New Year, New Schedule

    I haven't exactly been living up to my goals this year. Whoops.

    In my resolutions at the beginning of the year, I set up quite a few goals for myself. Then I made a small life-changing announcement and said I only had plans for the beginning half of the year (because I was having a baby in July). Well, things got all wonky when my morning sickness didn't go away, and I lost my job and spent the first 3 months of the year looking for a new one (that didn't happen either, in case anyone was wondering). 
    To sum up, I didn't:

• Finish editing Powerful
• Get a new job
• Finish my JL anthology piece for Between Heroes and Villains (it was too long)
• Start unnamed fairy tale retelling 

Thankful

    2016-2017 was a whirlwind for me. 

    It started last November when I found out that I was pregnant after a year and a half of trying. It was so shocking because at that point we had given up, fairly confident that it wasn't going to happen. And that's when it usually happens. It was a huge dream come true after so long, and I could barely contain my happiness. 

   But then, I got super sick. The pregnancy made me so ill I couldn't get out of bed, and soon enough I couldn't eat or drink anything. I didn't talk about it at the time, but I ended up in the hospital a year ago. I had Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG), which is relatively unknown but super common. It's basically extreme morning sickness that doesn't alleviate during the pregnancy. The whole nine months, I was taking a cocktail of anti-nausea medication just to survive. I even lost my job because I was so sick. It was really hard to stay motivated. 

    Before Son of Mine was born, only one thing kept me going, and it was the second dream that came true- I was a published author.

    I know, that's old news at this point, but at that point in my life, I had accomplished both of my lifelong dreams at the same time! It was huge! I was living on a high of emotions.

    So in December, my book was published! I got to hold it in my hands, sniff the pages, show it off to family and friends....and then what? 

The Aeonians: Blog Tour with J. E. Klimov

    Today we have a very special guest! Meet J. E. Klimov!

Ever since J.E. Klimov was little, she dreamed of sharing her stories with the world. From scribbling plotlines instead of taking notes in school, to bringing her characters to life through sketches, J.E. Klimov’s ideas ranged from fantasy to thriller fiction. Her first publication was a short story, The Guardian’s Secret, in “From the Stories of Old”─ an anthology of fairy-tale retellings. “The Aeonians” is her debut novel with Silver Leaf Books.

A- Welcome! First, tell us a little bit about you.

Whispers in the Shadows: A Horror Anthology

    From Rowanwood Publishing, comes another anthology! This time? HORROR.

August Goals

    So....July's over and I never posted any Camp NaNoWriMo updates. Whoops. Turns out, you can't do much sitting (and therefore writing/blogging) when the contractions start. I really only got 7 days to write before everything went crazy. 

    Basically, here's what happened-

July Camp NaNoWriMo 2017

    I can't believe how fast June has flown by. And I haven't accomplished anything writing-wise as I am currently counting down the days until Son of Mine is born. Between the major pregnancy brain and the major nesting, I haven't been able to focus on anything writing related. It's been really discouraging. So, it's a good thing that it's almost July.

    That's right, it's time for round 2 of Camp NaNoWriMo! The only problem? Son of Mine is due July 13th. Yeah, so I really only get half of the month to actually work on my writing. But, I've got a plan.

    As you know, another JL anthology was recently released, and we've already got plans for two more in the future. So rather than working on editing Powerful, this time I'm going to write the first draft of my next short story. Word goal is 7,000-7,500 words. Not too lofty of a goal this time, but that's why I like Camp NaNo more than regular NaNo. 

Giveaway!!!

    To celebrate the release of the second JL Anthology, JL writers are hosting an exciting giveaway! Win our Ebook bundle, including copies of both anthologies, along with four other exciting reads, plus a beautiful leather journal.

Random Interview with H. L. Burke!

    Welcome to the Coiled blog tour: a collection of posts celebrating the release of the new YA Mythological Romance from Uncommon Universes Press and author, H. L. Burke. Via this link you will find interviews, informational and entertaining posts about the story behind the story, and of course, sneks.

  For the past few months, H. L. Burke has been running random interviews on her blog. But this time, I get to turn the tide on her and now it is her turn to answer her own questions. Muahaha!!!!

    But first, we have to find out about H. L. Burke's new book! It's called Coiled, and "it's like Princess Bride, Beauty and the Beast, and Greek mythology had a baby!"

Between Heroes and Villains: A Superpower Anthology

    Remember back in December when I was published? Well, now Rowanwood Publishing is bringing you a second JL anthology, coming June 17th!

    Between Heroes and Villains: A Superpower Anthology is a collection of short stories about superheroes, supervillains, and super powers. 

