"A Very Pagan Christmas" (SHAMELESS REBUTTAL)

writing and publishing updates

Just a couple of quick updates for readers...

Rereading the series

It's almost not worth mentioning. I didn't find much to fix in Book 3, but it was fun to read it again. I made more notes for adding details to my wiki document for the series than any fixes. I really enjoyed the flow of the book and the events of it and the refresh with what has happened. I found some tiny issues but nothing major. There were two seeming contradictions that needed clarification but that was done with just a few words. Otherwise, it was a few scattered, almost nothing changes--more stylistic preferences than anything.

Art is never finished, just abandoned.

I can read my books innumerable times and always find something that I'll want to "fix". I'm never fully happy with it. But when you go back after a few years, you've grown and had other life experiences that change your perspective. In a series like this, you also know more about the characters, but you can't let that influence how you saw them when the earlier books were written.

It's still fun to read them, though, and they keep me occupied while I'm on the treadmill. I've started rereading book 4 now of the series and will continue through all of them until I'm caught up, which will be just in time going into the final books.

Writing Book 21

I keep discovering that maybe I know what I'm doing with this book. Don't take that the wrong way--it's the little details that really bring it all together that I worry about getting wrong. I get inspirations--while driving usually--that are exactly what I need. That happened again on the way to church Saturday morning. I discovered another piece that I hadn't considered but which was right in front of me. (My flip phone was going bad on me (after almost four years) so I decided to upgrade to an iPhone. I love Siri--I can tell her to make a note or a reminder while I'm driving and not take my attention off the road. And I never forget what I was thinking of by the time I reach my destination. That's always a danger--forgetting that incredible spark of idea by the time I can write it down. I don't how many times that has happened. Incredible inspirations gone forever... 😔)

At the present, Book 21 has about 20K words written, and I tweaked a few scenes based on the idea I had on my drive to church. It was brilliant and demonstrates L'Ni's intelligence so well. I couldn't have come up with it, however, if I hadn't finished the most recent scene, which was a catalyst to making me see this. It was always there in the back of my mind but not fully formed until the right moment. Now, I have one more piece to demonstrate how brilliant of a tactician and strategist that L'Ni is.

I'm making progress on this book. I can't believe that after this, I'll only have four more to go in the series. I'm sure I'll miss it when it's done, but at the same time, I will be ready for it to be done. In other words, it'll be the perfect timing. I just need to perfect the final climax of all this buildup throughout the series.

I'm excited to see what happens. I hope you are too.

Thanks for reading!

Bilbo update

Adapting to our house is progressing quickly with Bilbo. You wouldn't really know he had been a stray. He wasn't that far in socialization from being a regular housecat to start, but now he's even more like the others. It's been almost three weeks of having him in the house.

• He's climbing into hubby's lap on his own. (He's always loved laps but was reluctant to get up onto the furniture unless we lifted him up.)
• He's exuberant for toys. (And a bit too much wanting the other cats to play with him--they still don't want that.)
• He's learned the feeding routine and knows the sound of the treat bag. (That never takes long. 😉)
• He knows what the water bottle means. (We've used it a few times when he starts hunting the older kitties. It's the only thing that gets his mind off that behavior.)🙀
• He comes to the door when people are coming or going, instead of running away to hide.
• He doesn't hide much anymore or run from normal household sounds or activity. (Once in a while, he does get startled, but it's much less than it used to be and he doesn't flee to hide from us but goes a little distance and stops to look back.)
• He's staying out in the open more near us.

The only issue I see is indications that he may have had a lower back or leg injury. He doesn't like to jump off the ground when playing and remains low, but he does go up and down the stairs and will jump onto the dining chairs (carpeting helps). We even have pet stairs for the old kitties getting up and down from our bed and he uses those instead of jumping up and down. When he does jump, his hid legs don't seem to hold steady but give out a little beneath him.

He returns to the vet the day after Christmas for his second DRC/Leukemia vaccine. Then he'll be done for the year. At that time, I'll have the vet see what they can determine of his back end. He seems to be improving slowly (jumping for the feather toys once in a while), but I'd feel better with them examining him a bit at that time.

Overall, we were very blessed that such a cat found us (as was he to find a good cat-loving home). We weren't looking for another cat, but when the cat distribution system delivers such a wonderful feline, you can't refuse.

Meow!

ps--Adding this pic after my initial posting. They've been eating like this for the last week already. No fights or growls or stealing each other's food, except the usual food steals by middle two from the oldest kitty.

Oldest two eat closest together while third oldest eats by the shredder (pushes his bowl around, so the little corner stops that, and he tends to go after the food of everyone else, although he's learned to wait until we're not looking) and new boy, Bilbo, eats near the dining table on the carpet. Bilbo tends to push himself back while eating, so his back legs always slide back and he has to pull them up close repeatedly while eating. We feed him on the carpet for this reason and to make the oldest kitties more comfortable with eating in his vicinity. Our oldest (Siamese) is the one shorted--he sits back and gives us a forlorn look if anyone starts eating his food. He doesn't do anything to stop them. We usually sit at the counter and watch, since the others do try to steal his food at times. He's a big baby.

Why did Aztecs Stop Human Sacrifice & Secrets from Our Lady of Guadalupe

Happy Feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

The miracle of the tilma image is proof of God's great love that graces us through the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Here are a few interesting facts about the Our Lady of Guadalupe image:

• The image is proven to not be painted by human hands.
• The image and fabric have miraculously lasted in the original condition for nearly 500 years.
• The weak cactus fiber, of which the tilma was made, should have decomposed within 15-20 years of being woven.
• No natural or animal mineral colorings, or paint, are found on the image.
• The image itself is iridescent, and cannot be produced by hand.
• Mary stands on a crescent moon, the same crescent moon that was in the sky on the day of her apparition.
• Mary's mantle is a constellation map, the same constellations that were in the sky as on the day of her apparition.
• The constellations tell the story of the Gospel with the arrangement of "Leo" in the womb of "Virgo".
• Our Lady's garment is a topographic map of the geographic location of her apparition.
• On Mary's neck is a small black cross, identifying her with the Catholic missionary priests.
• Over her womb on her dress is a four-petal flower—the Aztec symbol of life and divinity.
• In the image Mary is "clothed with the sun" with "the moon at her feet" as described in Revelation 12:1.
• A doctor once heard a heartbeat coming from the image when he placed a stethoscope over the womb.
• The eyes on the image have the refractory characteristics of human eyes.
• Mary's eyes, when examined through a microscope, reflect the images of the witnesses present at the tilma's unveiling, including Juan Diego and the bishop.

(from https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/the-miraculous-image-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe/)

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, pray for us!

