Writing Plans for September

One of my main goals for the month is to write 10k per week/ 40k per month, and I plan on doing this over three projects! Yes, three. I am insane. 

I plan on continuing to write Choosing Sides, which I estimate has 20k left before the story is complete. Kyra Lennon and I have also discussed re-writing our co-written novel to change some aspects, and I want to start re-writing a new version of my 2012 novel Cupid.

The basic premise is the same, and the main changes are that I'm making it firmly YA (it was NA previously, and I've aged down the characters a couple of years) and turning it into an origin story. I've also renamed and changed the dynamics of the characters somewhat, mostly to include a best-friends to lovers romance, which I think works really well in the story. My aim is to start by serialising on Wattpad once I've gotten enough lead.

Be sure to follow me on social media for updates on both Choosing Sides and Cupid, as well as my co-written novel with Kyra.

And if you want to know how my vacation was, and what I've been up to in August, please feel free to check out my main blog on claredugmore.com! 

RELEASE BLITZ: Hear What You Want, by Kyra Lennon

I'm excited to take part in the release day blitz for Kyra Lennon's forthcoming romantic suspense novel HEAR WHAT YOU WANT.

Check out the stunning cover and details below!

TITLE: Hear What You Want (Chaos and Consent Book 1) 

AUTHOR: Kyra Lennon 

GENRE: Romantic Suspense 

COVER DESIGNER: The Pretty Little Design Boutique by I Am…Stationery Co

PHOTOGRAPHY: Emma Phillips 

MODEL: Charlotte Crouch 

BLURB: 

Ambra

Things I wanted:

A great night out, and to meet my favourite band.

Things I didn’t want:

To wake up the next morning with my underwear beside me on the floor and a large chunk missing from my memory.

Guess which one I got.

Noah

Things I wanted:

To meet a pretty girl at my band's gig and have some fun.

Things I didn’t want:

To find a photo of me and the pretty girl on social media with people questioning whether or not I raped her.

But here we are. And that one photo?

It changed everything.

**This book contains sensitive topics that some may find upsetting.**

Buy links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2KrjUiF

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2KqTopx

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2LVTdHz

NOOK: https://bit.ly/2n77l2D

iBooks US: https://apple.co/2LYYFcM

iBooks UK: https://apple.co/2n9Yg9u

Add to Goodreads

*****

Author bio:

Kyra grew up on the South Coast of England and refuses to move away from the seaside which provides massive inspiration for her. Her first book was released in 2013, and she has gone on to release two successful series' and a handful of novellas, all falling into the category of Contemporary Romance.

Kyra is also a self-confessed book-a-holic, and has been since she first learned to read. When she's not reading, you'll usually find her hanging out in coffee shops with her trusty laptop and/or her friends, or enjoying nights out at comedy shows and live music venues.

Lennon is a proud supporter of several charities. She currently volunteers for her local cat shelter as a fundraiser and social media guru. Kyra has also had stories published in charity anthologies to raise money for Cats Protection, the British Heart Foundation, the Innocence Project, and Clusterbusters.

Stalker links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

AUGUST 2018 UPDATE: IS IT VACATION TIME YET?

We go on holiday (or vacation for those in America) on August 13 and I CANNOT WAIT! 

It's really hard to focus when you have little over a week until you'll be sat on a beach drinking Starbucks iced lattes. But focus I must, as I still have a week of work, so here's an update on life etc. this July... 

Writing 

July was CampNaNoWriMo again, and I set myself the target of adding 20k to my urban-fantasy Choosing Sides, which I'm happy to report I achieved. 

The story is now at 75k words, and I estimate I have between 15 - 20k remaining to write, in the form of 12 chapters!! I'm so excited to be almost finished with draft one of this story. 

As I've previously mentioned, Choosing Sides is actually a complete re-write of my 2011/12 novel Sibylline Nights. This is a story that's been in my head for years long before 2011, when I had the idea of magical triplets separated at birth. 

As well as the family aspect, one story that I've always wanted to tell with this novel was the oppression of witches. The idea was originally spawned by the events of video game Dragon Age 2, which focused on the oppression of mages. My love of the X-Men comics helped this idea grow, and then seeing real world oppression in the media every day added to that growth and desire. 

I hope what I have now is an urban-fantasy that will not only entertain, but make people question their actions towards those that are 'different', and encourage people to be more empathetic and understanding towards those who're not like them in some way. I'm taking a break from writing for August. 

As I mentioned above, we're going on holiday soon, so it's hard to focus, plus the kids are off. And, having just written 20k in a month, I feel the need for some down time to do fun non-writer activities. My aim is the add the final 15-20k in September, and then begin revisions, before sending it to beta readers at the end of the year. 


Reading

In addition to writing (and work), my productive time in July was spent beta reading two books, and I also found time to read a third just for the pleasure of it. 

 All three books were amazing in their own ways, though completely different from each other. I feel very fortunate to know such fantastic writers. 

The books I read were HEAR WHAT YOU WANT, by Kyra Lennon, a heart-breaking dual-POV romantic-suspense novel about a young woman who wakes up after a night out half-naked with her memories missing. You can check out my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2455499691 

The second book was a mind-blowing paranormal horror, DON'T EAT THE WAFFLES, by Scout Dawson, about a man who wakes up in a waffle barn themed afterlife, with no recollection of how he died, and begins experiencing distributing flashbacks of his life. You can read my review here: ​https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2481790119 

The final book I read was reverse-harem romance HARNESSING THE WINDS, by Morena Silver, a light, fun romp full of magic and pirates, about a sea captain must bind with the Four Winds to break a curse on her ship and crew, and you can check out my review here: ​https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2481802389 

That's All Folks

While I'll be taking it easy for August, I plan on refocusing come September when the school starts, so I can kick butt with writing, work, and general productivity. 

Until then, I hope y'all enjoy the rest of summer. I know I sure will ... now where are my sunglasses! ;)

COVER REVEAL: Hear What You Want, by Kyra Lennon

I'm excited to take part in the cover reveal for Kyra Lennon's forthcoming romantic suspense novel HEAR WHAT YOU WANT.

Check out the stunning cover and details below!

TITLE: Hear What You Want (Chaos and Consent Book 1) 

AUTHOR: Kyra Lennon 

GENRE: Romantic Suspense 

RELEASE DATE: August 29th 

COVER DESIGNER: The Pretty Little Design Boutique by I Am…Stationery Co 

PHOTOGRAPHY: Emma Phillips 

MODEL: Charlotte Crouch 

BLURB: 

Ambra

Things I wanted:

A great night out, and to meet my favourite band.

Things I didn’t want:

To wake up the next morning with my underwear beside me on the floor and a large chunk missing from my memory.

Guess which one I got.

Noah

Things I wanted:

To meet a pretty girl at my band's gig and have some fun.

Things I didn’t want: 

To find a photo of me and the pretty girl on social media with people questioning whether or not I raped her. 

But here we are. And that one photo? 

It changed everything. 

**This book contains sensitive topics that some may find upsetting.** 

Add to Goodreads

Sign up for the release alert

*****

Author bio: 

Kyra grew up on the South Coast of England and refuses to move away from the seaside which provides massive inspiration for her. Her first book was released in 2013, and she has gone on to release two successful series' and a handful of novellas, all falling into the category of Contemporary Romance.

Kyra is also a self-confessed book-a-holic, and has been since she first learned to read. When she's not reading, you'll usually find her hanging out in coffee shops with her trusty laptop and/or her friends, or enjoying nights out at comedy shows and live music venues.

Lennon is a proud supporter of several charities. She currently volunteers for her local cat shelter as a fundraiser and social media guru. Kyra has also had stories published in charity anthologies to raise money for Cats Protection, the British Heart Foundation, the Innocence Project, and Clusterbusters.

Stalker links:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Camp NaNoWriMo July 18: Week ThreeUpdate

One week of CampNaNoWrimo left to go, and I'm only 5k away from meeting my self-set target of 20k in the month of July.

I'm so pleased with how things are going. 5k a week Mon-Fri was the exact right amount for me. I don't feel burned out, I'm still enjoying the story, and I feel like I'm making good progress, instead of feeling like I've achieved nothing.

This week's highlight was the repercussions of the twist at the end of act two leading to some interesting developments for one of my main characters. I'm also setting up conflicts for the other two MCs to battle with before the climax. I'm so excited to finish this story.

And I only have another 15-20k to go, as I broke the 70k mark today. My aim is 95k max for the story, and I will probably work on the final 20k in September. I say this as I'm taking August off not only to avoid burn-out, but to enjoy the summer school break with my sons, and head to the beach for a vacation! 

So that was my positive writing week. How are things going for everyone else? Let me know in the comments, and until next week (when I'll hopefully be reporting making it to 20k) have an excellent week!

Camp NaNoWriMo July 18: Week Two Update

Hey everyone!

