Angels Unbound: Asbeel (an a-to-z post)

So... Here we are at A-to-Z 2016. As with every year that I've done this, I'm behind schedule, and that was after taking last year off so that I would be ready for this year! Well, you know about plans and life and everything that means, I'm sure.

My general tendency would be to explain all about the genesis of all of this -- and I want to! -- but, honestly, I just don't have time, right now, to do that. Maybe I'll get to it later in the month? Or, more likely, it will end up in an author's note somewhere. Anyway...

Here's a summary just so you'll know what you're getting:

Angels Unbound is a sequence of short stories about -- you guessed it! -- Angels.There's an Angel for each letter of the alphabet, and each story is self-contained, meaning that it can be read on its own. However, as with everything I do, it's more complicated than that. There are some plot lines that run through multiple stories. Because I am presenting them alphabetically, they are not being told linearly, so, if you read them all, expect there to be some hopping around. But, then, that's why each story is self-contained.

The catch is that not all of the stories are written, yet. In fact, most of them aren't written yet. On those days, I will have a short character blurb for the Angel whose story has not yet been told. On days like today, when there is a story, there will be a link to that story, and, yea!, it will be FREE! If I feel inspired, there might be some blurb about that Angel's character, too, but not today. It's too spoilery. No, I can't even tell you what Asbeel's name means without giving something away.

Oh, before I give you the link, these stories, many of them, at any rate, probably most, today's for sure, are very adult in nature. Seriously. There's sex. Explicit. I'm just warning you, okay. This is not one to get for your kids. I'm saying that because my other stuff (House, Spinner, Tea Kettle) has all been stuff you could give to the kids. Not this.

Okay, are we clear on that? Good.

With that said, go pick up "Asbeel"! As I said, today, it's FREE! You can't really beat FREE!

A to Z and the Final Change (Change: part 7)

Okay, so it's probably going a little too far to say that the thing I'm about to talk about was the final change of 2015 (there were also art projects and a multitude of smaller things that got passed over as I was writing this series); in fact, it was one of the earlier changes of the year, but it is the final one I'm going to talk about. The final change of 2015, at any rate.

When I started writing, I chose a very specific style of writing, because I was writing with my kids in mind as part of the audience. In fact, they were my primary audience for The House on the Corner, seeing as how I wrote that book for them. After that, because my kids wanted to be able to read what I was writing, I made sure to keep whatever I was working on kid-friendly. Which is not to say that there aren't mature themes, but my current published works (minus one) were written with my children in mind as part of the audience.

[Fun fact:
Shadow Spinner actually has a 1-star review because of all the sex. All the sex? Did I miss something? I don't remember writing any sex in that book. Like I said, my kids were in mind as part of the audience, so I'm pretty sure I didn't include any sex or anything else that would be inappropriate for a normal 12-year-old. I mean, I've read the book in public schools and there have never been any complaints about me reading "sex" to middle schoolers.]

But speaking of sex...
Oh, wait, I'm not there yet.

I've always had some decidedly adult projects in mind when I started writing, many of those being in various planning stages or beginning phases, right now. It's part of how I work. I do try to stay focused on the actual project(s) I'm working on, though. Theoretically, that's supposed to be Brother's Keeper, the sequel to The House on the Corner, but various things keep sidetracking me from getting that finished. In 2015, it was a deliberate change in tone in my writing.

Basically, I decided to write some things that were not kid-friendly, meaning that I decided to work on some projects that would get at least "R" ratings if they were movies. One of those is a collaboration with another author, one of those is the current novel I'm working on (and am very excited about (but more on that later (much))), and the last of those is my A-to-Z project.

The project for A-to-Z actually came to me back in 2014 and is why I didn't do A-to-Z last year: It wasn't ready. It's still not ready, but I'm not willing to wait another year to start this thing off.

What is it, you ask.

Well...

Actually, I'm going to skip the long explanation and let the product, eventually, stand on its own. Let's just say that I wanted a topic that would lend itself to a series of related short stories. After much thinking, I settled on Angels & Demons. The idea was that there would be a free story each day for and Angel and a Demon for that letter of the alphabet but, well, I haven't finished the stories yet. By a lot. So some days there will be free stories and some days there will only be a brief character description. The stories will only be free the day (and the day after) they are released, though, so be aware ahead of time. And this year is just the Angels (with, maybe, one exception).

But what does that have to do with change? Well, these will be the first (very) adult works I will publish. So far, the people who have had a chance to read any of these have pretty much all responded with, "Wow, this isn't like anything you've ever written before." And they are not like any of the work I have currently available. By a lot.

I hope you will stick around and check them out.