With a heavy heart, I say goodbye to my furry friend. I will miss you my orange cat. Almost two decades. You had a long life. It was expected but still painful when it finally happens. I wish you didn’t have to go. But as with all living things, we eventually leave this plain of existence. May you have eternal summer lands, my friend.
Love,
Eloreen
So, lots of things have been going this month. I participated in #NaNoWriMo. I won’t win but I feel accomplished because I turned one story into a sequel. I’ll probably post about that next week.
The picture above was taken the Saturday I went to my first write-in for #NaNoLanta, the regional helpers for NaNo, at sunset. Not bad for a camera phone, right? You may have seen it on my Instagram or Facebook feed. I’m trying to be more sociable but for an introvert like me, it’s difficult. I’m working on it.
As I dropped into my blog to create this post, I realized my post from 11/23 announcing Together’s pre-order and release on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited didn’t have a title.
Oops. Missed that entirely.
I’ll blame it on the Thanksgiving Holidays and getting distracted by writing, publishing, and setting up a newsletter. *smile*
Together is the MMM Contemporary Menage short story I wrote for Beautiful Skin Anthology that the first edition was published at the end of August 2018. After three months, a few of the authors wanted to be taken out of the anthology and so a second edition is in the works. 50% of the proceeds will continue to be donated to the Sickly Cell research charity like the first edition and will be kept up in perpetuity. I’ll update with links for purchasing the eBook or print version of the new Anthology when I get them.
Here is my lovely cover from Emmy Ellis with Studioenp.
The Together eBook will go live on Saturday, December 1, 2018 and will be available on Kindle Unlimited. Eventually, I will get a paperback version added once I get it packaged. Stay tuned because I will be doing a limited sale for the story after it releases. Perhaps a contest for a free copy?
Speaking of newsletter, I have one now that will have exclusive content, free stuff, and notifications for my subscribers that will be in addition to the blog. The best part is if you sign up via the page below, you get a link to a free story in the eBook format of your choice.
If you have already subscribed, great! I look forward to interacting with everyone in a different way.
Today, I just submitted a 500-word flash fiction entry to Writers’ HQ From LGBTQ+ With Love contest. I didn’t find out about it until yesterday and the deadline is 11/30/2018 midnight GMT. Talk about submitting at the last minute. 🙂 It will be interesting to see if place for one of the prizes they offer. We’ll see how I do. I’m not expecting anything: I entered because it sounded like fun. If I win something, then it happens. If not, I have another flash fiction story. Hmmm, maybe I’ll compile them into a book and provide it as a freebie…
And now, I will leave you with a picture of one of the kittens that decided to live with the family a few months ago. He’s cute and warm on this cold day in Atlanta. 🙂 Can you believe he’s only 6-ish month’s old? Yeah, me neither. He’s not the biggest either.
Eloreen
I voted. Polls close at 7 pm EDT.
I am working on a #NaNoWriMo18 #LGBTQwrimo #NaNoLanta story. I’ll update on the next day or two. All the things.
I do have a question: Would you like to see a newsletter on your inbox of future releases, ARCs, and a freebie story? If so, comment here. I’m looking into setting one up monthly, possibly as frequent as weekly.
So, I had planned on writing some this month, get my act together for this author takeover for Beautiful Skin (thank you Wendy Stone for running it!), and post more about what is going on.
You know how plans go, right?
What’s an author takeover? Well, in Facebook, there’s a group called RGR – M/M and LGBT Book Events that’s attached to RGR (Rainbow Gold Reviews) that I’ve been a reviewer with for the last almost 5 years (it’s been that long, wow). Authors spend scheduled time talking about the theme and their books. Today, we are celebrating the Beautiful Skin Anthology that released late August 2018. Come join us!
Saturday September 22nd here in this group
Stop by to celebrate the “Beautiful Skin’ anthology with these amazing authors!
4:00 – 5:00 T.s. McKinney
5:00 – 5:30 Victoria Sue
5:30 – 6:00 Dora Esquivel
6:00 – 7:00 SJ York
7:00 – 8:00 T.B. Bond
8:00 – 9:00 Eloreen Moon
***All times are EDT***
**Authors are responsible for their own giveaways**
There might be prizes involved with my take over at least. *whistles*
I might just have something to announce/reveal during my takeover too…
I’m working on the next Persons of Color Anthology that’s paranormal-based. I’m not sure when I will finish. I’ll have to see. Work has been… busy. We’ll just leave it at that. There’s some personal family stuff that I’ve been dealing with and so my plate has been full. Since writing relaxes me, I’m going to try to find time to work on stuff this weekend in between things. I will definitely be in a much better place if I can accomplish things. 🙂
As always, I will try to do more blog posts, maybe restart my blog story or start a new one, and be around more. It’s fun to sink into the world of reading and writing. I miss it.
