Tag: the blood witch

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the blood witch cometh

This morning, I signed the contract for the first book in the Blood Witch saga with my publisher. This means that Thána and friends will be coming your way before the year is out. As always, I’ll be looking for advance readers who would like to read and review the book.

I spent a good chunk of the weekend going over and polishing up book 2 and will be doing the same with book 3 soon. And then, I get to return to book 4.

I hope, as we grow closer to a release to tease with some character introductions, as I’ve done in the past. In the first book that will be Thána and her transgender incubus friend Cambious as the two primary characters. I may do a few shorts on some of the intriguing side characters as well.

Also on my immediate horizon is Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim. I’m absolutely terrified, but also excited. I scored a photo/auto op with Ewan MacGregor! But terrified. Thankfully, they seem to have a good ADA set up with quiet rooms and the like and I should be able to get both me and the nibling ADA access, giving my brother carer access, so that should make things easier.

On that note, my coffee is almost gone, my cats are yelling at me for treats, and the day job awaits, so I’m off into the Tuesday. I hope it is good for you, Readers!

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let them eat cake

I am in the process of edits, which means a lot of reading punctuated with spurts of writing/changing and a fair amount of admiration for writer-me who strung together some pretty decent words.

My writing process goes a little something like this:

  1. Zero-Draft, just get the plot onto the page
  2. Character Study, get the details down for reference
  3. First Edit, smooth out the plot on the page and add description/scene/dialog as needed
  4. Put the book down and work on something else for a while.
  5. Second Edit, clean up typos, fix plot holes
  6. Continuity Edit, make sure character descriptions and the like are consistent
  7. Read the whole thing out loud, fix things as they come up
  8. Polish
  9. Start the next book

I am on step 5 for the second book in the Blood Witch series. I have completed step 1 for book 3. Book 1 is complete (at least until it finds an editor) and I have begun querying agents.

This is kind of the sweet spot for me, the time I am most happy with my writing. I love these characters. I love the world(s) I’ve built. There will still be a period of doubt, when I’m sure the whole thing is crap, but for now, I am wallowing in the love.

I don’t write to get rich or famous. In fact, I’ve made less in royalties in the years I’ve been publishing than I used to make babysitting as a teenager. I write because I have stories to tell, characters to introduce to the world. It’s nice to make a little money, sure. Would it be awesome if everyone loved these stories as much as I do? Sure. But it’s just icing. The cake is where I find satisfaction.

My coffee is almost gone, so I guess it’s time to get back to baking…I mean editing. Happy Sunday, Readers. May it be pleasant.

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waiting for daylight

Some mornings, when I can’t sleep, I lay in bed and cuddle kitties while I ponder on some plot or world-building. Eventually, I will get up because the cats want their morning treats and I want coffee.

Today was one of those days. I’m not sure what woke me at 3:30 am, but once I was aware of being awake, I couldn’t go back to sleep. So, with Freya laying on my hip and Morrigan curled up beside me, I lay in bed and considered a few plot points that have been bugging me…at least until my bladder decided it needed my attention most immediately.

The cats have had their treats, and I’m tucked in with a cup of coffee and staring at words on a screen. I’m starting on my next edit pass on book 2, and down to the nitpicky details and minutiae, revving up descriptions of people and places and that sort of thing.

Book 1, meanwhile, has started back on the agent hunt. I’ve queried a few agents in the last few weeks and hang here awaiting responses. This is the part of writing that people who aren’t authors don’t understand, all the waiting and self-promotion (which I suck at).

In other book related news, Amazon has sabotaged my current publisher this week, declaring that they broke some KDP rule, and thus they have pulled all ebooks from that publisher for all of its authors (hundreds). We’re still working on getting this sorted out, but for the moment, ebooks are unavailable for any of my books.

So here I sit, sipping coffee and waiting for daylight when I will gather up my portion of the family dinner and some crochet project, and head out to the family. Between here and there I hope for some words, maybe some breakfast and more kitty cuddles. It isn’t a bad way to start the day.

I hope this day is filled with kindness and love, Readers. Kindness and Love.

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zero drafts and idle hands

Yesterday I completed the zero draft for the third Blood Witch book. This is a pretty huge accomplishment, even if there is still a lot of work to do. This means I have all three in some state of “done” and it’s time to run back to the beginning with my notes of all the changes that need to be made in books one and two.

Of the three of these, I think the middle book came the easiest and there were a lot of times struggling through book three felt like I was trying to push my way through frozen molasses.

Book one is the most complete and polished. Three is the least.

I guess this is what comes of trying to write during the apocalypse. I am glad I didn’t push out book one when I thought it was done, because some of the changes and tweaks I need to make to better set up two and three will also make book one better.

I’ve settled on tentative titles, but realize that a publisher may suggest changes.

So where does that leave me, here on a Monday morning before the dawn? To be honest, I’m running through my packing list for Sirens in my head (still need to do meds/makeup/toiletries/electronics). I’d like to say I’m not going to poke any of the three books until after Sirens, but I won’t promise. After all, I can’t seem to sleep past 5am these days, and I need something to do with my hands.

But that does remind me that it’s Monday, and I have to stop working early to go get a COVID test, so it must be time to suck down some Death Wish Coffee, put on my tech writing cape and crown and get to it.

Have a wonderful Monday, Readers! Treat yourself with kindness and love.

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new day job

There is something fitting about starting a new job on my birthday. It feels like new beginnings.

Today I start as a technical writer with a company called Quantcast. Which means I also start my new job with learning new things. A lot of new things. I already have 52 emails, most of which are meeting invitations and training classes I need to slog through.

My morning of course will be filled with onboarding stuff and meeting my team.

Then I’ll buckled down and start reading, taking training and all that good fun.

I also had a breakthrough that fixed a plot problem in the third Blood Witch book, so that is now back on track.

But for now, I need to go jump in the shower and then get second coffee started. DeathWish Coffee to the rescue!

Have a wonderful Monday, Readers!

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word-working

Most weekends are set aside as time for writing/editing/other book related ings. Sometimes I dump several thousand words onto a page. Sometimes I strike a couple hundred off the page. Sometimes I tweak little things.

But there also days when I research odd things, fall down a rabbit hole of baby names sites, draw (badly) maps to help me keep directions straight. And then there are days where I’m looking for an agent, or I’m banging on promo work.

Very rarely, I get to use this time just to enjoy my own work, or lose myself into a new project, whether that’s a new book, a short story, a poem.

I do some of these things during the work week too, but I don’t have whole days to devote to them the way I do on the weekend. At least a half hour every day I am poking words in some way, shape or form outside of the wordworking I do in the day job.

This weekend I am diving deep into the world of The Blood Witch, part editing/part writing, as I attempt to patch up some plot holes and get some of the stuck bits moving again.

I love these characters, and this world. I look forward to being able to share them with you all one day.

Have a great Sunday, Readers! Stay safe. Stay cool. Maybe tuck into a lovely book.

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of noise and static

I’m that person who has trouble focusing on a single task at a time. I grew up with the need to be in constant motion, to always be doing something and “sitting” didn’t count as “something”. Even in high school, I had to have music or the television playing in order to focus my brain on my homework.

Today, I use a lot of documentaries to occupy that space in my mind while I work. When I write, there’s usually music playing, unless I’m writing poetry. That’s about the only thing I think I need silence for. Sometimes the music I play while writing is driven by what I’m writing.

For example, while working on the first book in the Blood Witch trilogy, I listened to a bunch of baroque music, driven by the fact that one of my characters was into that sort of sound. When working on Forever, there was a playlist that wound itself through time, like Amara did, starting with some tribal beats and working up through history.

Book 2 in the Blood Witch series didn’t have a decided playlist, it kind of moved around songs in my library and I’d just skip songs that didn’t fit what I was writing. As I’m working on Book 3, I’m having trouble finding the musical flow. The story is set in a culture roughly equating to 1880 London, but the music of the time is not resonating with the story telling.

Somewhat more effective is a random playlist of “sound” rather than set music. Think atmospheric, not quite meditative kind of sound. Lots of long single notes and gentle waves of sound. It also helps when I have a headache, like this morning.

My coffee is getting cold, and I have words to wrestle into place, so happy Sunday, Readers. May it be filled with kindness.

Cover Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

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what’s your name?

If you know me, you know I suck at names. Characters, places…it doesn’t matter. I have a default five or six names I use that I then have to go back and change. Usually I just use the placeholders while I’m actively writing because when I do name a person or thing for keeps, I usually end up falling down a rabbit hole of baby name sites and foreign language translators.

See, I like my names to have a meaning that corresponds to the character or place. In the Shades and Shadows series, each of the characters has a name that corresponds with their ethnic background and who they are. Every one of them started off with different names than they ended up with. Well, except Zero and Raven. I knew those names going in.

Cue working on the second Blood Witch. In the first book most of the names/people are of Greek or Irish heritage (sort of…it’s complicated). In this book, the people and places are entirely alien, so I’m stuck with making things up. For one race I am loosely basing their language/names on Germany (very, very loosely), the others though are “make it up as I go” and “keep a list for consistency” type of folks.

I can’t tell you how fast writing can come to a screeching halt when I need to name a person or a place. I freeze up. It’s ridiculous!

But now, it’s time to get working on the day job. Happy Monday, Readers! I hope you have a great week.

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when words flow like water

There is a particular spot when writing a book, at least for me, when I’ve found the path, and the plot is clear and my characters are feeling very chatty, and it just flows out of my fingers and into the keyboard.

I’ve recently hit that point with the second Blood Witch book.

The problem with that is, all I want to do is write, to get it all down and find the ending. It’s a glorious feeling, but it does tend to interfere with real life. I still have to work, and there’s other obligations to meet. I can’t actually sit my ass down at my computer and write all day, every day.

That said, I do have some vacation days coming, and I’m hoping that I can get my zero draft finished before the end of the year. I just have to get from here to December 24th, grabbing writing time where I can, then I have a whole week (plus a day or two) off to write.

I hope you are all well, and keeping yourself, and your families safe during this hell-fire of a year. Drink some water. Wash your hands. Wear your mask. Stay home as much as you can. I love you all, Readers!

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the writing part of writing

Being an author is an odd sort of thing, I suppose, especially to those who are not *people who write* and especially not for those who also do not read. I was a voracious reader as a child. I absorbed words like a sponge. Stories were vehicles that transported me out of my bedroom and into worlds larger than any one mind can conceive.

Maybe it was inevitable that I would pick up a pen and start writing. I wanted in on that magic! I loved creating new worlds, new characters. I wrote science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. I tried my hand at mystery and romance. I studied and tried to emulate my favorite authors. I wanted my prose to be lush and invigorating. I wanted the worlds in my stories to come to life.

For that to happen, I learned, the author needs to spend a good amount of time prior to words hitting the paper. There is world building to do. There are characters to build out so that they are realistic and not just cardboard cut outs. There is plot to invent, stretch, turn, twist and resolve. Inevitably, that plot has holes that need to be filled.

And all of that comes either before or during the actual writing part of the writing process. Okay, sometimes after the first draft is done.

I can spend months (or longer) doing all the stuff that happens in my head before I start writing. My muse loves world building more than anything, so the worlds I see in my head are amazing landscapes of complex societies that I can only hope I capture as I begin to write.

This last weekend saw over ten thousand new words in the second Blood Witch book, signaling an end of the mental block 2020 clamped on my muse and ushering in the period where the words begin to spill from my fingers. It’s the part of the writing process that wants to just devour my life. The story spins out in my head faster than my fingers can translate it to the page, and I am best able in this phase to tune out my inner editor and just get it down.

I maybe feel the most like myself when I’m doing the writing part of writing. Unfortunately for me, today is Monday…and that means a return to the day job, so more word craft will need to wait, though I am hoping to get through this scene before I open the work computer.

I hope you are safe and sane, Readers, and that your week is filled with magic and kindness.

Cover Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash