Tag Archives: writing

New Year, New Goals

12 Wednesday Jan 2022

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So how are we all feeling now that 2022 has fully set in?

My Holiday season was filled with family, a friend that came for a visit, and some rest. My Aunt was kind enough to grab the Self-publishing Marketing books I requested for Christmas and my Cousin got me some more things for my Cricut so I need to get back into doing the coasters and mugs. I still haven’t actually set up my mug press in my Craft Room.

With the new year, and having a friend over for the Holidays, it made mom and I even more aware that we need to reorganize the Craft Room – with some shifting of the stuff in there we can fit a day bed in it and make it a guest room as well – because right now any guests have to sleep on the pull-out couch which 1) I didn’t realize how hard it was for sleeping all night and 2) is in the living room so barely any privacy.  But I’ve been wanting an excuse for a deep clean anyway, so this gives the perfect reasoning.

So that leads well into 2022 and my goals. I have a few, but I’m trying to keep them to a manageable amount.

  1. Clean the Craft Room and set it up as a partial Guest Room.
  2. Finish Book 2 of the Ragnarok Trilogy with my co-author and publish in July.
  3. Finish editing Into the Faerietale and get that out this year – thinking September-ish for it.
  4. Finish writing, edit, and get a short novella-length story out on my other pen name.
  5. Get my Ko-Fi shop running a little better both with book merch, books, and the necklaces I’ve been making.

All in all, it’s a manageable list, I think. A secondary goal is to create some more merch for both Hotel Fen and Into the Faerietale. I have the bookplates that I need to get up on the shop – so if people buy the physical book through Amazon or B&N and want our signatures on them, they can grab one. I also splurged and made pins:

Which I think came out amazing! They’re metal and enamel with butterfly clasps on the back. And I made special pin backings for them that match the bookplates the signatures are on.

But yes, those are my 2022 goals. What are your goals for the year? I’d love to hear them!

Windycon Wednesday

17 Wednesday Nov 2021

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So, this last weekend in the Windy City known as Chicago (and believe me it was super windy this weekend. We had trouble opening the hotel doors a lot of the time we were in and out) every November we have Windycon. A Science Fiction and Fantasy convention that hosts a dealer’s room, an art show, and guests of honor. As well as a host of panels to attend.

It’s a lot of fun, and I know that well because I’ve grown up attending it, as well as a few other cons around the area. My dad used to sell at cons when I was little, so I’m not kidding about growing up attending the conventions. I learned to handle room issues, like the tv not working, when I was small enough I couldn’t be seen over the hotel front desk. I’ve corralled the kids at the conventions to make sure no one was left out when we had fun. And as a teen, I learned how to use the gopher option to my advantage so I could get half my registration back as dealer’s room spending money by doing a few hours of badge check work at the door without my parents’ knowing that I got half the reg they paid back to spend on that artwork or book I walked out of the dealer’s room with.

If you haven’t attended a SciFi /Fantasy Con and you read the genres? You should totally try to see if there’s one in your area to attend. Hearing people’s takes on why fantasy is the way it is, or the history of urban fantasy is always an interesting panel to take in. The Dealer’s room itself always has some incredible finds – this year there was a person selling handmade pottery (his stuff is beautiful) and another person had handmade wood pieces like dice trays and towers.

Most of my time was spent in the Dealer’s Room this year because I was pushing the book I wrote with my co-author. The table just couldn’t be considered complete without a plushie to represent a lot of people’s favorite character from the novel – the black cat, Ada. =)

But I also had some of my art on the table for sale as well because I do paintings, necklaces (though someone did suggest trying to do earrings in a similar fashion that I need to look into), and inspired by the book – handmade and painted rune sets and individual rune keychains.

I will say that attending the Convention as a full-fledged dealer is a lot different than attending as just an attendee. Mainly because as an attendee you have the ease to flit from place to place and see all the things, attending all the panels, and you aren’t really tied down to anything. As a dealer, you want to be at your table so you can sell your wares, talk to people who might be interested in them, and meet new people that way.

I really enjoyed talking to the people I met as a dealer. We had some interesting conversations about covers, about paint (because of my paintings), and about crafting as a whole. Plus I made a few new contacts that also do book things, so that was really cool. I can’t wait to be able to jot the dates down on the vacation schedule for next year once Windycon releases the 2022 dates and snag a dealer’s table again.

Do you attend conventions in your area? Are they big or small? Did you before the pandemic that you’re hoping to get back to but just haven’t yet? Let me know down in the comments!

Week 1 – NaNoWriMo and the quest for the Words

08 Monday Nov 2021

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So, we’re a week into November (it’s a week and one day, but I am not counting today just yet because I still have 12 hours to get some words in between and after my work day today.

Are you participating in NaNo this year? (Let me know down in the comments!)

My first week has been fairly good as a whole. I had one day where work got to be too much so I just rolled crashed after a couple hundred words – but I was able to keep my check-ins every day going at least.

Currently, I’m pretty sure my word count would make a really good rollercoaster ride. I’m also trying to figure out a way to help me keep this fairly consistent momentum through and after NaNo – because if I can keep this up as a whole I could get a little more done with things.

More done would be great because I have:

  • a book that just needs editing
  • a book that technically just needs a final two chapters, though reflecting back on some of it I’m considering a semi-full rewrite. Maybe.
  • A novella that’s half done and the other half is semi-outlined I just need to flush it out and finish it
  • and more story ideas than I can count.

Plot bunnies abound, really. Which is also why I’m working on creating a Story Idea Journal because I’m tired of losing some of my ideas when I jot them down in a notebook that’s for something else, or in my planner than I then don’t look at for two years.

Do you have a good way of keeping your story ideas centralized and easily accessed when you get one? Or are yours like me, kind of all over the house?

Hardback Abound

30 Saturday Oct 2021

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There is just something incredibly adorable about being able to have my cat in any of the photos that I take either on purpose or on accident. I set the books down to grab a shot of them and he just flopped right down next to them. He also tried to chew on one and catch one of the keychains as well.

I almost had the perfect shot lined up, but my mom opened the door and it ended up getting him distracted and this was the only shot I was able to capture of him. But that’s also the joy of trying to photograph pets, they never completely do what you want them to do.

The books were supposed to look a little more whole in the shot. Like the below.

This shot came out well too. All to show off the beautiful new Hardbacks of Hotel Fen. It came out lovely in the hardback matte finish. So yes, it’s now available in hardback on Amazon as well! While the photo is of the proofs, because the proofs came out lovely, they’ve been pushed through to publication.

Do you have any pets? Any cute photos with them? I always love seeing other people’s pets.

#WIPWednesday – Art Edition

13 Wednesday Oct 2021

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So while I am an author and I could probably go on for days about the different novellas, novels, and shorts that I have tucked away in my box of plot bunnies (something that continues to breed as it sits.

Today I’m going to feature some of the art I’m working on. Because when not writing I enjoy spending time painting, making jewelry, and resin work.

A couple of paintings I did recently – they’re on 8-inch by 8-inch canvases. I did several blues with a little white and some lavender that didn’t really show up too well. A lavender and silver with a hint of pink. And a blue, lavender and pink with white – which is still really wet as you can tell in the lower left corner of the picture.

And then a shot of the resin keychains that I’m mailing by co-author, but I’m looking to make more to sell. As well, I have rune sets that look identical but are for divination purposes.

What do you do for fun when you’re not writing? Let me know!

Manic Monday

04 Monday Oct 2021

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I know that Monday tends to be a very large sigh of not again when we all start a new week (Somehow Sunday never feels like the start of a week despite though that’s likely just me because I work a Monday through Friday job).

Despite the very Monday feel to today, I hope that everyone reading this has or had a wonderful Monday. That it brought you something good, something that was able to make you smile, or at least something that wasn’t adding to your stress.

My Monday has been going a little everywhere – and by that, I mostly mean my brain. I have several things on my awareness that I want to do and I’m having a hard time trying to focus on one because all of them want my attention. So here I sit working on this blog post instead.

The Monday’est of Mondays.

 

Since my last blog post what have I been doing?
That’s a very good question honestly.

The boring answer is work. Work. And, more work. (My 9-5 has been eating a decent amount of my brain). However, that’s not ALL I’ve been doing either.

My co-author and I have been working on Book 2 for our Nine Universe, sequel to Hotel Fen and middle book of the Ragnarok Trilogy.
– We created a Wiki for the series. Super fun as a whole, not going to lie.
– Officially settled on the title for Book 2 – Monster Ridge – with the book slated for release July 23, 2022.
– And of course, we can’t write a book without an Outline, so we have spent the last month or so outlining the book. We finished it a little while back, the outline. The plan is to NaNo the book like we did for Hotel Fen. It worked really well as a whole for book one, so here’s hoping it works well for book two!

As well, my co-author has been sliding me short story competitions for magazines and things and when my brain can get around their theme, it’s been fun trying to write a few shorts for those.

We currently have a joint submission we wrote over a weekend pending decision.

