Author. Reader.
Contemporary romance ‘A Knight to Remember’ is available now!
The novel is the first in the Knights and Brides series and introduces James Knight, former soldier turned private security, and Cassandra Beaumont, owner of Beaumont Bridal.
See how their worlds collide when Cassie’s life is suddenly under threat…
The writing bug bit again and I’m busier than ever.
Currently working on plotting/planning four different stories to see which one grabs my full attention… They all seem to be vying for dominance at the moment so it’ll be interesting to see which is the victor.
I abandoned the story I was toying with because it wasn’t flowing right – it’s now reinvented itself into one of the above ideas so we’ll see if it works second time around.
I’ve also made a decision about the YA fantasy trilogy I’ve had written for the best part of a decade gathering dust on my laptop: I’m going to self-publish it!
As it’s different to everything I’m working on now, and was written so long ago, I’m doing a vigorous edit and rewrite/polish and then will release it a story at a time this year under a pen-name (GR Taylor for anyone interested.) I’ll list it on the website as and when it’s available, too.
And that’s where life has taken me since I last posted in mid-March! It’s a lot to do and there’s limited time to do it – in non-writing news, I’m starting a degree through my day job in June so not quite sure how everything’s going to fall into place but we’ll see what happens.
Happy writing!
I can’t quite believe we’re here in mid-March and this is only the second post I’ve made this year.
While I ended 2017 on a creative high, and have had a huge amount of ideas between then and now, I’m a little bit lost.
Lost.
That’s a word I’ve used a lot recently because it’s the only one I can think of to describe how I’m feeling.
I’ve read 9 books this year, some I’ve loved and some I haven’t, but I’ve written no more than 4000 words. I’m lost, I’m tired, I have the ideas but not the motivation to follow them through.
I can’t even blame the rejection from one of the publishers I sent the first LWL novel to, because this feeling started long before that email arrived and, to be honest, I was kind of relieved to receive it?
I’ve heard the term ‘writers winter’ bandied about on a couple of groups I lurk in: it’s apparently a known phenomenon that every so often, writers go through a sparse spell, where they struggle to get the words on a page, whether it be on screen or in a notepad. It’s a small comfort to know other writers go through this because mostly I’m just wanting it to be over.
It’s not like writers’ block. WIth writers’ block, I usually find switching it up a little – writing by hand, using a prompt generate, using write or die etc. – generally works to get over it.
This… This is something different.
To any writers out there reading this, how do you break your writers winters? Or do you simply just keep yourself busy in other areas and wait for them to pass?
LWL book 4 is finished!
It was oddly easy to write 50000+ words over the course of NaNoWroMo but the last 24000 seemed to be a bit of a struggle. Nevertheless, they’re written, it’s done, and now it can sit on my laptop for a little while until I’m ready to come back and edit it.
Phew.
I’d hoped I’d finish this series by the end of the year but I didn’t actually think I was going to do it. And since I’ve got no one who understands what a personal achievement it is in my real life away from my computer, I thought I’d write a little post to commemorate the occasion.
I’m happy. I’m a bit proud of myself, to be honest. It’s been a tough year, there’ve been weeks where I’ve just not had the energy or the motivation to write, but somehow, over the course of the last 361 days, I’ve written just under 180,000 words. It’s just shy of the goal I set myself of aiming for 500 words a day so… Yeah. I’m pleased.
I hope all of my fellow writers reading this have had a good year for writing, and that everyone who stumbles across this has had a good year in general.
Here’s looking to 2018, and whatever new adventures it might bring.
NaNoWriMo is just days away and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in!
Today, I finished the first draft of book 3 of my contemporary romance series, which means I’ve hit my first writing goal of the year. The ambitious stretch goal was to finish the entire series and that’s where NaNoWriMo comes in.
Book 4, the final, here I come!
I love NaNoWriMo, even the years I don’t hit the 50k goal. If nothing else, it’s a way to motivate myself to try and write every day – and a way I can explain to family and friends why I’m shutting myself away for a while to get my thoughts on paper. For some reason, I find they accept my writing time a lot easier when it’s part of an internationally recognised event.
Good luck to my fellow NaNoWriMo’s, and I’ll see you during/after November for an update!
Alexa Preece 