October Weeks's Blog, page 7

I was really hoping to be able to see the blue supermoon tonight, but, alas, cloudy with rain *sigh* Maybe I’ll get lucky and the sky will clear long enough to see it!

I worked on The Scrying House today- got about 600 words in, which I’m happy with I also made notes on a new story idea so I didn’t lose it (because, of course, that idea hit me while I was at work). I also saw the new cover for Salt and Iron and I LOVE IT! My cover artist also ran a new idea by me for the cover of my novella…that she’s currently editing I’m excited to see what she comes up with because I never would have thought of that. It’s definitely different than what I was thinking of, but I’m so excited to see it!

I’ve got so much author stuff happening and it’s all very exciting. I’m making so many notes because I can’t type fast enough on each project. Maybe the universe put the brakes on me yesterday because it knew the blue supermoon was going to have a major effect on me… Either way, I am a happy writer!

I got two pages today- I’m happy with those pages, but I don’t think I’m going to be getting more. Today is one of those off days where I want to write, but the words just will not flow as I want them to. I wrote a bunch of notes, but when I open my Word docs, the words just…don’t want to come forth.

And that’s okay.

I’ve far exceeded my word count goals for August, so if the universe wants me to slow down today, that is what I’ll do. I’m not arguing with the universe- that never ends well

But I will make notes because I don’t want to lose the plot points or mini-scenes. So, to the notebook I go!

In no surprise to Vermonters, it’s raining again *sigh* However, we did get a beautiful morning and afternoon!

I got three pages done today on Tuck #4, which is lower than I wanted but with working fulltime, I’m happy with those pages. I still have this evening to write so I may get more words before the bedtime. I also walked this morning before work so I didn’t get as much written as I could have at the beginning of the day.

On top of the progress I’m making with my darker books, I’m also finally starting to make progress on my romance books, which I write under the name Libby Bishop. I had the rights to two series return to me, so I’ve been working on revisions and getting ready to self-publish those books. I finally finished revisions on book one of the Revenant Investigations series, which took longer than I’d hoped but, yay!

I’m making progress on all fronts!

I cleaned up the fantasy flash fiction story. I’m going to do one more read-through before sending it back to the editor. I love this story so much that I almost want to expand the world and see where it leads. Tuck #4 is still coming along nicely, as is Shards and The Scrying House.

Surprisingly, the second book in the Elvira Monk series started speaking to me again, so I jotted down some notes. I loved writing A Haunted Homecoming, and I wrote about 13k words on book two before it stalled on me. So I’m very happy Elvira is speaking to me again!

In non-writing news: I finally got to see The Meg 2: The Trench. It’s bonkers but I absolutely loved it! Right up my alley *grin* I also saw Black Demon a few weeks ago and loved that as well. I almost want to watch another shark movie, but today I also want to rewatch Crawl, with Kaya Scodelario. I saw it in theatres and bought on DVD as soon as I could

Finished the first go-through of the fantasy short story. Lots of moving and rearranging for the content edit. Story is still the same but I was rearranging where things were so it flows better. I’m doing the second read-through today. My deadline for this edit is September 4th, so I have a little time to tighten up the story since it’s basically flash fiction- when I submitted the story it was just shy of 800 words. I’m excited about this one, and can’t wait to share more about it!

Wrote seven pages on The Scrying House yesterday as well. The main character was being extremely loud- I did two writing sessions and finished off a chapter, which brought the word count up over 16k. I’m absolutely loving this story.

I think Tuck and Saint needed a day off because both have a big action scene coming up. But both are writing so well right now that I’m 100% certain that the rough draft of both Tuck #4 and Shards will be done by the end of September…or sooner.

Next year’s submitting and publishing goals, that I set for myself, are shaping up to all be met!

Yesterday I had a brief moment where I wondered why I bother publishing as an indie author. I’ll write until I no longer can because the stories need to be put on paper, and writing is a passion and brings me joy, but the publishing part can get me down sometimes. I’ve spoken about this feeling before, when social media sites won’t let my page grow or show my posts even when I boost them, or when I look at book ranks or knowing that right now my books don’t have an audience big enough for me to afford to write full time. It’s frustrating when you try everything and nothing sticks because you aren’t a huge name.

But the moment only lasted about ten minutes before I shook it off and remembered that I’m doing this because I love it and I’m going at my own pace, on my own journey. Comparing myself to other authors is not productive, and I remind myself that they too were on the same stepping block as me once. I’ll reach my goal because I keep striving for it, but that doesn’t mean the mental struggle isn’t real.

So I acknowledge it, let myself feel it, and then keep going forward. Now, back to the keyboard for me!

First: Tuck #4 is now over 40k words! That happened fast and I’m wicked happy about it.

Second: I received first round edits (Content Edits) for a short story I wrote for an anthology. It’s dark fantasy and has a basilisk…and that’s all you get for now. I’ll make an official announcement when we get closer to publication, but I’m excited for this story and to read the others!

I accidently missed posting this last night because of said edits. Well, between edits and making notes on another story

I got around 3.5k words in total from this morning until right now (5:28PM EST), which is fantastic considering I work full-time. Most of that was on Tuck #4, but about 900 words was the beginning of a new chapter for The Scrying House.

I have four books shouting at me to write them RIGHT NOW, and then another six or seven that I’m either making notes on or writing a paragraph here or there. This is normal for me, but those four books are so loud! I’m not sure which one will win tonight, after I’ve had supper and sit down for a nighttime writing session, but right now it’s either going to be Tuck #4 or The Scrying House.

I can’t type fast enough!

I did, indeed, finish the read-through of Salt and Iron last night. Today I got it ready for formatting. I’ll do one more run-through before sending it off, but the book is ready to go.

Today I made good progress on Tuck #4: it’s almost to 35k words so…moving right along

All in all, a great weekend for my monster hunters!

I have about 30 pages left of the read through of Salt and Iron. I’ve not changed much- just some errors, missing words…etc. It’ll still be around 32k words once I’m done. I’ve also given my cover artist the information she needs for the cover. All of the Eden Hollow books will have the same type of pulpy/horror cover as The Scrying House and I’m so excited to see what she comes up with!

Timeline wise, Salt and Iron happens after The Scrying House, so I may wait to re-release it so they release in order. But we’ll see Billie has at least two more stories to tell, but Eden Hollow has other monster tales to come as well.

In vampire news, I got a lot done on Tuck #4 last night before going to bed. I’m really happy with the progress. I may even have the rough draft done sooner than I expected, which is excellent!

I’m going to try to finish up Salt and Iron tonight, but to be honest, Tuck is now calling my name. Either way, I’ll working with my monster hunters this weekend