Andrea Irving's Blog, page 4

You haven't lived until...

...you've taken a laptop into a PumpItUp! or SkyZone or other indoor playground and tried to write a novel.  The screaming, oh the screaming, and the random ball flying precariously close to the laptop.  Goodness. And yes, indoor playgrounds are a thing.  At least they are in AZ where it gets to 120F in the summer (45C or so for everywhere other than the US). It's 70F right now (22C or so), so that's obviously not an issue, but they offer discounts when school is not in session. My boys love it, so why not? Perhaps it will tire them out...

So why am I here?  I'm trying to make a big push and finish Earthquake and get going on Rarity. I need to work on the cover for earthquake and none of my ideas are going to look very good with my limited photoshop skills (yes, I make my own covers). So I'll be trying to brainstorm that. I want the lightning circle again, but I'm having a hard time integrating that with my earthquake pictures from photoshop. I'll work on it more once Earthquake goes to my beta readers.  And try not to cry when I get too frustrated.

I've heard a lot from family and friends this holiday season.  It's been humbling, for sure.  Family who I'd never considered telling about my writing have found out about it from other family members. And they've read my stuff.  We're talking baby boomers here.  I've received a lot of compliments from them, which is great.  And I like the advice (mostly). And rest assured for my stepdad's cousin, there will be fewer visits to the dressmaker for Lora in Rarity.  In fact, she may not get there at all! At least half the book will take place outside of Glimmen. And I will rectify the lack of page numbers in my paperbacks.  It's something I never noticed. I own my books in paperback, but I've never looked through them other than to see how the map of Ydris looked.  That's pronounced EE-driss, btw.

Anyway, enough tangents.  I need to keep a lookout for flying balls and write some more. I hope you all had a merry Christmas, happy chanukah, happy kwanzaa, or other holiday (or no holiday... just a great weekend), and I wish you the best for a safe, happy, and healthy 2018!!

Fear not!

Hello readers!

Thank you so much for your patience.  Rest assured, I am still here and working hard on Sara's adventure and will be continuing with Lora's as soon as I send Earthquake out to beta readers. I am editing the first 50,000 words of Earthquake right now. Don't even get me started on book covered. Photoshop is not easy for me, and Earthquake is going to be at the edge of (or beyond) my meager skills.

This fall.... I bit off way more than I could chew.  I didn't have time for anything! And since writing is my "hobby," it got pushed to the back burner. Here in AZ, winter is our busiest season in medicine because of all of our winter visitors (aka snowbirds). But my hours at the clinic don't change much, just the busy-ness of my days! I mean, I used to have time to write over lunch...  I have 2 weeks left in the semester at the university where I also teach. I'm behind grading for them too.  Fall sports are over-- did I mention my two boys were in five sports???? Never again! My husband was coaching every single one, so I usually needed to wrangle one kid while the other was playing whatever sport while also trying not to fall too far behind grading papers. I have had a doctor's or dentist's appointment every single Friday (my day off... ha!) since September began. I think I kinda gave up and buried my head in the sand a bit.  What does that mean for the future?

Well.... I'm trying to figure out how to organize to where I'll have time for everything.  I know I have disappointed some of my loyal fans by being 3+ months late with Earthquake and however late I will be with Rarity. As I said before, I appreciate your continued patience. I am only teaching one class this spring.  Nothing is changing at my clinic. I have no appointments other than getting my hair cut/colored and my eyebrows waxed for the foreseeable future. I refuse to not have time! Or be so overwhelmed and tired that I can't be bothered to "work" even on my fun job (er... hobby).

So that's it.  That's what's been going on.  Thanks for listening to me vent and whine. Excited for what I'm reading. Hopefully not too many big changes to be made and I can get more books out to you soon :)

I have enough room for one...

... maybe 2 secondary character point of view chapters left in Earthquake. I don't want to have too many. I've had 2 so far. They're characters that we know, but don't know super well.  They were not the same POV's as in the short story anthologies published prior to Wildfire. Secondary characters are basically anyone but Sara. We know her story. I hope.

Anyway.... does anyone have a preference as to whose POV I use? Any favorites? Yes? No? If I use your suggestion(s), I'll mention you in my acknowledgements... Hopefully it'll get me out of this darn writer's block!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I mention?

In order for the way I want the Program series to work, I have to change the POV.  I was really struggling with how to do it.  Do I just wait until the moment and do it? Do I do it a few times before I make the big change?

Well, I consulted a group of writers I chat with. A lot of them questioned why it needed to happen.  It does, trust me. Sara doesn't die-- I'm not pulling a Divergent and killing my main character (sorry if that's a spoiler to you), but someone else needs to talk for awhile. Anyway, the ultimate consensus was that it would make the most sense if I had a few chapters here and there in Earthquake with more in the next book and a huge chunk in the final book.  Yes, I think it's going to take 4 books to finish.

I wrote the first secondary character POV chapter a while ago.  It was really hard to write because I'd never written that character before.  For those of you who don't know, Wildfire was initially a short story from Sara's POV. It ended right after she gets to Montana. Then there were 3 other short stories. These were published in anthologies by Horrified Press's YA imprint Sinister Saints. The books are only available in hardcover.  3 of them can be purchased on amazon (and lulu.com) and the other only from lulu.com. There are links to all of them on my website as well as my amazon and goodreads author pages. The second book is Luke's POV and the third is Sean's.  The fourth is a prequel, and it's from Jake's POV. The three short stories that made Wildfire are slightly different than originally published due to further edits and the POV's reverted to Sara. This is why I felt comfortable writing the other POV's.

So whose POV's are they? Not telling.  The first is a semi-new character.  He's got a tiny part in the beginning of Wildfire and is mentioned throughout. The other I'm currently trying to write.  The character is being stubborn, so I might have to abandon that and try from another character. The whole book is being stubborn.  I had this 20k word surge and I had thought that the rest would fall in line like that.  Silly me! I'm getting to the good part of Earthquake.  I think I mentioned the beginning is fairly slow paced. I am writing. I appreciate your patience.

Now I'm going to go see patients.  You know, my whole doctoring day job. I'd so much rather be writing!!!

Editing and writing

I am nearing the end of writing Earthquake. I just edited a big chunk of it. I have some beta readers lined up.  Looking good!

Angst

I read a review of a YA book somewhere where the reviewer complained that the MC was too angsty. I never thought that was possible.  I mean, they're teenagers. It's all drama all the time, right? Well, I read a book today (I've had strep throat and have been doing more reading than writing this week), and I was about ready to give up on the MC about a third of the way through.  But I decided to stick with it because I liked the idea of the story. I'm glad I did.  It ended up pretty darn good, and I'm now waiting for book number 2.  So, there you have it.  Maybe too much angst.

I bring this up because the ad-pro's are fighting.  And whining. And doing all kinds of attention-grabby things right now.  Is it over the top? Yes.  Is there a purpose? Also, yes. I'm also 2/3 or more of the way through the book so I'm not trying to world build. But yes. There's a method to the madness.

Since I'm feeling better, I plan on writing more tomorrow.  After my son's birthday party. I was productive today and set up my online classrooms at the university where I teach. So unless I get sick again (a real possibility since I am a physician, exposed to two germ-infested schools through my sons, and exposed to germ-infested university students), there's not a lot stopping me between now and... whenever Earthquake is done. It's coming easily when I write. I am still faster than GRRM.  Thank you for your patience.

Words of Power

I've had a couple of questions from readers about these.  I had never planned on opening this can of worms.  I didn't want to create another language. It's so complex, and then I have to keep such careful track for continuity and all that. Well, today I started creating some words of power.  Sometimes you have to make these drastic changes because the characters demand it. Will I be creating a language in its entirety? Heck no!! But there will be some of these in Earthquake.

For those of you over 18

Check out Average by Quinn Clarke. She is my alter ego, since I can't be writing 18+ stuff for my under 18 audience. In this novella, I poke fun at the most popular cliches in erotica and romance. It's $2.99 on kindle, free on KU, and $6.99 in paperback.

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https://www.facebook.com/quinnclarkea...

Excerpt from Earthquake, as promised

This is a first draft. I haven't gone through it with spellcheck or anything. I hope you enjoy.

“Lightning is an advanced air skill that takes manipulation of air using earth or water for friction and fire as an accelerant. Meteorology and atmospheric sciences use air and water in the manipulation of the weather. Air mages often pair with earth mages to attack air pollution, just as water and earth mages often pair for other types of environmental damage containment,” Professor Fuentes added.  “These are topics for late this year and in your future studies, as well as for advanced students.”Professor Tehranchi made eye contact with me and I sank down in my chair. “Miss Lake, please come down here.”I heard a few groans from the other ad-pro’s as I stood up. I hated being the center of attention. This was not how I wanted the afternoon to begin.“Miss Lake is an air mage,” Tehranchi continued as I stood next to him. “She is one of the strongest lightning wielders that I’ve ever seen, in fact.”This was news to me, and I tried hard to keep my face neutral.  It almost sounded like Tehranchi, who was by all accounts an ogre, was complimenting me.Professor Fuentes chuckled. “You’re embarrassing Sara,” he chided.  “But we’d love for her to give a little demonstration.” He raised his eyebrows at me and I suppressed a grin.“What exactly would you like me to show them?” I asked. “I know you’ve filled this lecture hall with lightning,” Professor Fuentes told me while projecting to the class, “but since it’s full of people, I thought you could make a few lightning spheres.  Maybe basketball sized. Professor Tehranchi can keep them aloft.”Keeping them aloft would be easy. I’d never made that many small spheres at the same time before, but there was a first time for everything.  Heck, it’d taken me four tries to light the New Mexico desert on fire. I’d start small and go from there.I’d progressed from needing to start them in the palm of my hand and grow them from a spark.  Looking past Professor Fuentes to Tehranchi, I raised an eyebrow at him just as a basketball sized lightning sphere popped into existence in front of me.  I sent it out over the ad-pro’s and held it aloft with my own air.  I felt air tendrils try to take it away, but I surrounded my sphere and kept control.  Confident that I could do it again, I did the same thing.  And then I made two at the same time. And four more.  I figured eight was enough to let Tehranchi know I wasn’t the scared little incompetent girl I had been in January. “Tired?” he asked, a little drollness in his tone.  I could hardly believe it.“Nope,” I replied with a grin. I wasn’t.  I felt great.  “But I think you want to start lecturing again.” I winked the spheres out, nodded to them both, and retook my seat.Clearing his throat, Tehranchi gestured to me.  “Sara is sixteen years old and in the adolescent program,” he said. “She is not available to tutor remedial students even though she is in my advanced air class, and,” he shot me a glare with a hint of mirth, “evidently she’s been holding back.”

Copyright 2017 Andrea Irving, Colindrea Press

:)

Earthquake

It's going to be longer than I thought, I think.  I'm at 34,000 words now (122 pages). Chapter 16. I thought it'd be shorter than Wildfire by a longshot. Wildfire was 70k words or so. I thought Earthquake would peter out around 50k words.  I'm thinking it's going to be closer to 70k. Not a bad thing. The pace is a lot slower, that's for sure. There's a lot of normal teenage life so far, which Sara has missed out on. They're back in Montana and school has started.  It's going better and worse than they could have hoped!

I'd be farther along if fewer RH books had been coming out over the last few weeks. No end in sight through the end of September. It takes a lot of willpower to get my nose out of a book and my fingers onto my laptop keys. Thank you for your patience. I still write faster than GRRM.