Avery Kilpatrick's Blog, page 2

Inspiration

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

— Albert Einstein

 

Another Monday has come and that means another blog post! Let’s get down to the good stuff!

Inspiration.

The most common question most authors and poets get from readers or people in general who wonder, “How did you come up with that?”

For me, the only answer I can give is my mind—my imagination—is always whirring with ideas. Sometimes I get a jump start by watching a TV show or reading a book, but a lot of it comes from my dreams (both at night and daydreams) and from my own wondering. Alessandra Torre refers to this as the “what-if” game, and I have to agree with her because I find myself asking those same questions when I’m out and about or when I’m at home.

The game is pretty simple: You take an idea or, and this might sound creepy, a random person and ask yourself what-if? What if this lady was secretly an agent for an underworld agency or what if she was actually a private eye? What if werewolves and vampires existed? What if a werewolf and vampire fell in love? What if this guy was actually a cop who secretly worked with supernatural creatures? And so on and so forth.

What’s so great about this game is there are endless possibilities on what can be thought up and explored. If you ever see me brainstorming, you’ll see a lot of what-ifs on the page—ideas that don’t make sense together but as individuals they create their own stories. For me, inspiration comes from all types of places and using the what-if game is a good way to exercise a muscle that I use daily.

Sometimes, I’ll look at famous quotes from people that have lived, loved, and died or are still kickin’ for inspiration. Words are powerful and can draw out some interesting themes or ideas from my mind. That’s the great thing about writing or art—you can draw inspiration from anywhere. You can create any small thing and turn it into something much larger than before—something that brings attention and admiration or curiosity to it.

That’s the wonder of imagination. Albert Einstein was right when he said that imagination is pretty much infinite. And even if you’re not a writer or an artist, it’s important to foster that imagination. To allow your thoughts to wander and think about the impossible—to foster dreams that may come true with hard work.

Hopefully, y’all will have a happy Monday!

Writing Life: A Peek Behind the Curtains

Writing has always been a passion of mine since I was thirteen and I read my first book, which was Twilight. Yeah, I know, some of you are probably cringing and some of you are nodding your heads like that’s pretty neat. Twilight was my peek behind the curtains—my first step toward becoming a writer and, later, an author. So, I have to give credit where it’s due.

That single peek behind the curtains led me to write a book of my own about dragons living in the real world, and let me tell you, thirteen-year-old me was extremely proud of the 80k-100k novel I wrote. Twenty-four-year-old me cringes every time my mom brings it up or mentions it because I realize now just how terrible it was. There were cliches, horrible grammar mistakes, and so much inconsistencies that I can’t even read it.

And that’s okay. Because that book was a learning experience, a part of my journey to become the writer I am today. It’s okay that I may never return to that book and rewrite it.

Twilight and that first book became a stepping stone and opened my eyes toward what I wanted to do for my dream job. After that day, whenever teachers would ask us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would always answer, “I want to be an author.” My classmates were skeptical at first and my English teachers were proud, and I was determined to achieve that dream. As I grew older and wrote and dreamed and brainstormed, I honed my craft until my classmates wanted to know what I was writing or wanted to read what I wrote in class. Which, I was too embarrassed to let anyone read what I was writing because I didn’t think I was any good, plus I was writing fanfiction at the time about books and shows that they hadn’t read or watched. I was scared of them making fun of me or telling me that I sucked. A common fear, I’m sure, and though I was improving in my writing, I was still shy to talk about it.

When I was in college, I grew more confident in my writing and shared what I wrote to roommates and classmates. I have to say that exchanging essay papers to peer review and critique really helped build my confidence. Not to mention the writing workshops I attended at Delta State University. Those years may have been stressful because of the class work load that came with being an English Lit major, but I’m grateful for those classes I took.

Now, writing has become such a deep part of my life that I don’t know what I would do without it.

The Author Life: An Update Part Two

Another Monday, another blog post about the author life.

Morning, everyone! I hope your Mother’s Day weekend went well and a happy belated Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there reading this today! Like you, I cannot even begin to describe how much I appreciate my mom and her constant, never-changing support. She’s been my rock throughout this process and continues to support me on the days I feel stressed or have my doubts. So, a quick shout out to my mom for always being there for me all these years and the many more years to come.

I made a post on my Facebook and Instagram that I copyrighted my first poetry collection ever the other day, and I’m super excited. This makes me one step closer to achieving my dream of being published and I cannot wait to show y’all the finished project in June. Yes, that’s right. Next month, I will be sending my poetry collection, Hurricane Vignette, to a formatter before I publish it in June. I have a set date in mind, but until I know for sure when my cover will be completed, I won’t know when the formatter can get it back to me. I hope to have the cover within the following week, but that’s probably me being overly optimistic and maybe a tad bit impatient. Either way, Hurricane Vignette is in the hole waiting to step into the batter’s box.

