My Writing Plan: Week of Nov 17

Posted on by November 17, 2018

National Novel Writing Month

Well, I’m still writing! Really there’s not much change in the plan for this week: write, write, write, and then write some more. I’m a bit ahead of schedule at almost 30,000 words. The NaNo chart below shows my estimated finish date as November 28th if I keep going at this rate! I love these statistics graphics we can get whenever we update our word count on the NaNo site! The halo over my icon shows that I made a donation… I try to donate something at least twice every November, once when I announce my novel for that year and then once on double donations day. Plus of course buying the t-shirt 🙂

I do have to say that I am seriously pleased with how this story is coming along! When you consider that when I started at midnight on Nov 1st, the only thing I knew about the story was the opening scene with the heroine thinking she’s losing her mind. She didn’t even have a name, and I didn’t know what her story was, I didn’t know who the hero would be, I didn’t have a  plot, much less a conflict. Literally, I knew nothing other than the opening scene. But once I started writing, ideas began coming at me. Night before last, I was telling one of my writing buddies (I have two very wonderful writing buddies, and I got to meet both of them for the first time at RWA National Conference back in July!) that I still didn’t know the conflict…. and I’d no sooner gotten the words out of my mouth than suddenly the potential for a conflict just showed up in my head, I mean, right out of nowhere!! I spent all day yesterday writing the first scene of the conflict, for 2516 words! Totally pleased 🙂

Audiobook of Truck Stop

The audiobook is coming along great. We’re up to Chapter 5… more than 25% of the book, finished, mastered and approved by me as ready to go. Jay Dyess at ACX is my narrator; he’s really on a roll, and doing a wonderful job!

Wishes & Dreams Paranormal Romance series

I’m still waiting to hear from the cover artist who did this artwork of Jacinth last year. I’m really really hoping hard that I do hear from her, but if I don’t by Dec 1st, I’ll start looking for another cover artist an/dor talking to Dar Albert who did the cover for Truck Stop, which I’m very pleased with. Since this is a series, first I want to get together a background for the book covers that will be used across all three (four?) books. Once we’ve got that, then focus on the specific cover for the first book, Wishes in a Bottle.

Once NaNo is over and we’re into December, I’ll pull out Wishes in a Bottle and comb through it one last time, polishing anything that needs it. It’s already been revised x gazillions, through beta reading, more revisions, and then through proofreading & copy editing, so really it’s good to go, but .. never hurts to make one last pass. Once I have the finalized cover design, I’ll move ahead with getting banners made and a book trailer, and get it released.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

The Manuscripts

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert
    2. SHADOW CAT, 4th book of Wishes & Dreams

 

Submissions

Submissions Plan: I do still have a few submissions out there, but I don’t see anything changing my mind at this point, really. Okay, except an offer from Berkley. LOL. I could really go for an offer from Berkley. Who, by the way, has never heard of me 😛

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection)
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 3)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN
(not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WRITE!
  2. Log in feedback from beta readers as it comes in and copy to Scrivener file… then return to #1 above.
  3. See #1 above.

My Writing Plan: Week of Nov 10

Posted on by November 10, 2018

National Novel Writing Month

So far, all is going well. I’m writing away.. I’m a teensy bit behind schedule with NaNo because I missed a day of writing back on Monday due to not feeling well, but I was already ahead of the game, so I’m almost caught back up again to be on target. The scenes for the story are coming to me slowly, but they’re coming, and that’s what counts, right!

Audiobook of Truck Stop

The audiobook is coming along great. We have Chapter 1 narrated, edited & mastered & approved, and Jay is finishing up the editing & mastering of Chapter 2 as I type this, and plans to be done with that this evening.

Wishes & Dreams Paranormal Romance series

Obviously I’m not working on this series during November. However, one thing I can do is start to make arrangements for the cover art. I’m still waiting to hear from the cover artist who did this artwork of Jacinth last year; if I don’t hear from her, or she doesn’t want or have time to do it, I’ll need to find another cover artist. Since this is a series, first I want to get together a background for the book covers that will be used across all three (four?) books. Once we’ve got that, then focus on the specific cover for the first book, Wishes in a Bottle.

Once NaNo is over and we’re into December, I’ll pull out Wishes in a Bottle and comb through it one last time, polishing anything that needs it. It’s already been revised x gazillions, through beta reading, more revisions, and then through proofreading & copy editing, so really it’s good to go, but .. never hurts to make one last pass. Once I have the finalized cover design, I’ll move ahead with getting banners made and a book trailer, and get it released.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

The Manuscripts

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert
    2. SHADOW CAT, 4th book of Wishes & Dreams

 

Submissions

Submissions Plan: I do still have a few submissions out there, but I don’t see anything changing my mind at this point, really. Okay, except an offer from Berkley. LOL. I could really go for an offer from Berkley. Who, by the way, has never heard of me 😛

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection)
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 3)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN
(not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WRITE!
  2. Log in feedback from beta readers as it comes in and copy to Scrivener file… then return to #1 above.
  3. See #1 above.

My Audiobook Venture, Part 5: Credits, Dedication, etc.

Posted on by November 7, 2018

Once we got the basics established, character voices, etc., Jay’s been busy finishing up a previous project. He got that out of the way this weekend, and now ready to go on Truck Stop. Yesterday he surprised me by sending the narrated Opening and Closing Credits… surprised because those weren’t anything I’d even been aware of! Part of those things that I didn’t know I didn’t know. So that was pretty cool and again, I just love his narrator voice!

In addition, he recorded the Dedication, Acknowledgements and the “For My Readers” segment with my contact info. We’ve sorted out where they’ll go, with  Dedication and For My Readers after the opening credits and before the book starts, and Acknowledgements at the end of the book before Closing Credits.

Jay sends me these files on the ACX website where I can listen to them, but I can also download them, and I do that and put them into their own playlist on iTunes so I can go in and find them easily, and organize them and so forth.

So now we have the character voices figured out, we have our front and end matter narrated, our Opening and Closing Credits narrated. The next step… he starts narrating the manuscript!

EXCITEMENT!

If you’re only just finding this, here are the other blogs in this series:
My Audiobook Venture, Part 1
My Audiobook Venture, Part 2
My Audiobook Venture, Part 3
My Audiobook Venture, Part 4
My Audiobook Venture, Part 5

 

Allie McCormack interview on Finding Elara Podcast!

Posted on by November 7, 2018
I was invited by fellow writer Dianna Evans of Western Australia, to be on her Podcast, Finding Elara (which is also the title of her current work in progress, a young adult fantasy novel). She’d seen Truck Stop on a FB group and bought it and read it, then contacted me, and we’ve become friends. She’s also become one of my fabulous beta readers, and has read all of the Wishes & Dreams series and just started on SwanSong. We had great fun doing this interview! I was so excited about being interviewed, can you tell? <laughs> I don’t get to talk much about my writing to anyone… I mean, I do FB and Twitter and my blog, but as far as actually *talking* … well… there’s no one around to talk to, so I totally enjoyed this opportunity to talk about my writing which is such a huge part of my life, and to share that excitement with others. Thank you, Dianna!
The interview with me is Episode 007 (and coming soon, episode 008 too! We kept talking! Well, okay, I did… but we were both having a fabulous time!)
ADDENDUM… OH. MY. GOSH!!!! So here I was typing away on my manuscript and the doorbell rings. There’s a delivery man with a ceramic pumpkin filled with flowers. Delivery for Allie McCormack. I was already signing for it when I suddenly thought, “Allie McCormack’s my pseudonym… who’s sending flowers to Allie McCormack?” My mom and daughter, the only people likely to be sending me flowers, would send it to my real name. So I was dying of curiosity, and by that time so was the delivery man, so we opened the note right there, and it was from Dianna! Yes, that’s right, she sent me these beautiful flowers as a lovely thank-you for being on her podcast show! AND they’re carnations! How did she know these were my favorites?  Also… too cute, but on top they’ve taken felt cut-outs on the top large carnation to make a kitty face!! As you can tell from the top picture, Levi was also impressed! OMG! Nobody’s EVER sent me flowers **sniffles a little**

My Writing Plan: Week of Nov 3 & NEWS!

Posted on by November 3, 2018

National Novel Writing Month is HERE!!!! 

I started out National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) at our midnight kick-off in SecondLife… a bit hampered by DDOS service attacks on SecondLife servers, but eventually we were able to get in and hang out in my Great Library (built by yours truly). We have smaller libraries… a cozy study and a yurt… but since we were hoping we’d get more than the handful we usually have, we optimistically put out the big one. 🙂 Anyway, I managed to get in 3,176 words for the day… about 1600 at the kick-off, and the rest throughout the course of the day.

