The Lokana Chronicles, an excerpt

August 27, 20124 Comments

Since I’ve finally managed to get things finished up with The Lokana Chronicles for the time being, I thought I’d share a couple of excerpts with all you lovely folks. The first chapter is available here, but these tidbits come from a little further into the story. Happy reading!

***

After months of siege, the royal army was exhausted; both supplies and morale were low and getting lower. It was noon when the Zealot army broke through the city gates.

***

Anná
Artwork by Hazel Butler

Henry crouched next to the door, but all he could hear at first was the murmur of muffled voices. He waved a hand at John to be quiet as he pressed his ear closer to the door. Where’s a glass when you really need one? he wondered silently as he tried to make out what was being said. Voices suddenly rose. Henry recognized Vegin’s as the loudest. “They’re talking about Anná,” he whispered. It had taken both brothers a long time to acclimate their tongues to the change in pronunciation. “Something about Ravenna…” Henry’s breath caught in his throat as he realized what was happening.

John tapped his brother on the shoulder, worried. “What is it? What did you hear?” But Henry didn’t move, didn’t respond. He just sat there, stunned, the same way he’d done a hundred times before as a kid playing freeze tag. Only this time, they weren’t kids. And this was no game.

She’s a-gone!

August 26, 201222 Comments

That’s it! I’ve finished! Yes, that’s right, again, I’ve finally finished again. But this time I mean it. I just hit send on an email to someone who requested my full manuscript. So now I really am done. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go breathe into a brown paper bag for a bit and then maybe read a book. For fun!

I know, I’m such a party girl. 😛

To the writing cave!

August 23, 201217 Comments

Once again, I’m hunkered down, making revisions. Once again, I spy a light at the end of the tunnel. I know I’ve said this about a dozen times, but I’ve entered the homestretch and man, does it feel good!

So forgive the sparseness of my posts of late. I hope to be back to something approaching normal sometime soon. 🙂

The importance of proofreading

August 20, 201213 Comments

So I’ve been proofreading my novel before sending it out into the wide world on a full request from a query. It’s a good thing, too, because last night, on the verge of sleep, I found a large, economy-sized error. This was the kind of error that made me cringe in terror, the kind of error that, had I not found it prior to sending out my manuscript, would have caused me to actually pull hair out of my head. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the stuff of which nightmares are made.

This error was more than a little typo, more than a minor spellcheck oversight. I had done some major rearranging of text and failed to delete the redundancies at one point, but then thought I had it all taken care of. I happily went about printing off my final hard copy and set to reading through it, making a note of each instance where something needed to be fixed (and I’m not talking about instances where I decided that something sounded better if I wrote it differently – I’m talking about instances like where I said witting instead of sitting or considering when I meant consider).

Then I discovered that Chapter 13 needed to be deleted.

Not just a portion of it, oh, no. The whole thing had to go. I was falling asleep reading because I was absolutely exhausted, yet I was awake enough to realize that I had just read the opening to Chapter 13 ten minutes earlier…in Chapter 11. I flipped quickly through Chapter 13, then back through the three preceding chapters and discovered that Chapter 13 contained parts of Chapters 10, 11, and 12. Talk about en epic facepalm.

Prior to this discovery, I’d been considering just winging the whole proofing bit. I knew there were a couple of places that I needed to hammer out a bit more, but I thought that once I got those straightened out, I could probably just give it a rest and then send it on in. Boy, am I glad I talked myself out of that idea! Part of me is really anxious to get this whole proofing project done with because I’m impatient, but fortunately the logical side of me is louder and knows that I need to take my time and do it right. Yay logic! 🙂

And now, back to the grindstone. I’ve got some more polishing to do.

Spelling and Grammar Count (onecoolsitebloggingtips.com)
Partying with Punctuation (dodgingcommas.wordpress.com)

More literary thoughts

August 18, 2012August 17, 2012Leave a comment

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. –Gustave Flaubert

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore? –Henry Ward Beecher

A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. –George R.R. Martin

Midnight has arrived!

