5min – Day 10 – Declutter Continues

Posted on July 20, 2017 by CrissyMoss

Decluttering continued yesterday, and this morning. I cleared out all my craft drawers in the living room, threw out some paints and pencils that were no longer in great shape, and sorted everything. I still have a lot of crafting supplies. I’m going to have to decide if I want to keep them all. Am i actually going to use them? Or am I just holding onto them because I occationaly enjoy using them?

I also started with one bookshelf and I’m going to be working my way around the room to the other book shelves. I’ll need to get a couple boxes because I’m going to be getting rid of a LOT of these books, and downlaoding the ones I like the most on ebook readers. Some of them I might just add to a wish list so I can pick them up from a library later. It’s clear, though, that I don’t intend to read all of these anymore. How can I? I have other things going on in my life, and there are hundreds of books in this house, and almost a thousand on my kindle.

I do love reding, and I read a lot. But the days of collecting because I think a book looks amazing is over. I just don’t have the room for it anymore. Sad, but true.

On the writing front, I finished editing another chapter last night, and then I came down with something. I’m almost certain that I ate something that did not agree with me. I can’t decide what it was, but it was acting a lot like a slight case of food poisoning, or an allergic reaction to something. So I went to bed, and slept early. Then I woke this morning feeling much better.

Today they were painting the staircase just outside my apartment so I we were not supposed to leave the house until 5pm. That was easy enough, the paint smells terrible.

And that’s my five.

5 Min – Day 6 – What’s free?

Posted on July 15, 2017 by CrissyMoss

Last night I finished editing two more chapters for Dragons Flame, and wrote the last chapter. That last chapter had gone incomplete for a while. But this get’s me even closer to the end of the writing.

I also did a bunch of newsletters to let people know about the free short stories this weekend. If you’re interested you can find them here: Small Bites 1 and Hidden Treasures for free this weekend, and Witch’s Sacrifice is back on sale for 99 cents, along with most of my short stories being 99 cents.

But no progress on the declutter front yesterday. Life is about balance, trying to find that sweet spot of work, chores, family and everything else you have going on in your life. And so I’m trying to do that. I know I work from 12:30 to 10:30 five days a week, including the commute to and from. I know that I have some time in the evenings with Gregg. And I know that in the morning I am carving out five minutes for this blog post. The other things, like writing and reading, and playing a game, or decluttering my life…those all take second fiddle to the facts of keeping a roof over our head, and spending time with my boyfriend so we don’t feel like we’re ignoring one another.

Some days I wish I could go back to being a house wife. I had a lot more time then, and would sometimes spend weeks just doing spring cleaning. Sometimes you have to spend a lot of time to find all those little nooks and crannies where soup or spaghetti found their way. Especially when you have toddlers.

Maybe I don’t have toddlers anymore, but I do have a house filled with stuff.

And that’s my five.

Fire and Ice

Posted on June 8, 2017 by CrissyMoss

I’ve been working on the new cover for the first book in “The Half Blood Sorceress” series. Book one, Dragon’s Flame, is finished. Well, the first draft is. I have a few things to clean up before sending it off to the editor, but I am hoping to have it out soon (in relitive terms).

The back of the book:

A tragedy. A secret. A journey to find the truth.

Sybel watched as her mother burned on a funeral pyre, but she never expected her father to push her into the flames. When Sybel survives the pyre without a single burn she’s banished from the village for reasons she doesn’t understand.
With more questions than answers, Sybil’s only hope is to make a treacherous journey to find the wise mages of Kemoor. As she ventures out beyond the edges of her village she finds a world filled with dangers; massive creatures, vindictive humans, and an ice cold wind blowing from the north. A wind that is far more sinister than anyone suspects.
Now the girl who would not burn must trust in unlikely allies to save her life, and discover the truth…

And the best part is I’ve already written most of book two. I’m hoping to have books one and two out this year, with the third one next year some time. I have at least a five book arc for this series.

The Half Blood Sorceress is not part of the same world as my Witch’s Trilogy. In the Witch’s Trilogy there are many sentient creatures created by the elements. In The Half Blood Sorceress series there are three races; humans, dragons, and ifrits. The world building of these two series was so completely different. Peyllen (the world of Witch’s Trilogy) took years to flesh out. But because of all that world building the mythos of Peyllen is an entire series of it’s own that I’m still writing.

The Half Blood Sorceress is different in a lot of ways, and so is the experience of creating the world, and writing the stories. I honestly can’t wait to get it out and hear what others have to say about it.

The time has come….

