New writing goals

Happy new year. Yes, I know it's a bit late but have been busy with personal things going on. So, it's a new year, and I have more writing goals with one main one to focus on from this year on. I am going to concentrate on being an indie author and writing and publishing my ebooks/books for adults and children. I might think about sending an idea to a magazine that published a story of mine last year, but not sure. I have to go through any ghost stories I have already written and printed, see if they are suitable then write a blurb for it.

So here are my main writing goals:

1. Publish 'The Valentine's Card' in February. It is out for editing at the moment, and I am sorting out the cover for it. So this should happen.

2. Publish 'Qessa and the Bouncing Blazer'. Edits have been done and I just need to do minor checks on some repetition my editor pointed out.

3. Publish 'The Friend' short story. Will be later in the year as I haven't finished writing it yet. I know what the cover will look like.

4. Either send a ghost story to a magazine or work on ghost stories for a short story collection of my own I have in mind.

5. Get 'The Rainbow School Guide to Anxiety' ready for publication. Nearly finished this. Want to add illustrations to this and work out the cover.

The first three I will definitely do this year. Hopefully the other two, too.

Well, they are my goals for this year as a proper indie author. Good luck with yours.

Do I believe in angels or the afterlife?

Do I believe in ghosts and/or the afterlife? I don't know, to be honest. I would have said no before, but there must be something inside me that does sort of belief in some thing because I have written YA ebooks about teenage guardian angel (The Guardian Angels series), the Geraldine's Gems series about a lady who returns to help her living relatives and there are ghosts that appear in the Singleton series. And now there is this new series of short stories about ghosts helping families in crisis. 'The Family Helpers' due to be out soon. So, I will leave you to work that one out.

I have also written and had published a short story in the magazine Spirit & Destiny about a robin who is clumsy and could be an animal protector. I had read the magazine for a while to see what they like to publish and what their readers are interested in. It is all about angels, afterlife and crystals etc.

So, maybe there is an inkling of the idea that I do believe in some way of angels and the afterlife. 

I am a hybrid author

Keep meaning to write this post but so busy with home things going on and writing my books. Am here now.

I believe now that I am a hybrid author. For those not in the know, a hybrid author is someone who writes for both mainstream/traditional publishers and is self-published. I always thought of myself as just an indie author until last year that is. I read a blog post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (do read it if you are an author) last year, and she wrote that she is a hybrid author. She wrote that as well as self-publishing her books, she also writes short stories for magazines. It got me thinking - what have I had published in mainstream magazines? Fillers. Lots of them over the years. So I have been published traditionally too. This makes me a hybrid author. I am quite pleased with that title. I will be having a short story published in a magazine in July, so that definitely will make me a hybrid author.

So, if you think you are just an indie author, think about what else you might have published? Esp in magazines. You could be surprised like I was.

2017 goals and how they went

I can't believe it's been two months since I wrote here. Probably because come November things went awry at home again when my mum had another bad fall and ended up with sciatica. Anyway, I am back to talk about how my writing goals went this year.

I published the last of my Geraldine's Gems ebooks called 'Birds Flock Together'. It is available on all digital platforms.

I published Charlie in print. It is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charlie-Captivating-Cap-Rainbow-School/dp/1548727415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514640587&sr=8-1&keywords=Charlie+and+the+captivating+cap

I did hope to publish Susie but I got feedback from an editor in May which I had to work on, and at that time I was writing Qessa's story.

I wrote Qessa and Alistair's stories.

My other main goal was to have a short story accepted and published by a women's magazine. I did, by You (SA). It is based in South Africa so I haven't got to see it in print.

I did have a couple of letters published in magazines, which made up for it, esp the last one which gave me a prize of a natural beauty set worth £120.

Next year's goals will be slightly different. I will explain why next week.

What I am working on this week

I thought I'd post what I am working on this week. I have just had back the final edits for my mermaid story 'The Emerald Quest'. There were a couple of minor changes to work on, which I have now done. I have finalised the front and back pages, adding a link to a reader mailing list I have now set up. So, all I have to do now is to put it all together into one document, and format it into an ebook, ready to publish later this week. Oh yes, and I have to save the covers from my email account to my Word folder for the book. So, it is nearly all systems go for that book.

Meantime, I have begun working on a short story for Woman's Weekly that I started a short while ago. I want to finish that and get feedback on that. The other story I have put aside for now to think about it more.

Also, I am writing Susie's story, which I am having fun with. Am learning lots as I research the lessons that Year 6 do now, as I want to write lessons that do happen and can help Susie get more confident in the story.

