WTRE Progress Report (& Mah Plans – 04/08)

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Ileandra Young

When I came up with the title for this post I was in the middle of writing ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge‘. I was in my ‘wheeeeeeeeee this is awesome!’ phase and regularly churning out in excess of 2,000 words a day, seven days a week.

Then I hit a lull. I’ve whined about it for ages and though I blamed it other things, it was, in truth, a combination of fear, confusion and laziness.

Well… that’s all changed. How am I doing?
Take a look:

Not bloody bad if I do say so myself. ^_^

Somewhere in the middle of the week it just clicked (thanks Martin, I know you had something to do with that). It all just… dunno… became easy again. I finished it on Friday night after looking at the clock and thinking that I may well as not just keep going. I’d hit 4,000 words already, which was already a hell of a lot more than my 1,000 goal, but I was so close. It didn’t make sense to leave it.

So that’s done now.

I’m enjoying this new lull to be honest. The chance to rest, recharge and recover before diving into something new. And by ‘something new’ I mean going over the beta comments for ‘Silk Over Razor Blades.’ I’ve done some of the tweaking, but I was using those as an excuse to avoid finishing WTRE so I stopped. Now it’s done I don’t need an excuse. I can just get on with it. I’ve had my weekend off; it’s time to get on!

I can say that I’m very happy with how WTRE has come out. There are scenes that I know, even now, will never make the final cut. I love the information they give and how they’re written, but they just don’t fit the tone of the piece. They are going to make good outtakes and bonus material though. ^_^

And do you know what the best part of all that was? I finished a day late. One day. One! After a fortnight of moping and cringing because I just couldn’t get my head back in gear. I finished on 1 August instead of before 31 July. Ha, can’t complain too much about that, right?line break, swirling graphics, from openclipartIt’s that time of the month again *snerk* when I go through not only the goals for the week but the entire month. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Last week

Work on WTRE: at least 1,000 words per working day (five days)
I think I wrote 15,000 words this week. Not only did I met that goal but I smashed it and left the shattered pieces in the dust.

Finalise layout and colour scheme for the solo site
Done. A last minute change but I’m happy with the look of it now. You can take a peep if you like; this is the pre-launch period. 🙂

July 2014 Goal Recap

A damn good month despite all my complaining. Just look at what I’ve done.

Another 40,000 words complete of WTRE
Ha, yeah and all the rest. Done, done, double-done!

Finalise solo website and hit ‘go’
Similar to Raven, I won’t be activating the domain name for the site just yet. This pre launch period is to see how the site is received and then go on from there. But you can now visit it, mooch around and enjoy, so this goal has been met too.

Goals for August 2014

Right. I have a lot to do this month. A few things that I’m still not sure I’m allowed to talk to you about and my own projects. o.O Let’s just say that I’ve joined a collaborative team to do some pretty cool things by the end of the year. Fantasy things. Regularly published shaped things. ^_^ I’ll say no more for now.

  1. Complete changes based on beta notes on SORB
  2. Work on collaborative project
  3. Write ghost story for Boo Books anthology call

This Week

Getting back into the grind of working is going to be fun. I think, however, after all that work on WTRE I’m going to give myself a little bit of a break before going back to SORB (by which I mean a few days).

  1. Outline ghost story for Boo Books anthology call
  2. Speak with fellow collaborators to learn if I’m allowed to talk about what we’re up to
  3. Read through the reader notes offered by betas and organise them into ‘problem type’

That, I think will be a good way to get into the swing of starting SORBs last changes. The way I see it, WTRE isn’t really resting until I leave SORB alone too, so I can’t begin my ‘one month off WTRE’ until I’m done with SORB. *shrugs* That just means I may well have to leave NaNoWriMo for Raven after all, since I doubt I’ll be ready to start On A Knife Edge (last in the trilogy) by November.

new ileandra signature,

Posted in Goals Posts *haha!*, Ileandra's Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

I Won, I Won, I Won! ^_^

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Ileandra Young

Woooo! I won!
Penguin with cake and present; party!
What did I win? I won the Word Count Race. ^_^

If you’re unsure what I’m talking about you’d better have a look at the page but, if you really can’t be bothered, I’m racing against Raven. We’re trying to write 300,000 words between us this year; 150,000 words each. The race was pretty much just to see who would hit 150,000 first.

Ha!

I’m currently at 191,141. *smug face*
Ileandra's Word Count
Now I know some of you out there who are Raven-Fans, as opposed to Illy-Fans might be glaring daggers at me right now. After all, she’s been working her butt of editing while I’ve had the unfair advantage working on a bunch of first drafts. Worse than that, I’m working on novels and she’s working on novellas.

Well… nyah. We’re the same person anyway!
This simply means that Da Shared Brain has, since January 1 2014 written 250,266 words across various platforms. If that isn’t something to be proud of then I don’t know what is. And it certainly puts both Raven and I in good stead for that one million words thing.
Heh, yeah, then we can get started. o.O

While I don’t disagree with the need to write (a lot) I do think that 1,000,000 as a number is just a nice round one that someone (we’re still not sure exactly who :p) plucked out of the air.
Certainly there are books out there with a word count of about that much. How long is The Lord Of The Rings anyway? And the Song of Ice and Fire series? Must easily be 1,000,000 words in there and George RR Martin had certainly written other stuff before he hit that. AND he’s not done yet.

Anyway. I won. ^_^

Don’t think this means I’m going to relax though. I still need to finish WTRE (though I’m getting ever closer now) and there’s also NaNoWriMo to consider. Then again, since I’m so far ahead on the words I might let Raven take that month so she can do some more of her smutty stuff.
…
Maybe.

Anyway, that’s my big news. Today is Leicester’s Caribbean Carnival so after Writer’s Group (it feels so good to be going back!) I’ll be heading out to watch the parade go by. Should be fun if last year was anything to go by.

Laterz!
new ileandra signature,

Posted in FUN!, Ileandra's Posts, News | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

It’s Mine! *angry face* – (& I Haz Planz 31/07)

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Raven ShadowHawk

angry smileyDo you ever get that feeling that people are trying to steal your shit? Not like your car or your jewellery, but the things that make you you? Those cool, unique things that once formed the basis of everything you knew about yourself?
I have.
It’s odd because by no means are these things mine but I once felt like they were. What do I mean? Writing of course. Fantasy (for Ileandra) and erotica for me.

I came out of my writing shell for the first time in 2010. Before that I’d never talked about writing in any sort of significant way. However in October 2010 Ileandra kicked off this blog and I joined her (properly, rather than lurking) last year. Between the pair of us we’ve been to cons and writing groups and spoken word events, more in the last four three years than we have done our entire lives. We are fully out of the closet.
Great right? Going out there and meeting others doing the same thing is part of doing what we do.

But wait… we? Does that mean there are other people out there doing the same stuff as me? People with the same hopes, dreams, problems and successes? More or less dependent on where they are on their personal journey? Bet your arse it does.

Most of the time this doesn’t bother me. It’s the way life works, right? There will always be someone out there who is better/faster/smarter/richer/better looking/slimmer than you. Someone with more skill or experience. I got used to that truth in secondary school when I spent most of my time pining for a boyfriend (ugh, I know…).

Pen2But writing? Writing was the one thing that I did. I was good at it. It was mine. It made me special.

But hundreds, thousands, nay- millions of people out there are doing exactly the same as me. Probably with the same thoughts about it.

Yesterday I checked out the #erotica tag on Twitter, just to see what was going on. There are sooooooooo many authors out there. Loads. I think, even though I kinda knew I couldn’t be the only one, seeing the amount of books on Amazon and Smashwords, chatting with people on Twitter, visiting peer blogs… all of this has given me a much clearer idea of what’s going on out there. How fierce it is. How totally not special I am.

😦

Not that it’s a bad thing exactly. Every now and then folk needs a slap in the face to get the hell over themselves. After all, if you take yourself too seriously how the hell are you going to have any fun? But on the other hand… I miss feeling special.

Even close friends who (I thought) had no literary leanings talk about writing a book one day. I could write a whole series on the ‘oh, when I have time I’ll settle down and do some writing. Kinda like a hobby’ thing but I haven’t yet figured out a way to do it without getting insulted and unduly angry. So I won’t. But my thing, my special only-I-do-this-so-it’s-mine-thing, isn’t mine. I share it with a bunch of people. With you.

It’s taken me a while to realise but you know what? That’s not such a bad thing. You’re all pretty decent people and in truth it’s an honour to share anything with you.

/sappy shit

line break, swirling graphics, from openclipart

Hells bells, whistles, trumpets and confetti! This has been a GOOD week. I feel like I have some of my flow back and I can finally start checking things off my list. ^_^

Last Week
Let’s have a look at what I managed to achieve, eh?

~Finish deep edits on ‘Eric & Morgan.’
Done. Finito. Complete.
I’ve never been more glad to put down my green pen than I was at the end of that round of edits. I hate the fact that it took me so long, but it’s time to move on from that. I’ve done it now. The next step is to transpose my notes back into Scrivener and get on with the fine edits that inevitably must follow.

~Put the last set of freebies on the solo website and link in the domain names
Done except for the domain names. At this stage I need to save the money and focus on generating more so I can afford the extravagance of domain names. I know it’s not a vast amount but with Da Shared Brain‘s other work dried up for the time being, we have to be really (really!) careful with the pennies.
But! The site is ready to view so if you’d care to click here you can see the solo site as it stands for now during what I like to call my ‘pre launch period’. Let me know what you think, eh?

July 2014 Goal Recap
checking off feedbackStrictly speaking, since this post is still in July I can still write goals as if for July. However I’ve pretty much achieved what I wanted to achieve so there seems little point in lingering over it. Take a look at this:

~If necessary, chase up Breathless Press re submission of ‘Slippers & Chains’ and prepare for submission to the next small press
Done. I don’t need to move onto the next small press just yet. There are developments but I’d rather keep schtuum until I understand exactly where I stand. Just a few more days, folks, I hope. *fingers crossed*

~Finish deep edits on ‘Eric & Morgan’ and transfer back to Scrivener
Just a few more pages to transfer back to Scrivener at this point but I’ll get those done tonight, no worries there.

~Complete solo website
Done. See above. You can check out the pre-launch site here.

Not bad, right? Having purpose and direction is key to getting anything done. Now I know where I want to be, I’m finding it a hell of a lot easier to progress.

Goals For August 2014
Having all that done leaves me needing to figure out what comes next. Hmm….

  1. Outline the next ‘Slippers & Chains’ story and sketch out ideas for the two that follow
  2. Finalise release date for ‘Eric & Morgan’ and get file sent to editor
  3. Finalise artwork and design of ‘Eric & Morgan’ cover

Heh. Yeah. That should be plenty. Okay, in that case:

This Week
To achieve those things I need to do some hustling.

  1. Get in contact with my cover designer to discuss ideas for ‘Eric & Morgan’ cover
  2. Begin fine edits on ‘Eric & Morgan’. Complete at least 2,000 words.

Blimey. That should keep me busy. ^_^

As ever, I love to hear from you guys. I hope you’ll chip in and let me know how you’re getting on, here or on Twitter or on Facebook. Talking to you makes me smile (even if I no longer feel special!).

Raven's Signature In Black

Posted in Goals Posts *haha!*, Raven's Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Belated Edge-Lit 3 Roundup (& Mah Plans – 28/07)

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Ileandra Young

Oops! Over a week since the event and I haven’t said a word about it yet. Ho hum, you know how it gets when you’re busy.
Edge-Lit 3, a fantastic event which took place at Derby Quad on July 19. It seems – to me – to have taken the place of Alt Fiction, but it is still the same incredible mix of spec fiction. You have horror, fantasy and sci-fi and all the wonderful bits in between.

Guests included Joe Abercrombie (wheee!), Kim Lakin-Smith, Rod Rees, Conrad Williams, Alex Davis, Charles Stross and Tricia Sullivan.

I had an AMAZING time! I forgot how much fun these events are and feel somewhat sad that Dave had to give me a series of gentle nudges to go (a bit like he did with the first Alt Fiction I attended, without which I would never have met Maria who introduced me to the Phoenix Writers).

The full list of events and panels is here (I hope I’m allowed to post this by the way, let me know, Alex) but I can talk to you in brief about the bits I attended.

In The Old Spirit – Ghost Stories Today

I’ve never been massively into ghost stories, though I have written a couple in my time. What was most interesting about this panel was hearing Andrew David Barker, Johnny Mains, Marie O’Regan and Niki Valentine chat about ghost stories (I’m sure I’ve cocked up here and left off a name… I’ll check it out). What stories mean to them and how they’ve changed over the years.
It also brought to my attention the Boo Books anthology call, which makes me think I should brush off the ghost story I wrote a little while ago and send it in. Worst they can say is ‘no thanks’, right?

Science Fiction: How Much Science Do You Need?

According to Jaine Fenn, Tricia Sullivan, Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Rod Rees, not all that much. Which is very comforting to me. Someone once told me that sci-fi is just like fantasy; substitute woods and cities for spaceships and planets, dragons for aliens and orcs for even more aliens and you’ve done it. Oh, and of course use lots of names with ‘x’ in them somewhere. o.O
While it’s advice one should obviously take with a heft spoonful of salt 😉 it’s nice to know that one doesn’t necessarily have to have a science background to write sci-fi. I have a degree in Geology, it’s a science degree, but if I want to talk about warp drives, worm holes and cyberware then I can do that if I want. So long as I put in a suitable amount of research. I think part of me knew that, but having it confirmed is really nice.

Tricia Sullivan – Walking The Walk: Keep Yourself Writing (Workshop)

I think I misunderstood what this workshop was about when I signed up for it. When I arrived and Tricia explained why we were there I realised that I don’t have a problem writing. If anything I have trouble stopping and there are times when my family (and the cleanliness of my house and my health) suffers for it.
Yes, I have trouble finishing things sometimes (lets not talk about WTRE right now) but by and large I have a good and regular turn out of words.
But I’m so, so glad I went. Listening to people talk about their problems and understanding that I’m not alone was incredibly valuable. And I’ve also put together an email list of some of the attendees of that workshop so we can chat together and support each other going forward. Probably the most valuable non valuable workshop I’ve ever attended. 🙂 Besides that, Tricia might just be my new hero; totally down to earth, matter of fact and above all, genuinely keen to help other authors.

Simon Clark – Write For Life: Building A Writing Career (Workshop)

Another workshop I didn’t necessarily need. A lot of the tips Simon gave I have heard before (I should stop signing up for similar workshops every year!) but there is some detail in that I hadn’t considered before. Mainly about being ‘cheeky’ and pushing your luck. You never know what opportunities it might generate.

Fighting For Writers (Demo)

I had soooooooo much fun with these ladies. ^_^ Lots and lots (AND LOTS) of swords. I have tonnes of pictures but my favourite of the session has to be this one:

Picture of me holding a bastard sword

Soooo awesome!
(click for full size)

I fell in love with that sword and from a writer’s point of view, it was VERY helpful to learn more about European martial arts and the swords of weapons my characters in the Saar’s Legacy trilogy might be using as they step away from Ptolemaic Egypt.

So that was my (last-last) Saturday. I also won a couple of books at the raffle and got permission from Alex (THANK YOU!) to riffle through the goodie bags at the end and have myself a mighty handful of free books that I plan to enjoy over the coming months.

Jeez… that’s a lot of links! If you spot any that don’t work as they should or point to the wrong place would you mind letting me know? I haven’t had a cup of tea yet which means, despite my checking, I may have messed one up. Ta. xline break, swirling graphics, from openclipartSaying that, however, I’m not sure that I’ll have time to read many of those books going forward. I have a lot to be getting on with and not much time to do it.

Last week

I’m still in a funk with WTRE. I don’t know why, but my productivity has plummeted in that regard. If I had continued at the pace I started I would have finished this draft two weeks ago. 😦

Work on WTRE: at least 1,000 words per working day (five days)
Actually, I should stop whining. I made my 5,000 words, which is all I wanted to do. But, in the back of my mind I remain aware that I used to do upwards of 15,000 words a week. *sigh* Cut yourself some slack, Illy!

Finalise the rest of the freebies for the solo site
Done! Now the last thing I need to do is decide on the theme and then get it moving. Once I have my colours sorted and the final layout I can make the site properly visible. I’ve already sent the URL to search engines to get it indexed (as I don’t know how long that will take overall) so this is the last step.

This Week

Heh, okay. Not so bad after all. See what I mean about Tricia’s workshop, though? I am writing, just not meeting my own ridiculous expectations of what I should/shouldn’t be able to do. Maybe I should enter a goal for something about that?
This week I want to:

  1. Work on WTRE: at least 1,000 words per working day (five days)
  2. Finalise layout and colour scheme for the solo site

Next week I’ll review July and look forward to what I plan to do in August. I’ll also be able to give you a bit of news about some of the new bits and bobs on my lists. *fingers crossed*
new ileandra signature,

Posted in FUN!, Goals Posts *haha!*, Ileandra's Posts, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Raven’s June Indie eBook Review: Coming Home

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Raven ShadowHawk

Cover art for Coming Home

M.A. Stacie

Author: M.A. Stacie
Title: Coming Home
Genre: Erotica / Ménage / Romance
ISBN: 9781310110252
Words: 26,000
‘Sydney Jamieson’s love for two men makes her avoid returning home whenever possible, but when her father needs help, she has little choice. Her feelings haven’t lessened, not even after painfully leaving one at the altar. Facing them, along with her fears, is easier than she anticipated, especially when both men make it clear they still want her–and they like to share.’

I’ve been doing this for half a year now and while I think my current system of scoring is okay it could be a great deal better. It doesn’t need much, just something small to show that my reviews are geared more to the eroticism of a piece rather than the fantasy element the way Ileandra’s are.
In light of that I’ll be adding a new category for these reviews going forward. There’s no point backtracking to do the others, mind you, so earlier reviews from this year will not include this scoring rank.

My new fireball ranking system will include: Cover, Story, Characters, Eroticism and Overall Experience. The new Eroticism tag will still be scored from one to five, like all the others and included in the final average at the end of the piece. I think that will stop what I’ve done previously, which is dock points in Character or Story to show how I feel about certain erotic/romantic aspects of the book. That should make the scoring even fairer.

Right. Let’s do this.

This was such a sweet book. It’s short length should have made it a very easy read, but Da Shared Brain has been very distracted by A Song of Ice and Fire. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great book (quite a bit of sex too!) but insofar as completing these reviews it’s putting me waaaaay behind. Oh well. I’m sure once that’s done I’ll have more time.

Cover:

Two-Flame-RatingDidn’t say ‘erotica’ to me at all. Frankly put, the book is far more romantic than erotic (for me) anyway; it’s softer. But that may be down to the book being mis-categorised rather than anything else. And I see a lot of that, so I won’t dock any points for it.
The cover itself is cute and has of the sort of character Sydney is but the odd blurry circles and white square in the top left confuse me I’m afraid.

Story:

Simple coming-to-terms-with-what-you-want-and-need story. I actually really liked it. Sydney left home several years ago, leaving her fiancé at the altar without explaining to anybody what mad her panic was about. The story begins with her returning home because her old family home has burned down and she’s concerned for the welfare of her ageing father.
Cue Pax and Caleb, the two men she left behind when escaping home the first time. Men she cares for and desires in equal measure. However, it was Caleb she left at the altar.
Sydney now has to choose how to proceed. Can she pick one of these two men? Or both? And what do they have to say about it? What about the life she has built away from them in which she is a successful writer of erotic fiction featuring cowboys and (very) lucky women.
The novella had a distinctly romantic feel for me, which meant we were pretty much going to get a HEA ending. Or at least HFN. I read it as HFN which is fine, but for me, personally, it’s a shame that some of the mystery was taken out of the ending; of course she was going to end happy. Sydney is the heroine.
There are a few nice scenes in which your ability to guess how that happy ending might come is shaken up a bit. But, by and large, it’s an easy love story which serves as a bit of brain candy when you reach the sexier bits.

Characters:

Three-Flame-RatingPax and Caleb were too similar. That’s what strikes me most. And while I appreciate they spent very many years together pining for Sydney, they seem a little to accepting of what is coming and of what she seems to expect of them.
I know I’m not a dude, but if I were, I imagine I might be slightly more possessive over a woman I’d been pining over for years.
Then again… ménage is a big market, I know that, and there are plenty of people out there who like that sort of thing. So what do I know?

I found Sydney a tiny bit wimpy and whiny for a heroine. She has these two GORGEOUS (of course) men, all over her and spends most of the novella panicking about who to go for and how. When it’s plain that they both want her and they’re fine with sharing. And no… that’s not a spoiler. The biggest problem for her seems to be her father but, really, how many women of her age really give so much over to their fathers? Unless, again, I’m missing a trick. It’s a good source of conflict for the character and it was written well enough to avoid being annoying, but I, personally, wanted Sydney to be a bit stronger about what she wanted, when she wanted it and how. Especially towards the middle of the novella when it becomes clearer that she can have exactly what she wants.

Eroticism:

Five-Flame-RatingBags and bags and bags of it. ^_^ I was well pleased with what this novella had to offer and I didn’t find myself skipping over some of the descriptions as I have with other pieces of erotica. It was well written and imaginative and, despite being a ménage, managed to be clear at all times. And of course there were good, old fashioned one-on-one scenes which worked well too.
Even something as simple as an interrupted kiss or a lingering look was well crafted and I’m pleased to see it written so well.

More than that, Sydney insisted on the use of condoms. In fact, so did the men. There are multiple reasons for that, but writing it into the tale didn’t disrupt the flow at all and I’m thrilled to see due attention given to safety. That as much as everything else gives this piece full marks.

Overall experience:

Four-Flame-RatingThe occasional lull in the story avoided being too much because the piece was short enough for the pace to kick up again. Didn’t find any of those annoying, overused phrases that you sometimes do and as a whole, the whole story was written very well.

Final score:

Average across all scores is 3.5 which, of course, is 3.5 fireballs.
Yes, I think that’s about right. Yes it was an enjoyable read and yes it was light, but it lacked something to give it the final push to be a full on wow.
I’d certainly recommend it though, if you have some time spare and would like to read a FMM ménage story. Well worth a look.

Raven's Signature In Black

Posted in Books, Raven's Posts, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment