Woofajuana: Blog

Okay, so, I'm back to writing after a little break, and I realized... I might have to do the thing I didn't want to do. One More Chapter*TM! Crap. You guys want a last smut scene, right? Right? Well... smut costs words. Lots of words, in fact. Y'all think you could forgive me? =P Yeah, yeah, didn't think you'd mind One More Smut*TM! *whistles "Comin' 'Round the Mountain When She Comes..."*

Does anyone else ever connect music with their writing? A song with a scene and/or a character? Sometimes, maybe it might share a mood even if the words aren't 100% matching up, or maybe there aren't any words to the song at all? It's kind of fun when that spark hits you and a song just clicks. Even if you heard it a bunch of times, but just this one scene is just what it took to make you realize how well it all fit. Hell, maybe even characters are created by a song!? I've got a few of those. My story, "Mongrels and Songbirds" was created by listening to Lindsey Stirling, and I highly recommend that artist!

Well, I tend to have it happen a lot, and I thought I'd share with my readers 2 songs that currently struck me with that lightning bolt of "Oh this fits only too well." First is "Cracker Island" by Gorillaz. Think of Anubis. Listen to each and every word, and imagine his life. I know the song is about the music industry and the forever young cult, but listen to it thinking about Anubis' life and tell me that's not the most accurate thing! It gives me goosebumps every single time now.

The second song is about the scene that I'm currently writing. It's not much of a spoil to say Anubis gets hauled into court and Jack's gotta defend him, but he just happened to be the key for this bitch to go after Jack. The song is "She Wants Me Dead" by Cazzette. It's a real smooth song, and sets the scene pretty darn well. It speaks nicely to Jack's smoothness himself and how he shines when he's got a captive audience. (Yeah, Grr'siv, you were supposed to warn him she wants him dead! Wait... do puppets know they're connected to strings?)

Hello, my dear readers. I would like to let you all know what the near future holds for "In the Enemy's Territory." The end draws near, and with it, a sense of urgency. I don't want to say good bye to these characters, but I do want to get it done. Thank you all for being with me on the journey! When I started, I hadn't intended for it to be even nearly this long! A full length smut novel about alien werewolves. Yeah, there's a niche for that, right? Guess I found it! So, I set myself a hard cap. A prologue, an epilogue, and 20 chapters. A good solid book, complete with appendix. A jumping off point for all the stories that will come later about this world and its inhabitants, so when someone says "Hey, tell me more about the world, I need more world building in this short, what's going on?" I can just point and say "There is it, the one that shows it all."

Now, I started this with no idea what it was going to become, and yet, it became something I'm incredibly happy with, and a lot of that is thanks to all of you. For real, I've mulled over this novel in so many directions and it was hints the readers gave me to focus the path. Hopefully ya'll read the last chapter, cuz spoiler, I tried real hard to kill Fletcher. Ask my hubby, I had his head on a chopping block, a gun between his eyes, was gonna take that kid out. After hearing the 4th or 5th way I planned on offing him, my husband looks real sad and says "What did this kid ever do to you?" He talks mad shit....! Oh wait, now he has to live so he can talk mad shit cuz he's part Wogtal! Dammit, Old Yeller! I just couldn't pull the trigger! I would have never thought to add all the info about their world had someone not thought to ask me how they all got there to begin with, and that brought life to Mother Meadow. There were also things that had nothing to do with really anything and just became. Jack, himself, was a surprise. I could have left it with Wild River and old man dies off and bam, end of the story. I had no idea Fern and Denver were the cutest gay couple until the very moment in the barn when Fern says "and that's MY job!" Oh... okay guy, sure thing, you're the one living there. And Baxter? Where the fuck... well, I dunno, but there he was! And now he is! So, this ride has been as delightfully surprising for me as it has been for all of you! I'm just the one with the machete hacking away at the overgrowth and weeds to show you the way. As such, it is important to note that what I've posted IS a rough draft. A very good rough draft. Good enough to publish... almost.

Another thing I did was to make this trip free. The hours and hours I have spent on this. A lot of people have a patreon or subscribestar for things like this. I just don't write fast enough to make that worth it, I felt, though from now on, all future stories will be saved for that purpose, and I'll post more about it as I get some material backed up to make one worthwhile. I'd love to throw my everything into writing all day long, but ugh, why's life gotta take up so much time? I wanna just download food, thanks. Why sleep? Sleep is not write. However, that's why publishing exists. You will get your book, the whole thing, posted openly to the very end because that's how this adventure started and it's entirely too late to change that. But, I'm not polishing these last chapters. I want them out and done. If there are things I want to change, I will change them later for the published version. There's already things I wanted to go back and change. Completely rewrite what was chapter 8 and Nova's interaction with the slaves, for starters, add more conversations about what Anubis' world is like. I'll also have it checked over by a professional editor. So the free version will stay because it already was, and will remain untouched and rough from now on, but the published version will hopefully come with pictures, if I can find an artist to work with me, and an expanded appendix including the multitude of flora and fauna. I'll work out more of the publishing details when the story is actually finished. Just know, the end goal is to have something physical, in my hand, and yours. That's not at all what I had thought of when I started this. It was just to show off to myself more than anything, to see how far I've come as a writer compared to my older work after my long break. A warm up for the next novel, which was the one I had wanted to be my first, but it needed to finish baking, so I just decorated a blank canvas I had laying around. And look where that led...

Now, you guys are gonna see some restructuring of the chapters. Chapter 18 is gonna come out a second time. Chapter 1 will become the "prologue." That gives me 1 more whole chapter to tell the story as it's asking to be told. Jack's got a blast from the past about to come screaming into his face, trying to knock him off his throne. But, Jack don't play nice when there's blood on the line. It's the last major thing to happen before, well, the final major thing. I just needed one more chapter to tell it all, and wouldn't you know it, all I had to do was change one chapter, and another appeared! I'm a lizard, Gandalf! So, just be aware that when you see Chapter 18 again, it is, in fact, a new chapter that would have been Chapter 19.

As for the last 2 chapters. 19 and 20 will come out really close together, which means I won't post one until the next one is almost done, that way there's not a month of waiting, though that will mean longer waiting for 19. Since 19 will so dramatically lead into 20, I felt it would be the best to do it that way, with the epilogue trailing behind at it's own pace.

Thank you again to everyone who has been with me on this adventure to a special little world orbiting some distant star. This was just a little heads up as I finish this project in the coming months. If I can be done in 2, that would be nice. At my current pace, let's make it 4. I don't know how many of you will purchase the novel once it's been completed, and I'm not asking you to make any sort of pledge, but I do hope you will support me on that front as you have on this one. Clearly, the price won't be much with the rough draft being out and available across various websites, but I think this is good enough to find its way onto some paper and for a much wider audience. Alien werewolves is definitely a niche....

I've submitted Chapter 18. The smut scene comes with a song for those interested. It's called "Talk2Me" by Mobiius. Great song. Enjoy it!

Oh, and the song Fern turns up for Denver is "Sugar" by Robin Schulz.

Chapter 17 for "In the Enemy's Territory" is available now. Sorry it took so long, but I'm dedicating both the chapter and the novel to my amazing, supportive husband, whose patience and guidance on this journey have been invaluable. I adore him. The following chapter shouldn't be nearly as long in waiting now that's I've found the Empress' New Groove! XD

As for the chapter itself, well... I'll trade you one smut for an Ol' Yell'r.