Cover Art, Rough Draft, Fun Times for All!

Hi folks! You probably haven't heard too much from me lately, sorry for that. Life has been super busy. We finally tracked down the source of my allergies and allergy attacks, and I've got medications that are going to help me exist in the living world once more!

This means that luckily, I have had time to accomplish many things. I just got done at CONvergence selling hats in their art show, and for the first time ever selling my hats to the public, the event was fantastic! Everyone seemed really happy with their hats, and a few of them had multiple bids and one even made it to the live auction! I can't wait for next year, I'll be bringing a full 20 hats with me.

However, now the focus is on Vicious Sun. While doing hats, I also did a bit of the rough draft, and I got a good start on the cover art, which features the main character Kemi. I'll be posting pics of it once I have all of the flat colors done, which should hopefully be before the end of July.

Onto the rough draft.

I've discovered this wonderful little web application called Write or Die. If you're a NaNo veteran, you've probably heard of it. The idea is to make you write words. Many, many words. If you don't accomplish your set goal, there are punishments. The worst that I've had is that I paused for too long, and it started deleting my words. Slight panic attack ensued, and I made sure to not stop after that.

Along with the draft, I'm beginning to work on illustrations. I changed over the anatomy of the Skyborne (formerly Sparkfur, Neisti'kegawa, etc) and am very pleased with the results.

Kickstarter stuff.

The Kickstarter for Vicious Sun will begin either at the end of August or the beginning of September. This will be your chance to preorder the book in ebook, paperback, and hardcover, and get some pretty awesome goodies, including original signed art from the novel, tshirts, and a few other things. There is also a chance I will be doing a full color hardcover version of the book as a special edition limited run, but we'll have to see how things go first.

I'll have more information in the coming weeks including details of the novel, and maybe even a sneak peek at the current version of the prologue.

So spread the word! Vicious Sun is getting ready to take to the skies!

Advice on Writing I

Well, any of you who read this blog know that I am a writer. I do quite a bit of writing in my free time, and I figured that I would share with you the fruits of my adventures.

Tip #1- Avoid the internet!

The internet is one of the greatest time-wasters on the planet. There is so much information, you can always find some way or another to procrastinate. That's why, when writing, try to avoid the internet unless you are looking up information for your book.

Tip #2- Youtube.
I listen to a lot of music while I'm writing. Considering that I've been working on Resonance for well over three years now, I have gone through quite a few playlists. We're talking hundreds of songs. There are a very few that manage to make it through the run and continue to be on my playlist, so I am always looking for new music. Youtube makes life much easier with song recommendations, not to mention it has a huge library of the dramatic and epic music I typically listen to. I work mostly on a dual-screen computer setup, so I have on screen with music playing and the other for all of my book items.

Tip #3- Playlist

As much as I love going through Youtube and seeing what all is new, I've found that once I start messing around with different songs, I never stop. That's why I always write with a playlist going. It saves me from flipping between screens and breaking out of my writing to find the right song.

Stay tuned for next post, I should have some exciting news about a new project (no, it isn't another novel!)

TR

Of Pokemon Music and a Bit of Warm Weather

Hello all! As many of you who watch this blog may have noted, the weather has been abnormally mild this winter. I'm from the upper midwest, land of snow, sleet, hail, and general gloominess during the winter months. This winter, we've only had maybe two decent snow events, as compared to last year with at least two single events with over ten inches of snow and impossible driving conditions. For the last two weeks, we've been in the seventies and gorgeous. Talk about weather confusion.

On a completely different tack, I've been switching up my normal music playlists for writing. Somehow, Pokemon managed to creep in there. Not really sure how that happened, but now I keep getting battle songs stuck in my head.

And now on a really different route, I've got a few friends of mine that are trying to get their book printed and are running a kickstarter to fund its production - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2017848943/cellar-door-anthology-0?ref=live. You should all go check it out! Because I said so! And give them money!

It's still a bit too early in the morning for coherent thought, so look for a longer post (with awesome worldbuilding content) sometime soon!

Checkpoint

So, it has been a while since I last posted, mostly due to real-life business and computer issues. However, don't expect extended hiatuses anymore! I have finally managed to pull the money together for a new computer, a machine that can actually handle the Adobe Suite without overheating. It also has other perks, such as being able to play video games, which I promise will not get in the way of my writing (much).

To celebrate this new machine, I thought that I would give a general update on Resonance. I have the first two of seven parts completed, and the rest of it is coming together quite well. My wordcount goal is to be around 87,500 words, or 350 pages, for the full novel. Parts one and two, which are going to be gone over yet again, are already accounting for nearly 25,000 words of that, and by the end of today I will have hit the 30,000 word mark. My 350 page book may be expanding somewhat, and I am not completely set on having Resonance broken into 7 parts, it may instead be 10. That's some of the logistics I'm working out.

