Tag Archives: Writing

Update all the things!

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I’flightofgriffve been slowly working my way through old book covers, updating them and making them look nicer. A few months ago I updated Potion Shop and Prophecy by Barlight. Then I took a crack at Flight of the Griffins.

This week I tried updating all of the “Illicit Gains” series.

The original covers were okay in their simplicity, and in all honesty I haven’t changed them a lot. The biggest thing is that I’ve gotten better at typography. Still not perfect, but way better.

illiI wanted to stay with the theme since each story is about a specific object. A ring that teleports the wearer wherever he is thinking about. A camera that saves things in a denominational pocket. A necklace that changes the persons personality.

And you might have already noticed that there is a fourth book the second set. I’ll be publishing The Mirror by the end of the week.
illicitAll of the items had to come from somewhere, after all.

This also meant renumbering the stories, since The Mirror is now the first in the series, not the ring, but nothing else has really changed. I still have two more planned for this series, The Pocket Watch and Marco.

It’s been a fun series to write. Their short reads, all short stories, so I don’t mind doing them out of love rather than for my career. Each one of them is inspired by Stephen King, Friday the 13, and Warehouse 13. Shows about cursed items, and what they do to people. I loved that troupe, so of course I had to write it myself.

But, alas, I have novels to finish, so this series gets written as I have time. I’m just happy to give it better covers at the moment.

Of Pokemon and Life

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Yep, I’m still alive.

I’ve been so busy with the training at the new job that I’ve been unable to do much of anything else. I sit down to write and it feels like my brain is just mush from cramming all this information in it. I’m pretty sure I’ll get use to the new job, and all the things I’m suppose to do there eventually, but it takes time. So I come home at night, try to write for a bit, get a few words down, then veg out to let myself recover.

On the weekends I do write a bit more. But it isn’t nearly the same word count I had when I was on unexpected vacation between jobs. I am REALLY happy I got so much out during that month, it makes me feel slightly less guilty about not writing much of anything this week. But only slightly.

WSsmlI did finish the rewrite of “Witch’s Sacrifice.” The couple of chapters that made Artiro look like an idiot had to be redone so that it made more sense. Did that, it works. just rereading it all and then I will upload the new version this weekend. Very little has actually changed, I just adjusted who was where at what time and everything worked out a lot better. He doesn’t seem like an idiot, and the fact that he, as a merman, is effected heavily by the ocean is more apparent.

I am currently 23k into the first novel of the Half Blood Sorceress novels. 6 of 17 chapters are DONE. The others are outlined and I’m going back to finish them. I’m also 7k into book two. I need some titles for these things. So far I’ve got: Awaken the Dragon, Finding the Dragon, and Accepting the Dragon.

I’m not sure if I’m happy with those titles. But they are working titles.

I want to get the first one finished by next month. Now that the Witch’s Trilogy is finished, and out, it’s about time that I start producing something new. I shared the first chapter here if you’d like to read it.

 

Alright… time to get to work.

What a week

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My new job started this week. It’s been a lot of fun. We’re just doing training right now, but it’s been a blast. There are 18 people in the class, with the trainer, and a couple of people that come in and out to help depending on the needs. We do a lot of discussions, drawing graphs and pictures, and just lots of learning. Everyone is so nice, and happy. Even the couple of people who are going through some tough times right now, they are still smiles while in class.

It feels good to be somewhere with lots of people who are just friendly. I’m sure eventually I’ll come across someone who isn’t so nice, but, ya know what, I’m just going to enjoy things as they are.

The writing… that’s another story. I’ve write 1400 words since starting the new job, which isn’t a lot. The first few days were spent adjusting to schedules, and sleeping because it was so emotionally and mentally draining. (Friday was also kind of draining. It was the first time on the phones, and really scary at first.) I also have to commute a bit farther (20 miles instead of two blocks, lol) but it’s really not that bad. By end of the week I started getting to where I was looking forward to an hour of writing in the evening.

I want to have an hour before work, and at least an hour in the evening, where I write. I think I can start training myself to do that. The morning session is the harder part, I have always had trouble writing in the morning. But I’m going to need to be able to do this in order to keep up my output.

I think this is going to work. Writing and having a full time job, saving money so that I can eventually have a house… yep, I’m on my way.

Day 19…

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One more day left. Tomorrow. Sunday.

Today I finished formating Witch’s Stand for the print book, and wrote a few more chapters of my Half Blood Sorceress book. I also started writing a fairy tale like short story called “Oasis”.

What did I learn today? Sleeping pills are dangerous. I took two Z-quills last night so I would stay asleep and get a full nights rest for once. Apparently they work very well on me because I wasn’t able to fully wake up for a good 12 hours.  Note to self, be careful with sleeping pills.

But even with that weirdness I still accomplished a lot. It was a good day. I love days where I can look back at the end and say “I did that.” Even if the story isn’t finished I still accomplished something significant, and that’s a lot father than I was yesterday.

Day 18- Full Time Author

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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 15 : Full time Author

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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

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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

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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 9 – Full Time Author

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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

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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.