Good morning readers and followers, I know you’re wondering what’s new in my writing. I can’t say I blame you. I’m always curious myself—odd when you think about it. 

I reflected upon my progress in writing book six of the Consortium series with friends the other night. I won’t say much about the plot so far so as not to spoil the surprise when it gets published. But I mentioned that I’m about a third of the way done with writing it and said the following. “It’s funny. I still haven’t written a hot sex scene or any graphic violence yet.”

Sex and Violence

My friends were shocked. As in a chorus, they exclaimed. “What do you mean? Really? You haven’t?”

Up until that moment, I hadn’t thought it to be a problem. But then, based on their reaction, and they have all read my stories, I realized something. My readers and followers expect hot, graphic sex and violence.

Who am I to disappoint?

What did I do?

Well, I went back to the last chapter I had written and wrote a hot sex scene. That chapter was a perfect lead-in to such a scene, so I added it. It’s so long now that I may break it into two chapters during the editing phase. For now, it’s staying right where it is.

As for the graphic violence, don’t worry. That’s coming. 

A Play in Three Acts

They say a good play has three parts, a setup, the conflict, and the follow-through. Well, actually, it can be any number of acts, so long as there are an odd number of them. At least, that’s how I define it. I know that others may have differing opinions.

Mine will be in three acts, and I have a good idea of what each will contain. I’m done with act one and am working on act two.

What’s new in my writing

I am working hard on getting this done. I’m excited to see how the story plays out. Yet, sometimes it is hard to make forward progress when I write. It’s not so much writer’s block as it answers the question: How do I move the story forward and stay consistent?

I ponder the story every day, letting my mind organize my thoughts in the daytime and letting my sleep come up with potential plot lines. That’s correct, my followers. So many of my ideas come to me in the wee hours of the early morning when I am asleep. It’s not so much as dreaming, as it is my mind is thrashing as I hover between awake and asleep. When this happens, I struggle with daytime fatigue. Short daytime naps sometimes help, but I hate having to depend upon them.

Anyway, I’m progressing.

So that’s what’s new in my writing

Distractions

However, in the past month, I experienced lots of distractions. First, I caught a serious cold that migrated into bronchitis. I may have written about that in my previous post. It surprised me it took weeks to get over it. A cold resolves itself in 5 or so days. The bronchitis lingered on and on and on. Damn.

I’m also a member of a book club. Originally, I became the invited guest as the author of the books they covered. They have since moved on to others. However, the group was fun and interesting, so I agreed to stay on and read along with them. Uh, oh!

Doing so reawakened my love of reading. You see, for over a decade, I stopped reading so that I could concentrate on writing and avoid accidentally plagiarizing someone else’s work. This may be a mistake. While the others in the club are still working on the assigned book, ’50 Shades of Grey’, I not only read it but the two follow-up books and moved on to a new series. I am now on my eighth book since then. Oh, Lord, help me!

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