Nancy Gray's Blog: Feeding the Writing Addiction - Posts Tagged "writing"

Hey Everybody,

Just wanted to give you a writing status update. I'm almost done proofing "Blood Moon" and am planning to put it on sale on Amazon soon. My artist Joseph Lee has agreed to do another awesome cover. Most of the preparations should be done sometime in October at the latest, if all goes well. I'm very excited about it. I hope that you enjoyed "Blood Rain." This sequel picks up where the other book left off and follows Mercy through her journey to reach the Northern mountains to form an alliance against the forces behind the blood rain.

I'm also finished with a rough outline for the last novel of the series, "Blood God." The first forty pages are also done but need proofing. "Blood God" should hopefully be available by Christmas, but only if all goes well. Wish me luck and, if you'd like to show your support, please pick up a copy of "Blood Rain" and put a review on Goodreads or the Amazon store.

Right now, I'm concentrating on finishing the "Blood Rain" trilogy, but I still have other novels in the works. I haven't heard from all of the agents I contacted about my young reader horror series, "Junior Investigator's Club." I should've heard one way or another from all of them by the New Year. If the first story doesn't have an agent by then, I'll probably submit the second story and continue to look. I would like for my young reader books to be hard copies since most of the target audience probably won't be reading e-books, but we'll see. I'm keeping an open mind.

I also just wanted to say thank you to those that have purchased a copy of "Blood Rain" and that it feels wonderful to finally see some results. Books are meant to be read, and I have a lot of written books and ideas still in my head that need to find a home. I'm glad to see this series is finally getting to reach a larger audience.

Hey Everyone,

Sorry it's been a little while since I've blogged. I've had a busy couple of weeks. First of all, I was sick with an upper respiratory infection for about two weeks and am finally over it. Then, when reading through Blood Rain and Blood Moon, I found some discrepancies with distances to various parts of the world that I really didn't like. I also found out that there are certain grammatical mistakes in both novels that I really need to fix.

So, long story short, I'm sorry for the delay in releasing Blood Moon, but it isn't ready yet. Rest assured, though, when the book is ready it will be worth the wait. I will also be releasing an updated version of Blood Rain soon with travelling time corrections and better editing. I apologize for these issues in the earlier version. I might also be including a map of Lacern for those that are interested, but it might have to be in another update when the map is more "polished" than it is currently. (I created a basic map for my own reference, but it could use a little work...) Also, when the edits are complete, there will also be a "print on demand" option for those of you who prefer a print copy of the novel.

In between editing, creating maps, and formulating correct distances, I've also started working on Blood God again. I've decided, though, that Blood God will be my project for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. Every November, many of my friends try to write a novel for this event. Writers living in the same general areas get together and bounce ideas off of one another, do writing exercises, and basically attempt to finish a novel by the end of the month. Even though I already have characters and ideas, I might just use this as an opportunity to spur myself into seriously concentrating on this novel and trying to reach my goal of having it finished by Christmas. Wish me luck. I'm exited about the idea of approaching this story again and this time finishing it. The outline is ready, and so am I.

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I'm on it! I haven't stopped working, but I did have to slow down for a little while during my recovery. This was a very nasty virus that turned into something just one step shy of bronchitis. I haven't been this sick in a long time. I knew that having two kids meant that there would be illnesses when school started again. It comes with the territory. Anyway, I'll keep you posted about the novel and about my progress when I have more to report. In the meantime, please check out Blood Rain, and when the update comes out, please reload it. Thanks.

Hopefully, I'll have a book review for you soon as well. I've started reading Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I'm working it in for at least fifteen minutes a day while I exercise, but if it can captivate my attention like I think it can, I might chew through it much faster. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

Hey Everybody,

Well, just wanted to let you know what's new and what is going on. First of all, I'm finally almost finished decorating my house for the Halloween Party. I'm very excited about Halloween this year. We have our costumes ahead of time and are better organized than we were last year, so I think the party will be a success. I've also vowed not to overdue the last minute preparations so that I enjoy myself more this year and won't make myself sick. (Since I'm constantly getting sick anyway, there's no guarantee that I'll be well for the party and for Halloween night, but I'm not going to make myself worse by pushing myself too hard.)

In other news, I've started reading Clockwork Angel again. I'm 127 pages into it, and so far it's pretty good. Unfortunately, this is a story that switches perspective from one character to another, and that annoys me, but so far the story is good enough to hold my interest anyway. I'll write a full review once I finish. I've been using the exercise bike and reading at the same time and then reading while I catch my breath, which lets me enjoy at least a few chapters a day. The problem is, I read obsessively and basically read up to this point in about two days. While I love reading, I need to balance it with my other work as well.

In terms of writing, I'm in the process of editing "Blood Rain" again. I realize that the original copy that I published needs a grammatical makeover. I'm changing the mistakes that I know are there and sending it to someone more qualified to catch my errors. Once that is done I'm going to make the changes to the travelling times that I mentioned previously and, hopefully, those will be the last edits I will have to make before I open it up to be a "print to order" novel. Wish me luck. I'm working hard, but I'm thinking it will take at least another few weeks before it will be done. If you have already purchased the book, just re-upload it when I update the e-book version. And if you want to buy a hard copy, that would be nice too.

Anyway, I'm off to do a little reading. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Hey Everyone,

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I've been very sick again. Even though I've been resting up during most of my spare time, I've decided to try harder to be productive and to keep you posted. For once, I have some good news on the writing front.

Recently, I sent my manuscript, Blood Rain, to Portland Book Review to see if it was well received. And it seems that they really liked it. They gave the book four stars and were honest about its shortcomings along with the things that they liked about the story. I've very pleased with the review. They talk a great deal about the themes of the story and seemed impressed with the world that I created even though the young adult market tends to be saturated with fantasy.

Anyway, the review is coming out later this week, and I'd really appreciate it if you would have a look at it. I'll send a link on facebook, this blog, and on my website when it's published. If you like what you hear and haven't read Blood Rain, please go to amazon and pick up a copy of the e-book.

Hopefully I'll be selling print-on-demand copies soon. My goal is to have my edits complete by the end of December, and I'll be selling the print copies then. As I mentioned on my previous blog, there are some travelling discrepancies with my world and some overlooked grammatical mistakes, but nothing that will take me too long to adjust.

For those with e-book copies, you should be able to update to the newer version for free. From what I understand these small mistakes don't detract from the story too terribly much, but I want to give my readers the best experience that I can. So, read the story now, enjoy it, and update your e-book when I have finished with my edits for a more polished version.

In other news, I mentioned in my last blog that I intended to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this time around. While I am involved with NaNo this month, to be honest, I'm not actively pursing it very much. One reason is that real life got in the way. This has been a rough month for me personally from unemployment to illness. Things could be better. It makes it difficult to focus when there is a lot on my mind.

Also, when I got started, my goal was to finish Blood God by the end of the month. I think I owe it to my readers to try to write the best novel I can, especially since Blood God is the finale novel of this series. So, even though NaNoWriMo has spurred me on to working on it again, I'm not going to rush it. I don't think I'll be "winning" NaNo this year, but I will still be writing throughout the month of November and probably part of December until I'm finished.

In the meantime, between writing, reading, and real life, I'm also editing Blood Moon. I am pleased to announce that I should be finished with those edits around the time that the Portland Book Review is complete. So, if you're interested in this series, Blood Moon is the second book and will be available very soon. It picks up almost exactly where you left off at the end of Blood Rain. I hope you like it.

Well, that's all the news for now. I have some edits to do and more writing on Blood God. In a few days, I'll be leaving a book review myself on the story Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I read this book about two weeks ago, but the story was so good it's still fresh in my mind. I hope my review does it credit. Thanks for reading!

Hello Everyone,

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. Life has a tendency to get in the way. With two children sick with a fever of one hundred and four degrees and a sick husband, I just haven't had much time. Honestly, I've been too worried about them to write. However, recently I had some good news that I wanted to share.

Manhattan Book Review gave my novel Blood Rain five stars! I still can't believe it. The reviewer isn't a fan of science fiction or fantasy, but she loved the book anyway. I feel that's probably the best compliment I've had on my work. If someone who doesn't enjoy the genre still likes the book, it means that I've accomplished my goal. I wanted the characters to win over a wider audience. I'm starting to think this series has that potential. One of the things she said was she loved my flawed, dynamic characters. I love them too, despite the fact I torture them so much.

