Words & Wonders (76)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- Slow week this week, but I wrote 9,009 of Pride & Joy, my f/f witchy murder book. It's finished, and I think pretty good! Estimated release next December, to give me time to write the next two and release them all close together.

- I wrote 4,906 words of Kelebek+Savas, my Ottoman-inspired fantasy.

- I'm fleshing out the world and characters of my NA UF Dragons book and hoping I can finish it this month.

- And finally, I'm in the middle of plotting out Pride & Joy book 2

In my life:

- Not much to report

Discovery Found or Lesson Learned:

This great post on planning a novel and the pitfalls of not doing so.

What have you written this week?

~Saruuh

Words & Wonders (75)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- I wrote 9,830 of Pride & Joy, my f/f witchy murder book. Nearly, nearly done.

- I wrote 3,970 words of the Ottoman-inspired fantasy I mentioned a few weeks ago. I'll refer to it as Kelebek+Savas after the main characters but names could easily change.

- I also read 60+ pages of my NA UF Dragons book I half wrote a few months back. It's not nearly as bad as I remember. I might finish it, but as I'm working on Pride&Joy, my side Ottoman Fantasy, and will soon be editing The Revelation ... it's low on my priorties.

In my life:

- Christmas is soon, Christmas is soon!!

- Also I'm LOVING superhero books right now. I burned through Relentless (Deebs & Lynn Childs), Zeroes (Westerfeld, Lanagan, and Biancotti), Illusive (Emily Lloyd-Jones), and yesterday I read the so so so cute m/m superhero/supervillain novella Superior (Jessica Lack.) I recommend all of them, especially Superior and Zeroes, which has some pretty awesome diverse rep, although no gender or sexuality. Still, read it for endlessly adorable Thibault!

Discovery Found or Lesson Learned:

This week, I'm sharing this blog post on the book a year schedule in traditional publishing!

"I also want to say . . . it’s not for everyone. And that’s okay. Some books take longer. Some authors need more space. Overall, you have to do what works for you. Sleep deprivation and caffeine addictions might keep you going for a little while, but ultimately, taking care of yourself is most important."

What have you written this week?

~Saruuh

Words & Wonders (64)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- POWERS is out now!! In case you somehow missed my excessive build up to the release, you can buy it on Amazon RIGHT NOW!!! DRYAD is currently 0.99 to celebrate the release!

- I'm still in the research trenches for The Lux Guardians. I'm also rereading books 1 and 2 in preparation for writing the last two! I'm really hoping the series will stay at four books in length, but I'm plotting it now and there's an awful lot needs to happen...

- I wrote a random 5K of my Dragon NA UF, which I do love a lot, but also don't have time or drive for writing right now.

- I've JUST begun editing The Forgotten for its second edition, which will release next year along with the final Lux Guardians book. I've only done 4 pages so far, but I've started ahead of schedule so I'm pleased.

In my life:

- It's my birthday in three days! I'm super excited for it, but I'm definitely gonna keep thinking I'm 23 (it's such a nice number...)

On the internet, this week I found useful:

- The Problem With Asian Steampunk, an article I found while researching for The Lux Guardians.
- This Misfits & Daydreamers issue on success and comparison

What have you written this week?
~Saruuh

Words & Wonders (62)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

If you're very astute, you probably noticed there was no W&W last week. That's because I was at YALC and LFCC in London! So this week's writing journal is a bumper edition. Allow me to tell you ALL OF THE NEWS:

The Powers of Callaire's cover was revealed today on LGBTQ Reads, a hella awesome site dedicated to queer books. Head over to their site and check it out.

Plus DRYAD is free right now, along with over a hundred other books. You can check it out in this promo here!!!

And come back to this blog from the 10th of August onward to read 500 words of POWERS per day!!

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- I have done SO MUCH promo prep for The Powers of Callaire's release. People emailed, guest posts written, the book finalised. I'm working my ass off.

- I'm in the research trenches (is that a thing? It feels a lot like a thing) for The Lux Guardians. I've spent approximately 48 hours on research if my hours were collated. Which is MAD.

- I told myself I needed to dedicate my spare time to writing TLM 5, so of course I got sucked into the whirlpool of my NA UF Dragon book. I've written 11,919 in two weeks. When you factor out the 5 days I was in London, I think that's pretty darn impressive. I love this story, and the characters, and while I can see a whole bunch of problems even now, when this is the shiny, final version, it's going to be EPIC.

In my life:

- I went to freaking London. One of my favourite cities ever. I'd probably visit every weekend if it were possible.

On the internet, this week I found useful:

- Too busy to browse !

What have you written this week?
~Saruuh

Words & Wonders (59)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- I've second drafted 111 pages of The Powers of Callaire and finished this stage! I moved onto big picture edits and a couple rewrites (40% edited, 1.5K rewritten so far) and when this is done, I'll be close to the finish line. I'll have an announcement about the release date VERY SOON.

- I started second drafting the TLM short I wrote the other week (6 pages edited). I'm gonna refer to it as the Johanna Short, named for the main character, who is named for Johanna Konta, my British tennis bae.

- I wrote another 2.5K random of the NA UF dragon story I'm definitely never gonna finish. For a few days I considered writing it for real but I have more important things (Lux Guardians, Legend Mirror) to turn my attention to. Maybe when TLG is wrapped up!!

In my life:

- Work, work, working

On the internet, this week I found useful:

- This interesting post on authors marketing/release strategies

A Book I've Loved Lately:

These books are hella awesome urban fantasy, with a tonne of new twists to the genre and swoony, complicated relationships. These books are sneaky - you won't see any of the shocks coming. And they're NA genre fic! Score!

What have you written this week?
~Saruuh