Book - "Saved - Book 1 of The Circle Trilogy" - by me

[TheCatt]

On the editing front, it is really hard to get my head in a good place for editing. But I'm doing my best.

Editing sucks.

[GORDON]

Edited a statement. I don't want that out there, I decided.

[Leisher]

On the editing front, it is really hard to get my head in a good place for editing. But I'm doing my best.

Have someone else edit it. Make them sign an NDA.

[GORDON]

Blurbs:

At the beginning of each book is a quote from the book that summarizes what's coming.

Book 1: "She saved us. She saved us all."
Book 2: "From now on your life gets better... I promise..."
Book 3: "...but don't never corner something meaner than you."

[GORDON]

Broke through a wall last night and made some edits that had been scaring me. Feels good. I can see the light at the end.of.the tunnel, on book 1.

[GORDON]

Also, the best part about writing an entire trilogy at once is that I can do a better job making changes to book 1, prior to publication, to echo/reference things that will happen in books 2 or 3. Last night I wrote a new conversation in book 1, and I was able to reference a conversation she has 2 books later, and you see where she first heard a particular turn of phrase and later said it to someone else. The casual reader won't ever notice it, but I do and I was geeking out last night over it.

Alone. Because I have no one to talk to about it.

I really need to publish already so I can go on a book tour and just talk about it all day.

[Leisher]

My cousin, whose book was published in November ranting about the publishing industry:

Forgive the rant, but if you're looking into self-publishing please be prepared to put up with a LOT of grief when it comes to Amazon.

For those of you who have been following along you know that I've experienced a lot of stress from both of the two platforms Amazon provides for self-publishing: CreateSpace (hard-copy books) and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (also known as KDP, which is kindle books.)
Createspace was just... Exhausting when it came to getting everything set up... I spent hours on the phone with them, and weeks emailing back in forth. I eventually had to tell one person that I would not get off the phone with him specifically until the problem was fixed. Somehow (please read my sarcasm) it was fixed that day.

Since November I've found new problems.

Because they're technically separate entities within Amazon they require you to input your banking information in two separate locations. When I set up both accounts (at the same time) I copy and pasted my information directly from my bank into the virtually identical forms on each site. Createspace has paid me. KDP has not paid me ONCE since last November. They owe me around $200 at this point.

I am beyond frustrated. I know $200 isn't a large sum in the grand scale of things, but it's mine. Publishing a book cost money, and getting paid for the books I sold is... Kind of important. Because of the nature of how much I get back from hard-copies vs. electronic versions, my sales through KDP are also more than I've made through both IngramSpark and Createspace combined.

The first two times my payment didn't come through I tried to fix it myself, following their instructions. Then a month ago I became fed-up (you can't tell if you're banking information works until the day you're meant to be paid, and if it doesn't work then you have to wait another month) and I reached out for "support" which I was hesitant to do because... Their support was incredibly bad during setup. I developed migraines for the first time in my life the week before publishing because of how difficult they made it.

The streak continues. I've been talking to them for about a month now, with one reply every week or so. Every reply from them makes it clear that my initial email providing all relevant information, and subsequent replies don't get read AT ALL. Ex: In my first email I say that I'm being paid through Createspace using the same information as provided through KDP, and four weeks later they say that they "noticed" that I'm being paid through Createspace and can I confirm that that is true...?
I JUST
I WANT TO BE PAID.

That's it. That's all. End rant. I'm doing literally everything I can. This is mostly so I can tag them and scream at them through a different medium.

She posted that today, and I figured it might be something you should see. Maybe save you a bit of trouble later.

[GORDON]

I told myself I'd make a final decision today on the pen name.

Currently leaning toward S. X. Gordon.

"What does the X stand for?"

My middle name.

SS Gordon sounds like a boat.

[GORDON]

Also, I've done quite a bit of research on KDP, and this is the first time i've ever heard of them being slow to pay. The praise I've seen is the fact that KDP is all automated, one doesn't need to wait for the publisher to write the check. If you sell 500 downloads, the computer just sends the appropriate funds at the end of the reporting period.

Maybe your cousin just got put into the system wrong, and it's so rare that tech support doesn't know what to do about it? Just speculating. Either way, her experience doesn't sound right and they should fix it.

To be honest, this is the exact story I hear from the old publishing world... the publishing houses are always very slow to write the checks to the agents, which then gets filtered down to the authors.

[GORDON]

Still moving forward on the KDP publishing, but sent one more query to a certain agent who, in her publisher's bio, lists "Island of the Blue Dolphins" as one of her favorite books. When I made that the fave book of one of my characters over a years ago, and she discussed that book in therapy with her doctor, I was worried it was too obscure and no one would get the symbolism. So finding that agent may be kismet, and I'm giving her a chance to get in on this.

[GORDON]

I told myself I'd make a final decision today on the pen name.

Currently leaning toward S. X. Gordon.

"What does the X stand for?"

My middle name.

SS Gordon sounds like a boat.

B.F. Johnson

[TheCatt]

Still moving forward on the KDP publishing, but sent one more query to a certain agent who, in her publisher's bio, lists "Island of the Blue Dolphins" as one of her favorite books. When I made that the fave book of one of my characters over a years ago, and she discussed that book in therapy with her doctor, I was worried it was too obscure and no one would get the symbolism. So finding that agent may be kismet, and I'm giving her a chance to get in on this.

Had never heard of that book before, interesting story.

[GORDON]

I was surprised as hell when the one character pulled it up on her Kindle and started reading to the one who was sedated and mentally broken. I hadn't seen that coming at all, but it made so much sense... a story of a young woman who has to fight to survive, being read to a young woman who needs to learn how to fight to survive.

Swear to god, I hadn't planned it until it was there on the page.

My creative process is weird.

[GORDON]

Spent a couple hours tonight exporting it all piece by piece out of the word document, and into an eBook format program. Did a quick and dirty compile, just to see how it looked. I was pleasantly surprised to see it built the index, chapter numbers, spaces between scenes, and everything for me.

I've received the notes from my editor, and I should be able to go through them pretty quick. Back on a real track to get this thing published. Look for a new pic and post on the facebook group, soon...

[Leisher]

Make sure you cleanup that FB page a bit. Still some old names and whatnot out there.

[GORDON]

Make sure you cleanup that FB page a bit. Still some old names and whatnot out there.

Just finished doing that. FUcking facebook won't let me use the initials I want to use. I should look and see if JK got an exemption.

[GORDON]

Here you go, you get the first five pages. I'm not going to fix the formatting between the copy/paste. It's all correct in the eBook format, the formatting just didn't carry over to here. The "inner dialogue" is all italicized, so it makes sense with formatting. And there were even a few editing changes between now, and when I last compiled for the eBook. So just chill about that. When I give you the beta version, that's when you give me corrections, because as far as I know, at that point it's all good to go.

So here you go.

edit - To clarify, I've never asked for critique, in this thread.

I have no one I've been able to share this project with, not even my STBXW. She's had no interest from the beginning. What I was hoping for, sharing it here, was "Huh, neat, nice job." Or, at worst, "Neat, but not my cup of tea." I just need to share with SOMEONE.

Prologue

The sun rose over central Florida. It had spent the night in the other hemisphere of the world, overseeing the game on their side. Another day in an endless river of more than a trillion, on this world. The ancient, unseen current worked, placing the pieces of the great game into their final positions. Today, everything would change.

A therapist woke with the sun, she showered and thought about those in her care, ready for another day in her arena. A kind lawman shaved, considered a meeting he had this morning… the chief had plans to work from home that day, and he himself would be running the show. A different policeman put his carefully laid plans into motion.

A tall girl dried her dark hair, looked at herself in the mirror, and considered the blue highlight running through it. One more day, she told herself. I can hold on one more day. A sad, subdued girl prepared a syringe for her mother, trying to focus on her task, and not that everything would be changing tomorrow, and wondering if she would be alive to see it.

A young, broken woman lay on her side on a bare mattress in an attic, a collar around her neck attached to the angled roof rafters by a chain. She stared out the round window, she watched the sky turn from black to gray to blue, rarely blinking, rarely allowing a thought. She curled up and she her hands over her abdomen. She hurt, badly, but it was ok if she didn’t think about it.

An insane man still slept in a soft bed, his sour odor soaked into the mattress. He needed rest, he had a big afternoon planned.

A young, bright blonde woman, her future so certain in front of her, got on her school bus, a satisfied smile on her face.
The sun broke the horizon, and found all the pieces in place. Today the city, the world, would be lighter, or darker. Only the sunset would know which.

Somewhere in the Texas desert, the Florida sunrise was only a hint of a glow on the eastern horizon. A spring flowed from shattered rock, as it had since the end of the last ice age. Something seemed different in the desert, today. The natural world sensed something was about to happen, and the outcome would change this particular place, for good or ill.

The pieces were finally in place.


CHAPTER ONE
Entering the clinic

The Clinic of Central Florida was a mental health facility near Orlando. It sprawled well outside of the city in the middle of its own manicured fifty acres, the city skyline far enough away to be visible only if one were to climb to the upper branches of the tall oak, near the maintenance shed. Alligators lazed in the handful of ponds, tolerated when small but removed when longer than a few feet and like to become bold. The groundskeepers encouraged the shade trees to compliment the natural palms, and the irrigation system kept everything green in the dry season.

And it was a favorite destination for the well off of the east coast when they needed a respite. Most people in the know referred to this place, simply, as The Clinic.

Most of the clients of The Clinic paid out of pocket. They were mainly the idle-rich, for they knew The Clinic was famously discrete. Some of them recognized a need in themselves for assistance in coping with an issue, either mental or pharmaceutical. Sometimes they surrendered voluntarily when an addiction got out of control. For some, a stay was court ordered when there was one brush with the law too many, and their attorneys could no longer shield them from the consequences of their actions.

The woman in charge of this place didn’t let that insight of her primary clientele jade her, though. The problems of the people who came here may have been minor, compared to some, but she knew there still had to be an underlying cause that made one attempt to escape reality in the first place. She could work with them in that capacity; if only to help them to understand themselves just a little bit better.

And, caring for the idle rich allowed her to take on the occasional patient who needed real help, pro bono publico.

She had worked closely with an architect to design every aspect of the building, and she had overseen the construction. The color schemes were natural. There would be natural light as often as possible. No sharp corners, as many open spaces as possible. Every aspect was designed to be calming, comforting, and soothing, as much as a building could be. She built it with a small portion of her share of the family fortune, and as the sole owner of the facility she was beholden to no one as to how it was run.

This woman, Marina Marcus, Doctor of Psychiatry, received the phone call that changed her life at four in the afternoon, as she was wrapping up the charts for the day, and was about to write up the overnight and morning meds orders.

"Doctor Marcus, my name is Assistant Chief of Police Lawrence Smithfield of the Orlando P.D. Doctor Jonathon Cass, the clinical psychiatrist on our staff, referred me to you. He says you're the best at what you do in the southeast."

"That’s very kind of him to say," Marina answered distractedly, talking to the speakerphone as she shuffled folders. "What may I do for you, Assistant Chief of Police Lawrence Smithfield?"

"There’s been... a situation, today."

She noticed his hesitation.

"I sound like I’m on a speaker phone, do you have privacy?" he asked.

She wasn't sure, no telling who could be in the hallway outside her door, but now he had her attention. She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear. "I have privacy now," she answered him. "What’s this situation?"

She heard him take a deep breath. Whatever it is, he’s still processing.

"A child sex ring has been uncovered in the city. We have three victims in custody; we think that’s all of them. We’re still checking on a possible fourth victim but she’s currently unconscious in the hospital. Their names are Nora Lopez, Lucy Logan, and Mary Donners.”

Doctor Marcus grabbed a pen and started taking notes as he spoke into her ear.

“We retrieved them today and they’re presently here with us at headquarters. Doctor Cass had to sedate Mary, she’s in a bad way. I don't want to leave them here, and I don’t want to dump them in the foster system. Doctor Cass tells me they’d be comfortable in your facility for a few days, until we can begin to get them sorted out."

