs I grew up listening to and have a very, very deep connection with via happy memories when my family was still together), my adolescence (my coming-of-age soundtrack, if you will), and a handful of random songs from more recent memory that also managed to sink their nails into my gut and have affected me on a deeper level. I've also added tracks from either TV series (Inspector Morse, UFO, Miss Marple, among others) or films (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Bram Stoker's Dracula, etc.) that have also established a connection with me in some way or other. 

I guess I've reached that part of my life where I'm no longer looking too far forward and am relearning how to appreciate and value the present. And I do find that I'm happier that way, and it's a weird state of mind to be in for longer stretches of time. Given how down my mood's been since the start of the pandemic, it's been a real struggle trying to find a handhold again so I could hoist myself back up and on my feet, so feeling upbeat and hopeful again seems so foreign. And I find listening to music that have a much deeper meaning than just momentary enjoyment (cherished memories from my past, both distant and recent) does it for me. 

Mind you, reading books is still up there in terms of the value they add to the quality of my life day after day. That'll never change. It's just that those heavy losses my family endured are helping me find my way back though I hate the fact this journey needed a push from the deaths of loved ones. Memories and music -- that's what it's all about.

Anyway, yeah. Onward and upwards, as always. Onward and upwards.

Done and Dusted -- Now On to the Next

Voices in the Briars is now done, all final polishing and so on taken care of, and the file's already set up for pre-order at Books2Read. And a big WHEW! to that. I'm getting myself ready for the next book to work on, but I'm giving myself the last Sunday of this month to just chill and take care of myself -- even if it still means I get up at 2:30. Insane schedule, I know, but that's what I follow throughout the work week.

At any rate, keeping to that wake up time even on the weekend has benefited me considerably when it comes to writing, so I guess I'll attribute whatever success I have in getting books written and done (though not necessarily sold) to my torturous hustle-your-butt-out-of-bed alarm set up. 

I've started getting into the zone for The Perfect Rochester, and to get into the right headspace, I'm putting together a playlist -- even choosing a "theme song" for the book. And THIS song, in particular, captures the mood of the book all the way through, so I'm making this the theme song. It's fun, it's sassy, and perfect for Narcisse's adventures in finding Mr. Right.*

As a bit of a heads up, there might be a shifting around of books on my calendar. So far I've managed to follow what I had listed for 2023 and 2024, and The Perfect Rochester is set to mark the start of my 2025 publishing calendar. That said, what follows after that book might be shuffled around a bit, largely because Compline hit a bit of a snag in the brainstorming stage, and now I'm faced with way too many options on how to approach this book. And I don't like having too many choices. A couple, sure. More than a couple? No. 

This could be me overthinking things as always, and what I usually do when I find myself in that position is to set the book aside, move it around on the calendar, and allow books with more solid plots to leapfrog ahead of it. It's annoying -- not gonna lie. I'm one of those who sets a plan for myself, and I'll stick to that plan come hell or high water, but more often than not, that mindset comes back to take a massive chomp out of my ass. 

And this is where I stop and remind myself: ADAPT OR DIE. Nothing will turn out good if I insist on pushing at a brick wall. So if -- and that's a big IF -- I do mess around with the calendar, The Twilight Lover will jump ahead of Compline, and with any luck, that's the extent of the change. But as always, I'll be posting about any final shifts when they happen. 

* gotta add: it's also ironic (but no spoilers here)

'Voices in the Briars' Blurb, Et. Al.

So I'm winding down and am on the final round of edits for Voices in the Briars. And since it'll be another week before I open the file for further polishing work, I figured I might as well work on the book blurb and get that part rolling. It'll make for an easier process when I finally upload the manuscript and put together all the required info for different stores. 

Anyway, here's the blurb, which is still open to changes before the book's release:

The reserves of St. Jerome’s orphanage have never enjoyed an easy life. Born with disabilities or deformities, they’re separated from the rest of the orphans and are marked for a future working for the guilds or in noble households as servants. At least that’s the belief for as long as the orphanage has been around.

Lóránt Kárpáthy was born mute and as such has become the target of bullies. He’s also drawn the attention of fiery-tempered Dávid Bodnár, an older boy who gladly takes on the mantle of Lóránt’s protector. The two friends find solace in each other’s company through shared daydreams and hopes for the future.

It’s a close bond that’s soon tested when David is adopted while Lóránt becomes the special beneficiary of a mysterious patron. A patron who sees to Lóránt’s education and sudden exclusion from the rest of the orphans when he’s sent to live in near solitude in St. Jerome’s north tower.

A childhood of colorful daydreams in spite of heartbreak falls prey to dark hallucinations that devour time. To the blood-soaked secrets of a family descended from a line of legendary hunters. To the appearance of a strange nobleman claiming the hand of a young man, a nobleman who brings his new husband to a sprawling manor hiding its own secrets behind its shut doors, its sepulchral corridors, and its army of silent servants. There are secrets outside as well—among seductive roses and hungry, whispering briars.

And woven among those secrets is the terrible truth behind St. Jerome’s reserves.

Set in the dark dreamscape of 19th century Hungary, Voices in the Briars is a gothic gay romance and a retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.

It took me quite a bit of digging around to make sure I'm referring to physical disabilities and deformities correctly in a general sense. Those needed to be specifically addressed in the blurb -- especially Lóránt's mutism -- because they play a very significant role in the plot. So hopefully I was able to nail it and bring the blurb up to speed with current accepted terms. 

As noted, this book is set for a November 1 release, and it still stands. It's over three months out, and that's a good enough gap that will still allow me some last-minute tweaking if needed. 

In other news, I'm already writing a crap ton of notes for The Perfect Rochester, in the process of which I'm being tempted to write another book in the Nightshade universe. That's very much up in the air, of course, as I've already sworn off series books, but the fun thing about the Grotesqueries collection is that I can still write non-series stuff in specific universes, making the books wholly independent of each other while weaving recurring characters into the plot as needed. 

Like The Perfect Rochester focuses on Narcisse Nightshade, his story being completely unrelated to his twin's misadventures in mortal-immortal romances. True, Narcisse will still be enduring the inevitable melodrama that comes with being a primordial god, but it's not a continuation or even a partner piece to Viktor's story in Nightshade's Emporium. But both stories will be taking place almost simultaneously and will be overlapping here and there. 

Also I have a tendency to over-explain things, so do bear with me. I've been up since 2:30 this morning, and that's keeping to my normal workweek schedule.  

EDIT: Okay, I tweaked the blurb a little and might do so again down the line. 

EDIT (7/23): One more edit of the blurb, and now it's in its final version. I've also uploaded the manuscript to Draft2Digital for pre-order, and that's also for me to download the .epub and see how the book looks. Further polishing may still be done, but we're nearly there.

Warts and All

Revisions and edits are coming along just fine for Voices in the Briars, and I'm trying to be extra careful when it comes to my linguistic weaknesses. I'm Asian-American, born and raised in Southeast Asia, where I enjoyed the benefit of intensive English language education. I also grew up watching nothing but American and British TV programs and movies, so it's safe to say I got the hang of English pretty well. 

Immigrating to the US in 1984 wasn't as big of a culture shock in terms of language barriers and all that, though it was really all about smoothing out my accent that was my daily challenge as a teen. 

I do have two major weaknesses, though, when it comes to English, and those are (1) prepositions and (2) the past perfect tense. You guys have no idea how much I struggle with those still even decades after English turned into my primary language -- to the point where I can barely speak the language of my birth. 

And I know my previous books read fairly wonkily (is that a word? I say it is) because of those issues, so please excuse my erratic grasp of prepositions and the past perfect tense. Hey, at least I own those mistakes and will always be the first to admit to them. 

I actually slowed down my revisions and edits even more for this book because I want to make sure I get at least one of my warts fixed (or at the very least, barely noticeable). It's a never-ending process, and having enjoyed every English class throughout my childhood and early adolescence in Asia, I'm very keenly aware of my shortcomings. I'm also not deluded enough to believe myself an expert now that I write and publish books and even majored in English Literature in college. If I were that good, I'd be writing like Edgar Allan Poe or M.R. James.

So to reiterate: I apologize for any and all mistakes that still got missed in all of my previous books. And I'm sure even after all the careful combing through for Voices in the Briars, the warts will still show themselves (though hopefully minimally).

Oh, in case anyone's wondering, my pen name was purposefully chosen to be a generic Western name because I wanted it to be as far, far removed from my real identity for privacy reasons. My family already knows I write and self-publish books, and they also know in what genre, but they've been very supportive of what I do, so I'm not hiding from them.* I'm hiding from the rest of the world. I just don't like having my real life self be put out there and be subjected to careful scrutiny or even just passing interest. I'm okay outing myself to my site visitors as Asian (now a naturalized American citizen), but that's the extent of that.

And I'm sure there are a few linguistic warts in this blog post as well, but I won't bother cleaning anything up. God knows I've done enough of that this weekend. 

At any rate, I expect to spend all of July polishing this book and will be diving right into The Perfect Rochester in August. 

* bless them, they also respect my wishes not to be outed to their social circles and extended families by marriage