Okay, So I Did a Thing

I decided to open a Bluesky account -- clearly going against my resolve never to touch social media again -- and so far all I've done was go straight into my default setting of lurking and liking pretty pictures. I've yet to post anything, but then I'm also not keen on maintaining one more account online. I've already settled down nicely in this cozy little space online, and I've yet to regret doing this. 

Anyone who's curious about the place can check it out, and as far as I can see, Bluesky's been enjoying a massive bump in new accounts.The only thing I'm not too keen on seeing is users marveling at engagement and boasting follower counts -- the inevitable disease that's worked into the fabric of social media -- and when I see someone post that, I automatically avoid that account (sometimes even muting it). Popularity contests are just not my thing.

I'm frankly still on the fence but am more likely to delete my account there or just abandon it for the time being. I haven't posted anything on my own timeline, so there's nothing to see save for a follower count of five, and I don't care. I prefer to follow accounts that don't follow me back (like Larry the Cat!), but as noted, I can also go without. 

It's a work-in-progress if you were to call it that. I'm just happy sitting back and watching while not promising anything beyond that. Because I'm weird that way.

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UPDATE: Account deleted. I gave it a week. No bueno. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the platform itself. I actually love how spartan it is and how it's like a really stripped down version of Twitter, but the desire to interact and put myself out there was nowhere to be found. If anything, I felt more and more mentally drained every time I got on and read people's posts, no matter what they were. 

I'm just not cut for social media anymore, I suppose, and that's okay. The closest thing I've ever done to going back to that is logging back into my Disqus account so I could read and comment over at Joe My God, and that's about it. 

At any rate, it was an eye-opening experience for me even if it only reminded me why I decided to withdraw and carve out this dusty, cobwebby corner for myself.

One Day Later, and Post Titles Still Suck

I've got today off from work, and it'll be my last mental health break before the holidays eat me alive. It also means extra time for even more revision and editing work, which so far has been coming along pretty well. In extra good news, I've committed to "the perfect Rochester's" backstory, and Lysander is now Lorik. I'll be discussing in more depth in the book's gallery page once it's set up, but for the time being, I'm writing stuff down in my notebook. 

In the meantime, I'm looking into the future and already amassing a crap ton of notes for Compline. You know, it's funny how numerous closer readings of a story yield all kinds of interesting and promising stuff. And for better or for worse, I've decided to take a different angle in re-imagining "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". 

See, it started off with a bit of a macabre jolt of inspiration, but it's now evolved into something else entirely after I went back and reread the fairy tale and its variants for the bajillionth time. It was a small detail in one of the variants the fairy tale -- just like there was a very short variation in one of the myths involving the god of sleep -- that ultimately turned me down a completely different path from my original notes, and I actually like the possibilities even more. They're more promising and work very well with what I have in mind for my retelling. 

So! As with The Perfect Rochester, the main conflict of Compline is smaller and more personal and a lot more doable from my end. Seriously, I should stop defaulting to looking at the big, BIG picture when planning a book since that only dumps me down a rabbit hole of way too many possible side plots, which end up turning into a morass of whatever-ness that doesn't make any sense. 

And so this song ended up taking over my inspiration pile. I happened to listen to this while working, and it jarred loose a bunch of ideas that were already tapped into by those fairy tale variants (or a very specific detail in some of them). It definitely shows how much more private the angle of the story will be. 

Now I'm totally jazzed and really looking forward to writing it.

Post Titles Suck

Having spent a good deal of time on one social media platform after another, I'm really feeling the weight of having to come up with a proper title for each freaking post I make here. It's not as though this were some sleek blog packed with information. There's information here, sure, but it's got everything to do with my writing and publishing calendars and maybe the occasional flighty post about stuff.

I'd love to turn this into something like a Tumblr-esque site or a Mastodon microblog with more frequent but shorter updates and zero -- yes, ZERO -- post titles. Because post titles suck. 

Anyway, I've begun edits and revisions for The Perfect Rochester, and while I know I've mentioned this previously, it's definitely going to happen. There'll be a lot of heave-ho-ing during the revisions as there are a number of things needing a major overhaul. The first ten chapters are fine, but once Lysander (currently a placeholder name for the character since his backstory is part of the overhaul) enters the picture, all bets are off. 

They do say the real writing happens during the revision and editing phase, and I heartily agree, which is why I find those stages to be more appealing and satisfying than writing the story the first time around. Getting one's ideas into actual text is usually more problematic for me, but I've learned to let go and simply write stuff down with the internal editor locked away in some dark, dank oubliette. 

