The Dumpster Fire Persists
Update II
1. Vow It’s Enough - Book 3 in the Workplace Heroes Series.
UPDATE: I’m still terrified about starting a serial I haven’t finished drafting. So terrified, in fact, I can only bring myself to edit, instead of finishing the story. By the way—I’m also not an editor.😁
I see it now…I’m going to end up serializing again. Prep the Lavender & Valerian tea people! I’ll need all the help I can get!
2. Cobalt & Electrum - A Sunderland Mystery
In the middle of juggling the regular work at I’m Just Here For BOOKS, my brain decided to add on another task. If you guessed another serial, you’d be correct! At this point, biting off more than I can chew is just a feature of my brain, so I’m not panicking—yet.
Since Cobalt is in the Mini Serial Bar until I finish with Mountain Hollow and can give it the feature focus it deserves, the chapters are shorter, and I’m only posting two weeks out of the month. It’s also about 60% written, but with the slower pace of posting, I’m hoping I’ll be able to take my time getting it right, while keeping up with my feature serial and beginning the Chapter Crush audio for When You’re Enough.
Right…
3. The Wild Blue Rose - Book 1 in the Mountain Hollow Series
This one is still on the docket, but since I’m still writing the ending of Vow It’s Enough, it’s quite possible that Wild Blue may not be a summer baby after all. We shall see…
4. The Chapter Crush Podcast
It’s funny, that something that began because Substack wouldn’t let me add audio to my posts, ended up becoming something I look forward to doing.
I’ve enjoyed recording the audio for More Than Enough. Many thanks to everyone tuning in!
How many of the downloads are people actually listening to this native Manhattanite hack through her dense prose vs how many stop for a listen and immediately scroll away screaming? Who knows.
What I do know is, even one set of ears is enough for me to keep going. So, hang in there, because if you loved hearing me butcher Nick’s English accent, Michel’s Southeastern French accent in When You’re Enough will be simply ghastly.1
‘Ever,’ you may thoughtfully wonder. ‘Why don’t you just skip the accent entirely?’
Ha! I’ve wondered the same thing myself, but the problem is, when I write my characters I hear their voices. Their speech is written to that cadence in my mind, just as an elderly person’s speech would differ from a young person’s speech. Simply put, it would sound worse (in my mind, anyway) if I read their parts any other way.
So, why write characters from different countries?
[Giggles] Simply put, I love accents, food, and different cultures. Even when we get into the southern Mountain Hollow series, those regional differences, including accents will come out..because of course, I had to know what a young Scottish boy who moved to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and a young woman who grew up in San Antonio would sound like.
And, if you don’t enjoy my reading, you’re always welcome to read the stories for yourself and come up with your own! Pick a story, any story!
Here—I’ll get you started!
5. Since I’m the only one still here…
As you may or may not have noticed, I’m still learning how to write—that is, I’m still learning to write well. I make a lot of mistakes, but I’m enjoying the process, I have the space here to practice often, and hopefully, get it right. That’s great news, if I ever did hear any!
Something I’m also learning? I have to go where my brain takes me. I have about 20 more stories outlined, but I never know what’s going to yank on the chain of inspiration. It could be either of those stories, or a new one that sneaks up on me, tickles my curiosity, and forces me to write until I can’t see straight.
Meaning, I can’t say for certain what will happen after Mountain Hollow gets going, but I do know you won’t be left without something to read.
Until Next Time, Bon Appétit,
EB
I will likely cop-out and end up doing a Metropolitan French accent. Even if I managed to nail the sing song quality of the Annecy accent, I have no doubt it would have been inconsistent at best, and at worse, a poor caricature of our dear friends of the Savoie region. Even so, apologies in advance to anyone who takes exception to my poor imitation.