Writing Plans for 2013

Okay, everyone, this post is going to have a lot of pictures (nine, if anyone actually cares to know). I've made some changes in my plans for 2013, but I'd really like to get some of my books written. So, here is my tentative schedule for the year.

Let's start with January and February 2013, where I will be jumping into the second book in the Project Death series. Project Death: Revelation is a fun story because it is both prequel and sequel. Not only do I get to do more with the Tamesis and Thanos story line, as well as getting more into the Leaders and the Resurrectors, but I also get to explore how Thanos came to be Death, which is pretty fun.

Then comes March 2013. You guys have heard me mention this story before, though I am pleased to say that it actually has a title now. Previously I referred to it as Amaranth 1, but I have come up with both the title for the trilogy and the titles for each individual story. The first book, which will be undergoing a massive re-write since I first worked on it in November 2006, will be called Amaranth Enchanted, and it will be the first book of The Morrigan's Legacy.

 

 In April and May 2013 my focus will shift back to the Project Death series. The reason why the Project Death novels are getting two months is because I really want them to have a more complete rough draft by the time I am finished, whereas the other books will simply be as much as I can write in that time. So April and May will be for Project Death: Redemption. It introduces the character of Julianne, who was told of both Death and the Resurrectors and fully expected someone to be with her when she died. No one was there and she was left unclaimed, drifting alone.

 For June 2013, I'm hoping to be able to jump into the second book of The Morrigan's Legacy. I'm actually really looking forward to this because I have missed writing the adventures of Lexa and her friends, and more importantly the mythological land of Amaranth. So, I will be focusing on A Kingdom Cursed, which takes place a year after the first book.

Then in July and August 2013 I will once again be back to the Project Death series, working on the final book, which follows two new characters, Pax and Treasa, who are the daughters of Tamesis and Thanos. The war between the Resurrectors and those who protect Balance will finally end and even now it is unclear to me who will survive, so I'm predicting that Project Death: Restoration will have quite a few surprises for me.

In September I will be wrapping up the Souls trilogy, by focusing on Souls Crossing. I have decided that 2013 is mostly for me to try and finish up some of my oldest books and series. The story lines have buried themselves in the back of my mind and I'd like to finally get them written down so I will be more able to write my new story ideas.

Speaking of finishing books and series, in October 2013 my goal is to finish The Morrigan's Legacy. It should be an interesting story and it will be nice to have so many books finished by this point. I really enjoy reading about mythology and reading books with mythological elements so I enjoyed writing the first rough draft of the first book for NaNoWriMo. Anyway, the final book in this trilogy will be A Land Blessed.

Though I have mentioned working on old books for 2013, November and December are not exactly as old as the rest. For NaNoWriMo 2013 in November, I plan on working on The Graveyard Shift, which I wanted to work on for NaNo in 2010 but got wrapped up in another idea instead. Also, the cover may end up changing because I'm thinking of going to a cemetery to get a sunset or twilight shot to better fit the feel and premise of the story, but for now, here's what I have:

Finally, in December 2013, I will be working on Dare to Touch, which is an idea I've wanted to work on for a couple years now but haven't really had the chance. I'd really like to feel like I've accomplished something in 2013, so I guess you could say that writing for each of this stories is my New Year's Resolution, even though I'm making it now.

Again, I feel like saying I lied...At the beginning of the post I said I was putting up nine pictures, but there's one more I have to add. There is another story I work on a little at a time, when I am blocked on another story, and I plan to continue on it through 2013 and see just how far I get with it. So my "on the side" story is The Life and Death of a Seer.

Well, I guess that's for all. Until next time.

From the Stacks: The Lost Prince

Sorry for the delay guys. I was busy and without internet, and then I was trying to catch up on sleep. Anyway, this week take a walk into the land ruled by the fey with The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa.

The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa
ISBN: 978-0-373-21057-2

Summary:

"Don't look at Them

Never let Them know

you can see Them

That is Ethan Chase's unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs - including his reputation - begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he'd dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister's world - the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myth and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.

My name is Ethan Chase.

And I may not live to see my

eighteenth birthday."

