Hello! One of my goals for 2019 is to update my blog every week. I think it’ll be enlightening to anyone who follows me, and it’ll be nice for me to look back on from time to time. It’s like a journal for all my creative endeavors.
Having said that, I wasn’t sure how I was going to make a weekly blog, so I hadn’t figured out the specifics until, well, brainstorming this five seconds ago. I swear I’m usually pretty organized, okay? On some things. But my point is my report isn’t going to be super accurate this week because I haven’t meticulously recorded my progress from day to day.
Regardless of that, it should still be pretty close. So let’s get started with week 1. (Yes, my weeks are gonna run from Friday to Friday because that’s supposed to be the end of my workweek… kinda.)
Current projects
- Valentine’s Day Tigers – The Holiday Shifter Mates Book 3 – an original song too!!!
- Once Soulmates – These Immortal Vows Book 3
- About Gender Identity – YA book
- Blind to Love – audiobook
Valentine’s Day Tigers – The Holiday Shifter Mates Book 3
My top-priority project is Valentine’s Day Tigers. It’s going well! I’ve moved into the line editing phase. I’m fixing story flow, clarity, fine-tuning details, all those things that polish up a story. I tend to be an underwriter, which means my first drafts are basically skeletons. I have to make sure to put some flesh on those bones!
This is the part in my process where things really come together. Reading through my first drafts is always tough, but as long as that skeleton is solid, these kinds of edits are mostly straightforward.
I can’t put down an exact word count, but I do my best to make sure I get in 4,000 words a day. So I’ve been through about 20,000 words this week. Next week will be more because I won’t be taking the weekend off. I won’t be taking weekends off again until this book is finished.
That’s a direct violation of one of my goals for this year, but it’ll only be for this month. Why? Because Kingdom Hearts 3 is coming out, and I’m taking a week off to play that game no matter what. Fight me.
Also, this book has a song. YES. A real original song written by yours truly. I did that this week, and I’m super proud of myself. Now I just have to learn how to play it. If my fingers would stop cramping up, that’d be great.
Once Soulmates – These Immortal Vows Book 3
I’m going to be honest. I considered not finishing this series as well as The Soul Seer Saga. But I hate leaving things unfinished, and these stories are important to me. So, no matter how long it takes, I’m going to keep chipping away at them until they are complete.
When writing is your job, you have to make tough decisions sometimes. If a series isn’t making any money, it’s best to ax it or you won’t be able to pay the bills. In my case, they simply won’t be part of my work time. Anything that gets done for these stories will be done during my free time. I think that’s fair enough. Naturally, that means production will be slow.
I picked Once Soulmates instead of book 5 in The Soul Seer Saga because I’m fucking obsessed with These Immortal Vows, okay? I have this huge-ass timeline dedicated to that series, and it houses some of my favorite characters I’ve ever written. And Once Soulmates introduces a new character I’ve been dying to write for a solid year. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I’m in the drafting stage (working on that first draft, baby) for Once Soulmates and got out about 2,000 words this week.
About Gender Identity – YA book
Hi, yes. I’m working on three books at the same time. Crazy? Probably. I’m also writing this book during my free time. My ultimate goal for it is to get it traditionally published. I feel like it’s an important book that I want to get into the hands of teenagers, and I don’t feel like I can do that on my own effectively enough.
I don’t want to say much about this book, so draw your own conclusions from the stand-in title. However, it’s in the planning stages, which aren’t as easy to gauge with a word count, but I’d say I hit 2,000 words on this one as well. Steady progress.
Blind to Love – audiobook
I have an in-house recording studio (kinda), and I wanted to try a thing: narrating an audiobook. I tested it out thoroughly, and I’m happy to report that I will be doing this thing. I picked Blind to Love because it’s a standalone book I love with one POV. I told myself I had to narrate at least one audiobook in my life, and so this will be the one. If I absolutely fall in love with it, I’ll do more of this in the future.
I recorded the first two scenes in the first chapter. Now, this project is going to be on hold until after January because of that overtime I need to put into Valentine’s Day Tigers, but I plan on recording some every weekend when things get back to normal.
Conclusion
And that’s it for this week! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
