INtrinSicliValud: Blog

I’ve submitted Chapter 22 of “Aiden and The Ring” for posting. Things heat up between Aiden and Kate. More secrets are revealed and even more complications added to Aiden’s life. On Discord, Chapter 23 is now available to supporters.

Also, as I noted on Discord over the weekend, I’ve completed “Aiden and The Ring.” At 188,857 words in 36 chapters, it’s a big book for me. Thank you all for the kind comments and overall positive feedback on the story. Every one of its characters has come alive for me and you can expect to see them again in either sequels or side-stories.

Once it’s approved, “Aiden and The Ring” will be for sale on Bookapy for those of you who’d like to help my future endeavors and the site. Meanwhile, I’ll step up the posting of free chapters to once a week barring holiday travel or other schedule challenges.

As we enter the summer months, I’m keeping The Yards chugging along on other projects. See Discord for updates on works in progress and to share feedback or simply chat. Writing is a solitary activity and I value every comment and conversation. In addition, on Discord is where my kind Ko-fi supporters receive free access to story sneak peeks, early chapter access, and side-stories.

Not to worry, for non-supporters, all side-stories will eventually find their way to Bookapy. The next one, “The Ring – Discovered,” the sequel to Sierra’s first tale, “The Ring – Before,” will be on Bookapy at the end of the month. A new MC will be coming to supporters in “The Ring – Bargain.” It’ll hit Bookapy at the end of July, summer schedule permitting. And that story’s sequel, “The Ring – Training,” will hit supporters in July, Bookapy in August. Whew.

Oh, and as a final thought. With “Aiden and The Ring” complete, I’ve opened up two commission slots. They fill fast, so first come, first served. See Ko-fi, Discord or drop me an email for more info.

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.