Another Busy Week!

Hey! How are you today? Hope you had an awesome week. I can't believe July is almost over.

A few weeks ago I completed the first edit of my upcoming novel, Fallen Destiny. And this week, I read the proof. From start to finish. Yeah, I worked really hard on this edit. I enjoy smoothing out stories, especially when the editor's cool suggestions push me to make the book even better. Smoother. I was obsessed and totally distracted all week because it's all I could think about. LOL

This is what I said on Bluesky the other day: I'm at that stage of the proofreading where it's eating my brain & I can't wait to get back to it, but need a break because I have to eat, sleep, etc. 😅

So true. I felt like that all week.

Anyway, here's the tagline for the book: How does a demon, hired by a mysterious nun, find a lost angel?

Think Hellboy x Constantine with a twist of Supernatural, and that's Destiny's story. It's a cozy fantasy with a mystery. It's a bit UF, and definitely has a pinch of horror. There's a love story in there, a road trip, and features a found family.

I'm very excited about Destiny's tale, which will be released late this year from Brigids Gate Press! I'll keep you posted.

Asides from going for daily walks, sleeping, eating, and spending time with hubby, I didn't do anything else. 

Well, that's it for now. I'm going to enjoy the weekend with my husband because I need a mental break. 😃

Have an awesome weekend!!

PS. The graphic I posted above is Destiny, and I made it via Picrew, which is a doll maker website I've been using for years. Human artists upload their art and users can make cute versions of themselves, or characters. This isn't AI. I despise gen AI slop.

Busy Week Full of Words

Hey! How are you today? I hope you're well and finding some happiness and fun during the shittiest timeline ever. 🙄

Every single morning there's a new stupid and cruel thing happening. It's awful to watch. I wish people had paid proper attention and saw exactly what we did. But hate means more to some people than anything else. It's a shame.

See the lovely demon girl above? That's Destiny. She's the main character in my upcoming novel from Brigids Gate Press. Why am I talking about her? Well, I spent this week revisiting her story during an intense round of edits, which I completed early this morning.

It was nice to catch up with Destiny, Kenan, and all the other occultish characters. It's a stand-alone cozy/urban fantasy novel about a demon who is hired by a nun to find an angel. 

You know, Hellboy x Constantine. 😁

Oh, just a quick note about the graphic I posted here. I made this on a website called Picrew several years ago. Picrew is a doll maker website where human artists upload their art and users can make cute versions of themselves. Or as I like to do, my characters. This isn't AI. You all know how I feel about AI. I despise gen AI and don't use it for absolutely anything. Personally, I don't understand people's dependency on it, but that's a different story.

I just wanted to make it clear that the graphic I made isn't AI slop. It's from a cool doll maker website I've been using for years.

Anyway, let's get on with the rest of the post. LOL.

As I mentioned above, I spent all week working on edits. It's been a while since I last read this novel, so I paid special attention to everything. Really happy with the result and I'll keep you updated on the cover, release date, etc.

Although I spent most of my time editing, I also squeezed a bit of writing into the week because my two vampire boys are loud and demanded I keep telling their story. I added another 2k words, which brings the total to 5,600. Yeah, this one's going to be a much longer one.

I didn't get a chance to continue my Kallax organising, but my bookshelves are a WIP, so that's okay.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm kinda mentally and physically exhausted right now, so having a three-day weekend is going to be great. Yeah, my husband is taking Monday off because the 7th is my birthday. 😊

Have an awesome weekend!!

The Revision Continues...

Hey, how are you today? The weekend is finally here, and because my husband has an RDO on Monday, it's a three-day weekend. Awesome!

So, did you have a nice week? We slept in and hung out most mornings before hubby went to work, but today we had to get up early so our apartment intercom could be updated. Ugh. And because of that, I've been feeling wonky all day, especially since I slipped on the tiles in the laundry and hurt my left knee. 😫

Anyway, on Monday, I got stuck into the third draft of VampNovel2 and lost myself in this vampire world every afternoon/night. I love spending time with these characters, so I'm really enjoying the process.

This is how I went:

• Monday: 53/236pgs (90,621w)
• Tuesday: 102/234pgs (90,122w) 
• Wednesday: 158/237pgs (90,214w)
• Thursday: 212/237pgs (90,113w) 
• Friday: 240pgs / 91,125w

As you can see, the third draft is DONE. And I'm SO excited. I worked really hard on this draft because there were certain things I wanted to tweak and rewrite to deepen the characters and story. Nothing drastic, but additions/deleting that had to be made. And of course, any changes in this book, need to be reflected in VampNovel1.

It's challenging, but a lot of fun!

Oh, and did I mention that this 80s vampire world keeps throwing new short story ideas my way? Yeah, I started taking notes because a bunch of these characters refuse to shut up and their whispers are too hard to ignore.

Okay, time to sign out so I can enjoy a three-day mental break. Before hitting the final Paperwhite read-thru next week. 😁

Have a good one!

A Week Full of Stories!

Hey, how are you today? I hope you're having a great week.

As you know, I finished an extensive (3-week) novel revision last Thursday night and when I woke up on Good Friday, I was mentally exhausted. Seriously drained. So I really enjoyed the four-day break with my husband. Lots of relaxing, nice food, walking, a little shopping, and even some naps. It was awesome!

I felt recharged and ready to take a few weeks off between projects.

Yeah, that was the original plan. But then I decided it was time to complete the final read-thru of the short story I finished a few weeks ago. So I did that on Tuesday.

The final word count is: 3,173.

Very happy with this story now. I changed the ending during the second draft, but by the time the third draft was done, it ended up being more like a complete rewrite. Sometimes I do that. 😅

In the meantime, I wrote a new story on Sunday night. On my phone. See, after our nap on Saturday, I woke up with the first line of the story in my head, and when I typed it out so I wouldn't forget, I didn't stop until the whole first draft was done.

This violent little tale is actually a prequel to VampNovel1/VampNovel2. Yeah, this is the world that keeps on expanding. Just when I think I'm done, another story pops up. LOL.

Anyway, I worked on the second and third drafts on my phone, and read the final read-thru tonight. And now—after marking all the problems, deleting some excess, taking care of rep words, making the changes on Word, and doing a spell check—it's done.

The final word count is: 2,966.

I'm super excited about this story because it came out of nowhere. 

So, that means I've completed six short stories this year. That's 18,720 words worth of shorties. Not bad. 😊

What else did I do? I read the first Murderbot novella and the latest Grady Hendrix short story release. I also went for daily walks, even though it rained a few times. Oh, yeah. We watched and hated the second episode of The Last of Us. Decided we're not watching anymore. After wasting our time on 10 shitty Yellowjackets S3 episodes (this season was seriously bad), we're done watching mediocre shows.

Well, that's it for today. I'm going to enjoy another long weekend with my husband. Three days this time. Nice.

Have a good one!

This Revision is Done!

Hey! How are you today? I hope you're all having a nice week.

I know the world is in a terrible state right now, but I'm trying to lose myself in stories. And when I'm not writing, I love spending time with my husband. 😍

This week I got stuck into the final read-thru of my current revision, which is VampNovel1. I know that's not what I said I would do in last week's post, but after chatting to my husband last Sunday about my change of plans, I realised that completing this project before starting VampNovel2 just felt... right.

That means that after my daily afternoon walks, I sat down with my Paperwhite and read the story from start to finish. At this stage I usually find weird sentences, repeated words, and awkward phrasing. I also cut a lot of excess, and add new details. It's pretty much all about the nitty-gritty.

And I reached The End tonight! I even made all the changes, formatted the doc, did a spell check, and made a few final-final tweaks.

The final word count is: 90,075.

I'm super excited about this story because this character has been with me for about a year. It's a dark vampire story set in the 80s and deals with a lot of issues. Some I added to the plot, and other things that popped up during the revision process. It's also a horrormance novel because I can't stay away from hot vampires. 😅

And there's still VampNovel2 to revise. But that's a story for another day.

Now that my current revision is done, I'm mentally exhausted so I need a break. Good thing it's the Easter long weekend. Yay.

Well, have an awesome break! 

The Revision Continues...

How are you today?

I hope this week turned out to be a good one for you! 

Here, in Sydney, the days got a lot shorter but I'm trying to stay positive. The fact I hung out with my husband every morning, that I went for my daily walks during the day (mostly sunny) and listened to my 80s Playlist (awesome) certainly helped. Not to mention that I spent every afternoon and night working on the third draft of my WIP, VampNovel1.

And I really lost myself in these words.

Seriously, I'm enjoying the hell out of this story and every time I sit down to work on it, I love it a little more. From the start, something about these characters and their world totally drew me in. Even when it was a small idea, slowly gaining momentum in my brain, I knew it would turn out to be a lot of wicked fun.

Vampires are just awesome. 😁

Anyway, this is my progress:

• Monday: 51/228pgs (90,436w)
• Tuesday: 103/230pgs (90,268w) 
• Wednesday: 154/234pgs (90,868w)
• Thursday: 196/235pgs (90,451w) 
• Friday: 236pgs / 90,042w

Yay! The third draft is DONE and I'm super excited. I worked really hard on this draft. 

As you can see, the word count went up and down every single day. I actually cut a lot of excess, but also added quite a few words. All things that strengthen the story and make sure everything ties up nicely.

Usually, after this stage, I'd do one final read-thru on my Paperwhite. But I'm doing things different this time.

And there are two reasons for that:

1. My husband is having three long weekends in a row this month (fantastic!)
2. I have VampNovel2 to consider...

So, I'm looking forward to spending some extra time with my husband during all these days off. And because there are two weeks when he'll work only three days, I've allocated those six days (ends up being two weeks) to work on VampNovel2.

Then I'll work on the third draft during the last week of April. So when that's all done, I can read one book after the other on my Paperwhite and make sure everything makes sense, pans out, and I can catch any last-minute typos, inconsistencies, etc.

Oh, and I also completed the third draft of the short story I mentioned last week. There were some plot issues I had to fix, several rep words that stood out, and have added it to my Paperwhite. Not sure when I'll do the read-thru, but the word count is now: 3,255.

It turned out to be quite a story-heavy week.

Okay, that's about it. I'm going to enjoy a nice mental break now

Have an awesome weekend!

Doing Stuff...

Hey! How you doing today?

Here in Oz, summer is over and in a few weekends it'll be time to turn the clocks back, which I really don't like. I prefer the long days of summer. The shorter days are too depressing and oppressive. Ugh. Not looking forward to it, but I have to stay positive about the season change because there are enough crappy things going on in the world right now.

I'm not going to bother going into how hard I'm finding it to accept that because of selfishness, racism, misogyny, and hate, the world is in such chaos. Really wish people would show a little fucking empathy and mind their own business.

Anyway, this week I wasn't planning on working on anything, but ended up revising/rewriting another short story. This one is actually part of a novel I shelved but felt that this particular section would make a great shortie. And after a little tweaking and additions, I was right!

The final word count for this one is: 3,410. And I'm really happy with the results. ☺️

So, I now have another complete short story. That's four this year.

We also got our flu shots on Wednesday and felt pretty shit for about twenty-four hours. It doesn't hit as hard or as long as the Covid shot, but we were pretty lethargic and achy that afternoon, plus the next day. Feeling better now and glad we keep up with our vaccines.

I also read a book that took me most of the week because the subject matter was just... It's called My Dark Vanessa, and I found it so frustrating. The main character got on my nerves but the writing kept me reading. Although, I do think it could've been at least fifty pages shorter.

Did you guys watch the SEVERANCE S2 finale? We really enjoyed it. Love how it raised so many (more) ethical questions, answered a few, and presented so many new possibilities. Can't wait to see what they do with the next season.

Well, that's about it... Oh, I did start revising another short story first draft I found on my phone. Also got a whole bunch of dusting, sorting, and donating done. I even started going through photos/pics on my phone and have already deleted hundreds.

Yeah. I'm spring cleaning in autumn again.

Have an awesome weekend!

Still writing...

Hey! How are you? This isn't technically my first blog post for 2025, but it's definitely my very first update post. 😁

So, how's the new year treating you? It's a shame to see that the world insists on carrying forward the crappy violent and vile stuff. Between stupid people who don't understand how the world works, shitty 'politicians' and all the AI BS, it's sometimes really frustrating.

That's why I'm trying to concentrate on the good stuff. On all the things that make me happy: my awesome husband, writing stories, reading, cozy games, and going for nice walks.  The simple things in life are often the best and most fulfilling.

BTW, in case you're interested, this is how my 2024 Goals turned out, as well as the books I read last year. And here are my 2025 Goals.

Wednesday was a public holiday, so I only wrote four days this week. The only thing about taking a break is that when I get back to it, I end up doing quite a bit of backtracking. I don't mind because when I do, I end up adding details that I missed during my initial word frenzy.

Anyway, here's my word count progress:

• Monday: 41,523 (+4,667w)
• Tuesday: 47,570 (+6,047w)
• Thursday: 50,018 (+2,448w)
• Friday: 53,599 (+3,581w)

As you can see, the new year is here but I'm still writing my current WIP. I managed to add quite a few words and I'm really happy with how the story is going. As well as the unexpected surprises that keep popping up. Love it when that happens.

The other side of this story is turning out to be a lot darker than I expected. In the best possible way, of course. ☺️

Well, that's it for this week's update.

Have a fantastic weekend! 

2024 Goals

Well, it's time to grab the goals list I put together/posted back in January, to see how I went.

This year turned out to be a very strange one. Lots of cool stuff happened, and some not-very cool stuff happened as well. Some shitty people revealed themselves and some disappointing crap went down, but I'm not going to concentrate on that mess because as a result, my first self-published book is now available and I'm SO PROUD of it. Yay! 🥳

Anyway, here's how this year turned out:

• Go for long daily walks: THIS IS SOMETHING I CONTINUED TO DO ALL YEAR. (FROM MONDAY TO FRIDAY, I WALK FOR ALMOST TWO HOURS. ON WEEKENDS WE GO FOR LONG SUBURBAN WALKS.)

• Really get back into yoga and schedule maybe two workouts a week: THIS WAS A TOTAL FAIL. WE SQUEEZED IN SEVERAL YOGA WORKOUTS, BUT THEY WERE SPORADIC. 😬

• Brainstorming a bunch of ideas: YES! I BRAINSTORMED 4 NEW IDEAS & I CAN'T WAIT TO WRITE THEM. (WELL, I ACTUALLY ALREADY WROTE ONE.)

• Celebrate the book/s coming out this year: I CELEBRATED THE RELEASE OF THREE NOVELS (ONLY DARKNESS, NUMB, THROUGH THE BLUR) + HAD A TWO-SENTENCE SHORTIE INCLUDED IN THE VERY COOL SHORT SCARES ANTHOLOGY.

• Write between 100-200k words: I WROTE 196,816 WORDS. 

• Read 52 books: I READ 59 (DNFd 4).

• Revise/finalise the first draft (unhinged women/girls novel) I wrote during November: I REVISED & FINALISED THIS BOOK BACK IN JANUARY.

• Work on edits as they hit my Inbox: I DID THIS AS WELL.

• Write a novel or two: BECAUSE I SPENT SO MUCH OF THIS YEAR EDITING & REVISING, I DIDN'T ACTUALLY WRITE ANYTHING NEW UNTIL NOVEMBER. THEN STARTED WRITING ANOTHER NOVEL THIS MONTH! 😳 YEP. (AND I WON'T BE FINISHING THIS ONE BY THE END OF THE YEAR.)

• Write a novella or two: I DIDN'T WRITE ANY NOVELLAS THIS YEAR.

• Write some new short stories: WHILE I DID START WRITING A FEW SHORT STORIES, I DIDN'T ACTUALLY FINISH ANY OF THEM. 😖

• Finally put together/finalise my first short story collection & find a place to sub it to: I DEFINITELY DID THIS! ACTUALLY, I COLLATED SO MANY STORIES THAT I PUT TOGETHER TWO SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS! I REWROTE/REVISED EVERY SINGLE STORY. THAT'S 34 SHORT STORIES! THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT MY DEBUT COLLECTION, MELANCHOLY DELUSIONS, WILL BE RELEASED BY CEMETERY GATES MEDIA ON JANUARY 28!

• Continue to submit stories: I DID THIS TOO! AND ASIDES FROM THE ABOVE ACCEPTANCE, I ALSO HAD TWO NOVEL ACCEPTANCES: THESE STAINED WALLS (Horrorsmith Publishing) + FALLEN DESTINY (Brigids Gate Press).

• Keep playing Animal Crossing and get into some other cozy, cute puzzle games (ie. Fae Farm): STILL PLAYING ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS. OF COURSE I AM. 😁 BUT I DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO START ANY NEW GAMES. 🫤

As I mentioned above, I had three novels published this year and one shortie included in an anthology:

ONLY DARKNESS is my first self-published book. NUMB and THROUGH THE BLUR were published by Anuci Press.

Another thing that I did this year was deactivate my Twitter account. Yep. After 15 years, I had no choice but to leave. I had enough of the right-wing bullshit, the pathetic non-stop ads, the AI crap, and the disgusting owner. And I haven't looked back.

Instead, you can find me on Bluesky. 😁

Oh, and another thing I've managed to do is to keep posting on my blog. Yes, right here!

That's it for now. Guess I should put together a 2025 list soon...

Thinking Time...

Hi, how are you today? I hope this week treated you well. I've been doing a bunch of different things.

A lot of thinking. And sorting. Some spring cleaning. Plenty of reading.

For most of this year, I've been so consumed with my own writing/planning and other stuff that reading has taken a bit of a backseat. If you check below, you can see what I read the last few days. One novel. One short story. One novella. All awesome and very entertaining.

Asides from enjoying some cool stories, I also continued what I started last week: revisiting novels that I thought were already done. Until I decided they weren't. LOL. 

Well, the longer novel was finished (again) last week, but not the shorter one. That story required a lot more thinking. So much that I decided to chat to my husband about it. He's very good at listening and offering great insight when I feel a bit lost or stuck, plus talking to him always helps me figure things out. And this time was no different. While discussing the issues I had with this story during one of our river walks, something very obvious clicked into place.

The reason why I couldn't stop thinking about this particular novel turned out to be very simple. In its current state, it doesn't work. And I quickly realised that attempting to fix all of the issues I have would require a complete rewrite. Something I just don't have the enthusiasm for right now.

There's only one thing left to do. I'm going to shelve it. I don't know if it'll be forever, but this version is back to sitting on my hard drive as a WIP. I might return to it in the future, but I might not. If I do, a complete rewrite is the only way to salvage the best parts. If I don't, it was a learning experience.

Either way is fine with me. Some stories work and some don't. But it feels good to have made a decision so I can move on to other projects. 🙂

And that means that I can now daydream and brainstorm my next WIP. This is a vampy story that's been renting space inside my brain for months. I love these characters and the snippets inside my head. I'm looking forward to joining their adventure soon.

Well, that's it for now. We've got a three-day weekend, so I'm very excited.

Have an awesome day!!

Short Stories, Volume 2

Hey! How are you? What's new? This turned out to be quite a week! Yikes.

I spent all week proofreading my second short story collection. 😳

If you remember, last week I completed the first volume, so it was time to get stuck into the next one!

This actually took a bit longer to complete than the first one because it contains several longer (3k+) stories. Still, I managed to finish the Paperwhite read and made all the changes on the Word doc before the weekend. Cool.

That's 17 stories of varying lengths. All featuring a whole bunch of characters who get caught up in a lot of weird/dangerous/bizarre situations. 😈

This collection once again features a combination of brand new stories and pubbed ones. But every single tale has been revised, and in a lot of cases, totally rewritten.

This time, I especially wanted to make sure everything was finalised tonight because we've got a long weekend coming up and I want to take a nice break with my husband. Plus, I really need a mental break after spending two weeks with all those psychos and monsters. 😅

The final word count is: 50,965.

Now I have to find a home. For both...

Anyway, after putting them aside for a few months to get a bunch of editing done, I'm SO happy that I've finally finished both of them. Phew.

Have an awesome weekend! 😁

Short Stories, Volume 1

Hey! How are you today? I can't believe it's the first day of June. Yikes. 😳

What have you been up to? I've been proofreading all week.

Back in March, I spoke about revising my two short story collections. I actually got as far as reaching the proofreading stage, but then got stuck into a bunch of editing and had to put them aside for a bit.

This week, I grabbed my Paperwhite and started reading. Made all the changes. Checked the changes. Made more changes to the Word doc. Until I got to the end on Friday night. Yay!

That's 17 stories of varying lengths. All creepy and bleak horror stories featuring different characters leading strange and dark lives. But all of them find themselves in weird/bizarre situations. 😈

I really enjoyed revisiting these tales. Some are new. A few are old stories that I completely rewrote. Several have been published. But every single one has been revised/rewritten! All of them.

The final word count is: 50,928.

Now I have to find a home for the collection...

I'm taking the next two days off. Then next week, I'll get stuck into the second volume.

Have an awesome weekend! ☺️

Checking In!

Hey, it's been a while! How are you? Is everything okay in your part of the world? Over here, we're in the last month of autumn (which felt a lot like summer until a few weeks ago) and we're currently stuck in the middle of some very shitty weather.

If you've read my posts through the years, or follow me on social media, then you know how much I dislike the rain. A couple of days are fine, but when it stretches out for over a week... I get irritable. I even start getting headaches. Ugh.

Anyway, enough about that.

Can you believe it's May? Yikes.

I've been MIA from my own blog for quite some time because I fell down an editing rabbit hole. Seriously. I edited an 85k-word (supernatural murder mystery/thriller/horror/ghost story) novel in March/April, and a 55k-word (SF horror) novel during April/May. Actually, I just finished the latter last night.

When I say edit, I mean EDIT. Both books required plenty of work, but the 55k one pretty much involved a rewrite and even a new direction. Now I'm very happy about how they turned out. ☺️

I'm not squeamish about editing because I'm always willing to do whatever it takes to make the story better, deeper, and stronger. I'm dedicated to making each book as awesome as I possibly can, and I think a good editor definitely helps to turn a good story into an excellent one. 

These two books were edited by Austrian Spencer. And man, does he dig deep into the characters and story. If you're looking for someone to thoroughly edit your book with the sharpest eye and true commitment, you should definitely check him out. What he helped me achieve with these two stories is amazing. Seriously.

Oh, and if that wasn't enough. I also edited a 30k novella in April, which I almost forgot about because my brain is scrambled. LMAO.

As you can tell, I've been very busy editing the nights away during the last few months. I did manage to squeeze in a little reading here and there—plus read/blurbed an awesome ARC—but my main focus while my husband was at work was the editing. It's always a fantastic experience but I think my brain is going to leak out of my ears if I don't take a break.

For the rest of the month, I want to spend some quality time reading. And daydreaming about a bunch of ideas. I even have a vampire story creeping up on me. One that won't leave me alone and wants to beat all the others to become the frontrunner. 😅

We'll see how that goes, because I still haven't done the final proofread of my two short story collections. They got left behind during the maelstrom of edits. LMAO.

BTW, I also celebrated the release of my myth & monsters novel, THROUGH THE BLUR. Have you checked it out yet? If you like your horror with a bit of Greek mythology and a dysfunctional family, you might enjoy it. 🐍

Well, that's it for now. Hope you have an awesome week!

 

Stories, Stories, Everywhere!

Hey! How are you today? Hope March is treating you well because it's almost over. One more week to go! 😬

I'm looking forward to the four-day weekend. I always look forward to time off with my husband.

So, the last two weeks have been super busy for me. I've been working on edits, and they're pretty intense. Not to mention my short story collection. Yep, that's right. I'm finally putting together a short story collection.

Well, um, not exactly one...

Okay, let's start from the beginning.

Last year (in December) I started going through my short story files and made a list of the ones that I wanted to include in my first short story collection. I didn't put any pressure on myself, or set a date to have this done by, I just wanted to get an idea of how many I actually have... and ended up adding about twenty-three stories to a new Word doc. 

That's a lot, right? 😳 

Anyway, I didn't touch the doc until the beginning of this month, when I decided it was time to assess what I had. The only way to do that was to start revising these tales.

I spent that whole week revising, rewriting, and moving stories around. But there were still too many. The collection was just under 80k words, and I wanted it to be much shorter than that. So, what did I do? I decided to split it up into two volumes! 

Yep, that's right. Why not give myself more work? 😅

So, I transferred a bunch of these shorties to another new document, and added several more to even out the two volumes. Then spent another week revising the rest of the stories.

It was a lot of work but I really enjoyed the process. Revisiting these tales was also very cool. I got the chance to rewrite a bunch of them, and added new elements to enhance what was already there. Some of these stories were old, but I managed to revive quite a few, made them a lot better. Stronger than they were to begin with. I even renamed quite a few.

So, all of this means that I now have TWO SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS: 17 stories in each, just over 50k words. Yay!!

Last night, I finished revising the last story and added both volumes to my Paperwhite for one final proofread. I'll put them aside for a bit so I can get some distance, as well as put all my focus on the edit I'm currently working on.

Well, that's it for now. I'm all out of words, but wanted to post an update. I mean, it's been a bit quiet around here. I haven't even had time to read and post reviews for the last few weeks! 😫

Have an awesome week!!

2023 Goals

Well, we've almost reached the end of 2023, so I suppose it's time to chat about my goals.

This year turned out to be packed full of stuff. My husband became a bus driver, which flipped our routine. I managed to get my writing back on track after spending so much of the last few years revising, which is fantastic. And sadly, we lost our beloved 16-year-old Loki, which broke our hearts. It's been nine months, but we still miss him every single day.

Loki was more than a cat. He was family. He was the embodiment of our apartment. And without him, it feels like something is missing.

Anyway, I don't want to get off track and get sad all over again. I'm here to talk about the personal goals I set in January.

Here's how they turned out:

• Go for two daily walks: LIKE I SAID ABOVE, OUR SCHEDULE CHANGED THIS YEAR, SO MOST DAYS I END UP GOING FOR ONE VERY LONG WALK (JUST UNDER TWO HOURS).

• Get back into yoga and schedule more workouts: ALTHOUGH WE DID YOGA, IT WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE. STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THE RIGHT BALANCE. 🫤

• Write between 100-200k words: I WROTE 190.934 WORDS.

• Read 100 books: I READ 102 BOOKS.

• Revise/finalise my NaNoWriMo 2022 first draft: YES! I ACTUALLY DID THIS IN MARCH.

• Write a novel or two: I WROTE ONE 65K NOVEL.

• Write a novella or two: I WROTE TWO NOVELLAS (45K & 30K).

• Keep writing short stories & subbing Try not to self-reject & submit stories no matter how much of a longshot it is: I WROTE THREE SHORT STORIES BUT DIDN'T REALLY SUB TO MANY OPEN CALLS BECAUSE I WAS WORKING ON LONGER STUFF.

• Take part in NaNoWriMo: OKAY, THIS ONE'S MESSY. I DID WRITE A FIRST DRAFT (65K) DURING NOVEMBER, BUT I DELETED MY NANOWRIMO ACCOUNT & WILL NEVER TAKE PART AGAIN.

• Continue playing Animal Crossing and get into some other cozy, cute puzzle games: I'M STILL PLAYING ANIMAL CROSSING EVERY DAY & PLAYED COZY GROVE REGULARLY AS WELL. I ALSO FINISHED UNPACKING, CONTINUED TO PLAY THE TETRIS 99 CHALLENGES & RECENTLY STARTED SUIKA GAME. ACCORDING TO MY NINTENDO SWITCH STATS, I PLAYED A TOTAL OF 681 HOURS THIS YEAR! WHICH IS AWESOME.

Well, that's how I did with my personal goals list! Not bad. I'm very happy with what I achieved.

Now, here are some other very cool writing highlights:

• I now have TV/Film representation! I'm represented by Alec Frankel from IAG. This is SO EXCITING!! ☺️🎉

• I signed eight contracts this year.

• Writer Firsts: I got some amazing blurbs from a bunch of awesome authors, had my first hardcover and audio book releases & my most reviewed story ever!

• I edited four novellas and two are already published.

• I wrote, revised & subbed two prequel short stories that are now available for free at DarkLit.

• The two novellas I wrote this year, I also revised & finalised. Which is a big deal because I promised myself that I would keep up with first draft revision.

• I made two covers for my own books. I made the BEAST OF BURDEN cover, and with the help of Andrew Robert, I made the cover for CHANGE OF HEART.

• I finally updated my website! This was something I wanted to do all year but didn't get to it until this month. And now that I've done it, I want to make changes when needed.

• I got the rights back for two books.

These are the novellas that were released this year:

These are the short stories available for free:

I have a Creepypasta shortie in this Cemetery Gates Media anthology:

As I mentioned above, now that I've updated everything here, I've decided to concentrate on my website/blog more. After what happened with Twitter, NaNoWriMo and Substack, I'm starting to get sick and tired of closing down accounts and starting over.

My website is my personal space, and I want to highlight it a lot more.

Also, I'm not going to bother with a newsletter for now, I setup my blog so that you can subscribe and get updates sent directly to your Inbox whenever I post here. It just makes sense, and serves the same purpose as a newsletter.

Well, this is how my 2023 goals turned out! I'm very happy with everything that I managed to accomplish. And I'm very excited because SUFFER THE DARKNESS happens to be one of the projects I worked on last year. It means that those eighteen months I spent rewriting/revising all of those forgotten tales on my hard drive was definitely worth it.

I better write up some 2024 goals soon. ☺️

Still Revising...

 

How are you today?

Well, it's spring in Australia, but you wouldn't know it because we've been having summer temps since the weekend! 😳

Whenever I hear someone trying to argue that climate change isn't a thing, I get so pissed off because the evidence is there every single fucking day.

Anyway, enough about what annoys me. That list keeps getting longer and longer.

This week I got stuck into the third draff of the novella I'm currently revising, and it's going very well.

After I finished the second draft last week, I started a pretty long and extensive list of changes and additions that I made before I even sat down to tackle the next draff. I wasn't surprised, though. This kind of thing always happens during my revision process. The deeper I get into the story, the more I analyse every detail. Not to mention how my subconscious works in the background and always decides to deliver these gems while I'm out for my daily walk.

I've mentioned this before, but going on long walks around the local river always fills me with inspiration. It's when I work through the kinks, or develop new ideas.

Actually, both of the unexpected novellas I wrote this year were a result of letting my imagination run wild while enjoying a lovely walk. 😊

During this stage I ended up cutting quite a bit. I also added new bits and pieces too, but the word count went down again.

New word count is: 30,483.

I'm really happy with the overall progress of this project. I'm also excited about this story being only one more step away from completion. Not bad for a story I didn't think would work, and I fought all the way. Even while writing it. 😁

Well, the novella is now sitting on my Paperwhite ready for one last read-thru. I always enjoy this final step because this is when everything looks different and anything that doesn't make sense stands out. But that's a task for next Monday because I'm going to take a mental break for the rest of the week.

Asides from the revision, we also started some spring cleaning. Spent most of the weekend going through our built-in wardrobe. Ended up throwing a few things away, donating a bunch more, and even had to walk to IKEA on Saturday night to pick up a few things.

Well, that's it for today.

Have an awesome week!

I'm back in Revision Town!

Hey! How's it going?

It's me again.

I took a week off to rest my brain after spending most of August revising a 45k novella, but now I'm getting stuck into another lot of revision.

Yeah, I can't stay away.

This time I'm working on this story. The one that came to me out of nowhere and I was convinced it wouldn't turn into anything. Then it became a 30k novella. 😬

I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy re-reading this tale of woe. Even thought I might end up scrapping it after all. But nope, once I got started I couldn't stop reading. It only took me two long evening sessions to revise. I cut quite a few words, moved a bunch of stuff around, and even added new words. Deepened the description and emotion, intensified the horrifying stuff.

It's now 31k, which is pretty cool for a story I didn't think would go anywhere. LOL.

Anyway, this is another horror novella. One that revisits old territory from a very different perspective. It's bleak and dark, takes the main characters on a pretty shitty journey that—of course—doesn't end well. But I knew this going in.

Funny thing is that while I was out walking this afternoon, my wicked writer brain decided that the ending I have right now needs to be changed. And even presented me with the new, darker ending. Ultimately it leads to the same place, but in a much faster-paced and more screwed-up way. I like it.

So, now I've got a bunch of notes to tackle during the third draft! 😳

That means I'll be taking the rest of the week off, and will get stuck into the third draft next week. The final read-thru the week after. Yeah, the plan is to have it finished/finalised by the end of September. That way, I can take October off to concentrate on reading creepy books while figuring out what novel I'm going to write during this year's NaNoWriMo.

Well, I've got a few crafty things I want to do during what's left of this week. And plenty of stationery/toy organising. 

Until then, have a great day!

The Revision is Done!

Hey! How are you today?

Well, it's Friday. The 1st of September. The first day of spring. And the coldest day we've had for a while.

I went for a nice and long walk earlier and the wind chilled me to the bone. 🥶

Anyway, enough about the weather.

This turned out to be another busy week for me. The final read-thru usually is. It's when I sit down with my Paperwhite and read the story from start to finish. Doing this always highlights repetition, sentences that are too long, or awkward wording. Things that don't add anything to the overall story. It's when I end up cutting a lot of words and replacing even more.

I don't know why it happens, but every story has a handful of particular words that somehow appear a hundred times. LOL. This time it was: focus, accept and heart. I had to make sure there wasn't too many of them. The great thing about weeding out repetition words is that when I replace them, the new word choice ends up strengthening the sentence. Or encourages me to rewrite it completely.

Like I said, it's the nitty-gritty stage that sharpens the dialogue and narrative. The draft that enforces the emotional depth and develops the character connections even more. With this particular novella, I also had to re-read the sexy scenes a few times because they add a new layer to what's going on. 

I actually finished finalising everything late last night and ended up cutting roughly one thousand words. But a tiny addition that makes a big impact came to me during the day. So I added the few sentences this afternoon, and now it's really done.

The final word count is: 46,580.

I'm very happy with this novella.

It's a story that started as a way for me to deal with the unexpected loss of our beloved Loki. Losing him earlier this year hit us hard, and I didn't deal with it very well. He was my writing buddy, spent all day with me while I created stories. In many ways, he kept me in check. Without him around I tend to take less breaks, and sometimes even forget to eat. I miss him a lot and writing this novella helped me deal with how much his absence has affected me.

From the loss came a spark. An idea that stemmed from my own thoughts. And from that, I now have a completed manuscript about grief, love, and accepting what was there all along. That it turned into so much more and took my characters to places and situations I didn't expect, is a plus. 

It's been an emotional ride, but I'm glad I followed through and let my imagination run wild.

August turned out to be pretty busy. I finished writing a 30k novella, edited another one that will be published later this month (15k), and revised this one (46k). Yikes.

Well, that's pretty much all I wanted to say today. Just an update to mention that this novella is DONE. Yay!! 😊🎉

I'm going to enjoy the weekend with my husband and then take a week off writing. After that, think I'll get stuck into another lot of revision for this novella.

Take it easy and have a good one!

April Update!

Hey! It's been a while, so I thought I'd pop in and post a little something about what's been going on this month. 😊

But firstly, how are you? Hope this month has treated you well.

I've been very busy during April. 

The month started with a long weekend. It was an excellent, relaxing break with my husband. We don't celebrate religious holidays, but definitely celebrate public holidays! LOL.

After that, I've embarked on not one, but TWO different full edits. Yep. I edited a novella (40k) and a novel (50k). It was a bit of work (especially the novel because it needed extra attention) but I really enjoyed re-reading these stories and doing everything I can to make them even better.

That's the thing about revision/editing. It's always a LOT of work and at the end of each round I feel like my brain has turned to mush, but it's ALWAYS worth it. Always. And to be honest, I enjoy the process.

So, now I'll hopefully take the rest of the week off and catch up on some reading. Oh and by the way, today is also a public holiday.

Another thing that happened is that an anthology that I have a story in was released by Cemetery Gates Media:

My story is a Creepypasta shortie called The Hags from Merricktown and features a creepy pair that may or may not have been inspired by real people I've experienced in my own suburb. 😳

You can grab a copy HERE.

Well, asides from the above I've been walking heaps, keeping up with the awesome Yellowjackets, and finally caught up on Saga. The other day I realised that this is pretty much the only comic book series I'm still reading. I used to enjoy The Walking Dead and read into the 100s, but gave up because I didn't like the direction of the story arc. To be honest, I don't even know if it ended yet or not.

I've been so caught up in my own writing that it wasn't until last week that I managed to catch up on some reading. I'm really behind on review books and the many awesome books I've bought myself. I'm hoping to get stuck into some of those this week.🤞

That's it for now. I hope you all have an awesome week!

March Revision Update!

Hey! How are you? Is everyone ready for the weekend? I know I am.

I spent all this week working on the final read-thru of Tuesday.

This is the novel I wrote during NanoWriMo 2022. It's a dark tale about a complicated family who live in a small Australian town that has as many secrets as the residents. It's told in two POVs, one set in the past the other set nowish. I originally planned to revise it last month but a lot of life changes happened and I pushed it back to March. 

Here's how I did this week:

• Monday: 62/234pgs (85,816w)
• Tuesday: 121/237pgs (85,795w)
• Wednesday: 198/234pgs (85,354w)
• Thursday: 235/235pgs (85,025w)
• Friday: 235pgs / 85,050w

That means this novel is DONE! ☺️🎉

Yeah, this was actually the final read-thru. When I put the story on my Paperwhite and read it away from my laptop. It's amazing how many things I find with a simple change of screen.

Mostly, I ended up cutting quite a bit of excess. Things that over-explained or confused the narrative. I also added fragments throughout that helped move everything along, or strengthened relationships. In some cases, ruined them even further. 😬

Spending three weeks fine-tuning this tale of woe and mystery was a lot of work, but it's always rewarding when I get to the other side. I also formatted the Doc and backed everything up.

Tuesday (without considering trunk stories) happens to be the last revision I have left to tackle. That means I get to play around with new ideas and dream about other stories and characters. And I find that very exciting.

AND READ! I've neglected my reading so much I'm like FIVE books behind on my Goodreads Challenge. 😫

But first, I need a break. So, bring on the weekend.

Have a good one! ☺️