Author: MCD

I'm a writer. I also bake. And knit. A lot. My novels are available anywhere ebooks/paperbacks/audiobooks are sold online. Find more info on my blog: http://www.madebymeghan.ca

Categories
writing

Moments of the Adept Universe.

I launched into January 2021 with a multi-tiered plan. Not resolutions, but a tweaking of a few aspects of my writing life. Okay, I’m always attempting to reduce portions sizes and get back to daily yoga/pilates. But those are continual personal goals that I’m pretty good at maintaining unless something extreme happens, such as my hip bursitis flaring.

Yes, I’m a 47-year-old with a bad hip. It’s freaking hilarious.

Anyway, I digress.

One of the ‘tweaks’ involves switching up how I do giveaways in 2021. Not all giveaways, but most. I’ve decided to focus more on the digital realm so I can reach (and hopefully treat) more of my readers at once. And, in switching up my giveaways, I’m also putting more focus on writing and less on the effort it takes for me to manage a physical giveaway.

The idea is to set a couple of Saturdays aside a month to write (and rewrite) a random short story set in the Adept Universe for my newsletter, one per month. Most of the shorts will be prequels to the currently published books. At the end of the year, I’ll bundle all the shorts, get them properly edited and proofed, then publish them on all retailers.

Today was my first Saturday devoted to this new endeavour. I intended to draft the entire story in one day, using a second Saturday to redraft, and a third to proof/polish. But apparently Kandy’s tale needs more than what I can give in a single day because I wrote 6165 words (read: a really good writing day for me) and it’s still nowhere near finished.

So … only two days into January, into my multi-tiered plan, and I’m behind schedule.

Typical freaking werewolf. Always taking over every scene she’s in. I really should have known better.

😂

So … I’ll write the rest of the short tomorrow. Because on Monday I’m supposed to be working on Archivist 1, not playing around with a snarky werewolf who, when bored, apparently enjoys getting herself into entanglements that completely screw with her worldview. And yeah, the first short is going to come with a content warning. Did you expect anything less from Kandy?

In case you missed it, I released the first chapter of Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0) yesterday. Also, Kim, over on the reader run fan group, is hosting a discussion of the new book, chapter by chapter, if that interests you. ETA: as of Feb 26 these chapters have been removed, pending the release of the book on all retailers!

Happy New Year!!

Categories
read-a-long writing

Archivist 0: The Serialization Of

The first chapter of Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0) releases on the blog at 8:05 am (PST) on January 1, 2021. I’ll be posting a new section every Wednesday and Friday from January 1 to February 26. The entire novel is also currently available for preorder and will release on all retailers on March 2, 2021.

As with the prequel for the Amplifier Series, when I came up with the idea for the Archivist Series, I knew that we needed to see the inciting incident that takes place about a month before the main story – an introduction to Dusk and Sisu and how they’re connected to the guardian dragons – but it was too much info to be shoved into the beginning of the first book. It would have ruined the pacing.

Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0) is a short novel, approx 53k, that focuses on the relationship between sister and brother, Dusk’s doubts about her abilities, and the blissful moment when she realizes she is on the right path. It’s a quieter story (for me) but no less intense (fingers crossed).

I’m serializing the prequel for my readers as a thank you for traveling this far along in the Adept Universe with me, and also as an introduction to a new character, new series.

Things you might like to know (but feel free to ask any other question below):

Other than the reintroduction of (some of) the guardian dragons, the Archivist Series is a completely new series set within the Adept Universe. Minor, fun crossovers might occur but should not be expected. (Read: NO JADE!). Archivist 0 can be read as a standalone (if you wish to share/recommend it).

You do not need to be caught up in the reading order of the Adept Universe to read-along.

Please feel free to comment and discuss the chapters/parts in the blog comment section (or over in the Facebook fan group). Please feel free to share the blog posts and/or the memes. I’m hoping that gathering to read the prequel and discussing the story as it releases will be part of the fun!

The blog posts will be automatically shared on my Twitter and Facebook feeds but you might wish to also follow the blog itself so you don’t want to miss a post.

Are you ready to dig in?

I’m totally excited!!

***

Are you new to the Adept Universe? Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0) can be read separately, but the first book in the universe, Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1), is currently free as well! Click here for the recommended reading order of the Adept Universe.

Categories
blog read-a-long writing

How to subscribe to MCD’s blog

Here – updated April 27, 2023 with (fairly recent) pictures – is how to subscribe to my blog (so you can read along with the Conduit on #TeaserTuesday).

On a computer/desktop. Type your email into the box on the top right-hand corner of your screen. You can unsubscribe at any time. You’ll need to confirm your subscription. If you can’t find the email in your inbox, check your spam/junk/promotions folders. If you find the confirmation there, please drag it into your inbox to ensure that future emails arrive directly in your inbox. After you subscribe you will get an email each time I blog (not just the Conduit serialization posts).

