News for the week of 7/19

News:

Ch7 of The Search is at Beta, and I'm about halfway through the next chapter of BC.

Doc / Manuel the Wonder Llama is working on a Civil War Jasper fic titled, The Home Guard. Doc's expertise is in Civil War history so this should be a good slice of fiction meets history. If his story goes well then he and I will consider doing a story with Maria and Jasper focusing on the southern vampire wars.

I'm also working on a fic that I'll be putting out this fall and winter. It's Science Fiction meets angst. Dorothy's Ruby Slippers is beta'ing the story. Here's a snippet of the Prologue and the two POV's in Ch 1:

EPOV

Watching her like this was painful. I turned away from the two-way mirror and looked at Alice, my sister. She gave me a weak smile.

“I take it you saw this coming?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“This isn’t going to go well. I think she’d rather die than have me train her.”

Alice winced, and I knew that it was true.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Jasper piped up from behind his wife.

“Jazz, I’d be willing to bet fifty dollars that those are her exact words when she finds out.” I turned back to the glass and fought the urge to go to her. I had to be professional. She was a trainee, and to make matters worse, she was with Jacob now. That was partially my own doing, and I had to live with that.

BPOV

A tremor shook the building. Jacob started to fall from his precariously balanced position next to me and I reached to push him back into his chair. I shoved a little too hard and pushed him through to the other side of the chair. He crashed to the floor. His finger was still depressed on the shutter of the camera and it flashed continuously.

The light gave the room an ominous feel … like a horror film. I expected someone with a chainsaw to turn up at any second. I scanned the room quickly as the tremors stopped and then looked down at Jacob. His face relaxed for a second but the camera continued to flash. Then, his eyes went wide. He was shouting something that I couldn’t quite make out.

There was only pain.

I was on the floor with something on my head, and I could smell blood.

JPOV

“Bella!” I shouted down the small entry hall. I heard soft voices and walked to the den. She’d turned on Food Network, most likely to avoid temptation. If she sat up and watched the news, then she’d want to be out there. I was the same way, except for the fact that I actually took days off and occasionally went on vacation; she didn’t.

I turned off the TV and knelt by her side. She hadn’t even bothered to change. Sleeping in her camisole and a skirt couldn’t be comfortable. She still looked like she’d been run through the ringer. Her face was bandaged with large gauze pads that had Betadine peeking out from under them. Her left wrist was in a splint resting across her chest. I could see the beginnings of bruises up and down her arms. This was the worst she’d had it in a while.

“Bells?” I touched her shoulder. She felt a bit cold. “Bells, honey, it’s time to wake up.” I gently shook her.

No reaction.

The Search

Chapter 6 has been sent to beta. Phew! Sorry this took so long. Now, I'm going to get working on the Ch 5 bonus.

News for the week of 5/3

Hey all!

I am taking a brief break from working on chapter 6 of The Search. Alice has been talkative today. I've also added some new music to the play list. I'm serious about suggestions.

It looks like Biological Compulsion is on the verge of another rec. I'll post a link when I get it. Some days I can't believe that you're all still encouraging me to write a story from the POV of a dead person.

I would like you all to ignore the fact that both The Search and Biological Compulsion have been nominated in the All Human Twilight Awards. They don't technically qualify and were nominated by a reader by mistake. So, no voting for them. They don't qualify. I've had an influx of reviews for BC the past couple of days that suddenly makes sense but it's clear that both of these stories have vampires. For those who have stumbled onto my stories from there, welcome! If you're interested in AH, I have several AH one-shots. Feel free to check those out.

Finally, I know that I'm updating more slowly than usual. Please hang in there. We're in the middle of buying a house, and a few other major life changes at the moment, AND it's camp season. Camp will most likely kill me this year. Unlike last year, I'm not physically ready for it. Be prepared for delays while I work my butt off so that the teenage girls don't put me completely to shame. I do not plan on climbing the waterfall this year. ;-)

I love y'all! Thanks for reading!

News for the week of 4/12

This week's news in Kat-land:

Biological Compulsion was reviewed and rec'd by Altered Lions and Sacrificial Lambs:
linkage

Nothing Graceful has made it into the voting round of the Black Balloon Contest. In true angst fashion they're only allowing voters to choose one story. Voting is open until April 16th. If you typically like my writing then you'll love the entries in this one. It's all hardcore angst. I think that Nothing Graceful is actually one of the better things that I've written in a while. It's a bit different for me, there's still death but there aren't any vampires or psychopaths involved.

I'm currently working on the next chapter of The Search. So, keep an eye out for your next BPOV bonus if you've reviewed. If anyone has anything that they'd particularly like to hear from FiestyBella about let me know and I'll put it in for consideration.

Camp season is coming up and I should also have some personal news to share eventually. There are very big things happening over here. ;-)

-Kat

Fire and Ash Playlist

Each POV in Fire and Ash has a piece of music that goes with it. I made this playlist a long time ago to go with it:

The Search Playlist

Here is my master playlist for The Search. Suggestions are welcome.

BC Chapter 5 - Music

Sometimes I write to music.  I think that a lot of us out in FanFic land do it.  I have one series that I have at least one piece of music per chapter.  I'm not doing that with Biological Compulsion because sometimes I feel like Deadella (yes, I refer to her as Dead Bella) needs a little head space in order to talk to me.

Chapter five required angry white girl music.  So without further ado, a couple of videos for songs that I listened to (I didn't watch one of these and P!nk is kind of interesting so there's no telling what the actual video content is...) :

Meet wuogkat

Kat is a married mom with two little boys. Her husband is a teacher and grammar enthusiast. He is the only reason that she can form a grammatically correct sentence 85% of the time. They live in a small town where their primary transportation consists of a small fleet of bicycles and a minivan that gets them to church and the grocery store.

Kat has written short stories and plays dating back to her early childhood when she first learned how to write. Prior to that, she played rather vivid games of make believe. She has written several plays for amateur theatre, a couple of which have been performed before an audience and is currently working on a novel that will never be finished and a one act musical for the church "road show".

She discovered Twilight while working with the youth at her church and decided to read the first book as entertainment in the evenings on a trip. She immediately found herself buying the other three books in rapid succession and read the entire series 5 times in a matter of 4 weeks. Kat hasn't been the same since that month. In her defense she was sick and unable to do much else during that time.

In addition to writing and cycling she knits, designs clothing, and pretends she can play the guitar. She also works as a freelance web designer specializing in working with artists and designers.