Hannah's Dragonriders

I did write, but ran into a bit of a slog. Writer Brain will need time to come up with a nice new little plot adventure. However, I have Sun stewing on something that will come to a head a few chapters down the road. (Quite literally.)

It's still 400 more words than I had this morning.

Have a snippet:

“Let’s get out of these mountains. And while we do, think of a way those Houses won’t be able to find us. You have been hunting before, right?”

“Yes.” Sun wished he could undo the times they had done anything outside of the Empire. None of those people had deserved their fate.

“So you know what to look for.”

He nodded, thinking hard. “But we only looked during the day. So maybe, if we hide during the day and walk at night, we’d be safer. I can light our way with a flame…”

Finally wrote today. 1k words for Sun.

Also fixed the most of the MailerLite thing, I'm almost done with that. The rest will have to wait after tomorrow, because that's when a newsletter will go out.

Read a comfort book. And solved a tricky problem for work, so it was a good day. Have some Sun:

And because the cold of the ground was still seeping through his bedroll, he simply kept pushing warmth, not heat, warmth, further down, through his bedroll and into the ground. The packed dirt soaked up his warmth, and he pushed even further until he reached solid rock.

When he shoved power into that, something broke inside him, unleashing emotions he didn’t even understand, and he pushed hard. A few heartbeats later, warmth pooled in the cave, and Laisal lifted her head in a swift movement to stare at him.

“No!” she mouthed, and Sun froze, cutting off his power instantly.

He had offended a Priest.

Another day with 400 words - not what I'm aiming for, but it's okay.

You see, I read a romance today that totally shattered me. Autistic MC, lots of assumptions, and of course, a happy ending. But all of it so sweet, so beautiful and heartbreaking, it's truly a piece of art.

So it took me a while to put myself together before I could do anything for Sun. And today's writing wasn't exactly good. But they will start moving any time now.

“Do you know how to send out your awareness, to look at something? Like their power or energy?”

Laisal frowned at him. “I… think I do. I haven’t done that often, at least not very far. I mean, I can see you and your power. Although it’s still very much hidden.”

Sun nodded, not even trying to sort that out. “But you know how to send it out?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now try to keep it open and just let it sense energy from outside of you.”

I surprised myself by writing 1100 words today. And that despite watching a BookFunnel webinar. I didn't fiddle with my store today however. But that's all good. I needed a break from store-fiddling. :)

Even so, taking steps to improve my marketing feels really, really good.

Have some Sun:

Sunrise was spectacular. He actually walked out of the small wood to watch it. First, the sky in the east turned purple and turquoise before the rising sun lit the clouds crossing the mountain range. Sun watched them for a long time, how they crawled across the tops and floated through the valleys, only to thin out and disappear high above him.

It was fascinating, because he didn’t know why they did that.

600 words for Sun tonight, writing through brain fog. But it's more words than I had this morning.

Also ran my Mastermind and had plenty of awesome marketing ideas. As always, the trick is to actually turn them into action.

Still stuck on the store - brain has no capacity for tricky stuff at the moment. I'm hoping for tomorrow, because I really want to share that with you.

Also still in discussions with the cover designer about Zell covers. He shot down my latest idea and I'm feeling rather down about the whole thing. I just want my series to start selling. sigh

Have some Sun. He's not having a good day.

Oh, how he hoped he’d dream of Moon again!

At that moment, he missed Moon’s arm around his shoulder, his hugs, his voice in his ear and mind, and he felt as if his heart would burst with the pain of it all.

Moon had been his other half.

He bowed his head under the grief, doing his best not to fall to his knees and wail.

I need to find a word for those days that feel as if I'm locked in a dark cave or something. No writing. Lots of reading and playing Titan Quest.

In good news, I managed to order the cover for A Wolf's Christmas today, so that's a huge step forward. Should have it next weekend. I'm quite excited about that, because the cover designer has always managed to pick faces that work really well with my characters.

I also set up my video channel on PeerTube, which is the Fediversion of YouTube, just without ads, algorithms and spying on people. It's part of my move away from the TechBro internet, at least much as possible. You can actually subscribe to it! And there is an RSS feed, not that it's worth it for my rare video.

https://makertube.net/c/hannahs_words_and_more/videos

So some stuff happened, just no writing. I'm trying to be okay with that.

Just wrote a few words for Sun because today, I spent my energy and brain power on finishing setting up my new store. Yes, you can now buy books directly from me - well, almost.

It's a store through PayHip, with the fulfillment through BookFunnel. That helps both me with my bookkeeping, and it helps you, because BookFunnel makes it very easy to get your ebook into whatever reading app you use.

Hannah's Book Store

I'm also going through yet another iteration of cover creation for Zell, and I actually made a sketch today to show the layout I have in mind. Find that below.

And well, have all the words I wrote for Sun today. shrug

It took them two nights of walking south, keeping the mountains to their right, until they found a sizable stream that flowed east. They stayed an extra day, washing their clothes and themselves.

Laisal also dug up some thick roots from the ground that she claimed were edible, wrapping them in her spare shirt.

