If you're looking for the final Venice chapters you'll find them in the Oct. 23 blog post.
.
I've wondered how many Punks readers have read my detective story. It's very different from All The Young Punks in that it's concise writing. I wrote Watching The Detectives for NaNoWriMo 2020 with the goal of staying on plot, with no tangents or parallel storylines like Punks. Crime writing requires a leaner, more disciplined style and I needed to prove to myself that I could do it.
I also wanted to write a crime novel and I wanted to write my first female protagonist. I accomplished all three in 17 chapters and I'm proud of that novel. Since I'm working on the sequel for NaNoWriMo 2024 I had a eureka moment.
Today I published chapter one of WTD to Wattpad. I'm taking Wattpad for a test drive. I spent one day on Substack and bailed out. It's too much like social media for writers with so much marketing, promotion, and offers it's annoying. That platform would distract me from the writing I want to do. And they want to sell you AI tools.
Fuck off with your AI.
I just want a place to publish my novels that's easy to use and not too intimidating. Substack was in your face. Wattpad is a quiet place with book covers to browse in many categories. After a day of frustration on Substack, I had a chapter published in my first hour on Wattpad.
I don't know if Wattpad will be my final home but I'm throwing chapters at it to see if they get any traffic. How will readers find my story? I don't know. I'm just hoping they will. I'm putting up a chapter a day because it's easy, the story is written, and it feels good rolling the dice. I have nothing to lose.
If Watching The Detectives does okay and I like the platform, I'll publish my detective sequel to Wattpad. If WTD sinks like a rock I'll try another platform until something feels like home.
So, if you have not read Watching The Detectives maybe you could check it out on Wattpad and give that library a try. They have 9 million users, readers, and writers. Some writers require a subscription. My first novel on Wattpad will be free. I added a link to this page. >>>
I'm also considering rewriting all my punks, not a big rewrite, just removing the graphic sex to bring that back to what it was before Lit... and R-rated romance and adventure. Joe may find a new audience.
Imagine all the mistakes I can fix in a rewrite, especially in Punks. I can also write some of the Venice characters into Punks, like Cassie, and resolve those pesky inconsistencies that exist between series. And now that I think of it... Fuck! I didn't have to get rid of China. (facepalm)
The idea I had for Reunions could be folded into that Punks rewrite. The possibilities seem endless and that's just my old stuff.
I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.