Wednesday, July 16, 2014

A Week Away...

First things first: If you haven't seen it yet, Chapter 20 (aka Part Three: Chapter 4) of Blade's Edge just went up today, so make sure that you read it and +vote it.

Blade's Edge is holding in the top 30 for the month so far, but it's a close run thing and it could definitely use your support!

Wow. It has been a busy week since last I wrote to you all. Perhaps one of the least relaxing vacations I've ever taken, but then again it was never a vacation so much as a total change of scenery. It certainly was good to get away for a few days.

Exactly a week ago, the husband, the dog, and I all packed up our stuff and headed out to the in-laws' place for the week so that we could hang with them, volunteer at folk fest, and get some awesome dog sitting services to boot (not to mention the occasional, delicious, homemade meal). After an intense week of writing and formatting, a chance to get out of the house was most welcome. Volunteering for the Folk Festival was intense in its own way, but it was a very different kind of intensity to my new normal day to day, so it was welcome. Still, by the end of my weekend (working an 8hour shift that ended after midnight on Sunday and then doing one more half shift from 8am to noon on Monday morning) I was exhausted, and took all day on Monday to recover.

To be honest, I wasn't fully recovered yesterday which is why I was unable to finish up the latest Blade's Edge chapter until today, despite having worked on it over the weekend. Yesterday, instead, was devoted to the less mentally tasking efforts of formatting the paperback version of Rain on a Summer's Afternoon.

The good news from that is that said formatting is finished! I have ordered a proof copy (yes a physical in your hand book) and when it arrives here (eta next Wednesday) I will check it thoroughly and, assuming that all is well (it should be after all the virtual proofing I've already done, but one never knows) I will be approving it for publication that same day, and that means that those of you who have been waiting for a print copy will be able to purchase one as soon as Thursday of next week.

So let's all keep our fingers crossed that nothing about the formatting gets messed up between input and printing!

To celebrate my achievement I went ahead and applied for an author page on Goodreads.com, and today my request was granted. So, you can now find me on my author page over there. Said author page links to this blog, and for the time being doesn't host any bells and whistles that you can't find here EXCEPT: you can rate Rain on a Summer's Afternoon on Goodreads.

I invite anyone and everyone who reads the book and enjoys it to post a review on Goodreads, and over at amazon as well.

Please rate it honestly! Bad ratings and good ratings are both better than no ratings and currently I have no ratings. I have a thick skin, I will not be hurt by criticism, (hell, I might even learn from it), but without ratings no new readers are ever going to pick up a copy of the book. Please rate it!

Also, if you missed it, I have an author page over at amazon now as well, so feel free to check that out too!

So, now it's back to the ongoing projects! Blade's Edge has entered territory in which everything I'm writing is new even if I'm using a chapter that already exists. I've found that my writing now is so much improved over my writing back when I wrote the first draft (circa 2009) that it's not really worth keeping anything from that first draft. Consequently, I am starting every chapter from scratch and it's taking a lot longer than it used to to get a chapter up (luckily, since I'm writing full time, that still enables me to get 1-2 chapters up per week).

Gwendamned has been sitting around needing revision and I have decided to force myself to finish that final revision before I allow myself to start a kickstarter project. Which means I should be kicking my own butt into gear for revision.

That said, the first draft of the first volume of Arcteryx needs to be written (I have done some EPIC planning for this series and I'm really looking forward to writing it) so that will also be happening soon.

Whew. I'd better get back to it then.

I leave you with this awesome (though blurry) shot of an all lady, all swedish, all sister band that rocked the mainstage on Saturday night of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. They're called Baskery if you want to check them out.




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