As far as A Stream of Darkness goes, I’m waiting for my date to turn it into my editor at Hot Tree Editing later this May, and I’m biting my nails with anticipation because I can’t wait to send it off and start the next step in the process. I’m currently writing the second book in the series and hope to finish it by June-July, so keep watching for updates on that as well!

For more information on updates, cover reveals, book releases, and giveaways, sign-up for my monthly newsletter that’s set to send out for the first time next month! You can click on the button below to head to the sign up page!

What did everyone do with their mothers and grandmothers' to celebrate Mother’s Day? Let me know in the comments below!

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The Author Life: An Update Part 1

Happy Friday, everyone!

We made it through another week of quarantine and the weekend is here! Whoo!

Ahem, now that the celebration is over with, onto today’s post.

This week has been rather busy for me. I’ve been working hard on getting A Stream of Darkness published, which includes sending it off to an editor, betas, a proofreader, and formatter to name a few things that I have to do. There’s a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into getting a book publish—more than you realize and things I’m still learning. I’ve found an editor and proofreader through the wonderful Hot Tree Editing, who has also a line of betas that can read through my book as well. I’m extremely thankful towards them since I’ve been asking a lot of questions and probably drove them insane a little, but they’ve been really patient with me and my momager. We also booked a formatter yesterday thanks to my mom’s hard work and research. She’s awesome and I can’t thank her enough for helping me manage all of this.

Since my manuscript isn’t due to the editor until May 25th, I’ve been working on book two of the Crymsen Crescent series and my poetry collection that I’m determined to publish by the end of June. I still need a formatter and book cover for my poetry collection, but I have high hopes that I can get this all settled within the month of May. Maybe I’m being optimistic, but I can’t help it.

On to some good and awesome news!

So, if you haven’t noticed already, there’s an Event bar on the main menu now. If you click on that, you’ll see A Stream of Darkness Countdown. What’s the countdown for? For the Book Cover Reveal because guess who got a book cover for her debut novel? This chick! I’m super excited and I really want to show y’all, but for marketing reasons, I need to keep it a secret for now so y’all will just have to wait and see!

The countdown gives you an exact day, hour, minute, and second until the book cover reveal on July 9th, so mark your calendars and sign up for my monthly newsletter set to send out next month! With the newsletter, you can learn more information on releases, cover reveals, giveaways, and more!

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Another Day in Quarantine…

So, quarantine.

I’m just going to come out and say it. It sucks.

Before we were given the stay at home order, I was already at home alone by myself most of the day anyway, but now that it’s mandated that we have to stay six feet apart and at home, my anxiety and depression fluctuate more. I feel like there are more bad days than good days sometimes and finding the energy to write has become harder as the days meld together. My mom is working from home (and has for the past six weeks), which eases my anxiety thinking about her working at her office where anyone could be carrying COVID-19 and not show any symptoms. I’m thankful that she can work from home thanks to the nature of her job and that the people above her understand and are taking the pandemic seriously.

That being said, I know there are a lot of people who are essential workers and fighting on the front lines to protect the rest of us, and to them, I just want to say, “Thank you.” I know how hard it must be to stay away from family or risk catching this disease while you do your job, and I appreciate you and the sacrifices all essential workers and first responders have made during this rough time.

So, with that, I’d like to take the time to talk about another day in quarantine with my family. We’re small, only two pets and two people living in a ranch-style home, but we have our moments of fun and restlessness.

For starters, a pro to all of this, is I can write all day if I want. That gives me ample time to just focus typing words onto a page in a Word doc and expressing my creativity. I don’t have to worry about schooling since I took a gap year or work because I don’t have an official job. Yet. (Until my book publishes, I won’t consider me being an author an actual job until I meet a certain revenue, though I would love to make writing my full-time job in the future.) Anyway, I’m still working on finding a job like most stereotypical college graduates, but I’m considering going back to college as a grad student or getting another bachelor’s degree. I don’t know, but that’s another thing about quarantine: You get to spend a lot of time thinking about the future and worrying about what might happen next.

Which, if you have anxiety, isn’t good for your mental health. Sometimes I bog myself down with the what-if’s and forget that I shouldn’t worry about things that haven’t happened yet. Thankfully, my mom is around to help pull me out of the rabbit hole before I get to a bad place in my thoughts.

Another con of quarantine? The restlessness. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels it. Being stuck inside all day tends to make my skin buzz with energy—like I need to get out and go to the nearest shop and buy clothes or books until I’m broke. Our house has an amazing backyard that’s huge with three big trees that allows Ginger, my twelve-year-old ball of energy lab, to run around to her heart’s content. Mom and I try to sit out on our back porch as much as possible, enjoying the breeze and listening to the cars go by (we live next to a busy street, unfortunately). Sometimes I’ll just sit there and watch Ginger run around or chase bugs that fly up in her face. I think, in a past life maybe, she was a frog because she jumps and bites at the air like it’s no one’s business. Going on evening walks, though sometimes I don’t feel like it in part because of my depression, has helped a lot with the buzzing I feel under my skin or the tightness in my chest, but I wish we could actually go somewhere. Like to one of our downtown stores or to JCPenney and CATO.

