Update Day: Looking Back and Looking Forward

Me and some awesome bloggers have set some big/huge/crazy goals and we have a monthly bloghop where we let each other know how we’ve been doing. You can click here for the list of participants and to see what their goals are.

But before I get into that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

May 2015 be full of blessings for each and every one of you. 

My goal is the one stated at the top of the blog. Earning $7500 in royalties per month, every month for a year, within the next five years. In other words, I need to start earning $7500 per month in January 2018 at the latest. To further explain, this isn’t about money. It’s all about getting me motivated to produce a long list of books that I’ve had pipe-lined for almost three years now. The idea here is that the more high quality books I produce, the more likely I am to eventually hit that $7500 a month goal. I picked the number that high, because the way I see it, I’ll still be happy even if I fall short.

Knowing this, I set a ton of goals for 2014, because I also figured that the sooner I published more, the better the odds of me earning that goal amount. Really, it’s quite sensible if you think about it. And I was sensible. I knew I wasn’t going to achieve most of the goals I set. The plan had been to maybe achieve five or six of them.

What I hadn’t expected, though, was that 2014 would be a year straight from hell. The publishing deal I’d had for two books (on of which had been published in 2013) went sour so spectacularly that I’ve had my trust in the publishing industry shaken to its foundations.

My personal/work life has pretty much shaken my faith in humanity at large.

I was so busy with surviving all that, I couldn’t ever really focus on my writing career like I’d wanted. Which means that of all the goals I’d set, I’ve achieved exactly two. I’ve managed to cut the majority of refined carbs and sugars out of my diet. Along with processed foods of all sorts. And I’ve been doing some needlepointing and crocheting. (The goal had been to do some crafts other than writing too.)

The diet one, I have to say, is a huge achievement. Doing other crafts… not so much. It was my survival mechanism. Infinite repetitions of the same motion, leaving me free to drain out some of the bad thoughts and emotions that had been bothering me all year.

So all and all, it could have been so easy to call this year a failure and mourn everything I’d lost. (And I’ve lost a lot.)

But I won’t.

Because even though my goal score for this year looks pathetic, I know I’ve achieved a lot. Let me list the ways:

Reading:

Despite my life often sucking so much that I often couldn’t even concentrate on the words in front of me, I read twenty five books this year.

Writing:

I fought for and succeeded in regaining the rights to both the books that had been with my former publisher.

I still wrote over 150 000 words into rough drafts this year. I also wrote over 60k this month alone, although 40k of it was rewriting the western I’ve been working on.

Most of those 150 000 words were written by hand.

I finished five rough drafts out of the seven I started with.

I finished rewriting about two thirds of the above-mentioned Western. For those of you who've been around for a while, this is the book I’d lost a few years ago.

Life:

I’m still here, and I’m looking forward to tackling the new year’s challenges.

Which brings me to this coming year’s goals:

Writing:

I want to finish as many of the following as possible:

(For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to list my projects by the Acronyms I use for them, since that’s what I use on my year planners as well. Also, I haven’t gotten around to revealing some titles yet, and now seems like the wrong time.)

Publish:

Wo6C1

Wo6C2

BvB1

ES1

My Untethered Realms Anthology Short Story.

Publishing Edits (possibly for publishing in 2015):

Wo6C3

BvB2

Revisions and Rough Edits

O1

VD

Rewrites:

Wo6C4

SS1

P

MDtS

Rough Drafts (The ones I do by hand):

DD

ES2

CdW

HM

StW

In Addition:

Basically, I want to stick as close as possible to the year plan I have. This is what it looks like right now.

Reading

I want to read 75 books next year.

The minimum amounts of which must consist of:

5 books or plays in a language other than English.

5 plays by Shakespeare

5 classics other than Shakespeare, of which one must be Chaucer.

5 non-fiction titles.

5 books by some of my blogging friends.

Social Media:

I seriously need to sort out my Social Media stuff. I haven’t been near active enough last year. What this entails, though, is something I still need to wrap my head around.

Life:

Help my family build our own house. (Yep, brick by brick.)

Sort out some sort of business that I can do on my own terms. (SO over trusting people to help me when they only help themselves at my cost.)

Seriously. I need to get back to singing.

Also, I really really want to paint this year. Other than the above-mentioned house’s walls.

Then, I want to continue with my more healthy diet, since it makes me feel good and gives me a lot more energy. (Useful when I’ll be lugging lots of bricks around.)

Last of all, and probably most importantly, I need to get past all the stuff that’s happened this year, so that I can get through 2015 with as little contamination as possible.

Okay. Who’s still with me? You’re awesome.

Now, the last thing…

Goals for January

I think in 2014 I made a bit of a mistake not to draw more of my life into my goals. After all, I don’t think success will come without balance.

So…

Writing:

1) Get back to sorting out the covers for Wo6C1, Wo6C2 and BvB1.

2) Finish final edit rounds for at least one of the three above mentioned books.

3) Finish rewriting ES1.

4) Rough draft 15k words.

This should be what my January looks like, writing-wise: 

Reading:

Continue reading L’Etranger by Albert Camus.

Start reading Twelfth Night by Shakespeare

Read 4 other books

Social Media:

Still having to postpone, pending me gaining access to reliable Internet.

Life:

Survive first month of building a house while still editing and writing.

Wow. That was a lot! Thanks to everyone sticking with me for the whole post. Now tell me. What’s your big goal for the year? Do you have a big/crazy/crazy important goal or dream that you’re working towards? Why don’t you sign up?

One more hiatus for the year...

Yeah... This one isn't one I have a choice about, though.

Remember when I said I'd move house in November? Well... that move is coming up tomorrow. And I'll be stuck without a reliable internet source for a while.

I say a while, because it's unclear as to how long it will take for me to get internet again.

No matter. This girl is planning on getting a TON of writing done this month.

Being me (and knowing that I'll have more time on my hands than I've had in almost six months), I've set myself the slightly insane goal for December of rewriting two novels (y'know, to get them on the computer) and rough drafting over 60k words. (Daily goal: 2k per day.)

The idea behind the 60k goal?

Well... I estimate that's what it's going to take to finish the five rough drafts I have left before year end. And then in January, I'll have a glorious time editing.

Also, if I can only finish two or three projects now, it can have a huge impact on what my next writing year will be like.

So wish me luck!

I hope to see you all again before Christmas.

X

Update Day

Hey all. I was going to do the update yesterday (as we're supposed to), but I only got home at around midnight, so the update would have been today whether I liked it or not.

For those of you who don't know, this post is a part of a monthly bloghop (hosted by me and Beth Fred) where writers get to post their weird, huge, or hugely important writing goals and talk about them. It's really a nice way to see if you're making any progress toward that goal. If you'd like more info on how to join, click here.

I'd hoped to get to about 30k this month (even though I was taking part in NaNoWriMo), because that would have been equivalent to 1000 words every day.

But, I haven't made 20k yet. I'm almost at 19k.

It's not all depressing, though. I finally finished the rough draft to the western that I had to redraft. And I think the story will be awesome. Then I also found the beginnings of a space opera that I will be adding to my five year plan list for next year.

Also, after many many times of promising that my schedule has opened up, I do believe it truly has.

Which means I'm going to do some catch-up.

If you look at the green bits in the December Column, those are all the rough drafts I have in progress. Those are the ones I technically want to finish by the end of this year. I suspect, though, that this won't be possible. Ideally, I'd like to finish two of these projects. 

My projects are listed here according to priority. My mystery project is the highest priority draft I have unfinished at the moment. After that, it's SS1, which I'll give a catchier working title, I promise!

I'll be pretty happy if I can finish those in December. I'd be ecstatic if I could do so while finishing a rewrite to either VD or ES1 (which is the above-mentioned western). But I'll see. In theory, I'll also be editing the three yellow projects, but as I mentioned, I won't be able to publish this year. So now it's more me sitting around waiting for various people to send me things. Which is good. Gives me time to clear my to-draft list a bit. 

As always, I'll let you know how I'm doing. 

How are you? Did NaNo? Did you win? 

Three things I liked about Brandon Sanderson's Pep-talk

It's so funny really. Pretty much ever since the incident of the light, things have been happening. Big things, small things. Nice things... shit things. The strange thing about this, though, is that it's as if there's one theme to all of it.

PROGRESS.

Yes, after spending most of this year with wheels spinning, things are happening. And whether they're good or (almost bone-crushingly) bad, it feels like all of it is heading somewhere. Almost like all my blessings have been dammed up somewhere, and now they're flowing over.

Yes. Even though there have been some really bad moments. Especially last week. And no. This isn't me putting a bright picture on things. Not after I came to this realization.

This isn't to say that everything that's happened this year has been undone. But that pin-prick of light I'd been glimpsing down the tunnel all this past year does seem to be growing. Which is telling me that set-backs aside, I'm moving forward more than anything else.

Then I read this NaNo Pep-talk today (see, I'm still in the writing related zone), and thought that it might encourage you all as well. Go ahead and read. I'll wait.

Back? Good.

So the things I adore about this pep-talk:

1) To know that Brandon Sanderson used to struggle to sell books. It just makes me feel like publishing really is just a matter of luck and not giving up.
2) Knowing that, no matter how long we've struggled to get ahead, everything can change for the better with zero prior notice. (Which was nice, because I actually experienced a version of this at work today.)
3) Just generally thinking that although I'm still to (re-)publish anything this year, I might be working on the one that garners me a million readers. Nice thought, isn't it?

And that's really the beautiful thing about life. Yes, things can be difficult, but lucky breaks often seem to come from nowhere. We only have to keep going so that we can be there when they happen.

Anyone else catch a lucky break lately?

This self publishing thing isn't as simple as one would think...

I realized this weekend that I’ve now passed the point where I’ll be able to publish this year. There’s simply no way for me to edit, format, get the cover and register for copyright before the end of the year. Or maybe it’s possible and I don’t know it yet. But for now, I don’t think I can be practical and say that I’m still going to get everything together.

Sure, I can still rush and get it done. But where’s the point in that? I know that in order to stand even a tiny chance of success at my big goal, I have to deliver high quality goods. Given that this will be my first attempt at self-publishing, I simply don’t think I’m capable of pulling everything together in less than six weeks.

Which means that once again, I’m having to postpone. But you know what? I’m okay with that. The way I see it, I’ve tried my best to get everything done with the time and resources I have. Beyond that, though, things happen as and when they’re supposed to happen.

No amount of planning, worrying, working or stressing will change this.

I’m not giving up, though. I’m still editing. I’m still writing and I’m definitely still putting together the grand plan of how I’ll be writing and publishing somewhere between 12 and 25 books in the next five years.

I still think it’s doable. And missing this first year in order to get everything in place isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Because really I’m close. I’ve basically got to wait on editor’s feedback on Birds vs Bastards. Once I apply the necessary edits to that, there’s only formatting left. The Vanished Knight is basically ready for formatting, but I’m waiting on the cover. (Which I could have had, but I got thwarted by the shoe biz yet again. So I have to wait for my cover designers to return from vacation.) The Heir’s Choice is the furthest from finished, but it’s still not impossibly far from done. I’ve got a few more CPs needing to finish the last few chapters. Then it’s the editor’s final pass and then formatting. Which, given that I can do edits to a book of THC’s length in a week or less, really isn’t an impossibly long time. And I can start registering all three for copyright as soon as those last edits are done.

No point to panic or anything though. However, this has told me the value of planning ahead a little more than I have this year. Which I will definitely do for 2015.

How’re your writing/editing/publishing endeavors going?

Oh look! Another finished draft.

Although I'm still way behind on NaNoWriMo, it has had an interesting effect. Although I haven't touched one of my books since July, I finished it today, because when I read it to continue writing, I actually realized that I could actually start rewriting it now. (In fact, I already have the plan for it as well.)

Which is great for me. I've finished two rough drafts out of seven. Would be great if I could maybe finish one or two more before the end of the month. We'll see, though. 

Anyone else doing NaNo? How's it going? 

Before I go, just want to give a shout-out to Cathrina Constantine.

**Happy Release Day** **GIVEAWAY**

Wickedly They Dream

Genre: Paranormal Thriller/Fantasy

Publisher: Black Opal Books Grab it today for only 99 cents!  HERE How Far Will Jordan go to rescue her mother. It will cost her everything--even her angel, Markus!

Buy Links: Amazon

Black Opal Books

Author Cathrina Constantine resides in Western New York. When not with her family, you'll find her in the forest behind her house walking the dogs and conjuring a new tale.

You can find Cathy Here:

Amazon

Facebook

Goodreads

Twitter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In which a light becomes a message and miracle.

So... in case you missed it, this really strange thing happened on Wednesday morning.

And... well... I thought about rather not posting this, because I know it's controversial, but I'm going to anyway. Why? Because it's the truth and I realized how damaging it can be to a blog when the author lies, even when it's by omission. This post will contain religious overtones and more than just a little testimony. So if you're not interested, you might find reading one of my Wattpad stories more interesting.

Okay. Taking a deep breath here. While crying like a baby.

What I didn't tell you on Wednesday:








You know how Job felt when everything got taken away from him? Well. I can safely say I think my family and I got a great taste of it. Except for the bit where his entire family died. And where he lost everything basically in a day or two.

I'm not going to go into the costs for everyone in my family, but to give you an idea of my score card for 2014:

1) Publishing deal went SPECTACULARLY wrong by January.

2) My and my mother's business, which had taken a hit at the end of the year, didn't bounce back thanks in a large part to some laws our government wanted to pass.

3) The farm we'd moved to, which had been such a huge source of hope, despite the business taking a hit, soaked up our savings and offered pretty much nothing back. I am not going to talk about what had to be sacrificed as a result of this, because it's not pretty.

4) All of my hopes and dreams have basically been shelved until such a time that we could bounce back from all the spending on the farm. A farm, incidentally, that we were led to by God. 

5) Sacrifices and dream shelving aside, the person with whom we'd signed the buyer's contract basically sold it out from under us in September. Yes, we could have fought this, but after already spending so much and still getting nothing back, we just couldn't see a point to fighting for the farm. Besides which, we kinda realized that if God could open doors no one could close, and close doors that no one could open, it's pretty dang obvious from the way these doors were closing that God did not in fact want us to stay on this farm.

6) We'd spend to the tune of $200 000 on the farm, which we ain't getting back. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this amount. Until my salary went into said farm, my monthly salary, which put me in the upper-middle income class, was about $1500 per month.

7) Then... the shoe biz, the source of hope we all so desperately needed, went pear shaped due to actions taken by others. Actions completely beyond our control.

You know about breaking points? 

On Tuesday, 4 November, I'd officially reached mine.

The result was that I... well... I lost it completely. I had some seriously strong words with God. Testimony one: That He didn't strike me down for at least a quarter of what I'd said, is more than proof enough that yes, He does love us as much as He says.

Anyway. So I get into the car and me, my mother and four of our employees go to Cape Town to unpack and count 5000 pairs of shoes.

God has sort of fallen silent as I left the room. (Yep, ours is very much a two-way conversation. No, that's not at all an insane thing to say.) Then suddenly out of the blue, He says:

"Friday."
Me: "What happens on Friday?"

Silence. With me sort of growing carefully optimistic that maybe something'll get sorted for us before the weekend came. But even so, I had some niggling suspicions. Why now? After a whole freaking sucking year. Why now?

After dinner, we spoke and I sorta carefully ventured what I'd heard, then found that both my brother and uncle had gotten the same message. And my grandmother, that something would turnaround soon, but without a specific deadline.

Despite this, by Tuesday evening, I was doubting again. Not proud to say it. But there you go.

I didn't doubt that something would happen on Friday. I just didn't really think that any of it would really have a bearing on actually helping us get out of all this... well... crap.

So... yeah...

Night terrors. Waking often. Sorta, half lucid, half delirious praying... Yeah. I sometimes do that, if I drift off while praying.

Problem with this is that with sleep comes lowered inhibitions.

As such, I suspect (no way that I'll ever really know) that I said something like: "It's like You're not here anymore."

Because honestly, it's something that's been in my thoughts for some time, but that I haven't actually been brave enough to actually put into words.

Nope. That isn't when God turned His back on me forever.

That had to be the moment when He quite audibly said: "I'm here."

And just in case I didn't buy it this time: 

HE
TURNED
ON
THE
LIGHTS

Which, needless to say, more than got my attention. But of course, I didn't think it was Him, because why would He? 

Except, the more you guys commented and I thought and prayed about it, the more certain I became. And you know what? There's a reason why He'd do something as outrageous as defy the laws of physics and make lights burn without being "switched on." He loves me. And He didn't want me to worry for a second more that we were alone in all this. 

So what made me post this today? Well... It's Friday, see. And I realized that I have an amazing Holy Father, who I don't always understand, but whose love for me and everyone else defies understanding. 

Because starting at around noon today, EVERYTHING turned around and although we aren't getting the farm, we've been given a chance to move on. Which, given that I can only assume it's what God wants, is probably going to be only a million times or so better than anything I can come up with. 

So today, this seventh day of November, 2014, I proclaim in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that this year has officially been turned around thanks to His profound love and mercy. 

You might wonder why I'm sharing all this? The answer is simple: I know that 2014 is a rough year for MANY of us, and it's my hope that this post will bring you to a place of peace, comfort and blessings as well. And a place of knowing that, no matter what, God does love us, and He always will. Even when we say stupid stuff in our sleep. 

Thanks to those of you who read this! 

I'm feeling the need to pray for some of you, so if you have any needs that you think needs some prayers, please feel free to let me know in the comments. Or mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(dot)com. 

IWSG: What. The. Hell.....?!

Aaaah yes... It's that time again. The Insecure Writers' Support Group gets together every first Wednesday of the month to share our writerly insecurities or support for insecure writers.

Any writer is welcome to join, so if you want more info, click here.



Honestly, I'm currently too tired right now to be insecure in my writing. There's just too much going on in my life. Which means that although I still have goals and am taking part in NaNo, I'm just not going to worry about getting anything more done than what I'm capable of in the last two months of this year.

I'm currently FAR behind on NaNoWriMo, thanks to entering November with a flu/throat infection.

Yes, 2014 is still to stop being a d*ck at every turn.

It did, however, give me THE MOST astounding paranormal experience of my life. Which, coming from me, says a lot. And it was convenient enough to make the date easy to remember, since it happened today at 1 a.m.

Since I missed out on posting on Halloween, I'm going to share this here. Also, because I really want to find out if anyone has experienced something similar and if you have suggestions as to what it could be.

I was sleeping rather restlessly, since I suffer from night terrors. For those of you who don't know what night terrors are: It's basically a condition where you "get a nightmare" in the deepest stages of sleep. Which means that yes, I do see some seriously weird stuff all the time. Hyper real and hyper terrifying. A lot of people don't remember the exact nature of the night terrors. Nor do they remember having them.

I've sort of learned to recognize them as they occur, since they occur so often. Which means that I've been able to remember some aspects of the night terrors. At least so that if they repeat, I recognize them. ESPECIALLY the really creepy stuff.

Anyway. The point here is that I am VERY aware of the difference between dreams and reality, because it's usually the only thing keeping me from screaming like a girl and running through the house like a crazy person.

So at about midnight, two of my cats wanted to be let out, so I walked through my dark bedroom to the front door and opened it by feel. Do it all the time, so I'm not all that bothered with it. I got back into bed and continued with my restless sleep.

In this time, some sort of night terror. One of my recurring ones. And then suddenly, out of the blue, I hear a (actually very nice-sounding) male voice say: "I'm here."

At the same time, my room's lights turn on. As in on-on. Bright on. Enough to wake me up and say "What the hell?!"

So there I am, completely awake, sitting on my bed. There's no one there. And we live in a old house with wooden floors. If someone had walked into my room to turn the light on, I would have heard.

And then... Nothing. No shadows. No cold spots. No feelings of dread. The one cat who'd remained on the bed with me kept right on sleeping. So it was just me, wondering who the "I" from "I'm here." was supposed to be.

I got up and turned off the light, checked the time on my phone and got back in bed. And wondered... and wondered... and wondered...

Because see, I don't think this was a ghost. I know how ghosts feel.

There was nothing creepy except for the pure weirdness of it all.

