A.E. Jones's Blog, page 8

I’ve Written “The End” but it’s Far From Over

I am so very excited to announce I wrote “The End” to my sixth and final paranormal wedding planner book, Till Demon Do Us Part! Yahoo!

The funny thing is, that for a writer, the end isn’t the end. You see, I have beta readers reading it and then it will go to my editor for not one, not two, but three edits. Yep, you read that correctly. Then it goes to my proofreading editor after that. And I also send it out to advance readers as well.

As you can imagine, I’m doing a mini celebration right now since this book is far from done.

But that is the nature of the writing business. At least I’m over one big hurdle.

And the book should be heading out to readers late October. I can’t wait to share McHenry’s story with you all!

Less Words is Not Less Work

I have been working away on my sixth and final paranormal wedding planner book. When I wrote book one, I thought it was a clever idea to start each chapter with a wedding tip. And it was, a clever idea that is. But then I got to book two and I put exercise tips at the top of each chapter since the heroine was a health instructor. Then book three came along and the heroine was a lawyer – so law tips graced each chapter header.

Book four? The heroine was a psychiatrist, so counseling tips showed up. Anyhoo, you can see how this clever idea has been slightly cumbersome.

You wouldn’t think that would be the case – it’s just a few words right? But those words need to somehow relate to the story and the chapter. Needless to say, the book six headers are still a work in progress. And it takes much more time than it should for a few words. But then simple words aren’t necessarily simple to produce.

And  I’ll remind myself when I come up with my next clever idea, that I have to carry it through a series

Writing is Like a Puzzle – Who Knew?

As a writer there are times when the words come easily and many more times where the words are harder to form. In some regards, writing is like a puzzle. Some pieces snap together quickly while others you try to put into multiple places only sigh when they don’t snap together.

Case in point. I have been trying to figure out a way to move my story on to the big bad moment. I know where I want to go (sort of) in that big bad moment, but I have to link it to what came before – plug that puzzle piece in so that the story flows together.

And I struggled about it for DAYS. Finally I was talking to one of my writer friends and told her I was stuck, so she brainstormed with me for a bit and made a suggestion that, while it didn’t work exactly, it opened my brain to a different possibility. And I got to writing again.

I flipped that puzzle piece upside down and saw that it did fit, I had simply been looking at it the wrong way.

I think that analogy works for writing and many other aspects of our life. Be open to looking at things from another perspective.

A Writer’s New Casual Dress Code

I’ve been working from home for over two months now. The first week I was home, I actually dressed in my work clothes and sat in my home office and worked. I thought it would keep me focused on my job.

After that? Well, I decided it was too much work and I stayed in my pajamas. Yep, I pretty much have been living in my pajamas for two months. So much so that I walk to my mailbox in my pj’s, take my garbage out in my pj’s, talk to my neighbors in my pj’s. You get the idea.

My neighbors find me amusing (or maybe they have a stronger word for it but don’t say it directly to me), but I’m okay with that. They all know I write books about vampires, demons, witches, etc, so I’m thinking wearing my pajamas outside is pretty tame in comparison.

I told my one neighbor that I could get dressed, but that would more than likely be a t shirt and a pair of yoga pants – if you think about it, that isn’t too far from pajamas, is it?

I think of my new fashion sense as adapting to my life for the time being, just like my writing style and process changes depending on what is going on in my life. Right now, it’s a slow paced writing style, but it’s what I can handle for the time being – kind of like fuzzy socks and pj’s in the middle of the day as I walk to my mailbox…

When an Author Goes Stir Crazy

So this past week was hard for me. I’ll admit it. Quarantine had final pushed my buttons, and I was feeling stir crazy. Maybe it had to do with the ridiculously cold and snowy (yes, snowy) weather we continue to have. Last time I checked, Mother Nature, it was May…

Anyhoo, since I’ve been cooped up in the house without my walks to help me, I finally said enough! How did I handle it? I cleaned my entire house, sorted through all of my closets, cleaned my garage, organized my filing cabinets, shredded old bills for HOURS. (Honest, I overheated my shredder at least 5 times.)

I even baked cookies, which hasn’t happened in years.

Me not sitting down the entire weekend helped burn off some of this energy. I also found time to write as well.

And speaking of writing, feeling like you’re in a pressure cooker can happen as an author too. So you have to find ways to relieve that stress. You can sort, clean, and organize those plots too! Hopefully your story won’t end up in the shred bin…just the parts that you don’t need. That’s what editing is all about!

