October Weeks's Blog, page 2

This week was once again big for writing in the notebook. I wrote several scenes for the dark academia novel, which means that I didn’t finish as I’d hoped. Once the scenes are added in, which I’m in the process of, this round of revisons will be done then the next round will be edits to make certain everything flows smoothly with the additions. I’ll do one last pass after that before beginning the submission process.

I have a list of publishers ready, which is slightly daunting since I haven’t submitted a full book in a couple of years. Only my short stories have been submitted. While the process is a bit daunting, I am so excited to start submitting this book! I’m ready.

Despite struggling with what to do about my books being pirated and used to train AI, I did get some good writing time in.

I’ve added two new ending chapters to Shards- Saint’s second book- so I had to makes some additional changes to the second half of the book. Due to this, I will likely print out the next round of edits/revisions to make certain everything flows well. But any edits/revisions after that will be done on the computer.

I wrote another chapter for Tuck 4, which does have a name but I don’t want to share that yet. With the deep revisions I’m doing, the name may change. So, until I’m certain the title will stick, I’m keeping it myself.

I also wrote another chapter for Sera’s second book as well as continuing to work on the dark academia novel. The word count for the dark academia has surpassed both estimates I’ve made, and I keep adding scenes as I’m doing this revision pass. I still think I can finish this round by March 31st, since it’s moving right along, but I won’t give myself too hard a time if I miss that date as it’s a personal goal- I’m not on deadline for this book.

I also heard news about the fantasy anthology I’m in, and will be sharing said news within the next month. I’m so excited! You are going to love the stories in this collection. I should have a cover and pre-order links within the next three or four weeks, so stay tuned!

The good: yesterday I wrote a little over 1560 words on Sera’s second book, finishing out a chapter and pushing the word count over 11k. I’m excited about that because once a book is over 10k, the momentum kicks into high gear and the words flow swiftly. I also wrote another scene to add to the dark academia.

The bad: I found out last night that Meta pirated three of my books and used them to train their AI. I’m digusted, and angry. Those are my words, those are my books, that’s my hard work and dedication, my creativity, a piece of who I am. A billionaire stole my work to train his AI. I know other authors who had over 40 of their books pirated. Stealing creative work is NOT okay. It has NEVER been okay. You’re stealing the hard work and livelihood of a real person, and the majority of us are not rich, we are still working full time jobs. This is our creative outlet, a big piece of our soul’s love and joy. A good portion of us are self-published and the money for editing, covers, and promotion comes from our own pockets.

So I’m caught between being excited for the progress of my writing, and being angry that my published works have been pirated and used to train AI. A mixed bag of emotions.

I’m going to have some tea now.

This past week was spent adding scenes to the dark academia as well as writing additional scenes in a notebook for it. I know I say this a lot, but writing in notebooks helps keep the writing flowing. Something about pen to paper is magical for me. I wrote four additional scenes on the computer and three in the notebook. The computer scenes upped my word count by 2k, which, of course, makes me quite happy.

I also got half of a chapter written on Sera’s book and some notes written on Tuck 4 revisions so that I can add them to the computer at some point this weekend.

A productive writing week

I’ve added almost 3k words to the second Sera Madden book and I am so pleased with how the book is shaping up. We are getting to see more of Delilah, Milly and Evie in this one, so if you’ve missed them, this book will be for you! I will also tell you that in this book Tay Mountain is also front and center again. I originally planned for Sera to have a three books but, as this book fills out, I’m thinking I may be able to finish her story with this one. I won’t say for certain that will be the case, but I feel, right now, that it’s possible she’ll have dulogy instead of a trilogy. I’ll know once I get passed the first quarter of the book, which should be soon judging by the way this book is catching fire.

I happily wrote one new chapter for Tuck 4 yesterday morning, before work. I could have kept going, and I wanted to, but I made notes about what needs to be added where. As I wrote in the previous blog, Tuck 4 has heavier revisions than I was anticipating, which means adding new chapters. Adding new chapters means rewriting other portions of the book in order to keep the plot flowing smoothly. I’m loving the changes, and the story is beginning to move at a better pace.

