“Doran isn’t going to attempt to harm me,” I said calmly. “I’m a valuable asset. And he isn’t stupid.” My blood was also poison to him, if he could even sink his teeth through my dragon hide. He’d only claimed two hundred years though, so I didn’t think he was powerful enough to do so. Yet.
I, however, could skewer him through the heart with an exceedingly powerful bone blade before he even saw me lunge forward.
Not that I went around stabbing magical beings in the heart.
I just finished my first full pass on the story editor’s notes for Invoking Infinity (Archivist 1). Next, I’ll do another complete pass, smoothing the prose and making certain I haven’t inserted anything strange (i.e. continuity errors, etc) while working through the editor’s suggested changes/additions.
The book is now 104k. That’s long. I prefer to stay under 95k myself. But, the editor hasn’t recommended any cuts. Yet.
To celebrate getting through the last two weeks (which have been seriously, seriously rough for me headache-wise) I thought I’d share an excerpt from Chapter One and Dusk’s first day of work. I hope you enjoy it!
Leather-covered sketchbook (aka Infinity) created by Mille Cuirs. Ink: Caroube de Chypre by Jacques Herbin. Fountain pen: Parker Sonnet Ciselé Silver
I stepped through the door. Energy clung to me, trying to taste my magic, then slid off when it couldn’t gain purchase.
Like I’d said, it was difficult to ward against a dragon. We were magic, descended from demi-gods. Not that it couldn’t be done, but the witch who’d built the wards would have needed to have known that dragons existed in the first place. Outside of morality tales and mythology, of course.
The boundary wards yielded completely. My front foot landed on a worn rug set just inside the door to protect the oak hardwood. And the buzzing of all the magic objects on the shelves increased.
A wide grin swamped my face.
This already felt like home.
Literally. The library at my mother’s estate was filled with tiny touches of energy just like —
Something slammed into the side of my head, getting instantly tangled in my already wild hair and obscuring my eyesight. Tiny claws tried to hook into my skin, failing but then finding hold on my bottom lip. The creature latched onto my right upper canine and started nibbling and suckling.
Yes. On my tooth.
I laughed.
Still balancing the coffee and cinnamon buns in my left hand, I gently attempted to pull the creature off me. It clung with a tenacious strength that was usually only reserved for the starving.
And since going for my teeth was a bit of a clue as to what I was dealing with, this creature did have a rather specialized diet.
I managed to transfer its front claws from my lip to my forefinger, tugging it away from my teeth so I could peer at it. It assessed me with wide, dark-orbed eyes.
An imp of some sort. A wide classification for magical creatures — with or without wings — that ranged in size. Smaller than brownies but larger than pixies. This imp was the length of my forearm. Its eyes dominated its light-gray skinned face, except for the overly large mismatched teeth of its lipless mouth.
“That wasn’t nice,” I said teasingly, holding it loosely so I didn’t accidentally crush it. “You could have said hello.”
The imp narrowed its eyes at me, then it chittered discontentedly. It was unlikely it understood English, or spoke any language I could understand, but my tone should —
The imp sprung free from my grasp, attempting to launch off the coffees and Tupperware balanced in my other hand as it made its escape.
Four lattes in large paper cups and plastic lids didn’t make for a terribly stable surface.
Scrambling for footing, the imp leaped for the nearest shelf.
The lattes slammed into my chest and shoulder, lids flying off, and dumping hot coffee all over me.
Shrieking — even a dragon wasn’t completely impervious to heat — I lost hold of the cinnamon buns as well.
Hot liquid soaked into my hair and sweater, scalding the skin of my neck and collarbone, then dripping down my plaid skirt, all over my favorite brown boots, and the rug.
The imp watched me warily from the shelf at eye level to my left. It chittered quietly, disconcerted.
In other news, guess who didn’t actually hit publish on the paperback for Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0)? Ugh, me! I’m sorry. It should be available very soon.
I just dropped In Less Than a Moment (Moments of the Adept Universe 0.3) (aka Kandy 0.5) into the inboxes of my newsletter subscribers, and as promised, I actually remembered to start a thread where you could discuss all the secrets it reveals as a group.
The novelette (15k+) cracks Kandy’s background wide open – a large piece of the puzzle leading to the events of the Dowser series, as well as the upcoming Misfits 2. Yep, the Kandy stories are most definitely prequels to the second novel of the Misfits of the Adept Universe.
