October Weeks's Blog, page 6

Yes, that blog title means I worked on The Scrying House today The main character was pretty loud in my head, being insistent and such, so she won the “What am I working on today?” race. Tuck #4 was close in the demanding department, but ultimately, The Scrying House was louder.

Yesterday evening, I worked on revisions for the second Elvira Monk book. I’m looking forward to continuing her series. I call it my Dark Cozy Mystery, since it’s a little lighter than the rest of the Isles and West World books. She, and the secondary characters, are a lot of fun to write!

All and all, this was productive weekend for writing and promotion, and that makes me a very happy writer

I think today may be a night writing day. I’ve not written a word on any book, BUT, I’ve still been productive!

I’ve recorded a podcast, which will be up this evening. I made new book trailers as well as revised a few previous ones to update them with the new covers. I’ve also made several promo images for The Arena as well as upcoming books. I truly enjoy doing all of the creative stuff to promote the books, especially the images and book trailers. That whole process is so fulfilling! Another way of being creative and I love that.

Now, how often to post the promotional stuff? I’m still learning what works best for me, and sometimes that part can be overwhelming, but I truly enjoy the process of creating the materials.

As for writing today…

Judging by the way I feel, I think it may be a revisions type of day, but we’ll see what happens when I sit down at the laptop

Five and a half pages on Tuck #4 yesterday, and I added about 500 words this morning. I stopped just before the first of two big fights started because I don’t have the time before work to finish the scene, and if I start a fight scene I need to finish it in one session. If I stop at any point, I lose momentum and it could take two or three days for it to pick back up so I can get through the scene and onto the next.

Fight scenes have always been a challenge for me. I know exactly what needs to happen beause I’m seeing the fight in my head, but getting it from my head to paper exactly how I’m seeing it is the challenge. During revisions I can tighten the scenes up, but for these types of scenes I like to get them as close to what’s in my head as possible.

The party truly is about to get started for Tuck…and that will have more meaning when you read the book I will give a little spoiler about the scene: she has Sasha, Bianca, and Geneva with her.

Going to be a bloody fun time!

Aside from doing promotion for The Arena, which I hope you are all enjoying, I’ve been writing on The Scrying House and Tuck #4. I’ve also been working on edits for the fantasy story. Those edits are due on Friday, or Saturday at the latest, so I focused on those yesterday evening. I have to do one more pass before sending them back, which I think I’ll be able to do after work today.

I honestly had a hard time starting edits the last two days because my mind was on other matters, but once I got going yesterday, I was back in my happy place And I must say, I’m proud of myself for taking on the challenge of fantasy flash fiction because it is not easy. Horror flash fiction seems to be easier for me- I’ve written a few pieces with no issues. But this fantasy short is truly challenging me as a writer and I love that.

Flash fiction is a whole different skill set. You have to condense a story into anywhere from 100 to 1000 words and I am not used to that. Writing short stories between 4k and 10k words, where I have room to flesh out the story, is vastly different. I love challenging myself as a writer and this anthology was the perfect opportunity to do that.

Hopefully I’ll be able to share more on that anthology soon!

It’s officially release day! Woohoo! I’m so happy to have The Arena back out into the world

AMAZON ~ KOBO ~ NOOK

available in PRINT on Amazon

Blurb:

An ancient grudge. An ancient darkness. A slayer who will stop at nothing to put an end to both.

When her good friend Lucia DiGregorio calls her asking for help, slayer Tuck Houston immediately joins the hunt. Once she gets a hint of strigoi power at the scene of a slaughter, she understands exactly why Lucia called her in.

Shortly after that slaughter, Tuck realizes that the team is in a trap and none of them will be able to leave until the game is done. The gravity of the situation is made clear when they discover that the vampyr responsible holds an ancient grudge against Lucia’s family, and that the strigoi in league with that vampyr has his own plans for Tuck.

But Tuck won’t make success easy for the vampyr or the strigoi. She will find a way to end the game … even if she has to die to do it.

The Arena releases in ebook and print tomorrow, September 5th! I’m excited to have it back out in the world. You can still pre-order it so it’s delivered straight to your device tomorrow:

AMAZON ~ KOBO ~ NOOK

Here is a little taste of The Arena, and remember that you can get the first two books in the series FREE on Kobo and Nook! Click HERE for the links

Actually, FREE

With The Arena releasing on Tuesday, I’ve decided to offer The Damned and Path to Damnation for free from SEPTEMBER 3rd – SEPTEMBER 10th. Unfortunately, Amazon will not allow me to put them up for free because I’m not published solely through them, so this is only for Kobo and Nook.

THE DAMNED

NOOK ~ KOBO

PATH TO DAMNATION

NOOK ~ KOBO

Here it is~ the beautiful new cover for Salt and Iron. When I choose a new pub date, I’ll share all of the information. For now, behold this perfect cover

Got almost seven pages on Tuck today- so excited! Mostly because we’re heading into THE BIG ENDING STUFF and I can’t wait. I don’t think Tuck’s exactly happy, but I am

I received the cover files for both the novella and Salt and Iron. I also got the final files for Salt and Iron, so I will be doing a post soon for pre-order stuff as well blurb/updated book trailer.

I will make a post this weekend for the novella: cover reveal, blurb, and possible release date. I should be getting the edits back next week or so. I’m so excited to introduce this new character to you! This story is set in the Isles and West world- so many stories in that world that I’m not sure I’ll be able to write them all. But I’ll get as many out as I can!

Stay tuned- good stuff is on deck!

Worked on The Scrying House today and made good progress. Jotted down some notes at work for what happens next in Tuck #4 as well as the new story idea I don’t want to talk about yet I may skip my evening writing session because it’s been such a long day and a lot happened at work. I just want to unwind.

I feel like tonight is a watch-a-movie night. The new Indiana Jones is on Amazon as is The Last Voyage of the Demeter (the Dracula tale), so I’ll probably watch one of those. I’m always up for a new Dracula movie!

As a reminder, The Arena re-releases September 5th. You can pre-order right now!