I know. It’s been a bit. I need to get into regularly updating this thing.
Anywho, so the saga of the A/C Ghost is over (hopefully?). They ended up completely replacing both the A/C and water heater as they discovered both were leaking water. Then they had to replace the flooring in the master bedroom. Outside of having one of the maintenance guys come back to replace the smoke detector, we haven’t seen maintenance at all in the last week. Taking this as a good sign that we have appeased the Ghost and can now peacefully coexist.
I’ve now finished week two at the new job and am finally settling into a good groove. I get up pretty early so that I’m usually finished by 2 or 3 p.m. Then I can spend the afternoon writing or editing before I have my evening Zoom classes, and then get back to more writing and editing before bed. I’m trying to finish one more book to enter into the Wattys before the deadline next Friday, so pushing to do at least one chapter a day. Once that’s passed, I’m planning to spend a good chunk of time researching how to market and self-promote. Because if I want to be a serious author, then I really need to put a lot more work into getting my novels out there.
Or well, novel. So far only one is up on Amazon. Others are up for free on Wattpad, but need more work before they are publish-ready - if they are ever publish-ready. “The Whitehall Affair” pretty much is, but I’ve entered it into the Wattys, so the earliest I’d be able to do anything with it would be October if I don’t make the shortlist, potentially late 2023 if I win.
I mean, I’m not holding out too much hope of winning because so many great books are entered in the mystery/thriller category every year, but it’s still there.
Life in Florida has been good. I’m loving the weather (when I go out for short, 15-minute time spans), and so far I’ve met some cool women through a weekly brunch group that I’ve joined. I just need to reel in the online shopping and I’m all good. (I can’t help it - I suddenly have access to all these sites, stores and brands that I couldn’t get in Korea - once it’s out of my system, I’ll be good.) Pippin is loving it here. He makes friends with the neighbors every walk we take and now that his collar and GPS tag is in, we can go off leash at the little dog park in the complex.
And writing - I’ve been getting stuff out pretty quickly. I’m actually pretty shocked with how much I’ve gotten done on “Into the Fog.” I started writing it around the end of May and I’m only five chapters from completion - crazy editing included. It’s been a little less than two and a half months. It needs more editing, of course, but I’ve been keeping up with that as I write, so hopefully not too much. It’s a very different genre than “Something Wicked” and “The Whitehall Affair,” so I’m wondering if I need to create a new writing persona/pen name for the Fisher’s Bay series, but I’ll worry about that later if/when I decide to publish. So far, I’m just trying to get people to read it on Inkitt and Wattpad, so I can get some feedback. And well, the paranormal/supernatural/fantasy genre (with steamy scenes) is hard to break into on those sites with SO MANY that are really well written by established writers.
But I’m happy with “Into the Fog.” It’s honestly not a piece that I’m taking too seriously, so I’m still very unsure if I’ll go the self-publishing route with it. I’m having fun with it and tossing in any and all of the usual tropes that I can think of. Some folks on Inkitt seem to be enjoying it as I get comments here and there. I definitely don’t think that supernatural steamy romance is my genre for the aforementioned reasons, but it’s fun to dabble while I’m working through some writer’s block with mystery/thriller.
To be honest, I’m finding it difficult to get back into writing that genre, though I do have a few ideas lined up, so it’s not dead yet. I think once I get “Into the Fog” finished and into a good groove with the sequel, I’ll start working on and further developing some of those ideas. One that I think I could get written fairly quickly that is currently niggling around in my brain is based on a Criminal Minds fanfic I wrote a few years ago. Yes, I know, but it’s not a “Fifty Shades of Grey” situation. Just a short fic where there’s not any romance whatsoever, but could easily be fleshed out and completely adapted into an original story without too much extra effort. I could potentially add a bit of a fling with the MC and one of the agents coming into the town to investigate.
Actually… Okay, I need to go write down these ideas now so I don’t forget them and can go back to them later…
Hope everyone is doing well! Enjoy the last little bit of summer!
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