I’m making this tidbit of sunshine my desktop photo for the day – aka a little yellow daffodil that has braved the still-chilly morning temps to bloom – because I’m about to do a second pass on Kandy’s second short, In Less Than A Moment. And I know I’m going to blubber through it. Again.
I’ll just keep reminding myself that Kandy has found her pack, her family. Not that life is ever without strife but it can be filled with love and laughter at the same time.
***
In other news, I’m (slowly) putting together a Frequently Asked Questions, Spring Edition blog post so if you have any burning questions – LOL – drop them in the comments below and I’ll add them to the list (as long as it’s not too rife with spoilers).
I started my day by digging back into the Archivist series with only a vague idea for a couple of scenes for Archivist 2 and A LOT of Things-To-Be-Revealed™ for many, many books after.
Usually, I firm up the core idea for the next book in the series while writing the previous book. I leave myself notes … like breadcrumbs to follow into the brainstorming and outlining. And, since I usually write with a thriller-type construction (aka the antagonist propels the plot) and I adore seeding those relationships/possibilities, etc, in previous books, that usually means that I know who the ‘bad guys’ are for books ahead.
But even with a long list of Things-To-Be-Revealed™ I still had no idea who the ‘bad guy’ was for Archivist 2. I had a bunch of fantastic characters, two or three great scene ideas, and a throughline for the romance storyline, but that did not equal a plot.
So I pulled out all the sticky note pads I had – index cards would have been better but apparently I no longer own any – and I started with listing and placing all the secrets.
Then, still stymied on book 2, I thought about how the Archivist series is different from my other series, especially the Dowser or Amplifier (which also feature powerful characters). The WHY I was writing it. WHAT drew me to explore the idea. It’s easy to get caught up in the relationships and the background and all the secrets, but the FEELING of the series as a whole needs to be really established by the end of book two (or three if you include the prequels). In my opinion, of course and always.
That FEELING is tied directly to the main character.
So, what makes one main character different from another?
Answer: how she interacts with her world. How she reacts. Her fundamental nature when confronted with change or a threat/challenge/hurdle or an offer or desire, etc.
Does she create, like Jade? Does she protect, like Emma? Does she love, like Wisteria? Does she believe, like Rochelle?
Short answer for Dusk?
Yes. To all of the above.
So knowing how my main character reacts to challenges, knowing her capabilities, how do I force her out of her comfort zone? How do I shake her to her core? How do I make her doubt? Falter?
A rather difficult thing to do when dealing with a practically immortal being with vast resources.
Continually finding/creating a ‘bad guy’ who is stronger than Dusk is rather … farfetched. [This holds true for Emma as well]. Making a bad guy smarter is possible, except that level of intelligence really relies on the writer (aka me) and I rarely manage to outsmart … anyone, so I have no illusions that I could pull off that dynamic in a story.
So then the bad guy has to be sneaky … has to be patient … has to learn how to play Dusk … how to manipulate her. Then they have to offer her something she can’t refuse or give her no other choice but to step onto the wrong path …
Thusly armed with my notebooks and sticky notes, I figured out the ‘bad guy’ for Archivist 2 by lunch.
Then with Ed Sheeran’s Afterglow (YouTube video) on repeat, I had the major plot points – aka the beginning, middle, and end – plugged into my structure (aka paradigm) by 2 p.m.
Oh, I won’t be silent and I won’t let go
I will hold on tighter ’til the afterglow
And we’ll burn so bright ’til the darkness softly clears
Ed Sheeran, Afterglow
And, ahem, I might have paused for a few moments early on and dropped a few notes into my notebook for Amplifier 6 (yes, I’m writing that series a book ahead now). 🙂
Headache or not, apparently the muse only needed a little juice. Though a hot chocolate, the brand new notebooks, and some pretty ink might have helped along the way.
In Less Than a Moment (Moments of the Adept Universe 0.3) aka Kandy 0.5 – first draft. 13,099 words. Done!
A shot of my desk while in the middle of writing Kandy’s second novelette. I’m honestly never certain why I do these things to myself – things requiring so much tissue – but I write what the muse wants me to write … blubbering and all.
Sorry, I really couldn’t find an excerpt that wasn’t a huge spoiler.
Stop reading now if you don’t want to wait until the end of March to read the rest.
***
Justin was dead.
I’d dragged him behind an industrial garbage bin … or maybe it was for recycling. At least I thought it had been me that had dragged him … blood streaking away from us back out into the middle of the alley. Justin’s blood. From the three gunshot wounds.
They’d shot him in the back.
I think.
Though it wasn’t yet clear to me who they were.
He’d gone down without a sound.
We’d been chatting and laughing … and …
Now Justin was dead.
Vaguely aware that I was panicking, I rolled Justin, tearing his T-shirt so I could get a better look at his back. I accidentally scored his pale skin with wolf claws that I hadn’t consciously manifested.
Blood was just pouring out of him, pooling underneath him. I was crouching in it, kneeling in it. His warm lifeblood.
I’d thought … if I could remove the bullets … but the wounds were already blackened at the edges, that poison spreading in dark veins of death.
Justin was dead.
Three bullets to the heart would do that.
Even to a werewolf.
If those bullets were silver.
And wielded by a sorcerer.
– In Less than a Moment (Moments of the Adept Universe 0.3), first draft except
***
If all goes smoothly, the third draft of In Less Than a Moment should drop in the inboxes of my newsletter subscribers on Thursday, March 25 – headache dependant, as always (unfortunately).
Reminder: my newsletter is not the same as following this blog and getting notifications. It’s not the same as following me on social media. You can sign up following the link under the image of the Adept Universe cookbook, either to your right (if you’re on a computer) or by scrolling down (if you’re on a mobile device). And, once again, I cannot force your email provider to deliver my emails to you. You must make certain you’re subscribed and check all your own folders – spam, junk, promos – on your end. 🙂
But! Don’t worry if you do miss the unedited shorts. I will be bundling them for publication at the end of 2021.
As I’ve mentioned before, I commissioned illustrations from Nicole Deal for each of the Archivist series novels. Of which I have three planned for 2021 release. I’m so, so pleased that I was able to convince Nicole to work with me because it has been a total blast so far.
I’ve had the first of the illustrations (as well as Nicole’s earlier sketches) open on my desktop while writing Archivist 1 and it’s been so inspiring to catch glimpses of Dusk and Sisu while shaping and refining the story/series!!
Dusk and Sisu from the Archivist Series by Meghan Ciana Doidge. Illustration by Nicole Deal.
You will find Nicole’s absolutely striking take on Dusk and Sisu tucked between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 of Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0). It will be in full-colour in the eBook version (unless your eReader doesn’t do colour) and grayscale in the paperback.
Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0) is available for preorder on all retailers. The book releases on March 2, 2021. [SOON!!]
I’m working on Gabby’s Moments of The Adept Universe short this weekend as a bit of a brain break from the Archivist series in between drafts. [I finished the first draft of Archivist 1 yesterday]. I’m trying to figure out if the age the Talbot twins were adopted is ‘in canon’ or just a note I made for myself (and therefore put in their ‘official’ bios). I’d like them to be older than age seven for the short. If possible.
Gabby’s short details an exceedingly important moment in the twins’ background, feeding into the idea I’m working on for the Misfit 4 storyline. When I outlined the story for Michael, he was a little doubtful I could fit it into a ‘short’ format. So … challenged accepted!
A series of Adept Universe notebooks and a touch of inspiration in the art of Jessica Growling (aka Nature’s my Friend) – an Iris for the month of February.
The first scene I found was, of course, the very first time we meet the twins through Jade’s perspective. Lots of great info in the scene – and some fantastic dialogue, if I say so myself – but no mentions of the age they were when adopted!! So now I scour Misfits 1!
“Introduce yourselves,” Kandy said, seriously peeved. “Then let us know why the hell you’re in a storage room with eight mundanes only one door over.”
The amplifier opened her mouth — but then snapped it closed after a look from her sister. They stared at each other for a moment, and a tiny taste of tart jam shifted between them.
“Communicating telepathically,” I said for Kandy’s benefit.
Kandy snorted. “Don’t make me teach you to obey your elders, my pretties.”
“We know.”
“We understand.”
They overlapped each other, nary a pause between one speaking and the other taking over.
“You first, sis,” the telepath said.
“I always go first.”
“You’re the eldest.”
“So they said.”
“Why would they lie?”
