Almost Time to Edit…Again

Well, that title pretty much gives away what this post is going to be about. I finished typing up Control Me, reaching just over 90,000 words. There is one problem though, I tend to add more than remove in my novels.

I find when I write I forget parts of sentences or I don’t fill in the blanks when it comes to describing scenes or parts. It’s the only downside of handwriting what I think of at the time.

Editing will resume soon, I just need to make sure I’ve taken a long enough break. I did do all the chapters, making sure that they were not too long. I like smaller chapters, easier to read. This, too, may change as I edit. I remember changing a lot with Murder Never Dies and Unknown Caller.

Once I get the first 10-15 chapters edited I will post them for free for people to download and get a feel of my novel. It’s not like any other I have written and I enjoy it, but I am sure most may not.

For now, I have been working on the sequel to The Selected while processing two other book ideas. This tends to happen a lot, I get many ideas, but I have to make sure I really want to edit or not. The sequel is going well. Most of the plot is starting to fall in place already, making it easier to write. The only problem is my work and health issue is making it difficult to stay awake once I am home.

I am 60 pages into the novel, which is a nice chunk. Some day’s I wish I was a full time writer with a schedule I created and had a room I could lock myself in that never let me get distracted. I’ll continue to dream.

Back to writing! I am in the mood to do it and have not done any yet…I am terrible. Next week I should be editing and should have Control Me up by the summer!

Word Count and Control Me

I didn’t feel like posting two small blog posts for two things that are both small. Update on Control Me will be my first topic. I am already 76k in, with more still to type. I think this will be my longest novel yet; which I cannot tell if that is a good or bad thing.

I also need to start getting a good little description for it to tell people what it is about. That part is the hardest for me. I tend to ramble. Alas, I need to think back to my schooling.

What I have so far:

What would you do if people were hunting you for your special abilities? What if you were the one to discover this?

Janet Clemmons was trying to get her Master’s Degree in Rhetoric when she gets offered a job to help the government. While working for the government she discovers that people are hunting for an object that can control people. As she continues to analyze she discovers that she is the object that is being hunted.

In order to help her the government assigns her a personal bodyguard that makes her travel the world to keep her safe, but that is not possible.

She is forced to use her powers to escape being captured causing her to do things she never wanted to do: kill people.

The more she uses her abilities, the more she is hunted. Arguing, fighting, and death are becoming popular in her life because of what she makes people do. Soon, she will have to make a tough decision to stop the hunt and end her having to murder people in order to live.

I hope it sounds all right. Once I find someone to edit my novel I can do more and get their opinion. I love this novel because it is not my normal style, but that topic is for another blog post.

New Year, Time to Write and Another Part of Control Me

Don’t worry, that is not my resolution. I never was a fan of them. What’s the point of setting a goal to last all year? Why not strive to be happy and do what you love? Well, and I have to learn to stop doubting myself. I have a tendency to think my writing is awful and I will never get published. No, I don’t have a fear of rejection, more a fear of being accepted. Maybe I will finally get over my fear and send out Query Letters. Hence the word ‘maybe’.

In regards to that, I plan to do what I have been doing for the past couple years: write a novel a year and type up a novel a year. Hope that I can do that. Writing is my hobby, but my passion. Plus, if I don’t get confident and published, lots of friends and coworkers will be angry about not going on any trips.

I do have to say, I was spoiled for Christmas. I got a lot of amazing writing gifts. I can admit this, getting anything like that makes me feel like a little kid again.

Favourite one is this:

All I am waiting for is the blue ink I ordered so I can write my novels with it.

But, seeing as I have gotten side-tracked, I will stick with what I had initially planned: posting a little bit more of Control Me. Remember, it’s not edited yet, but enjoy! One of my favourite parts:

I helped Jared fold up the tent and stuff it in his bag. We woke up as soon as the sun hit the tent. There was no chance we wanted to risk being caught while packing. “Do we need to pack up anything else?” I said to Jared as I did up all the clasps on my large bag.

Jared closed up his bag and put it on his back. “No, the tent was the last thing.” He grabbed his small bag and waited for me to get the bags situated on me so I was able to move with ease. “We’ve got to grab a train to an airport. It’ll take three hours.”

“Fantastic. Let’s get going then.” I began to follow Jared through the woods. As we walked we listened for the sound of footsteps. Last time we checked a group was close to where we were. Every twenty metres or so he would stop and signal for me to do the same. It allowed us to be safe and protect ourselves in case people were near. This particular pause was longer than normal.

“I think that there are people near us,” Jared said as he focused on listening to the area around us.

When he went to reach for his weapon I placed my hand over his to stop him. “Let me handle this.” My method was quieter. I stood against Jared as I listened to find where the people were hiding. Not being able to see the people would make it difficult to control them. I signalled to him that I needed to move closer. Don’t follow. I need to make sure I can run back and find you. I waited till he nodded in acknowledgement of my message before I began to make my way through the brush towards the direction of the voices we had faintly heard. There was a group of twelve discussing the plan to do the search of the area. Now the method of trying to incapacitate them at the same time was going to be tricky. Either they would all attack us after they revived if I just put them to sleep or I could kill them and not worry about them chasing us. I decided to do the latter because it was the best decision for Jared and me. All of them had weapons, which made it easier on me. All I had to do was make them go after each other like they were all enemies. I stood, hidden by the trees as I looked at the group, thinking of the thought I had created in my mind. Within seconds one man had pulled out his gun and killed the guy across from him. After that shot it was chaos. They all fired at each other, falling to the ground in agony. As the last guy fell I dropped my head and stopped thinking of the thought. The deed was done. I was a monster. I had killed twelve people by making them kill each other. I was a monster. I had killed twelve people. Not wanting to dwell on the facts, I turned around and walked back to where Jared had stayed hidden.

