Photo 365 #188

February 11, 20154 Comments

TLC Revision Notes 4_2 So, how’s the writing been going?

Well, uh…

You see that picture to the right? It’s taken me all week to write that much (plus two lines on the preceding page). You might say it’s been slow going. Lord knows I would.

In fact, I might even go so far as to say that writing this particular section of The Price of Mercy has been akin to pulling teeth, to pounding my head against the table until words bleed out, to prying the sweet story meat from my brain with a crowbar. In short, it’s been a brutal, bloody mess, and I hope that when I finish this revision and get the think edited, it reads well because writing it has been a complete and total #*!@$.

What have you all been up to lately?

Photo 365 #168: Revision time

January 22, 2015January 23, 2015Leave a comment

If you haven’t been following me on Twitter the last couple of days, I’m really ramping up my revision of The Price of Mercy.

revision

This was taken a while ago, but I forgot to snap a newer pic of my revisions this noon, so I went trawling through my archives. Some time after I took this, I gave up on marking up my hard copy and decided to go straight into rewrite mode. What that means is that I am literally recopying my hard draft, adding new things and fixing old things as the need arises.

When I started this revision, I’d chopped my book in half. That left me with a starting page count of ~154. The latest page count is 295, which means that I’ve done a heck of a lot of rewriting since I started this project! I still have a heck of a lot more to do, though, and I’m beginning to wonder if a fourth book won’t end up being necessary. Of course, if that’s the case, then I’ll start worrying that I won’t have enough material to fill a fourth book…

Being a writer is…

Photo 365 #154

January 8, 20158 Comments

Some people complain about working lunch breaks, but really, I don’t mind them. In fact, I think they’re a heck of a lot of fun.

lunchbreak

Maybe that’s only because my idea of a working lunch break involves taking off to parts unknown and spending time with all sorts of crazy characters. 😀

Queryland revisited

January 4, 201511 Comments

Zandoor
Artwork by Hazel Butler

Hoo boy, am I ever tired! I finally finished reading the Query Shark archives last week and boy, did all that education wear me out. Two hundred and sixty-six queries, plus revisions, plus comments. Talk about a learning experience! That and the comments I received as part of Michelle Hauck’s query critique blog hop have really helped me shine up my query. And further brainstorming led to a name change for my MC.

Behold, my new and improved query:

Dear Super Agent:

Nineteen-year-old Prince Zandoor is expected to follow in his father’s corrupt footsteps. His first task: Marry a wealthy noblewoman and fill the royal coffers to the brim. But the prince has other ideas.

When he falls in love with a peasant…

Strange Portals now available!

December 8, 20144 Comments

Just in time for a much needed holiday break, twenty-two stories about fairies, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and everything in between. Visit a witch’s body swap victims (Samantha’s Day), find what happens when a girl is buried alive (Buried Alive), learn the origin story of Harper (from Night Touched Chronicles) and Verchiel (from the Amaranthine series), and much, much more. So kick up your feet, relax, and indulge in a short story by a new favorite author.

Includes stories by AK Stein, Adan Ramie, B.G. Hope, Barbara G. Tarn, Bonnie Mutchler, CG Copolla, DM Yates, JK Rosaline, Joleene Naylor, Kay Kauffman, Maegan Provan, Rami Ungar, Roger Lawrence, Roxanna Mathews, Russ Towne, Terry Compton and Tricia Drammeh.

What better way to celebrate the holidays than by picking up a free book? The Ink Slingers League is proud to present Strange Portals, a collection of twenty-two short stories to help you fend off the holiday crazies. Take a load off and escape into one of these holiday havens, or kick back for a couple of hours and visit them all. They’re our gift to you this holiday season, so enjoy!

Strange Portals is available for free on Smashwords and Amazon (where it will hopefully be free soon), so pick up your copy today!

Holiday query blog hop!

December 6, 2014January 4, 201522 Comments

Vegin
Artwork by Hazel Butler

Once again, Michelle Hauck is hosting a blog hop to help authors get their stuff together. This time, though, instead of first page critiques, it’s a query critique! Like my first page, I’m sure that my query needs as much help as it can get, so here it is:

Dear Super Agent:

As the Crown Prince of Lokana, nineteen-year-old Vegin is expected to follow in his father’s corrupt footsteps by marrying a wealthy noblewoman and filling the royal coffers to the brim. But the prince has other ideas, and when he falls in love with a peasant named Lipei, his father threatens to deny him the crown and live forever. Though Vegin knows his father is serious, he insists that he will marry for love or not at all.

But there are bigger problems facing the kingdom than succession.

Authors to Watch features Tuesday Daydreams!

December 6, 2014February 1, 20156 Comments

TDSW Authors to Watch is a great blog run by my good friend Tricia Drammeh that features books and authors of all stripes. Today, she featured Tuesday Daydreams: A Journal in Verse! You can check out her post here.

But she’s not the only one who’s been talking about Tuesday Daydreams lately – Joleene Naylor and DM Yates have, as well. Joleene’s post is here and Donna’s is here.

All three of these ladies are talented authors in their own right and you should be sure to check out their books as well as mine. Tricia’s books include the Spellbringers series and Better Than Perfect, among others. Joleene writes the Amaranthine books, where vampires and glitter don’t mix. DM Yates writes fantasy novels and poetry, and you can find out more about her books here.

Make sure to spread the love, and check out all of these wonderful books today!

Photo 365 #121

December 6, 20146 Comments

Today was a beautiful day to get started on the next chapter in my rewrite of The Price of Mercy.

It was kind of a long day, but at least I got something done while the boys napped.

What did you do today?

Book promo round-up

November 30, 20148 Comments

rowlingbook I was trawling through Facebook Friday and ran across some excellent words of wisdom from Lucas Hargis:

BUY BOOKS TODAY FROM YOUR COUCH
1. Go through your “Friends” list
2. If any are published authors, click their links
3. Buy their books
4. Help authors on Black Friday, too

I spent last week promoting books in anticipation of Black Friday. There are so many great books out there, and this is a great time to pick up a whole bunch of them to either keep for yourself or share with others as Christmas gifts. It was seriously hard to limit myself to the books I did promote, and, as evidenced by my last post, I completely failed at the whole limit thing.

But with tomorrow being Cyber Monday, I thought this would be the perfect time to collect all those posts into one big one, a sort of one-stop book-shopping list, if you will. So, without further ado, a list of all the books I’ve featured this month and where to find them:

One last recommendation!

November 28, 2014November 29, 20147 Comments

Well, two more, actually. First up, I’d like to recommend The Showing by Will Macmillan Jones. In a departure from his usually comedic genius, he’s put together “a gripping, scary read” and, having read some of his flash fiction pieces in 416, I can vouch for his ability to scare. 🙂

So, what’s The Showing all about? Well…

It was a house Mister Jones knew too well, his family’s house.
Here it was, again for sale and he could not resist being shown around.
But his visit has roused that which was sleeping – how many will die before it can be laid to rest?

If you knew how much of this story is true, would you want to sleep with your light on tonight?

Now if that doesn’t stir your interest, I don’t know what will. Oh, maybe this excerpt from Will’s website will do the trick: