Yes, you read that right. My novel is now available in paperback on Amazon. The ebook should be available closer to the Jan. 29 release date, if you'd rather wait for that edition. 

Blurb: The last time Dan Reilly saw his childhood best friend was when theState Police arrested Rick’s dad for trying to kill Dan and his uncle. After twenty years, Rick Murray has come back to Exeter and brought whispers of the past with him. As childhood memories run headlong into the reality of what happened that summer, both men must adjust to the idea that things weren’t as simple as they seemed back then.

All That Is Necessary explores the collision between past and present, between memory and reality, and between two former friends whose lives changed one summer.


If you decide to try the book, I'd love to know what you think. This is, as you'll discover, just the first in the Exeter series. Feedback that will help me make the rest of the books in the series better is greatly appreciated! 

AN: I'm reposting this fic from February. Why? Well, the song in it (Somewhere Out There, from An American Tail) was a song with special meaning to me as a kid because while it was still popular on the radio, my best friend moved away. We lost touch after a year or two, but I always wondered what happened to him. Every time I heard this song, I would think of him. More than 20 years went by, and I still never knew. So for me, this song was a chance to give the team the happy ending of finally reuniting. Maybe there was a bit of karma involved, because this week he and I reconnected, quite by chance. He also had always wondered what had happened to me. Now we're catching up on almost 25 years and talking about getting together at some point.

Title: Same Bright Star
Rating: G
Word Count: 2143
Genre: Character Study
Pairing: None
Summary: After Vance disbands the team, they are spread around the world. But one thing connects them, even when they're apart. Judgment Day tag. Hiatus spoilers. Winner of the NFA Hope In The Darkness Challenge.
Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. Just playing a bit.

( Same Bright StarCollapse )

I just finished novel revisions!!!! (Yes, that required four exclamation points.)

I have critique group this afternoon, so I'm sure I'll get comments from my critique buddy on things that need fixing, but for the first time since I went from a book set all in 1991 to one that's 1991/present, I have a complete draft I actually feel OK about showing people.

I'm going to try and incorporate crit group comments I've been stockpiling on the early chapters, plus today's, tomorrow morning, then send it to a first group of beta readers tomorrow. Hoping to get feedback on it so I can do more revisions Thanksgiving week when I'm on vacation, then send to the second-round beta readers. Hopefully after that, all I'll need are final edits. *crosses fingers*

(And yes, this does mean I'll probably be getting back to various fanfic projects soon.)

Fortunately, my area's on the outer edge of Sandy, so the weather hasn't been nearly as bad as in some other places. It has thrown a wrench in my crazy Halloween deadline schedule, though. :( So, here's a brief writing update:

Patience: This NCIS WIP is due for an NFA challenge on Halloween, so it's my No. 1 priority. I'm two chapters away from being done writing it, four away from being done posting it. I'm not quite as happy with it as I'd hoped, but I'm hoping that's mostly me being overly picky. :P

All That Is Necessary: The novel that would not end. :P I'm working my way through for revisions. I was trying to finish for Halloween, but Sandy took care of that. I want to get it out to betas before Election Day, though, so pushing ahead on that. (I'm still trying to find two more people to beta, so if you're interested and are OK with a gay protagonist, please let me know.)

Work writing: I've got a freelance piece and a big feature package for my paper that really need to get done this week, too. Really have to dig in on those in the next two days.

Other fanfic: I've got three major projects in mind. One is a Big Bang for Covert Affairs. Jai-Auggie pre-series friendship fic. That's got to be drafted by January and will post in April. Another is partially Kyrie's fault and is a triple crossover - NCIS, NCIS:LA and Hawaii 5-0. Gen, case fic, but with all the banter of the three shows, so there will be lots of things that can be read shippily if you want. That's just for me, so it's going to get fit in with my other projects. Finally, I think I'm finally getting to a place where I can write Breathe again, so at some point I'd like to tackle the post-Life Ziva-centric story I promised that addresses Somalia. Again, no deadline on that one so not sure what the timeframe is on it.

Other original fic: I want to get back into the Story Cubes Challenge again and start posting those snippets, especially since I finally have a FictionPress account (jenniecoughlin). I also have some stories in mind for a second Stories From Exeter collection. Working title is "The Way We Were" and the stories are looking at some of the couples in Exeter and how they came to be couples.

If you're looking for a story spark, this week's Story Cubes Challenge is up at my original fic blog.

If you've never played with Story Cubes, they're dice with images. The challenge (in this case) is to write a story that uses all nine images. It's a fun writing exercise. (Well, I think it's fun. I might just be weird.)

I spent the morning working on cover mockups for the novel since this cold has my brain too fogged for revisions. Please head over and vote for your favorite! (Or tell me they're all blah and I need to go back to the drawing board.)

Inspired by Tejas, I figured I'd do my own "path of a writer" post.

First, I don't ever remember not writing. My mom taught me my alphabet when I was about nine months old using the Boston Globe. She'd sit me on her lap while she read the paper, and to would have me find all the "a"s on a page to keep me occupied. When I learned one letter, she'd move on to the next. After all the lowercase ones, she started teaching me the capital letters.

What I do remember is winning my first prize for writing in second grade. I don't remember what I wrote, but I got free passes to Edaville Railroad at Christmastime, and I remember that. (My mom remembers that she didn't think it was one of my better writing examples from then.)

( Keep readingCollapse )

Jesse Stern tweeted that Brian Dietzen is playing a role in the pilot he's filming. *cheers* Rumor has it Paul Telfer (who played Damon Werth) also has a role. Please let a network pick this up!

I'm starting to think sanity might finally be returning to my writing life (yay!). Just a quick update on where my various projects are. I'm kind of in limbo this week because my keyboard's R key doesn't work so I can't write anything at home. (Seriously, couldn't it have been Q or Z or X?)

All That Is Necessary (Exeter): Novel is in final revisions and scheduled to come out in January. If you want updates on that when it gets closer, please let me know. Also, I'm going to be passing it around to betas at the end of the month. If you're interested in being a beta reader, please let me know. You'll get a mention in the acknowledgments section and my undying gratitude.

Patience (NCIS): I still think I'm going to be finished by Halloween for NFA's Stories that Scared Even Me challenge, but it's probably another week or two before I post the next update - I need to get ATIN out to the betas first. I promise, I haven't abandoned it.

NCIS LA: Nothing planned in this fandom for now. I think the ending to last season shocked my plot bunnies speechless.

Hawaii 5-0: I've got a couple of drafted fics in this fandom, but they need some more work before they're ready for posting. One's a tag to 02.10 (North Korea) and one to 02.03 (SEAL Team 9). I've got a couple of other bunnies hopping around for this, but I'm waiting to see how S3 starts out before I let them out to roam.

Covert Affairs: I think I'm going to sign up for the Small Fandom Big Bang for this one. It's small as Big Bangs go - only 10K words - and the deadline is the end of January. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do — I've got a few ideas — but I can noodle around some once I get through ATIN and Patience. I'm torn among a Jai-Auggie friendship pre-series piece tagging off of Auggie's conversation with Henry a couple weeks ago or a S3 Annie/Auggie story looking at all the UST they've had this season amid the secrets or a Joan-Lena piece (pre-series or S3) that delves into the antagonism there. Anybody have an opinion one way or another?

My sister finally had her baby, who I'm nicknaming SuperBaby online. (She was rolling from her back to her side and her belly to her side at four days old.) She's adorable! And her mother would kill me if I posted her picture, so I won't. You'll just have to take my word for it. :)

She's also my incentive to get novel revisions done. If I do, I can use my week of vacation time in October to head north and visit her and the rest of the family. If not, I'll be using that week to revise. (Also, the sooner I get novel revisions done, the sooner I can get back to Patience before everybody reading it loses their patience with me - pun intended.)

Why the push on novel revisions? Because it's coming out in January. See!



(This is the back of the promo postcards that are out - only the right half is the new book.)

Looking for a writing prompt? Check out my weekly Rory's Story Cubes Challenge at my original fiction site. We're up to Week 18, but you can jump in and do any of them at any time.

