writing books

atthequillsmercy

WIP Wednesday: I don’t do April Fools

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I’ve been editing the completed manuscripts over the last week, but I’ve also resumed working on First Brood 4: Emma. Shelley (my Freewrite Traveler) has three spots. I’m using one for Emma, one for short smut, and the last for Dewey. Sure, I’ll crank out the short erotica to make some extra cash (I need it, I have no Patrons, and there won’t be any OT in the summer), but I need to work on things that make me happy for a while. 

  • Emma: 17,515
  • Smut: 161
  • Dewey: 15,778

I went back and forth between editing and writing today. That’s why the numbers aren’t that impressive. I’d like to finish both those big novels this year since I have book 5 in the First Brood series cooking in the back of my head already. Not that this series is super popular, but I love working on it. I started that back when I was a teenager, and somehow, it’s been a constant in my brain ever since. I did post the chapters of Emma I have so far on Patreon if anyone would like to see what it’s all about.

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atthequillsmercy

WIP Wednesday: Another one done.

I have not been focused, to be honest. I’ve been flitting between my three WIPs. I’ll start work on one for the day, write a couple sentences, switch to a different one, then do the same. I seem to be stuck on the smuttier one but the other two are chugging along.

  • Smut: 13,172
  • Kinktober: 3,480 (2 prompts done)
  • Dewey: 14,325

Not much. October is always wild and I have been FLYING through my ARCs. I had a goal of reading 150 books this year and I’m at 184. I have almost 60 reviews written for me to type up. I’ve also been knitting to try and get rid of more yarn and decluttering my room. Resume appointments are kicking up at work (yeeaaaahh, that’s not a good sign… I hope I’m helping) and I’m still after my now adult child to get his ass moving to get his surgery.

I am happy to see that a couple of books sold. And print copies at that! I never think those are gonna sell since the ebooks are cheaper, but yay for me! I certainly hope they enjoy it and leave a nice review. I hope this means things are turning around. Fingers crossed.

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atthequillsmercy

WIP Wednesday: One down!

I can overthink things, but I am rolling right along with these! Well, two of these because I’m a little stuck with Dewey. Usually, reading it through shakes something loose. I’ll get there. I’m busy with other things (work stuff, life stuff, being the only one who does the chores in the house… I’m not bitter about that at all, no sir). One of the big things I did was move some heavy stuff around again, and that’s put a crimp in my running. Hey, that’s what the desk bike is for! I can burn calories and word counts at the same time, baby!

Omg, I can’t pretend I have energy. I’m exhausted.

  • Dewey: 14,092
  • Smut: 12,255
  • Kinktober: 1,001 (Prompt 1 complete)

I am not sure if every Kinktober prompt will be released separately. I’m just going with the flow on these and not sticking to a word count. It’s all just a wild and fun experiment to see what I can come up with based on the prompts. The smutty one has been fun to work on because the characters are genuinely enjoyable, but I can tell I need to flesh it out. I’ve been committing the cardinal sin of reading reviews on the work under that pen name, but hey, one reader legit had some constructive criticism that I’ll take into account. Just because I write these to make money doesn’t mean I can completely slack off on quality. I can tell when something isn’t my best work, and I just stopped fussing with it because I needed to get that project off my shoulders and move on to the next thing. Unlike the nasty review I got, I appreciate it, and I’m gonna make sure the next few stories are better crafted.

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atthequillsmercy

WIP Wednesday: Prepping and Progress

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Things have been going really well! I’ve been flying through the prompts I have stored up and working on my two big projects. Here are the word counts:

  • Smut: 10,855
  • Dewey: 14,092
  • Kinktober: 222

You do NOT want to know how much I overthought whether or not to keep the word count for Kinktober cumulative.

(It’s not even that serious…)

I decided to do so because then I can just keep writing and not be tempted to jump around between prompts. Once I start one, I have to finish writing it before I can start the next one. I’m gonna do my damndest to keep them to 5k words or less but, much like with the smutty one I’m working now, sometimes the story gets away from me. I didn’t intend to break 10k words with that one at all.

