Reading and Writing

    I spent the past couple of days working on a fun project.  I was asked to Beta read an upcoming book and offer feedback before it gets published next month.  Now, I haven't read any other books written by this author, but I was really excited for this opportunity and how it would help me with my writing.
    The author is Andrea Pearson (http://www.andreapearsonbooks.com) and she has self-published one series (The Kilenya Series) that consists of six books, one bestiary, and one additional story that takes place in the same world.  She has started work on her new series, Katon University, which consists of three novelettes and the  first book in the series that I was able to Beta read.  It is set to be published in early September.

    Now, this is an experience that I really appreciated and I would recommend to other aspiring authors to search for opportunities like this.  I learned so much about my own writing from reading what someone else is going to publish.  How I reacted to the reading not only showed how I read something, but how I write as well.  The advice I gave is something that I need to feed into my own writing.  I search for detail a lot more when I read, but I don't write it as well as I'd like.  I can't wait until Rose is to the point that I get to sort through feedback from my own Beta readers.

    Speaking of which, I'm working on writing the next chapter right now, and hopefully it will be done by the end of the week, or at least the beginning of next week.  That all depends on how much laundry I have to sort through tomorrow.
    I have been working on one other thing now that the Beta reading and chapter 12 has been finished.  I finally went through 642 Things to Write About.  Those prompts are awesome.  Flipping through pages of that is actually what finally got words flowing for chapter 12 of Rose, so you have that book to thank.  It's got so many awesome prompts that I'm using both for Rose and for other random writings I'm planning on posting on here.  It really is an awesome book.  I also realize that I just used the word "awesome" like four times because that is just how awesome that book is.  Seriously, every writer needs to own that book.  I am excited for the things I am working on this week, and hopefully they will be ready to share soon!
    Thanks for reading!
    ~Alyson