Brief Update 4/22/22

I’m past the midpoint now in the write-in for Volume 2, Part 3 of Trial of the Ornic. This means that I’ve finished with the vast amount of rewrites that I was doing before. Now, I have to make sure the new plotlines and directions I took the story get woven into the later scenes. So far, it’s mostly deletions, taking out the plotlines I removed in the rewrite, but that won’t last.

Looking forward to getting to the Dark Night of the Soul part of the draft. That’ll tell me a lot about whether this revision is working or not.

And now, back to work!

Current Progress/General Update 04-08-2022

So, the past few months have been full of changes. Lots of things that I took for granted have been left behind. And I’m back to writing again.

Yay!

Currently, I’m working on the revision for the last part of what I originally called The Lord’s Tale. All other projects are set aside until that’s done, mostly because the amount of work needed to fix it is huge.

For those who don’t know, I started that series with the intent of writing it with a loose outline (at best). This last part, I broke from that to write to a formula. And ended up breaking the story.

Thankfully, after looking it over, I realized the opening only needed a moderate amount of work, and the ending is exactly what I wanted. From the midpoint to the ending is pretty good, as is, and only needs a little tweaking to tie it into what comes before. It’s the build-up to the midpoint that needs major revisions, and I’m torn between frustration and elation. Frustration, because I feel like I should have already gotten this down correctly the first time; elation, because I’m not revising, I’m redrafting, which is the next best thing to writing the story from scratch and I love writing a story draft. All sorts of surprises come out in the process, and I’m finding the same thing happening here. Questions I didn’t cover in the initial draft are being covered and in ways I didn’t expect, characters I couldn’t seem to fit in are finding their place and telling their stories in an organic way that makes me glad I’m taking the time to do this.

So, yeah, the process is going to take a while, but I think fans of the series will be pleased with the results.

After that, I’m not sure which project I’m going to do next. We’ll see.

No progress on any projects, but that’s okay.

Life happened the past couple of weeks. And it looks like it’s going to happen for the next week as well.

However, I think I’ll be able to get back on track after that. We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.

Thank you for reading. Hopefully, I’ll have more books for you soon.

Smashwords End of Year Sale

I’m still neck deep in the revision, but I thought I’d let you know that my books are enrolled in the Smashwords End of Year Sale. All my books are discounted at one level or another, including Loki, Son of Laufey. The sale has already begun and continues through January 1, 2022. Click the link below to go directly to my profile and see if there’s anything you like!

Amy Keeley’s Smashwords Profile

Also, I’ve found some great stories through Smashwords’s sales. I highly recommend taking a look to see if there’s any other books you might like.

And if you find one you love, especially if it’s fantasy with romance, please leave a comment and let me know!

Revision and New Cover Progress

Still revising the final part of Trial of the Ornic #2. I’m in a portion of the story that requires a massive rewrite, so progress will be slow this week.

I’m tweeting my daily progress. No word counts, just comments on the process and/or plot and characters. Follow me if you’d like to see it. Link is below.

Follow me on Twitter

This past week, I also got a little more progress done on the new Shining Armor cover, enough to like what I see.

I’ll probably have that done by the end of this week. More on that soon!

Finally, how did your week go? Anything happen that made you especially happy or that you’re proud of? Let me know in the comments below.

Update: Shining Armor cover, Changed approach to revision

By JamesDeMers | Pixabay

How are you doing today? The leaves are changing color where I am, and the weather can’t seem to decide if it wants to be summer or fall. This morning, it’s nearly freezing out, but tomorrow I could wake up sweating!

Overall though, the days feel calmer. I got back into working on the new Shining Armor cover this week. Improved the “flames.” Should be finished next week.

The biggest change this week is that I finally broke down and moved my revision, in pieces, to a different app, one that allows me to edit on my phone in a way that works for me. Which means I actually worked on revising the rest of Trial of the Ornic #2 this past week! Very happy.

I’m getting to the midpoint of the write-in (where I add and delete words to a separate draft). Once that’s finished, I type the changes into the main copy.

Still thinking through what I want to do from there.

I hope all of you who celebrate it have a great Thanksgiving this next week. And I hope those of you who don’t celebrate it have a week you can be thankful for, with many more to come.

Quick Update: Revision Progress for Trial of the Ornic #2, Shining Armor cover

Just so everyone knows, I’m about a quarter of the way through the revision of the last part of Trial of the Ornic #2. I hope to have the whole thing finished and published before early December, but more realistically, I’m looking at a January or February release. Will update as I can.

Redoing the cover for Shining Armor and Lady Fair to be just a little more genre-specific. Trying to remember how to make decent flames!

More as soon as I can. Happy reading! 📚

Happy Fourth of July!

Update; Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale

This week I’m trying to catch up on a number of things, like, you know, writing fiction. In order to improve my skills/technique, I’m upping the amount of flash fiction I write. Not to mention, finishing a story in a couple of days gives a greater sense of accomplishment right now than trying to put together a novel.

Talking of which…

Puck’s Call is the first book I’ve ever tried writing to market. It’s also shown me my skills aren’t as strong as I thought when it comes to writing something readers might like.

I mean, I like the genre. Some of my favorite books are fantasy romances. And even though it looks like this might morph into Urban Fantasy, I like that, too.

But this book is not nearly what it needs to be. And I’m not sure I have the time to make extensive repairs.

So, for now (and this may change on a dime), I’m switching back to the Trial of the Ornic series. My goal is to have the second volume revised by mid-July.

I’m also working on redesigning the covers for Shining Armor and Lady Fair.

(If you’ve read the books, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what genre they’re in. I think Urban Fantasy, but I’m not sure.)

Finally, the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale is coming up. It runs from July 1-31 and I plan on at least discounting some of my books. A couple might even end up free.

I’ll post a link and more info the closer we get to the sale.

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to share your thoughts fantasy genres or how you’d like me to approach Smashwords’s sale, or have any questions about it, please leave a comment below.

Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized #1) by Annette Marie

Summary

Robin doesn’t want to live with her unfriendly uncle and his even more unfriendly family. But after her parents’ death, she wants just one thing: her mother’s grimoire. And she’s sure her uncle is hiding it from her. So, she goes looking.

And finds a demon. A demon trapped by her uncle.

She’s not supposed to talk to it. But she does. She’s not supposed to help it. But she does. And when her uncle’s client comes for his demon, that’s when the real danger begins.                                                                     

Review

Marvelous fun and full of action, Robin and the demon, Zylas, are opposites who manage to fit perfectly together. Robin, a shy, passive, bookworm, is incredibly sweet as she tries to find a way to navigate conflict with her uncle in peaceful, assertive ways…and fails. But she keeps trying to improve, and between that and her determination to get what her mother intended her to have, Robin is a fantastic heroine.

Zylas is the exact opposite. Fiercely intelligent, willing to do anything to survive, and more than willing to fight to the death if necessary, Zylas is also wonderfully protective of Robin with a unique, consistently logical, worldview. The two of them make for a great couple, with each learning, not only about the other’s world, but also how to navigate different relationships while still staying themselves. Lots of action while they do it, too, because it turns out Robin isn’t the only one looking for her mother’s grimoire. A great read!