Catholic priest explains: Majority in Hell now are there because they didn't believe there's Hell

Bilbo's progress

I've read there's a general 3-3-3 rule of cat adoption--3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months--each with its general expectations of settling in. I never really paid much attention to time frames with our other cats. Bilbo is ahead of the stages.

He's speeding along in his acclimatization to our household. Only a week after his vet visit, he started playing with toys and scratching on the cat scratchers. It's now been ten days and he's already much less skittish about new sounds and activities and has chosen my husband as his person above all others. Part of that could be due to my encouraging my husband to take Bilbo into his home office at times to avoid potential trouble from our oldest kitty, who still doesn't like him.

Oldest two kitties from months ago, before Bilbo was
ever a visitor, much less a part of the household. I hope
one day Bilbo gets to sleep this close to them.

What's not to like? Alas, I can't make my old momma's boy see reason. He's threatened by a new cat in the house. We do our best to not allow unsupervised freedom. The old cat growls and hisses when Bilbo looks at him but gets up to sniff when Bilbo is looking away.

Bilbo isn't quite familiar with the house rules yet, but he is learning. Today, he jumped into a chair next to hubby, who was eating at the table, and tried to get onto the table. He got scolded and pushed off the table back to the chair, then sat patiently and watched. Then he was rewarded with a little petting for staying down.

Later, he tried scratching on the dining chair's fabric seat. I scolded him and he stopped and didn't return to it. Then I rewarded him with a pet and a "good boy".

Cats can be trained. We've done it at least three times successfully. Bilbo will learn, but since he's still a bit timid in the new environment, we have to be a little milder in our correction than we were with the others. As long as he stops the undesirable activity, the least amount of correction necessary will be used (a harsh "No!" or "Stop!" is generally enough to startle him into stopping the undesired behavior, like clawing furniture, or a "Get down!" like we do with our tortie when she gets on the countertops). Just like with horses, start with light pressure and increase until you get the response you desire; eventually, they learn to respond to the lightest pressure, because they anticipate it getting worse. If a light scold is all it takes to make him quit, that's doing well. Then reward the right behavior.

He's also already eating close enough to the others to learn not to attempt to eat their food. He's tried it, but we push him away and he goes and sits and watches. Our resident cat that was a barn cat wasn't nearly as polite as Bilbo when he first started eating with the others.

It really is that simple. Bilbo is a smart boy. After taking right to the litterbox we provided in his initial confinement, when he was let out into the rest of the house, he found and used the other litterboxes we have. I don't doubt he'll quickly learn the rules.

Since the neuter is healing (no problems there and swelling gone), his eyes are brighter and he's begun cleaning himself like a normal cat again. He's having to decompress from the newness and fear of strange sounds and activities less. He even ventured out to explore the catio with the youngest of our other cats today since the weather was nice enough for them to go out.

In fact, the only thing that's not yet progressing is the relationship between him and our oldest cat.

That will take more time, but with his easy-going personality, I'm sure they'll get along some day.

That'll be an update I'll be excited to share. I wish I knew Bilbo's background, but at least his future looks good.

God bless!

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Update 12/8/24: Bilbo doesn't even freak out from hubby's snoring. 😴 

He knows he's home. 🥰

writing progress

My dry spell is over. I just found the key to Book 21 that had been missing! It was quite a lightbulb moment in writing tonight. The events of this epiphany won't happen until near the end. A lot of other stuff has to come in between, but it will be worthwhile for readers to see exactly how the pieces of the plan come together in the ultimate trick.

A lot of that other stuff I have felt, or did feel, inadequate to write, which gave me some hangups. This book, ARMOR, is a complexity of L'Ni's intelligence and planning. It's not like SOUL SHADOW, which was Nya searching for the key to his entrapment by the creature in his mind. I didn't have that completely planned out but pantsed a lot of it, unlike I thought I had with this. Trying to write a story to reveal the extraordinary psychological understanding of a character of L'Ni's caliber is like playing chess against a master when you can't win as an amateur. It's intimidating.

No, I'm not that bad. Okay, yes, I am bad at chess. I'm actually very sensitive to reading people's body language, tone of voice, and specific word usage, picking up on subtle cues that most people miss, much like L'Ni, which is how I developed that aspect of his character. However, he's incredibly intelligent and I've been able to get by without having to go too far out of my comfort zone without breaking that.

The big thing about planning a story like this is that it requires careful plotting to make sure nothing is overlooked. I wouldn't be able to write myself out of a corner in a story like this. I can't pants anything like I've done with so many of the other stories. I have to think ten steps or more in advance like L'Ni would do in this very serious plotting he's devised in Book 21, or it would all fall apart. To use an appropriate metaphor, he's playing the series game Trellix but on a life or death level. What he's doing is not a game, but the metaphor fits. He's moved all the pieces into place for a far greater trick or manipulation than even Zaer could devise.

I never imagined how that fictional game was going to relate to so many aspects of this series.

Anyway, that's all I can reveal without giving anything away. Book 21 is the result of something discovered by a character in Book 20. Like all the books in the series, this builds on what's come before and is something hinted that must now be resolved. That stress of trying to keep a growing history of events in mind contributes to some of the issues I might have in writing, but I love the epiphanies that make this so much fun!

Thanks for reading!

New cat... and other updates

The new cat, Bilbo, has been taking up some of my attention, but he's settling in nicely now that he's feeling a bit better and getting used to our household. Tomorrow marks one week since his vet visit and having his tomhood taken away. He has never growled, hissed, bitten, or scratched at us or the resident cats. He uses the litterboxes and has never sprayed, despite being neutered as an adult. He's only ever clawed on the cat towers with sisal rope. It's like he's been an indoor much-loved cat most of his life, except for one barncat behavior I recognized--he rubbed on the youngest cat, who has been the most accepting of him (no hissing or growling), probably because he was a barncat in a barn full of other cats when we adopted him as a kitten.

We have worked out a way to adapt him to the household. Only one cat, the oldest, is strongly objecting (growling and hissing) to Bilbo's presence yet after we had him out for a couple of days. Since putting Bilbo in the bedroom of our oldest kid, she let Jack (youngest of our three resident cats) in with him, since Jack usually likes her room. I think the fact that Jack is so laid back with other cats has helped Bilbo, although the normal house noises still spook him at times.

We're allowing supervised daytime house outings only and keeping Bilbo in daughter's room at night yet to avoid any unsupervised trouble. It could get really dicey since he prefers to be in our bed, where the oldest two kitties who least accept him usually sleep. How long this process takes until Bilbo fully acclimates to the household and is accepted by all the resident cats is anyone's guess, but I'd bet by Christmas that he'll have the run of the house 24/7; I'm not going to push him, however. He's pretty laid back and adapting well but does get overwhelmed by all the commotion and newness of it, then he retreats to our bathroom/walk-in closet or under our bed to decompress. I don't want him in our room so much until the other cats all accept him.

