Your book usually tells you what’s wrong with it.
A light at the end of the tunnel. Okay, it’s more like a soft glowing thing in the middle of the tunnel, but its pointing in the right direction!
It’s been forever since I’ve updated my blog, and I feel bad about that, but I’ve been so busy! Book #2 is humming along nicely (finally), and I’ve put a self imposed publishing deadline of July 31st on myself. If I keep up with my writing schedule, I should be able to make that. I’ve got a different editor now, and book 2′s cover is done – I just have to pay for it. (Sorry Skylar! I promise I didn’t drop off the face of the earth!)
But yeah, I was able to finally hammer out the plot (thanks Maegan!) and I think… -think-… that Ghostwolf is in an okayish good place. Mostly.
I’ve discovered a curious thing – my book tells me what’s wrong with it.
…What?
Yeah, it’s true. As I’m writing it, I know exactly, in that moment whats bad and whats good. Like, I’ll write a scene, and be like, “Meh, I don’t like it. It’s too…” and then I’ll know exactly what it is. So then I make a little note and move on. As I clickity-clack along, I slowly figure out what’s good for the book and what isn’t. I’m terrible at explaining it, but that’s what happens. At the end of all this, I’ll have a bunch of notes to reshape the book. I really hope it ends up decent.
Admittedly, though, I’ve been kind of neglecting my ‘author platform’ as it were. I haven’t been on twitter in ages, and my facebook page hasn’t really had anything new in a while. Maybe this is just normal writing downtime? I mean, writers need down time to, you know… write and stuff. I hoping I’ll push through the rest of this book and clean it up in time to head it off to the editor.
Ghostwolf! You’re coming out no later than August! This I have thusly promised myself!
Ghostwolf – Book #2 of the Redhaven Saga - COMING JULY 31st… EVEN IF IT KILLS ME.
Hello, again. I’m cheating on my book.
Well, kind of.
As some of you may (or may not) know, I’ve been fighting with book 2 like crazy. It sucks. I don’t like writing it. It doesn’t want to let me write it. Everything in it is poo. Etcetera, etcetera…
Well, I ended up re-writing pretty much the whole plot, and it seems to be jiving much better now. Should be on track to get it published by August at the latest. (Two months past my original target of May, but… late is better than never.)
You might think, hey! That’s great, Tori! You finally punched that book in the balls and got it to behave! Yeah, I guess I did. It feels better now, but my brain is trying to screw me over.
I don’t know how to tell you this, Book 2, but… I’ve been cheating on you. With Khimaera. I’m sorry you had to find out this way. It’s okay, we can have joint custody of the chapters… You can visit alternate weekends, and hey! We’ll have christmas together, right?
In all serious, my brain has been floating away to other projects. I keep getting these little sparks of ideas here and there, and I ended up kind of resurrecting an old project of mine a few nights ago.
I know I really should be pushing through book 2, but there’s this thing writer’s get, and I don’t have a name for it, but if you’ve ever written something long term, you probably know what I mean. It’s like this: Yeah, your current project is wonderful, and sparkly, and you can write it more or less painlessly, but then you get an idea, that -one- idea that makes your brain go “holy crap, write this right now”, and before you know it, it’s 2 am and you’ve got a series plot and some characters fleshed out, and half of a chapter fell out of thin air.
I feel bad for taking my attention away from Redhaven #2, buuuut… sometimes you need to step back, I guess. Give your brain a different flavor to chew on.
Plus, you know… zombies are cool. Khimaera will be fun if you like zompoc scenarios, but what drives me even more nuts than fighting with a book is totally dropping a series to write another. Khimaera won’t be for a couple of years, most likely, but at least it let me breathe.
Moral of the story, writerly-wise: Sometimes it’s good to work on other things.
Just thought I’d pass that along. And sorry for the lack of blog stuff. A zombie ate my router. :(
Frustrating.
I wish book #2 would cooperate with me and let me write it. I’m tired of fighting with it.
That’s all.
/sigh.
Results of my KDP free promo weekend~
Well, that was fun! It started off painfully slow, and then exploded in the last 12 hours before the promo was over. Wish I knew why, but… ah well. Numbers are fun!
I woke up this morning with 10 fresh sales, so that’s also cool. Hopefully I’ll get some reviews in. I know there’s a few things I need to work on for the next books (and there were some issues with the first, for that matter), but the more I can learn, the better the next ones’ll be. I’m getting a good checklist going for “things to watch out for”.
