250 Words a Day in May: Unlocked

I did it.

I decided at the end of April that I wanted to write more during the week but I also knew how hectic my life is and how I’m really not in a ~writing mood~ after work. So, after a brief brainstorming session, I landed on 250 words a day in May. I’m currently working on Book Three of the Broken Chronicles (it’s an adult f/f fantasy about a scribe who gets kidnapped and must face her fears and her past in order to survive the ordeal), and 250 words seemed like a reasonable number to me. One that wasn’t overwhelming. May 1st came around and I hit the ground running on my goal, that whole week I wrote 250 words (or more!). I was feeling really good about myself, to be honest. But then life got even more crazy – my parents got a new puppy who needed SO MUCH ATTENTION, my day job got stressful, and I got a bunch of long edits and a manuscript edit that ate into my evening time.

But guess what?

I still wrote.

Begrudgingly, some days. It would be 9:30 at night after a freelance edit, I’d open the manuscript and gathering words to write down would be like capturing dandelion fluff. Elusive and tiring. I would count every single word and as soon as I’d hit 250, I’d close the computer.

Other times I’d get annoyed that I hadn’t given myself time and space to write more words. After all 250 words isn’t even a scene (not how I write scenes anyway, ha!) and it would be frustrating to stop at a moment I was excited about because I was tired and it was late and I really needed to go to bed.

Most of the time, though, words flowed from me. I penned more than 250 words nearly every day. (Mostly to finish a scene or conversation.)

May was a really, really long month. My dayjob was stressful, my freelance editing took up a few hours every night (and still does), and sometimes I just really didn’t want to write.

But I did it anyway.

And I made my goal of 250 Word a Day in May.

I did it!

And you know what? I actually wrote 23,750 words last month. 23,750 WORDS!

IT’S AMAZING!

I am so damn proud of myself for doing it. And it proved to me that I actually could do it, too, write during the week even with my other jobs.

So what’s my takeaway from this experiment? Set goals for yourself. You never know what you can achieve until you try! Sappy? Yeah. But true? Hell yeah.

QUESTION: Has anyone else tried this type of goal out? If so, how’d it go? Did you reach the word count?

Hope you have a lovely rest of the week!
Warm regards,
Kellie

Meet My Traveling Group!

Happy 2021, everyone! I hope this year is going well thus far and you’re safe and happy. For the first blogpost of the new year, I’ve decided to dive into my fantasy world once again and introduce the main characters of Curling Vines & Crimson Trades!

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ORENDA SILVERSTONE

Orenda Silverstone is my main character and whose journey we’re following in this novel. She’s a rare-good trader and has a stellar reputation.

Here’s a closeup of the commission I got from Jhoanne Castro of Orenda!

Weapon of Choice: Gorgeous sword, hand-made by her parents. Burnt orange, paper-thin blade etched with Elu runes, the pommel wrapped around her hand in an intricate way, a blue-black crystal inset in the pommel.
Race + Crafting Color: Elu + Blue
Fun Fact: Her job takes her to many locations and cities across the lands and she enjoys being on the move, but home is where her heart is. She loves and worships two things: her goddess and her wife. The moon goddess Aluriah speaks to her, which was fun to showcase throughout the story. You’ll also meet Noss, Orenda’s wife!
Looks: She has really dark skin and is super short. She’s thick, has bushy curly black hair and pale green eyes. She normally wears scaled black armor, a blue shirt that peeks through and dark pants underneath, as well as super thick boots to protect her feet from all the walking her job as a trader demands.

LAN & LYRA PYER

Lan and Lyra Pyer are twin thieves in my world who steal more than trinkets. Orenda meets them in Chapter Three.

Lan Pyer
Weapon of Choice: He doesn’t really like fighting, though if he does snap, he uses his hands and his crafting.
Race + Crafting Color: Divus + White
Fun Fact: He’s a woodturner! He’s proud of his wood shop –Lan’s Luxurious Lumber—and he uses a pole-lathe to turn the wooden pieces, as well as carving tools for smaller details. Both enjoy SUPER sour fruits from their islands.
Looks: They look pretty similar—long thin blond hair, bright glowing golden eyes, thin near translucent skin, white blood, thin bodies, sharp smiles—and wear common Divus clothing—tight-fitting layered clothing of dark blue and gray colors, scarves—but they also wear fitted liquid-like scaled armor.

Lyra Pyer
Weapon of Choice: Daggers. All the daggers.
Race + Crafting Color: Divus + White
Fun Fact: She fell into the shop-keeping business but discovered she enjoyed the shadows more so she’s mostly in charge of the under-the-counter smuggling/thieving business. Both enjoy SUPER sour fruits from their islands.
Looks: They look pretty similar—long thin blond hair, bright glowing golden eyes, thin near translucent skin, white blood, thin bodies, sharp smiles—and wear common Divus clothing—tight-fitting layered clothing of dark blue and gray colors, scarves—but they also wear fitted liquid-like scaled armor.

