May | 2026 | Seething Apathy

I’ve got several stories that are in the ending stages of getting done, and I need to do something with them. I don’t want to self-publish them because that seems to be the death knell for them. I am considering finishing them up as quickly as possible in between working on Serve Me Now, which is going into a bit of a lull.

Tribal is the leading contender for self-publishing. While it has a good political message, I don’t think it’s going to do well with the readers in general. I think the message might be a little too buried under the fangs and fur of being a werewolf. I already have a cover for it, so it just needs to be finished (now that I know how to end it), line edited and maybe beta read again.

Alien Voices, I think is going to be a better candidate for trad publishing. It can sit well with other books in the genre, and psychopaths are always going to be a go-to in horror. I am doing a line edit on it right now, and has already been looked over.

The aforementioned Serve Me Now is making me pull my hair out right now. I feel like the character is doing one of three things:

Obsessing over her pregnancy scare.
Eating
Getting photographed

I need to think about other things she can be doing. I should write the scene in Victoria’s Secret, and maybe start the weight gain notice there, which would fuel her obsessing over her pregnancy scare…which might make her late on her period…which would cause her to stress eat…which is a good way to go with these things. Now, all I have to do is keep conscious enough to write all of this down.

My problem with this is that I am obsessing over the timeline. I don’t want this to be too fast. She’s not going to blow up as fast as a party balloon. She’s not going to really notice anything until it’s too late. I really wish I had more time to plan it out, but I need to get this done fast while I know there’s at leaat one agent interested in this.

Well – I just need to get things back on track, and thankfully I have a three-day weekend to do that in. Maybe I can do a little more research into weight gain. I did learn that it takes 10 pounds gained to be noticeable in the face. I now have a benchmark. I just need to look up how quickly weight can be gained.

Just – between me and you…I am not liking having to rush through this. I don’t think it’s going to be done in two months. Maybe three if I put my nose to the grindstone. I just wish I had more time to do an outline, build the timeline and do a little more poking around before starting. Oh, well. I’ve got to roll with the punches, I guess.

I think that’s all for now. I should get back to work while the plumber is gone. Yes, on top of all of this, I am having issues with the plumbing. At least that can get fixed in a hurry. Ta-ta for now.

Hello – I was on vacation last week so that’s why there was no update. I’m back now and ready to blog for love and money (Just kidding – there’s no money here).

The pitch didn’t got as expected, but it did manage to get something out of it. My first book pitch didn’t work because I didn’t have any comparable titles to it. When I off-handedly told the agent about Serve Me Now, she liked the idea. So now I am working on that and have gotten five chapters down. I’ve set up the name character of Sara, shown her relationship to both food and Oliver. In Chapter Six, I need to get down to the horror aspect of it. I need to ramp up the otherworldliness of the hunger.

The pace I have been writing has been a lot steadier than most other books I have written. I haven’t taken a big day off in a while. Even during the vacation, I still wrote and got 1800 words down. I might finish this one on deadline. Cross your fingers and hope that I didn’t just jinx myself.

This book is going to be an exercise on pacing for me, as much as it is going to be about creating atmosphere. I just hope to get everything right and get it out there to be published.

The Show Must Go On needs to get a couple more tweaks and I’m going to start sending it out. I’m going to give it a year. If it’s not picked up by someone in that time, I am going to self-publish it. I’ve got the cover, I’ve got the notes to make at least the first ten pages better. I just need to do it. This Saturday, I am going to throw myself into getting it done.

There isn’t a whole lot going on this week beyond working on getting stuff together for publishing. I’m feeling pretty good about both books. I hope they entertain someone when they are released into the wild.

Well, I do have to get back to work, so I thought I would drop a quick update. Still writing, still editing and hoping for a release somewhere. Good luck to the rest of you. Ta-ta for now.