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So many rats. The rats must've brought the plague with them. *lies in bed dying* Ugh. Speaking of rats, I wanted to educate you readers on a rat behavior that isn't too commonly known outside of those who like rats. "Bruxing" is a behavior where they grind their teeth rapidly, making a sound and grinding down their incisors. The action also causes their eyes to bulge in and out of the sockets rapidly as their jaw muscles are under their eyes. It is a behavior similar to a cat's purr- a sound of joy under normal circumstances, unless the rat is in distress, then they will do it to soothe themselves. It happens often enough going forward that I thought those of you who read my blogs would like to know. If it is interesting to you, look it up on youtube. Rats are adorable. Even the wild ones. Doesn't mean I'd like one in my house, but like wild snakes, they are very cute at a safe distance. When I say I'm an animal lover, I don't just mean a few select, I mean down to the creepiest and crawliest. I will even go out of my way to avoid stepping on a cockroach if it's not in my house. Roan may have gotten that animal lover thing from me. He does have a thing for dragons, which are technically animals... *whispers* Nobody tell that to Shidu.... cuz that bitch breathes fire... and she eats people. Literally.
*
Still staring at his chest, she let out a little sigh. “Maybe… just for a minute.”
Settling back down with her, he continued to caress her shoulder. “I’ll lay here as long as you want.”
*
Is this a sweet moment between Roan and Cylthan? Or a quiet before his rage? This chapter might have gone a different way but since a reader had expressed an interest in it, I let the explanation of Ssolaar's death be a readers lesson in some of the magic classes in this world. Battle mages are quite common among the Seekers. Most magic users are paired with a physical fighter of some type that works well with their magic and fighting style, but they don't always have to get along. We also learn quite a bit about Roan and Silver Eye and the depth of their connection. And I wonder who was in that cloak?
As for me, on a personal note- guys, I am burnt the fuck out. I'm not blocked, I'm not sick of writing, I'm just burnt out. I struggled to get this chapter done over the whole two weeks. Not because it was hard or that it is long (even longer than the last one by a few words, and we haven't even left Roan's room yet for the first day), but just sitting and writing what I'm working on. I'm sick of these werewolves. I'm sick of these elves. So many other stories are screaming in my head and I'm exhausted with pushing them away. My kids are home for summer break, and my guts are rebelling harder than the French when you mess with their retirement. I know discipline writes novels, but burn out is a bitch. I'll probably keep writing to Rat and Dragon whenever it's there, but I think I'll see where these random thoughts will take me for a little while... you know, when I have a moment.
As for Dragon Tamer, I was unhappy with how dry some of the responses sounded and started messing with it and now I might have fucked with it a little too much.... I'll work on finishing that before I just leave the story to sit for a bit. Maybe if I get some of these other story ideas out, it will clear up the signal and invigorate me back into these tales. I can't get Kupper back for nothing and I'm sick of trying when all I get is Satrina and Dane (from "A Journey Across the Surface" over on my other pen name) responding. I'm sick of editing werewolves when the sequel is howling in my ear. Shime may have another chapter or two in her before she goes quiet again.
So, I'll drop Chapter 18 this Saturday. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to make comments. You never know what may influence the next chapter! Just... nobody make Shidu mad... Roan, you might an idiot....
Tomorrow in "The Rat and the Dragon," if you were thinking Roan was going to get Cylthan back... you would be correct.
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“What do you want?” she growled without looking at him, hoping he wouldn’t hear how choked up she was. “Got a dungeon fetish?”
“No, actually. I’d be much more turned on if you were purring in my warm bed.”
***
There's a lot of hot and cold between them. Roan's got his own demons behind those eyes that she'll learn about later. The reason most of this chapter is her point of view is because next chapter, he will talk about what he was thinking which leads into her learning about him. Almost everyone has a sad story that led them to be Seekers.
This is by far the biggest chapter of the story so far. Whether it's the biggest for the whole story, I'm not sure yet, but it's over 4k words. I don't think you'll be too upset.
You know who was upset, though? An old friend who recently reached out because she heard I was writing this particular story again. She was loving it... until chapter 11. In the previous, Cylthan was flirty and that's what started all that. Well, as the author, I know he would have tackled her and taken what he wanted back then, too. She's just more true to form now since she's a virgin who never even considered sex or rape until Roan was sitting on top of her and told her he would get hard if she kept struggling. It never even occurred to her until that moment. Thanks to Roan, it'll be a lot of what she thinks about from now on, though. There goes that purity... Hmmm, I wonder if that might cause problems later? Enjoy!
