Broken Stars nearing completion; new tale soon in the offing…

[progpress title=”Epsilon: Broken Stars” goal=”70000″ current=”68374″ label=”words”]

[progpress title=”What Angels Fear” goal=”21000″ current=”18738″ label=”words”]

 

So, I know that I tweeted that I’d announce the actual name for SEKRET PROJEKT this weekend, and it was mostly that I didn’t get around to making a blog post to that effect–it was on the business cards I was handing out this past weekend at the Grand Valley Renaissance Festival, promoting my writing as much as I was selling other things (jewelry and sewing things).

The true name to SEKRET PROJEKT is What Angels Fear, and it’s the story that I talked about in this post last summer.  It’s a short work in the same universe as When All’s Said and Done, my first Nanowrimo project.  I hope to release What Angels Fear shortly after the release of the forthcoming Epsilon: Broken Stars, which is nearing completion.

Rather than a true science fiction piece, What Angels Fear is a paranormal yarn in which normal chick Julia Kinsey meets a boy named Darien who seems a little…off.  A chance encounter in the creepy little town of Andover Commonwealth sends her down a rabbit’s hole into a mystery that could put her life in jeopardy.  It is almost a direct prequel to the story in When All’s Said and Done (in fact, as the current draft of When All’s Said and Done stands, events that take place at the end of What Angels Fear take place during the first few chapters of When All’s Said and Done).

Here’s a little taste of Julia’s story:

            A flicker of movement caught my attention and I tore my eyes away from the building, peering through the gap in the inner wall.  The angle made it hard, but I thought I’d seen…

There!  A gaunt figure stared at me from just within my line of sight.  It was a man, dark-haired and scrawny, dressed in what looked like sweats.  Though I couldn’t see his eyes, or really make out the features of his face, I had the feeling he was looking right at me.

Something about him reminded me strongly of Darien, though I couldn’t say what.  I tried to beckon him over.

He just shook his head and looked down.

What’s going on in there?

Something jerked the figure back and out of sight.  The massive gate in that inner wall ground shut with the sound of metal against stone.  No iron bars there, just solid sheets of metal.

Whatever it is, they don’t want people to know.  My pulse quickened and I stepped back from the main gate.

A hand grasped my arm.  I jerked, reeling away from the touch.  The hand snapped open and I went down on my butt in the grass.

“Who the hell are you?”  I demanded before I’d actually seen who’d grabbed me.

A woman about my age stood over me.  She had bristle-short red hair and was dressed in a black jumpsuit that made her look like some sort of extra from The Matrix.  She stared at me for a moment, then said softly, “You need to get out of here before someone else finds you.”

Someone else?  I was a little worried about anyone finding me.

She offered me a hand up.  I stared at it for a moment as if it were a snake about to strike.

“Who are you?”  I asked again.

She shook her head slightly, stone-faced.  “You don’t want to know.”

Her expression reminded me of someone else.  Oh, shit.  Darien.  That’s who it reminds me of.  It was the same blank mask of an expression that he wore most of the time, though this girl seemed much, much more functional than he did.

I took her hand slowly and let her pull me to my feet.

“You should get back to town,” she said quietly as she released my hand.  “You’re missing the show.”  She turned back toward the wall and walked toward it, looking back at me for just a moment.  With that last long, measuring look, she walked through the wall and vanished.

What Angels Fear, © Erin Klitzke 2011

 

I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t think I’d want Julia’s life.

What Angels Fear should hopefully be out by the end of the year.  And speaking of release dates…

I still don’t have a solid one for Epsilon: Broken Stars, but I hit the 68k mark this morning, which means there’s less than 2k words left to write before I meet my 70k goal.  The tale will go a bit longer than that, however (I have at least two chapters yet to write, one in the section I’m working on now and one at the end of the book).  Price point will be $2.99 when it releases, and I’ll keep things updated here when it comes to release dates and the like.  I’m hoping for mid-month, but that’s going to depend on two factors: inspiration, and how fast I can get editorial turnaround from my volunteers.

