Not sure what happened to the day.

I ended up writing about 500 words for a prequel for a new vampire series Writer Brain keeps pushing at me. I hope I can keep it to a short novella. Title is “Penumbra”. Yes, it makes sense.

I read a comfort book or two, played Spider Solitaire, cooked food (need to improve my sauce-fu) and kind of lost myself.

Let me share the beginning of “Penumbra”. (My character kept surprising me, such fun!):

It was raining.

Of course, it was raining. This was bloody New York, after all, and at this time of the year, it was just as likely to snow as it was to rain.

Leander flipped up the collar of his coat for a little more protection before stepping out from under the eaves and onto the sidewalk. He walked fast, with the stride of a man who knew exactly where he was going and why.

In truth, he was just trying to put distance between himself and the body. Discovering it had been a little shock, but he’d grabbed what he had been sent to find and hurried to get away, leaving no trace of his presence.

Leander kept walking, keeping his stride, slipping out of the neighborhood, making sure to shake any tail, ignoring the rain. Something had not been right, something was bothering him, and it wasn’t the body.

It certainly wasn’t the first one he had seen, and more than likely also wasn’t the last. At least this time, there hadn’t been much blood. It was always easier without the blood. Something about that always made his stomach queasy. Not that he would admit that to anyone. He was a damn P.I., and he was good at what he did. Nobody needed to know about his reaction to blood.

Day 11 of NaNoWriMo, and I’m back on track. Wrote 2k words today.

Yes, it was hard. I’m tired - didn’t get much sleep last night, I blame Jocelyn Drake - and yesterday was a hard day, which means today should have been a recovery day. And I did take it easy for most of the day.

And then I dove into the Wolves tonight and ran with another bit for Alex (who had a really good day, after all), and ended it with Mark noticing something suspicious…

Take a look:

I did another round downstairs, just to stay awake and alert. This time, I moved the curtain of the backdoor just a little and peered outside. Something moved at the end of the garden.

For a few breaths, I stood and watched, holding completely still. The human eye, just like a wolf’s, is better at discerning movement than shapes.

Well. Maybe it had just been a bird or something. Or a rabbit. My mouth watered at the thought of a rabbit, and I knew my Wolf was riled up a little by tonight’s events.

Just as I was turning away, I caught movement again.

This was not good, and I needed to check it out.

Day 12 of NaNoWriMo, and I failed. Wrote 60 words. You can read them all below.

Not sure what happened, to be honest. Just couldn’t wrap my mind around hurting Mark, although that usually isn’t a problem. I hope I feel sufficiently brutal tomorrow. (But tomorrow is also Newsletter Day, and I’ll see how much writing I have in me.)

Have Mark. Watch him make a colossal mistake:

I quietly opened the back door and slipped out, pulling it close behind me. The big flashlight I was carrying would work as a club in an emergency.

For a moment, I wondered if I should wake Fred, call her in for backup. I shook my head at myself, she was probably fast asleep and this was most likely nothing.

Today was mostly a recovery day after the insanity that was yesterday.

Yesterday, I did my day job, had a meeting in the afternoon, was accosted by salesguys, and finally watched a presentation on climate change and fake news by one of the most eminent climate scientists in Germany, Mojib Lativ. That was utterly fascinating.

Writer Brain then proceeded to make my life hell with worst-case scenarios about the sales thing, keeping me awake for a large part of the night. I made phone calls this morning and got it sorted.

Tiny bit of editing done for the spicy shifters. I’m still really liking the story, but next is a bed scene, and right now I just can’t… Maybe I’ll just leave the reminder there for now.

But! I can share the three covers for the Vampire series that I’m currently (not) writing. They are so awesome, they motivate me.

(If you read this on Mastodon, I hope you can click through to Lemmy to see it.)

I did it!

I just wrote The End under the Epilogue of the Wolves, after a thorough edit.

Tomorrow, I’ll do a final, final read-through and plonk the file into Atticus. Tomorrow evening, I’ll have the epub and the print PDF, and can tell my cover designer about the page numbers.

I saw the final cover just now, and it looks awesome! I hope can find the time to do a quick cover reveal. Will upload to all stores on Thursday.

I’ve done this so many times. And yet, it’s still exciting!

Not a lot of writing - I do need to think about the next chapter of the Penumbra Prequel. There is a side character I need to develop more. (And knowing me, that side char might well become a main char in a sequel.)

On the other hand, I did edit (clean up) about half of the Wolf story. Added footnotes for the German sentences and marked them as German (I hope that will help with the audiobook).

Nothing new from the cover designer yet. I hope I can do a cover reveal tomorrow or Wednesday. Still planning to release on Thursday, but Friday would also be just fine.

So no snippet today, sorry. But help me find a good place to share my Penumbra work… would appreciate pointers.

Okay, so no uploading today. sigh

Cover designer hasn’t finished the cover yet, which is fine. But it also means no cover reveal. I do hope I can get all of it done tomorrow, but it will be a close thing.

You see, my sister comes over for the weekend, arriving around noon tomorrow, and while she knows I might have to take time out of the visit for my book, she also has PLANS.

I’m writing a little for Penumbra. Still need a good title for that little prequel (and all the others that might follow).

“Winston. We have at least one Shade in this town, and we really must stop it. We need better leads. I’m sure it has already killed, and I know it’ll kill again.”

“Well, why don’t you go and explain all this to the good detective? I’m sure he’ll hurry up just for you.” Yes, Winston was good at sarcasm. He had plenty of time to perfect it.

“You know we can’t do that.” Melody whirled and stalked away, unable to face that man any longer. Unfortunately, she needed him. Nobody was better than Winston at digging up lost information.

Wrote about 500 words for the Penumbra tale. Skipped ahead to a scene that was occupying my mind.

Still no Wolf cover. Apologies. Still hoping for a weekend release.

Sister is here, and it’s good. We’re also getting a LOT of snow, so walking will be fun tomorrow. Definitely Lake Effect at work here.

I’ll share a bit of Leander. Have fun:

The woman sighed. “There’s a lot to explain, and I don’t want to do that here and now. You’ll find clothes on the dresser. Meet me in the sitting room.”

He stared after her when she simply marched out of the room. After a while, he shrugged, slipped out of bed and dressed in the clothes she had laid out for him. They were a shockingly good fit and of a much better quality than he was used to. Strange, really. What was going on here?

There was only one way to find answers, so he went in search of Melody. Walking down the stairs to the first floor, he realized that he felt just fine. Maybe even a little stronger than he was used to, and there was a bounce in his steps that he rarely felt. A single day after almost dying?

Another rather frazzling day, including a visit from a Telekom press gan… information team. They almost managed to make me sign up for a provider change. Remembered just in time to ask for a break so I could think it through.

Nice guys, though, and they totally lost it when they saw my sword and dagger, and took my author business cards. With a bit of luck, I’ll end up selling books to them.

In much nicer news, I have received the first three covers for Penumbra, and they look awesome. I just need to put them into a good thing to share here.

Also, saw the first draft of the new Sky cover, and it’s just awesome and perfect and beautiful. Will also share asap.

Oh, and I wrote 700 words for my spicy shifters this morning. Yay.

For now, I’ll curl up with a comfort book and hope I can actually sleep this night…

Day 16 of NaNoWriMo and I wrote 2412 words. Suddenly got on a roll.

I’m also getting closer to the end of the story. Still need to figure out the big showdown - I have a feeling the villain will not survive the end of the story, although murder is a tricky thing in Germany. Maybe they’ll disappear him in a clever way…

I’m feeling better, at least about writing. Still haven’t ordered the cover, the snag is getting the description written. But today was an office day, and they always steal quite a bit of energy. Plus my night was rudely interrupted and lack of sleep makes me stupid.

Have some Wolf fun (Alex is in Wolf shape):

Luka scrambled onto the bench in the back, and Alex jumped in with him. Moments later, we were off, the goon driving fast, but not erratically. Maybe he had bought into our plan.

