| 234567 | > |
New chapter has been uploaded. Roscrow blows a lot of hot air, but there are important bits in what he says that matter more than the words themselves. He's just lucky the bigger dragon finds him funny.
And Roscrow begged me not to do it. Really he did. GOD CAN'T HEAR YOUR PLEAS! I put a little easter egg in his conversation. I've kept the werewolves at bay this long, you owe me, saipaki!
I have also uploaded the fix to "The Call." Tell me (with words or votes or both), does it help? Does it kinda smooth out that transition a bit? I hope so. That took so much braining, and yet it seems so simple, right?
Over with Kupper, I didn't make it for this week, but I am close. This chapter is all of around 2.2k words and it has come like molasses. Little drips. It's rough. I think I have all those pesky danglers (I've discovered they are really hard for me to notice, and I have to go slow to catch them). I am but a few final paragraphs from finishing the chapter, and I'm slapping Roan away for the moment trying to listen. He was gone so long, now he's so persistent. I've been working on the chapters where he's got his prize back to the fortress, and he is excited, to say the least.
Anyhow, hope you guys enjoy the new chapter for Tamers, and have a fantastic Easter!
**
Next week on "The Rat and the Dragon:"
“It must be ancient.” A wild grin stretched to Roan’s ears. “Let’s catch it!”
Bern’s head snapped back to him. “Dammit, Roan! This is how you’re gettin’ into these kinds of messes!”
My apologies for the delay. I have not been feeling well. I uploaded the updated chapters 1-12 for Rat and Dragon. Each one has been tweaked a little. See if you can spot any of the differences!
In Tamer news, S're finds out that her Guardian lives in a very different kind of society than she does.
Speaking of the Q'Hu, I had a friend accuse me of making the species "too perfect" and "flawless." Bitch, please. You ever seen a 9ft tall man pass out because both of his hearts thumped at the same time and the blood pressure spike knocked his ass flat? Well, you probably won't, and I don't write about it very often because those guys have a tendency of dying well before 500. But, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen among them. Also, just all those extra organs to begin with. Failures and cancers are really prevalent. Yes, they are better than humans in almost all ways, but so are elephants. Did you see that elephant slap that child? Must've been Team Rocket blasting off again. Seriously, though (or perhaps not seriously enough), I always build in flaws.
And in even better news... I heard Kupper. I thought to myself, "what if I made that bitch cry?" and he responded with "Bitch, no you won't." All that searching for him when all I needed to do was mess with his woman and, oops, I made him really mad. Mad enough to blow shit up. Let's goooo! I'm just here to write the incident report. Already have half of a chapter. We'll see if I make it for Thursday. I'm just happy he's back, even if for a moment.
I've just uploaded the next chapter for "The Rat and the Dragon." It'll post whenever. I have a bit of a busy day today, so I will get to uploading all the fixed chapters later in the day. I have to deal with formatting and all that, and I gotta run out the door in a moment. I'll get to posting them all this evening into tomorrow morning, if I need to. Hope you all enjoy this chapter! I caught myself writing some of those "dangling modifiers" and dealt with it on my own like a big girl author! XD
As a side note, my new editor, Mr. Pixel, had a rather passionate comment about hymens when he got to chapter 11. This is why appendix's are important, folks. My elves don't have those (and I guess neither did I 'cause I never noticed my first time... eons ago...). I will have Roan make a comment about it when I make my final edits. Right now, the edits made have been purely readability and fixing glaring errors. Content additions will be reserved for published version.
Hope you all enjoy your day! I'm off to chase crotch spawns....
For those of you who are new readers of my tales, I welcome you and appreciate the time you have chosen to spend with me. It's time you can't get back, so I endeavor to make it worthwhile.
Just a brief history of "The Dragon Tamers." 20+ years ago, I first wrote a tale of some helpless bitch who gets caught by the hot commander of a dragon squad... and then they fucked... forcibly. Roscrow said "that bitch is mine" and that was how I wrote it. I liked it that way because rape fantasies are a thing. Roscrow... not so much (and if you've been with me for a while, you've probably noticed that he's the voice that talks the most). That was, uh, not quite how he meant that. The readers, however, loved it. After several "keep going" and "more please," I took glimpses of Roscrow and S're's world and created... a sex story with plot-ish. Mostly just sex. S're wasn't special other than being the main character. Roscrow wasn't special other than being in love with her. A few years later came the version that is still available on my other pen name, Woofajuana. I hit an unscalable plot wall because again, it was not how it was meant to be. So, start again and finished it a second time. I'll spare you the details with the failed publisher offer and just say I went ahead and self-published it without an editor or proof readers of any real sort. It was up for a short time, then I took it down. I was told things didn't make sense. Well yeah. I didn't really understand their world too well. It wouldn't make sense for Roscrow to not know what a Tamer is as a born and bred Guardian. And as a Guardian, Roscrow would never rape. So, had to write it all again. And here we are. No rape this time. None. Plenty of mention of it, though, and there will be threats to have her forcibly bred, but the act itself won't happen.
