Happy New Year!!! The new year has begun and with it has come new changes. I left my interim job at the beginning of December and started a new job. I now work as an assistant teacher to toddlers. I'm saving up before I go back to school once more a Masters in Secondary Education with Specialty in English and possibly Special Education. Still trying to decide whether or not I'm going to start in the Spring or wait one more year. Leaning toward waiting another year since I've made so many changes in the last few months. Two job changes since June of last year. I moved back in September. Had crazy hours and pay cut then with a new job a pay raise. Not to mention steady hours. I can now get back to The Espela Chronicles that everyone has been asking about and waiting for. I made a resolution to finally finish book one and have it out this year. More updates to come as I come closer to a release date. Daily writing time has been added to ensure a finish. ~CCNight You might be wondering what's up this update's title. I can't express how excited I feel!!! I've reached nearly 15,000 words for book one!!! It still puts me a bit behind, but I'm catching up. I can still have a full manuscript written by the end of August.
All of this amidst trying to find a new place to move to and packing. And work. I feel accomplished and my writing goal is nearly finished. Moving up. Now, who wants to be a beta reader come October or so? CCNight Wow, it's nearly the end of June. So much has happened since last I was on with you all. For starters, I mentioned last time that I had quit my last job at the call center. Well, I was taking some time off, but not too much time. I spent most of that time looking for a job to fill my time and volunteering at a local bookstore. Since then I've started a new job. Not much I can say, but I work with the elderly in their homes during the day.
So what have I been doing with the afternoons and evenings? I've been catching up on my reading pile and of course, writing. I've been expanding on the beginning of book one of The Espela Chronicles: Return Home. This may still be broken down into a novella, Escape from Espela. That is, if I can expand it enough. I'd like the novella to be around 8,000 words or so. This month and for the next several weeks I'm also working a challenge with fellow writing coach and author Stephanie BwaBwa. She is a wonderful coach and author and has put together a Write With Me Challenge. I won't say much more on that, but in 90 days I should have a finished manuscript. I'll have to edit it and consider my publishing options. Wow, that's a lot for the month of June and there will be more to come. Thank-you for all of your continued support. CC Night Last month I took on a virtual camp challenge to get me writing my book. It will be the first in a trilogy that I'm calling the Espela Chronicles. Book I: Return Home. I had hoped to write 250 pages, but got a bit distracted writing the prequel, Escape from Espela. There will be more on that later. I didn't come close to 250 pages, I ended up with 40 pages at the end of April.
Well, I'm rethinking things a bit. Due to the fact that I'm working in typed pages, in Times New Roman and 12 pt font, this may not come out to 250 pages. So, what I'd like to do is have the first book be about 400,500 words. Update on that, I've got 40 pages or so...haven't renumbered since adding to the file, and about 11,000 words. The goal for May: either 40 more pages or another 10,000 words. Meanwhile, I'm also doing research on some Dark Fantasy and reading Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. If you haven't read it, it's good and includes the dark side of humanity and a torn apart family. And for light reading, I'm reading Hardcore Twenty-four by Janet Evanovich. Until next time. Thanks for your continued support as I'm writing these books. CCNight I realize it's been a couple of weeks. There was some writer's block and stress that was making difficult to write. Several days I came home late with a headache that sent me straight to bed after getting a bite eat.
On the plus side of things: I've written 36 pages for my novel! I feel this quite a feat considering what I've been going through. I've also had a break through thanks to taking a little time off to read other works for inspiration. One night I had such a break through and was so drawn in I had to force myself to stop. Imagine a feeling that you are not writing the story, but reading it as the character tells you their tale. That was my feeling. And that's how it's been the last few days. I can't wait to finish the first book and look at publishing options and be able to share the book with all of you. Thank-you for all of your continued support. CC Night Some days it seems I'm going nowhere. It seems it's slow going on the novel. In this week alone I've managed to write 9 pages total. But then I think about the difference between a page typed on the computer with a Times New Roman font and the font size is 12 and what a page looks like in a novel. So...really once published it will more than likely be longer then 250 pages which is my goal for the first book. I also got some great feedback this week. A post from a group I'm in on Facebook asked what people are working. Here was my reply: "Fantasy. Half elf half human princess struggles with growing up without parents and learns she must save a war torn land and reunite the races."
Here was the response from one person: I'd read that. And from another person in the group: This seriously sounds like a pitch for a YA fantasy novel. I'm impressed! Perhaps if I can get enough people interested in the elevator pitch I could stand a chance of gaining an agent and a publisher? I just wanted to pop into give my readers an update and share some that wonderful news. Thank-you all for reading and checking in each week. Any questions I'd be happy to answer so don't be afraid to reach out to me. Until next week CCNight Was getting ready to catch up on some writing. I fell behind schedule this week while working my last night shift, yay!! At least for a while. They're talking about changing the schedule every three months...no :( . With any luck I'll be catching a break soon and get a position that offers even more flexible writing time. Anyway, I had a request on Facebook this week and wanted to extend it out again. As I'm working on this first novel I've been debating my options for publishing. I'm beginning to lean more toward self publishing. However, self publishing relies heavily on word of mouth. So I'd like to line up a select number of beta readers for Return Home for to read it before the release. I'd like to have a finished manuscript for viewing in August, maybe sooner. Anyone interested can let me know. I may even set up a sign up the closer the time comes. But now, I'm going to get going on the writing. I came up with some amazing ideas that I want to write into the story. Before I go though, attached below is another character introduction. Until next week! CCNight
I feel like I've been pretty busy this week. This morning has been especially busy. I want to provide my readers with an insight into how I write. I have a setting for a story, or series of stories in mind. And I have a new character to introduce.
Insight into the writer: Sitting in the living room of a one bedroom apartment at the desk by the kitchen. Her favorite song is playing through her headphones. Inspiration strikes as she begins to type madly. A new character comes to life on the screen. She is the ruler of a new kingdom. Then her favorite tv shoe comes on. As she sits and watches, more images come to life as she continuew to type ruing the commercial breaks. by the end of show she has set the scene for her character’s entrance and her beginning rule. she sits in the library at a table near between the young adult section, science fiction and the music section. The screen remains blank. She tries to wrtie about her new character. What obstacle will she face in the story. The screen remains blank. She gets up for a minute and browses the titles of the young adult section, looking for inspiration. She returns to the table. Nothing. She picks up the laptop and moves into the young adult section away from the movement she sees from the table. Five minutes pass. Then ten. Nothing. It’s too quiet. No music, no tv screen with her favorite shows. Inspiration will not come. finally she leaves for the peace of her small apartment again. Possible story setting: Down on the Dairy: an ice cream parlor and convenience shop. place of work for main character. She works here full time usually at night. this is where she comes up with some of her ideas and stories. stacks of crates of milk in the cooler are often seven or eight high and taller than the main character when working with an older co-worker they were joking and enjoying each other’s company one night. Her co-worker was in the cooler stocking milk and had the door popped open. Because the crates were so high she couldn’t see the main character aroung the crates and was startled when asked to grab yogurt for the yogurt machine. They laughed then joked about the crates being so high and how the main character gets milk down to stock. They could just imagine this small figure trying to pull a crate of milk off the stack and falling backward with the crate on top of ther like a cartoon. Later, they were making shakes for customers and the main character had washed the ladles, but she placed a couple of them back in the wrong spots and they got to laughing again. New character: Liw Cowrl (pronounced LIv Covrl) : character in a story by our main character. age 136, parallel universe in which she is the leader of the population. wise and fair, ruling with dignity. a young ruler by this world’s standards, considered young by one half of her people, well aged by the other. She is born half elf-half man. Her father is a great king of men and her mother is a fari lady of the elven races. will become a great ruler of her people, but there will be great trials before she reaches that point. A curse is placed on her at birth, hardships she will endure before she reaches her time of reign. Those hardships though, will make her wise and give her good judgement. Her legacy is to unite the two races. Stay tuned for more development on Liw and maybe more on Down on the Dairy. ~CeCe Here's my first character sketch. Some of you may have seen her in the Alana comic posted earlier when I was taking a comic course through edX with Stan Lee. Here's her sketch that I created during that course. I have another character in mind right now and she may be playing a role in Alan story later. Alana Peacekeeper of Justice: powers: time travel and persuasion limitations: only travels to the Founding Fathers and the creation of the Constitution weakness: silver pendant of a broken circle ORIGIN STORY Alana, a descendant of the goddess, Harmonia, strives for justice in the American government. She seeks peaceful ways to attain justice for all. Upon birth she was given the gift of time travel by Zeus to learn the original intent of the Constitution for America. Her other ancestor, Eris, also gave her a gift, a silver pendant that strips her power, a gold chain with a broken circle pendant. Aly Dice PERSONALITY TRAITS soft spoken, knowledgeable about government and law OCCUPATION Chief Justice BACK STORY A graduate of Harvard Law, Aly worked as a lawyer before campaigning for Congress. Once elected in Congress, the President notices her distinct role as a peacekeeper on the Congress floor and her strive for the rights of constituents. He appoints her Secretary of Justice. ~CeCe |
AuthorI work full time as a call center representative. In my spare time I write and read. I also enjoy watching Netflix. Archives
March 2018
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