Category Archives: Crystal Blade
Soon, Precious, Very Soon…
All of the remaining Crystal Blade episodes are now live on Kindle Vella. And there are two new spicy scenes so go check them out!
Sorry about the radio silence from this end. I have been doing my best to finish Crystal Blade with that toxic toad of a heat dome sitting on top of us, my ovaries are mounting a last-ditch attempt to make my life miserable (one of the joys of having PCOS—despite the fact that I am most definitely in menopause my cyst-covered ovaries can continue to make my life miserable for a good ten years as the damn cysts pop, causing all kinds of cramping pain. Whee), my mood swings have been epic, and I’ve also been cleaning the house piecemeal when I haven’t been working on a quilt for a friend. So yeah, blog posts have kinda been overlooked with all of that going on.
But I have maybe 1200 words more to go on Blade and it is officially soup. Since it’s in Vella I’m going to publish the remaining episodes once I finish the last chapter. That will start the thirty day clock on when I can take the story down and publish it, so I’m going to set up a pre-order on Amazon with delivery on August 29, let Blade cool while I get started on High Tide, and then I’ll start the editing process next week.
In re: the future adventures of Crystal and her men, I have a very rough outline for Crystal Reflection (Book 3) and an even rougher idea for Crystal Citadel (Book 4). Unfortunately can’t discuss either of them at the moment because it would create a huge spoiler for both books, but if this works out the way it should these stories will be extremely cool and set up the big conflict for Crystal Empress (Book 5). That wraps up the series, but I have the option of three spinoff series if I want to pursue them.
Stupid Weather
Crystal Blade Episode 37: The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly On the Plain is now live on Kindle Vella. You know the drill, petal.
And may I say that I am actually kinda impressed with myself? I already have Friday’s episode loaded and ready for release, I have a large chunk of Monday’s ep written, and by the actual end of the weekend I should have all of next week’s eps finished. I know I said on Monday that I wanted to have the entire book done by Saturday this week, but that was before I totaled up the remaining chapters and realized, ha ha, I’d blown past my original projected word count by about 11k. I’m having flashbacks to finishing Shadow of the Swan, whee…
So yeah, once I finish today’s chapter I’ll have five more chapters to go of approximately 3,500 words apiece. If I can work up the energy (not easy with this freaking heat dome squatting over Texas like a toxic toad) I could potentially have all of them done by next Wednesday.
Yeah, I hear you—why not Monday? Because I don’t want to write over the weekend. I really need those two days for cleaning and business tasks, not to mention plain old recharging. Because I am plain and old, and I need it.
Soon, My Precious. Soon…
As of tonight I hit my 3k/day writing word count for the first time since May 14 and I am approximately 17,507 words from the end of Crystal Blade. Once I finish the chapter I’m currently working on, I’ll have Act II finished and can start the frantic landslide of Act III. Each chapter is already outlined and ready to go, and all I have to do is stick the words into place.
And to my surprise everything is flowing remarkably smoothly. I don’t know if it’s just years of experience, the fact that this book has been pending for over a year, or what, but I’m not fighting the story anymore. In fact, it’s getting kinda fun again to work in this universe and pit Crystal against her family’s machinations. It’s also a lot of fun to salt hints and suggestions about things that will happen in books 3-5, so that readers will be able to read those books and think, “Oh, now I understand why she mentioned X back in Crystal Blade. Okay, that makes sense.”
It’s one of the underlying tenets of writing a series. You need to make sure the books as a whole are cohesive and relate to each other in some way. Also, readers love following breadcrumbs in a complicated plot and will love you for it if you drop enough to keep their appetite whetted.
I’m Back. Again.
Crystal Blade Episode 36: A Cousinly Talk is now live on Kindle Vella. Go forth, read, enjoy.
So where have I been for the last week or so? Well, basically I felt like absolute crap, had little to no energy, and wasn’t in any position to focus on writing. My guess is a viral sinus infection combined with a bunch of shit in the air pretty much knocking me on my ass.
So I gave myself permission to take the week off, rest, and only do stuff that I could do on autopilot; namely, finish reformatting all the titles that I’d pulled out of KU and publish them wide.
