Angela Addams's Blog, page 13

Blog Hopping...On Writing Process

When the wonderful D.B. Reynolds tapped me on the shoulder to participate in a blog hop with her I was like, hell yes, motherfu....um...I said, yeah, sure, I'm in. ;-)

Answering four questions about my process, starting.....NOW:

1) What am I working on?

I'm currently working on book 6 of The Order of the Wolf series that's launching with Cursed on July 29 (Woo!!) It's tentatively titled Wolves' Bane 2...lol...obviously not the permanent title but easy for me to identify when I'm filing stuff on my computer. It takes place immediately after book 5 (which happens to be Mayhem's book) and not only carries on the plot that rolled out in Wolves' Bane (set for release Jan 2015) but also introduces some new and totally awesome characters and mythology.

2) How does my work differ from others in this genre?

I'm working with a mythology and a series that shows both sides of a war between werewolves and werewolf Hunters, at the center of which are the Huntresses: powerful female warriors who must choose a side to fight on, becoming enemy to the other. Beast or Hunter: it's a pretty heavy choice and one that doesn't always come easy especially when a warrior's heart is involved.

I like to explore the hero, anti-hero and villain from a variety of perspectives, seeing how their motivation can be perceived totally differently depending on what side you're viewing it from.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I can't not write paranormal stuff. I've tried, believe me, and it doesn't work. I've been obsessed with all things supernatural since I was a kid. Writing about it just came naturally.

4) How does your writing process work.

Ironically, I just blogged about this last week so without boring you all and becoming repetitious, I'll move us along to the next phase of this blog hop....

Hop on over to the next blog featuring the amazing Krista Walsh, whose fantasy novel Evensong was one of the most interesting I've ever read.  The sequel, Eventide is newly released and on my TBR pile as we speak!



Bio:Known for witty, vivid characters, Krista Walsh never has more fun than getting them into trouble and taking her time getting them out. After publishing a few short stories and novellas in various anthologies, she has now released her own anthology, the serial collection Greylands. When not writing, or working at her day job, she can be found reading, gaming, or watching a film – anything to get lost in a good story. She currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario.




Author Jeff Powell wakes up to find the impossible has happened. He is within his own novel—summoned into the fictional world of Feldall’s Keep by a spell he didn't write. One the House enchantress hasn't figured out how to reverse. 

When the villain he's been struggling to write reveals himself, unleashing waves of terror and chaos, Jeff must use more than his imagination to save the characters he created—and the woman he loves. 

Trapped within a world of his own creation, he must step outside the bounds of his narrative to help his characters defeat an evil no one anticipated, even if he must sacrifice his greatest gift. In the end, he has to ask: are novels really fiction, or windows into other worlds? 
Buy it here:itunes NookKoboAmazon
Find Krista here:Websiteemailtwitter: @krista_walshFB

Birthing a manuscript...sounds gross, I know

I had someone ask me recently what my writing process was so I thought I'd do a little post about it, you know, because it's fascinating and all.

Step 1: I usually get an idea about the next book while I'm working on the current book. It's almost always some fabulous scene playing out in my mind, just like in a movie. This sucks a lot because new ideas are shiny and exciting and, well, new...but priority must go to the current wip, so....

Step 2: I jot down a rough plot. And by rough I mean really rough, usually beginning, middle and end in a few point form sentences. I also try to get the details of the scene down just in case it disappears (which it usually doesn't...but better safe right?) I then proceed to dream about the shiny new idea...I'm not joking, new idea tends to spawn other new ideas which typically come to me in dreams or at random, odd moments of the day. Sticky notes are my best friend.

Step 3: Once I can devote the time, I start really plotting out the wip. I like to use Scrivener for my initial rough draft because I can organize my files separately and I can very easily create character profiles with pictures. I know everyone has their own process here and some of my author friends like to fully flesh out the details in this stage. I'm not like that. I don't know if it's laziness or what, but I do some basic character profiling and have about a page worth of plot notes at this stage.

Step 4: I start writing. When I start writing I like to set quotas for myself. It depends on the time of year and what's going on at the day job but it's typically a number like 10K per week. This method works really well for me as I'm quite goal oriented and like to compete with myself...you know...cause that's normal. I typically try to exceed whatever my word count was the week before kind of thing.

