Getting close …

The release of Book Two – Dusk Gate: Roots of Insight is getting closer … 17 more days! 🙂  In celebration (and because I’m too busy preparing for the release and doing the wonderful Christmas thing with my sweet Little Goose to be very creative with blog posts), I’ve decided to re-run some of the awesome reviews and posts others have done.

Really, I don’t know where Seeds of Discovery would be right now if it hadn’t been for some of these folks who were willing to take a chance on a new book and then share their thoughts with the world. One of the very best things that has happened as a result of publishing Seeds of Discovery is the amazing new people it has brought into my life. Just as wonderful, is the few “old” people I’ve been able to reconnect with as a result of the book as well.

Merry Christmas to all of you, and thanks for being on this journey with me!

And here is a re-post of my very first video review … thanks so much to S0rceress0! Please don’t forget to check out her awesome blog review site, E-Book It Reviews

Number one Contemporary Fantasy and Children’s Fantasy

Wow! This has been a whirlwind day … a whirlwind month, really.

I just realized that I haven’t blogged since right before Thanksgiving, and I know that’s bad, LOL. In reality, a lot of it is because this is a challenging month for me personally, and it wasn’t long after Thanksgiving that another family member of mine passed away, and my thoughts have been in a jumble.

So, rather than post about my random introspection, I’ve been focusing my efforts on Dusk Gate. 🙂 Book Two is written! There will be some heavy editing over the next few weeks, and then it will release on January 9th! Some of you who have been helping me with my Amazon promotion of Book One will be receiving free advance copies!

In case you were wondering … the official title for Book Two (since, unfortunately, I can’t call it Book Two forever) is … *drumroll* Dusk Gate: Roots of Insight.

And now for the really big news…

Yesterday, I put Seeds of Discovery up for free on Amazon, intending it to be a one-day promotion. But when the day was close to over, the book had hit the top ten in both the Contemporary and Children’s Fantasy categories. So, I thought, what the heck. I’ll leave it free for another day, and see what happens.

Number. One. No, seriously. As of this exact moment — 10:07 P.M., the book is the number one bestselling free book in both of those categories. And, if I can actually type this without falling out of my chair … it’s #103 in free books overall on Amazon.

I am amazed and grateful and shocked, and a million other things right now. Oh, and my house is a TRAINWRECK because every single time the kids were happily absorbed today, you can guess what I was probably doing. LOL.

And, um … the book will be free tomorrow, too. 🙂 Tell your friends. (please!)

Daily Writing Progress, Week Five: Tuesday

What? Less than a week between blog posts? Crazy!

I’m worried that our leaf-jumping days might be over. After a beautiful day yesterday — nearly 80 degrees — the forecast calls for up to six inches of snow tonight.  Yesterday, we spent a huge chunk of the day picnicking and playing at the park in the gorgeous weather.  I am so not ready for snow.  If I ever win the lottery (or sell a million books – you’d think the chances of this would be slimmer, but since I don’t play the lottery, they’re slightly higher), I am going to spend an entire month every winter in Australia. Besides the fact that it’s summer there in January, there are some really awesome people in Australia I’d love to see again. 🙂

I finally finished the first draft of Simon’s wedding in Eirentheos. I’m not happy with it yet, but that’s what editing is for.  After two weeks of struggling with the whole thing, I finally figured out where Quinn, Thomas, and William were trying to take me (or get me to take them), and I’m really pleased with the direction of the scene following. 🙂

So….

How many words did I write yesterday? 1,318

Book Two progress so far? 31,318

Onward … this week’s goal is still to reach 40k!

Daily Writing Progress, Week Five: Monday

Sheesh, maybe I should change it to weekly writing progress. 🙂  When the block hits, it hits hard! 🙂 I should at least be blogging, though.

We have been having a great time around here … lots of fun preschool activities, scented pumpkins, real pumpkins, and play-doh! And the leaves have been

falling in earnest.  We live right next to this lovely, tree-covered hill and there are thousands of delightful yellow leaves everywhere. Enough to rake up great, heaping piles, and jump into them, rolling, laughing and screeching.

