Oh, Christmas. Why are you always so busy?

Christmas and the summer are the two busiest times of my life.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this.  Anyway, that, along with some surgery and birthday stuff, is the reason for my couple weeks absence.  But again, I have good news!  Call it an early Christmas present, if you will.

ACX just sent me another couple dozen coupons for Audible books.  So if you have an Audible account and you like full length novels, I have Compis available for FREE for whoever is interested.  Like "The Angel and Her Gun" these are only available for a limited time.  So while they last, shoot me an email at katecauthor (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll send you a coupon code.  The audiobook is normally about $18, so this is a great deal!

I'm really excited to have Em Eldridge as my narrator and I hope you all enjoy her, too.  She is an amazing talent!

Other than that, I'm still plugging away.  I've got some final editing stuff to finish up this week and then I'm back on board with Terris.  I've been writing some exciting stuff on that front.  Oh, the yummy goodness with Luka's storyline is what's got me going lately.  I think you may be surprised at some of the events in his timeline in this book.  A definite change from Aeris.

Anyway, Happy Reading!

Who Likes Free Stuff?

I think we can all agree that I suck at marketing.  So I'm just going to do this the Oprah way.

Everyone gets free stuff!!!

My audiobook for "The Angel & Her Gun" is finished and ACX has sent me a crap ton(24) of free copies to distribute to whomever I choose.  And guess what, readers... if you send me an email, at katecauthor(at)gmail, then I will send you one.  I will do this until they run the heck out.

Here is a synopsis of the short story(it's about an hour long):

Samora is a gunslinger in the Wild West, but she doesn't just carry a gun. She also carries the cross ring that designates her as an angelic agent, sent from God himself to battle over mortal souls on earth with the demons who seek to win their ages long battle.She has two problems: her propensity for getting screwed over by conniving mortals and her love for Gideon -a fallen angel on the wrong side of the law.

Be warned, there is some PG-13 material enclosed.

On a ROW80 note, I've been plugging away at Terris.  It's not fast, but it's happening and that keeps me in my happy place.  I've written about 3 chapters per character at this point.  There will be a small lull this week and next, as my sister is out visiting from Wyoming.  Hopefully, I will still be writing, but with family around, I don't want to make any promises I can't keep.

That's all for now! Happy Reading!

Being a Super Genius is Tough, but I Manage.

I don't want to be all full of myself today, readers, but I can't help it.  I'm a genius.  When it comes to scheduling, anyway.
For the past few weeks, since I started my new job, I've had serious issues scheduling time to write.  Like, I had none.  Not even a minute.  I get up, get the kids ready, work, pick the kids up, work some more, hang with the kids, eat dinner, get the kids ready for bed, and hang with the hubby, then go to bed myself.  That's it.  If (and that's a big if) I had any free time at night, I was so exhausted, I just had nothing to put in.  Zero inspiration.
It was really a drag, pretty much.  I mean, if you wanted, day after day, to write but you had no time, it would make you depressed, too.
Then one day I was sitting in the car eating my lunch and I had a zing of inspiration!  I had like a 45-1 hour window of eating time that I was using to read/eat.  But now, I write instead!

It's fantastic and it makes me so happy!  Yay!  It's not a lot of time, but it's some.  And it means I can keep writing.  I was honestly about to give up.

In other good news, Compis the audiobook is finished.  As soon as ACX is done reviewing it, that is.  We're knee deep in Aeris right now and it is sounding great. :)

One final gift from me.  I ran across this randomly yesterday and I wanted to share it with you, because it's so cute.  It made my day.  (In case you're not a Kdrama addict like me, the guy is Lee Min Ho, probably one of the most famous stars in Kdramaland.)

Enjoy and Happy Reading!

Don't Tell Grandma

I was AFK this weekend, as we all drove down to my grandparents' house to meet up with my sister who was visiting from Seattle.  Let me tell you, a great time was had by all.  I haven't seen my sister since Christmas, so this was a happy homecoming.

But while we were at my grandparents', sitting around chit-chatting, my grandma came up to me and said, "I know about your books."

And for about a minute I was thinking, "Oh boy.  Is Grandma hitting that age where I have to worry about her memory?  She did send me that 'cute kitty' video link in an email twice."
I mean, of course she knows about my books.  She gets to read the freaking rough draft before anyone else does.

Then she smiled at me and winked and suddenly, I knew that she meant those books.  You know the ones that I'm talking about, right?

Oh yeah...

So it turns out that some BIGMOUTH in my family spilled the beans about my extracurricular writing activities.  That's right.  Someone told my grandma about the sexytime stories I made sure to write about under a whole different name so she would never ever find out.  And she found it highly amusing.

Ah well.  I guess we're never as sneaky as we think we are.  Either that or my family has the busiest grapevine on the planet.  (Probably true.)

So anyway, I didn't get my update in, so this will count as my ROW for Wed.

Thursday was a good day, but it was the only one.  I got about 3 hours of work done and a little more on Friday before I left.  So yay!  Been writing Zyander, because, well, his voice is the strongest in my head right now.  I've been listening to the audiobook (which BTW sounds AWESOME!) and it brought me back to all the emotional hardships that he's been through and how strong a leader it's made him.  Fun stuff.

So let's hope I get more done this week.

Happy Reading!

Gettin' my ROW on...

If you're a writer in the know then you know that this week the last round of the year for ROW80 starts.  Round of Words in 80 days is a self-created goal of some sort that you as a writer make for yourself.  I've been mulling this over for several days, folks and I can't seem to come to a personal goal.

My Word of the Year this year is FEARLESS and I think I've lived up to my goal so far.  Audiobooks, news blogging, I even started a new job.  But unfortunately, some of those things interfere with my writing time. (Mostly the new job)  I'm lucky if I have an hour a day right now.

If it were just a matter of getting up earlier, I could do it.  Getting up at 5 in the morning is no problem for me.  I did it every day when I was writing Aeris.  The problem here?  My kids get up at 5!

So, should I be getting up at 4 then?  Goodness me!

So, I think my goal has to be this:

WRITE EVERY DAY.

I'm gonna try my best.  I'll keep that doc file open and whenever I have a free moment, where my kids are sleeping or my hubby is distracted, and I'll put some words in it.  

Terris might not get finished as quickly as I want it to, but at least I'll make progress, right?  And it's halfway done, so that's good also.

Yeah, so I guess I've made my goal.

Happy reading!

