J.R. Pearse Nelson's Blog, page 34
September 22, 2011
Round of Words: Accomplishments
I accomplished a lot during this round of Round Of Words in 80 Days -- the writing challenge that knows you have a life. And I sure do. :) So, I'm focusing on the positive. I'm a lot further along than I was at the beginning of July, and I've learned tons of new tricks about writing and marketing from other ROW80 participants. This challenge was valuable, especially the blog hop structure that keeps you informed, connected, and accountable. I'll be joining in again for Round 4, which starts October 3, for those thinking of taking part.Publish my first paranormal romance novella, Tribute, on Smashwords and Amazon: Done! I published August 9th, and I've sold about 20 copies. I feel great every time someone buys it -- this is absolutely a dream come true. You can read a sample and more about Tribute here.Complete edits and revisions of my second novella, Vessel. Specifically, edit or revise two pages of the manuscript per day: I didn't do so well on this one! I'm on the last couple of chapters of my paper edit. Then I'll need to make the revisions to the electronic manuscript. So a bit left to do there. I'll be publishing this puppy during Round 4, so stay tuned.Write 500 words per day (for a total of 40,000 words) of a new urban fantasy novel (**This goal I reduced to 30,000 words in the middle of the challenge): As of this morning, I have 22,781 words in my manuscript. I'm pleased with that. I hadn't even outlined the book at the beginning of the challenge, and it took me a while to get rolling on word count. I'm close to the midpoint now, and feel like the rest of the book is going to flow much more easily. But that's for the next round!To all of my new ROW80 buddies -- you gave me the kindest welcome a new girl on the block can ask for. It's been inspiring to watch everyone strive to bring their stories into the world. Now let's all get some rest so we can kick ass in Round 4. :)
September 18, 2011
Excitement Building On Multiple Fronts
We're into the home stretch for Round 3 of ROW80. This has brought on a fair amount of introspection, even though I have no time for introspection! Just kidding -- the introspection kinda creeps up on me, even if it isn't the most effective use of my time. I've been thinking a lot about upcoming projects; I swear, I write way too slow and come up with new ideas way too fast! I'm getting my second book in shape for publishing. I also need to do some cleanup to the first book -- for instance, I noticed on the Apple store they seem to have it in the wrong category, but I have no idea how to change that when it's distributed through Smashwords. I also think when the second book comes out I will publish both novellas to allromanceebooks.com; there's a bit of a learning curve there, because I don't know how to make the different formats. I also want to improve on some evolving aspects of social networking (like joining Google+ and getting business cards). So that's a lot of stuff swirling around my tired brain -- a lot of stuff besides actually writing!
Where's the excitement, you say? Everywhere! I hit my stride with the fantasy I'm currently writing. Right now I'm at 3,800 words for the week, after last week's 3,900. I haven't consolidated all of it into my manuscript, but I believe this puts me at about 23,000 total word count. I'm approaching the midpoint, and it feels like it will really come together and possibly be fast to write (?) the closer I get to the climax. (By the way, I can do the math, and I know if I hit the midpoint soon, I'll have yet another short book on my hands. But I'm just writing the draft and not worrying about length, which I believe is trivial beside story.) Also, on Friday what I'd written inspired me to make notes for the second and third books in this trilogy. I already had a general concept for the trilogy, but Friday's work puts me ahead on planning out the next two books -- which is an awesome feeling!
I'm also getting really excited about returning to romance writing. I'm not in a good place with the outline for book three of the Children of the Sidhe series, but I'm sure one of these days my mental firecrackers will be focused in that direction. I definitely want to have book three outlined before publishing book two, Vessel, this fall. I'm on the last three chapters of edits for Vessel, and then I need to incorporate all of my changes into the manuscript and get beta readers lined up.
I also need to strategize about my second release. I feel like the first one went out there into kind of a void... it's out there, but nobody knows it's out there. I'm considering things like advance copies to reviewers, a big sale and promotion of the first book since readers will want to read them in order. If anyone has great advice about making a bang with a book release, I'd be happy to hear it!
Good luck with your final push, ROW80ers!! And to all, a good week!
