Tag: updates

#ROW80 update and heading straight into #NaNoWriMo

I did not update this week, which is my bad, but this week had shit hit the fan hard. It’s too long and too personal to explain, but let me start by saying I’m so grateful to have a therapy appointment on Monday. It will be well-utilized.

Quite a lot has also happened in this week, which is a bit crazy and awesome at the same time. I put a pause of edits of Broken & Weary and sent it to a beta reading. I’m very much worried I tried to smash too much plot into it for it to be developed enough and that some things get lost. I’m waiting to hear back from my trusted beta before I go any further in editing (in case it needs a massive overhaul).

I picked up editing on Release (Quarter Life 3), however. I’m hoping to be done with these by November 1, so I can focus on NaNoWriMo. I’m on chapter 22 of 38, so not too far off. It’s going well, and I can’t wait to send that in to my publisher.

NOW, for the good and exiting news. Last month, I submitted Love Burns (a contemporary May-December lesbian romance) to a new publisher after it was rejected from another publisher. I heard back Friday, and they want the book. Not only that but they said they rarely pick up F/F books but mine was so well-written and the characterization good that they wanted it.

I did submit tentatively two sequels to Love Burns, which they don’t want at the moment. They don’t think there’s enough plot in my outline of them. Totally fair, there wasn’t much plot there haha. But I can always write them or combine them into one and submit it and see where it goes from there. I wasn’t dead-set on it being a series, so I’m still freakin’ crazy excited.

I’ll let you all know more when I know more. Which hopefully is soon!

I’ve been playing around with and learning more about Amazon Ads, which has been an adventure. I’m focusing primarily on Memoir in the Making and Unbound (Quarter Life Book 1) for now, but maybe I’ll do more eventually. For marketing for De-Termination, I set up a blog tour SIGN UP HERE if you want to join in on it. I’ve sent out some review copies and have been doing weekly Facebook Live readings from Unbound which will soon turn into De-Termination once we get closer to the release date.

I also wrote and finished Glacial Freeze, which I have sorely undermentioned. It’s a retelling of the Snow Queen, set in modern times in Glacier National Park with obviously a lovely lesbian twist to it. It’s paranormal romance plus fairy tale. It’s a novella, so only about 40,000 words in length, which was super interesting and weird to write. I had to hold back on my need for plot haha.

I’m adding two pieces I plan on writing during NaNoWriMo, both romances, both May-December lesbian romances. One is a menage, but definitely romance and not erotic romance (though it’ll be borderline. I like my plot!).

TO DO

  1. Marketing for De-Termination (Quarter Life #2) – a constant WIP
  2. Write Race War (Agent Morgan Stone #2)
  3. Write Young & Old (Missing Persons #3)
  5. Write Love Burns: Take 2
  6. Write Beware (Quarter Life #4)
  8. Edit Broken & Weary (Missing Persons #2)
  9. Edit Release (Quarter Life #3)
  10. Edit Stone’s Mistake (Agent Morgan Stone #1)

ADDING

  1. Write F/M/F romance piece
  2. Write Lawyer romance piece

DONE

  1. FINAL EDITS De-Termination (Quarter Life #2)
  2. Write Glacial Freeze

Progress has been made! #ROW80

I’ve been making lots of progress on my writing despite this being the week from hell. I worked 12-15 hour days starting with last week Sunday and going all through Friday. Saturday was luckily only a 6 hour day, but man am I exhausted after that. That doesn’t include any writing time. However, thanks to this awesome thing called daylight savings, I’ve been waking up at the God awful hour of 5am this entire week. Meaning, I spent 2-3 hours writing before chaos hit each morning.

I’ve managed about 6,000 words a day on this novel, and honestly, it was my saving grace this week. If I didn’t have that much writing progress I would feel like I hadn’t done anything this week. It’s crazy how time just disappears, but I’m so glad I used it wisely. Seeing as how I don’t get a weekend this week, I’m rather proud that I’ve made it to another Sunday morning.

For those of you who don’t know, I did end up switch my NaNo novel. I’m writing a romance (mostly because it’s payback for people who said there wasn’t enough romance in my novels, so now I’m going to saturate them with it). I’ve tried writing traditional romance novels before and have always failed because frankly I find them a bit boring. However, for some odd and random and totally unexplainable reason to me, I have not failed at writing this one. In fact, I should be done with the novel some time this week. YAY! But that also means I need to figure out the whole editing thing, what I’m going to write next, and then go with the flow.

I’ve overextended my normal beta. I love her to death, but I can’t keep shoving things in her face otherwise she might break, and I certainly don’t want that happening. So I’ve decided to try and find some new betas. If you’re interested in being a beta on this oh so awesome lesbian romance novel I’m about to complete this week, please let me know in a message or email (singing2cats@gmail.com).

Now…onto the real update.

1. Write 1667 words a day.

Wednesday: 6100
Thursday: 6137
Friday: 5883
Saturday: 6124

If you’re curious:

NaNoWriMo Wordcount: 40063
This Novel that Needs a Name Total Wordcount: 49268

I expect this novel to be about 75,000 words, so I’m very close to finish it, and if I can keep up 6k words a day because of these darned 5am wake up calls, then I can certainly finish it this week.

2. keep up with all blog posts ROW80, WIPpet, Open When and add in 1 extra post a week

I managed all these posts this week! I almost forgot the one for yesterday because I had to preside at a funeral, but I remembered just in the nick of time. I really need to sit down, write a bunch out and schedule them for myself.

3. Edit at least one chapter a week on something.

I did some copy editing earlier this week, but halfway through the week I was just hanging on for dear life, so I didn’t get much done beyond Wednesday.

4. crochet one round of border a week

Not done, again, and why is someone not yelling at me about it?

Excitement and more!

As most of you know, I spent two weeks traveling around the US from the East Coast to almost the West Coast. What you don’t know is that on my way back from Montana to Texas, I had an amazing visit with fellow WIPpeter and friend, Sarah Hart. She met up with me at the airport, and we had a great thirty minute conversation during my layover. Sarah is beautifully spirited and a wonderful person!

Sarah & me

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time talking with my publisher. She IM’d me to say that she’s really enjoying my novel For by Grace and that she wants to publish the series! Yay! It’s been a few weeks since I had sent it to her, and I’m always nervous that she won’t like it. But she wants it! *does the happy dance*

Secondly, she told me that she had nominated my novel Forever Burn for the 2013 Rainbow Awards. She put it into two categories, debut novel and paranormal romance. I doubt I’ll win anything, but I’m completely appreciative of the nomination and the confidence that she has in me.

We were also talking about the publishing company itself. In April, I will hopefully be traveling to Tampa, FL for the very first Rainbow Con. While I’m not going as a writer but as a general admission, I still think the experience will be great. I should have goodies from my stuff and goodies from my publisher as well (apparently she’s a tid bit shy about going to cons).

So far, 2013 and 2014 are looking to be big and great years for me! I’m hoping for the release of three novels next year: Ashes Fall, For by Grace, and my co-written piece, Across Worlds: Collision.

I have also copy-edited seven books since May, which I didn’t think was a lot until I really sat down to look at it. Since May, I’ve done those seven novels, edited one of my own, written one of my own and started that editing process, and edited my co-written piece. I am BUSY!

I’ll keep you notified of any further updates. Also! I’ll be posting my book reviews of my last summer reads as soon as I find the time.

Keep it strong, people