Tag: The Seven Stars series

General · writing

Writing and Goals: Weekly Update

annmarieswaim3 Comments
WELP! This is fantastic…
So, I’ve been going in circles with this MS, book 2 of The Seven Stars Series, and I think I finally figured out why.
There was a GIANT plot hole. Like, EPIC. The question, vaguely, was “How does this character know this thing?” And I couldn’t answer the question without breaking everything.
I think, THINK, knock on freaking wood, I finally worked through it.
The problem now? I have to scrap the last 8K words and find a new path to the ending. Or possibly a new ending entirely.
The upside? It didn’t break book 1. From Stars, Come Dragons lives to fight another day!

 

Always working toward that word count goal, but a lot of those words, this week, are going into outlining.

Still waiting on editor feedback for FSCD. Nothing to report there.

I started beta reading another author’s manuscript. I’m a little over 30% done.

Father-in-law is still in the hospital, recovering. Things are looking up.

Time to get back to work! Have a great week!

General · Music

Music playlist for From Stars, Come Dragons

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Well, my day, week, month… You name it, was made today. A super awesome Twitter friend, Avery Ames, (<– Click it!) offered, in a Tweet to make a playlist for the first two people to reply to her offer. I missed the window for the first and second slot, but Avery was kind enough to extend the offer and make a list for From Stars, Come Dragons.

After giving a little information about the book and the characters, and just a few days, Avery sent me this YouTube playlist:

Here’s the Spotify playlist if you prefer:

Now, Avery made this list for my character Libby, who I described like this: She’s summer when it’s always winter. Has a smile you can’t refuse.

From that, Avery made the list of upbeat songs focusing on joy and encouragement. What Avery didn’t know, was how well many of these songs captured the whole book.

Now, From Stars, Come Dragons is not an upbeat book. It’s not depressing or anything either, it’s just very much… life. Ups and downs and how the character’s deal with them.

I’m Good by The Mowgli’s was the one that punched me in the gut. I had never heard this song before. And HOLY CRAP! The lyrics capture FSCD so well. Henry, Gary, Libby, Karen, and Elsie are all doing their best to be good, to live life like they should, but more often than not, this is just the lie they tell themselves to keep moving.

Thank you, Avery Ames. You made me smile and cry all at once and I ❤ you so much for it!

Literally, me with this playlist

 

Monthly Updates · writing

Writing: Monthly Update for January

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It’s the first of the month! Time for another writing update!

Querying:

While I’m deep in the revising trenches preparing to publish, querying will be on hold.

Current WIPs:

From Stars, Come Dragons (The Seven Stars #1) – Had a great month with this. I received feedback from my content editor. Not as bad as I expected. I spent two weeks revising and handed my revisions in. This guy is is now back with my content editor and I’m waiting on my next round of feedback!

What revisions did I make?

There were some clarity issues. People in one place suddenly appearing across the room with no indication they had moved. It was a bit disorienting.

No structural changes. But I did add and change some minor world building things to allow for the development of other characters and the direction the series is going.

General clean up! It had been many months since I touched this manuscript. My writing has improved a lot in those months. There were several passages that were clunky. Descriptions that were too shallow or on the nose. Not that I went purple with my prose or anything. That’s not how I write. It just needed beefed up a bit to bring you into the scene better.

Title coming soon (The Seven Stars #2) – The beginning of January, when FSCD landed on my editor’s desk, I dove into book two of this series! I’m having a great time with it. I love where it’s going! As of this morning I’ve already written 16,752 words. It’s coming right along. My goal is to finish the rough draft by the end of February. Though, revising FSCD could push that back. Publishing comes first!

 

Reading:

Read two books in January, which means I’m on track with my 2018 reading goal!

Below, I included my reviews of the two books I read in January. TBH, I wouldn’t say I review books as much as I give my initial thoughts after closing it. Anywho, here they are!

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson51kirZzj7BL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Goodreads rating: 4 stars

I’m not really sure what to say. A beautiful story told even more beautifully. Yet… I was left feeling off balance. Not bad, necessarily, just… Off. A lot happened in this book for it being a little less than 300 pages and yet, I didn’t feel like anything important was missing. Then came the end and the epilogue, and I just felt like there was so much more could have been told between them.

I suppose my only complaint is the one I should have… I wanted more.

The Beast is an Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale

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Goodreads rating: 4 stars (I really wish they’d implement at least half stars)

4.9 really, but can’t quite bring myself to round up. This was such a fantastic journey. It was so deliciously dark. I even teared up at one point. The poor children! Truly, I loved this book. Until the last chapter. Not that I didn’t like it at that point. I was just so far on the edge of my seat throughout, I thought for sure the end would push me off. But I just felt like… is that it?

I still highly recommend it! It’s a journey worth going on. The fairytale telling. The characters. OMG the Defaiders! The use of religion… Deep breaths… I don’t know if the author was inspired by it or not, and this story is not this, but the tone, many times, reminded me of the movie The Village. I’d say if you like that movie, you’ll like this book. Just don’t expect the M. Night twist 😉

Ok that’s it. Really liked this book. Probably read it again sometime.

Beta Reading:

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for beta reading in January. I have volunteered to read for one of my beta readers. Should see that soon and read it in February.

BLOGS:

This week I set a new goal to read more blogs! To keep myself honest, I’m also tweeting about the blogs I read. I’m doing pretty well with it so far. Here are the links to the tweets about the blogs I read this week.

S.E. Isaac

Lindsay Newton

 

Well… I think that does it. Some ups and downs, (let’s be honest, mostly ups) but all in all a great month!
How was your January?

General · writing

Writing and Goals: An even minier update?

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Well, I thought things would get back to normal after my son got over Influenza A, but nothing is ever that easy, is it?

Poor kid had one good day last week, then came down with the stomach flu. 😦

Fortunately, he’s come out on the other side a little tired, but functional. Ready for life to be normal again. And so am I!

It was not at all a normal week for anyone in our house, and sickness wasn’t the only reason, but I digress. And because of the abnormalities, I didn’t get any new writing done for the second week in a row.

BUT…

I did get my revision of FROM STARS, COME DRAGONS done and turned into my content editor last night. ON SCHEDULE!

Now that I’m waiting for new feedback, I can start writing again. Our lives are still a bit uprooted and we’re trying to find new footing, but I’m shooting for the moon with my goal this week to try to get myself back on track!

My word count goal this week (always available in the What’s the buzz? widget in the sidebar) is 8K words.

Image result for wish me luck gif

And writing isn’t the only goal I have this week. I would also like to read more. And not just books. I’d really like to read more blogs. I follow so many now and I haven’t had the time to read any. And, to be honest, reading them kind of intimidates me. I can’t tell you why. I know it’s weird, but it’s true.

So, this week, I’m going to set another goal. I’m going to try to read one blog post everyday. And when I finish reading one, I’ll tweet about it! Keep me honest 😉

What are your goals this week?

General · writing

Mini update

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It’s been a rough week. Our son came down with Influenza A and ended up in the hospital with a 104.1F temperature. There are school things going on and he’s missed three and a half days at this point. My day job has been more demanding than normal. And I haven’t had a full, restful sleep in a week. I’m exhausted.

One thing I was able to celebrate, before all hell broke loose, was finishing the first revision of From Stars, Come Dragons since getting my editor’s feedback! Since then, I’ve started reading it again and making notes for then next revision. After that pass is done, I will send it back for round 2!

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As far as word count goes… Yeah… I failed. 😛 Unless you count the 1K-ish words I wrote while revising.

I Probably won’t get much written this week either, but I’m not changing my goal. I’m going to try. 🙂

And… That’s a wrap!

How was your week? Let me know in comment below!

General · writing

I’m setting a dangerous standard

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This will be the second week in a row, and by happenstance coinciding with the weeks of the year, that I’ve done a weekly status update. Normally, I’d limit updates to monthly, but things are happening right along that make weekly updates possible.

What I’m trying to get at is, don’t get too used to this. LOL Not sure how long I can keep this up. ;P

Anywho… Last week was productive, but it didn’t feel that way. It was odd. I surpassed my word count goal for the week with well over 5K words written. YAY! My WIP (Book 2 in The Seven Stars series) is now over 12K words. Which for my first drafts is roughly a quarter finished! But, I don’t know, I felt like I did hardly anything writing-wise. And now I’m going to have to lower my word count goal for a few weeks, because…

I got my first round of feedback for From Stars, Come Dragons from my content editor!

ME:

excited-baby.gif

This, of course, makes revising my first priority. I guess I know what I’m doing tonight (and pretty much every night for the next couple of weeks!)

Remember, you can always check in with the What’s the buzz? widget, in the right sidebar, to see what I’m up to even when I’m not blogging 🙂  And if you have any questions about what I’m up to or what I have coming up in the future, please leave a question (reply) on the Ask Me Anything page and I’ll be happy to answer.

That’s it for now! TTYL

Announcements · General · writing

2018 is off to a great start!

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Last week was a great start to the new year. I had set a goal of writing 5000 words on the first draft of my WIP, From the Vast, which I’d planned on finishing before starting on the sequel to From Stars, Come Dragons, but I put it aside when the sequel consumed my brain.

I wrote almost everyday last week and as of last night my total word count was 8,414 words!

For those of you who don’t know, a typical young adult fantasy novel will clock in around 70K – 100K words. Since this is the rough draft, which I treat more as a detailed outline, though it will read like a book with dialogue and structure, I will come in well under that 70K this time around. I expect I’ll hit around 40K – 50K on this rough draft and have to add scenes to fix plot holes and descriptions later. I could be way off, of course, but this is based on my past experience.

This week, I’ve set the same 5K word goal. You can see this in the What’s the Buzz? widget on the right side bar of the website –>

Another great thing to come out of last week and starting to write a sequel, was naming the series! And here it is!

From Stars, Come Dragons and its sequels will be part of THE SEVEN STARS series. YIPPEE!! /me goes a little nuts and likes it!

The last few weeks of 2017 were amazing, and the first week of 2018 was just as great!

How was your first week of 2018? Any big plans this year? Resolutions? Share in the comments! And have a great year!