Adventures in Crafting with Words

At some point I going to need to learn how to work photo editing to make these better.  But it's something and I think it looks pretty good.

That is the question... Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous word count expectations Or to take my pen against a sea of manuscript pages And by opposing NaNoWriMo edit them. Okay, seriously.  I have one manuscript that is in the second draft/revisions/editing stage.  It doesn’t even have 50,000 words at the moment.  Not even 48,000 words.  It is, however, the longest manuscript that I have written and it took combining a planned trilogy to get it that long.  Book one was about 30,000 words and books 2 and 3 a combined 17,000+.  I started Keeping Secrets in 2009... What does this mean? I'm not a 40,000+ writer.  I hate adding in additional action just to further a plot and add fluff just to pad a word count. Not everyone can be novel writers.  I'm not. I'm a short story and novella writer.  That also means very few of my books will be more that $4.99 an ebook.  (Print versions via c...

Publishing scares me. Am I going to be judged on my first work? Are medicore reviews going to keep me from getting better hits and better sales later because of my first work? Should I go back and work on it some more? I wish I knew what people liked and disliked. The premise of Bookworm must be good considering the number of free downloads.  Now I have to wait and see what happens. What if I'm not as good at writing as my friends say?

So...after so many hurdles...Half-MoonManor is finally available for purchase.  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01736N14A/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_awdm_wsdlwb18MC547

So...here's a teaser from Half-Moon Manor. My editor is about a 4th done. Prologue Two Months Ago     The day that Victoria Whitmore brought George Bell home still stood out in Olivia’s mind months later.  He was tall, muscular, and easy-going.  It did not change the fact that Olivia had an odd feeling about him or that she felt as if he needed to be in their lives for some inexplicable reason.  This feeling of where people, or the things attached to the people, belonged followed her around; it was her birthright, an inheritance of sorts from her grandmother’s family.  At least she could counter her odd talent with the ability to cook. Everybody knew that her mother could not and that they would both starve if Olivia had not learned how to when she was young.  Oh, and George could cook – that was his main appeal.      Whenever he smiled at her she felt creepy, as if he was not smiling at her because he wa...

Sometimes it is really difficult to write about what I'm doing.  I have been subbing mostly and working on my Etsy shop.  There is a craft show in a few weeks and I'm working on getting my inventory organized and updated.  It sounds easier than I really is.  I've been working on social media.  Again, easier said than done.  I recently "finished" Half-Moon Manor.  By that I mean that it is in the editing stages and should be up and running in the Kindle and CreateSpace stores shortly.  It is not as long as The Bookworm Next Door, but I'm a firm believer that writing words to add to word counts does not always make for a better book.  I would rather put together short stories to share about other events in that story's universe and put them together into a collection piece than randomly insert them into a story where they may or may not fit.  The Steampunk/Fantasy piece is in the works.  More of the flesh out the plot stages t...

As I sit here typing I wonder why I willingly took on the task of two blogs - the etsy shop blog and the author blog.  Because I love to write. School and subbing has started back. No more writing until midnight. Not of I want to function at 6 in the morning when my alarm goes off.  The rough draft of Half-Moon Manor is almost finished. I'm procrastinating on my final writing day because I'll know the bulk of my writing is finished. While this story hasn't taken 8-10 years to write, it has still been on my computer for a long while. I already know that I'll have to go back in an fill in some of the gaps: psychological, emotional, depth gaps.  I have characters to fully flesh out. I have plot holes and probably continuity errors to fix.  Then I'll send it off to Laura, my new editor, beta, and confusing sentence fixer. It'll go to the betas. Book cover. Back cover blurb. Kindle set up. Physical book/createspace set up. Promotion and marketing. Goodreads. ...

Coming to a kindle nearst you, hopefully - the still untitled Prequel Short Story about Brady and Gloria. It just needs a beta read a title...that's the tricky part. I received my first goodreads review the other day.  Not an actual review, just the stars, but I'm good with that.   3 stars. Not great, but not bad for showing something started 8 years ago.  I can honestly say my writing style has changed since then.  I can see it from what I'm writing on now.  But it got me thinking, as a reader how would I rate my own story?  I submitted it knowing there were issues that I would not be able to fix without whole rewrites of sections that had already been rewritten so many times.  My characters, I believe, were spot on. Each had a psychological reason for acting the way they acted. Behaviors met personalities. Personalities met character traits and circumstances. If I had added the material in the shorts into the story it would have been chunk...

Last night I crafted several steampunk inspired necklaces for the untitled steampunk/fantasy project. Did I get a single word written?  Yes, only about fifty words.  But I made pretty necklaces that are available in my (unrelated) Etsy shop. So, what do you think oh silent readers?  Steampunk?  More Steampunk Inspired? The Swarovski crystals are wrapped on gears.  My favorite is the utmost right necklace. Anyway, I was sitting there staring at my document the other day, doing Steampunk research on Pinterest and stumbled on the wrapping technique.  Ending up doing a few that I already had the supplies for and ended up going and buying more supplies yesterday.  I'm on Pinterest now btw www.pinterest.com/ajdarcywrites So...then I decided I need book boards.  Why not show what I imaged my characters as, or what they would wear (the untitled Steampunk project for example. I may have spent an hour looking at pictures. Sometimes...

I'm working on a few projects and it is making my head spin.  Either I'm stretching myself too far or my brain is staying, 'You worked so hard on completing The Bookworm Next Door. Take a break.' I still find myself going through all of my writing folders looking to see what items of potential I have already scribbled down. I have MANY writing folders. Some empty (yes, I clean them out). Some jumbled together. Some pieces are just so bad that I feel like I should just delete them, even as I can remember where and why I wrote them.  How can you just delete a part of your history like that?  I can't.  So I'm focusing on 3 things. 1. The Girl Next Door Prequel Shorts. Gloria and Brady are next in line and while I know where I'm going, getting there might be the issue.  This one is slightly more complicated than The Bookworm's Make Over; I can't just write it out in two days and send it to a beta. Brady has a complex back story thanks to Kelly. 2....

Tomorrow the prequel short story goes on sale. (Link to The Bookworm's Make Over  is to the left <- ) How much on sale can a 99 cent story go? Free. That's how much on sale. From July 31st until August 4th you can check out the short with no cost to you and decide if you want to invest in the rest of the story. More prequel shorts are coming.  Next week (or two) will be Gloria and her boyfriend's meet cute. After that prequel #3 which is as of yet undecided. Could be Mark and Penny, Kyle, Grace, or Jennifer. After that the three shorts will be bundled together (in case you want to wait). Regardless, I doubt you'll regret this investment in the young adult story.

Nobody warned me about the various emotions I'd feel once I saw my book listed on Amazon. It makes things real. Others can buy or borrow my book, read my words, and create their own opinions/thoughts/feelings towards the little world that I've created.  That's nerve wracking. But there's also knowing that what I've dreamt of for years is now a reality. Self-published or not, I'm still an author. That's amazing. Please read, review, share. My stories aren't meant to just sit on my laptop unread. AJ

For all intents and purposes I'm waiting until August to work on my next YA - Half Moon Manor. I'm about 15,000 words in and I have no word count goals in mind, yet. I just need to write and finish the half completed story. I also want to get The Bookworm Next Door published and am waiting on my beta editor to do her thing with commas. Commas scare me as a writer. I'll either add too many or not enough (but always the Oxford Comma - that'll be another post).  As an English teacher I can spot a mislaid or missing comma from a mile away. Blame it on the undergrad paper that I failed because of three comma splices; I know I do.  No matter what I can not look at my story from the eyes of an English teacher. It just is not possible.  This is my baby, my work of eight long years. I'm attached to it.  I come back to work on it every few years. This is why you do not edit your own work. You miss typos no matter how many times you read over it. I've read over it th...

Wait?  I'm using a pen name? Why yes, I am. Why? I had always planned on using a pen name.  In fact, I had one picked out years ago but I am unable to use that particular name because an ex-boyfriend just so happens to have that last name.  (So, if J stumbles onto this blog, no hard feelings, but you can keep your last name.) Pen names are not easy to pick out. First there are the reasons that you want/need a pen name. 1. Maybe it's job related.  I read so many articles and other peoples' blogs about how nobody really wants to know that their doctor is writing murder mysteries in their spare time and might know how to make murder on the operating table look as if it was an accident.  I know I don't.  Or how people in education (be honest, how many English teachers want to write books - I know I'm one, kind of) be it teachers or substitutes trying for teaching positions (myself included) want that pen name to distance themselves from their studen...