School is in two days, and I still haven't gotten a full time writing gig? What gives? Wonderful things are happening though, so I can't complain. Let me give you a quick recap. SQUAD TREBLE IS GOING TO BE MADE INTO AUDIOBOOKS! It was a battle there for awhile with the piracy department at ACX (I guess that should make me happy if someone ever really did try to steal my titles), but Limited Truth is in the process of being produced into an audiobook! Eventually all 4 will be done and I'm having covers made as we speak. It was really cool, over 20 people auditioned, but I ended up going with Miss Mikayla Iovine to portray Cassie. She made me feel like Cassie was sitting beside me telling her story and that was only in a three minute audition. I cannot wait to hear the whole thing! I'm hoping to post some updates during the process, so stay tuned! LIMITED TRUTH IS FREE A lot of Indie Authors have the first book in their series free and I had been on the fence about it for a while. I even had it at 99 cents for a while. Well, I finally set it free and I've had at least one purchase every day (With the exception of yesterday) for over a week. I'm hoping it will eventually lead to series sell through and life long fans! If you'd like to check it out, click the link below, or go to the Squad Treble page on this site! https://linktr.ee/KayBennson TIME FOR EDITS, PLOTTING, AND WRITING
I'll be jumping back into Eminence for edits probably tomorrow. I'm almost done plotting the entire Apocalypse Heart Saga, and had an idea on how to make my Angel/Demon story a little less confusing. I would say their priority is in the order that I just listed them. I'm hoping that maybe I'll get one more book Published and maybe one more written by the end of 2021? We'll see I guess. Yours in writing, Kay
0 Comments
I'm really struggling today. I don't know if it's the weather, or the fact that I have just over a week until I'm back in the classroom everyday, or that my tiny town had a huge tragedy last night, but I am sad, wanting to lay in bed, and I feel like a scatter brain. I should really be starting Eminence rewrites, but I've kind of been avoiding it like the plague, even before this funk that I've gotten myself in. I have a mild case of Shiny Object Syndrome. If you aren't familiar with the term, it's when a new idea comes and YOU MUST WORK ON IT. I usually get this way when I have one of my really cool dreams, but this is absolutely because I'm dragging my feet on getting back into Eminence because as you read (maybe, I have no idea if anyone reads this besides me) in the last post, I'm not sure if I want to invest a lot of time and effort into Sage and Company....but it needs to get done. I spent the weekend outlining my Sci Fi Series. I'm about three books in and I feel like it finally has enough direction to start. I also think that it might end up being 4 books instead of 6, but that's okay. Maybe 4 is my sweet spot? Okay, that's going to be the thing I work on next once Eminence is done so I guess that's not too much of a stretch, but then I was like "Maybe I'll re-outline my Angel/Demon Nano project" and I think I need to stop myself. I'm clearly procrastinating. When I write I find that the rough draft is the fun part most of the time. You get to just write and get your ideas on paper. Now I need to connect the dots and get rid of plot holes and I'm sure once I'm back into it I'll be fine but, UGH! That being said, I'm finishing my Apocalypse Heart Sage Outline (Is it a Saga if it's only 4 books?) and then I'll head back to Rosementh. Mostly just wanted to vent. I will leave you with this gratuitous Carey Price Gif because his face is Serotonin for my sad soul. Also...Character inspiration for Cole <3 Yours in writing,
Kay First things first, Eminence's rough draft is DONE! Who had that on their 2021 bingo card? Certainly not me. That will be fun to revisit when it's time to make new goals at the end of the year. Currently going through and making notes before I start the next round of edits. There are 17 days until I'm back at school with kids and 10 until I start having teacher meetings. I've already cried about it...so that's how that's going. I'm writing today not really about Eminence, but actually about Enshrine. I had a whole post about it pretty much done yesterday and then I accidentally closed the window and lost it. So here we go for round 2. It's been a long time since I wrote Enshrine, and even though I read it somewhat recently (I think during lockdown), I was finding myself forgetting what people looked like, or details that I didn't want to get wrong. So once I wrote the last words of Eminence I read Enshrine again and took notes and...well...I have some mixed feelings. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of myself. I wrote a book! If it wasn't for this one, I probably wouldn't have anything else published or be where I am today. That being said, it's obvious that this was my debut. It's WAY too long, I could have condensed several scenes and some of the dancing bits are confusing if you weren't an Irish dancer. I think the bigger issue for me is something a bit more delicate. Way back when I was originally working on this, I was intending on it being a bit more George R. R. Martin and meant for adults. For example, the night that Dayton takes Sage to his tent and chains her up...well he was originally intended to do a lot more. A big subplot of the book was going to be Sage coming to the terms that no one in her village might want her if she ever got back because she was no longer pure. Well, then my students at the time caught wind that I was writing a book and wanted me to read it to them and I changed ALOT. Even when I read things aloud I watered it down because I did not want to have a class discussion on Rape or why