Yesterday (Nov 10th) I didn't write a lot.

First, I had to do an edit that I promised someone on Mastodon. 3k words isn't a lot to work through, but she had specific questions and I wanted to do a good job.

Then I set up this community here, which took quite a bit of energy. It was very easy in the end, thanks to Fax, who was beyond gracious and wonderful.

Finally, I started to write and then remembered that a new book had come out, one I'd been waiting for for months. (Two Thousand Dreams by Jocylyn Drake)

Yes, I stayed up way too late devouring that, so I only wrote about 500 words.

Have a taste of my Wolves:

“I go upstairs,” Alex announced, throwing me another look. If he wanted to be turned tonight, we needed to prepare a little, however, and a first aid kit would be the first thing to grab, along with some old towels that we could toss after we were done. I followed Alex upstairs. He walked a few steps into the hallway before he whirled.

“Give me my wolf. Now.”

“Yes, in a moment. We need a first aid kit.”

He frowned and I watched as he mentally translated the words. “Oh. I… don’t know where… the car. There must be one in the car.”

“Let’s get it.”

“Yes!” He raced down the stairs again, grabbed the car keys from the hook next to the door and was out there in a rush. I hurried after him, with the threats by Luka, it wasn’t safe to let him go outside alone, especially in the dark.

Mark was hot on our heels.

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

“Grabbing a first aid kit,” I answered in just as low a voice.

A happy yell from Alex announced that he had located it, and he climbed out of the car waving a box triumphantly. All of us hurried back into the house, Alex slamming the door shut. Maria sat at the table, staring at us.

So much for doing this quietly.

Status Saturday:

Writing:

A Wolf's Christmas, A Wolf's Hacker, Sun Burns (Winds and Pillars), A Mustang's Dream (new series)

Editing:

Sun Burns (Winds and Pillars)

Released this year:

North Shatters (Winds and Pillars), Earth Splits (Winds and Pillars), Der Ritter von Lar Elien (German Epic Fantasy)

Day 20 of NaNoWriMo, and I feel like I'm done. Didn't write again.

I know what I need to do to finish the story: One more sweet chapter and the epilogue (which will be Christmas Eve). And then I need to go through the thing and sprinkle Christmas stuff all over it. Plus add more emotions and heartbreak just before the showdown.

It's all very doable, but today I went and hibernated again... well, not quite. I sent out an invoice for my proofreading and added a video to my new FediChannel.

So it's not a lost day at all.

Instead of a snippet, would you help me find a better name for the Villain? Can you pick a German name that you'd love to hate?

Day 12 of NaNoWriMo, and I failed. Wrote 60 words. You can read them all below.

Not sure what happened, to be honest. Just couldn't wrap my mind around hurting Mark, although that usually isn't a problem. I hope I feel sufficiently brutal tomorrow. (But tomorrow is also Newsletter Day, and I'll see how much writing I have in me.)

Have Mark. Watch him make a colossal mistake:

I quietly opened the back door and slipped out, pulling it close behind me. The big flashlight I was carrying would work as a club in an emergency.

For a moment, I wondered if I should wake Fred, call her in for backup. I shook my head at myself, she was probably fast asleep and this was most likely nothing.

Day 13 of NaNoWriMo (yes, I'm posting this a tad late, because that day was... intense) and I wrote 1800 words. After writing a 1k blog post and setting up my newsletter. Yeah, that was... intense.

But I finally got mean and hurt Mark, and yes, that scene will probably need some more work to have more impact. I just didn't feel especially cruel...

Have some... Mark snark.

“This is the end of the road for you,” [spoiler] said, wild satisfaction in his voice. Yes, that man was on a power trip.

I didn’t bother answering him. As long as I wasn’t dead, I’d keep fighting. Right now, that meant staying conscious.

Luka returned with two men in his wake. Yes, those were the owners of the body and beer odors. Another classic mistake of a wannabe drug lord, hiring stupid people. I was beginning to hope for an escape, if I could get my body to cooperate.

Guten Morgen.

Here's the promised post with a snippet of what I wrote yesterday. (It is getting harder to find passages that do not contain spoilers... but I doubt that what I'm sharing is a huge spoiler, especially if you read my series.)

Writer Brain also ambushed me again at night, and I have another new series idea, this time Vampires with a twist. Not quite the never-ending series that the Shifters offer, but similar. A bit darker than my usual stuff, maybe, with a romance subplot and happy for now endings.

Yes, I have an ideas folder. I truly need to live a few hundred years to write all the books I want to write. (Does anyone know a friendly vampire or demigod who could grant me a nice extension of my lifetime?)

Have some Wolf:

It was a relief to have Mark sitting next to me. He still looked like hell and he carried himself as if in great pain, but he was alive and, well, going to be fine.

That kiss kept playing out in my memory.

I knew what it meant. Every Wolf girl did.

It was a surprise and yet it wasn’t.

Being with Mark had always been fun and easy. He treated me like an equal, he celebrated my successes and commiserated with me when I messed up. And I did the same for him.

Playing dog for him was just as much fun.