Sage Mullins: Blog

Seven and a half years between blog entries? Is that some kind of a record?

Thanks to all who took the time to write. I am doing very well. In this case, "very well" is a synonym for "busy in real time", which indicates why there has been no new material from me for so long.

One question I've been asked quite often - do I intend to make Lightning in a Bottle available on Bookapy, or other commercial sites? The short answer is no.

Here's why - first of all, there's a few age-related issues in the story. Pat and Diana were seventeen during their relationship during Pat's senior year in high school. Plus, there's that scene where Pat fends off the advances of his sister's fifteen-year-old friend. These issues, by themselves, could perhaps be dealt with, but it would take a substantial rewrite.

The bigger problem is my extensive use of copyrighted song lyrics. In a couple of critical moments in the story, I interweaved song lyrics with the narrative, and I simply don't want to change that. It would impact the story in a negative way. In particular, I'm talking about the "Suddenly" and "And So It Goes" scenes.

So, bottom line, LiaB will remain a free story, available only on this site.

An Unwanted Alias - a story which does not have these issues - might be a candidate to turn up on Bookapy at some point. It's also a candidate for Finestories, in edited form - it wouldn't take too much editing to bring it within parameters.

Also, a few words about Song of Adelita. I've sat down on a couple of occasions and tried to pick up the story. It isn't coming. That story originated from a much different part of my life, so many years ago, and I'm finding I can't get myself into the state of mind required to continue the tale.

Going back to Lightning in a Bottle - I may do a minor clean-up type edit at some point. There's a few instances, especially late in the story, where I repeat earlier dialogue and narrative, and I'd like to fix that.

As always, I have a few ideas for stories bouncing around in my head. We'll see if any of them actually make it out for public consumption.

To sum things up: Yes, I'm still out here. No, I haven't made any progress on Song of Adelita. Yes, there may be something else in the works.

I've made several attempts at sitting down and picking up with SOA, and it just isn't coming. Problem is, that story originated from a time when my life was very different than it is now, and I simply can no longer relate to the issues in that story. So, I've decided to shelve it for the time being. I hate abandoning stories, but at the same time, I don't want to fabricate a quick, phony ending just to be able to label the story "complete."

Which brings me to the other item here: the same sci-fi/post-apoc story I alluded to in earlier entries. I'm finding that I am motivated to work on this story. The issue up till now was that the plot was a little too complex, and I couldn't seem to pull it all together in my mind. I'm learning that when this occurs, the best thing to do is simplify. I've hit on a couple of ideas to streamline things a bit, and I'm just about ready to let the words start to fly.

Right now, I just have chapter 1 written, plus an outline. The story doesn't have a title yet. I will tell you that it has a female protagonist - let's see how well I can pull that off. I plan to use third person omniscient POV, which makes that challenge somewhat easier.

I'll need to get several chapters composed before I even begin to consider posting, so watch here for updates.

Maybe it was a form of unintentional foreshadowing when, in the later chapters of Lightning in a Bottle, Lisette was declared the runner-up in the Miss New Jersey pageant. I had no way of knowing that the story itself would finish in second place in three Clitorides Awards categories - Best Erotic Story by a New Author, Best Do-over Sex Story, and Best New Author 2014.

All kidding aside ... that's far better than I had a right to expect. Lightning in a Bottle was, more than anything else, an attempt to try my hand at constructing a tale in a genre that has given me so much reading pleasure over the years. I got over half a million words out of that attempt, and no matter what I come up with from here on in, LiaB will always hold a special place in my heart.

I'd like to offer sincere thanks to those who voted for LiaB, and give another shout-out to those who provided editing and content assistance - Seattle22, LastCallAgain, mcguy101, Tendertouch and Bandit IRA. Congrats to all the other winners, most especially rlfj for "A Fresh Start" and G Younger for "Stupid Boy." There's certainly no shame in finishing second to either of those outstanding stories.

Yeah, that couple that showed up at the very end of the story looked kind of familiar, didn't they? :)

I heard from more than one reader that when the story was in the early stages, it was difficult to gauge where I would be taking the story. This was probably partly due to the fact that it's a very different story from Lightning in a Bottle. However, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I'd like to give one more shout-out to those who provided editing help: to B4Lurker, who provided top-notch grammatical editing; to Lupusmag, who gave me some much-needed input on cultural matters; and to mcguy101, who offered the same invaluable plot and character feedback that he provided for LiaB.

Looking ahead, I'm about to get very busy in RT for a few weeks, and I'm glad I was able to wrap up AUA before the crunch hits. My posting schedule is, and probably always will be, erratic. However, I'd like to think that once I start something, I do eventually finish it.

With that in mind, my first order of business is to finish Song of Adelita. You will likely see a new chapter of SOA appear in the not too distant future, to ward off the dreaded yellow-stripe status. I plan to keep writing, but to hold off on posting subsequent chapters until I have the story almost finished. Then, I'll put up the chapters at a rate of two or three a week, until the story is complete. There are probably between 12 and 15 chapters to go.

Further down the road, I'm still allowing the story I mentioned in an earlier blog post to percolate in my mind. It's a time-travel tale involving travel to a post-apocalyptic future.

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading, and I'll post occasional updates here as to how my writing is coming along.

The epilogue for An Unwanted Alias is finished, and has been sent for editing. It should be up soon.

It looks like I'll be able to reach the goal I set a while back - to finish the story by the end of March.