Hi Summer!

Posted on 27/05/2018 by Mikaela

I think I am turning this into a monthly thing, since that seems to be how often I blog. Which is better than last year. But I have spare time now. At least until I buy an apartment and has to, you know, move.. But let’s not think about that now. May has been… unseasonally warm and sunny. I have mostly enjoyed it, though I am sort of dreading how July and August will be. They are saying cooler weather are coming. *hopes said cooler weather includes rain*

I have finished the first draft of the WIP, mostly because I figured out that I was floundering, and I had reached a good stopping point for the arc. It is a big mess, though, and I am not sure how much I will be able to keep. Ah well. Most of my drafts are super messy. I have started outlining book 2, though, and I feel good about it right now. Ask me how I feel while I am writiing the rough draft. Which I will spend June doing. And then I will start revising The Shifter’s Justice, since I have figured out that I revise faster if I don’t have to go to work for a week or two. And since I am hoping to significantly cut down the revising time… I mean, it isn’t the only thing that I’ll do to shorten the revision time, but it definitely wont hurt.

Beyond writing, I have been reading. I have been in the mood for funny books, so I have been some Tessa Dare and Patricia Rice books in my TBR pile, along with rereading books in my TBR pile, and bought some new ones too.

Beyond this, I went to London. I saw Hamilton (yaaay!) with my friend Sharpie, met my brother and his wonderful girlfriend and had a generally great time. I needed a weekend when I saw friends and did fun things. 🙂 I am planning to do it again, maybe,in July with other friends ( though not London!).. I should probably follow up on those plans…

Anyway, that is what I have been up to in May! In June I am going to Spain… which will be a lot of hotter than Sweden. I am planning to spend my time reading in the shadow or in the water. Well. And eating good food and probably seeing something moorish, though not Alhambra, since it was deemed to be too far away.

A writing update!

Posted on 12/05/2018 by Mikaela

Right now I am working on the first book in an historical fantasy series ( and before you ask: It has a title that I love, and a cover, but I am going to sit on them for awhile). The book takes place in Sweden, around the time they stopped executing witches. It filled with witches, and werewolves and vampires I am having a lot of fun, dumping the story on the page, without much revising and back tracking. Though I have had to back-track a couple of times, since I took a couple of wrong turns. At least I figured it out. I also tried to edit as I go at the beginning of the draft, but I figured out fast that it didn’t work.

This is why my rough drafts are a mess, but that is ok. I’ll fix it in the rewrite, which will happen sometime in 2019, cause I have other books I need to revise. Hopefully I’ll figure out a way to revise faster.

I am not sure what I’ll work on once I am done with this book. Either I tackle revising Shifters’ Justice or typing in Frosthold. Both have their possibilities. Though it is possible that I will try typing in Frosthold and writing something new at the same time. The worst thing that will happen is that I figure out it wont work…. Though maybe first I should see if I can find the notebooks containing the handwritten draft.

Anyway. I think I have rambled enough.

I am back!

Posted on 06/04/2018 by Mikaela

I am back! So the last 6 months have been filled with hard decisions. But mum’s house is sold, the keys are handed over to the new owners. Which is huge relief. I didn’t realise until the keys had been handed over how much energy and time it has swallowed.

A lot of things have slipped to the side. Like my webpage. I have kept on writing, though. Which means I have actually had a productive 12 months. I finished the messy first draft of The Dragon’s Blade, book 3 in the Portal justicars, rewrote Vanished and started a new book in another series.

The plan is to revise The Shifters Justice, book 2 in the Portal Justicars, later this year and have it out around christmas. (Though release dates are always flexible.)

One thing I can say is that there will be print copies of Daughter of the Dark this year. It was on the to do list for last year, but I didn’t have time.

I need to protect the writing time

Posted on 15/10/2017 by Mikaela

I have a lot of flexibility in my day job, so I can basically set my own schedule (which is good and bad, since it means if I take time off, I don’t get paid). Most of the time, I work 6 hours per day with Friday off, but last week I worked 7 hours for two days. And.. I decided that even if the extra hours were nice, it wasn’t worth it. Mainly because of self-care reasons but partially because it cut into my writing time.

That, and a lunch with my brother where he sprouted nonsense like writing less and working more, made me think about protecting the writing. Or rather protecting the writing time. While I write everyday, or try to at least, Friday is my main writing day were my family is busy (=no social obligations, except maybe a dinner), so I can focus on the writing. Except… lately I have been using it to schedule meetings. Meet the real estate guy to get an estimate on mum’s house? Friday. Go to the bank? Friday. Go and check on mum’s house? Friday.

I am the first to admit that is convenient to do it, since I have time on Friday. Except… since I live 1 hour+ away from mum’s house, it means that I lose a lot of writing time when I go there.

And.. I cannot keep doing that. Writing is… a balance towards my dayjob, which can be pretty bleak sometimes. So cutting into the writing time is bad, in the long run. Doubly so when I do it while dealing with mum’s estate.
In fact, I think I will cut down on hours until the house is sold. I mean what’s the point of being able to set my own schedule if I don’t use it when I feel that I need it?

blows away the dust

Posted on 18/08/2017 by Mikaela

It has been a long time since I wrote something here, which has many reasons. Most of them life related, but things have calmed down now. (More or less.) While dealing with life I have been slowly working at The Dragon’s Blade, which is very messy but it is also at 26 000 words, so I am almost done. Yay for slow and steady. 🙂

I have also been to Helsinki, which was so much fun! I got meet my friends and listen to people being smart. And I get to do it again in 2019 since Dublin won the Worldcon bid. (I might already have agreed to do a panel with my friends. Eeep.)

For the next month the plan is to wrap up the first draft of The Dragon’s Blade and then pick up Vanished again, since I put it aside when Life blew up. (I also needed the distance from it.)

If I was ambitious, I would aim to be done with Vanished before Octocon, but… I am going to be realistic and aim for Christmas instead. 🙂

Join me in Night Owl reviews scavenger hunt!

Posted on 17/07/201714/07/2017 by Mikaela

I have a treat for you. I, along with 38 other authors, am sponsoring the Night Owl Reviews SUMMER FUN Scavenger Hunt. it is a great way to find new books to add to your TBR list. The grand prize is a $100 Amazon Gift Card. But there will be a lot of smaller gift cards, since they are giving away 900 dollars worth in prizes!

Enter Now at: https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Blog/Articles/Summer-Fun-2017

Event Dates: July 19 – Aug 9

collapses in a heap

Posted on 29/05/2017 by Mikaela

It is May 29th ( how did that happen?!). Today is the first day in over two months that I am home, without any plan of leaving in the next 24 hours. It is a nice feeling. Mum’s care doesn’t rely on me, and it wont again for a long time. That said, I don’t want to relive the last week, ever. It was *awful*.

The upside is that my life will be stable enough for me to actually write. I have decided that I am not in a good mental headspace for revising, so Vanished is shelved. For how long? I don’t know, but I will get back to it.

Meanwhile, I am having fun writing The Dragon’s Blade, and I need fun right now.

Daughter of the Dark is out!

Posted on 17/05/2017 by Mikaela

If I had been more organized, I would have written this blogpost yesterday, but… I am not organized right now. Anyway, Daughter of the Dark out everywhere (Except at Scribd and 24 Symbols). I hope you enjoy it!

When her mother’s soldiers kidnaps her daughter in front of her eyes, Jenny is willing to do anything to do her back. Even working with the portal justicars to investigate the omnious rumors coming from her home realm, Dhurig. The investigation comes to a skidding halt when she discovers that the vampire king of Ahira has put a ban on portal travel to Dhurig.
Backed into a corner, she approaches Eric, a vampire courtier and her ex-lover. He gets furious when she reveals he has a daughter. He agrees to help her, if she helps him with a string of mysterious kidnappings. She say yes. During their search in Dhurig and Ahira, they discover that their daughter’s kidnapping are connected to a much bigger web of betrayal, greed and dark magic that threatens the stability of the Portal universe.

Buy at:

Amazon

Kobo

Ibooks

So that was April

Posted on 01/05/201701/05/2017 by Mikaela

It is May 1^st and I am trying to figure out where April went. It feels as if it was yesterday when we were celebrating mum’s birthday. /A bit stressful, since I got back from London 2 hours before.) Which was when mum first complained about weird aches in her leg. The leg pain escalated around easter, when it became so bad that she couldn’t get to the grocery store. So I never left after Easter (I have been in my apartment 3 times during the last two weeks). So April was a month filled with visits to doctors and antibiotics. BUT! We found out the source of last week (after our second ER visit in 1 week). Now she is finally on the right medication. <3

In between that, I have tried to work on Vanished and finish the last touches on Daughter of the Dark. The key word is tried. I have made some progress, but I have so much to do. At least the formatting is almost done. Once I have finalized the formatting and done a final proof-reading and spell-check, I will breathe easier. 🙂

Lacy hazelnut and chocolate chip cookies

Posted on 16/04/2017 by Mikaela

A couple of years ago, I got Roy Fares’ United Cakes of America for Christmas. I baked the cookie recipe a couple of times, it was delicious but… it required 225 g of butter, which was way too fat for me (and since swedish butter is sold in 500 g packages, it means that you had to buy a new package every time you wanted to make a new batch). So I looked around for another recipe, and found Leila Lindholm’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have been making a version of it ever since, since my mum loves them. I finally realised I hadn’t posted it. 🙂

125 g of butter

1 dl sugar

1 egg

½ dl oatmeal

1 ½ flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

100 g Chocolate chips

chopped hazelnuts ( roughly half a bag)

salt

Turn the oven to 200 c, while the oven heats up, let the butter soften on top of the stove.

Whip the soft butter and the sugar until it is creamy, add the egg and mix until it is smooth. Mix flour, oatmeal and baking powder in a small bowl, add it to the egg and butter mix. Add the chocolate and hazelnuts.

With a small spoon, drop the batter on a baking sheet covered in baking parchment. Put in the oven for ten minutes. *

*If you want more traditional cookies, roll the batter and put in the freezer for 30 minutes, before slicing the batter.

I prefer this version, though!