Category writing

Nov 10 2014

The muse at 4am – stop it muse….

So yeah she speaks in weird ways. And I woke from a dream which had to be written down. NOT EDITED! as it was sleepily written….

This is pretty rough and maybe will get to see the light of day, but I’ll post it here to share, as it really won’t. It’s like not the sort of thing I’d really write about. Not sci Fi enough for me, unless I set it in a post apocalypse world.

——

Endeavour

Feath Charleston, an outsider in her town, a young performing artist of the highest calibre. Set to upstage some of the best in world wide competitions.

Then her mother contracted a rare illness and Feath was isolated and taunted, bullied at school. No one wanted to be near her. Feath couldn’t understand this and it hurt.

Ani, her Mother packed their things and decided it was time to move them on. As sick as she was, Ani, shouldn’t be driving and a terrible accident left Feath in a coma for 3 years and Ani at deaths door.

When Feath finally came around, her mother had passed away. Leaving her with nothing. Feath wished she’d died in that accident, her life and choices she’d made over.
Getting back to the one thing she loved Feath did everything she could to re-build her life.
One day an argument left her puzzled over an internet site, password protected and logged on several untraceable websites.

A boy, Jez, watching Feath from a distance as she practiced above the water the one thing she loves, twisting.

Jez a technical genius. Feath plucks up the courage to approach him and asks him to help her crack the code and visit the site that her mother had created.

A world of secrets.

Three years of letters to her daughter.

Will Feaths’ life ever be the same.

———

So yeah… there you go. 🙂

Sep 21 2014

Copy Edit – done :)

For those who follow me and know about my novel TSK- Lethao it’s been a whilr-wind of a few months, from beta to finalising a draft, to finding someone who I could work with and trust to do a good copy edit.

Well today I got my copy edit back. I am thrilled. (even though I know nothing about punctuation and grammar) I am totally sure it will make all the difference to those that do. I could not be more proud of where this book has come. I’m sure people will still hate it, but that just comes with writing in general…

So my plan now, is to work through all these edits, the odd comment and things, to send it back for formatting and then to query.

I’ve been working on a pitch and query while waiting to get the MS back, and I have to admit it is the hardest thing to write EVER! I mean I’ve never had problems with loglines, with writing letters, but this. It is defeating me.

I’m researching all the possible people I can send out an email too but all I’m getting back from the crit sites, Scrib and Agent Query connect is conflicting advice and comments, I know that it doesn’t matter so much in 100k and everyone will have an opinion. But in less than 300 words it’s driving me insane.

My next few weeks are planned, between keeping my commitments going and in achieving my goal of having a pitch perfect query. Anyone with any other tidbits of advice, please drop me a line.

Thanks 🙂

Aug 20 2014

Fly by weeks

Here’s my baby 🙂 2014-08-20 19.13.20

I can’t tell you how quick sometimes the weeks are going. I thought my mum was on holiday next week, but no it’s this week! OMG I need more hours in the day. I can’t get everything in!

Take a chill pill and after a beer, I feel better. Wowser. Hubby is on the mega early tomorrow, so I needed something to unwind with, and chill out too, so that I hopefully sleep and can sleep past him getting out of bed.

I had my last Skype session with EJ, just a few thing I wanted to question her on, over the MS for TSK and we worked through them quite quick and I think I’ve managed to tweak them so that everything works just tha tbit better.

The best thing about last night, was hubby in the bedroom with Bobby, while I was on SKype (no dirty minds allowed) and EJ was so excited about how far TSK has come. Hubby called her a creep, but I really don’t think she was, it really has come a long way, and I’m super stoked it’s nearly there.

I’ve spent today while in work, thinking about the query and pitch for it. I’m good with logline’s short synopsis etc, but anything longer. eeek. I’m scared.

So, over the next week, I want to spend some time reading and researching how to write a full synopsis. As in a few pages worth. I did have a book on it, but I leant it out. And as usual, some things you just never get back. I won’t lend any of my books out now for this reason. As good natured as I am, people take the p*** don’t they?

: ) happy hump day all.

Jul 6 2014

wow… June huh July!

I can’t believe we’re in June then July already. It’s been ages since I updated, and that is totally not like me. Snowed under isn’t the words. I’ve had such a fun packed few weeks. I just don’t know where the time has gone!

But I really wanted to get back to it, so here I am. Now that I am going back to work, seems a great place for me to kick my own ass after my holidays and get back to normal.

 

Lots and lots of stuff has happened. All, very good and exciting stuff of course. 🙂

Apr 27 2014

The beta reading results

I wanted to chat a bit more today about this last few months. Those that know and follow me, know TSK has been in a beta read. This was really enlightening, but also hard work.

These are some of the comments coming through, I thought I’d share some, and then let you in on how I’m looking at the editing process, especially in regards to some of the bigger issues pointed out.

Wow! you start right in the action. I am really invested in the storyline and the you’ve done a great job with the characters of Kendro and Mika. I’m having a hard time seeing them because you don’t really have much physical description of anyone. They are clearly not human, but are they supposed to be roughly human?

This was a comment that a couple out of my readers flagged. I wasn’t including enough ‘physical’ description. So, to combat this I spent a day working through each characters introduction and how they look as well as their specific birthmarks and colours.

Name confusion, I think you need to stick with DOCTOR BRIE or DOCTOR KATYA and never call her the other except maybe in intimate or angry moments with their significant others. When you have whole sections where they’re called one thing, and then break to another name, it can make the reader stop reading for a moment, trying to figure out what’s going on. The same thing applies to Octav, Hadi, and many other characters.

 

This one is a little more difficult. But with the help of S & R  I can use highlight to help point out discrepancies, and go chapter by chapter. It’s just time consuming, but so I don’t confuse anyone, it’s very important.

 

I think the story has a lot of loose ends by its completion. What happened to Dalamaar? What happened to the Lady? What happened to the pendant Emmi had?(I think that was her name) What happened with Doctor Brie’s second chance at having a baby.

I’m guessing that these questions are all answered in a Book 2 of this story. If so, I still think each of the loose ends must somehow be mentioned in the last chapter. That way we know to hold on and come back for more.

 

 

Already been working on this one and it’s added an extra dimension to the ending. 🙂 I kind of think I’ve outdone myself with this, but that’s bragging. I don’t usually do that at all.

One of the biggest things I did learn was to stick to my gut with my characters. Although I’ve got some work still left to do, it was comments like this which made me smile and know I’m onto a winner.

UGH. The End are two of my least favourite words when I’m reading a book I’m enjoying. And rest assured, I ENJOYED TSK. Fucking nicely done. I have total plot prowess envy.

I have some wrap-up comments but I’m going to take the night to sleep on them and will return with my last post in the morning with (hopefully) a nice, hot cup of coffee.

 

And…

OMG!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE ITS OVER! Can you please write the second one now? I want to know what happens! Gaaaaaah!

Alrighty, let’s go through it. I won’t comment on dialogue as I never really felt anything was out of place in the way they spoke.

 

So, I’m continuing onwards. Polishing, tweaking and editing. I just wanted to share some of the great comments that you can get when on a beta read. And some of the things people can pick up. Overall, I’m very happy with it, and would do it again. Although I wouldn’t ask the readers to re-read after the edits, that’s up to me to fix everything I think needs working on. Big decisions ahead, and some work. It’s all worth it though.

🙂