Tag Archives: site news

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A Rather Overdue Message

I should have posted something about this last month, but I had at first hoped that this was a fleeting thing, and then I hoped that things would settle, but as it has lingered and nothing has settled…

It would seem that right now I am unable to write. This is due, in part, to the chaos that my life has become, almost completely blocking out any time I might have had for writing, but more to the lack of inspiration that has come with that block.

I have been trying to reread and make edits to some things when I have spare time, but writing has been impossible, and I haven’t done anything new in about two weeks, and before that, it was rather scattered and obviously nothing has been posted to the site.

So… I don’t know when or if I’ll be posting anything new to the site as I haven’t made any progress towards a postable serial nor do I even have little themed snippets. I’ve got nothing.

*sigh*

I really would like to be writing, and I am trying to get back to that, but I do not know when it will happen, and I doubt any publishing will happen for even longer than that.

Sorry.

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Introducing Themed Snippets

I still haven’t quite gotten organized enough to have a new serial up and running.

I have a plan there, but I still need some time, and it would be better if I could find the ending, so in the meanwhile, I thought it best to continue the trend of sharing some writing every day that I started back up when I did Nano.

So I thought: what about a short snippet in Kabobble’s Choice every day?

These won’t necessarily be connected, though they will follow a daily theme, and they can be from any story I’ve written or am writing.

Here’s the schedule I’m thinking of:

Sunday Silly – something lighthearted and funny
Monday Mayhem & Mystery – something from a case or some action, it depends
Tuesday Truffles – I’m thinking the chocolate type of truffles… that is, sweet moments
Wednesday Wardrobe – scenes that open up a character’s closet and their fashion sense (I see a lot of appearances from Effie here)
Thursday Travel – scenes involving talk of travel, the journey, or the aftermath
Friday Foibles – characters make mistakes, and they have to try and make up for them
Saturday Songs – something inspired by a song or a song brings up the scene when I hear it

Today I will start it off with an older prompted piece that falls under Sunday Silly, An Excellent Throw Rug.

If anyone has something they’d like to see or other suggestions, feel free to comment and let me know.

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It’s November, and That Means…

So I know I have yet to organize a new serial. I haven’t finished or fixed the issues with Even Better than Dreams or The Squirrel Prince.

I also haven’t been as good about adding to the other categories as I said I would be. I am not very good at nonfiction, which was why I’d decided to promise only the serial in the first place.

I apologize.

I do have a bit of good news, though. Well, depending on one’s opinion, of course, but it is November. That is National Novel Writing Month.

I have participated in Nano since 2009, won every year since that first, and I may have mentioned that my first published novel was the one I wrote for Nano in 2010.

Last year, I posted the parts of the story I was writing to my livejournal as I wrote it, but this year, I will be posting them here. I don’t have a sequel, and you will be seeing the roughest of rough drafts as I’ll just be grabbing the closest stopping point at the end of my writing day and posting it.

Still, since I don’t have a sequel, maybe this is worth enjoying.

Maybe not.

I’m creating a new section of the site for it, and the first few scenes will be here. I’ve got no art for this, not even a title, as I am only eight hundred words in and still figuring things out as I go along, but I am crazy enough to share the journey, so here goes.

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An Update and a New Schedule

I have to apologize to anyone who has come to the site looking for new stuff, as I haven’t been very good at updating lately.

The cover artist is currently out of town, and my plan of adding The Squirrel Prince as the new serial has hit a few snags. One: it lacks a nice cover. I’ve got the picture I drew that inspired the prompt that launched it, but I am, admittedly, not an artist. I dabble in drawing, usually moody pencil sketches or pretty dresses, but I’m not an artist. Two: I got stuck. Again. I had gone through, edited the story, wrote new scenes, and made progress to the tune of about ten thousand words, and then I stalled again. After what happened with Even Better than Dreams, I don’t want to put up anything that’s not complete or near complete. It does help me to have a post deadline to make, but it hurts, too, and I don’t know at this point if I can salvage Even Better than Dreams so I don’t want to risk that again.

Third: I’ve been sucked into a new story that I find extremely compelling. Fracture and Recall have almost all of my attention at the moment, and that’s not fair to anything I might post, either.

I also realize I’ve neglected all other sections of my website for far too long. That said, I’ve decided to try a weekly schedule where I have a day (or two) for each of these sections: Kabobbles on Writing, Kabobbles on Art, Kabobbles Sing Along, and Kabobbles on Kabobbles. There are only four categories and seven days in a week, so I thought I might double up on some of them. I was thinking of the doubles being in Sing Along and Art, with entries in Kabobble’s Choice to go along with those posts if possible. I’m not sure if I want three days of Sing Along (it was the easiest for me to write about before) or not, but I do think I’ll start there again. Sunday Sing Along sounds nice.

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Important News Regarding Serials

I wanted to fix Even Better than Dreams without having to start over from scratch.

I thought I could just add a few more scenes and possibly take some out and that would fix things.

I have found, however, that it won’t. The issues cannot be patched like that. It needs to be redone from start to finish.

I will be removing it from the site, and I do not believe I will put it back up as a serial. I don’t think that the fixes I had in mind would be enjoyable in a serial format. I will release it as a full novel if I manage to get the underlying problems addressed. If not… Well, it may never see the light of day again.

That said… I don’t want to leave the site without a serial, so I thought I’d ask what people might like to see. I’ve got started or completed projects from all my genres that I could post or I can even start something new.

Just tell me what you’d like to see:

A mystery?
A historical?
Scifi?
Fantasy?
A combination?

