Writing

atthequillsmercy

WIP Wednesday: This isn’t fair.

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When I tell you being in your 40’s is just a shitshow sometimes… Perimenopause and PMS just doesn’t feel fair. This fucking meat sack I’m in charge of needs to pick a struggle. I can’t sleep without meds, still have trouble staying asleep, then I want to sleep all day but can’t, and have to power through with espresso and Death Wish coffee. How I’ve managed to deal positively with the public at work, I will never know. It’s not fair that I can only be fully functional for 2 weeks out of the damn month.

Not to make any excuses, but October is a big month in this house. Not just because I’m a Pagan Witch and come alive in spooky season, it’s also time for Samhain/Halloween activities and NYCC. I’m gonna do my best and get these stories done. Here’s the word counts so far:

  • Smut: 13,131
  • Kinktober: 1,617 (Prompt 2 50% done)
  • Dewey: 14,145

Now things are really getting to the meat and potatoes of these. I’m kinda having fun with the Kinktober stuff. I can write about things I’ve never written before and push just a bit out of my comfort zone. Dewey I’m being careful with because I don’t want it to be too preachy. It’s going to be interesting to try and get something finished and edited this month but hey, I’ve been spending WAAAAYYY too much money supporting things I’m into (Knights of Guinevere, The Moon Woke Up, Hazbin Hotel, Elvira… Not to mention way too many Kickstarter’s I’ve backed) and it’s about time I put out some content that made me some sorely needed money.

And D2D now has a minimum payout sooooo, I need to hit that to make anything to pay any bills. Yay for me…

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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

WIP Wednesday: I think we’re back?

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After my Saxenda break, I think my brain is firing on all cylinders again. I’ve been steadily working on both projects; including reading through them and realizing what needs to be cleaned up. And also making name charts. Because man, I can get indecisive with names or forget them outright. That’s gonna be fun to edit later… Anyways, on to the word counts:

  • Smut: 7,802
  • Dewey: 13,947

I’m writing this in the late afternoon so, those counts will change. I’m working on getting more reviews posted, running, prepping for NYCC, and also working on my yarn stash so, there’s not the most impressive increase in numbers. I’m also working on a series of prompts for “Kinktober” that are more for for artists than writers but some of the prompts were interesting enough for me to want to try them out. Maybe I’ll get inspired by one of them that will turn out not to be smut, you never know. Even the one I’m working now is turning out longer than I’d thought. I try to keep them under 3k-5k words.

Hopefully, now that I’m back in a proper flow, the next time I update will have a bigger increase.

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atthequillsmercy

WIP Wednesday!

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I know, I’m shit at regular writing updates. But now that I’ve gotten my brain back from the Saxenda (I’m back on it, but at a much lower dose), it has been so much easier for me to think. I’ve also taken on the project of cleaning out my Google Drive (it was at 79% full) by printing out the writing prompts and little bits of inspiration I’ve collected over the years and putting them in a binder. This way if I ever have a block or can’t decide what to work on next, I can flip through it or blindly pick a random page and use that for a new project.

Anyways, here are the word counts as of this morning:

  • Smut: 7,453
  • Dewey: 12,548

I’ve probably said this already, but Book 4 of First Brood is on indefinite hiatus until I’m making more money with other things. I am one unexpected expense from not being able to pay the mortgage. I gotta do what I gotta do.

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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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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

Off Schedule Writing Update

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Happy Mother’s Day! If you’re into that thing. If not, happy I finished a project day!

The next part of Fruit of the Dead is finished and the rough draft is 2397 words. I absolutely have a ton of editing to do on it. I gave it a quick read through and there are things I need to add, details to expand on, etc. I have a much needed day off where I can do that and read a bunch of ARCs I’ve been dying to get to. I haven’t outlined the next bit yet but I have some ideas in mind. My book cover site has completely revamped and I no longer have access to edit the cover I’ve been using for this series. I did email them and support told me they could have it moved into the new editing software but it hasn’t happened yet. I really hope I don’t have to delay publishing the story when it’s ready or buy a new cover and have to go back and change it for the first two parts. It may not matter to others but, it’s important for me to have cover continuity. I hope they’re able to help me out soon so I can give this next part to you all.

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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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