Long story short: It’s the holidays. I’ve seen more sales in Kindle than any other format of my books, including print for all the traditionalists. :)
So!! If you have a Kindle, read Kindle books, or just plain want to help a girl out, all three of my books are now at 99c each! I will keep this sale going through the holidays, and maybe a bit longer.
Link here: http://amzn.to/ogCVcl
Happy shopping!
K.G.
For the 6th year in a row, I’ve committed literary craziness. I have put down 50,000+ words in 30 days or, as it is in this case, less.
PHEW!
What’s next? First of all, finish the damn story. It actually is getting pretty interesting; it will be a short book, but I got something going on right now that may well turn out to be exactly what the story needs. So I’ll keep writing, but this time, I’ll do so at a bit of a leisurely pace. Unlike last year’s book, though, I’m not going to wait a full year to finish it. I hope to crack through the rest of what is now Book 6 (entitled Cause & Effect) by New Year’s Night.
Second, I think I’ll attend the Desperation Libation party with the NYC NaNo group. I’ve been wanting to make it to some of the write-ins, but as it turned out, had too much to get done in non-writerly things. So either Desperation Libation or the TGIO party. I need to meet up with my fellow literary crazy people this year again. :)
Third…well, enjoy the rest of this weekend, I think. It’s pretty rare I have this much time to myself, and I have a camera that’s itching for some shooting. So maybe I’ll head to one of my favorite picturesque neighborhoods to get some practicing in. Or maybe Long Beach, if it won’t be too cold, but that’ll be after Dec. 2nd.
And fourth…I will need to get some Christmas shopping done. As in, Christmas concert shopping. :) Peter White at BB King’s? Or Botti at the ‘Note? I would love both, but if the money’s tight, I’ll have me a Peter White night. :)
Rhyme not intentional, I assure you.
Whew…now, to get some decaf coffee, for a change, and rest my typing fingers.
Literarily yours,
K.G.
Dear Muse,
You know, I think this is the year that you and I will get along swimmingly. You may have been quite slow in baking up a plot for me, but – and I will not deny a little bit of help from a friend, as well as the friend named caffeine – this is beginning to seriously evolve rapid-fire. I will likely have difficulties as things go along, I may even combine two books into one just to finish the arc with any sort of a decent ending and springboard into Origins, but this is coming out to be a fantastic little arc.
But let’s keep it going, shall we? It’s not as funny a couple of books as #3 had been, but I have to get 20,890 words more. Within about a week and change.
Love,
Me.
——–
Yes, this means that NaNo is going well. And, what seemed like a plot that’s just trawling along had evolved into an interesting direction, almost to the point where the segue into the Origins arc, which tells the back stories to some of the favorite characters, and which also gives a major basis to the arc that will follow, will have to be told in a mostly-flashback sort of style. That is to say, I would have the bulk of the “past” story get told as one of the characters in the present day and time is exploring it.
Maybe? Possibly?
It definitely has room for thought.
I’m wondering how to tell some of the sub-characters’ stories, truth be told. It’s not a matter of leaving anyone out, but it’s a matter of telling it well. That and the character of Jason Watson is interesting enough to dig into a little further, no? :)
K.G.
The end of week two is bringing me closer to the half-point mark, and I will confess myself pleasantly surprised at both my time management and my story management. The plot had come out of this place in the recess of my brain which I wholly attribute to the years that I had spent in college studying legal procedure and jurisprudence. That and, considering part of my day job is knowing about trusts and estates….yeah. Slight spoiler there, considering another main character had kicked the bucket, but there we go.
And I’m definitely ahead of schedule. I will be able to, if I keep writing at the pace that I’m writing, to wrap it up on November 24th. And that would make me very happy indeed, because it means that after the writing frenzy is done, I can use the Thanksgiving Week to actually relax.
Again.
Which will be awesome, really, but I learned from the misadventure of Book 5: finish quickly, and the rest can always be edited. This manuscript I aim to wrap up in full by December 31st.
In other news, music! Music everywhere! I had a wonderful time seeing Jeff Lorber Fusion on Monday, and will write about it as soon as I get back from Steve Cole’s show tonight, and the incomparable Acoustic Alchemy tomorrow afternoon. Lots of music for Christmas…just the way I like it.
Shout-out to my people in NY and everywhere, and to everyone who, like me, is in NaNoWriMo.
