Feathered Hearts milestone · 4:00pm Mar 22nd, 2023
300 likes! Everybody can pick up their helms, red capes, spears, copper shields, and chest wax, as we’ll be marching to the Hot Gates to face down the Persian Army shortly.
300 likes! Everybody can pick up their helms, red capes, spears, copper shields, and chest wax, as we’ll be marching to the Hot Gates to face down the Persian Army shortly.
I’m giving it enough time to finish prereads and a couple more editing passes, as well as making a T-rated version once I’m satisfied with the M-rated one. The title is simply Reunions for now, unless I find something better. Meanwhile, the second half of the previously enormous chapter I broke off from it is now approaching 11k words. I’ll aim to have it draft complete this weekend, and launch it a week after the first half. So you’ll get a two C&C chapters in (relatively) quick
Apologies for not having the chapter out this past weekend as I hoped. Unfortunately, work picked up big time last week, requiring me to work extra hours, and the new chapter(s) of C&C I was working with fell by the wayside for a bit while I concentrated on my day job. It might not be letting up much either given we’re trying to hit an end-of-month deadline here, so my writing efforts are likely to suffer a bit. But, gotta pay the bills.
No, not Marco’s spear thanks to the fertility-potion-spiked cider poisoning. I mean the latest chapter of Continuation and Chronicles.
Hey, folks. Just a quick note (okay, not-so-quick) to let everyone know that the next chapter of Midnight Rising launches this evening, following one more editing pass. Prereader response is generally good so far, though I’m still waiting on two at this point. And I’m already 8000 words into my next writing assignment, which is a new chapter of Feathered Hearts - Continuation and Chronicles.
3 out of 5 are in with a 4th in progress. And so far they’re quite positive, though I did end up having to excise an 800-word sequence towards the end when at least one prereader objected. I decided after sleeping on it that they were right and it was indeed over the line. That’s why writers need prereaders, folks—to save you from yourself.
It’s with prereaders and currently weighing in at almost exactly 10k words—and that’s only after I decided to remove the trailing 4500 words to save for the next chapter. Yeah, it was getting too big too quickly, but at least writing the chapter following won’t take as long.
Because I’m ill. I started getting sick last Monday and by Wednesday I was down hard with a severe cold. Not COVID, and not the flu, but maybe it was that RSV thing that’s been going around. I’ve only been slowly getting better, taking two and a half sick days off from work, but sleeping has been an apnea-filled adventure at times with my nose so stopped up, and my energy has been very low. As a result, despite all the time off, I haven’t been writing much.
Well, here I am at the office, though all I’m really doing right now is holding down the fort. There’s nobody else here but a custodian right now, which is fine with me. A nice quiet building with no work to do gives me the chance to write with no distractions. Thus, I can now report that the next chapter of Feathered Hearts - Eros is draft complete except for its initial editing pass.
But Feathered Hearts - Eros is on deck, as it’s the most overdue of all my active stories for a new chapter.
As promised to certain readers who aren’t interested in clop, all R-rated and M-rated chapters of Feathered Hearts - Continuation and Chronicles will be getting T-rated equivalents from here on out. That includes the first M-rated chapter I posted, which was Part 29. Its T-rated counterpart will be published this evening.
Because you’re going to get climactic chapter 31 of the story in just two days after today’s chapter 30. I considered holding it for Xmas, but in the end, it’s just about ready, so with chapter 30 fresh in everyone’s mind and readers (hopefully) eager to see what happens next, it’s on the way and will launch Tuesday night. I will also attempt to have the promised T-rated chapter 29 posted that night as well.
Spoilers for chapter 30 ahead, so don’t read this until you’ve read that.
The climactic Battle of Lake Languid chapter has reached 21,000 words at this point, and given I can see the entire thing needing another 5,000 or more words before it’s finished, it’s reached the point where I have to break it up. So you’re going to be getting two chapters instead of one, in what should be reasonably quick succession.
With my turkey week break over (except that my family doesn’t do Turkey for thanksgiving dinner due to it not agreeing with certain palates), it’s back to work at the office and back to work writing, though I didn’t stop the latter during my week off. C&C chapter 30 is well underway, and I also gave the newly released M-rated chapters 10-14 a second and sorely needed editing pass.
Finally into my turkey week vacation and hoping I don’t get called back into work in advance of a weekend software release I’ve got some code in. I’ve got a slew of cleaning and painting chores to do around the house, and for fun, I plan to visit a local pistol and rifle range at least a couple times along the way after spending way too much money at a gun and knife show this past weekend. But I’ve also got two writing tasks in front of me, both having to do with Continuation and
The last set will be chapters 23-25, with another brief but intense M-rated scene in Part 25. I had intended to release it tonight, but I’m going to delay a couple days to allow my prereaders a chance to catch up to it and give myself a break. So be looking for it this weekend.
And you’ll get the next M-rated chapter upgrade on Tuesday, which will be chapter 22: Know Thy Ally. There was a slight change in plans as I elected to include chapter 14: Feathered Heart with yesterday’s initial batch, as I decided it wasn’t fair to make folks wait for the full 5,000 words of Marco’s and Gilda’s first time. Not with the ending of chapter 13 leading right into it.
Chapters 10-13 R-rated/M-rated updates to Continuation and Chronicles are targeted for release on Sunday morning, with the remainder following at the rate of one additional M-rated entry plus any changed preceding chapters (which will typically be R-rated) every two days. As things stand, chapters 10-12 will be R-rated and 13 will be M-rated, though I’ve been tempted to go further with 12 as well.
To make a long story short: Five updated chapters (10-14) are now in prereads, and given the amount of text involved, I’ve given my prereaders a full week to work on them. A sixth updated chapter is nearly done (22: Know Thy Ally) and a seventh is planned (25: Battle of Bale, Part 1) by the time we’re ready to go.
Well, that was a good and productive October, folks. I did everything I said I would, coming out with two new chapters of Feathered Hearts - Continuation and Chronicles, two of Midnight Rising, and one of Nightmare Night. So I’m going to try to keep the momentum going into November.