What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up, put on by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. If you'd like to join click on the links above!

What I'm Reading:
Some really great stuff. I finished Charm and Strange, which completely broke my heart. The writing evoked a lot of emotions in me, which is what we all want as readers. I also read Cruel Beauty, a truly unique take on Beauty and the Beast. I definitely fell in love with the writing in this one as well. Then there's OCD Love Story. I wasn't a great fan of the MC, but still appreciated the story and gained a whole new perspective on the disorder. The other day I got through Lovely Dark and Deep, which was also all sorts of heartbreaking with the kind of poetic writing I'll never be able to accomplish but can wholly appreciate as a reader. The ending left me a bit unsatisfied, that's my only complaint.

What I'm Writing:
Being in the query trenches has had me down a little bit, I'll admit. I still have requests out with agents and am anxiously waiting for their responses, but there's been plenty of rejection as well. It's put me in a funk. Thankfully I have YA Buccaneers keeping me in line. After a Saturday session weeding I felt reinvigorated and realized I'm not giving up. I'm moving on by revising Fading and will continue writing until I land that mystical dream agent.

What Inspires Me Right Now:
Good health. Since I'm in recovery mode and it has been nice to function properly again. I was sick two weeks ago and got better, but was still feeling a little under the weather, then this weekend it hit me again. I'm hoping this time around it stick.s

What Else I've Been Up To:
We're looking to buy a new family vehicle. Either a truck or a larger SUV (not too much bigger since I would be afraid to ever get behind the wheel). It's exciting! We're having fun test driving our options and discussing which route we'd like to take for our family.

What have you been up to?

Spring Boot Camp Check In

CLICK HERE To Join In!

I keep disappearing. I don't mean to, but here I am! This last week was a good week. I got in 2k : ) Given how unproductive I'd been the previous week, it felt good. But I came to a realization while weeding on Saturday afternoon (it was sunny and a bit chilly, perfect for yard work) I want to focus the rest of this month on revisions. I'm loving drafting Ashes, but Fading has so much potential and I've been ignoring it because I'm a little bit afraid of how amazing it can be. I want to finish up the revisions by (hopefully) the end of this month to get it ready for CPs. Once that's done, then I'll draft Ashes some more.

So new goal for April: Finish revisions!
Goal for this week: Revise 50 pages!

Spring Boot Camp Check-In

If you want to join in CLICK HERE!

I apologize for having disappeared, but I've been dealing with sick kids, then with sick me. I hate that I get a sinus infection when the smallest hint of a runny nose comes along. Suffice to say, writing hasn't been my top priority. Sleeping, on the other hand, has been my best friend. I feel so run down and exhausted. I slept for almost ten hours the other night and still felt like I'd run a marathon when I walked up the stairs.

I did get some work in. I was able to get about 1k into my new WIP and another chapter of revisions. Which isn't bad, but is slower than I'd like to go. I'm still not sure if I want to cut a POV yet. I keep going back and forth about it. I'm hoping I'll have it figured out soon. Hoping my other Team Mountaineers are having better luck than me. From the Twitter Updates it seems like they're kicking some serious butt! My goal for this week is to get 2k written in the WIP and another two chapter of revisions.

Blog Tour Interview: Krista Wayment

Today I'm very excited to interview the awesome Krista Wayment. I met Krista last year when a few of us Pitch Wars Rejects (AWESOME and TALENTED rejects) got together and formed a critique group. Thanks to Krista and the other awesome ladies my query and 250 were polished up nicely.

When I heard Krista was planning on self-pubbing her MG novel, TRUSTED, I knew I had to help out in any way possible! Which is why I'm so excited to have her here on my blog for a Dragontastic interview (see what I did there?):

(Q)How did you get into this writing gig in the first place? (I love hearing author journey stories)

(A)My mom says that I've been telling stories since I could talk. I've always had an over active imagination and writing was a great outlet for that. I've been writing since about 4th grade but didn't settle down to write a novel until high school. It took me 10 years to finish my first novel which is now locked away in a dark corner. Trusted was a much better (and faster) attempt. I tried to get an agent/traditional publisher for Trusted but decided not to wait for others to discover it's worth to give it a chance. So I am independently publishing it.

(Q)What attracted you to MG fiction? (I think writing for that age group is much harder than YA or Adult and admire anyone willing to venture into that genre)

(A)I think MG fiction is so much more imaginative. At least, reading MG sparks my imagination more. There is something about writing for that age group that lets you go back to the days when responsibilities didn't get in the way and you can just have an adventure. Also, I fell into the MG age range when I fell in love with reading--and science fiction and fantasy in particular. I think it is a great age to be discovering reading.

