Category: updates

Busy, busy.

On By MikaelaIn updates, Writing

Right now, I am revising the first part of The Shattered Ward so that I can send it to be betaread later this week. I am happy with how the opening scene turned out. It was good in the first draft, it is better now, and it will be even better after Thirzah has betaread it. As will the rest of the first part. 🙂  Then I am going back to finish the first draft, before I revise the other parts since I have decided that no matter what I do with The Shattered Ward, I want to have the story arc finished first.

After I am done with The Shattered Ward, there will be a flurry of revisions for The Cauldron Bound, since I am waiting on feedback from Kari.  Hopefully I’ll get those..soon.   Since I have a March deadline for the next round of revisions.  ( It felt like a lot of time, but now I am staring at the Calendar wondering. But I really wanted Laura Anne to edit it. So March it is.)

It isn’t more busy than I was last year.  So I will manage it. Somehow.  Though it might require becoming better at saying no.  And the end result will be more books for you to read.   Now I need to  go back to revising part one.   *poff*

 

 

 

 

Exile is coming sometime this week

On By MikaelaIn updates, Writing

The proofread manuscript arrived in my inbox last night/ early this morning, so I have spent the morning proofreading Exile, and fixing the issues that Lillian had found.

Then I spent the afternoon fixing the formatting. 🙂 There are some final touches needed, like adding the cover, a link to my newsletter, etc.  But I am almost ready to upload it and hit publish! In fact, if I had been at home, this post would probably have been about that Exile was released. 🙂 But since I am at dad’s, it will be out… later this week. It will definitely be out before I go to Shamrokon, though.

Exile will be a available as a free read on my webpage until Sept 1st. Then I am uploading it to other places, and raising the price to 0.99.

 

5 things makes a post

On By MikaelaIn updates

Yes, I borrowed the title from Catie.  But I do have 5 things.

1.  In June, I on a whim sent in an application to be on the Shamrokon programme, but I didn’t expect to get a panel.  So I was dumbfounded when I got an e-mail from the programme committee with my preliminary schedule. I didn’t get one panel. I got three (!). It will be fun!

2.  Kari told me she had found no problems with Exile. Yay! So I asked Lillian if she was interested in proofreading it. She said yes.  So Exile is off to her for proofreading.

3.  Since Exile was off to be proofread, I decided to see if I could use Smashwords guidelines as basis for a Open Office template.  I gave up, though.  Then I had a lightbulb moment:  Maybe there was one for Atlantis word processor. A quick google ( since I am at Dad’s) told me that there was an e-book template for Atlantis. Score!

4. Sweden is in the middle of a heatwave. On Tuesday, I looked at the weather prognosis and saw that the weather would be cooler later in the week so I decided to take some time off. 30 C heat makes my brain melt.

5. Since Shamrokon is approaching, I am thinking about Marketing. Well. I know I’m going to order postcards from Vistaprint w a link to a free download. I just haven’t decided to do it for Exile or Daughter of the Dark.  Though Exile might make more sense.  We will see.

 

Edits!

On By MikaelaIn updates, Writing

Last night  the edits for Daughter of Dark landed in my inbox. I read the edit letter, but decided to wait with reading the draft.  Honestly, the edit letter made me so happy that I have been smiling all day. It also worked as a motivation boast for finishing The Wild Hunt.  I have been struggling with them lately.  Now I have a reason to finish them ( well, beyond the fact that Thirzah would have shown up at my door, demanding more, if I didn’t finish them. ). At the moment,   I cannot wait to begin editing Daughter of the Dark.   The edits will help me turn the draft from good to great. You will love it when it is out.

I have been thinking of which books Daughter of the Dark are similar to, and conclusion I have come to is the Sianim novels by Patricia Briggs and the Raine Benares series by Lisa Shearin. In other words,  Fantasy with a good dose of Urban Fantasy elements and a varying degree of Romance. :).

 

I have also seen the first draft of the cover.  And it is so pretty.  That said, I’m not showing it until the cover is final. Sorry.  There is potiental for too much hassle otherwise.

But I’m really happy I hired Storywonk for the edits, and Skyla Dawn Cameron for the cover art.

Oh, and my webhost also has a mailing list option. I plan to poke around with it, since I just discovered it. I think the first step is to add an e-mail subscription button, though.

Edit: No, the first step is to create an e-mail address.

( I discovered this when I for a couple of minutes thought I had broken my webpage.)

A lot of Juggling

On By MikaelaIn updates, Writing

I think I have a bit better grip on  working part-time and writing now.   Which is a relief, since I signed up for Before You hit Send, which starts tomorrow. I’m so looking forward to it, I’ve wanted to take it for a long time but I lacked the money.   I’ve decided to work on Queen of Sind, since it needs a lot of revision.

I also started working on the Archangels hunt. So far I have 5000 words. Woot!  I really like what I got so far. And I also found the perfect cover for it, and for the spin-off novella I want to write.  I would buy both of them on the spot, except the novella isn’t titled. And since it is pre-made, I need to have title for it. sigh.

As for the self publishing, I created an account with Publit, which is a swedish distributor. Sadly, they don’t distribute to Kindle, so I’ll need to get an EIN from the IRS. BUT they do distribute to Kobo, Overdrive (!), Ibooks plus the major swedish stores and swedish libraries  so I’m happy.  Since there are rumors about Amazon opening a Swedish/Scandinavian store soon, it is possible that they will start distributing to Kindle too. Except I should probably get it up before since I think you need to be Kindle select to get 70% in new markets. Urgh. Sometimes Amazon is confusing.

The next more writing related step, is to find a better editor  for Daughter of the Dark. The first one was…not good. ( I might have mentioned it before. )  I do know which editor I’m contacting, though. *fingers crossed* ( Kari did tell me she loved Daughter of the Dark on twitter. I still haven’t gotten used to that, although Laura Anne firmly told me to :))

I’m also looking to hire a cover designer, or buying a pre-made cover.   ( I’ll probably hire one, since the pre-made covers I have seen don’t *quite* fit what I’m looking for.)

I’ve also been thinking about marketing Daughter of the Dark.  What I think I’ll do is to have a multi pronged approach of offering a free serialized short story (Exiled)  the month before release, and sign up for a blog tour.  I’m thinking Bewitching Book tours. ( They have a 45 dollar package for one week tour, which I’m ready to pay to get the word out.)

All good things must come to an end

On By MikaelaIn updates

 

I have dreaded writing this post for weeks, but I have to. I reached a reading slump in October, and I’ve never really left it. Yes, I’m reading, but it is at a much slower pace. And the books that I do read, I feel no urge to review. So during the holidays the decision to take a long time hiatus from book reviewing matured.  So I’ve decided to close this blog. I don’t think I’ll stop reviewing for good, but if I review it will be books from my TBR pile, but it will not happen anytime soon.

The website will be up until July or so, since that is when the domain expires. Meanwhile, I’ll work on posting all the ARC reviews I wrote to Booklikes, Amazon and Goodreads. ( Most of them ended up there, but not all of them.)

 

Affiliates and other things

On By MikaelaIn updates

I know, I know. I haven’t posted a review the last couple of weeks. I have been busy the last couple of weeks. Still, I have a couple of reviews planned, that will go up later this week. And, for next week… Well. Let’s just say that you’ll like it :). ( Hint: I attended Eurocon this weekend. All I am saying.) 
One of the things I did during the blogging hiatus was creating an Astore. Why? I have been thinking about ways to expand the blog, without it being too much work. Plus I know that a lot of people use Amazon. For those that don’t like Amazon, I signed up to be an Affiliate at Bookdepository too.