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If you're waiting for Chapter 5 of "High School Massacre" which I said I would post a chapter a week, I actually posted it yesterday instead of today. So if you missed it on the Home page, this is to notify you that it's been posted.

To my recollection, I never used the "Consensual" story tag. I never thought it was necessary when the story had consensual sex. But I added it to the story I'm currently posting a chapter a week, "High School Massacre."

The novel is a thriller/murder-mystery. As with all my writing, I don't hold back when describing a scene, whether it be graphic sex or graphic violence. And "High School Massacre" has some really bad people in it. The story tags reflect that - Ma/Fa, Coercion, Consensual, NonConsensual, Rape, Crime, Mystery, Violent.

Tuesday will be the next chapter installment. It's the first chapter with sex and it's not consensual. So I thought back to the story codes I had selected and they made it sound like a very dark story with no consensual sex. That's not the case so I added the "consensual" story tag. Now I know why it's available.

I was notified by a reader that I had an error in my novel "Steele Justice." In the last chapter, I mixed up the names Tiffany and Zhenzhen.

I fixed the problem and uploaded the corrected version to Bookapy and Amazon. Bookapy updates take effect immediately. Not so with Amazon.

So if you had purchased "Steele Justice" and want a corrected copy you'll need to download the ebook again. You can do it now on Bookapy and in a day or two on Amazon.

Sorry. I guess no matter how many times something is edited, errors occur.

In my last blog, I felt as if I were apologizing for posting such a short chapter in "High School Massacre" and I guess I was. I'd like to discuss chapter length here.

I read mostly thrillers and that genre typically has short chapters. Very short to be exact. I've been reading a lot of David Baldacci novels and his chapters are 2-3 pages long (paperback). And I believe he starts a new chapter for no other reason than he reached his 3-page "limit." I believe that's the wrong reason to end a chapter. But I'm currently reading a Lee Child novel (Jack Reacher) and he does it as well.

Thrillers are page turners and it's good to end a chapter with the reader anxious to start the next chapter (turn the page) to find out what's going to happen. Not cliffhangers, although they have a place too. So it's not necessarily a life threatening moment (cliffhanger) but a "OMG! What's going to happen next?"

With a novel, that's not a problem. You simply turn the page and start a new chapter. As an aside, as a reader I prefer reading short chapters so I can stop when I want without trudging through the end of a long chapter. Like when it's time to have dinner or go to sleep.

But SOL has issues with short chapters.

First, if the story isn't completely posted yet, like "High School Massacre" currently, you can't just "turn the page" to the next chapter. It's not there. But that's a short-term problem because some day it will be there.

The second issue is very specific to SOL. People with free memberships only get so many downloads each day. So whether the chapter is 5K or 50K it counts as one download. There's nothing I can do about that.

As I said in my previous blog entry, I don't take the SOL constraints in account when I write a novel. If I believe the chapter should end, no matter the length, I end it.

I actually had the opposite problem in my novel "Sexual Awakening." My chapters are typically 1,500-3,500 words. "Sexual Awakening" has a chapter over 6,000 words. When I was finishing it I found a place about halfway through where I could split it into two chapters. It was actually one of those "OMG! What's going to happen next" moments. But I felt it was an artificial chapter break so I left it as one large chapter.

The last thing I want to mention is that I write very succinctly. I use few words to tell the story. In fact, when I'm in editing mode, I have to force myself to add things like description. Pay attention to stories you read. As an author I can't help but do that. Even with the traditionally published novels like the Baldacci ones I'm reading, he tells the reader the same thing over and over again. That takes a lot of words. So does enormous amounts of description. So don't think a long chapter automatically means it's giving you more story than a short chapter.

Okay, for someone who likes short chapters I sure wrote a long blog.

I said I would post a chapter a week until the entire novel (High School Massacre) was posted. Since I posted Chapter 1 on a Tuesday, I posted Chapter 2 on a Tuesday as well. However, I posted Chapter 3 today and it's Thursday. Why?

When I write a novel, I don't take word count into consideration when writing chapters. If the chapter is real short, so what? All you have to do is turn the page to start the next chapter. However, that's not true on SOL if the next chapter isn't yet posted.

Chapter 3 of "High School Massacre" is real short. It's an important chapter though, introducing characters and something major in the plot. I was going to post it on Tuesday and also post Chapter 4 at the same time. But I thought I might as well post Chapter 3 early rather than bundle chapters 3 and 4 together.

So be forewarned - Chapter 3 is short.