Marina realized she had been gripping the phone tightly as he spoke. A child sex ring... she was always professional, but she never liked these cases, and even after many years she sometimes had to work at keeping her bearing. “Of course, send them here. I’ll have rooms prepared," she answered him directly. "Have Doctor Cass write up what the one girl has been administered. How was the under-sedation… Mary? Behaving when you found her?"

Another hesitation. "Doctor, she was chained in an attic with a collar around her neck. Her... uncle... really messed her up. The other girls told us he raped her every day, and has been for many years, possibly as many at ten."

Marina interrupted, "Chief, how old are these girls?"

"They’re all 17, now."

She took her own deep, quiet breath, and whispered, "I see."

"Yeah,” he understood what she hadn’t said. “When we recovered her she was in a state of panic. She hasn't allowed any male officers to get close to her, we had to have one of our female officers administer the sedative because she was able to get a little closer, and we still had to take a wild swing at her thigh with the needle. She was... like a wild animal. She seems to be able to control herself better when in the presence of the other two girls. That's about all I know for now."

"You said there were three, what are the conditions of the other two?"

"They were each recovered at their respective high schools. They were not treated as poorly as Mary, but they’ve each been very cooperative, and are very happy to have been rescued. One says she’s been in this ring since she was 8, the other since she was 9. There was mental conditioning against talking, apparently.... something to do with collars and threats... there's just so much to this, we're still trying to get our arms around it. I need someone great for them right now, and they say that's you."

"Do they otherwise need any medical attention?"

"We had the two girls checked out by paramedics, they appear to be in good condition, physically, and they claim they’re fine. Mary.... she was found in rags. Once we got her sedated the paramedics checked her over, they found evidence of trauma all over her body, bruises fresh and old, and trauma around her genitals. Do you have an M.D. on staff?"

"We do, I’ll call him back immediately, he just left for the day."

"Do you have the facilities to give her a thorough examination?" he asked.

"We do. We’re fully certified as a hospital."

"Good. We were going to administer rape kits on them, but Mary... well, I decided she's been through enough, and her uncle is dead anyway. "

Uncle dead, Doctor Marcus thought to herself, and noted it with the pen.

"And Lucy and Nora claim they were last raped almost a week ago, and there’s probably no evidence that could be recovered after that long, so I also decided to let it slide. Believe me doctor.... we have enough other evidence to convict these men without inflicting any more suffering on the girls."

She tapped her pen against the top of her desk, thinking. He sounds like a good man. "How fast can you get them here?"

A pause, "Probably an hour. If we can still have access to them for more information, if we need it."

"Of course," she answered, distracted. "Yes, get them here as fast as you can. Is there any danger from the men involved?"

"No maam, they are either all dead or in custody."

"Good. I... will have more questions by the time you get here,” speaking as she collected her thoughts. “Tell your boss to let you run the red lights."

There was a long pause, and she heard him take a deep breath. "Doctor.... my boss was the grandfather of one of the girls. He was found dead today of a self inflicted gunshot wound."

Another one dead. After a pause, "Assistant Chief of Police," she said, making the connection as to how he introduced himself. He was now the boss.

"Yes maam."

Marina held the phone to her ear, staring at the wall. "Get them here."

"Understood," and she heard the click of the line going dead.

She stared at the phone for a few moments, looked at her watch, and started making notes. She called back her M.D, Paul Whinchell, and made another call to have three rooms prepared for new arrivals. "Put three meals aside, I don't know how long since they've eaten."

[Leisher]

I look forward to reading this later tonight. Hopefully, prior to our gaming session.

The FB page is nicely cleaned up.

[GORDON]

The FB page is nicely cleaned up.

I changed the name then decided I didn't like it... I still don't want to use my real name, but close. I want to be SX Gordon, but Facebook won't allow the initials. So I was thinking of a different s-word. SO I picked Serene. Then I decided to change it, and FB tells me I have to wait 60 days.

Fucckin facebook.

[GORDON]

I changed the name then decided I didn't like it... I still don't want to use my real name, but close. I want to be SX Gordon, but Facebook won't allow the initials. So I was thinking of a different s-word. SO I picked Serene. Then I decided to change it, and FB tells me I have to wait 60 days.

Ha, when I can change the name again, I'll change it to Essex.

Ha.