Busy Busy Bee

This past year has gone by in a whirlwind!  I have found myself meaning to come on here several times to update you on my bookish progress, but then I disappear again and forget this semi-regular blog still exists.

Today I come to give you good news and bad news.

The good news is, I have two books to release (one in a week, and one in six months).  They are ya sci-fi/colonization/survival books in a duology (maybe a trilogy.  I have a third story in mind, but it depends on the response the books get.)

I am also working on two books (one of which is the Five Tribes adjacent book I mentioned last year) and plotting a book.

Writing is happening and I haven't disappeared completely.

The bad news is, I'm doing school right now, which is going to significantly cut into my writing time.  When I first started writing, my kids were babies and I had a chunk of time in the morning where I could write and edit.  Now they're big and I'm moving into a different space of life where I decide what I want to do.  Obviously, I would love to just write, but it doesn't pay the bills. haha  It's a nice addition to my fun money, but I'm interested in getting out into the world again, because that's where I get all my story ideas, in any case.

The next year of my life will be particularly busy, but like I said, I have two books that will get released, hopefully giving you a bit of something to cling to while I slowly work on finishing the books I've started.

Here is the book release happening next week:

Description:

They were society's cast-offs, a prison population, sent from a dying earth to discover whether an unknown planet was habitable. After a planned mutiny on board the colony ship by one group of prisoners, the delinquents find themselves crash-landed on the planet, abandoned by the other adults. Stranded on a harsh, alien world, they must fight for survival while evading the ruthless criminals who betrayed them. Former privileged teen Cale Kincaid and conflicted mutineer August Bismark find themselves leading a band of survivors as they navigate the treacherous landscape. With no food, no supplies, and little practical survival knowledge, will they be able to live through one night, much less survive long-term?

Happy Reading!

Holy Carp!

Finally, after months of work, the edits are finished.  I'm dead, readers.  But the story that I wanted to tell is done and I can't help being immensely pleased by that.  Wow.  Just this series alone was about 800,000 words (maybe more, I haven't done the math lately) and when I started I had no idea where it would end up.

My writing may never be perfect (is anyone's?) but I'm really satisfied with the way it turned out.  There are stories still untold, but those who matter in this journey had their day.

So now it's off to my proofreader, and I'm hoping to have it back in another month or so.  This book is 180,000 words, so it's going to take a while.  In the mean time, I wanted to share the cover with you.  I love it, because it represents everything this story has come to mean to me, and gives a hint about where it's going.

I hope to have more good news for you soon.  Happy reading!

I used to write so often...

 Oh life.  How unexpected you are in ruining all my plans.  Or not.  

Hello, all.  Those of you lingering few that have read my books and thought to yourselves... I wonder what Kate is up to these days, since she hasn't written a single entry in a year.  A freaking year.

Well, Kate has been busy.  Not writing.  Oh no!  She's been homeschooling her children, because of Corona and school closures.  So unfortunately, Universis has taken a back-burner to that mess.  But I did brush it off and look it over and the half of the book that IS written is stuff I like.  So I'll keep it.  There was a bunch of stuff I didn't like, and I cut it all out and started over.  I wrote more stuff that fit better, and now I'm back up to half and spilling over into finishing.  Yes, I can see the end in sight friends.  I'm not sure what sort of ending it will be, but it will be the END.  Because writing a series is hard, y'all.  

Not a fan, if I'm going to be honest.  The planning and the designing and the note taking so I don't mess everything up is exhausting.  On the other hand, watching these characters learn and grow over the past 10 years has been some of the best work of my life.  I will MISS them so much: Nikka, Luka, Zyander, Alea, Surgal, Alys, and the Vixen.  They've been such good friends to me, and I hope they go on to live good lives when I'm not there chronicling them.  I'll guess we'll see what the chances are by the time the book ends, huh?

I've got about 40k words left, but as long as I stick to my goal of 1000 words per day, I should finish this sucker up (barring sickness or major life events) in a couple of months.  So exciting!

In the meantime, I've been planning what I'll do next, and I think it will be very different.  It's only alive in Scrivener for now, because I'm not writing another word that isn't about the Five Tribes.  

Hope all is well with you and your families,

Kate:)

Ooops! Didn't even realize!

Yeah, so apparently the last time I update was last year.  I can't believe how long I've been writing this book. T.T

Look, I'm at the halfway mark!  Yay!  It's gonna be a long one, judging by my wordcount, which is about 90k.  But I am determined that this will be the last one, as I planned, so I'm working hard to wrap things up.

