Writing Update | Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale July 1-31 #fantasy

Happy Wednesday!

I have to admit July has been a really good goals completion month.

I have updated my social media pages, websites, and blog to their new looks. I have consolidated quite a few of my pages on my blog with pages on my author website. Doing so means I'll have to update in fewer places. I still have a couple more drawings I want to finish, but they're not needed until 2016, so I have plenty of time to draw and color them.

I've also been writing. Every. Single. Day. I wrote more this month than I wrote during the past six months combined. It's been amazing to get back in the swing of things. And I'm working on not one project but two. Yes, you read that right. Two projects.

Marked (The Fate Challenges #1.5) is my main project. So far I've written almost 10,000 words and am a third finished. If I keep this up, then I might be able to finish the first draft of Marked by late August/early September.

My second project is a new one. The series is called The Gaia Project, and the first "episode" is titled The Mission. I figure The Gaia Project will be a serial with episodes and seasons. The premise is what if a colony ship plans to colonize a super-habitable planet where alien dinosaurs live. The first season will focus on six characters and their scouting mission to discover what happened to the first team the space colony sent down to the surface. For The Mission, I have written almost 6,000 words and am on chapter three out of nine. I'll likely finish this first episode by the end of September. Maybe. I don't have a scene by scene outline yet, so I'm winging it a bit for now and will see if I continue writing this project or choose to place it on the back burner and try another one later on.

So my goals for August are:

Marked - Continue writing this novella told from Liam's point of view and in The Fate Challenges series (YA Epic Fantasy).

The Mission - Continue writing this first episode in the science fiction series The Gaia Project.

Mayhem in the Air - The stories in the UR anthology have been written and edited. We're in the proofreading stages, but as I get the final stories from their authors, I'm going to compile the collection and work on a final proofread. My urban fantasy story "Paper Lanterns" is in this anthology.

So what are your goals for August?

2015 Stats (1/1/15-7/21/15): 31,118 words written and 1,176 pages edited

The Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale runs through July 31st. You can purchase Reborn and People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors for 50% off and download A to Z Flashes of Foxwick for free with coupon code SW100. The Untethered Realms group has also placed Fantasy Uprising on sale for 75% off and our first anthology Twisted Earths for free with the SW100 code.

A is for A to Z Flashes of Foxwick

 

This year's A to Z Challenge theme is: All About Foxwick, but first, I would like to thank the A-Z hosts, particularly Arlee Bird. Without him, we wouldn't be having this crazy fun in April. Thank you, Arlee!

A is for A to Z Flashes of Foxwick

Last A to Z Challenge, I'm embarked on an adventure in the magical Kingdom of Foxwick and its surrounding neighbors. Each day of the challenge, I had a flash fiction piece ready to share this fantasy world with you. At the end, I decided to self-publish the collection, but A to Z Flashes of Foxwick is just the beginning. Foxwick is such a fascinating place, though, and I have more stories to come, so this month you'll hear about these forthcoming stories, be the first to see excerpts from it, and hear about the magical creatures and people from Foxwick and their surrounding lands.

A Fantasy Flash Fiction Collection

In honor of the A to Z Blogging Challenge, A to Z Flashes of Foxwick​ gives a glimpse to the characters, magical creatures, and lands in the fantasy world of the Kingdom of Foxwick.

A young dragon befriends a dragon seer. A phoenix bursts into flames in mid-flight. A man must choose between his simple life and one of fame. A queen will find her heart turned into ice and many more!

This collection includes the bonus short story "Lady Death" from Women of Foxwick. 

To download for free: iTunes / Kobo /Amazon / Smashwords / Sony

And now an excerpt from one of my favorite pieces in A to Z Flashes of Foxwick.

Dragon’s Domicile

Bones littered the cave’s floor. Smoke trailed from the dragon’s nostrils and collected among the stalactites.

Crunch, crunch.

The dragon munched lazily upon a femur. Its tail swatted back and forth, sweeping the debris against the stone walls. Bats fluttered and escaped from its home. If the dragon hadn’t had a full belly, it would’ve snapped at the flying creatures. A metallic clang echoed. The dragon paused its chewing and listened.

Did the king send more men to die at its sharp claws and even sharper bite?

No, it’d knocked a knight’s helmet farther into the cave. For now, the dragon would feast and wait.

I've been interviewed by the Ninja Captain!

Yes, Alex Cavanaugh interviewed me about the A to Z Challenge and what it was like writing 26 flash fiction stories for the A to Z Flashes of Foxwick collection. You can read my interview here.

And my IWSG post is here.

Wednesday's Writing Update: An Interview, a Review, an Update, and More!

 

Happy Wednesday!

Now, I have quite a bit of news, so let's see if I remember it all.

First, I'm over at M. Pax's today for a Spacedock 19 interview. We're talking about science fiction and fantasy and a little about marketing. You can read the interview here.

Author and fellow Valley Writer Wayne White wrote up a wonderful review of my A to Z Flashes of Foxwick on his blog. He's fairly new to blogging, so please stop by and say hi. You can read the review here. By the way, A to Z Flashes of Foxwick is free at: iTunes, Kobo, Amazon, and Smashwords. 

Pull of Gravity is now available on the iTunes bookstore here and now Kobo here.

Last Thursday, I found out that a short story of mine won first place in a writing competition and is going to the next level. I'll have more details later, but it's my first first place win ever, so I'm pretty excited.

Also, I've been looking over my August goals, and I've decided to put off writing Nightmare Ever After for a week or so. I want to write it right, so I've decided it would be best to keep my focus on Gravity: The Complete Trilogy, writing the epilogues for it, and getting feedback, so I can format the print and ebooks of it. Then, in September, my focus can shift to writing Nightmare Ever After with a mid-to-late October release in mind for it.

Also, I'm sorry I have been a bit slow to comment back on blogs this week. We're short-staffed at work and I have a big manuscript to edit for a client, so that unfortunately has to come first.

So what have you been up to?