PS- Don't forget to head on over to Cuddlebuggery.com and check out my latest Buzz Worthy News!

Still Obsessing...

You know how when a relationship ends you still can't stop thinking about it.  You start obsessing about what went wrong, and how much it hurt.

Goodreads, I can't get over you.  I think about you and it still hurts.  I don't know why we can't work things out?  Can't you reconsider?

You know, when I first opened my author account, some of my author friends were like, "You're not still going to review books, are you? You're going to make yourself a target."  I laughed and told myself it wouldn't matter.  After all, I was a reader first.  I'd already been a member of goodreads for 3 years before I added the author part.

And you know, mostly, it's been a good experience.  My readers have been fantastic.  They send me little messages and comment on my blog posts.  I've had a couple of weird experiences where author's have friended me over my reviews or commented on them and it made me feel uncomfortable, but that's about it.  On the other hand, I had author friends who wrote a book and subsequently deleted all their reviews.

And until Goodreads new policy, I've never considered what I review or how I review.  Now I find myself hesitating to discuss what I read.  Especially if it's in a genre I write myself.

Why? Well, now that my reviews aren't safe from any little bit of attention, it places me at risk.  If I want to maintain my author status on Goodreads, and keep my author account, then I need to make sure none of my reviews are questioned.

You may be thinking, "That seems a bit dramatic, Kate." And you're right.  It does!  But until now, there was never any fear of the dramatic.  Goodreads just left the users reviews alone (unless the content was extremely bad).  But now the rules are so vague and arbitrary, I'm suffering nerves whenever I post.  

Here is an example, just to put things in my perspective.  I read a LOT of YA.  It's always been my favorite age range for reading and writing.  I also review a LOT of YA.  Sometimes I'm not really that impressed by the content I read and I may give the book a review accordingly.

Well, what if an author doesn't like my review?  What if they go snooping around my account and see that I'm an author, too, one who writes in the same genre?  What if they decide that the only reason I reviewed the way I did was because I wanted to eliminate the competition?

You might pipe up here and say, "But Kate, as long as your review CONTENT speaks only of the book, you'll be fine."  Well, no, because as Goodreads has made evident, the content of the review is also in the INTENT of the reviewer.  If they arbitrarily decide that my review is unduly influenced by the fact that I'm a competing author in the same genre, then my review WOULD be about the author, and not the book itself.  Do you see?

"But, Kate," you might say, "You've been a member of Goodreads since 2008! Surely, Goodreads would take the time to look at your reviews and your record and see that you're a reviewer in good standing before they delete your reviews and put your account under notice."

Uh, well, there are people who've been on there for YEARS and Goodreads didn't give a DAMN about their loyalty and their overall review record.  They were summarily deleted.

I hate to say this, but Goodreads isn't a safe space for me anymore, as a reader.  And so, I won't be reviewing YA books with stars anymore.  I will still put an overall review in place, but since stars are what seems to trigger authors, I will be leaving them out.  If that gets me into trouble, then I will most likely not be reviewing YA books any more either.

That is where it stands right now, and I'm so sad about it.  But they made the rules and I just want to keep hanging out with my Goodreads friends.

Other, happier news:
The Angel & Her Gun and The Lost Flame will soon be up in audiobook form, as well.
I've been working on the outline for the second half of Terris and I'm very pleased.  I had outlines made before I started this book, but things have changed (as they always do for me, hahaha) and so the outlines had to change accordingly.
I'll have another Buzz Worthy News segment up tomorrow, so head on over to Cuddlebuggery.com and check it out!
Have a great day, and happy reading!

Good News

Hey all,
Sorry for my slightly ranty post previously.  It just sets off my "fairness" radar when Gooreads would just DELETE hours of effort on the part of readers and without any warning.  How is that respect for users who have used the site for YEARS?  Not cool.  Decidedly not.

However, let's move past that now.  Let's pretend such things don't exist for the moment.
I have some great news!  Well, lots of great news, actually.  Firstly, part one of Terris is done!

It's been a long time in coming, I know.  Apologies to all my fans and thanks to their patience.  :)  Let's hope the rest of it goes fast!

Announcement number two: The first fifteen minutes of Compis' audiobook is done!  There will be a lot more good news on that front.  The audio is amazing, I'm so happy with it.

And third announcement: I will be the Cuddlebuggery.com Buzz Worthy News correspondent starting tomorrow.  This week's news was a lot of fun to write, so I hope you'll hop on over and enjoy.

That's all for now.  But enjoy the fact that Terris has 75,000 words written.  I know I will be.

Happy Reading!

The Switch-Up

I used the almost title of one of my books for today's post because I have that itchy skin feeling again.  Do you ever get that, readers?  Like if you don't do something new or different or fundamentally life changing you will have the sudden urge to scratch a layer of skin off until a whole new you emerges underneath?

I am going through some life changes.  Perhaps they might seem minor to others.  My son just started his first year of school.  My youngest turned two and officially left babyhood behind.  I'm making some changes in routine and job and well, LIFE I guess.  It's exhilarating and terrifying, which is pretty much life in general around here.

But mostly, I've just been thinking about how life changes your plans all by itself.  When I remember Aeris, for instance, and all the work I did on Zyander's story that I had to then go back and RE-FREAKING-WRITE and I almost have a heart attack when I think about it.  Then there is my still-in-progress audiobook.  *sigh*  That has actually ended up for the better, too, but when my first contract fell through, I was pretty bummed about it.  Thankfully, I already had another voice actor I was pretty excited about and when that went through, I felt like all was smooth sailing again.

So, yeah, changes come whether you bring them or not.  Learning to roll with each change is my big work in progress.

As far as the writing front goes, yeah, I have three of my stories under contract for audiobooks now and I'm pretty pleased with who I've got for what.  I am three, count them, THREE chapters away from being done altogether with part one.  One chapter for Nikka, one for Zyander, and one for Luka—who made a little change in his storyline that necessitated adding a chapter.  I have really been kicking butt in the past week.

I have learned not to take that for granted, however, so on that front, I've decided to join up with ROW80 again.  This summer I was way too busy to continue with it, but I love supporting the other authors and being a part of all the mental creativity.  Maybe it will help me to get Terris finished once and for all.

I hope all the changes in your lives of late have been good ones!  Happy Reading!

Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Ahhhhh... regret.

Have you ever ignored that still small inside that warned you not to do something?  If you're human (or like me, addicted to chocolate) then I know you have!  Then some time later, you are sure to wind up like me... bleary eyed and full of regret.

Regret can come from anything.  Forget to send that Netflix DVD back?  Well, now you have to wait through the WHOLE freaking weekend to get the next disc in True Blood Season 5.  Eat a giant piece of chocolate cake at the birthday party when you said you weren't going to (anyone seeing a theme here)?  Enjoy seeing the scale go up instead of down.

In my writerly world, I often regret wasting time.  Whether it's not mapping out the story well enough before hand or figuring out half way through that I made a wrong turn with a character, I HATE having to go back and rewrite huge sections of book.   I also regret it when I play around making my perfect playlist for writing to instead of actually writing.

Thankfully, my writing regrets are fading for the moment.  I've got three, count them THREE chapters left for Zyander and Nikka's Part One.  I also, surprisingly, added a chapter to Luka's Part One.  Then I'm on to the second half of Terris!  Exciting times, people, exciting times.

Happy Reading!

It's Hard to Type with a Busted Finger

That makes it sound as though I've broken my finger or something, which I most certainly have not.  I was peeling apples yesterday and I did manage to peel my middle finger open quite nicely, however.  To the point where I keep soaking through bandages (not blood, but water, because I'm constantly washing either faces or dishes).

These bandaids make it really difficult to type, let me tell you!

So, I feel like we have to have one of those awkward conversations, like you do when you run into your ex at the grocery store.

I know I haven't been on here in three months.  For a person who has faithfully written in her writerly blog every week, it is inconceivable to me.  

And the reason I haven't written isn't because I got kidnapped or because my computer died or because I moved to a land with no internet... no, I just got SUMMER busy.  Summers around the Copeseeley household tend to be in, out, and all around.  So when you take one author, add in three visits to the in-laws, one to my parents, a camping trip, and bronchitis & pneumonia, you get pretty much no writing at all.  

Yes, this is the bad news.  I've made about... 8,000 words of progress on Terris.  The good news is, my oldest has started kindergarten, my routine has become settled again, and I'm back to cranking out those letters.

Hopefully, it's all downhill from here.  I'm 2/3rds of the way through Nikka AND Zyander's part one and I'm really excited about where the story is heading from there.  I can't believe I'll be done with book three very soon!  Woohoo!!!

-Happy Reading!

A State of Loving Neglect...

Every so often I go through this down phase in my writing.  It's the sort of thing that many writer's go through (or so I've noted from other writer's blogs) where they can't write, or they have no inspiration, or they just don't feel like putting on the "writer face".  In short, they give up on their online presence and say, "The hell with it!"

That's kind of where I'm at right now.  I have bronchitis, I'm plugging away on Terris and waiting around for other various things to happen (a book to come back from the type editor, my Five Tribes series to get back from the voice actor's) and I just don't feel like I have a lot to contribute to the online world of "Kate Copeseeley" the writer.

I'm still here.  I'm still writing, editing, and making inroads on my various works.  I'm just not being loud about it right now.  And to top it off, tomorrow, I'm bound for The Land of No Internet, where I will be officially AFK and out of reach.

I hope to have some encouraging news soon, and when I do, I will post again, my friends.

For now, I'm taking the summer off reading new books (there might be a few here and there) and reading only my favorites.  I need a brain rest.  This continual search for my next new favorite is draining me down to nothing, folks.

What will I be reading?

Octavia Butler, Barbara Kingsolver, George R. R. Martin, Marion Chesney, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen and any other favorites I have lying around the house.  No more recommendations or reviews from my favorite bloggers for me.  Nope.  This summer is all about my lost loves.  I will find them all over again!

Until next time, my friends and readers,
Happy Reading!

Discovery

I may have mentioned this before (once or twice), but I'm kind of a big reader.  Don't believe me?  Well, you can go to goodreads and check out my profile.  That will tell you better than I can that I'm an official bibliophile—or as my husband likes to say, book addict.

I was reading a friend's blog the other day and she gave us a list of her favorite books and how she'd discovered them.  Which got me thinking about MY favorite books.  I thought I'd share them with you here.

Before I do, though, I just want to say that in some cases, it's not so much a favorite book as it is a favorite author.

Anyway, on to the list, which I shall try to pare down as much as possible.

1) No list like this can take place without Pride & Prejudice.  Oh, boy, I'm going to start out my pretentious list with a classic, I can hear the groans already.  Actually, the first time I tried to read Jane Austen was in high school.  I hated her book (no it wasn't an assignment, I'm one of those weird book geeks that tries out classics on my own) and put it down for about 4 years.  It was too wordy, too descriptive and I was an action girl at that point, loving on Anne McCaffrey.  Then, for whatever reason, I picked up Emma a few years later and I was hooked.  I laughed out loud and proceeded to read every other Jane Austen book I could get my hands on.  I bought all of them.  I can't remember at what point I read P&P, but the fact that Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth for "the liveliness" of her mind sends me into spasms every time.  Yes, I am a romantic.

2) A Game of Thrones.  I'm not sure if this is my favorite book of the series or not, I'm pretty fond of book 3 as well, but this was the beginning of my LOVE for George.  (Oh, George, how I heart you!!!)  I heard about this book from my friend Jeff, who said to me, "He is the best fantasy writer of all time."  As a self-named fantasy freak, I was skeptical, to say the least.  But winter break was coming up, so I grabbed all the books that were out at the time (the first three) and went home for Christmas.  I honestly don't know if I would have caught on to George's genius if I hadn't gotten sick and been bedridden for literally a week straight.  I DEVOURED those books.  I laughed, and cried and raged and by the end I knew that when it comes to character development, George has everyone else beat.

3) A lot of my book discoveries are random library events.  I go to the new books section, pick up something that interests me by title, cover, or synopsis.  Poisonwood Bible was one of these.  How could I resist anything with bible in the title, I ask you.  This book was transporting!  Kingsolver's prose is among the best in the world, in my opinion.  Each of her character voices in this book was so different that I could picture their voices and faces in my mind during each chapter.  I loved this book so much that as soon as I finished it, I picked it right back up and read it through again.  Amazing!  Oh, and I discovered her before Oprah ever did.

4)  I adore thought-provoking sci-fi.  I love to mull over social issues related through far away galaxies and fought among fast moving space ships.  So it is no wonder that I love Orson Scott Card.  Everyone always quotes Ender's Game at me.  My former boss, who was my introduction to Card, certainly did.  But for me, it was Speaker for the Dead that really resonated with me.  The questions that book asks about what is alien, what is good or bad, are good intentions really worth anything, is there such a thing as doing the wrong thing for the right reason... still stump me to this day.

