Writing and Life Update

Hey, all! It’s been a minute.

Clearly, I am doing exceedingly well at my resolution to blog once a week. Sigh. Oh well. Life trudges on.

Life Update

I am working suuuuuuper part-time from home doing social media/advertising stuff for a small Colorado-based company. I also just finished a big temporary project for that same company creating instruction videos and documents.

Reading Update

I was doing so good (for my recent track record). I was reading about four books a month, and I got ahead of my Goodreads goal of 40 books this year. But for various reasons (one of which being that work project), I’ve slowed down a bit and haven’t finished a book in awhile. The other reason, though, is…

Writing Update

Since my last post, I:

1. Finished the rough draft of book 2 of the Prince of Shadow and Ash duology (working title Staff of Nightfall, but I don’t love that).
2. Did some rewrites/edits on book 1 based on awesome alpha reader feedback.
3. Did a little editing of book two.
4. And, finally, in the space of about two weeks last month, I wrote an entire new novel.
5. I read this new novel to my sister and have been editing and revising.
6. Started a writer Facebook page (I’ll change it to author when something is published.) 🙂 I’ve recently posted some excerpts there from this new novel, if you’re interested.

What??? Another novel?

Yes. Basically, I first got this idea in 2015, started thinking about it again in December but was busy with Staff of Nightfall, and then… Last month, I literally could not sleep because I had to get it out of my head. It was an odd experience, and one I doubt I’ll ever repeat, but it was fun in an intimidating way.

Tentatively titled A Thieving Curse (thanks, all my bookstagram friends for helping me choose!), my most recent work-in-progress is a medieval beauty and the beast retelling. On her way to an arranged marriage to a prince, Princess Raelyn is captured by a dragon-man who claims to be the rightful crown prince. It’s currently 95,700 words–but I think I might trim some of the first few chapters. I’m hoping to finish up some editing and maybe think a bit more about world-building and then see about sending it to some alpha readers.

So…what’s next?

I wish I knew! I keep telling myself I’m going to read some of my writing books, and I keep not doing that. I have an ever-growing list of books I want to read, and keep changing my mind about the priority, which is resulting in me just…not reading. I’m still thinking about/looking for another job. And now I’m trying to figure out what I want to do publishing-wise: Do I want to publish Prince of Shadow and Ash or A Thieving Curse first? Do I want to traditional publish? Self-publish? Small press? My head is spinning with the pros and cons of each. I also have the Realm Makers writing conference coming up in July (excited and nervous!) and made a couple pitch appointments. So I’m thinking I’m going to focus on getting all three novels as polished as possible by July, see how pitching goes, and make decisions from there.

Until next time,
Selina