Writing Update: 31st October 2014

Sleeping World

A series of stories set in two worlds - one Earth and the other a world of magic that's been taken over by a cruel dictator. On the night of her sixteenth birthday Layla wakes up in this world and has to learn how to live there, while also keeping her life together on Earth.

Book 1: the first night. This is when Layla finds out where she is, why she's been summoned, and, at this point, still doesn't know that she'll be waking up in the morning to find that she has to live two conflicting lives.

Book 2: the first morning. We explore what Layla's life was like before she was summoned and learn of her fears for the future.

Book 3: from Josh's point of view – in this book we learn about the other side, as Josh is someone who was summoned by the cruel dictator.

Book 4: as yet unknown.

$25 for each book (aiming for between 25,000 and 30,000 words each) – anyone who donates to the novella fund will get receive a novella for every $5, so donate $20 and get four novellas, as well as the chance to name a character in one of the novella worlds.

'Ships

Earth is overpopulated and the World Council's smart plan to solve this issue is to send hundreds of girls to other worlds, although everyone knows that the girls probably won't get to where they're headed and if they do the chances of them landing safely are very low. The plan is for this to be three (or more) series of novellas.

Series 1: Alexis' ship. We focus on lesbian Alexis, what it was like for her to leave her long-term girlfriend behind, and how she learns to live on this ship. Other characters may also get their own books if there's enough interest.

Series 2: Erica's ship. We focus on asexual Erica, who's leaving behind a world that didn't understand her and feels a sense of relief at starting again, even though she's also scared of what the future might hold. As with Alexis' series other character may also get their own books.

Series 3: Louise's ship. We focus on straight Louise, who finds herself learning more about who she is on the ship than she could have when she was on Earth and accepts that they might never find a home that isn't the ship. As with Alexis' and Erica's series other character may also get their own books.

$25 for each book, with the current plan being for three books in each series, although this is likely to increase (aiming for between 25,000 and 30,000 words each) – anyone who donates to the novella fund will get receive a novella for every $5, so donate $20 and get four novellas, as well as the chance to name a character in one of the novella worlds.

Demon Assassins

The demons are a race from another world and they found they cannot breed with each other, so they have to come up with something else. When they create the book, which is used by people from other races (including the humans of Earth) to summon demons to do their bidding, the plan is for it to be a short term solution, but it isn't.

Book 1: Sarah summoned a demon and now has to live with the consequences.

Book 2: Rebecca looked out of the window at the wrong time, saw a demon, and is now being watched to make certain she doesn't do something stupid.

Book 3: Bethany's brother was stupid enough to summon a demon to get his revenge and she finds herself in a difficult position, because she either becomes the demon's companion or he will kill her brother.

Book 4: Hunter never wanted to be in the book, but he didn't have a choice, and now he knows he has to find a companion that he doesn't really want.

Book 5: as yet unknown

Book 6: as yet unknown

$25 for each book, with the plan being to write the first six and then cycle round the characters again (aiming for between 25,000 and 30,000 words each) – anyone who donates to the novella fund will get receive a novella for every $5, so donate $20 and get four novellas, as well as the chance to name a character in one of the novella worlds.

Missing

Isabelle steps through the door to her bedroom and finds herself on another world. This world just happens to be Taithmarin. Emily is the one left behind and she doesn't know what happened to her baby sister. All she knows is that she's determined to find her. I have no idea how long this series is going to be, but the stories will be between 25,000 and 30,000 words each, focusing on each of the two characters in turn.

Like with all of the other novellas I'm looking for $25 for each of them and anyone who donates to the novella fund will get receive a novella for every $5, so donate $20 and get four novellas, as well as the chance to name a character in one of the novella worlds.

Bastien's Story

Bastien is a vampire and he's been looking for the woman he loved for a very long time. The only problem is that when he finally finds her he realises he might actually be falling in love with someone else. 5,000 words of the first story are already written, so I'm looking for $20 for that and $25 for the next two, as this was planned to be a trilogy.

West Sun Rising

Holly is the owner of a dirigible who trades is things that aren't something you could call legal. Ginger is an assassin. When the two of them meet sparks fly.

The plan is for there to be at least six books and these are going to be between 60,000 and 80,000 words, so I'm looking for $50 for each of them.

Patreon Update

I have no patrons at Patreon, so I'm thinking of shutting it down. If I was making a little income from it I would leave it as it is, but I don't see the point in expending the extra energy, of which I have so little at the moment, on something that's not helping me towards earning money from my fiction. At the moment I'm barely going on my website - all I'm doing is posting Case, before moving onto something else, so I need to change that, because I'm certain I missed a raffle. That doesn't really matter, because no one's entering them and no one seems to be reading at the website, so I really do need to think about exactly what I'm doing with that. Finishing stories, obviously, is the most important thing, but it's hard to do that when I get so few comments. With my ghostwriting I get input, people tell me they like what I write, which makes it easier for me to focus on that... and it does help that I'm getting paid for it as well.

Being able to make $1200 from my original fiction is now the thing I'm aiming for and to do that I think I'm going to put the novellas at the top of my list, so I can put them online (although I'm still searching for an easier way of doing that, because I don't want to ring the IRS to get an EIN due to my phone phobia), as well as finishing the stories I've started posting, so I can start publishing them as well. What I need is more time, which I won't be getting until 2015 I think, when we're in the annex, because then, I hope, I'll be able to sort everything out better than I have now. The plan is to buy some things that will help me stay organised - like a nice white board for me to write down everything I'm working on.