A.B. Keuser's Blog, page 46

IWSG: Fresh Start/Heavy Load

This post is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group





It's the beginning of the year, in fact, today is my first writing day of the year. Today marks the beginning of my first push toward getting ALL THE THINGS done.

January's push has left me with goals for finishing 7 projects (start strong, right?). That's finishing one novel's first draft, retconning another novel's 7th? draft, 

Let's talk about what happened in 2014, and what I'm hoping will happen in 2015

Reading:

For 2014, I set a goal of 100 books on GoodReads, and I made it.  With an extra three for good measure. (This picture is not in order.)


This year, I'm not pushing myself to get as much reading done. If I do get close to this number again, awesome. But for right now, my only goals are one fiction and one non-fiction book per month.

Writing:

So... I got in over 400,000-words in 2014.

Quick and Painless Sound Track

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December Wrap-up

Words Written: ?
I was terrible about keeping track of this. I know I wrote 2419 words on the 29th... and I have a few other things that I know what day I wrote them on, but I didn't pay enough attention, so that's where I left this month.


Works Revised: 3
I did the final revisions on Quick and Painless toward the beginning of the month, finalized the last revision of my January release, and

Quick and Painless: Making the Madras

The madras are a species of alien creatures in my Flynn
Monroe series that are very important to the Serbalean religion... and to the
drug trade within the Colarium. As with my other alien races, I wanted them to
be easily imaginable but intrinsically other.

When it came to creating the madras, I had a name first
(named after the city in Oregon, named after the city in India) and knew they

Release Day: QUICK AND PAINLESS

QUICK AND PAINLESS is out today! It’s my final book of the
year (let’s face it, I can’t squeeze one in tomorrow).



 


Buy it today for Print and Kindle


The second Novella in the Flynn Monroe series, it’s the
first of the books (three of the novellas and a short story collection) that do
not feature Flynn. Sure, he’ll be mentioned, the books are from the
perspectives of his friends – and

Quick and Painless - Chapter One

 

One

For some men, life is taken with ease and survived with difficulty. Sophia Refuti found both prospects difficult, but then, she was not a man. That was one of the few blessings life had chosen to bestow upon her. Hands shaking, she wrapped her stiff fingers around the gun in her pocket. Safety off. The trigger was loose beneath her touch as she slumped into the corner. Hard wooden

From Us to You

COVER REVEAL: EVEN VILLAINS HAVE INTERNS BY LIANA BROOKS

 



Bootleggers, drug dealers, crooked cops, and dirty
politicians... Chicago has always had a reputation for indulging in the finer
vices of life. That’s why Doctor Charm’s favorite daughter found America’s
Second City so appealing, criminals are never boring. As second in command for
the powerful Subrosa Security group, Delilah Samson finds opportunities to use
her superpowers at every turn.

Want to Walk Through a Bit of My Editing Process?

First drafts can be real stinkers. They're rough (hence the alternate name) and going back to them after letting the book rest can sometimes be painful. But if you never edit, you're never going to get anywhere.

Today, I thought I'd walk you through the first paragraph of a (as of yet untitled) book to show you just how much a few words can change with poking and prodding. This is what happens