Another Monday, another round up. It turned out to be a mad fortnight when I realised how much needed to be done to meet some of the goals I set. I’ve done it, so that’s good, but I was glad of the break when the weekend hit!

Actions Over The Past Fortnight

~Complete final read of Crossroads
Done. Cracked it this time, mwaah ah aha h ahaaaa! Feeling pretty bad for Michael right now. :p

~Format Crossroads
Also done. I’m finding the formatting much easier to do these days. Still would prefer to be writing, but, I guess, until I can hire a team of backgroundy folk, that sort of job remains mind. Dern indie publishing! :p

~Approach my panel of Beta Readers
Yes and this is where the extra work came in. I sent out the message, as usual and promised readers that they would have the manuscript ready to read by Sunday 13 (yesterday). I wanted to give people the whole of April to get through the novel and another two weeks if I could. But I sent the email on Monday 7, which really didn’t get me much time to do the last read, prepare the file and get it gone.

Ha! So follows a week of digging deep into Saar’s Legacy and forgetting everything else. I think I was breathing god-touched by the time I reached Friday, which is when I finished going through the novel.

There are still some niggles, things that bother me, as an author, but I’ve left the manuscript alone now. Time to see if those same things bother readers as much as they bother me. I figure, if they do, then I’ll change them. If not, I’ll need to spend some time assessing if it’s my mad drive for perfection that’s bothering me, or if the issue is a real one. Heh, that should be fun.

~Put together cover brief for Dave Johnson and send
Also done. I adore Dave and his work. I’m so, so pleased to be working with him for these books and I admire his talent and creative vision. This is my first time working so closely with an illustrator and now, as we near the end of this project, we’re looking to start another. Not too many details yet, but I’m hoping that we’ll be working together more closely and more regularly in months to come. ^_^

Activities This Fortnight

• List Crossroads on Amazon and Smashwords
• Come up with four basic ideas that will each carry a novel, featuring characters from the ‘Dead And Alive’ serial (Kailah Turner, Michael Garran and Diavian Hatara)
• DON’T TOUCH ‘ON A KNIFE POINT’ . . . DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!
• Complete the short story I began for the students over at the local college

Thoughts…

Credit: ryanlerch at OpenClipArt

I’ve put leaving ‘OAKP’ alone because I know how bad I am at panicking when betas have my words. I’ll be scouring it, searching for things to change, instead of putting it from my mind and letting folk enjoy it (or not, as the case may be. Who knows?!). The challenge will be to allow myself to get on with other things so I don’t dwell on what people might be saying.

That is why I’ve added the short story into this fortnight’s tasks.

I visited a local school for World Book Day, talking to two large groups of Year Nine students (13/14 years old) about what drives me to write, my process and how I began. I also did some (loud and exciting!) exercises with them to create a teeny weeny story, and prove that any old idea can give you a base to build on. When I visited them, I was asked to bring something to read and, since most of my words are decidedly adult, I wrote something especially for them called ‘Club Night.’ Only 1,000 words, but they enjoyed it so much that I promised I would finish the story and get it to them when it was done (!).

This is my first taste of writing any sort of YA and, though I’m a little nervous about that, my audience is already there and waiting: 200 or so lovely, enthusiastic students who are keen to see how my werewolves, vampires and pixies finish sneaking out of school to visit the local club. 😉 I reckon that should be enough to keep my mind of ‘On A Knife Point,’ right?