Nothing more than that for now, just getting over the flu, so I'm off to drink some tea and try to write another chapter.

Happy New Year and sorry I haven't updated recently.

Timeline Shenanigans

I basically had two books in limbo for about a month.  One was at 40k and the other at about 37k.  I'm sure you're wondering which one was Universis.  Well, it was the one with the lower wordcount.  Sorry!

Man, how do I get myself into these situations?  Like, what am I doing?  I am great at sitting down and writing.  NaNoWriMo taught me that I can just write, write, write when I need to.  But then, inevitably, something comes to bar my path.

In one of the books I got stuck on a certain scene and I couldn't figure out how to fix it.  I would rewrite it a dozen different ways in my mind and none of them seemed right.  In the end, I knew what I wanted to happen in the scene, when it was all over, so I ended up sort of starting backwards and working my way up to the end result.

In the case of Universis, it was all the timeline switching that was doing me in.  When moving back and forth between three timelines is too much for the AUTHOR to keep track of, you have to wonder what the reader is going to think of all of it.  That's what beta readers are for, right?  Will they be able to keep up?  Only time will tell.

I'm happy to report that I am past my limbo and I've got my mojo back.  All it required was having 4 free hours to just sit down and pull on all my tangled threads.  Now I'm even more excited for what's coming up in the last Five Tribe's book, so I guess it was a good thing?

That's what I tell myself, anyway.

So yeah, I'm currently at 53,000ish words and while it's not as far as I wanted to be by April, at least I'm not lost in a mess of tangled timelines anymore.  I can't believe I'm almost halfway through, guys!!!  Let's pray I can get the latter half done a wee bit faster, huh?

Happy New Year!

Well, despite my doubts, I started writing in December.  I know! 

There was a lot of stuff going on up here in Norcal what with the #Campfire and all.  I think I just needed a way to pour out my emotions.

Anyway, that's all good news for you.  As with all my books, I start with the strongest voice in my head first.  Imagine my surprise that it wasn't Luka this time.  Instead, it was Alea.  That's right, people.  She's back.  Her character is going really interesting places in this next book and I wanted you to have a front seat in observing it.  I think she's the only new perspective we'll be getting, though.  I promise I'm not going to be like GRRM and shove a bunch of new characters into my books.

I'm about 12k into Universis (in case you missed it, that's the name of the last book).  I wasn't meaning to be epic with that last title, but it's meaning is what I feel about finishing up this series.  I mean, guys, I've been writing this series for almost 10 years.  My son was a toddler when it started and he'll be in middle school next year.  Holy Hannah.

Universis is my own word, but sort of derived from the Latin word for "All Together", which is what these books will be when it's finished.  It's also what the Five Tribes will be once things settle and Nikka's changes go into affect. 

That's all I'm going to let slip for now, but I will be coming on here to update my wordcount occasionally (hopefully once a month).

Happy Reading!

The Good News, But The Bad News

The good news is I have my book back and have gotten my feedback.  The bad news is, thanks to a job I was working on this summer, added to camping with the family, and another family type meet-up, I am just now starting on edits for Ignis.

I know, I know!  I'm disappointed, too!  If I want to be realistic, the book probably won't be done until December.  I want to hope for October, but I think that is a little too optimistic.  The book is currently around 130,000 words, and there is a lot of fat (and probably a couple of chapters, if I'm being honest) that need to be trimmed.

I will keep you updated, of course!  And I should have a cover to show off soon!

Happy Reading!

Ask The Author: More News

Welp, I got asked after my last post if I was editing yet.

(You didn't miss it, I promise.  I'm still toiling over here.)

I was not.  But the sad noises can end, I'm here to announce that I finished up my short side project, and Ignis is now having the first lashings of a rough edit applied to it.

If you're familiar with my process, that means that when the rough edits are done, I'll be sending it to my beta readers for feedback on the overall story, then I'll get down to the nitty gritty editing.  (most likely 2 rounds of it)  When that's done, it gets sent to my proofreader person and then a couple weeks of formatting/editing and up it will go.  Still hopeful for end of summer (August) release, but I have a busy summer ahead of me, so it could be later.

At least it's done!  Yay to being done!  Also, I will hopeful have a new cover to show off soon!
That's all for now.  This one will be short and sweet. :)

Happy Reading!
-Kate:)

Progress Report: So Far So Good!