On a mobile device. Scroll all the way down past the current blog posts. Type your email into the box situated between the ‘older posts’ button and the cover image for Archivist 0. You can unsubscribe at any time. You’ll need to confirm your subscription. If you can’t find the email in your inbox, check your spam/junk/promotions folders. If you find the confirmation there, please drag it into your inbox to ensure that future emails arrive directly in your inbox. After you subscribe you will get an email each time I blog (not just the Conduit serialization posts).

There you go! I hope you enjoy the read-along.

Categories
marketing publishing self-publishing writing

Archivist 0: Cover reveal and synopsis

I’m celebrating getting the prequel to the Archivist series off to the proofreader today by revealing the freaking gorgeous book cover by Damonza, along with the synopsis.

As with The Amplifier Protocol last year, Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0) will be serialized here on my blog every Wednesday and Friday, starting January 1, 2021. I’ll also make the preorder available by that date for those of you who prefer to read all at once. Don’t worry I’ll email all the details to my mailing list (make sure you’re subscribed) and refresh my ‘how to subscribe to MCD’s blog’ instructions so you don’t miss a chapter.

Without further chatter – the gorgeous cover!

Book cover by Damonza.

Synopsis: The plan was to hop a train to Oslo, hang out at a coffee shop, and connect my personal archive, Infinity, to the Internet. Yes, completely disregarding the well-established fact that magic and technology didn’t mix. At all.

I was also hoping to browse as many bookstores as I could before my younger brother’s patience ran out. Unfortunately, the five-year-old fledgling dragon was better known for his exuberant — and ultimately destructive — tendencies rather than his attention span.

I almost pulled it all off. Almost proved that my position as Archivist of the Modern World wasn’t just an empty title. 

Then I got summoned — by the most powerful beings in the magical world. And when the guardian dragons made a request, no one denied them. Not even a lesser dragon.

Not even if it tore me away from everything I’d ever known — and the one person I couldn’t leave behind.

Awakening Infinity is a prequel novel in the Archivist series, which is set in the same universe as the Dowser, Oracle, Reconstructionist, Amplifier, and Misfits of the Adept Universe series. While it is not necessary to read all the series, in order to avoid spoilers the ideal reading order of the Adept Universe begins with Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1). Or click here for the full reading order.

Questions about the Archivist Series? Feel free to comment below (or +1 other comments) and I’ll write up a FAQ, if needed!!

Categories
On My Desk Today personal reflection

Pending tech trouble?

I’m very possibly in the middle of losing a battle with a techgod. It’s subtle, but ignoring the signs of the demise of my computer set up might just be pure stupidity at this point.

Firstly, it probably important for you to know that I’m not great with change. See the keyboard I’m still using after all these years as just one speck of evidence.

Secondly, I promised myself six years ago that I would replace my laptop every three years (as the AppleCare ran out) because I’d been left without a computer three times in the past due to massive crashes. The first crash lost most of my early writing (screenplays, etc) and the second one was crazy inconvenient because we’d just moved to an island with no Apple Store (or Apple tech repair).

Now. I’m due to replace my current laptop at the end of December (Michael is operating off my six-year-old laptop, so he’ll get to ‘upgrade’ to my current laptop as well). But … the price has REALLY increased on the MacBook Pros and we’re in the middle of a major addition to our cabin (aka hemorrhaging savings) … plus with the constant headache, I’ve only managed to release two books in 2020 instead of my typical four. So … I’d been thinking about not replacing the laptop as planned, just pushing it for a few more months … maybe another year?

Apparently that line of thought was enough to rile at least one techgod.

Because yesterday my laptop crashed three times in a row. While I was proofing the audiobook for Unleashing Echoes (Reconstructionist 3). It normally crashes – MAYBE – two or three times a year.

Then, this morning, I head out to the office, all ready to write, only to find a strange little plastic dot on my desk next to my trackpad.

Back view of trackpad, with broken ‘foot’.

Apparently this foot is needed to trigger one of the ‘touch’ sensors of my trackpad. And yes, my trackpad is almost as ancient as my keyboard. It’s also cracked across the front. In two places.

Close up of the miscreant trackpad sensor foot.

The point is, I can’t figure out how the hell the foot fell off. There are no moveable (or loose) parts. No way to replace it without cracking off the back of the trackpad.

And that is just … weird.

It also might be a sign [other sign?] of pending computer doom.

I might have to give up, give in, and order new … everything.

But first I’m going to put the $$ I dump into Dropbox to good use and actually back up a bunch of files. Yes, I have a backup hard drive that I use every ten days. But it is also six years old …

Categories
inspiration Little Pleasures writing

Spying on Michael

The headache really spiked earlier (it isn’t great now either but I’m trying), and while I was trying to soothe myself (THC cream and peppermint oil on temples, controlled breathing, etc), I took a moment to sneakily spy on Michael cutting the rafters he’s installing today.

He caught me, of course. The addition can only be seen from within the cabin through one corner window, plus I was partly wedged behind the wood stove so I couldn’t step out of view terribly quickly. Then questions ensued.

Michael: What’s wrong? Are you okay?

Me: Head hurts, trying to decide if I’m going to write off the day by taking a triptan.

Michael: *grimancing* I’m sorry. I can come in.

Me: *grinning* That’s okay, I’m enjoying the view.

Michael: View … of …?

Me: You … measuring, cutting … carrying the rafters.

Michael: *laughing huskily* ogling me, are you?

Me, primly: Well, you are my husband.

Anyway – to my point – when you start hitting scenes in the Archivist series (specifically starting in book 1) featuring a sexy carpenter/contractor with strong hands, muscled wrists and forearms, carrying terribly heavy things, you’ll all be exceedingly aware of my inspiration.

Cabin Addition 2020: (far right to left) front door, two windows into the ‘flex’ room (workout space plus Murphy bed), door to the garage, with Michael’s studio in the back left corner. The aforementioned rafters are on the left side. No carpenter pictured because he refused to be splashed all over the blog. LOL

Back to writing the actual book!

Categories
personal reflection

Dream Rages

Me: I had the craziest rage dream early this morning …. about Chinese food.

Michael: Okay …

Me: We were with a group of people, maybe 12, but I can’t remember anyone, of course.* And I wanted to order Chinese for dinner, then three of the assholes hanging with us were all like, ‘oh, yuck, Chinese, no’.

Michael: Someone actually said no. Had the balls to say no. To you. Regarding food.

Me: Hilarious.

Michael: *chuckling* I’m just saying …

Me: I got insanely enraged. I lost my shit, completely. Screaming, calling the naysayers ‘morons with their stupid sweet and sour pork and lemon chicken’, yelling that they’d ‘never had authentic Chinese food before’ and therefore they had absolutely no say in what we ordered for dinner. I woke up with my heart pounding, absolutely livid. *pause of disbelief* Over Chinese food.

Michael: well, Facebook did show you that memory of last year’s dim sum yesterday.

Me: Oh. My God. Damn it, Facebook! I was perfectly okay before that!

Picture our dim sum spoils from December 6, 2019.

In other news, apparently it’s been a year and a day since I’ve eaten dim sum aka ‘authentic Chinese food’. And I’m having a bit of – subconscious? – trouble with it.

🤣

*Though it’s probably unusual for a writer, I rarely remember my dreams.

ETA: apparently I wasn’t terribly clear (not surprising). I can’t get ‘authentic Chinese food’ on the island on which I live and Covid19 prevents me from traveling into Vancouver and casually going to restaurants. Otherwise, I would have had dim sum numerous times since last December!!

Categories
Knitting

Knitting fails

I’m (mostly) taking the day off, just like I took yesterday, and part of Friday off. And since we really can’t go on a mini road trip because of Covid19, plus Michael wants to work on the addition while the sun is shining, my ‘days off’ look a lot like gardening and cleaning – to justify the knitting and reading, of course.

To that end, I cleaned my knitting drawers in the living room this morning. This involved pulling out a lot of abandoned half-finished projects, or outright failures. As I was organizing and packing things away (and vacuuming the drawers), I thought about how – when I post a picture of something I’ve knit (mostly over on Instagram) – I always get a number of comments in which people disparage themselves for not being as ‘productive or accomplished’ as I appear to be on social media.

So I decided I’d take some pictures and post these so-called failures just to show that we all struggle, even at things we’ve been doing for over twenty years.

City Limits Tee by Tanis Fiber Arts. Knit in the Metropolis colourway in purple label and mohair.

This #knittingfail was just pure stupidity on my part. I’d never worked with mohair and I was pretty damn sure I wasn’t going to be able to wear it next to my skin EVEN BEFORE I BOUGHT IT. And yet, I wanted to try. But did I knit a swatch? Or test the yarn in any other way before knitting? Nope. I loved knitting the pattern, loved the colour, etc, but couldn’t wear it for longer than thirty seconds when I tried it on. There is a slim chance I pull it out of storage, finish the arms and neckline, and give it away. Slim.

Here’s a close up so you can see the pretty speckles among the greys:

Ranunculus knit in glorious red label (merino, cashmere, and silk) by Tanis Fiber Arts

I loved the idea of this summer weight sweater and the freaking gorgeous yarn but didn’t enjoy knitting fingering weight yarn on 6mm needles. I put the bottom ribbing on hold, intending to knit the arms and give it a light block to see if I wanted it longer before binding off. But then I absolutely LOATHED knitting the sleeves on clunky, heavy needles. HATED IT!

