About CrissyMoss

I've been writing as long as I can remember.

Day 14 – Full Time Author

Posted on June 21, 2016 by CrissyMoss

I’ve been getting my sleeping schedule back to normal. That means yesterday and today I’ve been kind of tired. I’m going to bed earlier tonight, so I’m hoping that means I’ll be awake tomorrow.

Today I started a new short story for The Bradbury Challenge, and worked a little bit on the “Half Blood Sorceress.” I also spent a few hours doing admin things, like news letters and updating files. Yay, admin!

Not a very eventful day. I spent a few hours cleaning house and getting my phone fixed. Tomorrow I have to take my son up to the DMV to get his ID so he can get a summer job. But hopefully that doesn’t take too much of my day. I need to get back to the writing.

Alright, tomorrow is writing day. Tonight is sleeping.

Goodnight.

Day 13: Full time author (sort of)

Posted on June 20, 2016 by CrissyMoss

Today was fathers day, and podcast day. It was also a day where I was incredibly sleepy.

I did some writing, after taking a long nap and having a nice dinner with Gregg’s parents, but it wasn’t a lot. Now it’s 3:30am and I’m realizing that I need to start going to bed by midnight again or I will never get my schedule back on track.

I also wrote a bunch of new reviews for my other blog (a place where I review mobile games, which I started for fun.) I generally take a day every month, write a bunch of reviews, then schedule them to go out over the month.

And I wrote a tiny bit in Half Blood Sorceress. Not much though.

Yep, not a very productive day, but a fun one.

Goodnight, everyone.

Day 12 – Full Time author

Posted on June 19, 2016 by CrissyMoss

Another day, another chapter done. Well, another few chapters with a bunch of words in them at least.

2016-06-18 19.22.17 Today was date night, so that took up a large portion of the night. Gregg and I went to a glass blowing shop and had a session with a glass blower where we helped him make a few items. I asked for jellyfish paperweight, and he said “sure, why not.” It was awesome. He clamped a piece of the molten glass and had me stretch it out across the workshop, drawing out a long thin filament of white glass. We stretched it a good 20-30 feet and it still didn’t want to snap.

We also made a beer glass, and Gregg made a couple of really beautiful, and creative items. The “paperweight” he came up with even had the instructors mind going with new ideas for glass art. That’s my Gregg though, incredibly talented in designing things. Just look at his armor.

Even with all the excitement I still got a lot done on the new book series, and I sent out the newsletter that I was suppose to send out yesterday with “Immortal Knot” in it.

Now it’s just time to go to sleep. I really need to start going to bed before 1am. But I’m looking forward to tomorrow and finishing another short story. things are really starting to feel right with the writing.

Day 11 – Full time author

Posted on June 18, 2016 by CrissyMoss

It is 3am and I’m about to head to bed. We just finished watching Zootopia an hour ago (a fantastic movie btw), then I wrote another thousand words bringing my count up to 2500 for the day.

For the first time in a week I feel like I did my job. That satisfaction of completing your work, and knowing you did a good job…I have it from writing! What? Is that a thing?

I want this feeling every time I finish writing for the day, just knowing I’ve done a good job, and having the satisfaction of a day well spent.

Now I’m going to bed, and I’m going to dream of more days like today.

Goodnight, everybody.

Day 10- Full Time Author

Posted on June 17, 2016 by CrissyMoss

Today has been an eventful day.

I finished “The Immortal Knot” and will send it out to my newsletter tomorrow.
I wrote an article on medium about the changing nature of the English language.
I redid a cover.
And I sorted out some things in the first book of the “Half Blood Sorceress” novels.

WORKING COVER DRAGON Speaking of “The Half Blood Sorceress”, I am now incredibly confident in the story. I’m 17k into it, and I can see the end. All of the little pieces are fitting together, and I’ve also got some scenes written in the next book in the series.

I do need a tag line, a cover, and a blurb though. Ug. The cover I have is…okay. It just isn’t what I’m going for, and not the final name of the book either.

It does feel like the books will be short novels though, about 50k or so, which is perfect for the serial I have sketched out.

In this first installment Sybel has everything ripped away from her, and then she must make her way, alone, across a mountain pass and into the wide world beyond. She has to find answers to the mystical things happening to her, and she doesn’t have much time to do it.

All right, it’s almost 3am, and I need to get some sleep. Have a wonderful day everyone.

day 9 – Full Time Author

Posted on June 16, 2016 by CrissyMoss

I start work on the 27th. That means I have two more weeks of this little experiment. And…The results are odd.

After a week I’m still trying to motivate myself to write some days. And it isn’t the writing, the writing I can do. It’s this nagging feeling that I’ve wasted my day and I need to be productive. So, I just washed my entire kitchen, and now I feel like I’m allowed to write. What the heck is it in my head that still thinks writing isn’t a job, and I shouldn’t be taking it seriously? And how to I get past it?

