L.M. Sherwin's Blog, page 5

Fall Reads 2013

I’ve got SO many books I’m currently reading//wanting to read for the fall. Since it’s right around the corner, I thought it’d be a great idea to share the ones I’d like to read most! Now, I’ll admit. Some of these will be repeats of books you’ve seen before. I’ve *shamefully* been unable to read them yet. But I will!! Without further ado, here are some of the pretties I’m looking forward to devouring as the leaves change color, with a cup of tea in hand.

1.Flame of Sevenwatersby Juliet Marill...

Just Now Starting to Read The Hunger Games

I know, I know. I’m WAY behind on my YA reading if I haven’t even cracked openThe Hunger Gamesyet, but I’ve been busy. With lots to read. Finally, though, with the new movie in the series coming out soon, I decided it was time to read Suzanne Collin’s uber famous trilogy. I’m only through two chapters of the first book so far, but here are my initial thoughts:

1// Katniss is a unique female character — I really like Katniss. She isn’t your typical “tomboy” character. She’s cold, calculating, a...

Setting Word Count Goals For Yourself

I know, I know, I said I’d be posting more often but life has been INSANE lately, y’all. Super busy with contracting work, trying to squeeze in as much writing as time will allow, and taking care of domestic duties. I’m not giving up on my blogs, though! Promise! So, just for all you lovely readers, here’s a post about what I’ve been up to lately.

I’ve been writing. I haven’t been writing alot, but a new work-flow challenge I’ve set myself means that I’m really knocking things out on a WIP man...

A Year Into Indie Publishing: My Story

Well, it has been officially over a year since I published my first novel,Night Bells.Since then, I’ve published its sequel, a full-length novel entitledSilent Shades and an unrelated novella calledThe Dark Ship. So, two novels and one novella in one year isn’t too shabby. I’m nowhere near as prolific as the likes of Lindsay Buroker and others like her, but I’m trying my best! So where am I a year into my publishing journey? Here are some specs:

1. My books still don’t “pay the bills”. // I wo...

Using Wattpad as a Space to “Try Out” Stories?

I’ve been really curious about something for a long time. How fun would it be to use Wattpad to “try out” a new story idea? Though I’m still hard at work on TFN3 (don’t worry, folks), I’ve had a new story idea rolling around in the back of my head, but I’m not entirely sure how “big” I want the project to be yet. I thought it might be fun to create a great cover and just start writing on Wattpad and see where it takes me. If I like it enough (and other people do, too), I might just finish it...

Cooking Traditional Meals and Fictional Characters

This may seem strange, but cooking traditionally // traditional meals helps me to feel connected to characters in literature–specifically to fantasy characters and historical fiction characters. When I’m making a big batch of chicken stock, I’m reminded of Fat Janis from Juliet Marillier’sSevenwaters Series. When I work on making bread, I think of all those kitchen maids in historical fiction novels.

There is something about cooking traditionally that helps me connect with characters and ficti...

Wednesday Wanderment

I’m in a big reading, creating,watchful mood today. If I could, I think I’d steal away to some bug-free bit of forest and hole up there awhile with a good book, some music, and my art supplies. Perhaps, too, I’d bring along a notebook and get some writing done. Pensive, is perhaps the appropriate word here. Since my mind is desiring to wander today, here are some lovely places I’ve visited. Enjoy!

Stumbled Upon Posts of Special Significance

>> E.B. White on Why He WroteCharlotte’s Web //22 Words...

SO Many Languages, So Little Time

ACK!!! I so wish I could have tutors for all the languages I want so desperately to learn!!! Korean…Japanese…Quenya…Sindarin… (Don’t you give me those shifty eyes…Tolkien created REAL languages, REAL, I say!!)

In all seriousness, I truly wish that I could be fluent in all the languages I love. In school, I only had the option of studying Spanish. Spanish is all well and good and I can still understand quite a bit of it and carry on rudimentary conversation, but Spanish was never my first langu...

Sweet Romances Without the Graphic Sex

*Sigh* We all love a good love story, right? I’ve been watchingFlower Boy Ramen Shopon Netflix lately and I can’t stop SWOOMING! Amiright? I just love Korean TV Shows. They are so different from American stuff and are so often CRAZY romantic!! If you haven’t watched FBRS before AND you have Netflix, get to your TV RIGHT NOW and watch that stuff! So GOOD!

Not as much of a TV buff? Love reading romance stories? Don’t want to wade through graphic sex to get to the sweet love story underneath? I’m...

Taking a Manuscript Chapter By Chapter

I mentioned in an earlier post this week that I’m giving Scrivener a go! I’ve got to say, I’m even more in love with it now than I was earlier in the week. One of the tools it has given me is easily splitting up the manuscript into bite-size pieces. For me, it works best to split up the manuscript into chapters. A chapter is an opportunity to show 1 or more scenes and I really love writing scenes, I’ve discovered. Each of my chapters has several scenes (usually). I mentioned that for Tales fr...