IWSG & A Completed Manuscript

Hello and Happy July! Hard to believe we are now officially halfway through 2018, isn't it? Today is a rare Tuesday meeting day for The Insecure Writer's Support Group. The group was founded by our Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh. To view list members and this month's co-hosts, visit the IWSG page here.

My insecurities have taken a backseat lately as I had a productive June and managed to actually finish my editing of A Killing in Kennecott! I set a goal to finish by the end of the month and to my amazement I not only met the goal but submitted the manuscript a few days early. I am so excited to have the story in the hands of the publisher now!

The long-abandoned Kennecott post office, which plays a key role in my story

I'm super attached to this story now after more than three years of working on it, so normally I'd be totally insecure about the publisher and everyone else hating it even though I love it. But for now I'm managing to keep those voices at bay by working on my Paris story. So far, so good!

I'm feeling good and optimistic and I'm hoping to keep riding these feelings through the second half of the year. My goal now is to have a first draft of the Paris story done by then so I hope I can share good news again when we get to December.

For now I hope this new month finds you all well. Happy 4th of July to my American friends!

IWSG: A Killing in Kennecott & Some Very Messy Medieval Magic

Hello, friends! Today is the June meeting of The Insecure Writer's Support Group. The group was founded by our Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh. To view list members and this month's co-hosts, visit the IWSG page here.

I'm feeling great today as it's the first time in a long time I've actually been excited about writing and blogging. I can't even count how many times in the past few years I've been close to throwing in the towel on both. I'm so glad I didn't!

Last month I didn't even post because I was so annoyed that I got nowhere on my A Window Box in Paris story during my April CampNaNo attempt. But then I decided to go back to my Alaska story and to my astonishment I actually finished it.

I'm so thrilled to be able to share that after three years and countless changes, so many that the story now bears almost no resemblance to the one I started with, A Killing in Kennecott, the third book in my Polar Night series, is done! I've had my trusted readers read it and they've given me great feedback, so all I need to do is go through one final round of revisions and edits. I'm so excited!

I've already talked to my publisher about the story and they are interested in it, so I can't wait to have it polished and ready to submit. It feels so good to be excited about writing again.

Now I'm feeling inspired to return to my Paris story yet again and I feel like I can finally make progress on that as well. Fingers crossed! 

I also want to help spread the word about the new book from C. Lee McKenzie, Some Very Messy Medieval Magic. The book was released last month by Dancing Lemur Press and is another great book from Lee! Everyone who knows Lee knows she is one of the nicest bloggers around so I'm happy to have the opportunity to share her latest. Congratulations, C. Lee!

SOME VERY MESSY MEDIEVAL MAGIC

By C. Lee McKenzie

Pete’s stuck in medieval England!

Pete and his friend Weasel thought they’d closed the Time Lock. But a young page from medieval times, Peter of Bramwell, goes missing. His absence during a critical moment will forever alter history unless he’s found.

There’s only one solution - fledgling wizard Pete must take the page’s place. Accompanied by Weasel and Fanon, Pete’s alligator familiar, they travel to 1173 England.

But what if the page remains lost - will Pete know what to do when the critical moment arrives? Toss in a grumpy Fanon, the duke’s curious niece, a talking horse, and the Circle of Stones and Pete realizes he’s in over his young wizard head yet again...

Release date – May 15, 2018
Juvenile Fiction - Fantasy & Magic/Boys & Men
$13.95 Print ISBN 9781939844460
$3.99 EBook ISBN 9781939844477

C. Lee McKenzie has a background in Linguistics and Inter-Cultural Communication, but these days her greatest passion is writing for young readers. When she’s not writing she’s hiking or traveling or practicing yoga or asking a lot questions about things she still doesn’t understand. http://cleemckenziebooks.com

Links:
Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/some-very-messy-medieval-magic-c-lee-mckenzie/1127622061?ean=2940154648575
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/some-very-messy-medieval-magic
iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/some-very-messy-medieval-magic/id1324257652?mt=11
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Some-Very-Messy-Medieval-Magic/dp/1939844460/
Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079V72G8R
Foyles - http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/childrens/some-very-messy-medieval-magic,c-lee-mckenzie-9781939844460
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37537343-some-very-messy-medieval-magic

IWSG & A Nano Cloud's Silver Lining

It's the first Wednesday in December which can only mean that today's the day for monthly meeting of The Insecure Writer's Support Group, hosted by our Ninja founder Alex J. Cavanaugh. Visit the IWSG page here to sign up and join us, view a list of members, or see the co-hosts for this month. I am one of those co-hosts today!

Last month I posted about my enthusiasm for the start of National Novel Writing Month and I was confident that I was finally going to get my WIP A Window Box in Paris written. Unfortunately that enthusiasm lasted about ten days. The story kind of blew up in my face as I realized I had been a little too confident about writing it when I hadn't done nearly enough research or prep work.

I pouted and grumbled at myself for several days, then decided to go back to A Killing in Kennecott, the sequel to Polar Day that I had abandoned earlier in the year after I decided the story was such a mess it would be completely impossible to fix. I realized when looking at it with fresh eyes that it really wasn't so bad after all and that the problems were probably fixable.

Now I'm working on another draft of that story and enjoying it. I don't think I ever would have gone back to it if I hadn't made such a mess of my NaNo plans. Thus the title of this post and my dark cloud's silver lining!

When I'm done visiting Alaska again I hope to make my way back to Paris. Maybe fresh eyes will help that story too. 😃

I also want to give a quick shout-out to the ladies over at the Write...Edit...Publish hop, who are hosting their last hop of the year. December's theme is "the End is the Beginning." I decided to join in with this group back in August and I'm so glad I did, I love it! I'd encourage anyone who is interested to give it a try.

And now I'm off to make my co-hosting rounds and catch up with my regular visits. Happy December, all!

IWSG: Looking Back on a Great Month & Forward (I hope!) to Another One

Hello and Happy May! Today is the day for the monthly meeting of The Insecure Writer's Support Group, founded by our Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh. To view list members and this month's co-hosts, visit the IWSG page here.

April was a fantastic month for me from a writing perspective. I have continued to work on my Polar Night/Polar Day sequel, A Killing in Kennecott, and am making great progress. Even better, I'm really enjoying the writing! I hope I can keep up at my current pace and perhaps finish the first draft in May.

I also had two great writing events that were really fun.

First up, I was invited to be part of a reception honoring Hamilton County, Ohio authors on April 2. I was thrilled to attend and was even more thrilled when I made it up on the stage and back down again without tripping. :D

On April 8 I attended the Ohioana Book Festival in Columbus, Ohio. This was my third time at the fest and it is always a great time.

Puppet Baby Moo came along with me and helped me read his story to some of this kiddos at the event.

Best of all, I sold more books than I ever have at any previous festival. So the day was a success all the way around.

Now for May! I am scheduled to give a talk on my books and writing in Marysville, Ohio on Tuesday, May 9. Marysville is Baby Moo's hometown but the folks who invited me to speak didn't know about Baby Moo's book when they contacted me, so that is a total coincidence. In another strange twist, I used to work in Marysville back in the 1990s. When I left that job I never thought I'd have any reason to visit the town again. But somehow it must have been meant to be that I would!

The Friends of the Public Library hold an Author Series every year and invite four authors to participate, one each month from February - May. I am so honored to be one of the four this year! I am also nervous about it because of my anxiety over public speaking but I am hoping this will go as smoothly as my April events did.

Now I'm looking forward to hopping around and seeing what my fellow IWSGers have been up to over the past month. :)