Is It Friday Yet?

It’s felt like Friday since like Tuesday. That could be because the household was once again sick, necessitating several doctor/er visits. Luckily, no hospitalizations this time. (Good lord, the things that make me happy these days)

I’m seeing a lot of questions abut the Gus serial. Just so you know, there won’t be any more chapter updates. Because it’s coming in ebook format in June. I’m just waiting on edits and the final cover to return. Unfortunately, due to the high number of plagues we caught and all the distractions, I wasn’t able to keep on top of the release schedule and writing and editing and everything else. So now, you’re just getting the full thing when it’s ready. Yay.

If you’re a frequent visitor to the blog, you may have seen some of the snippets I’ve been posting. Right now, there is no rhyme or reason to what I post. If I write something interesting and feel like it’s sharable, I do. There are two secret projects I’m working on. Both of which are pushing back hard. It has been a long time since I’ve created a universe from scratch and I had forgotten how slow going and difficult it could be. It’s so bad, I had to go back to basics and pull out my note cards/bulletin board. I think that’s helped clarify some details but I’m still really caught up in my head and struggling to nail the voices of these new worlds. It’s frustrating but also fun.

Depending on how much trouble these worlds give me, I may be switching back to Firebird before too much longer. Gus and Kira are calling. Both are equally insistent. At this point I’m just following the muse and hoping it eventually turns into a book.

Random Snippet Below

Lost in her reminiscence, she didn’t see the large shape swimming through the clouds until it broke through the bank right in front of where she was sitting on the city edge. It surged upward at an incredible velocity, the powerful beat of its wings buffeting her with wind.

For as long as she lived, Ember didn’t think she’d ever forget the sight of the gryff, a race almost as mythical and rare as the Astra, said to only make their homes amongst the floating cities and very highest elevations of this world, so close she could almost touch him, front paws tucked against his body, a rider clinging to his back, partners as they strained ever upward.

The flying beast was large. Perhaps the largest of its kind that she’d seen to date. Fully extended, the gryff’s wingspan reached over twenty feet. Its wings held more in common, structurally, with a bat’s wings than a bird’s. A leathery membrane extended between the elongated hollow bones, culminating in a claw-like thumb at the top that the beast used to cling to the ledges and rocky surfaces that riddle the city’s underside and the floating islands that served as its natural habitat.

Like all gryff’s, the beast possessed the body and head of a large feline-type predator. This one’s body was easily as large as one of the tanker crawlers her mother’s people used to traverse the wastes of this land. Those could seat a group of six plus a week’s worth of supplies with room to spare. Based on the shaggy mane that extended halfway down his chest and back and the bony ridges jutting up from his brow that looked like horns, she was guessing this one was male.

From this angle, she couldn’t see his face, but if he was like the rest of his kind, it would be angular with more bony ridges along his brow and snout. His ears were also larger than most feline’s and set more off to the side to accommodate for the horns.

The fur along his back and the mane on the top of his head was orange before faing to white along his underside. The membrane of his wings mirror the coloring along his body—orange along the edges, white in between.

Caught up in the wonder and terror of such a close encounter with a gryff, Ember barely had time to absorb any details of his rider before they were past.

Two more gryffs carrying riders broke through the bank of clouds right after them, followed by another grouping of three.

Ember held very still as they soared past, her stomach a hot mess of nerves as she tried very hard not to draw attention to herself.

One gryff was a remarkable encounter. Five was a concern.

It didn’t take a genius to realize that she’d just witnessed something she probably shouldn’t have.