Anyway, that was a bit side-tracky. Here’s my end rankings for the promo and total units given away.
Pretty neat!
Total units given away: 5,457
Me this morning. <(^_^<) (>^_^)> ^(^_^)^ d(^_^)z
A brief victory, but a victory nonetheless. Ranking reverted to my old paid ranking this morning, so that was sad. But still! Awesome! Thank you, readery-type-peoples! :)
My book is FREE today! Pick up a copy!
Click to head over to amazon! :D
Seriously, go get it! It’s freeeee~
LOOKATTHISBOOK Feature: Healer’s Touch by Deb E. Howell
Llew has a gift. Her body heals itself from any injury – but at a cost to anyone nearby.
On the run after surviving the hangman’s noose, Llew learns that her ability to heal herself and others is more dangerous than she could have imagined. And her greatest hope of remaining free of those who would use her power for ill lies with the man who would kill her if he ever found out what she was
… or would he?
Praise for ‘HEALER’S TOUCH’
“There isn’t a dull moment in the story, with the action starting from the first page.” — Jo Toon,
SFFANZ
“I wanted to cheer her on a few times when she stood up for herself. I was also embarrassed for her
a time or two when she couldn’t control her mouth. ” Lostinsidethecovers Blog
Take a Peek Inside
Excerpt #1 -
“So Quaver wants me to ‘keep me safe’, and Braph wants me for my blood. What do Turhmos want me for? To fight for their army?” Llew asked.
Jonas choked on a laugh and Llew glared at him.
“I can fight.”
“You throw a letter opener mighty fine. But there’s a difference between a back-road scuffle and a battlefield.”
“What do they want with me, if not to fight?” She turned back to Aris.
“They want your sons,” said Aris.
“My–? But I don’t… ew!” Llew had never taken the time to consider having children, but the thought now thrust itself into her brain. She didn’t like it. Especially not in an unknown country under some sort of marital arrangement. Or martial, for that matter.
***
Excerpt #2 -
Jonas punched the tree again. Bark and blood flew; his skin wasn’t impenetrable.
“Hey, Jonas.” Hisham slid from his horse and went to grab Jonas’ arm. But Jonas just swung even faster and harder – too fast for his friend. The tree creaked, and pain shot up his arm. He folded over, cradling the limb and shaking out his hand, all the while cursing profusely and stamping a foot.
“That’s not helping, my friend,” said Hisham, placing a hand on Jonas’ back. “We’re doin’ the best we can.”
Jonas took a moment to breathe through his curses. Then he straightened, stretching and clenching the injured hand. He’d scraped his knuckles good and jarred his bones, but nothing was broken. He looked at Hisham, thinking he would just agree with his friend, climb back on his horse, and they would carry on. But when he looked up, all he wanted to do was punch something – someone – else, and Hisham didn’t deserve it.
Jonas turned away, striding several frustrated paces, muttering, cursing Braph, cursing Turhmos, cursing himself for leaving Llew, cursing Llew for not just letting him be and staying put inside where she was safe, cursing Lord Tovias for not having an estate secure against Braph… He walked away from and back to Hisham several times, muttering and cursing, muttering and cursing. And finally stopped in front of his friend and puffed out a deep breath.
“I know,” he said. “But it’s not enough. Braph can fly.”
Curious yet? Check it out! ‘Healer’s Touch’ is running a 99C special right now! An awesome book for less than a buck!
Available at these online retailers (in multiple formats):
Also available through Barnes & Noble, Kobo and various other outlets!
…Still not satisfied? Get in touch with the author here!:
Blog/Web: http://deberelene.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/deberelene
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/deberelene
(…Seriously, go check it out.)
New Adult Fiction Addiction’s Free Weekend Frenzy!
My book is going FREE April 13th & 14th! I’m doing some cross promotion with New Adult Fiction Addiction, a page here on facebook that promotes/talks about/enjoys New Adult fiction. New Adult Fiction Addiction
If you or someone you know is a New Adult author (NA), and would like to participate in future NAFA weekend frenzies, send them a PM! They need people/books to promo for May!
Click for fullview.
