Big News!

 

For the first time since participating in The Five Year Project hosted by Misha Gericke, I have something new to report.

I’ve been editing as a courtesy for fellow author friends for years, sometimes in the form of being a Beta, sometimes more. But do you want to know something? My grammar sucks. I’d give great advice on story and flow and voice, but when it came to commas (you all know how I am with commas) and other things, I was little to no help at all.

That’s the real reason I’ve been waiting on advancing our publishing company. I’ve been waiting to get better. I’ve been waiting to have something to offer. A short time ago a light went on. I was doing intensive edits for a friend. It felt so natural, like it’s what I should’ve been doing all along. She took my suggestions and made something incredible. When it was done, I did my normal sigh.

If only…

Thankfully, that time my husband, a technical writer, was in the room with me. I looked at him like I was seeing him for the first time. He knows grammar. He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. The wheels started turning.

What if…

I pitched the idea to him, of us doing it together; me editing the voice and flow, pace and line, while he focused on copy edits and grammar. The light went on for him, too. It was brilliant. It was simple. It had been there all the time. With that quiet night at home, a first step to our publishing company had been formed. May I present to you: Black and White Editing

 



What you sign your name to matters. Be proud of your work. We can help.

Because not everyone is a good fit for everyone else, we offer a complimentary first five pages. No obligation. No commitment.

Well, that’s it—that’s my big news! If any of you want to spread the news that would be great, and of course, if you need editing work done, we’d be happy to hear from you. Just click on the link above or the logo to the right.

Have a great weekend,

-Mel

Seconday Characters

To me, these are almost as important as the primary. They add the flavor and the tension, which is where the real story is. In Pathfinders, there are two worlds with two sets of secondary characters. In the Waking world, there is Parker’s mom and step dad. They’re both yellers, especially his mom. I first decided on this about three months ago when I noticed two separate incidences where a parent was screaming (in public) at a child who looked like they wanted to crawl inside themselves. And that’s what Parker does. He crawls inside himself. Because in the other world, the Wondering world, no one yells. There he’s Matt, and there he’s important, at least to the secondary characters: Sara and Mitch. Sara likes to think she’s Matt’s girlfriend (she wishes) but Matt’s not really interested. He’s too busy taking down giants with Mitch to worry about girls. At least at first. Anyhow…there they are. Hope you like them.

-Mel

Meeting Parker

For me, the story begins with a character. That’s why most of the inspiration for my stories comes from pictures of people. I see in them something I want to capture in a story. For Pathfinder, that picture was of my nephew. He’s looking out while the world is blurring around him. It’s like he’s the only one not moving. Something about that really appealed to me. That picture gave birth to the main character, Matt Parker. Most people call him Parker, but a select few, the ones who really know him, get to call him Matt. He’s one of four kids, a mixed family, the only child of his mother. His step brothers and sister live with them, and they’re definitely the favored ones. His step father works all the time and his mother is loud and angry, most of the time at Parker.

He’s eleven (may change this to thirteen, still thinking about that one) and he’s pretty average and ordinary. Except his dreams. They’re incredible. Everyone calls him Matt there, because everyone really knows him. When he’s not asleep he wants to be because that life is so much better.

That’s what I have so far. Right now I’m in the getting-to-know-you stage in my relationship with Parker. Hopefully soon I’ll get to call him Matt, too.

Next week I’ll talk about the secondary characters. Until then, have a great weekend!

-Mel

IWSG

Today is July 1^st, the first Wednesday of the month, which makes it IWSG time. Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh and co-hosts for putting this on each month. IWSG stands for Insecure Writer’s Support Group, which basically means we all admit we’re insecure and we support one another. And if that’s not enough, now there’s a t-shirt. You can get yours here .

Today also marks the beginning of Camp NaNo. Those of you who follow this blog know NaNo is a huge tool for me for my writing. It keeps me accountable and on track, but I haven’t always been successful with them. Sometimes I quit. And that’s the thought that lingers in the back of my mind today--will I finish this time? Past failures breed future failures, and the same can be said of successes. I’ve written two books with NaNo. I’m going to try to focus on them today instead of the one bomb I wrote and the other that never got finished. Got any good advice for me as I start?

-Mel

Five Year Goals

This is the last Friday of the month, which makes it time to review my goals as part of the Five Year Project hosted by Misha Gericke. Thanks Misha for putting this on each month.

My five year goal is to have a world-class publishing company. I figure dream big or go home, right? So how’s it going? Really, really well. I’ve finally gotten the grove back with my writing. After 2084 it took me a few months to get back into the habit of writing every day. Life got crazy, I guess. But now I’m back to writing 1,500-2,000 words a day, and I’ve been researching/prepping for my next novel, Pathfinder, which I’ll be posting more about next week. I hate to say I have a plan, because you know how that goes, but right now my plan is to publish the following books: Bloodbrothers this September, Pathfinder early next year, and then Letters from War, which should be my final book. After that I plan to focus solely on the works of others, which is actually right on track. I don’t want to offer to publish someone else until I have something to offer; I figure after nine books of my own, I should be just about there.

How about you? Any long-term goals you want to shout-out?

The Making of a Novel

The Making of a Novel

I know most of the readers of this blog are aspiring and/or present authors. You know how all this works; you don’t need me to spell it out for you. So forgive me that I am. And maybe when you hear the reasons you’ll understand. 1. I wish someone would have done this for me. I had to figure all this out the hard way, through many, many mistakes. 2. I want to keep track of the process. When I first started dating my husband, I kept three journals, marking down all we said and did. I just knew it was something I wanted to remember. It’s the same with this.

So here I go; I plan to write weekly (in addition to my regular posts) from the very early stages of crafting a novel to its (hopeful) completion.

The name: I always come up with a title for my novels before I write them. That doesn’t mean that will stay its name until the end, though. I’ve changed more names than I’ve kept. Right now, the name of this novel is Pathfinder

The genre: The inspiration for this came from a picture of my thirteen year-old nephew, so it will be a middle-grade fiction.  I plan on incorporating the picture in the cover somehow.

The preparation: I’ve never written middle-grade before, so I’m reading that genre like crazy. I’m also watching. I watch how people that age speak, interact, what they’re feeling, what they’re afraid of. I spend time each day remembering myself, my own life, what I was like when I was that age.

The plan: NaNoWriMo has always been a wonderful tool for me. I’ve used it multiple times to motivate/spur on my work. I’m doing camp NaNo next month to finish up Bloodbrothers, which I hope to release in September. After that full time work will begin on Pathfinder. I plan on writing the outline over the next couple of months, which I will share here on this blog. November NaNo is when I hope to get most of the writing done for this.  But you never know. If I’ve learned anything in this whole writing thing, I’ve learned to just go with it. Formulas almost never work.

Next week I’ll talk about character development. At this early stage, I’m getting to know the main characters; who they are, where they live, what makes them tick.

I hope you decide to join me.

-Mel

Back

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth (although it did feel like it there for a while). I've been in bed with pneumonia for the last couple of weeks, which made things like thinking and writing almost impossible. But the sun is shining today and I'm on my two feet, so I should be back on schedule with my posts and visiting all of you.
Missed you!
-Mel