Another Week

That's right! It's Friday. And this week, I'm happy to say that I completed several writing projects I had on my to-do list. Yay. 😁

These are things I've had on my mental to-be-done list for a while. Things I constantly carried in the back of my mind but, for one reason or another, I kept (unintentionally) pushing them back. So, last weekend I decided to move these things from my mental list to my handwritten to-do list.

That way, I actually set deadlines for myself, which always pushes me to complete the tasks. I don't know why, but when I write things down on paper, I hold myself accountable.

So, what were these things? Here's the list:

• Complete third draft, read-thru & sub latest short story WIP.
• Proofread the previously contracted story I recently got my rights back for.
• Write two guest blog posts & email.
• Answer interview questions & email.
• Reach the halfway mark on IT.

This list might not look/sound like much, but I broke everything up into different days, and it took most of the week to get through. I managed to cross everything off by the end of Thursday. Plus, I have another two finished short stories on file. 👍

Then, we celebrated by going to one of our favourite thrift stores. Where I found a LOT of awesome books. Our apartment is slowly becoming a books and games library, and I love it! 😁

I also (really) like productive weeks. It makes me feel quite accomplished. Especially when it involves writing pieces that were stuck in my brain for ages. 

Although my mind is never clear--because there are always ideas and plans and stuff jammed inside--I'm now in a place where I can start thinking about other projects. And that's what I'd like to concentrate on next week: planning my next project/s.

I have a pretty good idea what I'd like to work on next, but need to get pen + paper to sort through my thoughts on paper before getting stuck into a nice lot of brainstorming.

But first, I'm going to enjoy the weekend.

I hope you do too. Have a good one!

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Strange Writing Thoughts

Yeah, that sounds like the best title for a post about my jumbled writing thoughts for this week.

As we all know, story ideas come out of nowhere and everywhere. Sometimes I wake up with one. Other times a dream sparks something bigger. Walking fills me with inspiration. A song might become an unexpected story nugget. Even a word while reading can make something happen. Or even a creepy picture posted on Twitter...

I think you get the gist of what I'm trying to say. 😬

Sometimes, these ideas are so well formed I can write a 4k first draft in a day. I actually did exactly this several months ago. I woke up with the story in my head, and had the first draft written by the end of the day.

My latest idea, another one that wanted to be told RIGHT NOW, was a little different. 

First, the character--who happens to be from the same series as the story I mentioned above--appeared out of nowhere. The time and setting were there too. Then later that day, the beginning struck me. But still, I needed a few days to mull everything over and double check a few details.

By the time I sat down to write with pen & paper a few days later, I handwrote 4 pages without stopping. It flowed well. I too notes and left it alone again.

During that time, the story was constantly in the back of my mind. Percolating in the background. Forming deeper roots than I expected. But no matter how many times I thought about how it would all turn out, I couldn't put everything together. Things weren't clicking.

At this stage I knew that the best thing to do was to just write. That was the only way I was going to find out if it was going to work or not.

So I grabbed my laptop with the intention of typing everything up, but on that day Windows 10 decided to be an a-hole and needed a thousand updates and restarts. (Okay, so it was more like five but that's a lot. A LOT.)

I was lucky to get the pages typed up (added up to 677 words) and put everything aside. Again. I was too frustrated with my laptop to continue.

Yesterday, I decided nothing was going to stop me. I sat at my Writing Nook (more on that another time), opened the Word doc and started typing. I kept writing until lunchtime and--by that time I knew how everything was going to end--went back to it after eating.

Not long after that, I finished the first draft. It turned out to be 3,884 words. It's a bit rough but the main story is there. Finally out of my head and ready to be revised.

Do you understand the title of this post now? 😁 

I had all the pieces of this story inside my head for a few weeks but they were scattered, and no amount of thinking or note-taking could put them together. BUT, as soon as I started typing, everything fell into place and made total sense.

It's strange and wondrous and weird. Every story is as different as its process. 

To me, that feels quite magical.✨

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This Week

Hey! I'm going to start this post with this awesome Demain Publishing graphic:

I love how this features all the great Adrian Baldwin covers. These are also the latest Short Sharp Shocks! released last week. And of course, that includes mine. Yay!

I've actually had a really nice week. Even though we had a few rainy days, I didn't let the weather affect me. There were too many things to focus on, that's for sure.

It's tax time here in Oz, so we got some pesky real life stuff out of the way, which always feels good. Now that our daughter is 18, finished school, and isn't even living in this country anymore, this is the last year of long-winded claims.

So, what else did I do? I read a fantastic YA horror book called TEETH IN THE MIST by Dawn Kurtagich and reviewed it yesterday for Hachette. It's awesome. It's also the third book I've read by this author and I enjoyed all of them.

Now, it's time to get stuck into IT. Yep. This'll be my first time reading this encyclopedia-sized book and I'm super excited. I promised myself that I would read this book sometime during 2019 and before the second movie is released.

There's no better time to read it than a month before the movie hits. 😉

Oh, this week my Guest Review of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina prequel, SEASON OF THE WITCH, was posted at Kendall Reviews. It was really nice of Gavin to host my review of a book that I adored.

You know I LOVE the show, and this book totally felt like another season. So cool.

Hubby and I finally watched GOOD OMENS on Amazon Prime. We watched an episode a night for most of the week, then binged the last two on Thursday night. We loved it. This show was heaps of fun, and I have to admit that I enjoyed it more than the book. Yep. I did.

Asides from all this cool stuff, I also received the Flame Trees ARC I won in a Twitter contest. I really enjoyed this author's first book, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Now that most of the reorganising of my writing & reading nooks are done, I started writing a new short story. Yes! This one is an unexpected idea I had about a character from my Sierra Fox series. It's strange how many of these are hitting my brain years after I finished writing the series. And the five books are no longer available.

BUT, a story that is available is BREAKING THE HABIT. Actually, today, the first two fantastic reviews posted made me grin like an idiot because both readers totally got this little story of mine. If you're curious, you can read them both on Goodreads. 😍

You can also grab yourself a copy for 99c. That's a bargain! Here are the links.

Well, there you have it. This turned out to be a great week. And now, we've got the weekend ahead of us...

Have a good one!

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TEETH IN THE MIST by Dawn Kurtagich

Before the birth of time, a monk uncovers the Devil's Tongue and dares to speak it. The repercussions will be felt for generations... 

Sixteen-year-old photography enthusiast Zoey has been fascinated by the haunted, burnt-out ruins of Medwyn Mill House for as long as she can remember--so she and her best friend, Poulton, run away from home to explore them. But are they really alone in the house? And who will know if something goes wrong?

 In 1851, seventeen-year-old Roan arrives at the Mill House as a ward--one of three, all with something to hide from their new guardian. When Roan learns that she is connected to an ancient secret, she must escape the house before she is trapped forever. 

 1583. Hermione, a new young bride, accompanies her husband to the wilds of North Wales where he plans to build the largest water mill and mansion in the area. But rumors of unholy rituals lead to a tragic occurrence and she will need all her strength to defeat it. 

 Three women, centuries apart, drawn together by one Unholy Pact. A pact made by a man who, more than a thousand years later, may still be watching... 

After reading The Dead House and The Creeper Man, and enjoying the hell out of both of them, I couldn't wait to read Dawn Kurtagich's latest release.

As soon as Roan arrives at Mill House, things start going wrong. Her father has recently died and has sent her to live with a man she doesn't even know. The secrets she keeps are only surpassed by the ones everyone else is keeping in this weird house. And there's someone--or something--watching her.

All Zoey wants to do is get her father back. So she runs away to the place that caused his madness. But Mill House feels weird and soon, along with her best friend, she'll find out the horrible truth...

Wow. This book is amazing. In more ways than one. Not only because the writing style is so engrossing and at times, disorienting. Not just because the characters are all so interesting. But definitely because of all these things and so much more.

A sense of impending doom weighs down on every page of this gorgeously wicked tome.

The story is told in the point of view of Roan Eddington and Zoey Root, but also includes the bizarre diary entries of Hermione Smith. These three women, who suffer their own personal nightmarish tragedy in Mill House, are all somehow intertwined. There might be centuries between them, but the darkness of a curse that began so long ago ripples out through time. Affecting each one in an interconnected way that is truly chilling.

I loved the format of this book. Not just the way it's written, because that's cool enough. I mean, there are journal entries and camera footage and an old diary. There are three stories happening at once and all move in perfect pace with each other. But not just that, I loved the aesthetics of the actual book. It's beautiful. The illustrations, photos, fonts and layout are all awesome. Totally adds to the experience in a way that helped everything flow from start to finish.

This is definitely a haunting book that totally gets under your skin.

Teeth in the Mist is an atmospheric tapestry of three intriguing tales woven together so expertly, they become one creepy book. I was hooked, didn't want to put it down, and when I reached the shocking ending, I wanted more.

As I mentioned the other day on Twitter, Dawn's creepy kind of horror is totally my thing. I love how she dares to go wherever the story needs to go. No matter how dark things get, she'll drag us down with her characters. And that's something I love in my horror. 😁

I can't express how much I loved this story of evil ambition and greed. It's fantastic!

Teeth in the Mist, August 2019, ISBN 9780316478472, Little, Brown Young

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