Yep, read that title again so you can join me in freaking out.
Go to the eFestival of Words website for the full list. You’ll find THE TWO under “Best Contemporary/Urban Fantasy” along with some other great books that are very worth checking out.
Thanks so much to the person who nominated THE TWO. Since ballots are kept anonymous I’ll probably never know who you are, but you rock. It’s such an honor to be recognized from inside the indie community.
There are too many characters in this book and they’re all out of control. If I could kill a few of them off my life would be a lot easier.
Progress of THE CATALYST
First Draft: In progress, about 54% complete (65,329 words and counting)
My revisions: Not started
Professional editing: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Final proofread: Not started
Cover art: Not started
This September I’ll be signing books and giving away free stuff at Penned Con 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri. Join me along with over 130 authors and tons of book fans on September 23-24 to help raise money for Action for Autism.
St. Louis is a beautiful city in fall and Penned Con is a great excuse to visit! More info on the Penned Con website.
Returned from the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee on Friday. I already miss them.
Someday we’ll return to Townsend to complete the Middle Prong Trail and to Gatlinburg to hike to Grotto Falls. Far too much to do in this area when the goal is leisure and you take your sweet time waking up and having breakfast and sipping tea while morning departs.
My kids had a blast and have the injuries to prove it. Real life with early morning rush and schedules and traffic resumes tomorrow. I’ll be daydreaming about our next road trip.
Words added to THE CATALYST while on vacation: 1,176. Words since I’ve returned: 451.
Tell your friends! Enter for a chance to win THE ALIGNMENT (Kindle version). Five winners will be chosen; it’s a 1 in 500 chance to win. No purchase necessary.
Ancient feuds, forbidden love, magic and revenge. The Alignment Series is a pentalogy that spans three generations of two rival families and the people caught between them.
Enter for a chance to win the first book in the series today!
I think I need to retitle this book PROBLEMS. I’m at 53,751 words and wow, there are problems. Problems on top of problems giving birth to problems. I’m not sure who’s going to resolve them all.
Wait, what? It’s up to me? In about 70,000 words or less? *runs*
Progress of THE CATALYST
First Draft: In progress, about 44% complete (53,751 words and counting)
My revisions: Not started
Professional editing: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Final proofread: Not started
Cover art: Not started
Uprooted by Naomi Novik = a million wows.
I feel guilty for devouring it instead of savoring every word. What a perfect joining of fairy tale and fantasy, alive with magic in the story as well as the prose. The pace has a perfect ebb and flow, with scenes of high action tempered by slower scenes of vivid description that allow a moment to savor and breathe. The slower scenes pull you into a world that becomes more layered each time.
The characters are some of the best drawn fictional people I’ve read in a long time. And the world! It’s wonderful and frightening and built in such detail that when the conflicts explode, it’s breathtaking.
Uprooted is one of the few books I’d buy a paper copy of just to leave out on my nightstand, to be able to pick it up, flip to a random page, and lose myself just for a moment. It’s designed to not just consume, but treasure. If I didn’t have so many books on my To-Read, I’d read it again right now. And yes, there’s a love story threaded in, pulling tighter with each scene until you’re dying to see something give. It reminds me a lot of Beauty and the Beast, yet it’s so different, and so much more.
Fans of my books, I think you will love this one.
UPROOTED by Naomi Novik
Amazon | Goodreads | Naomi Novik’s website
On Monday night I broke 40,000 words on the first draft of THE CATALYST. That’s one-third of the way there!
I took last night and tonight off because I can’t figure out what these characters are trying to do. Liv isn’t making any sense and TB is just staring angrily at the wall. I know the next thing that has to happen. It’s pretty important, but it can’t happen until something happens before it and I’m not sure what that thing is.
Now I think *I’m* not making any sense. I should just stop talking and start staring angrily at the wall. I think TB has the right idea.
Anyway, it’s all been put on the back burner to simmer. It just needs time to work itself out. After two nights away I can feel it forming. Just now I got a hint of what’s going to happen and jotted a few notes in my little yellow memo book in my nightstand. By tomorrow it should be ready to come out.
Progress of THE CATALYST
First Draft: In progress, about 33% complete (41,016 words and counting)
My revisions: Not started
Professional editing: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Final proofread: Not started
Cover art: Not started
The Irish dictionary has returned to my desk. Last night I wasted lots of precious writing time in a rabbit hole of words. But, it has to be done.
See all those books propping up that dictionary? That’s research I have to do about something I can’t tell you about because it would be a spoiler. Because it is big. Gonna change things. And last through the rest of the series. I have no idea how to write the massive things it will affect. It kind of scares me.
I’m at about 26,000 words now. Moving at a crawl the last couple weeks because the flu has been running its course through two children and now one man. And I’m pretty sure I’m next.
I just reached the 20,000 word mark in THE CATALYST.
TB is breaking my heart. Anti-heroes can be traumatizing to write sometimes. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
While you wait for those 100,000 or so remaining words, here’s another series with a great anti-hero with his own set of problems. He’s angsty, tormented, foul-mouthed, and also a heavy drinker just like someone I know. And the women around him are casting a floodlight on his problems. Making him own up. Maybe making him clean up, if my hopes for the series are fulfilled. I really hope there’s a happily ever after for Caleb, #1001, and Fran, too. They’ve stolen my hearts as much as my own characters live to do.
GIRL FROM ABOVE (The 1000 Revolution) by Pippa DaCosta
Amazon | Goodreads | Pippa DaCosta’s Website
Try it! The first one’s only $.99 on Kindle right now. It’s wonderfully devourable. Probably one of my favorite series of all time.
Kay Camden 