My Thoughts:

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed every one of Julie Kagawa's books, though I have yet to read The Immortal Rules. I didn't find the Iron Fey series until the third book was about to be released and I devoured them extremely quickly. So, finding out that she was starting a spin-off series featuring Meghan's little brother Ethan was awesome. 

It took me just a little bit to adjust to having Ethan as a grown young man. In the books centering around Meghan, Ethan was just a child. I will also completely admit to crushing on him just a little bit, though in the beginning I did not like how he acted like a jerk to keep people at a distance. But then enter Kenzie, who is persistent and doesn't just let Ethan push her away.

Kenzie adjusted to being brought to the Nevernever fairly quickly, which I kind of liked, but discovering the secret Kenzie was hiding knocked me for a loop. I'm pretty sure I will end up crying at a later time, unless Julie Kagawa has some secret plan in mind.

This spin-off series had special guest appearances by some of my favorite characters in the original series: Meghan, Ash, Puck, and Grim, so I was pretty darn happy. Then of course there was the new trifecta of main characters: Ethan, Kenzie, and Keirran.

It is amazing and I can't wait until the next one, The Traitor Son, which is expected in late 2013 (Goodreads says September). All in all, 5/5.

The Lost Prince at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lost-prince-julie-kagawa/1110313568?ean=9780373210572&itm=1&usri=the+lost+prince

The Lost Prince at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Prince-Iron-Fey/dp/0373210574/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354072989&sr=1-1&keywords=the+lost+prince

Other Readings:

I'm in the middle of A Soul for Trouble by Christa McHugh, as well as Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I am also reading Alchemystic by Anton Strout and Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. So far I have finished 71 books this year.

How Time Flies

It seems like just yesterday that I was waiting for November to arrive so I could start work on my novel. Now, here it is, the 20th of November, and I am dangerously close to reaching that 50,000 word mark. This has also been a week where I start planning my ideas and stories for the next couple of months. I have to do my final edits for Project Death: Resurrection and then come January I'll be able to jump into the sequel, Project Death: Revelation.

I'm both looking forward to and dreading 2013. I have a lot of writing plans and goals and so I'm eager to spend the time working on and editing those projects. At the same time, next year I turn 25. I'm as-of-yet still unpublished, still looking for a job in a library so I can utilize my Master's in Library and Information Science, and though I'm not looking, my romantic life is pathetic as well. Sometimes it makes me feel like a bit of a failure, especially seeing all of my friends and classmates married and having children.

I want 2013 to be a good year.

That means that I really need to focus on my writing and getting as much finished as I can. I will continue with my Tuesday writing update posts and my Friday From the Stacks review posts, but my non-online self needs to set specific goals for writing time and reading time. Maybe by creating a schedule will help me not waste so much time.

Anyway, NaNoWriMo is going quite well. On Saturday I went up to my old region for a write-in and that was pretty fun. I think I managed something like 2,100 words there, which was nice, and then I came home and continued writing for a few more hours.

I plan on doing about 3,500 words today and then hopefully the other 3,500 I need tomorrow. I want to cross the 50,000 word mark before Thanksgiving so I don't have to worry about my writing when I'm spending time with my family and then going in to work. After work on Thursday I am going to drive down to one of my best friend's house because we are going to a concert on Friday. Basically it means that I won't be able to do much writing Friday or Saturday even.

I will say that I will have a From the Stacks post up on Friday...I just don't think that it will be Alchemystic like I said last week. I think I'm going to move Julie Kagawa's The Lost Prince up to Friday since I read it a couple weeks ago, and then I'll move Alchemystic to Dec 7th, which was when I was originally going to review The Lost Prince.

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 42,862
At This Rate You Will Finish: November 23, 2012

From the Stacks: The Stepsister Scheme

Boy, what a week this has been. I'm thinking that maybe at the end of the year I'll have to do a week of From the Stacks post because of how many books I've been reading lately. See, doing one review a week means that I'll be doing 52 reviews...but I read more like 80+ books in a year. I feel bad about those books who get left behind. What do you guys think? Would it be nice if I did a week of reviews at the end of December?

