It's Finished!

Drumroll please...

 

It's official. I've just finished Erron, and now it's off to my editor. This book is unlike anything I've ever written. It's shorter, only 56,000 words, and very concise. In essence it's like a very long piece of flash fiction, if that makes any sense. I love it, and hope you will to. I'll be posting the first page next week, so make sure you stop back for that. Now that I'm done with this frenzied pace I can stop by and see all of you. I missed you guys, and can't wait to read what you've been up to.

Isn't the cover amazing? I love it; it almost tells the story all in itself.

I've got about two weeks off before I need to get onto my next project. Any suggestions on what I should read?

Until next week,
--Mel

Week in Review

This week has been crazy, both in good and bad ways. My grandmother’s funeral was Monday, so of course that was bad, but it brought lots of relatives from out of town that I haven’t seen in a long time, which was the good part. This week has been filled with lots of that—family get-togethers (fun) and family meetings (not so fun). But somehow, through it all, I’ve stayed on track with my book. I’ve been participating in Camp NaNo this month—my first time doing that—and it’s going alright. About half-way through the month I finished the first draft of Erron, which is what I expected, and the plan was to go on and start 2084 and then get back to revisions on Erron when NaNo was over, but I just couldn’t put that project down. So I put a pause on NaNo and gave my full attention to revisions, which, of course, has my word count plummeting. Am I the only one that bothers? For some reason watching that little red bar get further and further away from the ascending line really gets to me; it’s like seeing a goal be unrealized. I know that’s stupid. I made a conscious choice to do this, but still, it gets to me. Must be the Scottish stubbornness, I guess.

How about you—participating in NaNo? Does not meeting a goal bug you?

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Mel

Erron

Have you ever been in the middle of a writing project that took all you had and you don't mind, because it's all you can think about? Well that's what my life has been like lately. If I'm not working on my book, I'm thinking about it, and if I'm not thinking about it, I'm wishing I had more time in my day to think about it. Most books take me about a year to write, Blackbird was the exception; I finished that in about four months, but the book I'm working on right now, Erron, looks like it will be done in the middle of August. That's three months, start to finish. If you know me personally, you know how unbelievable that is. And I think I've figured out the reason. Ever since I can remember, I've imagined stories in my head. Most of them start from a dream that I want to finish, not all, but most do, but all are extremely personal and extremely emotionally charging for me. I've lost days on end finishing these stories in my mind, but I've never written any of them. They're just too personal. They were mine and mine alone. But after having published four books, I must've gotten over that, because for the first time I started jotting one of them down. And the difference is palpable. Not that I'm not or wasn't emotionally attached to my other books, I am. But this feels different and I think that difference is what's speeding up the process.

How about you--has any of your books been 'easier' to write than the others? And if your not a writer--what draws you in with a book--what is that difference for you?

Indie Life

Today is the second Wednesday of the month, which makes it Indi Life day, a time to reflect on all things Indi. If you want to join in the fun, you can sign up here.

Today I’m going to talk about Crowd funding. I’ve taken a course on this and read up on it a little, but it is a relatively new concept for me. Basically, it’s using perks such as your soon to be released books as a way to raise funds for the expense of producing them. This concept isn’t typically used for books, but it could be. It appears the key to this is having a good platform to start with, and giving people perks they can be excited about. I’m thinking about doing this with Bloodbrothers, the last book in the Newstead Anthem. If you’re interested in doing this yourself, there’s basically two main sites to help you facilitate it, they are Indigogo ( http://www.indiegogo.com ) and Kickstarter ( https://www.kickstarter.com/ ).

If it works for you stop back and let me know.

Anyone else done this before? Any advice for those of us who are new to this concept?  

IWSG

Today is the first Wednesday of the month, which makes it IWSG time. It’s a time to reflect on what makes us insecure as writers, and to offer support to others who may be going through the same things as ourselves. Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for hosting this along with his co-hosts. If you’d like to join in, you can find the list here .

As most of the readers of this blog know, one of my biggest insecurities as a writer is marketing, and this past weekend that particular insecurity was put to the test. I had a tent in an art show, which is something I’ve done in the past, and while I’ve done fairly well in the book sales department, I’ve always felt on display, which is something that really brings out all those insecurities that I’d thought I’d outgrown. But I went, and this time was different. I’m not a shy person. In fact, one of the things I am very good at is talking with people. It’s not unusual for me to have a five minute conversation with someone and find out their entire life story; it’s part of the reason I became a psychiatric nurse, it’s the main reason I’m good at it. So I decided to do that at the art show. Instead of just sitting behind a table staring back at the people staring at me, I talked with them. I asked questions, I made a lot of new friends. I had a wonderful time.  So maybe I’m finally starting to get over it. I hope so.

How about you—gotten over any insecurities lately?