And nothing as shocking as realizing that sometimes, the unexplained can really be obvious about letting us know they exist.

So... Thoughts? What do YOU think this was?

And in case you're wondering what all this has to do with IWSG: 

This writer is about to go sleep in the same room...

An (Delayed) Update Day

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH I KNEW I FORGOT SOMETHING.

It's a terrible thing when the thing being forgotten is my own bloghop. I profusely apologize!

There's a good excuse though. Two, actually.

See, you remember I mentioned that we're importing 5000 pairs of shoes? Yesterday we had to start unpacking them. I did this while riddled with flu yet again. So we started at nine, got home at seven.

I ate.

I showered.

I crashed.

And it took me to almost noon today to realize I completely forgot I was supposed to post. It's a disguised blessing for you all, though. Because after I ate and showered, I wasn't all that... how shall I put it? Rational.

But here I am on just enough pain meds (hurts to swallow and... well... breathe. (Yes, I'm pretty sure it's just the flu.))  to actually function, so let me update you.

What I achieved in October:

1) I finished drafting the sequel to The Heir's Choice. 
2) I managed to pretty much do nothing writing-wise for the rest of the month.
3) Unless you count critiquing. I critiqued three books.

My writing break did bring the writing-lust back, though, which means I decided to join in for NaNoWriMo this year. I probably won't win, though, because I have a ton of stuff to get done.

1) Edit The Heir's Choice and Birds vs Bastards once the last of my critiques come in.
2) Sort out formatting. Screw it. Hire someone to do the formatting for me.
3) Write 50k words. Write a nice respectable amount of words and see if I can finish any more of my rough drafts.

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year? My user name is iceangel if we haven't buddied up, yet.

Hi All! Just a heads-up that I'm posting at Unicorn Bell this week, so if you have time, please do stop by to say hi!

Misha
XoXo

I should have known I can't stay away...

If you've been asking me lately if I'd join in with NaNoWriMo this year, the answer was a most emphatic no.

But here's the thing. 

As I mentioned before, I kicked back from really writing anything this month. 

Which means my muse is now kicking my butt. I really really want to write again. And since it's a few days from NaNo, I might as well sign up. 

Now, I'm not stupid. I know that the odds of me winning is next to nothing. But that hardly matters. It's the writing that's the thing for me. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try and write every day, and then just see how far I get. 

Because really, there's one more rough draft I really want to finish this year. NaNo might just be what I need to get it done. 

Anyone else joining NaNo against their better instincts? 

Before I go, I just want to give a shout-out to my blogging buddy C.D. Coffelt: 

Mage Revealed

Book Two of The Magic Withheld series

Struck with enough malevolent Spirit to turn him into a raving beast of a man, Bert Reese fights to remain human. Alone, he walks a slender path between sanity and madness. Then, an unlikely source enters his life to help—one of the now-hated mages.

But Ashleigh is different and calms his butchered senses. Her fierce nature is the only rock that stands between him and the crevasse that is beast. In all ways, she walks beside him toward a new beginning. But at the end of their journey lies the one who used Spirit against him. Questions arise; did Tiarra, head of the Imperium, lose her magic, die, or simply give way to the new order? Or, like a spider, does she wait for a mage to blunder into her web?

Forced on him without a care for his humanity, Bert is the mage who should not exist, born with a different kind of magic. 

And the gates of Hell are no match for the magic he wields.

Author C.D. Coffelt’s world of magic started in Wilder Mage with the words “The earthquake wasn’t his fault. Not this time.” It continues in Mage Revealed, the second book of the three-part series. Watch the book trailer on YouTube.

Excerpt from Mage Revealed

Energy slithered around him, encased him and…

Bonded.

All the elements slammed into him at once filling him like a bursting dam, sloshing into a maelstrom of Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and Spirit. Magic filled him, cascaded into every pore of his skin until there was nothing left that was of his essence.

He raised his arms. “I am a wizard,” he said.

His words echoed, like the roll of a bass drum in an empty coliseum.

From his fingertips, fluid lightning forked and shot into the empty sky. A violent whirlwind as tall as he wanted it to be caught up a whirl of leaves. A roar of Fire sprang from the palms of his hands, crowned his head. And Spirit, the silvery element waited for his command, to charge into any foray he so chose.

He turned to the panting women, frozen in the grip of panic and fright.

“I am a wizard,” he said again.

C.D. Coffelt lives outside Skidmore, Missouri with a bemused husband and way too many cats. She is a member of the Missouri Writers Guild. But despite that bit of conventionality, she adores all things fantasy with a special love for urban and epic.

With a passion for good writing and Doritos as companions, locating Middle-Earth on a dusty road in rural Missouri wasn’t difficult. All it took was a little Magic, hours of reading, and an overactive imagination.

She blogs as Huntress on www.spiritcalled.blogspot.com, Facebook, Twitter, and her writer’s critique site, www.unicornbell.blogspot.com.

Find her books at Amazon and Barnesand Noble.

I knew I'd use my economics studies at some point: My Perspective on Paul Krugman's Article and Amazon's Announcement

Today I read this article by Paul Krugman. He's one of the giants in Economics. One of the rock-stars, so to speak. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008.

And, believe it or not, economics still interests me, so when his name popped up on my Facebook Timeline and I saw that he'd written about the whole Amazon/Hachette dispute, I immediately clicked over to read. 

My response can be summed up as follows: 

"We are not amused."

Now before I launch into why, I must warn you that this is going to dig into economics a bit, but I'll be trying my best to keep things jargon-free or at least to explain things so we're all on the same page. This will be a long post (because I could take all week to write about this but don't want to), but I do hope at least some of you will bear with me. 

First, let me define a few things (although I will be simplifying things so as to hopefully not bore everyone): 

Market Efficiency: 

A market condition under which all prices reflect all market information. Since I'm not writing an academic article, I'm just going to come out and say that this is the fair market condition. Every supplier knows what their clients want, and how much they're willing to pay for it. Each client knows what each supplier in the market for a specific product sells, what prices the suppliers are selling at and which product's price will match his/her specific value for the product. 

Today's product up for discussion: Books. 

In an efficient market, prices are determined by supply and demand. Supply and demand are both determined by price and quantity. So for every dollar price increase, suppliers are willing to produce more units of a product. Clients, on the other hand, buy more for every dollar price decrease. 

Equilibrium Price: 

At a specific price, all books will be sold to everyone who wants that book. There will be no surplus or deficits in books. This price, known as the equilibrium price, is where the most books are sold to the most people.

If you increase the market price, more books are produced, but fewer people are willing to buy them. (Which results in say... paperbacks being pulped. But I'm getting ahead of myself.) 

If you decrease the price, more people will want the books (come on, don't tell me you wouldn't buy five books if a shop declared a half-price sale on everything), but fewer people will be willing to publish, because the profit might not be high enough. 

Which brings me to Amazon's Announcement on what its dispute with Hachette is about:

Price Elasticity: 

The increase/decrease in quantities isn't related to price on a one-to-one basis. Let's assume that a book costs $2. If a book price could increase with one dollar, a publisher would most probably produce more than one book extra. If a book price decreases by a dollar, readers will probably buy more than one book extra. 

Ever walk into a shop to buy one book, only to find that everything is marked down to half price? Will you only walk out with two books? I wouldn't. I'd probably walk out with as many as I can carry/afford. 

This is what Amazon is blaming the dispute on. They (quite correctly, in my opinion) surmise that more people will buy books at a slightly cheaper price, which will result in everyone on the supply side making more money. This basically comes down to the argument that it's better to sell a thousand items at $1 each, than one item at $100. 

"But," one might say, "if the equilibrium price has been reached, messing with it will result in either the supplier or the client losing." 

Here's the thing, though: We've never reached the equilibrium price in the first place, because the publishing market isn't efficient. But I'm still getting to that point. 

Middlemen: 

Because I think you need a bit of a rest from reading, and because this guy explains middlemen and what they do in a market better than I do, I'm going to ask you to watch this.

To link this back to my argument: Middlemen are proof that the real world is, well, real and my nice ideal of an efficient market isn't all that realistic.

See in the real world, book suppliers don't have access to their clients. (I.E. Readers) And the clients have no way to actually know all the awesome and amazing books that are out there to read. Middlemen's jobs are to bring books to the readers and readers to the books. They then charge a price for this service, paid for by either the client, the supplier, or some combination of both.

But this is where I'm going to rock your world. It's also where my main problem with Krugman's article comes in.

Krugman sees Amazon as a monopsony (a buyer that buys so many products from a supplier that it can in fact determine the price at which it buys from the supplier, most often to the supplier's detriment.) This, I think we can all agree to be true, to an extent.

Amazon is a middleman. It connects the publisher to the readers, by creating a place where a huge amount of readers go to buy books. Because so many readers buy through Amazon, Amazon is now in a position to charge more for its service, and Amazon wants to make books cheaper while Hachette doesn't. Which, from Hachette's point of view, is to Hachette's detriment. (An yes, I can admit that they're not wrong.)

However, Krugman has basically made a big mistake by saying the following: "By putting the squeeze on publishers, Amazon is ultimately hurting authors and readers. "

My problem with this comes down to a fact that everyone seems to forget:

The publisher isn't the supplier. The author is. The publisher is yet another middleman. 

A middleman who's out to increase market efficiency to everyone's advantage.

...

You hear that sound? Like distant thunder? Yep, that's the sound of disillusioned authors everywhere laughing.

Why? Let's look at some market realities, shall we?

Monopsonist: 

A buyer that has so much market power that it can influence the market price. This is because it can threaten to stop buying from a given suppler if he/she/it doesn't lower prices.

Pretty much since the first printing press was invented, people who've wanted to be widely read wanted to be published. After all, the more copies of something exists, the more people have a chance to read them. As time went on, publishers started gathering readers as well. People liked reading high-quality books and if a publisher was known for producing those, people kept buying from them.

Which is a dream come true for any writer. Not only does the writer now have a chance to see his works printed in volume, but there are actually people who want to read them.

However, there are many writers, and only a select few publishing houses with access to nice, big readerships. Readerships who would not read something unless it was, let's say... printed by the writer him/herself.

This resulted in publishing houses being able to cherry pick what they thought would satisfy their readers' wants/needs. Then, these few publishing houses became fewer. Some picked the wrong cherries. Others melted together into fewer, bigger publishing houses with more market power.

Who lost here? 

The author. Industry standard at the moment is 25% royalties. Which means that they are paying 75% of profits from books they wrote for covers, editing, printing and distribution. They actually make less, because there's a third middleman, the agents, which our big publishers force on writers. ("If you don't have an agent, we ain't even looking at your book.")

The publishing houses offering bigger loyalties don't have enough market power to actually be of much use to a writer. Yes, it's getting the book published. But read? Not so much. And besides, these guys aren't the ones Amazon has a problem with. Because most of them already seem to understand the value of selling books for cheaper. Especially e-books.

Ah. Yes. E-books. See Amazon wants publishers to decrease prices on e-books. Not all books. e-books. Where there is no technical cost to carrying copies. Because there are no copies to carry. No printing costs. No warehousing. No transport. And yet big publishing houses usually charge more for them than physical books, and give writers the industry standard of: 25% royalties.

Yep. The same amount as for print books. But the expenses are less.

Which means that basically, big publishers created market ineffiency in order to benefit themselves.

But wait. There's more.

Oligopoly: 

A market condition where the market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers. These sellers have market power to influence buyer activity and price, since it's easy for a few companies to band together and collude to fix prices.

So big publishing charges 75% of a book's net price for covers, editing, printing and distribution. Marketing? Weeeeeeeelll.... No. See they put all their money together, and then decide who to spend their marketing budgets on. They choose which books gets displays in stores. They choose which books gets placement at airports and other premium selling spots. They choose which book gets the big mural at underground train stations in London and which ones get advertised in big readership magazines.

In other words: These companies influence which books get seen by their readership. Which means that the readership thinks they're seeing everything out there to buy, but really, they don't.

On top of this, the publishing house artificially inflates the price as described above. (Google Agency Model.) Or even worse, the big publishing houses collude.

So what this means is that publishing houses actively withhold information from their readers through manipulating which books the reader is aware of, and further adds to this by not charging the equilibrium price. In fact, they're not even trying.

This results in readers losing, and either buying fewer books or not buying any books, because they don't see anything that appeals to them. And because they're less likely to find something where the price matches the reader's perceived value for the book.

Who loses here? Actually... everyone. Readers lose for the reasons stated above. Writers lose because the potential amount of books sold isn't realized, which means they're not making the money they could have. (Even Lee Child and James Patterson.) Amazon loses for the same reason, because they can charge selling costs on fewer sales. And so do the publishing houses.

Why then, would publishing houses continue to act to their own detriment?

A move toward market efficiency and why this is unattractive to Hachette and publishers like it. 

First, I want to say that I don't for a moment think that Amazon is the guardian angel to all writers everywhere. I know that they're motivated by their need for greater profit, not for some particular goodwill toward writers.

However, Amazon has been leveling the playing field between publishers and writers. They've collected a huge amount of readers to themselves. And then basically gave writers free direct access to those readers. This in itself has brought about a huge and long over-due innovation in the publishing industry.

Yes, the traditional industry is still cherry picking, but those who didn't get picked simply went to Amazon and got published anyway. And Amazon, through their use of algorithms, keywords and search engines made it possible for readers to be more likely to find the book they want to read, even if they never knew it existed.  They're creating ways for authors to at least try to get books before their readers. Something that cannot be underestimated, but that publishers aren't at all that keen on. You see that bit where Krugman talks about Amazon being able to kill the buzz for a book?

Publishing houses have done this through spending one book's income on another's marketing, and then blaming the author of the former for not writing a good enough book and then all but destroying that author's career. And for good measure, holding onto the book rights forever, just in case the author wanted to sell it elsewhere and actually make money with it.

Before, authors had to sigh and say "oh well." Now, they don't. Now, they can buy their own covers. They can find their own editors (who often free-lance with big publishers as well). They can hire their own PR firms. And they can publish both e-copies and paperbacks on their own terms.

Amazon brought in print-on-demand, which means that only the amount of paper books that are wanted at a specific price need be printed.

Which means that publishing houses, once in a position of supreme bargaining power, aren't actually as necessary to writers to be published and seen.

Which means that more and more people aren't even interested in being traditionally published any more.

Which in turn means that publishing houses are clinging more to their industry standard royalty rates. They thereby "maximize" (and I use this term loosely) their profits by taking their own profit and most of the value taken from readers and writers, while delivering less and less of the benefit they might have had before. Marketing money? Gone to cover over-heads. Huge advances to help author cash-flows as they write the next one? All but gone, or otherwise part of a punitive system where authors who don't even get marketed, get dumped and made out to be bad writers if they don't earn out their advances. Editors? Still there, but I can find quite a lot of them by googling. What's more, writers can hire more and more of them as publishing houses lay them off to lower overheads.

My point and the elephants in the room. 

I've been watching what's going on for a while, and what I've seen and experienced have turned me off traditional publishing. However, from what I've written above, I want to point out the following:

Elephant #1

No matter how many times Paul Krugman and other traditionally published writers might call Amazon wrong, it doesn't make Big Publishing Right.

Elephant #2

Amazon isn't the cancer destroying the publishing industry. The publishing industry's unwillingness to innovate is.

Elephant #3

The sooner publishing houses realize that writers now have more bargaining power and act accordingly, the sooner everyone wins.

Elephant #4

There will be a point where no one will be willing to pay 75% of a net book price for what will basically amount to the old publishing world's diminishing prestige and validation that no longer means anything to the readers.

Elephant #5

No one wants Amazon to be the only connection between writers and readers, but it's obviously happening.

Elephant #6

Amazon is starting their own publishing imprints. These imprints offer services AND higher royalty rates. If publishing houses want to survive, they should stop blaming Amazon and start competing with them.

 Elephant #7 

Competition between Amazon and Publishing houses benefit everyone. Amazon will get those lower e-book prices. Writers get more sales. Readers buy books they want for prices they want and those publishing houses who are able to efficiently do their jobs while turning a profit will survive. Unlike the current ones who refuse to budge off their own business models. Those are doomed to fail thanks to the vicious cycle they refuse to get out of.

Elephant #8

The sooner writers realize that they should start pushing more to call the shots, the better for all of us. Assuming that big publishing dies. Amazon will be alone to shove us around. Alone, we'll be easily shoved. Together, on the other hand... Honestly, I'd prefer a perfect market, but given that we could end up with Amazon as a full-blown monopoly, we need to figure out how to balance market power.

Because:

Elephant #9

Amazon isn't writers' big savior. But then, neither are publishing houses. Clearly.



To those of you who actually read to the end. Thanks so much for reading! Let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts/questions. 

Ponderings

First, I just want to send out a quick thank you to everyone who've stopped by to leave me some advice! 

I've decided to call Wo6C3 done for now. 

On making this decision, I'd thought that I'd just launch into another of my many active projects to get that done too. The thing is, I really just don't feel like it at the moment. 

I'm guessing it's a combination of my work hours and my life once again taking a turn towards chaos, but right now, the urge to write just isn't there. 

For a moment, I thought I'd go into a blind screaming panic, but then put some thought into it. 

Sure, I have a ton of stuff I want to do, but my main goals for this year are currently out of my hands (while I wait for cover designers, betas, editors etc. to get back to me.) So it's not like I can do anything else. 

And honestly I'm just not in the mood to burn myself out. For some reason, I thought that last year, which was awesome, would go into an awesome 2014 if I just kept grafting away on the same momentum. 

You know what happens when an "unstoppable" ball hits an immovable wall? 

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

So yes, to say the least, I have not enjoyed 2014. I've kept hoping that things would turn around, but shoe biz (which is still awesome) aside, there has been about ten months of near continual suckage for me to deal with. 

Almost everything that made 2013 a great year has been either ruined or destroyed. 

What's left is now quivering as the last three months of the year rolls towards it. There are two exceptions: The first is that my awesome family is largely intact and I'm praying that this continues. The second is that my love for writing gave me an escape whenever I needed it. 

However, if I force myself to write, writing is no longer an escape. It becomes a responsibility. Right now, I just can't deal with that. So I'm just... not going to. 

What I am doing is to critique some awesome books, and to read other awesome books. And then if I feel like writing, I'm going to write. 

Yes, I know I have goals. I have everything planned out in a timeline. But right now, I'm not going to worry about how to get everything done on time. Next year can seriously take care of itself, but for now, I have to do everything I can to get through 2014 in one piece. 

Honestly, now is a really good time for a turnaround. That's the hope I'm holding on to now. It would just be beyond wonderful if everything could get sorted out just in time for 2015 to start on good note. 

How are you doing? 

Of two minds

As some of you know, I'm currently drafting the sequel to The Heir's Choice. The weird thing about it is that I sorta think it's done.

But I'm not sure.

See, my rough drafts are done as soon as I feel I have enough information mapped out in my head to rewrite the whole thing to my computer. This rewritten draft will be the draft that I edit.

Unfortunately, the completion of my rough drafts always creep up on me. I can't say something like "Only five chapters to go and I'm done." Instead, I'll be writing along happily, only to realize that I don't have to write any more of the story. At least, not yet.

I've been getting a hunch for two days now that I'm at the end of this draft. And today, this hunch crystallized in my brain into "Yup. This is done."

Thing is, this happened much sooner than expected. Almost exactly 20k words in. Okay granted, this is the second time I rough drafted this story. So maybe my brain's feeling like I rehashed some stuff that I can use in the rewrite. Which means that yes, I probably do know everything I need to in order to write out the whole thing.

But therein lies the rub. Probably. 

I have a ton of aspects to the story left unexplored. I know they're there. I know that I haven't really figured out how everything fits together. Which means that there's a very real possibility that I might want to start rewriting early next year, only to discover that no, the story wasn't as done as I thought. Something like that happening could be catastrophic to my plans.

That said, my gut and my muse says that this is done. That I can turn what I have between the two drafts into a plot and (more importantly) a story.

But at the same time, I just can't help wondering if my muse doesn't want to move on just because she's working to a schedule.

Advice? Anyone?

And for today, something deep, but beautifully written.

