Earlier this year, Holly Lisle (the creator of the writing courses How to Think Sideways and How to Revise Your Novel, which have greatly increased the quality and quantity of my writing  ;)) announced a contest for an anthology of short stories, which will showcase the writing of her students.

Naturally, I had to enter and see just how my writing skills stack up against competition. As some of you may know, I never submitted my manuscript for Protector to agents or publishers, deciding to go independent from the start.

Yesterday I found out that my entry, a short story titled Memory Book, was selected for the anthology!

Holly Lisle still has to select the top three winning stories, but just to be featured in the anthology means a lot to me

More info on the story:

Title: Memory Book

Theme of the story: The Adventure of Creating

Story description:  An eight-year-old boy will be taken for magical training from his abusive, alcoholic mother who in the act of creating a memory book for him to take along remembers her love for him.

I came up with the idea for the story in about 3 days, following the techniques I learned in the How to Think Sideways course (it might be a bit pricy, but following the course has greatly improved my writing on all levels – from idea generation to final revision, while it also has some great on info self-promotion for authors. And it’s a lot cheaper than an MFA in Creative Writing )

The Anthology will be released in July 2013 and I’ll keep you posted on the exact date. I can’t wait!!

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The title says it all, I think!

At 42 000 words the first draft of the third book in my Anniversary of the Veil series is completed. I’m still pretty sure I will end up calling it Forever Husband, but nothing is decided as yet. Now it is time for the editing and revision. For some reason, I’m looking forward to it, which is a first for me

Anyway, have a great weekend everyone! I will spend it writing my entry point for the Battle of Ebulon Anthology, and you?

As you may have noticed from the cool progress meter in the sidebar, I’m now over the half way point of the first draft of Anniversary of the Veil Book 3. Nowadays I tend to write shorter first drafts, since I end up adding and changing a lot in the revision, so this one might even reach 50 000 words. To put it another way, I might be done with the first draft by the end of this month

The title of Book Three will most likely be Forever Husband, both because I want to stay with the title theme of the first two books and because it will have a deeper significance as per the overall storyline of the third book.

In other writing news, I am also collaborating with fifteen awesome fantasy/sci-fi/paranoraml writers in bringing you the anthology of short stories centering around an epic fantasy battle called the Battle of Ebulon. The anthology is due out this summer and will be a free read, so watch this space for more info

Now I just have to figure out which of my Protectors to send, and how to keep them from getting killed as they battle the orc of Ebulon

Through the end of May  I’ll be participating in the Whatcha Reading? Blog Hop organized by Tracy Falbe over at http://www.herladyshipsquest.com. I think this blog hop is an awesome idea, as it aims to stimulate conversations about books we’re all reading and enjoying (or not so much). I’ve been meaning to reread the Wheel of Time Series, since I never got to the end of it and I really want to find out how it ends

I read the first ten books of the series about ten years ago, and I’ve forgotten so much of the story that I’m just not sure I’d be able to enjoy the last few books if I don’t re-read them all. Luckily I’m a pretty fast reader

I’ll be starting with New Spring, which is the Prequel to the series. Al’Lan Mandragoran is one of my favorite characters in the series (go figure, the strong, silent, brooding soldier….what does that remind me of?) so it should be a treat

Anyway, I hope you join me on my quest! You can also sign up to participate in the blog hop using the form below. The more the merrier!

For anyone who has not yet checked out my books, I’d like to let you know that I discounted the Kindle Version of my Anniversary of the Veil Boxed Set.

It contains the entire Book 1 and Book 2 of my Anniversary of the Veil Series and you can buy it for only $2.99/1.77 GBP. This is a limited time offer!

Buy Now @ Amazon US or Amazon UK

I recently realized that I have kind of stopped having fun when writing. With all the promoting and checking my sales stats and other writing-related tasks, I forgot why I want to write in the first place: Because it’s fun! If you’re sort of in the same spot, I suggest reading through Jeff Goins’ Writer’s Manifesto for some ideas

Oh, and for fans of Game of Thrones, here’s a hilarious recap of the first episode of Season 3. Some spoilers if you haven’t watched it yet… http://www.happyplace.com/22775/game-of-thrones-facebook-recap-season-3-episode-1

One of the most often repeated pieces of advice for writers is to write a little bit every day. Doing so will get you into the habit of writing and make it less difficult to write when you need to, as opposed to when the inspiration strikes. Though I’m guilty of not following this advice when it comes to fiction

I do keep a daily journal and work as a copywriter, so I write a lot. But I would still like to make a commitment to do a little fiction each day, as I’m convinced it would help me hone my voice and writing style.

What about you? Do you try to write daily?

Have a great weekend!

I just have a short post today, and it has to do with the third book in my Anniversary of the Veil series. I am happy to say that I have started a new Scrivener document for the first draft, and have begun writing in my scene plan. Tomorrow, I will start writing

I’m back with another post as part of the A to Z Challenge, and the topic of the day is Confidence.  I recently reached out to a sci-fi/fantasy reader/writer club in my area, because I wanted to connect with other lovers of the genre in person.  Chatting online is awesome, but there’s nothing quite like discussing who Jon Snow’s real parents are, and the implications of it (reference to GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire, for those of you who don’t know ), over a cup of tea on a chilly spring afternoon. Call me a geek, but I love conversations like that.

Anyway, upon joining the club, I found out that many of the members were actually aspiring writers in their own right. Only, almost all of them have numerous novels and series in various stages of completion just sitting on their desktops. So, in trying to think of a topic for today’s post, I realized that confidence is one of the most important characteristics that separates aspiring writers from published ones. Confidence in yourself and your ability to write a story worth telling, confidence that you can write it well, and the confidence to know it deserves publication.

With enough confidence the grueling writing and revision processes become more manageable. Confidence in yourself will get you through all the rejections and negative comments.  I guess what I’m really trying to say is that you just have to believe in yourself

Now if I could just find enough confidence in myself to finally get started on my new work in progress…

So, here’s to Beginnings and writing again!

As for The Beacon, that’s the title of my free ebook: Anniversary of the Veil-Beginnings: The Beacon. You can download it from: Amazon US
Amazon UK Barnes and Noble iBookstore Kobo Smashwords

Thanks for stopping by!