Adventure! Excitement! Spanish Verbs!

First let me say I’m not done publishing. I’m not done editing, and I’m certainly not done writing. Those things are and will continue to be a huge part of my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Turtleduck KD is here to stay. That said, there’s a new adventure in my life. I’m loving every moment and I think I will never let it go again. No, I’m not talking about Tom Hiddleston.

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Teaching My Muse New Tricks

Now that Fey Touched is out and in the wild, I’ve been turning my attention to the sequel, Grave Touched. Except that my muse has been vehemently resisting doing any kind of writing. Sure, she’s been pinging me with all kinds of ideas for other books (I think we’re up to five or six now) but not Grave Touched. It’s like she’s got a mental block, or maybe I do. Backing up a bit. When I first started writing Fey Touched, I didn’t really have an outline. I had a bunch of ideas for storylines and what I wanted to accomplish, but nothing concrete. I’ve had varied success with actual outlining, but I seem to write my best work without an outline (“pantsing” in writer-speak – writing by the seat of your pants) and I used that method for the first 120k of Fey Touched. It wasn’t until the end that I actually outlined anything. Also, I’ve been complimented on my ability to weave the storylines together. And it’s weird, because that part wasn’t even conscious. It just happened. I swear, I did nothing but go on pure instinct (and quite possibly pure panic as I was coming up on my deadline and had to rewrite the second half in two weeks.) So, naturally, I wanted to go with what worked, but I’m having issues.

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Adventures in Voice Recognition

There’s recently been a change in my life that has required me to spend more time away from the keyboard. I mean, I can sit at the computer, and often have one hand available, but the time where I can quickly and easily type has diminished. After going slightly stir-crazy, I decided I would try using voice recognition software to try and stay at my normal output. I did some research online, but discovered that my computer’s OS had a built-in version. Being a cheapskate, we went with that.

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What Does a Writer Do When Not Writing?

Due to some very busy life circumstances, I haven’t been writing anything besides blog posts for the past few months. Sure, I might technically have time, but mental energy is another question. Knowing that these circumstances are temporary, I’ve given myself permission not to write fiction for the time being. But that doesn’t mean I’m not being creative. Here’s what I’m doing instead… Blog posts are keeping me sane. The act of putting one word after another, of making a coherent argument or narrative in a set length, of finding the right phrasing, is something my soul needs. Blogging takes less mental energy than fiction, and I can knock out a finished piece in a few hours, so it’s staying in my life.

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Fey Touched by Erin Zarro

Chapter 1     JOE   The woman lay in the cemetery on a bed of snow. Snowflakes clung to her blonde hair and sparkled like diamonds. Slivers of moonlight touched her serene face. Her skin was the blue-tinged skin of the Fey. After turning up the heat in my coat, I reached out to touch her and immediately recoiled. She was so cold that I’d gotten a taste of frostbite, the cold stinging my fingers. Was she dead? Pixie, a German Shepherd who was my companion and familiar, whined. She was right to lead me here, her thoughts urgent in my head. She poked the woman with her nose. The woman did not move, did not even twitch. Pixie whined, poking the woman again. There was no rise and fall of her chest. There was nothing. “What do you think, girl?” I asked. Pixie gazed at me with eyes that reflected sympathy and intelligence. The thought – Pixie’s – unfurled in my mind. Not dead. Must save. My heart thudded. I was Fey Touched, a Hunter of her kind. Technically, she was my enemy. I had the right to kill her on sight. Why didn’t I? I didn’t like the Fey as a rule. There were Hunters who believed that all Fey were evil and must die. I was open to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, they were wrong. Maybe some of them weren’t evil. That even without mana – a soul – they could be good. Maybe…

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