Wayzgoose: Blog

I suppose I should have posted a notification and thank you to all the readers and fans of Deb Riley in Municipal Blondes yesterday when the last three chapters posted. Sorry, I forgot!

So, thank you for all the kind comments, email, and votes. I really enjoy writing from Deb's perspective-a very different voice from my other works either as Wayzgoose or aroslav.

You might have noticed that in the chapters released yesterday, a new character appeared: Teresia. "Who the hell is that?" you might ask. Well, she will be properly introduced in the Dag Hamar mystery, For Mayhem or Madness that I plan to start rewriting this fall. But before I wrote For Blood or Money (November 2006), I wrote a short story called "A Dangerous Woman." That story is strictly about Dag and Teresia and I've decided to post it here on Tuesday. It's a short, just 2800 words, so I won't bother turning on scoring. Hope you enjoy meeting Dag's cousin.

And what comes next?

This week I'm starting rewriting the long-delayed sequel to MB, Stocks and Blondes. I have a rough draft that I compiled back in January of 2007. Obviously, times have changed in the intervening twelve years and the story needs to be updated. And I've learned a little about writing in that time, so I hope to improve that first draft significantly. Maybe that will make up for what I've forgotten about computer security!

And as one final note, you can download the pre-release eBooks for Municipal Blondes, Wild Woods, and aroslav's Double Time by contributing $5 per book to my PayPal account. Just be sure to include the email address to which you'd like the download link sent and the name of the book you are donating toward.

And why isn't the link included in this blog post? Because the post wouldn't show up on the front page of SOL then. You can find the PayPal link in the end notes of any of those stories.

Now I'm going to take a look at the old manuscript and get it ready to type. See you back here soon!

I've been informed and checked out that there was a posting error in Chapters 20-22 of Municipal Blondes. I've resubmitted the corrected chapters. The best I can tell is that it was Chapter 20 that I screwed up, so when the chapters are reposted, that's the one you should probably go back and read. The correct chapters are:
20: Pampered, spoiled, and searched
21: Facing the bitch
22: On the run... again
Sorry for the mess-up and confusion!

Actually, it's just an embarrassment. I can't remember posting anything under either the name Wayzgoose or aroslav that had so freakin' many typos and errors in it! I thought this story had been proofread.

This week, I received the printed proof copy of Municipal Blondes and opened it up. I started marking errors on the page that comes before the copyright page! So far, over a hundred typos and I'm only two-thirds of the way through the book. What an embarrassment!

Under normal circumstances, I consider what I post on SOL to be a draft of the final version. Only rarely do I do more than correct an occasional spelling or really blatant error. I save the fine-tuning for the version that goes to press. I'm going to make an exception in this instance. Sometime in the next two weeks or so, I'll post a clean revision of the whole story. I just can't stand to have something so riddled with errors out there with my name on it. Even a pseudonym.

That being said, I'm having a great time getting Municipal Blondes and Wild Woods ready for official release to the public on June 23. They will be joined by Aroslav's Double Time, book 2 of "The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins." As usual, they'll be offered to my readers here on SOL the week before they hit Amazon or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

I could use your input! I'm almost ready to start the rewrite of the next sequel and am struggling with fine tuning the title. In this story, Deb Riley will be back undercover and in disguise, both as a fortyish woman with a porn connection and as the young producer who gets in trouble at the Adult Entertainment Expo. She'll be fighting for her life when the villains discover she is not who she said she was.

So, should this be called:
Stocks and Blondes
Stocks and Bondage
Stocks and Blondage

Or do you have something even better that maintains the theme of money, computers, and the secret life of blondes? Remember, this is a no-sex story, even though it deals with the porn industry and some very creative ways that people in Seattle get around prostitution laws. I have a vision of at least two more Deb Riley stories after this one.

I'm currently in the Seattle area visiting friends and family. Honoring the mother of my daughter today. I'll be leaving to head back to Idaho on Thursday and then returning for the release party the third week of June. Lots of excitement! See you around.

I received a number of notes from readers who weren't happy that Dag's life ended with so many threads not tidily wrapped up in For Blood or Money. Kind of like real life. But back when I wrote the story, I didn't intend for it to end there. In fact, I wrote two more sequels that I never released.

Today, I'm releasing the first chapters of Municipal Blondes. When I originally wrote Dag's story, I thought the real series would be about Deb Riley. Now you can find out for yourself if I was toking back long before it was legal.

Municipal Blondes is on a posting schedule of two chapters every three days until the end of May. The chapters are a little shorter than my standard so I'm putting up two at a time. Public release will be at the same time as Wild Woods on June 23. I'll try to have the eBook available in advance for you.

Enjoy!

A year ago, I started posting my first story on SOL as Wayzgoose. (I have 34 stories on SOL as aroslav.) City Limits was well-received, even though it wasn't a sex story. (That's the difference between Wayzgoose and aroslav.) It was released publicly in June last year and has done well. But many people have asked, 'Is that all?' No. It was never intended to be all. Certain significant story threads were left open specifically so the second season could start. That season has begun today with the beginning of Wild Woods.

City Limits was a brand new story but I continued to post three more stories from my backlist. Today, I'm back with Wild Woods-the new sequel to City Limits.

In City Limits, Gee Evars wandered into Rosebud Falls just in time to dive into a river to save a toddler from drowning-and to lose his memory. City Limits is mostly about a man struggling to understand his identity. Are we nothing more than the random collection of our memories or is there something innately inside us that makes us who we are? Gee's personal struggle is played out against a backdrop of a power struggle in Rosebud Falls in which he inadvertently becomes a major player as the City Champion and fiancé of a Family heiress.

In Wild Woods, Gee is back in the aftermath of the election that expanded the city limits. His love of the Forest has expanded his role as City Champion and he must provide leadership for the enthusiastic teens who tore down the fence between the well-maintained and productive Forest and the aptly named Wild Woods. The city still needs to resolve some issues. Evidence points to someone having used the Wild Woods and its lethal nuts to run drugs and child trafficking. The answers to the city's questions lie in the densely overgrown Wild Woods. Who knows what else is hidden there?

Despite the outcome of the election, the power struggle in Rosebud Falls continues. Each player, of course, claims to be the one supporting the city and its denizens, and Gee must walk a cautious path between the religious, political, Family, and corporate powers in play, while striving urgently to save the trees, the children, and the city. And against this backdrop he continues to search for his own identity.

Welcome to Wild Woods. The chapters are long (8-9,000 words each) and will post on Fridays for fourteen weeks. I hope you enjoy the story!

NOTE: Wild Woods has been fully edited and proofread, but as we move toward publication, we continue to discover minor errors that I'm fixing. If you spot an error, please help me improve the quality of this work by reporting it to me. Your help means a lot!