This year’s nanowrimo project, however, will be the sequel to Broken Stars that focuses on Lucas Ross, leader of the Resistance and friend of Broken Stars narrator, Aaron Taylor.  There’s a few thoughts for that already bouncing around in the back of my brain.  Hopefully, that will take less time to materialize than Broken Stars has!

Chapter 3 is done and on to chapter 4, in which Reece encourages Ky to spill her guts, and Ky is going to. Not sure if I’m going to work more on When All’s Said and Done or if I’m going to poke around a bit on Awakenings or noodle on a new short story project.  What I decide remains to be seen.

Writing is for fun!

Redrafting slowed down a touch today in part due to my oversleeping (again), but I’ve cracked the 12000 word mark, so I’m counting it as a win.

Other writerly pursuits have gnawed upon me today, culminating in a serial fiction project!  Awakenings is a serial novel to be published online, written by me.  It’s available at http://awakenings.embklitzke.com.

Happy reading!

Mid-chapter three rambles

It boggles my mind how Ridley could have had no place in the original draft of this project and suddenly, he’s stepped up big-time.  He’s offered me a major opportunity, however, through his relationship with Julia, to explain the Institute, what they do, how awful they really are.  It also means Ky isn’t trying to sugarcoat things as much as she would if she was simply explaining matters to Reece (or foisting it off on Matthew, which was also a distinct possibility).

Ridley is amazingly protective at this stage, mostly of Julia, but also of himself.  It’ll be interesting to see how he works everything out, and if he works everything out enough to be helpful to Ky in her fight.  I have a feeling he will be, since that’s where it feels like it’s heading.  But we’ll see.  I never know when it comes to these things.

Brandon helped me through a quandry this morning regarding a later issue in the draft.  It was a question of who gets rescued when.  I think we’ve sorted it out.  Either way, Ky’ll be gut-punched.  I decided that gut-punched and functional was preferable to gut-punched and a mess, and that it would probably be better if Matthew was functional for at least a dozen chapters before I snap him in half.

Folks who have read the original draft know exactly what snaps Matthew Thatcher in half.

And now it’s off to work for me.  Six hours of bleh.  My father doesn’t seem to think we’ll be busy on account of the weather.  I think he’s crazy.  Last day for Real Women Dollars = bloody well insane at the store tonight.

Two chapters down…

Chapters one and two down, now on to chapter three. Reece decided to involve herself in affairs a lot sooner than I’d anticipated, but characters seem to want to do that to me lately.

Had a really awesome idea for Hadrian’s rescue, though, very different from the original draft. I’ll have to see if it works out in the draft as it’s formulating itself in my head. It involves Ky ‘slipping between moving vehicles. Very risky, but with the potential to be very, very cool.

Will update the previous post sometime later with the full When All’s Said and Done playlist as it stands right now.  Some songs may survive, others may not.  For now, time to punch out a couple hundred more words before the long, late mid shift today.

Some When All’s Said and Done music…

Thought I’d share some of the theme music for When All’s Said and Done.  Some of it’s old, some of it’s much newer.

The original songs for Kyle and Hadrian:

Kyle and Hadrian’s song: When I’m Gone, by 3 Doors Down

Hadrian’s song: Building a Mystery, by Sarah McLaughlan

New song for Kyle and Hadrian: Broken, by Lifehouse

Let the insanity begin…

Working on the redraft of When All’s Said and Done as we speak!  And mucking around with a tracker widget that doesn’t seem to want to work quite properly… Edit: the widget is, in fact, working, just not the way I want it to on my sidebar.

The beginning of this monster is a beast, because I can’t quite figure out how I want to start it.  Oh well.  I’ll fix it later if I decide to!

Back to writing…

Edit: Over 7,000 words as of 11:45 EST. Will be calling it a night soon.