Where's the excitement, you say? Everywhere! I hit my stride with the fantasy I'm currently writing. Right now I'm at 3,800 words for the week, after last week's 3,900. I haven't consolidated all of it into my manuscript, but I believe this puts me at about 23,000 total word count. I'm approaching the midpoint, and it feels like it will really come together and possibly be fast to write (?) the closer I get to the climax. (By the way, I can do the math, and I know if I hit the midpoint soon, I'll have yet another short book on my hands. But I'm just writing the draft and not worrying about length, which I believe is trivial beside story.) Also, on Friday what I'd written inspired me to make notes for the second and third books in this trilogy. I already had a general concept for the trilogy, but Friday's work puts me ahead on planning out the next two books -- which is an awesome feeling!
I'm also getting really excited about returning to romance writing. I'm not in a good place with the outline for book three of the Children of the Sidhe series, but I'm sure one of these days my mental firecrackers will be focused in that direction. I definitely want to have book three outlined before publishing book two, Vessel, this fall. I'm on the last three chapters of edits for Vessel, and then I need to incorporate all of my changes into the manuscript and get beta readers lined up.
I also need to strategize about my second release. I feel like the first one went out there into kind of a void... it's out there, but nobody knows it's out there. I'm considering things like advance copies to reviewers, a big sale and promotion of the first book since readers will want to read them in order. If anyone has great advice about making a bang with a book release, I'd be happy to hear it!
Good luck with your final push, ROW80ers!! And to all, a good week!
Excitement Building On Multiple Fronts
We're into the home stretch for Round 3 of ROW80. This has brought on a fair amount of introspection, even though I have no time for introspection! Just kidding -- the introspection kinda creeps up on me, even if it isn't the most effective use of my time. I've been thinking a lot about upcoming projects; I swear, I write way too slow and come up with new ideas way too fast! I'm getting my second book in shape for publishing. I also need to do some cleanup to the first book -- for instance, I noticed on the Apple store they seem to have it in the wrong category, but I have no idea how to change that when it's distributed through Smashwords. I also think when the second book comes out I will publish both novellas to allromanceebooks.com; there's a bit of a learning curve there, because I don't know how to make the different formats. I also want to improve on some evolving aspects of social networking (like joining Google+ and getting business cards). So that's a lot of stuff swirling around my tired brain -- a lot of stuff besides actually writing!
Where's the excitement, you say? Everywhere! I hit my stride with the fantasy I'm currently writing. Right now I'm at 3,800 words for the week, after last week's 3,900. I haven't consolidated all of it into my manuscript, but I believe this puts me at about 23,000 total word count. I'm approaching the midpoint, and it feels like it will really come together and possibly be fast to write (?) the closer I get to the climax. (By the way, I can do the math, and I know if I hit the midpoint soon, I'll have yet another short book on my hands. But I'm just writing the draft and not worrying about length, which I believe is trivial beside story.) Also, on Friday what I'd written inspired me to make notes for the second and third books in this trilogy. I already had a general concept for the trilogy, but Friday's work puts me ahead on planning out the next two books -- which is an awesome feeling!
I'm also getting really excited about returning to romance writing. I'm not in a good place with the outline for book three of the Children of the Sidhe series, but I'm sure one of these days my mental firecrackers will be focused in that direction. I definitely want to have book three outlined before publishing book two, Vessel, this fall. I'm on the last three chapters of edits for Vessel, and then I need to incorporate all of my changes into the manuscript and get beta readers lined up.
I also need to strategize about my second release. I feel like the first one went out there into kind of a void... it's out there, but nobody knows it's out there. I'm considering things like advance copies to reviewers, a big sale and promotion of the first book since readers will want to read them in order. If anyone has great advice about making a bang with a book release, I'd be happy to hear it!
Good luck with your final push, ROW80ers!! And to all, a good week!
Where's the excitement, you say? Everywhere! I hit my stride with the fantasy I'm currently writing. Right now I'm at 3,800 words for the week, after last week's 3,900. I haven't consolidated all of it into my manuscript, but I believe this puts me at about 23,000 total word count. I'm approaching the midpoint, and it feels like it will really come together and possibly be fast to write (?) the closer I get to the climax. (By the way, I can do the math, and I know if I hit the midpoint soon, I'll have yet another short book on my hands. But I'm just writing the draft and not worrying about length, which I believe is trivial beside story.) Also, on Friday what I'd written inspired me to make notes for the second and third books in this trilogy. I already had a general concept for the trilogy, but Friday's work puts me ahead on planning out the next two books -- which is an awesome feeling!
