Well, it’s been a shade under two months since my last update, and now the rewrite on Slaying a Tyrant (Ancestors of Jaiya, Book 1) is finally done. A few thoughts on the process: Continue reading “One Rewrite Done, Three to Go”
State of the Author Updates
I am almost done editing Slaying a Tyrant, the first book in the Ancestors of Jaiya series. I had hoped to be much further along in the process of editing this series by June, but family commitments and health issues have slowed me down. At this point, I am aiming for a late 2019 release for the Ancestors of Jaiya series.
My space opera is also going forward very slowly. I hope to have it finished by September, so that I can work on preparing for NaNoWriMo2019.
Just Heard About a Cool New Novel!
Sands of Eppla
Just Heard About a Cool New Novel!
Cassandra lives in a world where you fall in love at first sight—or not at all. Too bad she’s blind, and being blind makes her not only immune to love, but also a criminal. She must now live alone or face being sentenced to a life of slavery.
Though she’s grown accustomed to her solitude, everything changes when Cassandra stumbles across a mysterious man in her domain….
Continue reading “Just Heard About a Cool New Novel!”
Free SF&F Stories to Read in the Spring
Happy Easter! Speculative fiction writer Patty Jansen has graciously organized a giveaway of short stories in the science fiction and fantasy genres.
All free, all available on Prolific Works, the website formerly known as Instafreebie! She was gracious enough to include my short story, “Lost in a Dream,” in her basket of goodies, but there’s lots more to choose from-just click here to see the complete list.
PSA of a Religious Nature, With Phantom Menace Reference
Recently, I was given a strong reminder of how much of a struggle life can be. How much of a struggle doing the right thing can be. I am Catholic, so I offer prayers of petition to various saints, on the grounds that they were instruments of God on earth, and will continue to be instruments of God in heaven. One saint in particular Continue reading “PSA of a Religious Nature, With Phantom Menace Reference”
Happy Advent!
Sorry, first it was NaNoWriMo, then it was Thanksgiving, then it was Christmas shopping. And now, finally, I have time to put up an update.
NaNoWriMo: completed something like 56,000 words, but still need to finish the actual storyline. I am hoping to get that done before moving on to…
Ancestors of Jaiya: the editing and polishing phase which has been on the back-burner all these months.
Dictation experiment: this worked out really well for the first half of November, but a bad cold and a bad mood set me back in the middle of the month, and it took me a bit to get back on course. I am definitely grateful for this book. ignore the author’s “Go Go Dragon Naturally Speaking!” attitude and insistence on recording his dictation and having the computer transcribe it; his method works fine with live dictation and Windows Voice Recognition. The main point to the transcription process, according to the author of Fool Proof Dictation is to keep you from freezing up when you see your words appear on screen; turning away from the screen while you dictate works equally well.
Dark Nights & Book Delights: A New Freebie Giveaway
Happy Thanksgiving to all who will be celebrating it! Urban fantasy writer N. K. Vir is hosting a giveaway on Prolific Works (the new name for our old friends at Instafreebie). She’s pulled together a huge number of paranormal books of every length, from sneak previews and short stories, to full-length books. From mystery to romance to fantasy to horror, there’s something to entertain everyone on these long, dark evenings!
She was gracious enough to include the sample chapter from my first novel, Marrying a Monster, in her giveaway, but there’s lots more to choose from-just click here or on the link in the first paragraph to see the complete list of freebies.
Rough Drafts of Jaiya Prequel Series are Done!
Yesterday, I finally finished the rough draft of Saving a Queen, the second of four books in the Ancestors of Jaiya series and the last one to be written. I was trying to take it slow and save my wrists by dictating it, and of course I’m not nearly as experienced with that as I am with typing. I’ve done some editing on the first book in the prequel series, but I still have quite a bit of work to do, to polish up these four books. I am currently planning to release all of them together sometime in first quarter of 2019, but it would more likely be March or late February than January.
In the meantime, Marrying a Monster, the first book in the main Jaiya series, is free on all major vendors in a number of countries. I’ve been informed that it is not free on some of Amazon’s non-US stores but I haven’t been able to get this sorted out yet. My priority right now is preparing my space opera concept for NaNoWriMo2018.
I hope to draft some posts about the writing process-about dictation, about the NaNoWriMo project-and schedule them to publish, but we’ll see how that turns out.
Writer Milestones
I am slowly but surely making progress on the Ancestors of Jaiya series (prequel to the main Jaiya series). On Memorial Day (US), I finished the rough draft of Scapegoating a Hero, book 3 in this prequel series. I first began work on Hero in January or February of 2017, so this is the longest I’ve ever spent on a book I actually finished.
Hero is like the other books in both series in that it’s about a man and a woman with supernatural powers who fall in love while fighting evil together. But it has more Continue reading “Writer Milestones”
Jaglion Press 