Jax’ehra Nalinine

Jax is Orenda’s best friend and a trader herself, specializing in large game and hunting. It’s not uncommon to see Jax hauling live dragons through Marion proper.

Weapon of Choice: Metallic staff
Race + Crafting Color: Elu + Blue
Fun Fact: She knows sign language because her younger brother, Jimael, is deaf. It’s something she taught to Orenda during their childhood so Orenda and Jimael can chat. Not many people know this silent language though, so Jax likes how special it makes them.
Looks: She’s got lighter skinned and tiny ears, as well as super curly white hair and orange eyes. She’s short and thicccc (note all the c’s). She wears soft brown clothing with green wyvern scaled armor on top.

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And there you go! I had a great time creating these characters and they clash beautifully within the story—especially Orenda and Lyra. I’m always curious about this so if you’ve read CV&CT or any of my novels, which character is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

And if you want your very own ~Character Card of Orenda Silverstone~ send proof of purchase of CV&CT and your mailing address to this email, and I’ll send you one in the mail. The card is on high quality glossy paper, and I’ll write a personalized message on the back!

Hope you have a lovely rest of the week!
Warm regards,
Kellie

All About CV&CT Preorder Gifts

Hi there and Happy Saturday!

This week has been a whirlwind of Thanksgiving prep ~ planning, purchasing, cooking, cleaning, EATING which is the best part, chatting with extended family which is also pretty cool ~ and that’s not even talking about my dayjob. Work has been really busy, friends.

And on top of all that, I’ve been shouting about my preorder campaign for CURLING VINES & CRIMSON TRADES.

The crazy thing, my preorder campaign closes at 11:59 Sunday night ~ TOMORROW NIGHT ~ in preparation for the launch of CV&CT on Monday, November 30! WHICH IS SO CLOSE I COULD LITERALLY START DANCING RIGHT NOW!

And you should be dancing too, because you still have two whole days to purchase your ebook version during my preorder campaign. The ebook is at a discounted price right now and if you follow my preorder campaign instructions, you can get the following gifts mailed right to your house!

And you know what the best part of this is? I DESIGNED ALL OF THIS STUFF. My master’s degree in book publishing is shining through, eh? Eh?

For the bookmark, I used Rachel George Illustration’s cover design. I modeled it off of the SUNKISSED FEATHERS & SEVERED TIES bookmark from last year so they’re consistent. I’m thrilled with how the colors came out.

For the bookplate, I used Adobe Illustrator to create the vine image at the bottom (which took like three hours), created a super simple crescent shape, and then found a typeface that looked nice with everything.

For the character card, I used character artwork I had commissioned from Jhoanne Castro to feature Orenda Silverstone. She’s my main character for CV&CT so I wanted to highlight her.

A CV&CT Bookmark, designed from the cover by Rachel George Illustrations!

A CV&CT-inspired Bookplate!

A Character Card, artwork designed by Jhoanne Castro!

Pretty cool, right? HELL YES! There’s also a grand prize for one lucky winner.

One funny thing is that I’ve been shouting about the preorder campaign, and I brainstormed the gifts and designed them and got them shipped here…but I didn’t realize until this weekend that I’d also need to get envelopes to ship the prizes out.

Envelopes!!

THAT’S what I forgot. So…yeah, I need to get some of those. Wish me luck, eh? Oh, and remember books make lovely gifts, too! Preorder for an ebook or wait until November 30th for a physical copy.

TWO MORE DAYS!
Warm regards,
Kellie

Curling Vines & Crimson Trades HYPE

Curling Vines & Crimson Trades comes out on November 30!!

YOU READ THAT RIGHT.

THIS MONTH.

20 DAYS AWAY!

I’m pretty much this guy:

Soooo yeah, that’s happening and I’m thrilled and nervous and excited and hoping that people will enjoy the story that I worked really hard on and am so damn proud of.

In case you didn’t know, Curling Vines & Crimson Trades is a queer adult fantasy centered on a rare goods trader named Orenda whose wife gets kidnapped and she has to complete some nearly impossible tasks and trades in order to get her back. The problem is, her best friend also has a list, and her final job is to kill Orenda.

The story features a swordswoman with broken magic, thieving twins who steal more than trinkets, and best friends who try to kill one another. It has themes of trust, reconnecting with something once lost, and learning how to speak when others want to silence you.

Keep an eye on my social media for more cool updates about the upcoming launch. Exciting things will be happening.