Sage might be drinking a tea that acted as birth control. (I changed it to Chamomile for anxiety) Unfortunately, I feel like changing it for their young ears kind of diluted the whole thing. Again, I thank God every day that these kids motivated me to finish it and send it to agents and publishers, but Dayton was literally called the Pillager King. I'm not glorifying non consensual sex, but I feel like the whole, "she would be shamed for leaving the king, they wouldn't want to deal with the drama" angle I went with was confusing. I think the most frustrating thing was that while reading it, I feel like it was still implied, but not as much as I would like. If Dayton was this virtuous guy who wanted to wait until his wedding night, wouldn't he believe in a God? I'm going off on a tangent here, but you get what I'm going for here. Hopefully. So here's where potential decisions come in. I didn't really reformat this one when I got the rights back other than slap a new copyright date on it. There are a few typos and formatting things I definitely plan on doing. But I guess what I'm dealing with here is whether or not I should rewrite Enshrine. Plot wise, she would stay the same with the exception of a few filler things that I think could be cut down. It's really to clean up those dance scenes that I think take everyone out of the story except for a handful of people and you know...have a terrible yet not ridiculous reason that Elder Ingraham doesn't want Sage to mar his family name. On the other hand, an author I really admire told me that if you rewrite your books every 4-5 years you'd never have anything new in your career and you'd be constantly fixing things. She asked if Enshrine is what I want to base my career around and initially I said no, but...now I'm not so sure. I had always hoped that this world would be huge. Sage would have her turn, but I had a book from Jonty's point of view, I wanted Martin and Nev to have a prequel. I had a really cool Greatest Showman meets Moulin Rogue idea for Naomi, one of Sage's sisters and it does seem like I have a following that LOVES fantasy romance and has been waiting for Eminence for years. Granted most of them are people I know, but that's a starting point right? I want to write my Dystopian Worlds and Space Operas, but I feel like I might need to sit back and rethink my publishing plan. When I took Publish and Thrive, Sarra said to find your niche or it will take a while to get traction which is why I took Enshrine down...She had multiple successful series in different genres...AHHH I don't know what to do. Since this is has become a novella and I'm shouting into the void...I think I'm going to leave it here. I think I'll re-watch some Publish and Thrive videos and keep making notes on Eminence. Yours in Writing, Kay Hey look at me, a second post in the same week? Who would have thought? Alright, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Back on the 19th, Final Fantasy X had its twentieth anniversary. 2OTH ANNIVERSARY! I FEEL ANCIENT. I feel like most people my age or a little older remember the franchise, but if you don't it was a role playing video game set in the fictional world of Spira where you had to battle Sin and all his various spawn with a rag tag cast of characters. It was visually stunning (especially the cut scenes which for the time were AMAZING), the story line was good (I'm currently watching an ELEVEN HOUR YouTube video just for the story LOL), and you know...there's a love story. Love stories are my thing. I rented it a bunch when it was initially released, my cousin and I were obsessed with the sequel and wanted to be Rikku and Yuna. I've beaten the game twice (Once in college and once two or three years ago). It is the first video game that made me cry emotional tears (the other being Zelda: Twilight Princess). So now that I've giving you that background and shouted things in capital letters, your probably dying to know what this has to do with writing. I realized the other day (while listening to FFX Lo Fi because I LOVE Lo Fi, it's like my favorite of genre at the moment. Does that make me a hipster?) that this game has had a huge influence on me. I haven't talked about my Apocalypse Heart Saga lately or even really worked on it because I was trying to get Squad Treble finished and now Eminence has risen from the dead, but I see so many similarities between Yuna and Riya's journey. Yuna's father was High Summoner so when she too becomes a summoner, there are many expectations on her. The future of Spira rests on her shoulders, they compare her to lady Yunalesca, the first summoner to defeat sin and she has these moments especially as she falls in love with Tidus (sorry for the spoilers, but it has been 20 years...) where she's not sure if she can do it, but in the end she realizes her destiny. It's not a perfect parallel, but Riya was discovered at age three to be the most psychic and telekinetically sensitive being on her planet. Not since the Goddess herself (still in the planning stages with this backstory but she's like a protector of Sahana) has someone been so gifted. Riya has been groomed her whole life to be an Oracle and spearhead of her people. She is expected to marry another "spiritually" gifted member of their society (Who is thirteen years older than her...blech) and when she falls in love with her childhood friend and the expectations and rules prevent her from being with him, she's not sure if she wants the title any longer. Cole and Tidus are more of a stretch, but both had to watch the loves of their life make sacrifices and potentially be with terrible people for the better of "the people". Both also did their best to stand beside their girl when they needed them. Even in Eminence, Sage's drive to search for Jonty gives me major Yuna in X-2 vibes.
