FINISHED! Book 2 done!

I just finished the first draft of Steel Heart, book two in my litRPG series.

I finished the first book, Steel Soul, in June, and the second book today. That’s two months of writing. I’m getting a little faster.

Both books would be in the novella category at the moment, about 100 pages I think. Each is a full story on its own, but part of a bigger story. I’m going to go over them one more time, add in some details, some foreshadowing, and other plot things that I can add now (since I haven’t published them yet) which will add a few thousand more words to them both. I expect they will both still fall in the novella range, but I’m okay with that. A story should be as long as a story wants to be, and each of theses has a definite end point.

I’ve already started book three, which I might be calling “Steel Trap”, I haven’t decided yet. I also know this isn’t the final episode in the story. They are finally going to meet someone pulling all the strings, but it won’t be the end of the matter by any means. In fact…the game might start falling out into the real world. We’ll have to see. I’m still discovering the plot as I go as well.

Also, I wanted to let you know that The Ring is free this weekend. I won’t be putting short stories, or any litRPG into KU anymore, I’ll be taking them wide, so this will be he last time this particular story is available for free for a while. I will probably make a few of my short stories perma-free just because it might a few more eyes on my books, but for now I’m just writing more, and saving releasing them all at the end of the year. Look for that!

Currently ready to be edited:
Steel Soul
Steel Heart
Costume Shop

Working on:
Half Blood Sorceress book 2
Steel Trap

If I can get everything done….I’m working on it! I know that Costume Shop needs to come out on October 1st since it’s a Halloween story. I would like to release a book a month every month after that. I’ve got three so far!

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Day 18- Full Time Author

Two more days.

i spent most of today reading. I had to, it was such a good story! I regret nothing! Lol.

But, seriously. Today I finished reading the last two books in the 20 sided sorceress series, books that have, in some ways, influenced my writing a little bit (mainly in that I’m writing this new series in 1st person.) It’s a good series, and I’m both happy and sad that I’ve gotten to the end of it. I did think the last three books should have been one book, but that’s a different discussion of seriels and breaking books up for the sake of it, etc. Each section had a complete story, but the main plot is in the three books.

Anyway, after I finished reading book seven I looked up and realized it was 2am again. Big surprise there. I wasn’t very tired so I decided to do some writing anyway, and did another 1500 words in just 40 minutes. And not just any words. GOOD words. At least I think they are good.

Today has been a blur. I don’t really know what I’ve done. There was sleep, and spending time with Gregg, then lots of reading, before writing and finishing a couple chapters. I should also include the social media I did today.

Tomorrow I’m going to finish another short story for the Bradbury Challenge, and get those print books taken care of.

Now, off to sleep. Good night everyone!

Day 17: Full Time Author

I’m not writing enough. I’m writing more than I did before this month, but not enough.

“Enough” is purely subjective, of course, but I feel like I’ve been wasting more time then I should have been. Watching youtube, playing games, reading… okay reading I need to do because that feeds my creativity, but the rest? Maybe not so much. Youtube, especially, distracts me from writing. I’ve had to cut back to just listening to music while writing. But it’s so tempting to just click that button and go see what else is out there!

Monday is only a couple days away and I’ll be going back to a regular job. It kind of disappoints me, which is crazy because at first I was all scared about not having a job for a month. Now I almost feel like I let myself down. Here I was with this perfect opportunity to prove to myself I was self motivated enough to write full time, and I didn’t.

Well, I wrote, and I wrote a lot more then usual, but I didn’t write enough for my taste. And I have no excuses, no one to blame except for myself. There might have been a couple of days where other things took priority, but the vast majority were days that I could have written double, or triple what I did.

So, looking back on that, I wrote double what I had planned to write tonight. I’m still going to bed earlier than usual because… well… I start work in a couple days. But I do feel more accomplished today than I have in a week. And I’ve got another chapter close to finished.

I also worked on getting the print version of Witch’s Curse and Witch’s Stand up…and then realized I had messed up a few things in the last version so I have to edit them, and redo it. Thankfully it was just little things, like putting “kindle edition” instead of “print edition” in the copyright notice, and a miss spelling in the authors note. Small things, but they annoy me anyway.

On the plus side, I got the cover fixed, and at the correct dimensions. Now on to Witch’s Stand.

Day 16: Full time Author

Last night I went to sleep instead of writing my daily blog post. I wrote until I couldn’t think anymore, then burned through a bunch of youtube videos trying to exhaust myself enough to actually fall asleep. Probably not that healthy for a person.

I did, however, write. I started a short story for the Bradbury Challenge, and it’s going pretty well. I also worked on revamping the print cover for Witch’s Curse.

I start work on Monday… That means less time to work on writing because I will be leaving at 9am and getting home at 8pm. Fudge. 11 hours of my day… gone. I hope I can find time at the new job where I can write. Lunch or something? I’ll make it work.

My To Do List For June:
Finish re-edit “Witch’s Sacrifice” – Half done
Format print books, WC –  Done
Format print books WS – half done
Format witches trilogy – Half done
Reformat small bites with pictures
Edit/format “Mirror”
Cover for the trilogy – DONE!
Finish “Magi” short story
Finish “The Deep” short story
Finish Minotaur short story
DONE
Write “Half Blood Sorceress” novels – Half done book 1, quarter done book 2.

Four days left, and how much of this can I get finished? Let’s find out, shall we?

Day 15 : Full time Author

2016-06-21 20.07.46Today I got the print proof for Witch’s Curse back. The inside looks awesome. The map is set right, the author note at the back is right. All the numbers in the table of contents are right.

The cover…is off. I had to go in today and adjust it a bit. Add more color to the girl so she wasn’t a green lady, and move the words so they are (hopefully) centered on the page.

What really struck me about this book is the sheer size of it. It’s thick, 360 pages, and feels like an honest to goodness BOOK to me. The first print book I put out only had about 150 pages, so this feels a lot more substantial. It’s kind of awesome, and I still can’t believe I did it. Now I can’t wait to get the third one done and have the trilogy sitting on my shelf.

Gregg and I also got our glass back from the glass blowing session the other day. It’s BEAUTIFUL! I’ll have to take some pictures tomorrow with the sun streaming in through the window.

A little more writing done. A lot more planning. I have to go through book one in my Half Blood Sorceress series to see what I need to fix. Round one of edits, I suppose. However, I am also 7k words into the next book so… there’s that. But I am hoping to have book 1 finished before I start work on monday. It would be a nice accomplishment. Then off to the editors while I figure out covers, and other things. Then released a month later.

Sounds good to me.

Alright, time to stop procrastinating. Time for sleep. Goodnight all!

Day 14 – Full Time Author

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 12 – Full Time author

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

2016-06-18 19.22.17Today 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

 

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

Today has been an eventful day.

flightofgriffinskoboI 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 DRAGONSpeaking 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

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.