Alicia Justice's Blog, page 6

June’s Author Update

Hey everyone and Happy Friday!

I hope you all had a great week and a fantastic start to your weekend. I wanted to give you a quick update on what’s going on in my author life right now and share with you some of my wins for this month.

Author Update

Right now I’m in the middle of self-edits for Third to Come Home (Book 3 of the First to Fight series). I can’t wait for you all to read this book! It’s a bit different from the first two in this series, but that’s because it’s Kevin’s story and he’s a bit different than his two older brothers. I’ve really enjoyed writing each and every word of this book. Like I said though, I’m in the middle of self-edits, actually as of this very moment, I’m on chapter 27 of 40. The plan is to have it ready for my beta readers by the end of June or at the very latest the first week of July.

I do still have a few openings if you’re interested in being a beta reader for me. The link will be toward the bottom of this post.

The other main thing I’m trying to check off my to-do list is getting through HB90 Q3 planning. I love this course and I love planning, but this just takes time to get through. I have a lot of projects I want to work on during Q3 and organizing it all is a lot of work. Between edits and planning, these are the main two things I’ve been working on this month.

Also, for those that have asked, I am not doing Camp NaNo this year, mainly because I’ll be working on getting beta changes for book 3 during July and getting it ready to publish. I would rather focus my time on that. I do love Camp NaNo, I just feel like I won’t have time to really work on a different project this upcoming month.

Life Update

My daughter is getting ready to graduate from high school/homeschool and I’ve been focusing a lot of my time toward that too, since I’m the one that teaches her. We school year around and take breaks when we want, so that’s why she doesn’t graduate until Sept.

I’ve also been taking time to refill that well too, that means doing somethings I enjoy so I don’t burn out. One of which is, of course, reading. For this month, as of this moment, I’ve read 17 books this month. I’m in the middle of a re-reading a full series, since one of my favorite authors has a new book being released later this year.

If you’re not already, make sure you’re following me over on Instagram. Most of the time, I post daily updates, inspirational quotes, reels, and other fun things there. It’s honestly the main place I post.

I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Reading!

First to Fight is On Sale!

Happy Friday everyone!

My birthday is tomorrow and I’m excited to make this announcement, I really wanted to celebrate with all of you, so I decided to put First to Fight’s ebook (Book 1) on sale for .99 cents. You can get your copy of First to Fight today! Click the image below to grab your copy.

I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy First to Fight as well. Let me know what your weekend plans are in the comments.

June 2023 Goals and HB90

Hey everyone, I know it’s been a while since I last posted here on my blog, but life has been a bit of a rollercoaster lately. I’ve been working really hard on getting books 1-3 released in the First to Fight series and book 3 is almost complete. At this moment, I’m in the self-edit phase and I’m going through chapter by chapter to make sure the plot is exactly as I want it and fixing the little mistakes that are in the draft.

The next stage is to get this book into the hands of my beta readers and get their thoughts about the story. After that of course it goes to my editor, the cover reveal is coming soon as well. Like I said it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride lately. So much to do, so let’s get into my goals for June.

June Goals

My main goal for June is to finish self-edits and to get the book over to the beta readers by the end of June. I love Third to Come Home so far and I can’t wait to see what they think of the storyline. The rest of my goals for this month are as follows:

Finish Edits/Book with betas Get the website all updated Learn more about newsletters and get mine up and running correctly Plan out the cover reveal for book 3 and start working on the launch plan Read at least 3 author life books Work on getting my store (on the website) open and start selling signed copies and other things. Go through HB90 Course again and get my Q3 all set up

Just looking at this list looks like I have a lot of work to do. I know I do, but seeing it makes it all feel a bit more daunting.

HB90 is Open For Enrollment

I know I’ve talked about the HB90 course here several times and I mention author Sarra Cannon a lot, but the course that started me out on my author journey and keeps me organized is open for enrollment right now and I just wanted to let everyone know. If you’re having a hard time getting to all those tasks that you need to get to but never have time to get to, this course is perfect for you. Sarra teaches you how to organize all those tasks and actually get to them.

To learn more and sign up for the HB90 course, you can CLICK HERE. I am an affiliate of her’s just putting that out there that I do get a small kickback if you sign up with my link. Even if you don’t use my link, I hope you will sign up, it’s an amazing course and honestly, it saved me so much time and energy.

I hope you all have a great month and a fantastic week. I’m going to try to start posting more on here and get my newsletter going the way I want it to. Most of my updates happen over on Instagram right now, so if you would like to follow me over there to keep up with everything, you can do so by CLICKING HERE. I would love to have you as part of my Instagram family.

It’s February Already? Author Update

Happy February everyone! Yep, that’s right I said February…yikes. I always say this but time sure does fly by. It’s already the second month of 2023 and I feel like I didn’t get enough done, I feel like I’m already behind. Does anyone else feel this way?

