Tag: Adept Universe

Story editing and an excerpt

I finally got Dowser 8 off to the editor (aka SFG aka Scott Fitzgerald Gray) for story editing this morning. Though I nearly lost my mind trying to output the manuscript from Scrivener (the software I use to write) into a WORD document because the compile function had been updated/upgraded. Anyway, an hour and half later, I dropped the book in Scott’s inbox. YAY!

And, because some of you might ask, I haven’t set a release date yet. There are three stages of editing – story, line/content, then proofread. And those tasks depend on other people’s schedules as well as at least two, if not three, more drafts of the novel, plus a polish, that depend on me. Late spring/early summer is my best guess right now.

To celebrate I thought I’d share an excerpt with you.

“Treasure Keeper.” I struggled to keep my tone smooth. “Thank you for coming. I do have some questions. Would you like to step inside the bakery?”

He tilted his head, making a show of thinking about it. “Are there cupcakes?”

“Probably not. Nothing fresh, at least. But I believe we were just about to order sushi.”

Pulou grimaced. “Raw fish.”

“We could order some tempura.” Yes, I was cajoling one of the nine most powerful beings in the world with deep fried prawns and veggies. I had a feeling it was that, or give into the need to beat him around the head until he apologized — for locking me up and not telling me about the elves. “And there might be some leftover petit fours.”

“That will have to do then. Not created by your hand, alchemist, but I shall have to endure, I suppose.” He offered me a smile.

I returned the smile, with less teeth. I wasn’t fooled by his attempt to charm me. Seriously. A girl knew when her former mentor would like nothing better than to kick her ass and retrieve the instruments of assassination.

– Dowser 8, Chapter 8, third draft [selectively edited for extreme spoilers][unproofed]

 

 

Adept Universe T-shirts: how to achieve a good fit

This is part three of a three part blog series about the Adept Universe T-shirts.

Like numerous other T-shirts, the fitted T-shirts I’ve chosen for the Adept Universe Merch fit small. Achieving good, flattering fit is possible, but only if you are willing to pull out a measuring tape and possibly disregard the gender designation on the sizing chart included on each sales page.

For example, both Elizabeth (who designed the logos and models the T-shirts on the blog sales page) and I normally wear a medium size (say in a T-shirt from Banana Republic), but in the Adept Universe designs we both wear a Female XL. As you can see by the picture below, even an extra large is fairly fitted on Elizabeth (as it is on me).

Elizabeth Mackey models here Cake in a Cup logo design.

How you want your clothing to fit depends on how much positive or negative ease you would like built into the item. I like to wear my T-shirts fitted, but not tight, so I choose a size that gives me small amount of positive ease.

To figure out what that size is, I measure my chest across the widest part, getting 37 inches. Then I consult the sizing chart that Amazon offers for the T-shirt I want to buy:

The women’s XL is 18 3/4 wide (measured from underarm to underarm). That’s 37.5 inches total. Technically, giving me only half an inch of ease. So, before I even purchase the T-shirt, I know that a Women’s XL will fit me snuggly but it shouldn’t pinch.

Now if I wanted a slightly looser fit I could go into the Men’s medium. 20 x 20 inches is 40 inches total. Which would give me 3 inches of ease. Because the T-shirt style is naturally slim fitting, I know this would look roomy but not too boxy on me.

Straightforward, yes? Yes!

The second option for achieving a good fit is to pull out a favourite T-shirt that fits you well and measure it from underarm to underarm. Double this number, and find the nearest corresponding size on the sizing chart.

So my example (above) is my Smart Ass University T-shirt, which fits me fairly tightly and measures 18 inches from underarm to underarm. According to the sizing charts above I could purchase a Men’s small. Personally I’d stick with the Female XL, because I wouldn’t mind a slightly looser fit.

Makes sense, yes?

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE ADEPT UNIVERSE T-SHIRT DESIGNS.

Dowser 8: the bachelor party, part two

Below is the excerpt I promised yesterday. I just added another 2100 words to Mory’s story (which opens Dowser 8.5) bringing it to 12k with at least six more scenes left. So it will definitely be a novella once it’s finished, not even including the addition of Rochelle and Jasmine’s stories. Fun!

Now I’m going to make Michael his birthday lunch (grilled cheese – medium cheddar cheese from a local dairy on garlic cheddar bread from a local baker), then settle in with my knitting for a Thor movie marathon with the birthday boy. Later there will be cheesecake and individual pizzas.

Warner leaned forward. “And if I’m about to leave the country, I’d like a moment alone with you. Upstairs, perhaps?”

Placing a hand on his chest, I pushed him slightly away. He allowed it with a grin that told me he was content to be compliant. For the moment, at least. “Leaving the country? With Kett?”

He shrugged. “We’re bringing Drake. And your father and Qiuniu are joining us at some point. So what could possibly happen?”

My mind momentarily boggled at all the craziness that could possibly occur under those exact circumstances.

– Dowser 8, chapter two, second draft

Click here for the reading order of the Adept Universe.

Dowser 8: hunting with misfits

Okay, this tiny snippet made me laugh out loud yesterday. I thought you might find it fun as well.

Feeling the teenagers behind me becoming restless, I wrapped my hand around the hilt of my knife. Someone was going to have to teach Peggy and Maia to be patient hunters.

Unfortunately, I was concerned that person was supposed to me and I was honestly getting bored myself.

– Dowser 8, chapter one, second draft

Click here for the reading order of the Adept Universe.

Ah, the muse …

I’ve been working through the first half of Dowser 8 for the last couple of weeks, having gotten derailed writing the first draft by editing Dowser 7, the holidays, and the rather lengthy to-do list that comes with releasing a book. I’ve been only getting 600-800 newish words a day. But the idea is that these ‘easy’ second draft words were supposed to ease me back into the writing.

But the muse is a funny thing … I can write without it, without the words and ideas flowing, but it feels heartless and ungrounded. Eventually the idea that the story will never flow again starts to take hold and erode my sense of how the writing is supposed to be. Yes, there are often a few tough days in a row that I need to weather, but I’ve just gone through the longest period of feeling like I had nothing in my head that I’ve ever experienced. Dowser 8, Dowser 9, Necromancer 1 are all plotted out, with detailed outlines, and before I hit this drought I was also working on a brand new series that will launch this fall.

But, even with all that story worked out, nothing was flowing.

And between you and me (and poor Michael who was probably getting tired of me yammering on about being in a weird ‘nothing’ headspace), it was starting to freak me out. I needed NEW words, not just rewritten ones. I desperately needed the muse to visit.

So, yesterday I reached the end of what I had written for the first draft of Dowser 8. I wasn’t exactly staring at a blank page (I rarely do because I outline) but I was daunted. So I complained a bit on social media. I fussed around. Yadda, yadda.

Then I wrote. I told myself all I needed was 2000 words. I reminded myself that they didn’t need to be brilliant, because there are many, many stages to writing a novel (at least 5 to 6 drafts on my part alone, not including all the work the editor does) and I just needed words to get me through to the third act – aka the ending that I’ve been running in my head for over a year now.

So I got 2400 words. This number is in no way brilliant in and of itself, and should be easily achievable. But it hasn’t been. And I yet managed it. Satisfied with that solid day, I put the chickies to bed and started a new knitting project.

And this morning?

The muse came rolling back, specifically while I was cleaning out the litter box. But hey, I’m not complaining!

Taking a little tidbit from the new scene I wrote yesterday (a scene I thought was pretty throw away at the time), the muse dropped a bloody, dark deed on me – an idea that expanded a beat set up in Dowser 7 and Dowser 8 but was actually more fully exploitable in one of the short stories that I’ve been muttering about possibly writing.

And the muse wasn’t done, because in order to share this new deviously dark idea with Michael, I needed to explain how it came about and where it fit. And in doing so, I realized that the two short stories were actually two parts of a novella (if not a novel) that fits between Dowser 8 and Dowser 9. And that’s not all … it’s actually THREE parts, not just the two shorts I’ve been toying with writing.

So there you go. You may now make chocolate sacrifices to the muse, she’s just given you Dowser 8.5.

But!

Here’s the twist.

It’s not a Jade book.

Oh, no. *insert evil grin*

It’s Mory, Rochelle, and Jasmine’s tales. All outlined and interconnected, thanks to the muse this very morning.

I will now have a hot chocolate in celebration.

The muse is back and she’s full of wicked ideas!

Dowser 7: chapter one, part two

Click here to read chapter one, part one first.

Continued …

“Nine minutes,” Kandy said.

I jutted my chin out. “This isn’t the right spot.”

The werewolf bared her teeth. “It’s exactly the right spot, dowser.”

Belligerently, I took two wide steps to my left. I might have been only half-witch, but I could still feel the slumbering current of magic that I was about to try to tap into underneath my feet.

Kandy narrowed her eyes at my position adjustment, but she didn’t comment.

“We could have at least set up distraction spells.” I gestured around the empty park. “People jog at night around here. Chalking runes on the seawall is going to look weird, even in Vancouver.”

“You know that any other spells might interfere with the casting of the grid.” Kandy’s tone was unusually cajoling. She was babying me in response to the baby I was being.

I exhaled harshly. No matter my previous bravado and declaration of might, in truth, I was worried that I was going to ruin the intricate spell that my grandmother and Kandy had spent six months planning and constructing. Twelve witches — most of whom had flown into the city for the occasion — were currently set up all around the borders of Vancouver, waiting for the stroke of midnight. Because together, we were going to attempt to raise a magically triggered boundary around the city.

In its primary phase, the grid would help the witches track magic users within a wide area — from the north edge of the Lions Gate Bridge to the property that Rochelle, the oracle, owned in Southlands; from the western edge of the University of BC to three eastern points along Boundary Road, the border between Vancouver and Burnaby. And if that initial grid held and functioned properly, the witches had plans to expand the coverage to include all of Greater Vancouver — aka all of the territory held and regulated by the Godfrey coven.

“Eight minutes.”

“Screw you, werewolf.”

“Any time, any place, dowser.”

I laughed. Kandy flashed her teeth at me.

“Fine. I’ll give it a go.” I glanced down at the runes carefully printed on the paper Kandy had given me, wishing I had more light and that the paper wasn’t so crumpled. “Why is it all wrinkled? It looks like someone balled it up and threw it away.”

Kandy shrugged.

All right, then.

I hunched down to chalk the first rune, copying it as precisely as I could from the paper onto the concrete. It looked a little like a —

Kandy cleared her throat expectantly.

I cursed under my breath. “What? Do you have a freaking checklist?”

“Hand them over, Jade.”

“You know it doesn’t matter if I’m wearing them, right? They are me.”

“Illuminating.”

“You know what I mean. What if I told you that you were going to have to take off the cuffs?”

“I refer you to the T-shirt,” Kandy said, her tone deceptively mild. She was pointing at her chest, where the words I do bite were emblazoned in thick black lettering on orange cotton. The aforementioned cuffs — gold, rune carved, and three inches across — adorned her wrists, creating a perpetual aesthetic conflict with her sporty outfits.

CHAMPAGNE, MISFITS, AND OTHER SHADY MAGIC (DOWSER 7)

COMING JANUARY 18, 2018

PREORDER NOW

AMAZON – iBOOKS – KOBO – BARNES & NOBLE – SMASHWORDS

 

New to the Adept Universe? Find the reading order here.

Dowser 7, chapter 1: taste of peppermint

Walking the seawall, rather than cutting through the streets of Kits Point, we rounded a wide corner as the sandy stretch of Kits Beach came into view. The ocean was to our right, with a stretch of sparsely spaced evergreen trees interspersed with picnic tables to our left.

The taste of peppermint tickled my senses. My step hitched.

“What?” Kandy whispered, immediately alert.

I glanced around. The moon was still a tiny sliver overhead. The buildings ahead of us were dark. I could see a pair of joggers in the distance, lights clipped to their wrists.

But no magic.

No vampires.

Specifically, no Kett.

“Kett,” I murmured. “I thought I tasted Kett’s magic.”

Kandy grumbled under her breath. The werewolf was seriously peeved at the executioner and elder of the Conclave, who hadn’t been in Vancouver for longer than a day or two since the previous October. And who had barely communicated with either of us since late April.

“He’s coming for the engagement party, isn’t he?” I asked, slightly annoyed at the needy note that twisted its way into my question.

“He RSVPed,” Kandy said with a shrug.

COMING JANUARY 18, 2018

PREORDER NOW

AMAZON – iBOOKS – KOBO – BARNES & NOBLE – SMASHWORDS

WONDERING WHAT KETT HAS BEEN UP TO SINCE DOWSER 6? You find out in the Reconstructionist Series, starting with Catching Echoes. If you haven’t had a chance to read Wisteria and Kett’s trilogy yet, you still have 21 days to catch up!

Dowser 7: synopsis

Coming January 18, 2018 

Synopsis:

I had everything I’d ever wanted — a successful business with a second bakery in the works, a sexy fiance who I adored, and good friends who loved to laugh almost as much as I did.

So of course it couldn’t possibly last.

Unfortunately, this time the trouble was homegrown in Vancouver, threatening my own backyard and those who were under my protection — whether they wanted to be or not.

I was, after all, the wielder of the instruments of assassination.

Apparently, cutesy cupcakes and being nice only stretched so far.

PREORDER NOW

AMAZON – iBOOKS – KOBO – BARNES & NOBLE – SMASHWORDS

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New to the Adept Universe? Start with Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1) and you can find the full reading order here.