Between the holidays, illnesses, and more snow days than I can shake a stick at (because I’m not going out in that just to get a stick), getting back to a normal routine has been…challenging. It still hasn’t happened actually.
Which makes trying to add in new things to the routine difficult and puts me a little behind schedule. At least to my liking anyway. I’ve also been horrible about commenting on people’s blogs lately, though I’ve managed to read the posts. Forewarning, I might be going through a bunch of stuff and commenting soon. I might call some of them a wash on trying to comment on this far out.
In other news, I’ve found something interesting in responses from my beta readers so far: my reader group and my critique group have very different views on the same things. It leaves me scratching my head on what to do. I’m aiming for release of Shattered Illusions for this summer, but I’m reluctant to announce the date I have in mind right now. I’m working on a couple of different things at the moment regarding the books and I’ll share as soon as I have solid information. But… *squeee*
Hope no one minds that I’m passing on this month’s question and just doing my own thing.
Book 3 is alpha ready. Has been for a few weeks now, but I’ve been editing it while Shattered Illusions is out to my beta readers, which is starting to come back now (so I need to get on the ball with final edits for that one). I’ve gone through this with the last two books and not being ready to let them go to see if the story is any good to anyone else.
It’s still scary to let it out to someone else. It could be compounded by also having another book closing in on being published – summer will come quickly despite the record snow outside.
And that’s record snow for the area, not me. I grew up in New England – can’t scare me with this.
As 2016 rolls to a close, the thought of attempting a New Year’s Resolution or two does cross my mind. Except I’m absolutely horrible at keeping them. To the point if I don’t want something to get done, I might as well make it a resolution.
Not to mention with everything that has happened in the past year, I’ve had a lot to reflect on, which might be as much of a waste of my time as making a resolution. I try not to get too personal here since even the people closest to me have a hard time knowing what goes through my head. I tend to keep a lot to myself.
One thing I’ve been working on coming to terms with is the sheer number of doors which were closed on me over the course of my life so far. The ones especially closed by someone who continued to tell me that they would never close doors on me like their mother did to them. Why didn’t I fight it or shoulder my way through? I can’t give any kind of solid answer to that. Trust? Accepting this is how life was? The belief that I would never get anywhere going through that door? I’m not sure, but does it matter at this point?
While some doors are permanently locked, others are not and it’s time I started opening some now that those shackles are removed (this is a topic for another time). Sure, some will be dead ends, but I won’t know until I try.
So I’m going to try for 2 relatively simple doors: 1 of something I’ve wanted to learn and 1 of something I want to revisit. For me in the above picture, the violin will be my something new and I will be revisiting archery. What I need to remind myself is that neither of these need to be accomplished in the first few months of the year and I’m also not limited to just these 2 – I can open other doors at my leisure or as opportunities arise. I also need to remind myself that I won’t be perfect to start (pretty sure my attempts at playing will sound like a tortured cat, hence the electric violin…besides, research XD) and despite growing up shooting (competition), I have spent far too many years with barely touching my bow and I will need to relearn skills which were once second nature.
I didn’t know I needed this quote until I saw it and it fits one of the many reasons why I hesitate to try something new.
Anyone current with compounds is probably looking at my Oasis like it’s an ancient piece of technology, but it works. Yes, I prefer to shoot pins and fingers – don’t give me a release, I hated it when I tried. I’ll upgrade my sights and sight window eventually.
I guess these could be considered resolutions of some sort, but I’d rather not attach that tag since there is no concrete goal here. With any luck, I’ll be able to start moving past the regrets and fully engage in the current.
First, for those who follow me, I want to apologize for my long periods of silence. Things have been going on in my life that have kept me quiet. I won’t go into most of them, but especially for the past few weeks it seems to be one thing after another. Much of which makes me want to scream in frustration.
So in my silence I’ve been working my way through editing book 3. What’s up with Shattered Illusions? It’s still out to my beta readers until the end of the month and right now book 3 amuses me. We’ll see if it entertains my alpha reader when I release it to him.
I’ve also been playing FFXIV and have become almost obsessed with getting all the relics maxed out. I already had all of the 2.0 ones at least to Zenith (now Atma) when I started picking it up again – 2 were Zetas already turned in for 3.0 relics (I’m only at 3 Zetas now, but I’ve been lazy on those). I also had 4 or 5 of the 3.0 relics started and am up to 6 (I’m using the 2.0 Zeta relics to buy the stuff for the 3.0 relics because crystal farming is mind numbing and retainer space is limited). My main is now fully upgraded and I’ve got 3 more at i230.
And now that I’ve lost most of you…
I’ve been doing some sales lately on my book for the holidays. The ebook is again on sale at $0.99 now on Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. I have the print version available through my online store for 20% off with the coupon code HOLIDAYS.
I know I usually do more than answer the question of the month, but I’m afraid I’m not much in the frame of mind to do so. There’s just been a lot going on.
And now for this month’s question: In terms of your writing career, where do you see yourself five years from now, and what’s your plan to get there?
Er…I have no idea and thus no plan. I’ll probably try to keep to the schedule I’ve set for myself and primarily keep working on Terra Chronicles novels (and side stories). There’s other projects I’ll want to tackle along the way, but I’m usually wary of the best-laid plans and try to factor for some flexibility.
Kind of why I haven’t announced a specific release date for my next book – I have no idea if I’m going to have a ton of work ahead of me or not when it comes back from my beta readers at the end of the month. Just like I’m unsure of what I wrote for the first draft of book 3.
Take 30% off of a paperback copy through my online store with the coupon code TAKE30! And don’t forget if you would like something written in it, please let me know in the additional notes. This is only through my online store and if you’re local in the Treasure Valley (or will be in the area), I do have a pickup option.
eBook versions are on sale for $.99 through Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords (at the time of writing this post, Barnes and Noble hadn’t updated to the sale price, but it should be showing soon).
Everyone finds a different way to get through NaNoWriMo and it may take a few years to find that particular method.
As I close in on 50K words quickly, people think my method is crazy, but it works. I have a NaNoWriMo calendar (there’s a few different options to choose from online) that I keep track of my words everyday. This year, I ramped up my minimum daily goal to 2.5K (because I have this driving need to fill in ALL THE BOXES). A lot harder than last year’s 2K. That gave me a base and then suddenly a couple of my writing buddies started getting huge jumps and I’ve been pushing myself to stay ahead of them.
Why the competition? It helps me push through parts I’m struggling with. It also serves to remind me to stop trying to edit for now and just make a mess – I can clean it up later.
And I get some interesting twists this way. I’m not a planner and I’ve been griping at a side character I had thought about killing later on as she’s made herself likable and downright useful. Another side character I thought would stay mostly out of sight likes to keep popping up and freaking out one of my main characters.
So what am I going to do once I hit 50K? Keep going. I’ll finish the story and then I have a few side projects I wouldn’t mind getting a jump on.
If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo this year, wherever you are in your word count, keep going. Keep creating.
It’s NaNoWriMo season once again and I’m off on drafting out book 3 in my series. The last few years I’ve approached this challenge with a strange mix of excitement and trepidation. I blew the challenge for 5 years in a row and even with 3 “wins” under my belt since, I still grow concerned that I’ll return to that trend.
And with how much I dragged my feet with side projects in September and October, I can only hope I gain enough momentum early on to power through like I have the past couple of years.
Why is this challenge so important to me? I’m not sure. I like connecting with other writers, but honestly, the little achievement awards make me happy (plus I’m a gamer – achievements just make me happy XD). I have something I can measure my successes and failures against easily. And I need to get a story down and out and I might as well do it during a time that lots of other people are so we can cheer each other along.
Now onto the #IWSG question of the month: What is your favorite aspect of being a writer?
Watching a story take shape. Some aspects can drive me mad, but from getting the first draft down to seeing what the final version looks like – it’s like watching magic and most of the time I forget that it came from me. I just get so caught up in watching a story evolve.
This is one of my favorite holidays even if I haven’t dressed up for it in years. It’s also a reminder that NaNoWriMo starts as All Hallow’s Eve comes to a close.
Because DPS have reasonably long queues and I can write while waiting.
It’s also the time of year in which I see certain things happen in regards to NaNo. First of all is the variety of ways people prepare for the challenge. This year I overhauled my office (closet). I got rid of one of the desks that made the room even smaller and shrunk down to just the one and the file cabinet off the other one has remained until I find a suitable replacement (not in the picture). Still need to figure out what to do with some of the things that have now been displaced, but I can breathe.
And yes, I have a glow jar I found for a dollar at the grocery store.
I will be hunting for snacks once they go on sale after Halloween. My playlist for this project is in progress and I created my Scrivener file for it. I have some notes of things I want to try and include and an idea of where to start so I’m ready.
The other thing I see pop up at this time of year is the anti-NaNoWriMo posts. Those bother me in the sense of they usually don’t quite seem to get the point of the challenge. Everyone is different and certainly entitled to their opinions, but that’s also the point – everyone writes differently. I love this and the community that comes together to push each other along. It’s not for everyone though and a few people I’ve spoken with won’t be participating in the challenge itself but they are planning on joining some write-ins and cheering everyone on.
And on a side note. Heh, side… That side story I thought about sidelining got finished and sent off. Yay! Taking my daughter trick-or-treating and then getting ready to start getting words down on the first draft of book 3.
There’s a side project I’ve been toying with, trying to get it together to submit (or keep for my own nefarious purposes). I even submitted it to a couple of critique groups and received fantastic feedback on how to improve it.
And now I’m poking at it with a stick. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this particular project for years and only recently took the plunge to get a full rewrite done of it. I was all ready to make the changes and call it good. Then after taking a short break to clear a few other things off of my plate my energy and excitement fizzled. And now it looks like more of a chore which I’m contemplating sidelining for a while.
Likely because in the back of my mind I have a little voice telling me that it’s a waste to submit it where I’m planning. That this story barely skirts inside the theme they’re looking for.
The overall plan for this project is to start off a collection of short stories with these two characters. I even have another short story written (which needs a full rewrite) to follow with notes for a third.
And perhaps I’m looking forward too much to the next big project and it’s distracting me from what I need to finish.
Twisted Magics is on sale November 26th – 28th!
It’s 
J.C. Jackson 