Wednesday, December 31, 2014

New Year's Wishes, ASID Updates and Roari's Resolution(s)


With 2015 just over two hours away here in California, I'm not so much reflecting on this year past as I am looking forward to the one ahead.... For you, dear Reader, I hope for a year full of joy, and many pages of adventures.

My contribution to the amount of aforementioned pages available for your imagination to dwell within was not as plentiful as I'd hoped in 2014, but with A Shadow in Doubt nearly ready, and my untitled-as-of-yet NaNo novel waiting, 2015 looks more promising.



Originally, A Shadow in Doubt, Book Two of Society in the Shadow of Civilization, was to be released this fall - I almost did it, but something wasn't sitting right with me. Then, I had the ah-ha moment, and, well, made a lot of work for myself revising things. Basically, everything is the same, but rearranged, if that makes sense. It doesn't, I know. Sometimes I wish I could time-travel, it would make things easier.

So, when, pray tell, will it be released? That's complicated too....

Why? Because I've decided to try something different this time. If you know what Wattpad is, you're lightyears ahead of me - but I'm there now too. Since I pulled back on ASID, I decided I'm going to release it on Wattpad and Writing.com, chapter by chapter, as I revise, and then release the ebook in February. But, it's New Year's Eve, so I'll post more about that later this week....

Twelve Days - Jayden's account of her time alone with the Society - is also coming to Wattpad and Writing.com in January. (No, I didn't forget about it!)

Lastly, I have two writer resolutions this year. The first one is easy - no more release dates until the release date is absolutely final, promise. The second one kind of scares me - I signed up for Twitter months ago, but have yet to tweet, LOL! So I resolve to figure it out this year, and use it!

Thank you, dearest Reader, for chasing after my dreams with me ... I hope each day of your 2015 is beautiful!

Roari

Saturday, December 13, 2014

December Roses, Wrapping and Unwrapping Gifts with Friends, the Return of the Rain and Release Day Delay

It's December thirteenth, there are still roses blooming in my garden, and A Shadow in Doubt isn't ready to be published....
Wait, what?- you say? Oh, you caught that last part. Did you see how I tried to soften you up with a flower?  I know, this puts me on the naughty list, but I'm used to it.

I won't bore you with the details as to why A Shadow in Doubt isn't ready yet, because if I tried to explain it, you'd probably be more confused than I am right now. It's complicated, but I hope you, Dear Reader, will understand. Trust me when I say you'll be glad for the delay ... it's worth it.

Okay, now the hard part's over, and if you're still reading, hopefully you've forgiven me! I will say two factors in the push back were/are NaNoWriMo and "the holidays". It was pure insanity to think I would get it there in that time frame. I'll announce the new release date on New Year's Eve - hopefully it will be late January.  But let's move on for now....

Simba
Mufasa

Wrapping presents is more fun with friends, don't you agree? My little lions, aka Simba and Mufasa, were tiny balls of fluff last year, and hid under the bed while I was wrapping. Now, they're Mommy's little distractors helpers. Aren't they sweet?

The holiday frenzy is finally in full swing at my house, a little late, but better than never. The tree still needs lights so we can hang the ornaments, then maybe I'll share a pic of that ;)





The Beasties unwrapped their Christmas present early this year (actually, unrolled it in this case) and they think they've gone to heaven. Instead of going to crazy midnight sales on Black Friday, I slept in, and spent the afternoon running back and forth to Home Depot, picking up sod. Then, while I worked away on finishing my NaNo novel, the love of my life installed it while our darling children supervised from the trampoline.




As you can see, Thor and Athena are delighted.

The the next day we had the most rain we've had in years, yesterday we had even more, and, according to the last reports I saw, we should have one or two more storms next week. I hope so, because the Beasties are already getting spoiled by having a plush carpet outside, and our parched state definitely needs it!

And I think that wraps it up for today! I hope your day is a beautiful one....

Roari

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Character Interview: Samantha Marquet

Today, I share an interview with Sam, catching up with her on what's happened since The Shadow Watcher, before A Shadow in Doubt....


Q: When we left you at the end of The Shadow Watcher, you were in kind of a strange place, wouldn't you say?

Sam: My apartment?

Q: No, I mean, emotionally.

Sam: Strange is a nice way of putting it. (smiles) Honestly, if not for Artemis keeping me connected to reality, I might convince myself it was all a dream. She's helped me keep my sanity.

Q: Some people might consider your relationship with your cat crazy....

Sam: You mean some people think I'm a crazy cat lady?

Monday, December 8, 2014

So, how did your NaNoWriMo go?

Now that I'm caught up on sleep, and my fingers are rested, I'm ready to talk about November....

This was my sixth year participating in NaNoWriMo, and my second win (barely).  Each year, time is the biggest factor working against me. Last year, I realized time is always working against us, so I needed to stop making excuses. It was still a struggle, but in a desperate burst of defiant and insistent typing, I pulled out 9600 something words from mid afternoon on the 28th to five am on the 29th.  I don't recommend it, but I was determined to finish, and finish I did.

When I sat down with my candy stash just after midnight November 1st this year, I didn't know what I was writing.  I wrote something, scrapped it a day later, wrote something else, scrapped that too.  In a panic, I started surfing the net, and came across something that make me think of an old idea, so I turned it into something new and ran with it.

Catching up and staying just ahead of the daily goal into the second week, I thought this year would be a breeze.  Then, somewhere I lost it. I sat and stared at the screen. My goal of finishing before turkey day was a joke by the 20th. And then it was midnight on the 28th, and I still had over 20,000 words to go....

Once again, the love of my life came through in my hour(s) of desperation, and after my Black Friday trips to Home Depot to supply him with projects for the weekend, he and the kids hung out in the yard while I sequestered myself to do something I didn't think would be possible. And yet it was.

It still doesn't have a name, and it's a rough, ugly draft, but it's just over fifty thousand words, so it counts. And I'm excited about it! It's a stand-alone YA fantasy novel involving a young woman who is tormented through nightmares controlled by a dark elf seeking revenge against her grandfather for stealing the source of his power.  Her grandfather sent the elf away when she was young, and her nightmares ended, leaving her to believe his stories were just that - nothing more than fairy tales.  Now, with her grandfather gone, the elf has found a way to return. A mysterious, flirtatious boy starts working with her at the restaurant just as others at school begin having nightmares, too. As students start disappearing, she realizes there is much more to the fairy tales of her childhood than she ever imagined.

(And no, I'm not talking about Santa's little helpers here, or Elrond's kin, these elves are different....)

I think part of my mid-month writing slump was due to all of the fantastic stories I was finding in my research - I kept getting off topic. It's not one of my better habits. In the end, I wrote something closer to seventy thousand words for the month, counting my first scrapped ideas - the scraps I may or may not save for later ;)

With that said.... I'm back to the final polish on last year's novel - A Shadow in Doubt. I hope you're having a beautiful day!

Roari


(Photos from all-free-download.net)