Happy Dance/ Beta Reorganization

Because blogging is bipolar, we're shifting to the fully positive, almost sickeningly enthusiastic side of things.

First and foremost, a happy dance is in order. After my previous confession of needing to muster up the troops and get to some serious outlining, I am almost completely unable to stop attacking my current book with an ever-increasing word count. I not only put a 14K ring on Part II, but I've seen its transition into Part III. My muse has this unwritten rule, mind you: Write out of order or she'll be out of order faster than a vending machine at the bowling alley or the men's room at a dive bar. So I set out to spot edit between Parts I and II and ended up with the muse taking a joy ride directly over to the epilogue and start setting up the lead-in for the third book, UnHeard.

Which is why I'm postponing the beta I was planning for Part I which is more correctly still a very polished alpha, but some things might wiggle loose while writing Part II that I'd rather not confuse readers with as a clear work-in-progress when I jiggle some conversation and events just a bit askew.

I've also decided I'm going with BetaBooks for this. Click on the hyperlink and check it out, especially if you're interested in queueing for the beta in its current TBA state; I'll still put you on my list. Once I start putting up the beta on FB groups, you'll know it's in serious motion and I'll start linking people to them. I don't have official 'chapters' but everything is parsed into sections according to scene and characters, so I might start people out in different plotlines rather than the book in its usual chronology. This will keep people following one solid progression and able to spot confusing breaks in the continuity if present. I might leave it up to request for people to read it in its entirety, but be warned that this book will be super epic in length and will likely break 200K words in its entirety, so I endeavor to keep any commitments flexible this way. I even have bits that are really small, short story length, that I'd appreciate a look-through for.

So yeah, I jumped the gun on betas, but I promise this is for the quality of the experience since it is a very ambitious entry in the series.

Happy news all around though, short and sweet. I can feel my craft honing to a finer edge as I go. I'll never down on my first series, which still continues to entertain me whenever I read it, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that it only gets better. I'm still unconventional in my methods, but I believe that flexibility is what makes personal successes something to treasure. Perhaps someday there will be someone looking to discover my story and it won't be one you find in every writer's blog, the cookie cutter road to 'success.' For me, there's no greater motivating (and pant-shittingly scary) path to a good story than a life carved stubbornly through the mountain. Safe doesn't guarantee success, so why not aim for a worthwhile journey?