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?

The FIve Year Project in Review

It’s that time again, a time to reflect on how my goals for the Five Year Project are working out. Thanks goes out to Meisha Gericke for hosting this. If you’d like to have your own five year goals, you can sign up here, and I highly recommend you do; this is a great group of very supportive people.

My goal: To have the Newstead Books be the next great American novels.

For me the writing has always been great; I live and breathe it. If I’m not doing it at the moment, I’m thinking about when I get to do it again. That’s how it’s been for me for the last almost four years. I’m truly in-love with my characters and their stories, and I can’t wait to see what happens to them. It’s almost like reading a book you can’t put down, only the book hasn’t been written yet. That’s what the writing is for me.

The marketing, not so much.

I’m not shy, I actually like being around people, but the idea of “pitching” something so very dear to me, so personal, is the opposite of what I described with the writing. I loathe it. I didn’t and don’t write for that. I hope people read my books and love them, and in fact (almost) nothing makes me happier than to find out someone has done just that, but for me, the marketing part of it seems like begging, and I don’t feel like begging. I want people on their own to pick up my books, read them, and love them, and in a world of millions of books, guess how often that’s happened?

So that pretty much sums up how I’ve been doing. The writing is great; I’ve got four books out, am about ¾ of the way through the first draft of Erron, ½ of the way through Bloodbrothers, and am about to start Camp NaNo next month, so I hope that will give me the drive to get both of those done. But the sales—they could be better.

How about you? How are your goals going? Hate marketing as much as me?

Liebster Award

Chrys Fey nominated me for the Liebster award several weeks ago, and I’m sorry to say, it took me this long to accept it. Thank you Chrys for the nomination!   

For those of you who don’t know, the Liebster Award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers. The goal is to help people find these blogs that are worthy of a bigger following. In German “Liebster” means kindest, beloved, valued, and welcome.

The current rules for accepting this award are:

1.      List 11 random facts about myself.

2.      Answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated me.

3.      Nominate 11 more blogs who have less than 200 followers and let them know they’ve been nominated.

4.      4. Post 11 new questions for those bloggers to answer (If they wish to accept the award—it’s completely optional).

Chrys’s 11 questions for me:

1.      If you were allowed to read books by only one author, who would it be and why? Probably Ted Dekker. I love his style.

2.      What is your favorite dessert? It changes with the time of year, but right now I’d have to say fruit pie with maybe a smidge of ice cream.

3.      On a Friday night, what are you most likely to do? Again, that depends on the time of year. Right now, it would be to take the kids to the Drive-In. My husband goes to the races most Friday nights, so it’s a perfect time for me to hang out with the kiddos.

4.      If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why? It would be my desire to please people, because I’ve found out (several times) the hard way that you just can’t, so you shouldn’t even bother trying.  

5.      Who is your favorite literary character? (One hero, and one heroine.) I know people will think I’m being trite when I say this, but my favorite characters are my own. I’ve spent a lot of time with them and couldn’t imagine loving anyone else more, and I can’t pull favorites so here’s my list: For the guys: Joel, Marcus, Steven, and Erron. And for the girls: Rachel and Willow.

6.      What is your biggest dream? To become publisher, but not like how publishers are now, not a gatekeeper. I want to partner with authors to help make books that will change the world, and right now I’m starting with mine.

7.      What song could you listen to over and over again? Only Hope by Switchfoot

8.      If your house were burning down, what would you take and why? Assuming all the people made it out okay, I’d grab my computer (has all my writing on it), some original art work I’ve been fortunate enough to acquire (can’t replace an original), and some family pictures (can’t replace those, either).

9.      Who is your inspiration, your hero? God. But if you’re asking about a person, I’d have to say Katie Davis, a young woman who gave up an affluent life here in the States to move to Uganda to care for the orphans there. Seriously; this woman amazes me. You can find out more about her on her blog: www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com or you can watch a youtube video about her here

10. What advice would you give your teenage self? You know that guy you think is so hot? Hang on to him. He’s one of the best things to ever happen to you.

11. If you were not in your current line of work, what would you be doing instead? I’m a psychiatric nurse by profession, but I’ve been laid off since January, so I guess the answer to that is what I’m doing right now: Enjoying my kids, making a home for our family, and writing books that I love.

Picking just eleven was a bit of a challenge; there are hundreds of blogs out there worthy of this award. The ones listed below are what I consider to be the best of the best of the blogs I follow with under 200 followers.  

1.      Elle from Erratic Project Junkie

2.      Randi Lee at The Emotional Process of Writing a Novel.

3.      Michelle at Buttered Toast Rocks

4.      Chase from Chase's Log Notes

5.      Rebecca at The Ninja Librarian

6.      Tania at Creative Preschool Times  

7.      Obessions of a Workaholic

8.      Jennifer at Creative Exercise

9.      Getting Trippy

10. Erin Funk

11. Faith Laces

And the questions they need to answer, should they choose to accept this award:

1.      What projects are you working on right now?

2.      What plans do you have for this summer?

3.      If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

4.      What do you want to be when you grow up?

5.      What is your favorite childhood memory?

6.      Your favorite childhood book?

7.      What experience in your life changed you the most?

8.      Who is your best friend?

9.      What has been your favorite pet?

10. Who is your favorite literary villain?

11. Cheese or chocolate?