Edits and Upcoming Releases

Camp NaNo began on Wednesday. I set a moderate goal for 25,000 words after crashing and burning back in April. So far (as of this post, at least) I'm on track to finish.

While I'm jumping headlong into a sequel, I'm knee-deep in edits for Blood Ties #1. The Blood Ties series will likely be at least four 15,000 or so word novellas - maybe longer. They will be Kindle Worlds exclusives like the Duality Trilogy I wrote last year.

I'm hoping to release the first two in fairly quick succession. The fun part is that much of what I'm cutting from the first one fits better in the second. The difficult part is finding the balance between past and present scenes as well as the family parts and Liz's current relationship. 

While I work on that series, I'm also busy plotting the next three novels in the J. Carter & Associates series. 

The order is not yet set in stone, but here's the working theory:

#4 Clear Line of Sight
#5 Double Agent
#6 Life Support

Clear Line of Sight is Marc's chance to shine. When he saves Serena Bradley from a shooter, he uncovers a plot to kill the photographer. Now they have to go underground while Kat and Aidan try to figure out why she's a target. Kat and Aidan are meant to take the backseat after the events of Breaking Point to give them a chance to heal and decide what to do with the bombshells dropped on them.

In Double Agent, Kat finally comes face-to-face with her twin sister. But Miranda Brennan has an ulterior motive...she wants Kat's life. It's one seriously twisted sibling rivalry that I've been planning since Sole Survivor. 

Aidan is lying in a coma in Life Support after a car accident. His wife and infant daughter are missing from the crash site. Then Katherine wakes up in another state in the arms of another man. (Hooked yet?)

With any luck, there will be a new JCA book this spring (2016) with one a year after that. I have a working title and plot for the next novella (a possible fall 2015 release), but the early scenes aren't coming together as well as I had hoped. The working title is Dead on Arrival and it picks up where Blown Away left off.

However, I am working on the cover art for a three-in-one eBook and print edition of the three novellas. It will be the first time the novellas will be available in paper! Yay!

Now, it's back to work I go!

The Oft-Delayed BREAKING POINT

Let's face it - I'm not the most active blogger.

I could say that a resolution for 2015 would involve more blog posts. But I won't.

Why?

Well, the best reason would be for me to write more novels. The other reason would be that I forget to blog and then bam, it's been six months.

Fret not, dear readers. I will still occasionally blog - in the erratic style to which I'm sure you've all become accustom to.

Now, the topic of today's post is the third book in the J. Carter & Associates series. This book has been more of a headache than I anticipated. While writing Fatal Target, my head was chock-full of ideas for Breaking Point. Then I finished Fatal Target and the ideas dried up. Woops.

Honestly, I over-planned for 2014. I think I had six releases planned. Guess how many actually got done? (One. One whole novella.)

This novella, right here.

I was simply burned out and wanted nothing more than to sleep. Then when I wasn't sleeping, I stared at a blank page. Or, even better--worked on anything but Breaking Point. That's how Blood Ties came about (more on that later).

What's wrong with Breaking Point? My last major, complete 50K+ draft was written in 2008. There was no simple way to rework it, given that the previous two books were nearly complete rewrites of previous drafts. There were also two main characters in the draft we have yet to see in the series, who had to be written out. The tone was also lighter in some aspects.

Okay, cut the characters. Done. Well, next problem - how to make this a complete story then? Those characters contributed to some conflict in the third act. So I trashed the third act. You can see where this is going.

The villain remained. How Kat and Aidan met the villain and how Kat ended up taking a swim changed. Two scenes that stayed mostly the same were her abduction and her near-drowning. Even who rescues her changed.

One fun change was the introduction of Gwen DeFlair. We've seen Jesse DeFlair (a creepy cameo in Fatal Target) and we've heard about Patrick and Elektra DeFlair since book one. Gwen is one of my favorites because of her connection to Aidan. Like Kat, she's underestimated because of her gender. She's the child of a powerful figure, who happens to be a sadistic monster. Unlike Kat, she has siblings. She wasn't raised alone - she was protected by her brother. Gwen's the only girl in a sea of brothers and was born and raised in a man's world.

Final cover art!

Gwen plays a big role in Breaking Point. In order to put her in her role, there was another complication - how to get Aidan into trouble and keep him from saving the day.

All I can say is - he's gotta lotta mommy issues.

Thanks to the maze of drafts, health setbacks, and everyday life, I'm proud to finally announce the eBook release date of January 25th, 2015 for Breaking Point. I sincerely think it will be worth the wait. I scrapped a lot of words and reorganized, reedited, and read, then reedited again and rewrote some more in order to make it the exciting book I hope you'll all enjoy reading.

Kat's story takes a backseat as we learn more about Aidan and where he came from - and why he's so determined to protect Kat.

I can't wait for you guys to (finally) read it!

Switching Gears

Earlier I mentioned Blood Ties as one of my diversions. My last blog post mentioned the Duality Trilogy I wrote under the Kindle Worlds imprint. Blood Ties is a saga also set in The Vampire Diaries world. Blood Ties is about the bonds between family. It's the story of the Salvatore family from the 1860s to present day with one major addition - Elizabeth, Stefan's twin sister, and the only person to survive the Battle of Willow Creek and her brothers' bloodlust. Left alone in 1864, devastated by the death of her family, Elizabeth marries to save the family estate. In 2009, Lizzy Salvatore befriends a human historian writing a book on the Battle of Willow Creek while Damon terrorizes their home town and Stefan falls in love with a doppelganger named Elena.

Book One

Over the decades and into centuries, the Salvatore siblings fight and often separate but they're still drawn together by the blood they share.

I've been doing a lot of researching and planning for this series, plus some rough drafts on FanFiction.Net as preparation. It's part historical saga and part romance.

Thicker than Blood is the first part, tracing mainly the 1860s from Katherine's arrival to Elizabeth becoming a vampire, along with modern-day Lizzy's budding relationship with Sam and reuniting with both her brothers in Mystic Falls. I have an arc of three-to-four titles planned. I hope to announce a release date for the first novella soon.