Jamie A. Waters's Blog, page 2

Shadows and Twilight (Behind the Scenes)

I think I wrote and rewrote the beginning of Shadows and Twilight at least half a dozen times. I kept seeing two different scenes playing in my head. They were both extremely vivid, so I sat down and wrote both to see which one resonated more.

They both did.

That began the bizarre process of writing this book out of order. Before writing this series, most of my previous books had been written in sequential order (i.e. Chapter 1, 2, 3, etc.). But Shadows and Twilight was written in scenes. After writing each scene, I then had to piece them together. It was a bit like working on a jigsaw puzzle.

I started out with a loose outline or general idea about what was going to happen. My stories always deviate a bit (Blossom loves stirring up trouble), but this went way beyond the norm. In particular, there was one huge event in the underworld that came as a complete and total surprise to me. After I wrote it, I just stared at my computer in shock at the crazy revelation that had been revealed. No idea where it came from. All I knew is that it FIT. It was that missing puzzle piece. But wow, did it throw me for a loop.

I’d love to know if you can figure out which scene.

Happy Release Day!

Yay! Happy book birthday to Shadows and Twilight (The Dragon Portal, #4). It's now available at all major retailers!

Have you already ordered your copy? I'd love to know what you think!

Surprise! I'm going to be at Orlando Reads Books in 2 weeks!

I'm excited to announce that I'll be an attending author at the Orlando Reads Books signing. Come see me on August 27th from 3-6pm!

I'll have a limited quantity of signed copies of Shadows and Twilight (The Dragon Portal, #4) available for purchase.

This **FREE** event is being held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Orlando.

All registered guests receive a free bag and free eBooks to go home with!

Visit https://orlandoreadsbooks.com/ for more info!

#orlandoevents #authorevents #booksigning #centralflorida #indieauthor #indiebooks #FreeEvent

Embrace Your Inner Book Dragon!

I did a thing! I started up a Facebook reader group so I can chat with all of you! Join in the fun and find out what shenanigans I'm up to ,HERE.

Book Obsessed Babes Author Event 2022

This past weekend, I had a great time meeting and hanging out with some amazing authors and readers at the Book Obsessed Babes Author Event in Jacksonville, FL. It was my first time attending, and I absolutely loved it! Scroll through and check out some of the pictures from the event.

Next stop -- Capital City Author Event in Montgomery, Alabama. Woo hoo!

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Update: Shadows and Twilight (The Dragon Portal, #4)

Great news! Shadows and Twilight has officially left the building. It's now in the hands of my fantastic editor.

Yup. It's finally coming!!!

I'm so excited to share this book with you. We're descending into the underworld, and uncovering some crazy secrets. Dax is back and better than ever, along with the rest of the crew: Sabine, Malek, Bane, Rika, and the mischievous pixie we all love, Blossom.

There are some twists and turns that even I didn't see coming!

I'm participating in a special, EXCLUSIVE pre-release event on Friday, June 24th, 2022 at Space Coast Book Lovers in Cape Canaveral, FL. If you're interested in receiving a copy before it's available ANYWHERE, you're not going to want to miss this event.

You can learn more here: https://www.spacecoastbooklovers.com

Dragon Portal Series FAQ (Updated)

I've been getting even more questions about The Dragon Portal series. Thank you so much for your emails and messages. I decided to make an updated FAQ to hopefully answer the most common questions.

* * *

Question: How many books are going to be in the series?

Answer: Right now, I'm planning on seven. There's a small chance it may extend to an eighth book (or even more), but I won't know until Sabine tells me.

There will be six books in the main series, but I'm also planning on releasing a special bonus prequel. Escape from Faerie takes place about ten years before the first book. I don't have a release date yet, but it's in the works!

* * *

Question: Will Sabine ever go back to Akros or Karga?

Answer: I'm not sure. Each book in the series takes place in a different part of their world. Sabine and Malek's focus right now is on preventing the Dragon Portal from reopening. To that end, they're busy traveling the world in search of the missing artifacts. Their path may take them back there, but they likely won't stay long.

* * *

Question: Will we see more of Esme?

Answer: Yep! Esme's off on her own adventures right now with Levin, but we haven't seen the last of our favorite part-dryad witch.

* * *

Question: Will Blossom get her own story?

Answer: Eek! Why'd you go putting that into her head? I might try to give her a bonus chapter(s) at a later date, but I don't have any specific plans. If I can swing it, I'll make it available as a free download for my newsletter subscribers.

* * *

Question: When is the next book coming out?

Answer: Officially, Shadows and Twilight (The Dragon Portal, #4) is scheduled to be released October 2021. I'm hoping to release it sooner, but I can't commit to anything yet. I'll know more in the next couple of months. *keeping fingers crossed*

Have more questions? Drop me a comment or send me an email and let me know: contact@jamieaters.com

November is NaNoWriMo!

Let's talk NaNoWriMo!

If you've never heard of it, November is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to essentially write a book in a month (or about 50,000 words). Thousands of people from all over the world get together and cheer each other on, trying to hit those word count goals. Cool, huh?

Yep. I thought so too.

I wrote the bulk of my first book (Beneath the Fallen City) during NaNoWriMo about seven years ago. I've been a huge fan and participating ever since. This year isn't going to be any different.

If you're interested, check it out here: https://nanowrimo.org/

It's free to create an account. You'll get to meet some other aspiring writers and join some writing sprints. Plus, it's just plain FUN!

All it takes to win is to write roughly 1,666 words a day. That's it. But even if you only write 50, 500, or 5,000 words.... you're going to be that much closer to your goal!