I'm also getting really excited about returning to romance writing. I'm not in a good place with the outline for book three of the Children of the Sidhe series, but I'm sure one of these days my mental firecrackers will be focused in that direction. I definitely want to have book three outlined before publishing book two, Vessel, this fall. I'm on the last three chapters of edits for Vessel, and then I need to incorporate all of my changes into the manuscript and get beta readers lined up.
I also need to strategize about my second release. I feel like the first one went out there into kind of a void... it's out there, but nobody knows it's out there. I'm considering things like advance copies to reviewers, a big sale and promotion of the first book since readers will want to read them in order. If anyone has great advice about making a bang with a book release, I'd be happy to hear it!
Good luck with your final push, ROW80ers!! And to all, a good week!
September 11, 2011
Hard Won Progress
Okay, so that's a little self-congratulatory. I think it's called for. The last four days I've posted word counts as follows: 1,100; 600; 700; and 1,500. That's 3,900 words -- closer than I've come to my 4,000-per-week goal in a long time! I'm getting into the meat of this story and what drives my POV character, and having fun with her voice, her life, her issues. Even when it does flow it isn't coming out as clean as I'd like, so I do believe revisions on this puppy are going to take me a while. I'm trying not to focus on that, because it makes it feel like too much work. One step at a time, baby... focus on digging those toes deep into the sand. It is this step that matters, this moment, not the road stretching ahead and behind. Right?Editing -- not as far along as I'd like, but still on track to finish my edit of the novella Vessel by the end of Round 3. I have four chapters left. I'm definitely coming back for Round 4 of ROW80. This round I've engaged in a lot of self-forgiveness; I set my goals high, and haven't beat myself up when I don't make them. I figure I make more progress if I always feel like I'm not measuring up. That's pretty sick, but I'm sure lots of other writers use such tools to force productivity, too. My darling husband pointed out to me yesterday that I still plan to publish my second novella before our youngest daughter turns one in November, and I began my all out sprint toward publication when she was three months old. That is a ton of progress. Somehow I've come full circle and I'm back to the self-congratulation. Hope everyone has a productive final ten days! Good luck!!
Hard Won Progress
Okay, so that's a little self-congratulatory. I think it's called for. The last four days I've posted word counts as follows: 1,100; 600; 700; and 1,500. That's 3,900 words -- closer than I've come to my 4,000-per-week goal in a long time! I'm getting into the meat of this story and what drives my POV character, and having fun with her voice, her life, her issues. Even when it does flow it isn't coming out as clean as I'd like, so I do believe revisions on this puppy are going to take me a while. I'm trying not to focus on that, because it makes it feel like too much work. One step at a time, baby... focus on digging those toes deep into the sand. It is this step that matters, this moment, not the road stretching ahead and behind. Right?Editing -- not as far along as I'd like, but still on track to finish my edit of the novella Vessel by the end of Round 3. I have four chapters left. I'm definitely coming back for Round 4 of ROW80. This round I've engaged in a lot of self-forgiveness; I set my goals high, and haven't beat myself up when I don't make them. I figure I make more progress if I always feel like I'm not measuring up. That's pretty sick, but I'm sure lots of other writers use such tools to force productivity, too. My darling husband pointed out to me yesterday that I still plan to publish my second novella before our youngest daughter turns one in November, and I began my all out sprint toward publication when she was three months old. That is a ton of progress. Somehow I've come full circle and I'm back to the self-congratulation. Hope everyone has a productive final ten days! Good luck!!
September 6, 2011
Indie Summer Book Review: Kait Nolan's Red
Red by Kait NolanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Kait Nolan's Red is a fast-paced roller-coaster ride of young adult paranormal fiction. There's romance, adventure, shape-shifting, an evil plot, and a super creepy villain you'd never expect. Nolan writes deep characters, full of just enough teenage angst, combined with backbones of steel. Elodie stays strong despite her unfortunate circumstances. She draws on seemingly unending courage despite her unconventional upbringing. And Sawyer? Let's just say this: I was a little ashamed of how sexy I found this youngster. He's dominant without being dominating, strong and resilient without needing to prove anything (besides to his father, the alpha). There's no sex in this book, but Elodie and Sawyer sizzle on the page together. And event after surprising event keeps you turning the page from the very beginning. Five stars!
View all my reviews
September 4, 2011
Update and Fun Stuff
Please forgive any errors in this post: I'm writing it on my iPad from a vacation home in Sun River, Oregon. Fun times with the family, but I also have some fun things to share with you!I hope to finish edits to Vessel over this long weekend -- I have about a third of the novella to go, and I'm so excited to tackle it! I wrote just over 2,000 words on the urban fantasy Queen of Peace on Thursday. I still haven't gone back through and made revisions after my first round of revisions was lost due to computer badness. But that's okay, I just haven't had the heart yet. So here's the funny part: a while ago I mentioned that writing romance flows really nicely for me, and fantasy has proven much harder to get on the page... Comments I received focused on the fact that maybe I shouldn't try to shove things into a genre -- if romance is fun for me to write, why can't I work it into the fantasy I write, too? So, what happened on Thursday? All of the sudden my socially awkward POV character asked a guy out -- I had no idea she was planning to do this. It isn't even the person I thought was her love interest, though he's still in there, too. How fun is that? :)Now for a couple of fun things that aren't about me.Here's something any writer needs to check out. We all struggle with building an online platform. Rachael Harrie over at Rach Writes puts together the Writer's Platform Building Campaign. This time well over 400 writers are participating in this pay-it-forward effort to help each other build online platforms and visibility. Even though I found it too late to participate this time, I'll be swinging by to see if I can find any tips and meet other writers in my genre. Also, if you haven't checked it out yet, be sure to visit the Indie Book Blowout this weekend. You have a couple more days to get indie ebooks on the cheap. What a great way to check out new authors! I'm going there now!Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend, and a productive week!
August 31, 2011
Editing & the Ideas are Flowing
I've been digging into the edits on Vessel, the sequel to my recently released novella, Tribute. I'm on chapter 16, so two-thirds of the way there! I'm happy with the quality of the draft, and able to focus on adding foreshadowing and detail. Hopefully when I'm finished editing the draft on paper, I'll have taken care of enough of the new writing that the computer revisions won't take much time.
The cool part is that as I've worked on edits, new ideas and connections are surfacing for the next couple of novellas. I'm feverishly typing those out on my iPad to keep track. And I'm getting excited about writing the third novella -- I actually started the first scene with the female lead yesterday, because I could see how I wanted her story to start so clearly. Just a few hundred words, but the groundwork for a whole new storyline...
I've been feeling creative and inspired again after kind of a post-release crash once I'd published Tribute. Now the problem is fitting in writing time. One more weekend out of town over Labor Day. Luckily, my mom-in-law is a fan of me taking time for writing (and having my kids to herself. LOL.), so I'm hoping I'll finish the paper edit of Vessel this weekend. That would leave two weeks to incorporate the revisions in the manuscript, and meet my #ROW80 goal of having Vessel beta-ready at the end of Round 3.
I'm a little down again about my current writing WIP. I broke 10,000 late last week, which felt awesome. Then I spent a couple of precious hours going through what I'd written so far. I liked it, and that was a great mood boost. I made edits, added to scenes here and there... and then the big bad happened: my computer bit the big one that very night. And since we'd moved our computer two days prior to the living room in a misguided attempt to reclaim productive hours after putting our youngest down to bed in the office (don't get me started), our most recent time machine backup missed all my work on my WIP. Serious boohoo!! I was able to reclaim the bulk of the word count because I'd written it first on my iPad, but not my edits and revisions on that beautiful day when I felt so in love with my WIP. I'm sad! More to the point, I haven't picked it back up. I will, but I need a good block of time or what I'll be able to accomplish will just make me nuts. I really have no idea how long it's going to take me to write this baby... I might be plugging away at it well into Round 4. At least I have the first 20% written -- the stage is set.
All that said, I am writing this post on my gorgeous, powerful new iMac. She's really pretty, and I love her. :)
The cool part is that as I've worked on edits, new ideas and connections are surfacing for the next couple of novellas. I'm feverishly typing those out on my iPad to keep track. And I'm getting excited about writing the third novella -- I actually started the first scene with the female lead yesterday, because I could see how I wanted her story to start so clearly. Just a few hundred words, but the groundwork for a whole new storyline...
I've been feeling creative and inspired again after kind of a post-release crash once I'd published Tribute. Now the problem is fitting in writing time. One more weekend out of town over Labor Day. Luckily, my mom-in-law is a fan of me taking time for writing (and having my kids to herself. LOL.), so I'm hoping I'll finish the paper edit of Vessel this weekend. That would leave two weeks to incorporate the revisions in the manuscript, and meet my #ROW80 goal of having Vessel beta-ready at the end of Round 3.
I'm a little down again about my current writing WIP. I broke 10,000 late last week, which felt awesome. Then I spent a couple of precious hours going through what I'd written so far. I liked it, and that was a great mood boost. I made edits, added to scenes here and there... and then the big bad happened: my computer bit the big one that very night. And since we'd moved our computer two days prior to the living room in a misguided attempt to reclaim productive hours after putting our youngest down to bed in the office (don't get me started), our most recent time machine backup missed all my work on my WIP. Serious boohoo!! I was able to reclaim the bulk of the word count because I'd written it first on my iPad, but not my edits and revisions on that beautiful day when I felt so in love with my WIP. I'm sad! More to the point, I haven't picked it back up. I will, but I need a good block of time or what I'll be able to accomplish will just make me nuts. I really have no idea how long it's going to take me to write this baby... I might be plugging away at it well into Round 4. At least I have the first 20% written -- the stage is set.
All that said, I am writing this post on my gorgeous, powerful new iMac. She's really pretty, and I love her. :)
August 21, 2011
#ROW80 Update
With one goal down, I'm focusing in on my two remaining goals. First, editing Vessel, the sequel to Tribute. I certainly wish I'd accomplished more on this front. I'm only five chapters in -- so about 20%. I'll finish this edit in the next month.
The final goal was (modified to) 30,000 words of an urban fantasy. As of today, I have 8,800 words. That's not terrible, and I'm finally starting to feel like I can slip into writing it, instead of spending ten minutes just staring at the screen. So that leaves 21,200 words remaining... not impossible, but far fetched with my recent track record. Let's hope I hit my groove! (Of course, we all know it isn't about hope. It's about getting in there, hands in the word muck, and getting it done!)
I'm also starting to think ahead about what comes next for each of these projects. I need to make some decisions about the fall. My husband was shocked when I mentioned not doing NaNo. I'm just not certain 50,000 in a month makes sense for my life right now, or for the status of any of my projects. I don't need the temptation to start something new. So NaNo -- I'm just not sure.
The final goal was (modified to) 30,000 words of an urban fantasy. As of today, I have 8,800 words. That's not terrible, and I'm finally starting to feel like I can slip into writing it, instead of spending ten minutes just staring at the screen. So that leaves 21,200 words remaining... not impossible, but far fetched with my recent track record. Let's hope I hit my groove! (Of course, we all know it isn't about hope. It's about getting in there, hands in the word muck, and getting it done!)
I'm also starting to think ahead about what comes next for each of these projects. I need to make some decisions about the fall. My husband was shocked when I mentioned not doing NaNo. I'm just not certain 50,000 in a month makes sense for my life right now, or for the status of any of my projects. I don't need the temptation to start something new. So NaNo -- I'm just not sure.
August 20, 2011
Indie Summer Book Review
Voodoo Dues by Stephany SimmonsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Stephany Simmons' first novella Voodoo Dues is an entertaining and intriguing ride.
Figg, the gun-toting, surprisingly resourceful heroine, was so much fun! She was a very well-written character, and no scene could fall flat with her in place. I can't wait for more Figg!
The hero is more mysterious. He's an intriguing combination of bookish and experienced. I get the feeling we'll be drawn deeper into Lian's world in the second book.
Other characters were also well developed for a novella, and the plot was interesting, with lots of magical and paranormal elements. The book moved quickly and I enjoyed the action, interspersed with snarky Figg and some blossoming romance.
Well done, Stephany Simmons. I highly recommend Voodoo Dues!
View all my reviews