Don’t take that to mean that I didn’t write. I actually wrote a short story today, and have most of it finished. Just need to go back and add some details so it isn’t a “talking head syndrome” going on. I also updated more of my books on Amazon, and wrote a few paragraphs in next weeks short story.

but having that done doesn’t excuse the fact that I put things off too much. I write 1-2000 words in an hour, which isn’t bad. But I usually only actively write for an hour or two a day. Sometimes less, very rarely more. I couldn’t help but think how much more I would get done if I would just sit down and right.

I won’t lie, I miss having a regular job. I miss getting up, going through the motions of getting ready for work, and actually leaving the house. Gregg suggested going to the coffee shop to see if that helps. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.

Until then, good night.

Day 8- Full Time Author

Posted on June 15, 2016 by CrissyMoss

Today has been a day for reformatting. That took a while.

You know the back matter in a book? Author notes, pleading for reviews, etc, etc? I had to go through my already published books and re-do them. I managed to get through nine of them today. I still have a few more to do, but now that I have a system it’s getting a little easier… a little. I also had to fix the cover for the print edition of Witch’s Curse. That took several hours of fiddling with because the dimensions weren’t right. But I think I finally got it, and I will be able to order proof tomorrow before putting it up for sale.

I think I spend more time trying to get the covers the right size with the words at the right spacing then anything on print books. But it’s so worth it. Having the book in my hand is just…wonderful.

I also managed another 500 words in the Dragon Project. I’m rather happy with this first story. It’s at 20k, and I see at least another 10-20k in this draft. That makes it a shorter work than I had expected, but with ten books in the series that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, I think I’m going to throw a few more bad things at the main character. She needs the growth that comes with those bad things happening.

It’s interesting to write this story because there is no real “bad guy” in this series. I mean, there is at the end, sort of, but not one that really plays a role in the whole series. He is a force of nature that effects the land more then the main character directly. Rather the books are about her struggle against the environment, and everything going on around her. This is a personal journey for her.

I’d be lying if I said this series wasn’t influenced a little by Nathan Lowell or Patrick Rothfuss. Both of them write stories that are about the people in an environment. Neither of them have a big baddy that is hovering over the whole story (though Rothfuss certainly has a mystery with those spiders) but the stories are compelling anyway. I’m probably not as good a writer as either of them, but maybe some day…

Anyway, my lovelies, I am off to bed. It is already 2am and I am exhausted. More writing in the morning.

Day 7- Full Time Author

Posted on June 14, 2016 by CrissyMoss

Ever have a day where you just feel like you have no idea what you’re doing, or how you’re going to do the thing you want to do?

Yep. That was today.

Sometimes you just need to relax, so for the first time in a few weeks I didn’t write. I’ve been reading, and making perler bead crafts, and laundry. You know… Relaxing time.

And I’ve been thinking. About stories and covers. About whether or not this new series is the right direction. About where to go from here, and what I can do. And I don’t have a lot of answers. I just keep going, and hope eventually I find some answers. But I won’t give up, even on days when I feel like I should.

Day 6 – Full Time Author

Posted on June 13, 2016 by CrissyMoss

I started writing these blog posts as a bit of accountability. If I keep writing, and keep sharing what I write, I can keep myself motivated, right? It is working a bit. Tonight I wrote an extra 300 words just to get over 1k. But it’s a touch and go sort of thing. unnamed

I’ve also been working on getting Witch’s Curse and Witch’s Stand in print format, as well as getting the trilogy out as… well.. a trilogy.

Being an author isn’t just about the writing. There are thousands of little things, like emails, marketing, and trying to get reviews. Sometimes I think I know what I’m doing, but more of the time I am just trying to figure out what to do.

Maybe it’s time to get a friend to hold my hand and get me through the first steps…

On the plus side, that trilogy cover looks beautiful.

Day 5- Full Time Author

Posted on June 12, 2016 by CrissyMoss

Today has been one of those days where writing… it just wasn’t going to happen. You sit down to the computer and either children keep bothering you, or you just can’t seem to find words, but it doesn’t really matter. Writing isn’t going to happen. (And yet, even on a bad day I wrote 400 words. It’s not all bad, right?)

So I did a bunch of the little things that needed to be done. Covers, formatting, uploading, and the “stuff” that goes along with writing. Productive, even if I didn’t finish another chapter in my novel. There’s always tomorrow, right?

I also sent “Minotaur” out to my mailing list today. A good scene, I think, that struck a little closer to home with me than usual.

All right, I’m going to go crawl into bed with my kindle now… Good night all!

Author Crissy Moss

The art of telling a good story.

Author Archives: CrissyMoss