Word count? What is that you speak of?

 Dear Reader,

Here we are at the final day of NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo. Many people are at or real close to the finish line. Others are slogging along, possibly cursing their decision to participate in these challenges. Word count is the big gauge of success and source of stress during this month. Posting across six blogs, I have absolutely no idea what my word count is. It took some stress off my shoulders, but six blogs ... that was a lot of work. It has cemented in my mind that some of these blogs are going to be updated on a weekly basis.  Because updating all of them in one day eats my entire morning of writing time.

The serial stories are stalled right now. The science fiction book is stalled because my notes in pencil are become illegible due to fading. At least I found them. The series of modern fantasy is on hold as I am awaiting contact back from the person who requested the work to be done. We had a gentleman's contract initially based on a virtual handshake. I have four books written and a fifth started. It is time to take that gentleman's contract and put it on paper to make clear what is expected of everyone involved. I'm having difficulty contracting him, because he's in grad school right now and busy as heck.

My fantasy series is on hold because I'm correcting errors in one book and trying to make things work according to my plot map in the other book. Hopefully books six and seven of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar will be out by late spring. In case you are curious, the story arc plotted for the whole series takes place over thirty books. I have snippets and bits of ideas for the other books, but I have to finish what I have on the block first.

Editing is like pulling hen's teeth.

 Dear Reader,

I am currently working on line edits for a book in the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar series. It is slow going and exhausting. I have discovered places where one character wound up with three different names. I have found typos galore. It isn't pretty. And this doesn't account for the fact that I still have to reformat the page size and type font for the entire document. 

Some of you may say, "Deb, why don't you hire an editor?"

The simple answer is that I'm broke. The extra money that could have gone towards getting this professionally edited and proofread is going towards my son's braces. It's the same reason why I haven't done anything like those nifty book trailers that you've seen on Facebook or paid for advertising. I just don't have the cashflow to make it happen. It forces me to sit down and go through a document a good six or seven times before I deem it ready for publication. It can take months, especially when my depressive episodes sap my ability to think clearly.

At one point, my mother-in-law told me how I needed an agent. She was convinced that if I had an agent that one of the big traditional publishers would be interested in my series of books. I mean, it's not everyday that someone says "Hey, we've got the first third of a thirty book series right here and it's not half bad. We just need to put it to press and slap a better cover on it." The problem is, since I have gone independent publishing, they want to see big purchase numbers before they are even remotely interested.

I don't have big purchasing numbers. I'm a small fish in a big ocean in a market that's rather glutted. It requires me to push advertising and the money for that is going for household needs and my kids' needs. If I won big ticket lotto, maybe I'd throw money in this direction. I don't know. By now, editing myself is a habit. Finish writing a book, set it aside for a few months, and then start the long process of edits and read throughs. I've gotten halfway decent at it, despite the word processor's attempts to correct my spellings and such.

I am very 'type a' about my writing. It is part of the reason why I am an independent author. I want that creative control over pretty much everything. I've heard horror stories from some traditionally published authors about how the manuscript got butchered in the editing and formatting process until it no longer resembled what they wrote. It happens a fair amount of time from what I have heard. I may not sell well, but I am telling the story that I want to tell. Not something that is watered down and filled with hype oriented concepts that will make it more 'appealing'. It's a measure of freedom that I don't think I am going to give up. Authenticity in my writing is the most important thing right after making sure that I get character names right and I clean up all the typos.

Edge of Night is live as paperback!

 Dear Reader,

I got Book Mail! Here's my author's copy of Edge of Night and I simply had to share it with you. It came out beautifully (and is a nice visual contrast to the infamous editing bench). It's now available as a paperback on Amazon and through other online retailers. Happy Reading! The story gets darker as evil rises.

Day two of a migraine, yippie!

 Dear Reader,

If only there was a sarcasm font. I would have used it and made it as big as possible for that title. I'm doing a bit better than I was yesterday. I really wanted to get on here and post a craft of writing thing but I was hardly able to see straight most of the day and light felt like I was getting stabbed in the face by the evil Day-star. Migraines suck, y'all.

Where do I begin? Last week was relatively awful on the brain front. Barely avoided a big fight with a relative because I focused my attention on mentally stabbing them in the eye as I was knitting on Mother's Day. I'm still kinda angry but I'm doing my best to just put it aside. I had a rotten week last week that kept me from writing just about anywhere because of my brain doing the I am depressed thing. Therapy writing was grueling and felt utterly useless. When I finally got through what is typically my morning writing routine, it was time for the kids to get home from school and then I was playing referee between two teenagers. (Yes, my youngest is twelve but he's got the attitude of a thirteen year old already.)

To say it's been rough over here is a big understatement. I didn't want this blog to linger in silence longer just because I didn't feel awesome. I wanted to let you know that I'm still here, just struggling to get time to write pretty much anything. We're coming up on a week of appointments next week and the boys have a track and field competition that Beloved and I are trying to figure out if we can make it to.

The remainder of this week is up in the air. I can see straight by the power of Excedrin but I've been typing slower than usual because I keep making typos that I have to go back and correct so you can actually read this. I hate migraines. And looking at the weather report for the weekend, I think I've got another one lurking Sunday into Monday next week. Ugh.

In other news, the paperback version of Edge of Night is out.

New Umbrel Chronicles Volume Coming Soon!

 Dear Reader,

I've been unwell and busy over the last few days. I had a migraine that lasted two days and I was finishing up the publication prep and process for Edge of Night: Book V of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar. I will have links for you soon. 

Here's the blurb:

The desperate deception of Askemb was doomed to failure. As the forces loyal to the true Queen of Evandar try to plan their next move, the elf-woman Sideria makes an astonishing discovery deep in the heart of Dragonwood Forest. A discovery that could change the course of everything. In the White City, the High Council votes on Askemb's claim to rulership over Dakon-Bar and all of the Seven Kingdoms of Evandar. Treason awaits. Away to the east, the turncoat Douglas struggles towards redemption. Meanwhile, the deamon Axeron tightens his grip and bides his time until true Darkness falls on the world of men.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Just as I was about to hit post, the ebook has hit the market! Grab a copy and a cup of coffee. ♥

Book Status Update.

Dear Reader,

Since the debacle of my ancient laptop dying, I'm going through my thumb drive where I backed everything up to and trying to find things. It is a disorganized mess. I really need to label things better. Manuscripts is too vague, if you know what I mean. I have found half started short stories, random rants about my complicated history, and some stuff that I honestly can't make heads or tails of where I was going with it from blogs that I was attempting to run about ten years ago. 

As I chew my way through all of this, I think I'll find the short stories that I drafted for my science fiction thing and the continuation of both serial stories that I have going on here. It's a lot of stuff to go through. I didn't realize how much stuff I had on that old machine until now. I think I may need to get thumb drives dedicated to topics or something. Fortunately, they are not super expensive and they're pretty reliable. (knocks wood) But, this is a bigger mess than my project room which we keep the door closed so that stuff doesn't fall out and kill us. (Ok, it's not quite that bad but it makes my kids' room look spotless.)

Books Update.

 Dear Reader,

The side project has eaten my life. This is not a bad thing. I am almost finished with the third iteration of the side project's draft stage. That means I am about to enter into edits on three novellas at the same time. And I have a nonfiction work that I am in the middle of editing too. Beloved helped a ton with editing work on the nonfiction project. I'm really lucky that he did that because it was in desperate need of help.

I am going to be moving to working on book seven in the evenings soon. My hope is that I can finish up the final third of that book and get started on eight next. I know exactly how I want book eight to go. It is so incredibly clear in my head that it feels like how I felt when I first started writing this series. I can just about see the scenes in cinematic form and almost hear the dialogue. 

Book eight is going to be fun to write because it is going to be a complete change from the past seven books. Book eight is going to focus on one character and a single plot line. Y'all might find that a refreshing change after having to use a murder wall to track what is going on with your favorite characters. Book nine is going to be the same way but with a different character. And I am really excited about both of them because I can finally do some of the cool stuff that I had planned from the very beginning of the series. (Like just what was going on with that lightning bolt that struck down the deamoness in the middle of a snowstorm at night? That question gets answered in book nine.)

Books Update!

 Dear Reader,

I know that you've been patiently waiting for my next book to hop off the editing bench and into the publication process. It's been an arduous process trying to edit while I have been trying to keep up with everything here. 2020 was a brutal year that threw off all of my plans, as I am sure it has for you.

This year, I'm taking my playbook from January 2020 and putting it into effect. I'm giving myself a bit of leeway on my scheduling incase we wind up going remote learning for an extended period of time. The tentative date for editing to wrap up on book six of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar is late August. It is my hope to get it out for publication by the end of September. All of this depends on things being semi-normal. Gods only know what 2021 holds for us but I'm hoping it is good things.

Book seven is on hold as I finish up two other unrelated books. There will be an announcement coming soon regarding one of these other projects. If you enjoy fantasy of all stripes and are a little bit of a nerd who occasionally dabbles in off-line RPGs, I think you're going to find my news interesting. You have to wait until late February for the details, however.

Placeholder for future content!

 Dear Reader,

I survived the holidays despite how hectic it was. I am presently in the midst of making some major changes to my schedule and my approach to things like blogging. It's been difficult to get back into the groove of daily blog posts because of all the stuff that's been going on. I feel like I've got a bit of 2020 stuck to the bottom of my shoe and I can't scrape it off with a stick.

Look for new material and updates to my serial stories in two weeks. I have some planning to do and a few irons in the fire that I have to finish up. I have a big project that I'm desperately attempting to finish with the limited time that I have to work on it. As I said, it is going to be approximately two weeks before the dust settles around here and I can jump back into the saddle.

Thank you for sticking with me this far. I will update you soon on what changes are coming to the blog and just what the hell is going on with The Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar. (Spoiler alert: My characters are finally beginning to cooperate with the plot on the book I've been stalled on.)

Gods help me, the chaos!

 Dear Reader,

Now that distance learning has ended for a few weeks my home has erupted into utter chaos. There's toys a few inches deep in strategic places. I think the children are trying to assassinate me because of them. There's the constant noise of siren impersonations (my eldest is actually getting pretty good at imitating the fire siren up the road) and bickering. Writing time is all but impossible for me to find because I'm so busy playing referee and hostage negotiator (because one will steal toys from the other with a list of demands).

Quite simply, I'm out numbered and out gunned at the moment. My youngest child has been going through what seems to be a sheaf of paper to make comic books. It's been an experience. We worked together to write an actual story but he's moved on to other things instead of drawing the pictures to go with it. Thank goodness that Beloved does a weekly recycling run, because with out it we'd be neck deep in half finished sketches and "robot diagrams".

School is starting late this year because of Covid-19. It is my hope that once we get into the swing of the school schedule that I can get back to writing on here. That I can get back to writing in general. It's been a while and I'm getting a bit twitchy. Obviously, book five is still on the editing table and that process has been stalled. Random fart noises and siren noises along with the kid shrieking at each other over whatever topic they've decided to fight over makes it really hard to concentrate on editing. I can't give you an estimate when it will be ready. I'm trying to get to it in what free moments I can find, but writing time is at a premium.

Flora & Fauna: The 'history' of Dragons

Dear Reader,

Dragons are amazing creatures. They are the cornerstone upon a great deal of fantasy literature is built. One could write a really informative and awesome post about the place of dragons in the genre. My first interaction with dragons aside from fairy tales was Anne McCaffery's Pern series. That, however, is all a tale for another day. The dragons of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar have always existed within that universe. Each culture within that universe has had some kind of contact with dragons and have different stories about how they relate to humanity and their origin.

The kingdoms of Evandar and Ranyth border each other. A mountain range that is named for dragons spreads along that boarder and then splits into two separate ranges along the northern borders of those kingdoms. The kingdoms share the same general religion, though there are regional variances in the practices. There is, however, a shared consensus that dragons are dangerous and to be avoided. In Evandar, they are said to be the children of the god of chaos and wind. In Ranyth, they are said to be servants of that god in his malevolent aspect. The folk memory of Ranyth recalls the Great War between the gods drawing out the dragons into combat.

It is a state secret, however, in Ranyth, that the royal household is under the protection of a great dragon. The marriage between Asriel and Erian included the royal family of Dakon-Bar, a sub-kingdom of Evandar, in the protectorate of dragons. This lead to the revelation of the dragon whose domain overlaps Dakon-Bar and gives the region it's name (for Dakon means dragon and -bar is a prefix that denotes a region as forested.) This is an ancient Evandari name for the place. At the heart of it all is a forest known in modern times as Dragonwood forest. Here is the dragon's lair, hidden beneath the hills and trees of the region.

In Ranyth, there are actually two dragons that reside in the region. In the north, is the dragon that is sister to the dragon of Dakon-Bar. This dragon is the matron guardian of the royal family of this kingdom. In the south, all but completely forgotten, is another dragon of a more malevolent nature. They sleep, hidden away within their lairs. For Ranyth was once a battleground between these two dragons during and prior to the Great War of the gods. That battle exhausted them and they have rested for over an Age. When they awaken again, as the dragon of Dakon-Bar has, they will reengage in their fight.

AW: Morning Blog 65

I feel like these entries are rambling garbage about ninety eight percent of the time. It's been a challenge to make time for them every morning. For some reason, it is easier to sit down with a notebook and write first thing in the morning than it is to type this up. I have a long term Umbrel Chronicles project that I'm working on that is completely stalled. A story 'bible' is this thing I heard of a few years back where you put pretty much everything you have into a single notebook. All of your world building notes, plot outlines, and character sketches all get shoved into there. I thought it was an interesting concept that could help me stay organized with this series that I'm writing.

There is one small problem. I have so much backstory and related information piled up in notebooks and on scraps of paper shoved into a series of folders, it is a major undertaking to put all that into one notebook. My legendarium for this series is prolific. I am struggling to find the time to do this work that would make the actual work of writing the books easier. I have some of this material online and I don't want to go through the work of hand copying everything.

I don't know how the pros do it. How do they stay on top of everything? Do they have a murder wall with sticky notes and string? Do they have a story bible? Is it a pile of notes that they just hope and pray stay organized as they work? All I know is that I'm finding the books are wandering away from the general outline for the series that I set up years ago. Plot is going in weird directions and I am not sure how much of the old material I can use now.

A part of me says light it all on fire and just go with what I have written thus far. I am that frustrated with it. Another part of me says I should save all of the material I have ever written revolving around this stuff because I can use it somewhere and somehow in my novels.

It's coming together nicely.

Dear Reader,

I'm almost ready to release Book 4 of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar into the world. Tomorrow is the big day. Edits are moving along well for Book 5. And by moving along well, I'm finding ALL of the typos and correcting them. It's hard to believe that this is really happening. I know that I don't have a lot of readers buying my books right now. But I sincerely believe it will come in time. I just have to keep working and learning more about things like how to market books.

I'm a bit stuck on book 7 because the concluding chapter is refusing to coalesce into something that works. As tempted as I am to throw it at a proverbial wall and give up, I'm not. I'm just attacking in a different direction and refocusing on my blogs as I mull the situation over. One would think with my hobby of reading about medieval warfare that I would have come up with a way for this particular battle to play out. As Beloved said to me when he was trying to help me figure this out, I have a talent for writing myself into corners.

One of the ways that I am 'attacking in the opposite direction' for a while is writing stuff on my erotica blog again. I'm not really pleased with what I have right now, but I know that, again, with practice and research, I will get better at that genre. I don't think I'll have the readership that Chuck Tingle does but he's proven himself to be pretty goddamn brilliant with his niche market. I'm really impressed with the quantity he manages to produce and his social media presence. I'm trying to figure out how to mimic some of what he is doing to hit a level of success that could be comparable, albeit in a smaller scale.

Book status: Bk 4 of the Umbrel Chronicles

Dear Reader,

I'm close to having book for ready for sale. There's a few minor details to be adjusted and once I review the proofs, it's going live. I'll be posting a link to the book's page on Amazon. In the meantime, here's the front cover's pic.

Coming Soon: Book 4 of the Umbrel Chronicles

Dear Reader,

Book 4 of the Umbrel Chronicles will be going to press in two weeks. It is novella length, so a bit of a quick read compared to the first three. In it, we get to see more of just what is going on under the Usurper's reign. Next week, I'll be posting pictures of the cover art and announcing the official title. I will also be kicking off the second trilogy of the Umbrel Chronicles with a bit of a contest, details to be announced next Wednesday with the cover reveal.

Looking for something to read this week?

What's that tumbling down the screen? Why it's the first trilogy of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar in one place. (Google rotated the pic 90 degrees, I am hopeless at pic editing, but still, there's all three books!)

Book four is almost ready to drop. It will be up on Amazon late next month. It will be much shorter than the first three, but I think you'll still enjoy the ride.

Books Update.

Dear Reader,

I'm still figuring out how to market my first trilogy. (I am still over the moon thrilled I can type that in all honestly!) I have been posting things on Twitter and Facebook. I made a few sales this week. It's really exciting.

I am almost finished with the line edits on book four. It is looking just about ready. I need to double check a few consistency things between book four and book five. I'm now in the process of considering how I'm going to make the cover for it. I like the cover creator for Lulu and the cover creator for Kindle Direct Publishing. At the same time, I want to make a cover that continues the theme of showing where the majority of the story takes place and the selection of images is beginning to get a little challenging.

I was looking things over with Dacia's War and realized that I'm almost to a novel's length. I am going to take the first part of Dacia's War (the section that comes before Lady Al-Uzza is sent north) and turn it into an ebook after I clean it up some and smooth out the transitions. I will update you all on how that process is going.

I will be also starting to put together recipes again and making a little ebook cookbook to go with these books I'm writing. Why? Because I'm a weirdo like that. :) All of the recipes will be something I have made and eaten, so only the GOOD ones go into the book. They'll have their own little story to go with them too.

Books Update!

Hey there Reader,

It's been a wild week at my house. Aside from three days of migraines, I've been monkeying around with Kindle Direct Publishing. As a result, I now have the first trilogy of the Umbrel Chronicles up for sale in three different formats.

Book one: The Dragon's Daughter

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Daughter-Umbrel-Chronicles/dp/1496027434

Kindle Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MC5Z8BP

Hardcover: http://www.lulu.com/shop/deborah-miskell/the-dragons-daughter/hardcover/product-22100157.html

Book two: The Dragon Child of Evandar

Paperback & Kindle Ebook:  https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Child-Evandar-Umbrel-Chronicle/dp/1495954838

Hardcover: http://www.lulu.com/shop/deborah-miskell/the-dragon-child-of-evandar/hardcover/product-23848163.html

Book three: Shadow Fall

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981701842

Kindle Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M81JHJK

Hardcover: http://www.lulu.com/shop/deborah-miskell/shadow-fall/hardcover/product-23450643.html

Lo, the Writer emerges!

Dear Reader,

Camp NaNoWriMo is complete. I cheated a little bit and worked on three different things at the same time. The nice thing is that I finished up one story arc, have the beginnings of another work, and I'm about a third of the way into what was my main Camp project. The other two came about during bouts and fits of writer's block.

Book seven of the Umbrel Chronicles series remains stalled. This is because my children keep trying to read over my shoulder and that is not child friendly content. When they go back to school, I get back to work on it. I am having some bugs worked out of the process of getting books three and four out on the market. Life got busy and I haven't had a chance to order proofs yet. (I'm sorry, to everyone who tried the links and got nothing out of them, I'm trying to fix this.)

I am also working on digital copies of the first trilogy. After some experimentation and failures with some different works, it looks like I have to make some major format changes for the books in order to publish them digitally. This is much harder than it seems. Because I'm not very good with tech. Pen and paper, I'm fantastic. Needle and thread, even better. Ones and zeros, not so much (be it mathematically or digitally to be honest).

I'm getting back to work, though. Look for more content over the next few weeks. Thanks for sticking with me.

♥

Technical difficulties.

So my computer started acting really weird today. I quipped to my husband that I needed:

• an old technician
• a young technician
• the head of Bill Gates

He laughed. I sort of resolved the problem and ran a virus scan to make sure. Somewhere in the midst of all this, I discovered that book four had lost the second half of it. It just stops at the end of chapter seven. I'm now trying to figure out which thumbdrive the back up is on.

I'm still thinking I need those three things to prevent future issues.