Quarterly Goals

This is officially the fastest year in the history of fast years. It is the last Wednesday in JUNE!

On the 5th Wednesday that pops up quarterly, I share/brainstorm/word-vomit my goals for the next three months. I took a break in December and March, so I had to hop back to my Quarterly Goals post from September to see what my goals were supposed to have been these past 9 months (I could've had a baby hahaha).

My first major goal was to get back into the swing of things. Result: Eh. I have been doing a little better, but I still have a way to go. I might not get back to writing and reading the way I used to. On the bright side, I do know what I need to write. Just have to press forward and get it done. And when I get back into a good reading pace, I'll have probably a hundred books and e-books to start with. I have been doing a little better with blogs, at least.

My second major goal was to find a job I really want to do. Result: Eh?? Since September, I bowed out of the startup production company I joined, and while I've been looking at gaming-related jobs, I don't have the credentials. We go back into the office full time in September, and words can't express how much I'm dreading that. On the other hand, I do have the traditional publication to look forward to. I know not to get my hopes up that I'll become a millionaire best-seller off of one book, but I am definitely over the 8-4:30 secretary jobs. They were never part of my plan. I know my plans don't really mean much, so I'm grateful that I'm starting to see my author dreams coming true. In the meantime, if there's a work-from-home job in the cards for me, hopefully that's a new day job in my future.

Incidentally, the next 5th Wednesday falls in September again, so I'll get to see what I've accomplished a year out with the next Quarterly Goals post. Who knows what the next 3 months will bring? Let's find out!

FRACTURED PRINCESS RELEASE DATE (June Writing Update & Monthly Review)

Happy Wednesday!

I took a week off because I had a meeting with my publisher last Thursday, so I wanted to wait until I had news to share! I'm very excited, so here we go!

You will notice a release date has been added to my website description! The traditional release of FRACTURED PRINCESS will be August 18th! I'm so excited. I can't say enough how I wished a publisher would find my book in the Amazon piles but didn't think it would actually happen. And now, two years after I self-published FP, the dream is coming true. I will hopefully have a cover by the next Writing Update post. They're working on it now. I've already seen a preliminary image, and to see Jonnie illustrated again is so wonderfully weird. I love how talented artists are.

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On another note, my schedule will be changing again. This 18 months has been a bit of an eye-opener on a lot of things, and while I'm so grateful for the outlet I've had a chance to be a part of for the past 9 years, I have decided to stop participating in the Insecure Writer's Support Group. I had left the Facebook group in January, and I was trying to hold out, but I'll just say safe spaces are real and necessary, especially for black writers. I don't have the luxury of ignoring certain issues, and I can no longer remain in spaces that do.

So what that means for the 1st Wednesday of the month, I have some options. I might push my posts up and take a break the last Wednesday. This month, I have Quarterly Goals, and I already took a break last week! I already know there won't be a post on July 21st because I will be on my birthday vacation (update: I scheduled a post hahaha), but as I already said, August 18th is FP's release date, so I need to post something! I'll figure it out.

So that said, I will see you all next Wednesday for my Quarterly Goals!

Wednesday Words: Still Reading The Shining

 

Happy Hump Day!

It is the second Wednesday in June, which means I share what I'm reading with you all. Sometimes I'm still reading a book from the month before, and because I'm in a book club with my busy sisters, this time is the case. We're still reading The Shining.

 

Usually, I won't return to the blog with the same book, but we're at the point now where the snow has come, so Jack, Wendy, and Danny are now stuck in the Overlook. Things are getting dark, and they're getting dark fast. I'm loving every bit of it.

While reading it, I'm also thinking back on the changes Kubrick made that really ruined the story, and Stephen King said it best himself in this article: Why Does Stephen King Hate The Original Movie of 'The Shining' but Love 'Doctor Sleep'? He said Kubrick took out the story, and reading the book for the first time, it's clear that that's true. Watching the movie, I wasn't even really sure why the Torrences were even at the hotel! Because you never see Jack working, except on his novel. He's actually there to keep the hotel up and running on low power and maintenance during the blizzard season.

In Kubrick's movie, Jack and Wendy are one-dimensional to a fault. Jack already comes in clearly messed up, and while Jack in the book is messed up, it doesn't become apparent how messed up he is in the book right out the gate. It takes time. You see all his darkness gradually, which is good, especially because you get to see his connection with Danny. They have a close bond in the book that is erased in the movie, a bond that book Wendy is actually jealous of. Speaking of, if you read the article, you will know Stephen King called Kubrick's characterization of Wendy “one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film.” Yikes. And not wrong. All she does is scream and look as weak as possible. Book Wendy is a mama bear, and there are many instances in the book that show it. But having only watched "A Clockwork Orange" before this, seeing the gratuitous images of naked women placed into both movies, and knowing how he tortured Shelly Duvall, I feel like Kubrick had a misogyny problem anyway. There is a scene often cut from the tv rerun of the film that I'm waiting to show up or not happen in the book to see if I can add racist to that list as well.

Anyhow, I'm loving the book. We're reading Doctor Sleep after. The movie is great. It feels like a dark superhero movie to me. Stephen King said Mike Flanagan did a great job of tying the book to Kubrick's movie, so kudos to him.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Backdraft

 

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!

And welcome to another installment of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where we can throw our cares to the wind and talk about writing with a bunch of other writers. Please join us by following our fearless leader Alex J. Cavanaugh and signing up at the official Insecure Writer's Support Group website.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of finally getting to meet Wahida Clark, the Queen of Street Lit, to discuss plans for my new release date. She is so sweet, and I can't wait to continue this journey with SFF/For the Culture. More news will be coming, probably by the next IWSG post! There are 5 Wednesdays this month, though, so it might be sooner than that. =D

This month's question is about our writing process, hence the silly addition to this post's title: For how long do you shelve our first draft before reading it and re-drafting? Is this dependent on your writing experience and the number of stories/books under your belt?

Once I hit The End, from advice of other writers, I don't touch the book for about a month. The entire time I'm writing, I'm editing as well, which is a bad habit, but I'm a proofreader/editor by nature, so I don't try not to do it anymore, unless I'm doing NaNoWriMo. You need to breathe after you finish that first draft, because if you go right back into it after finishing, your eyes won't be fresh enough. Go to a new story, or even just do something else for the month. Just don't tempt yourself with the one you just finished!

May Review - Road to Re-Release

 

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It is the LAST Wednesday of May, and I can't believe it. We are almost halfway through 2021. I hope everyone is doing well, has been healthy, and has been able to get a good start on some goals!

Things are really starting to move for me. I meet with my publisher next Tuesday to discuss release dates. If anyone has any resources for reading book questions, I need to bring some to that meeting, and I don't know the first thing about it! I mean, I've obviously been reading books since I was 5, so I can come up with some. Just the thought that there would be a reading group discussing Fractured Princess blows my mind. I also have to choose my preferred audiobook narrative, and I definitely have imagined having an audiobook for FP, but wow!

I hope the people who already bought it are willing to buy the first half of the new version when it's re-released. That's a big worry of mine. I also made some pretty significant changes to it, so maybe that will reel them in.

I also need to prepare for more face-time and promotion up to and through publication. I have no idea what that will look like and what kind of time it will consume, but hopefully it will be smooth, especially because I have a full-time job. I don't expect to become a millionaire book 1, so yeah, I have to keep working while I'm . . . working.

So anyway, here's to what I expect to be an exciting Summer!

May Writing Update

 

It is the third Wednesday of MAY! That means it's time for me to give you a writing update, and because things are starting to move on the republication of Fractured Princess, that means I have updates!

I received the edits back from the copyeditor yesterday, so once I go through them, I get to meet with the Queen, Wahida Clark, to talk release dates! I'm not going to pretend like I didn't scream a little when I got the email. I was so excited. Two years ago, I had settled on the idea of being an independent author even though I knew I needed traditional publishing. I'm not great at self-marketing, and it took me years to understand what exactly a brand is no matter how many people explained it, so being on my own, I knew I'd make pennies. That said, every time I got those pennies, the fact that someone somewhere BOUGHT MY BOOK?? It still amazes me.

So, things are happening, and I'm squealing inside. Who knows where this exposure will take me! Stay tuned!

BOOK NEWS for Fractured Princess! (IWSG)

It's Revenge of the Fifth! Happy May, and welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where we throw our insecurities to the wind and celebrate each other for our accomplishments! You can visit the website and our founder, Alex J. Cavanaugh, for the list of co-hosts for the month and other participants, as well as join us by signing up!

Big book news for me: Fractured Princess was cleared to go to copy editing! My publisher said it didn't need developmental edits, but I sent them the developmental edit I did anyway, because there were some things I needed to fix for continuity/plot holes. I'm very excited that they found it flawless haha. My English degree paid off, figuratively speaking. Heh. So more news will be coming soon!

This month's question: Have any of your readers ever responded to your writing in a way that you didn't expect? If so, did it surprise you?

I don't have that many readers yet, but I will say in an early draft of one of my books, my sister asked me a question that actually changed the path of the relationship of two of my characters. She asked if they were going to get together, and I said no. Then, she said, "Why not?" And that was that, and all I'll say about that. hahaha

What about you all?

April Review

 

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It is already the last Wednesday of APRIL. This is wild.

This month has flown by. Things are steadily picking up a pace of sorts for me. I took a break in March, which was helpful. I also had my 3-month lab and doctor appointment, and my oncologist said I could get my port removed! So, this past Monday, that's exactly what I did, just 1 year and 2 days after my last chemo treatment! I got Thai-rolled ice cream and then later DQ ice cream to celebrate with my younger sister, who went with me. I can't wait to sleep on my left side and not feel that piece of plastic in my chest, or the cut healing, which feels very weird when a surge of slight pain hits.

I had started streaming my video game play, and I realize I don't really like to, so after I finish replaying the Final Fantasy VII Remake, I probably won't stream again for a long while. Maybe when I have a fanbase and someone to talk to besides a potential follower in the future, I'll pick it back up. N.K. Jemisin does it every now and then, and I'd like to do that, too one day.

While I don't want to keep on the secretary/admin track I've fallen into, my older sister said she recommended me to my brother-in-law to do his admin work when he gets his business up and running. That would be a little different from being a government secretary, and certainly a work-from-home gig, which I would highly appreciate. I'd also really like to do more proofreading, so I set up a profile for Upwork for freelance jobs. I have an alert for Writing jobs set up through Linkedin, but I realized I don't want to do a writing job that isn't me writing my books. That's enough pressure as it is. Proofing is something I can almost do in my sleep, and I used to have a business in it that didn't really take off past a few clients I already knew, so that's what I would like to lean towards.

Writing-wise, I looked at both my NA Fantasies this month. I need to get back to those, but as I've figured out my next step in the Fractured Princess sequel, I need to work on that more. I honestly don't know what the future holds for me being a signed author versus an independent author, but I do know I'm going to keep writing that series.

I hope everyone has had a prosperous April. Just three more days, and you know the drill:

April Writing Update

 

It is mid-April! UGH. Time. Slow down!

More specifically, it's the third Wednesday, where I provide an update about my writing if I have one. AND I DO. Last week, I realized who the main antagonist is the Shattered Chronicles series, and I'm super excited. I might even have enough material for a whole other book. Which is scary, but we'll see what happens. It's not like I don't already have prequel-type scenes sitting in a Word doc already. *wicked smirk*

More news to hopefully come soon about the republishing of Fractured Princess in two parts. The current policy of SFF/For the Culture brand is for books to be approximately 45K, so I can't do anything about it but hope that it changes in the future. We shall see.

Wednesday Words: Stephen King's The Shining

 

I'm actually back, I think! Happy 2nd Wednesday of the month! On this day, I share with you all what I am reading, and this month is a fun one. If by fun, you like being scared out of your wits.

A few weeks ago, my younger sister said she had never seen all of The Shining, so I said we should watch it. As we were watching it, I realized I'd never seen the whole thing! Before then, I had only seen from the point where Wendy was speaking to a therapist, but also, I'd only ever seen it on cable, so there were several scenes that were cut. I'm not a fan of Stanley Kubrick's movies. I think he butchers and over-sexualizes books when he adapts them, and that's going off of the two I've seen. So, the only important scene that was really essential that I'd never seen but had heard my older sister always talk about was the old woman in the bathtub. She was featured heavily in Doctor Sleep, which was a GREAT movie. Maybe we'll read the book next, as there is an excerpt at the end of this one.

But anyway, I say all this to say that after we watched it and told our older sister, we decided to read the book together, so that's where we are. I haven't read a Stephen King novel since Full Dark No Stars, which wasn't really scary, just super dark. I know how The Shining ends, and it doesn't end with Jack frozen in the maze, eyes rolled back for no reason. But if you haven't read it, I won't give it away.

Here is a bit of dialogue about the creepy old woman, cutting out the rude misogyny in this. It's excessive here:

"...a chambermaid, Delores Vickery...she gives out with a helluva shriek while she's makin up the room where those two stayed, and she faints dead away. When she comes to she says she seen the dead woman in the bathroom, layin naked in the tub. 'Her face was all purple an puffy,' she says, 'an she was grinnin at me.' So Ullman gave her two weeks' worth of walking papers and told her to get lost. I figure there's maybe forty-five people died in this hotel since my grandfather opened it for business in 1910."

All the big hotels have secrets and superstitions. I'll stick to Days Inn then. haha

What are you reading this month?

Insecure Writer's Support Group

 

Happy April!

I'm currently on a blogging break, but I did want to pop in to answer this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question! You can visit the website and our founder, Alex J. Cavanaugh, for the list of co-hosts for the month and other participants, as well as join us by signing up!

This month's question is: Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?

I don't know if I'm a huge risk-taker. I probably have a darker focus in my work than other YA/NA writers. I've never been afraid to have more gruesome scenes or imagery in my stories, even when I was a kid. I grew up in a Stephen King-loving household, so I'm sure that has something to do with it.

Actually, Style/POV-wise, I decided to write the Shattered Chronicles series in present tense to pull myself more into it emotionally, and I know present tense might be considered a risk. I hardly notice the tense in books when I read them unless it suddenly changes, so it's not something I consider a risk, but I know others don't like it. Makes no difference to me. :)

What about you?

Quarterly Goals - Am I On A Break?

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm a couple weeks early for my quarterly goals post, but that's because I need to take the next few weeks to decide what I'm doing with the blog. I'm not really reading at the moment, and my writing has been slow, so I haven't been able to do my weekly posts.

If I'm still in a rut in April, I'm going to need to reevaluate my blogging schedule, which, if you've been with me since my blopsot.com days, you'll know that's on brand for me. I really like this schedule, though, so maybe I just need to take an also-on-brand-for-me break until I can get back into the swing of things. I'll make a decision by the April IWSG post.

Insecure Writer's Support Group

 

My day has been so busy I totally forgot to post. And who can believe that it's already March?? That means it's time for another installment of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Please visit the website, as well as our founder, Alex J. Cavanaugh to visit the co-hosts and other writers to connect with!

So, I had to write a 5-paragraph bio for my publisher, and whew! I hope it wasn't trash. I felt like I gave them my life story, and that I was back in college writing the weakest but still C-able essay. HAHA. We'll see if I need to fix it. I need to finish looking back over the second half of FP before the editor needs it.

What I really need to do is take a couple of days off (which, let me go ahead and ask my boss now) and try to break out of government and secretary work. I'm over both. I'm in my mid-thirties. I need to do what I love, and this isn't it.

Anyway, this month's question is: Everyone has a favorite genre or genres to write. But what about your reading preferences? Do you read widely or only within the genre(s) you create stories for? What motivates your reading choice?

I usually read whatever the wind blows into my view. I've read fantasy, mystery, romance, horror, thrillers, adult, YA, children's books, manga, comics, graphic novels, sci-fi, etc. As long as the premise is good, I'll give it a try. If you can give me a fantasy with romance, you have hit my sweet spot. :D

How about y'all?