I’m giving myself one more day to rest and recharge. Just been a bit blah. I did dig up some references to get the cover idea started for the Thak and Alicia story, so I at least did something. Pretty sure that this one is going to end up titled “Queen of the Isle”.
Spend most of my day at work musing the various things I’m working on, and that’s been productive as well. Once I have the steam to write, I should have some solid things to work with.
That applies to about everything *laugh* Still waiting a day or two before going back to read through Lowborn 06 again. Everything else is in muse-simmering mode while I nail down exactly what I want to write.
Most active is that Thakkor and Alicia summer story. I finally dug up the maps and nailed down the location on the world for this one. I knew what type of location I wanted, but just not where. Now with that locked in, I have several points of reference that I needed to start it. May do that tonight, though I’m feeling pretty blah about writing at the moment.
Still working on how to move in SOTM. Currently still working with combining two scenes, but I’m also giving some thought to just scrapping the partial scene I have right now and going another direction completely. There’s just something off, and I’m not sure exactly what it is.
Been giving a bit of thought to the sequel to Blackhawk Hall as well.
The first draft of Lowborn 06 is done. This one’s a little shorter than the others, but only by a couple hundred words off from the three other shorter chapters. That could change as I go back during the read and tweak process, too.
Now I’m musing on that Thakkor and Alicia summer story. I have a great location, some seriously steamy scenes, and a major plot point. Just need to come up with the driving force to tie everything together. Unless I run into a wall, this will probably be the next thing I work on. It’s been nagging at me with ever increasing strength over the last couple of days.
If it comes together, I’ll be sitting with this story that I can’t release for three months because it’s slated for the summer contest, which doesn’t start until the end of August *laugh*
The other thing nagging me is SOTM. I’m sure it will rise to the forefront within the next couple of days as well.
Well, half a scene. I should be able to finish the first draft of Lowborn 06 today, and then I’ll let it simmer before reading back through, tweaking, and putting it in the hands of first readers.
Have to see where I go from there, but I’m leaning toward another short romantic piece with Thakkor and Alicia similar to King Thakkorias and Queen Alicia, but jumping back in time to a little while after they get married at the end of Merchant Princess. It will be summer themed, and end up in the Lit Summer Lovin’ contest.
I won’t be eligible to win, because I won as Les with Secret of the Wood, but contests are always great for the exposure. Besides, it will tweak the noses of the Triad of Ultimate Ego to put a story in the contest with characters that I’ve written before *laugh*
Still remains to be seen whether Lowborn will make it in at the seven chapter mark, or expand into eight. Six is going to end before the penultimate action scene, and I think that the final bits of character development for some of the characters may very well fill up chapter seven. Just have to see where it goes.
If it works out that way, it will leave Ch. 7 with the final battle, and the epilogue.
Finished the reworked scene of Lowborn. I can already see the transition in my head, so this one should work out just fine. Still trying to decide whether this is going to be a longer chapter ( since I’m only about 1000-1500 words off from the average length ) or whether I’m going to have this one be a cliffhanger.
The more I think about it, the more likely a cliffhanger is. Whether that will mean that the story ends up being one chapter longer, I don’t know. At the moment, I was aiming for seven chapters.
Speaking of likely, that “of the wood” story for summer is feeling more likely as well. Ideas are percolating, actually taking me out of the wood to a new location, and centering on Xanmara ( Kia’s daughter ) That’s not the only potential deviation from previous stories in the series, though. I’ll just have to see how it pans out, and if I want to run with it.
That idea of combining scenes in SOTM is congealing as well. I’m trying to concentrate on finishing this chapter of Lowborn, but as you can see from all the musing in the last couple of posts, that’s hit and miss *laugh* If SOTM is hitting me harder at some point, I’ll jump on it.
I’m thinking of putting out Lowborn on an every couple of days schedule, rather than back-to-back days. I’ll probably submit the first chapter on a mid-day Sunday, aiming for Wednesday, then the next chapter on Tuesday, aiming for Friday, and repeat the process the following week.
With SOTM, when I relaunch it, I’m looking at a weekly schedule. Those are longer chapters ( double Lowborn’s length ) so there’s more meat for longer breaks. I’ll probably need the time to keep up, even with several chapters in reserve and ready to go.
I actually have the spark of a Thakkor and Alicia short summer story as well, and a longer tale to follow up on Merchant Princess. Both of these would fall in the “History” side of the Nobles series, as opposed to the “Nobles” side.
I really want to start exploring Saggitariad and the other companions as well. Sag’s tale has been taking shape for a while, as has Geflon’s.
Making Dwarf sex come across is going to be a challenge *laugh*
I want to make sure that everyone in the group has a nice back story before I launch into the tale of how they went from sellswords to the lords of Egoria. One — Devan — already has her history in “The Arts Ardane”, and more will emerge over time.
So, beyond those already mentioned, only Darkniciad ( and a couple of female characters tied to the others ) remain. It will still be quite a while before all the history is in place and I’m ready to launch another epic. I want Danica’s tale either complete or nearly so before I delve into another story of that length anyhow.
Off for just a bit more writing before I crash out for the night.