Anyway, yes, today I am back to another Jim C. Hines book. Why? Because he is an amazing author! I absolutely loved Libriomancer and I can't wait for the next book to come out. Seeing that he had a series of four books that twisted princess fairy tales, I couldn't resist. Fairy tales are back to popularity, and you can especially see that with shows like "Once Upon A Time" and "Grimm" and I really just love reading fairy tales  anyway.

Today on From the Stacks I'm looking at The Stepsister Scheme, which takes a few very well known princesses and brings back some of the dark elements of their stories, you know, the ones Disney didn't include.

The Stepsister Scheme
ISBN: 978-0-7564-0532-8

Summary:

"You know how all those old fairy tales take you through lots of scary adventures till you finally reach that inevitable line: "And they lived happily ever after..." Guess what? It's not true. Life in never-never land isn't all sweetness and light. Cinderella-whose real name is Danielle Whiteshore (nee Danielle de Glas)-does marry Prince Armand. And (if you can ignore the pigeon incident) their wedding is a dream-come-true.

But not long after the "happily ever after," Danielle is attacked by her stepsister Charlotte, who suddenly has all sorts of magic to call upon. And though Talia-otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty-comes to the rescue (she's a martial arts master, and all those fairy blessings make her almost unbeatable), Charlotte gets away.

That's when Danielle discovers a number of disturbing facts: Armand has been kidnapped and taken to the realm of the Fairies; Danielle is pregnant with his child; and the Queen has her own very Secret Service that consists of Talia and Snow (White, of course). Snow is an expert at mirror magic and heavy-duty flirting.

Can the three princesses track down Armand and extract both the prince and themselves from the clutches of some of fantasyland's most nefarious villains?"

My Thoughts:

Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! Mr. Hines, your books are amazing. There is a romantic interest of one of the three princesses that first caused me to gasp in surprise and then start hoping for much more (and I certainly hope for more of it in the next books). Do I really have to say here that I'm giving this book 5/5?

Okay, so I'll be completely honest: Danielle/Cinderella...not my favorite character, but I've felt that way about Cinderella for a number of years and I can't really describe why. In this book I definitely loved Talia and Snow (whose real name is Ermillina) so much more. Talia has a really dark past and I have to say when she finally told the true story of her past, I was shocked. It definitely wasn't a happy tale, but it does help you to understand her so much as a character.

A majority of the characters in this book are female and I thought that Jim Hines did a great job in handling them, and honestly, I was sort of glad that Armand wasn't in the book all that much. I liked seeing the bonds of companionship and then friendship building between the main three ladies. And they really are some strong female characters, who don't need men to fight their battles for them. They are real too. They have emotional depth and histories that make you empathize with them.

I definitely will be picking up the second book, The Mermaid's Madness, which brings in (obviously) the Little Mermaid, then the third book, Red Hood's Revenge, which has Red Riding Hood as an assassin, and then the series ends with The Snow Queen's Shadow. 

Jim Hines...after reading and loving two of your books now, I can say that I am a fan for life.

The Stepsister Scheme at Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stepsister-scheme-jim-c-hines/1100361105?ean=9780756405328

The Stepsister Scheme at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Stepsister-Scheme-PRINCESS-NOVELS/dp/0756405327/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353086819&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Stepsister+Scheme

Other Readings:

Next Friday I am going to a concert, but I will still have my From the Stacks post up for you guys. I have been reading the amazing Elemental series by Brigid Kemmerer (two novellas and two novels so far) so I'll probably be reviewing them in my end-of-year specials. I am in the middle of reading Alchemystic by Anton Strout and that will be next week's book. I've also just started Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and I'm really enjoying it so far. And I have to tell you guys...I really need to focus so I can finally finish reading Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. It's good but I typically only read a couple chapters at a time so it's slow going. 

Well, that's all for this week. I'll be back on Tuesday for another NaNoWriMo writing update. Speaking of...I should probably get back to writing.

What NaNo Means to Me

This week I guess you guys get a bonus post. Today is Donation Day for the Office of Letters and Light, specifically the program NaNoWriMo. Obviously, I know I talk about both the OLL and NaNoWriMo a lot, and if you are bothered by that, I'm sorry but I'm not going to apologize for it. (No one has really complained about me talking about it so much, but just in case...).

