Tag Archives: writer’s life

My Process

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I was all set to start releasing my new Dark Fantasy series, CLAIMING KRINKAE, when I changed my mind to wait to finish writing book 2 for a rapid release. Then, I started writing books 3 and 4 and waited some more. And then, I went back and rewrote the front 30% of book 1. You’ve seen it. Claimed by Shadows had a cover reveal over a year ago…

Apparently, my process is to start something, get about 3/4 through a first draft, go away to another project, and repeat. I do, eventually, come back around to finishing, but sometimes a year or more goes by. I keep trying to rectify this by adding clear deadlines to my calendar, with realistic word count goals that will get me there. It has helped, but I’m still all around the multiverse with my focus.

Once a draft is finally completed, it gets put aside to marinate while I complete the other drafts I started. When those are finished (sometimes closER to finished, but not quite), I go back to edits on project 1, and around and around and around. This might not be so bad if I didn’t have nine projects working. Yes, nine. Five Krinkae novels, two Magic Fade books, the final book in Rishi’s Wish, and an unnamed novel I swear will be a standalone (no, I will not promise this as fact). And that’s not all of them. There are more stories traipsing for attention in my head, many with significant word counts started. These nine are just the ones I’m ‘focusing’ on. Yeah, focus is a word I need redefined. I know.

So, while 2022 had zero published books come from my little slice of reality, it looks like five will release this year.

Part of this focus problem was my indecision to publish my YA Fantasy traditionally. Deciding not to do that has brought that project back to the top of the pile. I’m super close to a published draft I’ve finally decided to title MAGIC FADE. Keep a lookout for that four-book series to start releasing this spring… (you can sign up to be an advanced reader and get it next month here).

I know we all want that final book of Rishi’s Wish to come out. Don’t worry, Dee will get her ending. I bit off more than I could chew with my Dark Fantasy Saga. It all started because I just wanted to see if I could write a romance novel. It is the largest money generator in the publishing world, and indie authors do super well publishing in that market. Of course, I’d want a piece of that. But I can’t do something simple. My idea of merging Warcraft with Prythian turned into a multiple-character saga whose surface story spans a hundred years. I won’t even mention all the side stories spawning organically from this adventure… Let’s just say the undertaking is a lot more than I planned for. Five books to start off the main attraction, with at least three to take it to the end. And because the characters’ stories are so closely tied, I had to ensure their overlapping paths were cohesive and correct. Hence, writing four books at once.

Through all this chaotic excitement of jumping universes, plotting has become a friend of mine. Do I still struggle with vomiting thousands of words I have to edit extensively because I just let my unconscious brain take over? Yes. Would plotting have sped up the writing process on all of these projects? Also, yes. Like so many things, the practice is in the doing. In my life, that’s how it works. And I think it is working. It’s been a few years, more than I wanted, to get all these ideas to pages and in your hands, but things happen in their time. I hope you’re half as excited about all these new books as I am!

Happy Reading!

CMM

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Reflections on Reviewing Novels

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Buried within this reflection on my reviewing practice is a review for the novella: The Curse of the Owl by Qatarina Wanders.

There’s this in-between where I often struggle with reviews. It’s important to me to maintain a steady level of integrity. I’ve lost a few fellow indie authors’ support by offering 3 stars instead of the 4-5 stars they seek. I think there’s some kind of unspoken agreement about that, but I just can’t abide it. Especially when giving 3 stars is already a reach. I want you to come here, see what I had to say about a book, decide to read it based on that saying, and trust I was honest. If you go into a book and find I over or under-stated, you won’t come back and see what I had to say.

I don’t know if readers don’t consider books rated under 4 stars. I will. Three stars to me means: good book, worth it. 4 stars is great, and 5 is couldn’t put it down, stuck in my head, changed my life kind of story. Sometimes I’m a little looser with the last, but all of this means 3 stars is still a good book. All that said, I understand that’s not a view everyone holds, so sometimes I go 4 if I’m hovering at 3+.

This is something that happened with my recent read. The Curse of the Owl starts with pages of info dumping. Paragraphs of explanation between single lines of dialogue. I recognize it because it’s a thing I’ve just learned not to do (in that, I have done it, and now recognize to not do it). It’s also a point I find with many indie authors doing it on their own (of which I am one. I don’t have the budget for legit editors, so I make do with reader feedback and numerous go-overs). My point: indie books are often published sans the final few edits. This doesn’t make them bad books. It definitely does not mean the stories aren’t good. It just means the ratings are always there, which doesn’t mean they’re not worth reading.

For The Curse of the Owl, I left this review:

This fast read is fun and interesting, with a unique take on the supernatural world I am curious to learn more about. With a pair of kick-butt protagonists, I found the stakes real and relatable. There is definitely enough here to turn into a full-length novel. While I found the front 40% a great heap of info dumping, the action sequences through the back half were exciting and page-turning. This novella seems a great set-up for the main series I have added to my TBR.

I understated and over-stated, just a little, all the things I said I wouldn’t to maintain a level of integrity. If I wasn’t reviewing this for a service, I would have put it down in the first few pages. That thought alone should warrant this short book unworthy of 4 stars, yet that is what I gave it. The ending did pick up. It was exciting. There were multiple cool action sequences. It’s a prequel to a series about the daughter and niece of the characters told here. Like so many indie books, I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted more. I wanted everything to get developed and told, not just washed over.

Happy Reading 🙂

CMM

Review: Babel, by R.F. Kuang

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Speculative Fiction, YA Fantasy

3 Stars

What a unique book this was in so many ways. I’ve never given more than 1 star to a book I didn’t, technically, finish. Honestly–probably–if the library hadn’t been about to take it back, I would have read it more leisurely and maybe not have been so bogged down in the following points.

Here’s what happened:

There is so much nerdy goodness in this book I absolutely love. Unfortunately, it was dispersed amongst the “real” story I found distracting from this talk of entomology and its uses and function within the magic system. Then, as I got into the real account, I’d be bumped back into the scholarly. While I liked both aspects of this book, I didn’t like them together. I was bored. Looking back at the first 30-40% at the halfway mark had me wondering why we needed so much to get us to this point. I wished for a story about the evolution of the word pairings only, or on the other side, a drama about Oxford students amidst colonial and social strife. Both aspects of the book were equally extraordinary. I can’t say that I’ve read a book that so nuanced the multifaceted psychology of those of underprivilege and those with. Each of Kuang’s characters perfectly highlighted an aspect those of us who can’t know too easily skip when contemplating the nature of existence from another’s perspective. And yet…

Like The Secret History, we follow a group of “friends” thrown together by their shared collegiate aspirations. At least in Babel, we’re given a clear picture of events, how they transpire, and why. Using the third person versus the single first-person telling of the former helps to provide us with more depth and breadth, which I appreciated much more than Tartt’s novel of similaresque theme. Yet, I enjoyed History more, which really has to do with my previous point of this meshing of too many things.

At about 65%, I skipped to the end and read the epilogue. This was enough to satisfy me, so I felt I could say I read this book. Despite my (basically) DNFing this book, I can’t give it less than three stars. There really was so much good. I think I was just too impatient to settle in with it all.

Has anyone had a similar experience with this book or any other? I’d love to hear about it.

Happy Reading! 🙂

CMM

C.M. Martens’ Favorite Books

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It definitely helps to know someone’s tastes when following recommendations, so I thought I’d put up some of my favorites. It was way harder than I thought to narrow this down. There are way more books on this page than I meant there to be…

Top 10

In no particular order:

  1. The Name of the Wind (Book 1 of the Kingkiller Chronicles) by Patrick Rothfuss
  2. Dune by Frank Herbert
  3. Hero (book 3 of Epic Saga) by Lee Stephen
  4. Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio
  5. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  6. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
  7. Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
  8. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
  9. The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
  10. Blood Song (Book 1 of the Raven’s Shadow Series) by Anthony Ryan

Almost made the top list

  • House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  • Evo Nation Series by K. J. Chapman
  • The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
  • Echo Series by Kent Wayne
  • 14 by Peter Cline
  • In Her Name Series by Michael Hicks (especially book 5)
  • The Host by Stephanie Meyer
  • The Legion & the Lioness by Robert D. Armstrong
  • Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
  • The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard
  • Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  • Wyvern by A. A. Attanasio
  • The Dragonian Series paired with the Moonbeam Series by Adrienne Woods
  • Stain by A.G. Howard
  • Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Huge fan of:

  • Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs
  • First seven books in the Anita Blake Series by Laurell K. Hamilton
  • Anne Rice
  • Science Fiction
  • The Arthurian Saga by Mary Stewart
  • The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning
  • The rest of the Dune books, including everything his son wrote
  • A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (though I almost threw the last one)
  • Geodyssey by Piers Anthony
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  • Nighthawk by Marie Frances
  • Supernaturals: A Ghost Story by David Lynn Goleman
  • Xenogenesis Series by Octavia Butler
  • S. by J.J. Abrams
  • Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
  • To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

I’m not a fan of:

  • …Brandon Sanderson books. I typically find them dull, though the concepts are always fantastic. I think I’ve given 3 stars to every book of his I’ve read, except the first Mistborn book which was a 4 star. So, I guess it’s not that I’m not a fan, I just don’t love him like everyone else I know…
  • …Stephen King. Not even The Dark Tower Series. So many words for no reason, though I did enjoy Misery and Pet Cemetary.
  • …The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Sorry, Scott. I just don’t *shrug* Maybe because I’d already read Anita Blake and just couldn’t do another supernatural cop-mystery-who-done-it series? Maybe I’m just sexist when it comes to this kind of book…

Books I re-read over & over

  • Dune
  • Enemies by Tijan
  • Made of Steel Series by Ivy Smoak
  • Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning
  • Stain by A.G. Howard
  • The Burning Series by Evan Winter

Your Thoughts

I’d love to hear your comments on any of the above 🙂