Andrea Irving's Blog, page 2

Delay :(

I was on a roll until June 9th. My dad (stepdad, but he was my dad for 32 years, gave me away at my wedding, my kids call him grandpa..... so my dad) died on June 12th. His funeral was on the 19th.  I am the executor of a disaster of an estate, so in addition to grieving (which I haven't done yet), I am spending every spare moment dealing with that. And it's a doozy. A 1600 square foot house, RV garage, regular garage, a large shed, and a medium shed crammed full of antiques and THINGS, as well as a huge unfinished construction project on the driveway/wall, and a "tenant" in a second house with no rental agreement who is a bit reluctant to leave. And all the general maintenance, bill paying, etc of a household other than mine. Did I mention the hundreds upon hundreds of toy trains that also need cataloging? 

When I got down to the house again after my dad passed, my brother jokingly asked if I'd be working on Lora Fletcher. I wish!  I have a hard time writing when I'm very emotional (other than killing people off who represent people who've angered me in real life), and the time factor.... Rest assured, Lora #2 will get done.  It'll just be even more delayed, for which I deeply apologize for. Remember though, I'm still faster than GRRM, and I don't think the sequel we be as disappointing as the final GoT season. I think Rarity will be pretty darn good when it's done.

Again, thanks for your patience.

Status update

For those of you who have been following me for more than a year, you may have noticed that I post the same update at the same time of year. As you may know, I am a practicing physician (one of many reasons I write so slowly), and as a requirement to keep practicing, I have to earn continuing medical education credits. I get the vast majority of mine at a yearly conference. For four days, I have essentially no other responsibilities, so I spend my time in a lecture hall with one ear open to new medical stuff and my hands furiously typing. I'm here right now, in fact. In less than four hours, I've written about 2,000 words for your favorite heroine, Lora Fletcher. I've refamiliarized myself with her life and the life of her friends. I've reacquainted myself with how I want her life to go for the next 15 or so chapters. I'll be posting some updates and excerpts as I go. I hope you enjoy what I have planned!!

For those of you who are concerned that I'm doing my patients a disservice with my half-listening. This is preferable to falling asleep in these dry lectures, which I have done before I got back into writing. I have powerpoints for reference from nearly all the presenters. And if it's something I really want to know or if the speaker is particularly engaging, I stop writing. Someday I will stop practicing medicine, but I hope I will never stop writing! Also, typing keeps my fingers warm. I have RA and with the frigid temperatures in this place, I need to keep them from locking up.  So, win win :)

Excerpt

Unedited, but still copyrighted 2019. Thanks.

“Indeed,” Lora said with a groan as she reached for her towel. She stood up, dried herself off, and walked over to her lady’s maid.
Her maid shook her head at her appearance. “I’ll have the herbalist send up a poultice and some salve for these bruises. This one on your ribs is bigger than two fists together. It’ll be hard to get your corset tight enough and then difficult to get your dress to fit property.” She sighed and helped Lora with her chemise. “You up for the pain of it?”
“Master David bested me with swords today—”
“Ah, the reason for your bruises and extreme appreciation for your bath today.”
“Losing to him with all the associated hurts and bruises is far more painful than a tight corset and pinching shoes for an evening,” Lora retorted. She hissed as Sally laced her corset and tightened it. “This will numb after a while. No big deal.”
Chuckling, Sally tied off the corset and had Lora step into her petticoat. “I’ll remind you of that when you return after dinner. I think you forget that women fight a different battle than men, but we are just as fierce. Just a strong.  Still warriors. You burn your candle at both ends. It must be exhausting.”

:)

Buckling down

Two chapters written in two days. Hopefully this continues because I'd like to be done with Rarity as much as you'd like to read it! The battle was finished awhile back-- with the help of my 9 year old son. There was a death and a blossoming friendship in the two chapters I've written since.

Hope you all had a nice holiday season.  It was rough for my family, as my aunt passed away while we were in the midwest visiting her.  She had pancreatic cancer, so it wasn't unexpected, but the timing was. We had a nice visit with the rest of the family, which really reminds you of what's important.

Thank you for your continued patience.  Be well!

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo.  However you feel about the contest, a lot of writing gets done during the month of November.  Common and Wildfire were both written as NaNo novels, but heavily edited and published long after their respective Novembers. Amazon is flooded with NaNo novels between mid-November and late December.  Some novels are fantastic and others less so.

As you may have guessed, my grand plan to have Rarity published by now has not been successful.  I wanted it done by September 30 and published by Halloween to avoid the NaNo flood on Amazon.  Well.... It's going to be part of the flood, I hope.  The battle scene is still plaguing me, but I may have made some headway on it tonight.  I hope. I hope. NaNo is good for setting and keeping to goals.  While I'm not an official contestant this go-around, I'm trying to be consistent again.

Thank you for your patience, as always.

paperback price changes

Createspace is how indie authors like me can offer you guys print books.  They print on demand one book at a time, instead of in lots. Createspace has always been affiliated with Amazon, but they were separate entities. In the next few months, they are merging.  This doesn't mean too much to me, but it will affect you guys.  KDP, which does the e-publishing for Amazon, currently has a paperback creating tool. Its pricing is different than Createspace's. Because of the merger, they are using only KDP's paperback pricing system. KDP's paperbacks are more expensive than Createspace's. So you will see a price increase on some, but not all, of my books if you buy them in paperback. Most of my books are also available on bn.com and other platforms. Because of the increase in printing costs, the prices will increase there too.

Just wanted you to know :)

Another quick sneak peek

Unedited, but copyrighted :)
They circled each other for a few moments, and Glenn struck out again.  Lora slipped on some loose gravel and lost her footing. Glenn advanced on her as she tried to right herself, but she got tangled in her skirts.  She swore as she went down hard on her shield arm.  Bringing her sword up as quickly a she could, she barely blocked Glenn’s next strike.  She was glad she’d trusted her instincts that he wouldn’t yield to her injury even though this was a friendly fight. When he came at her again, she rolled over to the side and struck out with her magic.

Progress!

Writer's block has been defeated for now. Rarity is about 1/3 completed.  I have a very ambitious goal for the date I want to be finished with it. I'm not sharing that goal with you guys because I'm afraid to jinx it!

Thanks to those of you who have supported my work.  I'm honored to have touched your lives. I appreciate each and every one of you. I've seen an increase in my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, so whatever you guys are doing has been working!


Back to work...

Rarity teaser

This is a first draft and unedited. It is still copyrighted to me. Enjoy!



“Stop coddling me!” Lora shouted at Peter. “It’s been over a year since Dain stabbed me! You and Louis are the worst!”

Peter winced, but he didn’t advance against her.  “I can’t,” he admitted as he guarded himself against Lora’s offensive quarterstaff maneuver. “I know it doesn’t do either one of us any good, but—Ow!” He dropped his mace and shook his hand. “You broke my fingers!”

Lora shrugged but maintained her positioning. “Go to the healer. I need a partner who’ll actually fight me.” When he picked up his mace with his opposite hand, he glared at her, so she stuck out her tongue at him.

When Peter stomped off toward the healers, Lora lowered her quarterstaff and carefully moved toward Lord Nestor. She cleared her throat and waited to be acknowledged.

“Do you need the healers, Miss Lorana?” Lord Nestor asked. He sounded grouchy. He was always grouchy when he was watching sparring.

She shook her head and he raised an eyebrow. “I broke Peter’s fingers,” she explained. “Or his hand. Or something. He went to the healers, so I need a new partner.”

Lord Nestor snorted. “I think that’s the first time in five years you’ve sent someone to the infirmary. Apropos that it’s Peter,” he said with a chuckle.  “Jane!” he shouted.

Jane of Long Lake trotted over. “Yes, Lord Nestor?” Jane nodded to Lora. They were acquaintances, but didn’t socialize often, as they had closer groups of friends.

“You sent Salvator to the infirmary. Lora, here, sent Peter there. You’re partners for the rest of the lesson. Carry on.” He paused. “Christopher, you’re not meant to stab with the mace except as a last resort!”

;)

writer's block

It's awful, and I'm so motivated to write and get Rarity out to you all that my frustration is probably making it worse. Lora is going on a journey downriver from Glimmen to Azure Shores. I need to get her there. All I can think about are mosquitoes, and it's driving me CRAZY! All of the passengers are suffering........................ And that's it for the chapter.  It just won't come! And I'm the type of person who writes linearly, so skipping ahead makes me very, very nervous.

I'm flying out of town tonight for the weekend. Hopefully the change of scenery will help. Again, since I just got back into town from LA on Thursday. Sigh.  Where's my emoji that's crying so hard that its tears are just streaming down its little face???