I finished the next chapter of "The Dragon Tamers," and it turned out to be nearly 4k words. While that's a totally acceptable chapter length, I'm already on to editing my werewolves. I don't know about you readers, but I'd rather have enough material to keep going and not have you guys waiting for a month when I miss a release, soooo... I'm splitting the chapter. When editing for publishing, I will put the two back together, but for consistent posting reasons, I give you guys the build up to the big info bit. And, just Jasper being Jasper. Poor guy is only a human among elves, and he's going to keep being reminded again and again, they are not the same species. Can he keep his insecurities at bay as that fact becomes more obvious with each passing day?
I'm totally down for a chapter name on this one. "On the Way" is so boring but it was all I could come up with. There will be two parts to it. I hope you all enjoy part one!
Hello, and welcome to all the new readers! I'm so glad you are all joining me on this grand adventure through the worlds that clutter up my mind. Don't entirely know where we're going, but we'll all have fun getting there together!
One of the questions I've been asked a few times- and it came up again recently- is how long I think it will be to finish my two current stories. Uh, well, there's no nice well to put this. When I wrote "In the Enemy's Territory" (available on Woofajuana), that's an approximately 150k word novel and I put my everything into that story. Morning, noon and night, any chance I had, that was what I was writing. There were a couple of side projects that never finished, but nothing that took up more than a day or two of my writing time. I was fully and solely focused on that novel and from when I sat down and started the concept on my brand new tablet to when I posted the last chapter here on SOL was about 3 years--though when I started actually posting what I had written, that really made me buckle down and I finished more in that last year than the first 2 of keeping it to myself. I'm still not fully "done." I'm going to finish this next chapter of "The Dragon Tamers" and then I'm gonna use that time to catch up on editing the werewolves and hope they don't scare off my other elves again. It didn't work before, but I have enough written down this time that I should be able to fill in the gaps with Roan and Cylthan should the dog breath prove too stifling. (Meanwhile, Roscrow in the middle of it "Why are the barking rugs humping on the furniture again? And why does this white one with purple hair keep attaching to me?" Ha, yeah, I don't remember what being bored is like. I just release Vohlana among the elves and watch the chaos ensue.)
So, here I be, writing approximately a chapter a week between two stories. I don't know exactly how long either one is going to be, but I'll bet, knowing me, they'll both end up around 150k words, too. So strap in folks, it'll be a few years. T.T
I'm sorry for that. I'm a very slow writer. I've got kids, pets, partner, health issues, and a big in-law family. Some writers sit down and just make 2,000 words appear in a flash. I envy those writers SO much. I have so many stories in my head. I want to get them all out now. But, if I get 200 words out in a day, I'm so proud of myself. I try to write every day, even if it's not directly to my stories. On occasion, those little tidbits make it into my stories and save me a lot of time describing a scenery or something. But, alas, I am slow. I spend so much time thinking about the scene playing in my head and how to describe it that by the time I think "Oh, I should be writing this down!" it fades from my mind like a desert cloud and I am left so frustrated. My thoughts are too fast for my fingers and I lose the words. And just to compound the problem... I edit. I write a sentence and then spend so much time editing the sentence, I could have written a paragraph if I just wouldn't.
I've been learning a lot of new techniques to help, and that was a big reason I started with a story that was kind of an outlier of my other tales. I figured the furries would appreciate ITET and maybe a few others, but for the most part, it was merely experimentation to put the new techniques to practice (and to my surprise, it has exploded with the general audience on other sites). With DT and R&D, I now have the techniques that worked in place as best as I can. I have outlines and summaries and I've planned most things out ahead of time rather than waiting for inspiration along the way. There's still plenty of space for discovery (like this chapter of DT), but that gives me a dirt road to pave over and that saves a lot of time. I don't have much buffer. I tend to get lazy with too much of a buffer. Knowing that people are waiting helps keep me motivated. But, it is a slow process. I'm grateful for those with the patience to stick with me through it. I haven't unlocked warp drive, yet, but at least I've made it past invention of the wheel so things should move along a little more quickly than they used to.
I hope you all enjoy this journey with me! You'll be stuck with me awhile....
Tomorrow on "The Rat and the Dragon," Cylthan is in trouble. Entirely at Roan's mercy, she will learn the meaning of fear... and we will learn that Roan is a dick because the Council is led by devils.
After this chapter, it will be a rocky uphill for these two, but it will go uphill from now on. They will have moments of weakness and selfishness and fits of rage, but they'll figure it out, and hopefully before Maleic finds out where she is... oh, uhhhh, oops...
There may be some discrepancies in the timeline from earlier, but I'll deal with it later. Also remember that it takes news forever to move around in this world when you live next door to bumfuck and nowhere. It'll all work out.
If you didn't see it last time- or you were waiting- definitely check out the song "The Devil You Know" by Blues Seraceno. It's the vibe for this chapter. I had that and "No Enemies" by Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello on loop almost the whole chapter.
Hope you guys enjoy it!
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