I've been MIA from a lot of places lately, including here, thanks to work insanity and novel revisions. I've got a couple of fanfic pieces that are still on the to-do list — one posted as a WIP (NCIS: Patience) and one not (Hawaii Five-0), but I figured I'd go ahead and post the link to the (free!) novel excerpt for my book that comes out in January. *happy dance*

All That Is Necessary: The last time Dan Reilly saw his childhood best friend was when the State Police arrested Rick’s dad for trying to kill Dan and his uncle. After twenty years, Rick Murray has come back to Exeter and brought whispers of the past with him. As childhood memories run headlong into the reality of what happened that summer, both men must adjust to the idea that things weren’t as simple as they seemed back then.

Hope you enjoy! And hopefully I'll get far enough ahead on final revisions to get back to fanfiction soon...

Title: Risking Everything
Rating: G
Pairing: None
Genre: Character Study, Episode Tag
Summary: Sgt. Lukela has seen the Five-0 team in action just often enough to read between the lines. Spoilers for episodes 01.08, 01.12, 01.15 and 01.24. (Meka, collar bomb, tsunami, S1 finale)
Author's Note: This started because I couldn't help but wonder what Duke was thinking during the scene where they arrested Commander Hale and Danny tells Steve to say it one last time. So I worked forward and backward and ended up with this take on the Season 1 arc from Duke's perspective.
Disclaimer: Recognizable characters are the property of CBS and their creators. Not making any money, and no characters were harmed in the writing of this fic.



( Risking EverythingCollapse )

May's about done and I (finally) got all of those prompts filled, so I figured I'd go ahead and open up the June prompt list.

Rules:

Rule 1: There will be 10 (ten) prompt spots per month.
Rule 2: Tell me a story I haven’t written, and I will give you 1-3 sentences from or about it.
Rule 3: No more than two prompts per person, unless I've filled everything and there are available prompt spaces.
Rule 4: Only one followup on a previous month's prompt.

For fanfic, Hawaii 5-0, NCIS or NCIS:LA, please. No NCIS pairings with Ducky or Vance, no Jibbs. For LA and Hawaii 5-0, anything is fair game as long as it's canon-compliant because I haven't done enough writing in those fandoms to know what I can and can't write. No character bashing. Anything not excluded is promptable. :)

Also accepting original fic prompts from Exeter, for those who have read Thrown Out or some of the free short stories or ficlets on my Exeter site.

( Prompts below the foldCollapse )

The Associated Press had a story a few days ago about how Fifty Shades of Grey has its own fanfiction now, and it was a pretty interesting story. It brought to mind a rant on a fan fic rant community I saw recently where somebody was pointing out that a Twilight fic labeled as a Fifty Shades AU was pretty much like dividing by zero.

One of the points the AP story hit on was the issue some people have with the idea of “file off the serial numbers” fanfiction being published (and sold) as original fiction. Since I know some authors who have done this, I generally don’t express my opinion all that loudly, but if it’s a topic even AP is writing about… Keep reading

Title: Not A Cop
Rating: PG
Word Count: 895
Genre: Character Study
Pairing: None
Summary: He knows he's not a cop — except that now he is. Tag to 01.08.

( Not A CopCollapse )

Because I'm not far enough behind on all my writing, I managed to get hooked on Hawaii 5-0 after the NCIS:LA crossover episode and ended up with a bunny begging to be written. *smh*

Title: Shift in Focus
Rating: PG
Pairing: None
Summary: There are still a lot of things on Hawaii that confuse Danny, but he's beginning to think he understands the team a little bit better.
Spoilers: 01.01-01.03
Genre: Character study

( Shift in FocusCollapse )

ETA: OK, I've now watched the first two season of Hawaii 5-0 twice and gotten thoroughly hooked, so I'm adding H50 to the list of fandoms I'll write.

Because I don't already have enough on my plate writing-wise?

