Sarah Biglow's Blog, page 6

Sad News

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything here. I apologize for that. I’ve been a bit caught up in life and other projects (more on that at a slightly later date).

It is with a sad heart that I have to tell you all that as of February 28, 2015, Musa Publishing will be closing its doors permanently. What does that mean for UNPLANNED? Well from now until February 25th, you can purchase a copy from Musa’s site for only $1.00 (link here). If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, please do.

All of my rights will revert to me as of the 28th. I will be temporarily taking down the buy links on the Books page until I know more. I have a few publishers I’ll be sending it out to who accept re-prints. If nothing comes of that, I will consider self-publishing.

I am glad I got the experience of publishing a novel. Hopefully the future will be brighter with this and other projects. I will try to be better at keeping things updated.

In Review: Requiem for the Dead

So I’m back with another book review. I know it’s been a while since I updated. I’ve been busy with grown up stuff like work. But I was lucky enough to score an advanced reader copy of this book (releasing September 16, 2013 on B&N and Amazon).

Title: Requiem for the Dead

Author: Kelly Meding

Rating: 4

If you’ve paid attention, I reviewed one of the books in Kelly’s other series last year. Last January, Meding’s publisher for the Dreg City series decided not to continue publishing novels in that line. So Kelly decided to go her own way and publish the fifth installment on her own in e-book only format. Now, it had been a long time since I read book 4 in the series but I was quite happy to find Meding dropped reminders throughout this installment to bring readers up to speed on things they may have forgotten from prior books. I have to say that is probably one of the hardest things to do as an author of a long-running series.  You have to know how much to put in to trigger a reader’s memory but not enough to overload and detract from the current plot line. I think Meding did quite well on that front.

The latest Evy Stone adventure picks up only a short time after the events of book 4. The Watchtower is understaffed and the unfriendly races of the city are making trouble for our ex-Hunter and her crew. We have a lot of familiar faces taking part in this adventure and I thought that when things took dark turns, they weren’t just for show. They were meant to propel the story forward, even if they were rather shocking and sad. But that’s the sign of a good storyteller. I* always love the way Meding can paint such a vivid picture of her world. I suspect she’s got a detailed map of her fictional city laid out somewhere for easy reference

Since this is a self-publishing venture, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the product (It can’t be easy to do all of the editing and copy-editing by oneself). I have to give props to Meding for finding a cover artist who captured the essence of the cover style from the previous books. It looks as though it fits right in. I will say I thought some of Evy’s internal narrative was a little repetitive (as was Evy and Wyatt’s declarations of emotion) but I also understand that it was an important milestone for the characters. But it did distract me a little as I was reading. I was also impressed with the way Meding handled the storyline, setting up numerous problems which needed to be resolved but only resolving one part,  eaving the rest to be hashed out later. It reminded me of the way a lot of the plot in the Dresden Files was laid out and later revisited (and anyone who can even remotely get close to Dresden plotting is a good person to read for urban fantasy in my book). It is very clear from the book’s ending that Meding has more planned for Evy and company. And I will definitely be looking forward to what comes next.

Blog Tour Ahoy! And a Writing Resolution Update

I wanted to let you all know that I’ve scheduled a 10-stop Spotlight blog tour from March 4-20.  I’ll be posting the links to the posts as they go live.  I thought I’d share the schedule ahead of time though.

3/4/13 – Tamaria Soana
3/5/13  – Colorimetry


3/6/13 – New Age Mama

3/8/13 – Viari Rose

3/11/13 – Reading, Writing, and Roses


3/12/13 – Book Babe


3/14/13 – Melisa Keir


3/15/13 – Lacey Wolfe

3/18/13 – Ella Jade

3/19/13 – The Ebook Reviewers
3/20/13 – Deal Sharing Aunt
3/20/13 – Harlie’s Books

I also have an update on my writing resolutions.  I have ticked off one of my goals: this past weekend I finish the first draft of my NaNoWriMo 2012 novel.  I’m quite pleased to have finished this draft.  I already have ideas for changes for the next draft and hope to beef up the storyline and word count to about 80,000 words.

I’m also considering revising my revision goals.  I think I may switch the time frames and aim to begin querying by August and subbing to publishers by the end of October.  I’m focusing on the project I want to send to agents next so it would make sense I would start sending that out into the world sooner.

I’m looking forward to moving forward with my goals for the year as well as getting some other people exposed to Unplanned.  Here’s hoping I can garner some new readers and reviews!

A Writer’s New Years Resolutions

2012 has been a fantastic year for me.  Not only have I gained the status of published author, I am fully employed and officially a member of the Massachusetts Bar (aka an attorney).  Indeed, I’ve had a prosperous year.  But with the world still turning (thanks for the fake-out Mayans), we have a new year nearly upon us.  So I thought I would share with you some of my resolutions for 2013 as a writer.  Of course, I have some personal ones but those are well, personal.  I’m making an effort to memorialize these writer-centric hopes with the intention of actually feeling accountable to myself.  I can come back periodically and update on how well these resolutions are going.

Therefore, I resolve to:

1. Finish NaNo Novel 2012

If you have any friends who are writers, there’s a 99% chance you’ve heard of National Novel Writing Month.  In fact, I’m sure I mentioned NaNo on this site before.  Anyway, this year I had to juggle writing with work.  While I was successful in hitting the 50,000-word goal of the event, my manuscript is still not finished.  I estimate I have another 10-15,000 words to write yet.  And this is of course only draft 1.  So I want to finish this draft in 2013.

2. Revise and Submit One Project for Publication by August 1, 2013

I’ve finished many first drafts of novels over the last eight years.  Some of them are worth visiting again.  Of the finished first drafts, I have a couple projects that are classified as novella-length (50,000 words and under).  So I’m going to take one of those projects and rework it and whip it into shape.  I believe I know which novella will be getting the spit-n-shine treatment.  I will need to go through at least two-three drafts before it is ready to submit to publication.  It will go to e-publishers as novellas are easier to do in that format.  To give myself enough ime, I’m going to set a submission ate of August 1, 2013.

3. Revise and Begin Querying One Project to Agents by October 31, 2013

Much like number two above, I have several longer projects which could use some work.  I have two projects specifically in mind for this resolution to get shined up and out to agents.  Since both revising schedules will require sending out to beta readers (basically this means some downtime for me), I can work on each project when the other is out being critiqued.  To give myself sufficient time to get the query in shape (and the dreaded synopsis) I want to begin querying agents by October 31, 2013.

4. Participate in NaNoWriMo 2013

No year would be complete without the annual writing insanity of NaNo.  I don’t have a storyline picked yet but this gives me 11 months to get it sorted out.  I’m assuming the project won’t be done by 50,000 words but it will be a strong start.  I’m looking forward to another month of literary abandon with my favorite Boston-area writers.

So I’ve shared my writing resolutions for 2013.  What about you?