Day 16 of NaNoWriMo and I wrote 2412 words. Suddenly got on a roll.

I’m also getting closer to the end of the story. Still need to figure out the big showdown - I have a feeling the villain will not survive the end of the story, although murder is a tricky thing in Germany. Maybe they’ll disappear him in a clever way…

I’m feeling better, at least about writing. Still haven’t ordered the cover, the snag is getting the description written. But today was an office day, and they always steal quite a bit of energy. Plus my night was rudely interrupted and lack of sleep makes me stupid.

Have some Wolf fun (Alex is in Wolf shape):

Luka scrambled onto the bench in the back, and Alex jumped in with him. Moments later, we were off, the goon driving fast, but not erratically. Maybe he had bought into our plan.

Nobody was inclined to talk much. Alex gave a growl or two, and I assumed that Luka had tried to touch him once again.

“Your dog doesn’t like me,” he eventually said.

“No”, I answered simply, and Alex huffed.

“I like dogs,” Luka went on, sounding a little miffed.

“This is not your average dog,” I said, doing my best to hide my smile. Luka had no idea, and I wouldn’t enlighten him just yet.

Day 14 of NaNoWriMo, and I got nothing.

Yesterday was probably too big of a push. Getting up very early today might have added to it all. I’m also realizing I’m not putting enough of the German Christmas traditions into the story, which means heavier editing than I like.

And I even have my first buyer for the story if I get it out fast. bangs head against desk

Brain is this mix of stress, anxiety, anger and frustration. Because this month is the absolute worst in book sales in over a year. I haven’t sold a single book on Amazon (but I have almost 200 free downloads, yay). Sold a couple on Google Play Store. All of this despite a paid promo early this month.

I do have the plot sorted out. I know what I’ll do for the minor antagonist, while the major antagonist will not escape unscathed. I just have to write it, and that’s where I fail.

Tomorrow is a new day. deep breath

Day 15 of NaNoWriMo, and I wrote 2k words. That actually feels good, and they flowed well.

I’m at a very tense moment in the story - Fred believes that Mark is most likely dead. (I will relieve that tension soon enough, and then they’ll move into rescue and finally showdown mode.)

I’m also almost ready to commission the cover. Looked up the designer, and she’s still there and taking orders. Unfortunately, I need to write a description for the book to go on the back cover. At least I know what I want on the front.

And don’t laugh, but I also need to decide how Fred and Mark actually look. I have a sense of them, but no visual. Fred has German ancestors, so brunette and “normal”, but I might give Mark some PoC ancestors for a change. I don’t think he’s Black, I never got that vibe, but at least something. I’ll tell the designer, and she’ll do something great with it.

Have some Fred. (Alex is in Wolf shape.)

These goons had killed Mark. I had to face that brutal fact, because Luka had admitted that those were their orders.

The rage I felt at that thought was frightening. Right now, I was ready to tear out their throats with my bare hands. If they had killed Mark, they did not deserve to live. And I would find Frank next and do the same to him.

I heard a car pull into the yard and hissed. I also heard Alex’s nails click on the floor as he jumped to his feet.

“Sit,” Luka whispered, and I hid a laugh.

Alex would definitely not listen to his former friend.

Car doors slammed, shoes crunched on wet gravel.

Someone laughed, and the fury inside me burned even stronger.

Cover Reveal!

While I was out with my sister, enjoying an awesome day in the snow, my cover designer finalized the design, and now I’m sharing the cover with you.

I love Fred and Mark. Love how sweet they look, love the background and the fact that she incorporated one of my very own images in it (of the tower with the city gate in it).

Enjoy the Wolves!

Day 18 of NaNoWriMo, and suddenly, the Wolf Novella is almost done. Wrote 1500 words today.

The showdown happened a lot faster than I expected, but Mark had no patience left, and the villain lost his nerves anyway.