“I’m not having this conversation —”
“You!” Kandy jabbed her finger toward the amplifier.
The telepath flinched. “She’s even more growly than Bitsy.”
“She’s older.” The amplifier shrugged, eyeing the pissed-off werewolf at my side.
“I swear to God,” Kandy growled. “I’m going to teach them some manners.”
I quashed a grin, looking pointedly at the amplifier. She squared her shoulders, intoning with exaggeration. “Gabrielle Talbot. Commonly known as Gabby. Amplifier. Sister of Margaret.”
“Talbot?” I asked. “Daughter of Angelica?”
Gabby scowled. “Adopted daughter of the sorcerers Stephan and Angelica Talbot.”
“Margaret Talbot,” the telepath said, picking up practically on top of her sister’s final word. “Known as Peggy. Telepath … truth seeker.”
Gabby shot her a look.
“Well, there’s no point in lying to a dowser, is there?”
I didn’t correct Peggy’s assumption that I could wield my skills to distinguish magical abilities that finely.
Gabby looked from me to Kandy belligerently. “We won’t be used. The Talbots won’t allow it. Never again.”
Kandy cackled. “You think two sorcerers could stand against Jade Godfrey, dowser, alchemist, wielder of the instruments of assassination, if she wanted you?”
“Plus, I’m not interested in using anyone,” I said mildly.
“Not the point,” Kandy said. “It’s the principle. They come into your territory and question your authority.”
Peggy looked stricken. “We certainly weren’t.”
“Henry Calhoun said we’d be safe here,” Gabby said quietly.
That gave Kandy pause. She glanced over at me.
I nodded.
“Henry sent you to Vancouver?” the werewolf asked.
Gabby and Peggy nodded in perfect unison.
Kandy grumbled under her breath, retrieving her phone from her back pocket and opening her texting app. I had a feeling there would be T-shirts for the amplifier and the telepath in the near future.
Kandy’s self-assigned pack was rapidly expanding. First Rochelle and Beau, then Mory — though the necromancer might have nominally been under the werewolf’s protection first. Then a fledgling vampire, and now an amplifier and a telepath. If Kandy ever needed to invade a small country, she was collecting the army with which to do so. With at least a dozen more years of training, of course. And that wasn’t even including Drake, Warner, and me.
Either that or the US Marshal, Henry Calhoun, who most assuredly belonged to Kandy by way of her bite and the transfer of magic that had come with it, was about to get an earful.
I gestured toward the green-haired werewolf. “Kandy, enforcer of the West Coast North American Pack.”
Gabby and Peggy exchanged another look. Then, by seemingly mutual decision, Peggy spoke. “The pack has a presence in Vancouver?”
Kandy paused her texting to growl. “Why do you care?”
Neither Gabby or Peggy answered.
“Can you tell us why your magic went … awry?” I asked.
“It didn’t. Not really. It was just intense and out of the blue.”
“And you normally have trouble getting it under control? Or mitigating its effects?”
Another glance passed between the twins.
“No. Not for a long time, I guess.” Peggy twisted a large moonstone ring on her left index finger. Gabby wore the same ring on her right index finger, making me wonder if that indicated the twins had different dominant hands.
They spoke with American accents, completely different from Angelica Talbot’s. Gabby’s intonation was more abrupt, while Peggy had a softer, smoother tone.
“I have a brown spot in my left eye,” Peggy said. “If you’re trying to tell Sis and me apart.”
I smiled. “Your magic tastes different.”
“Yeah,” Kandy said. “You can’t fool anyone who can smell magic, fledglings.”
They glanced at each other, and this time even I could see the look of disappointment that passed between them. Maybe tricking people into thinking you were your twin was a fun game?
“You haven’t been by the bakery yet,” I said.
Gabby shifted uncomfortably. “We were going to come …”
“Mory said we should …” Peggy added.
“But we were waiting until everyone was in town, like officially, so we could all come together. As a family. You know? But Stephan is still transitioning his work.”
“No one is going to hurt you in Vancouver,” I said gently. My odd conversation with Angelica Talbot was suddenly showing itself in a new light.
Peggy nodded. “That’s why we’re here … Because we were bred for our magic …”
“… and whored out.” Gabby twined her fingers through her twin’s, but she kept her steady gaze on me.
“Mother … fecker,” Kandy snarled, modifying her language at the last moment.
