Heather Lawson's Blog, page 3

Hot Key Books/Guardian Young Writers Prize 2012

So as some of you may know, last year I entered my novel That’s Charming into the Hot Key Books/Guardian Young Writers Prize. The two winners were announced today and sadly I was not one of them. I am proud to say that my novel did make it to the short list, it just lacked something that would make it the winner.

Congratulations to Joe Ducie (who won with his novel The Rig) and Katie Coyle (who won with her novel Vivian Versus the Apocalypse). Read about their novels here.

Ashlyn and the Lost Prince – An Update

So I’ve been away from the blog for a while, mostly due to trying to promote my book on Goodreads and Facebook. I thought it would be good to give a general update on how things are going – mostly with Ashlyn but I’ll give a brief update on my other projects too.

Ashlyn and the Lost Prince

Published on February 13th, Ashlyn and the Lost Prince has sold just under 1000 copies total so far (that’s ebook and print editions). Granted most of the ebook sales were from my 5 day free period, but it’s sales and it means there are roughly 1000 people out there reading – and hopefully enjoying – my book.

I discovered two reviews on Amazon sites that I was previously unaware of that were both very positive. One was from the German Amazon site, it gave Ashlyn 4 stars and was very positive. The other was from Amazon.com, it gave Ashlyn 3 stars and was generally positive. I also have a review from a member from Goodreads who gave Ashlyn 4 stars and was quite positive too.

On March 18th I listed a giveaway for two copies of Ashlyn that I had spare sitting in the house. I set the closing date for April 8th (mostly because I’m off work for two weeks now so will be able to go to the post office without any bother). I was expecting maybe 400-500 entries considering I’m a new author, don’t market very well, and generally just wasn’t expecting people to be that interested in my book. Turns out 1,103 people entered my giveaway before it closed and I am genuinely blown away by that.

I set up a Facebook Page that will serve as my Author page and I’m trying to keep it as updated as possible – I’m not really a Facebook user, but I’m trying.

The Daisy

The Daisy is still in the middle of editing. I’m still working from the critique from CritiqueMyNovel and it’s going quite well. I also entered The Daisy into the King Author Prize 2013 – the competition is for the first chapters of the novel. I will find out on April 30th whether or not I have won or not.

In the meantime, I am trying to get the entire novel edited before then.

That’s Charming

I can’t say much on the status of That’s Charming for now. Confidential information until this time next week.

Camp NaNoWriMo

I started off doing my Scottish story, then I switched to Ashlyn and the Sea Voyage, then I switched again to Mors Metallorum (working title). Mors Metallorum is the first in a series of five that I planned out a couple of years ago. I am thoroughly enjoying writing it and will probably publish it as an ebook once it’s finished and edited.

So that’s about all I’ve got for now, I will try to update this more often, but you know what I’m like…

Camp NaNoWriMo, Birmingham, and Goodreads

Okay, so where to begin?

Let’s start with Camp NaNoWriMo. The cabin assignments started today and I’m pretty happy with the results in my cabin. Other than me (a 22 year old Fantasy author), there is a 22 year old fantasy author, a 28 year old fantasy author, a 32 year old fantasy author, a 33 year old fantasy author, and a 50 year old fantasy author. Seeing a theme here? Yeah, I ticked the same genre box, and I’m glad I did. Practically all of these campers have George R.R. Martin, J.R.R Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling listed amongst their favourite authors, so they’re really just like me only a different age (in most cases). They’re also pretty wide spread. There’s me in the UK, a couple from the US, one from Latvia, and one from the Czech Republic… I really hope I’ve spelt that right.

Okay, so, for Camp I’m writing my Scottish novel and all I’m doing right now is planning little details about the folklore I’ll be using and the creatures and such. I’m outlining a little, but not much – too much planning kills a story for me.

Let’s see, Birmingham. Yes, I’m going to Birmingham with my mother this weekend (22nd to 24th) as a late mother’s day gift (mother’s day was the 10th here in the UK). I’m looking forward to going around the museums, and apparently there’s a park/walk near where we’re staying that was the inspiration for Tolkien when he was writing the Lord of the Rings – so naturally, I’ll be going there. Hopefully it’ll get me fully inspired for April rolling around the following week.

Finally, Goodreads. I uploaded Ashlyn there a couple of days ago and got myself the status of Goodreads Author. I was actually pretty shocked when, a mere day or two after uploading Ashlyn to the site, it got added to two people’s to-read lists. It’s still only on those two people’s lists but I’m hosting a giveaway through Goodreads right now, with two copies of Ashlyn up for grabs and 39 people have entered so far! Woo!

I’m still getting used to how Goodreads works, I have been a member for a while but I’ve never really used the site so I’m still going through the learning curve.

Now all I need to do is send out the two copies of Ashlyn to the winners of my giveaway from Tumblr, start writing the next Ashlyn novel, get ready for Birmingham, get ready for Camp NaNo… not a lot really. (And I have work and university on top of all this – no wonder I’ve no free time anymore!)

Camp NaNoWriMo and Fundraising

This year I’ve decided that I’m going to try and get my novel written through the process of fundraising. If I know people are giving me money to show support in my writing, then I’ll know I HAVE to get the book done. So, for next month’s Camp I’m going to be writing my Scotland story from scratch – or writing 50k on top of whatever I have before the month starts.

If you would like to donate to help out the Office of Letters and Light – the nonprofit organisation behind NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo – then please click here to donate. Every little helps

Getting Back To My Roots

I was tidying up around my room the other day and came upon a very dusty pile of papers that had been sitting on the bottom shelf of my end table. The papers turned out to be half started novels, outlines, and plots for various novels that I had completely forgotten about.

Of course, I stopped cleaning, sat on my bed, and read through all the pages. There was one story idea that caught my attention. Now, I’m from Scotland, and we have a lot of myths and creatures that I have always felt would make a great fantasy novel. So, it turns out I’d written a bunch of creatures down, made a map of the world (which is basically just Scotland with details like forests, lakes and mountains changed), and plotted out some of the story.

I was really excited when I unearthed this and I thought to myself ‘Stick with vampires that I’m only just interested in, or switch to a mythical Scotland that I’m totally excited about?‘ The decision was an easy one really.

So, now I’m writing about Angela McCrae and her soon to be adventures in the mythical Scotland. She actually starts out in the real Scotland and gets transported to the alternate universe where all the myths are true. I don’t have a lot for the plot right now, the outline is very vague, but I’ve got 800 words written already and I’m excited to see where it goes.

So, that’s my little update for the day. I’ve switched stories yet again. No wonder it takes me ages to finish anything.

Back on the Vamp Trail

As February has drawn to a close and March has crept in, I’ve decided that two months of no writing is a terrible thing. So, I’m going back to writing this month and hopefully I’ll have a finished novel to show for it soon. I really like the beginning of Hunted, so I’m going to go back and work on that. However, I hate one of the elements of the story so I need to figure out how to take it out and fill the gap it leaves before I continue.

Urg, plot holes are the bane of my existence. I’m sure I’ll work something out somehow. I’m sure all the other writers around here will share my lament.

Another Day, Another Competition

As I’m editing The Daisy, I find myself wondering if there are more competitions geared towards novelists out there. I mean, short story competitions are great for getting your name out there and everything, but what if you find it hard to write shorter stories? I know that when I was attempting to write stories for the two charity anthologies, I really struggled to get an idea out in just a couple of thousand words.

So I took to the internet and had a look around and I found a few competitions that looked quite good and I wanted to share them with you guys here in case anyone else would be interested.

Kelpie’s Prize – For children’s fiction mostly set in Scotland. 40,000 to 70,000 words long. For the age group of 8-12.

First Chapter Competition – Enter the first chapter of an unpublished, completed novel.

AWP Award – There are several categories to this one. Must be at least 60,000 words for a manuscript entry.

James Jones Fellowship Contest – US only. Must be previously unpublished.

Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize 2013 – Females only. Must be over 21.

King Author Prize 2013 Opening Of A Novel Competition – Send the first 10,000 words of an unpublished novel. (I’ve entered The Daisy into this one )

Engine Books Novel Prize – Not sure on the specifics of this one, they don’t give a lot of information on the page.

The International Rubery Book Award – This is for already self-published novels.

Novel Beginnings First Chapter Contest – First chapter of an unpublished novel. Limit of 6,000 words.

SouthWest Writers 31st Annual Writing Contest – Unpublished works. Can be entered in more than one category.

That’s just a few that I found that might interest someone. There are entry fees on most of them (some are quite steep), but if you feel your novel could win it, then go for it!

Next Project Beckons

Two days on from publishing Ashlyn and I get a large package through the door from CritiqueMyNovel. It’s my novel back from critique! They’ve typed up a hearty 52 pages of notes for me to look over and I’m eager to dive in and get editing again – it’s weird how I’ve missed that.

I’m really looking forward to this, especially since I seemed to just be going round in circles with The Daisy’s editing myself. I’m hoping this critique will give me a little nudge in the right direction, and help me to improve my own editing skills along the way.

Oh, and while I’m remembering, for anyone interested – Ashlyn and the Lost Prince is available to download for free for the next 5 days (including today) for Kindle.

Buy It Now!

It’s happened, finally! Ashlyn and the Lost Prince is available for sale right now! At the moment, it’s currently only available through Createspace.com but in a few days it’ll be up on Amazon.com too

Buy it here!

I was going to post a picture of the full cover but for some reason it’s not uploading, so sorry about that!

A Poll – Because Polls Are Fun

Take Our Poll

So, I’m back for more of your opinions, only this time you can do it anonymously if  you desire. I’m planning on self-publishing my novel Ashlyn and the Lost Prince soon, very soon. I’ve laboured over the editing of it for years and it’s finally coming to fruition. I had originally planned for April but I think I will have it ready much sooner than that.

So, here’s my pitch to try and grab your attention:

Ashlyn is a bounty hunter with a debt to the King. Given the task of finding the King’s son – the prince who has been missing for quite some time – Ashlyn sets out with her faithful horse and an old friend.

Burdened with a wizard who favours a useless spell, a warrior who is a coward and the threat of an old enemy hanging over her, Ashlyn must find the prince and return him home before she can finally be free again.

_____________________________________________________________________

Ashlyn and the Lost Prince is complete at (for the moment) 49k. It’s a fantasy suitable for all ages – well, perhaps not the very young, there is a little bit of detailed violence within the pages.

First in a series of seven books (yet to be written), Ashlyn and the Lost Prince will surely capture your hearts – and then give them up to the King for a hearty ransom. I’ll try to get them back to you, but I make no promises.

______________________________________________________________________

Hopefully that’s enough to (almost) convince you to consider taking a look at the book once it’s out. I’ll be sure to keep you updated as I progress through the editing and formatting stages.