It has certainly been fun. 🙂  No, that isn’t actually a picture of our hill. I will post one soon, though.

So, I am finally at 30k, two weeks late.  I think I may have finally broken through the issue I was having, so we’ll see where it goes. 🙂  And my goal for the week? Hit 40k!

 

What fun fall things are you doing?  Now that it’s Monday again, what are your goals for the week?  How can we support each other in meeting them?

Daily Writing Progress, Week Four: Monday

Okay, so last week was an utter disaster in terms of word count. 🙂 I don’t know why. Maybe it was stress, probably distraction had something to do with it… and I think a big part of it was “incubation.”  I had all these ideas of where the story was going to go… I’ve had it mapped out for a long time, but they needed time. Time to sit, to “incubate” before they were ready to hatch. At least that’s the story I’m telling myself. 😉

Anyway, I spent the weekend in discussions and outlining sessions with my dear friend, and writing partner, Krysta Hunt, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to get back on track this week.  Any magic sparkling writing dust blowing my way would be much appreciated. I am really going to try for 10k this week.

How was your week last week? Did you meet any goals? Anything exciting happen?

What are your goals for this week? Anyone else need magic dust?

Book Two current word count: 25,979

Total word count from Week Three: 4,146

Daily Writing Progress, Week Three: Tuesday

How many words did I write yesterday? 1,105 Yay! I broke the 1k mark. All of my writing yesterday was done on the first chapter I have so far that’s told in William’s point of view. 🙂 It was a lot of fun to get a glimpse of what’s going on in his head (and what a sweet guy he really can be, btw). I might have gotten more written yesterday, but the inspiration for writing this new scene came during my shower last night, and I deleted the rest of the day’s feeble efforts.

Book Two progress so far: 22,918

Book Two is now officially more than 1/3 as long as Book One. 🙂

How was your writing/work/goal day yesterday?

Daily Writing Progress, Week Three: Monday

Well, last week was definitely more productive than the week before. Perhaps if I can continue the trend, I’ll get somewhere. 🙂

Grand total words for week two: 8,100

Week one was 6,341. So, definite improvement, but still not to my 10k goal. Still going to stick to that 10k goal and see where I can get with that, but I will be pretty happy if I can at least break 30k words this week.

The story is progressing nicely; some fun things have started happening. In the scenes I’ve been working on for the last couple of days, Quinn has been showing a side of her personality that I haven’t seen much of before. Thomas is … Thomas. He doesn’t know how to even pretend to be anybody else, and I love him for that. I can’t wait to see what happens this week.

Book Two progress so far: 21,883 words. Onward!

Since today marks the beginning of a new week, work-wise, anyway, what are YOUR goals this week? Writing, personal, or anything else counts!

Mean

So last night, as Little Goose and I were going to bed, she asked me, “Mom, how does everyone in the whole town know the word mean?”

A little startled by how profound she seems sometimes, and looking for clarity, I asked, “What do you mean, sweetheart?”

“I mean, how does everyone in the whole universe know what mean is?”

These are the questions that, as a parent, leave me gasping for breath. I don’t know the answer to that question. It’s one of the fundamental questions of being human, and what it means to make choices about what we do, and how we do it, and how we treat people.  Of course, she’s four. She wasn’t looking for an existential discussion. (I dunno, maybe she was. She is my kid.) She may have just been stalling bedtime.

It is a big question, though. I know it’s one she’s been learning about, as she learns to deal with other kids and other people. She’s struggled with doing mean things herself lately, so I can see where the topic might have been on her mind. It was certainly a question I couldn’t just give her an answer to, not even one of the long-winded ones she sets herself up for sometimes. It’s a question/theme I could take an entire series of books to explore (and certainly one that just may make it into my current project).

Anyway, these are the thoughts on my mind this beautiful fall, Friday morning.

How many words did I write yesterday? 1,031 – Not as much as I would have liked, but at least I did break the thousand mark! 🙂

How many words have I written this week? 5,041 Halfway to my goal, anyway. Too bad the week is nearly over. 🙂

Book Two currently sits at 18,774 words. Today’s goal is to at least break 20k!