Or: Playing Catch-Up

Holy cow! It’s been a while since I provided a general update on all things Rissa. My last post revealed all is not so rosy here in Oil and Gas country. The low price of WTI (oil), coupled with a bad world-wide economy, mixed with the horrible fires in Fort McMurray have made Alberta a pretty grim place as of late. Layoffs in the industry means a higher workload falls on me and my team, taking away from the time I devote to writing.

Less time writing often means when the ideas hit, I’m also not sleeping. Long nights or early-morning wake-up calls to write creates a vicious cycle that eventually beats me into a pulp. The only upside is that I now have better control over my anxiety. Now, I just need more time to write!

The Gamemasters Trilogy

March and April brought about something completely unexpected; an entirely new novel series! Way back in 2013 when I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time, I had written a fanfiction-esque novel called Eternal Horizon Online, which was based loosely around video game-centric anime’s like and the .Hack series, Grimgar, and the ever popular Sword Art Online. My story mushed all three of these anime’s together and I was decently happy with the final product. As The Rose Cross Academy series came to the forefront, this story went into a drawer on my computer to be forgotten, like so many of my one-off stories.

The in-game menu system of Sword Art Online

On a whim one afternoon, I picked this story up again (this is one of my writers block “unblocking” techniques – to work on older stories to get the brain going again) and started to polish up the prose. After working with the original story for an hour or so, I figured out everything was just ‘all wrong’; the story was flat lacking purpose. Instead of setting it aside like so many unblocking project, I found myself obsessing about the plotline all day. While doing laundry, it hit me! A completely new cast of characters and a totally different story line later, I had a new novel. Instead of everyone knowing they’re participating in a game, a situation occurrs where a group of beta testers wake up in virtual reality having no idea where they were or how they got there. And thus, The Gamemasters Trilogy was born, of which I’ve almost completed the first book and have already starting on the second.

Main character Michael Cavanaugh is the kick-ass black magician of the series

I wrote like a madwoman on this new series, quite literally. I barely slept, I barely ate; every spare second I had went into this new novel. I wrote an astonishing 100,000+ words in just under two months. When the dust settled, I had about 70% of the first book completed, and soon realized I had created a monster of a novel. I imagine I’ll be pushing the 150,000 word threshold by the time the first novel is complete.

Grimms and Garms

Add to that Book 2 of the Rose Cross Academy series, Grimms and Garms, is heading towards completion as well, and I’m thinking that come the fall, I’ll have two books to publish! This novel is also well above the 100,000 word mark and may squeak by at 130,000. That’s fifty percent larger than the first book in the series, Risers and Dreamers. Eek! Makes me a little nervous to think the next 3 books I have planned in the RCA series might start to balloon out of control.

You’ll meet two Grimm’s in Grimms and Garms

Grimms and Garms sees the return of the cape-and-hat man, Mr. Grimm, lurking around to taunt June and lead the evils of Below straight to him. Add in two more of the series antagonists, Morghen and Ehrin Faust, and poor June just can’t catch a break. His only saving grace could be that he’s finally starting to notice Petra.

I’m also playing around with a different cover design; we’ll see where that goes.

Wattpad

And finally, I’ve been reading a lot on Wattpad lately, and decided I should start publishing some tidbits on there as well.  It’s a great place to advertise your works and generate interest in your writing. I’ve started posting my short stories (ghost stories) from NaNo 2015 under the collection Through Your Soul, Darkly. If you’re interested in a chill down your spine, go have a read!

Through Your Soul, Darkly

And with that, another month has come and gone. I’m hoping the spring and summer months will bring some relaxation to the hectic-ness of life in Alberta, and allow me some quality time with my novels. All I can do is hope right now.

Until next time, happy noveling!

– Rissa