Anyway, I wanted to get back into posting my beginning-of-the-month posts here on the blog, so this is the first one for this year. Oops totally missed Jan, but it’s okay. I have a lot going on this month, so let’s get to it.

February PlansThird to Come Home – I’m working on book 3 currently and I’ve almost finished the first draft. I’m hoping to have it finished by the middle or by the third week of this month. I can’t wait to share this book with all of you. It’s so different from books one and two. It’s quickly becoming my favorite book of the series so far. Classes – I’m currently taking one course, but I’m getting ready to retake Publish and Thrive again as well this month. I’m loving Neil Gaiman’s master class. It’s not an easy class, but I love the writing exercises. If you haven’t checked this class out it’s a must. Now I’m also super excited to go back through Publish and Thrive since Sarra has redone the course, plus I took this course before I published book 1. So I can’t wait to see the changes and the things I remember from the course. Street/ARC Team Opening – My street/ARC team opened this past week and I’m also really excited about this. I can’t wait to form a great group to help promo the books and my posts. I’m excited to build a great team. If you would like to join my team you can CLICK HERE. Youtube and Learning to Edit – So I really want to learn how to edit videos and add more videos to my Youtube channel. Another thing added to my list, but I’m excited to learn how to do the videos I want to put out there. Ko-Fi – I’m posting over on Ko-Fi more and have plans for even more posts. I’m sharing the writing I’m doing for the classes I’m taking and other things as well. Also, have new membership tiers over there as well. So if you haven’t checked that out, please head over and check that out as well. CLICK HERE!Blogging – I want to blog more here, I used to blog all of the time on my life/book review blog and I miss it. So I’m going to get back to that. Fill the Well – I want to read more this month and play games with my kiddos. So filling that well is very important to me this month. Indie Author Sharing Group on Instagram – I created a post about wanting to share posts from indie authors, that I wanted to help other inside authors and it turned into an awesome group of people who are also sharing the posts. I love it so much. I love helping others and want to get back to that as well.

Like I said above, I’ve got a lot going on this month. I’m also still working on a secret project and I’m excited about that as well. What are your plans for February? Or what are your big plans for 2023? Let me know in the comments, I would love to cheer you on.

If you would like to see what I’m up to throughout the month or daily, head over to my Instagram. I post almost daily over there.

Looking Back at 2022 and Looking Forward to 2023

I can’t believe this year is almost over, I know a lot of people say that every year and I’m probably someone that does that as well, but this year really did fly by. Please tell me I’m not the only one that feels this year? 

Anyway, I wanted to take a look back at this year, well more like the highlights of this year and tell you a few of the plans for next year that I’ve been working on. I have a few really big things coming in 2023, exciting things!! 

First let’s look at 2022

(Just a few images from the year. To see more check out my Instagram!)

This year has been a exciting year for me. I was able to reach a lot of my goals. I became a published author this year and I published two novels with a total combined word count of 237,279 words. Damn that’s a lot of words! 

I have loved my author journey so far, I’m not saying it wasn’t hard at all, because it has been. I have been non stop busy this year. Ended up having to take two months off due to being sick, but other than that I worked on my books and publishing career every single day. It’s a learning process for sure. 

I had planned to release 3 books this year, that sadly didn’t happen, getting as sick as I was hadn’t been part of the plan and messed that up. But it’s okay, two books my first year being an author is an amazing feat. I also started doing some live streams over on Twitch this year, not sure if I’m going to bring those back this upcoming year, but I did enjoy my time over there. 

I also found out that B&N are selling book #2 on their website and here soon, they will be selling book 1 and 2 in the store close to me here in FL. Super excited about that, but more about that in the next section of this post. (Getting a bit ahead of myself here!) 

It has been a good year, a busy one but a great one. So many amazing things happened, I didn’t even list half of them because if I did this post would be so long. I can’t wait to see what comes next. Speaking of that, let’s take a look at some upcoming plans. 

A Look at my Plans for 2023

So, let’s see where should I start. I have two books planned for 2023 and one maybe book! Books 3 and 4 in the First to Fight series are the two I have planned to publish in this upcoming year. The maybe book is a secret project that we will have to see if I have time to publish. I’m hoping to have book 3, Third to Come Home, published sometime in May or June and then book 4 in October or November. Cross your fingers for me that this happens. 

(These are just tentative plans! These plans could change. )

Other than publishing goals I have some other things that I’m looking forward to in 2023. I have a few ideas for book boxes that I’m working on and another secret creative project that I should be announcing soon. 

Like I said I have tons of plans for this upcoming year. I will more than likely announce these things first on my Instagram, so if you’re not following me over there, you need to do so right away! 

