Ellie Di Julio's Blog, page 12

30% off FORGOTTEN RELICS paperbacks!

It’s a Black Friday miracle!

Amazon is offering 30% of any one print book until midnight EST on Sunday.

Which includes mine!

If you’ve been waiting to pick up theForgotten Relics series (so far) in paperback, now is your moment.

All you have to do is click on the buttons below, then enter the code HOLIDAY30 at checkout, and it’ll do it automagically. Further instructions here.

And for all of you who don’t do treebooks, don’t fret! Cyber Monday is coming soon (hurrr), and I’ll be running sweet spec...

Guess what I’m thankful for today? (Hint: It’s you)

‘Tis the day of thanks (in America, anyway)! And you know what I’m super thankful for today?

You.

Yep. You right there.

The one in the stripey socks and messy hair. The one with glasses and crooked teeth. The one with a bad attitude and a heart of gold. The one posting Sherlock conspiracy theories on Tumblr. The one with a comic book in one hand and a romance novel in the other. The one covered in cat hair (wait, that’s me).

I know I say this a lot, but I’m going to keep saying it because it keep...

NaNoWriMo 2014: Week 3 update

I wanna start by saying, yes, I did “win”* NaNoWriMo this week. But hold up on that celebration, y’all! If you recall, I’m shooting to write 75,000 words instead of 50K during November, so while I’m excited that I rose to the challenge this year, I’m still fighting my way to my own personal victory.

So! This week I had to catch up from last week’s shortfall, and although I had Big Plans to do that on Monday, this cold I’ve been fighting decided to creep up and I got even MORE behind that day....

The problem is not NaNoWriMo; it’s your attitude about NaNoWriMo that’s the problem

I want to tell you guys a secret. Ready?

The point of NaNoWriMo is not to win.

*waits for gasping to stop*

The point is to use this time/goal boundary set to create a writing habit and get the ball rolling to build momentum for doing the larger work.

50K is not a novel (sorry, but it’s true). It’s not going to make you a bestseller. It’s not even going to make you a great writer.

What 50,000 words in 30 days is, though, is a big chunk of motivation, inspiration, and “see, you can do this” to get y...

NaNoWriMo 2014: Week 2 update

I cannot words. I have the dumb.

Seriously, though, this week was fuuuuuuuucked. I had a rough weekend that bled into Monday and Tuesday, which made everything so much harder, especially working on the book. I recouped myself by Wednesday, but by that point I was so far behind. I tried hard today to make up the weekly shortage, but by the time I got back home from the library I was so freaking drained I can barely write this post right now.

Thus, there is a sad dearth of stickers this week. WAH...

NaNoWriMo 2014: Week 1 update

If you recall, I’m doing an insane thing with my NaNo goals this year. If you don’t, read about it here.

And I did it! This week, at least. By the time I finished writing today, I had hit exactly the precise wordcount goal I have for the week (18,750) , despite falling 750 words short on Tuesday. *shakes fist at the missing sticker*

Things are chugging along nicely at this point, but I struggled with the beginning. My first writing day, I sped through the words and met my goal, but I didn’t fee...

Coffee & Questions: Fan asked, Ellie answered

Why, hello. Fancy meeting you here. *waggles eyebrows*

You might not know this, but every month I put out a short video answering questions from the awesome members of Team Patreon. They cover everything from writing advice to how my social life is going, and it rocks!

In fact, it’s so much fun that I want to share it with more folks. Thus! Rather than posting the video to my Patreon stream and social media, hoping it’ll be found, I’m going to start posting here for y’all to enjoy, too.

So pour...

What am I writing for #NaNoWriMo 2014, you ask?

That’s right (write?) folks, I’m doing it again: National Novel Writing Month ison like Donkey Kong.

You may or may not know this, but my first book,Inkchanger, was written on a whim as a NaNo 2012 project, my first ever attempt at the challenge and at a serious novel.I didn’t win, but the story was complete, so I was happy.

Last year, though, my hair was basically on fire between surgery recovery and the IndieGoGo campaign, so I didn’t participate, although I dearly wanted to.

But I’m back in t...

Letting go of old work

That title probably sounds worse than this post really is, so let me quickly allay your fears. Everything’s cool! This is just an announcement post to let you know about something that’s been percolating in the background for the last month or so.

As you may or may not know, the second book I ever wrote was a collaboration project with my dear friend Kyeli Smith. The shortexplanation is that her arms stopped working after a car accident, and I helped her flesh out her 30-page book outline, the...

THE SWORD OF SOULS will cut you! Er…is out today. Yes! That!

It’s here, it’s here!
The Sword of Soulshas arrived!
*sniff* I’m all verklempt. *blows nose loudly*

I won’t lie, folks – this one was hard. Not only is it myfirst sequel, but it coincided with perhaps the most tryingtime inmy life. When you’re not sure what you’re doing in real life, it makes it a zillion times harder to trust what you’re doing in pretend life, you know? But despite monthsof tears, gnashing of teeth, and whining, I’mtold by trusted readers that thisis my best writingyet.I, of co...