Ordinary Day

A lot of you have now seen me post about this either to the social networks OR to Kickstarter backer notices, but for those of you who have not, I am thrilled to announce that I just finally completed the very first draft of Bone Walker, Book 2 of The Free Court of Seattle!

The book clocks in at just over 86,000 words, so it’s a leaner and meaner book than Faerie Blood–and in more ways than just word count. There’s more action here than in the previous book, and more ensemble cast action as well, as for the first time I’m introducing scenes from the points of view of other characters besides Kendis. Christopher, Jude, Jake, and especially Elessir all get camera time, along with the story’s primary antagonist.

I’ve sent the book off to editor JoSelle Vanderhooft, and have also made it available to all the Kickstarter backers who bought in for that specific book. I will also make it available to people who specifically want to beta read for me, so if you didn’t get a chance to support the Kickstarter but you’d really like to see Book 2, now’s your chance!

JoSelle’s taking three weeks to do her full edit pass, and will be doing developmental edits on it as well as lower-level copyedit changes. But I’d really love to get beta reader feedback as well, and so if you can beta in the next three weeks, you can see the first draft!

Once changes are incorporated from both JoSelle and anybody who chimes in on the beta run, I’ll be doing a second draft which will also eventually need to be beta read. So there’ll be a second opportunity as well for those who aren’t able to join this first round. All beta readers will of course get their names in the Acknowledgements, and anybody who isn’t already getting a production copy due to Kickstarter backer status will be entitled to one as well for your efforts!

So if you’d like in, go look at this post. The password is ‘bugbash’.

Let the beta reading begin!

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

And now, a status report on Bone Walker!

I am now in the final push to finish the first draft. As of this writing I have signed off on the new Prologue and chapters 1-4. I have chapters 5-25 yet to go, and am hoping to hand them off to editor JoSelle on Friday, or at the very least some time this weekend. (Since it’s a three-day weekend, I suspect I’m going to be blowing a lot of it finishing the sweep.)

The book’s current word count is 84,048 words, and I am pretty sure the first draft will be coming in at not too much above that–which means, still shorter than Faerie Blood.

What happens once I finish the draft will be this: I’m going to send it to JoSelle, who will then do her sweep through it. She’s going to be doing a thorough edit, both copyedit-level changes and bigger-picture development stuff.

However, I will also simultaneously release the book to anybody who wants to beta read it. Kickstarter supporters are going to get automatic access to the draft as well.

Since the book is being professionally edited, this first round of beta reading will not necessarily need to be as extensive. This is not to say, potential beta readers, that you should not beta read the hell out of it! It’s just to say that this is more optional than it would otherwise be if I hadn’t engaged an actual editor to look at the book.

Note also that this will indeed be the first round of beta reading. When I finish incorporating JoSelle’s recommended changes as appropriate (and any changes from beta reading round 1), I will also need eyes on the resulting second draft. So if you don’t get into the first round of reading, there will be a second opportunity!

All beta readers will get their names into the Acknowledgements. I will offer a free digital copy of the finished book to beta readers as well–I cannot unfortunately offer print since print copies will be limited in number. But beta readers can definitely have a digital copy in the format of their choice if they’re not already getting it via supporting the Kickstarter!

So talk to me, people, if you want in on either round!

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

As I’ve just posted off to my Kickstarter backers, and as I’ve been happily reporting to the social networks through the course of the day, I just finished off the last chapter in Bone Walker that’s from Kendis’ point of view!

This means that now I swing back around to fill in the bits from other characters’ points of view, stuff that will convey to the reader things that Kendis never sees. Step 1 in this is sticking in a new Chapter 15, primarily from Christopher’s point of view but which will probably also feature some Jude. I’m expecting an earlier chapter is going to be from the point of view of Jake.

And the real fun is going to be figuring out where all to put in bits from Elessir’s POV, because oh my yes, he’s going to get some camera time too.

I’ve done the multiple POVs thing before; I did it in the still as of yet unedited Queen of Souls, and all you fine folks are going to be seeing it when Valor of the Healer comes out in April as well. But this is the first time I’ll be doing it in the Warder universe, and I’m really hoping it’ll work okay with this story flow!

Soon, hopefully in the first half of January, my Kickstarter backers are going to get first crack at seeing whether it does. And anybody else who’s willing to beta read for me is going to get a shot too. So if you’re interested in a beta read shot at this book and getting your name into the Acknowledgements in the back, talk to me!

Looking forward to finishing this thing up finally and sharing it with you all!

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

Chapter 12 is, I think, shaping up to be one of the more interesting ones in the book so far–because this one is the first chance I get to start doing some character development on Elessir. And let’s just say that Kendis is not amused.

So here, have an excerpt. janne, this is for you!

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

In honor of my first official Actual Writer’s Deadline, I’m cheerfully swiping that battle cry from mizkit and rachelcaine, muaha!

Time to get down to Serious Business, people. I have to hand over Bone Walker to JoSelle on April 15th. Which means I have to write like a Crazy Writing Thing until then, because I’m still only about 32K in on this book. It is therefore now Crunch Mode time on the novel.

Which means also that I’m backing off hard on social networks until further notice. This means keeping tabs on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, LJ Friends list posts, or Dreamwidth reading list posts is just going to have to wait. If you need to get in touch with me, DM me on the network of your choice, or else just email me directly, since I will be monitoring my email.

But until you hear from me otherwise, people, I’m going to chugging through the rest of Bone Walker, as well as continuing to work with solarbird and artist Kiri in preparing Faerie Blood for printing, and in doing the last steps to submit the Kickstarter for review. I will continue to post updates as they happen, though, so watch this space for further details.

And oh yes, I did just drop 635 words on Chapter 11 of Bone Walker tonight. I mention this not because of that number, but because of what happened in the words in question: i.e., I just hit Kendis’ first occurrence of telling Christopher she loves him. I was not expecting it at this point in the story, but it felt appropriate, so there ya go!

More bulletins as events warrant!

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

Wanted to do another post to let you guys know what I’m up to in regards to getting Faerie Blood repubbed, and getting Bone Walker finished up and ready to go out in its wake.

First and foremost–still trying to find out whether the cover artist I’m looking at can do a commission for me for art for Faerie Blood and Bone Walker both. In the event that that doesn’t work out, though, does anyone out there have recommendations for artists you like that might suit? I would prefer people who do drawn or painted art vs. photo manipulation, but I’m willing to consider people with decent photo manipulation skills as well.

Link me up with your recs, people! Bonus points if the people in question have previous experience doing cover art and a prior history of commissions.

Secondly–I’m still planning the Kickstarter idea but I am also strongly considering BookBaby. BookBaby is a sister brand to CD Baby, and from what I’m seeing, they could potentially provide not only the ability to deploy ebooks to all the major ebook vendor sites, but ALSO printed copies. Most importantly, they claim they give 100 percent of sales back to the author. Now, since these are the same people that do CD Baby and I know of several musicians (including my very own beloved spouse) who are happy with that, I’m inclined to look on BookBaby favorably. But does anyone out there have any direct experience with using them, or know people who do? Let me know!

Right now my highest priority is finishing the last round of edits on Lament of the Dove so that I can fling that back at Carina Press, finally. I’m hoping to get that done by February 25th so that I can have it off my queue before Dara and I run off to Canada for a grand four-day weekend of awesomeness! After that, my next priority will be spending as much of March as possible finishing Bone Walker so that I can then get it edited.

More as I know it!

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

I have thrown just under 300 words into the still-untitled story of Elizabeth and Ross, and have accordingly finished its first scene. Elizabeth has agreed to help this desperate guy whose sister has been murdered. God help her.

I’ve also thrown a few measly words into Chapter 11 of Bone Walker, but not much to speak of. The muse mostly wanted Elizabeth and Ross tonight.

Let’s see what I can do tomorrow. Bed now.

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

Well, I didn’t make it a whole month before hitting a day when I just could not make myself write anything. It’s frustrating, but it reminds me of two related and equally critical things I’ve had to learn to keep in mind when working on my projects.

One: it’s okay to have a day here and there when I don’t write anything. There are writers who can churn out several thousand words a day; I am not one of them. I do have a full-time day job, and that does slurp up a considerable amount of my daily ration of Brain. Especially during weeks when I’m running short on sleep, when I’m all thyroid-y, or both. Like this past week. I spent all of Saturday, pretty much, thinking “well gosh I should write something”, and wound up playing a lot of Unwell Mel and watching crappy movies instead.