Blog World Tour- H. S. Cook!

    This is the last month of the Blog World Tour! How sad! But, we get to end on a good note! Let's welcome H. S. Cook!

Working in a world of logic and reason, while dreaming of one filled with magic, H.S. Cook lives between her scientific research and her fantasy writings. A molecular biologist by day, she finds ways to inject the magic of her worlds into daily life, making time to write. She is currently working on an epic fantasy series: The Blood King Chronicles.

Q: What are you writing at the moment?

A: My main project is The Blood Within – a Blood King Chronicles novel. It is a high/epic fantasy following a dragon and a prince as they discover the part they will play in the battle for mankind’s survival.

Q: How are you planning publishing this book and why?

A: I am hoping to publish traditionally – self-publishing has too many limitations in the hardback/paperback market at the moment – especially in the UK. While ebooks are great, they are not my main target. There is nothing like losing yourself in a book and e-readers act to distant you from the story.

Q: Tell me something about your world not addressed directly in the book.

A: Elves and dragons are the only two immortal races of the known world, but for very different reasons. Blade and poison would take either race, but they do not die of age. The golden forest of Eihäldär will explain the fate of the elves in a later instalment. However, dragons are glossed over.Dragons are not born. They cannot reproduce. An egg forms from an area saturated in magic, and the dragon within will live until the end of time without external intervention.

Camp NaNoWriMo is Over....Now What??

    This post was supposed to get done two weeks ago, but Cold, Family, Pregnancy, Still waiting to hear back from the guest I was supposed to host last week, etc. Choose an excuse. It didn't get done then, but now it is.
    So Camp NaNoWriMo has ended. Maybe you reached your goal, maybe you surpassed it by leaps and bounds, but maybe you fell short. But without those fun graphs and your cabins to motivate you, now what do you do?

    First things first, celebrate! Whether you hit your goal or not, you survived! Take a pause to party!
    Second, don't stop writing! That is the worst thing you can do for yourself. Writers need to write every single day to keep their skills sharp. I had to end my Camp NaNoWriMo early because of my sister's graduation, and then I got sick. And it led to a 2 week pause on my writing. It's really hard to jump back in after a 2 week break. Really hard. Seriously, the only thing pushing me on in my editing is that I passed 40,000 words. But possibly another step is to take a break. Sometimes you need to get some space from your project and switch to something new. Especially when powering through a whole draft that's really rough, you'll need some time to collect your thoughts before jumping into editing.

April Camp NaNo- The Finale

    This post is long overdue, but not only have I been recovering from my trip and Husband of Mine's trip, I've also been sick for almost a week and it has been sucking the life out of me. I haven't even looked at my writing because I haven't had the energy to. It's really frustrating because I've got so many things to get done!

    Anyway, the point of this post is to go over the last few days of Camp NaNoWriMo! So here we go-

April Camp NaNo Week 3

    Camp NaNoWriMo has just 7 days left and things are getting crazy! This past week hasn't been the most productive of my life, but I encountered a lot of issues (as most people do) with reality. Here's how it went-

April Camp NaNo Week 2

    Week 2 of Camp NaNoWriMo is over! I didn't get as much done as I did during the first week, but I still made a bunch of progress!

    Here's how it went-

April Camp NaNo Week 1

    This past week has been AMAZING. Just check out my word count on the side bar!

    The reason I've made such great progress is because I'm editing, not writing fresh stuff. It's a lot easier when I've got all my notes organized right here on my computer and I can pull up my previous draft next to my current draft. Here's how it went-
    

Blog World Tour- Krystal-Ann Melbourne

    Yay! It's time for another guest as part of the World Blog Tour! This week we get to meet Krystal-Ann Melbourne!

Krystal-Ann Melbourne is an author and artist living in Montreal with her two fat cats. Since neither writing nor painting pays the rent, she also works full time as a Video Game Playtester (best day job ever) for a game which she’s not allowed to tell anyone about.

Her other interests include teaching herself piano, violin, knitting, cooking, baking, making candles, and gardening. She’d really like to get into creating art from sandblasting old windows, and is always working to improve her French.

April Camp NaNoWriMo 2017

    Tomorrow is April 1st. And for me, it's the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo! Whoo hoo! 