Hi all. I was going to blog about something else entirely, but this caught my eye and I thought I should share.

Basically, this is about trolls and bullies, written and spoken by a guy who had been bullied himself. But basically, I think this is one of the best written pieces on the subject that I've seen/heard in a while. In fact to me, it has a stark sort of beauty that moves me to think.

So give it a watch and maybe share. Heaven knows, I think more people aught to hear this.

House didn't burn down.

Thanks for the prayers and support, all. Meant a lot to me. X

If there's no new post by Monday, my house probably burned down.

It's funny how lately, my insecurities have nothing to do with writing. Well, actually, it sort of makes sense. I've been pulling 18 hour days for three days out of four until Thursday. Went to sleep at 9, imagining the bliss of being able to write, or read or SOMETHING NOT RELATED TO SHOES starting at 5 a.m.

Boy. Did I get my wish.

At 3 a.m. this morning, we got a phone call that there's a wildfire coming down the mountain, straight at us because of the wind direction. Which means that I'm going to pull a 20 hour day or worse, waiting to hear if we have to evacuate.

To put that in perspective, it's 4 p.m. and I've been awake for thirteen hours.

Right now, I'm sitting in my room, wondering if I'll still have any of the things in it by tomorrow morning.

That sorta puts things in perspective for you. Right now, the biggest material things of personal value to me is my laptop and my MANY notebooks containing first drafts to all of my stories. However given that space is limited, I know I'll be leaving the laptop behind if the evacuation order comes. Luckily for me, the whole computer is backed up because I'm sort of obsessive about it.

No. First things first, I'm loading up the pets. Then my notebooks, cellphone, tablet, medication and our family's important documents. And that's it.

No clothes. None of the various arty things I've created. None of the antiques passed down to us through about 10 generations. None of the many things that sit next to me right now. The signs of my life. The projects I'm still to get to. My VAST collection of oil paints. My and my mother's HUGE collection of books (over 20 thousand of them reside in our attic). My swords. My perfume collection.

Nothing.

I'm not going to lie. Right now, it feels like I'm sitting at the edge of an abyss. Where the hand pushing me in might bypass us and I'll breathe a sigh of relief. At which point I'll probably laugh at all the melodrama in this post.

Or, the fire will keep coming.

So yeah. Please pray that it doesn't. And if I'm not back by Monday to let you know I'm fine, keep praying, because that means my laptop and internet connection burned down along with the house.

But you know what? It's worth it. We know that we might have to sacrifice the house in order to save our lives, as well as the lives of others. Because the one thing I keep remembering is this:

Yes, there are memories connected to the things I might lose, but it's nothing compared to losing the people I share those memories with. And while eyeing the abyss is terrifying, it's still better than thinking that one of my loved-ones was lost protecting mere things.

I'd rather have the people and animals I loved, than this house, or anything in it.

But the point is that if the fire does reach us, our lives will be changed forever. And that terrifies me. But even as I write that, I realize that the threat alone has changed my life already.

For the better.

Before I post this: I might be insanely busy, so to keep track of what's happening, please follow me on twitter (@MishaMFB), google plus (Misha Gericke) or Facebook (Misha Gericke).  Or else, if you're REALLY worried, mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com. I'll do my best to keep everyone updated via social media. 

Update Day: September Edition

For those of you who've missed these posts, Beth Fred and I host a bloghop once a month where people can share their crazy or crazily important goals with us. Mine is, as stated at the top of the blog, to earn $7500 in royalties per month, every month, for a year, by 2018.

So how am I doing with that?

Well....

I got set back by a lot this year. At first, issues with my former publisher. Now, my business. The wonderful thing about the business is that it's taking off in a huge way and very fast. The bit less than wonderful thing (specifically when it comes to my five year goal) is that it's slowing down my process. By a lot.

I mean, I currently have very little time in which to do edits. Problematic, because I wanted to publish the two YA Epic Fantasy books in my series by 31 October. The problem is that I'm just not happy with the editing to the second one. (As in, I've edited a lot, thanks to some awesome critiques, but I'm still not sure that the story is "done" enough to start with final polishing.)

As such, I'm going to postpone the publication date by a month and see if I can make that. I might. I suspect that those extra 30 days will be all I need. That said, it also depends on the editor who'll do the final copy edits and the cover designer. And of course, given that I'm sending my book out to another round of beta readers, on how long they take to get through the Heir's Choice. Incidentally, if you're looking for a crit partner/beta reader/just plain sounding board/help on finding the flaw in your submission, I'm looking for Beta Readers too. Click here for more info.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention "formatting two books for publishing." I've decided that I'm just going to have to learn this skill for myself, so you'll probably be reading a lot of grumbly posts on this subject in the near future.

Okay. So let's look at what's been done in September: 

1) I've almost finished the rough edits to The Heir's Choice. I'm hoping to finish them completely by Monday.
2) Got ISBNs for three books: The Vanished Knight, The Heir's Choice and Birds vs Bastards.
3) Gave Birds vs Bastards (and both its planned sequels) an awesome name. Which I'll announce specially when there's not so much going on in a post.
4) Wrote and edited the blurb to The Heir's Choice. At the moment, I'm pretty happy with it, but I'll look at it again at the end of the month.
5) Sent Birds vs Bastards out for copy edits. Yep. This one really is almost publishing ready.
6) Contacted graphic artists to design all three covers.

What should be happening in October:

1) I want to send out The Heir's Choice to beta readers.
2) I want to do the copy-edits on Birds vs Bastards. (Assuming the lovely ladies helping me with this get the editing done.)
3) I want to critique/whatever the exchange is for someone beta reading The Heir's Choice. 
4) I want to start playing with formatting to learn. Birds vs. Bastards will probably be my test subject for this.
5) Lastly, I want to resume drafting my mystery project, the sequel to The Heir's Choice, ES1, SS1, P, MDtS and RH. I want to see if I can finish the rough drafts by the end of the year.
6) I also want to get some reading in. I'm woefully behind, but being honest, this is pretty low on my priority list.

One more thing in October: 

Remember in the beginning of the year when I mentioned writing a story for an anthology? Yup, it's coming out on 14 October. 

This cover really is perfect for this time of year, don't you guys think?

Blurb: 

Twisted Earths is a collection of tales from Untethered Realms, a group of speculative fiction authors. The stories are as varied and rich as the types of soil on this and other planets--sandy loam, clay, knotted with roots and vines, dreaded paths through unexplored planets, and in enchanted forests, lit by candlelight and two moons.

M. Pax, author of the series, The Backworlds and The Rifters spins a tale called Patchworker 2.0. Specialists with digital interfaces are the only ones who can distinguish between biological energy and mechanical pulses, and "patch" AIs, which hold the world together. Patchworker Evalyn Shore meets up with an AI with deadly intent.