August 17, 2012August 17, 201215 Comments

At long last, Land of Midnight Days by Katrina Jack is available for purchase from Ecanus Publishing. Currently available in e-book only, a print run is planned sometime in the future, so go! Buy! Make sure it sells enough that I can get my grubby little paws on a physical copy! You can buy it on Amazon and Amazon UK.

But what’s it about? Oh, very well, I’ll tell you.

What would you do if your life was filled with fear: hide, run away – or would you fight back?

In a city at war with itself, Jeremiah Tully already knows how to survive. Now he must learn how to live. Mute from birth, of mixed-race heritage, his only possession a charmed flute, Jeremiah tries to discover where his remarkable talent as a musician will take him.

As Kate says, miss it, miss out.

Voices from The Land of Midnight Days. (kateannejack.wordpress.com)
Lift off has begun! (kateannjack.wordpress.com)

Literary thoughts

August 17, 20124 Comments

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. –Jane Austen

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. –Oscar Wilde

A Literary Map of England (austenonly.com)

Holy cannoli, Batman, I’ve finished!

August 7, 201212 Comments

That’s right, I’ve finished the revisions! Again! For good (I hope)! And now, a stats breakdown, because I’ve been staring at spreadsheets all day and decided to do one of my own because my spreadsheets are better:

Final word count (excluding chapter headings, title page, and header info): 101,561
Final page count: 356
Average number of words per page: 285.28

Once again, I’ve printed a hard copy to look over before I get it sent off. Seymour has graciously offered to go over it for me, and I hope he’ll find the time to do it before next year because he is an excellent editor. He just has even less time than me. *sigh*

I could do with a nap in one of these right now!
Photo courtesy of Jessie Harrell via WANA Commons

So tonight, now that all my hard work is done (I hope), I’m going to leave my laptop turned off, pop in a lovely Disney movie, and spend some time with my long-suffering family. They deserve it, I deserve it, and more importantly, my brain needs a rest! Of course, I could always amuse myself by trolling the internet for fun things to post on the ’90s Kid Facebook page. That’s always a fun time! Incidentally, if the nostalgia bug hasn’t bitten you yet, check it out. You may wind up with a severe case. I know I have! 🙂

Okay, time to go. Must load up with good food, good tunes, good drinks, and good rest! After all, I’ve got another vacation coming up, and as anyone who’s followed my previous vacation posts already knows, I’ll be in serious need of a vacation to recover from it, so I had better rest while I can. Happy Tuesday, y’all! ♥

The little writer who could

August 1, 2012August 2, 201219 Comments

It’s been a week of ups and downs here in my neck of the woods. Thumper is now walking…when he feels like it, which frankly, isn’t that often. Stubborn little guy. He and Cricket are working on molars, so I’ve got two cranky little guys running around my house. Seymour’s grandma passed away yesterday after years of health problems, so we’re dealing with everything attendant with that as well. We’ll be seeing a lot of the family over the next few days, as the visitation is Friday, the funeral Saturday, and the family reunion/40th anniversary party for Seymour’s parents/Thumper’s birthday party is on Sunday. Going back to work on Monday will feel like a vacation at this rate.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Wiedmeier via WANA Commons

Revisions continue. I’ve added over 10,000 words and more than 30 pages in the last 27 days, and I still have about 90 pages left to go before I’m finished revising.

Quick update!

July 26, 2012Leave a comment

Hey hey hey, I’ve been interviewed again! This time I owe my thanks to Ed Evans, proprietor of Sisters Noire. Because apparently I can’t shut up, this will be the first part of a multi-part interview, so if you’re interested in hearing more about me blathering on about Lokana and books and writing and such, stay tuned for updates!

Also, check out Sisters Noire. It’s seriously cool stuff.

And now, back to the writing cave. I’ve passed the halfway point of my revisions, so there was some happy dancing done the other night. I’m really looking forward to being done with the edits (or at least with this round of them, anyway) because between the heat, a killer week at work, and all the critical thinking I’m doing in my off hours, I feel like my brain has transformed into a big gray puddle of goo. Said puddle of goo must now think I’ve gone pond-hopping because I’ve been spelling things the British way all day.

And with that, I’ll leave you all with this: