What’s in the works…
If you’ve been following along on The Crooked Halo Series and L. M. Schukraft – Author Facebook pages, then you’re pretty up to date on what’s been going on with Locked Out’s release date as well as what other writings I’ve been hinting at.
To bring readers up to date, I was this close to releasing Locked Out and had even set up a sign up for ARC’S to be sent out and reviewed. That went really well! I got a decent response and the feedback/reviews were mostly 4 or 5 stars which is the most any author could hope for!
But! The errors! Oh, my, I couldn’t believe that I sent out an ARC with that many typos in it. Some I don’t even know how they happened with apostrophes randomly showing up and I can’t even….
And I wasn’t sold on the cover that I had spent ages creating and fighting to get to fit the publishers guidelines.
Then life and the holidays hit and the brakes were stomped hard on getting Locked Out published by when I had really hoped to. I decided to hold publishing it until I could go over the last copy one more time and catch as many typos as I could. I also was bogged down trying to figure out how to trim 100 pages because there was quite a price jump to publish it. I want to try to keep the price range to $15 or less .
Weeks have gone by now and I’ve managed to go through and catch a bunch of little typos here and there in Locked Out. Then I finally figured out a new cover because the original one was too faded on the print proof I received. I’m definitely liking how I re-worked the cover. I can’t wait to see the next print proof.
Another thing I’ve been dealing with is a hip injury. I’ve torn some part of my hip joint area and it’s messed up muscles and tendons which means sitting, walking, standing, any of those things we take for granted, for any length of time and I’m in large amounts of pain.
I recently had the sobering moment of finding out just how much the injury has affected me. I had to hurry to catch something and I attempted to run only to find out I can’t. I literally can’t make that leg work for running. I wound up skipping, hopping, limping as fast as my body could. That was quite eye-opening to realize and scary too. Anyways, dealing with this injury and many other things has sucked up my time and my creative muse. She fled and left me completely bereft.
It’s only been the last couple of weeks that my creative side has started to open up again. I’ve missed it, I won’t lie. I went through a time when reading, writing or even watching movies or TV just lost their sparkle for me.
Of course, now that my muse is starting to get back to it, I’ve got about 5 different things I’m trying to manage.
I started the illustrations for the children’s book I want to write and illustrate. I’ve got about a quarter to a half of the images drawn. The hard part about getting these created is keeping my son entertained so he doesn’t try to draw a castle or train on the page I’m working on.
As I mentioned above, I’ve redone the cover for Locked Out and I’ve gotten to chapter fifteen for fixing typos and what not. I’m really hoping I get these edits finished this week or the next and maybe be able to get Locked Out published by the beginning of May.
I’m writing a young adult re-telling of a fairytale. I’m on chapter 7 and am excited for this story. I got stuck for a few days on how to put a twist to the classic tale then it hit me all at once and I’ve got this great plot idea that might turn out to be a 7 or 8 book series instead of the short young adult novel I was expecting it to be!
For my Crooked Halo fans, don’t panic! Book Two is still waiting for me. I’ve got it started but my other writings are overpowering Crooked Halo for just a tiny bit longer. Once I get Locked Out published and this young adult book finished, I will be all over Book Two.
The same goes for the second book in Rebuild. I’m trying to set up a schedule that allows me to work on getting Locked Out ready to be published, the children’s book illustrated, and the young adult story written but my toddler throws my schedule off on the daily as well as the pain from the hip and a number of doctors appointments. Three times already, while I’ve been trying to type this blog post and proofread it, I’ve had to go scary mommy voice demanding five minutes to finish it without my son trying to use my body as a slide.
Stick with me, folks, I’m determined and motivated to finish all of these and know it will be worth it!
(Oh, lord, my son made that painful to type and proofread because – of course! – he had to have my attention right this minute! Calgon….take me away! 