June has been a tricky month in our house.  Summers are always tricky, actually.  I don't know what it is.  Every summer approaches and I really intend for it to be laid back, with the kids out biking and swimming, but not much else.  That never seems to happen for us, though.
Before I know it, we're fully booked with trips here and there and everywhere and I feel like I'm about to fall over.

Ah well.
Still, progress has been made!  Yay progress!

Progress on the book front: Zyan and Nikka have become too difficult for me at this point what with their complex intertwinings and to be honest a lot of delicate details that I have to iron out every step of the way, setting up for the final book.
So I set their storyline aside (although I got an idea of how to fix something, so I may pick it up later this week) to work on Luka.
Luka, you beautiful man griffin you.  In case any of you forgot, Luka's storyline is going to be heavily griffin this time around and it has been a lot of fun to write.  I've got about 27,000 words written in his story, so I'm over the halfway point now.  Luka is on the island of the griffins, so I get to write about a society from the ground up and boy howdy is it fun!

In other news, I've been steadily working on getting rid of that Finishing Up My Series TBR list.  Let's take a look, shall we?

1. The Lotus War books.  There is no good reason for why I haven't finished this series.  The main character is AWESOME.  The world is AWESOME. AND I OWN ALL THREE BOOKS.  Like what is wrong with me?
2. The Lunar Chronicles.  I loved these books, but for whatever reason whenever I look at how long Winter is, my brain fails.  But this year I will read the last book!!!
3. Under The Never Sky. I got partway through the last book and just quit.  What is wrong with me??? I really liked the other two books.  *sigh*  I have a problem.
4. Dust Lands.  I really loved the first book in this series, but the second book and its sibling drama (not to mention that whole rapey type scene at the end) really turned me off.  Still, I do want to find out what happens to Saba, so I need to buckle down and finish that one.
5. The Fifth Wave.  I was absolutely blown away by the first two books in this series, but I admit I am terrified of what might happen in the conclusion.  I will face my fear and read that book when it releases in FOUR DAYS??? EEP!
6. Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  Honestly, why in heaven's name haven't I finished this series?  I freaking LOVE Laini Taylor.  Is it just that I'm a coward and I can't face how it might end?  Not sure.
7. Penryn & The End Of Days. Okay, I'm just afraid that Pen and Rafe don't end up together, so if someone could just spoil that detail for me, I'll finish this series posthaste.
8. The Heir Chronicles.  It's been so long since I read the last one that I really can't even remember what happened.  I just need to see if they have it on recaptains or something.  Because I loved every one of those stories. :)
9. Lumatere Chronicles.  I read the first of these books, but honestly, Finnikin didn't excite me very much.  But EVERYONE AND THEIR BROTHER keeps telling me I have to read the other two because they are amazing.  So I added this series to my list.  

So, I'm making good progress here, too.  Right now I'm on the last Veronica Rossi book in the Never Sky series, and hopefully I'll finish that up pretty soon.  I'm also hoping I won't make any more additions to my list or this will take me MORE than the rest of the year to finish up.

Hope you all are making similar progress on your personal life goals!

Happy Reading!

*Insert Picture Of Head Hitting Desk Here*

The first two weeks of November have been JAMMMMMM packed, because it is that nano time of year and I decided that this would be the perfect time for me to get myself started on Ignis.  Last year I did a side project (that I'm still currently revising) and even though I do have another side project about 1/2 way planned, I wanted to get right back into all the Five Tribes stuff this year.

Originally, when I started this, I gave myself one year apiece for these suckers.  That was gonna be 5 books in 5 years.  But... yeah, I keep getting caught up in other things: books, plot bunnies, LIFE.  And well, I failed utterly.

But we're getting close to the end here, folks and this book number 4 is gonna be a DOOZY.  Like, I've been wanting to write this particular book since the very beginning of the series and pretty much every tiny seemingly insignificant detail you may or may not have noticed over the course of the books so far will be brought back into play for this book.  Did you notice perhaps a sword or a figurine or a character and thought, "Why in the heck did she talk about that only to drop it and never bring it up again?"  Well, all your questions will be answered in this book and then some.

Of course, me being me, I will only end with more annoying questions.  Because there is still one more book to be written after this one.

So far, thanks to the awesomeness that is nano, I have written about 30,000 words (about a quarter of the book, if you can believe it.)  So, by the time nano is over, I hope to have almost half of the book finished (in draft form).  My estimate for the book this time around is about 120k.  That's modest by Kate standards, but don't worry.  This book will be action packed!

So yeah, by the time nano is over, I'll have Nikka & Zyander 2/3rds of the way done.  My plan has been to only write those two perspectives for this book and then work on Luka.  If you finished Terris, you already know why I would write that perspective completely separate from the other two.  If you haven't read Terris, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

So there you go.

In summary: 30k and 9 chapters into Ignis.  Will be almost halfway done with the book by the time nano finishes.  Halfway done with my final edit for the side project and halfway done with the planning phase for the OTHER side project.

And somehow I'm still supposed to get all the other crap in my life completed.  Which is why I'm regularly up at 4:30 in the am, guys.

Happy Reading!

Limbo Land

Just posting that title sounds like I'm at some new spot in Disneyland or something.  "Welcome To Limbo Land, Happiest Place On Earth!"  Except it's not if you're an overachiever like me.

So you know, I've crossed all the things off my list:

1. Finished last Terris draft and sent to my proofreader (Who will be done literally any second now. Eep!)
2. Set up everything online to publish Terris
3. Finished Second to last draft of WIP and am waiting for feedback
4. Write draft of query letter for WIP
5. Write draft of synopsis for WIP
6. Compile comprehensive list of agents for said querying
7. Finish Bellarke Fanfic

So yeah, I'm in a holding pattern.  Everything I've been working on is in someone else's hands right now and I'm stuck here twiddling my thumbs, waiting. Perfect time for a blog entry, right?

Let's talk about a few of those list things.  I didn't add that I'm outlining for the next Five Tribes book.  I can even tell you its name, because when you publish your own stories, you don't have to call things "untitled" if you have an actual title.  Which I've had for like a year.  The next book is Ignis, of course, because of the tribe in which it's based.

That's right, Astra Cida (after which this blog is secondarily named) is coming up after Terris and Nikka is supposed to be hanging out with the Ignis during that time of year.  I won't spoil anything, but it's never that simple.  :)

I'm also outlining for the 5th (and final) book, because these two last book are going to be tightly entwined, and for the sake of continuity, it would be helpful to make sure everything is connected properly.  Seriously, guys, series are hard.  Don't do them!  

Other things on the list.  Yes, I'm going to be querying something.  If you don't know what that means, I'm going to try and find an agent for this new side project book I wrote.  This is a weird thing for me.  I never pictured myself trying to get something traditionally published, but there are a few reasons for that.

The first is that Five Tribes has from the beginning been something that I conceived of as self-published.  When I wrote the very first words, I always pictured these books as something I would take care of myself.  I was approached by an agent about the series, but I believe my exact words were, "I don't know what I'd do with an agent right now."  And I didn't.  I was also approached by a really great small publishing house about the series, but they were ebook only and I couldn't see what they could do for me that I couldn't do for myself. (This is what happens when you are an independent and highly motivated person.  You learn to do things for yourself.)

But then I wrote this other thing and suddenly, I knew that it was something that might be appropriate for the whole publishing industry rigmarole (and believe me it is definitely rigmarole).  So I've been revising and revising and revising and revising... there is a part of me that knows I have to stop trying to make it perfect, but until that part of me starts kicking and screaming, I probably won't listen.

I will soon have something else to occupy my time, though, because nano is coming up and that's when I plan on starting the next Five Tribes book.  Until then, I'll just work on keeping myself busy... somehow... :)

Look What The Cat Dragged In

Well, hello friends!  It's been a while, or so I see from the date of my last post.  I promised myself I wasn't gonna say anything unless I had NEWS and guys, I have news in spades!

First off, I'm in final edits for Terris, (book three) of the Five Tribes books.  It's been a long time, and 145,000 words coming.  Some time has come my way (for now) and I have made good use of it.  I'm hoping, HOPING for late August, but just to be safe, I'm gonna say September.
The book cover is in the hands of my cover artist and should be finished in a little bit.  I'll post it here and on goodreads when it's done.
And as one final gift for those of you who have waited literal years to read the third book and have MY memory, I'm going to include a detailed summary at the beginning so that you don't have to read through everything all over again to get the important info.
In other news, I just finished a standalone book that is pretty much in an opposite vein from anything I've ever done before.  It's the first time in a long time that I have written a story that doesn't have like 4 more books coming after it and let me tell you, it was a refreshing change from having to keep track of a thousand little.  It's not for everyone—it's a Regency/fairytale fusion and it was a lot of fun to write.  Still haven't decided what I'm going to DO with it.  I may actually send this one around and see if it's mainstream enough to traditionally publish.  I'm getting feedback on it right now. :)
That's all from the land of Kate.
Happy Reading!