Salvation of the Damned is finished and coming soon to a Kindle near you!

So this weekend (around 5PM on Saturday, to be somewhat more precise), this happened:

And there was so very much rejoicing.

The final word count came in at just under 72K, which is shorter than I thought it would be, but it took a turn toward the end that I think is much better than what I’d originally planned (note: just because you outline doesn’t mean your books won’t surprise you), and it felt right to end it where I did, with enough resolution to tide the reader over while leaving plenty to anticipate for Book 3.

But it still has to go through revisions, and while there’s no doubt some stuff will get cut, there’s also a good chance some stuff will get added, so who knows what the final word count will be.

Although I’d originally hoped to have it ready in time for Halloween, in order to leave plenty of time for proper editing, the release date is getting pushed back to December. But considering last week was July 4th and it’s already Labor Day and Halloween is practically next Tuesday, December will be here before we know what hit us.

In the mean time, there’s still plenty of time to read Book One, Dominion of the Damned, during its limited free run on Wattpad, and to get your friends hooked on this series!

WIP: Bound Spirits, April 24, 2017

I want to start logging my progress on a weekly basis, even though, I’ll be honest–so far progress is lacking. There’s just a lot of LIFE happening right now, and also a lot of freelance work, and zero novel writing happened last week. Or the week before that. I’m going to do my best to make it happen this week, or else I’m going to fall too far behind to catch up. Hopefully these progress updates will help keep me accountable.

At any rate…

Words so far: 4,141

Completed scenes so far: 3

Here’s an unspoilery snippet:

Everyone looked at Gus, who sat bent over his open menu. He glanced up at the waitress. “I’m gonna need a few minutes.”

“Gus!” Chris didn’t even try to hide her exasperation. “You always do this, and you _always_ end up getting the patty melt.”

“Something else might look good to me this time.”

She reached over and grabbed his menu, eliciting a “Hey!” from him as she handed it to the waitress. “He’ll have the patty melt.”

Vanessa quirked an eyebrow at him. “You sure, sugar?”

“Yeah,” he said, sounding defeated. “It’s fine.”

“All righty, then. One patty melt, one cheeseburger with fries, and one ultimate breakfast, coming right up.”

“What’s got you so cranky?” he asked after she left.

“I’m not cranky. I’m just not in the mood for your usual nonsense.”

“See,” he pointed at her, “that’s cranky.”

“You do seem a little cranky,” Derek agreed.

Chris rolled her eyes. “I’m _not_ cranky. I’m just hungry and I don’t want to wait an extra five minutes so Gus can read the entire menu before he decides to get another frickin’ patty melt!”

“Okay, you’re right,” said Gus. “That’s not cranky. That’s actually called ‘hangry’.”

Chris took the paper tube off of her straw, crumpled it up and threw it at him. It smacked him right between the eyes.

Oh, and PS – I’m looking for advance readers for Kindred Spirits. If you’re a reviewer, book blogger or bookstagrammer who would like to read and review or otherwise feature it and you don’t mind a PDF ARC, get in touch and I’ll hook you up!

And away we go!

This morning I sat down and knocked out the first thousand words of the first draft of the third book of the Restless Spirits series, aka Bound Spirits. This entry sees sisters Ron and Chris Wilson — one a ghost, the other a medium who can see and talk to ghosts — faced with the prospect of their father’s remarriage as they, along with their ever-expanding crew of helpers, get roped into investigating the apparently haunted wedding venue and the spirit that’s throwing a spanner into the works of their step-mom-to-be’s vision of a perfect wedding.

Whew, what a mouthful. I need to work on that elevator pitch.

Today’s count: 1,014 words.

The plan: to write 1,000 words a day, more or less, minus weekends, and have the first draft finished by the end of June (the final draft is due in August).

I won’t be posting daily progress reports, but I will try to post weekly updates on how it’s coming along, so watch this space if you’re into that sort of thing. Or better yet, subscribe to have updates sent to your inbox via the link in the footer.

In a happy coincidence, I realized this weekend that my noveling goals are running concurrent with Camp Nanowrimo. I’m not participating in that event officially (for one thing, I’ve given myself three months to finish instead of two; for another my life is way too chaotic and disorganized right now), but I’ll sure be taking advantage of the general air of creativity and tapping into the Nanowrimo energy that’s floating around this time of year. And also the hashtags. And I’ll be cheering the Campers on as I go.

In other news, last night I officially signed off on the final edits for Kindred Spirits, which is still on track for its scheduled June 30th release. Yay!

All Caught Up

I’m officially caught up to where I need to be on my noveling projects. After typing up all of the scenes I wrote longhand for Ghost of a Chance, and re-using a slightly revised scene from an earlier draft, the word count currently stands just a hair short of 47,000, which puts me over the halfway point. I’ve got to start hustling to get this draft done on time.

Thankfully, I’ve got a whole week with no freelance projects on my plate, so I’m going to use it to get ahead and get some forward momentum going again. Which means I’ll probably be scarcely seen in my usual online hangouts this week–and possibly for the next several weeks until this is done. But it’s all downhill from here, folks.