Alright, so there was a glimpse into my plans for 2023 and a look back at this amazing year. I can’t wait to see where 2023 will take us. This is the second to last blog post for me for the year, there will be one more next week, but it’s going to be a short and sweet one. 

Do you have any special plans for 2023? Or are you a just wing it kind of person? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear your plans or non plans

If you celebrate Christmas, I want to wish you Merry Christmas. If you celebrate another holiday, I want to say Happy Holidays! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with friends and family. 

What’s Playing Inside First to Fight Bar During the Holiday Season

Earlier this week, over on Instagram, I mentioned a playlist that the boys play at First to Fight Bar this time of the year. I wanted to share the whole playlist here on the blog, so that’s pretty much what this blog post is all about.

Each of these songs was picked by one of the main characters, so far in the First to Fight series. I’ve also made sure to make the playlist public over on Spotify so you all can listen to it as well. Enjoy!!

So, Collin’s song pick on the playlist is I’ll be Home For Christmas. It’s his favorite Christmas song because it reminds him of his Mom. She used to sing it in the kitchen while she baked cookies on the farm when he was little.

Rachel’s choice is Oh Holy Night, it’s always been one of her favorite Christmas songs, and tends to try to sing along, even though they all smile and act like she’s a fantastic singer, they all cringe slightly when the song actually comes on. Something that they would never let her see, of course.

Now comes little Chance’s choice for the playlist and that’s Jingle Bells, Batman Smells. He says that he likes the song because it makes him laugh.

Kyle’s choice is next on the list and that is Silent Night and once again, this is his favorite because of their mother. She used to sing it to them on Christmas morning as she made breakfast. For a long time, he couldn’t stand to hear the song, but recently he’s started to love it once more.

Charlie Brown Christmas has always been Lennox’s favorite Christmas movie so it’s no wonder that one of the songs from that playlist ended up on the First to Fight playlist as well. 

Kevin’s pick, of course, has more to do with the life he has been living and not about their mother. During the past few Christmas seasons he’s been overseas, and every year the men and women over there with him and on his team would start the day off with the 12 days of Christmas. So that’s his pick for the playlist. 

Kylie’s pick, unlike her two oldest brothers, doesn’t have to do with their mom or their family at all. She just loves the song It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas. Her reason is that simple.

Now, as far as their Father is concerned there is no better Christmas song other than White Christmas. So of course, the guys had to add that one to their list.

There are only two more songs left and they are for the waitresses and the other bartender. They chose Frosty. The whole bar breaks out in song every time this song comes along on the playlist, making everyone smile in the room. The last song on the list is We Wish You A Merry Christmas and Collin says that it’s his wish for everyone that walks into the bar. Every time it plays, the waitstaff, bartenders, and owners all sing it to everyone in the bar. 

So there, you have it. The First to Fight bar Christmas playlist! I hope you all have enjoyed the songs and the reasoning behind them being on the list.

What song would you add to the playlist if you had a chance?

I hope you all have a great holiday season. 

NaNoWriMo Week 3

So I won NaNoWriMo this week! I crossed that 50k word goal on the 22nd and I’m so excited about it. This book is coming together so amazingly. I did however come across a plot hole and had to go back into the manuscript and add a few scenes to fix it. Though this is what pushed me over that 50k word count so I don’t mind. A huge Thanks goes out to my alpha reader for this part, because I was able to talk it through with her and it helped get the scenes ready for me to write. I didn’t have to stop and replot them, I just had to move them around/sooner.

Having her to chat with during NaNo this year was so helpful. I was able to get through plot holes, and plot structure all ready for before NaNo and even throughout it. It just made sitting down to write easier because I knew what I needed to write each day. Over the past couple of years, I’ve really honed in on how I plot and what works for me.

My week really was a great one, now writing doesn’t always come easy for everyone and it’s honestly not always easy for me. It just happened that way this year for me. I understand that I’m super lucky this year, it hasn’t always been easy to get the words down. Last year for example. I had a character completely change how I thought the book was going to go. I’m just happy it worked out for me this year.

If you’re still in the middle of getting those words down or you’re having a hard time getting those words, just know I’m here cheering you on. Also remember, even if you only get a few words, that is a few more words that you didn’t have. NaNoWriMo should be fun, it shouldn’t make you feel bad because you don’t so-called WIN, the best part of NaNo is that you’re getting to write and you’re getting words down. To me, that’s what makes me so happy about NaNo.

NaNoWriMo Journal: Week 1 and Week 2

These past two weeks have gone by really fast. They’ve been filled with tons of writing for me. NaNoWriMo, as I’ve said in the past, is something that I thrive on. The sad part is though that I tend to really focus on the story that I’m writing and other things tend to get put off, one of which was the blog post last week. So, this post is for week 1 and week 2 of NaNoWriMo! 