As well, I submitted to FloraFiction.com’s Fall Haunting theme. You can find their website here: florafiction.com and you can find my submission “Lingering Ice” within its pages (page 16 to be specific) but you should definitely check out the magazine as a whole because there were a lot of good shorts, poems, and art/photography in the issue.

I have plans to overhaul my website a little more, make it a little more clean as a whole. So watch out for that in the coming months too!

Before I go though, how did your September go? Any hopes or plans for October to make spooky season fun? Let me know in the comments!

Pre-Order is Live!

23 Monday Aug 2021

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So back last October my friend and I were talking and we decided to write a book for NaNo. I am pretty sure I’ve both talked about it here and referred to it lovingly as Project Norse. We were able to finish the draft by the first of March – leaving it for a month or so while we dealt with work things and live things.

And then the editing happened. And while we were slow some months, we worked hard in others. Coupled with our amazing support team to help us, we have made it to the finish line!

I’m proud to present Hotel Fen!

It’s now live to pre-order from the following eBook stores:
Kindle
Apple Book
Barnes & Noble Nook
Kobo

Releasing Aug 24!

The paperback edition will be coming soon via Amazon as well, but unfortunately they don’t allow print copies up for pre-order. But I do have it set up in the KDP area to submit soon with the hopes that it will be reviewed relatively quick and won’t be too far behind the eBook release.

Also to go along with the beautiful cover and the fact that we’re releasing so very soon! Another incredible item to share is that my talented co-author actually wrote a song for our book too. (we’re actually working on a few more since we love how this one turned out)

It’s Live on Spotify now!
Listen here!

For those wondering, but what is the book about?
Don’t worry! I wouldnt’ leave you without a synopsis to read and hopefully tickle your interest!

Synopsis

Are you ready for the vacation of a lifetime?

Victor has always had a passion for Norse history and mythology, but after hitting a dead end with his book on valkyries, not even that passion is enough to move him forward. Just when he’s ready to abandon the project, he receives an email: he’s won a free trip to Hotel Fen, a remote vintage resort in the Scandinavian Mountains.

Silje has always felt that her life was fairly unremarkable. She cares deeply about people and that has led her to find her purpose at a nursing home in Oslo. When a resident dies and leaves her an all-expense paid vacation package to Hotel Fen, however, she takes the opportunity to experience something different.

It all starts innocently enough, with a little meet-cute in the hotel elevator that takes forever to arrive on their floor. But the longer Victor and Silje remain together, the more dangerous the hotel becomes, and the more they question where reality ends and the impossible begins.

And, just a reminder that Hotel Fen now live to pre-order from the following eBook stores:
Kindle
Apple Book
Barnes & Noble Nook
Kobo
Print Copy Coming Soon!

Catch Up

12 Monday Apr 2021

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I’m not even sure how we’re almost half way through April, I’m going to be completely honest with you. February and March passed quickly, leaving barely a trace of themselves behind as I stand here blinking at the progression of time. I mean, I know that they passed, my co-author and I worked really hard to finish our first draft by the end of Feb, which we ALMOST met deadline for. We technically finished it on March 1st, but that’s a close enough finish that I’m super happy with it.

March flew past in a blur. Things ramped up at work and I used March as a month to let the draft sit and get some space from, though we’re almost halfway into April and I am reminded that I need to dig into the edits now. I have some edits to make because I had someone read it and note all across it, plus re-reading to see where it needs edits myself as well. But I have faith that I’ll get there, and that we’ll get there, because my co-author is planning to read through and edit the draft after I run through it.

Meanwhile we’re already trying to outline books two and three so they’re all in line with each other from the start. We want to make sure the book plot and the overarching plot of the trilogy work well across the three books. So all the outlining and planning for us. And still pretty on par with our July release deadline we set for ourselves.

Life wise, things have been as they have been. Which is to say, the world is still in a pandemic, we’re mostly still stuck at home. I and my mother have both been fortunate enough to get the vaccine, we both work with hospital staff and doctors, pharmacists and residents who see patients so we were in the 1B section of the population. For those who might be wondering, neither of us had much in the way of side effects. I slept for the day after getting it, she was tired the day after but over all after 24 hours we were both fine. And we’re still making sure to be super careful and follow all the masking and hand washing recommendations.

I’m really glad that the weather has warmed up again, I’ve decided that while I’m working from home I’m going to strive to take like, an hour or two on the laptop and work outside so I can get some fresh air and get out of the house a little while still working. Of course, after the first day of doing this, it’s rained every day since. So, fun times there. And because of the rain, my migraines haven’t been great, though I’m trying a new medication recommended to me, over the counter, and it seems to be helping some. I still have them, but they’re less crawl under my desk and cry these days. So I can work through them so long as I’m in a hat or a non-florescent lit room. Small favor.