Since I started posting the story again, I've had a lot of emails to my old, otherwise dead email account (the same one I had back when it was first posted on a very blue site I do not care to mention), as well as messages here and everywhere else I post (even the new site!). I'm still shocked by how many people not only read and liked it, but remembered it! I had no clue where I was going with any of that. If half of you folks had been so vocal 10 years ago, things might have been different. As it is, I've had a mix of surprise, joy, and confusion. One of those confusions was the name. "You added the 's' so I thought this was a sequel?" Nope, sorry. I added the 's' to show S're is no longer the only Tamer, just one of a kind among the many. However, after receiving a few such messages, I admit, this story IS really only about her. I've thought of "The Eternal Dragon Tamer," and adding the 's' will be the sequel. (S're has kids, after all... and so does Roscrow... rapscallion.) I've already seen other novels with the generic name right on Inkitt. So, you guys are likely to be seeing a title change. Maybe not freely posted, but for the published version, most certainly.
Another common confusion has been the leap between "Girl in the Snow" and "The Call."
The first is supposed to be Jasper's memory of the event. It's not S're's memory. That's why there's no perspective from her. It's a second prologue of sorts, not actually the first chapter. The only thing I really want to change about it is making him even more unsure if all his actions are really his own. This comes up later. It's kind of a big deal. (For the new readers, Jasper first started out as a nameless character S're flirted with... then he got a name... then they fucked... and now, he is a main character. I consider it Roscrow's punishment for taking so long to tell me he was an elf! If you love Jasper, I'm really glad. This version of him has a real life model, and I live with him.)
Now for that jump to "The Call." I really thought having Jasper say "for the last nine years" would make it obvious this is a time jump. How they met the rest of the crew comes up slowly through the story. We already know Diana was rescued by Jasper. We'll be getting more into Slina when she can speak again. Black will be back, and quite soon after their return to the mountain. Just a heads up... Roscrow is a shameless racist. Even since the very first version where Roscrow finds a library after a Sarlykein attack- which evolved into the city of Academy- I've always had the sense he hates those lizards. But, besides the length of the appendix, this time jump has been the second most mentioned issue from readers. Okay. I hear you and appreciate you. I think I've solved the problem with an extra paragraph. Why did I start the chapter that way to begin with? A saw a writing prompt that was nothing but that first sentence. "I heard that I make you nervous." And Jasper answered back. I couldn't figure out how to adjust it because, well, that's what he said! After a few weeks of thinking on it, I think I have that answer. On next new chapter drop, I will also post my fix to that chapter.
I remind you all, this is a rough draft, I'm just trying to get the story told. If I don't post, I lose motivation. I would have taken a much longer hiatus if I didn't have you folks waiting. You are why I am keeping a pace. I'm not going to post all of my fixes. Some things will be kept for the published version so it's worth paying for. Otherwise, I'd have to stop at the last few chapters, and I'd rather not. If you like me, support me by buying it when it becomes available. I just hate gate keeping and the millions of needles in everyone's arms these days. However, I do want to provide my readers with a coherent tale and deal with mass confusions for new readers. So, any time there is such an issue, please feel free to voice it, and I will (eventually) come up with a fix that I'm happy to post. Same thing for "Rat and Dragon."
Long story short: I will post a fix to that jump next week with the new chapter. Until then, you'll all be finding out just what interesting changes I've made to R&D from that one's previous draft. I think you'll like it. I hope you all have a pleasant day. And if not, at least it's a day.
So, I stepped away from SOL to let everything blow over. During that time, I joined a new site much like this one only smaller (please feel free to ask me, but I will not openly mention because the webmaster wants to stay under the radar to avoid exactly the kind of thing Lazeez just dealt with) and made some new friends and while talking about my editor, picked up a new one. A seasoned veteran who edits for some of the bigger names right here on SOL. He expressed interest, so I directed him to "The Rat and the Dragon." And guys, I have learned SO much! See, Psycho knows when something's wrong and corrects it. Most of the time, I agree with him, but I didn't really know WHY. It just sounds better. Well, my new editor has the answers.
If you know anything about grammar rules and names and all that, you've probably noticed I have a habit of "dangling modifiers." I had no idea what that was, or that I was doing that. As my husband pointed out, I was raised speaking a language where the subject is often implied, so a dangling modifier does not stump me, I understand what's being implied... but I also understand how in proper English, that can be confusing. I will be working on that going into the future. Seems easy enough to fix. When I went to Psycho and told him about all these things I'm learning, he says "Oh, yeah. You do that a lot." Gee, thanks, saipaki! XD
To that end, I have so much editing to catch up on! I've been avoiding editing "In the Enemy's Territory" in an attempt to bring Kupper back (please?) but Psycho has finished the darkest chapters that took him so long and is getting to the fun parts. I would also like to be finished with all the editing of Rat and Dragon by Saturday so I can drop all of it at once, along with the new chapter. Since changing the events of chapter 12, it caused a ripple effect all the way up the chain to when they get to the fortress, as well as removed an entire chapter of fluff. We will be holding hands with the original draft one last time before kissing it good bye and venturing into the new and unknown. I'll give you a hint: he's big and green and scaly... and pissed.
As for today's chapter of "The Dragon Tamers," it was supposed to be longer. A good deal longer. Buuut, I want to get this editing done, so I'm holding onto the buffer and breaking it up even smaller. In the published version, the two may be put back together because this chapter doesn't really have much going for it, but to keep active while I focus on my hottest story, I split the parts up at the natural scene break. It makes 1,500 words; that's short but decent. Doing it this way gives me another month of buffer time. So, the fun part that was going to happen this week won't. Hope you still enjoy the chapter, and I will see you all next week!
| 234567 | > |