Blogging A to Z

The Beginning…

Clockwork Nessie, part 1

1914 Inverness, Scotland

As was our habit of late, my servants and I partook of the briny air and walked the full length of the rocky beach at Inverness. Although the sun struggled to break through the mist and fog, its victory was imminent.

Despite my urgings to hurry, Thomas and Sarah lollygagged behind, examining the odd seashell or beached jellyfish they discovered. Thomas had insisted on joining us on my scientific expeditions after my father’s death a month prior, despite my assurances that we did not require a male’s protection. I’d never encountered anything more dangerous than a cantankerous crab.

I stopped to gauge their progress. “Come, come. It’ll be high tide soon; we mustn’t tarry!”

“You go on ahead, Miss Blake. Sarah is tired, but we’ll catch up.”

I’d rolled up my pant legs to keep the water from soaking the fabric. The scandal-mongers were already tittering about my preference for men’s attire when at work. Baring a bit of ankle couldn’t be that much worse.

At seven and twenty, I had long ago chosen science over matrimony. The anemic attempts by the local gentlemen at persuading me otherwise had only strengthened my resolve.

(To be continued)

If it’s (A for) April, it must be Blogging A to Z Challenge month!

Indeed it is. So, what do I have in store for this year’s challenge, my second foray? Hmm…how about something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Sounds more like a wedding than a challenge, but a challenge it is…to go the distance, blogging for 26 days, one post for each letter of the alphabet over the entire month of April.

Something old and something new? Last year I released my debut novel, The P.U.R.E., on April 16th and used many of the daily posts to take readers on my blog tour with me. This year I’m releasing a sequel to that novel called Purely Relative. I’ll have more of publishing posts this year, but slightly different because the focus will on the perils and pearls of self-publishing! Yes, Purely Relative will be my debut into self-publishing, a venture that is both exciting and terrifying.

Something borrowed? How about a story, broken up into 200 word daily installments. Keeping it short, people, as that’s what most blog readers prefer. I’ve previously published this one in an (A is also for) anthology that maybe five people other than the contributing authors read. What a shame because my story was / is one I’m rather proud of. It’s under 5000 words in total and the publisher just closed its doors. Rights reverted back to me at the one year mark, so my A to Z serial will be a reprint of my story called “Clockwork Nessie”.

Something blue? Easy. Every day’s letter indicator is a watery blue animated gif. Watery because Clockwork Nessie takes place at the seashore and at a lake. Haha! (Shut up! I never claimed to be all that clever.)

So… I hope you’ll visit me over the course of the next thirty days, every day except Sundays, for the A to Z Challenge. I’ll most likely be posting snippets from Purely Relative on Sundays too for the Weekend Writing Warriors program.

Now that you’re done here, a comment or a “like” would be lovely, but certainly isn’t required or expected. I love just having you visit, as will any and all of the other challenge participants listed below. After today, I’m going to try to get a “random next stop suggestion” generator widget so I won’t be listing over 1500 participants every day! Whew!