Endings and Beginnings

Book four is officially done! The rough draft, in all its unedited glory, has been pushed to the side. As is my usual routine, it will be glanced at in September/October, but otherwise, won't see the light of day until book 3 is with my beta readers or my editor. Book four came in at 107k which is a whale of a book for me. I expect editing will be frustrating as heck as well. Fortunately, that is a problem for future me, so I can safely ignore it. 

Instead, I'm working on book three. Now, the third book came in at 102k when I first opened the document. Fortunately, a lot of that was notes and alternate chapters. See, a lot of my writing process is just me throwing spaghetti at a wall until my mind connects the dots. So, if you were wondering why there was a sudden crab hunt in Hunter's Gambit, I can say that it wasn't planned from the beginning. Instead, I knew what my characters were going to find when they got there, but didn't know how they were going to find it. So, I started writing that chapter and stared at my computer wondering why I was writing about crabs until my mind connected the nodes in my mind. Alternate chapters pop up when I finish a chapter and realize that its bad and I hate it or (more commonly) that the story was being told from the wrong POV and needs to be rewritten. 

So, the good news? Book three is already down to 92k. That's with just easy edits, removing notes, chapters that I'd already known I was going to have to get rid of eventually and that sort of stuff. Some of my chapters that seemed to not fit at the end of book two have been added to three and I have already gone over it once, putting things in order. My next edit is one where I go through and I really look at my plot. I've already found two chapters that are going to be deleted and another seven that will require complete rewrites. While this seems like a lot, its actually less than I was expecting. Between changes made to book two and now knowing where book four is going, I would have been surprised if there were less than that. 

Honestly, what I'm surprised at most this time around is how easy it is to see things like chapters that can be deleted. Knowing that I need parts of those chapters, but not there and not alone, really helps me to figure out how to tighten my writing. Its my hope that figuring this out at this stage will also make my editing go way faster. I haven't hidden the fact that I'm very new to this, which means that I'm still figuring out how to work best and how to speed up so that I can get these books out to you faster. 

Updates!

This week I have a few small announcements to make, so you're getting a half post, rather than a full one.

The first bit of awesome news is that I am only 100 pages away from having the sequel to Hunter's Gambit, tentatively titled Lord's Curse edited, and while this week has been a setback to editing (darn summer colds), I should have no problem finishing this draft before the end of Camp Nanowrimo in July. From there, I'll need to find an editor and take it through another edit. Unless something odd happens, I am still expecting to have that novel coming out late this year.

The next bit of awesome is that I have another signing set up! On July 6th, I will be at Owl's Nest Books (815A 49th Ave SW, Calgary, AB) from 11am to 2pm! I am super excited to have another signing. The table may even be bigger this time, which will be super exciting. I will let all of you know how that one goes, and of course, I'll have pictures!

For my third update, I am plugging a new book that I finished reading a couple of weeks ago and loved. The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Jones is a book about a woman trying to discover her father's secrets and another woman who is that secret. Based on the true stories of Japanese brides left in Japan after the war, this story left me in tears. The writing is beautiful, the story is compelling and it highlights a little known time in history, one that both countries would prefer to forget. If you haven't already picked this one up, it would make a great addition to your summer/winter reading list.

My last fun bit of news is that I have been doing sketches nearly every day for the last little while. If you'd like to join me, tag me on Instagram and post your own sketches or just enjoy other's people art. If you don't follow there, here are my latest pictures!

These are some pre-sketches where I planned out what I wanted to do for a full artwork for the video game Journey. I haven't gotten started on it yet, but I think it will look gorgeous when its done.

Some days, I get stuck on an image. In this case, the demonic, dead eyes of an Oddish from Gen 1 pokemon was my inspiration.

This fairy turned out wonderfully, except for her hands. She was supposed to be just leaning on a table on her wrists. something about it just didn't work. I may have to revisit the character one day. 

Kitten! Nothing else needs to be said.

This one turned out surprisingly well. The only thing that could have gone better is the outlining. I kind of preferred the sketchy look it had before I outlined it.

A few errors but I like the way she turned out. I may have o revisit the character in a less stiff position later. Also, I can't decide if she's a nobleman's daughter, or simply the daughter of a commoner with a rich suitor. What do you think?

Jessica Jones. Her neck is way too long, her leg is way too thin, and the liner pen didn't work with the Copics and reactivated in multiple places... despite that, I kind of like it. 

I saw a hoodie dress and wanted to draw a character in a similar outfit. I quite like the way it turned out.

I'll was drawing with one of my Youtubers. The prompts were aardvark, lemur, pink, grey and unicorn. Mine turned out way more lemur than aardvark, but I like it. I'm hoping to paint it later. If I do, I'll update it here. 

On Editing, and a Correction from Last Week

April has been a wonderful month for me so far, even if I am so far behind on my editing goal for Camp Nanowrimo that it's embarrassing. Not to say that I haven't been working on it. In the last three days, I edited three chapters and two of them had major rewrites needed. Which is actually something I'm not surprised by. 

When I was writing this book, I remember that the end was pretty well set in stone and I was writing to it. In the end, that made the book come out with a wishy-washy beginning and around the middle I finally seemed to hit my stride. There are still definite changes and fixes to make, but I have a lot of chapters that are going to essentially be a click and drag for editing, with a few minor lines edits thrown in. So, while the rough draft was getting a story down, this edit is all about making all of the parts awesome. 

If I end up doing the same thing I did last time, the next edit will be the story again, along with adding in detail, this time with an editors hand giving advice. After that, it goes back to the editor for a final all-around edit. When it comes back to me, I go through it with a full list of final minor changes and double check for any grammar issues that my editor may have missed. 

That said, this edit is going quickly. I'm already done about a quarter of the book. I'm hoping to have this edit done this month or next. Unfortunately, I do have some bad news there. My editor who did the work for Hunter's Gambit is no longer taking on editing clients anymore, which means that I'm going to have to do a lot of work, looking for a new editor. I wish her all the luck on her future endeavours, but I will miss the help she gave me with my novel. 

I'll keep you guys updated, but its my hope to get the next book, tentatively titled Lord's Curse, out to you guys this year, most likely just before Christmas. 

I would like to make one correction to last week's post. I mentioned the exciting news that I was going to be having a signing at one of the local Chapters bookstores later on in April. Unfortunately, that date has changed. The signing is still happening but will be on June 9th instead. On that note, I have been buying items for the signing date and I can't wait to show you everything as soon as I have some of the pieces in place. I will definitely make sure that I have pictures to post afterward!

Summer Camp as a Kid was Never this Fun

I may or may not have accidentally lost track of what day it was today... I thought I had an extra day to have this up. So, I apologize for being late and having this been a little bit short. I promise I'll try to have something better and less thrown together for next week. 

For this week though, I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart; Writing! 

April is the first of Nanowrimo's official events this year. Camp Nano, as it was officially dubbed, gives writers a chance to write or edit and unlike Nanowrimo itself, you can set your own goals. Think 50k is too much to finish? You can set your goal for 25k. Want to edit instead? Choose how many minutes or hours you'd like to edit (3000 is usually what is suggested if you're going for something similar to a 50k event). 

As with every year, I am taking part, though I expect that I won't make my goal. Give me November and I can get 50k done without too much trouble. Give me any other month and I'll struggle. I'm currently trying to work past my own limitations and get used to working on a creative endeavour so much. 

So, I can hear you asking, what is my goal for this month? 3000 minutes of editing, which comes out to 50 hours. I'm currently behind on that goal a little bit. I should be at 1200 min and I'm only at 825 minutes. I really need to buckle down, but I'm not horribly surprised. I celebrated my 11th anniversary with my husband on April 1st. My husband had taken some time off for it and we ended up fitting in leaving the city for a few days, so I knew that I would have to work to get caught up. 

The other thing you may be wondering is what I'm working on. I have made it no secret that I have written ahead in this. Book 2 and 3 are written in rough draft and I have started book 4, though it needs a lot of changes to make it match what I've written so far. This month specifically I'm working on editing book 2. I've finished my first round of editing last year and sent to beta readers. With their review, I've gone through the novel and have written down a full set of changes to make. 

Quite a few chapters will need very minor edits, but a few parts of the story essentially will need a full rewrite. I'm hoping to have this round finished by the end of April so I can start sending it to my editor for a professional run sooner rather than later. My current goal is to have book 2 out for you guys later this year, probably in November or December, but that's still very far off so don't quote me on that quite yet. 

On a separate note, I have some great news for everyone! I will be doing a public signing at a local Chapters! On April 28th, I will be at the Chapters near Sunridge (2555 32nd St NE, Calgary, Alberta, T1Y 7J6) from noon to 3 pm for a signing! Please stop by to see me and pick up your copy of my book! While you can currently pick up my book from Chapters, this signing is an important first step in actually getting my novel into stores to sell, so if you're in Calgary, please stop by! 

EDIT: Unfortunately, the date of the signing has changed. Due to circumstances, the signing will actually be held on June 9th. Sorry for the confusion!