I heard there was cake?

jeffschanz · May 24, 2018

Hidey ho, all. I'm Jeff, I'm new here (duh), and am hopefully better at writing fiction than I am introductory posts. I've written 4 novels, but only one that I'm ready to show the world. The others are a 3 part series that needs to marinate a little while and allow me to get some street cred before I subject the public to them. The current one is an urban fantasy. I don't have a set genre that I cling to, I write what I'm interested in and define it later (which tend to be sci-fi, urban fantasy, paranormal, action, romance. I'm a mutt). I'm glad to be a part of your community, and hope it'll be worthwhile to you to chat with me.

Denevius · May 24, 2018

Greetings, Jeff, and welcome to AW!

AsTheWorldFallsDown · May 24, 2018

Welcome to AW!
We don't have cake, is pie okay?

jeffschanz · May 24, 2018

Of course. However, pie I can pass up, and cake is is my Kryptonite. So perhaps pie is better.

Thanks for the replies!

Planet Fiction · May 24, 2018

I haven't found any cake yet, if someone finds where it is located, please do inform me.

Dr. Philip Allen · May 24, 2018

Can't have cake because I'm losing weight. But you're welcome to some of the diet soda. Since we joined the same day it's our party, we can do what we want!

Helix · May 24, 2018

The cake is a lie.

(brought to you by 2007)

jeffschanz · May 24, 2018

Dr. Phillip, that is my same situation. Steady diet of not eating, treadmilling, and writing to keep my mind busy. I almost forgot I was hungry. GD-it! Now I'm hungry.

Helix... I noticed, hence the post.

SimonTemplar · May 25, 2018

Dangit! Helix beat me to it! On top of all that I'm starting to get a complex with all these people joining that have written so many novels! :flag:

I better get moving, but then who would wax my cat?

regdog · May 25, 2018

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Beginning Write · May 25, 2018

Whoa! I never knew about this cake thing! Greetings and I hope your AW experience allows you to have your cake and eat it too!

Chase · May 25, 2018

The promise of cake :Cake:

has long been a stock come-on. Same with coffee :e2coffee:

. If you don't bring your own, you go without. However, valuable writing tips :e2writer:

are in abundance. :welcome:

!

jeffschanz · May 25, 2018

My jobsight is handing out cake today, and coffee is always free. I knew there was a reason I'm in this biz. That said... thanks for welcoming me! I'll be looking for either encouragement to forge ahead, or honest Simon Cowell advice to hang it up and get real. I snuck my website address in my bio questionnaire if anyone is curious. Great to be here!

jeffschanz · May 25, 2018

Thank you Sophia! I didn't know you could do that.
Shameless website plug signature -- like a boss. :hooray:

Zan75 · May 25, 2018

Best of luck with your work!

DanielSTJ · May 26, 2018

Glad to have you.

Welcome in and pull up a chair!

Woollybear · May 26, 2018

Hi Jeff!

Did you skip writers club this morning?

Otherwise you have a doppelgänger in Simi.

jeffschanz · May 26, 2018

I think I missed the joke. I don't know what writers club is, and although I do live in SoCal, I don't live in Simi. But if the other Jeff is a successful kick-ass novelist, it may just worthwhile to impersonate him.

Woollybear · May 27, 2018

LOLs, no, I mean yes, but you two seem to be writing the same batch of stuff. (Well, he doesn't do vampires, his immortal demons are a little different ...)

I bet you're both kick-ass writers.

jeffschanz · May 27, 2018

Patty, I appreciate the confidence, and I'll try to live up to it.

The funny thing is my current novel is vampire, but that's not my normal thing. It just happened to be the story in my head that I needed to put down. As for immortal demons... maybe I should check out this doppelganger's work for myself. Got a full name, this imposter?

Woollybear · May 27, 2018

I don't think he has an online presence.

That was why I thought you were him! Dipping in.

But if you aren't in a writer's group - there are a ton of them in SoCal. In fact there's a neat group I'm thinking of attending https://www.meetup.com/LASFS-Los-Angeles-Science-Fantasy-Society/ that's been active for over 80 years ... but there are tons of writers groups. Great way to get feedback on writing ... it looks like you're ahead of the curve on that already.

jeffschanz · May 27, 2018

Patty, I only joined a few of these sites in the last week or two. I've been avoiding them because I thought it would involve too much time and too much cliquishness and snobbery. So far, I've been wrong. I just needed to find out if I belonged in this world, so I stuck my toe into it. As it stands, I've met several really genuinely encouraging people that have made me feel even better about what I'm doing. As long as that stands, I'll stick around.

I'm not such a fan of critiquing other folks work, but I don't mind at all reading them and giving general feedback. Liked it/hated it/was this even English? 30 years of critiques sours you on wanting to tear into someone else's passion.

pholoto15 · May 30, 2018

Hey Jeff, welcome. It's good to know that I'm not the only one that struggled to define my work... what's your current work about?

jeffschanz · May 30, 2018

Hey pholoto15:
My current one is an urban fantasy. I'm not normally big into that, but that was the story in my head, and BOOM that's what came out.

A Vampyre’s Daughter:
A troubled Army vet and a beautiful, lonely vampyre are drawn together on a desolate island. Their nightmarish pasts haunt them both, and their worst fears crash down upon them in blood and fire to destroy the fragile hope they cling to.

It's a mixture of romance, violence and some sex, with some humor as well. My usual interest is sci-fi/paranormal/action stuff, and I wrote a 3 book series with that, but those aren't likely to get interest from agents/publishers right now without some street cred, so this novel seemed like a nice starter.

How about you? Obviously you don't feel you have a defined genre, so what's your story/ies about?

Lisa Driscoll · May 31, 2018

Hi there! Welcome to the group. I'm new also and looking forward to meeting people. I didn't hear about cake but I'm all in for that.

I heard there was cake?

jeffschanz

Denevius

AsTheWorldFallsDown

jeffschanz

Planet Fiction

Dr. Philip Allen

Helix

socially distancing

jeffschanz

SimonTemplar

regdog

The Scavengers

Beginning Write

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

jeffschanz

jeffschanz

Zan75

DanielSTJ

The Wandering Bard

Woollybear

jeffschanz

Woollybear

jeffschanz

Woollybear

jeffschanz

pholoto15

jeffschanz

Lisa Driscoll

Lisa D.