I’m behind and literally treading water. In case you missed it, my life got crazy and I soon followed. I just got back from a trip home to my family because my dad was badly injured. I returned home to San Diego, read JONAH only to sink into a depressive dismay that demanded immediate action to improve where I was going with my story. It smells like a dung heap.
Life…
So my dad was on a ladder on top of scaffolding, something he would kick our asses for doing, and he fell. He broke a lot of bones and has been through two surgeries now and has so much metal in him that he could be mistaken for a cyborg. His rib surgery alone took 8 hours because all of the ribs on one side were fractured. One of his lungs was punctured and they needed to clean the bone fragments from it. But it gets better, he broken ribs on the other side too. His pelvis was broken. His clavicle and his scapula were also fractured.
Good thing he didn’t bruise his brain–we already know that wasn’t working since he put a ladder on top of scaffolding.
Needless to say, I’ve not got much done because I’m all sorts of a mess. My family is on the other side of the country and we are trying to figure out if I’m flying out to gather my sister and bring her out here with me while my dad recoups. My dad and sister are like two cats in a bag they aggravate one another. If she comes out here then they can both relax and appreciate one another.
All this said… if you suddenly see a catastrophic fall with epic surgery pop up in JONAH I’m just writing what I know. 😆
So no other way to say it.
WRITERS BLOCK!!!
Kill me now.
JONAH is the second time I’ve been novelly challenged. The first time it happened, I moved on and wrote RAIDEN in one week, but that isn’t a luxury I have right now. I have to find inspiration in this clusterfuck that I call JONAH. Luckily while at Books At The Beach, I was around other authors much more experienced than me and one of them blessed me with a suggestion that I’m taking to heart. I’m reading RAIDEN and TRACE to get a sense of Jonah’s voice and where Lizzy and he are in their story.
Thanks for all the advice, those authors I spoke with, your knowledge is invaluable.
Also, The Powers That Be bundle is coming out!
Continue ReadingI’m still struggling with this manuscript. Won’t lie, I just don’t have the asshat, Jonah’s voice. I’m so ready to can him and write someone else’s book. But, in the meantime, I do have some images that I’m using for inspiration.
That’s what I have for you this week, two of my inspiration images.
I started working on JONAH on Monday and I’m tired. Writing is exhausting. I’m on an intensive schedule for the rough draft and supposed to be doing roughly 5000 words/day. I don’t wanna write anymore and it’s the third day.
But I do have a WIP hot mess to share. This one is in chapter 3. There is a lot of reaching out and pulling out (get your mind out of the gutter) going on here.
JONAH’s rough draft should be done by the end of the month… or when my soul rots, whichever comes first.
First, let me just tell you… I could not spell outlining to save my life and had no idea how I was spelling it wrong until I realized I left out the ‘line’ part.
My brain is fried.
So JONAH is next, and I start his book on Monday. I have a schedule already set out for the rough draft. I have August 15th to the 31st to write it. Then, I go into my second draft which is from September 1st – October 1st. It then goes to the betas before I get it for the final draft.
Right now… plotting and outlining.
KILL. ME. NOW.
Continue ReadingThe betas are working on their read-through of TRACE, and Bri just started her final edits. We will be doing our tandem edits this weekend before sending out the book for formatting. This is a snapshot of what part of the first page looks like right now though. However, this doesn’t include my corrections and changes, since I have a different method of doing a ‘final pass.’ Which means reading it on paper and red marking the fuck out of it. Right now, none of my edits have hit this thing yet. I will also make final changes to the story as I catch continuity issues or story flaws. And I’ve caught a few.
I will be signing at Books At The Beach in September with many other awesome authors, the list is below. I can’t wait. Tickets are still available on Eventbrite. I’m really excited to see Milly Taiden and Evangeline Anderson, again. Reece Taylor is someone I met last year, and she was awesome and funny. Patti Spell is one of the most helpful people on this Earth, and Jennifer Wedmore is a rockstar. Cassidy K. O’Connor and Sheri Lyn are absolutely amazing for giving authors this opportunity. Please check out the event! You can also find out more info about attending authors on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/booksatthebeachcon.
It’s WIP Wednesday again, and I’ve moved on to the printed manuscript of TRACE. This is what I read while the Betas are reading the digital document and making comments. I red mark my book, pick out errors and make notes where I need to build up areas. I also make notes where teasers and excerpts are… even though the one at the bottom of this page looks like the word ‘treason.’
It’s time to shake your rump-ah! Because my WIP typo this week came from my TRACE rough draft. I had to share it because it made me titter. So many butts in one damned place.
