Sunday Snippet and #ROW80 Check-In

Hi, folks!

I’ve decided to share snippets of my current WIP on Sundays instead of Saturdays, alongside my ROW80 check ins. I won’t be checking in on Wednesdays, I don’t think; just Sundays for now. We’ll see if I get to the point where I remember to do both :)

So my first snippet is an excerpt from my novel, Wolfspirit, which is book 2 in the Otherside trilogy. This is the first few paragraphs of chapter 1-draft 1.

~~~

You should never hit a pissed off redhead: Sometimes they hit back.

My fist connected with Tate’s nose with a resounding and almost-too-pleasing thwack. Bone cracked and his expression was nearly comical as his hands flew up to staunch the flow of blood that had begun to gush down his face.

Not that this was a laughing matter.

“You bitch.” If looks could kill, I’d be vaporized.

I crossed both arms over my chest, jutting my chin out and glaring at him. I refused to rub the bruise blossoming on my cheekbone. I wouldn’t give him the pleasure of seeing me in pain, even though it smarted. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to hit girls? Oh, wait, that’s right. You probably hit her, too!” The words were acid on my tongue. Tate had always had a rough family life, but I never thought…

His expression turned sharp, but I didn’t give him the chance to say anything. Twisting his class ring off my finger—the promise ring he’d given me almost two years ago, when we decided we were going to get married right out of high school and have a couple kids—I slapped it into his blood-sticky palm.

“I’m done.”

~~~ …dundundun!

I…forgot to blog Sunday. SO. Whoopsie. But I’m back now! :D

Week 1: I kicked butt!

 

Monday: 0 words – Blogged
Tuesday: 2,200 words – Blogged
Wednesday: 1,800 words & critiqued a piece – Blogged
Thursday: 1,000 words.
Friday: 1,300 words.
Saturday: 1,300 words.

Week 2: I sucked LOL!

Sunday: 0
Monday: 1,200 words
Tuesday: 0
Wednesday: 0
Thursday: 0
Friday: 0
Saturday: 1,100 words

To a better week! Aiiiii -warcries…and then falls asleep-

Music Monday

One of the things I did do during my hiatus was to buy a couple of new CDs to add to my collection, cuz a girl can never have too much music :) So, of course, I have to share some of my favorite songs.

First up, the song 5/6 by Jason Mraz, off his new album Love Is A Four Letter Word. I got the deluxe edition…just because I freakin’ love Jason Mraz and his live songs are typically SO much better than studio, for me, and that’s rare :)

Enjoy!

Summer Sale :)

On the subject of #ROW80 real quick: I’ll probably just be updating on Sundays. Wednesdays, for me, are fairly forgotten in the midst of the week. Sundays, on the other hand, are my week’s beginning :) But I did manage over 2k yesterday after doing minimal writing for the past two months, so I’m proud.

ANYWAYS! Noticed Smashwords is having a summer sale! So! From now until July 31st, if you buy any of my novels on Smashwords, you’ll be able to enter a coupon code at checkout to get them for half off!

So you can get Wolfsong, Spellbound, and Souljacker each for $1.50 during the month of July :)

Happy reading!

Welcome To The Otherside…

So, Wolfsong’s had a long life. From being created from the depths of my teenage brain in 2005, to a full-scale rewrite in 2011, to publication that same year, this novel’s been with me a long time. When I first wrote it, I’d planned on a sequel focusing on Kia’s future children, set apart from the first book but still connected. I never wrote it. I gave up writing for awhile, but when I came back, I didn’t want the “stale” old idea, I wanted something new and shiny. So Wolfsong #2 became put on hold. With each book over the years, I learned, with each book I grew. I’m a completely different writer than the girl I was in 2005. Even now, the Wolfsong everyone can read is hugely different than the first one I wrote. I guess we both grew up.

Anyway. After 2011′s rewrite, I pondered a trilogy. I loved the cast of characters and the world, so I thought about it long and hard. And decided that the story I was meant to tell–Kia and Arii’s story–could really go no further. Part of it, admittedly, was the fact that I’ve always thought of myself as a ‘stand-alone’ novel person vs. a ‘series’ person and that by admitting I could and would do a series? That scared me.

In March of 2012, Wolfsong went live on Wattpad, part of their Writer’s Partnership Program. And with every day, the amount of reads, comments, and fans went up–and they all agreed on one thing: They wanted a sequel.

Cue panic.

My knee jerk reaction was no: I’d told Kia and Arii’s story the way it felt it needed to be told. Sure, I had a couple of ideas for a second book…but I didn’t feel qualified. The whole “not a series person” hit me hard. The “what ifs” tried to take over.

It took a bit of poking and prodding from some of my closest friends (as well as most, if not all, of my fans <3). But I’ve decided on three books: The Otherside Trilogy. Instead of following the same main characters for each book, I’m breaking away from the norm. I’m staying in Wolfsong’s world, but switching it up. Wolfspirit, which is Otherside #2, will be Kia’s sister Shae’s novel. The third is undecided as of yet.

I’ll have a page when I come up with the summary and will cover-reveal when I have the page :) But I’m writing again! Just thought you all should know :)

It’s That Time Again — #ROW80 Round 3 Goals

AKA: Yeah, I know I failed at this last year, but I have to try again.

See, I have an issue with commitment. I don’t like change–and that’s part of being a writer. I need to learn to cope with it, roll with it. You name it, I need to adapt. Sure, I can write. Sometimes my words are even beautiful, crazy things… But when I’ve spent the last three months letting FEAR get in the way of everything (my blog, my writing, everything…) something’s wrong. I know it’s easy to just ignore the problem and hope it goes away by avoiding it. But it’s not going to get my anywhere.

I didn’t expect to ever be afraid of writing. I don’t know if it’s actual fear of the writing itself, but it’s definitely fear. Of success? Of failure? Both? I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m lingering, hoping something will change, but I’m not doing anything about it. So it’s time to be proactive. I am a writer–I need to write. /end ramble.

Here are my #ROW80 Goals. These will be both writing and promoting related.

1) Post at least twice a week on the blog AND reply to all comments.
I’m horrible at this and I apologize; this is a very scary thing for me. I feel very…socially inept and I like to hide my head in the sand. I’m working on this.

2) Get reintroduced to Twitter and start participating more.
Again, comfort-zone issue. I was the same way with Facebook, but I’m doing better on that, just because I’ve forced myself to log in and piddle every single day! Now I find FB more of an amusement than an annoyance and hopefully I can fall back in love with Twitter again!

3) Buckle down and write 1,200 words MINIMUM a day.
My goal is to write at least a scene a day on my WIP Wolfspirit (which I’ll be blogging about here soon!) and then, at the end of the day, if I pass my minimum, I’ll allow myself some free-writing words on my adult romance project, which is my fun!WIP.

If I find need to change my goals, I’ll re-evaluate and update :) Also, I’ll probably only be checking in once a week, just because…I forget things. I’m so ADD sometimes, lol! But I’m going to set a timer on my phone to remind me :P