Bilbo is also starting to play with toys. He was shy about that just a couple of days ago. He's a lazy boy, though, like Jack. I'm sure he could hunt in the wild, or maybe that's the problem--toys move and make sounds but aren't as satisfying as catching a meal. But he gets fed regularly and good food that's really shining up his coat and helping him fill out and gain some weight. He wasn't underweight, but I like a little bit more bulge when looking down my cats than his flat-sidedness.

As for myself, I hadn't been able to write for the last week. I got stuck worse and worse and had anxiety attacks complicated by bringing in a stray cat. I put the symptoms pieces together, however, especially since they eased up as I tapered off the Synthroid... and was right. I went into the walk-in clinic to check into what was going on--my thyroid had become normal or even hyper. (update: I heard back from my regular clinic on this and was told that illness can cause the thyroid to do some things like this. I also just learned that I had been possibly exposed to salmonella from cucumbers at the grocery store; the fever and gut symptoms I'd been having matched that. I suppose that would explain the thyroid issue and the anxiety caused from it. A Hashimoto's flare indeed.)

My creativity and focus have come back now that I've figured things out and am getting over the illness. That was quite a rough ordeal, though. As we say in this part of the country... uff da! I can sympathize with what people with Graves disease must suffer. After a whole day without thyroid meds, I was having major hypo symptoms, however. It's good to not be hyper, but being constantly cold and tired isn't fun either. One more lesson learned.

Now to get past that scene that was blocking me in Book 21. It's finally getting somewhere again. 🥳

Back to writing.

Thanks for reading!

New kitty gets a furever home

He's ours!

No chip. No FIV or FeLV. No fleas. (All as expected)

All vaxxed, neutered, dewormed, and now he does have a chip registered to us and a collar like our other kitties.

New boy is all ours. 🥳

Rodney also got a new name... Bilbo. And he is estimated to be about 2 years old.

Now we have cats named after characters in Farscape, Avatar the Last Airbender, Stargate/Danny Phantom/Pirates of the Caribbean, and (at last) Lord of the Rings. Five years ago, we had one named after a character in Star Wars, but she passed away at the age of 16+.

I brought Bilbo home from the vet this afternoon and he was dying for attention, besides being hungry since he had to have his food taken away by 8 pm last night. I thought he'd hate me for being the one to shove him into the carrier this morning, but I got licks and headbutts. Edit: he's also giving love nips and finally sleeping peacefully now that everything is settled.

Hubby and I got his scent all over us, and since he's clear, no more changing clothes or having to wash hands between him and the other cats. That's... not going too well, but it's only been a couple of days of having him in the house. Youngest boy sniffs and doesn't care. Middle girl is just staying away. The old man, however, is skulking around and hissing at us. He wants to be close to us but doesn't like the smell of a strange cat.

This will take some time. Once they get used to scent mixing, we'll consider face-to-face introductions.

This is going to be a long process, but with patience, we'll get through it.

Officially the newest member of our household

I can't believe we have another cat. It's surreal. I wanted to wait until our old boys and girl had passed away. God had other plans.

new kitty update... T-1 day

Rodney goes into the vet tomorrow for all that he needs done to be our new indoor cat. We will find out then whether we can keep him or have to give him up. We're pretty sure he's healthy, but if he's not, it's going to be heartbreaking, just as it would be if he's chipped. He adopted us.

Getting him into the house yesterday had a couple climactic moments when he freaked out a bit, but he settled down with scratches. Using that, we took our time to lure him into the bathroom we had prepared for him. The other kitties were locked up at the time so there could be no interaction.

Taking in a stray is no small endeavor. He's not feral, however, and prefers human companionship to being alone. In fact, we discovered that, after just a few hours in the bathroom by himself with food, water, a litterbox, and a folded blanket for a bed that he is a completely clingy lap-cat.

When I returned to him after he'd had a few hours to settle down, he had been hiding behind the washing machine and came out with some coaxing. I sat down with my bathrobe on and he climbed into my lap and laid down with front claws kneading gently. I knew he would be a lap-cat but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

This morning, I went down to feed him, being the first one up in the morning, and he came out almost instantly and made a fuss for attention. In fact, he then started to eat while meowing. When I stood up, however, he quit eating. It was like he was saying, "Don't leave! Please, please don't leave me! I want scratches and love. I love you so much!"

Once we get a clean bill of health from FIV/FeLV testing (and if he has no microchip), we can then say he's ours. Unfortunately, if he's positive, he would put the health of the rest of our kitties in danger. He won't go back to the wild, however. I won't do that to him. My youngest kid volunteers at the local humane society, so we'd check with them on other options. He doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body, at least not when interacting with us.

How could anyone have given him up or not be searching for a lost pet? Could you abandon this big snuggly lovebug?

I'm praying for confirmation of a healthy stray boy who gets to stay with us.

As hubby said... The cat distribution system is working.

Not just a new book idea... a new series!

My post from two weeks ago about a single new story idea just took a new turn.

The idea has been lurking in the back of my mind, even while Book 21 of Forgotten Worlds has reached 12K words. I haven't started any writing on the new idea but, after writing out a full synopsis for it when it exploded in my mind two weeks ago, I have put it aside.

However, while I focus on finishing the FW series (and much thinking and planning out the final books to culminate in that exciting series finale I'm promising), the new idea has been stewing in the back of my mind. It will seem to be urban fantasy but will have strongly religious undertones of truth. It will be be like nothing else, a Catholic urban fantasy. However, even something like the Exorcist is at the core Catholic UF, but dramatized and lacking the proper catechism. This won't be horror like exorcist movies, however, or full of sexual tension or faith lies like most UF. It won't be preachy but will come from what I've been gleaning from listening to exorcists and learning about the saints and mystics in a modern setting.

And while this has been stewing in the back of my mind, the new idea comes to the surface once in a while, as it did just a short time ago to spur me to share this... I have an idea for a book 2, turning the idea into a series!

And to think I expected to stop writing after the Forgotten Worlds series, God has other plans! 🤣 Never underestimate His plans! I've pledged my gift, His gift to me, to serve Him for the last two years and it's really changed the ideas that come to the forefront of my stories and character virtues.

I'll keep making notes of ideas and see what happens in details for the Book 2 concept (all I have so far) and possibly a Book 3 idea.

Stay tuned. I'm eager to see how this develops.

Thanks for reading!

new kitty

He adopted us and is super lovey but no collar, not fixed, and likely not chipped. He's a stray who came to us about a week ago and stuck around after getting food and water and shelter from the winter storm that we had this past week.

The picture is from some time after the snow had started.

We've been calling this one Rodney (as in McKay from Stargate), since we have a brown tuxedo named Jack (O'Neill, Fenton, Sparrow et al) in the house already. However, a new permanent name is being considered. All strays get a name for identification if they stick around, but a housecat gets a permanent name. Rodney is a gray tuxedo with a chin marking.

He stayed around and started not dashing off when we put food out within days after finding us. In fact, he had been with us just a few days when I put food out and he tried to get in the house rather than running off.

He's not feral. We discovered he is super lovey (loves face and shoulder scratches) and is a purr machine, although still a bit jumpy from loud noises or sudden moves, like he had a home but was abandoned, or maybe he was a tamed barn cat. We live in a country area.

We checked all the lost pet listings for our area and didn't see anything like him, so we made a vet appointment and have a plan for bringing him in. If he is FeLV/FIV negative and isn't chipped, he has a furrever home here. Next Wednesday, he'll be neutered, vaccinated for rabies, and possibly washed for fleas/mites (while sleeping off the anesthesia for neutering), then come home and become an indoor kitty. Joining a household with three other cats will be quite an adjustment for everyone.

We've never done this before, but he's so friendly that we can't leave him to the harsh weather or predators. I suspect he'll become a lap kitty, but we won't know until he settles in.

He found us and we're keeping him if everything works out.

status report

I've had feast or famine days of writing, but I've made good progress since starting, in spite of this. Book 21 is progressing well.

The book isn't what I expected. The episodes within this series vary in form and style. They don't follow a set pattern. This isn't one of intense action sequences like I aim for, but it is one of intrigue and plans within plans. It's like the in-series fictional game of Trellix. L'Ni has a mission, and he intends to succeed. He's playing a dangerous game with his life, but it's all part of a broader plan of success, if he gets it right and if his bond with Nya is as effective as he hopes. It's a story of present events with flashbacks to fill in the backstory to reach such a dangerous point.

The word count right now sits at 10,000 words. My goal with each book in this series is 40-50K words. The good writing days generally make up for the bad days. As I said, feast or famine, but that's because I'm still dealing with the crud after being sick in September. I've talked to people who have said this stuff lasts a while. Ugh! I'm past sick of being sick. Unfortunately, it seems to have to run its course. Fortunately, I've figured out how to minimize the problems with it. It's not a cure, but it minimizes my need for meds that make my brain fuzzy to the point of not being able to write.

If I'm careful, maybe I can finish a first draft in early January. That's my goal anyway.

Thanks for reading!

Interview with Exorcist Fr. Carlos Martins

Parenting woes

I was given a few more gray hairs tonight, thanks to our youngest child (17 yo). She's responsible and generally well-behaved, but she has her moments.

She disappeared tonight and I expected she wouldn't be gone long, but as it was getting late and she wasn't home, I started to worry a little. I figured she would answer her phone and tell me where she was. (What did our parents do in the days before cell phones?!)

She didn't answer my text. She didn't answer my calls.

I'm a writer. Consider what my imagination started doing... Yeah. I feared I would never see my daughter alive again.

Hubby was at his gaming place, so I called and told him and asked him to try calling her.

A few minutes later, I received a text that she was home. Thank you, God!

I went out to the garage and her car was back. She had gone to a school play and didn't tell anyone, not even her older sister. The play is fine, but me worrying that she could be in a bad accident or abducted is not fine.

I need my evening prayers, our Lord's and Lady's solace. I'm grateful that my child came home safely, but many parents don't have that comfort. My prayers go out to them and their lost children tonight.

God bless and keep you and your family.

Uh, oh... story ideas

I've been doing well to focus exclusively on Forgotten Worlds this long. Usually I'm working on one book and other ideas inundate me. That hasn't happened in a long time. I had an exclusive focus on Forgotten Worlds for six years (since I started planning and writing book 1). I had been able to squelch any spark of other ideas before they ignited into a conflagration.

Today, something came to me that is so amazing--new ideas always are--that I've had to synopsize the full story. It is incredible! Urban fantasy that starts out like it will be horror but then transforms into something much different than expected. It's still a bit dark in places, but it has a bright ending. What makes it different is the religious element of it.

This is typical for the creative mind. We'll see how I feel in a couple of years after I finish Forgotten Worlds. If I put this aside and it still has a grip on me after time away from the idea, I'll know that it's meant to be written. If I can't get it out of my head, I'll know that I need to write it immediately. I could write two books at once. That isn't easy, but with two distinctly different stories, it can be done (Forgotten Worlds and this).

I must confess that I was expecting to be done writing after Forgotten Worlds, but with this idea, I think I've found a new direction for my writing after I'm done with this series. The ideas never truly quit coming.

Once a writer, always a writer.

And so it begins... again

Now that Book 18 is available for your reading pleasure, I've started book 21 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. The tentative title of this is ARMOR.

So far, I have 2,000 words, which tops off chapter 1. In this book, I'll be starting at a point of the story in progress and telling it like I did with Ferious--jumping from the present where the plan is already in action to the beginning of what sets those events in action. But there's a twist--for a change things are going as planned for the characters, just not what you'll expect.

That will make sense when the time comes to read it. I can't tell you more, because this is three books ahead of what you're able to read. Events in the two between books are what lead to this, since each book is like a chapter of a larger story, and I'm not about to give those away. You'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying Books 1-18. Only seven books after that and the series will be done in an exciting series climax. I've kept these books the lengths of barely novel-qualifying length so I can write them faster and also so I can write a wider variety of episodes. Twenty-five books will be just right. I've written nearly every kind of story I could want to write in space opera. Any longer and it would get repetitious. This way, every story is something a little different and fresh for the series. I've really enjoyed what this series has become and hope you do too.

Thanks for reading!

And for those who have been patiently waiting on each book, thanks for your faith in my vision and your support!

It's here!

SINS OF THE FATHER (Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds 18) is now available!

The book went up a couple of days ago and is finally appearing at all the major retailers. Buy your copy today.

In the data stolen from the Issan, Nya discovers her greatest fear about the Ethalian portal research—the Issan have the calculations. In the hopes that the Dirnothril may have more current information, she and her friends decide to investigate the package left for L'Ni on Par Ti'jek. What they find shocks everyone… L'Ni isn't the only former Issan living on the outside.

However, the revelation is the least of concerns. An Inquisitor is ready for L'Ni's arrival, and, unknown to anyone, a more sinister threat lurks on the Cartegos, one that could destroy L'Ni and, through him, Nya.

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Purchase from links at https://www.melanienilles.com/books/sins-of-the-father/.

A couple more days

All the major edits of SINS OF THE FATHER (Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds 18) are done. I'm just in a holding pattern for a day. I thought of something earlier today, got distracted, and forgot. But I remember thinking it was something good, a small tweak that made excellent sense. I'm giving it one more day for that to resurrect in my thoughts. After that, the story is going up. It's ready. I just get very nitpicky and want to constantly try to improve it, but at some point, you over edit. I don't want to reach that point.

This is an excellent story in this series, but I think that of every book, so don't listen to me. This one is about fathers and sons, but not like Nik and his father. This is much different. The theme is very strong in this in multiple ways.

I expect to make the publishing announcement by the end of the week with links to retailers and will send out the book announcement to my email list when I have everything ready.

I don't know if I should warn you of a big event in this book. I think I'll leave the specifics for you to discover for yourself.

Book 18 is coming VERY soon now!

With this book, the series will be about 3/4 published.

Thanks for reading!

Check-in - editing

I hope visitors to this blog are finding the Halloween-suitable religion topics interesting. The truth that demons are real means God is real and that frightens some people more than demons. 😱

Seriously, the videos are new ones coming up in my feed that I find interesting and that seem appropriate for this month.

In the meantime, aside from finding and sharing spiritual warfare videos, I'm editing. Book 18 is coming along well. I've had some busy days where I didn't get much work done, but I still expect to have it done by the first weekend of November, just in time for the holy days of All Saints' Day and All Souls Day, a perfect time for this particular book.

There's another aspect of sharing religion with Book 18 coming up--the title... SINS OF THE FATHER.

Yes, it's a theme building up to the publishing of the book, although that doesn't mean I won't post other videos, just that it's especially suitable right now.

Have a blessed day!

COMING SOON

Thanks for reading!

Catholic priest explains how Lady Gaga made a pact with the Devil

Editing progress

I'm halfway there in edits. It's been interesting, as usual.

In editing, the mind shifts gears to ripping up everything that came out in the writing stage. In writing, the focus is getting the ideas out; and there is some editing along the way. In editing, it's about making it all make sense and read easily, to put it succinctly. All those vague thoughts of things that might be wrong in the first draft rise to the surface and become clear. They drag up other issues with them too that you didn't notice before. This can only happen after time away. Stepping back lets you see the forest through the trees.

For me, the first round is a familiarization round after months away from the particular story. I find some things to fix, but it's more to get back to that story. However, by halfway through the first round on Book 18, I was pretty well shifted into editing mode and caught some major fixes in the later chapters. I also started thinking again about the events of this book when not at the computer and have been making editing notes to apply when I get back to the computer.

I'm in the second round of edits now on Book 18, and this is typically where the rewriting really begins, which it has in earnest. I'll have rewrites in the third round too, but not likely as much as this round. Usually third round major rewrites happen because of seeing how second round edits affected the story. Not all stories have such massive issues. So far, I found an issue with chapter 2 and had a lot of rewriting to fix that this time through. It hasn't been as bad since, but that doesn't necessarily mean the book is ready. It could be that issues aren't getting caught. I'm halfway through this second round right now.

I'll have two more rounds. Typically, I find four rounds of edits is just right. Once I get past major issues in the second and third rounds, the fourth is pretty much all copyedits, which is catching the little mistakes (grammar, typos, double words, missed words, etc.) that get introduced in the rewrites. Sometimes, that copyedit stage doesn't happen until a fifth round, but usually four is sufficient. I do fix minor issues in all rounds of edits, but by the final phase, it's just a minor clean-up process. And by then, I'm past ready to move on.

I've also made some tweaks to the book's description. Summarizing a book into a short teaser is not an easy task, but it's a necessary evil.

In the data stolen from the Issan, Nya discovers her greatest fear about the Ethalian portal research—the Issan have the calculations for portals. In the hopes that the Dirnothril may have more current information, she and her friends decide to investigate the package left for L'Ni on Par Ti'jek. What they find shocks everyone… L'Ni isn't the only former Issan living on the outside.

However, the revelation is the least of concerns. An Inquisitor is ready for L'Ni's arrival, and, unknown to anyone, a more sinister threat lurks on the Cartegos, one that could destroy L'Ni and, through him, Nya.

My goal is to release Book 18 in early November.

Thanks for reading!

What Is A Ghost?

bumps, thumps, and... flowers

This is a little story about signs from heaven.

It started with a picture flying off the wall in front of me... sideways (August 2023). I already posted about that, so I won't repeat the details again. You can follow the link to read that part of this story. To sum it up, however, I took it as a sign that my uncle who died in a helicopter crash in Vietnam 55 years earlier (to the minute of when the picture flew off the wall!) needed prayers to reach heaven. I prayed a rosary novena and never thought of it much until this past summer.

Wondering if I had done enough started to bother me more and more, until August 27 rolled around (the anniversary of my brother's death in 1997--my brother who was absent from the family picture that flew off the wall in August 2023).

That day, I had been in the dining-kitchen area and heard a couple knocks from the dining table and investigated, but nothing was there, except one of the cats sleeping on a chair; she wouldn't have made the sound I heard. Later that afternoon, I was in my bedroom and heard a couple of knocks but dismissed it as the house creaking. That night, I was kneeling in prayer by my bed and nightstand and heard three knocks seemingly from the nightstand. That's when I realized it happened three times that day. It was the anniversary of the death of one of my two brothers, but I had been wondering over the few days prior if I needed to offer more prayers for my uncle, so I started adding my uncle to my rosary intentions and offering daily masses for him.

Then I got sick in September soon after my ten-year anniversary at my day job and took a lot of time off work and worked from home some days, in the hopes of not giving the crud to my boss. I also didn't go to any masses for three weeks. In that time, I offered my suffering as penance for my uncle.

This past week was the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux (the little flower) on October 1; I went to daily mass that day. I had finally been getting back to Sunday and daily masses, although scaring people away with clearing my throat frequently (I'm on antibiotics now, which seem to finally be kicking out the crud). I had asked St. Therese for a sign that my uncle had finally reached heaven after all my rosaries and the masses I had offered up for him. I had wanted to know if I had done enough and could switch to offering masses for my brother and others (aside from the rosaries, which I pray for several intentions).

I didn't know it at the time that those who pray to Saint Therese of Lisieux have been known to receive flowers in answer, usually roses but it can happen with any flowers. Friday morning (yesterday; three days after my request for a sign), I went in to work to find a lovely bouquet from my boss with a note of thanks for 10 years with the organization. I almost never get flowers from anyone, and this was a month after my anniversary date. (I was at work a few days in early September before the first crud hit and in mid-September as I was getting over one illness before the second hit.) I just learned that flowers are the way one gets an answer from St. Therese.