One other thing I tend to find surprising is the future calendar. I tend to get a bit panicky over thoughts that go "You've got to get this done by this date or that date, so you can start on the next book." But looking at the calendar, I've got so much time left (a March release for this book and July for the next) and some extras. I need to loosen up a little, especially with the holidays coming up, and it'll be busy season at the day job. I won't have as much energy left when the weekend rolls around, bringing with it my writing time. So just go with the flow, girl. Go with the flow. 

My day job, while consistent, is turning into a real challenge to stick with. And that bothers me so much since it's the sort of position I've had so many years of experience in, but the location and the shift are taking their toll on me, and it's only been three years and counting. The location in East Oakland is inaccessible by public transit, which I use for my daily commute (save for Fridays, when I have access to the car). 

Now normally I'd be marginally okay with walking through garbage on the sidewalk and badly broken and hazardous pavement to and from the train station, but the shift -- 6 am to 2:30 pm -- is wrecking my health. Because let me tell you, taking public transit at a ghastly time requires me to get up at around 3 am and leave the house at 4:30 in order to catch the earliest bus to the train station. 

And since the facility where I work is another mile out from the Fruitvale BART station, I have to walk another 25 minutes to get there. By the time I clock in, I'm at least 10 minutes late, anyway, and the idea that I have to get up way earlier than everyone else and STILL clock in late? Doesn't sit well with me, and I spend at least thirteen hours away from home altogether each day -- for not much pay and an excruciatingly slow accumulation of PTO hours. The company didn't even offer reviews and incentives for raises until October of this year, and the raises were dismal (really, why even bother with a twenty-cent-an-hour raise like one girl got?).

And everyone who've been working there for years and years? They all have cars.

So, yeah. I'm really bummed about it since this is a job I've been wanting to land for a while now, but there's always something, you know? Maybe it's some great cosmic sign for me to not get too comfortable and that there are better, more promising opportunities out there. At any rate, I decided to polish up my resume on Indeed.com and am back to scouring for openings. Hopefully somewhere that's art-related. 

I suppose in better news, election results notwithstanding, I'm feeling pretty chipper compared to the last two months, so there's that. 

Done, Done, Done, and Done!

My second foray into the world of the Nightshade family is done. Yes! The final chapter happened pretty organically since I actually had so many options to choose from, and I just had to let myself go in the end. Well, that plus the fact that we're back to Standard Time, and while I turned back the clocks, I still woke up an hour too soon, which will likely mess up the rest of my day. I know it's made writing the final chapter a bit touch and go.

That said, I understand the state where you're so, so tired or caught somewhere between sleep and wakefulness is the moment when inspiration hits you the most. I get it; I can see why that can happen. In my case, I just opened the file and dove in, completely clueless as to how the closing chapter will unfold. I think it turned out really well despite taking a direction I didn't even consider before, and it was another reminder that Narcisse's journey into self-discovery is vastly different from Viktor's. 

It's quieter, more personal. More aligned with a mortal's experience, not a god's. And behold the book's "theme song" (which got me off to a good running start, inspiration-wise):

Anyway, it's done! And I've got the rest of this month to revise, rewrite, edit, and all that good stuff. There might be more significant tweaks I'll be doing compared to Nightshade's Emporium, but we'll see how things look. 

And with this announcement comes another important one: I've decided to keep the same calendar for 2025 as a goalpost, which means March 1, July 1, and November 1 release targets. I said "goalpost" because I'd like to be adaptable to unexpected events happening. The Perfect Rochester might very well get bumped up to February 1 with the rest of the books following suit, but I don't want to commit to anything completely yet. I like the idea of getting myself so far ahead as to be working on, say, The Shadow Groom a full year early. 

And if that happens, I'd be more than happy to squeeze an extra book for an earlier release here and there, and that would be awesome. 

All right, then. Time to relax and be lazy -- maybe even take a couple of naps with my sleep cycle so out of whack now.

Now Available: 'Voices in the Briars'

And here we go! Voices in the Briars, my vampiric take on the "Bluebeard" fairy tale, is finally out in e-book and print formats. 

Here be the blurb:

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 is 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.

The book's gallery page is over yonder, and you can check out some tidbits behind the writing of this book.  There are actually a few other things that never made it to the gallery page, but that's par for the course with these fun extras about my books, and that's okay. It's written purposefully to read like a dark fairy tale, and it was a real treat coming up with ways on how to turn the original story on its head while making sure everything lines and up and makes sense. 

At any rate, I hope you enjoy the book if you decide to check it out, and thanks so much for the support.