I love NaNoWriMo. It is an amazing program and without it I don't think that I would be quite the writer that I am today.

On Twitter today they are having people use the hashtag #whatnanomeanstome. What I feel for NaNoWriMo cannot be condensed down to 140 characters, so instead, I have this blog post.

I discovered NaNoWriMo in November 2005 and decided to participate for the first time in 2006. Since then I have never regretted that decision and November has become the month I look forward to each and every year. It gave me a confidence in myself and my writing ability that I wouldn't have had otherwise. In college when a professor would assign a paper that needed to be so many pages long I would laugh to myself, because nothing they assigned could ever compare to the challenge and exhilaration of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

NaNoWriMo has introduced me to a community of people who are just like me, who love to write, to create, to challenge themselves, and they have formed a family for me. Though my parents say that they support me in anything I do, I don't really feel any encouragement from them. My NaNo family though is always there for me, and not just during NaNo-season. My region has started to meet all year round because we have found something special together while bonding over NaNoWriMo.

Over the years I have seen a number of NaNoWriMo participants get book deals and publish and see their writing dreams come true, and you know what, they started off just like me, a participant with an idea and a dream. Seeing the success of fellow writers really makes me believe that I am capable of following through with my goals.

I talk about NaNoWriMo all the time, to anyone who will listen to me. As an ML for my region, I absolutely love scheduling write-ins and going to restaurants, coffee shops, and the library to write. Just yesterday at a write-in one of my new Wrimos told me that I seem really passionate about this program, and that's the honest truth...I do.

When I dream with my friends about where I would like to move for work if I could go anywhere, well okay, I'd love to go over to Europe, but more realistically, when I think of somewhere in the United States, my answer is to go to San Francisco. I would love to be so close to the OLL headquarters and donate whatever time I could to help them with their creative efforts.

NaNoWriMo is more than just a writing challenge for me. It is a way of life, a calling, a family, a home. It makes me feel important and happy and exhilarated and smart and like I can be successful at something. NaNoWriMo means everything to me. I am so glad to have discovered this amazing program and I will continue to help in any way I can to support their efforts. Whether that is blogging, Tweeting, volunteering my efforts as an ML for my regions, advocating to anyone within earshot, I will.

Please...if you are at all able, consider donating to NaNoWriMo. It means so many different things to so many different people, but for me, as a writer and as a librarian, NaNoWriMo is about books: reading them, writing them, and loving them, and there can never be enough of that love in the world.

You can donate by going here: https://store.lettersandlight.org/donations

Mid-Month Reflections

I love writing. Really, other than reading it is the best form of escapism for me. Of course these past couple years another great form of escape came from hopping on my motorcycle and going for long rides out in the country. The difficult thing these past couple years is that I've been at home (with my parents) and in some ways that has beaten down my creativity levels. When I was in high school, then in undergraduate studies, and even my first semester of grad school, writing came so easily to me and I was constantly inspired to just write.

In high school I would get so much done in study halls, and sometimes I would jot down bits and pieces of stories during classes.When I reached college I was living in the dorms and found myself surrounded by so many other creative personalities and it seemed that my stories just poured out of me and I couldn't stop them.

That all started to shift starting with my second semester of grad school. I moved back home and decided to commute because it would save me money. But it took me away from all of the creative minds I was used to being around and left me at home with my mom, dad, and brother. Don't get me wrong; I love my family and I'm really glad that they are letting me stay at home while I try to find a job with one of my college degrees, but it has gotten so much more difficult to write.

I picked out the wall color in my bedroom and decided where each piece of furniture would go. I hung up my posters just like I did in college...but even with all that, something is missing, and it is making the time I spend sitting at my desk feel more like a chore than something I love doing.

Even now I am having issues. I love Souls Abandoned and I really know the characters, but my writing has slowed down severely since the first few days of NaNoWriMo. Okay, yes, here is where I could go into how it is the fault of my family, or all the stress I deal with at work every day, or whatever, but really the problem is with me. I'm not going to try and push the blame onto anyone or anything else. It is my fault that my mental creativity levels are not at optimum levels because I am not capable of pushing aside all the stress from my personal life so I can focus on telling these amazing stories. (Well, okay, I think they're amazing; I'm not sure about other people).