This is also the stage where a lot of staring into space happens in my real life. My brain is constantly working out plot problems or adding details so I zone out a lot, sometimes even during conversations. My friends and family know me well enough to catch the moment I enter my fictional world. I get teased about it of course, but this is the world of a writer, we're weird folk I tell ya.

Step 5: Once the novel is finished I try to let it sit for a bit. If there are other things to do like editing another project or catching up on day job stuff, I'll leave the wip for a while. If there's nothing else to do, I typically dive back in for the first round of editing and sometimes rewriting.

Step 6: Editing...ugh...time wise, I think I do more editing than actual writing. My first draft is usually very rough...I type without stopping a lot of the time so there are spelling mistakes and typos and plot issues...etc. I will do two to three edits in Scrivener then compile (I hate the compiling stage because I can never get it formatted right) to Word. I then do another one or two edits to fix the formatting issues.

Step 7: I send it out to my fabulous critters for editing/critique. These women are the best of the best and you'll find their names repeatedly mentioned in my acknowledgments page of my published books. They don't let me slack or get away with lazy tricks. They are honest and make fun of me and I love it.

Step 8: Once I get the critter comments back I edit again...usually doing two or more passes and then a final read-through to catch any lingering mistakes.

Step 9: I write the blurb and summary and then I send it where ever I need to send it. At this moment it's to my amazing editor at Samhain but there are other places that things sometimes go. ;-)

And that's it, my bloody, mucous-filled, sometimes painful, sometimes blissful birthing of a novel/novella.

Don't forget, my series The Order of the Wolf begins in July with the release of Cursed (on sale for pre-order) and followed by Wolf Slayer (also available for pre-order). Go ahead, buy them...I dare ya ;-)

Time, Timing and Other Stuff.

Been busy working on stuff....day job stuff, writing stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. I've got some irons in the fire happening and I've been doing a whole lot of saying no at the day job...which is VERY hard for me to do. I've talked about being type A in other blog posts and with that comes the need to agree to all the great projects that get thrown my way. I hate missing opportunities and I always like to learn new things. BUT I also need time to write and until my writing world starts paying the bills, I'm stuck doing the day job which is time consuming in and of itself. So, be proud of me, folks because I've already said no to three new projects at work and plan to do a whole lot of writing in place of that.

On deck is the sequel to Wolves' Bane (due for release January 2015). I've got an interesting plot playing out in my head for that one...and an unexpected character who is being insistent about taking the MC role. She's pushy as all hell. I like her already.

I wrapped up some projects, got a lot of editing done, and am waiting on some bits of information before I proceed with the next phase of my plans. This is the timing piece of my world with lots of pondering about paranormal romance/ urban fantasy and what readers want right now. I'll be blogging about this later.

I plan on doing a few contests in July and August to celebrate the release of Cursed so keep your eyes open for that.

That's all for now, my lovely readers. :-)

Cover Reveal...I'm truly spoiled...seriously

As you all know by this point, I have a series called The Order of the Wolf starting at Samhain Publishing in July. Not only have I been gifted by the world's best editor BUT I have also landed the world's best cover artist as well.




This is the fourth book in the series, Spell Weaver, due for release in April 2015. The first book in the series, Cursed, is available for preorder at: AmazonKoboSamhain

Cover Reveal! Feast your eyes...

Here's another amazing cover in my The Order of the Wolf series coming soon at Samhain. This is book #3, Wolves' Bane and is my first FULL length (90K) novel to be published January 2015. I am so excited! I think this cover is awesome and fits so well with the others. Where the first two novellas are told from the werewolf perspective, Wolves' Bane is told from the other side...the Hunter/Huntress perspective. I can't wait to invite you all into my world. The Order of the Wolf series starting in July 2014 with Cursed.

Cover Reveal: Wolf Slayer Book 2 of The Order of the Wolf

Book 2 in my soon-to-be-released series The Order of the Wolf is called Wolf Slayer and it features super sexy Jaylon, bassist and total badass werewolf.

I present you with yet another fantastic cover....feast your eyes....



In other news...in case you didn't see my tweets and status updates, Cursed is available for preorder! Yippy! (This is ridiculously exciting for me.)

Kindle
Kobo


That's it for now...better go get some writing done ;-)

Some Great News!!

I have some super awesome news, folks! I've accepted my fourth contract from Samhain! This is the 3rd novella featuring my werewolves but the fourth book in the Order of the Wolf series.



My first release date is coming up soon (Cursed -- July) so keep your eyes open for some contests!

I can't wait to introduce you all to my beasts and Hunters.

In Praise of Editors

I am a life-long learner. I quest for new learning opportunities, especially when it comes to writing.

Edits: to some a hellish five letter word, to me, yet another learning opportunity. Another way to improve my craft...but only if the editor is good and knows his/her shit.

Now, I'm not talking about the kind of edits that you might be thinking...grammar, punctuation, repeating words, etc. Don't get me wrong, that kind of stuff is important, every good editor should be able to catch those things. What I'm talking about are the things that we writers miss because we're too busy rolling out the words, making sure the plot arcs in just the right way, helping the hero connect with the heroine with enough angst and turmoil to make it worth it. I'm talking about when we writers get lazy and do things sloppy, take the short cuts. The editors who whip us back to our writing program (word, scrivener, whatever) and tell us to smarten up and FIX it, those are the editors who I learn from. Those are the ones you want to look at your stuff and riddle it with track changes and comments, paint your ms RED with corrections (or whatever color track changes is).

Trust me, I know. I've been lucky enough to have super-fantastic crit partners who are like this, and now I have a super-fantastic editor at Samhain who is like this too. Simultaneous actions? Whaaaaat? I'd never heard of it before...but now I see it everywhere. See? I learned something...that means my craft is going to improve. Win-win.

As writers we must continue to learn, to hone our craft, to practice. Editors, good editors, are the ones who have the whip in hand and make sure we do.

Guest Post: The Amazing Krista Walsh with a Cover Reveal for Evensong!

My friend, author Krista Walsh has a novel coming out on February 10th Evensong - the cover is totally awesome! Can't wait to read this one, folks!




Blurb: 

Author Jeff Powell wakes up to find the impossible has happened. He is within his own novel—summoned into the fictional world of Feldall’s Keep by a spell he didn't write. One the House enchantress hasn't figured out how to reverse.

When the villain he's been struggling to write reveals himself, unleashing waves of terror and chaos, Jeff must use more than his imagination to save the characters he created—and the woman he loves.

Trapped within a world of his own creation, he must step outside the bounds of his narrative to help his characters defeat an evil no one anticipated, even if he must sacrifice his greatest gift. In the end, he has to ask: are novels really fiction, or windows into other worlds?


About the Author:
Known for witty, vivid characters, Krista Walsh never has more fun than getting them into trouble and taking her time getting them out. After publishing a few short stories and novellas in various anthologies, she has now released her own anthology, the serial collection Greylands.

When not writing, or working at her day job, she can be found reading, gaming, or watching a film – anything to get lost in a good story.

She currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

For first grab at Evensong sale price, other promotions, news and announcements, you can sign up for her Newsletter

You can also connect via:

Blog 
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Booklikes 

At the local Second Cup coffee shop … but only if you come bearing a White Mocha

Gutter Brain and My Two Worlds

As some of you may know, I have a day job...meaning, I don't write full-time. My day job is one that requires I keep my writing life somewhat secret. Especially the erotic component of my writing life. Now, for a while this was an easy balance to maintain. At the beginning, I spent way more time on my day job and less on my writing job which meant that I could separate the two worlds with a neat little boundary marker. On one side was the proper, professional, quiet (shocking, I know) Angela and on the other side was the raunchy, gutter brain, who swears a lot Angela. I've noticed, however, that lately I've had a harder time keeping those two worlds separate.

For example, the other day I was in the lunch room eating and a male colleague came in, caught sight of my friend and announced: Hey Steph (not her real name), you're on my to do list! Right away my mind went straight into the gutter and I snickered...which lead to the male colleague then tsking me and saying, "Now, Angela, you have a dirty mind. I'm going to have to keep my eyes on you." O_O Which made me giggle....and then he said, "You're making me get all hot." I'm sure he meant embarrassed but holy crap...that was the end of any control...I started laughing...as did my friend (who also has gutter brain) and the poor man slinked out of the room and has not made eye contact with me since.

My writing world is becoming a  more prominent feature in my life and in my thoughts.  I'm not entirely sure my day job world is going to be able to handle any more slips like that. But how do I suppress the persona when the persona is really me?

I guess we all have closets of various shapes, sizes, and depths. I wonder what will slip out of mine next?