An update to what I’m working on right now.
Back in 2014 I pantsed my way through NaNo, wrote 75,000 words of a novel without finishing it, but I was utterly in love with the idea for it. That “novel” was actually the first two books of what’s turned out to be a series that I’ve since named Women in Waistcoats. I don’t talk about what I’m writing online a lot, preferring to wait until I’m further into the process to release my fiction-children into the world, but given the state of things lately, I figured we could all use some distraction. So get prepped for the over-share, because here it comes.
Women in Waistcoats is an historical fantasy version of the Regency era. (That’s Regency era as defined by the genre more than by time period. If we were going historical eras, it’d technically be Georgian, but that’s a split hair in the scheme of things.)
What’s historical fantasy about it? It’s gender-swapped, meaning matriarchal society.
What do I mean by gender-swapped? Titles and property ownership are a woman’s domain, and there’s matrilineal succession.
Is there any magic? Nope. History took its left turn back at Boudica’s revolt, so Rome never had much influence in the Isles, but the story doesn’t have any specific magic elements to it.
I’m currently taking that first draft from years ago and breaking it into pieces. There’s a prequel that I’m working on with the working title of Ace of Spades, and the working title for the first book is Half Flash & Half Folly.
Does this world sound interesting to you? I’m currently searching for beta readers for the first part of the prequel. You can sign up to beta here. Or, if you’d just like to read the first section of the book, you can download it from BookFunnel and sign up to my mailing list here.
In the meantime, if you’re new to my work, allow me to suggest Quarrels with the Sky, which is available to read online for free.
“Few people practice manners, these days.”
Madeline didn’t expect to get news of her mother’s death via text message. She didn’t expect to get news of someone’s distaste at her headlights in her head, either.
Quarrels with the Sky is mythological fiction / urban fantasy story. It’s my first attempt at straight-to-reader stories. I’m writing it on Tablo. I hope that the reading experience is as wonderful as the writing experience on it. (If you have a preferred free-to-read platform, let me know. I’m open to expanding.)
I tend to be a longer form writer. The ladies at my writers’ group are usually the first to goggle at me whenever I talk about short stories I’m working on or finishing. I currently have two, one of which is going to be available for free to mailing list subscribers. So keep an eye out.
My secret (not so secret now, I guess!) passion is interactive fiction. As I’m releasing books and such, expect extras and hidden treasures to show up here that you can’t find anywhere else.
The other thing it means is that I’ve come to enjoy writing text based games.
If any of you remember Zork, you’re on the right track. I use a program called Twine to make HTML playable games. It’s sort of like a book that is a video-game. Or like a slightly more complex version of what the folks are doing over at Inklewriter. (Though I am working on an urban fantasy adventure in Inklewriter as well, so long as I can get the variable system down right!) You can find both the games I’ve completed here.
As you can tell, I keep a lot of irons in the fire. Stay tuned for more~!