In fact, some of the exciting things are happening RIGHT NOW.

You can now read a sneak peek of Chapter One on my website!!

And I’m doing a Cobalt Celebration over on my Instagram in honor of Orenda’s crafting color so be sure to check that out, too.

AWESOME, RIGHT? Hell yeah!

(See how I did that.)

And hey, if you’re interested in receiving an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review, would like to interview me, or want me to write a guest post for your blog, please fill out this Google form. I’d love to chat.

Thanks!
Warm regards,
Kellie

The Publishing Process: Curling Vines & Crimson Trades

SO MANY THINGS ARE HAPPENING FOR MY UPCOMING NOVEL!

Last month I finally came up with the title for the second book in my adult fantasy series I’ve just been calling “Orenda’s story:” Curling Vines & Crimson Trades.

The first Thursday of this month (July 2) I turned in Curling Vines & Crimson Trades to Desert Palm Press and now I’m a ball of excitement. I celebrated with some wine and cookies, like you do. 🙂

So now that the manuscript has been turned in to the publishing house, a couple of things gets set in motion. Every publisher is different, of course, but here are some things we need to start working on.

1. Editing: The manuscript sits the editor for the first round of edits for the big overarching changes (also known as developmental editing) and then it comes back to me to incorporate those edits. It goes back to the editor for a second round of edits for the line-level changes like grammar and spelling and punctuation (also known as copyediting) and then it comes back to me again to incorporate them again. After that second round of edits, it goes back to the publisher to get the interior designed. Once the interior design is finished, I get to see a printed version and give it one more pass through. So right now for Curling Vines & Crimson Trades, it’s in the editor’s hands.
2. Cover Design: There’s a cover design brief that I need to work on right now. It’s a document where I write out a synopsis for the cover designer to give them a feel of the book and work on the blurb for the back cover. I add in keywords and themes and any kinds of cover ideas I have so the designer can read through it and create the artwork. I’ve been doing a whole lot of work on that this week. After I turn that in, the designer creates mockups for me and Desert Palm Press to review (trying out different fonts and scenes and such). Then we pick the one that best suits the book!
3. Marketing: This is such a huge thing that Desert Palm Press and that I work on. And I really have to actually start working on it. On my side of things, I’ll have a giant Word document where I put all my links and ideas about marketing. I have a list of possible places for reviews, interview/articles/press releases, podcasts, newsletters, guest posts, etc. Then I have another document that has drafts of each of those asks (so, for example, I’ll have an email draft where I ask someone to review Curling Vines & Crimson Trades, another draft where I ask if someone would be willing to interview me, etc). I’ll prep Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts. I’ll figure out events and brainstorm some other unique ideas to push the book out into the world. (Virtually, because COVID is still a huge deal.) Anyway, I still need to work on this quite a lot. If you run a blog, a newspaper, or a podcast and would like to feature me and my book, let me know! I’m always open for new ideas.

So…yeah, SO MANY THINGS ARE HAPPENING and I am so incredibly excited for all of it. Just so you know, I’ll have way more announcements once I know more: once the cover design is finalized, some marketing ideas, the pub date, etc. (Also: If you want to keep more up-to-date on writing stuff, consider signing up to my newsletter ~ Synergy Newsletter ~ which is Only Good News these days since the world is on fire. It goes out twice a month.)

Hope you’re having a lovely weekend thus far!
Warm regards,
Kellie

Say What? A Sunkissed Feathers Pronunciation Guide.

Fantasy and science fiction, in general, have some hard-to-pronounce words since the writers are usually making things up—names, villages, magics, techs, etc.—and while it’s tempting to have a character named Bob, that usually isn’t the case. (Or if there was a character named that, chances are that character’s name would be spelled Boyb or something.)

My novel – Sunkissed Feathers & Severed Ties – is no different. It’s high fantasy and has some interesting names tucked within its pages. Some of my readers wanted a pronunciation guide, so I’m creating one for some common words. I’ll begin with a few character, race, and species names:

• Zora – Zor-ah
• Dylori – Die-lore-ee
• Arias – Ah-rye-us
• Zarious – Zar-ee-us
• Aluriah – Al-er-i-ah
• Ponuriah – Pon-oo-ri-ah
• Elu – E-loo
• Nemora – Ne-more-ah
• Divus – Deh-vus
• Vagari – Vah-gar-ee
• Vulnix – vul-nix
• Neades – nee-dees

I hope that’s helpful to my readers out there. ❤ Let me know which words are hard to pronounce – or which ones you’d like to see my version of how to say them – in the comments and I’ll add them to my next list!

Happy Saturday, everyone!
Warm regards,
Kellie