5)  I'll keep this list down to five for today.  I might talk about my other favorites later.  The most recent addition to my list is Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor.  Talk about another writer whose prose is mindbogglingly good.  When I read her work, my heart twists with envy and admiration, because I know I'll never be able to write like that.  I was turned on to Taylor by my favorite reviewer in the whole world, Kat Kennedy.  She has been responsible for quite a few of the wonderful books I've discovered lately.  The first story in this book blew me away.  Then there was the second, then the third.  Honestly, I felt drained and starstruck from her talent after I read this book.

So those are my top five (For now.  The list is constantly changing!).  What are your favorite books?  How did you discover them?

In a quick ROW80 update, I want to say that this week wasn't as good as last week.  It wasn't bad at all, I still got quite a bit written.  I paused Zyander's story to play some catch up with Nikka.  She and Zyander intersect quite a bit in the first part of the book, so I wanted to make sure her chapters were going to meet up with Zyan at the appropriate time.
Can I just say again how much more complex writing a book with 3 main characters is than writing a book with one?  I've done both several times now, and I now understand why most YA writers don't do it.  It's tough, people!  Writers who have more than one character in your books, how greatly I admire you.  George, who has like 30 main characters... I don't know how he does it!!!

That is all for my week.  Good luck to all my ROW friends.  And Happy Reading!

Heck Yeah!

Well, guys, I don't want to brag here, but I am seriously kicking ass.  My kid is sleeping. I'm getting good sleep (for once!  Seriously, I'm so paranoid right now that something is going to happen to ruin my wordcount that I'm constantly crossing my fingers.) and my creativity and output are at an all-time high.

I'm writing two, sometimes three times a day and the results are showing.  I finished up another side project, and started a new one, which is great.  My main focus has been Terris, though.  I'm almost finished with part one of Zyander's story and almost halfway through part one of Nikkas.

At this rate, I will more than make my goal of finishing all of part one and will hopefully be a significant amount of finished on the rest of the book.  And boy am I excited, because part two of this book is where stuff gets crazy!  Seriously, the second half of Terris sets up what goes on for the rest of the series.
It's a lot of pressure, frankly, but it's also really exciting!  When this book is finished, it's all downhill from here(in a good way).  Which makes me take a few deep breaths and tell myself to be CALM!!!

The audiobook is coming along.  I have my voice actor, and Compis should be ready in a couple of months, hopefully.  I've never done this before, but I'm hopeful.

That's all for my ROW80 update.  We'll see how things are going next week, but hopefully, they are still going well.  :)

Hope all of my fellow authors are doing well.  I'll have to check around and see.
Happy Reading!

I am Invincible!

Well, no, not really.  This is more like me:

I don't get it.  I try so hard to be tough, but in the end, I have a knot in my stomach and the blazing cheeks of someone who'd just gotten told off.

Have you ever met a meany in real life?  They're rare, in my personal experience.  I have to be careful in my descriptions here, because I don't want to make it seem like I'm picked on or that my minor experience is somehow more tragic than someone who has really been bullied.

I can stick with the word meany, though.  Meanies like to be above the rules.  Meanies like to be in charge.  Meanies are vindictive and boy did I run into one on Friday.
I won't go into details, but if you don't know me, let me assure you... I'm not the type of girl who enjoys public confrontation.  In fact, I will pretty much do anything to avoid it.  But when a meanie went out of his way to ruin my day on Friday, I found myself wanting to never go back to that place again.  I wanted to change my whole routine to avoid him, because I suspect, having been given a rather large dose of his vindictiveness, he will go out of his way to make my day hell again.

Sometimes, I wish I was invincible.

It made me think about this book I'm reading right now called, "To Name the Wind."  I've heard a whole lot of good things about Patrick Rothfuss, and I greatly admire his sense of humor... but his book is so dark!  So dark that I wish I could find more evidence of the humor in it.
In any case, I read about this main character and how he comes up against his own meanie.  And like me, he absolutely refuses to back down.  Except that he can't avoid the guy, he sees him everyday.  And so a vicious cycle ensues where the MC and the meanie have a throwdown every freaking day and the meanie basically makes his life a living hell, because he's rich and powerful and has a flipping lot of connections.
And I just get so exasperated with MC, because I end up feeling like he's just an idiot!  Why poke the bear over and over again.  I mean, I get the impulse and the guy is basically the world's worst human being... but you aren't gonna win!
Should he give up, then?  Should the meanie be allowed to triumph?  It's such an interesting question to try and answer in a book.  I'm not sure this is the right book in which to answer it, but there it is.

How do you deal with meanies, when you come across them?  Do you rise above?  Do you ignore them?  Do you avoid them?  I think I'll definitely be avoiding next time around, because I don't enjoy feeling shaken and weak afterward.

On a lighter note, I decided to join up with Camp Nano, which is pretty much basically ROW80 on a different website and without blogs.  But you can pick a word goal and you have cabin mates to cheer you on, and you get to see a nice little chart that shows where you're at and how far it is to reach your goal, which is always nice.

It did help, as I got a few thousand words written last week.  Yay for me.  Little C. has some kind of cold that has led him to not sleeping, so boo for that.  Seriously can't wait till cold and flu season is OVER!!!

That's all for me.  Hope all my fellow ROWers are doing well and meeting their goals!
Happy Reading!

Eeny Meeny Miney Moe...

Sorry, there was no official end of ROW80 posting last week.  Because my family celebrates holidays on days other than holidays.  So last weekend we did Easter Egg hunts with the kidlets and had a generally fabulous time with the family.  Little C. was a sight to behold.  He may be 18mths old, but that kid totally gets the idea of stashing loot in a basket. hahaha

So, how was my last ROW80 round?  Not great, honestly.  It could have been much worse, so for that I am thankful.  But MAN ALIVE did I get railroaded by the sick.  And just when Little C. started sleeping, too.  I'm much more hopeful that I'll get some major words out next round.  It will be warmer out and the cold and flu season will be nearing its end.

In case you were wondering about ME, I'm going to be just fine.  Got to the doctors just in time to figure out that I'd completely recovered from my own malady.  Isn't that just the way of it?  Like trying to take a twitchy car into the mechanic but your car won't reproduce the symptoms.

I probably got around 10,000 words written, total.  This is not a personal best for me, but it's better than nothing.  I'm not going to set a word goal for next round, but my goal is to be finished with part one of Terris.  That's about 30,000 words.  That means I'd have to do 10,000 words a MONTH, not per 3 months.

Instead, my goal this time around will be to write one hour a day.  In an hour I can write anywhere from 1,000-1,600 words, depending on my writing flow.

Will I make it?  I don't know.  Stay tuned to find out!  :)

Onward towards today's topic.  A week or so back I got a lovely fan letter from a reader of my Angelic Agents stories who wanted to know if there would be any new stories out soon.  Oh boy.

That really got me thinking about how my writing has gone thus far.  How do I decide what comes next?  How do I decide to do YA fantasy, or Western Fantasy Romance or Contemporary Romance or...

I'm a woman of eclectic tastes—in both my reading and writing.  So how do I choose what gets written first?

Well, I could go by what's popular.  I could say to myself... you know, those vampire books seem to be what everyone wants.  I should write a vampire book.  More likely, I should write a vampire, dystopian, New Adult book, if I really want to appeal to the majority of what's out there.  I should write more fan fiction about vampires and humans sexing it up.  I should write sci-fi about missile silos doubling as mass habitation(Hugh Howey's Wool, if you didn't catch the reference).

But I don't write what's popular.  I probably should, but it's hard to write well when you're just following a trend and not your heart or the spirit of your creativity.  Now if you have a brilliant story idea that also happens to be a popular trend (Angelfall comes to mind), then you've got it made.

I could also write what gets the most reviews.  Thus far that's my Five Tribes series.  But I don't write what I get the most ratings or reviews for.

I could go by downloads.  The Angel & Her Gun (permanently free) gets the most downloads hands down.  But downloads aren't an indication of READERSHIP.  Unless someone decides to READ that short story and tell someone else, or review it or email me... I have no idea if they actually read it or not.  I know that I don't read a significant portion of my freebies.  Some I'll start and discard, others I just forget about.  Sad, but true.

I honestly go by reader feedback.  What do my readers want more of?  So far, they seem to want more of The Five Tribes.  At least, if I go by the emails.  So, when the readers ask, I listen.

If you like something else, like The Angel & Her Gun then tell everyone you know to read it and email me.  It is free, after all.  It's not like it costs them anything.  If I get enough feedback saying that is what my readers want, then I'll break out my magic Wonder Woman notebook and get cracking!

And now, I'm off!  Happy Reading!

Get Ready!

A close friend of the family emailed me this week to ask my advice about self-publishing (or as I like to call it, INDIE publishing, because let's just all admit that sounds way cooler).  First I was like, really?  You want advice from me?

I mean, I'm not like... Hugh Howey or something.  I don't sell a bazillion books.  I'm not quitting my day job or anything.  (Well, I don't have a day job that I get PAID for, but if I did, I certainly wouldn't quit it.)

Then I thought, "What would I tell him?"  Because I'm going to be honest here, this is like an up and down gig.  A rollercoaster thing.

There are times when I'm like farting rainbows (which everyone knows unicorns do.  If they tell you different, those unicorns are lying, LYING!) because man, I'm so freaking happy.  

The first time I saw the proof copy of my book Six Keys, was such a surreal moment for me.  The first time I posted my books online.  When I got my first great review.  When I got my first great review from a super famous awesome book blogger.  When I got my first, "I love your books!  They are so awesome and I can't wait to read more!" fan email.  Well, let's be honest, EVERY time I get one of those emails I do a happy dance.  The first time I got money from Amazon was pretty cool, too, I won't lie.  So many fab moments.

But along with the good there is that moment where you're like, "Oh Lord." 

The really depressing part is that I can name just as many of these.  My first email from a reader was NOT fan mail.  Ouch.  First one star review.  First time I realized my book had been judged by the first 10 pages (yeah, I do it myself ALL the freaking time, but I guess I didn't think about what that might feel like on the other side).  First time my sales tanked for no apparent reason.  First time I understood that it is really FREAKING hard, no matter how many fans you have, or how many people tell you they like your book... to make a REAL living at this.  I can't write fast enough.  This isn't a full time job for me.

So then I went down the really honest road and asked myself, "Would I have done anything differently?"  Well, no.  Probably not.  I've never really had an interest with signing with a publisher. I might do a book only deal someday if I'm ever "worthy", but I like being on my own.  I like the power and control.  Even though I'm not super famous, I love my readers.  LOVE them.  They get my book, they get what I wanted to do, which is tell a story that I like and I'm proud of.  

I think we writers aren't artists or true moneymakers.  (We can do both of those, be artistic and make money, but it's not what we ARE.)  We are storytellers.  We want those stories to be heard by someone, even if it's just our families.  My sister, who is an AWESOME storyteller, has opted thus far to keep her work to a limited few.  That's okay.

So what did I end up telling him?  Write a story that you feel passionate about and share it.  Because that is all that matters.

ROW update: Still sick.  It is a lingering illness which has bothered me enough this week that I have a doctor's appt. Tues.  Hopefully, we'll be able to knock this thing out soon!  Until then, I struggle to get even a few words written every day.

Happy Reading!

Who knew John Mayer was a guru?

I've been going through some schtuffs this week.  Not like family emergency stuff, but just, wow that really sucked and it wasn't what I was expecting stuff.  It got me down, down, down.
To be honest, I couldn't let it go, either.  I thought about it over and over and over until I was like a self-perpetuating machine of depression, unable to pull myself out, but also wholly cognizant of the fact that I was really just doing it to myself.
Sometimes, we kind of forget to let go of things.

Cut to my gym time.  My husband bought me a membership at a gym.  (No, he's not an asshat, it's what I asked for.)  It's the only really baby free time I get during the day.  2 hours to work out and read my kindle.  lalala  I love it.
I also do yoga twice a week, because I have hamstrings like tightrope wires.  Really, I'm probably the least flexible person you know.  Even the eighty year old woman in the class who stands next to me is like, "Girl, you are a hot mess!"  While she touches her toes to her ears.
So there I am, doing my shavasana (corpse pose) at the end of class, where you lie down on the ground and like meditate and let go of schtuffs.  Except I wasn't letting go, I was dwelling.  I was holding on TIGHT to my "Woe is me" feelings and being all sad and stuff.
Then the teacher does something she rarely does.  She says to us, "I have a reading for today."

This is what she reads:
"Someday, everything will make perfect sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, be strong and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason."