And yes, I am still keeping mum on that pen name. My kid is an adult now, and it probably wouldn’t affect him much if that name got out, but… People are WEIRD. And people are SCARY. Especially these days. It only takes one nutjob to make my life hell, and I’d just assume avoid that. I’m sure if someone gave enough of a shit, they could track that pen name down, but for now, I’m not telling it.

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atthequillsmercy

Writing Update: New Cover

The help desk didn’t get back to me about being able to edit the old cover so now the first part of Fruit of the Dead has a new cover. I was hoping that each season would have a different cover but ah well. In terms of problems, this isn’t a big deal. Now, as for the word counts:

  • FotD S1E3: 2443 but I’m not happy with how it flows so this may change
  • Dewey: 10,441 and I’m posting this in the middle of the day ,and I bet I’ll end up with more later

Also, due to a lovely surprise $4,000 bill that I didn’t think I needed to pay, I will be putting more time into my S00PER SEEKRIT smutty pen name because as much as I love to write fantasy, the smut is what makes me any money at all every month. I will do my best to ensure this does not delay my progress on my non-smut projects.

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atthequillsmercy

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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atthequillsmercy

Camp NaNoWriMo Day 18 and Workouts

As you can see, I am still behind and I’m ok with that. See, over the weekend, I went to have dinner with friends and people kept asking me if I was ok. Earlier last week, I had a coworker ask me if they’d done something to make me mad since I was so quiet. When I looked at myself closely in the mirror, I looked dead on my feet; just tired and sullen.

I need to take better care of myself. I’ve been up very late and not getting enough sleep. I haven’t even been cooking much because cooking takes writing time.

I did manage to make a few things but mostly, I’ve been living on snacks and leftovers. I look angry all the time and yeeeaaahhh, that’s not good.

So, this week I’m writing at a leisurely pace and stopping at a decent hour to get some sleep. I don’t even think I’ll hit 50k words just because the story doesn’t need it. I’m gonna chill the hell out and enjoy this process.

I took a walk to get some broccoli to make a real dinner and did my desk peddler. Once I got home, I used all my workout apps; including the sleepytime stretching to wind down and sleep soundly. Today I feel more normal but breaking the grindset mode is gonna take a while.

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It’s Done!

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The next book in the Go Away Girls series is done and ready for purchase! This is a steampunk story about a new drug loose in the city sold by dealers willing to kill to keep their business going. This time there isn’t any sex in it so it’s available on more platforms but I hope you all still enjoy it.

 

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Writing Update: Bad News/Good News

I was reading through some reviews on my books – which I tend to do when I feel blocked or like I suck – and looking at the reviews on Go Away Girls: The Mirror, I decided to check and see where I left off with the novel I’m working on in that same universe. I plug in the flash drive, I double click the file and get a happy little message that the file is corrupted and can’t be repaired. I check my Google Drive? No backup. I had backups of every story BUT that one.

Then I think “Well, that’s fine. I’ll just get the notebook I wrote it in. I’m sure there’s a printed copy in there.” I spent the next 20 minutes tearing through things to locate it thinking I’d lost that too.

But the good news is, I did find it. I’m glad the worst thing about all that drama is the fact I have to retype the whole thing. Not a big deal at all. I have lost stories before (mostly because I’d trusted someone to give me the damn disk back and of course they lost it) and it’s devastating.

I’ll be adding that book into my rotation.

Right now, Emma’s story is up to 6375 words and I see plenty of potential in it now that I’ve spent the weekend editing it. I did consider scrapping the project thinking it would just going to be too short but I changed my mind.

That’s all I have to report for this week!

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atthequillsmercy

I’m not doing NANOWRIMO but…

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I’m not a big fan of NaNo and that’s mostly due to how I write. I tried it and what I produced was such a mess, it required so much time to fix I might as well have just taken my time in the first place.

So, why even bring it up? I do have a nearly completed draft of Lost Brother; the third book in my First Brood series. I gotta say, it’s been an emotional roller-coaster working with this beast of a novel and there’s some hesitation in me to wrap it all up. Since everyone is talking about NaNo, I’ve decided to use this month to plow through that ending no matter what. Maybe that challenge will get me out of my own way so I can finish a current project rather than start a new one (as I have so many up in the air, there’s no way I’m beginning another).

Wish me luck!

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