A Writer Living with Rotten Cats

Rotten cats – yep, you heard me right. Now that I’m in my house twenty-four seven, my cats have decided that this is the way it should be from now on.

They expect to be petted – while sitting on my lap of course. Brushed with these cool gloves I bought a while back – thank goodness I bought TWO gloves so that I can brush them at the same time. You can’t brush one without brushing the other or pandemonium ensues.

And they talk to me quite a bit now, like I should understand what they are meowing since I am home all day with them.

Since I’m working from home, if I get up from my work chair during the day, they fight over who gets to sit in my chair until I have to shoo them out of it. If I could get them to do my actual work, I would be all set!

And that goes with writing as well. It doesn’t surprise me that almost all of my stories have a cat or cats appear quite prominently in the plot. It’s hard not to when one of my real life cats is perched on my lap while I’m creating my paranormal worlds…

 

A Writer’s Guide to Shaking Things Up

Sometimes in life we need to shake things up. And in the world we live in right now, that is really hard to do. So I’m finding small ways to do just that. To ultimately make myself feel that I am not in the same rut whether in my day to day life, or my writing world.

So this week, instead of donning bunny ears on my walk, I put on my monster hat. It made me feel good and I got some smiles from my neighbors on the way.

As for my writing, I decided to shake things up as well. I’ve been struggling a bit and a good writer friend told me to try writing another story for a while. So I listened and started a new book. Not sure what exactly will happen with it, but it is something fresh and new and my psyche needs that right now.

Once I spend time in that world for a while, I’ll head back to my wedding planner stories. And I’ll keep finding ways to shake things up in my day to day.

Hope you do the same!

A Bunny for Your Thoughts

On Sunday I decided to celebrate my own kind of Easter or welcoming of spring. Why not? We’re living in a new normal right now, so I wanted to find a way to smile and hopefully make others smile too.

So when I went out for my walk, I donned a pair of pink bunny ears and headed on down the street. Greeted my neighbors and got a couple of double takes and several smiles. Mission accomplished.

I guess the same could be said with my writing – embrace the new normal. Not only in reworking the story right now by inserting some scenes at the beginning, but also embracing that I might not be able to write at the same speed as I normally do. And that’s okay too. I might be moving at a saunter instead of a jog with my story, but I’m still moving forward so that’s what matters.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll put a new hat or wig on for my walk. I have plenty of Halloween costumes to recycle. We’ll see if the mood strikes me!

Stuck in the Middle

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been telling stories, sometimes the writing path is not a straight line. Case in point – my current story has been a slow go lately. I’ve been struggling with where to go next.

This weekend I took a step back – a big step back actually and started reading it from the beginning. And I came to the conclusion that part of the reason I am stuck right now is that I am too far along in the story.

What the heck does that mean you might ask.

Well, what it means is that I am at a point in the book where it feels like the middle, however I haven’t written enough of the book to be at the middle yet. So I am actually deconstructing things a bit. I am adding scenes earlier in the book so that I can build it out so the middle really is the middle. Make sense?

If not, hopefully it will when you actually get to read the finished story!

 

 

A Writer’s Small Victories

In my last blog I talked about how my attention span has not been the best as of late. So I decided this weekend to do things a step at a time – small victories if you will.

So I…

Cleaned my house – check.
Cleaned out the ridiculous number of emails in my mail box – check.
Helped a writer friend with some plotting – check.
Went for a walk – check.
Wrote some of my book – check, check, check!

Each thing, while not big, was still a mighty victory in my mind because I accomplished something.

And even when some things didn’t go the way I planned, that’s okay too. Case in point – as I mentioned earlier, I cleaned my house. With cats, this means sweeping the floors and the furniture.

My girl cat has one spot on the couch that she has claimed as hers. Which means I have to spend a lot of time cleaning it. After twenty minutes of sweeping said couch, I decided to put a towel on her spot to see if that would help with the constant cleaning.

As you can see from the picture, initially I claimed this as a victory since she plopped down on the towel and didn’t bat an eye. Yahoo! However when I got up the next day and walked out into the living room, I found her on her spot minus the towel which had somehow mysteriously ended up behind the couch on the floor.

Oh well, that might be considered a defeat by some, but at least I tried, right?