Amanda A. Allen's Blog, page 7

Cover Reveal Coming Monday, January 26

I’ve mentioned the co-projects I have going here and there.  The first of them will be One World, Three Authors.  They’ll be romances with a tinge of the supernatural.  They’ll have pretty dresses.

The world is called Kendawyn.

The authors are me (*bats lashes*), Auburn Seal, and Pamela Welsh.

Oh….

And they’re coming soon.

Realllllllly soon.

The covers are AH-mazing, and if you’re looking for a little binge of brain candy–this is the series for you.  Light-bearted, fun, and not trying to be anything else.

Tee-freaking-hee!

~Amanda

ps…no updates on the Popsugar Book Challenge, since I was all momming and writing the last few days and no reading except for a few chapters of Exodus.

Casino Freaking Royale and my First Renewed Hero vs. Hero

First, let me say that I love a book that was written in different times.  I LOVE Anthony Trollope though the typical happy future for the women is marriage and my life would be insanity to them.

I love Bulldog Drummond because um….he goes by Bulldog and when he talks the dialoging is fantastic.

I even read much of Varney the Vampire which was terrible but fun.

What I’m saying it that I don’t have a problem, generally, with old pulp-y fiction.  I have–in fact–been known to seek it out.

I assumed that I would LOVE the Bond Books.  Cheesy spy, crazy, unlikely action.  Etc. Etc.

What I found was this quote when talking about having sex with Vesper.  It’s Bond–so they’re definitely not making love.

 “Each time [would] have the sweet tang of rape.”

No I did not make that up.  Yes, even in the 60s, I think I would have found that offensive.  Rape = one of the worst things you can do to a person that while have long reaching emotional, physical, and sexual complications.  It can and has ruined many a life. It is NOT a special flavor of sex.

Casino Royale — though it had good pieces here and there, though I read Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the same day and assume based on the utter delightfulness of that book that Ian Fleming wrote those stupidly offensive words in order to color the character of James Bond, I don’t know that I’ll get past those words and that idea.  Sometimes you just have to draw a line in the sand.

I’m of two minds.  Mostly because of the recommendation of another friend who had read other of the Bond novels but not Casino Royale and because I am not exaggerating when I say that I thought Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was an EXCELLENT and delightful piece of children’s fiction.

So….I might give him another chance, but I’ll never read Casino Royale again.

That being said–when I decided to read Bond I decided to start a Hero Vs Hero campaign again.  Who is the worthier book crush?  Bond is the first hero going up against no one.  I think I’ll take no one.

~Amanda

Pinky Swears

Sometimes we just have to admit that we’re easily distracted flake-holes.

Or is that just me?

I am like the dog in Up who is talking to you and then shouts squirrel.  I swear, these days, I can’t follow a conversation without a squirrel running across my mind.  Sometimes, it’s, “Oh Shit! I forgot to put that bedding on my bathroom floor in the wash again.”

Sometimes it’s the dog food.  CURSE dog food!  Curse it!  The drama of the dog food at my house!!!!!!!!!!!

Suffice it to say that I have to buy hippie dog food or ELSE.  And I keep forgetting.  Which means that I scramble my dogs eggs every night.  Dudes.  DUDES.  DUUUUUUDE.  When did I become a person who cooked fresh food for her dogs?  (The answer is somewhere around the time I had to steam clean my carpets every single day for like a week and a half.  That is, alas, a true story.) You should have seen the crazy in my eyes when I went into the hipster dog food store and they recommended to me the same dog food for my dogs that was making them so sick.  I could have stabbed the poor hipster dog lover right in the eye socket.

It’s lucky they’re so cute.  But don’t trust those sweet faces.  They’re naughty little beasts.

Anyhoosen.

I told you all how I drafted a lot this last year because my stress load was out of control.  My family added a baby, lost my dad, and I worked two new processes at day job.  It’s been a ride my friends.  A squirrelly little ride of crazy train and happiness and stress and loss.

What that all adds up to is that I have a LOT drafted out but unedited right now.  Like a STUPID amount.  A whole series of novellas set in New England.  The result of Amanda watching too many episodes of Scooby Doo with Boyo and having a weird and vivid dream and then writing that dream into six novellas.

Yes six.  Because why not?

We freaking love Scooby at my house.  And the Tiki Bad-Dude is THE Bad guy of choice.

I have half of a series of rewritten fairy tales in my Witch Queen world.  They encompass two countries, three separate story lines in different times/ places, several princesses and witches and wizards and curses and the Seven Sons of the Witch Queen.  They encompass a mirror and snow magic and the Shadow Kin.  It’s overwhelming quite frankly, and I love the shit out of it.  I am putting my finishing touches on Snow White as we speak.  (So to speak.  Tee-Hee.  If you like.  If you will.  If…okay Amanda, shut it and get back to the job at hand.)

Sometime I really need to stop writing and speaking (when my littles aren’t around) like a sailor.  A dirty, foul-mouthed, sailor who tries to pretend she isn’t when her babies are running around.  My mom is nodding right now and saying how it hurts her eyes/ ears.  That might be (certainly is) the very reason I still have a problem.

Anyhoosen.  We all make our own, dirty, foul-mouthed choices.

I have made myself a list of Pinky Swears.  These are the stories that I’m writing before I draft new shit.  The promise is that I’ll stop drafting (other than to finish the partially drafted Works-In-Progress) and publish what I have written out.

For some reason, I wrote Song of Heartbreak, the third book in the song series before Song of Loss which is the sequel to Song of Sorrow.  Because: squirrel!

(Is that confusing?  It is.  Isn’t it?  

It goes Song of Sorrow, Song of Loss, Song of Heartbreak.  

T hey’re all about Fallow and Adin and the Shadow Kin.)

This is my Pinky Swears, I am not effing around this time! list.  I’m sure it’s missing titles.  It’ll give you a little glimpse into my insanity.

Compelled by Love

Snow White

Witches #1

Meddling Kids #1-6

Short Stories of the Witch Queen

Bewildered by Love

Song of Loss

Song of Heartbreak

The Carnival of Dreams

Witch Novella

This Betraying Flesh

Tessa Novella

Rose Red

Snow White Part 2

Beauty and the Beast

Tinsel Gumpdrop and the Christmas Lights of Death

Dudes.  Squirrel!  Squirrel!

So.. when I list out those titles.  Those aren’t things that I plan to write.  Those are things that have an active word count.  Some–many–quite frankly have a full draft and only need to be edited.

So…dudes.

DUUUUUUUUDES.

That’s where we come to it. The pinky swear.  A pinky swear is a holy thing, you know.  A….

Shall we describe it as sacred?

It is a sacred (definitely-not-sacred) thing to have a pinky swear with yourself and all of your crazy.  It’s where you put those titles in a list of priority, and you quit noticing all the damn squirrels, all the slutty little story ideas, even the hedgehogs.  It’s where you say family, religion, job, dogs, writing.

No damn squirrels.

Not even this one:

Anyhow.  Compelled by Love is going to the grammar editor this weekend.  Snow White is going to like the 5th (millionth) round of beta reading as I try, yet again, to pare down the idea to manageable and tell only Snow’s story.  I can honestly say that I think it’s getting better and better and as I slam my head against it again and again, and I am happier and happier with the story in and of itself.

I’ll be two titles down, Witches #1 is getting rewritten and going to its first beta reader (Scary!  It’s my first co-written project.  We might even give it a real title.  And name the dead guy.)  And Meddling Kids 1-6 are getting re-read and their very own plan and possibly a real title because who can even remember what we wrote whenever we wrote it?

I wrote it.

It was just me wasn’t it?

These guys might have helped:

It is not a joke when I tell you I can’t even remember the characters names.  I can, however, remember that tall skinny kid and the female protagonist are crushing on each other, and there is some time spent near death.  Oh and a possessed ghost van.

Hey, it’s all coming back.  There’s a graveyard.  And an scary teacher.  And…a mom!  And a room in the attic.  And it’s in Maine.  Or possibly a neighboring state.  Vermont?  Is that up there?

Turns out that Vermont is, in fact, very near Maine.  Looking at this map, however, it is very possible that I set in in New Hampshire. I don’t know.   I do remember using google maps, narrowing in, picking a real little town, and setting my fictional town near it.  I guess we might all find out together.

Anyhow.

Squirrels are super cute.  If I wasn’t pretty sure that they would eat my face right off, I would think about kidnapping one and keeping it my room.  It could curl up on my pillow right next to me, make little chittering sounds, and inspire  Jack and Sookie with the crazy with the dog-fury  But at my house, we just say no to squirrels.

