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Posts Tagged ‘Multiple Projects’

Read an E-Book

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 3, 2013| 2 Comments »

ebook week

I’m participating in Read an E-Book Week this week over on Smashwords. Two of my e-books are half-price this week:

Blood Will Tell

Blood Will Tell Cover

And “The Music Box”

MusicBoxCoverSmall

Are half-off this week, so go check them out.

Otherwise, things that I’ve learned I need to work on, coming mostly out of IndieReCon, are:

  • SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
  • I’m going to be looking into setting up my own mailing list of people who volunteer to learn about upcoming publications. There are a couple of details I need to take care of before I can proceed with this.
  • Audio books. I need to stop pretending I’m going to be able to record them myself. I don’t have the equipment, time, or a trained voice that will stand up to the strain. I might still manage one of the short stories. Otherwise, I need to start exploring some of the other options available.
  • I’m also going to explore serializing over on Wattpad to introduce more readers to my writing. What I still have to decide here is whether to start with BLOOD IS THICKER or go back and start with BLOOD WILL TELL. (BLOOD IS THICKER is the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL.)

So, look forward to more posts as I explore these areas.

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Back to Revision Land

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2013| 2 Comments »

Well, it was nice while it lasted, but it looks like I’m leaving the first draft behind for a while and heading back into revision land.

I think I mentioned here before that I’m a first alternate in Pitch Wars with FIRE AND EARTH. I got the revision notes back from my mentor on Friday and I’ve been digesting them for the last day or so. Some of them I completely agree with, but one in particular has taken me awhile to come around to. She says I started the story in the wrong place–by about eight chapters. Yikes. And then use some of the saved words to further develop the characters, side characters, and their goals and conflicts, as well as more showing of emotions.

But, you know, she has a point and what she identifies as the inciting incident may be a better choice than what I thought was the inciting incident. Now, I don’t know yet if I’m going to be able to delete all of that. There are some things in there I really do believe the reader needs to know to understand what’s driving the characters. But I’ve already identified–and cut–quite a lot that isn’t really necessary. I might be able to work in some of the rest later in the story.

I’ve got a lot of work to do on this. And I have to try to do as much as possible by the 20th, because where the story really starts will determine what the first 250 words are. Duh! (Also, you know, it’s just good form to have a completed ms for things like this just in case an agent makes a request.) Plus I need to write a 35-word pitch. I have about four possibilities right now and frankly, they all suck. This is not the part of writing I’m good at. I really like the description by a critique partner (thank you MattLeo) that trying to boil the story down to 35 words is necessarily like trying to decide which blind man had hold of the most interesting part of the elephant.

Plus, the reader critiques of THE BARD’S GIFT are starting to come in much earlier than I expected. (I was planning on the end of the month.) I think that’s good. It takes longer to read a story to critique it and I only sent it out on (I think) the 30th of December. I’m taking that to mean that the story kept them reading.

Back to work with a vengeance.

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Back to Writing Stuff

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on January 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Okay, enough goals for the new year and holidays and birthdays. Back to the important stuff–writing.

THE BARD’S GIFT is out to readers. I’ve even gotten my first response back–and it was a good one. I’m still waiting for feedback on FIRE AND EARTH and MAGE STORM. So, it’s time to move on with something new.

Right now, I’m working on the rewrite of last year’s MAGIC’S FOOL, which was itself a partial rewrite of my first (serious) novel, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. Since the main character’s age (13) was going to be a show-stopper with agents, this time he’s a couple of years older and it’s a boy-oriented young adult story. I feel better about that after reading David Farland’s NIGHTENGALE. It’s a balance between writing some new material and reusing a good bit of what I wrote last year, so it’s going pretty fast. 

Meanwhile, I’m letting a couple of shiny new ideas percolate in my subconscious. I love them both, but neither of them is quite ripe. I’m still mostly a discovery writer, but I know better than to start in on a novel-length story without a reasonable idea of where I want it to go–and what it’s central problem is. One is a sort of Oz story–if Oz was more like a magical Jurassic Park than Munchkinland and Dorothy wasn’t sure if she could trust the scarecrow, cowardly lion, or tinman. The other is a secret history of King Arthur–with dragons.