As of 7/7/23 every title that currently isn’t in KU (I’m still waiting on “Prelude to a Storm”‘s KU period to expire later this month) was published on Smashwords and Google Play. I’m currently waiting for Smashwords to review everything and pass it onto their Premiere Catalog which gets distributed to its partners. Once that happens, I’ll update my universal links for every book and then I’m pretty much wide for the duration.
To be honest, I’m glad I did it. I keep hearing from people still in KU that their payouts are continuing to drop despite Amazon raising the subscription price, plus there’s the whole mess of Amazon threatening to yank accounts when they find a KU title on a pirate site. As for me, I’m actually making about the same wide as I had in KU, plus I’m making additional money from Vella. So I’m not complaining.
In the meantime I have five more chapters to finish on Crystal Blade and it is done done done. If I get a move on I may be able to do that by EOB Saturday, I dunno (and yes, Susan, as soon as that’s done I’m pivoting to High Tide). I have to leave a Vella story up for thirty days after I publish the last episode, so once Blade is done I’ll set up a pre-order for it on Amazon for mid-August or so.
So it goes.
Not Looking Forward to Next Week
Crystal Blade Episode 32: Royally Approved is live at Kindle Vella. You know the drill.
I’m guessing that this may be our last relatively nice day before October so I’m appreciating the bit of rain we’ve gotten. The forecast for this weekend and next week is going to be nasty—days of triple digit heat and lots of stress on Anita Gigawatt.
Here in Casa Cameron we swing into low power mode when that happens—no running of large appliances or the pool pump during the day, I do my best to makes all meals on the stove instead of the oven (we have a propane grill but it badly needs to be cleaned) and we close all the blinds and curtains and pretty much hunker down until the heat wave breaks.
You would think that would be a great opportunity for me to crank out a lot of words. Yeah, no. The effect of having a high pressure dome parked directly overhead messes with my sinuses and I wind up feeling drained and getting a lot of sinus headaches. I’ll try to get as much work on Crystal Blade and formatting the rest of the Two Thrones books for wide release before the heat knocks me over.
Happy Juneteenth
Crystal Blade Episode 31: Happily Ever After? is live at Kindle Vella. I also realized last night that I am currently at 61,569 words and according to my outline I’m eight chapters away from finishing. If I knock out a chapter a day I could have everything wrapped up by midnight next Monday. Huh.
In other news, Happy Juneteenth to all Americans, and maybe if Gavin Newsome gets the constitutional convention rolling and we add a gun control amendment we can tweak the 13th amendment and remove the bit that allows slavery “as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convincted.” Just a thought.
Locally, it’s going to get hot here this week in the clavicle of Texas. And yes, we’re used to hot weather, but we’ve had so much rain recently that it feels like Florida when you step outside. The humidity is going to drop back down to normal levels on Saturday, thank Cthulhu, but in the meantime the heat index is going to be miserable and my heart will be in my mouth every time the AC units go off (which they do periodically. That’s normal. But now I’m wondering if they’re going to start up again). Don’t even get me started on the Texas grid.
But I’m in a privileged position. My heart goes out to all the lawn people, pool cleaners, and construction workers who are going to have to deal with this nasty weather while they’re working (and my governor, good Christian that he is, just signed a law repealing mandatory water breaks for construction workers. What a peach).
Emerging From the Muck
*rubs face* At least I’m well enough to work and Ep 31 of Crystal Blade will be published tomorrow on schedule. Huzzah for that.
Now that I’m getting closer to the end of the book I need to finish the detailed outline of High Tide so that I can get started on that ASAP once Crystal Blade is done. I know the main triad (human with a Dryad mom, satyr, and mer), I know the general arc of the book and what they’re trying to achieve, but I need to break it down chapter by chapter so that 1) I get a better idea of the plot beats, and 2) I can put chapters up on Kindle Vella as I write so that people can read along if they like. (looking at you, Peter).