Jared looked at me with a concerned face. “What happened?” he said when I had not spoken a word to him once I returned.

“They’re dead, or dying.”

“How many?”

“Twelve.”

“The others will notice. We better start moving, and fast.” Jared started to jog, weaving around the trees. He could sense my dislike of what I had just done, but he had no time to console. Twelve people were dead and whoever they worked for would take notice. He knew that my decision was the correct one. “You made the right decisions even if it seems like you haven’t. I told you, the first time always is the hardest.” That was not at all that supportive, but it was all he could think of while navigating back to the train station.

“I hope it does. If not, I don’t know what I will do.” It was hard to keep up with Jared’s pace carrying a large bag on my back and carrying a smaller one in my arms. The death of those men should distract whoever sent them long enough for us to get on a train and head towards an airport.

“Another ten minutes and we’ll be there.” He increased his pace, not wanting it to be longer than ten minutes.

Control Me Preview

I haven’t had much happen in my life in almost a month. I have been busy working, Christmas shopping and preparing to go to two football games. One game involves me dying my hair bright green and blue, and painting my face. Will post some of those pictures.

Instead of ranting I figured I would post some of the book I am working on typing up, Control Me. Be warned, this is the typing up of the rough draft, I haven’t gone through to edit or make sense out of most of the novel.

Hope some people enjoy it, this is one of my favourite parts that I have typed up so far.

Cpt. Anderson saluted his superiors before he guided me to the chair next to where he sat down. His face was serious and he stayed quiet. Technically, he was not forced to attend this meeting, but he chose to for my sake or the sake of his superiors for he was unknowledgeable with how much power I acquire.

When I sat down I glanced at each officer before looking back at Cpt. Anderson. No one looked pleased to be here.

“Well, Miss Clemmons have you been briefed as to why we asked to meet with you?” the officer directly across from me said. His tone made me feel like I was less intelligent than them.

“Yes, I have,” I replied. For first introductions, this was the worst. It felt like each of the six officers were trying to see through me

“before we proceed with making a decision and meriting your proof, we need to see evidence.”

What type of evidence? I said to each of the people’s minds in the room. I had enough of their attitude.

“I’m sorry. What did you just say? The officer sitting beside me said.

Cpt. Anderson tried not to laugh. Since yesterday he had adjusted to me talking to him through his mind.

I asked you gentlemen, how you would like me to prove my abilities.

“Your lips are not moving,” the officer sitting at the head of the table stated.

I know. I am not using my mouth to speak. For being superiors they lacked imagination and intelligence towards something other than literature and facts.

“But, how?”

Cpt. Anderson put his left hand over his mouth to help disguise and resist laughing more. He felt my frustration that I was feeling because he was sitting directly next to me.

I am speaking to you through your mind. I can say anything to you this way.

All six officers stared at me in awe and confusion.

“Nope. I don’t believe you,” the officer that addressed me first said.

I sighed. It’s true. It would be best if you realized it now before I show you the next part. I assure you it will not be pleasant for you. Not that I was complaining about potentially causing harm to them. This was what I feared: disbelief. All I wanted to do was scream out of frustration. If I became angry it would spread to everyone. I had not properly worked on my powers to handle too many people, or designate each person a different reaction.

“Was that a threat?”

Yes, it was. I do not like when people do not believe me.

“And what could you possibly do to make that threat a reality Miss Clemmons?”

Glancing over at Cpt. Anderson I smiled. “Sad or angry?” I said to Cpt. Anderson.

“Sad, I guess,” Cpt. Anderson responded. Although, it was humorous to think of the men in charge of him getting angry for no reason, sadness was more of a proof of my abilities.

“Excuse me Cpt. Anderson and Miss Clemmons, what are you two discussing?” the officer beside me said.

You will see. I focused my eyes on the six of them and began to send out the emotion of extreme sadness. My body did not react as I pushed the feeling onto them. If I was using my ability correctly, Cpt. Anderson was not to be affected by the feeling.

Each officer’s eyes began to tear up before they started to cry.

Believe me now?

“How? Why? I feel so sad right now,” the officer across from me said. His eyes were red and puffy from crying.

I am making you feel sad. It’s a way to prove to you my abilities.

“Enough! I can say that we believe you now.” He wiped his cheeks with the back of his left hand. His cheeks were damp from tears he did not know why they were shed.

Within seconds I stopped sending them the feeling of sadness. My point was proven my abilities existed.

“Do you know how much danger you are in with a third of the countries trying to find you?”

“As you have seen and experienced, I am more dangerous than any of them,” I said. Instead of speaking to them through their minds I opted to speak aloud. “Emotions are only one aspect of what I can control.”

“You are a commodity that people will do anything to get a hold of. As you have analyzed, people have ideas with the use of you.”

It felt like I was to be disposed of like I was a threat to the country and world. Fear set in as I saw their faces. It was a mixture of concern, anger and no emotion. This was business, and I was their business. “So, what am I to do?” as the officers discussed me, I sat in silence and waited for a response. No other option but waiting existed for me.

After seven minutes all the officers returned their attention to me. “For now you are to remain here and monitor any new messages received from these countries involved. You no longer need to look at previous documents,” the officer across from me told me. “You will be supervised and escorted at all times. You are to keep your abilities a secret. Only the people in this room are permitted to have knowledge of your abilities and the full extent of them.”

What he told me was not difficult. The supervising and escorting aspect bothered me though. “Anything else?” The tone of annoyance was strong in my voice and I didn’t bother to try and hide it.

“You are to not use your abilities.”

That statement bothered me the most. My abilities were a part of me. There was no switch to turn them on and off. “I’m sorry, but that one I will not agree with.”

“You have no say, we are telling you that you are not allowed to use them.”

“I do have a say.” I clenched my hands into fists to try to suppress my anger.

Cpt. Anderson put his left hand on my right forearm. He gave my forearm a light squeeze. “Sirs, you cannot ask her to not use what is a part of her,” he said to his superiors in defense of me. He chose to remain silent throughout the meeting, but now he intervened for my sake. The majority of the rules were able to be respected. The last one was not.

“Did we ask for your opinion for Cpt. Anderson?” the officer across from me said. He was displeased with Cpt. Anderson for speaking out.

“No, sir, you did not. You are making a terrible decision assuming Miss Clemmons will agree to the rules.” Cpt. Anderson knew that I was able to leave at anytime, and then they would be unable to control me.

“No offence, gentlemen, but if you want me to stay then I get to deal with all the rules except for the last one. I had the decency and respect to inform you of my abilities. I could have let the people try to find me and invade Canada,” I said. What I said was the truth. How they came to have knowledge of my abilities was from me informing Cpt. Anderson. They were not in charge, I was.

“We will have to discuss this,” the officer beside me said.

“You have till lunch. If you do not agree to my use of abilities I plant to pack, leave and return home this afternoon.”

“Another threat?”

“No. As you should have realized by now I do not threaten. I warn before I act.”

“We will notify Cpt. Anderson of our decision at 1100. Dismissed.”

Cpt. Anderson saluted as he led me out of the room and down to his office. Once we were out of earshot of his superiors he looked at me. “Well played, Janet,” he said. It sounded like congratulation. As we entered the stairwell he held the door open for me.

“I did my best. They were difficult to convince.” I walked down the stairs beside Cpt. Anderson without him the meeting may not have gone as well. In my defence he stood-up for me, not wanting me to be taken advantage of. Thank you for helping me in the meeting. It was nice having support. Support was not a concept I embraced often.

He smiled, knowing I was able to decipher what it was about. Once we reached his officer’s floor he stopped me outside the entrance. “Even if they told you that you were not allowed to use your abilities, would you have listened?”

“No.” I smiled. My rebellious nature made me unsuitable for the army. Taking orders was difficult for me.

“Come, we’ll keep you occupied as we wait for the decision.” He held open the door for me before he began to lead me to his office. Even after several days of me working in the building, the people in uniform still gave me awkward looks. Most of them he caught and gave a look back. Civilian workers were not uncommon, but it was rare to see a new one without a connection to a person already working on base.

 

Keep writing everyone! Never give up on it!

When I Want to do Other Work

My mind is a pain in the ass sometimes. A couple days ago I was typing up Control Me and working on the sequel to The Selected and my mind had to distract me.

My mind decided to distract me with a new book idea. I only typed up two pages and am still trying to get a feel for it. I figured I would share my really rough draft of it to decide if I want to continue or not.

Here it is:

The lights flickered in the hospital hallway I stood in. Alarms, sirens, beeps and shouting surrounded me. As people ran past me they shoved me to rush to rooms. Paramedics wheeled people in covered in blood, burns or other severe injuries. Everything seemed to be a blur. No one took notice of me as I searched the halls.

“Anna! What are you doing here?” my mother came out of a room. Her scrubs were coated with blood. She was coated in sweat, her ponytail now frizzy and falling out. She took off her gloves and placed both of her hands on my cheeks.

“Dad called. Why is he telling me to go to Denver?” I said to my mom while I looked at her. This was my mom on a rough night at the hospital. She was an ER doctor and the occasional surgeon if needed. “He said I had to leave tonight. I packed what I could and came here to get you.”

My mother led me around the nurses and doctors station and into a small break room to talk. The commotion in the hospital and the power on the brink of going out was too distracting and loud. “Oh, honey. My sweet baby girl.”

Whenever she said that I knew that she was going to refuse and follow it by an explanation that will not be favourable by me. “Mom, you have to come with me!” I protested.

“I have to stay here and help.”

“Dad said he wasn’t going and now you! What am I to do?”

“You can do this baby. Dad and I have obligations. He is in the military, he has to fight and I cannot leave the hospital with all the wounded.”

“Then why are people not leaving if the threat has publically announced?”

“Most people think we are safe here in Canada because only the States have been attacked. Your father and I don’t want to risk your life like that. You must go. Denver only suffered a little damage from a nuclear bomb far away from it.”

“How am I to get there?”

“The car sweetheart. Now, getting going.” Her eyes were tearing up.

The door opened and a male wearing scrubs entered the room. “Diane, thank god you are here. Well, hello Anna,” the male doctor said to me.

“Hello Dr. Schmidt. How are you?” I said. However hectic and depressing the situation was I never forgot my formalities.

“Glad to see that you have not left. Are you going to Denver?”

“Yes, she is,” my mother said with a stern voice.

“Good. My son, Devon, is on his way here. I was going to give him my car, but if you are going I would like it if he could go with you.”

“Devon, as in the sophomore U of T student?” I said to Dr. Schmidt.

“Yes. He will be here shortly. I, too, want you both to leave as soon as he arrives.”

“Why don’t you go with him?”

“I am obligated to stay here, just like your mother is. He is all I have left and I want to make sure he makes it to the refugee camp in Denver. If nothing happens here, I am sure we will all make our way down there to meet you and him. I will tell him to meet you out by your car once he arrives.” Dr. Schmidt left without saying another word. He sensed that my mother and I needed more time alone.

“Mom, you have to come with me.”

My mom pulled me into her arms and started to cry. Her entire upper body was heaving up and down as she cried. “No, baby. I need to stay here. Dad knows I am here and I have to wait for him.”

I started to cry against her shoulder, not wanting to let go. I had turned 18 on May 8^th 2016, only two weeks ago, and now we were preparing for a nuclear war. A war that was started between the United States and North Korea, and Canada was getting stuck in the mix because of being allies with the United States.

“The longer you stay, the harder it gets. Did you grab the photo album I told you to grab?”

“Yes, why?”

“I made it for you.” She pushed me away from her so she could look at me.

I realized she had known about this potential event longer than I did. “How long have you known about this?”

“Only a few days. Now go!” She let go of me, crossing her arms at her chest like she often did.

I nodded, knowing that stance and look, even through her puffy, red eyes and tears on her cheeks. I left the room, crying hard, and ran towards the entrance/exit that I was to meet Devon at. My whole body hurt from the crying that wouldn’t stop.

My Problem With Nanowrimo

Well, my problem with any type of thing that requires you to write a novel in a small amount of days. Don’t get me wrong, I did partake in this last year, but I wouldn’t call my finished product a novel.

Problem #1:

Setting a high word count number to reach expecting every person to reach it.

Sure, if you wasted every free waking moment to writing, or most of your free nights you could do this. There is the slight problem of going grocery shopping, spending time with family, eating, cooking food and any other things that need to get done. Even working is a challenge.

I worked 40 hours a week and spent the majority of my free time writing just to complete the challenge a few days early. It was tough to do on top of everything else.

Problem #2

Letting your brain process what to write.

Sure, you want to write the first thing you think of, but this could make the editing process much longer than it has to be. Your train of thought could work in your favour because it could flow, other times it could be terrible.

You may need  to take a couple hours to days off to let your mind breathe and process. Overworking your brain is what creates writers’ block and exhaustion.

Problem #3

People only write during Nanowrimo.

I understand you want to focus on revising and editing that novel, but you won’t get faster at writing a novel without more practice. Practice helps and only doing it once a year is not helpful.

I find that I write more during the spring/summer where the days are longer versus the winter time. A novel is not 50k, it is more, normally. To be honest, I spend a couple months after the last Nanowrimo to finish my book because of how much more I had to add to make it close, if not over 80k.

If people focused on writing half as much as they do during that month, they would be surprised at what type of work they could accomplish. People find that writing during Nanowrimo makes them an author, but I think authors write year round, not during a challenge-yourself month.

 

I am sure there are more problems, but this was all I could think of. I don’t know if I plan to participate this year because I will be just finishing a novel before it and want to type up another one.

If you are doing this, be realistic. Write for the sake of writing and not because you think Nanowrimo is what everyone is doing. It is not a fad.

Some writers do a great job doing it. I, on the other hand, like to not push myself too hard while working full-time. Hope this doesn’t offend any loyal Nanowrimo writers.

Pushing Limits

I have this weird conception where pushing limits is a great thing. Not in every day life, but in my books. I am not always a mystery writer…I dabble in other styles too.

My books contain violence. Some of it is overdone, others it is just right. What I mean by overdone  is 1440. That book is straight violence. It is hard to read because well, it’s gory. It was a riot to write because it was something so outside my normal way of life and thinking. An escape to a place so much worse than here.

Not saying all my novels are like that. Most do have a strong-willed, tough protagonist. No, that is not me. Strong-willed, maybe, but not tough, or as brave as most of my characters.

Pushing limits in novels is what makes them interesting. Most banned books push limits by containing information that some people find controversial. Not every novel can please every reader. The world would be so boring and generic if novels did do that.

All right, the main reason behind this post is about the next novel I plan to self-publish and the one I am hoping to finish writing soon. Both these books are a little different than I am used to writing, and tend to push a lot of limits; which I tend to do with my writing. I will start with Control Me. No, it is not sexual, start off with that. It’s a little out of my writing comfort zone. That’s right, I have one of those. This particular novel is about a girl born with a certain skills most humans do not have. She can control people with her mind, change their emotions and talk to their minds. She is wanted by all different governments/people wanting power to use as a weapon. She basically is forced to flee the country and hide with a highly trained guy. That is basically the gist of it. Lot’s of fighting, evil people and arguing. Yes, there is sex, but if there wasn’t I would be beaten my friend Shawna…with my own writing book. She is good at knocking that type of sense into me when it comes to my books. I cannot say any more because I am typing up the rough draft and will still need to edit it. As you can see, not exactly for everyone.

Now, The Selected. This one is about 14 year olds that get selected to pretty much become assassins/spies. They train to kill and will train to seduce. I am nearing the end of the novel, and there will be bloodshed and changing of the main characters mentality. I am waiting to hear uproars when I do self-publish it next year. No one is safe because in training people will die. Can’t really prevent people dying when they have to train with real weapons, or I am little sick.

Now that I have told you what my two current works are about you can understand why people may not like them. Some people should, but who knows. To end my blog, I will tell everyone something funny my co-worker told some of our new coworkers. He told people I am crazy because I write novels and like to murder lots of people in them. Outcome, most of them avoid me, but still piss me off. Now I wonder if I yelled if they would be terrified of me. Hmm…time to ponder scary writing mind.

Off to be productive, or think about being productive.

Nearing an end

As always, well, not so much as always, but I am getting close to finishing The Selected. It is going to be a much shorter book, probably just over 200 pages typed up. I know, I know, clearly I have not rambled enough. I just feel like this book doesn’t need to be that long. I may add more, but I won’t be typing this book up till next year.

With nearing the end with this book I am thinking of the sequel. I know, bad, terrible, etc. I like these characters, and know that this book cannot be it. I want to do more with them, if I can do it. If not, the book is just fine on it’s own.

Also, I am back to work, so my writing amount has decreased. It is to be expected with the first few weeks because my body needs to adjust to working. It’s tough. I am exhausted every day I come home and am in pain. Soon, I plan to write to distract me and to prolong when I go to sleep.

Some people say finishing a novel is easy. I find it a little bit of both: easy and hard. It’s easy because I know where I want to take it; hard because I don’t like letting go of a book. You get attached to the characters. It’s weird because in real life, I don’t get clingy, just with my writing. The only difference between this book and any other one is that I probably won’t take a break between writing this one and the next one. I don’t know how many books will follow this one, but I doubt I will really take much of a break between writing them. Only time may be to type up another novel…which I should be kind of doing now. Ultimate procrastination.

Oh! This is what happens when you get writers block and want to procrastinate:

 

Not that great, but it works for me. It shows the basis of where the novel takes place in 2065. I am not good with graphics, but the logo works for me. It’s supposed to be a patch worn on a uniform. Don’t criticize me for my lack of skill to create this.

Time to go back to writing it. I am thinking I have about 10-20 pages left, depending how fast I want this to happen. Knowing myself, the action parts will happen fast. I hate too much filler. I admit, I sound like a broken writer. All right, enough rambling. Must write, then bed.

How I Self-Published and why

Someone asked me to talk about what I did in regards to the title. I chose to self-publish because I don’t want to spend hours working on query letters, reworking my manuscript over and over just to be told ‘No’. Instead, I chose to self-publish for myself, family and friends.
When it came to deciding if I wanted a paperback copy of my novel I chose LULU. A friend from university recommended it to me. I had to do all the formatting and cover design. This takes time. They do tell you suggestions, trust me, for those considering it, take it. This site also puts the novels up on Amazon.com and Amazon in the UK. Handy. Not many people will actually buy them or I just fail at properly marketing them.
These books were more for me to order in bulk and have family and friends buy them from me. It’s really nice to see my work in an actual novel.
Obviously with how the world is advancing today I chose to use a site for ereaders. I know a lot of people chose to use KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), but that contract is just terrible. You can only publish through there for 3 months. Not my thing. I am from Canada and our main ereader company is Kobo. I decided to go with Smashwords. They have a larger range and so far I have done quite well. Not well enough to quite my day job, but enough to make myself feel like a real author.
I do still dream of being professionally published someday, but this way I feel more comfortable. Unfortunately, some people will review it and be rude about the work because it is not “professionally done”. To me I just brush that off. Compliments are nice, but there are bad reviews too. Do not take it to heart. Not everyone likes all the popular novels.
If you chose self-publishing most would suggest that you have to spend more time marketing than anything else. Not my thing. I do join some free promotional periods so readers can read my book for free through Smashwords.
I hope this helped convince people about self-publishing. Another site to consider for paper copies of your novels is Createspace, which is through Amazon as well.
Read up on contracts, copyrights, distribution and fees. Research a lot and find what best suits you. Because of my want to self publish I put 3 novels up on both sites and will put up more as I type them up and write them. Do it more for yourself and those close to you. Be proud of your work. Well, back to writing I go!

Too Hot to do Squat

That is my mom’s line, not mine. Mind you, I do use it quite a bit. I have done some writing and finished knitting my first eReader cover. Yeah for me!

To go along with my writing theme of trying to help others know more about writing techniques I am giving another definition of what I use: flashback. Here is the definition, including more specific ones.

Flashback: is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial back-story. A character origin flashback shows key events early in a character's development. In the opposite direction, a flashforward (or prolepsis) reveals events that will occur in the future. The technique is used to create suspense in a story, or develop a character. In literature, internal analepsis is a flashback to an earlier point in the narrative; external analepsis is a flashback to before the narrative started.

Trust me, this is handy to use and a lot of writers use it. In my latest novel. Murder Never Dies, I start the novel with a flashback. This part is essential to the back-story and instead of writing another entire novel, or a hundred pages at the least I include some smaller flashbacks. Here is the beginning of my novel as an example:

Blood; there was lots of it. It was everywhere. It was all over me and the floor beneath me. I looked around the room, trying to recognize where I was. I tried to move my head, but it would not re­spond to my command. Something was wrong beyond my ability to see or comprehend. My eyes were all I had to allow me to figure out where I was. The wall I was facing was dull, except for when the lights which flashed or highlighted it. The colours and patterns of the lights looked like those from emergency vehicles. Red, then white, then blue and it repeated. Not in a set pattern. I knew the pattern: officer down, in need of backup. Worse call to get and whenever the call came through it required the patrol cars full sirens and lights. I knew that call all too well and in this case, the officer was me.

I tried lifting myself off of the concrete floor. My mind seemed to not be able to send these thoughts of movements to my nerves in order to get my body to react. I looked at the ground in front of me and all I could see was blood. Is that all mine? It could not be. I was not alone in the room. There was someone else with me. Someone else that had been hurt or killed. I looked up as much as my eyes would let me without going blurry or crossed-eyed and saw the body of a man. He was not moving. He—too—was surrounded by blood; which I knew was his. His face seemed familiar to me. I looked at his features. The dark, empty eyes; the long black hair tied back in a ponytail, matted with blood, sticking to his cheeks. The expression on his face was not of sorrow or of pain, but of anger: pure hatred. Whoever he was, all I could get a sense of was that I had killed him. Shot him with a gun not belonging to me. My hands seemed to not want to work for me at the moment. The place became even lighter, like spot lights had been aimed at the building to see who was or was not inside it. To see the dead man or me would be hard, unless people were high enough up off the ground and that may not have been enough to see us on the floor.

“Brady Oakes. Come out with your hands up! Release Detective Walden!” a man with a megaphone said slowly, boldly, so that I could hear him with ease inside the building.

Brady Oakes? The name of the dead man came slowly back to my memory. I had been investigating murders and he had been the prime suspect. Had I come here to stop him or had I been taken as his next victim? I looked at the dead man or Brady Oakes as he was known as. Confusion set in, my thoughts and memories were all a mess in my head. The noises outside worried me because I could not remember what was going on or what had transpired. All I could hear was the sounds of vehicles running, no footsteps or voices. I wanted to cry out for help, but my voice would not allow me. Am I dying?

“Detective Walden? Can you hear me?!” the man on the megaphone said.

I tried to yell ‘yes’ in response. It failed. Everything I had tried to do failed. There was a noise, which sounded like a door being broken into. Where? I was unable to see, or tell where it was coming from. The loud thud surprised me. I did not know if my body had reacted to it or if my mind was the only part of me that did.

“Get a paramedic in here! She’s still breathing!” an officer yelled out to the emergency personnel on the other side of the door when he had reached me.

I felt a presence of a small group of people near me. Something unnatural was happening. My body was reacting to the presence of one person in particular: a man. He had to have been out of my range of sight since his presence was barely felt.

“Detective Walden, can you hear me?” a paramedic said to me as he crouched down by my face.

I tried to tell him that I could hear him. Why can’t I respond to him? My mouth was moving to the response that I wanted to say to him. I wanted to tell him, but no sound was generated or moved from my vocal chords.

“She can’t talk! We need to get her to the hospital immediately!”

The paramedics, slowly and carefully, rolled me on to my back, placing a neck brace around my neck. They checked my vital signs and wounds as quick as they could. The total amount of noticeable wounds was seventy: a large and concerning number of wounds for any person to obtain and still be alive and breathing. “Let’s rush her! She’s lost a lot of blood and if she loses any more she won’t be conscious for much longer, let alone alive!” They lifted me onto the stretcher and rushed me out of the building.

“I will be there in a bit,” the man that had spoken on the megaphone informed the paramedics. “I’m all that she has!”

“I’ll let the nurses at the hospital know, Sergeant,” one of the paramedics said before he closed the ambulance doors, allowing my sight of the man to no longer exist.

The following chapter begins with: “Chapter 1: Two Years Later”.  If I did not do this at the beginning I would have to do this at the end. Flashbacks are a major part of this novel because it relies on the connection of a past case with a current one.

Next week I will think of another common writing aspect, unless someone would like to suggest me to explain one. This helps me remember what I learnt when I got BA. in English and Professional Writing.

Proud of my Mommy

This week I went to my mom’s for a change of scenery. I tend to do this more now that I am off because it helps me in a way. I read several books because my stupid pain pills make me all hyper when I should be sleeping. Only wrote a little; I feel like writing today so I can at least make up some lost time.

Now, no one laugh, but I am helping my mom out with her crafts by knitting again. Yes, I know how to knit, laugh all you want. I re-learnt in less than a day. We went to the little shop that hosts a lot of crafters, maybe to sell some things (we hope), or just to get their stuff out there. Here are a few of what my mom had displayed. She is working on ereader/tablet covers. I kind of am helping knit them. Hence kind of.

While knitting I told mom about my dream I have at least once a week about starting a Creative Arts Summer Camp for kids; primary focus is writing. She wants me to consider trying to do it because it would be something I would love to do and also something no one teaches anymore. To be honest, I learnt to write a novel by myself. Sure, you can get support, but no real lessons on how to start or what to do.

Enough of that idea/dream. Off to do a little bit of writing. Took my time to do this. It is amazing how one can do something to pass the time and turn it into something other people can cherish. That is why I love writing. I will blog again about why I hate writers that just want to write to get professionally published. Writing should never be about money making; if that happens, great, if not, one is still creating a work of art.

Hope everyone likes my mom’s work!

Murder Never Dies Completed and Ordered

It is finally done. Took long enough. I have ordered a bunch of copies and that’s that. I should be more ecstatic, but that will be once I get the copies. Even if it is self-published it is still so nice to see a book with my name on it and knowing that I wrote it.  Plus, that’s 80,000 words handwritten and then typed up. Brain=mush.

I have done the same thing I have done with my other two books: publish through lulu and smashwords. It’s nice having a print copy, but eBooks are everywhere and are now becoming a very popular medium. Took so much work to format them, but now I have set templates so that will make a little easier when I decide to do it for another book.

The book blurb can be found in my Books page. That way I do not have to paste it here when it is already on my blog. I updated it early this morning when I ordered copies.

All I know is it is nice that I can write freely and not force myself to edit. Now that it is done I can focus on writing my new book. Hopefully more inspirational blog posts will arise from this. For now it is just pure happiness that my brain can rest and no more typing is really needed to be done.

New YA Book

Oh my god!!! If I were a dog I would be running around in a circle for several minutes. And yes, that was far too many exclamation marks, so hate me all you want for it.

I have not written or even thought of writing another YA since I was a YA. This seems a little strange to me. No, I am not writing it because it’s the most sold age group for novels or because I want to be the next Suzanne Collins or Stephanie Meyer. I am writing this because for some strange reason this book idea came out of nowhere.

I am over 20 pages in, which is not much, but remember, I handwrite like I am an old woman. By now if I did not like the book I would stop. Instead, I am stuck in the debate of how many novels should be in this series. 2? 3? 4? It’s so tough. I am thinking four, but then I have to make sure I talk about the characters and what is happening and not jump right to the action.

For those of you that do not know me, I love action. Ok, fine, I also like getting to know characters too.

As you can tell, I am excited about having a new book idea that is sticking and so soon after completing both writing and typing up one. I do have to edit my other novel at the same time, but now I can dedicate some time to writing.

Trying to write two hours a night is tough, but I have to. Not for myself, sadly. I have a demanding friend, aka the sister, who wants to read as I write. So, lots of writing needs to occur.

All I can say is that it involves teenagers, violence, training, education and survival. Yeah! My style of novel!

Back to writing I go. Yippie! Oh, here is the novel that a friend chose for me to write in.

Even 7 year old me Knew I Should be a Writer

While at my Mom’s we found these old school reports. I read them and well, laughed. Thanks for the hint people. Took me till I was 12 to start writing novels. Jeez!

Here is term 1!

And here is term 2!

Hope all can read! If not, let me know and I will type out what it says!

Needs Motivation or Dedicated Writing Time

I understand that full-time writers are able to create a work schedule to write. Say 9-5, or something like. Whatever works for them.

Alas, that is not me. I wish I could do that, but, unfortunately, I have to work. Writing gets bumped back. And no, for those that wonder, I do not come home and write/edit till I go to bed. Half the time I am lucky to get to write for more than 2 hours.

Honestly, what happened to me. As a kid I could write all night. Now that I’m older I want to sleep a lot, or that is the whole health problem. That too adds to my lack of writing, damn health.

I am now wondering if I should force myself to write for 2 hours a night and make it a habit (except for my days off, then I can clearly write more). I have no clue if it will even help any. Some days I know I won’t be able to write due to pain, but I think it is worth a shot.

Motivation for working out was never a problem, but for writing, yes, it was a big problem. If I want a shot at getting publishing, hence the word ‘if’ I have to get back into a routine. I love routines. This should be simple…I hope.

Well, time to rest and hold my food belly. My aunt cooked an amazing meal, great times with the Fam, and my soon-to-be cousin-in-law as of this morning. Love when holidays have amazing news.

Oh yes, I will try to write. I can balance a book or laptop on said food belly. Time to instil the new routine as of tonight, if my eyes stay open. I hope everyone’s holiday was enjoyable and delicious.

Ideas and Books Never Planned Out in Advance

While checking my writers site thingy I discovered that people have their books entirely planned out. I mean every chapter has an outline.

Either I am a horrid writer or am just a different type. Nothing is set in stone for my books. Ever. Having that much planned out to me seems to be unnecessary and forced.

I get an idea, like everyone else, but I don’t force out the rest of the story before it has even evolved yet. It takes time. Sure, the main idea is there and some important features, but its not an essay.

I find that when people put so much effort into the outline of the book it looses touch with the readers and writers. When writing one would want to stick to the plan and not let it wander.

I say let it wander. Most book ideas come from my dreams. If anything important needs to happen with or in my story it would appear in my dreams, whether its daydreaming at work or sleep dreaming. Like the two books I am working on. One scared the crap out of me. Well, most do.

What I am saying is, if you are an anal person and cannot do anything unless it is strictly planned out, creative writing may not be easy for you. If some can do this, good for them. My opinion is that it would just ruin the flow of the book. Try just writing. It can work just as easily.

I always let books take me where they want to go. I suck at writing, but I can follow what things want me to do. Right now, they want me to relax my mind and write later tonight.

Book Idea and Editing

With every complete book I tend to go through a week lull. This is where I let my mind go free. Yes, I just considered my mind a separate entity.

I finished typing my book last Monday. It was just over 76k. A solid chunk of words in my opinion.

My editing shall begin tomorrow. The least favourite part of my writing. I hate editing, I tend to add more to the stories and that is never good. More is not always better, but it happens a lot to me. My last novel grew by over 3k.

Editing is important, it then allows me to self-publish my book. I like owning my own copy. No offence to some writers I know that just write to try and get a big publishing company to publish them, I like it for myself. So, editing is my next step, a long step at that.

Oh yes, what is this book idea? It seems that during my down week where my brain rests my brain wanted to create a new book idea. Right now I am trying to feel it out.

Book ideas come and go. In order to make sure it can turn into a novel, like Murder Never Dies, is by writing out a small chunk. This way I can get a feel for the characters and plot.  I have a couple novels where I get over 30 pgs. in and other novels take over my attention. It happens to writers…I hope.

Maybe it is just me. I can start books, but continuing them is the issue. I dabble a little with the one book I have been writing for a couple years as passing the time until other books become more important. This one is a little different. Surrounded by revenge. Not typical revenge though. More driven. There is nothing to gain. Just satisfaction. Well, thus far anyway.

I’ll give it a couple of days to see how I feel about it. I’ll let you guys know how it goes. Back to writing. Tomorrow is the beginning of editing. Busy days off ahead!

Ten Pages Away From Finishing Typing and I Stop

What the hell, right? Well…never mind I have no explanation.

Sure, I can blame being in immense pain, but I have had time since my Mom typed up some of my book for me. Lack of motivation? Nope, because I write. Distracted with Game of Thrones and Mass Effect 3 watching? Nope, Game of Thrones is finished and I can multi-task with Mass Effect 3 on.

What’s wrong with me? Nothing, out of the ordinary anyway.

Fine, I will tell the reason. Once I finish typing that means I will have to edit. And, when I mean edit I mean add a lot, take out a little and leave it for a couple weeks. Then I edit and then my brother will edit and another book will be done. After that I will start writing more to finish another book and have to decide what book next to type up.

See? The never-ending process of being a writer on the side. It’s madness.

It’s not like back in high-school where I had a class dedicated to writing in Gr. 12. That’s right, I had an entire class dedicated to creative writing and I loved it. Now that I just work all the time I am old and have to be in the mood to write and end up treating it like a second job that maybe pays me $100 a year.

All right, all right. I know I said I do the writing for me, but seriously, why can’t I knit like my mom and make something useful? All I could ever knit was scarves. And I have lost all my wood-carving skills that my grandpa taught me. One day I hope that returns.

Gr, you found out I went off topic. But, yes, hopefully tomorrow I will complete my typing. There, be happy everyone. I can just sense my brother going “Hurry up already”, even though I don’t think he reads my blog. And well, the hubby has the best approach, “Do what you want to do.” With that, I shall think of a new book idea…maybe.

I can sense another one, so maybe I will do a bit of that story, read a little and maybe work on a story that has been kicking around for 3 years that I just need to keep writing. I’m already 60some pages in, so the continuing of that is easy.

Back to being productive I go. Here is the new book cover for Murder Never Dies. The hubby helped me fix it to make it look better. Sometimes I keep him around for help.

Great Past 24 Hours With my Writing

Time to be all cheesy, but the past 24 hours have been great for my writing…and me too I guess.

Since I have become sick and taking painkillers my mind has been everywhere but on my writing. My grandma told me not to worry. She always has supported me and understands me.

Last night I decided to type up some more of my novel. It has been almost a week since I typed. Well, with the hubby’s encouragement to keep typing I have now moved on to the second part of the book. I handwrite so most of my novels take up two writing books.  As my current word count displays I am sitting at just over 53k words. My goal of over 80k should be able to be managed before editing. Yippie!

That’s not the best part of my writing day. Today I decided to go sit at Mahtay Cafe & Lounge. It’s a nice new cafe. Why did I go there? I went there for a change of place to write. I tend to get easily distracted at home, which is obvious for those that know us and our place. I managed to write over 5k words. That is a lot of handwriting in a sitting and I am damn happy. I plan to try to go there once a week to two weeks depending on how I feel.

This book has been giving me some massive writers block and seemed to never want to let go. Plus, I need to get writing more again. It is get help at distracting me and keeping me focused all at once.

Finally, good news with writing.

For those that are wondering about my experiment, I have had 22 people download the 10 chapter preview from smashwords. I am curious as to how much that number will increase once it is available on different sites.

Back to typing I go. I’m all giddy and no longer feel like torturing those that are reading this. But, if you have experienced this, let me know how it makes you feel. Does not have to be just about writing.

The Hunger Games

I was recommended by a younger co-worker to read this series. As I am reading, over 10 chapters into the first book, I realize that what is now seen as Young Adult/Teen has become more adult.

Yeah! Makes the reading more mature and well, the odd YA books I have written are somewhat acceptable.

But, here is my thing. We have books like To Kill a Mockingbird and even Harry Potter being banned, yet the idea of murdering other people as a game is fine. The world of literature is still confusing.

I have friends that try to give advice on how to become writers, famous and write something original. To me, this is all wrong. Every writer is influenced by something and takes a part of its influence and writes it into the book. It’s just the way it is.

There are some hints of what The Hunger Games is influenced by, but it does not harm the book; it improves it.

What I also fear is that people that are writing and want to get published are now going to copy from this book, just like the Twilight phase.

Books in a similar genre survive and will do fairly well. Books that are directly related/similar do not do so well. Why read a book about a book that already exists?

Well, back to reading I go. I am awaiting the phenomenon of what is going to arrive in my little self-publishing website after the movie is out. If anyone else knows of other books that try to copy popular series let me know.

As for my writers opinion, I still plan not to copy any books. Maybe an aspect, or a name, but nothing more.