So…Compelled by Love is coming soon.  Snow White will follow and I’ll feel about 1000 times better about the last year and my writing and what is to come.  I hope you like my stories  Imma keep writing them if you don’t.  Because, as we’ve discussed before, I love the shit out of them and writing brings me joy.

~Amanda

PS– As far as the Popsugar book challenge goes, I am KILLING it.  So far I’ve read:

A book more than 500 Pages: Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

A book you can read in a day:  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming (super good)

A book of man-cheese (aka my own addition):  Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (Thoughts to come.  I have serious issues.)

A book with a color in the title: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (fantastic!)

A book with antonyms in the title: The School of Good and Evil by guy whose name is hard to remember/ type

A classic romance: The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

A book from the bottom of your to-read list: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I am currently reading A Blunt Instrument by Georgette Heyer (aka A mystery, also fantastic as this is, perhaps my 4th time through)

I’ve also started The Old Testament — I’m in Exodus.  I’ll figure out a place for it on the list.  Up ahead is The Great Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath, Phineas Finn, The Fault in Our Stars.  I’m a re-reader, so I’ve already read Gatsby and The Fault in Our Stars.  I might read Looking for Alaska for a popular author’s first book.  As you can see, I haven’t committed to anything yet.

~Amanda

I told you that ate faces.  I mean…obviously.

It’s possible I’m crazy.

So…..

Sure, I’m doing the Popsugar book reading challenge.  And sure, there’s a list of 52 delightfully random reasons to read a book there.  Because they’re random and fun, I was on board almost from the beginning.

BUT THEN.  

Do you see it there?  You don’t?

You’re not crazy?  You need an explanation?

I’ll tell you how it went down.  I started with Blue Lily, Lily Blue because I was already reading it and it slammed out a book with a color in the title.  I followed up with a book more than 500 pages because oi!  And then I was like, I want to re-read The Grand Sophy, so I’ll do that one for my classic romance.  And then I was scanning down my options, having fun with it.  The Grand Sophy went really fast because it’s HILARIOUS.  So then, I was like….well  I’ll do a book with antonyms in the title because it was harder than I thought it would be to find one I wanted to read.  (I read The School for Good and Evil.  Of which I have mixed feelings about but that is not the point right now).

The point is every single time I scanned that damn list my eye twitched a little bit on one of them.  I couldn’t help but internally wail WHYYYYYYYYY??????  Why?  WHY!!!

Melodramatic?  Maybe.  I’ve been having a crazy week.  On my crazy train.  To crazy town.  With my crazy tots, one of whom said today that brussel sprouts taste like there are tiny bad guys inside.  The other one bit me. The littlest is saving up her evil to catch me later.

So, back to that bad guy on my Popsugar list.  It’s the Ninth One Down on the Right.  It’s the, “A Book By A Female Author.”  As if that were unique in some way.  As if Tale of the Genji (sometimes said to be the first novel) wasn’t written by a woman.  As if Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte and Georgette Heyer and Agatha Christie and J.K. Rowling hadn’t happened.  As if being a female writer were somehow astounding.  As if…

Okay, okay, I’ll calm down.

Look at this chick.  Female writer and totally wearing that curtain.  She doesn’t care.  She’s owning the shit out of that curtain.

Look at that chick.  She totally wrote that creepy ass book that I can never finish but still get literary references to because dudes…it’s Wuthering Heights. Of which I hate. (aka Emily Bronte).  This will not be the book I read for the Book I Was Supposed to Read in School but didn’t.  (Not sure what I’m going to do there.  I might have to do a re-read because I already addressed that challenge a few years ago with my classic novel a month challenge.  I basically started with the ones I promised myself I’d read in school when I didn’t actually read them in school.  (And thank goodness I did.  There were some GOOOOD books in that pile.  I’m looking at you Barchester Chronicles.)  The only other one I can think of currently that qualifies is James Joyce’s The Portrait of an Artist by a Young Man which is crap, and I refuse to read.  I even wrote an essay about why it was crap.  I totally had to fake having an idea about what the hell happened in the end.  Part of being an adult, btws, is refusing to read shit from school that is, in fact, shit.)

Anyhow.  Again, not the point. 

Look!  Female writers have been around since forever.  It isn’t remarkable.  It isn’t worth making a little checkmark for it.  Like, I totally had to google Antonym because it’s been a while since I got my Bachelor’s of Arts in Writing.  So, yeah.  You’d think I’d remember that…  And then I still had to google ideas of what to read.  And then I picked from there because I’m lazy.  But I totally had to work for that The School of Good and Evil read.

I even had to look up Can You Forgive Her? to see how long it was since I had an audio copy.  I had to put in some effort if you will.

There is ZERO effort necessary for finding a female writer.  I’m looking at you dicks who wrote this Popsugar reading challenge.

So I have made a DECISION.  It’s a serious decision.  SERIOUSLY.

Like Serious.

Serious-serious.

Siriously.

I’m going to add a book to my challenge.

And not just any book, I’m going to read a bro-mance.  What I mean by that is those stupid ass books written primarily for dudes.  Like Clive Cussler.  And any book that had the movie version wherein the star was Tom Cruise in his typical action figure role.  You remember that one with the traveling former military police guy?  Look, I can’t be expected to remember this shit.  I read the first one in that series, and I was like Oh Yeah.  Bro-mance.  Essentially a romance written for dudes.  Wherein the main character, Señor Badass will get beat up a whole lot, but still be able to kick the shit out of the bad guys, save the girl, have sex with her, and leave her.  You know that kind that makes my eyes roll.

Maybe I’ll read a Louis L’Mour or however you spell his name.  I assume he’s bro-mance.  Since his book covers look like the Marlboro Man commercials.  Maybe I’ll read another Clive Cussler, though I don’t know if I can do that because the one I read on the recommendation of my buddy had a ship in the middle of a dessert.

Um….okay?  (Clive Cussler also cameoed himself in his book to link together a massive plot hole.  You just can’t make this shit up.)

DUDES….maybe I’ll read James Bond.  DUDES…

Bond.  James Bond.

Anyhow.  My challenge got upped by one.  I’m going to read the manliest book of cheese I can find.  And when I read that book written by a woman, I am going to close my eyes and point to my shelves.  I’m sure chances are the book I choose will be written by a woman.  Because, it turns out there are a LOT of woman writers.

Like myself.

~Amanda

aka Senorita Crazytrain

Reading! Fun! Etc!

Yo!

I decided to do this.  In addition to my classic novel a month goal.

Which is insane.  I decided, however, that those two goals can overlap.  Last year I read 50ish books.  This list above is 52.  That I might be able to manage.  But perhaps not 64.  We’ll see.  I’m off to a big start so far.

For my classic novel a month goal in January, I finished Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope.  This also qualifies as my over 500 pages novel.

A book with more than 500 pages   — Can You Forgive Her?  By Anthony Trollope

A classic romance – The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer  (I’m not quite done with this one yet.  But I’ve read it before, and it’s frigging hilarious.)

A book with a color in the title —  Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater  (Love, love, love, love, love)

As for Can You Forgive Her?  I do think that it’s a pretty good book as far as classics go (aka slow-building).  But the truth is, for me…this wasn’t that great.  I’ll carry with the Palliser’s because I’ve read enough of Trollope to know I like his writing in general and the Palliser series is much more easily available than some of his other titles.

Trollope makes me think of my Dad.  A few years ago, Dad and I read Barchestershire together.  It took me forever.  He busted right through them.  Though Mumma has always been a reader, she read non-fiction until I was an adult.  Dad was one of my many good examples of always snuggling down with a book when given a chance.  Busy man though he was (pre-stroke), I still remember him reading.  His favorite book was Count of Monte Cristo.  I have been planning to read it again for a while, but I can’t face it right now.

Currently Reading: The Grand Sophy

Up Next: … perhaps The School for Good and Evil? (A book with an antonym in the title.)  Phineas Finn?  (Classic Novel for February)  The Fault in Our Stars? (A book that made me cry)  A Blunt Instrument?   (A mystery  My favorite one!)

What about you?

~Amanda

Goals! Schmoals!

But I am gonna try to be better about reading this year.  Last year, I let life snag that pleasure from me.  Which is INSANE.  INSANE I tell you.

This year, I’m back to a classic novel a month.  And I think I’ll return to my hero versus hero blog posts.  It’s unclear who’s the hero of Can You Forgive Her? yet.  But I think we can all agree that this beard is a hero like no other.

If I were to have a dinner party with anyone from all time, I think that Anthony Trollope would get an invite for the sake of his beard.  Plus that man was a writing MACHINE.  And he’s freaking hilarious.  I bet he was one of those dudes who says something that seems nice and you think about it later, and you realize he was a clever, insulting bastard.  Who would you invite?  I’d have to invite Jane Austen (of course) and probably I’d invite William Shakespeare.  And then…I just don’t know.  I might have to write a blog post about this.  I think that the Pastel Ninja should do the same.

I have narrowed the field of the classics that I will read to those that are currently on my kindle.  Except for The Jungle Book.  I’m getting that one since there’s a movie coming out.  Dudes.  Jungle Book strikes that place in my heart with crazy love for things like Tarzan and that martian series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Maybe after I read The Jungle Book, I’ll re-read The Graveyard Book.  How freaking fun would that be?

Possibly I will then re-read the Tarzan books.  I’ve only read the first 3.  But they’re are the most delightful cheese.  And that takes me, in my crazy head, to the Bulldog Drummond books.  I want to re-read those.  I never did finish that series.  I think there was some trouble with what was available where and how.  I hate that.

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate that this lives on:

And dudes.  This:

Tee-freaking-hee.

I mean… Let’s just take a moment.  Tarzan was written in 1912.  It is coming up on its 103rd birthday.  It has 25 sequels.  And right now…imdb.com has a Tarzan movie listed for 2016 by the same dude who is doing the new JK Rowling movies.  I mean. Come ON.  This is the story of a boy raised by apes, who falls in love, is the Lord of some random estate in England, and lives in the jungle with his girl.

Um…

It should have died a fiery death.  But it lives on.  Probably because freaks like me love that crazy story.

Anyhow.  We were talking about classics and goals and shit like that.  So..these are the books on my radar, classic wise, for 2015.

The Anthony Trollope series.  Can You Forgive Her? is the first of 6 books in the Palliser series.

The Jungle Book

Villette

Shirley

Probably a re-read of a Tarzan book or two after that.  Or maybe I’ll just introduce Boyo to the Tarzan movies.  I bet he would LOVE them.

Maybe some more of the Jeeves series and the Oz series

Robinson Crusoe

A Little Princess

Some more of the Pimpernel series if they’re out.  If they’re not and you’re listening, Caprisha Page–hint, Hint, HINT.

I might re-read The Great Gatsby

Now I’m not saying I’ll read *all* of these.  They’re just on my radar.  What’s on yours?  Anyone else make some reading goals for 2015?

Oh The Scarlet Pimpernel.  Oh you.

~Amanda

For books that aren’t classics that are on my radar, I’m looking seriously at a re-read of The Grand Sophy and of the Flavia de Luce series culminating in reading for the first time the two most recent books.  And then probably finishing that Laini Taylor series that rocked my world and the Leigh Bardugo series.  And maybe, I’ll read Looking for Alaska by John Green and possibly, should hell freeze over, I might read that final book in the Wheel of Time.  Maybe.

Just maybe.

Or maybe I’ll go back to listening to youtube.  You just can’t predict what the future will bring.

2015! What the front door!

For all of you thinking that it’s,” Shut the front door”–I know that.  I do what I want.  Suck it.  Etc.

This front door makes me happy.  Should I buy a house any time soon, I might need a green one with red flowers.  My son, Boyo would prefer a red front door.  But this green is a very happy green.  And the flowers are red.

So… over at auburnseal.com, my buddy and writing friend is announcing a couple of surprises!  And they include me!

Dunh, dunh, dunnnnnnnn!!!!

About one year ago, it was a really hard time for me.  Especially a couple of weekends in specific, and Auburn Seal rose to superhero status when she distracted me from those trials by writing a mystery with me.

We went straight to fluff, and it was lovely because my brain needed to be distracted by nonsense!  So we wrote the story of two witches living on a fictional San Juan Island.  The thing is…they’re really bad at magic.  AND, Ingrid and Emily have to solve the crime of who killed Emily’s ex before Emily is arrested for a murder she didn’t commit.  It might be a murder she would have committed, but she’d have done a bloody job of it, and gotten rid of the body–not left it in her basement.  They attempt to use their shoddy magic and mostly set things on fire while they stumble through discovering who killed dickhead.  All the while trying to avoid being killed–or for that matter–accidentally killing themselves.

AND

Because we’re overachievers or easily distracted or both, Auburn Seal, Pamela Welsh, and I are writing about a world we created together.  It’s Jane Austen meets classic horror with the fictional kingdom of Kendawyn where Vampires, Werewolves, and Mages contain their hunting instincts with the social strictures of Regency England.  They’re love stories!  And there will be ball gowns!  There’s even a masquerade.  It is–in fact–brain candy! And fun!

The two above stories were some of the most fun I’ve had writing ever.  I hope you like them.  Inept Witches cracks me up and my story in Kendawyn, Compelled by Love is a story I’ve been playing with in my head since–almost–forever.  It’s the romance of two people thrown together who would have bypassed the other without the circumstances that forces them to get to know each other.  And discover love.

But that’s not all that’s on the table for 2015.  Or the lap top.

Or, for that matter, hopefully that’s not all that’s on your kindle for 2015.

You can expect the first of my fairytales, Snow White.  It’s part of the series Curses of the Witch Queen and set in the same kingdom of Pareon where Song of Sorrow was placed.  Only…it’s about twenty years later, and the Witch Queen is fully settled on the throne and is wreaking havoc with the lives of her people and her children.  Will true love conquer all?  Will Snow White’s romance with the handsome Prince Charming destroy Rose Red’s future?

Snow White is *almost* done.  Which is stupidly exciting since I started it more than a year ago and was slowed up by the big events of 2014.

I expect that you’ll also see the sequel of Song of Sorrow titled Song of Loss, and perhaps even–the end of the first story arc about Fallow and Adin with the end of their trilogy–Song of Heartbreak.  Because I’m a weirdo, I have a full draft of Song of Heartbreak and about a half a draft of Song of Loss.  Expect to read more about the Shadow Kin, the Book of Ways, shadow warriors, and just what a mother and father will do who have their baby stolen from them.

This is a big year for me personally, and like last year, what lies ahead writing wise will fall to the wayside in my role as a Mumma.  My three babies are the best part of my life, and their happiness is my focus.  But we have a good routine down, and most of these stories are in stages of editing.  

~Amanda

PS, I started my goal of reading a classic a month again and am currently reading Can you Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope.  I’m like three hours in.  Because it’s Trollope that means we’re still getting backstory and meeting random ass characters.  I’m also reading some random mix of book challenge that includes weird stuff like read a nonfiction or read a book with a color in it.  Read something by someone where the author is under 30.  I’ve met one of those so far with Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater.  If we’re being perfectly honest, that book doesn’t qualify as much of a challenge.  I have to read audio these days, with three babies, and I was checking for that audio release every damn day until it came out.  I’d have read it in print, if I had to, though my bathrooms and the bottle cleaning would have suffered.

If you’ve read my blog at all, you’ll know that Maggie Stiefvater is my FAVORITE publishing YA author right now.  I’m still reading through her backlog (I haven’t read her elf books yet).  But she is a fantastic writer and I find myself freaking thinking about Gansey and Blue all the damn time.  Why isn’t the last book out yet.  Why, damn it, why?  When I think about them, it’s like thinking about friends that you miss and want to catch up with.  And then you remember that their fictional and you have to wait for the next book to come out.

Sigh.  Alas.  Woe.  Damn it.

So far of the series, The Raven Boys is my favorite.  But they’re all *damn* good.  And that’s like choosing between a Snickers, a Twix or a Peanut Butter Cup.  They’re all yummy.  Dude.  Noah, Ronan, Adam, Gansey, Blue, the clairvoyants over at Fox Way–I love them all.  Who knew that you could 100% love the Grey Man, a killer for hire who changes his ways?  Maggie Stiefvater makes a compelling argument to think about him in the nighttime with the way she portrays him.  

Freaking love, Love Freaking.

Go.  Read.  Her.

And once you’re done with the Raven Cycle, assuage your need for book 4 with The Scorpio Races.  Sure, it’s about murderous horses.  Sure, it sounds insane.  It’s freaking awesome.

Trust me.

It’s that time of year again…

The one where we set goals right?  I choose not to look back at 2014’s goals.  Today, I’m not in the mood.  I might look in a few days.  I can tell you right now I didn’t make my reading or my weight loss goals.  Does anyone, ever?

Anyone else looking back at the last year?  This last year was one of so many mixed emotions.

My focus is on my Dad.  He passed away.  His life had been amazing, but it was too short.  Often as I sit in my home, with my babies asleep, I find myself thinking of him.  I have been truly blessed in the parents I have been given.  It’s hard to not be able to walk across the way, like I could only a year and a half ago.  I’d gather Dad up and bring him to Mumma, and I’d tell them my worries and concerns.  Dad was an incredible counselor.  He was wise and kind.  Living as he suggested was never a mistake.  A year and a half ago, before they moved, my Smiley was only a baby.  My Boyo wasn’t living with me.  Today I have the Boyo, Smiley, and the little Lamb.

But that’s the thing.  My little Lamb arrived in May.  Taking her into my home was terrifying.  I knew without question that I would love her more than I had words to describe.  But things seemed to be leading towards my babies returning to their biological parents.  I wasn’t sure I could stand three rounds of heart break, not after having been through two already with Feisty Pants and Boy Blue.  Turns out that I do, in fact, love the Lamb more than I imagined was possible.  With each child, my heart just grows and grows and fills and fills and my blessings seem even more astounding.

So the year of 2014 was one of incredible gain and incredible loss.  But I believe Families Are Forever, so it’s easier to face not being able to chat with Dad while I rock my baby in the nighttime.

But that’s enough of the sadness and the realness.  I mean…mostly I think about things like getting the Boyo Aquaman so his collection of Imaginext heroes will be complete but how it’s a con job that the Aquaman pack has some sort of rodent in it, and it’s too small to have out with the Lamb in the house.  And I think about how Smiley totally bottle-fed the Poison Ivy action figure on Christmas Day, and how I feel guilty about how it’s been a few weeks since I brushed Sookie and Jack.

Babies have certainly dethroned the puppies.  But they’re good, furry little buddies.

Last year, I published one novella.

This year I have several things in the works, including the sequels to the novella: Song of Loss and Song of Heartbreak and also a full length novel set in the same world.  It’s my version of Snow White.  I really like it.  I hope you do too.

Last year, I had some sort of reading goal.  I can’t remember what it was.  I sure didn’t make my Goodreads goal this year.  In my foolishness, I adjusted it when it seemed like I was too far ahead.  Then I failed MISERABLY.  (I read 67 books last year of the 100 in my goal.)  But this year, I am returning to my goal of a classic novel a month.  For a while there, I wasn’t reading even via audio.  I was too stressed out.  I actually spent several months listening to youtubers blather about makeup and the story of some random chick talking about her breakup with her husband.

I just…

Look….

Don’t ask.

I just can’t explain it.  Even to myself.  Look, man, I was stressed out.

Anyhow, I plan to begin this year’s reading goals with good ole Anthony Trollope.  That dude was PROLIFIC.  You know?  And I love his books.

Also I love his facial hair.  I’m starting with Can You Forgive Her?  It’s a the first of a series of novels like Barchestershire Chronicles.  I think they’re called the Palliser novels.  I’ve hesitated to go there because doesn’t Can You Forgive Her? just sound super depressing?  I mean SUPER depressing?  But I’m trusting in the man and his beard and venturing in.

To counteract the love destroying I do at my day job (think falling in love with an online conman and then having me tell you that it’s all a lie), I’ve been dabbling in writing straight up romance.  We’ll see.  I feel the need to have a battle.  And blood.  It’s possible my day job has made it harder for me to believe in love.

Possibly a lot harder.

As far as I can tell, everyone, ever is a liehole.  Even the Lamb.  And she can’t talk.  She’s just saving her lies up.  Boyo sure drops some whoppers.

Sometimes, I just really want to write a battle scene where people get good and hurt.  Sometimes, I’m just not very nice.

But here’s the thing, even though 2014 is going to have sucked forever for taking my Dad.  It’s going to rock for forever for giving me the Lamb.  And I think that’s sort of the epic truth of living isn’t it?  It’s a mixed bag.  But if we focus on the blessings, look for the good in the bad, and remember that if we would only LOOK for the Hand of God in our lives, we would be astounded by how often He is obviously working in our lives.

Cue the end of seriousness again.

To wrap things up properly.  Here is a dog wearing a birthday party hat.  I might love this dog.  If I didn’t have to clean up the poops of 4, sometimes 5 living creatures (self not included), I might think I’d have room in my heart for another dog.  But, it turns out, that there is an epic amount of shit in my life.

~Amanda

A cover extravaganza. Or reveal. Or reveals. Or whatever.

So, since I’ve started writing, I’ve hired editors, formatters, cover artists, and what not.  Each and every one of them has been slow and late.  They give you a date (myself included) and then don’t make it.  I believe artists are almost intrinsically unable to allow for the needs of daily life.

I sure am.

Regardless, yesterday I emailed my cover artist and asked him to turn my Snow White, Rose Red book cover into a Snow White and a Rose Red cover.

Today he delivered.  Bless his reliable soul.  Find him here.

Here they are:

And because why not….here is the next book in the series.  Purchased when it was going to be book 2 rather than 3.

Aren’t they pretty?

~Amanda

NaNoWriMo, Unexpected Stories, and other such nonsense.

For those of you who don’t know, NaNo is National Novel Writing Month wherein in, literally thousands and thousands, of writers unite and slam out a novel or about 50,000 words in 1 month.

Thirteen months ago, I was dealing with a three-year-old in mourning for his old life (and maybe moving homes), a baby, the fact that my parents moved across country, and the dismal sales of my first book.  Halfway through  November, I decided to join in on NaNo and to NaNo the shit out of it.  Knowing me, that was probably the exact phrase I used.

My goal was, simply, 50,000 words.  I didn’t care if it was the sequel to These Lying Eyes, something new, or something old.  I just needed to write, escape the hard parts of my life, and believe that I could tell a story I liked.

So, I wrote much of This Betraying Flesh (the above named sequel), I wrote a story I titled the Carnival of Dreams (which I love and will eventually publish), and at the end of the month–when I was struggling with reaching that word count goal and my Carnival was done and I was stuck on This Betraying Flesh, I opened a new document, glanced around the New Seasons eating area where I was writing and typed…

Snow White–

That was it.

I followed it by staring at those two words on that blank white pages, and I remembered that I was NaNoing the shit out of the month, and I just kept writing.

And then I wrote.  And I wrote.  I had no plans, no outline, nothing but a love of Snow White  that came more from the art about her than the Disney movie or the original fairy tale.  (Especially Fables the graphic novels.)  I had loud music in my ears and an escalating stress level in my personal life.

It didn’t take long before I realized that I wasn’t a fan of Prince Charming, to want to add a sister (Rose Red), and for my “Snow” to be totally different from the stories I’d seen before.  The seven dwarves became the seven sons of the Witch Queen.

The story flew out of me.  It was bigger and far more epic than I thought.  It became a series, with spin-off characters–characters who are still revealing themselves to me.  Through Snow, I found the Shadow Kin.  One of the pieces of fantasy that I created on my own and that I am so proud of.  (The Shadow Kin were introduced in my novella, Song of Sorrow.)

I freaking love this world.  Like freaking LOVE it.  I love it so much that when I got my beta reader feedback this summer and realized that my story wasn’t coming together, I set aside everything else and rewrote the whole novel.  And though I don’t claim that it is anything like The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, it lives in the same place inside my head.  The Blue Sword was my favorite book during my adolescence.  I, literally, read it like 30-50 times.  There were days where I finished the book yet again, closed the book, and then re-opened it to read it again.  I FREAKING LOVE that The Blue Sword to this day.  And my Snow White takes me to the same place inside my head.  So is it The Blue Sword?  No.  Is it anything like The Blue Sword?  Only if you live inside my head.

But do I love it?  Yes, just so much.  And it’s coming!

Here is the cover.  It’ll be adjusted because Snow White, Rose Red has become Snow White.  And then later Rose Red.

I love Snow White.  And Xavier.  And Rose Red.  And Roger.  And Rebekah, aka Red Riding Hood.  I love Nixie and Hope and Faith, and I love how they’re side characters and then as I write they grow into something more.  A character who I intended to be only a surface side character — Nixie has  become so much more.  She’s dark and tormented and kind of scary, and she might have replaced Snow as my favorite character for the series.  So what I’m saying is, early next year you’ll be meeting my weird and twisted fairy tales.  And I hope you love them as much as I.

If you haven’t tried it yet, you can find Song of Sorrow here.  It’s a prequel series to the novel series.  Not necessary to get the Snow story line, but I think fun all the same.