My WIP is going to be book #4 of Wishes & Dreams paranormal romance series. I’ve got a working title of Shadow Cat which NO! will NOT be the title. It’s just something to run with til The Right Titleâ„¢ comes along… you know how that goes 🙂 The heroine for this showed up out of nowhere in my head a few weeks ago. I know virtually nothing about her, and I started NaNo with literally nothing more than a tentative opening scene/prologue. She didn’t have a name, or a history, I didn’t the plot or the conflict or even who the hero was going to be! I still don’t know the plot or conflict <laughs> but her name is Tamera, and the hero is going to be Kester, Katerina’s brother. I’m still trying to figure out what he does for a living, etc. Anyway… knowing practically zip about this… talk about flying blind! …I just started writing the prologue that was in my head, and darned if ideas didn’t start just flooding in!! I’m happy as a lamb in clover 🙂

     

So, I have NEWS. No, not that kind of news. As you know, at least, you do if you’ve been following me at all on social media for the last year or two, I’ve been intending to go the traditional publishing route… I’ve always intended to go traditional… and for the past year and some I’ve been querying my lil heart out to literary agents. I’d set December as my tie-a-knot point, and after the New Year, if I hadn’t found an agent, I was going to begin querying publishers themselves, the ones that accept unagented submissions… both large publishing houses and small presses. I’d already begun compiling a list and prioritizing over the last couple of months.

Then….

I started the process of putting Truck Stop out as an audiobook. And I really really wanted to do the best I can with this, so I decided I needed to start marketing now. I’d never really put much effort into marketing Truck Stop, but now I dove into marketing, watching vlogs on youtube, reading tips and strategies on blog articles everywhere, and asking questions, usually in RWA’s PAN (Published Authors Network) forums. I got a professional banner made, announcing the audiobook as coming soon, and sent off the manuscript for professional formatting by The Book Khaleesi… I’d done the original formatting myself, and it was okay, but it was a long time ago, and I didn’t have contact info or newsletter signup, or social media that it should have now. And facing doing it again… I mean, I can do it, but it’s stressful and I’m never quite sure if I’m doing it right… plus, you know… if I’m going to really be doing this, I’m going to do it RIGHT! So I sent it off to a professional.

And on top of that was the excitement of the audiobook… setting the book up, getting auditions, working with the narrator… and my mind kept zooming fast-forward to the next book, you know?

And THEN…..

I took a deep breath and took out some paid Amazon ads. And… Oh. My. God. Not only did I start making a few ebook sales, but the Kindle Unlimited page reads suddenly took off! And so did my sales ranking on Amazon! I was absolutely stunned, and dammit, I should have been doing this for an age, but I was so hung up on all the marketing advice that we “have to” blog or vlog or podcast or teach, in order to do marketing and I cannot, absolutely cannot do those things… so somehow I hadn’t looked past that to what I *could* do. And again… my mind kept zooming fast-forward to the next book.

And suddenly… I wanted to do it. I wanted to get my books out. NOT because I couldn’t find an agent or publisher, but because all of a sudden this just looks tremendously exciting and appealing, and the marketing suddenly isn’t as overwhelming and scary as it had appeared to be, and I WANT to do this. So first, Truck Stop needs to be released as an audiobook. After the first of the year, I’m going to start moving forward with releasing Wishes in a Bottle. I’ve already contact the artist on DeviantArt who did this fabulous picture of Jacinth for me, to see if she’d be willing to work with me to do covers for this series.

So that’s the plan now, a complete change in how I approach what I want to do with my books. I want to release the first Sons of the Desert book after Wishes in a Bottle, but I need to find cover art that appeals to me, and I’m picky. And right now it’s NaNo, so I’m not going to worry about that!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert
    2. SHADOW CAT, 4th book of Wishes & Dreams

 

Submissions Plan: I do still have a few submissions out there, but I don’t see anything changing my mind at this point, really. Okay, except an offer from Berkley. LOL. I could really go for an offer from Berkley. Who, by the way, has never heard of me 😛

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection)
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 3)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WRITE!
  2. Log in feedback from beta readers as it comes in and copy to Scrivener file… then return to #1 above.
  3. See #1 above.

Trick or Treat Reads! Free!!!!

Posted on by November 1, 2018

That’s right, Truck Stop will be FREE for Halloween. as part of the #TrickOrTreatReads Book Blog Hop event! This is the first, and possibly only… time I’ve made it available for free, so click here to head over to Amazon and pick it up!

Find out more about the Book Blog Hop here!

Recap:

So this was a fun experience!! By 11:55 pm, 153 people had bought the free copy of Truck Stop, and I’d achieved these rankings for Free in Kindle Store books:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #932 Free in Kindle Store
#210 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Contemporary

I’m simply amazed!

 

My Writing Plan: Week of Oct 27

Posted on by October 29, 2018

NaNo is almost upon us! 

These last few days of November, I’ll be bringing my life down into “slow” mode… my schedule cleared, house in good shape, desk cleared, Scriviner project set up. I have my monthly housekeeping service scheduled for the 30th and on the 31st I’ll be going to Honeybaked to buy a half ham and some of their hickory smoke honey mustard. Oh! And I have to get bread for sandwiches **makes a mental note**

My SecondLife roleplay mom and RealLife writing buddy and friend, Jenn Bradshaw, are having an online SecondLife kick-off write-in event starting at midnight EST and then marching across the time zones with a write-off at midnight each time until we get to California.

I’ve worked through the interpretation of the various character voices in Truck Stop with my narrator, and he’s sent me the first chapter all done, which seriously just blew me away! This is so perfect!! So now he’ll be going forward with narrating the rest of the book. I’m having a professional marketing company re-do the formatting for the Kindle version and will be releasing that with the new cover… I did an okay job with the formatting myself, but I want it professional looking so I’m paying to have it done (like I should have in the beginning). This company also does promo items, and they made me this awesome banner to go with the new cover. Once the audiobook is out, I’m going to have them do an animated one, and also I’m having a trailer made as soon as I know the release date of the audiobook, which won’t be for awhile yet. I’ll be approving each chapter as we go, and once Jay uploads it to ACX, it’s about 2 weeks before they get it released.

Submissions Plan: Not much change from the last Writing Plan blog; I haven’t even gotten more rejections in! I won’t of course be submitting anything through November, because of NaNo, but in December, I’m going to begin to submit to those publishers (traditional and small) that take unagented submissions and are listed with RWA.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection)
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 3)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. Collect information that will be needed by the narrator once the contract is agreed upon.
  2. Work on November newsletter
  3. A CAT FOR TROY
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  4. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  5. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  6. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  7. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

My Audiobook Venture, Part 4: Character Voices

Posted on by November 7, 2018

Before starting with any narration, Jay did a read-through of the full book. Then he narrated some dialogue for each of the major characters, plus a couple not so major but who were crucial to the plot so we wanted their voices just right. He sent me the sound clip of these this afternoon, and we went back and forth in email, working out tone, pitch, accent. Jay’s a pleasure to work with, making some really good suggestions and doing great interpretations on the character voices! Also, I very much like his regular narrative voice… I couldn’t have told you just what it was I wanted for the voice reading my book, I couldn’t have described it… but when I hear him reading, that’s exactly what I wanted! 

On a side note, I’m coming out with a new cover that is a little less suggestive of a steamy romance (which it’s not), and that’ll be uploaded soon, plus I have a banner being made… and as we get closer to the audiobook release date, a book trailer. This is soooooo exciting!

If you’re only just finding this, here are the other blogs in this series:
My Audiobook Venture, Part 1
My Audiobook Venture, Part 2
My Audiobook Venture, Part 3
My Audiobook Venture, Part 4
My Audiobook Venture, Part 5

 

My Audiobook Venture, Part 3: After the contract is signed

Posted on by November 7, 2018

So last night I offered the contract to Jay Dyess to produce my audiobook through ACX, and he accepted, but wanted some tweaking of the deadline dates, which was fine. However, apparently you can’t edit the contract once it’s accepted by the narrator, which I didn’t know. Since we both agreed on the new dates in writing it’s not a problem, but something I want to remember in future, to discuss the dates and agree upon them before offering the contract.

Since the ACX messaging system is NOT a joy to work, we also agreed to communicate by email except for “official” communications, such as agreeing on production dates, which we’ll do in the ACX messaging system where a record is kept.

I’d spent the last 2 days going through the book and making a list of every character who actually had a speaking part. From there, I did a character profile of each with a brief description if it was a major character, their role, and any particulars I had in mind as far as their voice. Being OCD, of course, I separated the hero and heroine and the most important secondary characters and put them at the top, then alphabetized the rest, LOL. So I sent that over to Jay so he could peruse it and start to get a feel for them.

At this point, Jay is doing a full read-through of the book before he gets started. Then he’ll narrate the first 15 minutes of the book and get that to me for checking. Our deadline for that is the end of the weekend and at that point we’ll go over any questions he has about the characters, any concerns I have about the narration so far, etc.