Here's the address for the actual review.

http://manhattanbookreview.com/produc...

I really don't know how to react to that kind of praise, but it does give me encouragement to keep writing and I'm very humbled. I never even imagined that two professional literary journals would enjoy my stories so much. Now, I just hope that more people start to read it.

I also wanted to give you an important update. With so many illnesses and issues coming up over the holidays, I'm afraid the release of Blood Moon and my edits on Blood Rain will have to be postponed until probably the end of January or the middle of February. Also, this means the print to order copy of Blood Rain will have to be postponed as well. I'm sorry. I'm usually better about achieving my deadlines, but one of my editors is sick. On the bright side, I've almost caught up with all the edits that I have currently. Also, it gives me more time to work on the third and final book, Blood God.

In other news, I have the second and third book of the Clockwork Angel series to read in my spare time (whenever that will be). When I'm finished catching up on edits, I still plan to write a review of Clockwork Angel on this blog. It might not be fresh in my mind anymore, but I remember the key things I loved about it and the things I didn't like. I think it deserves some attention, because I loved the concept of urban fantasy in a steampunk setting and it might be something I try my hand at after the Blood Rain series is over.

Anyway, keep reading and writing! I'll try to do better about writing in this blog more often.

Hey Everyone,

Well, I have some good news. My first book signing is tomorrow at the Irmo Branch Public Library during the local author meet and greet event from 2:00pm until 5:00pm. I'm very excited about it and I hope you can be there. I'll be selling and signing books, and I'll also be giving out free bookmarks and business cards. This is a big step for me. For once I'll be one of the people behind the table.

Sorry for the long week of silence. The bad news is that I'm just now getting over a really nasty case of bronchitis. I guess I've had it worse before, but the cold that gave it to me drained me of all of my energy for a full week. All I felt like doing was sleeping, and that's practically all I did. I should be able to start doing more writing work next week, but I seriously doubt I'll have Blood God written by my birthday. I think the end of April is more likely, but that's partially due to more good news.

On March the 15th I'll be doing a skype interview with Chimera Books, an awesome reading club on Google +. Check it out. They're a very cool group of people. Also, that is the first day of my blog tour, with Enchanted Book Promotions, for my first novel Blood Rain. I'll be answering lots of questions and hopefully news about the book will spread more quickly. Wish me luck. I might not have as much time to devote to Blood God, but if I can devote all of my undivided attention to it during a different month, I think in the end it will be a better book for it.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll give you my review of Clockwork Princess soon. Keep reading and writing!

Well a lot has happened in the last few weeks. I've turned thirty-five, one of my daughters turned four, and I've managed to reach fifty thousand words in Blood God. That's over halfway finished. Even though I really wanted to be done by now, I think that the book is already going better because I decided to focus on it at a slow and steady pace.

The Blood Rain book tour is over now. I enjoyed the experience. I really enjoyed answering all of the questions provided for me. It made me really think about my inspiration and what I was experiencing at the time I wrote the first novel. It's interesting to think back about where your ideas come from. Sometimes it even teaches you a little bit about yourself.

Currently, while I'm working on Blood God, I'm also getting ready for the blog tour of the second book of the series Blood Moon. Hopefully, by the end of the second blog tour I should be almost finished with Blood God and can start the marketing campaign and begin the tour for it as well. One thing at a time, though. I'm hoping at the latest that Blood God will be done by the end of summer.

One of the reasons I want to finish Blood God before fall is both because I want to finish it as soon as possible for those waiting on it. The second reason, though, is that I've made a very important decision. I've decided to self publish my mid-grade horror series. I haven't had much luck finding an agent, and now that I know that I can sell the e-books and sell print copies, I think I might be more successful doing it on my own. (That, and the fact that my target audience all have ipods for school and might enjoy having an e-book copy.) I think it would be nice to publish the first one around Halloween, and barring a cover design, it's ready.

I also know now that the more novels I get out there, the more exposure I will get and eventually something will catch on. For those of you who are fans of my series, or of my writing in general, and want to help I would really appreciate it if you would write a review on amazon after you read the book. The more reviews I have, the better. Even one sentence and a star count is enough.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. I'll keep you posted on the Blood Moon blog tour progress and my current word count in Blood God. Well, back to the writing. Wish me luck.