The Dream Keepers

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Teaser Tuesday

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲!

𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨. 𝐇𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐚. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐚 𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨𝐨.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

𝟕 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬!

The Dream Keepers, Writing

Behind the Scenes: Read-Through and Editing

Byali | On August 12,21 | 0 Comment

Good afternoon everyone! A little Behind the Scenes diary entry for you.

Bri and I are delaying a little since the read-through has proved to wave some red flags our way. We are eight weeks out from book launch and need to edit the book again and do another read-through as soon as we are done to move to copyright and ISBN. This means we are juggling some cats.

Not real cats, no, the real cat was helping me with my reading today.

This is Lovey. She’s really a sixteen-pound paperweight. She eats my binding, my red pen, and drools on the hard copy. I love her, and she’s an excellent editor.

Now for the next step.

Coffee.

Who cares that it’s afternoon, right? Sleep is for the weak.

Teaser Tuesday, The Dream Keepers

Teaser Tuesday (ish)

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 ☆꧁𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲꧂☆! 𝐈 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲.

♥ 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐚 ♥

𝐒𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤. 𝐒𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐰𝐨!

𝐎𝐌𝐆! 𝐈’𝐦 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲!.

Enticing Journey: https://forms.gle/Lwidgprz8fEwzTqH8

Xpresso Tours: http://xpressobooktours.com/2021/08/10/tour-sign-up-the-dream-keepers-by-ali-lucia-sky/

The Dream Keepers, Writing

Behind the Scenes: Writing, Editing, and Drafting

Byali | On August 10,21 | 0 Comment

Hello!

Welcome to the ‘Behind the Scenes’ of my book writing and publishing journey. Today I’m going to talk a little about the final draft read… cry, cry, cry.

It’s not going the way I’d hoped.

First of all, this is the 4th trip through this with Bri and easily the 8th draft overall. I wrote the book for NaNoWriMo in 2014. The Dream Keepers is a very well-loved story. When I decided to publish it, I printed out my last copy of the manuscript and rewrote a whole new draft into the Scrivener application. I then would export the files and import them to Google Docs and compile them for Bri. Bri and my friend Raylene read my ‘beta’ file. I took all their comments and notes and made them on a physical draft. I then posted them to Bri’s manuscript and the Scrivener one.

Why was I making extra work for myself? I don’t know yet. We will see how Scrivener works out to determine if it is worth it or not, okay!?

So, Bri and I went through the copy twice more, and then we recompiled it for this final proof. Which I again made a physical copy.

I stress writers to do two things:

Read your book out loud or have someone read it to you if you have the luxury.
Create a physical copy you can read to see what it looks like and make notes on that copy. I can’t tell you how different a physical copy looks compared to a digital one.

So, why am I crying?

Because we might as well be looking at this from the beta version for all the things I see format-wise and content-wise that are wrong. It’s heartbreaking and deadline threatening since we need the final copy no later than the 16th, which probably means one more read-through, making it late.

Why, oh, why?

I guess this is just because Bri and I are being very thorough. We don’t want to publish rubbish. I want to put the best I can out there for people to read. I don’t want anyone to read and review my book and leave a comment saying, ‘this wasn’t worth the money because the grammar and punctuation were a mess.’ I worked very hard on The Dream Keepers and I want it to reflect that.

So, this time it is me reading my book like it’s the first time I’m looking at it, after reading it at least twenty times before. I have notes to droplines to a new paragraph. Notes to explain terminology that seems unusual. Notes to move apostrophes and correct tenses. And

notes to ask Bri why I am using tenses in some places that seem antithetical.

None of this includes Bri’s comments!

Wah, wah, wah.

All I want to do at this point is burn it and start over.

That said, I’m looking for ARC readers and bloggers, and bookstagrammers interested in signing up for my book tours. I will have a 100% readable product ready for release. 😁

Here is the sign-up for the book tour with Enticing Journey. https://forms.gle/Lwidgprz8fEwzTqH8

Teaser Tuesday, The Dream Keepers

Teaser Tuesday

My first Teaser Tuesday!

I had to start out with Michaela. She’s dear to my heart.

I love all my characters. Although, Thea irritates the hell out of me. Michaela and Gwen are the funnest to write.

The Dream Keepers, Writing

Worlds! It’s Happening.

Bri and I are very excited because we are getting into the final ten weeks before the release! I keep having bouts of nervousness when it strikes me. I mean, I’m living the dream. I’m publishing a book. I thought it would be fun to do a little ‘diary’ of the last stage of writing a book. So check out here, my Facebook, and my Instagram to follow the last weeks in the process.

Now for today.

Bri, my PA (pronounced PERSONAL GODDESS), contacted book tour companies today and made arrangements for the release. I worked on edits, images, book info sheets, Gabe’s Rule List, and social media. Bri then double-checked my crap to be sure I wasn’t a complete eff-up.

Bri’s my editor, as well as my PA, and she really loathes that I unnecessarily capitalize everything after commas. 😁

Tomorrow, I will need to edit five more chapters. I need to have all the edits done by next Tuesday so the book can be recompiled for the final read by Bri. I keep joking that the book is starting to look like plain tofu since I’ve read it so much. I don’t think I wrote a boring or tasteless book! But it’s starting to feel a little like I’ve eaten it every day for the last few months.

So that is my first report! Tomorrow, I will post to another platform with an update. I think it will be Facebook!