Cly Anders: Blog

Just to reassure (and for any who missed it), Chapter 12 of "The Rat and the Dragon" will be posted tomorrow! I hope you guys like it. If, by chance, you don't see it up on the wall by end of day (never know how long the processing takes), definitely check directly with the story. It has happened once before that the chapter was posted, but I did not receive an email to confirm it, nor did it show up on the homepage or anywhere other than directly in story that the chapter had been posted. I heard that was an issue some other authors had experienced, as well. Hopefully, that won't be an issue, and it'll all be up and ready for you folks.

It will be officially spring break in just a few more hours, and I will not be anywhere near my computer for the rest of the week. I'll figure out the automated posting feature and have the next chapter of "The Dragon Tamers" ready to be queued for Friday in case I'm not back in time. Guess I'll go to alternating weeks for the time being.

Every time my editor gets to another chapter of "In the Enemy's Territory," the elves all vanish, and Roscrow is aggressively cursing in the corner trying to fend off the werewolves with a stick. (Saipaki, you're supposed to throw the stick!) Also, the editing process takes up what little time I have for writing. I had a real strong run there, everything was going so smoothly, all the elves were sharing so nice, and then I got blindsided by a drama llama, and there's genuinely nothing I hate more than drama. I get enough of it inside my own skull, thanks. I'm pretty good at managing my own mental illnesses, but mix in someone else's much less multiples, and my grip is not that strong. At least those few months of quiet I did have got me as far as it did, so now it's just "fill in the blanks." You'd think that would be easy... but that's the whole reason there were any blanks to begin with. What does go there? The tug-o-war in my head between the two species is exhausting and time-consuming, but I'm slowly getting better at... well, I guess compartmentalizing the wolves when they are not in use. Like throwing treats into their kennels and closing them in while they're distracted. If my editor takes more than a couple of days, that's usually a big enough window to air things out and at least get Cylthan to talk. Roscrow just... does what he wants. (I wonder what they call it when your mental illness is aware of you? Personally, I call it Roscrow, but I'm sure there's a more scientific name.)

If, by chance, I get another good chunk of chapters ready to go, I'll return to weekly posting. If not, I will stick with this alternating thing for a bit. Real life is not as much fun as fantasy life. Although, I dunno if I'd want to be in Cylthan and Roan's spot right now....

I did it! I finished the next chapter of "The Rat and the Dragon!" I will be posting it on Saturday.

The biggest delay on this was that it started out how Roan wanted. Roan wanted to have his way with his prize. Well, he's not back yet from wherever my voices go when they aren't talking to me, and Cylthan didn't like that direction. Huh, I wonder why. So, I had to scrap the scene as it was going and return to the original path it had been on in the previous rough draft. In fact, Cylthan was so intent with getting on with the story that we've shortened the fluff from previous just to get straight to the action.

--“I don’t know who they are,” Cylthan whispered shakily, “but I don’t think they’re friends.”

Roan shook his head a little in agreement. “No. Definitely not.”--

They might be in a little bit of trouble....

Since I changed directions, Chapter 13 just needs a rearranging of sequences and some details adjusted, but it should be ready before my kids go on spring break. Hope you guys are excited.

If anyone out there is worried I will lose my way on this novel, please be at ease. It's already done. Not in a readable form, obviously, but I have the two climaxes written out, and the entire outline with all the major plot points along the way. It all fits, it all works, and I haven't noticed any plot holes, but I have to get to the details to really know for sure. I'm not even this clear with Dragon Tamers. There's still a few spots I'm uncertain about and am hoping work themselves out as I get closer to them.

