Sage Mullins: Blog

Chapter 4 of An Unwanted Alias was posted yesterday. My plans are to cut back to one chapter posted per week. Chapter 5 will go up next Tuesday, 9/30. Chapter 6 will be posted the following Tuesday.

Writing-wise, I'm at the beginning of chapter 11, so I have a sizable backlog to work with.

One thing I'm quite surprised about is how little reader feedback I've gotten with this story. That stands in marked contrast to Lightning in a Bottle, where I often had more than I could deal with.

Because of that, it's hard for me to get a handle on the disappointingly low (so far) score. If I had to venture a guess, it's because the plot has been slow to unfold, plus I haven't yet developed any characters in great detail, save for the protagonist. I anticipated this up front; the "slow" code applies to more than just sex. The next chapter should ratchet things up a bit, and chapter 6 even more. :)

I'll be posting chapter 1 of a new story, "An Unwanted Alias," tomorrow (Tuesday). My plan is to post chapter 2 on Friday, followed by 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Friday of next week. After that, I'll drop back to one chapter a week. I've written 8 chapters so far, and I expect the story to be about 20 chapters in length. Therefore, it's reasonable to think I might be able to maintain that posting schedule until the story is complete, although I can't make any promises.

What's the story about? Well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to get an idea. :)

After "An Unwanted Alias" is complete, my tentative plans are to go back and finish "Song of Adelita."

So, I'm supposed to be on hiatus from writing, taking it easy after wrapping up the epic-length tale that was Lightning in a Bottle. Yeah, right. Fat chance. One of my story ideas took off in my mind, and I have a good chunk of the story written already. I won't be posting any of it until it's complete, or nearly so; don't expect to see it for a month or more.

It's a romantic tale with no time travel or sci-fi aspect, so it's different from LiaB in that way. No rock and roll, baseball or coming of age stuff either. Still, I think many fans of LiaB will enjoy it. (fingers crossed) The story will most certainly have the "slow" code, and probably the "Minimal Sex" designation as well. That's not to say that this will apply to all of my future stories, but it will to this one. It's a medium length story that will probably have 15-20 chapters, certainly no more. (I'm done with epics for a good long while.)

Now is probably the right time to put out a request for editing help. I'm interested in help in two areas: a grammar and spelling editor, and a content editor. It would be a BIG help to find a content editor who has spent some time in China and is familiar with Chinese culture. :)

A correction to that last blog entry ... the SOA characters actually appeared in chapters 72 and 74 of Lightning in a Bottle. :)

Let me elaborate a little on that hint I dropped in my last blog entry. I do want to write a Lightning in a Bottle sequel, or at least a story revolving around characters in LiaB. There was a segue into the sequel in the epilogue of LiaB. It will center on the second-generation band, Lightning Strikes Twice (which may very well be the title of the story, as well). This tale will be more or less set in the present time, with no time-travel aspect. So, at some point, look for a tale which details the adventures of Lexie, Nick, Tina, Zoe, Leah, Jaden and "Deuce", with appearances by their parents - the familiar old characters you've gotten to know so well.

Having said that, let me temper your enthusiasm a bit by stating up front that this story is not number one on my priority list. I haven't yet figured out which way I want to take the story, and for me, a story needs several months (often longer) to fully crystallize in my mind. Therefore, my muse is insisting that I direct my immediate efforts into another universe.

If you look at my homepage, you'll notice that there's a story listed there that wasn't there before today. That's the story I alluded to in earlier entries: "Song of Adelita", which has been here on SOL since 2005, under another pen name. My reasons for having two pen names simply don't apply any more, so I put in a request to Lazeez to move SOA to the Sage Mullins pen name, so that all of my work is in one place. The other pen name is no more.

Currently, SOA has 25 chapters and is more than half finished. I just posted chapter 25 last week, which pulled the story out of the dreaded yellow stripe (inactive) status. I'm not sure how much SOA will appeal to fans of Lightning in a Bottle. It's a much darker tale with more sex, and a theme that might not be everyone's cup of tea. But give it a chance, anyway. A few characters in SOA made brief appearances in chapters 72 and 74 of LiaB, and from that, you may get a clue as to which way SOA is heading.

I want to eventually finish SOA, but again, it's not at the top of my to-do list. Recently, I found an old detailed summary of the conclusion of the story in the recesses of my hard drive, which gives me a nice blueprint to work with. After some thought, I decided to remain true to my earlier intentions for the story. In the short term, it will be simply a side pursuit. New chapters may appear from time to time, but they will likely appear slowly.

So, you may ask, what is at the top of my writing list? It's a new story which you might call an action/adventure romance. It's a story of medium length, much shorter than LiaB. I won't say any more, except that it likely will merit a "Minimal Sex" designation. I'll begin posting it once I consider it to be more than halfway written.

Beyond that, there's another tale in the works (chapter 1 is already complete) that I'm quite excited about. This story has a complex plot and will require some research on my part, and I'm not quite ready to jump into it. It's a time-travel tale, but not a do-over -- it deals with travel to the future. It likely will have the TimeTr, Sci-Fi and PostApoc codes.

I doubt I'll be doing much writing in the next month or so. Hopefully, though, I'll have something to post before too long.