Write Here, Write Now

Okay peeps, I am BACK! Game On will be definitely, properly, no more editing finished today, and I will be commenting on your posts (I've missed you all!) and replying to comments here just like I did before I got swamped with last minute revisions! In case you can't tell, I am EXCITED! With just a few weeks (ish) until I release Game On, and finally being happy with it, I feel like an enormous weight has lifted off my shoulders. :D So, now I come to you for advice about a blog tour, because I haven't really worked out how to do it yet lol. I have seen loads of others, varying from people posting book covers and a synopsis, to super cool ones like Elana Johnson's Never Surrender tour which got everyone involved. Generally speaking, tours tend to consist of guest posts, interviews, reviews ... and all kinds of other things, so I am going to throw it out there for you to help me decide what to do! I may be ahead of myself here, I don't know how many people wil...

Yup. After thinking I was done editing Game On for the 327th time, I did a comma count and found 5735. Now, I don't know if it's just me, but that sounds like a hell of a lot! I have always had a problem with commas. I know how to use them correctly, but I still overuse them by sticking them into sentences where they don't belong. Sometimes they slip in by mistake, some of them are left over from when I've removed or changed words and forgotten to take the commas out, but mostly it's just because I have a weird tendency to hit the comma key like it's my keyboard version of a security blanket. Please tell me I'm not the only comma whore in the blogosphere! Today will be the last day of me not commenting on blogs. I will be back to normal tomorrow, I hope you understand that, with the endless amount of editing, I just haven't had the time to keep up with everything and I want to make Game On the best it can possibly be before I let it out into the wo...

Haha, I can't believe I am typing this post! I actually have a completed book, and a front cover and all I need to do now is get it ready for publishing! My cover was made by one of my best friends, Roberta Leite, who has a super talent for digital drawing. I cannot thank her enough for all the work she put in to it, and for her patience. I am pretty fussy, and I must have driven her insane with all the little tweaks I asked for! :D So ... here it is...   After swapping her small town life to work for a top U.S soccer team, Leah Walker thought she could finally leave the ghosts of her past behind. However, when she meets serial womanizer, Radleigh McCoy, the memories of her old life come swarming back, and she is forced to ask herself whether she has really changed at all.  So ... what do you think? Also, let me know if that synopsis is terrible - it may still need a little work before publishing! I am looking at a tentative release date of J...

To begin with, I want to say thanks again to Emily for allowing me onto her blog as a blogging mentor! Being interviewed is always fun, and Emily is awesome! So, to Camp NaNo! Four days in and I'm still on track! Well, I will be when I finish today's writing. :D I mentioned a while ago that I was planning to battle boy POV, and I'm doing my best to get through it. However, it is hard, so I decided to turn my NaNo story into dual POV so it will be 50% less difficult! I'm not against cheating to get the work done. :p Just to give you a quick recap on what I'm doing for NaNo: In Game On, I have a young soccer player named Jesse Shaw, and he proved quite popular during the A-Z challenge. So, I decided he needed his own spin-off story! It's set at the end of the soccer season, when Jesse and his best friend go to London. I don't have a proper synopsis yet, but this is my guideline for now Soccer sensation Jesse Shaw literally has the world at his fee...

I still can't believe I signed up for CampNaNo - or that it starts tomorrow! But, I'm ready. I know my story, I know where it's going, where it ends, and most of what happens in the middle. All I need to do is get the words on the page without wasting time over-thinking everything. THAT is the biggest challenge with my brain still in edit mode. I'll tell you more about what I'm writing for CampNaNo next time. :D I literally just finished final edits for Game On around five minutes ago. Yeah, I know I said it was finished before, but then some small but important things were brought to my attention so I had to go back over some of the chapters again. NOW, I'm done, yippee! :D When I originally wrote the story it was complete at 154,000 words. Now, after cutting endless amounts of useless words, the final word count is ... 85, 851! To me, that is insane! Obviously, I am a brutal editor, but there really was a lot of crap in it such as scenes that didn't pr...

... but before I indulge the weird thing I did, I must just give a shoutout to Jaycee DeLorenzo and Victoria Smith! They will be hosting the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun bloghop, which is a follow up to their Oh, My Hero Bloghop - which was super fun! To find out more, click on the links above! Don't miss it, it's gonna be great! Now - the weird thing I did. Yeah. Anyone who knows me will know that I have avoided anything NaNo because the idea of trying to force 50,000 words out of my brain in a month makes me shudder. However, I'd like to get my next book idea finished quite quickly, and NaNo seems like the perfect challenge to get it moving. So, in June, I am gonna go for it! I chose June because there is no freaking way I am spending August holed up in my house to write - it will be summer! Plus starting in June gives me less time to talk myself out of it lol.If you're participating, let me know! Here is my profile . I do still have a bunch of edits to d...

Is there anything more awesome than getting work back from a CP with nothing but awesome comments? I mean, there was constructive advice too, but for the most part - my feedback has been nothing short of amazing! Much love to Leigh Covington for making me do this this morning: Also want to say thanks to Clare Dugmore and Morgan Shamy who have given me equally awesome pointers and comments. You guys rock! So, now all I have to do is get my final (FINAL!!) edits done, format correctly for Kindle publishing, figure out all the tax drama (I'm halfway through figuring it out, and I'll post about it once I'm done), get my book cover finalised, and publish this bad boy! Okay, there's still a lot to do but I'm one step closer and that is making me very happy!

Okay, so I promised you I'd let you know about my next project, but then I gave up and went into hiding for a few days. But now I'm back and ... I seem to actually be writing after a solid week of staring at an open, blank document. With Game On (ha, I still wanna say "my WIP") complete and out with my CPs, it's time for me to begin something new. Scary stuff, as I can't actually remember the last time I started a brand new story. Game On was written ... I guess six years ago. Wow. Anyway, after the A-Z challenge, I noticed that people had made some very encouraging comments about the minor characters from Game On. Most notably, Jesse Shaw, the eighteen-year-old soccer player who was just trying to find his place in the team. I had an idea to write a story about Jesse - which would mean writing WAY out of my comfort zone. I have never written boy POV before, and I haven't written YA since I was a YA myself! I have some boy POV words on my page, and t...

Wow, it feels seriously weird posting something that isn't related to A-Z or a bloghop! I don't know what to do now I don't have any guidance! :p I'd just like to say, on behalf of Clare and myself, thanks for all the comments on our "dusted off" project! We have spent countless hours talking about it recently, and it will definitely be something we return to, in between our other books, edits etc. During the A-Z challenge, I finished my WIP, and it is with my CPs right now *wibbles*. I am excited and terrified because this is the first time I've been ready for a real critique, so I'm waiting with very mixed emotions! To celebrate my achievement of finishing, my friend bought me a super cool present! Yup, it's a genuine Hermione Granger wand! Sorry the picture quality is rubbish, I took it on my phone, but that doesn't take away from the awesomeness of having my own wand! I've ALWAYS wanted one. If I was offered a HP wand for fin...

My plan for the A - Z Challenge is to write every post as if it were a diary entry by a character from my WIP. Today's post comes from Leah Walker. ** Zellor. Sounds a bit like a place where Hobbits might live, but no. It's actually my home town in Cornwall. It's pretty, very picturesque, the kind of place people think of when they imagine a traditional English village, with cottages and narrow, winding roads. It's a nice place to retire, but it's not a good place for young people. I spent much of my childhood playing in my friends' back gardens, because there were no parks to go to, so we had to make do with what we had. It was a lot of fun, it meant we could stretch our imaginations and make up magical worlds to keep ourselves entertained. It was when I hit my teens that Zellor became a nightmare. Hanging out at a shopping centre wasn't an option. In Zellor, there is one street where there are a few shops, and that's it. It has everything a...

My plan for the A - Z Challenge is to write every post as if it were a diary entry by a character from my WIP. Today's post comes from Radleigh McCoy. ** I sleep with a lot of women, but I don't have a lot of ex-girlfriends. I can't see any good reason to date a girl unless she's really worth spending time with. When I was in school, I had a couple of girlfriends, mostly short term. I don't think I dated any of them for more than a year. My longest relationship was with Jen. She was every guy's dream. I met her just after I signed with the Warriors, and she really turned the boys' heads. God, she was perfect. Great body, beautiful face, amazing legs. Too bad she was a bitch. She had one of those messed up personalities, turning on the charm when she wanted something, but once she got it, she was cold. I put up with it for two years because we looked good together, but as it turned out, she was sleeping with one of my teammates. I gave her everything...

My plan for the A - Z Challenge is to write every post as if it were a diary entry by a character from my WIP. Today's post comes from Freya Phillips. ** I like to think I've been pretty lucky with my friends. There have been a few girls who wanted to be my friend just because I work with sexy soccer players, but for the most part, my friends are genuine. Will is my best friend. I've known him for just over three years, and working with him has made my job one of the best I've ever had. He's funny, often unintentionally when he's stressing about some tiny thing that's out of place in his organised little world. He likes to be organised. But he makes me laugh every day. The thing I like the most about him is that he's loyal. He would literally do anything for his friends, and if someone crosses them ... well, it's not pretty. Let's just say I'd rather have him on my side than against me! He's not violent, or scary or anything. Bu...

I am feeling a little bit sorry for myself today. I planned to have edited my WIP ready for my CPs by the end of the month. I know it's not over yet, but I am less than halfway through, and unless I give up sleeping, it's not going to happen! In order to make this post less depressing, I am going to focus on what I HAVE achieved. 1. I have four chapters ready for critiquing that I am pretty happy with. 2. I have managed to get my overall word count down from 155,000 to a little over 116,000. I still have more to cut, but I am thrilled that I have been able to get rid of huge chunks of useless words. (Does that sound like I was a bit too brutal? LOL! I also had to resist the urge to go back and edit point 2 ...) 3. The pressure on myself has eased since my WIP is moving forwards. I don't deal well with stress, so this is a huge plus for me. 4. I have spent a lot of time engaging in conversation with other writers, and I think I have managed to soak up some useful thin...

Thanks to everyone who commented on my IWSG post yesterday. You all had great points, and got me thinking about different ways to tackle the issue of what might be missing from my writing. I was so inspired, I decided to get some more editing done this morning - with huge motivation from Clare - thanks chick! <3 My WIP now has two full chapters that don't make me gag when reading them, so I'm gonna call that progress! While I was working, something new occurred to me. Once I am done editing, I am one step closer to my goal of publishing. The thought stopped me in my tracks. Me? Published? Really?? And just who do I think I am?! I believe that evil thought process is probably what has been slowing me down. So I shouted at it. (Not literally, my mother is in the house, and I didn't want to scare her!) As a direct result of me telling the evil voice to go away, I got a lot of work done. I should be freelancing this afternoon, but as I have nothing urgent due, I am go...

If you have been following my blog in the short time I have been writing it, you may be familiar with me struggling over the opening of my WIP. I have stared at it, re-written it, stared at it some more, put it back how it was, changed it again, moved on, been satisfied, then hated it again. I don't know if I am alone in this struggle, or if every writer fights with their opening chapter this way, but it has been a nightmare! But then something, well someone, wonderful happened. Angela Cothran , to be precise. Angela uttered some magic words, and after a moment of tearing my hair out in panic that maybe my WIP was going nowhere, I really thought about what she'd said. And the solution became clear. The downside of this revelation is that there are 5000 useless words at the start of the story. That's a hell of a number of wasted words. On the other hand, they probably aren't all a waste. Some can even be moved around to fit in a better, and less boring place. What ...

Good morning, everyone! So, yesterday's "Is It Getting Hot In Here?" blogefest was huge amounts of fun! Much love to Hope and Cassie for organising it! All of those kissing scenes were perfect for Valentine's Day, and it was cool to read how everyone approached the kisses they wrote. As a direct result of all of the incredible comments I received about mine (thanks again, everyone!!), I am considering self-publishing the story it came from. After all, it is complete, it just needs some editing. I have self-published a book of short stories before, so I know how it works for the most part, but this feels different. This book will be one that shows off the kind of writing I want to do. I intend to put it out for free, or at a very low price, mainly as a thank you to everyone who has been so incredibly supportive of my writing. There are still a lot of things I need to learn about self-publishing, but it's a really good feeling to know that I already (nearly!) h...

So, I guess some of you read on my blog yesterday that I was away on a mini holiday! I was gone for three days, which is why I am a little bit behind on commenting on the posts in the "I'm Hearing Voices" blogfest. However, I am back now and trying to catch up. I spent three days in Newquay, Cornwall, and for those who don't know, it's a glorious place in the far South West of England. It's one of my favourite places in the world, and any chance to go there and chill for a while it good with me! Just to give you an idea of the awesomeness - here are some photos of the view from my hotel room. To me, there is nothing more inspiring than watching the waves from somewhere warm and comforting, and although I was supposed to be resting, I used some quiet time to work on my WIP. It ended up being some of my best work so far, and I hope to get back to that hotel again as soon as possible! It's like a writer's retreat! Now, enough about my sea...

Before I get onto the real topic of today, I just want to point you in the direction of another blogfest I signed up to! Yes, it may be the start of an addiction! This one is all about kissing scenes, and is especially for Valentine's Day. Should be fun! Now, onwards with a progress update! For the longest time, I have been battling with the opening chapter of my WIP, and it has been a really stressful time. The reason it has been so tough is that I originally write this story - or the bones of it - when I was 14. Back then, I was....okay...at writing, but very unpolished and my ideas about relationships came from a very innocent perspective. I started to work on it again around ten years later, and realised that it needed a LOT of work. At 24, I had some experience behind me, and could look at everything I'd written from an adult's perspective. Some of what I already had was better than I thought, but much of it was worse. I developed new ideas, explored the charact...