April Update

Posted on April 17, 2017 by

Yes, I’ve been quiet.  I think I’ll continue to be quiet-ish until the series is over — with maybe a few info posts here and there, plus teasers, etc, but nothing major until I start prepping for the collaboration I have planned with Erica Dakin or the second series I have in mind.

Meanwhile, the Book 4 cover work continues (slowly).  This isn’t entirely bad, because I have figured out a few things that need tweaking in the final draft, which I’ll be fixing shortly.  I am also halfway done with the rough draft of Book 5 (which is what helped me realize the need for tweaks) and just finished a hopefully-final edit of Book 1 that took into account much of the critique from readers as well as some issues that had always nagged at me.  I feel that I did rush publication of Book 1 due to (over)enthusiasm, and that this current version has fixed most of the book’s problems.  I hope to roll it out within a month or two, once my beta readers go through it and confirm I haven’t somehow butchered it.  >__>

I plan to go through books 2 and 3 eventually, but they don’t have nearly the issues and will probably just get trimmed/error-corrected.

Anyway, that’s it for now!

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Authors Answer 122 – Should You Write Every Day?

Posted on March 9, 2017 by

Heh…good question to post on a day where I feel like a useless lump and am not likely to do anything productive.

Question 122 – Write every day. Do you agree or disagree, and why?

I agree with making an attempt at this.  It’s one of the things that pushed me from only periodically hacking at my manuscript to actually making leaps and bounds of progress, and publishing three books (with two more still being worked on).  I used to feel that I could only write when I was inspired to, and while that still stands for short stories (which otherwise I hate writing with every fiber of my being), with novels there’s a lot of material that’s just setup, or explanation, or rough-draft raw material that doesn’t require you to be possessed by the creative fire at the time.  I’ve found myself far more capable of writing decent text even when I feel like a lump of crud; this delusion I have that I’ll forget how to write if I’m in a mood or put it off too long is, indeed, just a delusion.  Most of the work in writing is the refining of the drafts anyway.  What you put out from day to day isn’t the final version that everyone will see.  So even if it does happen to be sludge, it’s the sludge of progress.

That being said, everyone needs their rest days, or has days when opening the document is just too much stress.  Still, constant progress is a good habit to get into, as is understanding that every word doesn’t need to be perfect right as it’s first spilling out of your pen (or keyboard).

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Progress and Character Pages

Posted on February 23, 2017 by

I know I’ve been scarce this past month — alas!  But there hasn’t been much to write about.  The Book 4 cover continues to inch along.  I’m 11 chapters into the Book 5 rough draft and feeling fairly confident, but with nothing I can show.  I’ve started doing another paperdoll, but my wrist isn’t happy with me when I do too much mouse-based art so I haven’t gotten far.

On the plus side, today I started doing something I’d been planning to do for a while: start making character-specific pages.  Made one for Firkad Sarovy today — not the main protagonist, I know, but I like him a lot and it was nice to finally get all his backstory down in one place.  This version is spoiler-free; I might add one with post-Book 3 info later, but ehh, I don’t know if that’s necessary.

Anyway, I hope to do more soon, to expand on the thumbnail-info in my current Characters page.

Edit 2/24: Added Cobrin today!

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Monday Music: Two Steps from Hell — Cannon in D Minor

Posted on January 30, 2017 by

Yes, cannon.

Two Steps from Hell — Cannon in D Minor.  Orchestral combat music.  From the album Battlecry.

I got this album for Xmas and haven’t stopped listening to it in the car.  I feel like I should be writing a hardcore military fantasy with this on in the background, but I’ve never been an armies-on-the-field kinda gal, so I just have to adapt it to suit my mindspace.

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Book 4 Cover Process #1

Posted on January 20, 2017 by

SO.

So.

IT’S BEEN A WHILE!

Yep.

AND BOOK 4 IS READY.

Yep.

AND IT’S 2017.

Yep.

SO…

Continue reading →

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Best Reads 2016

Posted on January 1, 2017 by

erestoia-testheaderIt’s time for my year-end wrap-up!  Slightly late, alas, as it is now the new year, but then I tend to be late in most things.  As always, these (generally) aren’t books that were published in 2016, since I make no effort to keep up with the times.

My goal for 2016 was to read more SF/F and graphic novels from female authors, since there were only ten women in my top 100 Most Read authors according to Goodreads at the start of the year — and one of them was Ann M. Martin, because I read so many Babysitters’ Club books as a kid.  I managed to change the balance to 21 out of 100, but I still have only two women in my top 10 (25+ books read) — though C. J. Cherryh is closing in.

I read 344 books this year, though most were graphic novels or manga, but let’s see what was best!

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Authors Answer 113 – Writing in 2016

Posted on December 31, 2016 by

cropped-pia19912-main_mcam-sol-1099Last answer of the year!

Question 113: Looking back on 2016, how was your year in terms of writing?

Well, beyond the standard ups and downs (such as losing all will to live during the desert summer and then losing some extra will to live in October and November), I did fairly well writing-wise — got one book completed and started on another, even though publication for the first book is delayed until 2017. I kept a pretty steady pace all year, and am starting to actually feel like I know what I’m doing, and that I’m qualified to go back to some older work and fix the problems that have nagged me for ages. I shouldn’t tinker with my older stuff as much as I do, but as long as this first series is still being written, I can’t help it; sometimes I have a revelation and I need to correct old bad information. But that’s fine. After all, I’m still just self-published. These books can remain living, changing works as long as I need them to (though I do believe the large-scale changes are now done).

Adding to this, since I sent out the answers in mid-November: I also finished NaNoWriMo for the first time, because it coincided with starting the rough draft of my fifth book.  In previous years, I’ve always been in the middle of writing or editing, so didn’t want to take time to do a side-project just for NaNo; I tried a time or two but they all fizzled out quick.  So I’m proud that I got 50k+ on book 5 in November, even if I only did 30k in December.  (I blame the holidays and that video game I got myself for Xmas.)

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