366 Days. One Leap Year of Writing #IWSG | July Writing Goals | #SpecFic Bookworm News

IWSG was created by the amazing Alex J. Cavanaugh. Click here to visit the other participants. July's co-hosts are Yolanda Renee, Tyrean Martinson, Madeline Mora-Summonte, LK Hill, Rachna Chhabria, and JA Scott.

On July 1, 2015, I decided to apply my exercise goals to my writing. Basically, I would write for so many minutes a day, which started at a mere twenty-two minutes a day and built up to forty-five minutes by November 2015. A leap year later, I now have the results of writing a bit a day, every single day. The only writing words I counted included original fiction and outlines.

From July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, I wrote 326,642 words.

I completed the first drafts of Marked (26,095 words), The Mission (21,530 words), Forged (73,997 words), "Folds in Life and Death" (6360 words), "On Day 168" (7899 words), Determined (14,588 words), A Soul to Kill (40,908 words), and A Soul to Protect (14,349 words). I wrote the outlines to Destined (5248 words), A Soul to Kill (719 words),  A Soul to Protect (1115 words), and A Soul to Reap (8886 words). I'm still working on the novels Destined (87,431 words) and A Soul to Reap (17,517 words).

I hope to continue writing a bit every day. What I've learned the most is every single word adds up. The only downside, now I have to edit all those words. *laughs*

July 6's IWSG question: What's the best thing someone has ever said about your writing?

My answer: A reader and fellow author said she read my book (95,000-word novel) in one evening/night. I remember doing that with the Harry Potter books and to think someone read my book like that, it blew me away.

I can't believe we're halfway through the year already. I'm so close to finishing Destined, the last book in The Fate Challenges series, and I'm making progress in A Soul to Reap. I also finished editing the stories for the upcoming Untethered Realms' anthology Ghosts of Fire. Edited: Of course, last night (July 5), I realized I need to change things in A Soul to Reap. The best course of action is to rewrite A Soul to Kill and then modify my outline in A Soul to Reap before going back to it.

Here are my July goals:

• Finish writing Destined. At thirty forty-five minutes a day, I should finish Destined soon.
• Continue writing A Soul to Reap. Rewrite A Soul to Kill. Once I finish Destined, I will spend forty-five minutes a day on this short novel.
• Edit "On Day 168." My story for Ghosts of Fire is due to the proofreaders in August.
• Edit a friend's novellas.

2016 Stats: 172,770 words written and 883 pages edited

What are your goals for July?

BOOK READ

Parallels: Felix Was Here by various authors

BOOK REVIEW

Parallels: Felix Was Here by various authors

Parallels: Felix Was Here explores the realms of alternate history and parallel universes in ten short stories. In the title story "Felix Was Here" by L.G. Keltner, Betty learns her idyllic city has some serious secrets. What I loved best was how Keltner built in Betty's memories of Felix and her need to find if he was real or not. Harper tumbles into a parallel universe where the rain has deadly consequences in Sandra Cox's "Rainers." I enjoyed the chemistry between Harper and Noah as well as what an alternate United States might look like. "Rainers" is a frightening and pulse-quickening tale that will lead the reader in suspense. In "WIN," Sylvia Ney explores the cost of technology as young David must teach those without the WIN system how to function in the world. I loved how Ney shows how learning is still so important, even with information at our fingertips. Michael Abayomi's "Ground Zero" shows the aftermath of a nuclear bomb. The abilities Elijah has intrigued me, and I would love to read more. Quinn discovers what unplaceable really means in Yolanda Renée's "Ever-Ton," a chilling, post-apocalyptic story. I loved the world building jammed pack in this short story. In "Folds in Life and Death" by Cherie Reich, Tecumseh's curse claims Allyson's brother, and she's left to pick up the pieces. I can't judge this story fairly because I wrote it, but if you like origami magics and alternate history set in 2001, then you might like it too. A drug trial goes awry in Hart Johnson's "The Seventeen." Johnson tells quite the horrific tale with such a unique take on a drug that's contagious. Virtual reality has real life consequences in Tamara Narayan's "Scyring the Plane." This story has me rethinking how awesome virtual reality sounds, and I really felt for the family's slow internet problems. Narayan nailed the teenage voice too. In Melanie Schulz's "The Haunted," Andy can't escape the feelings of nothingness, even though she doesn't understand why. This ending of this story made my skin break out in goosebumps and was quite the haunting story. I enjoyed every single story in Parallels: Felix Was Here and recommend the anthology.

#SPECFIC BOOKS RELEASING IN JULY

A Balance of Power by Nicole Zoltack

The Secret Language of Stone by M.J. Rose

The Ballad of Allyn-a-Dale by Danielle E. Shipley

The Devourers by Indra Das

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn

The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis

Whiskey and Angelfire Part One by A.A. Chamberlynn

Whiskey and Angelfire Part Two by A.A. Chamberlynn

The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Fortune's Favor by Liz Long

Destiny's Favor by Dariel Raye

Live and Let Psi by D.R. Rosensteel
Son of Thunder by Libby Bishop
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
And I Darken by Kiersten White
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Riverkeep by Martin Stewart

Once upon a Nightmare: A Collection is 99c for the month of July!

Amazon.com | Other Amazon Sites | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo | Nook | OmniLit | Smashwords

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!).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A special thanks goes to my Reborn hosts: Esther Jones, Medeia Sharif, River Fairchild, E.E. Giorgi, Rachel Morgan, Untethered Realms, Decadent Kane, Graeme Ing, Catherine Stine, Karen Hooper, Jess Haight, Natalie Aguirre, Rosie Amber, Jack Balliot, Cathy Keaton, Jay Noel, Samantha May, Heather Holden, Trisha Farnan, Ellie Garratt, Patricia Lynne, Alex J. Cavanaugh, M. Pax, Brandon Ax, Aaron Galvin, Julie Flanders, Lexa Cain, Kimberly Afe, Adrienne Thompson, Aubrie Dionne, C.M. Brown, Emma Adams, M.J. Fifield, Nick Wilford, Christine Rains, and Stephen Tremp.

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!

Wednesday's Writing Update: July Goals

 

Happy Wednesday!

June, unfortunately, was a busy month when it came to everything except my own writing/editing. But I will catch up one of these days.

Here are my July goals:

• Write Reforged for Camp NaNoWriMo. I have a 50,000 word goal, but I would love to finish this novel by the end of July. My main goal is to write one chapter a day.
• Finish writing the short stories in Neighbors of Foxwick as soon as possible. I will send each story as I finish it to my critique partners, but I need to have the entire collection completed very soon, if I want to keep my October release date. My main goal is to write one scene a day.
• Edit Reborn. If I can edit based on my first group of critique partners' suggestions an average of three pages a day in July and August, then I'll be finished with another draft of Reborn, so it'll be ready to go to my beta readers in September.
• Contact and secure a cover artist for Reborn. I have an artist in mind, but I was just waiting for the new fiscal year at the day job before I contacted her.

So, there will be a ton of writing and some editing waiting for me in July.

I also have another unedited snippet of "Common Love" from the forthcoming Neighbors of Foxwick.

Upon a balcony, a vision dressed in white furs lifted her hand toward him. Blue hair whipped about in the wind, and Bryan could imagine Vereina’s tender smile, although from this distance, he could just make out her features.

His own grin curled up his lips, and he started to wave back when the guard shoved him. Bryan stumbled forward upon the magically lit path.

The gate clanged shut behind him.

But he had seen her. That knowledge had him skipping back to town and his father’s shop. 

What are your July goals?

2013 STATS

84,165 words

1440 pages edited

*Stats are tabulated from January 1, 2013-June 25, 2013.

Wednesday's Writing Update: June Stats, July goals

Happy Wednesday! I hope people had a good holiday weekend. I wanted to wish a very special birthday to my daughter cat Cinderella. She turned five on Monday.

Half the year is over. It’s hard to believe. I have June’s stats and some goals for July.

June stats:

Submissions: 5

Rejections: 2

Acceptances: 1 (“Wishes” in Wicked East Press’s Under the Stairs...I’ll be in this one with my good friend and critique partner Christine Rains and her story “Fever.”)

Stories Now Available: 2 (“Phantom Kisses” is Erotica Quarterly Vol. 1, no. 3 and “Folding Hope” in Stories for Sendai)

Word Count: 5,582

Pages Edited: 832

I did manage a higher word count in June than May, but wow, my editing was rather high, I think. 832 pages. It’s like a Stephen King novel or something. *laughs*

My July goals are fairly simple: find a balance between editing and writing.

I need to continue to work on Virtuoso. I’m behind where I should be, but I have three months left to rewrite, edit, and polish it. I have three short stories for anthologies I’d like to write, one short story for Raven and the Writing Desk, blog posts, flash fiction, and the like. I want to continue to make time to read, edit, and write.

I took a bit of time off at the beginning of July. I mainly read over the weekend, but it’s time to get back into the groove of things. Wish me luck. I think I’ll need it.

So what else is going on with everyone? And how do you find balance in your life?