Cherie Reich, known for her epic fantasy series The Fate Challenges and The Foxwick Chronicles, presents Lady Death. Umbria, a beautiful and powerful swordsmith, is given an impossible task by her brother Leon when he asks, "You are the assassin. Are you scared to destroy Death when you are up to your elbows in it?"

Angela Brown is the author of the paranormal Shadow Jumpers and NEO Chronicles series. In her story, In The Know, Jacob, a loyal family man is struggling to stay out of debt when he's hired to report on big plans for a future Detroit. He's given a mysterious manila envelope with instructions to "open it alone" or pay the price. With switchback twists you won't see coming, a debt of a much steeper cost is what he just might end up paying for his involvement.

Catherine Stine, author of the futuristic thrillers, Fireseed One and Ruby's Fire, offers The Day of the Flying Dogs, a sinister tale of brilliant, troubled NYC high-school student, Theo. He experiences a day at Coney Island that includes drugs, delusions, a lonely capybara, Nathan's hotdogs and a mind-bending lesson in our very twisted universe.

Christine Rains, known best for her paranormal series The Thirteenth Floor, gives us The Ole Saint, a story at once sweet, horrific and heartrending. Ezra longs to fit in and have boys stop calling him witch and freak, yet his unique supernatural skill sets him apart, and the last gift from The Ole Saint cinches the deal.

Graeme Ing, known for his young adult fantasy, Ocean of Dust, presents The Malachite Mine, a gripping, scream-inducing ride. Whatever was Mary thinking when she accepted her husband's gift of a most terrifying twenty-first birthday celebration in an abandoned Russian mine?

River Fairchild, author of the Jewels of Chandra series, presents A Grand Purpose. Rosaya and her cousin, Drianna are soon to be married off, but Rosaya is unhappy with her assigned match. She's much more intoxicated by the older Firrandor, a wizard she hardly knows. When Rosaya is accused of killing an oracle boy, all bets are off, not only for her love, but her freedom.

Gwen Gardner, who pens the cozy paranormal mystery series, Indigo Eady, adds to her collection with Ghostly Guardian. Indigo and her rib-tickling ghost-busters must travel to a dangerous pirate-laden past in order to unearth a curmudgeonly eighteenth century spirit that is plaguing the Blind Badger Pub.

Misha Gerrick, whose War of Six Crowns series is forthcoming, gives us a story called Red Earth and White Light. Emily, a young ghost bride has long haunted a house. She longs to cross over into the afterlife, but she's trapped in memories of lilies and betrayal.

If that's not awesome enough, check out this offer:



Preorder at: Amazon, iTunes or Barnes & Noble

Wow. This was a LOT of news!

How are you doing? Anyone want to beta read The Heir's Choice?

Cutting Babies and Killing Darlings

As I mentioned on Monday, I'm busy editing The Heir's Choice, which is the second book in my epic fantasy series. (BTW, I also put out a call for beta readers, so if you need a new crit partner and like reading Fantasy, I'm your lady. Click here for more information.)

Right now, though, I'm in the home stretch of my big edits. Stuff like characterization and plot order should be fixed by the time I'm done.

I'm pretty much at the point where I should be winding down my edits. Because usually, my ends are just fine. So are the latter halves of my middles, for that matter.

But not yesterday. Yesterday, I realized that I'd written a chapter in an illogical sequence. As in, something INCREDIBLY important happened, and my main character proceeded to do nothing about it until hours later. Which wasn't a big problem in itself. Except that rearranging the chapter's scenes to make more sense meant that I'd have to cut one of my favorite scenes.

Man. That was hard. All I wanted to do was keep things as they are and get to the last bit of the book. (I only have about 50 pages left.) The temptation was real, though. See, out of the six people I'd sent the book to, only one picked up on the error. I guess I'm just that good at dragging readers into my story. *Wink*

And truth is, I follow Stephen King's advice on crit partner opinion. I have more than four CPs. I give them the work in the exact same stage of edits. And if half or less of them say something needs to change, don't change it.

Which meant that just based on my own editing methods, I should have let that little illogical moment stay right where it was.

But I couldn't. See, I do have an overall picture of what I want to happen and where, and why. But to me, presenting the strongest book possible for my paying readers is the most important thing to focus on when editing. And that moment, that one small moment, weakened an entire section.

So I picked up my scalpel and cut into that chapter without mercy until everything was arranged in a way that made sense. It hurt in the beginning. Especially when I had to rip out the scene I loved. But then something happened. I wrote in a scene that was even better. One that actually does a lot more to progress the story-line.

Needless to say, this makes me a happy writer, and made me think I should share this story.

Because cutting into our stories hurt, but more often than not, it's worthwhile. Cutting out weaknesses gives us space to replace them with something stronger, and if done right, the story is always better for it.

Anyone else find the bright side to killing their darlings? Do tell me about it!

Calling All Beta Readers!

Hey all! I hope you're all doing great.

Me... wonderful. Shoe biz is taking off, while slowly but surely allowing me more time to work on the books I want to publish this year.

I'm hoping to finish my current round of edits by the end of the month, but I don't think I'm going to make my self-imposed 31 October deadline. But that's okay. I've achieved a ton.

That said, I need some help. More specifically, beta readers.

For those of you new to the term, beta readers read over the story and comment on things they liked, or didn't, or things that didn't make sense, that sort of thing. In particular, I'm looking for people who can highlight where I still haven't brought in enough information from the previous series.

And as always, I'm willing to repay by critiquing your work, beta reading, or even searching for and finding what's making a story not work. (I'll try my absolute best at this, of course.)

If you're interested, please leave a comment with info on your book (name, genre etc), what you'd like for me to do in return, and your e-mail address. 

Now, the information on my book:

Genre: YA Epic (Portal) Fantasy
Name: War of Six Crowns: The Heir's Choice
Blurb (still needs editing): 

Sixteen-year-old London girl Callan Blair thought that going to the elves would unlock the mystery around her past. Instead, it thrusts her right in the middle of Tardith’s political games. On the one side are the elves and King Keill, her grandfather. On the other, King Aurek of Icaimerith, who also moonlights as the evil entity that has destroyed Callan’s life many times over.

Aurek is on the edge of erasing the elves out of existence. The only thing that will stay his hand: Callan marrying his heir. Not wanting to let her choice destroy a nation, she agrees.

At least she isn’t going into the lion’s maw alone. Quinlan Westenmere, the Nordian commander who had brought her to the elves, swears to go with her. Only he insists she take more Nordians with her. Darrion and Gawain are tasked with rescuing the Black Knight, Nordaine’s last blood heir, and Aurek has him.

Things don’t get simpler as the wedding approaches. Gawain refuses to support Callan's decisions. She has to betray both the elves and Aurek to help find the Knight. On top of that, her elvish entourage leaves much to be desired.

But nothing compares to her meeting the man she’s to marry.   

So... what do you think? Anyone interested in helping a girl out?