Eloreen
So, I did this thing with #CampNaNoWriMo. I met my goal but my story is not finished yet. I will hopefully finish in the next week or two, send to betas and get it edited. I’m sort of running out of time as it’s due by the end of the month. We’ll see.
I also did this other thing. I submitted an excerpt of a little under 800 words to Carina Press’s Blog Critique scene submission call of a WIP that I’ve been kicking around off and on for awhile now (almost two years). Did I mention I tend to write slow? 🙂 I just received the email that my story, Sparkle Vampire, was selected randomly for posting to their blog and a Carina editor will provide feedback there! I will let everyone know when it’s posted and if you want to provide feedback, please do.
Wow. I really did win that opportunity. I wasn’t expecting them to accept it, but that’s cool. I’ll get some feedback and maybe I’ll work on it and see about filling it out. Now, to finish my MMM I’m working on. *smile*
In addition to this, and around my Real Life of working full time, I was asked to submit to America’s Emerging Writers (Series) by Z Publishing for Georgia. Their submission deadline is in a couple of weeks. More information is here: https://www.zpublishinghouse.com/blogs/upcoming-books/americas-emerging-writers-series. It’s intriguing concept, and I may submit. Maximum is 5 stories (excerpts are accepted but they prefer stand-alone stories to 1250 words). I’m not sure if I have time but it is definitely fascinating. Check them out as they are looking for submission for all US states. If they accept your submission, it will be published in the anthology they are compiling for the entire country. They’ve done a poetic one already. I wish I knew about that because that looked fun too. 🙂
Whew! It’s been a fun couple of months for me in the writing world. Now back to my writing. The muse is strong today.
Eloreen
So, it’s been a week since my last update. I feel like I’m in a ‘writing’ anonymous meeting. Is there such a thing? Well, us writers need a lot of support, so probably. 🙂
I’m continuing to write on my MMM Menage for an anthology compilation (more info will be coming once everyone finishes and we figure out a publishing date).
Pretty close to finishing Camp NaNoWriMo even though I didn’t write as often as I wanted. I did something to my lower back mid-month and took almost 2 weeks off because of that. I did get a surprising amount of words done a few days ago. I plan to reach word goal by end of month but it will depend on if I get time. I have a full plate for this weekend.
After a doctors appointment last Friday, I had to make some changes to my diet and exercise. I’ve been walking 10 min a day (to start off) and changing my diet to a keto/Atkins-based diet where I have limited carbs per meal. As of Wednesday, I lost a pound so something is going right.
Well, this is going to be kind of short. 🙂 I’ll follow up with another update soon.
Eloreen
I’m still writing. Honest. I know I said I would do an update earlier in the month but the month got away from me.
Work has been interesting. I say that a lot. Then I lost internet yesterday. Grrr. Seems some animal wanted to chew through the phone wire and phone company had to come out and lay a temp wire to fix. Sigh. The line will get buried next week.
I’ve got almost 5k of words. w00t!!
Goal is 10k. Might be higher. Not sure as it will depend on the characters and what they want to say. Then editing, maybe a beta read or two, then to my new editor. 🙂 it will be published in an anthology this year. Not sure when yet. I’ll keep you posted on progress.
I have an ARC review I need to post. MMMM (yes, four guys) ménage and it’s mpreg. My favorites. Be on the look out for that this weekend now that I have internet back.
What else? I’m drawing a blank. There was something else… Oh well. I guess I’ll do an update post once I remember what it was.
Eloreen
So. I’ve done the things with writing.
A flash fiction submission for QSF Annual contest and it’s anthology will be released late summer/early fall.
I’m about to start Camp NaNoWriMo (tomorrow) for a Persons of Color anthology. Hint, mine is going to be MMM Ménage. *wink* I will be posting where to get it when it releases. It will be released later this year. Not sure when as the editor/publisher and other authors haven’t decided on that yet. As I have information that I can reveal, I’ll post here. Stay tuned for more on this.
I’m almost done with dental issues. Just a few more follow up appointments and I hope to be done with the major stuff this year.
Now I have to go get some stuff from Home Depot/Lowes. I will probably post updates on Camp as I got. I don’t know if I will be doing daily or weekly updates. It’s going to depend upon how much time I will find.
Eloreen
Found this image on the internet. Not using a typewriter but a computer, but I thought it was cool. Yes, I’m writing now, as I and my co-author have time. We’re working on that story I posted about at the end of January. Not for the original submission but to submit to either a publisher or on our own when we’re done. We had a productive evening. Got some words written, a scene redone, and brainstormed a couple more chapters.
Unfortunately, I’ve been in pain for the better part of a couple of weeks, so a lot of things are going slowly. Thank goodness that work slowed a little last week so I could catch up on some of my non-billable stuff, and get looked at for all of the issues I have had. Got lots of dental issues that I’m working on this month with most of it dealt with by the beginning of March. Going to have to take some days off as they involve surgery. Not fun going under the knife twice. Last time I had roof-of-the-mouth surgery was when I was a teen revealing an impacted tooth for braces. The irony is not lost on me that one of the surgeries is to correct an abscess behind the same tooth… I’m getting old. Sigh. 🙂 But, I’m getting excited about writing more, so I’ll take it. Just have a few Real Life bumps along the way. Isn’t that how it always works out?
Looks like I’ll finish up some thoughts and a scene and then go take a pain pill and go to bed again. I took a nap earlier which is probably why I’m vertical now. Partners went to a friends party this evening so I expect they won’t be home until late. I will like be asleep, or wish I was, by then. Stupid pain.
I have some ideas bouncing around for another WIP my co-author and I were working on last year, or maybe the year before? Time has a tendency to slip by me when I work too much. Here’s hoping it don’t slam me again. I want to have time to finish a project. 😀 I plan to be more involved in writing. Next week will be signing up for GRL 2018, I hope. I plan on road-tripping to Virginia in October. If anyone in the area wants a ride we can work something out. Not sure what car I’m driving but likely a Prius. I do plan on bringing some books back…
Well, I’m going to sign off for the night. I’m going to try to update more often here. Note: I will be moving this blog from WordPress to my web hosted WordPress site eventually. For those that follow me, you will probably have to re-follow but I will keep everyone posted so you can jump on that when the time comes. This is so I can manage everything in one place and that https://www.eloreenmoon.com/ actually stays and I don’t pay to redirect. 🙂 Anybody out there a WordPress guru and an help me move my blog? Cheaply? Struggling writer here. I’ve got most of it transferred with the free tools but having issues still, and haven’t had time to look into it again. Heck, I could use a webmaster as I need to do up my eloreenmoon.com website too. I figured I can deal with that after my blog moves. Anyway, contact me (social media, the blog contact form, or comment a contact here) if you can help or point me to tools that could work. WordPress and blog technology is driving me crazy. I’ve tried a couple but both sides (my domain host and WordPress) want money if they do it. Which, I’m leaning towards being fine with paying for it, but I don’t have it yet and I’d rather not pay WordPress. Maybe when some royalties come in. 😉 At least that is the plan this year.
OK, I’m really going to stop babbling. Here’s to a new writing year and getting things accomplished.
Eloreen
Whoa. I just finished a chapter of a new work in progress for a submission prompt due at the end of the month I’m writing with a friend and co-author. We did some brainstorming last weekend and today, started a document with the beginnings of the outline of the story, and then I added to it this afternoon/evening while she was doing another engagement.
I finished up work (on call, it happens) this evening, and felt the need for speed… writing. The need for writing. Sorry, bad movie puns. 🙂 I started around 10:30 pm, maybe earlier, and finished the first “chapter” 3 hours later. It’s rough. There will probably be lots of edits. But, it’s written. Almost 3000 words. Not bad for a rusty writer. *grin*
This feels really good. One of my goals this year (yeah, work has been rough so I haven’t posted much) is to write more and possibly get something published. I think my co-author and I might just make it this time. We’ll have to see how it plays out. Even if we don’t make the deadline for the original submission, we plan on finishing it anyway. How it gets published is anyone’s guess.
I’m going to stop now and go to sleep. Hopefully, my partner in crime will be available tomorrow to finish fleshing things out and we can get the proposal and 2-3 chapters ready to send. I feel good about this. Wish us luck and I’ll keep you posted on progress as I can.
Eloreen