Nobody was inclined to talk much. Alex gave a growl or two, and I assumed that Luka had tried to touch him once again.

“Your dog doesn’t like me,” he eventually said.

“No”, I answered simply, and Alex huffed.

“I like dogs,” Luka went on, sounding a little miffed.

“This is not your average dog,” I said, doing my best to hide my smile. Luka had no idea, and I wouldn’t enlighten him just yet.

Day 14 of NaNoWriMo, and I got nothing.

Yesterday was probably too big of a push. Getting up very early today might have added to it all. I’m also realizing I’m not putting enough of the German Christmas traditions into the story, which means heavier editing than I like.

And I even have my first buyer for the story if I get it out fast. bangs head against desk

Brain is this mix of stress, anxiety, anger and frustration. Because this month is the absolute worst in book sales in over a year. I haven’t sold a single book on Amazon (but I have almost 200 free downloads, yay). Sold a couple on Google Play Store. All of this despite a paid promo early this month.

I do have the plot sorted out. I know what I’ll do for the minor antagonist, while the major antagonist will not escape unscathed. I just have to write it, and that’s where I fail.

Tomorrow is a new day. deep breath

Today, I finally received the cover for “Sky Falls”, Book 2 in the Pillars of the Empire series. And let me tell you, it looks gorgeous.

It took me a while to gather enough energy, but I finally uploaded the ebook to Amazon, Google Play Store and Draft2Digital (which distributes to a huge bunch of other bookstores, including Apple and Kobo). Also uploaded the print files to Amazon. Right now, the book is wending its way through all the servers. I hope I can create a Books2Read link tomorrow, which is a very neat universal link where you can pick where you want to buy the book from.

I’ll also share the cover here, but I will post about the release in the other thread about new books tomorrow.

I’m also quite wiped today, and very glad it’s almost the weekend. Hope I can focus on writing soon.

Enjoy the cover!

Today was quite an exciting day.

After uploading all the files yesterday, I was hoping I could celebrate the release of Sky Falls today. And so I posted about it on Mastodon - which met with a wonderful and immediate response - my first sale to a lovely fan.

But then I had to work in my day job, then I met a friend in video chat, and then… I found email from Amazon with a problem in the print file. sigh It wasn’t difficult to fix, but it was something I had checked yesterday before grabbing the print file, and it still went wrong. Ah, well.

Then I went out to participate in a march against fascism. (We are doing this in Germany right now, because a fascist party is on the rise, and the “silent” majority is no longer taking it in silence.)

Anyway, I came home to a couple more sales (I don’t have that many fans) and a wonderful message by my first reader who had already finished the book! (And loved it!)

What a day! 😍

Finally wrote a few hundred words for Sun. I really hope I can get back into the story now.

Not much else today, I’m tired and had quite a bit of brainfog. Read yet another romance novel.

Have some Sun:

This cave was small. He had to stoop to duck through the entrance, and while there was enough room for a camp, it was a close fit. They might have been able to add two or three mules, Sun thought, squinting a little, but that was all.

Oh, and it had a little spring at the back, the water forming a small pool before draining away to the side. He couldn’t be certain, since he really didn’t know how these things worked, but it felt like a Moon had created it together with an Earth. Somehow, that thought made the cave much more comfortable.

No writing yesterday (or very little) because I had to set up my newsletter. That went well, but took all my brain power.

Today, I’m back to writing. Managed 1k again, trying to make that into a habit, with one writing time in the morning, and one in the evening.

Have some Sun:

“Do it now.”

“Really?”

“Yes. What do you need me to do?”

“Well, maybe it’ll be better if we both sit.” Laisal chewed on her lower lip again. It was endearing, really, but… Sun forced his thoughts away from that.

Instead, he sat where he stood, folding his legs the way he had always done in the House. It felt good to sit that way, deep down. Laisal knelt before him and lifted one hand. “Just watch my finger,” she instructed him.

Sun did just that, and moments later, the world fell away.