Another part of the puzzle I'm working on is how to publish this. There is a reason I needed to have access to my Adobe programs, simply because Resonance will have some illustrations. I'm not going all out, as humans are my weakest point in drawing, however, each human character has a symbol that represents that character. You can see Estevan's (the main character) symbol as the background of the blog. I'm not sure how many publishers will be willing to let me do the illustrations and cover for the book, which is something that I am set on doing. As such, I'm looking into doing self publishing as a legitimate option, and running a Kickstarter to fund it, much like I originally planned to do with Vicious Sun before Resonance took hold of my writing ideas again. To accomplish this, I would need to be able to raise enough funds to cover a professional editor and printing costs, which tends to add up quite a bit.

This is something that I want to make a professional career out of. The first third of Resonance has taken me over three years to write, mainly due to issues with time management during college and real life interference. However, this first section is now nearly polished, and the rest of the book is falling into place quite nicely. I plan to have the entire draft completed within the next month to month and a half. Originally, I was planning on sending out my draft over the last few days, but I'll be honest, having a working computer somewhat distracted me ^^;

For now, I'm going to sit back, drink my chocolate tea, and write.

As a friend of mine says, perseverance is what gets you published. So I'm going to persevere until Resonance sits happily on bookshelves across the nation.

The difficulties of writing and working full time

Hello all!
As you have probably guessed from the title, the main reason you haven't seen a lot of updates to either my website or my blog recently is due to a lack of time. The clock keeps ticking, no matter how much you wish it would stop, at least for a little while.
But yes, to the topic at hand.
Writing while working is a difficult beast. I currently work at a bookstore. It is a fantastic place that spurs me to want to write more. I get ideas. Lots and lots and lots of them. They crowd my head, spill onto the floor, and then sit up and stare at me, all saying, "Write me, write me!"
For anyone who has known me for a while, I tend to come up with way more stories than I could ever write in any period of time. I have stacks of notebooks, tons of simple story ideas, and yet, only one really completed draft. A draft that is not the book I want to finish.
Because, yes, I went back to working on Resonance. Why, you ask, when you finally decided to go with the Triskai Project? Why go back to Resonance, the novel you've fought with for the last three years?
Because, dear reader, it called me back. Honestly, I opened up my old web document when I was in the middle of a tough part of Vicious Sun, and started to get inspired. You know that feeling, the one that tells you to get off your butt and go do something? Bake a cake, read a book, fly a kite, that kind of stuff. Stuff you can't do every day.
And it hit me. I suddenly knew where I wanted the story to go. Because, as most of you don't know, I hit a couple of huge plot issues. I made the story too complicated. It was getting worse and worse, like a wound bleeding out and I couldn't manage to find a decent heal spell. I ran away for a while to play with Vicious Sun. I won NaNoWriMo with 55,555 words this year, beating last year's score by over 5,000. And I felt that bite of inspiration. I could do it.
And I can do it. I just hit 23 pages on the tenth *gulp* draft of the first section of Resonance. The story is divided into four parts, which means I have just about fifty pages in double space terms. That is enough for me to start sending out snippets to agents. Before then, I do have a pool of readers to tell me if I did write anything horrible, or type things backwards (yep, I have a habit of doing that), along with planning to send it into critters.org, a site where you can critique and get critiques on your stories.
Fortunately, I do get an hour long lunch where I work, which is about enough time for me to write a page or two on my tenth draft, which is a bonus I didn't have before. I also have insurance now that I'm full time, which is really good considering my ability to randomly injure myself/get pneumonia/bronchitis and stuff.
In other news, still trying to figure out a budget for a computer. Mine can no longer handle music and video without frying. Which means no art programs for more than an hour at a stretch. Tis sad, but at least I can still work on MS Word.
Trying to stay warm, and keeping fingers crossed for no snow,
Tania

What's Up???

Well, long time no post! We're into December, meaning that NaNoWriMo has been and gone. I succeeded with 55,555 words, beating last year's 50,059 words.
So, what am I working on now? Resonance.
Yep, that's right. I went back to Resonance, the story that has been kicking my butt for years due to too convoluted of a plot line. I've gone back to the beginning, and am reworking the introduction. Yet again. For the ninth time. I think...
So anyhow, just a quick update to let the world know I'm still alive, and still working.

Secret Project

Some of you are wondering about this "secret project" of mine. Sorry folks, you'll have to wait a while to find out what it is!
In other news, not too much is going on. Mainly a blog post to prove that I'm still alive and active.
That's really all for now...
I suppose.