I bought chocolate and coffee this morning because I can’t think of a better way to spend my royalty check (thanks, Amazon!).
Well, perhaps I can.  After all, there are always more books that need buying and more pop that needs drinking. 🙂
(c) 2014. Â All rights reserved.
Anná
Artwork by Hazel Butler
What’s new in the world of The Lokana Chronicles? Well, today Anna Martoka was interviewed as part of the Barren Island Books interview series that my wonderful friend and fellow author, A.F.E. Smith, runs on her blog. If you’d like to know which books Anna counts among her favorites, head on over and check out her interview!
And while you’re there, don’t forget to check out some of the other interviews. There’s loads of great books just waiting to be discovered at Barren Island Books!
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
I had the day off work today, so I took advantage of the free time and got some writing done.
Like, a lot of writing. Â Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 words, if I’m not mistaken.
This excites me greatly because I’m not always able to get a lot of writing done on my days off and also because I managed to get a bunch of other things (cooking, a load of laundry, a bit of light cleaning) done today as well.  Must be my long-lost time management skills trying to reassert themselves. 🙂
I hope today was as wonderful and productive for you as it was for me! Â How did you spend your day?
This picture actually features a beginning as well as a middle and an end:
The top notebook (as well as the draft beneath it) contains my revisions for The Price of Mercy.  I’m just over halfway through the rewrite/revision process, judging by total page count.  Of course, I still have a lot of work ahead, but I hope I’ll be able to start querying in January.  It’s definitely a stronger story now than when I initially queried it a couple of years ago (I still don’t know what I was thinking then).
But the bottom notebook holds a brand new short story that I started working on late yesterday afternoon. Â It’s not as fluffy as my usual work, but I hope it’s good.
Don’t forget to stop by Charnele’s blog and check out her beginnings!
(c) 2014. Â All rights reserved.
So today’s prompt is about stories.  Quite convenient, really, as I just posted an interview with the main character from The Price of Mercy.
Revision work continues. Â I got absolutely nothing done on it yesterday, but I managed to eke out a few paragraphs this noon while on my lunch break. Â I wish either a.) that lunch breaks were longer so I could get more done, or b.) that someone would pay me to stay home and write all day.
Since neither of those things are likely to happen anytime soon, I guess I’ll just have to keep plugging away a few minutes at a time. Â Don’t forget to check out Charnele’s blog and see what stories she’s into. Â Happy Friday, everybody!
(c) 2014. Â All rights reserved.
I was tagged in this bit o’ fun by the awesome Justine Manzano, a fellow legal secretary/writer/geek/mom to whom Twitter was kind enough to introduce me. Â (I seriously love making new friends.) Â It was supposed to have gone up on Monday (the 15th). Â Yeah, that didn’t happen.
Whoops.
Anyway, better late than never, right?
Justine Manzano is a multi-genre writer living in Bronx, NY with her husband, son, and a cacophony of cats. Her short fiction has appeared in the anthology Things You Can Create, Sliver of Stone Magazine, and The Greenwich Village Literary Review. She maintains a semi-monthly blog at JustineManzano.com and a twitter account where she discusses her adventures in juggling aspects of her life such as motherhood, writing, and the very serious businesses of fangirling and multiple forms of geekery. She works as a fiction reader for Sucker Literary Magazine and is currently searching for a publishing home for her YA Urban Fantasy series, Keys and Guardians.
The first book in Justine’s series is called The Order of the Key.  What’s it about?  So glad you asked!  Here’s the blurb:
Jacklyn Madison has a thing for heroes. She reads about them, watches them on TV, and would very much like to become one. When a monster makes an attempt on her life she discovers she is one – the long lost member of The Order of the Key, a group that protects humanity from creatures that come through interdimensional rifts. It’s all fun and games until training for her duties reveals the Order’s out of touch views – Keys, like Jacklyn, are protected while Guardians, like the rest of her family, are expendable. As she rails against their value system, she finds herself in the center of a power struggle between the group’s leader, Lavinia, and her idealistic son, Kyp – the boy Jacklyn likes. Worse, Kyp’s attempts to protect her only entangle her in a mire of deceit. Viewed as a target on one side and a weapon on the other, Jacklyn must find a way to protect the people she loves and decide what kind of hero she’s willing to become. Filled with action, romance, and paranoia, The Order of the Key is an edgy Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy novel that is currently searching for a home with an agent.
I love the name Lavinia.  It’s so pretty and old-fashioned. 🙂
And now it’s my turn!  Here to answer a few questions about himself is…
Fantasy Angel over at the Avid Reader Blog tagged me in this fun little game and, since I have nothing better to do (okay, I do, but I’m procrastinating) right now, here be my answers:
Which book did you most recently not finish?
Uhhh…I don’t understand the question.
Which book is your guilty pleasure?
I know not of this guilt of which you speak. Â The only guilt I experience about reading is when I’m too busy reading to do other things, like clean the house or work on my own books.
Which book do you love to hate?
Twilight.  No, I’ve never read it, but I did see the movie, and it just wasn’t for me.  I’ve heard that it’s not good, but having never read it, I cannot attest to the veracity of that rumor.  Also, Fifty Shades of Gray.  Haven’t read that one either.  Have no desire to.
That said, if you love these books, then read them proudly. Â Lord knows people should read more…
That’s right, I’ve privatized the majority of my poetry posts.  I’m working on a follow-up to Tuesday Daydreams, and in preparation, I’ve made private all the posts that will be featured in my second collection.  Formatting with two little monkeys climbing on me is proving a challenge, and I’m having issues with a couple other things, but I hope to have it available soon.
I’ll keep you posted!
(c) 2014. Â All rights reserved.
If there’s one thing I love, it’s writing.  Of course, I also love music.  Put the two together and I’m a happy girl. 🙂
What’s that? Â That’s my pretty new necklace from our trip to Northeast Iowa over the long weekend and a brand new short story, inspired by today’s prompt on The Daily Post. Â I’ll post it just as soon as it’s finished.
But for now?  Back to work.  While the thunder lasts. 🙂
(c) 2014. Â All rights reserved.
At long last (seriously, it’s taken a while), I’ve made Tuesday Daydreams: A Journal in Verse available on Smashwords.  You can now read all my silly little poems in a variety of formats!
I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to this – I intended to do it shortly after initial publication two and a half years ago, but I never did. Â It was pretty simple, for the most part. Â And now I know what I need to do to get the follow-up volume ready to go!
With the Smashwords edition comes a new cover. Â I’m not sure I like it yet, but it’ll do for now, I suppose. Â I’ve added the new cover to the Kindle version as well, but it may not be live till tomorrow. Â As for the paperback…it’s sticking with the old cover for now.
So! Â If you’d like to get your hands on a copy, check out Amazon and Smashwords!
(c) 2014. Â All rights reserved.
Suddenly they all died. The end. 