IY: Mah Plans 02/03 & February 2015 Round Up

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Ileandra Young

goal shooting goals from open clip artSoooooo… March.

I’d be more pleased about it but I currently can’t swallow and my head feels the size of a basketball. Hmpth! One day *wags finger* one day I will write one of these posts without mentioning how sick I feel! …but not this day.

*sigh*

Moving on.

Actions Last Week

Write 12.5k words of ‘On A Knife Point’
No. Juuuuuust no. Not unexpected, but somewhat disappointed. I think I managed 4.3k words before the week hammered me in the face with a mallet. My nose still hurts from that one. *sniffs*

Targets For February 2015

Complete draft of ‘Dead or Alive’
Hurray. Done. Stunned, but done. ^_^

Start draft of ‘On A Knife Point’ and complete at least a quarter of the whole word count (25k)
Eeeerm. 15.6k. Salvageable. Let’s just see what follows.

Query the availability of Karen Perkins and Dave Johnson as their help may be required following any additional edits I make on ‘Silk Over Razor Blades.’
Yep. It’s in hand. Karen is on board for the end of March and Dave is working on the cover now. Double thumbs up.

Send February’s newsletter to all subscribers and describe the changes to come
Done. Looking forward to when I drop back to quarterly newsletters. My brain needs it.

Changes To My Plans

Right. With all that in mind, let’s see what I need to do:

  • Publish ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ through Little Vamp Press by end of May
  • Edit ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ to completion
  • Publish ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ through Little Vamp Press by end of October
  • Draft ‘On A Knife Point’ (min 100k words)
  • Issue all remaining parts from the ‘Chapters of D’nai T’keyah’ novellette for newsletter subscribers (monthly), then switch to quarterly newsletters
  • Write 33-4k words of the new newsletter subscriber story (‘Dead or Alive’) featuring Michael Garran, Diavian Hatara, and Kailah Turner by mid February. Send two updates to subscribers in the two newsletters that will be issued once the schedule becomes quarterly
  • Edit ‘On A Knife Point’ to completion

Hmm. Pretty much as it was, though one item is knocked off the list. That’s good to see. ^_^

Targets for March 2015

  • Write 65k words of ‘On A Knife Point’
  • Complete fresh edits on ‘Silk Over Razor Blade’s courtesy of Angry Robot comments and send to Karen for formatting

Activities For The Week

Catch up. Recovery. Sleep. Dunno how this is going to work, but we’ll see how we do.

  • Write 4.5k words of ‘On A Knife Point’ (that’s 500 a day if my maths is right)
  • Highlight ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ passages that need work

Thoughts…

I’m behind. By a lot. And this week certainly isn’t going to help me catch it up. I’m sick. My boys are sick.

I don’t think I’m going to catch up the way I must to maintain my overall output, so come March end I’ll have to see what position I’m in. At this point it’s too soon to know how much I need to jiggle, but I know it’s going to happen.

Sorry I can’t be more specific than that.

If I keep getting sick like this then I’m not going to be able to keep up with this schedule meaning I’ll have to drop drafting ‘On A Knife Point’ to ensure I get ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ sorted this year.

Well… 29 days left of the month. Let’s see what happens.

new ileandra signature,

Posted in Goals Posts *haha!*, On A Knife Point, Silk Over Razor Blades | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

IY: Reading Reviews

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Ileandra Young

So… given that ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ will be out very soon I did a very stupid thing. Veeery stupid. 😦

I went onto Amazon and started reading the reviews of other books I’ve read recently. Books that I thought were pretty good. Some of them from authors under Angry Robot.

Yikes.

So many reviews. So many glowing comments. So many truly scathing comments. On one book, this chap wrote an essay on all the reasons why he hated the book. I’m not even kidding, were talking at least 1,200 words. In a review. On why he hated it!

little pink work reading a book; bookworm from OpenClipArtI’m sure I’ve said before that evoking a reaction, good or bad, is part of the game here, but who really has the time to write so much on something that they disliked that much? It doesn’t make sense. does it? Or am I missing something. I must be. Yeah, must be. Because how on earth can someone justify talking about something they hate unless it’s really moved them. And it must have moved them, right?

Anyway, it was scary.

And it’s scared me out of writing a book review. At least for now. I’ll get on with it eventually, but for now I think I’ll just leave those reports, glowing, scathing or otherwise, to the ‘professionals’.

But it does make me think. I’ll need reviews on ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ to 1) give it credibility to potential readers, 2) bump the book up the listings and 3) let me know what readers actually think of it.

But how much of that should I take on board? Should any author take on board? How much of it is the bad cheese a reviewer ate the night before, or the chip on their shoulder because their local supermarket ran out of their favourite chocolate? Truth is you’re never going to know. There’s nothing you can do about it either. So you kinda just have to decide what you want to run with and what you don’t. And the only way to make that judgement call – if there is a ‘way’ – is to wing it.

So what am I saying here? Are reviews bad? Yes and no. Do I want them? Hell yes and god no. Is there anything I can do about it either way?

…nope.

new ileandra signature,

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RS: I Haz Planz 26/02

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Raven ShadowHawk

Two days. Just two more and then February is over. It feels like a long month. Weird, because it quite literally is the shortest month of the year. Ah well. How does my shiz look at this moment in time?

Actions Last Weekblank calendar from OpenClipArt

~Transfer half of the ‘Second Base’ Deep Edits back to Scrivener
Done! Finished at 3.50pm this afternoon. *wipes brow* I’m unsure though; I think it needs another chapter near the end. Just once more section from Dan’s perspective. He has loose ends that aren’t resolved, but I need to check if I can leave them open or if the story is more satisfying with it done. My Kindle Read will help determine that.

~Complete Deep Edits on ‘When Vicki Met Malcolm’ following feedback from Phoenix Writers
I lost all my notes -_- so I had to make the changes from memory. Thankfully I spent enough time studying them that I think I caught everything. I’m still not happy with the bloody title though. I have to work on that before I can publish. I need to be happy.

Activities For End of The Month

  1. Format ‘Meeting Each Other: The Full Story’
  2. Rename ‘When Vicki Met Malcolm’
  3. Do background prep-work to get ‘Meeting Each Other: The Full Story’ on both Amazon and Smashwords

Thoughts…

goal shooting goals from open clip art

There’s only two days left to February so any more than that would be stupid. Besides, I need recovery. This week has been hard and tearful and stressful, which I expected, but further unexpected sad news on Monday further knocked me right on my arse. I didn’t do anything at all for two days. You know what they say about funerals, right? Coming in threes? Now I’ve heard of no.2 I can’t stop this niggling thread of fear that there’s another one coming up soon. And that this one will be close(er) to me than the others.

I know that’s irrational – lack of sleep does that to you – but just in case, this week is going to be a slow one. At least as far as these targets are concerned.

So how are you lot? Hoping you’re having a better week than I am.

Raven's Signature In Black

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RS: Cover Reveal – Meeting Each Other: The Full Story

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Raven ShadowHawk

‘The End of an Era…’

I don’t know if that’s somewhat more dramatic than it should be. I don’t think so. But it feels as though something huge is coming to an end. Perhaps that’s because it really is.

‘Meeting Each Other’ marks my first foray into the world of independent publishing and I’ve learned so much on the way. I’ve gained confidence too; something I was sorely lacking in those early days when I let Ileandra talk about my work.

Now, however, I have all six books in the series out there in the big bad world and now the compilation, all six stories, gathered into one volume with a bonus story included within. And this will be my first print release too. ^_^ Ha, take that Ileandra, you thought you’d beat me to print. :p

/smugness

Remember a few weeks back I mentioned that a new lady was looking after the cover for this release? That I figured someone named ravenink had to be a good sign? Well look at what she made for me:

Meeting Each Other: The Full Story

Taaah-daaaaaaah! Click for full size.

It’s beautiful and I’m so happy with it.

Yes, I know further down the line I’ll need to rebrand the other six books, but this is much more like what I need for people to know what they’re getting.

This is the same cover that will feature on the print version, though the rear side will have the blurb, of course, and the Smut With Brains logo.

Now at this point, I’d usually put up an excerpt or some other related treat, but not this time. After all, you know these stories now, you’ve been with me as I released them, and the bonus story is exactly that; a treat for those who purchase the book. But… I can tell you that when the print book releases I will be running a little competition and giving away a free copy. I haven’t decided fully on the details yet, hence the lack, but they will be here shortly, so watch this space. 🙂

Raven's Signature In Black

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IY: Mah Plans 23/02

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Ileandra Young

goal shooting goals from open clip artYou know how a slinky bends and twists and looks awesome (including that walk down the stairs thing they do)? You can get them in lots of different colours and sizes, though the huge, palm sized ones are my favourites. And you know how you can play with them and twist them and manipulate them but, if you handle it ever so slightly wrong, you get into a mad tangle that’s near impossible to undo?

two hands holding a slinky

It’s me! 😉

I’m a slinky.

Not in the bad, totally-tangled-up kinda way, but in the walking-down-the-stairs-in-gentle-flicks-that-looks-quite-cool-but-could-end-quite-badly-when-I-hit-the-bottom way.

Ha. How’s that for an evening analogy? 😉

Actions Last Week

Write 12.5k words of ‘On A Knife Point’
Close. Veeeeeeeery close. I got to 11.5k before I just couldn’t do any more. And even those words were hard won. I feel like I can’t quite get into the story (I was whining about this during #writingchat on Wednesday) and the first 1,000 words took three days. That really hit my morale because traditionally, 1,000 words takes two hours. On a good day, it takes 30 minutes. Sometimes I forget what it’s like to struggle, so it’s simultaneously good for me and really freakin’ annoying. Fortunately I’m okay now. Hopefully. Maybe.

Read half of ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ to highlight ‘underwritten’ passages
Oooh, you’ll love this. This is an example of tired Illy not thinking straight. I decided not to persue this goal actively because Dave still has my proof copy and I didn’t want to be reading the piece on the computer.
See the issue here? This is the book that, if I wanted, I could publish tomorrow…
I could have just put it on my Kindle!!! Would you believe I didn’t think of my eReader until exactly 15 seconds ago? *head desk* Ah well. Maybe this week.

Activities For The Week

It’s the week from hell. I’m away from home right now and won’t be back until tomorrow. Dave has BUCKETS of work to do for his show on Friday and simply cannot give me extra time. While I want to work, he’s going to be delicate anyway given stress and the funeral he’s about to attend tomorrow. I want to be there for him. Issue two of Fab Fables punishes tomorrow and I still have one story to format for conversion. Plus Raven is nagging DSB to get some of her own stuff stuff done.

Think it’s going to be a K.I.S.S. week.

  • Write 12.5k words of ‘On A Knife Point’

Thoughts…

I need to do some more jiggling. If I’m honest, I’m glad this month is nearly over as I feel the need to adjust the plan I’m following before I can work? Is that a bit weird? Plus DSB has cut off our crisps and chocolate supply, meaning I’m pretty unstable and rabid right now.

Yes… it’s a health thing and it’s necessary, but it doesn’t make an addiction any harder to break. Because that’s what it is. An addiction. Well… this is day seven. So far, so good. I know if we can keep it up we’ll all be happier for it.

I hope your writing week is going well and that you’re achieving all that you want to achieve.new ileandra signature,

Posted in Goals Posts *haha!*, Ileandra's Posts, On A Knife Point, Saar's Legacy, Silk Over Razor Blades | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment