Writer Wednesday: NaNo Check In, And Release Dates For Changing Fate And Gallowglass! #WriterWednesday #NaNoWriMo #goals #amwriting

It's Day 16 of NaNo! If you're writing your 1667 words per day (the minimum daily word count to stay on track to reach 50k by November 30), by now you have written 26,672 words.

My current word count is 16,998. I'm not exactly killing it this time around.

That low word count begs the question, what's going on? I win NaNo EVERY year. Usually, I hit the 50k mark around the three week mark, and gloat like a gloatasaurus rex all over the internet. To call this situation is perplexing is an understatement.

As for what's impeding my progress, a few things happened. I had to reevaluate the publishing timeline for my Parthalan series, and complete a massive re-edit ASAP. That took up the first week of November, which put me behind in my word count but moved my series forward. All in all, that was a good trade.

Having put out that fire, I got into my WIP...and right around the 6k mark, the plot went off the rails. It didn't deviate all that far, and it's definitely fixable. This story is one that I've wanted to write for years, and I will definitely see it completed. Could I fix it and still hit my 50k goal? Probably. But, then something happened.

Something kind of awesome.

Out of the blue, I was hit with the most fricken' amazing idea ever. It's a YA, and I never write YA, so that in itself is exciting. It takes place in Ireland, and there are mermaids and lost cities and surfing. I haven't had this much fun writing in years, and even though I'm 10k behind, I don't care. I am going to finish this story, and then I'm going to edit and revise it to perfection. Who cares if it doesn't hit 50k by November 30? No one, that's who.

My confidence is bolstered by the fact that my previous NaNo projects have fared well. My 2014 NaNo, Changing Teams, released last November, and the third in the series, Changing Fate, will release on March 28, 2017. And my 2013 project, Gallowglass, will release on June 6, 2017.

You read that right--GALLOWGLASS HAS A RELEASE DATE!!!

To sum up, keep working on your WIP, no matter where you are in your word count. To steal NaNo's motto, the word needs your novel.

 Have you encountered some NaNo setbacks? How did you work around them? Tell us in the comments!

 
 Get Changing Teams here: http://amzn.to/2f5PDcZ


 And the sequel, Changing Scenes: http://amzn.to/2giKSPC  

Available now: Changing Teams #NewRelease #TeamLimitless #Romance @limitlessbooks

Changing Teams (Changes #1) is available everywhere today! Check it out on Amazon, or wherever books are sold. 

“What if you met the man of your dreams…

                   And found out he was living a lie?”

Britt Sullivan, part time model and full time aspiring artist, is sick of living alone in the city…

Taking lame jobs just to make ends meet is leading Britt nowhere, and she knows something has to change. She needs some excitement, and when she meets blue-eyed Midwesterner Sam MacKellar at a photo shoot, she realizes he’s perfect for her in every way—well, except for the fact he’s gay.

A devastating childhood trauma turned Sam’s whole life into a lie…

Sam came to New York City to escape an existence that had become unbearable, and when his job as a photographer’s assistant leads him to Britt, he realizes he’s finally met someone who sees him as he really is. But plagued by nightmares and trapped by his own deception, he doesn’t know how she can truly be part of his life.

Friendship leads to a passionate encounter and hidden dangers…

Britt comforts Sam though his nightmares, and they begin to explore their mutual attraction, but the tables are turned when Britt faces unwelcome attention from a manipulative art instructor and Sam must come to her defense.

Sam is terrified to reveal the source of his nightmares, sure the truth would shatter his complicated relationship with Britt, but when she suffers an unspeakable trauma of her own, only Sam can help her pick up the pieces.

When Britt learns the magnitude of Sam’s lies, will his reasons and the depth of their feelings be enough to allow her to forgive him? Does she have a future with Sam, or does his deception also include the reality of changing teams?

Watch for the second installment, Changing Scenes, which will be out January 5!

Changing Scenes Back Cover Blurb #ChangingTeams #TeamLimitless @parthalan @limitlessbooks

Today we have a special treat - the back cover blurb for Changing Scenes, book 2 of Changes! It will be available everywhere January 5 from Limitless Publishing.

“Image isn’t everything

                                            …or is it?”

