Back in the Saddle

So today I am finally getting back into the saddle. I am trying out StoryBook (the free version) with my current WIP. After I have used it for a little while I will review it here.

I am working on outlining and hope to get to putting down some words soon. I have a start for the first chapter - but it needs a little polish.

Since this is my first ever middle grade project I am also doing some research. I checked out some books from the library that would interest my target audience. Check out may currently reading shelf of GoodReads to keep track of what I am reading.

I have also had a few idea's for blog posts. Hopefully I will have a chance to get those written soon. But for now it is on to writing fiction.

What are you working on today?

Validation and a Quandary

So... my goals have kind of fizzled out a little. When I get back to writing, reading and critiquing - I will update my goals and start fresh.

Validation

I know it is kind of a no-no to blog about rejection. However, I am going to do it.

Tuesday I received a rejection letter from Shadow Mountain publishing. And I was excited. (I know what your thinking and my husband agrees with you. I am completely insane.)

I am excited because I got a response. And I feel a little more validated as a writer. The good news is I am totally motivated to submit to the next publisher. Yeah!

Quandary

I started re-outlining Three of Ivory and I really like where it is going. But I have this other idea floating around in my head that is kind of exciting. I don't like to abandon projects (hello! I hung on to Shadowed Stones for 10 years!). But I also think that I need to be more flexible and not lock myself into one project. Mostly because I think that was one of the reasons why Shadowed Stones took me so long.

My plan is to work on both of them at the same time. I haven't done that before so I am not sure how it will work out. But I want to see if I can do it.

What do you think? Should I work on both projects? Or just go with one of them?

Shadowed Stones Query Letter

So I just had a break through on the query letter for Shadowed Stones. At least it feels like a break through to me. Here is what I have so far:

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Fate has set Lyni on a course that will bring her face to face with her darkest fear - the lose of her human will.

Lyni's father takes her to the hall of his master - the dark wizard Feldon. There Feldon learns of her powerful magical abilities by invading her mind. Desperate to control her Feldon slowly begins to wear down her resistance. Eventually Lyni succumbs. Unable to resist his commands Feldon uses Lyni as a weapon in his campaign for power. Until Lyni breaks free of his control and flees.

Lyni remains hidden and save for many years. Then Garren, the second son of the King, finds her. Together they embark on a quest to bring and end to Feldon's reign. Lyni must overcome her own self doubt and fear if she is ever to be free of Feldon's shadow.

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What do you think? Too dramatic? Would you read it? Please feel free to be brutally honest with me.

Success

So cramming paid off! I have some better-than-I-hoped results to report today. I hope you are all finding success. Okay, here's the low down:

• Three of Ivory: I am unofficially done with world building. There is still more to do, but I am going to do it as I go. I have talked myself into this for two reasons. 1. The world building I have left is not important to the story line. 2. I need to keep moving and not get stuck. I have a good enough of a foundation to move forward.
• Shadowed Stones: I started feeling a little overwhelmed about getting ready to submit Shadowed Stones so I have been focusing on Three of Ivory. I did think of a great line for my query letter. I want to say: I am looking for a publisher for my fantasy novel, Shadowed Stones, and after reading X, Y, and Z I think your company would be a good fit. Or something like that. So I am reading a few books published by Shadow Mountain (more about that below). I do realize that this is a way to put of submitting Shadowed Stones but this is my first time and I am not ready to just jump in.
• Reading: Last month I read Tarranau by James Tallet. I reviewed it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads. Quick review: Wait for the next book to come out before reading it. This month I am reading Destruction from Twins by L. Carroll.
• Re-Reading: Last month I read The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander which I plan to review soon. (I will let you know when I do). This month I am going to read The Black Cauldron, which is the next book in the series.

I also have some additional reading that I mentioned above. I just finished reading The 13th Reality: The Journal of Curious Letters - I will let you know when I get a chance to review it. Right now I also have The Hourglass Door and Far World: Water Keepchecked out from the library. Fabelhaven is on hold. So, I have a lot of reading to do. It is a good thing it is a long weekend :)

What are your goals? How are they coming? What's on your list to read?

Goal Update

First, here are a few links:

• Blog Hop
• The Mighty Pen Contest
• Vote for my Short Story

Next, here are some updates on my goals:

• Finished reading both of my books for this month. Have three picked out to read for next month.
• I am struggling with the query letter for Shadowed Stones, so I am going to move on to writing the outline for now.
• The world building for TOI is going well. I am almost ready to move on to the characters.

And finally, how I build worlds.

First of all, the map. I usually always have a map. Sometimes the map comes later in the world building. Sometimes it is very detailed sometimes it is just a sketch. The map for Shadowed Stones is very detailed. The map for Three of Ivory is really just a sketch right now.

Related to the map are the countries, governments and cultures. For the countries I usually have a name, and I also like to sketch the flag. I also identify the type of government and a little bit of the social classes. Trade and industry are often details I include. Hmm, what else? Oh, I also like to make a list of common physical attributes, name the language, and naming conventions for naming people and places.

Also, in worlds where there is magic - I setup the system of magic. What it can and cannot do. How to use it. Who can use it. And so on.

Next step: Character Bios.

A Late Update

Sorry this post is so late. I have two very good reasons for the delay.

1. I was waiting to see if I won the short story contest I won over at Splintered Lands. The winners were supposed to be announced today.
2. I was having issues connecting to the internet with my laptop.

Here is a quick update on where I am with my goals.

I am about 80% finished with reading Tarranau

I wrote my first query letter for Shadowed Stones, discarded it a wrote a second. I am giving it time to simmer before I go back to it. I plan to work on the outline next. Check out the tab above "From Pen to Published" for updates on my journey toward publication.

I have started cracking down and working Three of Ivory. I downloaded a program that looks to be really cool for creating maps. If it turns out I like it I will post and let you know about it.

I finally decided which old favorite I want to read. I decided on The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. The first book is called The Book of Three. Now I just have to go dig it out of a box in the basement.

Stay tuned for tomorrow post where I will reveal the story behind getting engaged to my husband two weeks after our first date!

How about you? How are your goals going?

Special Update Post

Sorry for the extra post today! Just wanted to share a little of my success.

This week turned out not to be a total loss! I just finished my entry for the Splintered Lands writing contest. I am really proud of the way the story turned out. Hopefully the editorial team at Splintered Lands will enjoy it.

Another bit of good news. I finished the slight re-writes to Shadowed Stones. I am going to send them to my beta reader Roseanne to see if the additions meet with her approval.

I believe in the old adage - "All's well, that ends well." So I officially declare this to be a good week!

I hope all of you find some little piece of success somewhere along the way!

The Progress I have made.... 0

I regret to report that I have not made much progress on any of my projects this week.

Shadowed Stones: I am re-working a few of the chapters in the last quarter of the book. I am trying to inject more of a love story based on a beta readers suggestions. Hoping it turns out well.

Three of Ivory: Nothing. I have been thinking of things in my head. And I did take a crack at drawing a map. But the map does not fit with some of the things I want with the story. So I am going to file that away and try again.

Splintered Lands contest entry: Hit a wall. Got right up to the climax of the story and then... nothing. I think I am feeling a little gun shy because it is emotionally charged. And I already know I have to re-work the middle. The deadline is approaching and I really need to get working

So I give myself a B for effort, but my actual grade for this week - F.

The good news is I can only go up from here!

How are your projects going?

Monday Madness

So... there is no winner of The Mighty Pen award this week due to lack of entries. As a result I find myself with an empty post slot. I thought I would take advantage and talk a little bit about my method of operation. (Or at least, the method I plan to use for my next WIP Three of Ivory.)

In high school I read several books on writing. I am working on compiling a list of the books that most impacted me and will post them when I have it. During this time I explored my voice and the structure of how I write. In writing Shadowed Stones I learned many different things. My writing method is a combination of everything I have learned thus far.

1. The idea. I get all different kinds of ideas from all different sources. Sometimes I draw a map and then start imagining what the world is like. Some times I get an idea about an element of a society or a form of magic. But the most common ideas I get are about characters. I try to keep track of all the little snatches of ideas I get because I often pull them into my WIP or combine them to complete a full thought. Once I have an idea I mull it over in my mind to see if it is something I want to work on.
2. Planning. I alternate between the two tasks below until I have enough of a foundation to start building my outline.
   • The World: This includes maps, laws of magic, creatures, culture and so on. The idea is to flesh out enough of the details of the world where the story takes place so that I can fully understand the environment of the characters.
   • The Story: I think of characters and how they interact and are related and how they fit into the world. This is where the first glimmers of my outline start to appear. At this point I don't keep to a chronological sequence. I just let the ideas for scenes and characters flow.
3. The outline. I do a scene by scene outline. (To me a scene is a full section starting and ending with some kind of break.) I did not divide Shadowed Stones into chapters until my second draft was finished. I plan to divide Three of Ivory into chapters at the outline stage. This gives me the road map of the entire story. I like having a tight outline because it better helps me work in foreshadowing and so on.
4. Write. I write from start to finish. This helps me keep the flow of the book going. When I wrote the first part of Shadowed Stones, I actually divided out the scenes for each of my view point characters and wrote them in sequence - then spliced them together. Not sure if I will do this with Three of Ivory or not. The splicing together was very difficult.
5. Revise. This is the final step I take before attempting publication. And I do several revolutions of it. I always do one revision/proof read before sending to beta readers. I then revise based on the feedback I get. I have found that for me, it is difficult to put more detail in with a revision. So I try to get as much on paper to start with.

What about you? What is your method of writing?

Friday Update

First of all, welcome to all my new followers, hope you enjoy!

Just thought I would update you on the things I am working on:

• Splintered Lands writing contest entry: 2,500 words of (at least) 4,000. Half way through according to my outline. Entries are due August 15th.
• Shadowed Stones: I have not gotten much research done on publishers to submit to. And *gasp* I haven't started writing my query letter or summary or anything. I have however started work on a digital version of my 10 year old hand drawn map.
• Three of Ivory (WIP): Nothing concrete on paper yet. I have been working on fleshing out my characters in my mind. Can't wait to finish up some of the other things on my plate so I can get back to working on it.
• Critique Group: Caught up with Roseanne in reading her current WIP "Change of Heart" - totally left me hanging and can't wait to read more. Anxiously awaiting the chance to read Jen's "Earth Song" - read the first chapter and it hooked me. Now have to wait for her to finish her next draft.

Keeping up with everything is getting to be a little daunting, but I don't mind. I enjoy being busy and am loving writing again. I do have a question for all of you. Do you like the title Shadowed Stones?

WIP Update and Other Wonderful Stuff

First of all I would like to do two things:

1. Say "Welcome!" to all my new followers!
2. Say "Thanks!" to my primary beta readers for Shadowed Stones Jen and Roseanne

I have Shadowed Stones out to beta readers now and plan to start working on compiling some query letters (*cringe/squeal*).

I haven't had much time this week to work on Three of Ivory. The good news is I got a lot of background work done over the long weekend. I have, however, been thinking about my three main characters.

That leads me to some feedback I would like to get from all of you. Two of my MC's are from a distant foreign land. I want to set them apart from the others in a subtle way. Do you think an uncommon eye color and skin tone (for the country the book takes place in) will set them apart enough?

My Next Project

I have come to the decision to go ahead with TOI as my next project. I have been so enraptured with my background work that I cannot imagine working on something else. The runner up for my next project, TCOM - will most likely still be written. It is a captivating idea, but is very similar to the book I just finished writing and I would like to do something a little different.

Yeah!

So now that I have selected my next project I am going to reveal its working title. Note that I have also added it to the From My Pen tab.

Three of Ivory

In my post Three Words #1, I mentioned that a friend of mine gave me a list of three words to write a story off of. (Snake, Ring, Bubble) This story grew out of that list. I have a few short pieces I wrote based on this idea. I may post them some day if I can find them in my story box.

Every Friday I will post updates on how the work is going.

Question: I have the name of two of my characters but am not sure about the third. Is Kell to common of a name? It seems very familiar to me.

P.S.
Normally on Monday's I plan to post the winner of The Mighty Pen award - however, I took care of that yesterday. (And the Winner is...)