Wednesday Snippet - The steps kept coming, echoing out in the hall

It feels like ages since I last posted a snippet, but I think it's actually just that it's ages since I last wrote. Real Life has been exhausting and I've really just been lazy with my evenings and weekends since we got back from holiday. That said, I have a lot of stuff I want to write next year and a very firm deadline in mind for finishing both Lich Queen and Through Fire, so there's no time for laziness!

And with that in mind, let's catch up with Dawn...

"Though each path is different, there is only one way."

Moroccan Proverb

So we arrived back from Marrakech last Monday and were immediately thrown head-first into crazy work schedules, broken boiler sagas, and the terrible realisation that it's almost Christmas and we hadn't done any present shopping yet. I also had THROWN TO THE WOLVES released, and running around (online, not physically) organising promo for that took up a big chunk of time. All of which meant, I haven't had time to talk about Marrakech yet.

And I really want to talk about it! We had an amazing time! We rode camels at sunset! I feed many, many cats. We saw beautiful palaces and ate street food on the Night Market, and Kyle was harassed non-stop because of his beard, but in a nice way. It was simply an incredible experience. I feel so lucky to have been on two such different holidays this year. Iceland was an unforgettable place to visit for it's raw, rugged landscape, and Morocco was unforgettable for it's opulent beauty. I took a zillion photos, but I'll spare you the whole zillion. I've tried to pick a few of my favourites instead, just to show you the variety we found in Marrakech and beyond.

The view from our riad - the Atlas Mountains

Mountain creek running through Imlil, where we stayed

Inside the Bahia Palace

Courtyard garden inside the Bahia Palace

Grafittied bamboo at the Majorelle Gardens

Aisha, my valiant desert steed

Some of the many, many street cats we found

Lamps on the Night Market

Inside Medersa Ben Youssef, a theological school

Another example of the stunning architecture in Medersa Ben Youssef

One of the many, many pots of mint tea we consumed

Inside the Museum of Marrakech

Sunset from camel-back

Saadian Tombs

Gardens of the Saadian Tombs

On the souks

Twilight on the souks

Sunset over the Night Market

Delicious lemon-chicken tagine. Not pictured: the cat I shared it with

I'm really just scratching the surface here of the beautiful places we visited. I'm working on uploading all my photos to Pinterest if you're interested in seeing more, but in between boilers/work/Christmas it might take a while!

And of course, there's writing to get back to. I haven't touched any of my WIPs since before we went away - there just hasn't been time yet. But this is my last week at work for the year, and I'm looking forward to a week off over Christmas to catch up and make some solid progress on Through Fire and Lich Queen (formerly known as Pale Queen). It's good to go away. It's also good to come home and share the memories. Hope you've enjoyed seeing some of them!

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

So another Friday is upon us! November, and thus Anti-Nano, is over and December is here, bringing me a broken boiler (bad) and a holiday to Morocco (good). Hopefully the boiler will be fixed before we go away next week. Otherwise, barring the odd crucial piece of office work that I actually can't do without either driving myself mad or killing someone else, we're all set to go. If I survive, next Wednesday, we'll be off enjoying these gorgeous views:

And hopefully I won't be attacked by a monkey! I can't wait. I know it's not been that long since I was on holiday in Iceland, but I think I've definitely earned this one (today I've certainly already earned a holiday and I've only been at work about an hour). And of course, it'll be Kyle's birthday while we're away and this just seems like a spectacular place to celebrate.

In the meantime, I've completed the first and second round edits for THROWN TO THE WOLVES and am hoping to hear about a release date and cover art soon (hopefully before we go away!). Pale Queen and Through Fire are coming along nicely, and I've scheduled a snippet from Through Fire for next week. I'm also debating changing the title, but that's by the by.

So now it's just a question of not killing anyone (metaphorically) and hanging in there until next week. The weekend promises to be a whirlwind of house work and teaching my younger brother how to look after Ket, and Monday and Tuesday will be mad, but then...but then...Escape!

Monday Check-In: The Final One

So after feeling like a slacker last week and posting a Friday blog about how slacky I was, I promptly sat down and added 2k to Pale Queen that night, thus feeling much less slacky. Huzzahs! Apart from that the weekend was writing-lite. I added another 600 words to Pale Queen yesterday evening, but lost most of Sunday to watching Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, and then ranting about how I would have improved Suicide Squad to Kyle for hours. I might blog about that. I've got a lot of Feelings, idk.

I can't even remember what I did on Saturday apart from prep and ship perfume orders, which worries me slightly.

Oh! I lie - I went to the theatre with my BFF to see Lady Chatterley's Lover! I don't know how I forgot that as there was a good meal involved, and also a hell of a lot of nudity (on the part of the actors).