K.G.
Or, as I call it, the “preliminary block” phase.
Gods, if it weren’t difficult before, I’m certainly getting there now.
I got the storyline down somewhere at the end of Week 1. I like the story; it may expand a little further, develop the subplots some more at a later time, and I definitely need to inset a few kicking-ass scenes there, but it can happen at a different time. This is taking shape to be more of a mix of neo-political, in addition to the usual high-flying action my books are rife with, and while I desperately wish I could watch some Law & Order for inspiration, my time home is limited, and my to-do list is overwhelming.
But! The plot is there. While it’s in bits and pieces in my head, it exists. Which gives me hope.
In non-NaNo news, I got my good camera at last!! Now to get it a decent lens and a 16GB SDHC card. People, order some graphic design from me!!!! Commemorative orders welcome. I want to earn something for my photography supplies here!
Oh, and have a widget.
It’s coming along… :)
K.G.
Well, it finally started. I’m approaching the 2,000-word mark, which puts me a little ways ahead of my goal for today, but it doesn’t change the fact that, quite effectively, I have to write a book in a month.
And you may say, “Well, it’s not like you’ve never done this before!”
Okay, got me there. This is the sixth time I’m doing this, but in the past, I think I always had at least an idea of where I want the storyline to go. This time, I don’t. I’m effectively “winging it” when it comes to the plot, and I’ve allowed myself to shift focus from the original plot (lookalikes…can’t tell you more than that!) and the subplot (succession) had taken center stage. I may well have no choice but to go with it and hope for the best.
That and the exposition. Gayle, you’re going to hate me come Book 6. It’s just seriously getting bad. But if it’s word count, then my inner editor can go back under the rock. For now, anyway.
And onwards, to the next noveling adventure!
K.G.
So it’s past mid-October already, and I have a little less than a week to go until it’s time to work on National Novel Writing Month again. Which means that for a month, I abandon all pretenses at a social life, hole up with my Netbook, and abuse all of my keyboards in order to produce a book draft.
Fun times! But I’ve done this for five years in a row, and have won each time.
But this time, I have no idea what to write!!!
For those who are unfamiliar, NaNoWriMo is a contest. No prize, except for a first draft of a novel. But the contest is simple: 50,000 words of original manuscript to be written within 30 days.
If you’re balking, you are right. It sounds easy, but it’s like pulling teeth. You have to shut up the inner editor that ever author has, and you have to keep your plot either on a separate outline, or completely in your own head. And the plot can, and does occasionally fall by the wayside. You get a manuscript, yes, but no one said it will be complete, and no one said it will have any quality. And it would still need to get finished!
It gets interesting on my end, if you consider that I am working on a series. This will be Book 6 that I’m working on; the second book of the second arc, and for all I know, it may well be wrapping up the arc altogether (yes, short arc, but unless my muse decides to contrary, it may work to my favor – means I can get started on Origins sooner!). But this also means that I have to keep in mind the entirety of the last two books. And of course, the last book I wrote is, as of yet, unfinished, with one chapter to go.
You see my dilemma now, don’t you.
….yeah, I’m in for an interesting November!
But, all of that aside, there’s some exciting stuff happening. Book 1 had resumed steady movement of sales where Kindle is concerned, which is spectacular news. I will be honest, of all my manuscripts so far, Book 3 is my easy favorite. But with series readers liking to start at the beginning, this just tells me that people are getting curious about this. Considering I’ve fallen seriously behind on my marketing, this is excellent news.
And, of course…drum roll please…
Book 4 will enter editing phase before the end of the year!
I will wait until NaNo is over to get it over to Gayle, and we’ll work it through as before. I have some rewriting still to do, especially at the end of it, but the more I read through that manuscript, the more I like it, and the more I see that my writing skills have markedly improved with this series. Grammar, story structure, strategy – all of that had improved as I kept writing, and working with Gayle as my editor. But I’m earmarking to release Book 4 sometime before tax season next year, barring unforeseen issues. If something gets glitchy, I’ll release it May 1st of 2012, and be able to grab the copies in time for Newport Beach 2012.
I’ve gotten a couple of people asking me whom I’ll use for cover art, especially seeing that I had a guest artist for Book 3. Honestly? I can’t tell you. I’d love to use both Jenna and Marion again, much like what happened with Book 3, but as of this moment, I need to actually get the manuscript happening. Cover art will come to me; it always does.
And so the story goes…
Until next time,
K.G.
It finally sank in just now: I won National Novel Writing Month five times in a row.
In addition thereto, I have two published manuscripts, one in progress for publication prep, one pending a heavy edit, and another awaiting completion. Which means…hoo boy, I have work to do.
As a part of writing a series, it’s an inevitability that one is going to get scrambled within their own plotlines. There’s nothing new or unexpected about it; it happens with every story that gets stretched to continuation. Especially while working on Manuscript #4, which won me last year’s NaNoWriMo, I got into the habit of writing and inserting author’s notes, reminding myself to double-check on my sources, that is to say a previous manuscript. And let me tell you, that helps. There are some plot holes that are reminding me that the story is either open to a lot more flexibility or is requiring a lot of re-tweaking for it to make sense.
So, on my agenda:
- Finish out the prelim edit of Book 3. I stopped at around Chapter 9 because of 1. NaNo and 2. generally being busy.
- Simultaneously, begin editing Book 4. The reason why it’s simultaneous is because Books 3 and 4 are very closely tied together, so whatever happens in one will influence the other, and I have the final outcomes already in mind.
- Leave Book 5 alone until the above is done.
The last one is a toughie. You, my friends and readers, know me: I am a singularly determined person, and I don’t leave things incomplete. Book 4, though it was like pulling teeth after some time, stands completed, even in its unrefined form. So to leave Book 5 just lingering there…that’s going to be interesting. And in addition to that, there’s Christmas gallivanting to be done.
Why yes, I’m spending another holiday at the Note. :)
So, with a long deep breath and some caffeine, off to work I get.
K.G.
Good grief.
I’ve…slacked. A lot. I should have written at least the rest of the chapter – which is becoming more and more verbose and long-winded; I can almost feel the word-padding going on – on Tuesday, but I effectively crawled over to my friend’s house and passed out. The day made me feel like a squeezed lemon. I did a good amount of laptop-wrestling last night (AVG 2011 decided to spazz on me then) after Nate Najar’s lovely show, so of course, my writing was minimal. I should have been at 35,000 words last night. I’m very much not.
That should be, and will be rectified posthaste.
Oddly, though, the more I write, the more I get excited about the storyline I started putting into place. It’s definitely slow going, and the character of Corwin Jacobs (newly renamed, and I like this one) may be showing some of his personality soon. So far he’s just a sideman, and I don’t have a bigger role for him…not yet, anyway. The larger plot is still percolating, but it’s definitely now giving way to the Other Plot that I have in place right now, also percolating. And of course, there’s a big battle in there too…of course. :)
Between all of that, I’m awaiting a few e-mails and calls regarding unrelated-to-writing things, and I have two deadlines to meet. So, plenty for me to do :)
K.G.
Whew. So I’m back on track, as evidenced by this graph right here:
But the truth is, only now do I have a semblance of the bigger plot, and that’s the arc I’m focusing on the most. That right there is what I have a problem with.
Whenever I write any part of The Index, I generally weave more than one plot. On this one, I have:
1. The main arc, which is kiiiiiinda reminiscent of all the Forensic Files that I watch. Shaddup. I know I’m a nerd. Blame my degree.
2. The sub-arc, which picks up the personal life of my main character from the first arc.
3. The New Character, whom I have absolutely no idea how to shape. So far he’s just a sideman. And I’m not liking the fact that I can’t bring out his personality. Crap.
4. The Solitary. One of my main characters flies the coop, and has a different…well, life altogether. So I need to actually spend some time and focus on that.
5. The Dead Guy. Again, don’t ask, and this arc will die (ha!) with the wrap-up of the series.
6. The Politics. This is a new one for me, because politics is the one topic that never fails to get my blood boiling.
…Yeah. Sounds complicated, but considering how closely intertwined the characters are, this is pretty damn easy to keep together. But I’m not sure exactly how to stretch those arcs, which makes me wonder if I should limit the second arc to two books, rather than three, on one hand. On the other, I’m still just getting started with all of it, so there’s still room to touch up and balance the various plotlines, and shape them. My flaw is that I see the end result before I see the particulars that actually lead there.
On the other hand, finding those particulars out is just part of why I love writing. You never know what your brain kicks out.
K.G.
