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!

These are a Few of My Favorite Things...

I love Oprah.  Well, everything except her bookclub.  Man, Oprah, do you want me to slit my wrists and leave behind two innocent babies, because YOUR BOOKS ARE SO DEPRESSING!!!  Like,"I have no will to live" depressing.

My favorite episodes of Oprah before her show ended were those ones where she had a "favorite things" episode.  She'd stand up on the stage and start throwing stuff at the audience.
"Have a new playstation!"
"It's a year's supply of $5,000 face lotion!"
"A new Jetpack!"

Okay, maybe not that last one, but you'd think so, from the way the people in the audience act.

See what I mean?  Who likes bees that much?

To kick off my lovely vacay, I now give to you, Kate's favorite things on the internet!  Be forewarned, many of these are nerdy in the extreme.

The first is poupee dolls.  It's this little game/social networking thingamagig.  Basically, you join up, and you get a little paper doll.

This is just an example; my doll doesn't look like this.  So you earn "ribbons"—the poupee girl cash—and you buy super cute clothes and accessories and you dress her every day.  This is my 3rd year.  And I love it.  I'm not a super girly girl in real life (yes, I wear dresses, but man, what a hassle) and I don't have the budget to buy myself endless amounts of cute clothing.  So poupee is how I feel my need for shoes and bags.  It's Japanese, which leads to some rather confusing site announcements, but more and more Americans join every day.

Next up is my beloved Korean dramas.  Imagine that you are awake all hours of the night and you can't make a lot of noise.  Imagine also that you've run through everything in your Netflix queue and all your Friends DVDs.  Let the dramz begin.  Kdramas are these amazing, short series that are pure entertainment and romance.  Why do I love them?  Well, first, they're subtitled. So I can turn down the sound and not worry about keeping the household awake when I'm up with New Baby.  Second, they are so CLEAN.  I mean, I'm not against a healthy amount of sexiness in my shows, but I've got kids.  I don't want to watch anything that will be bad for their eyes.  Most of what's in them is hugging and hand holding.  It's like Pride &
Prejudice with Korean Smartphones.

And Coffee Prince is like the BEST THING EVER!!!  *sigh*  (The above link is to my favorite Korean Drama site, Drama beans.  It's a page with the BEST of the Kdramas. And also, there are a TON of Kdramas on Hulu.)

Then there is cracked.com.  If you want to know the top 5 reasons for anything—the awful websites of people who should know better (*cough* George R.R. Martin *cough*), gay guys who got more women than straight men, things flight safety presentations should mention—read these articles and be wildly entertained.  Kind of like the onion, except it doesn't take itself as seriously.  

And finally, thanks to my son, I have become doubly addicted.  First of all, I am addicted to My Little Pony. The first time I saw it, I was like... "Uh, that's cute, son, but what happened to Mighty Machines?"  Cut to two days later and I was like, "MUST. WATCH. ANOTHER. EPISODE!"  Seriously, I love the show.  Applejack is my favorite character and I'm not sure if that's because she's so sassy or because I just love that cereal. :)  

And from there blossoms my other newest addiction: My Little Pony gifs. :)  My favorite tmblr is HERE.

In quick ROW update news, I've been writing a sequel to Fire of God, which is one of my Angelic Agents short stories.  I'm not sure how long it's going to be yet, but I'm going to keep writing until it's finished.  I've also started plotting the next book in the Five Tribes series.  Terris is going to be AWESOME, but I'm afraid there are some plot changes ahead.  Aeris really got away from me. hahaha

Happy Father's Day and Happy Reading!

