Sadie Jay

I hate the time change. (And that's all I'm going to say about that!) I hadn't noticed until yesterday that my forsythia is blooming. A sure sign that spring is nearly here! Snipping again from When Silverfish Dance , we get a further glimpse at Barry and Morgan's first meeting:  Bracing his arm on the table, Morgan's unasked-for visitor rested his chin on his closed fist and looked up through heavily mascaraed lashes, fluttering them a few times before asking, “So, what is your type?” Tilting his body to look around the table at the piece of fluff sitting across from him, Morgan appraised him from his bare feet to hair-sprayed ‘do before answering. “More meat, less makeup, for starters. So, Twiggy, how old are you, anyway? 17?” Hopping up, the young man stretched his arms up in an elegant ballerina pose, neck stretched gracefully with his nose pointed towards the ceiling. “I can be 17 if that’s your thing. Or 27, if that’s more your style.” Lower...

So much to do, and so little time to do it! But I think that's all of us, isn't it? My list never seems to get any shorter. And I'm not the most organized, which doesn't help! (A bit out of nowhere, I know, but that's where my mind is this morning!) Our little miss, Silver, likes to wrap up in the curtain and watch everyone. She's gotten quite good at twisting herself in there! This week's snippet continues from the opening page of When Silverfish Dance , a story about two strangers in 1973 who meet by chance and then their lives become intertwined:    Slipping the offending boots off, the kid rubbed the arch of his foot and moaned loudly with pleasure. Morgan tried to not watch, but the silver dress hitched up enough to highlight sinewy thighs encased in the dark hose and he wondered, for only a moment, if the guy shaved his legs or was naturally hairless. “Quit looking at my legs and buy me a drink. Please.” The kid flashed a wide, toothy smile, amusement ...

I've been drifting since the first of the year, unable to focus on any one project. That's normal for me after I finish something. And I finished two somethings at the end of 2023—a book and a Vella. I have a list I need to whittle down to one or two. One is a group project I'll talk about later, and the rest are Vellas, a couple of books I've loosely plotted, and the Headphones box set. With a few other things thrown in just for the heck of it! In the meantime, while I decide, I'll just keep jumping from project to project! Not my idea of an early spring! This week's snippet, from When Silverfish Dance, is a continuation from last week. Morgan is in a bar, not happily, when a young man in a dress invades his space: “Sorry, sweetheart, you’re not my type,” Morgan said as he sat up straighter in the hard chair, pulling his feet from between the kid’s skinny legs. “I’m not asking you to marry me. I just need to sit down. These boots were not made for walking, app...

January found me in a writing slump. Like Cracks in the Sidewalk had been released into the wild, and I'd finished my Headphones Vella. I have a list of "what's next" but somehow I've been in a holding pattern. A big part of that is my day job situation. The business I work for sold, so I'm in the same building, looking at the same walls, but I have new bosses with different ways of doing things–including a new grocery supplier and new computer system I have to learn. If new challenges keep our brains young, mine will regress to teenagehood soon!  I'm so ready for spring to get here! I need leaves and flowers!  One of my new projects is editing an older manuscript and publishing it on Vella with the hope that it'll be the incitive I need to finish the second part of the story. (It's going to be a duology.) So this week's snippet is the opening of  When Silverfist Dance : “Buy me a drink?” Morgan slumped in his chair with his glass in hand and ...

Happy holidays to everyone who celebrates at this time of year. We keep it pretty simple at our house. I learned long ago it's not worth the stress. If it doesn't get done, it doesn't. There's always next year!  Fangs for Everything released on the 15th, which did add stress to everything. The formatting program I use shuffled some of my paragraphs and I didn't notice until I started reading it on my Kindle. What a nightmare. I don't know why it happened. I've used it for all of my books and never had a problem. It's fixed now, but that took hours out of my already busy week. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la, la, la.  The snowmen on my mantel. I prefer the kind that don't involve layers of clothes, frigid temperatures, and wet gloves! I'm snipping from a book I wrote several years ago but haven't published yet. (Maybe this will be the year!) When Silverfish Dance is the story of two men in 1973 who cook up a scheme to kill a man that has hurt them bot...

Well, I think I survived. I know everything will not magically  become better, but I have hope, and I wasn't completely sure of that a few months ago. New Year's Eve at the House of Jones was like any other night — popcorn and a little T.V. time ( we're  rewatching Firefly). Now, the countdown to Spring begins.  My snippet this weekend is from When Silverfish Dance . Morgan and Barry are staying at a high-rise hotel on the Loop in Chicago, New Year's Eve '73, and this scene is Barry looking out the window. I wrote this right after I'd spent a weekend in Chicago with my husband, and the hotel was much taller than I'd expected! Told from Barry's POV:      Barry looked out over the city from their thirtieth-floor window as the sun said its last farewell and lights blinked and glowed around them. In the distance, car headlights traveled around the Loop in molten yellow-gold ribbons and he had a clear view of the lake, its earlier blue almost black now, becom...

I was born in the '60s so my earliest memories of the early '70s comes in snapshots. It was a fascinating time and I wish I had more than vague recollections. I did research while writing When Silverfish Dance (as we all do) and so much happened that I, as a young child, was unaware of. Plus, just trying to remember if Mr. Coffee and Sit-and-Spin were things in 1973 was interesting.    Still snipping from  When Silverfish Dance  --Part 4 of 4 ( read part 1 here ,   part 2 here  and part 3 here .)  Barry is reflecting on the man he met the night before at a club. He'd slipped him his phone number and was surprised when the man actually called. This is his thoughts after he hangs up. I also should note, the story takes place in 1973. (This is from the first draft, so please pardon any rough spots or typos!) He gave a shake to clear his head. It was a thought for another day because he couldn’t loll around in bed thinking about clothes and men who rem...

Autumn has seemingly settled in. I'm not really ready. The weather is lovely, nice crisp days, but my brain is already shouting "No winter!" I think this is going to be a long one.  This week's Snippet--Part 2 of 4 ( read part 1 here .)  Barry is reflecting on the man he met the night before at a club. He'd slipped him his phone number and was surprised when the man actually called. This is his thoughts after he hangs up. I also should note, the story takes place in 1973. (This is from the first draft, so please pardon any rough spots or typos!) But still, that guy with the strong jawline comparing him to the English model was cool. He should have asked the man to dance. It was hard to imagine how tall he was since he’d been slumped on the chair. Not too tall, but taller than Barry. Another chuckle, because almost everyone was taller than Barry. But he could tell the man didn’t tower over him. Sitting on his lap and kissing him hadn’t been a struggle, so standing...

The first thing I wrote after I finished the original on-line serialized version of Headphones was a short book titled When Silverfish Dance . It's book 1 in a planned duology. Hopefully, I'll get the second book written soon. It's in my head--now to just get it on paper! (so to speak)  This snippet will be told in 4 parts and is from the first chapter. Barry is reflecting on the man he met the night before. He'd slipped Morgan his phone number and was surprised when the man actually called. This is his thoughts after he hangs up. I also should note, the story takes place in 1973. (This is from the first draft, so please pardon any rough spots or typos!):     “Twiggy!” Barry chuckled as he hung up the phone and rolled over onto his back. It never entered his mind that he looked like the elfin model, but he’d take it as a compliment. His own hair under the wig was darker than her blond and his eyes were only blue when he wore contacts, and he was at least an inch short...

2018. What can I say? I'm at that age where one asks "Where has the time gone?" but at the same time, in so many ways, this year has seemed endless. My goal for 2018 had been to start publishing and I did manage to have one short story published, so I met that goal; just maybe not in the way I meant. Therefore, my goal for 2019 is to get brave, make concrete decisions, and publish at least one of my books! That's as far as my resolutions go. (after all, who likes a skinny, sober bitch anyway?!)  My snippet this week comes from one of my first manuscripts, When Silverfish Dance . It's not a romance so much as a Suspense with Romantic elements. In other words, it ends with a HFN instead of a HEA. Although, if I ever manage to write the sequel...! It's New Year's Eve, 1973, and the two main characters, Morgan and Barry, are pretending to be a couple. Sometimes the lines blur: Barry looked up at him with a small smile and said, “Look, it’s almo...