Having finished chapters so far in advance but part of chapters in between is torture! Truly. It kills me because I just stare at them wistfully, wishing all the words in between could just magic onto the screen. If I could just, I dunno, sneeze and all the droplets were the words instead of the plague! I have this character in Dragon Tamers that I can't wait to introduce to you guys. He is messed up on every level. I hope you hate his guts. He has no redemption arc. He is forever fucked in the head. But, boy, is he fun to write. Not all heroes wear capes, and not all allies are friends. He does what he does for his own entertainment and benefit and no one else. When the other Q'Hu say "touched by the Q'Ra," they mean him. Just so happens, he wants the same thing as our good guys. That's good for them. Enjoy this little slice about one of the most dangerous men on the planet.

****

“What’s going… on…? Oh my god,” she breathed the last part in horror at the sight before her.

An enormous Q’Hu did indeed stand there, towering over the guards with the most sinister grin that made every hair stand on her body. There really wasn’t much about him that made him any different than a Q’Ra, down the dull yellow glow as his dark gaze swept the growing crowd. His ghastly face was marred by centuries of fights for dominance and countless victims.

Besides being an utterly terrifying sight to behold, it was the young female Spindle clutched in his vicelike grip around her head, exhausted and barely moving, that made S’re gasp. The oozing darkness of the broken Bond coiled about them both, but the dragon had no strength left to fight. Its claws had proven useless; many oozing marks already etched into his forearm with innumerable more puckered scars beneath them like a written history of this same deed over the centuries. The Q’Hu, however, seemed entirely unfazed by any of it.

His manic gaze snapped to her like lasers. Knowing that they would, she had kept her eyes on the Spindle with an aching sadness. The Q’Hu’s grin grew devilishly, showing yellowed teeth, dulled only a little over his extensive lifetime, a few missing entirely.

Holding up the nearly limp dragon, his dark, deep, seductive drawl carried over the discord of the guards and made her skin crawl. “Why hello there, dovlin. I have need of your services.”

Feeling the blood drain from her face when he stepped towards her, she gulped and quickly retreated a few steps. The guards rushed at him to keep them separate, shouting more and pointing their weapons at him, but none of them wanted to get close. Stopping, his grin fell into a cold scowl at the gathered men.

“Like a bunch of Rattlers,” he drawled low and slow before suddenly feinting at the group. “Boo!” It made him giggle in wicked glee when the soldiers nearly tripped on each other trying to back away.

“Jack Jackal!” called Captain Jonathan with a steadiness that belied his unease. “By order of the Speakers, you have hereby been banned from entering the mountain main of Academy. You are not permitted use of the Tamer.”

His intense gaze crushed her despite the distance. She did not need to look into his mad eyes to know he was well aware she was drawn to them like Drawgs are drawn to gunshots.

“Why don’t you let her make that choice?” Again, he held up the defeated dragon, pouting sweetly with a tone like dark honey. “Just a moment alone, dovlin. I promise I can be a good boy. Just– for– you.”

Some of y'all hate world building, and you like to let everyone know it. I've had so many complaints about the appendix for "The Dragon Tamers." It has been the number one thing that has been commented on here and elsewhere. Well, the little family of writers I've built over on Inkitt have helped with changing some things. Rather than complain, they gave me the idea to make TWO appendixes! One that is short specifically for the story without too many extra details (I can't really help myself), and one that encompasses all of my worlds with all the extra details that only people like me enjoy knowing. I have already submitted the updated appendix. It is now shorter than some of the chapters. The full length one will be entirely separate as its own "story." Each "chapter" will be a different world and the things that live there. Hopefully, that satisfies some of the nitpickers while satisfying my need to overtell.

Aaaand since people want to misunderstand, this is why I overtell. When I say "complain" and "nitpick" I literally mean just that. I'm NOT talking about those kind and brave few who simply stated their opinion "Hey, this was really long. I'm gonna pass it and go on to the story." Let me just yell it out for you. That's called "constructive criticism" and that's OKAY! I genuinely appreciate that sort of feedback. That acknowledges the fact that it is YOUR OPINION and you simply wished to express it with the author. Please, for the love of God, continue with stuff like that, THANK YOU! YOU are the type of people who change what I do and how I write because that's honest, kind, straight forward, and again, acknowledges that it IS, once again, YOUR OPINION. My editor has had some pretty harsh realities for me and my writing, and yes, it's sometimes hard to hear. (Bitch, please, I'm... not perfect, okay, fuck.) But the whole reason I post online IS for that sort of interaction. I'm here to learn and grow as a writer. I do that best with honest feedback (as well as any helpful tips, hints, or suggestions).

