Tag Archives: Houndmaster

Coffee & Conversation: Do you hoard anything and, if so, what is it?

09 Monday Mar 2020

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Notebooks! All the notebooks!

This is assuming you don’t mean books. Assuming that hoarding books is as natural as breathing for anyone who reads (and who actually has space) and that using books would be a cop out for that reason.

So my answer is notebooks. I have far, far too many. There are some people who only buy a notebook when they need one. Others who might grab a couple and keep them on hand. I have probably close to 200. And that’s just a guess because I’m not counting.

To be fair, not all of them are large. Some are super tiny, like index card size, and some are even smaller, talking you could string them on your keychain if you wanted, or stuff them in your pocket. I have one shelf that is two layered deep in unwritten-in notebooks because it’s shorter/smaller notebooks in the back and an extra layer of those super tiny ones in the front.

I’ve got spiral-bound ones, glued ones, some with locks, some with leather ties, some with recycled paper, some with glitter. I’ve even got one with a furry cover. Some were super cheap. A few not so much. Many were presents. It’s a go-to gift for me for a lot of people because they know that notebooks are always appreciated no matter what size/shape/style, especially so if they’re pretty.

Whenever I get knee-deep in a new novel idea or start a new challenge or just need to hit the refresh button on my mind, I’ll go sift through my notebooks to find one that fits the idea I have just right.

The one for my Houndmaster books is a floppy green that used to have a tie but it broke because I used it so much.

The one I’ve set aside for my shaman stories if I ever get to them is a pale blue folded cover with wood rods keeping it shut.

The one for Canvas Blues is a spiral-bound plain tan one that had hard covers so I could write short ‘yesteryear’ pieces whenever I was out and about.

The one for my poems was a gift. Feels like leather, but is probably fake, has a cute lock-clasp and a stone embedded on the front cover.

The one I used (but haven’t touched in years) for my DaSunder Chronicles is a smaller gold mottled, hard-covered notebook that reminded me of the desert.

It’s an obsession. But I guess it’s better than say, food wrappers or nail clipping or anything equally gross.

~Emmi

Way to a Man’s Heart

22 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by in Two Line Stories

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Do not gravitate toward the man, thinking the similarities in body translate to like-mindedness, for that would be your undoing.

Rather, flatter his hounds, praise their aptitude and direct your requests to them, for then, and only then, will he consider you worthy as anything more than a next meal.

~Emmi

Image by Sara Forlenza

This was one of my favorite image prompts this year, which I’m sure does not surprise you at all, for it reminds me of a houndmaster in all his primal glory ;)

What would your two line story be for this image?

Sunday Stories Update

03 Saturday Mar 2018

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Most of February was spent in short story mode, which made me do a lot of reflective thinking for the coming years. While I love writing short stories, love how some of the ideas I get for them end up within my novel-length projects, I don’t like how much time they take away from me completing longer projects.

During times when I’m working on shorts, I’m heavily distracted from those longer projects I need to be finishing. Jumping back and forth ruins productivity because then I’m not steeped in just one project and must constantly be looking things up and re-acquainting myself with plot lines and character developments.

I thought I could solve this problem my merely limiting my blog post stories to only flash pieces I could knock out quickly. Unfortunately, after striving to do this in the past month, I’ve come to the conclusion that a story’s length is just whatever it wants to be.

So I’m making the announcement now that come 2019 I shall not be publishing short stories every month on my blog anymore.

This does not affect this year’s plans, as I already have a number written or in stages of being written, so 2018 there will still be a short story published the first Sunday of every month. Including tomorrow! (I’m excited about tomorrow’s because the picture for the prompt was sooo pretty and it’s one of my favorites that I’ve finished so far this year!) :)

I’m toying with a few other ideas, but I really want to focus on novel-length output, so I’m not announcing anything just yet. I want to have time to consider different options because while I like giving free words, I also know most of you are generally more interested in reading extra bits about characters you already know and love rather than newbie characters introduced and forgotten about within the space of a few short words.

So there’re possibilities, but I can’t promise anything just yet because I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

If you’ve stayed with me during this long post, I’d like to add that Pup Games is on sale for this weekend only for .99$! There are a lot of other Fantasy and Sci-fi titles also available for .99$ a piece, so if you’re a fantasy lover with or without romance, you can check out the promo here:

~Emmi

January ’18, Briefly

01 Thursday Feb 2018

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A Couple of Announcements

— I’ve recently finished a poem called ‘Ode to Coffee’ to give you an idea where my brain’s been recently —

— The publisher for my DaSunder Chronicles, Loose Id, has announced they are shutting their doors come May of this year. This means that at that point both Shatter by Glass and Murder in Color will have a short period where they will no longer be available. I have begun work to make sure to keep this time frame as short as possible and plan to have paperback versions also available upon republication —

— Paperbacks of Those Bloody Christmas Elves, Haunt of the Wilds and Song for the Wilds are now available. I’m in proofing stage for two more. This was one of those projects that kept seeming more and more impossible until I actually did it. And then, it was super easy, especially now that I have a template created for the formatting. –

–I’ve been in blog-prep mode lately. Scheduling out posts ahead of time so I can focus on my longer projects. Still knee-deep in this mode with about half a dozen shorts in some sort of progress from outline to editing —

Hope your resolutions are still going strong!