Which, when I looked it up online, is attributed to John Mayer?  Who knew. 
All I know is that it broke me down, hardcore.  There I was in yoga class, suddenly crying my eyes out, unable to stop.  It was a singular moment in my life.  
Thankfully, I'm not one of those loud, sobbing, crying people and I was able to pull myself together before everyone in the class got to see my UGLY FACE.

Still, it brought me back to myself.  It was my reminder to STFU and listen to what I'm supposed to listen to, instead of getting all caught up in my own ego.

So, that was my week.  

For you ROWers, I got a couple thousand words written.  Not as much as I usually do, because Little C. was sick the first half of the week, and I was sick (thanks to the little germ factories living at my house) the last half of the week.  Still feeling like crap, but I'm trying to MAKE myself get better because MAN ALIVE, my house is a disaster and let's face it, no one knows where the washer and dryer are except me.

Happy Reading!

Thinking Linking

Look at that.  It hasn't even been 7 days and I'm putting another post out there!

I'm just as surprised as you are, Little C.!  I didn't intend to get all wordy.  And for those of you sitting at home, reading this blog in hopes of an update on The Five Tribes... I know what you're thinking.  "OMG, she's doing blog entries now, instead of writing, isn't she???  She read some malarkey online about being a better marketer and now she's going to be writing blog entries, instead of writing books.  DANG NAB IT!"

No, no, dear reader.  I assure you, I'm just as bad at marketing as I ever was.  I have no interest in being better at it.  (You'll know that I've buckled when I join Twitter.)  I promise to bury myself mostly in my word docs and forget about the world around me.  And soon.

Honestly, I was killing time last night, waiting for my son to fall asleep and I was reading the extraordinary Passive Voice.  Guys, there is so much interesting stuff abounding on the internet!  I mean, there is just pages and pages today and I had to comment.  Because I can't help myself.  You must read about this stuff... so interesting.

The first is an article at The Washington Post Style Blog  about a mid-list author that got unceremoniously dumped by her publisher.  This, as she reflects herself, is one of those things that's happening more and more as publishers trim the fat.  Personally, I would have encouraged her to go indie, given the cache of her name, but she did just fine for herself, in the end.

Then there is this post by Smart Bitches, Trashy Books  about social media genius.  As I stated above, I'm not the best marketer in the world.  I'm just like this nerdy reader chick who also loves to write.  *sigh*  Maybe someday that will change, but I doubt it. lol

One of my favorite book blogs, Cuddlebuggery  has this amazing post on not paying attention to stats if you're a blogger.  But people, this applies to more than just book bloggers.  As writers (I see it on kindleboards every day) we sometimes obsess about sales, too.  There are people out there checking their sales or reviews 10 times a day!  We get down on ourselves when we don't sell as much as people who have been indies for a shorter amount of time.  We get down on ourselves when we've been selling great and our sales stop.  We get down on ourselves when we're not meeting some invisible standard of success that someone else has told us is the goal.  And we need to STOP!  So, take five today and read this post, then just substitute author, sales, and reviews where needed.

Happy Reading!

Total Extreme Intense Ultimate Maximum

Some days you need a change.  You need to take all that stuff in your life and give it a makeover.  But it can't just be... let's make some changes here or there, lalalala.  No, this time, you need to go FREAKING SUPERSONIC ON THAT STUFF!

That's what I feel like today.  February in Cali is like a DREAM (Yes, I know it's March now, stay with me here).  It's like the weather forgets it's supposed to be winter and starts warming up everything.  The daffodils come up, so do the early irises, those little blue bells I don't know the name of, and the grass gets all green again.  The orchard trees around where I live fill to bursting with pink and white blossoms.  This is the time where my spring fever kicks into gear and I just start feeling like I'm going to BURST out of my skin if I don't get stuff picked up and organized!

It's not just cleaning, either.  My writing starts to feel old hat, and I'm just DYING to imbue it with some new zing, or a plot twist or KILL OFF A CHARACTER.  (Don't worry, I didn't this time.  But let's just say that last year there was some sadness.)

It's the time of year that I have to fight the plot bunnies the hardest.  I fritter them away and beg them to stay in their little notebook and stop plaguing me with imaginative visions of plotlines.

So this year, I'm trying my best to harness that spring fever energy while I have it.  I'm gonna try to bump up my chapter count and push forward on all my projects.

I got more writing on Nikka done last week, but not as much as I wanted.  My children sabotaged that a bit with their horrid naptimes.  Hopefully, Terris' wordcount will be on the rise this week, as well.

In the meantime, thanks to my WOTY, FEARLESS, I did something else I hadn't contemplated before.  I posted The Five Tribes series and one of my side projects on ACX to get them potentially made into audiobooks.  I'm not as proactive about it as some of my fellow authors.  I just put up some quick profiles and thought, "Eh, let's see what happens."  Well, what happened is I got an audition.

So that's cool!  If you are a fan of the series and interested in giving feedback on auditions, shoot me an email at: katecauthor(at)gmail(dot)com.  I want to make sure I pick someone who seems to match the voices of my characters.

That's all for this week!  Happy Reading!

Title Troubles...

Hello readers and fellow ROWers,

I hope this week has been a productive one for you.  It has for me!  I wrote about... 5,000 words?  Yay!  This whole Little C. sleeping through the night stuff is really working for me, won't lie.  I also did a heap of edits this week and will continue to do some storyline tweaking for Terris.  I just had an EPIPHANY this week for Nikka's storyline.  There was something that has been nagging me about the end of her storyline, something that has bothered me for a while, and I just figured out the answer.  So great to feel like I got rid of an issue before it came up and I'd written 15,000 words *cough* Zyander *cough* for it.

But all that good news can't come without a price.  Guys, I am having some titling troubles.  This has happened before, sadly enough.  The Angel & Her Gun is still not a title I'm happy with, but I couldn't think of anything better.  Even now, when I hear it I think... spy book.  Am I right?  Thankfully the angel in question does at least carry a gun (colt .44), but man alive, it was hard enough coming up with that one.

I have two book titles nagging at me.  I have the final book of the Five Tribes series to come up with, and the title of the side project.  The first one doesn't have to be chosen for quite a while.  (Another 3 years, though hopefully sooner)  I don't want to tell you why I'm having trouble with that title, because I don't want to be spoilery, but I can tell you that it won't be Sanguis.  I mean, you would think it would be, but nope.  Just like Compis, it's not going to be named after a tribe.

The second is like a novella type thingy and I picked a title, which has "bored" in it.  The Bored <word>.  My sister immediately put the kabosh on the word bored, though.  Her contention is that putting the word bored in the title will make people think the STORY is boring.  Which made me go...huh?  I mean, if I said BORING in the title I could see her point, but boring is different than bored, right?

Seeking opinions, readers.  Because if this title doesn't work, I'm stumped!  I told her I will release it as The Untitled Work.

I wasn't this uncertain before.  It was never hard for me to come up with a title.  In fact, most of the time I had the title picked before most of the book was written.  But lately, I've lost my titling confidence.  I've lost my mojo.

I need to get it back, somehow.  In the meantime, I'll be here, trying to think of titles.

Happy Reading!

What in the heck is a RomPod?

In the quest to stay true to my WOTY: FEARLESS, I've been trying new things.  New story ideas (just in the planning phase, not actually writing yet.  I have enough on my plate for now.), new plot twists for Terris (Oh, guys, there are good things to come and I am so excited about it!), and now another bit of news on the story front.

I have a couple of short stories that I wrote over a year ago in another of my universes.  It's a romance, western, fantasy kind of world.  I've mentioned it before, I'm sure.  The first piece is a story called The Angel & Her Gun  and it is pretty much perma-free everywhere.  The companion piece The Demon & His Lover is unfortunately NOT free on Amazon (because they don't let you set things free if you want to), but it's free just about everywhere else: goodreads, iTunes, and Smashwords.

Samora is a gunslinger in the Wild West, but she doesn't just carry a gun. She also carries the cross ring that designates her as an angelic agent, sent from God himself to battle over mortal souls on earth with the demons who seek to win their ages long battle.
She has two problems: her propensity for getting screwed over by conniving mortals and her love for Gideon -a fallen angel on the wrong side of the law. 

Anyway, that is all to lead up to here:  I got contacted by Amanda McCall of RomPod (Romance Podcasts) who was interested in making a podcast featuring my little story.  I was a bit back and forth about it at first.  I've always pictured Samora with a particular type of voice, you see.  So I chatted a bit with her about what she was thinking and ultimately decided to go for it.  Really, what decided me was how much she loved the story.  That was what convinced me that she would treat it with the respect it deserves.

When she told me the story was going to be available, I went back to the website and downloaded all the previous podcasts.  Thus far, I've listened to Impulse Control by Susan Bischoff and Desperate Measures by Candice Hern.

I just want to say, guys, this is GENIUS!  Seriously, why hasn't someone thought of this before?  I love romances, I love listening to stories on my iphone while I make dinner and work around the house.  I've subscribed to the podcasts and seriously, if you like this sort of thing, try it out!  I mean, it's free, so why not?

Here is the link for The Angel and her Gun.    It won't be available until Tuesday Aussie time, which is like Monday night for those in the US.

Enjoy and Happy Listening!

PS- For my ROW80 friends... I got about 2,500 words written on Nikka's storyline and another 1,500 written on the sexy side project before Little C. came down with a cold and double ear infection.  Needless to say, the rest of my week hasn't gone so well.  But that's okay.  We got some meds for him yesterday and he's already sleeping better at night and will actually leave my lap during the day.  This is seriously good news for my dirty house.

Accentuate the Positive...

Okay, so normally my week is like this:

Seriously, between regular kid stuff (children that need feeding, clothing, bathing and putting to bed at various times), and house stuff and running around all over the place... sometimes I'm just totally overwhelmed by LIFE.  I know I'm not the only one.

It's hard not to let the exterior CRAP get you down.  Everywhere I look, I see blog entries and news reports on how INDIES ARE SO OVER and DON'T BOTHER WRITING ANOTHER WORD BECAUSE NO ONE WILL EVER READ IT OR DISCOVER IT or YOU ARE A TALENTLESS LOSER (Okay, so maybe I told myself that one.)  Seriously, the doom and gloom of the new year are truly horrendous.  Right and left, everyone is predicting that the sky is falling.

Is it falling?  Maybe.  Should we worry?  Well, I don't see how that's going to help.  Is it worth being depressed over... well, that's tempting, I'm sure, but it isn't going to pay the bills.  (Or get another book out there, now is it?)

Personally, I've battened down the hatches.  I don't read the negativity and I avoid anything that's going to be a distraction from my writing.  And thanks to Little C's MUCH BETTER sleeping habits, I have way more energy and time to write.

On that front, I wrote 4 chapters for Terris this week: two chapters for Nikka and two for Zyander.  I also went back and did some necessary story edits for the side project, because the flow was off.  It's fixed nicely now and hopefully back on track.  So in all, I think this week was very successful and that is something I want to focus on. :)

Good luck to the rest of the writers out there and happy reading!

Better Days Ahead...

So, idiot that I am, I've decided to combine this week's big push (writing wise) with my determination to get Little C. to have more bedtime independence.  See, the problem is he goes down to bed just fine.  Nary a problem.  Unfortunately, trying to convince him to stay there has been a hardship.

While my husband is gone this week, number one son will move into our bedroom and Little C. will get a crash course on sleeping in his own bed.  Even if it means I get to be up all night convincing him that his bed is the best place to spend the night.  How this will affect my writing I have no idea.  It will be a fly by the seat of my pants week, and the end result won't even be published here right away because I'll be gone camping next weekend.  Ah well.

This week wasn't as bad as I feared.  I hardcore slashed Zyander.  As in, only 3 chapters of his story remained, mostly setup from the ending of the last book.  I started in on his new outline and got about halfway done with that.  I even wrote two chapters of his storyline and I'm much happier with where it's going now.
I also added about 4500 words to my other project, which made me feel like quite the success.  I mean, compared with what I've done in the past month, this week was a freaking miracle.

Once again, I'm so thankful for the readers.  You know who you are, out there, sending me encouraging emails.  You guys rock!

I found a new booknerd site:  http://tattoolit.com/
Seriously, guys, I might have to do this... or not.  I'm not a huge needle fan.  I wish I could do this.  I'm such a coward.
And I found some new writing music: http://officialbirdy.com/
This video in particular is so creepy and cool!

That's all from me this week!

Happy Reading!

The Condensed Version

Hey all the readers of blogs on the internet...
How was your week?  Oh, fab.  How was mine you ask?  Well, let me give you the Reader's Digest Condensed version:

Or FML, as I like to say.  Don't worry, the F stands for Frack.