Along with this, I had an incredible joy and good feeling all day that left me puzzled about why I felt so good, and my senses of taste and smell were cranked up high. I found this described as a flower for the soul, also credited to the intercession of St. Therese. That all returned to normal today, but Friday was special.

And today (Oct. 5), the day I realized all this, would have been my brother's birthday. There are no coincidences with God.

The saints are alive in heaven, and to ask their intercession is to honor God's goodness. They are closest to Him and looking upon Him to eternity. From heaven, they help us and bring us closer to God to become saints ourselves. St. Therese is one of many whose intercessions result in miracles and even simple answers like this. 🥰 

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

God bless!

Still looking good on Monday
(added 10/7/24)

----------

10/7/24 updates: 

• I added a picture of how the bouquet looked Monday morning when I went into the office. Still beautiful!
• I removed what I had written about completing a 54-day novena because I realized I hadn't yet reached that count. I made one of my stupid math errors that happens on occasion (especially since I was still dealing with some lingering illness crud that affected my sleep). I have two weeks left to finish the novena, but there's an extra sense of gratitude as I am completing it in appreciation of God's grace through the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• I added another detail from Friday, which had puzzled me at the time but I dismissed, and then I learned from some more research of the flowers of St. Therese--the spiritual flowers. I believe I received this gift as well.

ps- for more on purgatory, check out the Uniquely Mary Youtube channel, which is also included on the Faith Resources tab listings.

Symbols of Tolkien's faith within Lord of the Rings

Something many readers either don't understand or choose to ignore is that John Ronald Ruel Tolkien was a devout Catholic. He incorporated that into Lord of the Rings. I once read that when the Novus Ordo mass became the main format (versus the Traditional Latin Mass), he continued to respond in the Latin responses (instead of English).

In this video is an interesting discussion about the ways that aspects of Tolkien's faith are incorporated into LOTR and some of the deeper symbolisms we don't necessarily think about when enjoying the story.

I write Starfire Angels, especially Forgotten Worlds, from the perspective of my own Catholic faith. I have a special affinity for angels and all that they do for us, especially our guardian angels. Like Padre Pio suggested, I thank my angel every day for taking care of me and helping me. In my deepening faith, I've developed an ability to hear him more clearly, and the outcome of obeying God's will as shared by one's guardian angel (whose job is to bring us to God) is far more rewarding than ignoring Him. (I'm not talking about earthly rewards but spiritual benefits, although often there are more tangible benefits in our lives too.)

The Starfire entities in my Starfire Angels are much like our real guardian angels, the reason they are alternatively known as Guardians. They only provide what is needed when it's needed. This helps the story but it is also based on the Keeper needing to have faith and obeying the Starfire. Keepers have to give up themselves in order to serve the will of the Starfire, like we are asked to give up our free will to love God by complete obedience through the virtues, especially faith, hope, and charity (divine virtues) and the many other virtues He expects from us (which counter sin).

We can choose not to obey, but that way lies damnation and slavery, as described in the discussion in the video above. There is freedom in virtues and absence of sin, which is obedience to God - "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Like only those souls who perfect the virtues will be allowed in the presence of God (no stain of the least sin is allowed, the reason for spending time purging ourselves of the stain of sin before entering heaven), so too will only those Keepers who are virtuous be accepted to bear the power and responsibility of the Starfire shards. The Starfire entities (Guardians) have been known to destroy worlds where evil is too entrenched, just as God throughout the Bible and events since the last letter of the Bible and continuing throughout history has unleashed punishments when humanity has become so evil that a chastisement is necessary.

There are more subtle aspects to the Starfire Angels universe that are based on Catholic theology, but the Pints with Aquinas video started me thinking about this aspect of my world.

God uses each of us to help others; we just need to listen and obey. This song has always been one of my favorites about angels and even describes how we need to be loving to one another, to be angels to others.

You don't have to be Catholic to enjoy it (just as you don't have to be Catholic to enjoy Lord of the Rings or Starfire Angels).

ps--In the Catholic church, October 2nd is the feast day to celebrate our guardian angels.

Book 20... Done

One more book is complete. I finished Book 20 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds yesterday at just over 41,000 words for the first draft. That will change with rewriting and general edits.

Now, I'm giving the reading more attention and will edit Book 18 for publication. I hope to have that ready by early November.

I have Book 21 pretty well outlined, and it should be easy to jump into writing when I'm ready. (I say that now but when the time comes, I'll struggle... 🙄 Never fails, but I always get past that.) A new character that comes in Book 18 has brought a new set of talents and has added some new things I can do with the cast, which made the planned events of Book 21 more interesting.

Now, it's time to shift gears. I won't be saying much here for a while, but I'll try to peak in with some updates or videos I find interesting. I have finished the read-through of Book 2 and uploaded the update with some minor changes. I can definitely see the improvement of the writing that happens after the initial excitement of the first story of a series when I, like any author, settle into the setting and characters.

Before I go, I'll leave this:

I only have five more books to write in this series to finish it. The series is 4/5 written. 🥳

Thanks for reading!

Back into the swing of things

Two viruses in a row, back-to-back is an awful way to be sick. Just as I was recovering from one, including my sleep, I had the second to contend with. Now, that's passing by, at last. On a good note, I'll have immunity for those illnesses at least through the winter. I'm glad to get those out of the way now, because winter is always very busy for me.

Writing

And this winter, I expect to publish Book 18 and write Book 21 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds, so I want to be able to get that done. I have just a few hundred words left of Book 20 to finish a scene, although I could add another if I want, but I'm not sure if that's needed. It will end up right around 41,000 words, at least in the first draft.

I also have the reading project of my previous books in this series.

Gardening

And now that fall is here, we're coming to the end of the growing season. Since I've been feeling better, it's been time to catch up on a few items. One of those was the rhubarb. It was getting out of control again. It's been 4-5 weeks since I last harvested. The stalks were pretty thick, but there were still a lot of them. I left a good 1/4-1/3 on the plants to keep them viable through winter. We're not expecting a hard freeze this week, but the lows are getting close to that first freeze or frost of the season. Below is the final harvest of rhubarb cleaned and drying on the kitchen counter. This is about the amount I end up harvesting each time from the two plants. It should fill 4 or 5 gallon freezer bags (left as stalks) about 2/3-3/4 full each. That's about the right amount for a good rhubarb crisp. Since I'm the only one in my house who likes rhubarb, some of this will go to friends.

I don't have pics of the peppers and cucumbers. Those have been pretty steady for the last month and plenty of them. Hubby's been putting them away, at least the bell peppers. He's kept some of the chilis but he has so many serranos that we're giving those to friends too. And there's lots more to come before they freeze off for the season. To extend that, we have some plant blankets, so on the cold nights, we'll cover those and the tomato plant.

I also had one final little handful of strawberries from my growing strawberry patch. The garden spider has moved off, thankfully. (I almost ended up with him on my arm a few weeks ago before I noticed him there.) The strawberry patch has been growing and producing all summer. I just have to keep the birds away with a fence. It's going to be bigger next year as they spread out even more; and I haven't seen any bugs eating on the plants, although I found a caterpillar on them this afternoon. I've provided plenty of room for expansion so I can get a good strawberry patch in that section of the garden. And they're super sweet. 😋 Once I start getting enough, I'll be able to make strawberry-rhubarb deserts. There's a method to this madness. 😉

Last of all, the grapes are done. The birds took some of those, but we had a good amount of grapes this year from the one plant and were able to enjoy our fair share. Since the newer plant grew eight feet this year, I expect it to produce plenty next year, so double the grapes. Both plants reached the top of the trellis and I look forward to them reaching over it next year; the newer plant already is somewhat. With all the leaves, they're a pretty decoration even without fruit.

Back to the rest of life

Soon, I'll get back to my horse. It's been a month, because I've been too sick to get out. Today was a gardening day, however. There's only so much one can get done in a day. And it's a warm day with lots of boxelder bugs and wasps around buildings, so not sure I want to contend with that at the barn.

At least I could get back to church this morning. That was much-needed. And I wasn't the only one recovering from being sick. A few Saturday mass-goers were clearing throats and coughing once in a while like me. I was worried about standing out, but I fit right in.

This crud is making its way through the local community. When my daughter said all her friends were sick and she probably got it from them, I had thought she meant the cough that hubby and I started out with, not the crud she actually gave to the rest of us (with a fever, fatigue, and sinus congestion) after we were recovering from the cough. At least that's all done now.

Anyway, it's good to get back my health and into the swing of things again. I get cabin fever too easily and don't like TV anymore. There's only so much I can tolerate.

Now, time to get back to work on the stories. I have been writing, but now that I'm finishing Book 20 this weekend, it'll be time for editing.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday, Bilbo and Frodo!

Lord of the Rings day

It's September 22nd, the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. I didn't realize it until after I put on Lord of the Rings this morning. I'm too sick to go to church and I'm tired of bingeing Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, or sort of bingeing. I slept through most of those yesterday while dealing with a 104 F fever at its peak (no Tylenol). Needless to say, I didn't get any writing done, or maybe a sentence worth, yesterday.

Today, I'm feeling better--lots of Tylenol and liquids later. Yesterday I lost my sense of taste, so that kind of confirmed what this nasty crud is, at least this second go-round. I was just getting over whatever I had last weekend and Friday night flared up in misery that is letting up somewhat today. I still have a fever, but it's been coming down (102 between Tylenol doses this morning). My sense of taste is improved too.

I was going to put LOTR on yesterday but figured it was easier to put on Pluto TV and let Stargate just play through while I rested and wasn't paying much attention anyway. So, today, Lord of the Rings day, I ended up putting the first movie on without thinking about what day it was until after the opening text showed the date of the start, Bilbo's birthday party... today.

Since I'm feeling better today, I'll try to get back to writing, when I'm not resting. Book 20 of Forgotten Worlds is currently just under 36K words. It's very close to being done. I expect to finish by the end of this month. I also expect that it will be the shortest or second shortest of the books in the series.

Stay healthy!

Thanks for reading!

divine guidance and writing

dreamstime image

I've had one of the nastiest colds of the last two years this past week. For a few days, I didn't get much of anything done. I was mostly resting and coughing. I'm still coughing, but I think I'm on the tail end of this after it started with a sore throat on Tuesday. I took off the rest of the week from the day job to rest, but the cold has persisted. Today, I have more energy and am coughing less, but there's still lots of crud draining down my throat from the sinuses. (Like you needed to know that.)

I'm hoping for a good night's sleep tonight and to be ready to get back to the day job tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. I've had to sleep on the recliner loveseat to be partly sitting up the last few nights because of the crud. I couldn't lay flat in bed or the coughing fits were worse.

While I've been sick, I've been surprised at the ideas flowing for writing when I wasn't resting, considering how fuzzy my head has been from the fatigue. I actually had some good writing, but this weekend I realized something wasn't right about what I had written. I've mentioned that I've also been putting in reading time of the series that's already written and published, but I had set that aside to recover from being sick. And as my devotion to my faith has grown, I've been offering my work to Our Lord in my morning prayers and throughout the day. This afternoon, I had a sudden prompt like I was being told to read, just read (my previous books). It was a strong push against my plans, because I thought I should be writing; but I listened, and not a whole page into reading from where I had left off, something I read struck me with what applied to a small issue in the current WIP (Book 20). I realized what I needed to do, fixed the issue, and was able to move the story forward again.

The prompt to read faded after that, but I know I should get back to that more fully. My focus is on finishing the first draft of Book 20, but I need to make time for reading The Rule of Yonder also. (I finished A New Beginning and uploaded a minorly updated version for the ebook already.) I need to finish reading what I had written in that first introduction of Zaer and Shen for Book 20.

And on that note, Book 20 is up to nearly 33,000 words and things are looking pretty dire for the characters. It'll be interesting to see how they get out of this situation.

Thanks for reading!

Exorcist Fr Dan Reehil Talks About HOPE In These Desperate Times!

If you're living in fear in this world, Fr. Reehil has some good advice for that:

Back to the beginning

It's been six years since I started writing the first book of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. I went back to it a couple of years ago, intending to fix any issues I found, but that's as far as I read. I was too focused on writing.

Now that I'm nearly 4/5 done with the series (will be once Book 20 is done), I think it's time to go back and read everything straight through. Along the way, I'll fix any editing issues that arise, although the books shouldn't require much. Mostly, I need this as a refresher. It's hard to keep it all straight after writing nearly twenty books in six years, even with a wiki file (aka series bible) and these being short novels.

Another reason for the re-read is that I write for myself, so I can go back and read the work and enjoy the journey again, although I also want to write for an audience besides myself, so that is at the back of my mind in writing. Mostly, I want to write something that I'll enjoy going back to, something that's fun and exciting and even clean, a series that harkens back to the days of that type of science fiction series, before sex and vulgarity took over our media. Before the 2000s, certain things weren't allowed in entertainment and a good story had be told above all else. Back then, good stories were told without the shock value of graphic violence, gore, and sex that we have so much of in our entertainment today. That only detracts from a good story, in my opinion. If you need those elements to keep your audience, you're not telling a compelling story. (Star Wars had none of those but became a force to be reckoned with... until it started to modernize.)