My best day of writing was on November 1st and that was because of the kick-off party. Spending time with many of the other Wrimos in my region was great and it fueled up my creative juices for the rest of the day. I write better when I'm around other people who are also partaking in creative endeavors. If my work schedule was less erratic I would try to have a write-in every day or every other day just to absorb that creative energy.

Someday I will get my library job and I'll be able to move into my own apartment or home. I can honestly say that I hope the writing goes so much better then, because frankly, I do miss sitting at my computer and pounding out several thousand words a day.

* * *

Okay, here I am about ten hours after I wrote that top bit. Yes, those feelings and thoughts still exist, but I did manage to get some writing done...over 3,000 words on a Monday is pretty good. This I can attribute to participating in a Word War with a member of my NaNo region who was hosting a write-in I could not make due to work. I wrote 1,300 words in 30 minutes and then did another word war for 1,400 words in 30 minutes...add those to the few hundred words I wrote this morning and it makes for a pretty decent day.

Later today (because it just now became Tuesday) I am having a write-in with my region. We are checking out a local coffee shop and I'm hoping to be able to add a few more thousand words to my total word count.  As it stands now I should definitely be able to hit 30,000 words by the end of the day, but since that is less than 2,000 for the day, I think I'm going to try and aim more for about 35,000...maybe? It sounds like a halfway decent plan. I'd really like to cross the 50,000 word line before Thanksgiving. I am going to a concert the day after Turkey Day and I'd like to be able to relax a little and okay, fine, maybe boast about how I won NaNoWriMo for the seventh year in a row.

I think it is definitely an accomplishment to boast about...right?

Current word count: 28,075
At this rate you will finish on: November 23, 2012 (I think that will change greatly after a high word count day.)

Not So Unwelcome Distractions

Okay, I admit it, for a few days I was so stressed out over work that I came home and could not even think of working on Souls Abandoned. If I had then it was likely that I would have killed off everybody, because that is how frustrated work made me. Considering a number of my characters are ghosts already, that probably wouldn't have worked too well. So, anyway, I took a few days of not writing, but I continued to think about what I wanted to write.

On Saturday I was scheduled to work for 9 hours to do a job that usually takes me about 7.5 hours. Well, I figured I would take advantage of that and use my note app on my phone to get at least a few hundred words written. When all was said and done I managed to write just over 2,000 words while at work, but 1,700 of those words were on the sequel to my first novel written for NaNoWriMo. The titles of that trilogy basically sucked so right now I'm just calling it the Amaranth trilogy and if I work on any of the books then they are saved under Amaranth 1, Amaranth 2, and Amaranth 3. That first NaNovel started out with my main character Lexa having a dream, and while I was working the opening dream for Amaranth 2 burst into the front of my mind and I could not avoid it.

Of course, writing all that on the beginning of Amaranth 2 just made me start thinking and lately it seems like stories I've pushed aside are fighting their way back to the front, wanting to be written and finished. These "newer" story ideas, the ones I have not done much more than a very basic outline for, are ones that in all honesty could be set aside for a later time. So, really, my writing schedule I made a couple months back for 2013 may have to change completely so I can accommodate some of my very persistent and sometimes rude characters.

Now, I still plan on working on the rest of the Project Death series. I want to have those rough drafts done next year definitely. Then, it would be nice to finish the rough drafts of the Souls trilogy and I would love to be able to finish the Amaranth trilogy. Here's the cool part about all of these: both the Project Death series and the Souls trilogy were started when I was in high school and if I remember correctly I set Souls Abandoned aside back then because of the idea for Project Death: Resurrection. So, that was back in 2005-6. Now, towards the end of 2012 both of these stories are screaming for completion. A six-year semi-hiatus is not nice for the characters but putting them aside has made me grow, mature, and gain perspective on the stories.

So, in 2013, with any luck I will be able work on and finish some of these stories...and that includes actually coming up with titles for the Amaranth trilogy.

Souls Abandoned
Current word count: 24,965
At this rate you will finish on: Nov 20, 2012

From the Stacks: Tangled Web

This week I find myself completely entangled by a book I was lucky enough to win through Goodreads First Reads Giveaways. So far all of my new free books have been absolute delights to read and this is one I really did not want to put down. It mixed my love of Ancient Rome with my love of intriguing plot lines and romantic relationships I really want to see succeed.

Tangled Web by Crista McHugh
ISBN: 978-1-62061-031-2

Summary:

"The deadliest assassin in the empire just got too close to her target...

Azurha, a beautiful former slave turned deadliest assassin in the empire, has just been offered the ultimate challenge-seduce, then murder the new emperor. But Titus is not the tyrant his forefathers were, and his radical ideas might be the glimmer of hope the empire needs.

Titus Sergius Flavus has yet to master the powerful magic of his ancestors-magic he must wield if he's to protect his people-but his father's death has left him no choice. Rule the Deizian Empire and attempt to right his ancestors' wrongs, or watch her fall to his greedy kin.

More than just Titus's ideas hold Azurha captive. Night after night, he awakens desires she thought lost and uncovers the magic of her hidden lineage. As her deadline approaches, Azurha is forced to make an impossible decision-complete her job and kill the man she loves, or fail and forfeit both their lives."

My Thoughts:

Okay, so I sort of devoured this book. When I got it in the mail as a free read, I not only received an autographed copy, but there were also two bookmarks that were also signed, and that is something I love since I have a small collection of author signed books and I like to expand on that whenever I can. Anyway, I loved how this book had all sorts of elements of Ancient Rome but also sort of magically powered air ships. It was almost like using the Force to fly. 

Anyway, I loved the relationship that formed between Azurha and Titus as she tried to find a way to separate herself from her feelings so she could do her job, and he tried to find out what secrets she was keeping. Their encounters were quite steamy and I completely admit to rooting for a happy ending, even when things seemed impossible.

I'm eager for the second book to be released, even though the female protagonist was a minor character in this book who I didn't really care for. I can say that I'm hopeful the next book will change my opinion about her. Overall, this book gets a 5/5 and as soon as I can pull together some spare change, I will be buying more books by Crista McHugh.

Other Readings:

I'm trying to get more work done on Souls Abandoned for NaNoWriMo, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop reading. In fact I haven't been able to put down Harbinger by Peta Crake. I may end up having to do a bonus post for From the Stacks for it because I really wouldn't want to push any of my reviews back and I don't want to wait until January to talk about this book. Also on my plate are a couple more books to finish up my review posts for 2012. November is a very busy month but I really would not want it to be any other way. I'll be back again on Tuesday for my next writing update.

Off to a Great Start

I didn't do any writing yesterday and this morning I got up, did laundry, went out to vote, and then spent time with my mom before I went to work. So here I am, at 11:00 pm and my word count for today stands at zero. I will fix this...just as soon as I write up this quick post. Though during NaNoWriMo, most people would be all panicked about not writing for a couple days, this year I find myself feeling remarkably calm. Perhaps that is because of how far "ahead" I am so far. Right now I stand at just over 20,000 words. For proof, I offer up this picture of my NaNo stats page:

Total words written: 20,063
Days remaining: 25
At this rate you will finish on: November 14, 2012

I am putting most of my success on the fact that I have been living with these characters for so long. I know them; they are good friends of mine, which to non-writers may sound crazy, but it's true. Though I say characters, they do not feel like made up to me. These people come to me fully formed and ask me to tell their story, but of course sometimes they aren't very forthcoming on certain aspects of their history or their secrets. That might be one reason why I never continued writing this trilogy six years ago.

We have all grown, these characters and I. Now we are in a much better place to tell this story, and for that, I am pleased. Six years ago, Tru was more immature and in truth she sort of annoyed me. Originally I planned to kill her off in book two (I will say that was me making a decision and not them at that point), but after all this time, Tru and Shane and Ava and Lara and Chay have come forward to finally give me the details of this situation, all the ordeals they have been through with the spirit world in Souls Abandoned.