Also last night I contacted Dar Albert of Wicked Smart Designs, my cover designer, because we needed a specific format for the audiobook cover, and darned if she didn’t get it to me within the hour! It’s almost the same as the regular cover but rearranged a bit to fit the square size required, and we added Jay as narrator underneath the title. It looks fabulous!

This is soooooooooo exciting!

If you’re only just finding this, here are the other blogs in this series:
My Audiobook Venture, Part 1
My Audiobook Venture, Part 2
My Audiobook Venture, Part 3
My Audiobook Venture, Part 4
My Audiobook Venture, Part 5

 

My Audiobook Venture, Part 2: Choosing an Audiobook Narrator

Posted on by November 7, 2018

Choosing an Audiobook Narrator

One of the ACX narrators who sent an audition for Truck Stop was Jay Dyess. The instant I heard him speaking, I forgot to be embarrassed and feel awkward about hearing my book read aloud; he made me forget all that and swept me right into the story! I sent out the audition clips of my top two narrator picks to my darling daughter (who’s my best brainstormer and not afraid to critique either! LOL) and to two of my writing buddies-slash-beta readers, and it was unanimous for Jay!

Here’s a couple of the comments:

Hands down, Jay. He has a subtle accent that seems to fit the story, and I can imagine listening to him read for hours (Okay, for reference, I’m NOT a fan of audiobooks in general).

Jay brings life to your words.

ADDENDUM:

Jay accepted!!! We have an official due date of December 17th (that’s not the release date, btw, it’s the date the narration will be finished). I’m not yet sure what will need to be done after that, before it’s released. I’ll be working on finding out so I can come up with a tentative release date.

If you’re only just finding this, here are the other blogs in this series:
My Audiobook Venture, Part 1
My Audiobook Venture, Part 2
My Audiobook Venture, Part 3
My Audiobook Venture, Part 4
My Audiobook Venture, Part 5

 

My Writing Plan: Week of Oct 20

Posted on by October 22, 2018

NaNo is Coming! so is Audiobook!!

The Writing Plan is still officially on Hold as I work up something new to write for NaNoWriMo starting up Nov 1st, which I think will be the 4th book in the Wishes & Dreams paranormal series.

I’m utilizing this time to start production on an audiobook done of Truck Stop. I have a different blog post talking about this new Audiobook Venture 🙂 The short version here is that I’ve submitted it to ACX (which is the production division of Audible) for auditions. I’ve pretty much decided on a narrator, but I’m giving it through the weekend just to see what comes in. Even auditions I don’t care for are valuable, because it helps me to identify what I do not want, which is just as important, I think, as knowing what I do want. I’ll be choosing a narrator on Monday and offering a contract. Once accepted and a production schedule is tentatively agreed upon, I’ll have some idea of when the audiobook may be ready for release; I’m hoping for early December, but at this point it’s too early to know for sure.

Submissions Plan: Not much change from the last Writing Plan blog; I haven’t even gotten more rejections in! I won’t of course be submitting anything through November, because of NaNo, but in December, I’m going to begin to submit to those publishers (traditional and small) that take unagented submissions and are listed with RWA.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection)
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 3)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. Collect information that will be needed by the narrator once the contract is agreed upon.
  2. Work on November newsletter
  3. A CAT FOR TROY
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  4. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  5. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  6. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  7. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

My Audiobook Venture, Part 1: Getting Started

Posted on by November 7, 2018

Over the past year, I’ve become increasingly interested in audiobooks. I’ve been following threads on it in the various RWA loops as well as on Twitter, and at RWA National Conference this summer I went to workshops and one panel, plus I dropped in on ACX/Audible’s booth and talked to the representatives there as well as a couple of other audiobook publishers. I’ve been doing further research, and decided to go forward with an audiobook recording of Truck Stop. Three days since listing Truck Stop on ACX site, this has already been a learning experience, so I’ve decided to keep a kind of running commentary on how this is going.

One of the first things I found on ACX’s site was their ACX University, a series of videos on youtube. The first one, called “Peace, Love, and Understanding Your Audio Partner” was *incredibly* helpful, as I’ve run into some interesting things that hadn’t occurred to me, such as putting short excerpts of different scenes into the audition script, not just the first few pages of the book. It made me far more conscious/aware of the nature of the relationship between author and narrator (this also made me worry that I might be getting unreasonably high expectations, as the author and narrator had worked closely together on a number of books and were obviously quite experienced, whereas I’m new out of the shute, but I *liked* the way they worked together and wanted that for myself). So it gave me some things to be thinking of as I go forward in talking with narrators.

They talked, too, about creative expression of the narrator, and that really gave me pause. I do “hear” my story in my head, I hear the accents, the emphasis, the way a sentence is spoken, where the pauses are. And it made me realize that a narrator isn’t going to hear what I hear, and is going to perform it according to his interpretation, and I needed to stay *aware* of that when listening to auditions. In fact, this was a kind of heads-up and I’m glad I watched this interview before putting Truck Stop up for auditions, because when the first audition came in… it was a shock, more than I had anticipated, to actually hear my story being read at all, and never mind all the other considerations I just mentioned! I had to do some mental adjusting in my head, LOL!

Then when I started listening to narrative samples, I made another discovery. The kind of voice that I generally like (think Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones) is not, in fact, the best kind of voice for my story, my narrative style. I’d listen to those deep, slow voices and tried to imagine my story read that way and… it just didn’t work. What I found, as I went through listening to lots of samples, was that I tended to be drawn more to the higher range of baritone, a little more quickly speaking, without lots of significant pauses. I did wind up going with a male voice, as expected. I was pretty sure I wanted one, but I checked out some female voices just… you know… to be sure, but they didn’t really work for me. I did decide, though, that I want a female voice narrating When Darkness Falls, when I get that far. LOL. Probably a female voice with some kind of light accent… not British, but perhaps Greek. But that’s still a long way away.

ACX U videos for this post:

  1. Peace, Love, and Understanding Your Audio Partner with author Piers Platt and narrator (producer) James Fouhey, talking about working together, creating the working relationship, and the production process.
  2. The Life of an Audiobook Publisher by ACX author Kym Grosso and narrator (producer) Ryan West. She specifically mentions being aware of dialogue tags while she is writing now, keeping in mind how it’ll sound when it’s read aloud.
  3. For a well-rounded education in audiobook production, this is a great one from ACX University, called Inside the Booth: A day in the life of an ACX Pro Producer. This really isn’t exactly pertinent from the author’s side, but still I like to see the other side; the narrator is going to be my working partner, so to speak, so I strongly believe that it’s important for me to understand what their experience is.
  4. While watching an ACX U video on youtube, this video on the sidebar just happened to catch my attention: Is ACX Royalty Share a good deal? by Mike Delgaudio (short answer: NO). It’s actually aimed at the narrators rather than the authors, but I found it of immense interest, and in fact I’ve subscribed to this guy to watch more of his videos, because even though I’m not a narrator, I’m in effect hiring one, or partnering with one, and I feel like I should be aware of their concerns as well. Also because… okay, I admit it, I LOOOVE this guy! It’s not just what he says but HOW he says it! I SO would want him to narrate my book (if I could afford him). Anyway! Back to being serious, in fact, I highly advise anyone considering going into audiobook narration, as a narrator, to watch this video; it is extremely pertinent! Just for fun, he also had this absolutely fascinating vlog on how to create your first Voice Booth! I’ve subscribed to his channel and will be watching lots of his vlogs, not because I want to be a narrator (totally not happening) but because it’s interesting, and I love learning stuff!

Oh dear! I found another fun experience! A video of a workshop presentation by an audiobook narrator, R.C. Bray, who started out and got better, and wound up top of the heap, apparently! It’s called From Audiobook Beginner to Audie Winner. This is hilarious! His best line: “I cannot wait to ride her coat tails” in regards to an author whose book he’d just finished recording. I’m having so much fun tonight!

If you’re only just finding this, here are the other blogs in this series:
My Audiobook Venture, Part 1
My Audiobook Venture, Part 2
My Audiobook Venture, Part 3
My Audiobook Venture, Part 4
My Audiobook Venture, Part 5

 

Audiobook… taking the plunge!

Posted on by October 13, 2018

I’ve been following several indie authors who’ve been reporting their progress with producing audiobooks in the RWA member loops. Then when I went to RWA National Conference, there were several audiobook publishers present as well as some workshops on audiobooks, including a panel of 2 audiobook publishers and an author with a number of audiobooks to her credit.

I decided I definitely wanted to publish Truck Stop as an audiobook, so this morning, I took the plunge! I went to ACX (Audible) and filled out all the forms, and went over the contract (which I was already familiar with from the workshops and authors mentioned above), and submitted a sample for narrators to audition. So now we wait, and see what happens! I’ll be distributing exclusively through ACX, so rather than paying the narrator (Producer) up front, they’ll split the royalties 50/50 with me. The distribution includes Audible, Amazon and iTunes markets.So now… we wait and see what auditions come in!

 

 

My Writing Plan: Week of Oct 6

Posted on by October 6, 2018

NaNo is Coming!

The Writing Plan, as far as actual writing, is now officially on Hold. I have to find something new to write for NaNoWriMo starting up Nov 1st, and to do that I have to be able to let go of the manuscripts and characters I’ve been living in night and day for months. This is far from easy to do, my mind doesn’t want to let go. So I’m identifying 2-3 possible stories and going to start working on doing characterization for the heroes and heroines and see what story and characters I connect with the most, then start on world building for that one.

Submissions Plan: I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking, as the rejections roll in. I’ve pretty much submitted everything I have done (2 books of Sons of the Desert series, 3 books of Wishes & Dreams series) to pretty much every literary agent listed with RWA. Despite the rejections, I actually still have great hope. The overwhelming response seems to be, they LIKE the stories, they LIKE the writing… but they don’t think they can sell it, one said these are “niche” stories, more are saying this isn’t what’s selling right now. No one is willing to take a chance; and that’s fair enough since an agent’s livelihood derives from *selling* books to publishers, not taking on projects they aren’t sure they can sell. I totally get that. So, I’m changing course in regards to submissions. I won’t of course be submitting anything through November, because of NaNo, but in December, I’m going to begin to submit to those publishers (traditional and small) that take unagented submissions and are listed with RWA.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection)
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 3)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. NaNoWriMo prep, as above
  2. Work on October newsletter (Priority)
  3. A CAT FOR TROY
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  4. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  5. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  6. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  7. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 29

Posted on by October 6, 2018

NaNo is Coming!

The Writing Plan, as far as actual writing, is now officially on Hold. I have to find something new to write for NaNoWriMo starting up Nov 1st, and to do that I have to be able to let go of the manuscripts and characters I’ve been living in night and day for months. This is far from easy to do, my mind doesn’t want to let go. So I’m identifying 2-3 possible stories and going to start working on doing characterization for the heroes and heroines and see what story and characters I connect with the most, then start on world building for that one.

Also, I’m going to start cooking to make up freezer meals for November. This is actually a bigger deal than it sounds like, since I have chronic pain and associated insomnia, and having energy enough to cook is an issue at the best of times. So I’m going to just take it very slow and get things done as I can. I spent the last week and a half doing “spring cleaning” which I do in the fall to have my house in great shape to kick off NaNo, so aside from having wall bookshelves installed in the guest bedroom, my house is good to go and I have my housekeeping service coming on the 31st (on which day I’ll also go to Honeybaked and get a half ham… also part of my NaNo tradition!).

I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. No rejections came in this week… that’s kinda positive, right? There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection)
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 3)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. NaNoWriMo prep, as above
  2. Work on October newsletter (Priority)
  3. A CAT FOR TROY
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  4. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  5. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  6. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  7. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 22

Posted on by September 25, 2018

The writing plan is still pretty much unchanged from last week. I’m When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo.

I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. No rejections came in this week… that’s kinda positive, right? There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full of SwanSong!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. A CAT FOR TROY (Priority)
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  2. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 15

Posted on by September 15, 2018

The writing plan is still pretty much unchanged from last week. I’ve still got some revisions to do on A Cat For Troy, then back to When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo.

I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. No rejections came in this week… that’s kinda positive, right? There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full of SwanSong!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. A CAT FOR TROY (Priority)
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  2. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 8

Posted on by September 10, 2018

I’m sorry, how did it get to September already??? Early in the week I’d decided to go through and write detailed synopses for each chapter in the Synopsis cards in Scrivener. In doing so, I realized I needed a few extra days toward the end of A Gift of Jacinth, to make a crucial event line up with the weekend. In doing so, I then threw off the timeline that overlaps with A Cat For Troy. So I’ve got that mostly done, I do want to get that finished so it’s off my list. I got myself so confused with dates and weekdays (for 2 manuscripts that overlapped) I finally went to google and found a blank calendar form I could use to write in events for both stories, and that was an enormous help. Then one of my beta readers found a (minor) loose end in A Cat For Troy. Here’s the funny part: I had actually found that myself, and *thought* so hard about what I was going to write to fix it, that I thought I *had* written it!! But I hadn’t!  She’s also found a couple of areas I need to do some serious thinking and work on, in the very last chapters, and so I’m bumping that up in front of When Darkness Falls.

The writing plan is still pretty much unchanged from last week. I’m still working on When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo.

I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full of SwanSong!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. A GIFT OF JACINTH / A CAT FOR TROY (Priority #1)
    1. Work on the overlapping timeline and get all chapters mapped out on a calendar (Done!)
  2. A CAT FOR TROY (Priority #2)
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  3. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  4. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  5. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  6. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

Graphic “aesthetics” for my works in progress

Posted on by September 3, 2018

So I reeeeallllyyyy wanted to have graphics for each of my series, and for the trilogy. I had commissioned the portrait of Jacinth, so I used that as the background for the Wishes & Dreams series, but I’d done the one for Sons of the Desert series long ago. But I had NO idea what I was going to do for When Darkness Falls, and it’d been bugging me for awhile, so this morning I went shopping on royalty-free images sites, and found the perfect one! Once I had that done, I went back to look at Sons of the Desert, which was so old really and not very good quality. So I went shopping again aaaaaaaaand…. now I have beautiful aesthetics for each of my two series and for When Darkness Falls, all of which I’m super pleased with!! Here they are!

 

 

Future Rewards

Posted on by September 3, 2018

Just because I need a place to put these where I can find them when I need them… since these are rewards for significant achievements they won’t happen all that often and I’m liable to forget.

MAJOR MAJOR Rewards… this is for something HUGE like an offer of representation or a book deal.

A 14k gold-plated slinky!

Amouage Gold Perfume

LESSER Rewards, for finishing manuscripts, winning at Nano, Finaling in a contest,etc.:

 

Poster: “Doves” by Marta Dahlig

Also, “Pandora” and “Comfort” (Eros & Psyche) by the same artist. DeviantArt

 

 

 

Amouage Gold Soap

 

 

 


Lenox 2017 Christmas Carousel Horse

 

 

 

 

 

My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 1

Posted on by September 5, 2018

Again, there’s not much change from last week. I’m still working on When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo. I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full of SwanSong!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,200/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Start on September newsletter
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook
  6. Start thinking about NaNo (meal planning/freezer meals)

 

Tweet about getting a request for a full… UNREAL!

Posted on by September 1, 2018

So yesterday morning (Saturday, Aug 25), I posted this to Twitter:

OMG OMG! So yesterday afternoon I got an email from an agent I’d queried. But I looked at it in my inbox and just couldn’t take any more rejections right then, and didn’t open it. So I just woke up and opened it… it was a request for a FULL!! #amwriting #amquerying

For the last week, my Followers on Twitter have been running 1085 or so; Friday night they were 1086. Sunday morning, they were up to 1114; at the time of this post (9:35 pm PST), I have 1164 followers. Twitter Analytics shows 31,700 Impressions, 1,762 Likes, 136 Replies and 38 Retweets.

I’m just… huh? what? What’d I say? Not that I’m complaining, mind you! It’s just… awesome in a kinda surreal fashion. I just sit here shaking my head and laughing.

Monday a.m. update: Okay this is so crazy! I’m going to do a form kinda thing to watch it. Oh… and 17 new Likes came in just while I was typing up this post!

Monday noon:Here’s the final outcome as of Aug 31st:

My Writing Plan: Week of Aug 25

Posted on by August 25, 2018

There’s not much change from last week. Mostly I’ll be working on When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo. And yes, I’m already starting to think about NaNo! I’m going to start making up freezer meals beginning this week.

Also, I’ll be working on my September newsletter, so don’t forget to sign up here!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,200/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Start on September newsletter
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook
  6. Start thinking about NaNo (meal planning/freezer meals)

 

A rejection letter… but still good!

Posted on by August 20, 2018

Well… if I absolutely HAVE to get a rejection letter, I sure do like to get one that reads like this!

Wishes in a Bottle looks to be a fun story and series for sure!  I think you’ve created an engaging novel that readers will enjoy.  I am going to pass however, as I think it is a bit niche after all, and because of that may not have the breadth of readership I’m hoping to obtain.

Keep up the good work – you obviously know how to tell a story.

I’m still not sure whether to cry or celebrate!

My Writing Plan: Week of Aug 18

Posted on by August 18, 2018

There’s not much change from last week. I didn’t get ANY rejection letters this week (???). Mostly I’ll be working on When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo. And yes, I’m already starting to think about NaNo! I’m going to start making up freezer meals beginning this week.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection received… this was expected)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 1)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,200/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Start on September newsletter
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook
  6. Start thinking about NaNo (meal planning/freezer meals)