Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Writing Update: July Goals / Reborn Blog Tour Winner / My Writing Process

Happy Wednesday! I survived the Reborn blog tour, and I have your grand prize winner. Congrats! And thank you so much for making the blog tour spectacular! I think I visited well over one hundred individual bloggers during the tour, and Reborn has thirteen reviews on Amazon (eleven of them five stars!).



And if you missed any tidbits of information about Reborn, I have them all up on my website.

June has been a busy month with the blog tour, my cat being sick (bladder crystals again), and an incident I'll talk about further during next week's IWSG. It's made writing rather difficult this month, and I've been re-evaluating my writing goals.

Almost everyone who has read Reborn is looking forward to the next book, but the next story I'd been planning to write wasn't in Yssa's timeline. It got me thinking. Would my audience rather have the next part of Yssa's tale (Remarked, a novella told from Liam's POV) or a story (Repledged) within the Amoran world but taking place 800 years before Reborn? I figured they'd want to continue Yssa's story, so I am breaking off Repledged and the other prequel Reigned into their own series (The Royal Challenges), which features Deliah's story, Magna's story (Repledged), and Reza's story (Reigned). By writing the new outline for Repledged, I also learned about the stories of the other Phoenix Prophetesses, so I'd like at some point to write The Prophetess Challenges, featuring Amora's story, Gwendolith's story, and Carys's story. Of course, I'm planning to work on The God Challenges after The Fate Challenges and then I'll get to the other standalone tales within those two new series.

So that said, here are my July goals:
  • Edit two short stories a week in People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors. I was supposed to work on this some in June, but I really needed a break from editing. So now my goal is to finish the final edit by the end of August, so I can start proofreading and formatting for the print proof in September.
  • Write Remarked. I'm hoping to finish this novella told from Liam's point of view by the end of the month.
And I hope to take a slight breather next month too for a few days around the July 4th holiday. The blog schedule will also be going back to normal with just Wednesday posts.

2014 Stats
26,864 Words Written
1672 Pages Edited
*Stats taken from 1/1/2014-6/24/2014*


Stephanie Faris tagged me in the Four Questions on Writing blog hop.

To participate, you just answer four questions about your writing process and tag three more people. Here we go!

What am I working on/writing?

I’m finishing up my outline of Remarked, Book 1.5 of The Fate Challenges, so I hope to start writing this novella from Liam’s point of view in July.

How does my work/writing differ from others in its genre?

That’s a really good question. I tend to pull a lot from mythology for my work, and although I do my best to make my characters relatable and three dimensional, I also like to filter in as much world-building as possible without bogging the story down. For me, my worlds are just as real as the people in them.

Why do I write what I do?

I read a variety of genres from horror and mysteries to fantasy and romance. My writing often reflects what I read. I have genre-hopped a bit, although I must admit I love writing fantasy the most. In the end, I just have all these people and places and stories in my head. They need a place to exist, so I’ll write down their tales.

How does my writing process work?

I have an idea. That idea will roll around in my mind, picking up characters, scenes, and world-building. Ideas often dwell in my brain at least six months, but some are up there for years. When I’m ready to work on a project, I’ll write the outline. Once the outline is complete, I’m ready to write the first draft. I do sometimes go back over what I’d written while drafting to add details and make minor changes. Sometimes I’ll get to a point, usually at the third-way mark, where I finally understand my main character better and will go back and fix the beginning and continue to the end.

Now it’s time to tag. I’m terrible at this and don’t like to tag people who’ve already been tagged before, so if you’d like to answer the questions, go ahead!

33 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Glad the tour went well and happy to help.
If the readers want more Yssa, then I guess that's the path you should take.
Sorry you're struggling with stuff.

Christine Rains said...

Yay! You survived the tour, and that's excellent news about reviews. I think your July goals are good, and you definitely earned the little break during the 4th.

Sarah Foster said...

Congrats on the tour and good luck with your goals! Geez, I think everyone is doing the Writing Process blog hop...

David P. King said...

That was a busy month. I'm feeling it. And that's awesome that you're raking in such high-ranked reviews! The fire is spreading. :)

H. R. Sinclair said...

Glad the tour went well and that you receive lots of 5 star reviews!

:( Sorry kitty has crystals. Poor baby. Hopefully that and everything else will resolve soon.

Crystal Collier said...

Hah! So go the best laid plans. Way to think of your audience first. I know what that's like, having them clamor for the next installment, but thankfully mine was already in the works. I'm wishing you all the speed and inspiration in the world to get your next project out the door. =)

Nick Wilford said...

Congrats on a great tour, and congrats to Emma too! Great to hear you have so many plans for the series. You've more than earned a few days' holiday, and I hope your cat feels better!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Cherie. So glad your blog tour went well. I'm sorry to hear that your cat has been sick. Hope it is on the mend. Good luck with your goals!

M Pax said...

I hear you on struggling. I've stories to proofread and stories to finish writing... which I should be doing now. SQUIRREL!

Patsy said...

Good luck with your July goals.

Tyrean Martinson said...

Hooray for a great tour!!! Let me know if I can help next time. :)

Love that you let your ideas roll around for a while. Mine do that too.

Unknown said...

Wow, Cherie... that is quite a lot of blogs you visited! But well-worth it, I see. Your reviews are stunning and I am really looking forward to reading Reborn while vacationing in Mexico this summer=)

Stephanie Faris said...

YAY! Someone took me up on it! Great answers. Like you, I have ideas that roll around in my brain for years. I still have some I tried but failed to carry through that I'd like to take another shot at someday, when I've cleared away any memory of the way I tried to write it the first time around!

Loni Townsend said...

You are one busy woman!

Grats on surviving the blog tour. Good luck with the goals. I hope your cat feels better soon. :(

Jocelyn Rish said...

Sounds like you have a lot on your plate, but a solid game plan on how to approach it. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the awesome blog tour. Good luck with your July goals! Knock them out of the park.

M.J. Fifield said...

Congratulations on having survived your blog tour. That's a lot of work.

Hope your cat is feeling better soon.

And good luck with those July goals!

Cathy Keaton said...

Congrats on surviving the blog tour! You must be so relieved. Even if it's fun visiting so many blogs in so short a time, it must be overwhelming. Now, you can focus on other stuff you need to do! ;)

Heather R. Holden said...

Congrats on surviving the blog tour! I can't imagine how overwhelming that must've been. That's great news about all the five star reviews you have already, too! :D

Also, so cool to learn about your writing process! As a huge fan of mythology, I can't help but love how you pull from that for your own stories...

cleemckenzie said...

Congrats on making it through and doing it successfully.

Unknown said...

Can't wait to read Remarked! And congrats on all your five star reviews for Reborn!

Sherry Ellis said...

It sounds like you had an awesome tour! That was a lot of bloggers to visit!

klahanie said...

Hi Cherie,

Yes, I finally got here. Yay n'stuff :)

The Reborn blog tour is over and like a crazed groupie, I've done my best to try and tag along. Kudos to you and your hosts.

Take it easy with your projects. I am amazed how your writers find the time to count the words :)

Congrats on surviving my disjointed comment. A lovely weekend to you and the rest of your groupies.

Gary

Anonymous said...

So glad the tour went well -- and that you survived. That's an added bonus.

Nas said...

Hi, Cherie. So glad your blog tour went well. Good luck with your goals!

Nicole said...

Whoa, that tour schedule was crazy! I was seeing Reborn everywhere (which was great, because it's got one of my fave covers!). Good luck with the next step of your goals!

Shelley Sly said...

Congrats on a successful tour, and good luck with your projects!

I'm sorry to hear about your cat... my mom's cat had that last year. I always feel awful when our pets are in pain. Hope everything is okay!

Vanessa Morgan said...

Interesting questions and answers. Have a lovely week.

Jack said...

I am so happy the tour went well!!! I hope the book continues to do well and find readers!

Kelly Steel said...

Hi, Cherie. So glad your blog tour went well. All the best with goals!

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Well of course your tour went well. You are super woman, right? *hugs

Nicole Zoltack said...

I'm so sorry about your cat! If you ever need someone to talk to, you know I'm here for you. Always.

Anonymous said...

Happy July, happy writing, and I hope your cat feels better soon.

That tour was immense. Congrats to the winner.