I'm back with another update on my CampNaNoWriMo progress.

I didn't meet my self-set 5k target this week, because I took Thursday and Friday off, but because of my efforts in week one, I'm still on target to make 20k by the end of July. I just need to make sure I don't slack off next week, or all fall behind.

Week two was mostly focused on the transition from act two to act three; dealing with the fall out of the thing that happened at the end of act two, and then setting up the building blocks for act three and the climax. It was some good stuff, but I'm excited to get back into more action-y type stuff as act three gets into full swing. 

Is anyone else doing CampNaNoWriMo or working on something? If so, let me know in the comments. I'd love to know how you're getting on.

Until next week, hope y'all have an awesome week!

Camp NaNoWriMo July 18: Week One Update

The first week of July's Camp NaNoWriMo has finished, and I'm slightly ahead of my self-set target of 5k words per week. 

This time around I'm only writing Monday to Friday, and taking weekends off, for the sake of my own sanity. Though I did take Thursday off this week (as I wasn't in a good headspace) and instead made up my word count on Saturday afternoon. That's it for this weekend though, once I've finished this post I plan on spending the rest of my weekend playing Elder Scrolls Online! 

The highlight of the week was an unexpected twist near the end of act two. I have a loose chapter plan and I know how I want the end to play out, but I still have some blanks on the way there. This was one of these blanks. Recently, I'd decided to give my healing witch Esmee an additional ability, and this manifested towards the end of act two, with some interesting consequences, which led to me writing one of my favourite chapters to date. I have one more chapter in act two to write, and I have a plan in mind for that. Then I'm moving onto act three, for which I have a handful of chapters in mind ... then nothing for nine chapters, until I start building towards the climax. So it will be interesting to see where the majority of act three takes me.

I'll be back next week to update on my week two progress, but if you want daily updates, check out social media.

Until next week, take care and have a great week ahead!

Camp NaNoWriMo July 18

Hey all!

I'm back with an update about my writing life.

I did well for Camp NaNo in April. I added almost 35k to my work-in-progress urban-fantasy Choosing Sides. But then in May and June I did very little - perhaps adding a couple of thousand words here and there. 

I want this first draft complete and ready to send to beta readers by the end of the year. By my calculations I have just under 36k left to write (I'm aiming for a 90k novel, and currently have just over 55k written). 

It SHOULD NOT take me six months to write 36k!! So, I've signed up for Camp NaNo again in July, with the aim of writing 20k. That's 1k a day, Mon-Fri for the duration of July. I can do that. I won't be writing in August. The kids will be off school, and we have plans to go to Weston Super-mare for a few days, so I'll take the month off to relax. 

But there's absolutely no reason I shouldn't be able to write the remaining 16k, go through it myself to make sure it's all correct, and then go through it with Hubby for edits/ beta reading, before sending it to others, by the end of the year. 

 There are other projects I've also been thinking about ... Kyra Lennon wants us to get back to work on our co-written novel, so that we can publish it before the end of the year. I will have to find time to fit that into my schedule. 

I've also been thinking of polishing and publishing Every Moment With You, and Seeking The Truth, which are both complete, but just need a good editing. I don't want to put too much on my plate/ take my focus off of Choosing Sides, so I plan on revisiting those other projects in a few months when I'm in a better routine, and I'm close to completing Choosing Sides.

I'll try to post weekly updates with my progress here, but for those who want to see daily update, snippets, and titbits (in July I'll also be doing the WIP Joy challenge again) please feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

And for anyone interested in what's being going on in my personal/ non-writing life recently, feel free to head over to my website blog for an update. 

Magic At Midnight Release

Magic at Midnight: A Collection of YA Fairytale Retellings, by the authors of Snowy Wings Publishing, is out today. 

Grab your copy to read my 

Nutcracker Prince retelling "Solstice Spell," 

and all the other fantastic stories in the anthology! 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B5L38G8

Magic at Midnight ARC Sign Up and Writing Update

Happy weekend, everyone!

Spring/ summer looks like it's finally here, as the weather in the UK is warming up. We have plans to go to the park a little later, but first I wanted to write a quick update.

I know I have a blog over on my website, but I think I might use this blog to update about my writing only, and then the one on my site to update about my writing AND personal life.

We'll see how it works out...

The rest of this entry is under a read more cut, so please click on the link to find out more about the Snowy Wings Publishing Magic at Midnight: YA Fairytale Anthology, and how I got on doing CampNaNoWriMo in April.