Now I have one really sweet chapter left to write and decided that the Epilogue will be Christmas Eve. Looks like the story will clock in a little under 40k.

Day was weird. I did quite a few chores while waiting for our janitor. He never came, and I hate that. I would have liked to go on a long walk… I also had a lovely chat with my sister and then a Zoom with a friend. Good for the soul.

Have some Wolves:

It took ages for the police to sort through everything. Fred was an absolute star and handled all the officials with skill and calm. Alex and I got away with pretending to be dogs, and none of the police even questioned our presence. One of them even patted my head and praised me for defending Maria. I wagged my tail for her, but we spent most of the time lazing around in the kitchen.

I need to find a word for those days that feel as if I’m locked in a dark cave or something. No writing. Lots of reading and playing Titan Quest.

In good news, I managed to order the cover for A Wolf’s Christmas today, so that’s a huge step forward. Should have it next weekend. I’m quite excited about that, because the cover designer has always managed to pick faces that work really well with my characters.

I also set up my video channel on PeerTube, which is the Fediversion of YouTube, just without ads, algorithms and spying on people. It’s part of my move away from the TechBro internet, at least much as possible. You can actually subscribe to it! And there is an RSS feed, not that it’s worth it for my rare video.

https://makertube.net/c/hannahs_words_and_more/videos

So some stuff happened, just no writing. I’m trying to be okay with that.

Day 20 of NaNoWriMo, and I feel like I’m done. Didn’t write again.

I know what I need to do to finish the story: One more sweet chapter and the epilogue (which will be Christmas Eve). And then I need to go through the thing and sprinkle Christmas stuff all over it. Plus add more emotions and heartbreak just before the showdown.

It’s all very doable, but today I went and hibernated again… well, not quite. I sent out an invoice for my proofreading and added a video to my new FediChannel.

So it’s not a lost day at all.

Instead of a snippet, would you help me find a better name for the Villain? Can you pick a German name that you’d love to hate?

Not an easy day today.

My Wolf novella is not doing well. Not sure how to market it better. Of course, Google has stopped reporting sales, they are getting worse that way.

In good news, I sent off email with answers for an author interview, I hope that’ll get posted. I promoted South in it. Will share if and when it gets published.

Wrote 250 words for the Vampires and I’m finally wrapping my mind around what is going to happen in the upcoming fight. I also swapped out one Greek hero name for another one (want to use the Pegasus tamer for my Mustang series, because of the irony). snicker

Winter Solstice is in two weeks, and really, I’m so fed up with the dark and the cold… but have some Melody and enjoy that.

For now, Melody had to draw as many of them away from the nest as she could.

But maybe, killing one would make the others angry enough to swarm her. That might hurt, but it might also be fun. Melody allowed a feral grin to steal over her face, hidden underneath the balaclava hood, just before she lifted the talisman and thumbed the trigger.

A beam of bright, white light shot out from the talisman, and she heard the unmistakable scream of a disintegrating shade. Before it had even faded in the wind, several more shades hissed in fury.

“Come and get me!” Melody sang out, turned and ran.

Day 21 of NaNoWriMo (not making the full 50k, no chance).

But I wrote the final chapter, which is a bedscene, basically, just skipping the actual deed. The Epilogue will be Christmas Eve, with the presents and everything.

And I’m stuck on presents? Who gets what? I need presents for Mark, Fred, Alex, Maria (Alex’ mom) and Luka (Alex’ friend).

Ideas? Please help me out!

Day… never mind. NaNo is basically done.

Didn’t write today, but I survived the office day, an unexpected change of plans, had a loooong and very good phone call with an old friend and former colleague and found an awesome new review for West Flows on Amazon DE.

In addition, I got a preview of the cover for A Wolf’s Christmas and it’s already looking amazing. It needs a tweak or two, and then it’ll be brilliant. I’ll probably show it off in a couple of days.

I have most of the Christmas presents sorted. Yes, there will be two ugly Christmas Sweaters. I just had to… chocolate, maple syrup, and possibly a book (still have to figure out which one).

Even so, let me hear your brilliant ideas about more presents!

(Oh, and I just got my nephew to send me pics of Frankfurt Airport so I can get the Christmas deco right. That will make the editing so much more fun!)

Have today’s sunrise in lieu of a snippet.

Not sure what happened to the day.

I ended up writing about 500 words for a prequel for a new vampire series Writer Brain keeps pushing at me. I hope I can keep it to a short novella. Title is “Penumbra”. Yes, it makes sense.

I read a comfort book or two, played Spider Solitaire, cooked food (need to improve my sauce-fu) and kind of lost myself.

Let me share the beginning of “Penumbra”. (My character kept surprising me, such fun!):

It was raining.

Of course, it was raining. This was bloody New York, after all, and at this time of the year, it was just as likely to snow as it was to rain.

Leander flipped up the collar of his coat for a little more protection before stepping out from under the eaves and onto the sidewalk. He walked fast, with the stride of a man who knew exactly where he was going and why.

In truth, he was just trying to put distance between himself and the body. Discovering it had been a little shock, but he’d grabbed what he had been sent to find and hurried to get away, leaving no trace of his presence.

Leander kept walking, keeping his stride, slipping out of the neighborhood, making sure to shake any tail, ignoring the rain. Something had not been right, something was bothering him, and it wasn’t the body.

It certainly wasn’t the first one he had seen, and more than likely also wasn’t the last. At least this time, there hadn’t been much blood. It was always easier without the blood. Something about that always made his stomach queasy. Not that he would admit that to anyone. He was a damn P.I., and he was good at what he did. Nobody needed to know about his reaction to blood.

Not a lot of writing - I do need to think about the next chapter of the Penumbra Prequel. There is a side character I need to develop more. (And knowing me, that side char might well become a main char in a sequel.)

On the other hand, I did edit (clean up) about half of the Wolf story. Added footnotes for the German sentences and marked them as German (I hope that will help with the audiobook).

Nothing new from the cover designer yet. I hope I can do a cover reveal tomorrow or Wednesday. Still planning to release on Thursday, but Friday would also be just fine.

So no snippet today, sorry. But help me find a good place to share my Penumbra work… would appreciate pointers.

I did it!

I just wrote The End under the Epilogue of the Wolves, after a thorough edit.

Tomorrow, I’ll do a final, final read-through and plonk the file into Atticus. Tomorrow evening, I’ll have the epub and the print PDF, and can tell my cover designer about the page numbers.

I saw the final cover just now, and it looks awesome! I hope can find the time to do a quick cover reveal. Will upload to all stores on Thursday.

I’ve done this so many times. And yet, it’s still exciting!

Feeling hugely accomplished: I just formatted A Wolf’s Christmas and gave the cover designer the number of pages in the PDF.

Now we wait for the finalized cover. I’m fairly confident I can upload both versions tomorrow.

Phew.

Okay, so no uploading today. sigh

Cover designer hasn’t finished the cover yet, which is fine. But it also means no cover reveal. I do hope I can get all of it done tomorrow, but it will be a close thing.

You see, my sister comes over for the weekend, arriving around noon tomorrow, and while she knows I might have to take time out of the visit for my book, she also has PLANS.

I’m writing a little for Penumbra. Still need a good title for that little prequel (and all the others that might follow).

“Winston. We have at least one Shade in this town, and we really must stop it. We need better leads. I’m sure it has already killed, and I know it’ll kill again.”

“Well, why don’t you go and explain all this to the good detective? I’m sure he’ll hurry up just for you.” Yes, Winston was good at sarcasm. He had plenty of time to perfect it.

“You know we can’t do that.” Melody whirled and stalked away, unable to face that man any longer. Unfortunately, she needed him. Nobody was better than Winston at digging up lost information.