Holiday madness, novel outlines, and cookies

-

Hello Familiar Friends:



As the holidays explode and Christmas cookies and truffles destroy my healthy eating plan, I am still working on my tales. I have been writing a chapter a day of late. A good friend (Chris W you know who you are) acts as my unofficial editor as I burn up my keyboard. Thank you, Chris.   

I do not use a strict outline when I write. I have a basic rundown of what I want to happen and to whom, and rough chapter outlines as guides. But when I am writing, that's when everything clicks together and I take the story onward to its conclusion.  I know exactly what needs to happen to my characters for the whole series of "A Familiar's Tale," as I do for the newest series I am working on for Sky Warrior Books. The new series is about a Dwarven female heroine named Rose Greenleaf, (Bardess of Rhulon) and it should be out next year sometime. Am excited. Kudos to to my favorite editor, Carol Hightshoe, for editing my novels. She is the best. But I know the outcome of my tales before I sit down to write. The stories roil my head and are crammed into notebooks, but I know what to do. With me there is no guess work about what to write.

My biggest writing problem, like so many others I think, is procrastination. I am quite guilty of putting things off in favor of a good X-Files marathon or baking cookies. But when I am in writing mode, I'm a possessed creature, whose feverish typing curse is only broken when I reach the conclusion of the end of the novel. Also rewarded by cookies. Goodness, but cookies are on my mind aren't they. I blame the elves. Darn sugar cookies. Darn elves with high metabolisms.


So, as I finish up Fires of  Rapiveshta, A Familiar's Tale, Volume 3,  Enjoy a safe holiday season and beware of spiked eggnog and sneaky elves.  Tree of Bones is coming soon. Watch for it!

Cheers,

Verna McKinnon


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Familiar's Tale Reborn, War Poet, & Goblin Writing Guides & More

-
Image
A Familiar's Tale Reborn Great news! My Familiar's Tale series, which includes Gate of Souls and Tree of Bones , is now published by Wolfsinger Publications. Thanks to the publisher and editor Carol Hightshoe for rescuing my series. The final entry to the trilogy ( Fires of Rapveshta) should be out before the end of the year. To add to the happiness there are some discount codes listed available through Wolfsinger website for Gate of Souls & Tree of Bones.  Gate of Souls  is now up and available as of July 17 and can be found through these links: Wolfsinger Publications website: https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/shop - they can use coupon code NR2023 to save 15% off the cover price. (Valid through 8/15) (Trade Paperback, .pdf and ePub are available on the WolfSinger website)   Also available on:  Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944637230 Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1415416 - they can use coupon code AH37L to save 15% off the cover price. (Va
Read more

Tree of Bones Release, Goblin Rant: The Curse of Tropes, & Writing On Empty

-
Image
Tree of Bones, A Familiar's Tale, Book 2 It's back! Am so happy Tree of Bones is back again, now published by Wolfsinger Publications. It was just released and am so glad to see it back in print and on kindle. As a reward, there are sweet deals for you! We decided to keep the original cover by artist, Mitch Bentley. Tree of Bones is the second book in my Familiar's Tale series.  Tree of Bones  is now available on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and the WolfSinger Publications website.  You can read the first chapter at Wolfsinger @  Tree of Bones | Fantasy | WolfSinger Publications (wolfsingerpubs.com)   Readers, you get a 15% discount by visiting the WolfSinger Publications website at: https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/shop and using code NR2023.  You can also get a 15% discount at Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1422701 by using code PJ87Z.  Discounts will be available through 8/31/23. Enjoy the fantasy! There is also time to take advantage of deal
Read more
-
Image
  Fantasy & Science Fiction: Past & Present When I was a teen and started buying my own books, fantasy and science fiction came in all sizes. The tradition now is for an average fantasy novel to be around a 100,000 words. Some fantasy novels out there are doubler or triple that size now. That is  the current mode and expectation. But when I first dove into reading science fiction and fantasy, many of these novels were much smaller, slim paperback volumes. But the tales within were epic! The small books from great authors now legendary:Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le Quin, Robert E Howard, Ray Bradbury, and more. Everything is so complicated in the publishing world. This is why I love going into used bookstores, which is about the only place to find books these days outside of Amazon. There are some bookstores left, but few work with smaller publishers and carry their books. I understand there is an issue of profit and loss, but that hurts some genuine good authors who are looking to e
Read more