Posted on April 22, 2017 by CrissyMoss

The week is drawing to a close, and, as promised, here I am.

I love reading, and I have a horrible habit of filling my kindle with books, many of which I might not get to read. But every time I open the cover I know there will be something amazing to find inside. And I want to share that experience, that love of finding diamonds in the rough among the countless books. And maybe I hope some of my stories find their way into your favorites as well.

So, tomorrow (4/23) is the last day of the 99 cent sale. You can also find Witch’s Sacrifice and Witch’s Curse on that list. You’ll also find some boxed sets, and a number of novels that look very interesting.

I’d also like to let you know about The Scarab Necklace and Footprints which are free this weekend. The Scarab Necklace is a look into what makes us tick, and what drives us insane. Footprints is about a young man dealing with a tragedy in his life, while also running from something in the woods.

And, as always, all of my stories are available in KU.

Strong Female Characters

Posted on May 21, 2016 by CrissyMoss

I saw another post asking which stories could use strong female characters, and my answer probably wasn’t what they were looking for: None of them.

Now, before you get up in arms please hear me out, because I do have a reason behind it.

There are already a lot of wonderful books out there with strong female characters as the lead character. A short list:
Aurian by Maggie Furey
Rhapsody: Child of Blood by Elizabeth Haydon
The Hallows Series by Kim Harrison
Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
The Twenty Sided Sorceress by Annie Bellet
The Little Flame Series by Melissa Lummis
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
Magnificent Devices by Shelley Adina
White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
Several books in the Xanth Series by Piers Anthony
Anything by Anne McCaffery
Elvenbane by Andre Norton
Several books in the Wool Series by Hugh Howey
The Shambling Guides by Mur Lafferty
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Hit Girls by Garrett Robinson
Anything from the Buffy the Vampire universe.
Harper Collelly series by Charaine Harris.

And these are just the books that I know of because I’ve personally read them (or watched the movie in the case of Hunger Games). There are over 6,000 books in this list with strong female lead characters, many of which have been on best seller lists, or made into movies. And this isn’t even counting all the strong, wonderful women that play secondary roles in books like Kitiara from Dragonlance Chronicles, Catti-brie from the Dritzzt series, or Hermione from Harry Potter. That’s not even getting into comic books. And I’m sure there are thousands more that aren’t even in that list.

All of the stories in my list are sci-fi and fantasy. That’s because I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. But I also know a lot of strong female characters from paranormal romance. I also know of characters from other books, games, and films in many other genres that are strong female characters.

Am I saying we don’t need any more? Of course not, that would be like saying we don’t need more books. I really enjoy reading about strong women doing extraordinary things, and even wrote my own series of books with that in mind so I hope my favorite authors continue writing theirs. I also enjoy reading about mages that slowly go mad, or women who are hell cats and need to be tamed. There are all kinds of books out there, with all kinds of characters, because people come with different attitudes, desires, ideas, and personalities. But I would also encourage more authors to include strong female characters…IF they are a benefit to the story.

Not every story has a woman in it. What if you wrote a story about a man in a men’s shower room? Or a group of men going on a camping trip together? Or a father and son sharing a moment? Or a group of dwarves out to save their mountain? Not every story is going to have a strong female character in it. Not every story is going to have a woman in it. In fact when they added a strong female into The Hobbit some of the fans were less than thrilled with the addition.

A story isn’t always about sex, gender, political correctness, or whatever. Sometimes it’s just a story about a leaf blowing in the wind, or the history of salt, or vampire bunnies. And if a story doesn’t have a female character that doesn’t automatically make it anti-women. Hell, there could be a character in the story that is utterly sexist and the story still might not be about women.

My thought for those looking for strong female characters: Expand your reading list, because there are THOUSANDS of books out there with strong female characters, you just have to be open to finding them. And just so you know, MEN need strong male character role models, too. And both sexes need the ridiculously heroic characters, or the weak ones, or the the psychopathic murderous kings/queens to show them what not to be. It does not take away from your enjoyment of books/films/games/etc because the other sex also has what you are looking for.

And if you think any gender, or genderless, or gender fluid individual needs more characters like them out there: GO WRITE IT! That’s the beauty of the indy world. Anyone can make anything that they think should exist.

Dragons? Where?

Posted on May 15, 2016 by CrissyMoss

I’ve been really busy the last few weeks plotting and writing the first few chapters of my new series: “The Half-Blood Sorceress.”

I am so excited about this series! I first got the idea back at NorWesCon in the art gallery. I found an artist that had absolutely magnificent work. I mean he does paintings for several of the big publishers, he was that good. And at the bottom of his display was one loan painting. I overheard him talking to someone else about how he just had to paint that one night, even if it hadn’t found a home yet, be he was sure that the right author would come along to give it a story.

“You could write that, you know,” Gregg said.

“No, that covers too awesome for me,” I said, and kept walking.

Three feet down the hall and I looked up at him and said “You suck!”

“See,” he said, “told you that you had a story for that picture.”

Not a story, as it turns out. A whole SERIES! All based on this one painting, or rather the girl depicted there.

Of course, I asked the artist how much it would cost for me to use that as the cover… As it turns out, WAY more than I can afford at the moment. However, this painting is the one I need for book six, so there is still a chance I could do it. I just have to get writing, and see how things work out.

So what is this story about? A half-blood sorceress? What does that even mean?

Well that’s coming, but today I’m going to tell you a little bit about the world. First: a map. I’ve been working on it on and off for a while, but the world has no name yet. I would absolutely love my readers to name this world for me. And no, I won’t be naming it Mappy McMapface, sorry.

Dragon Map What should you know about this world? Here there be dragons! Four of them, in fact.

Nyasama – Earth dragon
Anulaer – Air dragon
Ningirsu – Water dragon
Alshadu – Fire dragon

Together, the four dragons created the world, then slept in various places around the new planet. Every now and then the dragons wake and travel about the planet they created in human form, interacting, causing mischief, or doing something extraordinary.

This book isn’t about the dragons, though they do have an influence on the world at large. No, the first book is about Sybel. She finds herself in an awful place in time, watching the mother she loved waste away, and then learning a horrible secret that thrusts her out into a world filled with magic and darkness that she did not know existed.

I am currently seeing how the first book goes. I’m already 14k into the initial writing, and loving the way it’s going. I want to write one book a month, with a month for editing, formatting, etc. I just have to see how I can handle it since I’ve never pushed myself to do something this massive before. I’m only looking at 50k words per book, but I haven’t even gotten a third of the way into this one so I have no idea if that estimate will fly right out the window.

All I know is, I love this world. I love the characters. And I love the story. I’m more passionate about this story than I have been about anything in a couple of years. I want to see it live, and I want others to love it too.

So look for more snippets about the world, and maybe some snippets from the actual novel soon.

The Trilogy is Complete!

Posted on April 30, 2016 by CrissyMoss

The trilogy is now complete!

Witch’s Sacrifice

Her forbidden secret will make her powerful… and hunted.

Witch’s Curse

Hunted since birth, now Okira must use the power she’s been hiding…or die trying.

Witch’s Stand

The battle has been won, but the war is far from over.

One last short story, “Witch’s Sight,” to come out next weekend. It’s going to the editor today. Or you can get the entire trilogy in one convenient pack, with the bonus short story. That will also be out next weekend also.

The final short story is how Salvia became the little mother.

I am so thrilled to have them all completed. The story tells a wonderful transformation from meek girl to powerful witch, and leader of her time.

A Busy Month

Posted on April 6, 2016 by CrissyMoss

Books are coming!

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.

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.

End of Year Wrap Up, and Next Year!

Posted on December 14, 2015 by CrissyMoss

From my newsletter, which you can sign up for HERE.

I’m so Excited!

The year is almost over, and I have so much to show for it. It’s rather exciting. This year I published two novels (Witch’s Sacrifice and Witch’s Curse) and put out three audio books (Prophecy by Barlight, Footprints, and Small Bites Complete). I also wrote a great big huge chunk of Witch’s Stand, the final book in the Witch’s Trilogy, as well as 84k words in several other projects.

That’s a lot of work, a lot more than I thought I’d done. Over the course of the year I have written 250,000 words. That’s a lot of words. Keep in mind I did this while working a full time job, and helping my boyfriend with his new leather crafting workshop. Plus kids, doctor appointments, orthodontists… you get the point. It’s been a busy year, and I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished so far.

~~BUT!~~

It’s not enough. A quarter million words a year is nowhere near where I want it to be for my full time carrier. So, this coming year I am stepping up my game another notch. I plan to keep stepping it up until I am working as an author full time.

On that note I have an exciting reveal for next year. I’m working on a project with Maya Goode and Gerald Hornsby that starts January 4th. I don’t know how much I can say, but it will involve a lot more content being produced. I can’t wait to share it with you!

~~Free gifts?~~

If you aren’t signed up for my email list now is a great time to do so. This year I’ll be sending out a new short story every week. Anyone subscribed to the email will get a copy of the new short story a month before any of them are released on any other platform, that is IF they are released on Amazon, or Wattpad. Some of them will be kept until the end of the year and released as a book. So if you want to get in on the ground floor and see what I’ve got up my sleeve then you’ll need to sign up for the email.