Anyway! Plans for this week on the writing front: pick up the pace, basically. I'm happy with the progress I'm making on Pale Queen and Through Fire, but would really like to be further along with both before I go away next Wednesday. I'm also still waiting for edits on THROWN TO THE WOLVES, which, probably, will come through while I'm in Morocco knowing my luck. That doesn't matter, as there's a two-week turn around for first round edits with Evernight, but I always like to get them done well before the deadline if I can. In among all this, I have to prepare for going on holiday, by which I mean I have to prepare my boss for me going on holiday, because as of last week she'd forgotten I was going on holiday. When I got back from Iceland, I had many emails from her along the lines of "thank god you're back, I barely coped, also my luggage is in Atlanta." Hopefully this time while I'm away, she won't have that problem.

Anyway! That's pretty much that. See you Wednesday for a snippet!

Friday Check-In: The Underachieving Edition

So I have very little to report today, as I have written very little this week. I've added 1k to an Amber Morgan project, but nothing to either Pale Queen or Through Fire. Mostly this is because I've been exhausted in the evenings. Hopefully I can make up some ground over the weekend. I'm off to the theatre ~darlings~ tomorrow night, where my ex-housemate and I are hoping for a trashy and hammy performance of Lady Chatterley's Lover, but I think otherwise there's nothing on the agenda.

So there is plenty of time for tea-fueled writing yet! Hopefully when I come back on Monday for the last week of Anti-Nano (well, the last days, I guess), I'll have plenty of stuff to update you on that doesn't revolve around Westworld, Masterchef, or Lucha Undergroud (the other reasons I've not been getting anything done this week. I don't normally watch a lot of TV, but at the moment there's just a ton of good stuff going on).

Anyway! That's my boring check-in. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Wednesday Snippet - Define weird

Another snippet from Pale Queen today, since that's where most of my focus was over the weekend. Dawn's solo adventure is coming along nicely!

Monday Check-In: Shameless Self-Promotion Edition

Happy Monday! How was everyone's weekend? Mine was good. I didn't hit the 10k I was aiming for...In fact, I ended up with around 4k between Through Fire and Pale Queen, which is obviously quite a shortfall. On the plus side, I got 4k written, guested on the Rambling Vapers podcast (the episode isn't live yet, but check them out anyway if you like gaming, films, wrestling, politics and general blather), had my heart broken by Tye Dillenger at NXT TakeOver Toronto, and ate steak tacos. So that all happened.

Meanwhile, I also discovered I've been nominated for a total of three Evernight Readers' Choice awards this year! Two as Naomi Clark and one as Amber Morgan. I am humbled and surprised and truly grateful for everyone that voted for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Honestly, I never expect to be nominated in these things because I think I fly under the radar a lot, so when I do it's genuinely shocking and heartwarming for me.

Exactly as heartwarming as this.

Anyway! Now the nominations are in, it's time to vote for the winners. Evernight have a $50 giftcard up for grabs, just to sweeten the deal, and you can vote for your favourite books here.

In case you'd like to vote for me, I have the following books up for awards:

Finalist - best lesbian

Finalist - best suspense

I'm not kidding when I say it's an honour just to be nominated, but...you know...it would be even more of an honour to win something ;)

Friday Check-In: The Ambitious Edition

Ambitious because I'm gunning to write 10k this weekend. I did it the weekend before I went away to Iceland, so I know I can do it. The issue is always whether I will. We have a builder and our landlady coming round at some point because there's a hole in the living room ceiling, but aside from that, I don't have anything else on the agenda. So writing should happen! How much writing is yet to be determined, but if I can get 80-10k down on either/or Through Fire and Pale Queen, I will be pretty happy.

This week I've concentrated on Pale Queen and ideally I'll spend one day on that and the other on Through Fire, but as always I try to be flexible with myself. If one story is really coming out easily and smoothly, it's counter-productive to stop and work on the other.

It's only three weeks now (less, in fact!) until Kyle and I jet off to Morocco for his birthday, and part of my desire to nail 10k this weekend is to get as much writing in as possible before we go. I'm expecting edits for THROWN TO THE WOLVES either this month or in December, too, and it would be nice to focus on those without mentally panicking that I'm not on track with my works in progress. So we'll see! I hope everyone has a great weekend whatever you're up to! See you on the other side!

Wednesday Snippet - Something was wrong...

So! Another Wednesday is upon us, and as promised earlier in the week, I've got a snippet from Pale Queen for you. There are rats, so if you're funny about rats, probably not the snippet for you. So...here it is. Enjoy! Or not, if you don't like rats!

Monday Check-In: The Pale Queen edition

So the weekend was a big ball of housework and Sunday roasts with the family, and somewhere in the middle I added 1200 words or so to Through Fire, which was less than I hoped for but more than I thought I'd manage. So it's a win? I also received an exceptionally well-decorated cake from my two-year-old niece, which made up for the lack of hardcore writing:

Look at that! It was delicious. Today I finally figured out where to start Pale Queen (which you may or may not remember is going to be the companion novella to Through Fire, written from Dawn's POV), so I churned out 1300-odd words on that. I'm a bit wary of switching back and forth between the two too much, as that generally leads to me getting nothing done, but so help me, I do like starting new books. And I like what I got down today for Pale Queen, so look out for a snippet on Wednesday!

Where that leaves me for the week, I'm not sure. Lola's story is rolling along nicely and remains my main focus, but if Dawn's story is front and centre in my brain all week, I'll go with it. Either way, I'm aiming for 1k a day still, and hopefully more at the weekend. No cake or Sunday roast scheduled this weekend, sadly :( But on the plus side, that does mean a lot more writing time!

Anti-Nano Rides again

Happy November! Good luck to everyone doing Nanowrimo this year. May the words come fast and often. As usual, I will not be doing Nanowrimo but, as is now tradition, I will be joining in spirit with Anti-Nano.

For newcomers, Anti-Nano is my way of tapping into all that gooey writerly energy and enthusiasm in November without over-taxing my knackered wrists, arms, and (currently possibly cracked) finger bones. My rotator cuff problems mean I can't really commit to a daily writing schedule, especially in the colder months when the weather aggravates the various joint/muscle complaints I have. But I do set myself a personal goal every November and I try to check in here on Mondays and Fridays, with snippets as per usual on Wednesdays, to keep myself accountable and hopefully give you guys something to read.

So! The goal this year is sort of nebulous. I want to write 1k a day on Through Fire, which is pretty doable...starting next week. This first week of November, I'm running a sale over at Common Brimstone before closing for a couple of months. So I'm currently swamped with perfume orders and foresee spending pretty much every evening this week and all weekend working on those so I can close the shop next week and focus 100% on writing for a few months. So whilst I'd like to get some words down this week, I'm not going to stress too much if I don't.

I'd also like to start on Pale Queen, the companion novella to Through Fire. I'd also also like to start redrafting In Cold Blood, and I'd also also also like to start prepping AFTERLIFE and DEMONIZED for self-publishing. I think the best plan is aim for 1k a day on Through Fire in the week, then allow myself the weekend to work on other projects. I also have an Amber Morgan story on the go, but that's fairly low down the priority list right now. Oh, and I'll probably also have edits for THROWN TO THE WOLVES at some point this month.

So yeah, Nebulous, in that I have a ton of stuff I want to work on (as usual) and only the vaguest idea of how I'll manage it all. I think as long as I make steady progress on Through Fire, I'll be happy. I haven't done any writing since before going to Iceland, so Anti-Nano should be a good way to get back into the rhythm of it. Beyond that, we'll see. Wish me luck!

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

- Plato, The Republic

So, later than expected (because that seems to be my theme this year), Thrown to the Wolves is finished, polished, and submitted. I like this little werewolfy romance a lot, and I hope to have good news about it soon.

That brings us into October, and Blood Canticles 3. It was always my plan to start on this in the autumn, so even though I'd hoped to get going in September, I'm okay with being a bit behind schedule. This book will easily take the rest of the year to write, unless I get lucky, and my perhaps foolish aim is to write a companion novella alongside it.

See, Blood Canticles 3, tentatively titled Through Fire, will take Lola and Tristesse away from their ragtag group for the bulk of the book, but events in Fort Rosser will continue apace, because that's how the world works. The nasty stuff that happened in DARK DAYS will have knock-on effects for Dawn, Imani, and Rowan that need to be addressed while Lola and Tris are...away. At first I thought about writing Through Fire with alternating viewpoints, with Lola, Tris, and Dawn all being focal characters.

Then I realised I'd probably end up with either a hot mess or a 100k epic working that way, and decided it might be easier to write one novel and one novella. I could be wrong about this route, but it feels like the right path, so we'll see. In any case, my schedule for the rest of the year is now as follows:

Write Through Fire
Write companion novella (Pale Queen)
Try not to make a mess

I am very excited about both these stories. If everything goes to plan, Lola's world is going to explode (metaphorically) and I can show you all kinds of new, horrible, amazing things. I've spent a lot of this year doing research and reading heavily to inform the world of Through Fire, and Pale Queen will hopefully do its own job in building on the magic and lore of BLOOD WITCH and DARK DAYS. I'll try to share snippets if they're not too spoilery. If you want a glimpse at the Blood Canticles world in the meantime, there's my Pinterest board here, and an ever-growing Spotify playlist at the bottom of this page. Enjoy!