That is, until someone tripped one of my traps. Thankfully, it was nothing overly dangerous. I had set up proximity-triggered portals around the room I was staying in, arranged to prevent anyone other than me from finding my door. In theory, anyone who activated one of the portals should have been moved down the walkway by the width of one room, none the wiser. Somewhere in the process of writing out the phrasing I had screwed up. Instead of being moved one door farther down, they were moved one door farther back.

The poor soul spent an hour trying to get away from the door to my room before I found her. She had a downtrodden, frantic look that characterized many of the residents in this hotel. Her eyes were sunken into a gaunt face, and she was generally disheveled in appearance. If I had to make a guess as to her age, I would have said somewhere in her late twenties. I was reasonably sure she had not bathed or changed clothing in some time. She was sitting across the walkway from my door with her body pulled up into the fetal position. Tears were streaming down her face as she sat there, rocking back and forth in fear and desperation.

When she saw me opening the door she screamed and grabbed my legs, holding on for dear life. “I’m freaking out! Help me! I’m trapped here! Please help me!”

When you grab a copy, give me a shout-out either here or over on Twitter.  Have fun!

Both of these texts have been part of the KDP Select program for the past ninety days and their enrollment is just about to run out. That means it’s use it or lose it time for their remaining “promotion days” and another give away for you!

If you do pick TWIN or ATC up, I’d really like to hear what you though of them. Be sure to drop a comment here, review over on Amazon, or get in touch with me via Good Reads.

I went with Create Space for this run. Even though I’m not really making any money at this right now, I’m kind of liking the whole “indie author” bit. It does take a lot of time and work to get something into a state where you’re willing to let someone else read it, but that work does culminate in a sense of satisfaction. In any event, I’ll be approving this run as soon as I’m finished with a read through. If you want a copy, you’ll have to live with the e-book version until then (Don’t forget it’s free on the 12th!).

Oh and Merry Christmas!

UPDATE:Tomorrow is the last day for you to get a copy of That Which is Nameless for free!

UPDATE 2:That’s it folks! If you haven’t picked up a copy of That Which is Nameless by now, you’ll have to pay for it. Thanks to all and be sure to post a review or make a comment!

An update on That Which is Nameless: I just finished a new read through and, once again, have another hundred edits or so to go through. If all goes well, that will take me a week or so to finish, maybe a little less. Once that is finished, I’m sending it back to the editor for one more read through. That may take a little time, so I’ll probably be getting back to work on The Empty. Maybe I can get the ball rolling again on that. I may rework what I’ve already written to get a better feel/flow to it. I have a feeling that the story is a touch disjointed and, in some of my other attempts at writing, a rewrite from the start sometimes help get things going again.

I also have a few idea’s floating around for some new, lighter weight projects which might keep the creative juices flowing a little more smoothly. The idea of an episodic piece or set of pieces is appealing. To pull it off, I’ll need to find a syndication channel and get a regular schedule of releases going. That means working out a process and putting together a “team” and buffer queue (A few pre-written episodes) of sorts. Having a lead of a few episodes would provide some safety if I can’t get one finished soon enough for a scheduled release. I’ll have to see how that goes . . .

Ah well, such is life!

Work on The Empty is coming along, but slowly. I’m having difficulty finding a moment to sit down and write. Maybe I’ll have to do some of that over my lunch hour . . . Ah well, there’s never enough time!

UPDATE: Well, I’m 27 pages into merging the edits and I’ve conclude that comma rules are my bane! Wow, I’d say a good 95% of the things that needed to be fixed were comma issues.

Also, an update on The Empty. The text just passed the 7000 word mark last night! I’m finding that my attempts at outlining/planning where this story should be going in more than a cursory manner are bearing no resemblance to the actual flow of the story. That feels a little frustrating when I look back at what I was planning to write about and find that instead, I have three new characters to juggle and the potential for a new side plot that. Of course, that means I have three new characters to juggle and a new side plot to figure out. Such is life.