What I'm Reading:
I finished The Curse of Malenfer Manor by Iain McChesney. It was really good. Gothic mystery isn't my usual genre, but the ghost story and the way the mystery unfolded really drew me in. You can find my review here. I haven't picked anything up yet, but I am going to be starting a WIP from one of my critique partners this week, and then reading Kiya: Mother of a King (book 2 in the Kiya series) by Katie Hamstead for my birthday. I'm really excited because this is a series I'm addicted to.
What I'm Writing:
I just finished chapter 21 of the rewrite of Altar of Reality and am really excited! Not just because I'm wrapping it up and am this close to 60k for a novel I feared would be too short, or because 40k of that is for NaNoWriMo. Okay, well those reasons too. But I'm really enjoying how this is turning out. There's definitely a sequel in this story, maybe even a third book. I'm going to traditionally query it, so I'm looking for CPs and betas now.
I'm still working on my short story submission for The Borderlands anthology set in the Actuator universe. The deadline is creeping up on me, which means I really need to go add the snark. It's almost done, all it needs is a dash of snark, possibly a rewrite to first person. But I've been busy and trying to push through AoR, so I haven't worked on it yet. My in-laws are coming into town this week, and next week we are going to visit my family, so it is seriously crunch time right now. I've pulled off 10k days before on a regular basis. Here's hoping I can get there again so I can get both projects done in the handful of days I have free!
What Inspires Me Right Now:
The Catching Fire soundtrack. My favorites: "Silhouettes" by Of Monsters and Men, "Elastic Heart" by Sia, The Weeknd, and Diplo, "We Remain" by Christina Aguilera (this one is on repeat a lot--a very good song to write a dystopian to), "Mirror" by Ellie Goulding, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Lorde, and "Place for Us" by Mikky Ekko. So...pretty much the entire soundtrack. I still haven't listened to the entire Hunger Games soundtrack, but this one is just awesome.
I'm also really inspired by my sister right now. She's gotten back into writing, which is awesome. She's so talented. She makes me want to tell her my story ideas and let her write them because prose just comes so natural to her (and does not to me). There's this elegance to her style. She inspires me to try harder and really try to find beauty in words, because she does that with so little effort.
What Else I'm Up To:
I am all about organizing social media this week. I finally broke down and made my Twitter lists because I have felt sadly out of touch with so many of my writer friends who use Twitter more than Facebook. I also read an article talking about how to better use Google+ and discussing Google+ Communities, which I knew nothing about until reading the article. So I joined about 20 of them today. =D Now all I need to do is find a good RSS feeder since Google got rid of theirs and start following blogs better. I'm also organizing my blog hosting dates to host specific stop types on specific days. Monday will be the Weekend Review (because I couldn't think of a better title and need a date to post reviews), then Teaser Tuesdays, What's Up Wednesdays, Thursday Takeover, and Feature Fridays. I host enough stops now that this became necessary. Or so says my OCD.
I donated an e-book of Heirs of War to T.K. Leigh for her 5000 (seriously? 5k??) likes giveaway, so I've been basking in the follows I've been getting for that. I don't know if they will stick, but I hit 200 on my Facebook page today. Yay! I have my own end of the month giveaway planned to celebrate my birthday (30--eep!), and have some great prize backs from the donations I've collected so far. I think I am going to cut off the donation offers on Friday so I can start the giveaway then.
As I mentioned earlier, my personal life is about to get really demanding. That happens with the holidays, right? Hubby and I are going to be spending the next two days cleaning up even more than we did for the Halloween party for when his parents come visit. They are staying with us, and this is the first time we'll be hosting anyone since I put the guest bedroom together. I'm both excited and nervous.
I won't be around next week (or much of this week--heck, I'm still reading WUW posts from last week), but I can't wait to catch up with you guys after Thanksgiving!
Sounds like you're making great progress! I'm utterly failing at NaNo this year as I've had so much editing to do on my other projects. It's great that your sister inspires you!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I've failed NaNo every time but once for the same reason. Either had to abandon for edits, or life got in the way. It's harder once you move out of the beginning phases of being a writer to participate in something like NaNo and complete it. At least, that's been my experience since now I have more to do as a writer.
DeleteEllie Goulding comes from my home town in England (Hereford). In fact, my brother has a friend who is a friend of her brother (I think I got that right...). So, since you know me (or at least, I comment on your blog), that puts you at 4 degrees of separation (or is that 5?) from someone who sings on the Catching Fire soundtrack. Cool, eh? :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not very adept at social media, but there's method behind my hesitation to go too far into Twitter and Google+ groups and Facebook and all that: TIME SUCK! Seriously, I would spend waaay too much time virtual socializing, and not enough time with the mountains of other things I need to do. The downside to this is I know how much more interactive I need to be these days to build a reader audience, so in a way, I need to be better about being virtually "present." Still working on that one... :)
Have a great writing week, Mara! Well done with the NaNo word count--I hope you make good progress. :)
That is cool! I'd never heard of her before the soundtrack, but I'm glad to have discovered her.
DeleteI try to be disciplined with social media so it doesn't turn into a time suck, but that's a hard balance to strike. So far, it's landed me on the social media deficit side of things. I keep hoping that if I just organize it enough, I can be active and engaging on there without spending too much time.
However, it being Who week and me not having the time to watch it until the theater showing Monday means I will be staying away from all forms of social media until then! =D
I think I need to get my hands on this CATCHING FIRE soundtrack! And I know that holiday busyness all too well. I have a super busy weekend coming up, then prepping the house for company. A good busy, but WHEW.
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
It is AMAZING. So amazing that my brain starts randomly playing the songs in my head when I'm doing other stuff. Good busy is...good (heh), but I'm looking forward to the breather I'll get the first week of December. I should probably go find some wood to knock on... hehe
DeleteBest of luck with the query preparation. Hope it all goes really well :D
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm debating on whether or not to participate in PitchMas with it.
DeleteYay for Nanowrimo word count and everything else you've got going on, and nice to meet you!
ReplyDelete