For Astrid Janvier, image is everything…

Astrid is a world-renowned model, as famous for her strut as her startling green eyes. She’s modeled for the biggest names in the fashion world, and is regularly invited to parties in New York, London, and Paris. Thanks to a designer label addiction, she’s also broke, and takes a job as a cocktail waitress just to make rent. When her best friend Britt asks her to be her maid of honor at her upcoming wedding, their first task is to decide the menu.

Donnie Coehlo is a young, up-and-coming chef with a dinner menu to plan…

Donato—Donnie for short—is the head chef at Thirty-Nine and Twelve, a seafood bistro on the Connecticut shore. It’s a great accomplishment given his youthful age, but Donnie doesn’t brag. He just wants to find the right girl, settle down, and have a bunch of kids. When Astrid arrives at his restaurant, Donnie hopes she is the one. But would a high-priced model like Astrid be interested in a regular guy like him?

As Astrid’s life crumbles around her, and Donnie makes a terrible choice, Astrid learns the two of them are irrevocably tied together.

Will their connection be enough for Astrid to leave her high-fashion life behind,

and accept what Donnie has to offer? Or will she chase her dreams as a model, leaving Donnie as part of her past?

And remember, Changing Teams will be available everywhere November 10!

Preorder it here.

Pr

Halloween Happenings: Preorders, Blog Hops, And An Interview! #Halloween #AmWriting #ChangingTeams

Happy Halloween! 

I've spent the last few days splattering fake blood on a lab coat and tweaking my daughter's Rainbow Dash costume. If you have any costume pics, share them in the comments below.

Changing Teams, the first in an all-new contemporary romance series, is now up for preorder! Just click here.

In other news, the Broad Universe Full Moon blog tour is in full swing! Check out this page for details, and the chance to win a $75 gift card and a crap ton of books.

Halloween may be almost over, but good horror stories are a year round treat. Check out this interview on Masslive.com where I mention two of my favorite horror stories.

That's all for now! I hope you get lots of treats, and a few tricks to keep you on your toes ;)

A mad king. An escaped slave. One warrior to save the realm…

Heir to the Sun, book one of the Chronicles of Parthalan. Find it here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sara had always been careful.
She never spoke of magic, never associated with those suspected of handling magic, never thought of magic, and never, ever, let anyone see her mark. After all, the last thing she wanted was to end up missing, like her father and brother.

Then, a silver elf pushed his way into Sara’s dream, and her life became anything but ordinary.

COPPER GIRL – Book One of the Copper Legacy

Cover Reveal - Changing Teams (Changes #1) @Limitlessbooks @parthalan #ChangingTeams #CoverLove #TeamLimitless

"What if you met the man of your dreams...

                                                     And found out he was living a lie?"

Without further ado, here it is! 

Britt Sullivan, part time model and full time aspiring artist, is sick of living alone in the city…

Taking lame jobs just to make ends meet is leading Britt nowhere, and she knows something has to change. She needs some excitement, and when she meets blue-eyed Midwesterner Sam MacKellar at a photo shoot, she realizes he’s perfect for her in every way—well, except for the fact he’s gay.

A devastating childhood trauma turned Sam’s whole life into a lie…

Sam came to New York City to escape an existence that had become unbearable, and when his job as a photographer’s assistant leads him to Britt, he realizes he’s finally met someone who sees him as he really is. But plagued by nightmares and trapped by his own deception, he doesn’t know how she can truly be part of his life.

Friendship leads to a passionate encounter and hidden dangers…

Britt comforts Sam though his nightmares, and they begin to explore their mutual attraction, but the tables are turned when Britt faces unwelcome attention from a manipulative art instructor and Sam must come to her defense.

Sam is terrified to reveal the source of his nightmares, sure the truth would shatter his complicated relationship with Britt, but when she suffers an unspeakable trauma of her own, only Sam can help her pick up the pieces.

When Britt learns the magnitude of Sam’s lies, will his reasons and the depth of their feelings be enough to allow her to forgive him? Does she have a future with Sam, or does his deception also include the reality of changing teams?

Here's the full wrap:

Changing Teams will be available everywhere November 10 from Limitless Publishing.

#NaNoWriMo's Over, Now What Do I Do?

Now that the dust has well and truly settled on NaNoWriMo 2014, it's time to look at what we accomplished during that month of madness. For those who aren't familiar with the magic and wonder that is NaNoWriMo, read this post.

It all comes down to this: 50,000 words in 30 days. Totally doable.

How do I know? I did it. Actually, I killed it.

I hit 50k on day 19 of NaNo, and I ended up with 60,565 words by November 30. Crazy? Yeah. Despite my apparent insanity (and a caffeine addiction that was more severe than anyone realized), I wrote a not-too-shabby first draft. I must say, as first drafts go I'm more pleased with this that I have been with any other.

Which means that I need to put it away and ignore it for at least a month. Maybe two, or three.

Um, what? Ignore my masterpiece? Why would I neglect my new baby?

Easy. Because it's not done yet.

As some of you know, I work for a publishing house that accepts open submissions every December. The slush pile rapidly fills up with still-smoking NaNo manuscripts, and we've never, not even once, offered on one. Yes, we can tell when it's your NaNo project. Yes, we're proud of you. Now go polish that baby up!

When you're still in that first flush of love with your new project you tend to overlook its flaws, like how you type "if" when you mean "of", or how you wrote three chapters in the wrong character's POV. Or said that the main character had blue eyes in chapter one, green eyes in chapter three, only to go back to blue in chapter ten.

Not that I have *ever* made those mistakes. My first draft errors are much, much worse :)

Anyway, my point is that there are only two groups of people you want seeing your first draft blunders: your trusted beta readers and critique partners. Wouldn't you rather they pointed out the flaws in your draft, instead of your dream agent when they reject you?

I sent my NaNo project, Changing Teams, out to my beta readers a few weeks ago, and I steadfastly refuse to make any changes until feedback has been received and processed. Will it be ready for submission then? Probably not, but it will be well on its way.

*sigh* Who knew being a writer would require so much patience?

Well? What are you doing with your NaNo projects? Tell me in the comments below! And, if your interested in seeing a teaser about my NaNo project, go here.

Teaser Tuesday, #NaNoWriMo Edition

Hey all!

For this week's Teaser Tuesday, I thought I'd post an excerpt from my NaNoWriMo project, working title CHANGING TEAMS. This is my first foray into NA contemporary romance, and I can't wait to hear what people think about it!

The excerpt below is from the third chapter, and is told from the POV of our hero, Sam MacKellar. And, away we go!

“Britt,” I murmured, my hand coming to rest on the curve of her bottom. “Short for Britney?”

“Not hardly.” When I kept looking at her, she elaborated, “I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh.”

“Scout’s honor,” I said, squeezing her bottom for good measure.

Britt buried her face against my neck; whatever this story was, it had to be good. “Well,” she began, “my mom got pregnant in the school library.”

“The school library?” I scandalized.

“Yeah, yeah,” Britt said, her breath hot on my neck. “Anyway, once Mom knew she was expecting she went back to the aisle it, um, happened in, and picked out a name from the books on the shelves.”

“Wait.” I rolled onto my side so I was looking Britt in the eye, and asked, “Is your full name Britannica?”

“Yeah,” she admitted, “Mom got knocked up in the encyclopedia section.”

“Well,” I said, with my best straight face, “at least it wasn’t in front of the Funk and Wagnall’s shelf.”

We burst out laughing at that, and Britt pounded my shoulder. “Sam, you promised you wouldn’t laugh,” she shrieked. Once we calmed down I rolled onto my back, and Britt laid her head on my chest. “You’re different here.”

“Different how?” I murmured. I folded one of my arms under my head so I could watch her, and smoothed those brown waves away from her face.

“You’re voice, for one. It’s… I don’t know, deeper? And, your fake Southern accent’s gone.”

“My accent is authentic Midwestern,” I huffed.

“Uh huh.” Britt traced the column of my throat with her fingertip, then she kissed my Adam’s apple. “And, you’re just Sam. Not photographer’s assistant Sam, or awesome partyer Sam, just Sam.”

“I’ll thank you to replace ‘photographer’s assistant’ with ‘aspiring photographer’,” I snapped, rattled that Britt had effortlessly seen through to the truth of me. “You like ‘just Sam’?”

“I do.” She looked up, fixing me with her honey brown gaze. “You don’t let many people meet the real Sam, do you?”

Oh, if she only knew. “Only those worth it.”

###

As you can see, Sam's got it bad for Britt. But, what's he hiding? Comment below with your best guesses. 

Stop by on December 4, when we'll have the cover reveal for COPPER VEINS! Later, ya'll!