I also am now halfway through third-round edits/revisions for the dark academia book. Ugh! I’m so in love with this book, and I’m so happy that I took the challenge of writing dark academia. I was hesitant to, even after wanting to for so long. I can’t wait to start submitting it!

I felt compelled to work on my cozy fantasy last weekend, so I opened up the file and decided to print what I have written so far, which is a little over 40k words. I normally never edit or revise until the first draft is finished, but this fantasy book, which is a genre that I don’t write often (straight fantasy/cozy fantasy), needed a look over to see where I took a wrong turn.

I got through the first 1/4 of the book and while I did make some changes as I read through, that part of the book is fairly solid. I think where I went wrong is in the last 10k I wrote, but I still want to go through the entire manuscript just in case.

I’ve been working on this one on and off for over ten years, and last year I made huge progress with the storyline, which made me excited to keep going. Then the writing started to slow again so I knew something was amiss somewhere because I had no forward movement. This book isn’t the highest on the list that I’m working on, but when it starts to call to me, I listen.

I’m hopeful that I’ll have this edit round finished by the end of the month and that the words will start flowing again, like they did last year. I really love this story, and it’s been my goal to publish a fantasy novel like this since I first read The Hobbit in middle school, and I think I get this first draft done by June if I fix where I went wrong now.

The fantasy flash fiction piece I have in an upcoming anthology will hopefully be out by summer this year, and I’m still extremely excited for you all to read that one. It was a challenge to write- and a very welcomed challenge at that!- so stay tuned for updates on that one.

Greetings! Time to wipe the specks of dust off the blog that have gathered since December.

I am still writing away on several stories, but am mostly working on the four books in revisions. Tuck 4 has some pretty heavy revisions to work through that I hadn’t really expected. I’ve already rewritten the first chapter, and that rewrite has moved everything in the first half of the book around. I can still use most of what I’ve written, but there will be rearranging of chapters, events as well as adding in more chapters. I’m going to make a guesstimate that this one is going to come in around 75k words when all is said and done.

In non-writing news, I’ve combined my author Instagrams again in an effort to make my life easier for promoting my work and updating readers. I’ve had too many socials for too long and it’s been too much for me between my author pages and my spiritual work. The focus has been to cut down on my socials as much as I can in terms of how many I have. The websites/blogs will remain separate.

I took some downtime to truly look at where the clutter was and what I need to focus on and how, and as I make changes the writing flows so much better. I plan on blogging more now that some of the clutter is gone and I know what I’m looking at.

So expect to hear more from me here as well as on my Libby Bishop blog

I am a very happy author. I finally got all of the second pass revisions of the dark academia book from paper to laptop, which means that the only printed revisions I’m working on right now are for Tuck 4, and those are first pass.

My goal was to have the main revisions for The Scrying House, Shards, and the dark academia to go from paper to laptop before the end of the year and I made it! Now all edits and read-throughs can be done on the computer. My next goal is to have them all ready for submission/my editor by the end of January, which is quite doable.

I scaled back my publishing goals for next year~ for both this pen name and my Libby Bishop romances. For my October books, I plan on two new books next year with a chance for a third. The Scrying House and Shards should both be out next year. I plan to submit the dark academia to a publisher so that likely will not be out next year, but I won’t say it’s impossible. The fantasy anthology should be out next year as well, and I just listened to the soundtrack for my story and I’m blown away! I can’t wait for you all to read my flash fiction piece!

I am wishing you all a happy, healthy, safe rest of 2024.

Happy Halloween and Happy Samhain! I bring you a progress report

*I finished the second pass revisions on the dark academia book last night. Now I have to apply those changes on the laptop as I printed the book for this round.

*I am almost finished getting first pass revisions on The Scrying House, the second Eden Hollow story, from paper to laptop. I’m so excited for this one!

*The other two books in revisions that need to go from paper to laptop are patiently waiting for me to finish the first two so I can get to them.

I am happy to report to that I just saw the PDF for the fantasy anthology that I’m in, so I not only got to read through my flash fiction story but also everyone else’s. I’m incredibly excited for you all to read this book! Not just for my story~ all the stories. I’m hoping to have a release date soon, but please know that we are THIS CLOSE to getting this into your hands in print, ebook, and audio…as well as a soundtrack to go with them.

So stay tuned~ exciting things are on the horizon!