Projects with Abandonment Issues

I've been immersed in my latest poetry project over the past couple of week. It's fun, it's challenging, and I'm finding constant inspiration. That's good, right? Because I'm trying to reign it in when I can, knowing poetry is low on the totem pole of professional success stories. Like a good investor, I need a diverse portfolio of work to make sure that success has a long-term reach. And that thought leads me to all of that other stuff I started working on and have yet to finish. Right now, I want to take time to acknowledge all of the projects I've put on hold.

Love Bites the Big Apple: My first foray into a story for the Episode app is still on my mind, it just hasn't been updated for awhile. I promise that when I get back to it, I'll do a major multi-chapter drop.

Completed first drafts such as Verses and Vows, In Another Life, 277 Miles: Hang in there, kids. We'll meet again--hopefully soon!

Numerous incomplete first drafts: I admire the dedication of these stories. They always come back to my mind in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. Usually right in the middle of NaNoWriMo, but what can you do?

And I can't forget the two other projects sharing my non-freelance time: Honorable mentions go to the draft of my current YA novel and to Pieces, which may have to take a short hiatus in a few weeks due to lack of new pieces to post.

Hopefully all of my projects with abandonment issues will come back to me at the right time to be completed. As always, you can be a part of the action: don't forget to join my journey on Patreon to get more details about my latest poetry project, exclusives, and much more.

Shopping, in General, is A Nightmare (and other updates)

I only shop at the mall two, maybe three times a year. And let's face it--I'm mostly just helping others spend their money, because I'm a little lacking. So the Christmas shopping season has begun because we all like to have this stuff over with about the same time Christmas commercials get into the full swing of things.

This year's experience was much different. The mall was gross. And I don't mean because there were too many shoppers (there were), but that it was just dirty, and very visibly dirty (and I'm in no way a germaphobe). Yes, I understand the mall I go to is in a college town, but still. Ew. If I'm going to shop in store, it's going to be standalone stores from now on. And don't get me started on the balance of awful people--if fellow customers were super rude, there was excellent customer service. If the other customers stayed far, far away, the customer service was abysmal (yes, I'm talking about you Best Buy and all your frat bro part-timers). 

Online has been a smoother ride, but did you know that Amazon's Prime membership paywall has gotten much thicker, higher and probably has barbed wire on the top? Some people in my family love those crappy--I mean sappy--Hallmark Christmas movies, and now some of those are even locked behind the paywall. I mean, I get health and beauty stuff, I get the grocery service. Having no non-Prime access to those categories doesn't bother me too much. But DVDs, books and CDs were the bread and butter of Amazon. Why put a movie (that, let's be real honest here, probably isn't in high demand) behind your supposedly fabulous paywall? If it ever happens to vinyl, I know I'll have to find a new place to shop.

In actual writerly news, I finally sold my first Fiverr gig. You can check out the spotlight I did for an indie book award and then you can go to Fiverr and order your own book spotlight (if you are so inclined).

Verses and Vows is still chugging along, so there's no real news there, other than the first round of revisions still isn't done. Not to worry, though. I have plenty of time on the schedule. 

Which leads me to NaNoWriMo 2016. I'm ready to go. Are you participating this year? What will you be writing?

Haunting Melody Now Available #newrelease

Great news! You can now get The Callaways: Haunting Melody (Melody of Love #2) from Amazon. Technically you could have purchased it yesterday--my schedule was a little heavy and this was the first chance I had to write a blog post. I hope if you've enjoyed Melody of the Love that you'll pick this one up as well. Book number 3 is in the works, and that will conclude Mel and Austin's story.

And that project I chose for October? It's going to be Verses and Vows, another one in the chick lit sphere. I'm reading over my first draft from a couple of NaNos ago, and I keep seeing one thing--I hurriedly write to get the story out, and it's always too short. I managed 30k (didn't win NaNo that year, did I?!). I seriously envy writers who can churn out 70k+ in their first drafts, then have to go in a cut. I always have to think of things to add.

Anyway, that's what I'm concentrating on. I've found a small press (more of an indie collective) that I would like to present this project to, so this one is getting all my attention for awhile. We'll see what happens...

Fire Up the Back Burner

...because I've got something to simmer. I set out to finish two first draft manuscripts this month, and I'm halfway there. The novel that I started for NaNoWriMo last November (Verses and Vows) is now a complete first draft! It's a very rough first draft, but there's a distinct beginning, middle and end to work with. And since any good writer will tell you that you need a little space between writing and revising, that's exactly what I plan to do.

The other first draft (In Another Life) is still right in the middle of all the action. If I want to get both of these novels published before the end of the year, I really have to get this first draft finished by spring. This second novel is actually the one I want to put out first, simply because it is the novel I chose to have cover art done for when I won a contest last year. This novel process has actually been going completely backwards--I have the cover and a lot of the promotional work planned out, but I'm still lacking the actual novel. 

If I want to get anymore done, I better get back to it. ;-)





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