Fun Fact: He sniffles and snores when he’s asleep.

I think the only one who’s truly enjoying the quarantine the most is my cat Cinnamon. He’s constantly yowling at us to feed him when his food bowl starts to get too low or he sees the bottom of his bowl. He’ll follow me around the house and curl up next to me or on me when I’m trying to work. Like now, for instance, he’s currently asleep with his head buried in the blanket by my feet.

On a lighter note, I have to say that while I haven’t been able to get much writing done this past weekend, I did accomplish a lot during that time.

Created this website from scratch and learned how to use it properly (or semi-properly since I’m still learning how to do certain things but that’s beside the point),

Made a Facebook page and account, a Twitter account, an Instagram account, and a Goodreads account for my author pen name,

Wrote two blog posts and planning on writing a third to be scheduled to post later this week,

Worked on a few posts for my different social media accounts,

Signed a contract with an editing company, and

Promoted my unpublished book.

As my mom keeps telling me, that’s a lot to do in two short days that feel much longer than they actually are. I’m proud of what I managed to accomplish in those few days.

Right now, my goal is to continue to work on promoting A Stream of Darkness and creating an author logo and brand for my website and accounts. I also hope to self-publish my poetry collection that’s been edited and revised soon, and I plan to continue to write on the second book of the Crymsen Crescent series this week. Sounds like a couple of big goals, but I hope to have them finished before next week.

What have you been doing during quarantine? Let me know in the comments below!

Have a great day and stay safe out there!

Hi!

Hi, my name is Avery Kilpatrick, a new author joining the ever-growing writing community. This is the first time I’ve ever written a blog post and since this is an introduction post, it’s bound to be full of awkwardness, so bear with me. (Also, please note, that I am human and gladly make mistakes all the time because to err is human and no one is perfect. If you see grammatical errors, try not to cringe too much.)

I have always lived in a small town in the Mississippi Delta, and I mean, small. We used to have a tiny theater that closed down years and years ago, so we have to drive to Jackson, Mississippi, in order to watch a new movie. I don’t mind long car rides as long as I have my laptop, a book, or music to listen to, but the two-hour drive can be tedious. A fun fact about my town: When the movie The Help was being filmed, most of the scenes happened right in our town and in the surrounding countryside. I could tell you where most of the scenes took place—the homes, the favorite spots, the roads/streets, etc. I’m such a nerd for that kind of thing, but who wants to be boring and not know about a bunch of random information?

I’m getting sidetracked. Sorry, I’ll probably do that in a lot of posts until I can narrow my focus to a single topic.

As a new author, I’m still building my base and marketing my debut novel, but to let you in on a few things that I’m working on: I have completed my first novel (since I was thirteen) in about three weeks in April 2020. I have completed an outline for the second book of the Crymsen Crescent series (the first book in this series being, of course, my debut novel, A Stream of Darkness). Also in the works is another separate series that I plan to work on and give my full attention to after completing the second book of the Crymsen Crescent series. I’m not sure how many poetry fans will be reading this, but I also completed, revised, and edited a poetry collection that I hope to publish soon.

I’d like to take a quick moment to thank Alessandra Torre for her course on How to Write Your First Book and her marketing course that I’m currently taking. If you’re interested in romance books here’s a link to her website: https://www.alessandratorre.com. While I’m in the thankful mood, I’d like to add that my mother has been a rock throughout this and has offered to be my personal assistant as well as my business manager. Yes, she’s the momager, but she’s not going to be the stereotypical momager that has a stick up their butt all the time. (Hopefully. Just kidding, I love you, Mom!)

A few facts about me:

Cinnamon being nosy as per usual

I’m blunt to the point that I might come off as rude, but I don’t believe in beating around the bush and like to get straight to the point.

I have a nosy, in-your-face, and spoiled cat named Cinnamon, who is sixteen years old this past April, and a twelve-year-old lab mix called Ginger, who is full of energy and looks like a six-month-old puppy. (Yeah, we have a love of spices in our house, but in my defense, Ginger was a foster puppy when we got her and already named.) Prepare to see pictures of them on this blog.

I graduated from Delta State University with a BA in English and spent my college years copy-editing (then as editor-in-chief) for The Delta Statement, a student-run newspaper for the university. Writing articles as a journalist was a unique experience that helped me grow as a writer. I also participated in many fiction and poetry workshops on campus that fostered my dream.

Mental health is an important subject to me as I have severe anxiety and depression myself. Currently, I am in the process of acquiring my own service dog through Bark to Basics and will receive him sometime in September-October of this year. My service dog in-training (SDIT) is a red fox lab named Remington a.k.a. Remi and I am obsessed with him. There will be posts and pictures of him along with updates on his training on this blog.

This website is still under construction as of today (May 3rd, 2020) and is bound to change in look, style, and information, so check daily for new updates and features!

My SDIT, Remington AKA Remi

In this picture, he’s about 8 months old and still growing!

Cinnamon (left) and Ginger (right)