First off, thanks to everyone who’s voted on Barren Harvest so far.  It’s doing well at Lit, although a couple of stories that just posted yesterday are likely to push it out of the winner’s circle in the end.  Always a possibility, as I know there are some low bomb-votes in there, but unlikely with the scores and vote totals the stories above me have.

Not many comments, but oh well.  You can’t have everything!

Don’t know whether it was the posting day or the synopsis, but it pretty much flatlined at SOL.  Very few views, and even fewer votes.  Again, oh well!  SOL has really dropped off in readership across the board since Laz marginalized certain types of stories ( I’m sure regular visitors there know what I’m talking about )  I really hope that most of it is a censorship protest ( as the comments claimed ) and not that there were that many readers there into that type of story.  The latter would be a bit creepy.

To each their own and all, but *shiver*  Sorry.  Everybody has their squicks.

I’m working on an impression read/world building/Americanization of a story for someone, and that’s naturally kept me from my own writing a bit.  I really feel that taking these time-outs to help other authors is well worth it, even though it slows down production.  I establish connections for when I need my own first readers, and often pick up the people I help as new readers.

I’m going to dash off one — maybe two — Halloween stories in my third name, finish that impression read, and then get back to SOTM and Lowborn.  Winter Holiday isn’t that far away, but I’m not going to worry about it for the time being.  The only contest that I truly worry about is Earth Day, because I don’t want to break such a long tradition of posting an annual outing in the Wood universe.  If I miss the other contests, I miss them.

I’m actually considering not writing for the Winter one ( except maybe in my third name ) and instead doing some reviewing.  I did this one year, and there’s entirely too little of that going on at Lit in recent years.  Too many forum trolls and cynical people destroying the atmosphere.  Trying to see if I can do something about that.

I’m also likely to begin work on a How-To document concerning category placement for stories involving my main area of expertise — other worlds, magic, paranormal, etc.  There are rather frequent questions about this, and it would be easier to be able to link to something fully fleshed out and edited than to keep typing pretty much the same thing all the time on the forum *laugh*  This would post as LesLumens.

I also have the original first two missing chapters from the A Royal Sacrifice chain in my possession.  I’ve long wanted to write replacement chapters for those that are missing now that one of the authors has left Lit.  With pretty much all the other authors from the chain absent, that pretty much leaves me =P  Having the originals means that I can ensure I don’t miss any important plot points or character development, keeping the story seamless.

Naturally, if the original author ever returns and wants to put hers back up, I’ll take mine down in a heartbeat.  It will probably take a while, but I’d really like to see this story complete on the site again.  Because my chapters posted as Dark, that’s what the replacement chapters will post as.  If I’d been thinking about it, I would have posted those, Laresa, and my LST3K stories as Les, in order to keep my Dark name reserved for just stories in Danica’s world.  Too late to go back now, though.

Anyway, that’s the update.  I’m seeing a lot of new votes and favorites, so welcome to anyone who may be dropping by for the first time!  I have a lot of plans for the website to provide background information for my worlds and characters, so pop by every once in a while!  The blog updates on a fairly regular basis, and there are already some useful resources with the newsletter, forum, and listing of my work.

I’m running into walls with both of my other potential Halloween stories ( in my known names ) so I think I’m going to try a little shift tomorrow.  I’m very likely to get off work early, and even with going to the store to supply the house, I should be home early.  Think I’m going to jump on Lowborn or SOTM and write a bit.

I need a fresh perspective on both of the other stories ( Flesh, erotic horror and Spirit of the Wood, non human this time ) and need to stop rolling them over and over and over in my head.  Put myself in another place, with other characters, and see if those stories can’t sort themselves out in my subconscious.

Biggest problem with Flesh is deciding a POV.  I have three potential characters that could be the one, but just not sure which one is going to have the best POV for the horror category.  To me, horror isn’t just monsters.  There has to be some actual terror for the protagonist in there.

One has plenty of potential for fright, but there’s a section in the middle that I wouldn’t know how to handle.  One has the advantage of being someone the readers will cheer when bad things happen to him, and he’s the most likely prospect, but I’m having a bit of trouble with his reasoning on some things.  The third is another one readers should cheer for when bad things hit her, but I envisioned her misfortune as very quick – not conductive to terror.

With Spirit, my concern is that it isn’t “Halloweeny” enough.  It’s autumn, and it would be easy enough to state the season ( after all, Dan and Brooke have small children ) but I’m not sure there’s enough Halloween in the main characters’ story.  Mulling that over.

Two or three ideas in my third name, but those are usually a lot quicker to write, so I’m putting them on the back burner.

We’ll see.  Lots of wordage getting down, anyway.  Lot of it getting backspaced – but not lost.  There are good scenes that I just decided didn’t fit the story.  They may very well fit just fine in another later 😉

I’ve finished tweaking a couple of things in the beginning of Harvest ( as I’ll be calling Barren Harvest for short ) that were good as part of the Arts Ardane series, but not necessarily good for wider consumption as a Halloween story.  In the end, the regular readers of Danica tales will read what I had in there anyway, and some of it might have turned away readers not familiar with the previous and later stories in her life.

I’m near the end now, and anticipate finishing it this weekend.  Just need to get another sex scene in there ( three in this story… Danica’s enjoying herself ) and the ending.

Been musing on the Halloween Wood story as well.  The odds are that I’ll start that this weekend.

In the meantime, I’m writing a bit here and there on Lowborn, and getting past yet another sticky transition in SOTM.  One of the things I think that my readers enjoy is my smooth transitions between scenes.  The problem is, they don’t always come easy *laugh*

I may even skip over this transition for the time being and start writing the next scene.  Sometimes, that jolts me forward.  If nothing else, it gets more of the story written rather than typing and backspacing trying to get the scene switch to work the way I want it.

Just opened back up a story I started two years ago at about this time, with plans to put it in the Halloween contest.  Didn’t finish it then, and put it away.  Tried again last year, and once again, something was just off about it.

Think I may have the right angle at last.

This is the next story in the Arts Ardane series, featuring Danica, and is set around the Harvest Festival.  It’s called Barren Harvest, and I think I might just finish it this time.

I’m working on cleaning up what I’ve already written, and preparing to move forward.  It’s 90% done, and was just waiting for me to find the right angle for the ending these last two years.  There’s a fair chance I may have it complete and ready to go before the weekend is over.

I’m also finally writing on the final chapter of Lowborn.  My muse time has served me well, and it’s flowing.  If I can get these two off my plate, I’ll have two less stories hanging over my head, nagging at me.  That opens up more muse time for SOTM.

It, of course, nags at me as well.  Once I finish it, I think I might just get into a more productive rhythm.  Having the story hanging over my head makes me feel guilty whenever I write anything else, but I simply cannot bear down on one story like that.  I have to have multiple things going in order to strike my various states of mind when I sit down to write.

I have another erotic horror idea for Halloween ( also set in Danica’s world ) that I may write as well.  It’s an adaptation of an old NPC backstory, much like Harvest of Blood from several years ago.  Working title ( very likely ) is simply “Flesh.”

Also preparing to start a Halloween outing for the Wood series, and may have some ideas in my third name.

If things cooperate, there could be a lot of new reading in the near future.