If I can get High Tide and Hurricane Warning knocked out this year that means I’ll have two finished series under my belt. That will leave me with Hidden Empire (open ended), Two Thrones (four more books), Paladins of Crystal (three more books), and Pacifica Rising (five more books, although Degree of Resistance really reads like more like a Melanie book than a Nicola book because it goes so heavy on worldbuilding and tech. I’m not sure of how I want to proceed on that. I may republish Degree as “Melanie Fletcher writing as Nicola M. Cameron” and write the rest of the books as Melanie books).
After that, who knows? I can keep writing books in the Hidden Empire universe as long as I like, I could do at least two additional series and a standalone in the Paladins of Crystal universe, and I have a MF partial set in the Olympic Cove universe with Hephaestus and a female blacksmith. I could literally write until I drop dead over the keyboard, which is something.
Please Go Away
Crystal Blade Episode 30: Family Feud is live at Kindle Vella. Things are getting good now, heh.
Or at least they would be if roofers would stop knocking on my door asking if I want to get my roof inspected. Since the big hailstorm last week we’ve been getting door-to-door roofers knocking on the door daily to ask if we would like a free inspection (we checked, everything looks good and we don’t have leaks, and if any do pop up we’ll call the roofing company that installed the roof in 2012). It’s to the point where I don’t bother answering the doorbell anymore.
Except that apparently today’s roofing company rep decided that if he rang the doorbell and knocked and there was no response, he should continue to knock until someone came to the door. I was upstairs hip-deep in a scene when I heard the doorbell and ignored it. Then heard the knock and ignored it. A good minute later I heard another knock and stormed downstairs with the wrath of an author disturbed. I’m afraid I opened the door, glared at him as he said, “Hello, ma’am—” snapped that we weren’t interested and closed the door forcefully. I don’t like being rude but dude, read the lack of response.
What I wanted to do was put up a No Soliciting sign after that, but apparently Plano changed their rules last year and those won’t stop someone from knocking on your door (the solicitor can claim that they’re not soliciting, they just want to tell you all about their church/service/what have you). I need to put up a sign that says NO TRESPASSING (unless you’re a Girl Scout, Boy Scout, or under 16 and selling something for your school). For them, I will answer the door.
Oh, Look, It’s Monday Again
Crystal Blade Episode 29: Hello, Grandmother is live at Kindle Vella. No, don’t thank me—noblesse oblige, don’t you know.
Oh, I am tired as hell. We had quite the loud storm roll through around 4 AM, so loud that neither Ramón nor I could sleep through it. He gave up and went into his office to do a little work while I kept the J Crew company and reassured them that they were safe, Thor didn’t hate them, and the sky was just growling.
Net result: no damage, no hail, some rain but that was about it. Unfortunately, in the process of opening the door to check on things I must have let some mosquitos in because I have been bitten in at least six places, all on my right thigh and, ahem, bikini area.
Ow. Did I mention ow?
I don’t even know how the hell the mosquitos accessed one particular spot, but they did. Luckily we have a really great anti-itch gel but still, not the most enjoyable place for skeeter bites. And I’m tired, and my left leg is still experiencing a bit of sciatica pain, and it’s going to be humid as hell here this week. Whee.
My Brain Is Weird
Crystal Blade Episode 28: Happy Father’s Day is live at Kindle Vella. Go forth and enjoy the start to the weekend.
I can tell that I’m falling into a rut. My dreams are all about organization and setting things up, which makes it very obvious in the morning that I’m boring myself silly.
Part of it is that there’s not a whole hell of a lot of differentiation in my days, and won’t be until I get all the books reformatted and published wide. I wake up, feed the cats, get to work on Crystal Blade, then switch over to formatting once I get the day’s word count in. Somewhere in between all that I do my time on the treadmill, go out to the store and pick up necessities, make dinner, cook and clean, and if the weather is bearable in the garage do some jewelry work.
And that is hella better than it could be—I’m grateful to have to freedom to do all that. But it’s also the same stuff day in and day out, and that’s not good from a creative standpoint. I need to refill the creative well with … I don’t know, something. New experiences, new places, something to get my imagination working again.
What I really need is a vacation. Which will be a possibility this year if this contract work comes through. In the meantime, I need to find little ways to break up the day and have some fun. If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments.
Nicola Cameron Writes 