Let’s recap week 1: 

On the first day of NaNo, I tend to really get ahead as much as I can. Every year I stay up till three or four in the morning and ring in the NaNo with as many words as I can before going to bed. On day 1 as you can see, I wrote over 10,000 words. After the first day, I try my hardest to write at least 1,500 to 2,000 words a day. This tends to make sure I’m ahead most of the time during NaNoWriMo.

Other than that, Week 1 was pretty good for me, though I was dealing with crazy weather and allergies that were trying to kick my butt, but other than that it was a good week.

Week 2 of NaNoWriMo 

The second week of NaNo was pretty much the same as the second, I’m still ahead of the curve, though not as far ahead as I usually am. Though this story is cracking me up and I’m having a blast writing it. Though then again, week 2 isn’t really over just yet. We’re just now starting day 12, as I’m writing this. Hopefully, I can get a couple of thousand words in today and will be doing great. Last night I passed the halfway mark which is super exciting.

As far as prizes go, I’ve gotten BTS stickers and a new apple pencil cover, and I get to order my BTS coffee travel mug today. Also, I’m getting ready to head to Starbucks for coffee and some writing time. It should be a good day! 

All in all my NaNo experience this year has been a great one so far. If you would like to be NaNo buddies on the sight and your writing this year, you can find my profile here.

Let me know how your writing or reading week has gone in the comments. I hope you all have a great weekend and week next week.

Preptober Diaries: My Outlining Process

Hey everyone! This week on the Preptober Diaries, I wanted to share my outlining process with all of you. I’m a huge plotter, like a huge plotter. Funny thing is, I wasn’t always a plotter at all. I used to be a pantser. I hated plotting anything out before I wrote it. Now I don’t write unless I have a great plot structure ready to go.

First off, if you don’t know what a plotter or pantser is. A plotter is someone who plans out and plots their book out before writing. For instance, I plot out my book, outline the details, use scene cards and so much more. A Pantser is someone who flies by the seat of their pants and just writes the story as it comes to them.

Now that we’ve established that I’m a total plotter, let’s chat about my process. When I first start with a book, like my current work in progress, I brain dump first. I sit down with a blank piece of paper or my iPad Goodnotes and just get everything out of my head that has to do with the book I’m working on. I mean every little detail that I already know.

I move that into my Scrivener document and start setting that up. Then from there, I start to take that brain dump and start thinking of the overall plot. I use the three-act story structure and the plotting worksheets from the amazing and talented author Sarra Cannon. If you’re not part of her community, it’s a must! She’s such an inspiration to me. Anyway, with the three-act story structure, you have several plot points and Act’s that you have to work through. Now, this doesn’t come to me in one sitting. This takes several for me to even come close to getting this down, but that brain dump I did first really does help this process.

Now sometimes I don’t have certain plot points figured out and that’s okay, you don’t have to know every little detail before writing, as long as you know your story. I do try to know and have all the plot points there, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

After going through the three-act story structure, I go back through it and add more detail to each plot point. Adding extra things that add to the storyline. As soon as I have that finished, which is what’s called the long outline. I start breaking those plot points down into scenes. YEP, told you I was a heavy plotter. Now, this doesn’t mean my story/characters won’t change while writing, but this is how I start everything.

Those scenes we were talking about end up going onto scene cards and kept close by when I’m writing. This helps me remember conflict and the reason I wanted each scene in the story. I also add these to my index cards on my Scrivener, that way I have them in several places.

I know this process won’t work for everyone, it’s what works for me. I know some of you will look at this and be like nope and that’s okay. I just wanted to share with you all what it takes for me to even start writing the first draft.

It’s almost time for NaNoWriMo 2022 to start and I’m super excited. I can’t wait to share book 3 with all of you. I love these characters so much! They’re going to be fun to write. I am ready for NaNo, all the steps above have been completed and I’m so ready to write.

I’ll share some more tips for getting through NaNo next week! I’ll also be sharing posts about my progress throughout the month of November. Not sure if I’m going to do daily posts yet, but I’ll see what I can do. If you’re going to be participating in NaNo this year, let me know in the comments, I would love to cheer you on. Also, let me know if you’re a plotter or a pantser!

I wish you so much luck with NaNoWriMo this year and I’m cheering you on. You’ve got this!!!

Free For Five Days!!!

Hey everyone! I hope you’re all having a great week.

Just wanted to jump on and let you all know that the First to Fight ebook will be available for free over on Amazon for five days in November. From Nov. 1st-5th, you will be able to grab an ebook copy for FREE!! That’s right, the first book in the First to Fight series will be free for you to read and have a copy.

I hope you all enjoy it! Also, don’t forget to leave a review once you finish reading. If you don’t want to write a review please at least rate it. It helps me and it lets Amazon know if you enjoyed the book or not.

Thanks,