I always intend to update social media more than I do, but I tend to get so engrossed in whatever project is on my desk at the moment. So to update for pre-spring! (Because Spring is threatening to come, but it’s not quite here yet.)

It’s March and I’ve already been sick three times this year! That, I hate. But it is what it is. And with all that’s going on in the world, it’s a scary time to have even so much as a head-cold! But you’ll be pleased to hear I’m on the mend from my latest sore throat and fever (seems to be what everyone has these days!) with the help from Captain, who gave me lots of cuddles over this ridiculously difficult winter.

Not only that, but I’m in the process of wrapping up my ghost writing project. It’s with the author now, and I’ll probably make one more pass to error check before he sends it off for the final touches before publication. As I said in my last post, it’s a project that’s made me grow as a writer and it’s been a huge confidence boost as well. Working on our own as we writers do, it can start to feel like we’re talking to ourselves most of the time, so to work closely with someone else on a project that was important to him and to get to share in that passion and try to capture it as well as his voice, well, I feel very privileged to have taken part.

As to my own work, I’m picking that back up ASAP (now that the fever is gone! whew!) and I’ll be digging back into my Legacy of Ancients project. It’s difficult to bring news on a constant basis because I’ve been working slowly and methodically with this project, much more than with anything I’ve ever done before. But I do promise that the moment I have news, I will share it!

I’m a bit late for a Happy New Year, but time just gets away from us all, doesn’t it?

So 2019 was a bit of a strange one for me, but not in bad ways! Like everyone, I’ve had my struggles, and sometimes I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through it. But something interesting happened toward the end of 2019, and the benefits of it have carried through to this year!

I was presented with an unexpected opportunity to ghost write a book. The author had the shell planned out, the characters and the actions he wanted to take place, but he didn’t have the experience to turn that into what he hoped it could become. Normally, I wouldn’t take on something like this, but the possibilities intrigued me. 

So, for the last few months of 2019(and likely the first couple of months of 2020) I’ve been working on a ghost project that’s outside my normal writing style. But the results have been fantastic, and not just the outcome of the product (which isn’t quite finished yet), but I’ve grown immensely doing it. It’s enabled me to see my own skills and talents, something I’ll admit I’d not valued fully before. Although the project won’t necessarily add to my resume and my own library of work, I believe what I have accomplished will add a huge boost to my career in what it’s taught me about myself and what I can do. 

Those who’ve been waiting for new books from me, well, they will come! I’ve not retired! And 6 months on an outside project might seem like a lot, but the value of what it’s brought to me (besides the paycheck itself, of course) will add to my own work immensely. In the end, I truly believe this will be a win for my readers as well! (Though I do appreciate nobody likes waiting for a new book to come out! I’m the same way!)

So I’m optimisitic about what 2020 brings, and I hope you all are too!

This past weekend was my 50th birthday, and my partner managed to get a couple of days off work (no mean feat at his current job) so we had a four-day weekend full of waffles, cake, and general nonsense. This was probably the most relaxed I’ve felt in some time, so I’m thrilled to have had the time off.

Daughters of Misfortune is still with beta readers. A few of them have returned it already and I’m thrilled at the responses so far. Looks like all those edits I did this summer were worthwhile! (That’s always a relief. Sometimes it’s difficult to judge if the fix fixes what it was meant to fix, which is why it’s always good to have outside confirmation.)

So I’m back at my desk today (figuratively. I’m actually in my sitting room because my dad offered to paint the bathroom adjacent to my usual work space) and am working on edits and beta reads for others still.

But I just had to share that the feedback has been fantastic so far, which makes me incredibly happy. This series is the most complex I’ve ever attempted, so I’m thrilled to see it getting positive response! 

So for this week and next, I’m supposed to be on vacation, or taking it easy, at least, while my second set of beta readers have Daughters of Misfortune and are preparing to give feedback. So of course I scheduled all kinds of things for this fortnight like proofing a friend’s script, beta reading another friend’s novel, and editing a third book for my brother, a novice writer who is rapidly learning the ropes of storytelling.

As if that wasn’t enough to do, I also managed to get myself stuck in tech-support hell dealing with my internet provider, which led to me having to troubleshoot every smart device in the house (we have lots of smart plugs, lights, a video doorbell, and Alexa devices) that suddenly wasn’t working with our internet. Seven conversations with the cable company’s tech support, three trips to the their retail outlet, and one trip to Best Buy later, we finally have a new modem, a new router, and functioning light switches again! And now my “vacation” is almost half over!

Why can’t I go on a cruise like normal people? Maybe a trip to the lake? A small cabin in the woods (with no internet to worry about) sounds perfect right about now!

Recently, I learned that Amazon is discontinuing its Kindle Matchbook program. It was one that allowed readers who had purchased my books as a paperback to receive the ebook editions at a discounted price. This is most unfortunate, as I felt like it was a fantastic perk and I always set my ebooks to be free for those readers who bought the paperbacks from Amazon through this program.

So, I’ve decided to continue the offer on my own. If you email me with proof that you purchased any of the Caledonia Fae or Gods of Talmor books in paperback (from any store), and you wish to receive the ebook version, I will send the same novel(s) to you in either Kindle or epub format.

For me, readers come first, and there’s no reason to pay for the same book twice!

Last week went by in a blur. Thousands and thousands of words were written on my recent edit of Daughters of Misfortune. (For those keeping track, I’m currently on Draft 4.) I don’t usually do rewrites this extensive, thanks to an outlining system I’ve developed over the years. By the time I set pen to paper, as it were, I have a solid grip on characters, story arc, details, things I want to reveal and when, backstory, etc.

I do leave room for changes that come when I get into the flow of things. That’s inevitable and a good thing. 

But with this book, some of the feedback I got from early betas made me see, not quite a plot hole, but a hole in character motivation that had to be addressed. Although it’s a lot of work to rewrite almost the entire first quarter of the book,  it was the right thing to do and the book is so much stronger.

So this is what I’m doing. I have a panel of brand new beta readers for Beta Round 2 (I wanted to use people who hadn’t read the first version), and the book will be on their desks in a week or two.

Progress continues!

This spring has just been a mess. You know what they say about the best laid plans.

April itself wasn’t too bad. I finished my pre-beta edits on Daughters of Misfortune and got it off to beta readers on schedule. Even a little early, which is unusual for me.

But then May happened and life happened, and, as the great Scottish poet said, things gang aft a-gley, or, as we would say in modern English, go often awry. With a member of the household in the hospital (twice!) and other (but more minor) difficulties coming up at the same time, I put everything else on the back burner and focused on family. I even took a break from social media, because sometimes, that’s just what we have to do, I think. It helped immensely!

Now things are on a more even keel, and I’m back at it. Thanks to the input of my beta readers, I’ll be making some substantial changes to Daughters of Misfortune, at least to the first quarter of it. I don’t usually need to do heavy edits, but this time, I came up with an idea that I thought would answer many of their concerns with motivation and pacing, and if I think of something that will make a book better, how can I not do it?

This means allowing myself extra time to go back and fix things. I’ve turned a ten-chapter first quarter of the book into  twelve chapters, and nine of those are going to be completely new. It’s a tough thing to do (because to be honest, I quite liked the opening part), but it really is so much better! 

I’m afraid I also got off-track on my reading challenge, but there’s time to make things up and since that was for fun as much as professional interest, I’m not so worried about that one!

I will likely ease back into social media. I admit I’ve enjoyed being away from some of the drama and angst that invariably goes with being there. Between politics and Twitter mobs and the trolls, well, let’s just say I’m in no hurry to dive back in. On the other hand, I do love hearing from readers and cheering on the successes of other writers, so I want to be there. Still, you can always Get In Touch right here if you like. 

I hope you all are well! I’ll be updating my Work In Progress page with my progress as I get back into the swing of things!