So to wrap this up, I'm so glad that Final Fantasy X exists. Thanks for being a muse of sorts for this sci-fi writer girl. <3 Kay
I've been busy busy busy, and keeping up this website has not been on my to do list. I'm back and I've got a BUNCH to tell you. If you are one of my Newsletter subscribers this might look a little familiar when I send it out in a few days.
WARRANTED MOTION WILL BE OUT 8/1 Somehow I got my crap together to get it ready for the release date I wanted. The eBook is available for pre-order at all the major vendors and I will making the paperback version for Amazon on Friday or Saturday as they can't be bought ahead of time. It's really bittersweet to be wrapping it up. I've mentioned this before, but the characters are like my children. They have grown up and changed over four books and I'm going to miss them. On the other hand, It is definitely time to move on. I thought about doing a prequel trilogy from Priya's point of view for a hot second (to the point where I even outlined book one) and quickly decided that any more Owen and Meera might make me a crazy person. That, and it was set to take place in Bangalore India, a place I know nothing about, so I decided to table the idea.
Future YouTube Star?
You heard that correctly. I've posted three videos to YouTube for the first time since I made my Enshrine book trailer. I wouldn't say I've become a viral sensation, but I've gotten some views and I guess that's a starting point. I plan on reading Limited Truth on there as like an audio book to hopefully get people hyped up about the series as well as some writing advice/process/funny/day in the life things. The only thing that stinks is that I don't have a desk set up for even writing right now (I'm typing this on my bedroom floor while my son is playing LOL) so I feel like it doesn't look super great, but it could be worse. Check me out? My "first" video is below. :)
Click to set custom HTML
Enshrine...Back and Better Than Ever?
So back in March I decided that I was going to take Enshrine off the vendor sites and I did for a few months...It's still all the things that I mentioned in that previous post (a hot mess, not really aligned with my YA Sci Fi brand, it's been 4 YEARS since it came out) but like three different people who I don't know wanted copies of the book while it was off the sites and I took it as a sign. So I put Enshrine back on Amazon for now at least and will most likely add it to the other sites as well.
A few days later, I woke up and had this burning desire to work on the sequel which is called Eminence. I had been working on it after Enshrine released but stopped because of weird writer's block/emotional trauma reasons. I had about 30,000 words and had the whole thing painstakingly outlined. Well, I'm proud to tell you that I did a huge overhaul to that original draft where I deleted about half of it, and about a month and a half later I am at 50,000 words. Enshrine was over 100,000 words so I'm not excited yet, but it's coming along. I forgot how much I loved Jonty, how much Sage and Jonty are a dynamic effing duo and I've got her sisters, some new characters, and major plot developments that even I wasn't anticipating (Gotta love when characters take the wheel. LOL) That being said, I'm not even going to try to anticipate when this will potentially be released. I also have no clue if there will be a book three. Without spoiling everything...It seems like that is what is probably going to happen, but the hell if I know how to connect the dots. Hopefully it won't take 4 more years to figure it out. In the meantime, will Enshrine finally get fixed up? It's got "predictable uneven prose", after all LOL. In all seriousness though, that is one nice thing about being Indie, I can make those changes whenever I like.
See you soon (I promise),
Kay Long time no update! As it usually happens, things at my day job had to have more attention than writing, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing things! SQUAD TREBLE RELAUNCH That was my big news that I was alluded to with all the previous posts. Thanks to the publishing course I took earlier in the year, I learned some strategies that I hope will make the series the success I think it deserves to be. I gave them new covers, went through and fixed the formatting, and will be rapid releasing them so that I can (hopefully) get momentum going and get new fans excited about Cassie and her Squad mates. I love the new covers so much! If nothing else, I'm hoping the whole process will be excellent practice for what I'm working on next! Apocalypse Heart Saga Anyone remember when I entered a breakthrough author's contest? It was back when Enshrine was just getting published and while it was a great idea, it was a little half baked and didn't make it to the final round. Well, just like with Squad Treble, we're giving it another go! It will hopefully be six books and it will have star crossed lovers, telekinetic powers, space opera goodness, and more! I don't have a set date yet. I'd like to get the first three written so I can rapid release when the time comes. but it's been fun to work on something new! I think that's everything for now!
Kay GAH! I want to tell you what I've been up to and what's to come, but I still have to wait about a week.
Here's a weird hint/fact, though. Enshrine will be coming off of the vendor sites soon. It's not forever, but after taking my self publishing course, it is clear that: a)too much time has passed since it's release b)it's a hot mess despite having rounds of edits with my old publisher c)it no longer fits with my "brand" (more details on that in a future post) So if you haven't read it yet, you literally have...a week or so to buy it. (One of my former students is probably screaming right now. I have a method to my madness, I promise!) See you in a week! I know I've made mention of it earlier, but I'm working on the final book of my Squad Treble series. I've just passed 50,000 words and I've recently written some scenes that have been in my head for years. In some ways, I'm kind of sad. I had the initial idea for these books when I was about the same age as Cassie (14 or 15, I can't remember exactly) and these characters were my first book babies. They've grown and changed over the years (Some day I might have to post about some of those changes. Some things are HUGE) and I've grown attached to a few. It's been weird to see where I was when I seriously started writing them to where I am now. I feel like my writing has improved a lot since book one too. That being said...I NEED A BREAK. Maybe it's because my day job goes through phases where it's exhausting and I have to but all my efforts into it. Maybe it's because I have a seventeen month old that is teething bad, but I'm getting burnt out. I really want to push through and get book four done and dusted as soon as I can, but I'm back to how I felt in the fall, like I'm forcing it and I think I might need to take a step back for a few days or a week. I even tried to read what I've done so far to get a clear head and finish strong, but even that has become tedious. I'm hoping that I'll be in a better frame of mind in a day or two. The climax of the book is over so now it's just wrapping things up and tying up loose ends. I'm ready to start something new! I've got a crap ton of ideas, but I think I've finally narrowed down what I'm going to do next to two ideas. I'm taking a course on Self-Publishing that starts Monday and I think that will probably help me make my final decision. Don't worry, Semi Sweet and my Angel x Demons book(s?) will be in the mix as well, but this will be the next series I work on. So I leave you with this.... Science Fiction with a romantic subplot? Or... Dystopian with a romantic subplot?
These gifs have nothing to do with plot, btw, I just joke. :) Kay I thought I might do this for a little something different. :)
1. Are you a country mouse or city mouse? Country. My town has one traffic light and I think there are about 5,000 people? We have a Dunkin Donuts though, so we aren't completely in east you know where. 2. Where do you write? Honestly anywhere I can these days, but primarily on my couch. 3. What's your favorite writing snack? Chocolate chips. Is that weird? 4. Do you like music or silence? I typically write in silence (or with kid shows on in the background for my son), but I make playlists that I listen to while I'm driving, cooking, etc. 5. What is my favorite procrastination technique? Haha...sometimes rewards? Like I'll focus on a scene and then let myself scroll on Facebook or Twitter for a bit after. Or I'll hit a word count goal and do something else for a while. I recently started using the Pomodoro method and have had some success. It can be difficult when my husband is home. 6. What does your desk look like? Not set up yet. At school I don't really sit at my big desk either when I write (when I have time before school) but a spare student one I have set up. 7. How do I arrange my bookshelves? I mostly just keep all books by the same author together. I've got knick knacks on top of the bookcase too. Used to have a fish tank before my most recent Beta died. 8. What inspired you to go Indie? Most who know me already know, but I had a TERRIBLE experience with a small press. I was doing equal the work I do now and barely getting any royalties. Still trying to get steady sales and readership, but I'll get there. Also I admire a really successful Indie author named Sarra Cannon and her story gave me the confidence to become Indie and be my own advocate. So much to learn still, but loving it so far! 9. How do you feel about book dedications? I LOVE them. I plan them almost as soon as I get the idea for the book. Two of my four books are dedicated to people I've lost, which probably sounds sad or morbid, but writing means the world to me, and I would like to think these people would support me if they were still here. 10. What kind of monster would you most like to be? Oh, I don't know. Do dragons count? They breathe fire, sleep a lot, and hoard things and that sounds good to me. |
Archives
December 2022
Categories |