Tah-Dah! *poof*

So, Aeris is done.  Finished.  Over with my proof reader.  It is out in the ether.  I'd post a meme of triumph, but the truth is, I'm just numb.  This is the part, even larger than the editing, where I start to doubt myself and my abilities.  Not fishing for compliments here, it's just the plain truth.
When I've finished my edits and left it in the hands of a proof reader, I start thinking, "I should have changed this.  I'm still torn about that.  Was I too obvious?  Too vague?  Did I edit my natural prose too much?"  I think I have pretty healthy instincts on what to edit in my own writing.  But no one is perfect, and neither will my story be.
So, let's go over what happened.  Aeris went through two edits.
The first read through and edit was for continuity, naming, and storyline.  That is where the biggest changes happened in Aeris.  I rewrote Zyander's storyline.  I deleted two chapters from Luka's story, then added a whole new one at the end of the book.  I moved 3 or 4 chapters into different order.  I deleted parts of Nikka's story, and rewrote portions of it.  Then there were the MULTIPLE changes along the way, the little ones.
The second read through and edit were for paragraph, sentence, style and structure.  This is the most tedious, but ultimately necessary part of my editing.  This is where I examined each sentence for its meaning, and its form.  I try not to mess too much with my inherent writing style, because, well, I like my style.  It's not for everyone, but its what makes me unique.  Still, writing at 5 in the morning is telling sometimes.  Many sentences were unclear, or said too much or were repetitive.  Those have got to go.

Now, the book will be with the proofreader for about a month, I'm guessing.  When it gets back, I will look over any changes that are called for, then I'll format the book, and post it on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords.
What am I doing while I wait?  Taking a much deserved break.  I've been dwelling on this storyline so long my brain hurts, frankly.  I've got several chapters plotted out for when I start up with Terris, but for now, I'm going to be on vacation for three weeks.  YES, THREE.  I'll be in Utah, Yosemite and the Sierra Nevadas.  Some of the time I'll have access to the internet, so I may post an entry or two.
I will also—because I have a DISEASE—still be writing.

I've gotten some requests to write more of my angelic agents, so I will probably do a third in Gideon & Samora's tale, and start in on the story of Bethel and her transformation.  Fun stuff!

I will also have my kindle and like a BAZILLION books on it.  If you are interested in knowing what I'll be reading, I made a list on my pinterest.  LINK HERE

And finally, I just want to give a shout-out to Kait Nolan and her wonderful ROW80 writing challenge.  Without the cheers and encouragement of so many who have been on this year-long journey with me since the beginning, I don't know if I ever would have finished Aeris.  So thanks, everyone!

Happy Reading!

Look, a Shiny Distraction!

The world is full of people who will either drag you down or lift you up.  I have seen both, and today is my day of VINDICATION!  Let me just note that vindication is a petty emotion.  It usually involves feeling like not only has someone stood up for the awesomeness that is you, but that you can now feel free to rub it in ALL THE PEOPLES' FACES!!

My family is amazing and supportive.  May you be blessed with such a plethora of willing and excited readers, encouragers, and cheerleaders, my friends.  One of these days, I will write a book about THEM, and you will know the depths of my thankfulness and appreciation.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as supportive as they are.  Here in the blogosphere, I must treat those in the real world like patients under the HIPAA code.  I will not name names.  It wouldn't be productive anyway.  Let's just say that a couple of weeks ago, a certain someone from my real life had some not so nice things to say about both me as a person and as a writer.  Suckage.  I brushed off the writerly part, because I've gotten a thick skin about this sort of thing.  But the personal stuff hurt.  I admit it.  

Cut to today, when said person commented to a friend of mine (perhaps not knowing he was a friend?) about me (thinking to gain a partner in commiseration), and my friend rose to my defense in the nicest way!  It was hard not to feel spitefully vindicated.  I squashed it down with a vengeance, but I will admit, it does warm my heart that I have good friends who have my back.

And now, my readers and writers alike, I will point you to many shiny distractions, so you don't ask how the editing on Aeris is going (fine, just fine.  Ask me next Sunday and you will hear me say YAY!  IT'S DONE!!).

HERE is an interesting article about the publishing industry from an insider.

HERE is yet another place to post your scribbles, fellow authors.

HERE is some excellent advice from writer Wesley Dean Smith on thinking of yourself as a publisher.

And HERE is a link to the awesome My Little Pony Tumblr I borrowed the gifs from.  My son is in love with this show right now, so I have it on the brain. :)

Happy Reading!  And stay awesome!