Here are some stories that I’ve posted bits of from various categories, and I can provide more samples if people are interested. Some of the pieces might not be the best representation of the genre, but they are from longer stories that I would classify in those genres.

Scifi:

http://kabobbles.com/bonded-and-bonding/
http://kabobbles.com/the-squirrel-prince/
http://kabobbles.com/learning-the-lesson/
http://kabobbles.com/proper-meaning/

Suspense:

http://kabobbles.com/just-a-bit-from-a-larger-project/

Mystery:

http://kabobbles.com/another-bit-from-a-different-larger-project/
http://kabobbles.com/dreams-and-false-alarms/
http://kabobbles.com/a-brief-look-into-the-past/
http://kabobbles.com/better-in-person/
http://kabobbles.com/in-order-to-consider-a-sequel/
http://kabobbles.com/the-cat-picks-a-new-case/

Fantasy:

http://kabobbles.com/strange-place-to-make-new-friends/

Historical:

http://kabobbles.com/a-bit-lonely/
Grace’s story: http://kabobbles.com/dreams-were-all-they-gave-for-free/

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Notice Regarding Even Better than Dreams

There are a few things I should mention. Things I meant to mention sooner.

One is a bit… humbling, so you can understand my reluctance to do so, but here is the truth: I have to overhaul Even Better than Dreams. I’m not talking about the sort of thing I would leave to fix when I got it ready to publish. I mean that I have to go back and add some earlier scenes and quite possibly cut or alter others. I realized that it was not working to keep the point of view of the story limited to either Ahreddan or Amnisty. Wade, Mayda, and Rheda at least need scenes. I don’t know about others, but as the story was going into arc three, it is necessary for them to be able to tell what they have been up to.

So I will make sure to include any links to new scenes and remark on deleted ones here on this news post (the serial page, here, should reflect those changes as well) but there will be no new scenes for the story until I have finished going through the story.

In the meantime, I will be adding things to Kabobble’s Choice for people to read if they like. I forgot to mention the prompt-fest I was hosting in honor of the conclusion of Fire and Water’s 239,000 saga, but there is one on-going, and when I get organized, I’ll post those short pieces to Kabobble’s Choice as well.

If you feel like adding to the prompts, comment anywhere/anyway you feel like it (here on this post, on facebook or twitter, or on the prompt page.)

New scenes for Even Better than Dreams:

http://kabobbles.com/reasons-for-others-to-worry/
http://kabobbles.com/a-bit-of-hope-despite-everything/
http://kabobbles.com/almost-relief/
http://kabobbles.com/worries-comfort-and-realizations/
http://kabobbles.com/a-reason-to-smile/

Altered scenes:

http://kabobbles.com/how-much-to-share/

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Want to See Something New in Kabobbles’ Choice?

It has been a while since there was anything new in Kabobble’s Choice.

There is still fiction being written and edited, and I was able to keep up with posting new parts of the Even Better than Dreams serial while I was traveling. There is still work going into print versions of the books and other aspects of releasing new titles as well.

However, there’s been a true lack of short pieces in Kabobble’s Choice.

(Yes, I know, there haven’t been much posts in anything but the serials of late. I’ve got to get back into that, and I will, I promise. There’s plenty of stuff coming for that. I have an overdue post about the New London New Brighton tour that was a part of Inheritance. I have a couple of “From a Character’s Closet” and “Why We Write” pieces that need to be done as well.)

Today, though, I thought I’d reach out to see if anyone has anything they’d like to see.

I promise to keep it under 1,000 words (unless you say you want it longer) to make it easier to find the time to read.

I can pull an excerpt from something and share it based on what people would like to read: a family moment, a romantic one, some angst, etc.

I can write something new for something old, that is to say with characters I’ve written before. This could be an alternative point of view for a scene or something else, any of the above options are available.

I can write something new for something new.

I can add some random lyrics or pictures or quotes for people to pick from if that would help. I’m just interested in doing some shorter pieces that people would like to read.

Prompt away!

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Vacation Alert

So this is probably more of an update that belongs on facebook or twitter, but since I’m in a rush, I’ll do it this way so that it goes to both.

I’m about to depart on vacation.

That means that serial posting may be interrupted over the next few weeks.

I am going to be on the New London New Brighton tour again this year, so if you’ve read Inheritance and want to see what that’s like, I’m hoping to keep a bit of a vacation journal of it, possibly.

We’ll see what happens.

At any rate, normal activity will definitely resume August 21, 2013.

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Celebrate with Kabobbles

We are having a minor party of sorts.

This week, we released a new ebook, The Consultant and the Cat.

We retooled the serial page and the individual serial landing pages to include an index for all of the scenes for each story. The header on each serial entry now links to the index page, and so now they should be easier to navigate.

Since we’re celebrating, we’re going to have a few things to look forward to this weekend:

A Perfect Sunset is close to wrapping up, and so people can soon enjoy the end of that.

We’ll be launching a new science fiction serial, Even Better than Dreams.

And as a bit of a sneak peek, we’ll post part of a possible sequel to The Consultant and the Cat that involves some characters people might recognize from a short story currently in the Kabobble’s Choice section.

We’ll also be taking some time this summer to enjoy the Renaissance Festival. That will probably mean another entry in my series on the clothes I own and am making if not other things.

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Announcing Another Series of Posts

Going to be doing a few new pieces in the Kabobbles on Writing section that I’m calling “Why We Write.” I’m sure I’m not the only one to use that title, but it’s okay. I’m willing to share.

I’m starting those off with a question that’s been bothering me for a while, and we’ll see if I can sort it out by writing about it. That’s the thought behind it, at least.

I’ve done some talking about writing philosophies, but this is a bit more personal, I think.