Two: while it’s okay to have an off-day every so often, I can’t let myself default to that, not if I want to get anything done. So I made a point of writing a page in Bone Walker last night, and tonight, I yoinked some more words out of Chapter 20 of Lament.

I’m not bothering with posting actual numbers tonight, since I’m still sort of sleep-deprived and thyroidal. But this is me saying that yes, for the last two days in a row, Writing Things Did Happen. Slow, small writing things, but as long as they happen, I’ll get there in the end.

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

Tonight’s writing activity: just over 200 words into Chapter 11 of Bone Walker, just to remind myself where I left off with that and to try to get it moving along again too.

So far so good. This is ten days in a row I’ve managed to do something writing-related, and I think part of what’s helping is not having any specific thing to shoot for besides “do something writing-related daily”. It’s the least stress-free goal I’ve been able to think of, and it’s actually helping! I think it also helps to be loose like this since I do have so many different projects vying for my attention; this way, I can latch on whichever one demands my attention the loudest on any given night. (Still though the lion’s share of this attention has got to go to Lament, and I won’t go more than a day or two without poking at it.)

Wish me luck on keeping it up, folks.

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

So by and large, 2010 went pretty well for me on a personal level–but not quite so much on a writing level. I’d like to change that this year, and that means getting Seriously Back on the Stick. Here are various goals I’m going to aim for this year. Sooner is better, but I’m not going to nail time frames down to these because really, the overall goal boils down to this: Get Back My Writing Discipline. Anything above and beyond that will be cake.

In general order of priority, these are the main goals:

1. First and foremost: finish the edit pass on Lament of the Dove and get the revised manuscript back to Carina Press. Current status: Chapter 19 of the word count reduction pass.
2. upstart_crow has given me an anthology invite, so I need to plan out what I’ll be writing for that. This is higher priority right now than either Bone Walker or Queen of Souls, since it’s a solid invite and will mean Actual Albeit Small Cashy Money, assuming the piece is accepted. More on this as events warrant; right now I don’t even have a story idea, and the antho in question is quite a bit far out yet.
3. Follow up with Drollerie as to whether Bone Walker will actually be feasible for Drollerie to pursue this year, and if so, what they need from me to make it happen. Either way, I should go ahead and finish it. Current status: still in chapter 11, and I’m about to the point where I need to plan out what’s going to happen for the rest of the book.
4. Review where I left off with editing Queen of Souls and get that into queryable shape. Current status: still pretty much on Chapter 2 of the second draft.

Everything above and beyond these things is a stretch goal, right now. This includes all of the current notable works in progress, which are:

1. Shadow of the Rook. Current status: Made it into Chapter 4 before serious edits to Lament made it clear the beginning of Shadow will have to be heavily reworked as well. Therefore, Shadow will remain on hold until Lament‘s edits are done.
2. Mirror’s Gate. Current status: Chapter 2.
3. Child of Ocean, Child of Stars. Current status: Interlude between Chapters 3 and 4.
4. Shards of Recollection. Current status: Chapter 1.
5. Still-untitled Faerie Blood-universe piece starring Elizabeth the psychic, and Ross the brother of a murdered Warder. It’s still not clear to me whether this piece is going to be a novella or a novel in its own right. Review of it must occur.

And oh yes: I DO still intend to do the last couple of How to Read Ebooks posts, as well as any further ones that occur to me. If anyone has specific requests about ebook-related things you’d like to see me post, please let me know!

Tonight, I can safely say that editing of Lament has happened. I doublechecked Chapter 18 and realized there was another minor scene with Celoren that I could completely nuke–partly because it didn’t really advance the plot much, and partly because removing it also addressed one of the various issues from Carina’s editor. And I’ve headed into Chapter 19, where I’ve re-discovered that I did leave this chapter in a bit of a mess after cleaning up the tail end of 17. Now I get to clean that mess up.

It’s also become clear that I will indeed be swinging back around for a sixth draft once the word count reduction draft is done. It’ll have to be the sixth draft where I go back in and put in significant new content.

And since I’ve made it a couple of pages into Chapter 19, about 20 minutes shy of midnight, I’ll call that today’s writing-related activity. More tomorrow. DAMMIT.

Edited tonight: Quite a bit, actually
Chapter 18 revised total: 3,750
Chapter 19 revised total: 5,815
Lament of the Dove revised total (fifth draft): 105,783

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.