Anyway, same deal as last month. One prompt's already filled - a continuation of one of last month's prompt responses was requested by somebody (*cough* taylorgibbs *cough*)

Rules:

Rule 1: There will be 10 (ten) prompt spots per month.
Rule 2: Tell me a story I haven’t written, and I will give you 1-3 sentences from or about it.
Rule 3: No more than two prompts per person, unless I've filled everything and there are available prompt spaces

For fanfic, Hawaii 5-0, NCIS or NCIS:LA, please. No NCIS pairings with Ducky or Vance, no Jibbs. For LA, gen for anybody, pairings can be G/Nell or G/Sam. For Hawaii 5-0 anything is fair game as long as it's canon-compliant because I haven't done enough H50 writing to know what I can and can't write. No character bashing. Anything not excluded is promptable. :)

Also accepting original fic prompts from Exeter, for those who have read Thrown Out or some of the free short stories or ficlets on my Exeter site. On the off chance you hit on something that would give away a couple of key secrets in the characters' lives planned for future books, I might ask for a substitute prompt.

Prompt 1: More of the McGibbs response from April for taylorgibbs
Prompt 2: G/Sam -- 'Winnie' is Sam's favorite aunt. She wants to meet the man that has all of Sam's attention. For sunsaralyn FILLED
Prompt 3: When Brie is older, the imminent addition of another child to the McNozzo household. And of course a glimpse at the bat gremlin terrible trio. For djmichealsfics FILLED
Prompt 4: McAbby smut would be great. And if you're not in the smut-writing frame of mind, an Elf or Santa sequel would be very welcome. For pinkhairnroses FILLED
Prompt 5:
Prompt 6:
Prompt 7:
Prompt 8:
Prompt 9:
Prompt 10:

If you heard a squeal Saturday morning, that was me.

( Cut for squeal explanationCollapse )

In all, I was nominated in seven of the eight characterization categories I was eligible for (no Kate or Jenny stories last year) and won something in six of them. So that got me musing on characterization, which led me to this week's Writer Yoga post at my Exeter site about seeing the world through the character's eyes. I used a See No Evil example, and I could give a bunch of other NCIS ones. I posted it over there because that's where my Writer Yoga posts live, but since characterization is the single biggest factor for me in whether I enjoy a fanfic piece or not, I figured I'd post here, too.

I had somebody take offense at my definition of character-bashing a few weeks back, but my opinion on it comes straight from my emphasis on good characterization. In some ways, the longer the show runs, the more true that becomes. Each episode gives us new information about the characters, new details that help explain why they do what they do, how they became who they are. You can see this when you read older stories in the fandom, or even more recent ones like Razor's Edge. We as writers often extrapolated about a character's past based on what we knew — and we were wrong.

In some ways, that makes writing good characterization harder. We have fewer blank spots to play with, fewer places to imagine why a character does what they do. And many more places we can trip ourselves up by having a character do something that's not consistent with that we know about him/her.

But it also can make it easier. Kyrie says has a harder time editing my Exeter fic than she does my NCIS fic because she doesn't know the characters as well. Part of the reason I started doing the Story Cubes challenge was to basically fanfic myself and give Kyrie lots of the details about the characters in Exeter that she has for the NCIS folks from watching all 200+ episodes. The more we know, the more we can develop reactions and actions that are consistent with a character's motivation. That's the biggest reason I put Breathe on hiatus after Penelope Papers — I realized too much of why McGee does what he does in that series is driven by an assumption I made that was wrong. And I can't wrap my mind around that change and still feel like I'm writing the characters accurately, at least not without knowing more about what went on between Tim and McDad nine years ago.

What's your biggest challenge with characterization, either in fanfic or original fic? (Or who, if there's a character that you particularly struggle with.)

After some nudging from a fellow Rory's Story Cubes lover and realizing I needed to get my Exeter writing back in gear, I re-started the Rory's Story Cubes challenge over at my pro (Exeter) writing site. I have to thank catwalksalone for introducing me to the cubes a few years ago - they're a great writing prompt tool!

If you're interested, I post a new set of the cubes each Wednesday morning. Details about the challenge are listed there. If you're looking to get unstuck on writing, rack up some words for Get Your Words Out or just want to try something new, please go check out the cubes.

(And if you already know about the Story Cubes, I'd love to hear how/if you've used them in your writing!)