So far, things are going quite well, and my plan is, if for some reason I am able to get through the rough draft of Souls Abandoned before the month is over, I'm going to at least start working on Souls Crossing. Though most months it has taken nearly the whole 30 days to hit the 50K mark, this year I am shooting for writing the entire month. I know I can hit the 50K goal for NaNoWriMo, but now I want to see how far past that goal I can get.

That's all for now. I need to go add some more words to my total word count. I'll be back on Friday for my next From the Stacks post. Thanks for joining in.

Oh, and for the Wrimos who are keeping track, or those who have not checked, to stay on target with 1,667 words a day, you should be at 10,000 words by the end of today, day 6 of the month. Keep up the writing everyone. You can meet your goals.

From the Stacks: Master of Crows

Sorry for not posting this up yesterday, but I was seriously exhausted after day one of NaNoWriMo. In the good news column, I managed to write 10,243 words on day one, but yesterday I was barely functioning. I was scheduled for first shift at work and I have not really been a morning person for years so when I got off work all I really wanted to do was sleep but I knew that would be a bad idea.

Anyway, I tried to write yesterday but every time I looked at my screen everything got blurry so I figured the best thing to do was to go to bed a couple hours early. But, I'm off work all weekend so I'll be giving my word count a nice boost over the next couple days. And now, onto Master of Crows by Grace Draven

Unlike most of the previous books I've reviewed this one is from an indie press so it's not exactly something you can find on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. However, it is available at Smashwords, and for just $2.99, it is a great deal.

Summary: (taken from Smashwords)

"What would you do to win your freedom? 

This is the question that sets bondwoman, Martise of Asher, on a dangerous path. In exchange for her freedom, she bargains with her masters, the mage-priests of Conclave, to spy on the renegade sorcerer, Silhara of Neith. The priests want Martise to expose the sorcerer's treachery and turn him over to Conclave justice. A risky endeavor, but one she accepts without hesitation--until she falls in love with her intended target. 

Silhara of Neith, Master of Crows, is a desperate man. The god called Corruption invades his mind, seducing him with promises of limitless power if he will help it gain dominion over the world. Silhara struggles against Corruption's influence and searches for ways to destroy the god. When Conclave sends Martise as an apprentice to help him, he knows she's a spy. Now he fights a war on two fronts--against the god who would possess him and the apprentice who would betray him. 

Mage and spy search together for a ritual that will annihilate Corruption, but in doing so, they discover secrets about each other that may damn them both. Silhara must decide if his fate, and the fate of nations, is worth the soul of the woman he has come to love, and Martise must choose continued enslavement or freedom at the cost of a man's life. And love."

My Thoughts:

OMG, you guys, this book totally gets a 5/5. I would love to read more by this author, but this is the only thing listed on Smashwords. I really wanted to know more about both Silhara and Martise, and I especially wanted to know more about this world. I'm curious about what happens at Conclave, as well, so there is definitely room for sequels and prequels.

Martise is an interesting character. Probably the first thing I remember about her is that she is described many times as having a beautiful speaking voice, and I still laugh at the point where it is discovered that this beauty does not translate to singing as well. I also enjoy that Martise is quite educated, knowing how to read and translate older texts, a skill that comes in handy as Silhara's apprentice.

Silhara was someone I sort of wanted to meet. He was tormented by this god, Corruption, and then had to deal with the temptation he felt towards Martise. In some ways he seemed more real than she did. Learning about his history and parentage was interesting to me and I really identified with how much he cared for his orange grove and his long time servant Gurn, as well as how protective he became of Martise and her gift.

It was very intriguing and I will definitely end up reading this again. It is well worth the $2.99. Seriously, go check it out.

Master of Crows on Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/78927#longdescr

Other Readings:

I'm slowly but surely making more progress with the other books I mentioned last time. Every time I go to the store I find more books that sound really interesting but I tell myself that I can't afford it and that I already have a number of books I still need to read. It's a struggle, but at least you guys know that I won't be running out of reading material any time soon. I'll see you guys again on Tuesday for my next writing update, where I will be detailing the first week of NaNoWriMo.