Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Winners and February Update

I just emailed the three winners from February - congratulations to those who won - and thank you everyone else for following!

There will be more giveaways this year - but probably not for a few months.  It's an exciting time in my head/house, but I've got a lot of work to do and not much time to do it (that's the norm for everyone, it's it?)

My husband received good news on his side of the creative career fence, so this year is shaping up to be great.

I wanted to take the time to go over what I've done so far this month - and what I'm still working on.

Edit Where We Collide again - working on it! I'm working with my two awesome critique partners and getting feedback, but I'm trying to do this as fast as humanly possible.  If I didn't have to work 8 hours a day, I would be working 8 hours a day on this.  Consequently this also covers my update on "Get Where We Collide to CPs"

Finish CPing - We're working on it.  I'm really loving the piece I'm critiquing (or maybe I'm just saying that because she reads my blog - Shout out, hello!).  But in all honesty, I adore her piece, though she can probably tell from the insane amount of commentary I put in the margins ;) It's like how I only yell at television shows when I'm invested in the characters (Walking Dead spoiler:  RICK, RICK, GO AFTER HIM, RICK!  ARE YOU SERIOUSLY LETTING HIM LEAVE?! AARRGGGG!!)

Plot No Sugar Coating - Done!  The 45k YA Magical Realism novella is plotted.  Though if it ends up turning into a novel, I wouldn't mind ;)

Write Part One of No Sugar Coating - This takes a backseat while I finish Where We Collide, but I did write 8k of it. 

In addition, I posted a new page for my 2013 goals, so you can keep track of where I'm at for each month.  Lots to do if I want to publish The Unanswerable this year - and No Sugar Coating the next!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Follower Love Giveaway Hop

Three years ago, my husband and I went on our first date. Since then, he has been my rock and encouraged me to jump back on the writing wagon.

Lucky for you guys, since "My Summer Vacation by Terrance Wade," wouldn't exist without his encouragement.  So I give him a lot of love in this post, but I also give you guys love.  This blog would have died a long time ago if it wasn't for you.
 
Terrance Wade presents his summer vacation story to his second grade class.  Told from his perspective, he explains how his mother whisks him away on an adventure - of course, we all know that Terrance was kidnapped.  But he doesn't care - his mother has an important mission for them:  Terrance has to save the world.  Terrance's voice is whimsical and silly.
 
In celebration of the Follower Love Giveaway Hop, there will be three winners who will receive an eBook copy of the novelette "My Summer Vacation by Terrance Wade."

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out all the other blogs on this hop in the links below!

Friday, February 1, 2013

February Goals and January Accomplishments

Some triumphs and some set-backs.

What I accomplished:  Major rewriting and replotting of Where We Collide to make it ten times better than it was before. Finished all but 10k of the edits (my goal was 30k edits, not 50k, so woohoo)! Finished Good Criminal Heart.  

What I missed:  Submitted The Unanswerable to ABNA, but due to illness didn't have time to edit it.  Whoops.

Just in case you didn't know:  This is day nine of Sickdom.  Nine!  And while it is "just a cold" and "not the flu" and all that - nine days has really thrown off my writing/editing game.  This just means I need to step it up for February!

Original February Goals:
These are what I originally wanted to accomplish in the new year. 
  • Finish editing Where We Collide
  • Get Where We Collide to my beta readers

New February Goals:
Similar to the original, but with new additions (and *sparkles*)!
  • Edit Where We Collide again - this time to make it into first person, and therefore, even better than it is now.
  • Finish CPing
  • Get Where We Collide to CPs
  • Plot the entirety of No Sugar Coating (my super secret YA Magical Realism project)
  • Write Part One of No Sugar Coating

My March Goals will come at the end of February.  Hopefully I will get some more random exercises to be blog content.

But know this, my friends:  I am working!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Giveaway Winners

Wow guys, I am simply blown away.

150 entries for "My Summer Vacation by Terrance Wade"?

I wasn't even expecting to pass 100 entries!

So, since I'm sitting here, blown away by the numbers, I've decided something.  Instead of two winners, I'm picking five winners. Will be e-mailing all the winners very soon.

If you didn't win a copy - and are still interested - you can purchase your copy for only $1.99 on amazon.com or smashwords.com as an ebook.  You can also buy a paperback from amazon or createspace.

And you can come back here!  February 4th will be kicking off the "Follower Love Giveaway Hope" where I will be giving away another two ebooks (not promising five, but we'll see how many people enter)!

There's a Goodreads Giveaway for one signed copy.  Feel free to enter that (bottom of post)!

Other News:

Spent all weekend editing - I feel a little beat.  Went through 32k words.  Trying to finish the major redrafting by Friday.

This weekend, I plan to read through my Amazon Novel contest entry and edit that a bit.  But I'm not spending too much time on that one.
 
My goal is, by the middle of February, have both RUHE and Where We Collide edited and almost ready to query.  Just to reflect on how crazy that is, here were my goals at the beginning of the year:

January: Finish Good Criminal Heart, get 30k of Where We Collide edited.  Submit The Unanswerable to ABNA after a quick read through (not significant editing, just a quick one!)

February:  Finish Where We Collide editing and get it to my beta readers.

March: Make edits to RUHE based on beta's comments. Attempt the same for Where We Collide.


End of February, I should be able to start querying both stories in earnest!  Which means:  OH MY GOODNESS, I'M WAY AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!

Let me dance for a second:  dance!

Oh, and I have a new project that I want to try to serialize (self-publishing).  It's called No Sugar Coating.  YA Magical Realism and super top secret... for now.  ;) 

Monday, January 14, 2013

No Strings Attached Giveaway Hop

I am so amazing pleased to be able to host people for the No Strings Attached Giveaway Hop.  I'm glad that I finally have something worth giving away!

There will be two winners of this hop, each will receive an eBook copy of My Summer Vacation by Terrance Wade.  

"My Summer Vacation by Terrance Wade" is a novelette told from seven year old Terrance's perspective.  His mother comes in through the window, scoops him up, and rushes off to France with him.  Of course, to Terrance, this kidnapping isn't just a kidnapping.  No, he's off to save the world on an adventure.

His voice is whimsical, silly, and a little bit naive.  While he might be astute with how he talks -there sure are a lot of things that he doesn't understand.

Click the "Free entry" button below to enter for a chance to win your ebook copy of My Summer Vacation by Terrance Wade!
 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out the other "No Strings Attached" giveaway hop participants!