HOWEVER! If you're going to TELL me what to do, you better be ready to suck my invisible, detachable dick and choke. Those who tell me they rate me low and don't even continue. You get blocked, and you're who I'm talking about. They were here, they were elsewhere, they were few, but they were enough to call out as exactly what they are. Complainers and nitpickers.

This site could definitely use an overhaul on the voting system. Each chapter should have it's own vote and overall vote is the average of each chapter, shown only after 5 chapters or marked completed. Do you think that's fair? Cuz seriously, I'd love to see this site get bigger and better.

I may suck at keeping deadlines and dates, but I did promise none of these stories would go to inactive, and I intend to keep that particular promise. One of the things about the way I've been writing lately is that I have full chapters ready to go... but no bridge to get there. Well, I finally built the bridge for a few chapters in "The Dragon Tamers." So, you guys will be seeing the next chapter tomorrow! It's a bit longer than the others, and it's a lot of talking, but we finally get to learn a bit about Roscrow. Is he a dick? I'll let you decide. He's certainly a dick in my head. Fickle as a damn cat. No wonder he hates the werewolves.

Speaking of werewolves, my editor is slacking (I've reminded him that there are only 52 weeks in a year and there are 60 chapters, so if he'd like to see less wolf dick, finishing it faster would be better. There's also money, but he's refused the offer so... I wait and have fun harassing him, with permission), so I kicked all the furries out and have been coaxing the elves back slowly with all sorts of music (this is the one that brought Roscrow back). Before the drama llama visited my family circle and spat in everyone's faces, Roan had naughty intentions for Cylthan in this upcoming chapter. However, he's been MIA. Cylthan thinks this is great. She didn't like that scene to begin with. She likes the original path better. As such, since I have a couple of chapters ready to go with "The Dragon Tamers," I am gonna focus on bridging the gap to reach the 3 chapters already written for after those two get back to the castle. Just gotta get there, and if Roan's gonna continue to be absent for this, Cylthan's just gonna run amok making him seem like a fool... especially when his rat likes her too much to change back! Better not touch her, Bern. Those teeth are sharper than Daddy kitty's claws!

I'm still working through life shit. I'm writing when I can, which has sadly been next to never. Waiting for some genuine quiet. So, since I finally got to some finished content, I'm going to draw that out as long as I can. To keep away the dreaded "inactives," I will post every other Friday until I either get my groove back and can actually bridge a few more chapters or I'm stuck back in the same spot. At every other Friday, that does give me a month to clean up and flesh out some more of these summaries. I'm sure you guys will notice them. It is a rough draft so I won't try too hard.

I'll keep you all updated about "The Rat and the Dragon." Maybe next week, but for all of my best intentions, maybe take my timelines with a grain of salt. My intentions are there, but until this writing thing makes me money, family demands that everything else comes first.

As for "Mongrels and Music..." Kupper doesn't come out when I ask. I've never had a strong connection with Zigz. I had a brief connection to a native critter, to see the godly legend from their view, but it was so brief that I could not finish all that was conveyed. Unlike the other 2 stories, I'm writing this from scratch. There's no summaries, there's no fancy sentences or anything. It's the "start to finish" kind of writing. And it only happens when he speaks. I will do what I can with that one. He left me with so many good ideas, but I will follow the voices already talking rather than try to force one. He'll speak when he's ready, and I will quiet all the rest at that time.

Hope you're all excited about tomorrow! I know I'm excited whenever I make new content. *opens her own story document* Huh, the author didn't update... oh wait, that's me! Shit.