A Drop of Bitter

Hello, all you who dwell in the land of the internets. I come bearing gifts today. My outline for Terris is finished and so is my outline for the next Angelic Agents short story/novella/book. Not sure what that one's going to be yet. Terris will of course feature each of the main characters in The Five Tribes series: Nikka, Zyander, and Luka. And each of those characters has a full chapter outline now. I had some trouble with Zyander at the last and I'm still undecided about his final chapter, because there are a couple of different ways it can go at this point. But his storyline will intertwine with the others in some interesting ways. It seems obvious, now that I've plotted it out, but sometimes I just can't see the forest for the trees.

Everyone is always talking about plotters and pantsers in the world of writing. Can I just say how much I DETEST the word pantsing? As in "I'm pantsing the next book." You're WHAT? Pulling its pants down to make a fool of it in front of the other books? What did that poor sad book ever do to you, you meany?!

I personally like to think of myself as a person who carefully plans out each chapter of the next book, but in reality, my heart is a rebel. Look at what happened with Luka's story in Aeris. I will tell you a secret, readers. He was meant to transform by the end of that second book. IT DID NOT HAPPEN THAT WAY AT ALL!

I don't know what happens to me when I start writing a story. I had all three characters completely planned before I started writing, but they just do what they want with no regard for my plans. Characters died, ran away, got captured, fell in love... and I had no say in it. Whose book is this, anyway?

So I guess I can't call myself a plotter, even though my heart is in the right place. Or, my mind, anyway. There is that rebellious, indie writer part of me that simply can't be tied down.

Goals for August: Well, now that I've finished the outline for Terris, I've joined up with Camp Nanowrimo and I'll be trying to write the first 50,000 words by the end of the month. Of course, I still have the Angel book (untitled at this point) and I'll work on that one day a week, either Tuesday or Thursday. It'll probably be Thursday this week, because Camp starts on Tuesday.

As for Aeris, I've had some bad news. My proof reader got sick (of all the luck!) last week, so we've had to push the deadline back by a few days. In anticipation of this, however, I'll be doing some of the formatting work ahead of time: the pronunciation guide will get updated, I'll add in Kait's excerpt of Red with an intro. I'll write my acknowledgments. I'll start putting up the skeletons for the book on Kobo, B&N, Smashwords, and Amazon. I'm also going to send out a small e-gift to the fans that have been emailing me since Compis came out, simply because Aeris wouldn't exist without their cheerleading. It's been a LONG year.

And that is all I've got today. A drop of bitter in the pot, but a hope of sweetness to come.

Happy Reading!

I Hate to be Debbie Downer...

All the dramz on the internetz are making me tired, people.  I'm in a fortunate place where I can say that.  I'm not having my safety threatened by crazypants authors who want to freak me out so badly that I can't even sleep in my own house at night.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you are one of the few remaining that don't.  I will only provide one link, and that is to reviewer Lucy's post on STALKING.
Long story short.  Some authors, traditional and indie alike, don't like it when people give them bad reviews or snark about them.  Some of these authors have taken it upon themselves to make a hate site for all the authors they don't like.  Sure, this is a free country, and if haters want to hate, we can't stop you.  But when you post personal info that makes it easier for an angry mob to go after these reviewers, we have a problem. When reviewers are afraid to sleep in their own houses at night, we have a problem.  When someone starts to fear for their life OVER A FREAKING BOOK REVIEW, we have a problem.
I wish... I wish I could go back to the old days of goodreads.  Back in 2008, when I first joined it, I had such a fun time posting what I was reading and connecting with other readers.  Sure, there would be the occasional troll or snarkfest, but overall, it was a community based on a love for reading.
When I see authors who can't get a clue, who over and over again INSIST that they have a right to tell other people how to feel about their books, I feel sick inside.  Trust me, I sympathize when people call your book "gay-bashing" or "hate filled" especially when that wasn't your intent.  But that's life.  And you need to trust GOOD word of mouth to spread on behalf of your book.  You need to trust that the readers out there who GET your work will find you and tell others how great it is.  You need to trust that everything WILL be okay if someone hates your book. It does suck when someone spends 5 pages telling everyone how much everything about your book—characters, world, plot, etc—aren't worth the paper they're printed on.  When someone says that it's hours of their life they will never get back.  I've been there.  But who gives a crap, anyway?  Your book will still sell.  Mine does.  People will still email you to tell you how much they enjoyed your books.  People do for me.  The world will keep turning, I promise.  Instead of focusing on the negative, how 'bout you keep writing instead.  Do your best work, always.  Keep your chin up.  And stop lashing out at the people whose opinions ARE ONLY OPINIONS.

On to other things.  No word from the proofreader.  :(  She has the deadline of July 27th, which she has assured me she can meet.  I've finished Luka and Nikka's chapter outlines for Terris, but I'm majorly struggling with Zyander.  I feel like I really need to pin him down, too, because his story is going to intersect Nikka's in the beginning and Luka's in the end.  My goal is to finish both the Terris outline and the Angel outline by August 1st, so I can go to NanoWrimo Camp.  Hopefully I'll finish. :)  In August, my goal will be the 50,000 words for the end of the month.  We'll see how that pans out, but that would help me get a chunk of Terris done in a major way.

I'm really excited to start up on the next book in a major way.  Terris is going to have so many interesting elements in it that continue from Aeris.  I don't want to spoil the story, though, so I will keep quiet about them for now.

Off to switch the laundry.  Happy Reading!

Vacation... All I ever Wanted!

Hello from the other side, my friends!

I have been traveling like a maniac across the country: Nevada, Utah, Yosemite and the Sierra Nevadas of California.  I have spent more hours in the car than I have in the past year and my children are now seasoned travelers.

In my three weeks, I've seen: mountains majesty, 3 dead cows on the side of the road on Hwy 6, trees you can stand inside, little boys fishing in pond, lake, and stream, Oded Fehr (heck yes, and it was thrilling for a Resident Evil fan like me), and a thrashed trailer thanks to a mama bear and her three (YES THREE) cubs that adopted my parents' property.

I have missed my internet and my goodreads addiction reached an all time HIGH, but there is good news (besides happy boys and husband who have FOR ONCE received my entire attention):  I'm 9 books ahead in my books of the year goal and I've officially begun to start on the next book in the Five Tribes series.

So what is the scoop, my ROWs' compadres?  Sorry to join in late!  Aeris is halfway finished with its proofing, or so I have assurance from my proof reader.  I've also been told I have a serious problem with ending sentences with prepositions.  Yay, something else to work on in my writing!  Hopefully, very soon it will be making its way to me for final additions (copyrights, acknowledgments, etc.) and formatting.

And on the Terris front: I'm 2/3rds finished with Nikka's chapter outline, and 2/3rds finished with Luka's.  Zyander's storyline will be a bit more complicated this time around, simply because he's got so much going on.  So far, I have about 4 chapters of his story outlined.

This time around, in Terris, I will be writing each story line on its own.  Hopefully, that will keep my writing at a faster pace.  I'm also going to try being a bit more detailed with my chapter outline.  Last time around I did summaries for each story, but that didn't have enough detail to carry me through the rough spots.  There were a lot of pleasant surprises that resulted, but I don't think I would have had the same issues with Zyander's story line, if I'd had a better outline.

It's hard for me, because I'm a creative person and I want wiggle room.  But I need to constantly remind myself to be more organized.  To that effect, I've started a Scrivener file on the Five Tribes Series.

My other goal, besides finally getting some of my concept art posted, is to dedicate one day a week to writing the next Angelic Agents story.  It may turn out to be a Novella.  Not sure yet.  But I'm having fun planning it.

That's all for now.   The book is still at a reduced price.  For now.  Will decide what to do after I've emailed Smashwords.

Quick Update While I Have Internet and a SALE!

Hi.  For like 3 hours I will have some internet, so I wanted to come on and tell you how much I am enjoying vacation and how much I'm enjoying the thought of getting back to WORK!  :)
For now, though, I'm reading, reading, reading.  You can keep track of my stuff on goodreads, as always.

My biggest announcement is that I've been having an issue with Amazon KDP (MORE ON THAT LATER!!!  A LONG ENTRY TO COME!) and have set my Compis' price -for a very limited time- to $.99!  Tell your friends, tell your relatives, tell strangers on the street!  This is a blip in the radar and will probably NEVER happen again and it will only be on sale for like 5 or 6 days.

I just did it this morning after receiving numerous emails from KDP, so it may take a day or so to go live.  Enjoy it while it lasts and have a great next week!  I'll see you soon for the next ROW!

Happy Reading!