A quick note:  If anybody is experiencing server errors when viewing the site…  Well, I am too.  A simple refresh always loads right up, but I don’t know what’s causing it in the first place.  I’ll look into it, and if I can’t find anything, contact the host.

I was at one of my endless sticking points where Queen of the Isle just wasn’t coming out right.  I took a slightly different tack on the same theme, and it’s moving again.  As a bonus, it added a great deal more action to the lead-in of the story, which I’m very happy with.

Still mulling over the summer “of the wood” story.  I have a framework, but it needs two things to really launch.  One is the ending, and the other is the title.  They’re both really tied together.  I have all the scenes/locati0ns/characters I need, but I just don’t know the final pinpoint destination of the story.  Figuring that out will probably give me the title, and I’ll be good to go.

I also finished the cover for Queen of the Isle, which seems to be a good source of inspiration for me of late.  I keep the cover open and pop it up every time I start to write.  I also blocked out the images for the new Wood tale, getting an idea of what Xanmara looks like, as well as that beach/summer feel, and a place to put the title, when I come up with one *laugh*

Back to Queen.

Finally went out and got a new window unit for the front room ( where the computer is ) so I won’t be constantly baking out here.  That was one thing that was keeping me from writing.  Hot and sweaty is fine for sex, but not so great when you’re trying to write it.

Took pretty much all of my writing time to rearrange the room and get the sucker in today, so we’ll give it a shot tomorrow.

I did quite a bit of musing on Queen and that summer themed “of the wood”  As well as both of them seem to be coming together, I’d say that the wood tale will probably come to light.  I’ve been adding all those little details to it that I need to get a story going while I’m at work.

Lowborn 06 is off for a first read, if I haven’t mentioned it.  Can’t remember *laugh*

Think I’m going to crash early tonight so I’m refreshed tomorrow.  As much as these ideas are hitting me, I might just accomplish something tomorrow.

Finally got started on Queen of the Isle this morning.  It was only a tiny bit of scene setting before I had to run off to work, but at least I wrote something *laugh*

It just takes so long to get in the right frame of mind nowadays, and it’s so hard to stay there.

I’ll try to work on it some more tomorrow, and likely start my review of Lowborn 06.  It’s been long enough now that I should be able to look at it with a bit of a cold perspective.  Once I’m done tweaking it, I’ll send it out for first reads.

Tiny bits of ideas for an “of the Wood” tale for summer starting to flit through my head as well.  That word ‘flit’ actually connects to it, but I’m not going to say any more about that in case it doesn’t happen, or I go another direction, or to avoid spoiling it 🙂

Actually, it’s not quite as late as I thought.  I think I’ll pop open Queen and see if I can’t get a little more on that story down right now.

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.