A.E. Jones's Blog, page 5

Cover Me

As I work on my edits for books four and five in my realm demon series, my goal is to make them great on the inside. But I also need to think about what they look like on the outside too. Now that I’m adding two new books to the series I looked at my covers with a new eye. My conclusion? I loved the close-up covers when the series was a trilogy and we had three amazing brothers with three brooding faces, but I also thought that five close up pics might be too much. So…

Time for a refresh. I’m working with my amazing cover artist to come up with a new series vibe for my realm demons. And it is a journey for sure. Let’s be honest – the cover is your packaging for your story and it has to pull readers into the story, especially new readers who haven’t read my stories before.

I’ll let you all know how things are going…and of course, I’ll be revealing all the new covers to you along the way!

Here’s To A New Beginning

Writing can be a rollercoaster. The excitement of going up that hill, sitting at the top, and then racing down again while bringing readers along with us is a wonderful experience. But what you might not realize is that we (the writer) have to ride that rollercoaster over and over again, laying the tracks out with the right twists and turns so that the reader can have the thrill of the ride when they dive into the story.

Sometimes that means starting from the very beginning – strapping ourselves into the car and chugging up that hill many times to set up the story just right.

And that’s where I am right now. My editor sent back my first edits and suggested that I look at the first chapter again. UGHHH. Not something you want to hear, right? But if you don’t get that first chapter right, you can’t convince the reader to even step onto the ride. So I worked on the beginning again and think I got it “right”. But now I need to take those changes and incorporate them into the rest of the story.

So on I go. Buckle up!

My Ideas Runneth Over

Last year, I told myself that I couldn’t think about a new series until I finished the demon books I was working on. It was like a reward for getting the job done. I did finish those books, and like I talked about in my last blog, I resurrected an idea and have started a new series.

But that doesn’t mean that the ideas have stopped coming. Let’s be honest, once I opened the floodgates, I started to think of new ideas, upon new ideas. Some are not so good, and others are pretty interesting, and some have got me really excited. But that is the whole point behind brainstorming. So while I’m working on the new story, my mind is getting a little distracted with new ideas.

For now, I’m going to go with the flow. Collect the ideas and see what resonates with me as I keep writing.

Maybe I’ll have my next series all figured out before I know it!

New Ideas Mean New Stories!

Last week I talked about sending off my two demon books to me editor for, well…editing. She will have my babies for 3 weeks. What am I going to do in the meantime? I’m glad you asked! I’m actually working on the beginning of a new series.

I had an idea for something a couple years ago, and I resurrected my notes and some of the writing I had already done on this idea and thought it might be something I could work on. But before I spend too much time on it, I wanted to get some other opinions on the story idea.

So I sent a synopsis to my editor and some of the sample chapters to my beta reader and held my breath. I mean, I could be wrong and this idea might not work. But to my surprise, I got two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Yay!

Then I had a phone call with my beta to brainstorm about where this series is going. My plan? A trilogy with three separate couples and three separate issues but with an overall arc that will carry over all the books.

So I’m going to dive into this first story and I’ll let you know more about it as I go along. You’ll just have to be patient for now. Stay tuned!

Let the Edits Begin!

I spent a good part of the weekend reading through my two demon books and tweaking said books to get them ready to send to my editor. Yep, its edit time. You might be surprised to know that it takes at least two months to get through edits.

I’ve already sent my books for a preliminary readthrough to my editor and beta reader. Now it’s time for 1st edits, or what I like to call bloody edits. I’ll be sending the books to my editor at the end of the week and she will keep my two babies – Demons in the Rough and Demons Just Want to Have Fun – for three weeks before sending them back with all kinds of red throughout.

Then I fix edits and it goes back to her for round two for a couple weeks. The books will come back with edits we missed the first time.

I then fix those edits and send it to my proofread editor…lots of work, right? Well, I’m not done yet. Once proofs come through, I read it through and then it goes to my formatter. Then I do a last readthrough to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Wow – as you can imagine, reading the book for the fifth or sixth time in a couple months can put a damper on my enthusiasm

Don’t worry. By the time I release it to the world, I’ve fallen in love with the stories all over again.

The Psychology of Writing

Last year I started to write a book that I simply said was a fluke and I didn’t want to tell you all what it was about in case I didn’t finish it.

But I finished it and also wrote a novella as well. They should both be coming out (fingers crossed) in May. So what are the books about? Well, I hinted last week that they would include characters you’ve seen in the past.

Drum roll please…..

I wrote two more books in The Realm – my demon series! You know, the trilogy I wrote about Misha, Aleksei, and Sergei? Well, now I have a book about Marrick and (wait for it) a book about Boris!

I wasn’t planning on writing any other books in that series, honest… but I had a need to write them. And that’s where the psychology played in to this for me. This past year has been hard for all of us. For me, I missed being around people and family. So it doesn’t surprise me that I felt this compulsion to revisit the Shamat clan and that rambunctious family. A family about laughter, and fun, and love, loyalty and compassion. About fighting against the bad in the world and defeating it. Are your really surprised that I wanted to escape there?

Reading a good book is a wonderful escape, but so is writing one! I’m looking forward to sharing these stories with you so that you can be a part of the wonder and joy of this family too.

That is the psychology of writing for me at any rate. I’ll let you know what I come up with next!

A Writer’s Goals

Hello all! Sorry to be a little quiet this last month. I took a bit of a break from blogging in January. But I wanted to get back into the groove and report into you all. If you remember, at the end of December I was trying my hardest to complete the manuscript I was working on.

I set a goal and wanted to achieve it. And achieve it I did! On December 31st at 11:31 pm I wrote ‘the end’ on the novel I had been working on – yay me!

When I finished the novel I decided that I wanted to write a couple thousand word epilogue that I planned to include at the end of the novel that would tie up some loose ends. Well a few thousand words became am eight, and then ten, and then fifteen thousand word short story. And then the short story became a novella and right now it sits at twenty two thousand words that I wrote in January – yay me again!

So apparently, setting some goals and letting you all know about them has spurred me into writing – who knew?

I hope to release both books in the late spring. I’ll be following up with more information about them soon. You may be surprised that there will be some familiar faces appearing in those stories!

Crossing that Writing Finish Line

Two weeks ago, I posted a year end resolution about finishing a book I’ve been writing by December 31st. I knew it was a tall order, but I wanted to try. The funny thing is when I wrote that blog, I thought I had about ten to twelve thousand more words to go. Well, I’ve passed that mark and look like I actually need around twenty thousand words to wrap it up.

I wrote three thousand words today – not sure the last time I wrote three thousand words in a day, but I did it today, and I wrote twenty-five hundred yesterday…

I’ve got three days left to get this draft done and fingers crossed, I’m going do it!

Thanks to all of you who have been cheering me on. I’m almost there – I can see the finish line in the distance…can someone be there with a finish line flag and large glass of ice water?

A Writer’s Year END Resolution

Before the new year is upon us and I start spouting about resolutions, I am going to do something a little bit out of order, which is par for the course when it comes to my writing. I am making a plan for the remainder of this year. My goal is to finish the book I am working on in the next three weeks. It might be a tall order, but I’m going to see if I can do it.

Maybe if I put it out there in print for you all to see, it will push me to finish this book. This is a book that I started writing a few months ago as a fluke, and now I’m thinking it’s going to be reality. I’m still keeping the story a bit of a secret for now. I’ll let you know more about it once I’ve finished it.

I want to finish this book since I have invested myself in the story, but I also feel like I need to finish this book so that it can free me up to look at 2021 with a clean slate. As you know, I released the last book in my paranormal wedding planners series in October and I want to think about some new ideas for the new year. But not until I finish this book!

So my December, finish the year out (and the daggone book) resolution has been shared with you. Keep me honest, okay?

A Writer’s Early Christmas Surprise

Recently this writer got an early Christmas present. I found out that FOR WITCH OR FOR POORER, book 5 in the Paranormal Wedding Planner series came in second place in the Paranormal Category of the International Digital Awards.

Such a nice surprise. Book 5 is about Maeve and Tim. Maeve is such a fascinating character. She really started out as being quite broken when she was first introduced in book four – FOR BETTER OR FOR WOLF. As a matter of fact, she was not going to end up with Tim at all. But the more I wrote of her, the more she came to life for me, and I realized she would make a wonderful foil for Tim.

Tim is special to me because he really started as a secondary character when the series began. And when I first introduced him, he was a witch that didn’t like to practice magic. That idea fascinated me and became part of the conflict he faced in his book. Why WOULD a witch not want to use their powers?

I’m so happy that the judges felt a connection to Maeve and Tim as well. And I got to celebrate the holidays with my characters – Tim and Maeve were just as excited to hear about the final as I was!