I explain a lot of what inspired this series in the foreword of the first book, A NEW BEGINNING, and why I am writing it, so I won't repeat it here, but this has turned into a more fulfilling project than I could have anticipated. I've started reading and don't want to quit, which means I'm not bored with it. 😁 That's good, because I still have a bit over five more books to write. It also means that it's been so long since I started this project that I see it with fresh eyes. In that, I've caught a few things to tweak. I'll update ebooks as I go. The print books will require a bit more work to update the interiors.

I still have a couple years of writing before the series will be completely finished, since I write it all myself--no AI and no ghostwriters--and I am not a full-time writer. This is a good point to reread it all. I've done that with some of my longer novels in the past at about the same point to refresh my view of the story flow so the climax would bring all the necessary pieces together with the right pacing. This is no different, just much MUCH bigger! (In relative size, so far, I've published somewhere around 800,000 words total in Books 1-17. Compared to a series of eight 100,000 word novels (aka "doorstoppers"), this has many more distinct plots and subplots in the overall arc.)

In the meantime, I'm also working on finishing the final segment of Book 20. It was because of this that I decided to reread--I need a refresher on what I've written about Zaer and Shen since I'm finally expounding on their past together in this episode, DARKEST DEPTHS. That made me realize I need to get an overall view of the entire series so far, before moving into the final segment of it.

I hope you're enjoying the series as much as I am.

Thanks for reading!

My blog, my way

Anyone reading my book series will be familiar with one of the characters' mantra of "My ship, my rules."

The same can be said of my blog. I write what I feel like sharing in this space, just like anyone else does with their blogs. If you wish to know who I am, you will learn that here.

My faith influences my writing to varying degrees. I don't preach in my fiction, but I do include aspects of my faith in the characters and the settings. My Catholic religion has been a saving grace for me in our deteriorating world. Before you criticize, I invite you to explore the truth of what the Catholic faith really is, not what you believe it is. You might be surprised at what you discover, such as I've shared on this blog. Try listening to any number of exorcists and Catholic apologetics, or even the conversion stories or archeological proof that the Bible chronicles real history that I have included in the listings on the Faith Resources tab.

This is my blog, my story. My religion is a part of who I am, and for readers who want to know what inspires my writing, my deepening closeness to Jesus Christ through Our Blessed Mother is a big part of who I am. I have found peace and joy and experienced increasing knowledge of who God really is; and I wish that more people could see what I now see. I share what I find helpful in the hopes that others will begin to see truth, and I pray that people's eyes are opened to the incredible reality that hides from those who don't know of or don't accept their blindness to the spiritual realm.

Along with writing updates and tidbits about my stories, I will continue to share on my blog personal items that interest me, including videos and expressions of my religion, my faith, which is a part of me and is infused into my stories. I will no longer hide my Catholic faith, my love of God, in the shadows like it doesn't exist.

In my virtual house, I do things my way. My blog, my rules.

God bless!

Cats and more

Just for fun, because I haven't done something like this in a while...

the oldest two (12 & 13+ years)

the old man - my prayer buddy
and writing buddy

peekaboo! (the youngest - 9 yrs old)
a rare brown tuxedo (not black)

a dragonfly at the window - they've exploded
in numbers in the last month

a wild turkey family crossing through our backyard after
some heavy rain

All three enjoying a nice day
in their catio from Habitat Haven

Now that I have your attention with all the cats, dragonflies, and turkeys, I'll just say that the writing is progressing, although I'm hitting one of those points of stumbling on the plot a bit. Book 20 is over 27K words and I am having to reconsider some ideas to make this work. I'm planning on editing and publishing Book 18 this winter. I would prefer to finish the first draft of Book 20 before doing that; but, even if I don't, I will get Book 18 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds out before Christmas.

A new book trailer

I didn't get much writing done today, but I've been wanting to create a new book trailer for a while. Actually, I wanted to create a series trailer, but what I'd like to do for that would take a lot more work than I have the time to complete presently. So, I focused on a book trailer for the upcoming Book 18 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds.

Since Google is being a butt and not allowing me to post my videos from Vimeo, I'll have to link to it. Sorry; not my preference, but I refuse to give Google any more business than minimally required, such as this blog (I hate Wordpress worse than Google). It's on my website at melanienilles.com and directly at https://vimeo.com/1004968992.

My skills with After Effects are improving, partly because these templates require learning to customize, and finding the right images and music and deciding on the text requires time and testing. In the end, I'm happy with it. (Premiere Pro is easier to work with, but there's a lot more than can be done with After Effects, which is specialized for animations.)

I have a love-hate relationship with book trailers... I hate figuring out what to do but love it once I get going and create an end product that looks great.

This ate up my day, but it was worth it. Tomorrow, back to writing.

Enjoy your weekend!

Catholic priest explains: When the concerts are nothing more than devil worship

The above ties well into the below video also posted today:

Writing progresses...update on Book 20

I hope everyone has a good weekend coming up.

I thought I'd post an update on the writing tonight. I've been making good progress on Book 20 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. It's currently at 25K words, almost 2/3 done.

This book is focused on the small team of Zaer and Shen, mostly Shen. In it, I'll reveal his past, how they met, and some of their adventures (in flashbacks). I don't like to tell a story in flashbacks, because it's too easy to do it wrong, and then it hinders rather than helps a story, but it can work. I used flashbacks for L'Ni's backstory in Book 13, SOUL SHADOW, when Nya was searching his memories to help him escape being trapped in sleep by the dark creature he once served. I did it a bit for Nik's backstory in Book 3, VAULT OF THE CELESTIALS, and Zaer's far back story, before her smuggling days, in Book 12, MESSAGES. The rest of the characters' pasts mostly gets spread throughout the series rather than concentrated. Piling on too much flashback in a book is something I only like to use when I've made sure it makes sense to the story.

However, I wanted to give Shen the attention he deserved. While there is a present trouble taking place, he and Zaer are remembering things about their adventures together related to how they're resolving the present conflict. The story has action, but it will be the last story in this series that might be considered partially unrelated to the main series plot. I say partially because they are on a Starfire world for Nya's mission when they encounter trouble. So, the main plot of the story is essential.

I've been waiting to tell this because I wasn't sure about specifics and Zaer and Shen are not the main focus of the series. However, they are part of the series and I wanted to take the chance to add to what is known about them. It's kind of a reader treat in that way (I hope). For those who might have wanted to know more about how these two became friends, this will hopefully provide that satisfaction.

I also thought I had a cover for this but then realized the image I had didn't really fit what the story had become, so I've redesigned it. It needs a bit of tweaking and a cover blurb yet. When it's ready, I'll post that.

In the meantime, that's all I can say without giving away specifics.

Thanks for reading!