I finished my revisions by my goal date by some miracle. Now, to find some beta readers and wait for feedback. In the meantime, I decided to do my Vaughn and Daryl story for my NaNo Challenge. It's what I originally planned, but I've been wavering. I have so many things I want to work on and so little time. Hopefully, over the next week I'll get a blurb together and hopefully come up with a title I like. In the meantime, here's my last snippet from When Silverfish Dance , at least for the moment. Barry and Greg have gone for coffee and the discussion gets fairly heavy: Barry reached out and grasped one of Greg’s wrists. “Greg, do you love her? You shouldn’t marry her if you don’t love her.” His answer came out no louder than a whisper. “I don’t know. I care for her. Is that love?” “Maybe. I’ve never been in love.” “Can two men even be in love? I mean, real love?” Greg didn’t mean the question to sound so acerbic and he regretted it immediately when Barry’s f...

I wanted to have this first revision/edit done on When Silverfish Dance by the 15th so I could spend the rest of the month preparing for NaNo, but it's not happening. I'm so undecided about what I want to do anyway. I've been jotting notes for my next two projects, plus I need to finish up Headphones . I wanted to start something new but a voice in my head keeps yelling at me to focus on what's written and start publishing instead of adding to the list! (Probably, I just need to get better organized.) Anyway, this week's snippet is another from When Silverfish Dance. This paragraph is about Barry's cat but its purpose is character building, showing that he really doesn't have anyone in his life. He has no family and his few friends are co-workers. And yet, he's an upbeat, happy person most of the time. “Well, that was a waste of a perfectly good meal,” Barry said aloud, directing the words at Hilton where she lay on his chest, gently purring a...

A year-and-a-half ago (or so) I sent out some queries for When Silverfish Dance and got back a "positive" rejection letter, by which I mean they didn't option the book (obviously) but the editor made some nice comments and then went so far as to make some suggestions. I'm taking her feedback and using it as I do my revisions. I've had one beta reader do that in the past, point out what wasn't working as well as what was. It's the kind of feedback I appreciate. (Although the kind that is all positives makes my heart feel good and keeps me motivated!) I'm hoping to be done with my revisions by next weekend, but my "writing time" is limited at the moment by my other job-- you know, the one that actually pays the bills. The boss is on vacation which means extra responsibilities which means more hours at the store. It's good for the paycheck but bad for everything else! My Rainbow Snippet this week takes place in Barr...

I'm changing gears this week. Recent events reminded me of When Silverfish Dance , a story I wrote a couple of years ago that I had every intention of revising later, so naturally, I sat everything else aside and pulled it up. I'm going to give it a good once through and then see if I can find a few interested beta readers. This was the first book I wrote after I finished the Headphones project, written just to prove to myself that I could write a book. So yes, it needs a fair amount of work!  (it's a (an?) HFN. Hopefully there will be a sequel that will have their HEA.) Here's the blurb: Revenge doesn’t always go as planned:   Morgan Davis hates his Windy City life: his boss is blackmailing him, his lover of 10 years has left him for a job in New York City, and his hair is turning gray, even though he’s not yet 40. And now this skinny boy in a mini skirt and go-go boots is asking him for a gin-gimlet? God must really hate him. Barry Hunt ac...

A very quick update today, just to say "I'm done!" At least with the first draft, that is. I missed a few points that I had in my notes, so I'm going to spend this week trying to see where (or if) they fit in. And then edits. Always fun doing edits. (Not!) My plans, at least at the moment, are to edit this one and then go back to Embers and Flame . I never finished the edits on that one and there was some major damage I needed to fix in the middle, but I got distracted by the July NaNo and once I got on a roll with Blind Ante , I didn't want to stop. So, yes, I see hours spent editing in my future. After that, I'm going back through When Silverfish Dance and make some tweaks there. I have a Dan/Jones fanfiction I want to write, and then it's on to the Headphones rewrites. So, apparently, I'm going to keep busy for the rest of the year.

    I can't seem to get a good feel for Embers and Flame . I'm not sure if it's the world around me sucking at my soul or if it's the story itself; if maybe I'm just not finding the chemistry between my characters. It seems to come slowly, sentence by sentence, but I need to move faster. I've got a couple of other stories percolating in my brain. One's a stand-alone and the other is the prequel to When Silverfist Dance . It's basically going to be Devin and Nick's story just prior to when they meet Barry.      So my plan is to go ahead with the Nano Summercamp challenge and see where "Embers" goes, and if it doesn't develop in that month, I'll set it aside and start on something else. Real life really does seem to be messing with my head right now!

Playing around with some pictures for When Silverfish Dance to pass on to an artist (playing with cover art) and here's what I came up with: My ideals of Barry and Morgan And some story elements! Have I mentioned the story takes place in '73-'74?