Gabby narrowed her sky-blue gaze at the werewolf. “We aren’t seven.”
“Yes.” Peggy nodded helpfully. “We just look young for our age.”
“A bonus for our breeders.”
“You mean it would have been a bonus, Gabby. If the Convocation hadn’t rescued us.”
“Eventually.”
“It was a large prostitution ring, difficult to track and crack.”
“We agree to disagree.”
“Yes, we do. Anyway, we were pretty damaged by then, as you can imagine.”
“So no one wanted us.”
“Except the Talbots.”
“Yeah, except Stephan and Angelica.”
The twins looked at each other for a moment, then turned their expectant gazes on us.
I stared at them, processing this new inundation of information — and catching Kandy doing the same thing in my peripheral vision.
***
In other news, before I quit work for the day I’ll schedule the next audiobook giveaway – Tangled Echoes (Reconstructionist 2) – so check back at 2 pm PST tomorrow to grab a copy!
I don’t usually open up discussion threads on my blog, but I just dropped In But a Moment (Moments of the Adept Universe 0.1) (aka a Kandy prequel novelette) into the inboxes of my newsletter subscribers and realized that you all might like have one place where you could discuss it as a group.
The novelette reveals lots of little bits of the ‘evolution’ of Kandy from an 18-year-old to the 31-year-old who appears in Misfits 1 (as well as all the Dowser books and Oracle 1, of course). I’m planning on at least one more story from Kandy’s POV in 2021 and she also narrates the upcoming Misfits 2. The shorts are most definitely prequels for the plot that unfolds in the second novel of the Misfits of the Adept Universe.
For most of you who read the blog this is doubled (or even tripled) information but it’s that time of year again – aka The Great Culling of MCD’s Mailing List! This simply means that anyone who hasn’t opened my last five emails (through my mailing list, not the blog) is about to get the opportunity to ‘reengage’, or I will remove them. Keeping ‘nonopens’ on my mailing list costs me $$ (read: really just pennies per subscriber) and actually reduces my delivery rate (the more serious issue), especially through email providers like Gmail.
Anyway! I wanted to have a post on the blog for anyone who wishes to remain on my list to click through to ‘reengage’ and survive the great culling for another year.
So without further to-do …
Things I published in 2020:
The first book in the Misfits of the Adept Universe Series: Misplaced Souls. Narrated by Mory.
The fifth book in the Amplifier Series: Idols and Enemies. Available in eBook, paperback, and audio.
The audiobooks for the Reconstructionist series (starting with Catching Echoes). Narrated by the brilliant Whitney Dykehouse. The third book should release any day on Audible, Apple Books, Amazon, etc.
Awakening Infinity, the prequel novel for the Archivist Series is currently being serialized on my blog and will release on March 2, 2021, in eBook and paperback on all retailers. I have plans to release the next two books in the series in the first half of 2021. [Again, fingers crossed]. I’m currently halfway through the first draft of Archivist 1.
The sixth book in the Amplifier Series is outlined and scheduled to release in the latter half of 2021, followed by the second book in the Misfits of the Adept Universe. Misfits 2 is outlined and from Kandy’s POV!
Bonus short stories: I’m writing a randomly themed short story set in the Adept Universe and releasing them (unedited/unproofed) exclusively to my mailing list each month. At the end of the year, I will bundle the shorts together, have them properly edited, and publish them on all retailers (so … possibly early Jan 2022?). I’ll ask Memo to do a sketch for each of them as well. The first short – from Kandy’s POV – releases to the mailing list on January 27, 2021 (so make sure you are subscribed!)
More sketches: Memo will continue doing character sketches for the Adept Universe bible. Next up: the nine guardians! I’ve also commissioned three (for now) character renderings from Nicole Deal for the Archivist Series that I can’t wait to share!!
A selection of 2021s notebooks – already filling up!
You can also find me on Facebook (mostly writing-related posts), Instagram (mostly food, pets, knitting, and sunset posts), and Twitter (a combination of posts).
On a personal note, it’s been an insane year for us all with Covid19 and unfortunately my constant headache is still going strong. I’m finally seeing a menopause specialist this week (since everything else has been ruled out) and I have hope that she will finally be able to help me. Thank you for reading this far and I hope you enjoy how the Adept Universe unfolds over the next year and beyond.
