It doesn't seem like more than a few weeks since Tamara's Trials finished, and there's even been a couple of diaries to fill the gap, but work has now commenced on the new series which I can announce will be:
I noticed a strange behaviour yesterday, the number of 'reads' for one of my stories differed from the total hit for the same story on the 'my stories' page.
This morning, Chapter 11 of Unaccounted Gains 3 has 491 reads on the front page and 699 in My Stories (the same number is shown within the story itself). So, why would the front page counter differ? I'm also pretty sure this is not related to my account having checked a few others.
I had an idea earlier today. One of the problems with the way that I'm writing at the moment is that it's one story from two viewpoints in two series!! So, to keep Tammy's story as contiguous as possible I've added a diary to cover the gaps.
On a related note, I have my son in town at the moment so normal writing time is being given over to family matters. This is causing delays to Unaccounted Gains. Apols.
It's been a case of ups & downs recently, none more so than the past few days.
As I've previously said, I've been suffering depression for a few months but it is under those conditions that I find I can concentrate on my writing as I effectively block out everything else. That doesn't mean that I ignore my teenage daughter, some chance of that, but calls & emails are unanswered for hours, or days.
Tamara's Trials is heading towards conclusion and the writing emphasis will switch to Book 3 of Unaccounted Gains. I'm afraid that one or two loose threads will be left over after Trials finishes, but these will be picked up at a later date.
BTW To date Trials is 150,000 words, my longest piece so far, with the total Tammysphere running at 310,000 words - so far.
I suppose it's inevitable that eventually I would make a boo boo that required an already-published chapter to be edited in such a way as the story changes, or at least one aspect of the story. I mixed up two characters' histories and simply changing the name wasn't an option. This made me wonder, how do I prevent this from happening again? The short answer is that I can't, an unforced error is just that.
An apology to those waiting for Tammy's adventures (and there are plenty of them to come) but I'm engaged in a complete rewrite of Chapter 31 and now see that I've made a boo boo in Chapter 30, by mixing two characters up. That's going to require a partial rewrite to fix as it can't simply be explained away.
It's all going to take some time and I'm hoping RL keeps itself at bay.
I said in an earlier blog that I was depressed. I just didn't know how bad it was until it reached absolute rock bottom. A couple of weeks ago I finally admitted to myself that I needed to sort things out, including finding help.
I'm having broadband problems again as my fibre went down sometime last night pb (post Bike). I've spent time today, after teaching my over 50s IT class, trying to fault find but right now have no outside world connection using that route although my internal network is still up. That much is useful as my scribblings are not stored on the laptop that I use for writing, all my work is stored on the big beastie (12Tb of storage).
I have over 3000 words of Chapter 16 of Tamara's Trials ready to roll, It's been edited, re-edited and re-re-re-edited but I can't use it, yet!
The Tammy stories are written against dates and the chapter written for Monday 26th Jan should be 2nd Feb! So, I have nothing ready for Chapter 16 as of 1430 GMT, the chapter already written will become number 21 or 22 or 23 etc, eventually!
Can I manage 2000 words plus in the next few hours? Let's see!
I just came across a Burns Night greeting from the senior police officer on the Isles of Scilly, as featured in Unaccounted Gains. Attached to that greeting was this photo of the Police Station on St Mary's.
I occasionally make reference to the weather in Scotland, where the Tammy stories are set, but regardless of how well weather can be described in writing, nothing beats a video.
This was filmed on 9th of Jan and is the ferry between the Orkney Isles and Scrabster, about 4 miles from Thurso. Have your paper bags ready!
I've been feeling a bit down recently, partly post-Christmas blues, partly no work coming in, partly money's tight.
When I last had a major downer, when I was going through divorce and child custody issues, I wrote. That was when, in 2008, some of my stories started and many of the story threads I imagined are now being written into something coherent.
Happy New year to everyone, whichever time zone you find yourself in.
I rejoined BCTS during 2014 having been absent for a while. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time back here and love the community atmosphere. I hope my stories have contributed too, having concluded two in the past week.
My aim is to be a better author in 2015, and a better person too.
Unaccounted Gains book 2 has now concluded slightly sooner than originally intended but concluded nonetheless after 32 chapters, making the story so far 72 chapters long, I have no idea of the wordcount as yet! It will now have a break whilst I concentrate on Tammy's story. I'm not completely happy with the next chapter of Tamara's First Christmas so there will be some rewriting before it's published.