Chapter One of Pup Games (A Houndmaster Novel)

09 Saturday Dec 2017

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There are 16 days till Christmas. 12 days till Pup Games is released. 8 days till poem release. 5 days till Co’mil’s Interview. 3 days till La’vii’s Interview.

But there are 0 days until you get to read the first chapter of Pup Games!

Edit: I guess I should have added this link: Pre-order Here!

Chapter One

The first time I saw Co’mil he’d been schooling my brother on the sands of a doghouse. He won that fight with only three dogs, one of whom who had been gravely pregnant and had mostly just stood growling on the sidelines. My brother, a good seven years older than me with a pack of nine, had been left embarrassed, bloody and bitter in the center of the sands. I’d been left hard and gaping, my gaze locked on Co’mil’s wry expression as he shared a loving, celebratory kiss with one of his dogs.

I spent the rest of that night oscillating between listening to my brother moan about the unfairness of it all and imagining Co’mil’s thick arms around me, pushing me into creative positions that my thirteen-year-old self thought were creatively exciting, but in retrospect were admittedly tame.

Co’mil featured in arguably just about every fantasy I had after that for two years. Then I found flesh and blood partners more than willing to turn those fantasies into realities and Co’mil became nothing but an occasional nostalgic remembrance—as if a fifteen-year-old pup could even understand nostalgia, let alone feel it. The first time I tasted reality, lips soft against mine, nerves sparking, that unrequited crush shriveled to ash.

Or so I’d thought. Continue reading →

November ’17, Briefly

01 Friday Dec 2017

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Holiday season is upon us! I’m already exhausted and I haven’t even started to wrap presents yet. Actually, I’ve only barely begun on decorations, if a table runner can be called a beginning.

November’s accomplishments and an announcement:

First half of November was spent conjointly finishing up a couple of things for Those Bloody Christmas Elves and working on Lost Isle. However, instead of this novel being set up for sale in December, I’ve set up Pup Games. The reason behind this is two-fold.

The first is because during the beginning of the month when I was working on finishing up the last few chapters in Lost Isle, I came to a difficult dilemma. I realized that in order to write the story I wanted to write I needed to toss the outlined ending I had in store and add another two plot-threads. This meant that instead of having a shorter 60k novel that I thought it would be, the novel is going to be closer to 100k. Which was something I wasn’t prepared for.

This change would also create a cliffhanger-type ending within the romantic arc rather than the HFN that was originally intended, which was the second problem because I don’t want to publish a cliffhanger without the second novel shortly following.

So I’ve made a swap in the schedule, exchanging Pup Games for Lost Isle. Pup Games is now set up for a December release since it’s a standalone with no cliffhanger ending. While Lost Isle will be released in the spring, closer to when it’s sequel will come out.

PUP GAMES
(A Houndmaster Novel)
December 21, 2017
Pre-order Now

There’s a time for games…

No crush compares to reality. That’s what La’vii learns when the pregnancy of one of his dogs puts him in close proximity to his unrequited puphood crush. Only, instead of being worse than La’vii’s dreams, reality is far more intriguing than he’d ever imagined.

Co’mil is strong and sure, a steady presence that is everything La’vii’s ever desired. And at this moment, with a litter born and wreaking havoc in his pack’s collective mind, he can use all the support he can get. But Co’mil’s friendly, though reserved, behavior is confusing, his interest evident, but his rejection firm, leaving La’vii conflicted and desperately wanting more.

As his puphood crush dissolves, La’vii finds himself caught in the throes of a far more real emotion that seems as if it’ll never be reciprocated. By the time he discovers what Co’mil truly needs, La’vii isn’t sure he’s the houndmaster for the job or whether the reward is even worth the challenge.

A houndmaster coming of age novel set in the same world as The Wilds Duology.

I hope you all are having a lovely holiday season :)

September ’17, Briefly

30 Saturday Sep 2017

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Back to school season! That means words can be completed without distraction! Massive editing can be taken on! Research doesn’t become a befuddled mess in my brain! Means I finished a bunch of work :)

1) Lost Isle (The Ocean’s Aviary I)

Received Cover files and Teasers! And oh, my gosh I’m so excited to share with you. It’s gorgeous and awesome and…and won’t be revealed until Oct. 22nd!

2) Pup Games (A Houndmaster Novel)

Finished! Sort of! The words are all there at least. It’s waiting on further editing phases, but I’m really happy with how it turned out–except that one scene that needs the prose massively cleaned up. I must have been having a ‘wat r wurds’ day when I wrote that. So plenty of work left to accomplish to keep me busy! La’vii is a sweetheart compared to some of my last few MCs.  Definitely a nice change of pace :) And Co’mil is… He’s the kind of man who pretends to be harder than he is because he’s been hurt too many times. But maybe I’ve said too much :O

This one isn’t a grand, journey-style adventure like The Wilds Duology, but I think it’s fun to add pieces to the world. Extra character introductions and wider possibilities. There’s another standalone Houndmaster Novel in the works as well that is also mostly set in Crafton–Doghouse Negotiations. Only about 15% of the way through this one, but it has more to do with the city and some of the darker things going on there.

3) Storm Dancer (Living Metal I)

This was that Steampunk story I told you about. You know, the one I claimed was just a novelette. Yeeaahh, it’s now the first in a novella series. I finished this as well. Coming mid-to-late 2018. It’s about a mechanic and his favorite, and famous, client.

4) Somewhat Secret Project

Mostly I did brainstorming/outlining for this one. Have a couple thousand words completed as well. No clues.

~

Hope you are all having a productive autumn as well :) Just in the past two days, around where I live has finally come out of a humidity spike and the heat has been lingering around 70F. It’s pumpkin spice time and colorful leaves…and boots!

PS: Full disclosure, I don’t actually drink pumpkin spice. I’m a Christmas peppermint kind of gal.

Lines to Read By (August)

10 Sunday Sep 2017

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Here are some of my favorite teaser lines from last month :)

All from Pup Games (mm fantasy romance/coming of age novel) except for the one with the picture. That one was a writing prompt I had fun with.

<3 you all! Hope your weekend has been going well :)

 

Continue reading →

August ’17, Briefly

01 Friday Sep 2017

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Considering I knew August would be a low-output month, I’m pretty pleased with what I was still able to accomplish. Libraries with Mine-craft to eat into children’s brain cells are the best.

1) Worked on Steampunk Novelette

Still unnamed, but here’s crossing my fingers I can get it finished by the end of next month despite everything else I have to do.

2) Houndmaster WIPs

I have words completed in two more novels. Wrote about 12k total between them, some fleshing out of outlines. My hope is to spend a good chunk of 2018 finishing up this monster of a trilogy that terrifies me.

3) Pup Games (A Houndmaster Novel)

Another 20k done. Did edits on what I’d completed sometimes when the library was loud. Also created the base rules for a game in the story since I’d only had the bare bones before.

As a side note, the name on the room is literally “Quiet Study Room” and yet there are people who insist on having full-on phone conversations in there, loud enough I can hear the people on the other end. People who come in, claim a table and chat. People who bring in small children despite the library having a huge, and pretty good, kid’s section–I should know since mine were over there. One day there was even a woman in there tutoring an elementary-aged kid in math. I passed not one, not two, but THREE empty tables outside the quiet room in the main part of the library that day. I just don’t get it. Is there something difficult about the definition of quiet? This was torturous some days when I was desperately trying to get work done.

4) I also beta-read a novel for a close friend, set up some promo, a few read-through edits, worked on a relaunch idea, wrote a few poems, and (this last isn’t technically writing related, but still managed to eat into a lot of my time) prepared for back-to-school.

July ’17, Briefly

01 Tuesday Aug 2017

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This past month I didn’t keep as good of records of my hours spent working unfortunately, partly due to the fact my computer decided to die on me. Hard drive seemed fine and backups had already been made so all my work was completely good. I’ve learned that lesson already. However, I was bumming computer time for a couple of weeks. I’m actually typing this up on a brand new computer that finally came in yesterday :)

1) Bridle the Unicorn Published

Still need to finish up my New Release Alert newsletter and send that out by the end of the week. Given how a few distributor platforms work and a couple other experiences with unavailable links at first publication, I decided giving a habitual week leeway after publication for the newsletter would be beneficial for certain publications in the future.

2) Outlined and Began a Novelette

This WIP I started because I didn’t have my main files with me at the time, but there’s always a notebook. It’s steampunky/metalpunky, with a sports feature.

3)  Worked on Pup Games (A Houndmaster Novel)

Yes, you read that right; Pup Games has officially become a novel :) Still due out early ’18.

Here’s another teaser from chapter one that introduces La’vii’s pack.

~ ~ ~

I crouched and wrapped an arm around Sed, her light brown coat long enough it’d been picking up debris all day from her time in and out of the soggy edges of the marsh. The rest of my pack–Ris, Mit and Aim–still sniffed around the bushes, searching for a recent trail. They sent flashes through our collective consciousness, reminding me the hares were more numerous further in, away from the salt and tang of the marsh.

“I know,” I said as I pressed my cheek against Sed’s dirty coat. “We have to check everywhere though, you know that.”

Then they sent me images of Co’mil from the night he’d bested El’mik. As if I needed their help to remind myself how he’d looked. Like a dog blessed by the ancestral bitch herself, his hair holding the tiniest hint of red as it curled in an unruly mop on his head, his eyes a piercing gray I wouldn’t have minded staring into as he’d thrown me to the sand.

~ ~ ~