(Q)What inspired you to write Trusted?

(A)I wanted to write about dragons. I love dragons. I'm border-line obsessed with them. But I had never written a story about them. As I started brainstorming and building the world I started to get a clear idea of the characters and the challenges they faced. Once my interested was sparked, I had to finish the story.

(Q)Okay, if you could have a dragon for real (how cool would that be?!?) what color and characteristics would it have?

(A)I think green. Or red. Because those are two of my favorite colors. And it would have to be spunky and a little playful. I'm a big tease but I also tend to take life to seriously sometimes. So my dragon pal would have to be able to make me laugh.

There you have it folks! Thank you, Krista, for letting me a part of this exciting new adventure! TRUSTED will be available through Amazon on March 27th so mark your calendars! Here are the details of the book:

Renick, the fifth son of a dragon breeder, crashes into an unexpected adventure that challenges everything he thought he knew about dragons, history, and himself.

Stranded in the massive Helath forest, Renick meets two other passengers: Thane, a noble training to be a dragon knight, and Lainey, the orphaned niece of a healer. Together they survive an attack by vicious wolves, rescue a baby dragon with a broken wing, and escape from a band of dragon hunters as they make a perilous climb into the mountains. What they discover there will change everything.

For more information on the book and release and on Krista check out her website: http://www.kristawayment.com/

YA Buccaneers: Spring Writing Bootcamp

Okay, I mentioned on Wednesday that I'm taking part in The YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Bootcamp. If you want more information just click on the link above. This Friday is the first check-in and I wanted to post my goals and update how I've done thus far. 

Goals:

-Revise the WIP I just finished (YA Contemporary Romance), which may finally have a title! FADING, is the title in progress. It might change over time, but I like it so far. 

-Draft new YA Psychological Thriller I can't get off my mind. This one is titled Haunting Ash. I think this title is going to stick.

So far I've gone through the first five pages of Fading and made a few tweaks here and there. I'm actually pretty happy with the first chapter, which is rare. I'm a little afraid because this story has two POVs but I'm thinking during revisions it might work better with just one- the male POV, which is even scarier! I'm still on the fence about it. I guess I should add that to my list of goals. 

I've also written 5k in Haunting Ash, but they're all over the place. I jumped around a lot. I've been really good with the last couple manuscripts about this, sticking to the timeline, but there are so many things coming to me at once with this story that I can't help but write down the specific scene that started it. 

I'm so excited to take part in this challenge! I've deemed this year The Writing Year, because I want to focus much more my writing than in the past and this Bootcamp is exactly what I need in order to keep up this 2014 goal. I hope you guys will join in!

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up, put on by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. If you'd like to join click on the links above!

What I'm Reading:
I finished up A Mad Wicked Folly and was quite happy with that read. Now I'm working on Untold, the sequel to Unspoken! It's exciting to know there's only one book left in this series so I won't be waiting YEARS to find out what happens.

What I'm Writing:
YA Bucaneers are running a Spring Writing Bootcamp and I'm very excited to take part. I want to revise my WIP and finish up drafting my new story. I'm 4k in already. I'm supposed to be taking a break, but can't seem to get away from this new idea. When inspiration is flowing you have to quench the thirst.

What Inspires Me Right Now:
This new idea. Any idea, really, that gets me writing. There are so many stories waiting to be told, we just have to sit down and write them. That's quite inspiring.

What Else I've Been Up To:
I watched A Little Princess yesterday. It's one of my all time favorite movies. When I was a kid I'd watch it over and over and over again. My girls aren't quite old enough to appreciate it, but I can't wait until they understand the message: that we're all Princesses. That we're all special and can overcome any hardship. I love that Sarah uses her imagination to escape the horrible things that befall her. I'm surprised I haven't read the book so I downloaded it onto my Kindle last night and can't wait to read it.

That's all folks, what's up with you?

Writer Recharge: Last Update

I did it! It wasn't easy, by any means, but the first draft of the new WIP is done. Thank you February and the awesome ladies who hosted Writer Recharge for giving me the push I needed! So what's next? A much needed break. There is another project I've kind of been working on that I might try out, but I'm not going to push it. I think a week or two away from writing might be in order. Hope all you other Writer Recharge participants had success, even if you didn't end up reaching your goal, anything at all is progress!