For those who can stand the TL;DR version:
I was gifted a house full of sick people this week.  Imagine every liquid that could leave a person's body out of every orifice imaginable, combined with fevers, no sleep, whining, crying, MUD(all over my freaking house) and every damn thing piling up to be done that can't be done because I have a 16 mth old sitting in my lap crying all day and a husband that actually has to work so we have stuff and you might understand how much my week sucked.
Oh, the horrors.  Seriously, how did my mom do this?  At one point in my life she had 7 children suffering from the chicken pox, ranging in ages from 1 to 17.  How did you survive it, mother???  I only have two kids and my life is one constant helping of FAIL.  Ah well.

So to answer the other unasked question... no I did not get any writing done this week.  And since Little C. still has an ear infection and the inability to sleep longer than short bursts of time, I seriously doubt that I'm going to get any writing done next week either.  But the hubby has a work conference in a week and I usually use that time to make a big push, so barring another plague, hopefully I will get some chunks of writing done in the evenings.

Happy Reading!

Hoity Toity

I've read a lot of literary fiction.  Started out in high school with the required classics: Gone With the Wind, Grapes of Wrath, anything by the Bronte sisters.  This morphed into college, where I delved into Annie Dillard, Toni Morrison, Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston and many others.  Some of these were English assignments, but many were a springboard into a literary world in which I had never established a foothold before.  

My mom was a crazy reader, ever since I can remember, but she never read for anything but pleasure, so following her example, I assumed that literary fiction was something you read only because you were forced to.  Thankfully, I discovered that my assumption was dead wrong.

I've read a lot of literary fiction that I absolutely LOVE.  I've also read a lot that I can't stand.  But this is all to assure you that I'm not a hater when I say this:  I'm so DONE with people who consider it to be more worthy than "genre" stuff.  

I recently read some person's self important opinion on the subject and felt downright irritated.  The point of the article—can't remember who wrote it—is that if we're going to save literary fiction, we need that icky genre stuff to pay the bills and appeal to the masses.  I.E....genre fiction, indie fiction and its associated ilk are a necessary evil in the world of literature because they keep that GOOD stuff out there for people who recognize its value.  This from a person who admitted outright that she only reads non-fiction.  Uh...WHAT???

Guys, let me just assure you... there is no better or worse in the world of writing.  No, really.  I'm not talking ratings or reviews.  I'm not talking personal opinion here, because there are definitely some stories that do it for me and some that don't.  I'm talking about space on a shelf, paper in an MS, word file on my computer... at face value, no story is more worthy of saving than another.

Let me again point out that I'm not talking about ratings and reviews here.  If we look at a museum full of art, there will be people who say this one or that one is better.  People will say, I like this one and it speaks to me.  But I should HOPE, that no one would argue that one artist's vision is more worthy of creation than another.  Even a five year old child with no experience in the art world can create something that he or she deems as beautiful which we might all shake our heads at because it is SEVERELY LACKING and yet it will still be just as worthy as the next.

I'm not going to make the "books as art" argument here, but I'm going to say that I don't believe one person's story (good or bad or amateur... literary, sci-fi, YA, non-fiction or fiction) is more worthy than another's.  So writers of the world, if you write literary fiction and you can't get anyone to publish it because it's not worth risking cash over in this new world of digital bookery, don't spend your years crying because it's too hard.  Self publish!  Give the world a chance to see your work.  But come on, people.  Let's not act like just because your characters don't use magic or roam through space that they can't tell as rich and complex or as meaningful a story as you.  

Happy Reading!

PS- To all my ROW80... Keep up the good work!

WOTY

Holy Moley, has it really been over a month since my last post??  The good news is that I have my laptop back.  And I've been writing, too.  Except that things took a nosedive over the holidays.  Not in general or anything, just in the writing dept.  Nothing like having the entire family (eight kids, assorted in-laws and grandkids) all together this year to throw plans out of whack.

But that's okay.  I'm here now, and in honor of my first post of the year (as well as my first ROW post of the new round.  That's right, people.  I'm still here to hang with my favorite writers!) I'll be doing a Word of the Year post- which I freely admit to stealing from Kait Nolan last year.

Last year my word of the year was DETERMINATION.  It was a word that got me through Aeris and a couple of teeny side projects.  It got me through multiple child sicknesses, a nasty bout of teething (my youngest got 6 teeth at once!) and 10 days of pushing through so hard to finish.  It was a word I needed last year, and I'm happy with that choice.

This year, my WOTY will be Scrumptious Pretty Fighting!(A shout out to my Kdramas) FEARLESS.
This year, I'm going to try new things.  I'm going to push my creativity to the limit.  I'm going to experiment with pricing and genre and write whatever the hell I feel like writing.  I'm tired of playing it safe and feeling like I have to write a certain way "to make people love me".

Where did this come from?  Well, it's no secret I love my readers.  Just ask the super fans that all received free copies of Aeris.  And since most of them loved the second book, I've been trying to make the third book even better (which is a good personal goal).  The problem is, I've let myself get so caught up in what the fans want that I forgot to look for what I want.  I have two examples.

Luka's storyline has some elements this time around that won't please everyone.  Most of it is stuff that will KICK ASS, because he is such an awesome character, but he's also going to make some big mistakes this time around, too.  He's not perfect.  I've had such a struggle writing that, though, because every time I go to make the big choices, I wonder if it will anger the readers.  Not a good thing to second guess every plot point when you're a writer.

The second is Zyander.  Once again, to my UTTER FRUSTRATION, I think I'm going to have to ditch his story line and start over.  The problem is that unlike Nikka, who is very action oriented, Zyan is a thinker and tends to mull over every little fact before he makes a decision.  This does not make for a fast paced storyline.  The rewriting has needed to happen for a while, but the idea that I might disappoint fans by taking longer to write this book has kept me from doing what I need to do.

So, my WOTY will be FEARLESS and I will do what needs to be done this year, consequences be damned.  That sounds more dramatic than it actually is. hahaha

So, goals for this ROW: Go back to my outline.  Meaning, rewrite some elements of Zyan's story line and make the appropriate changes to the manuscript.  Two, be better about updating my blog.  And Three, continue my side project writing of two days a week.

Oh, for those who asked, if you actually want the other name I write under, send me an email at katecauthor@gmail.com and I'll send it to you.  I've gotten a couple of requests, so I thought I'd share that.  It's NOT YA fantasy, though.

Good luck to all my fellow ROWers in the New Year and Happy Reading!