Over all I’m hoping to get back to writing on here more consistently. Wish me luck.

I hope, dear readers, that you’re staying healthy and safe.

And time vanishes

12 Tuesday Jan 2021

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So I lost my weekend to the best reason possible. All the words. All the words is definitely a good thing to lose time to though. My co-author on Project Norse and I decided to try and do a 10K words in a day challenge for our respective Saturdays.

As a whole, the challenge went well. We realized fairly early on that our time zone difference made for an interesting addition to the challenge, because with her in the Philippines and me in the United States, being fourteen hours apart means we can’t just boomerang the novel back and forth between us all day. For a good chunk of the writing time, one of us was sleeping while the other was writing.

We made it work though by working on different scenes in the novel at once. Like, I think we were working on four or five different areas to go back and forth with each other, but then also we had a couple areas where one of us took the lead on a certain scene and ran with it.

Neither of us hit 10,000 words on Saturday, but both of us got a little more than halfway through. She finished her 10,000 words on her Sunday. I didn’t, because I ran into a secondary challenge for a long da like that. So back in May 2019 I had my dominant hand’s wrist in a cast. And ever since that accident I’ve had serious problems with my wrist when I over work it.

Well apparently it feels that 6,372 words it decided was over working it. My morning went super well and I was able to get a little over 2,000 words before breakfast, but it had started to ache after that and just get progressively worse through the day as I tried to alternate between resting it and working on more words as I could.

Sunday was pretty much a get nothing done, only rest it day. Also, all the grocery shopping and things I had meant to do that I pushed off from Saturday, so no real other words happened over the weekend. But still, we were able to get about 16,000 words collectively on our novel over the weekend, which is awesome! Since we have that July deadline for publishing, it’s great that we’re able to make so much progress on it as a whole for draft one. As well, when we were awake at the same time and not writing, we were able to flush out our outline to really hone into the timeline of what we what to happen when and how we kind of want it to go so we have guiding things to get us there. Overall, it’s a super productive weekend.

And then yesterday I also realized part of the problem with my wrist is that when I have to work on campus and cover the front desk, that the angle the desk is at compared to the chair is part of my problem. We’ll see if anyone complains about the chair, because I lowered it by like a TON, but I’m hoping since it’s just a little lever, that they’ll just shift it for them when they’re on campus and no one will complain. But the angle was not okay for me anymore. within the first hour of working at the desk my wrist felt like it did after writing 6K words from Saturday, only worse. So yeah, something had to change. I also shifted how the monitors were set on the desk, but those were put back after my shift so no one had to worry about them.

I’m hoping my work week goes fairly quiet as a whole, and I can continue to get words in on the novel. I really want to continue this momentum that we’ve found on getting things done on the different chapters. I’d personally love it if we could have draft one finished by either the end of January or the really early beginning of February so we can get those edits in hard and fast.

Hope your week goes well, readers! And if you did anything you’re proud of, drop a comment and let me know!

Also, if you’re wondering what the image has to do with this post, well, it’s partially just because it’s my kitty and I love him. And partially because that’s legitimately how tired I feel right now.

2021 – Forward We Move

04 Monday Jan 2021

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Can you believe that we’re already four days into the new year? Hopefully your New Years celebrations, even if quiet, was good. Mine was mostly quiet with some Star Trek Discovery watching with my mom and some Among Us with some friends before that.

So far, I’d say my year is progressing well as a whole. I’ve been getting some writing in, but then my co-writer and I have set a very ambitious goal for our joint book so can’t take too many days wtihout touching it.

Let’s just get right into my goals for 2021!

  1. Finish, edit, market, and publish the book I’m working on with my co-author. Our ambitious deadline for it all is July. Six months. We’re that ambitious. But we’re also extremely motivated to get it done!
  2. Finish editing and publish faerie novel.
  3. Finalize and publish at least two shot story/novellas
  4. Read 24 books – this is two books a month. Which, if I carve out a little time occasionally, should be more than doable.
  5. Be more active on both Instagram and Twitter.
  6. Work on both Esty shops to get them up and going a little better.

They’re fairly ambitious goals for the most part, but they’ll keep me going through the year. And they’ll hopefully mean that I’ll get all the things done. Though for the first six months of the year, my main focus is definitely going to be on that first goal. I’m super excited to both work on it but also get it out in the world. We both are. Closer to it’s release, I’ll share a little more details about it.

To keep up with visuals of my progress, be sure to check out my Instagram account! You can find both my Instagram and my Twitter in the left side bar on this blog.

Do you have any goals for the new year? If so, please let me know in the comments below!