    Last year I did July CampNaNoWriMo, but since this July is going to be a bit busier than last year, I'm not sure if I'll get to do anything come July. So this year, I'm cramming in as much writing as I can before our new package arrives.
    I'm at a great point in my writing this time for CampNaNo. Last year I was in the middle of the first draft of A Fairy's Tale. This time, I've just finished working through my notes on the second draft of Powerful. I've set myself a low goal of 20,000 words with the hopes of getting much more done. Because I'm working on the third draft, it should be a lot easier to edit what I've already got.
    Keep an eye on the word count bar on the side! I'm starting at 0 again. I'm expecting this next draft to be somewhere in between the word counts of the first two drafts (which were 103,000 and 90,000 words). I cut out a bit too much for the second draft, so now there are bits that need to be added back in. And now that I've had a handful of friends read through and provide feedback on the story as a whole, I know where there are plot points missing. I've got at least three scenes that need to be written from scratch, and I've got at least three scenes that need to be completely reworked and rewritten. The rest is basic editing and rewording, most of which I've done already in notes on the side of Scrivener.
    I've got a cabin set up with a bunch of my friends, and I'm all ready to go! What are your goals for the month of April?
    ~Allie

Beauty and the Beast Review

    I have always loved the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. I mean, what bookworm didn't want to be Belle? I mean, THAT LIBRARY. It's no question what inspired the two story library inside Floures Academy in Powerful. SO MANY BOOKS. 

    Anyway, I never had any problems with the plot of the original animated movie. Sure, there could've been more backstory for EVERYTHING, but isn't that how most stories go? We want to leave a few questions unanswered. And the plot could've been a lot worse, like Disney's animated versions of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.
    Now the new movie is out, and it's breathtaking. The things they can do with computer generated graphics is truly astounding. But...that doesn't make the writing to be any less important. When Disney first put out Snow White, it was for the animation, which was truly groundbreaking technology at the time. Disney was known for its animation, not its story telling. And that's why Disney did so many already well-known stories at first.
    Since then, Disney's told some major, groundbreaking stories. And that's why I was disappointed with the live-action Beauty and the Beast.

Why So Successful- The Avengers

    With 14 movies released, 9 in progress, 2 ABC shows (with 1 more on the roster), and 4 Netflix shows (with 2 more coming soon), the Marvel Cinematic Universe falls nothing short of success. I mean, one minor character was so popular after his death that the fans rioted until creators decided to revive him and give him his own tv show. But there's so many elements to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that it makes it too complicated to analyze what exactly makes it so successful. To simplify things for the sake of this blog post, I'm going to stick to the first phase in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the movies that conclude with the Avengers.

    It all started in 2008 with the release of Iron Man. By 2012, 5 more movies had been released. That's right 6 movies in 4 years. Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk (which I don't totally count because they changed the actor and it gets confusing), Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America (if you know anything about me, you know he's my favorite), and The Avengers. So how, in such a short period of time, did the Avengers become so successful?

Where Carpets Fly by Elise Edmonds

    Today we're in for a treat! I'm interviewing a very special guest author, Elise Edmonds! You may remember her as the Magic Writer, who helped me a lot with some world building questions for my writing a while back. 

    Recently, Elise published her first novel, Where Carpets Fly, and now she's touring the world on her own flying carpet to tell us about herself and her book.

I Am A Writer

    Growing up, my parents always pushed me to pursue my passions. They knew long before I did that I would end up as a writer. They cultivated my love of books and encouraged me to study what I loved. In today's society where degrees are more and more important to getting a job because of the competitive job market, it's like a breath of fresh air to have such a support system that pushed me toward passion instead of "success". My husband has always been the same way.
    But now I exist in the real world, where people don't understand how you can follow your dreams and do something you enjoy when you don't appear to make any money. Where if you sit at home all day, people assume that you're doing nothing with your life and spend all your time watching Netflix. Working from home or working for yourself "isn't a real job".
    At my last job, when I worked part time, I was constantly asked what I did when I wasn't working. When I answered that I was writing a book, people would say, "That's cute." or "What a fun hobby." They didn't understand that that's what I wanted to do full time. They didn't understand that that's what I planned to do full time.

Blog World Tour- S. M. Pace

    Can you believe it's already March? Wow! This year has flown by so fast. Anyway, because it's another new month, that means it's time for another new guest! Please welcome S. M. Pace!

S. M. Pace lives in the wilds of Central Virginia, with her husband (bear), son (bunny) and a pond full of fish (sometimes). When she’s not writing, she loves crafts, sewing and hiking. She is the author of two books in the Threads of Magic series, Shadow of the Wolf and Wings of the Butterfly.

Why So Successful- How To Train Your Dragon

    This was NOT going to be my next topic because I was going to veer away from the young adult and cartoon genre for the time being, but this is also my blog and I get to talk about whatever I like. And if you know me, you know I LOVE the How To Train Your Dragon series. 

