INtrinSicliValud: Blog

I’ve submitted Chapter 21 of “Aiden and the Ring” for posting. I’m about to crank up the heat a bit more. Aiden’s best friend, Dan, has an intriguing proposal for him. If you think it’s gonna be straightforward, you haven’t been reading this story. Once again, as a humble thank you to my supporters, Chapter 22 is also available on my Discord server.

As regards the overall story…. I completed the rewrite of “Aiden and the Ring” last week. Note to self: never, ever post before finishing a damned story. Incredible pressure released over here in the yards. There are thirty-six chapters plus a short epilogue. In the end, I hacked out several spurious events dealing with lesser characters. Those would be better served with their own side-stories. Supporters can expect to read those later this summer. Because, damn it, I love all my characters. Of course, for everyone else, they’ll also be available on Bookapy.

There’s still work to be done on the story, so posting will remain at one chapter a fortnight, though I hope to get a complete edition on Bookapy by the end of the month. Once it goes live, I’ll push to a chapter/week, schedule permitting.

What’s on that schedule? Well, the Yards are full of projects. Now that Aiden’s done, while I’ve taken last month’s votes to heart, I’m focusing on bringing another character’s story to life. And I need to focus on rewriting the rest of the “The Immortal.” I’m missing Jim and Mandy something awful. Also, as of this morning, I’ve got thirty-three stories in one stage or another. Plus another thirty-four concepts. Not enough hours in the day!

As always, if you’d like to know more about my scribbling, or wish to chat about anything, I’m very active on Discord. While writing, I’m on almost every day. See my profile for invite link.

I’ve submitted Chapter 20 of “Aiden and the Ring” for posting. After Jimmy’s interactive party experience, Aiden and Gina grow closer. Chapter 21 is now available to Supporters on my Discord server.

In addition, you’ll soon find “The Ring – Before,” a short side-story beginning the tale of the previous owner of the ring, Sierra, a rather precocious young lady, on Bookapy. Similarly, “Mi Finds a Home” unveils the very beginning of the Fae’s quest after leaving Jim’s home in “The Immortal.” It will also now be available on Bookapy. In the future, supporters can expect free sequels and several other side-stories that round out “The Ring Saga” on Discord; they’ll become available to everyone on Bookapy thirty days later.

In the yards, I’ve been laser-focused on “Aiden and the Ring.” The rewrites are looking much better and I’m hopeful to get the entire story completed (knock wood) by the end of June. Shortly after, I’d like to see the whole book (c.200k words) for sale on Bookapy. No worries, posting of free chapters will continue apace.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Behind the scenes, after traveling along several wheels of pain, I’ve built a website. Today I cast it to the fickle winds of the interwebz tubes. As such, I’ve updated my profile and SOL page with the address.

The new site has links to all the places, including my Discord server to chat, Ko-Fi to support my feeble scrawling efforts, SOL to find those muse-driven scrawls, and Bookapy to support both me and SOL. In addition, I’ve included commissions info for those seeking a more personalized experience. So one location “to rule them all” as it were.

At this point, I won’t be posting anything on it that’s not available here on SOL or for sale on Bookapy. Indeed, as I’ve noted, links on the site point here.

However, as “The Ring Saga” and “The Immortal” worlds expand, I expect to host those stories on my website besides here on SOL, but time will tell. This is all quite new to me. Oh, and there’s no blog either, since I use Discord daily, sometimes hourly, and will still post here on occasion.

I’ve submitted Chapter 19 for posting. Aiden and Mrs. Davis attend a birthday party. How cute.

In response to a Discord query from a reader about the update process, I pushed out the following:

“And just to give everyone an idea of scope when I talk about the upgrades to “Aiden and the Ring,” here’s what I mean. My earliest draft had 104k words. It is now at 170k words and I’ve just completed the rewrite of Chapter 23 of an estimated 43 chapters. So mo’ better wordz, but it takes time.”

Considering “The Immortal” is in worse condition, I think we can all agree rewriting both was melting my brain. I’ve learned my lesson—only post the first chapter when the last chapter is formatted for SOL, i.e. ready to go. My other stories used that process.

The bottom line is that I’ve slow-rolled everything but the short side stories for Supporters and commissions to focus on Aiden.

Stay tuned.

Nowadays I’m far more active on Discord, but I’ll try to synopsize on SOL as time permits.

Let’s see, I’ve been busy since I returned from vacation. Now that I’ve paused “The Immortal,” I’ve been focusing on Aiden’s little adventures, and things are moving along nicely. After updating two chapters, they became three. Why? Because when I wrote this damned thing, I didn’t know squat about pacing, chapter structure, or any technical aspects of displaying the written word. On the flip side, as I scour future chapters, I will gut or eliminate many of them. Anyway, Chapter 19 will be posted here next week. Concurrently, supporters will gain access to Chapter 20 in the Supporter Area on Discord.

Along with updating “Aiden and the Ring,” I’ve had some flex time to continue drafting the first story for a new character that I mentioned in my last blog. Earlier this week, I completed the structure and polished all the character/location details. More details are available for supporters on Discord.

Over the weekend, I exercised my darker side and wrote a filthy, naughty, personalized story for a supporter. Lots of great fun working on something that would get slaughtered here by trolls. But the reader loves it as does their SO, so we’re all happy.

Oh, and “On My Own Terms” should be available on Bookapy shortly. It’s the first in a series chronicling the game in which reformed (sorta) slut Naomi and her uber-boss Ryan find themselves. He thinks he’s making the rules, but we know better, don’t we? It’s a fun little story and I appreciate those of you who toss a couple of bucks to add it to your collection. Since the basement where I write was getting a bit too soupy, I had to buy a dehumidifier. So every doubloon helps.

Once again, thanks for all the feedback! Especially those of you who pop in and drop a note on Discord. You don’t have to be a supporter! I’ve got it open while I write, so it's wonderful to have a chat or just answer questions about upcoming titles, writing, or my processes. Don’t be shy.