Secondly, I’ll be putting out “Witch’s Stand” sometime early 2016. I’m hoping by the beginning of February (because of editing) but I can’t promise. I have a final short story, “Witch’s Sight” which is a prequel to the Witch’s Trilogy, that should be out soon afterward. It will be sent through email first and released as a standalone free book on Amazon a month later.

Once those two projects are finished I will be done with the “Witch’s Trilogy”, but not with the world. There are so many stories that happen in the world of Peyllen, and I plan to tell a lot more of them, but for now I will be setting that series aside to go back to my “Eternal Tapestry” books.

“Eternal Tapestry” is an urban fantasy series based on gods and goddesses of the old world who are still living, working, and sometimes mucking up the modern world. It follows the adventures of the goddesses of fate in their current incarnation. I have six books planned for that series, all in various stages of completeness, and I want to work on getting some of them out once I’m done with the “Witch’s Trilogy.”

I’ve got my work cut out for me. 2-5000 words (maybe more) for a short story each week, plus another thousand a day for the Eternal Tapestry series. That’s a lot of words, and a lot of time sitting in front of a keyboard. But the outcome is going to be AMAZING!

My goal this coming year is to produce half a million words. DOUBLE what I’ve been able to produce in the years past. I think it’s doable. And I think in 2017 I may finally be able to get to the coveted ONE MILLION WORDS in a single year. (Even if they aren’t all published in the same year. There is nothing wrong with stockpiling some words for later projects, after all.)

Anyway, fair reader, it’s time for me to say adieu until the next year. Look forward to weekly emails starting on January 5th. Your first short story will be on January 11th, and continue for an entire year.

Crissy Moss

P.S. All of my books are currently available in Kindle Unlimited for your reading pleasure. I will also be putting up a free book each week. This week “Flight of the Griffins” and “The Camera” will be available for free on Dec 15-16.

No Thanks!

Posted on July 4, 2015 by CrissyMoss

Last night we went to the store. It was one of those big “buy anything” stores, and of course my boyfriend and I stopped at the book section and took a look.

Several of the books caught my eyes. I loved their covers, I liked their descriptions. One made me pick it up and do a double take. It was bright pink with a pentagram on it. Urban fantasy? Yes. Please. Another proved to be a science fiction fantasy series that I new I would love.

Then I looked at their prices.

Why won’t I buy a paperback in a shop like Target, or FredMyers? Because you are charging $13 for a paperback, that’s why. That is double what I use to pay. They’ve also made paperbacks into larger sizes instead of the cute little pocket editions I use to get, so they don’t match up with my selves and shelves of pocket edition books. They fit great with the hard covers, but they aren’t hard covers.

I looked the books up on Amazon. I’ve never done that before. I’ve taken a few pictures of books as a reminder that they look interesting and I might like them later, but I never looked a book up on amazon specifically to buy them before. Even then I hesitated because the prices were high and I already had a stack of books to finish reading.

There are so many good books out there. Books I’d love to buy and read, books I’d love to own to stick on my shelf. They have beautiful covers, and the stories sound interesting…but that third item, the price, also has to be right.

Maybe I’m cheap when it comes to books. Maybe I have unreasonable expectations because I bought so many of them brand new when they were only $7. Or maybe the publishing industry has changed and I just don’t like the way it’s changed. But when the ebook is $7-12 I simply can’t be bothered to buy it brand new anymore.

Part of this is probably because I’ve seen behind the curtain. I know that if I buy that $13 dollar book the author isn’t going to get much of that money anyway, but if I buy a kindle book from an indie author for $5 that author is going to make 70% of the cover price. That seems like a better bargain to me because I’m supporting the person who is actually writing the book, and the more I support them the more books there will be.

I use to listen to a lovely author’s podcast. She had some great fiction, and I liked her books. She traditionally published. At the end of her podcasts she would sometimes say “If you really enjoyed this please buy it to let the publisher know you want more. Because if you don’t buy it there won’t be more books” or something to that effect.

I did buy one when it came on sale because I do like the author and I wanted to support her. But I would have bought all of her books had the prices not been set so high buy the publisher. And it saddened me that she would abandon a really great series just because a publisher didn’t think it was making enough. She had so many followers. She would have been able to support herself easily if she had to produce more books through self publishing.

Anyway, that’s my rant for the day.

Author Crissy Moss

The art of telling a good story.

Tag Archives: Books