Pretty close up of the yarn:

Can’t remember the pattern!! But the yarn is aran weight cashmere – a Christmas gift I’ve been hoarding for two years.

I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to knit with this insanely luxurious yarn, but I knew I wanted some sort of cables. I ripped this hat down to the ribbing twice (changing needle size) because I didn’t like the fit, but every time I tried it on I still hated the feel of it on my head – looser ribbing, tighter cabling. It got shoved to the back of the drawer!

The parts of a fuzzy monster …

This took up an insanely stupid amount of my time, specifically ripping back and trying to knit the legs out of the fuzzy yarn in a small circumference. I actually went so far as to teach myself magic loop (read: a new knitting technique) that I’d been far too lazy to bother with before. I just couldn’t see the stitches properly. So then I decided to knit the limbs in another yarn … instantly hating the combo. Honestly, if I’d had access to a fire, I would have burned this project.

So there you go. No one is perfect, including me. We make dumb choices even when we know better, we’re impatient, have short attention spans, etc.

Now! I’m making my darling husband (who is putting up rafters on the cabin addition today) waffles for brunch, then cracking a new book. I’ve read two books in the last two days – pure luxury!

Categories
excerpts writing

Archivist 0: it’s vintage.

I dropped the prequel to the Archivist Series in the editor’s inbox yesterday for line and content edit, which means I’m not allowed to make any more major changes to the storyline. So there you go … my quiet ‘what happens in the moments before the series begins’ prequel novella that wasn’t supposed to be more than 30k is now a novel of 53k, and is on track for a January 2021 release.

I’ll be releasing the book – as a serialized freebie, as I did with Amplifier 0 – on my blog but I’ll also put up the preorder ahead of time for those of you who don’t want to read online. I’m actually hoping to drop the first section on January 1, 2021, but with the holidays coming up I need to check to see if I can get on Pauline’s schedule (aka the proofreader). I’ll keep you posted.

To celebrate getting the book into the editor I’m posting a sneak peek of the book cover over in the Facebook fan group. And I’ve added an excerpt below that totally highlights how Dusk’s mind works.

Scene set-up: Dusk is wearing a sweater with a patterned yoke as well.

The woman was wearing a pretty red sweater with a Fair Isle pattern on the yoke. Her light blond hair coiled into curls that barely brushed her shoulders. So unlike my own wild mane that I felt momentary … frumpy.

She caught me looking, glancing at my own outfit. “Oh, does your grandmother knit?” she asked in English.

In English!

Sigh.

“Um,” I responded slowly. My maternal grandmother, Ruth, had died before I was born, having ventured into sixteenth century China in pursuit of a bashe that — having gone insane and decided it was a dragon — was obsessed with reclaiming a pearl it claimed contained a prophecy. Since my grandmother had inadvertently released the gigantic snake from a misfiled artifact in her own archive, she’d been responsible for its release and therefore its recapture.

My grandmother’s ashes — authenticated, so my mother could claim her inheritance of the estate — were housed in an ornate urn on the mantel in the library. The pearl was safely housed in the treasure keeper’s personal collection where all the exceedingly dangerous artifacts were stored. Pulou, aka the treasure keeper, aka the guardian dragon who oversaw all the dragon archivists, had personally returned my grandmother’s remains. And the prophecy was a separate thing altogether.

That either the pearl or the prophecy even existed was knowledge that wasn’t mine to collect. Yet. But the family library yielded things to my touch it shouldn’t, including personal family journals. And my mother hadn’t caught me. Again, yet. 

The woman was staring at me. Her eyes widening as my silence discomforted her.

I touched the neckline of my sweater. “It’s vintage.”

“Oh!” She smiled broadly. “Good find.”

– Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0), fourth draft

Coming January 2021

Categories
Chocolate Tasting crafts Little Pleasures

Advent 2020

It’s that time of year again – which is seriously, seriously insane! Time to hang up and fill the Advent calendars that Michael and I made (<<< click the link for the ‘making-of’ post) when we realized that a Christmas tree and living in a one-room cabin really didn’t go well together.

As I have since 2016, I’ll confine my #ChocolateForBreakfast advent treat shots/posts to my Instagram account, rather than spamming my blog feed or all my social media pages. But! Here is a screenshot of my December 1, 2020 treat!!

Michael has two advent calendars this year – the chocolates I filled for him, and beer. Though we couldn’t find a proper beer advent on the island so I modified a 12-day specialty case for him. He’s posting pictures of the beer on his Instagram (maybe)(social media isn’t really his thing).

This is going to be an odd holiday season for all of us, but I hope you’re able to find some spark of joy to help get you through. Please take care of yourselves and others by physically distancing as much as possible and wearing a mask when you can’t (covering your nose and mouth!). Plus wash your hands, of course and always.

Remember chocolate can be shipped!!

🙂