If you want to be one of the first to know when I have a new ebook out or one coming out in print, then why not sign up to my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/b3zDYv. You will get a free short story called 'Billy, Literacy and News Presenters', which is the prequel to the first book in my next series called The Rainbow School.

Woman's Weekly Workshop

Yesterday I went to London Bridge, to the Woman's Weekly Workshop on writing a short story. I've been to a couple of them before, but now I am v serious about writing for womags, I wanted to go again and listen properly. As I had been before, I didn't know if Gaynor Davies the Fiction Editor of WW would recognise me. She did and said hello to me. I was chuffed. She co-presented the workshop with Della Galton. We had a theme to go on for the writing exercises, which as Freedom. I remembered something a friend told me in December about being free at last so used that as the main point for a story. We wrote the beginning,  then had to read our first sentence out. We filled in Della's character development sheet, which gave me an idea about the main character and how to end the story. We also wrote the last sentence of the story, which we were all congratulated on, esp me personally by Gaynor when I said goodbye. Before that, we were given handouts about the common ways that stories are rejected eg predictability and solutions to them. We also got the guidelines.
I really enjoyed the day despite being tired and my head doing a spin during the day from thinking.
I shall write the whole story when I have completed the ghost story for a competition. I already have an idea how it will pan out, I jotted notes down during the day.

I can't wait to go to the next one in April which will be on serial writing.

My Writing Diary - update

So, here is where I am with my writing to date:

My writing came to a halt last weekend when my mum was admitted to hospital after a heart scare. She is back home now and getting better each day. She even went local shopping with me this morning.

Pocket Novel is now complete, but I have yet to start reading through it to check it is OK. Will get to this once I have a day free with 3 time slots available.

Quirky short story is complete and I put it on the story blog for comments today. I hope to get it out to Take a Break's Fiction Feast by the end of this week.

Meantime, I have printed out a ghost story that I wrote a few years ago for an anthology, but was rejected. I have started editing it to revise for a paranormal short story competition by Writing Magazine. The deadline is mid-May so I have plenty of time.

I have also started writing the third and final Mermaid ebook for 9-12s. I am enjoying this one because I have been adding talking sea creatures.

I have also now got a cover for the POD version of The Railway Angel and hope to publish that at the weekend.

Writing diary - what's happening

So, I forgot to post about my writing diary on Monday. I had other things on my mind, mainly closing the sale of my car. I had to get the new owner who had paid me the week before to complete a form so I could send it off to the DVLA. He had been ill. I finally got it all sorted on Wednesday.

Anyway, to the writing. I have finished the pocket novel. I managed to reach 49,919 words, which is near enough to 50k for me. I have revised the synopsis and will type the rest of that up later today. I am going to read through it bit by bit to make sure it all makes sense still, and add more words if I think it needs it.

The quirky short story is finished. I revised it again following comments on the story blog and from Fran Tracey. It is currently with Fran to read through. Meanwhile, I am going to add a bit to the 'wand' story.

And, I have started writing the third and final mermaid ebook. This is Aliona's story and is called 'The Ring Quest'. I am adding more sea life to the story this time, with fish and other creatures. I might even have the hero at the end be attacked by something. We shall see. Nothing too scary, as it's for 9-12 year olds.

I haven't had much to do for my author client as he is working on the third story, which he started to rewrite himself. Will be emailing my editor with the second book, while waiting for illustrations for the first.

I have been emailing my lists with writing ideas and styles along with exercises to go with them. If you want inspiration for a story, either children's or adults, then why not sign up to my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/bwuQav

Oh yes, had a letter in the Daily Mirror the other day. No reword except seeing my name in black and white.

I have decided to enter more writing competitions this year. We shall see how we go.

So, there you have what I have been working on the last 2 weeks. Happy writing.

Writing diary - Week 3

Here is how I am going.

Saturday - Author biz content day. I was going to go to the first RNA London meeting of the year, but had so much going on during the week I chose not to go. So I worked on content instead. I continued working on m client's picture book stories. I also wrote and typed up more exercises for the writing exercise ebook I am planning to publish, hopefully, later this year. I also had time later in the day to work on the pocket novel. Word count is now 45,219.

Sunday - Worked on the pocket novel and short story.

Monday - Was due to meet author client but he postponed the day before due to snow. So in the morning I had to take something to the hospital then went on to shopping. Had time to work on the pocket novel - word count is now 45,248. Finished editing the short story.

Tuesday - Had first blood test of the week this morning. Getting used to needles now. Typed up new Xmas story. Word count is 494 words.

Wednesday - Author biz day. Worked on finishing my client's picture ebooks, inc adding activities that children can do that are related to the stories. Wrote up in a pad the list of the ebooks that will be in the series. Also, emailed my lists with newsletter about tenses with an exercise. Later on I worked on the pocket novel as getting so near to the end of it. Word count is now 45,487.

Thursday - Had second blood test of the week. (This one for the hospital and my IBS). Worked on pocket novel, Wrote more of the Xmas story now called 'The Magic Wand'. I also emailed a letter to Writing Magazine about retreats.

Friday (today) - No blood tests! Hurrah. Finished a new chapter I started writing for the pocket novel. This concludes the sub plot in it. Wrote more of the Xmas story. Later I shall type up more of the PN.

How to create a business plan - Step 2

I have posted about writing what you have achieved this year, so how about writing down what you haven't achieved. I am going to put down what I haven't, why I think this is and what I am going to do about it next year. Here we go:

1. Ebooks - I didn't achieve to write and publish as many ebooks as I wanted. I believe this was because I didn't make use of all the time I had because I was distracted by other ventures I was trying, which wasted time for me. What I plan to do - I have already started to make more of the time I have in the day to write.

2. Sales - I didn't achieve as many sales of my ebooks that I wanted to do. Why? I think this is because of the low price. All my ebooks are at 99c, which is a discount price. I now think that this is only suitable for discount buyers and not serious readers. So, next year, or even after Christmas, I am going to up the prices of all of my ebooks. I am going to think like a publisher. Lots of trad publishers have joined the ebook world and indies have to compete with them now, so I am trying to match their prices.

3. I didn't get my Asperkids series of books out there. Why? The publisher I had emailed the partial to hadn't got back to me about it. Next year I want to get my characters out there myself. Get the ms professionally edited, get an illustrator to do the cover and drawings in the book I want. Will be researching that next year.

4. I didn't get a short story in a magazine. I hadn't done the proper research and find out what sort of stories they publish. I have been to workshops by Woman's Weekly and know what they like now. I have been reading the magazines to get a feel for the type of stories they publish. I now have a better idea of what stories I will be sending to which magazines.

So, are there things that you haven't achieved this year? If so, what are you going to do about them? Let me know.

NaNoWriMo - my own version

If you are a writer, you might be doing NanoWriMo (National Novel Write Month), where people are writing, or attempting, to write 50,000 words during November. Me? I am doing my own version. With lots of other commitments and health issues, I know there is no way I could write that amount of words in a month, so I am doing my own version of it. I am aiming to write something new every day. So far, I have managed to do this. Here is how:

In the mornings, when I'm not out, I will work on my current ebook, 'A friend in need' which means highlighting and deleting words. If I am out in the morning, I will do this after lunch.

In the afternoons, if I've not been out in the morning, I will write something new. So far, I have rewritten nearly a whole short story, am almost at the end of another story. If I am out in the morning, I will work on my ebook after lunch, and later in the afternoon after a nap, will work on the new writing. Yesterday, I didn't work on a short story, but I did write a synopsis for the serial I have in mind for Woman's Weekly. That I will type up later and read during the weekend, so I can email it to the Fiction Editor next week.

So, are you doing NaNoWriMo? Or are you doing your own version like me? If you are, let me know how you are getting on. I will blog here about the word count, once I have typed up the stories, which will be next month.

A major writing decision

I have previously posted that I want to stay as an indie author, publishing my own ebooks, and still get to be a full member of the Romantic Novelists' Association. To be a full member, you need to have had a contract from a publisher for a novel of 35,000 words. I still want to do this but have now come to a big decision on how to go about this. Here is my decision:

1. I want to continue being an indie author for both adult and children's ebooks, so I am going to carry on doing this as I love having the control and freedom to writing what I want, deciding my own cover, my own pricing and when I want to publish.

2. To get into the RNA as a full member, I am not going to try to have a novel published by a traditional publisher as I believe that method of publishing is getting more and more broken. Also, I feel that with most print publishers, contracts wouldn't allow for authors to self-publish other books, which is not what I want. So here is what I plan to do. I want to get published with My Weekly Pocket Novels instead. I see this is a way still to be traditionally published as they come out fortnightly in print, and after that is published you can try to get it into large print with a large print publisher. So, once I have finished the short story I am working on and sent it to Woman's Weekly magazine, I am going to work on revisions of a novel, and that will be sent as a pocket novel.

3. As pocket novels are up to 50,000 words, any novels that I write that go over that amount I will publish as an ebook myself, or any novels that I believe don't match with My Weekly's subjects, such as romantic suspense, then I will also publish as an ebook myself.

So there you have my new major decision about writing. I have been reading ebooks about being an indie author, and the more I read about being one, the more I am certain that is the path I want to stick to.