Writing Update: October Goals

Happy Wednesday!

I've finished my final edit and first two proofreads of People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors. As soon as I get my final cover art from my brilliant cover artist, then I can purchase my print proof and finish my final proofread before publication. While I'm waiting on the print proof, I plan to write Remarked.

Here are my October goals:

• People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors - Once I get my print proof, I will do my print proof proofread, make changes to the document, and upload the final draft to Createspace. I'll also create my e-copies to upload. I plan to put People of Foxwick on pre-order (ebook only) with an official release date of December 9, 2014. During the pre-order period, people can purchase the ebook for $0.99, for a savings of $3.00. I'll press publish on the print book close to December 9th.
• Remarked - I hope to finish the first draft of Remarked, then finish People of Foxwick, and then type up and edit the second draft of this novella. I hope to send it to my alpha readers by the end of October.

My main goals revolve around People of Foxwick first and then Remarked second.

What are your goals for October?

2014 Stats

40,533+1900 Words Written

2622 Pages Edited

*Stats taken from 1/1/2014-9/23/2014

Writing Update: September Goals / Cover Reveal of Kitsy Clare's Private Internship

Happy Wednesday!

Although the month started our rocky, I have made some progress in my goals and I've decided to take my own advice of one day at a time a step further to one thing at a time. So I'm working on what needs to be finished first or what I hope to get accomplished first. I finally finished my outline for Reforged, which I have to say will be awesome if I can do the story justice, I wrote a new contemporary fantasy short story titled "Paper Lanterns," and I've been proofreading Twisted Earths, the upcoming Untethered Realms anthology. Twisted Earths will be up for pre-order soon with an official release date of October 14th.

Here are my goals for September:

• Finish editing and proofreading People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors. Once this is completed, I can contact my cover artist to finalize the print cover, so I can obtain my print proof, do my print proof proofread, and publish this 80,000-word short story collection.
• Write in Remarked. Since I'll mainly be working on People of Foxwick during the work week, I plan to take weekends to work on Remarked.

What are your September goals?

2014 Stats

38,382 + 1900 Words Written

1875 Pages Edited

*Stats taken from 1/1/2014-8/26/2014

I loved reading Kitsy Clare's Model Position, and I'm excited to reveal the cover of her newest Art of Love novel, Private Internship.

Sugar’s not so sweet and secrets can be deadly … especially with matters of the heart

"Beautiful. Amazing. A fantastic read that left me wanting more." -XoXo Book Blog

"A juicy read full of passion and magnetic chemistry that will have you hooked from beginning to end." -From the Purple Matter Book Blog

Add on Goodreads

For more information about Kitsy Clare, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.

Wednesday's Writing Update: August Goals / Smashwords July Sale / Untethered Realms Giveaway

Happy Wednesday! And although you don't know them, a very happy birthday to my dad and anniversary to my mom and dad!

July has been a busy month. I'm making slow progress with Remarked, which I hope to finish by the end of August, and I've been editing the short stories in the forthcoming People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors as well as re-editing/reformatting my A to Z Flashes of Foxwick. I'm also getting close to finishing my outline for Reforged.

Here are my goals for August:

• Edit one short story a week in People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors. I've been working on these stories, and I hope to finish my final edits by mid-September.
• Write/Edit Remarked. I've been writing by hand the first draft of Remarked, which I still hope to finish by mid-August. Then, I'll be typing up the draft and doing an edit on it, so I can send this novella to my alpha readers in September.
• Write in Reforged. I'd like to start writing Reforged, the second book in The Fate Challenges series.

And that's it. There's a lot to do, but I hope to continue making progress.

Also you will notice a slight change in my words written. Since I am writing by hand new drafts, I'm guessing on the word count. I'll update the official word count when I have the second draft typed up.

What are your August goals?

2014 Stats

32,843 + 1900 Words Written

1766 Pages Edited

*Stats taken from 1/1/2014-7/22/2014*

Smashwords is having its annual Summer/Winter sale. You can purchase Reborn, Gravity: The Complete Trilogy, and The Nightmare Collection for 50% off their retail prices with coupon code SSW50. The sale ends July 31st.

We authors of Untethered Realms are celebrating reaching 100 GFC followers on our blog by having a grand prize giveaway of several of our ebooks.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Writing Update: June Goals / Reborn Blog Tour

 

Happy Wednesday!

Reborn is published. My blog tour posts are written for the most part, although I have two more interview question posts to answer. This week I'm trying to finish up my blog posts for June as well as edit the short stories for the upcoming UR anthology. Is it already too late to be looking forward to July after the release month pandemonium? *laughs*

Here are my June goals:

• Write Repledged. I hope to have Repledged  finished by the end of June, so I can send Repledged to alphas #1 and #2 by the end of June or early July.
• Write Remarked. If I finish Repledged early, then I'll be going back to Remarked, Book 1.5 of The Fate Challenges.
• Edit two short stories a week in People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors. If I can keep that up, then I can finish my final edit by the end of July and move forward to proofreading. I'll also be going back over A - Z Flashes of Foxwick these next few months, so I can reformat them and publish them with their new cover (back cover of People of Foxwick).
• Survive my blog tour. The tour runs through June 23rd and is on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I love blog touring, but it's also stressful too, so I'll be a bit glad when it's done.

What are your June goals?

2014 Stats 
19,669 Words Written
1567 Pages Edited
*Stats taken from 1/1/2014-5/27/2014*

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Today for the Reborn Blog Tour, I will be at:

Untethered Realms' blog talking about improving your writing.
Catherine Stine's blog for an interview.

Karen Hooper's blog for an excerpt from chapter two.

Jess Haight's blog talking about how Reborn almost wasn't my first published novel.
Natalie Aguirre's blog for an interview.

Today's Reborn tidbit: Apenth (pronounced Ah-penth) is the number one god in Yssa's life. He brought her back to life, and he's the one who has a place in all the books at some point between The Fate Challenges and The God Challenges. A god of prophecy, wisdom, healing, and music, he seems like he can do it all, but he has his enemies too. 

 
 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   

       
   

   

     

          Reborn
     

     

          by Cherie Reich
     

     

         
            Giveaway ends June 23, 2014.
         

         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         

     

   

   

      Enter to win

The authors of Untethered Realms and I are giving away over $50 worth of books to one lucky winner. The giveaway is open internationally. a Rafflecopter giveaway

IWSG: Intimidated

 

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means ... it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group meeting. IWSG was created by the awesome ninja captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, and you can find out the other members of the group here.

Congrats to IWSG being two years old!

In July, I sought out a cover artist for People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors as well as for The Fate Challenges trilogy. I really only had one artist in mind, and I was so excited that she agreed to work with me. At the time I thought People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors would come out first, so we decided we would work on the cover art for it and put off the cover art for Reborn.

I told her my thoughts on what I would like to see on the cover. She did a few sketches, and we decided on a pose for the character. Then, she was off creating the cover art. I have to admit I was impressed even with the sketches, but the final cover art was AMAZING. Seriously. I have it as my computer wallpaper at work. I just like to stare at it. It's hang up on your wall good.

Of course, I already knew she was an amazing cover artist. Her name is Laura Sava, and you can see her work on deviantART.

But now I have this brilliant cover for my complete Foxwick stories collection and it completely intimidated me. How could my simple fantasy stories live up to this cover art? I'll admit my writing trickled to a halt. It took me three weeks to rewrite "Dragon's Sacrifice" (a 2500-word short story) because I just couldn't get my mind to stop thinking about the awesome cover art and how my stories just wouldn't be good enough.

Then, I realized that my first drafts don't have to be as brilliant as the cover art. I just needed to write and worry about greatness in edits.

The cover art is still amazing, and I plan to reveal it sometime next year (closer to the new release for People of Foxwick). It's okay to be intimidated, to want to write something brilliant. I needed a writing break, and now I'm back to writing.

I'm holding off on us starting the cover art for Reborn, though, until after I finish my edit before my beta readers get a hold of it. *laughs*

Has your cover art ever intimidated you? Or has something else held you back from your writing? How did you get over it?

Writing Update: Changing My Plans ... Again

 

Happy Wednesday!

This will probably come as no surprise, but I'm changing up my plans/goals again. *sighs*

The first couple weeks of August threw my goals out the window. I was supposed to finish up the last four short stories in Neighbors of Foxwick, but it didn't happen. In fact, I only finished my rewrite of "Dragon's Sacrifice" on Sunday, and I still have three more short stories left to write ("Mourner's Lament," "Prince's Price," and "Love's Challenge"). I had originally planned to publish Neighbors of Foxwick in October, but that's not happening. I don't want to rush the stories just to have them finished. Of course, if I push back Neighbors of Foxwick, then that means I can't publish People of Foxwick when I originally planned either.

So the new production schedule for 2014 is:

Neighbors of Foxwick - The Foxwick Chronicles Short Story Collection - February 2014

Reborn - Book One of The Fate Challenges - May 23, 2014

People of Foxwick - The Foxwick Chronicles Complete Short Story Collection - August 2014

The Loveless Princess - The Foxwick Chronicles Novel - November 2014

Of course, all these dates are subject to change, but by reexamining my schedule, it has made it easier on me to get everything I want accomplished. As for the rest of the month, I'm working on editing the first half of Reborn based on critique partners' suggestions and rewriting/writing the rest of Part I of Reforged.

So does that mean I won't have anything else published this year?

Not exactly.

I want to start getting word out about Reborn, even though it won't be out until next May. It's my debut novel, and I think it's pretty special, so I've decided to take a short story I wrote back in 2010 based in that world (just 700 years earlier) and publish it as a freebie (story has had extensive edits since then and is going through my critique partners again before a final edit/proofread from me). This story is called "Magna's Plea," and it's about 5,000 words in length. I will have a sneak peek of Reborn with the short story as well. Since Amazon can take awhile to price-match a title to free, I plan to publish "Magna's Plea" in September with an official release date in October. Next week, I'll have information on how you can help me spread word about "Magna's Plea."

Here is what "Magna's Plea" is about:

A princess will rise and challenge Fate.

While her father, brothers, and people fight against the Kingdom of Apentha, tenacious eighteen-year-old Princess Magna can only watch the destruction of Amora, her besieged city and kingdom. Her mother, Queen Vyvian, has refused to allow her heir to join the fray.

But Magna won't take no for an answer. She seeks out an end of the war from Prince Cyrun of Apentha, their prisoner. If she can't persuade him toward peace, then Amora may fall.

This short story prequel includes a sneak peek of Reborn, Book One of The Fate Challenges, forthcoming May 2014.

So what are you up to this Wednesday?

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By the way, several of us spec fic authors with Untethered Realms took up the prompt "awesomesauce." Stop by the blog to see what it is.