9/10/16

Despite my needing to take some time off from writing, things continue to progress with all my stories.  Here's an update on how things are going:

• Magnified was released on September 7th and so far has been getting great reviews.  Thank you to everyone that purchased a copy.  I really hope you enjoyed it! 
  
  
• Cinder-Elle, my fairytale short story from Fairytales Slashed Volume 4, is out of print.  I have some plans for this story, so look for it to appear on my to-do list again. 
  
  
• Speaking of stories going out of print soon, Cleanly Wrong, my story from the Bestiary collection will be going out of print at the end of September.  I'm hoping to polish and resubmit this story, but it may be a while before I can get my act together and make that happen.  Bloody Kiss, my story from the Proud to be a Vampire collection and Jack O'Lantern's Grin, my story from the Halloween Rentboy's collection will both be going out of print in October.  Bloody Kiss might return as part of a larger series, but don't hold me to that.  Jack O'Lantern's Grin will not be returning, so get your copies before they're gone. 
  
  
• I have also been getting a lot of editing accomplished.  The first round of edits for Ner Li and Ge-Mi: Part One and the second round for The Case of the Wandering Wolves and Dragon Soldier are back with LT3, as well as a final proof read for Dragon Detective (out on October 19th).  I have the second pass of edits for Elemental Ride sitting in my inbox that I will start working on soon. 
  

Releasing a new series is always an adventure.  There's so much excitement on my end to see my hard work finally blossom, but there's also a lot of worry.  What if my readers don't like the story?  With Magnified that's particularly poignant.  I poured a lot of myself into this story: my cultural background, my beliefs, and even large portions of what my life has been like.  Admittedly, my life has been unfortunately devoid of handsome werewolves and beautiful vampires (seriously, how do I fix that?), but there's so much of me intertwined in the pages of Magnified that having readers not like the story would really hurt.  Magnified took a lot of chutzpah for me to write and is probably the story I've most anticipated releasing to the public.  I really hope you enjoy it when Magnified comes out on September 7th. 

Of course, what would a new release day be like without a giveaway to go along with it?  Leave a comment below and on release day (September 7th) random.org and I will pick a winner.  One e-copy in your preferred format.  All the usual rules apply.   You'll have 48 hours to respond to my congratulatory email or the e-book goes to someone else. 

Also, if you want an extra entry feel free to retweet, like, and/or share.  One extra entry for each.  Just mention in your comment which ones you've done. 

Don't want to wait?  Pre-order Magnified right now in ebook and/or print for a discount: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...

    On her deathbed, Yani's Great Grandmother reveals she has one last story from her past to tell: that of his Great Uncle Yakov, who helped her survive the Nazis. It's a story of vampires and werewolves he can scarcely believe—and in the wake of his Great Grandmother's death, Yani realizes the story is far from over.

    The world of vampires and werewolves isn't a safe place for a human, even one with Yani's unusual family history. With danger at his door, the smart thing would be to run, but much like his Great Grandmother Yani has never been very good at running away—especially with his loved ones and the whole world at stake.

It took me a while to accept this fact, but I think I'm burned out.  I need a break, some time to settle into my new home and new job.  There's too much going on in my life and I need to cut something.  Writing, unfortunately, is the only thing that I can safely take a step back from for a bit.  Since I've had writers block for a while now, it makes sense. 

August, and possibly also September, will be a no-writing time.  I'll get the edits that are overdue completed, but nothing else.  That way, when I return to my waiting works-in-progress (and I will return, don't worry) I'll feel fresh and ready to write again. 

July was supposed to be my comeback month, but I am still plagued with writer's block.  I am having a lot of trouble finding the motivation to keep working on any of my works-in-progress.  It's honestly a bit maddening.  I want to write, I do, but it's just not happening.  July ended up not being a good month for my goals.

1. Editing.  I returned the edits for Dragon Soldier and Elemental Ride to LT3.  I'm still working on the edits for The Case of the Wandering Wolves.  I have also received the edits for Ge-Mi: Part One, so have been trying to get those completed as well. 
    
   
2. Magnified, Book Three.  I haven't touched this book all month.  I wanted to, especially since I know what I need to do to finish the scene I working on, but it just wasn't happening. 
    
   
3. Ge-Mi: Part Two.  I tried to get some planning accomplished in this story.  I know the overall plot, but am missing a lot of final details that are needed to have a smoothly-flowing story.  Once I have those details figured out I should be able to return to writing this story. 
    
   
4. The Oracle's Current.  This is the story I wanted to work on the most, however when I read through what I have written I realized there is a lot of editing that needs to be done.  It's missing something, which is why I think this story has been sitting stagnant for so long.  I need to figure out what that something is so I can finally complete it. 
   

July is a wonderful month.  Everything is warm, but it isn't scorching outside yet.  My birthday is coming soon.  And, of course, I usually have a great time with writing.  This has always been my "last month of freedom" before that hellish six week job I've been doing every summer, except this summer I don't have to go back!  I have my full time job, which, admittedly, I'm still settling in to, and it is so much better.  With all that to look forward to, I'm really hoping writing will start picking up again. 

1. Edits.  I still have to finish the edits for Dragon Soldier.  I'm delinquent on getting them back, so they're a priority right now.  I also have the first round of edits for Elemental Ride and the second round of edits for The Case of the Wandering Wolves in my inbox.  The first round of edits for Ge-Mi: Part One are on their way as well.  That's a lot to do, so I need to get cracking. 
    
   
2. Magnified, Book Three.  I need to think of a title for this.  It will be something-fied, but I haven't figured out what will work just yet.  I also want to finish writing the prologue this month.  It's only about 7k words to write, which is doable. 
    
3. Ge-Mi: Part Two.  With part one now having a release date, I realized I need to get cracking on part two.  Mostly I need to start planning out the overall plot, which will require a good bit of work considering I haven't thought about this story in a long while. 
    
   
4. The Oracle's Current.  Speaking of stories I haven't touched in a while, I think this story wins that bet.  It is long past time I finish writing this and complete the fifth and final part of this story set in the Oracle universe.  There's a side story I want to write too, The Sentinel's Prophesy, but let me stick to one story at a time.  When Current is finally completed I'll return to Prophesy. 

June was a difficult month.  I finished training, moved, and started at my new job.  It was stressful, exhausting, and very time consuming.  All things writing got pushed aside because my real life was far too hectic.  I did manage to get some things done, though. 

1. Be Prepared.  I returned the copy edits for Magnified to LT3 and made a lot of progress on the edits for Dragon Soldier.  There's still more work to do in Soldier, but I don't think I did too badly. 
   
   
2. Writing.  Surprisingly I was able to get some writing completed.  Almost 2k words in book three of my Magnified series.  It's a good place to grow from and is indicative that the planning and research I've been working on is heading in the right direction.  There's still a lot to do in this story, but I'm very happy with it so far.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get anything completed in any of my other stories, but I have high hopes for next month.