If you want to give it a try, feel free to friend me. I use the name "dragonwhisperer" (without the quotes).

Come write with me!

My Writing Practices

Writing a book can be a daunting task for someone who's never done it before. If you ask a dozen authors how they write a book from start to finish, you'll probably get a dozen different answers. There's no right or wrong answer. It's simply a matter of what works best for YOU. I recently received a Facebook message from someone asking me for some advice about writing books and how long it takes. I decided to go ahead and share a little bit about my normal process. It can vary from book to book, based on different challenges I'm having at the time, but this has become pretty standard for me over the past year: Outline/Synopsis Approximate Time: 1 Week I used to be strictly a pantser (writing by the seat of my pants), but I found I was spending too much time going back and reworking parts of my story. I started creating general outlines, but it's normal for me to deviate from them. I don't let it bother me. My characters usually steer the story, and they LOVE throwing plot twists at me. I've included a bit of a sample outline from the first chapter of By Blood and Magic (The Dragon Portal, Book 2). This will give you a general idea about how I put it together. This entire chapter ended up being 2800 words by the time I included dialogue, wrote descriptions, etc. I also frequently color-code parts of my outline so I know which character's point of view I'm writing from. Writing (& Re-Writing) Approximate Time: 1 - 3 Months I have a sign on my desk that says, "Fix it in the next draft." During the actual writing, I rarely let anyone see my work. It's too easy to get demoralized or caught up with minute details. If you're focused on what you've already written, you're not thinking about moving the story forward. It can take me anywhere from 1-3 months to write a draft (my books are usually around 100k words). Most of the time, the bulk of my first draft is heavy on the dialogue. Once I've written this draft, I'll go back, move scenes around, add in other descriptions (focusing on the five senses), expand upon the characters and really delve into their mindsets. I then go back through and self-edit, and I also run it through a grammar program to make sure it's fairly clean. I tend to write books in series, and I usually end up having a LOT of characters. I keep a "series bible" for each of my series, which details my main characters, their ages, physical description, mannerisms, magical alignment, etc. This also helps my cover designer when it's time to create a book. Here's a sample of a series bible from The Omni Towers series: Alpha/Beta Readers Approximate Time: 1 Month I decided to combine these two together in my explanation, but only because I no longer have separate alpha and beta readers. My beta readers have been with me since before I published my first book, and they're fantastic about telling me what works or doesn't work. They point out plot holes, character issues, even some grammar issues. I've ended up killing off characters (or not killing them off) simply based off feedback from these readers. A certain character in Ruins of Fate met an untimely end thanks to one of my beta readers (no names, she doesn't want hate mail). LOL Seriously... these people are invaluable to my writing process. I love them to pieces. Based on their comments and suggestions, I'll make more revisions and then I'm ready to send it out to my amazing editors. Editing Approximate Time: 1 - 2 Months I usually go through multiple types of editing: content editing, line editing, and proofreading. Content Editing - Oops. I forgot to feed my character. My character was sitting in the last paragraph, but now I have her standing up. She had blue eyes in the last chapter, but now she has green eyes. This part of the process can involve reworking entire sections, paragraphs or even scrapping full chapters! Having an outline and a series bible helps cut down on some of this, but a content editor can catch all the other little details (especially when you're moving scenes around). Line Editing - Grammar Time! My editor goes through and fixes all my commas, any misspellings or improperly used words, etc. I try to give her the cleanest manuscript possible, but there are always errors. Proofreading - After I've finished with the all the other edits, I do a final read through of my book. I make sure it's as close to perfect as possible and send it to a separate proofreader to double check to make sure I didn't miss anything. Layout & Formatting Approximate Time: 1 - 4 Days Once my book is pretty close to perfect, I'm ready to do the final layout. This includes generating a table of contents, chapter headings, title page, copyright page, etc. I try to keep the formatting consistent for each series. Once I'm finished, I generate different file formats (for physical books and ebooks). Final Galley Approximate Time: 1 Week I email the final book to myself and a trusted individual (one of my beta readers). We both reread the book, looking for any formatting issues or things that were missed during the editing/proofreading process. Once these are corrected, I'm ready to upload the final files! Cover Design Approximate Time: Varies by Designer (My designers are usually booked almost a year in advance!) I usually have my ebook cover way before I even start writing the first word of my novel. To put it in perspective, I currently have over 6 covers waiting for me, and another 3 covers scheduled to be completed in the next few months! Eek! Since the time to schedule with some designers takes so long, it requires a great deal of advance planning. If you're interested, let me know and I can create a separate post talking a little about this process later on. Once I have the final page count for my paperback, I email this information to my cover designer (along with book size specifications). They send me the final image file, and I'm ready to upload it to the printers! ARCs (Advance Review Copies) Approximate Time: 1 - 4 Weeks If you're a member of my ARC Team, you know what this means! If you're not, feel free to sign up for my newsletter and you'll receive notifications when spots open up. Approximately one month before the book is released to the general public, a small sample group receives an advance copy. This is invaluable, especially since so many people are reluctant to leave reviews or give feedback. Then the book goes live! That's it. That's most of my process. As you can see, a LOT of hard work and effort goes into each book I write. I have a trusted team I work with who help ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible. Some days, I'll spend anywhere from 8-14 hours at my computer working on a particular story. If you'd like to know any more about my process, let me know! I'm always happy to answer questions. :)

Penned Charleston 2020

I just got back from Penned Charleston, and it was a blast! I met so many amazing readers this past weekend! Here are a few highlights from the signing event: