A Writerly Update

(image via Pinterest I take no credit for it)

We're about halfway through April and I have dragged myself out of my writing den to tell you how things have been going so far.

I have written 18,473 words which is nowhere close to where I should be in order to write 65,000 words this month which is my goal.

But it's fine.

I mean I'm screaming and everything is on fire.

But it's fiiiinnneee.

So anyway without further ado here are how my four WIPs have been progressing...

A Winter Dark and Deadly made it to 90,000 words. And then it decided to give me the silent treatment for two weeks.

Which I don't appreciate, especially considering I want to publish it this summer.

(image via Pinterest I take no credit for it)

An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods is at 3,810 words, plodding along very slowly. But I did figure out when I am planning to publish it (and book one and book 3 of this trilogy) and I have plenty of time to take this slow

Rage Like the Gods is now at 121,000. No I still haven't finished Eirik's POV, yes it is pushing almost 50k words, and no I don't want to talk about it. Because then I will have to reconfigure how long I think RLtG will be and honestly the idea of it being bigger than I had originally thought scares me.

And finally, Of Stars and Shadows is now at 20,000 words. Which may not look like much compared to the word counts of AWDaD and RLtG, but historically 20k is where I counted myself fully invested in a story. I had been known to start books and get from 1-10k into them before ditching them because they weren't working at that time or if I had what I considered a better idea. 20k is where I finally hit my stride on a story and it was in the game for good. By that point I'm usually too invested in a story to put it down.

OSaS of course wasn't in any danger of getting ditched on the wayside since it is a sequel, and one I wish to publish later this year. But, still to celebrate it reaching such a monumental goal, I have decided to finally reveal it's blurb (note: you may now want to read it if you have not read book one Of Gold and Iron since it does contain spoilers)

(Images Via Pinterest, I take no credit for them)

My eyes flick up to Ravven who is resting with his eyes closed, pale and gaunt just a shadow of the former self he was only days ago. “So, what is your plan? I’m assuming that you have a plan.”

“More like a gamble.”

“And I’m part of that gamble? Are you sure that is wise? You know, considering our somewhat twisted history?”

 

Jaye MacCullagh may be the Fair Assassin now, but her troubles are far from over. Even though she killed the faerie enslaving her brother, she and Thomas are still just as trapped in the Otherworld as before. Only this time by the deceitfully glamorous Sidhe faeries of the Spring Court. Returning home seems like an impossible dream, especially when Jaye discovers that Ravven Crowe, the king of the Spring Court and her soulmate, is still alive… if just barely. Ravven needs Jaye’s help to discover how he survived, and how to stop himself from dying again. He is fading away and somehow Jaye is weakening alongside him. The only hope for either of them is for Ravven to reclaim his immortality by becoming a faerie again.

 

However, there is only one way for mortals to turn into faeries. They must drink from the well of Stars and Shadow on the night of the Feast of Starlight. Each court has a way to the well, but they guard it fiercely to keep just any human from becoming one of them. With every other way to the well barred, Jaye and Ravven are left with only one option. They must enter a deadly labyrinth created by the Spring Court. If they can survive and if they can make it through to the other side, the well is theirs. But in the faerie world, nothing is that simple. Especially where the Spring Court is concerned. Forced to trust the man who ruined her or risk losing him forever, Jaye struggles with her convoluted feelings toward both Ravven and the faerie world. However, when her family arrives looking for her, Jaye feels further strained. Everything Jaye has ever cared about is at the mercy of the Otherworlds, and she can’t shake the feeling that no matter how hard she fights to win she is going to lose this time.

And I want to officially thank OSaS for being so much easier to write than my other sequels were *pointedly glares at AWDAD and ToT*. So yeah...

This has been a wild month, I'm not going to lie. I thought I would have written more by now, but I keep getting new ideas when all I'm trying to do is focus on the ones I'm currently working on. I've now finally decided on which project I shall be working on this summer (as well as already started researching it), and I've made a few other plans.

All will be revealed in due time, of course. But for now, just know that I'm so excited for these stories that I wish I could start them now, if only AWDAD and OSaS were done... *le sigh*

Speaking of reveals, Between Gods and Demigods has a cover reveal coming up later this month and trust me when I say you don't want to miss it.

Well, I'm off to write some more. Or procrastinate. Or daydream about a project that I can't start until I finish one of my current ones. Decisions... decisions...

(image via Pinterest I take no credit for it)

There has been the slightest, tiniest, minutest tweak to the last change of plans

(images via Pinterest)

Okay so maybe that last post was a little premature. I waited to publish it for like a week in case I changed my mind on working on To Dance With Monsters, turns out what I needed to wait was a week and three days.

It isn't exactly that I've decided to not write it. Because of course I'm going to write it someday. It isn't even that I'm saying I'm not going to write it this year. That I haven't decided yet.

I left room in my writing schedule to start one unplanned project in 2021. All of my other projects have been mapped out this year, but I have room for one more. And I'm just not sure if TDWM is going to be that one project that comes in and sweeps me away and I sell my soul to like RLtG was for me last year (honestly it still is very much my passion project I love Ruskhazar with my whole heart but now the difference is, it is actually a planned project, I'm even publishing its prequel novella in less than two months!). So yeah, I'm pulling back on TDWM because I realized I wasn't sure it was going to be that one unplanned project. I have a few other story ideas bouncing around in my brain that are warring with TDWM for WIP supremacy. Honestly I don't have a clue which will win, I suppose only time will tell.

Heck, if I'm still this undecided when the time draws near to start the dang project I might actually put it up to a poll to see what you the reader would like to see the most.

(images via Pinterest)

But for now... it's one day until NaNo. So here is my new and revised NaNo goal:

65,000 words or more

Four projects whose progress will all be counted toward this goal

It's slightly more of a word count than traditional NaNo but divided (probably knowing me, unevenly) across four projects instead of just the one

So we shall see how far we actually get in any of them and which projects I end up writing the most in (my money is on AWDAD, but sometimes I surprise myself)

The projects are as follows:

A Winter Dark and Deadly

Rage Like the Gods

An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods

Of Stars and Shadows

(images via Pinterest)

Yes indeed I am finally starting Of Stars and Shadows again, and not waiting till AWDAD is finished before I do it either. I figured while I worked to try and figure out what this ever elusive unplanned WIP will be, I could in the very least get some words pounded out on OGaI's sequel seeing as it needs to get written before this October.

Anyway, hopefully this is the last change of NaNo plans, seeing as NaNo is tomorrow. But I think it will be. These four projects are stories that I both want and need to write and have well established plots already. I'm particularly excited to get back into writing Immortal's Guide and OSaS.

(images via Pinterest)

As I said in the last post I shall try to keep you up to date on these now four projects through next month. I'm excited to see how far I will get in these stories.

What about you? Are you doing NaNo, if so I would love to hear about your projects. Which of these four projects are you anticipating the most? Comment Below!

Psyche there has been a change of plans, but I'm sure that none of your are surprised at this point

Okay so first of all, I just realized that most of the titles of my last several posts all had the term "in which" in them. So I labeled the moment when I noticed that "In which I realized that I like in which too much" XD

So yeah...

But anyway, I'm sure you guys are probably wondering what the change of plans is. No worries, Between Gods and Demigods is still getting published, A Winter Dark and Deadly is still getting edited, and Rage Like the Gods is still getting written.

Just maybe not by May for the latter two.

I started thinking about how May would look and I realized a scary thing. If I plowed through both RLtG and AWDAD in this month then come May I would be starting RLtG book two Folly of the Gods and Of Stars of Shadows. I had always been intending to pick up another project in May once Between Gods and Demigods was published. That would leave me with three brand new stories, four counting Immortal's Guide.

And then I realized that absolutely all of my current projects would be under 20k words long and I would probably die.

(the one I would be farthest along in currently is OSaS, but that is only 11k long)

So you better believe I pumped the brakes and reexamined my goals, and worked toward figuring out how to avert this crisis. (because I very much did not want to lose the remaining bit of sanity I had left).

 I decided that trying to finish RLtG and AWDAD at the same time was not the best idea. And since AWDAD is the next book after Between Gods and Demigods that needs to be published I'm afraid that is going to be my key focus (honestly I haven't blogged about it for a little while but it is coming along so nicely and I can't believe I am saying that after all the trouble this story has given me, but it really is developing very well and I'm very excited for what comes next). This is purely conjecture at this point but my soft goal (and one that I think is quite reasonable) is to have it done by June. 

Focusing on AWDAD means not trying to write 110k in a month and a half, at least not in RLtG. I'm still going to be working on it, just not putting so much energy into trying to finish it and get it wrapped up (I am extremely eager for book two but I must wait for now and I suppose this is what I get for writing such a long book)

What then will my Camp NaNo project be? Because honestly, I would be slightly worried that I was kidnapped by aliens and replaced by a bot or shapeshifter if I skipped a NaNo (and for future reference you should be too). I just love the challenge of doing them so much.

Well that is phase two of the plan to not go completely insane. Since I have already finished all of the edits I can currently do on Between Gods and Demigods I have decided to pick up the project I was going to start in May. Early. That way I will be farther along in it when I do start OSaS and FoTG instead of starting three projects at roughly the same time.

My NaNo goal is to write about 65k in my three projects RLtG, AWDAD, and this new story (and to be fair in AWDAD's case it will be editing those words not writing them)

So... what is this new project, you are probably wondering?

I'm so glad you asked.

(images via Pinterest)

It's actually a story I came up with in 2019, but never fully fleshed out so I put it down till a later date to work on. Apparently this is that later date.

It's called To Dance With Monsters and it's a Little Red Riding Hood fantasy horror novel. The first in a duology. I have a blurb so you can read what it is about yourself.

With one touch Amber Dearg could kill a grown man. It’s an unfortunate curse that has plagued her since she was a young child. Due to her abnormality, Amber has lived as an outcast with her mother and grandmother as her only forms of human contact since her father abandoned them. She provides for the three of them by means of common thievery. Pinching a coin purse, swiping a loaf of bread. You name it, Amber has done it. But when a trip out of town goes awry, she finds herself face to face with a werewolf and captured by the king’s men.

Taken to a manor in the middle of nowhere, Amber discovers that it is a safe haven for others like her, the Magic Touched. Young people born with magic in a world where it is banned. The powers of the Magic Touched may vary but one thing rings true for them all… they’re barely human.

Amber doesn’t trust that this manor is the home for the lost that it seems to be. Someone appears to be trying to force these children to embrace their feral abilities. Madness is only a breath away from them all. Then there is her fellow inmate Gavin, a self-professing werewolf, who only complicates matters with his secrets. The clock is ticking down until the werewolf awakens again. When it does Amber will be more than just a victim of circumstance. This time she’s its target.

Who can you trust when everyone is a monster?

So there you have it, a brief introduction to To Dance With Monsters and a change in plans. I shall try to keep you all appraised of the progress I am making in all three of my stories next month. Good luck! And happy NaNo-ing (for those of you doing it of course)

In which I realize that it is Camp NaNo next month and decide to make my goal the next-to-impossible task to finish RLtG in less than two months

(all images via Pinterest)

So yeah, I'm pretty sure that extremely long title says it all. But I'm sure I'll find something to ramble about in this post anyway.

Camp NaNo is in like two weeks. I have to admit, it snuck up on me. I wasn't prepared. And as I was trying to figure out just which project I should work on, I decided that it was about time I finally finished Rage Like the Gods. I've been working on it for about nine months and am crazy impatient to move on to book two, so I thought why not?

A crazy, crazy idea, especially since I will still be working on my novellas (I'm planning on publishing the prequel Between Gods and Demigods this May so edits need to be done) and AWDAD. I am willing to put Immortal's Guide and LoT on the backburner for two months, though.

What's so crazy about it well... it's time for me to get a little geeky and drone on about word counts.

The current word count for RLtG, 111,991

Divided up it looks a bit like this.

Eirik: 40,028, almost to the climax, maybe it will be wrapped up in 10,000-15,000 words

Thyre: 25,236, hit its midpoint twist so about halfway done

Dagmy: 20,358, hit its midpoint twist so about halfway done

Meruna: 25,083, almost to the midpoint twist

Azern: 1,286 (her POV is complicated since it is directly tied to Thyre's and Meruna's both so I'm working on getting more of theirs written before I work on hers. I don't think it will be quite as long as the other POVs, probably more about half their lengths)

So at first glance 111k is a good solid number. It's about how long Of Gold and Iron was. Looking at my other published novels, Week of Werewolves was 115k, A Certain Sort of Madness was 120k, and Time of Trepidation 130k.Which are all pretty decent word counts for books ranging about 300-400 pages long. The longest books I have written (SoS and AWDAD) are not published yet, but they were both around 150k words long.

By the standards of how long my books tend to be that would mean that I would have about 40k words left to write tops. which I could easily do in a month and a half.

Unfortunately (for my sanity, but yay for you for getting a lot of time to connect with the characters) I do not think that RLtG is going to be 150k words long.

I've been saying this for a while, but I suspect RLtG is going to be a very long book. I don't know if I have ever said quite how long, but here are my suspicions:

Eirik is the POV I am farthest along in and getting pretty close to finishing so at this point I am going to go out and say that he is going to be about 50k words long, maybe longer but for the sake of not overcomplicating my already overcomplicated word count guesstimator (aka my brain) we will just stick with about 50k.

My other POVs are very likely going to be as long as Eirik's POV, give or take 10k. That's still 40-50k for each POV. That's four POVs coming in at 50k. Then with Azern we'll say she is 20k which is about the middle ground of my 15-25k estimation for her POV length and you do all the math and add those 50ks up and that equals well, it equals about 220k words

220,000

It could be just 200,000 or it could end up being 260,000 (worst case scenario and POVs end up dragging for longer than I originally anticipated), but I honestly don't think it will be shorter than 200k, not with everything I still have to write.

(to get even more technical for those of you wondering just how big of a book that would be, if RLtG ends up being twice the size of OGaI which is 308 pages long, then it would be over 600 pages O_O)

Which would make my 111k only the halfway mark and that means I have to write another 110k in a month and a half in order to be done at the time that I so desire.

And that is the impossible goal I have decided to work on.

Thank you for joining me down my rabbit hole, I will probably be blogging less (or maybe more, the wonders of procrastination) in the next month and a half, but Between Gods and Demigods should be getting a cover reveal in that time period and you aren't going to want to miss that. As an unrelated side note this is my first NaNo going without coffee seeing as I had to give it up due to health reasons so all I can say is... this must be what insanity feels like.

To make a long post short, this is all just my best guess work. I don't actually have any way of knowing just how long RLtG will be until I finish it. Which I am going to try to do before May.

Emphasis on the try.

I know that Yoda would be disappointed in me for simply trying, but if I do really have another 100k to go well... I honest to goodness don't think I will make it. I shall endeavor to all the same, who knows maybe I will surprise myself. I'm curious to see how far I will get.

*gulps*

Bring it.

My Writing Schedule//In which you realize that I don't have any super powers

(images via Pinterest)

"How many WIPs are you working on?" you ask. "One? Two?"

You see the look on my face and feel the blood drain from your own. "Three?" you ask in a hoarse whisper.

Well, I say suddenly dropping all quotation marks and returning to my regular blogging style. I'm sort of working on closer to five... no sorry, six. Forgot about that one.

Yup, six WIPs. Actually they are nice and evenly organized, like so see:

Two editing projects

Two first drafts

Two novellas

Now before you think I have some sort of super human ability, I am not working on all of these at once. I have a writing schedule that I'm working to stick to, in order to balance all of these projects. But before we discuss my schedule let's talk about what these projects even are.

The two writing projects are as you probably guessed it, Rage Like the Gods (sitting at around 110k and still going very very strong) and An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods which is a newer project so the word count isn't overly inflated on that one (yet)

The novellas are Between Gods and Demigods and a sort of super hero story that I'm working on as part of a multi author series which I have yet to fully announce. Now these two don't actually make it onto my schedule because Between Gods and Demigods is actually already written and is waiting to be edited. And the other novella is in the process of being brain stormed.

The editing projects actually have the majority of my attention, as you will see in the schedule below. They are A Winter Dark and Deadly (which I'm about halfway through editing), and League of Thieves, a project I wrote back in 2018 that has been sitting on my hard drive since. I decided to finally crack it open and polish it up to try querying it to trad publishers hopefully this year. I will 100% have to do a post featuring League of Thieves very soon, where I finally say what it is about and introduce you all to my disaster children. But for now here is the schedule that I use to try to get me to balance all of these writing projects:

Monday: A Winter Dark and Deadly

Tuesday: either Rage Like the Gods or An Immortal's Guide to Defying the Gods

Wednesday: either Rage Like the Gods or An Immortal's Guide to Defying the Gods

Thursday: either Rage Like the Gods or An Immortal's Guide to Defying the Gods

Friday: A Winter Dark and Deadly

Saturday: League of Thieves

Sunday: League of Thieves

And that's basically it, I'm still working out the kinks and trying to figure out if I start writing at different times I will be able to do more than one project a day, but for now this is the schedule that I have and I'm sticking to it.

Introducing the characters of An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods// In which I pretend that there is no book one

(images from Pinterest)

 Now don't get me wrong, I love An Assassin's Guide to Cheating the Gods with my whole heart and it is going to be an extremely stabby bloody brilliant book revolving around a character that I straight up don't know how to classify. Too good to be a straight up villain, but perhaps too unrepentantly bad to be an antihero or hero. Oh yes that book will be very fun to write, and did I mention bloody?

Because like vampires.

But for the time being, the sequel is actually the story that has my interest and that I am working on writing regularly (alongside RLtG and AWDAD, one of these days I am going to have to write about my weekly writing schedule and how I juggle working on all these WIPs but before I do that I am going to have to announce the other WIP I am currently working on in secret and before you cry out in horror "WAIT YOU ARE WORKING ON ANOTHER WIP???" I would like to remind you that it is a secret so shhhh...)

This trilogy (which now has a name, that name being Blood of the Gods) is uniquely suited for me to be able to follow my muse and work on the sequel first

those unique factors are...

1.) An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods has an entirely different cast of characters than are in An Assassin's Guide to Cheating the Gods. In fact this book takes place more than twenty years and four RLtG books after the events of Assassin's Guide. Which means that very little of its plot has even anything to do with Assassin's Guide. This independence from each other's plots is why I consider these books more of standalones even though they are all a part of the Blood of the Gods trilogy. (as a side note it does have a lot of connections with books 3 and 4 of RLtG including some of the main characters being introduced in those books, but I already know those connections so I can incorporate them as I go)

2.) None of the books in the Blood of the Gods trilogy have a set release date I have to work towards. I plan on releasing them eventually, but RLtG book one is not even out yet. So I have time to work on them casually and even out of order due to the fact that the first factor is a thing

Phew. For those of you who weren't following here is the brutally abridged version: I'm currently working on Blood of the Gods book 2: An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods

And here are the characters...

(all images below are from Pinterest, all rights to their creators I take no credit for them)

Talmryn

POV character number one//Half elf//Accidentally slept for a thousand years//Reformed vampire who actually wants to be a vampire again so I guess that means she isn't actually reformed//Was The Queen of Thieves once and she will do it again

Rhysaff

It's a deadly business being Talmryn's fiancé but someone has to do it// Has two emotions smugness and amusement and that's it//Is such a rebel that he became a  law abiding Magicker instead of an illegal sorcerer just because his parents didn't want him to

Ragla

Second POV character//I hunt vampires, what's your super power?// I'm not a werewolf because I have anger issues, I have anger issues because I am a werewolf//My best friend stole my boyfriend but I'm cool with it they're actually really cute together

Jolfric

Be a mercenary they said, it will be fun they said//Do not ask me how I lost my eye, I will cry//I act tough for someone who will literally agree to anything you suggest without argument//My brother stole the woman I love from me and I'm not okay with it even if they are cute together

Varenich

Third POV character// Ragla's baby brother all grown up and off to save his sister// Actual proof of how nice guys finish last// It's his own dang fault why is every one of his goals utterly impossible//Was originally only a side character but I loved him too much//Is actually perfect

Irina

Legitimately the sassiest person to walk the earth// Still is somehow sweet though// The gods knew I was too powerful which is why they took my memory// Seriously though, I have no memory but I think I've been around for a while// Thank goodness for vampirism right?

Jarena

I used to be a POV character until I was reduced to The Best Friend//But I am a super great best friend//My parents are from An Assassin's Guide//I'm considered a bit eccentric but everyone loves me anyway

Demetri

I could have been a Magicker but then I thought why not just brew potions all day instead//My genius is usually misunderstood so it's a good thing I'm cute // I would literally cross the world for those who are dear to me

And those are the main characters from An Immortal's Guide. I consider this the book where the secondary characters get their own stories because five of the characters listed above are actually introduced over the course of the RLtG series. Now technically due to my character sorting system Jarena and Demetri are actually side characters themselves, but since they were originally going to be main characters (until Varenich stole the show in all of his perfectness) and this book doesn't have a whole lot of other side characters to begin with I thought I would include them here.

I will do an Assassin's Guide post introducing the characters once I start working on it more steadily (same for book 3, A Lady's Guide). For now, here is An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods. Yes it is book two. No, book one isn't written yet. BUT I'M WORKING ON IT ANYWAY. And yes, I'm having a crazy amount of fun with these crazy characters. As evidenced by the fact that this was supposed to be a serious post, but well it wasn't.

Jaye and Ravven: love or lunacy?

(Images via Pinterest)

I'm here to talk about a story I haven't spoken of as much of late, Of Gold and Iron. I haven't posted about it a whole lot since I have published it, despite the fact that I am hoping to publish its sequel Of Stars and Shadows late this year. I suppose I've been too focused on A Winter Dark and Deadly but fret not, once AWDAD is done this sequel will have my full attention (well... as much undivided attention as it is possible for one of my WIPs to get)

But with it being Valentines Day I thought why not talk about one of the most complicated pair of characters I have ever written.

When writing a tale about a faerie and a human, things were bound to get messy. I've read a few faerie books and one thing stands out. Love between a faerie and a mortal may not be forbidden per say, but it is definitely ill-advised...

With that said I thought I would celebrate Valentine's Day this year by giving some snippets that hopefully will provide a glimpse into the complex nature of the relationship between Jaye and Ravven...

"I have barely even met Ravven and already I am sick of him and his condescending behavior. I guess we don’t need a rule about not falling in love with faeries after all. No one in their right mind would fall for one of them."

 

"Ravven smiles and spreads his hands out. “I believe that we must come to an… agreement in order to get out of this alive. One where we both have equally to gain or lose if we succeed or fail. Respectively, of course.”

"But Ravven doesn’t say it. He doesn’t say anything at all. He just stares at me the same way that I’m staring at him. As if waiting for something that isn’t going to come."

“I trust you, pest,” Ravven says, and then he leans forward and brushes his lips against my forehead. I freeze, too warm to be ice or marble, but too hard and immovable to be truly alive. “And only you.”

Add to Goodreads.

Of Gold and Iron is on a blog tour right now you can find out more about that and the stops as well as enter in a giveaway for a chance to win my other books here.

And you can purchase your own copy of Of Gold and Iron and ready this darkly romantic tale for yourself here.

And for those of you who have already read OGaI here are a handful of snippets from OSaS

"Lovely to see that some things never change. You may be a cold-blooded killer, but at least you are still just as infuriating as ever."

“What happened to you?” I whisper, staring into his eyes. Gray eyes, devoid of color. I hadn’t realized how much I had come to rely on his eyes for guidance to his mood until they are staring into mine without a single expression.

“You did,” Ravven replies, pulling away."

(Images via Pinterest)

"Ravven ducks his head, “Unfortunately strange as it may seem, I do trust in you more than I do anyone else here.”

This is honestly the most surprising statement I have heard in possibly my entire life and I am not quite sure how to process this information or react. “You really shouldn’t,” I say, swallowing, hard.

Ravven chuckles slightly and pulls his hand away to reveal that the blood has stopped. “You are still the only person I trust. Even if I trust you less now, it does not mean I trust anyone else more.”

"Thomas’s eyes flick to Ravven, “You actually love her.”

Ravven is silent a long moment, when he finally opens his mouth, I think he is going to lie but instead he says. “Unfortunate is it not?”

Whelp that is probably enough snippets for one day. Have you read Of Gold and Iron yet? And if so on a scale of one to ten how mad are you with me about that ending. Mwahaha... and Happy Valentines Day!