The first draft of the final book of my Fool’s Path Series is coming along. It’s possible I’m still on track for a summer release…
Here’s a little teaser:
Once upon a time, this story wanted to be a graphic novel.
Hamal blamed Porrima. If he’d never let her into his apartment that evening; if he’d never allowed her to open her laptop to display Zibanitu waiting to speak with him, he might never had taken the simple mission of watching some plain girl. Underestimated. Underplayed. Underwhelmed. Underpaid. So many unders he could associate with everything that had happened since that day. Even the girls he’d met, the girls he’d used to distract himself from his growing attraction to the girl that could never be his had been under. Just like this mission. Underplanned. Underscouted. Undermanned. Un-FUBAR-able.”
Hamal is Dee’s first guardian; her mentor. A human among superior beings, he knows Dee will need more than the help he can give. But he can’t help putting his neck out for her, despite knowing that path will only lead to trouble.
Catching Balance is Book 4 of 4.5. Check the series page here.
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Did any of you participate in NaNoWriMo? I do. This was year three for me, and I failed miserably. Well, that’s not fair. I didn’t get many new words down, but I did flesh out plotting problems and sequencing. I don’t know if sequencing is a real thing, but in my world, it is.
Only this week, I’ve sat back down to write. The project I “worked on” in November is put aside for a project I worked on last summer. Apparently, this is my process. Like, I can’t just get it all out in an outline (as if I even outline) and then go. All the cool, fun scenes begging for release simply add up to a stack of muck I have to come back to and make sense of as they relate to a greater whole. Whether procrastination, lack of work ethic, or simply that my brain takes A LOOOONG TIME to deal with this, it’s become the norm. I get about halfway through a first draft, put it aside, go to something else, set it aside again, come back, put aside, etc., until I have a piece worthy of editing.
The first book I finished, and self-published, took two decades. Literally. Granted, stretches of years passed when I put aside the dream of completing a novel, but the time from inception to completion still stands. I didn’t realize that by taking so long with this first-ever project, I’d created a process (I may hate that word now).
I’d recently preached about how writer’s block isn’t a real thing. Sit long enough, type out enough bullshit, and you’ll find the flow. Writer’s block is just not feeling like it. It’s something toddlers say. Just work.
But this was not happening for me this November. So, I’m eating my words and thinking that, while writer’s block is not my problem exactly, maybe that’s what the phrase means. The soul-breaking abyss of the not-readiness of a project. The need for a story to marinate a little longer. Apologies to all of you I said were full of crap (unless you fall in the not working portion. No judgment. I just took five weeks off because I’d rather binge-watch Agent Carter and the last season of Flash and Arrow. Let’s just be real about it, though).
Finally allowing myself to step away from the blank pages that, for days, taunted me, I reset my sights on another project. This reacquainting with something I hadn’t looked at in at least six months was what allowed me to accept the marinating truth; the truth of my process (insert vomit sound). The same issues I struggled with in November on that project were what had me scrap this one. Those issues have evaporated after the time away. It’s made for a lot of rewrites, cutting, merging of characters, but it’s flowing like–well like things that flow unheeded. I hope this same occurrence will settle over the blank pages of November’s file.
View from my current writing “desk” where my fingers have found the ability to fly across the keyboard once again.
I’m currently in my last days in Central New York. We’ve raided my baby sister’s new house long enough. Sister number three visited last weekend, and it was serendipitous we were still here. So great to see her (it’s been two years), and since we were supposed to be back in Florida before Thanksgiving, it was especially fortuitous. My point is, an early Christmas wrecked my writing schedule, but maybe that’s okay. I’ve written almost 20,000 words in two and a half days. I deserve a cookie. Or a candy cane even, except I’m trying to refrain from all the junk food in this span of a few days between gatherings and traveling when my willpower will fall into the negatives.
Hmmm… I think my point has gotten away from me. Typical.
Whether or not you’re trying to get things done and failing this time of year (let’s be honest, if you’re doing it and doing it well, it will only make us feel bad about ourselves 😉 ) maybe that’s okay. At this rate, my five weeks off won’t accumulate to much lost time. Either way, whether you’re showing up and succeeding, showing up and failing, or just allowing yourself to binge on tiny ginger men, heated cups of chocolate, and peppermint sticks, Happy Holidays 🙂 The writing will be there when life settles.
Find me on Instagram and Goodreads. Share your favorite books and writing anecdotes here or there 🙂
On my Instagram page, I try to post a weekly #writerwednesday, highlighting an indie author I’ve read. As an indie author, I like to think our community can help each other simply by passing along the existence of each other. Writers are the best market for books since we all seem to read as insatiably as we write 🙂 Knowing how difficult it can be to find an audience also makes us (well, me anyway) more inclined to pick up a book with only a few reviews. I’ve found many excellent reads this way.
I neglect this website and in an attempt to rectify that, I think I’ll post these #writerwednesdays and #fridayreads and #firstlinefridays and #motivatemondays here as longer posts. As this first Writer Wednesday to grace the pages of my website, I think I’ll just go back over some that I’ve already highlighted.
Records of the Ohanzee was a series I found as soon as I became a part of the #boostagram and #indieauthor community on Instagram. Rachel R. Smith’s feed is full of beautiful books pics, so her feed is great to follow for that alone 🙂
Nighthawk was the first indie book I ever read. I was thoroughly impressed, and it forced me to put aside the weird vibe I had about indie-publishing. Marie Francis (now Marie Ventris) showed me that indies can write great books and gave me the motivation to complete my own writing projects 🙂
Fir Lodge is about a topic I am not brave enough to tackle, but that I absolutely LoVe-TIME TRAVEL! It’s written in my favorite third-person omniscient, which the community at large says not to use but I disagree with 😉 And TiMe TrAvEl!! A great plot twist has me excited for book 2 🙂
The Hashna Stone is more middle grade-ish, but I didn’t like it any less because of that. Classic fantasy with a massively flawed MC I loved to watch grow with a female badass we should all wish to be as cool as. I found Ms. Anna Fox after polling Instagram for indie books to read.
Nicola Rose has become a friend. We critique each other’s work and instill some motivation and hope when the light at the end of the long, dark tunnel seems impossibly grim. Her love of bad-boy romances has leaked onto me, so I’ve since become a reader of romance as I never had before. Her Possessed series starts with Possessed by the Devil and it’s everything great about Supernatural with the addition of a heap-ton of lust.
Author C.M. Martens 