Laura Winter's Blog, page 7

What to Look Forward to in Star Supernova

It’s been a while since we’ve visited the Blue Star series, but it’s time to get excited again because Star Supernova is releasing in just a month! You can grab that preorder now or read it early by joining me on Patreon.

Please be warned that if you haven’t read the first book in this series, there are a few mild spoilers ahead (just from that book).

After an explosive conclusion to Star Collapsed, we pick up where we left off. And don’t worry, there’s a bit of a refresher at the beginning in cas...

A Little Character Talk

I thought it would be fun to give you all a run down from all the characters I’ve ever created. Here is just a ton of questions about original characters (OC) and a little background into how I brought them to life in my stories.

1. Your first OC ever?

Finnley/Clara. She officially came to life back in 2018, when I wrote the first draft to Soul Forgotten, but she’s been stuck in my head for a lot longer than that. From her purple hair to her personality, I modeled her after a lot of my own charact...

2022: Q1 Recap

2022 has been a year of ups and downs already. Between power outages, appliance breakages, crafts/hobbies, and new baby prep, I’ve somehow found a way to get a lot of reading and writing done!

Life updates:

As you might have gathered, we’re preparing for a new baby in May! That means I’m trying to get all the things done - housework, baby room/house prep, writing, reading, etc - since I plan to go on a bit of a hiatus after she arrives. It’s been great some days, challenging on others. I’m taking...

Scenes That Never Made the Cut

The other day, I was scrolling through some of my cut files looking for some bits of dialogue that I could have sworn existed at some point in the drafting of some of my books. Of course, that led me to reading so many parts of my books that had changed from conception to writing to the final draft.

What fun would it be to read a few of those (very rough and unedited) pieces of writing that never made the final cut or got changed in the book? Yes, authors are humans. We make silly mistakes, bad c...

TBR List: Books I’m Excited to Read in 2022

It seems like our ‘to be read’ list continues to grow and yet we never get to those books. We just keep piling on, ignoring our overflowing list by reading the next shiny thing on Instagram or TikTok.

Well, I’ve made a dedication to a few books that I swear I will read this year… because they come out this year! Check out this awesome list of books on my TBR that I’m excited to read in 2022.

House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) - Sarah J Maas

Okay, I absolutely adored House of Earth and Blood...

5 Details You Might Have Missed From The Curse of Broken Shadows

I’ve been having a lot of fun lately writing the prequel to The Curse of Broken Shadows. It has me reminiscing on the creation of this series and how much fun it was to build this intricate world (which you can read about on the series page). Since it has been a few months since the release of TCOBS, I thought I’d drop in for anyone who has read or has TCOBS on their TBR list with some details you might have missed (or, things to look forward to).

The female MC and male MC have reverse roles

All t...

Get to Know the Author

I thought with the new year it would be fun to do a little bit of a reintroduction to those who are new and want to know a little about myself as an author and what I’ve written. It’s also fun to see some of the development I’ve done as an author from book 1 to book… whatever number this is now ;)

As always, if you have any questions that you want to ask, feel free to ask them anywhere on social media or reply to my newsletter.

Where to find me: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Discord | ...

2022 Word of the Year

Hello to all my new and returning readers and Happy New Year! I hope 2022 started off strong and healthy for you and your family.

For those who are unfamiliar, I am a huge planner / goal-oriented person. I love to set challenging goals that push me as a person (mentally, physically, and emotionally). One of my favorite methods that helps me stay on track with those goals (rather than set arbitrary or unfocused goals) is to theme them around a single word.

For example, in 2020 I selected the word W...

2021 Recap and Looking Forward

December always comes as a surprise to me. How can we already be wrapping up the year when it just started??

The nice thing about the end of the year is all the recaps, reflections, and goal planning for the new year. For those who are unfamiliar with me, this is my favorite time of the year. I dive into my passion planner and write out all the fun goals I have planned for what’s to come!

So, what does that reflection and goal planning look like for the 2021/2022 years? Let’s take a look!

2021 Reca...

Top Reads of 2021 (and great gift ideas for the reader in your life)

It’s no surprise that as a lover of writing, I’m also a lover of reading and consuming great stories. While I typically stick to my favorite genre (fantasy), there is definitely a spread of books that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this year. From YA to NA to epic to romantic, I’ve compiled a list of my top reads of 2021 (and you can find the Goodreads links for the full reviews as well as the Amazon link).

Even better, these books make incredible gifts for the reader in your life.

Crown of Midnight (Thr...