Here’s to a successful and productive 2013.

Cowardly Lion's Courage Medal

Cowardly Lion’s Courage Medal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Back to Work

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 26, 2012| 2 Comments »

Due to Christmas baking, sappy Christmas movies that I wouldn’t miss for the world, and, well, Christmas, I haven’t gotten much writing done in almost a week. Okay. Vacation over. It’s time to get back to work.

I still have to finish revisions to my short story that won an Honorable Mention from Writers of the Future a little over a year ago. It’ll need a new title, too, since I mean to give it another chance. This time, I hope to bring it to a much stronger action.

I also have to wrap up a few revisions to the start of MAGE STORM. THE BARD’S GIFT is ready for readers next week and I haven’t heard back yet from my Pitch Wars mentor (I’m first alternate) on FIRE AND EARTH.

That’ll clear the decks for me to start a new story in the new year. It’s looking like it just might be the weird Oz story, since that’s the one my subconscious keeps throwing up ideas for.

And, as incentive for me to get my act together, here’s what I found in my inbox this morning from Amazon:

E-mail from Amazon

E-mail from Amazon

 

That’s my latest story, “Becoming Lioness”, right at the top. *Happy dance.*

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Decisions, Decisions . . .

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 19, 2012| 2 Comments »

. . . of the best possible kind.

I’ve finished my drafts of THE BARD’S GIFT, ready for readers next month. I’ve got two other projects–FIRE AND EARTH and MAGE STORM–currently out and I’m expecting revision notes back on both. I’ve been revisiting some short stories that have been waiting for a little attention–and I’m getting excited about one. I think I finally see the way to make it better, as opposed to just tweaking it.

But that’s the background. The new year is almost upon us and it’s time to start planning my next project and get ready to plunge back into first draft mode after all this revision stuff. And I have a number of projects to choose from:

  1. It could be a rewrite of my embarassing first novel. Most uncharacteristically, I actually have an outline for this one. There are a couple of decisions I’d still have to make, but I basically know these characters and where the story would be going. (By the way, this is the same world as my short story “Becoming Lioness”.)Becoming Lioness Cover
  2. It could be a shiny new idea I had just a couple of months ago. A twist on “The Wizard of Oz”–if Oz was much more like a magical Jurassic Park than Munchkinland. I wrote a flash story based on this idea, but I’ve got a lot more world-building, not to mention plot development, to do before I’d be ready to start.
  3. It could be a fairy-tale retelling based (loosely) on “Little Furball”.
  4. Or a retelling of an old Welsh tale, Culluch and Olwen.
  5. Or another alternate history that’s been bouncing around in my head for the last month or so. This one could be a series. Maybe even *gasp* epic.

Decisions, decisions.

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Progress Report

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Just a quick progress report today.

I’m trying to finish up the second draft of BLOOD IS THICKER, now about 98% complete. It’s that last two percent, which is actually turning into a new chapter, that’s taking the time.

Then I want to concentrate on finishing the second draft of THE BARD’S GIFT, now about 40% complete. I’ve got this scheduled for first readers in January and it’ll need at least a couple more passes after I finish the second draft before it’s ready for them.

This month, I also want to get to revisions on at least one of the three shorter works that need some revision, specifically my novelette, “Becoming Lioness”, which I want to e-publish in December.

Meanwhile, I’m still querying FIRE AND EARTH.

I also need to dedicate some time to figuring out marketing. I want to do a lot better job with “Becoming Lioness”. That’ll require some preparation and coordination this time around.

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NaNoWriMo

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 4, 2012| 1 Comment »

November is National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo for short or sometimes just NaNo. Thousands of people commit to write 50,000 words in a month or an average of 1667 words a day. They virtually disappear from any other writing communities for the duration. November is a very slow month on most writers’ forums.

I have never done NaNoWriM0–and no, I’m not doing it this year either. I don’t feel I need to. I proved to myself a few years ago that I can, in fact, write a novel in that space of time if the story is ripe and ready to be written. BLOOD WILL TELL was actually the first novel that was like that for me. It’s a heady feeling when a story comes together that way and writing it feels like opening a spigot and just letting it flow out onto the page (or the screen). But the truth is not all novels flow like that. And, even when they do, when a story is ready to just pour out, you have to write it while it’s hot or risk losing it (been there, done that, too). Somehow, those times when the story is just ripe for the picking never seem to happen in November for me.

In any case, I’m pretty firmly stuck in revisionville this November. I’m working on the second drafts of both BLOOD IS THICKER (about 90% done) and THE BARD’S GIFT (about 33% done). I also have three short stories that need revisions–“Becoming Lioness”, “The Seeker”, and one I can’t tell you the title of because, if I ever get back to it and find a better ending, it may be my next Writers of the Future entry. That one could use some polish but what it really needs is a good ending that doesn’t feel like it just sort of fades off into the sunset.

I expect to go back to writing a first draft at the beginning of next year. I’ve got a few stories brewing in the back of my head to choose from. Will it be the story I already have outlined (and I never do outlines)? Or the shiny new idea that twists all kinds of fantasy staples around and sets them on their heads? Or the fairy-tale retelling? I’ll have to wait and see what’s calling to me when I get there.

So, to all my writer friends out there who are doing NaNo: good luck. And I look forward to hearing from you and reading some of your novels on the other side.

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From Romance to Capers

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 24, 2012| 4 Comments »

My last post was about rereading Lois McMaster Bujold’s A CIVIL AFFAIR to help me work out some of the kinks in the romance part of my paranormal romance BLOOD IS THICKER. I’m still working on BLOOD IS THICKER, though I’m in the last quarter, now and my focus has shifted.

Now I’m working on a little mini-caper plot point. In this case, I haven’t read or re-read anything exactly. I’ve relied more on this episode of Writing Excuses. This caper will only last through a couple of chapters, but hopefully adds a bit of action and suspense to the story leading up to the action surrounding the final resolution.

This is something new for me. I’ve written action scenes before, but never tried anything resembling a caper before. I’m sure that this will need more tweaking in the next draft. That’s okay. It’s good to try new things and stretch yourself a bit.

Meanwhile, I’ve also started the second draft of THE BARD’S GIFT, which is a young adult alternate history. It’s interesting to be working on two such different stories at the same time. We’ll see how that works out, too.

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More New Cover Art

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

As long as I’m on a roll, I updated the cover for “Heart of Oak”, too.

Is that image perfect or what? 

Now I have to change the trailer and get both of them uploaded.

I like the new cover art, but now I really have to get back to work on the revisions for BLOOD IS THICKER (sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL). It’s just that the rough draft for that is so rough, that I’m having trouble keeping my enthusiasm up.

I only have another ten days or so before the month is up and I’m going to drop it again to work on the revisions to THE BARD’S GIFT, which should go much more smoothly.

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New Book Cover Revealed

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 10, 2012| 4 Comments »

Well, I got an inspiration and went an entirely different way with the new cover for BLOOD WILL TELL. I’m not sorry. Without further ado, here’s the new cover:

I love it!  I finally broke down and ditched my everything-for-free ideals. I bought the right to use the background image quite reasonably on www.Dreamstime.com. This image, with the sapphire blue night sky and the full moon just limning the clouds just screams magic to me. I had to do a little work to get a dragon image I could add to it. (For some reason, the original photo didn’t have a dragon flying across the moon.)

For the record, it’s very easy to change covers on Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble PubIt. You do have to remember to resubmit through their approval processes, though. Goodreads is a whole other issue I won’t go into right now. Just don’t upload your book to Goodreads if you think you’re going to want to change the cover.

I’ve also updated the trailer to include the new cover. Now I have to go find all the places where I uploaded the old one and replace it.

So, having made a cover I’m much happier with, watch this space for a new cover for “Heart of Oak”, too. I’ve got my eye on an image that’s so perfect it’s uncanny. The current cover for “Heart of Oak” isn’t hateful, but it’s not great either. The main problem with it is that it doesn’t read at all well in gray scale–like, you know, a whole lot of black and white e-readers out there would show it.

 

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