    The first movie came out 7 years ago, based off the book series that came out in 2004. I've talked before about my struggles with depression and anxiety, but I haven't talked about the circumstances surrounding the first time I saw How To Train Your Dragon. My sister's boyfriend at the time just asked her to prom, and to celebrate he decided to treat her, me, and my cousin who was in town, to a movie. The movie we went to see, was How To Train Your Dragon.

Why So Successful- Phineas and Ferb

    A story is defined as, "a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed tointerest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader." But a story can take many different forms.
    With today's technology, we are overwhelmed with stories in the media. New movies comes out every week, new television episodes air every day, and even beyond that, we had an overwhelming amount of video games, board games, RPGs, etc. which all tell their own unique story. 
    All stories have five elements- characters, setting, conflict, plot, and theme. They take those five elements and incorporate them in different ways to make different stories. What I'm going to do is take different stories from pop culture and analyze them to figure out why some stories are so successful. Today we're going to start with the tv show, Phineas and Ferb.

Valentine's Day

    I am not a romantic. Romance typically makes me want to rip my hair out and scream, because usually it is so unbelievable. For example, I have a sister who loves watching cheesy Hallmark movies because of the feel-good story lines. I end up questioning everything and tearing the storyline to shreds because I don't understand it.
    I really don't understand the whole, "true love at first sight" thing. And especially in today's world with so many stories and movies out there, it's become such a horrid cliché, it makes me shudder just thinking about it.

    Part of the reason I don't understand it is because of my personal romantic history. My husband and I have been friends since we were 14. It took us three years to have feelings for each other and begin dating. I don't understand the concept of falling in love with someone you don't know because I've never experienced it. I am attracted to people's personalities. It wasn't until recently that I realized it's a common enough thing that there's a specific term for it- demisexual. Which explains why I don't relate to all things romantic.

Blog World Tour- Eleanor Konik!

    It's a new month, which means it's time for another Blog World Tour guest! This month, meet Eleanor Konik!

Eleanor Konik was born and raised in a close-knit neighborhood just outside of Baltimore, where she is putting the final touches on her teaching certification. She spends her free time gardening and playing cards with coworkers. She also enjoys fishing, hiking, and visiting attractions around the city. Her blog showcases insights she's gleaned while researching THE LAST COLLARED MAGE, a fantasy mashup of Rome's greatest defeats.

Surprise!

    So after a few days with little to no internet, I'm back! Sorry for the inconvenient and sudden disappearance. But fear not, readers! I have returned once more! And I'm back with that promised surprise!

    That's right! I'm pregnant! And that's why I'm so behind on everything writing related. Now that it's out in the open, I can finally share some fun stories from the past three months.

Editing Update

    Things have been crazy for me over the past week. We relocated back to our own place after the new year, and we're still moving back in. My cousin is in town and I'm trying to spend time with her. Astrid has been especially needy since my sisters left to go back to school. Oh, and since we're back in our own place, we have exceptionally slow internet which makes it hard to do most of my work since all my notes for edits are online.
    And now I'm making excuses because unfortunately, I'm behind on my edits. 

    I'm supposed to be on chapter 18 today, but instead I'm on chapter 15. I haven't been editing everyday like I planned to. Instead, I've been doing a few chapters a day every few days. Which is fine, because I wasn't planning on actually editing every single day. It was just a schedule so I'd have an end date for my goal.

Blog World Tour- A.J. Flowers!

    It's another new month, which means another fun guest! Today we get to meet A.J. Flowers! 

A.J. Flowers is a fantasy author, book blogger, and automotive engineer in Detroit. She loves her writing, her work, and above all, her faith and family. When not writing or designing, you can find her saving the world from annihilation on her favorite video games side-by-side with her Dutch husband and princess Blue Russian kitty named Mina. You can follow her writing advice, published work, and fun personal stories on her blog.

New Years Resolutions

    Normally I laugh at people who make New Years Resolutions because I'm the kind of person who makes changes whenever I realize I need to make a change, not just once a year. Plus, resolutions without dates are just dreams, not actual goals. And because these are things I really want to accomplish, I'm planning on giving myself an end date for each one.

• Finish draft 3 of Powerful. I'm currently doing another pass through where I'm implementing feedback chapter by chapter and making notes. I'm on chapter 9 out of 36. That's 1/4th of the way through! I plan on reviewing one chapter a day, which means this pass through will be done on January 27th. After that, I plan on actually implementing the edits (which are mostly minor, mainly description because that is my nemesis), which I'll do one chapter a day again. That means I'll finish the third draft by March 4th. I'll regularly update my progress here, and once I start actually writing the third draft, I'll update the word count on the sidebar!