Books for April:
Celine (The Night Touched Chronicles Book #1) byMaegan Provan:
http://www.amazon.com/Celine-Night-Touched-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00BRGNR8S/
Siren Snow: Book #1 of the Redhaven Saga by Victoria Barrow
http://www.amazon.com/Siren-Snow-Redhaven-Volume-ebook/dp/B00BJO2VQC/
The Fifth Circle by Tricia Drammeh:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fifth-Circle-ebook/dp/B00C5HYO44/
Book #2 is Hard: The Challenges of a Sequel (Now with gifs!)
So, you’ve written a book. Sweet! Publish that bitch, and feel awesome. You’ve done the hard work, made some characters, put them through some shit, and squished it all together in a readable, cohesive format. Smell your pages, look at your shiny kindle/nook file, and relax. Job well done.
Aaah… Let’s take a minute.
/iced-tea.
….Mmm, the taste of victory.
Wait a minute… oh crap, that’s a series. So, I have to write another one?
OH CRAP. I HAVE TO WRITE ANOTHER ONE!
So, that’s a thing. Sequels, I mean. When you write a series.
I kind of forgot about that. Siren Snow got done, and I was just happy to get it out. I thought I’d just plot out my next book, and write it, and chug along, and it’d all be hunky dory.
Sounds easy, right? Of course! Pfft, all you need to do is plot some stuff, work out the threads from the last book, and then write it. Duh.
…Right.
Seriously though, this sequel is a bitch. It was easy the first time. I could introduce stuff as I went, and it was a new world and I was starting from scratch. Everything was new and shiny, and we were all just along for the ride, experiencing it all for the first time. We were getting to know characters, exploring a new literary universe, and we found out things as we went.
As I’m finding with book #2… Not so much. I have to catch people up without barraging them with info dumps. I have sew the threads of new ideas, while making sure I don’t forget anything important from the last book that’ll crop up in this one. Oh, and new characters. I have to weave new characters in.
And make sure my heroin isn’t a totally different person.
And that stuff is believable within the time frame.
And no one’s forgotten.
And everything that was left open in the last book is at least addressed in this one.
And time skips… I have to address a time skip and have it not just be a black hole of info blob I give later.
Holy fucking hell in a handbasket how do I do this.
So yeah, suffice to say, writing a sequel is NOTHING like writing the first book in a series. I feel like there’s an obvious answer to all this, some simple scientific way to approach it that’ll make it flow easier in my brain.
Let me be honest for a moment: I’ve been floundering and struggling with this damn book for like, a fucking month now. I, for the life of me, cannot find some way to make the beginning of this book work. Like, seriously. I think I may have shot myself in the foot with the end of the first book. Honestly, I think it’s mostly that I’ve got an entirely new character to ease in. In my head, I already know his story, and how he’s going to end up in the long run, but it’s like trying to fit in an extra pea in a pod. …Or something.
I just wanna run away.
But I think I’ve found a solution!
Wait… What? There’s hope?
Turns out, I just had to wait. No really, that’s it. I had a writing epiphany half asleep one morning, and I realized I was rushing it. I was wanting so much just to pick up with this damn book and have it come out as easy (more or less) as the first one. But you can’t really do that with a sequel. It’s an entirely new animal. There’s an entire universe to consider before you even write down ‘chapter 1′. I had to let it sit. I figured out that… Well, it’s a long story, but I figured it out. Finally.
There is no magic way to make writing work, or come out of your brain smoothly.
Moral of this very strange, gif filled post: If you’re struggling with something, especially writing, and it just wont come to you, wait for inspiration. Don’t force it. Writing is an art, not a science.
Who knew?
((Also… damn you Maegan for getting me hooked on gifs. :p ))
The Plague of Independent Publishers
I thought long and hard about posting this, shelved it for a while, and eventually decided the issue is too important to ignore. If this post forces one author--just one--to look a little more closely into his or her publishing options, I'll feel like some of my experiences had a purpose.
Now, in order to avoid being sued or hurting any feelings, I want to stress the fact that this post isn't about my publisher, your publisher, or any specific publisher.
The Rise of New Adult Fiction
There's a problem in Teen and Young Adult Fiction, and if you're a parent of a teen or an author who writes YA, you know what I'm talking about. The age group gravitating toward Young Adult fiction seems to get younger and younger every year. YA appeals to readers of many ages. I love it. Heck, my mom loves it too!