It's that time of year when stories take a backseat to real life. That means there may be sporadic story delivery for a week or so. Abnormal service will be restored in due course.
As many will know, I separated from my ex in 2008 but was able to gain custody of my (then 9yo) daughter in 2010. Since then I have made best efforts to maintain contact between my daughter and her maternal family, albeit within the limits of a restrictive court order.
Tomorrow, assuming that I don't have to re-edit everything again, I'll be trying something that maybe hasn't been tried before on this site. Let's just say that I'll be posting chapters from two stories at the same time. I might say more but you'll have to tickle me into submission first.
As I said a week and a half ago, Tamara's Debut ends with the next posting. Writing for the next installment (Tamara's First Christmas) has now reached 40,000 words but I want to finish it before I start posting so there will be a gap. In story terms, however, Debut finishes on December 12th and the Xmas story starts on December 13th.
What I have not yet decided is how to release it, whether one day at a time, in cliche cliffhanger (ie Bike) style, or as a novel. Debut, as a completed story is 108,000 words and I'd expect Xmas to be a similar size.
I've just posted chapter 17 of Tamara's Debut, due to editing that series will end on Chapter 24. Most of what was Chapter 25 now forms the intro into Chapter 1 of Tamara's First Christmas. As of now 20,000 words for that series have been written and posting will commence shortly after 'Debut' concludes, the story as written is now many thousands of words beyond where I left it in 2010.
Unaccounted Gains Book 2 is continuing with a posting schedule of every 2 days (ish). It is brand new, never published elsewhere.
Tamara's Debut has 25 chapters and was first published in 2009/2010 on BCTS. It has been revised and re-edited prior to republication.
Eve Book 2 contains some material from earlier publication but is mostly new, I haven't decided when it will be published yet as I don't want to be posting more than two series at the same time.
The sharp-eyed amongst you may already have noticed some logo changes for the Eve & Unaccounted Gains series as each is now displaying Book 1. The Series page has been suitably modified with a new uber organisational page created, There is also now an Eve 2 page awaiting content, as a teaser.
What this means is that both Eve & Gains will be finishing soon in their Book 1 guise. One or both may take a break whilst I work on republishing Tammy, starting with the Hallowe'en special.
The next chapter of Unaccounted Gains, number 30, may take a day or two as I've deleted a 1000 words from the draft chapter and commencing a rewrite. Unfortunately I wrote myself into a corner that would have taken a miracle to get out of. It was a shame as the dialogue was pretty snappy.
Eve reposts will continue on a 1 or 2 day basis until Book 1 ends, then there will be a break until book 2 starts.
There's no timescale for Tammy to be reposted as yet but I might produce a few standalones as time permits.
It's just another day in Chateau Shiraz. Being a single parent isn't always easy, particularly when there's a teenager in resident, but I can recall it feeling almost the same when I was with my ex.
It's been a little strange going back over stories I wrote 5 years ago and hadn't looked at for 2 years. Whilst I can remember the Eve plot, some of the chapters surprise me when I read them, prior to editing & revision. Of course, that does help the grammar checking as it's not a very familiar text.
I'm running several chapters ahead with Eve, but as I warned earlier the chapter numbers have changed.
Eve is being extensively revised and my re-editing is running a few chapters ahead of publishing at the moment. The chapter numbers will no longer tally with the previous publication of Eve. Book 2 is planned but not written. That might be an autumn/winter project.
Unaccounted Gains is a side project that will appear irregularly. Tammy requires plenty of work before I see it fit again, although Gabi was my editor first time around so the spelling should be okay!
I last wrote two years ago about my quest for my ex partner to pay maintenance for our daughter, who lives solely with me. In the past two years several calls have been made to the Child Support Agency but the situation remains the same. Today's call confirmed that there are no employment/tax records nor current benefits claims, so she has no liability to pay until one of these conditions is met.
I've just published "Human Resources" which first appeared on BCTS in 2011 as "Martha". There's been a major edit/revision of the original text. I'm not sure which of my stories will get the edit treatment next, perhaps even a new one? I'm afraid Eve & Tammy will have to wait a while, especially if there are any new chapters in the pipeline.
I discovered that the last edition of Bike I'd read was just past 2000. Trying to catch up the 300 in the meantime and it's hard work. Loving it again, despite (or because of) the cliffhangers
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
