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atthequillsmercy

“Weekly” Writing Update: Well, fuck…

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When my friend was diagnosed and ended up in a care home, I volunteered to take care of the dog she left behind. Now… While this dog hates my guts, I’ve done my best to take care of her. She’s got digestive issues that require prescription food and teeth issues that will need to be addressed and OOF. I was not expecting the bills. Holy shit…

Since I won’t be getting any overtime until September (expect me to complain a LOT about being tired because I took any available OT day I could get), I’ll be pushing to get more words out and get more stories published. Here’s the word counts I’m up to today:

  • Smut: 5,126
  • Dewey: 12,369

I’m not here to beg sympathy, I’m here to bitch a little and share my plans. I’m not going to let this mess with the quality of my work, either. The smutty stuff may be mid-tier stuff I shill for money but my longer stuff means a lot to me. I’ll also be blogging more reviews. I have so many books I’ve read and need to read that I’m sure I’ll have plenty of content for this blog. Wish me luck.

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atthequillsmercy

First June Writing WIP Update and a note on AI

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June is always a crazy month. It’s the month my kid was born, so all his checkups happen around this time. Either way, I’ve been plugging away at my projects, and here are the word counts:

  • Dewey: 11,524 words
  • Other Pen Name: 1,041 words

I’ve been focusing on these two. That’s why Emma’s book is not on the list. I’m having that problem of feeling super inspired until my fingers hit the keyboard and then my brain just locks up. Not only that, but I’m trying not to go overboard on the naughty stuff. It’s supposed to be short and quick stories for like $0.99, but then it blooms up to a novella that I didn’t mean to happen. I’ve noticed people are less willing to take a chance on more expensive books, and I price my books by word count: The longer the book, the more it costs. It’s only fair. I do this in whatever spare time I have, and that time is still worthy of some sort of compensation.

Aside from that, my inspiration has seemed to strike at the oddest times. I’ve fallen asleep on Shelley (I named my Freewrite, remember) a couple of times this week or taken her out to stare at the screen. And since AI is a legit concern these days, I am taking a moment to say no AI is involved in the creation of my work save for whatever bot powers Grammarly. They didn’t used to use AI and I still use the free version. I even make sure the covers I buy aren’t AI at all. I am very against people using it in place of their human creativity. That is a shortcut I will never take and I stand on that. Authors are leaving whole ass prompts in their books! I get paranoid when I put “eye color here” because I might forget to remove that.  I can’t imagine leaving AI text in my work like that, let alone using it to copy another’s writing style. Allegedly. In Minecraft. I’m not trying to get sued, accusing people of anything, but yeah, the industry is trippy right now, and I’m just a tiny indie author. I just wanna tell fun stories, not have a robot write for me.

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Last writing update for April 2025

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It’s been a nutty week and my numbers aren’t the best. I ended up down to the wire on a bunch of ARCs I’d downloaded so, reviewing those took a bunch of my free time. Expect a bunch of reviews to be posted soon. I’m also posting in the afternoon and may have som time later to keep working but I wanted to get the blog updated before I either forgot or fell asleep while writing. It’s happened before. 

  1. First Brood 4: Emma – 16823 words
  2. Dewey – 9565 words
  3. Fruit of the Dead S1E3 – 860 words

Not much in the way of work on Emma’s book but I’m pushing to get the other two done faster because FotD has been sitting without an update for years and since it’s episodic, it feels like a waste to leave it hanging. I’m hoping to balance my time better next week and have more of an output; especially since there’s no overtime for me until next month.

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August 2023 Writing Update

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I am picking at the edits for the next Go Away Girls book that I’ve decided to settle on calling “Vanished” (unless I hit on something better in the editing process). There’s a bunch of stuff I put in the outline that didn’t make it into the first rough draft that I feel will make the story much better so, I’m working on ironing out what I did get down before I start including that stuff.

“Vanished” will be the third book in the series. You can check out the first one here or here (contains adult material, be 18+ to read), or check out a different one of my lesbian fantasy stories here, here, here, or here.

Hope you’ll check them out and I’ll hopefully be updating again soon!

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atthequillsmercy

It’s Mah Birthday!

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And I’m not dieting today. Heck, after that snow storm (and shoveling for over an hour to the point where I almost passed out) I’m taking the week off from working out. But that doesn’t mean I’m free for the day since I had to see the doctor about my latest blood work and not only is my bad cholesterol down, it went from 173 to 152 since I started Saxenda. The doctor said it was the best set of results he’d seen all week!

So, I treated myself to my favorite dinner from my favorite pizza place, New York cheesecake, and some little cookie brownies from Trader Joe’s. I didn’t eat the whole ziti, there are at least two meals in there for me since the Saxenda keeps me from really over indulging. All I needed was a little bit to feel special today.

And yes, that is a Deadpool plate. Because I’m a geek.

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Scariest Thing About Being A Writer

It could be waiting to hear back about a submission, it could be editing, or it could be the horror of a blank page accompanied by a complete lack of ideas. But the fear I’ve been dealing with lately is this:

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See those dates? Unreal… >_<

Those are two paranormal romances I’m working on right now. Short ones I can edit fast and sell for a buck or two but WOW. I sure am taking fucking forever to finish them. 9_9

So, where once I had them in my Google Drive to just pick at whenever, I have printed them out and I’m gonna go at them wholesale. I’m sorta stuck in First Brood 3 and I’m avoiding the formatting on Brood 2 (because we hatezez it…) so there’s no excuse not to get SOMETHING done, right?

Right. 🙂

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What I’ve been up to.

I’m sure you’ve all been wondering where I’ve been all this time. Of course, I’ve since recovered from whatever sickness I’ve had and with that new-found health, I went immediately back to work on book two of my vampire series. I have an irrational zeal to get this thing up and published before the end of the month and based on how I flew through this last round of edits, I just may be able to pull that off.

As a result, I have a polished draft but EVERYTHING else went by the wayside. I don’t even know where Winter Boot is, much less have a written conclusion for it.  =_= Rest assured, it’ll turn up – they always do –  and I’ll resume my regular updates on other projects as I get through them.

And hopefully more blog updates. I know you’re all DYING to hear my nonsense. 😉

 

 

atthequillsmercy

Writer Wednesday – Writing Checkin

Despite my cold, I’m still progressing nicely. Winter Boot has been giving me a little trouble and I’m chalking it up to a bit of fatigue and medicine head. @_@ Writing is harder than you think when you can’t breathe through your nose.

This update is a short one. Not much to say really other than I’m workin hard on that and the next book to review! 😀

atthequillsmercy

The Plan? One Step at a Time.

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It’s funny because it’s true! Also, it’s not funny because it’s true. I tend to have so many different projects going at once, I seem to never make any progress at anything because my attention is divided too many ways

So, here’s what I’m gonna do.

Winter Boot will be the first thing I finish. I’m sure there was just a chorus of groans from people who wish to hang me up by my thumbs if I don’t get the next First Brood book out yesterday but I would like to continue my Fiction Fridays and I can’t do that till Winter Boot is done. After that, I have two short stories; “Fylgia” and “Old Soldier” that will need to be finished and posted for sale. Then I will move on to the editing for Greenhouse and the writing of my Go Away Girls steampunk lesbian novel. I can’t keep jumping from project to project (a lot of the time within the same DAY) and expect to get ANY work out for you guys to enjoy

Wish me luck because I am crap at focusing. It’s also why I have three knitting and crochet projects in the works as well…

But that’s for another entry. XD

In life news, I will be getting my car back in about 4 weeks and I’m back to working out with only the slightest twinge of soreness in my back. Between the treadmill and the elevator still broken at work, my le muscles re very confused. But I feel so much better now that I’m able to move around. I DESPISE being immobile. >_<

So, there you have it, folks! Lenni is healed up and has a plan to get as much writing into your greedy hands as possible! 😀 Are you excited? I sure am. 😉

atthequillsmercy

Progress Update!

Hanging around and not going to work has left me a lot of time for writing and editing. I have been cleaning (the garbage men must think I’m crazy) but I am making some great headway on getting another story up for sale. 🙂

That’s pretty much all I’ve got for now. Cleaning, writing, editing… That’s just what life is right now.

I almost miss irate patrons… 😉