FIve Year Goals/Year in Review

 

Since this is the end of the year, all those participating in the Five year project will be mixing it up a bit with a year in review as well as goals for the upcoming year. If you want to visit the rest of us, or better yet join us you can find the list here 

 

Year in Review: Last year I published four books. That blows my mind as I write that. Four books. And I love each one of them; each one is something I can be proud of. Mind you, that's also in the midst of moving. I don't expect to beat that next year as far as productivity goes, but I do hope to get better at the administrative part, which leads me to...

 

Future Goals: While I had a great year writing, the marketing aspect fell by the wayside. I did soft releases on all my books, which made sense at the time because I was so busy writing the next one. This year I plan to publish less (two, possibly three) and use that extra time to promote my books and to organize the business aspect of things.

 

What are your goals for the upcoming year?

 

*By the way, thanks for all the advice on my writing space. The new nook is wonderful, thanks to you. 

Writing Spaces

What does your writing space look like? Mine used to be in my bedroom room right next to a window that overlooked my side yard where I had my roses. Notice I said used to. That's the one thing I lost in this move was my writing space. For the time being we've made a makeshift space out in the living room. With three kids you can imagine how much I'm getting done there. So today we're going out to find a desk, a small desk to fit in the corner of my small room where I can look out at the side yard at the garden I hope to plant later this summer. Any suggestions on what I can do to make this space feel more writerly? (Is that even a word?)

By the way, Merry Christmas everyone!

An End to the Move and a Review of Erron

Good morning everyone! I hope all is well with you. We're finally getting settled in here at the Schulz house. Let me tell you, moving sucks. I don't ever plan on doing it again. I'm looking forward to getting back into the normal routine of things, which for me is writing. I took a two week break to facilitate the move and let me tell you my family is begging me to write again. I guess that's their way of saying I turn into a bit of a b***h without it. :) Anyway...I've just started on Willow, the sequel to Erron. I know I'd said that was a stand alone, but I just couldn't help myself. There's something about those characters I can't get enough of. Speaking of that... I received the most wonderful comment the other day from Huntress; that was followed by a few emails going back and forth and then finally today, with a review of Erron on a blog she shares with a group of fellow authors. You can find that review here Thank you Huntress for that awesome review!

2084

 

What will it take to survive as one of the last remaining humans in a world now controlled by the Nephilim? Who can Liz trust--Dan, on whom she has set all of her hopes and dreams for the last ten years, or the sullen new boy, Shem, who warns her everything she believes is a lie?

 

Have you ever written a book and re-written it? And then did it again? That's how it was for me. I've written 2084 three times, with almost the same number of titles. First it was Annihilation, a book I finished two years ago, but never published. Something about it just wasn't right. So I tried again, that time from a first person female POV. That helped, but it wasn't there yet. I put it aside, and started working on other things, but the story wouldn't let me. Last summer I picked it up again, and began from scratch. Originally the MCs were adults. I changed that, making it a YA novel. I kept the female POV, which is a stretch for me. I tend to write male, don't ask me why. :)  Anyway... I finally finished it, but more than that, I'm finally happy with it. It turns out they're not both the same thing.

It's now available on Amazon, you can link to it here .
I'll be offering free copies to my email subscribers next week, so if you're interested in that, you can join that particular group. The link is on the upper right corner of this blog.

Enjoy!
-Mel

IWSG

Today is the first Wednesday of December, which makes it IWSG time. Thanks to Alex and friends for putting this on each month. If you want to join in on the fun, you can link to it  here

Let’s eat Grandma.  Let’s eat, Grandma.

Commas save lives. 

I saw that saying on a t-shirt once and I burst out laughing. I wanted to buy one for me, and my editor, and my high school English teacher and…

Because they’ve all said one thing about my writing: I love commas. And I do, but I also hate them. Every time I have to do an edit on my work, I will inevitably be removing a few (hundred) commas. I have no idea how they make it in there, but they do. They are the bane of my existence. They are my disease.

But, at least they’ve made a shirt for me.

What is the bane of your existence, writing or otherwise?