Category Archives: Updates

A Busy Month

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Books are coming!

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The Scarab Necklace will be out this weekend. A novella in the Illicit Gains series, it follows Samantha as she shifts from mousy assistant to the heroine, Becca Blake, into a self assured woman. And it just takes a little assistance from a magical artifact to do it. Never mind that the artifact has some nasty side effects.

Then I should be getting edits back for Witch’s Stand early next week. Another week to edit, and it will be published by (I hope) the end of the month, or beginning of May.

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In May I have Witch’s Sight (a prequel to the Witch’s Trilogy) and Mirror (a prequel to the Illicit Gains series) coming out.

I have a few ideas for a June release as well. I’m not sure if it’s going to be an anthology, or a stand alone yet, but I have a few things that I’ve been working on. I do have a lot of science fiction short stories from the Bradbury Challenge to polish and publish. I will be doing that in June or July.

I should probably put up  calendar of expected publications, because I have several more that will be happening up until October.

I have been working hard finishing up a few new stories to get up on amazon, and on getting healthy again. I really can’t wait to share some of these new stories with everyone.

And, just a reminder, if you’d like to read the short stories I’ve been writing for the Bradbury Challenge then you can sign up for my newsletter. I have managed to send six short stories this year, and there will be more in the comming months as we continue with our challenge.

I’ll be honest, I felt a little down the last few days because of how much this bronchitis had been limiting me, but after thinking about what I’ve accomplished the last few weeks, and what I’m going to be able to do the next couple months because of it, I’m rather proud of myself. I didn’t give up, even when my body was literally attacking itself from within, and I have something awesome to show for it.

So keep an eye out for the new books.

Maya has the best writing prompts.

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A quick update, i just sent the final Witch’s Trilogy book to the editor. It will, hopefully, be published in a few weeks!

Now on to the main event, the Bradbury Challenge.

Last week Maya gave a great writing prompt. I can’t remember exactly what it was, and it is only on the audio podcast so I couldn’t look it up yet, BUT it did revolve around a stone wall.

Her prompt about the stone wall got me thinking of The Wailing Wall in Isreal where men and women put little notes and prayers on paper into the chinks in the stone masonry. Then I wondered…what if it wasn’t a prayer they were putting there, but a medal. A military metal, one earned in a great battle where nothing is left but the wall.

This story is a bit more experimental then I usually write, but I like the consept. I might redo it later to make it better though.

And now… The Wall.

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The Wall

 

The rough stone bit into my fingers as I ran them down the wall. Chips where bullets peeled out sections. Names carved into the loose concrete. Larger holes left behind by pocket knives, broken bottle shards, or daggers. Each line, wrinkle and pit told a story in the wall.

I found a name, Judith Gavin, etched in a flourished handwriting only slightly jagged from the use of a knife on stone instead of a pen on paper. Beneath it a medal had been embedded into the stone. Rank first class gunnery. A tiny brass star gilded the center. Elite marksman. Judith had been the best of the best in her devision, and she left her medal here as a reminder.

Other medals for foreign service, combat action, organizational excellence, and commendations littered the wall, their enamel paint glittering in the low sunlight. Here a purple heart fit inside a deep well carved by a bullet. Another a badge for a medic with a long cut through the center, possibly done by a knife. Little flecks of red marred the caduceus. Blood?

Each medal, each badge, each trophy a memento that told a story. But what story?

 

 

To read the rest SUBSCRIBE HERE

A new platform?

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There’s too much social media out there? Blogs, twitter, facebook, tumbler… the list goes on and on and ON!

I’ve tried to limit my time on social media. I do use several of them for different things. I post my book reviews and book reads on Goodreads, and some for booktube on youtube, I have a Facebook and a tumbler but I just push things to them, I don’t really interact there much. I have a G+ that I use to use a lot, but less so lately as my feed has gotten more like facebook and less like the community I loved. Twitter is where I tend to communicate with people, and my blog is where I share things, behind the scenes and such.

So why did I just get into Medium?

My blog is fun, and I love it, but it is a catch all. I use my blog to sometimes discuss things that are incredibly important to me, like welfare, or politics, or TPP. I also use it to talk about things that bother me, and the trouble I have with writers block, or even just the twit that cut me off while driving the other day. It’s a place to be me! I chat, I show who I really am, and I share it with you.

But if I am doing all of those things at once then anything I have to say that is remotely important get’s lost in the background. It quickly gets pushed down under mini rants and questions of “what the heck was that.” And I actually love essay writing. Argumentative, evaluation, comparative, and descriptive. That’s basically what article writing is: an essay.

So when I saw Medium articles posted by some of my favorite people on twitter and youtube I thought I’d check it out. Then I decided it was a perfect place for me to share my essays and articles without them getting lost under my more personal writing here.

So…the first article is up. It’s called “Where do ideas come from?” I probably won’t add articles there very often, but I might go back through my old posts on here and pull out the best ones to be updated and used as articles over there.

 

Progress

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Writing isn’t happening tonight so I thought instead I’d give some updates and let others know what’s going on in my neck of the woods.

First, I have a full house. My daughter came home from school for the holidays so there is always someone in my living room. If it isn’t her it’s my son, who is also off school, or my boyfriend who changed his hours at work. That means recording my videos for youtube, and booktube especially, has become difficult. I’m going to have to set aside a day to do that.

January 4th will be the first episode of the “Bradbury Challenge”. More on that next month.

As for the progress on the third, and final novel of the “Witch’s Trilogy”… It’s so close to being done. I hate this part the most. When you’re close to finishing a project (i’m talking 95% finished here) and all you have to do is put in those last few chapters. It feels like you should be able to just do it, and check off each chapter. But then you sit down to write it and you realize that each of these chapters has something wrong with them, or something difficult to write.

For me it’s the fight scenes. It’s always been the fight scenes. I have to puzzle out all the moves in my head and write them out in a list, then rewrite everything as a story. It’s probably not the most efficient way of writing them but it works, and the results get me lots of compliments. But I’ve noticed that when I read I tend to gloss over the fight scenes and just pick up the highlights. I don’t care for the fight scenes in book form. I don’t even know if I care for them that much in a movie or TV show unless they really stand out for some reason (like the epic battle in Dare Devil.) Most of the time you already know who is going to win, and it’s just a matter of how. So the struggle becomes “how do I make this interesting.” And I’m not good at that…yet. I recognize that fault and so I struggle with them. I try not to write stories that contain fight scenes, but I’m dealing with epic magic and sword battles here, they are unavoidable.

I suppose I need to find some well written fight scenes to read for encouragement. Till then I need to finish this damn book.

Gregg wanted me to finish it by the end of the year. That leaves two more days to finish it. I have six chapters that I need to complete, each of which is about half finished. That’s still another 5000 words or so to completion. Can I do it in two days? I don’t think so, but I’m going to try. I’d like to get at least half of them finished, and then the entire novel complete by the end of the first week in January.

What comes after “Witch’s Stand”? More writing, of course. I have a lot of things planned for 2016. For right now I think I’m going to try and get a few more words before I finally give into the pillow calling my name.

Won’t you take me to Funkytown?

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This month has been less than stellar. It’s already the 9th and I’ve had two good days of writing, and couple days of no writing.

I think I know what’s causing it, or rather aggravating it at the moment. I’m under a great deal of stress from the rest of my life. This has put me in a kind of funk, and I hate it. I admit I’m prone to depression sometimes, and I’m not quite at that stage at the moment, but sometimes it does look a little bleak to my messed up brain chemistry.

I can’t tell anyone why that stress is (yet) but I can tell you I am taking measures to alleviate it. The solution isn’t an easy one, and it took me months to finally decide to do it, but my close friends who know about the situation agree that it is the best thing for me right now, and are being very supportive in the situation. I will let all of you know what happened, and what my choice to fix it was, as soon as things are fixed.

What does this mean for my writing?

It means I’m not writing as much as I’d like to, or need to, in order to finish the novels I had planned on time. NaNoWriMo is coming up soon and I was planning on writing a stand alone novel, “Awaken the Dragon”, but I don’t want to do that unless my Witch’s Trilogy is finished and on to the editor. As it is I am 50,000 words into a 80,000 word novel. I think I might end up using NaNoWriMo as a boost to get it finished.

After NaNoWriMo I planned to start working on my urban fantasy series, Eternal Tapestry, about goddesses in the modern day world. I still plan to do that. I have five novels already outlined for it, and some of them already have several thousand words of beats and chapters written. For 2016 I want to get at least four of them out. They are shorter novels, but fun to write, and not quite as difficult as the Witch’s trilogy has proven to be.

On other news I am moving all of my books (short stories and novels) off of other platforms and going strictly KDP. This means that you can get (almost) ALL of my books through Kindle Unlimited. It also means there will be several books coming up for free. I had been holding out on the Witch’s books since I wanted to put the first perma free once I got the third one done but it’s not doing anything while I wait for that to happen. Better to try KDP for a few months and see what happens.

I’ll try to have one free story every other weekend for a while. We’ll start with that and see what happens.

Also, if you haven’t seen my youtube channel yet here is a good opportunity. I decided to participate in Booktube more. It was an easy choice since I love to read, and I’m passionate about books. It’s also loads of fun. Who doesn’t like to talk about things they love?

If you’d like to see some of the episodes you can check that out here. There will still be the occasional vlog from Gregg and I, and there will also be Loot Crate unboxings, and other little things. But mostly it’s going to be about books I love to read and I think others will like too. I would love to see you guys in the comments. Tell me what books you love, or which characters you hated.

I’m also going to try… TRY… to be better about sending out newsletters. I’m terrible with it and I know, but I do want this to be a useful thing, not just sending notes in bottles so I feel like I need something to say, and with my publishing schedule I don’t have a lot to say very often.

To that end: do you have any questions? Concerns? Gripes? Let me know. It will give me something to talk about in the next newsletter.

My Brain is Mush

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sunshortI’ve been making a lot of youtube videos this last week. It’s turning my brain to mush.

I am really enjoying all the videos, and the community around booktube. It gives me something to post to my youtube, and I love learning about new books. But I think I dove into a little fast. I keep thinking I need to write today and my brain keeps saying “but we already did the thinking for today, lets rest.”

Am I going to take a break from the videos? Heck no. I am, however, going to work a little smarter. I will be doing some batch videos (as in recording several of them all at one time) and uploading them to the youtube scheduler. I’m trying to keep it to four short (under 10 min) videos a week. That seems doable, for both me and the those of you who might watch.

I’ve also met some really fantastic book tubers like Books with B, Book Babble, and Call me Tea. Let’s not forget Richard Denney (there should be more men in the Booktube space.)

I also joined a couple goodreads communities, and have been watching videos from people within those communities to see what everyone is up to.

Let’s be honest, it’s a lot to take in.

I think Thursday will be a day for catching up on everything. Make some videos, send off some mail, and write write WRITE!

But for all the added stress I’ve given myself Booktube has given me a great gift. The gift of learning to talk to the camera without fear. I’m finally starting to feel comfortable in front of the camera and enjoying all the parts of my youtube channel. I’m even doing a little editing. (Now if I can just find a way to add an overlay to the videos.)

Tomorrow I will be putting up my “Wednesday Top 5” list on banned books that I loved. Look for that.

And have a wonderful week everyone.

A lot of changes!

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So much going on this week.

Witch's Curse sm“Witch’s Curse” is out! The second book in the Witch’s Trilogy is available.WSsml If you haven’t read book 1, “Witch’s Sacrifice“, and you’d like to then let me know. I’ll happily give you a free copy.

Since releasing “Witch’s Curse” I’ve been hard at work finishing “Witch’s Stand.” Currently done editing 11 of 32 chapters. The other chapters have been roughed in, but I have to finish writing them. That and all the battle scenes. I am sure everyone knows how much I love the battle scenes.

I’ve also been working on getting more audio books out. “Small Bites the complete collection” was just released a few days ago. It joins “Footprints” and “Prophecy by Barlight”. You can find them all here.

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I hope to get more audio books up eventually. I have “The Ring” finished, but had some tech difficulties getting it to work so it isn’t actually out yet. I need to take care of that soon. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to do the rest of them as well.

It will be quite some time before I am able to get the Witch’s Trilogy up as an audio book. Since it is a full novel it’s less likely anyone will do a split pay for that until I have a lot more readers. The short stories are less time investment and gives new audio book readers something to add to their portfolio. A nice strategy for them, and for me.

In between writing I’ve been putting in a little bit of time on Twitch. Not a lot since I’m not looking to make it my living, but I really do enjoy talking to people who stop in to watch.

I also posted a vlog about the house buying process (and the failures there of). And I’ve been pretty active over on Instagram, mostly sharing drawings and sketches that I’ve been doing.

I’ve got one other big project that I’ll be doing this weekend since I have a three day weekend. I think I’ll post some pictures, but for now I will give you this hint: Cosplay.

Witch’s Curse… a release date?

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witch2Remember just three months ago when I put “Witch’s Sacrifice” out into the wild and many of you had an opportunity to read it? The squeal, “Witch’s Curse”, is almost here.

I didn’t know if I could actually do it. For the last three months I’ve been working on it, and it kept growing. “Witch’s Curse” is about 20,0000 words longer than “Witch’s Sacrifice.” It had some pretty big scenes in it too. At times I felt lost, and didn’t know what I would write, or how I could write it. Now?

I do have two chapters to finish, then the editor is suppose to take over next week. But with editing, and all the formatting, a release of August 1st, exactly 3 months and one day since the release of “Witch’s Sacrifice” is looking great.

As for the third and final book in the trilogy, “Witch’s Stand”… I want to have it finished in three months as well (which would be a November release,) but no promises. It is only half finished, and I don’t have a cover for it yet. I also have to rewrite a few things that changed during the writing of book two.

Once the Witch’s Trilogy is complete it’s off to finish a few of the Eternal Tapestry books. I currently have four more planned, and will probably end up with a lot more if people enjoy it.

I also have one more project that I will be doing for NaNoWriMo. A completely new world that I can’t wait to unveil. I already have a really solid plot for NaNoWriMo, and a cover idea. However, just getting the trilogy out this year is enough of an achievement. I will be thrilled to have this new piece out at the beginning of next year.

A quick update

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UPDATE: It went live a lot faster than expected. You can find it here.

wpid-wp-1427063101748.jpegI just pushed publish on “Witch’s Sacrifice” for all the different stores. I even added it to draft2digital to try and get it on nook and itunes. Hopefully that works since I’ve never done that before.

The various outlets will take a couple days (if not a week) to process everything, but it will probably be up on Kindle tomorrow.

The print version…I did another mistake last night, uploaded the wrong interior file so had to reupload everything today. But that will also be out, hopefully, by Monday.

The price will be $2.99 to start with. It’s a full length novel, so the price is going to be $4.99 but I want everyone who’s been following this for a while to get a discount.

So, start looking for that here Thursday or Friday!

I would absolutely love to hear what you think of the book.

And don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter here so that you can hear when the second book in the trilogy is out.

Changes

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witch1This week I finished writing “Mermaid’s Curse”, sent it off to an editor, and started a contest for a cover on 99designs.

That’s a lot of things. And all of it’s pretty awesome. The covers are beautiful, and I’m going to get two of them. One fore the first book and one for the second.

I started a poll yesterday about the name, but ultimately I decided that Trish was right and I had to let go of my magnificent title and make it something more appropriate. Even with the change the cover still works, so that is okay. Because THE COVER IS BEAUTIFUL!

So.. The new titles for the trilogy:

Witch’s Sacrifice, Witch’s Curse, and Witch’s Stand. witch2

If you click on the link above you’ll see that the two artists I’ve chosen have already started adding the new titles. I’m debating about the blurb, but otherwise it’s great. I’m ecstatic with the cover work.

The first chapter of … Witch’s Sacrifice. … is still available here.

Honestly I just can’t wait to have this in my hand. It’s going to be beautiful. Both of them. And then when I get the third I’ll have a complete set. It will be so amazing!

This is more then a year of work coming to fruition. It is so worth it!

Whatever you love, whatever you want to do or be, don’t give up! It’s so worth it. Even if it’s just for myself, even if no one ever reads this, it’s going to feel so good to have it completed on my shelf. (Of course it will feel way better if people actually read it and want to continue reading the rest of them.)