It’s honestly freaking me out how quickly the weeks are flying by already. There’s so much I want to do this year, and I’m worried there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do them all!
Remember how I struggled to get back into the swing of things in January? I’ve been doing a bit better throughout February (thankfully). Though, I must admit, I still don’t feel quite on top of my game.
At the moment, there are still lots of long-term projects in the pipeline, things I won’t be seeing results for, for some time. It can be a little stressful and de-motivating at times.
However, that’s not to say I haven’t made some progress this month…
My Books:
Red Hands
Look out for an announcement on this mid-March!
I also need to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful Kyra Bandte for taking the time to read through the manuscript and provide me with incredible feedback.
As always, Kyra was generous with her time and expertise. Clearly her talent knows no bounds as she multi-tasked my rambling questions with cooking dinner.
She even gave RH a shout-out on her blog:
A jungle of dense themes, bullet-sharp lines, and complex characters.”
Can I put that on the back of the book? That one comment seriously made my life.
I also need to thank her for passing the manuscript onto her fiance Justin, who looked over the more gory details with a keen ‘military’ eye, and pulled me up on any generalisations I may have made about machine guns 🙂
Thank you so much Kyra and Justin!
New Book Finding Oremere (Working Title)
As you can see, my latest literary venture now has a working title… Exciting times, yes? One of the reasons for this is because I’ve just about finished the structural edit and was tired of looking at ‘Fantasy WIP’ on the title page.
The main reason however, is because I started Book II in the series. Yes, you read that right. What’s more is that Claire Bradshaw and I are undertaking a self-imposed NaNoWriMarch (aiming for 50,000 words in March).
Note: it’s only March 2nd and I’ve already freaked out numerous times. But bring on the rest of the month!
I’m hoping to polish up the first book in the next few weeks as well and get it along to a few beta readers, while hammering away at the second.
In terms of this series, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about publishing options (as you may have seen in my first-ever video). I find that I’m more and more drawn to the world of independent publishing (yep, that’s self-publishing).
There are some extremely talented writers out there doing amazing things in the indie sphere. They’re making a living, they’re connecting with readers from all over the world…
It’s really inspired me to seriously consider indie publishing as an option, which I find SUPER exciting.
Editor’s Life
Writer’s Edit
We’ve got some massive changes coming to Writer’s Edit this year, and they’re all about monetizing the site effectively so we can afford to pay our editors and contributors.
Dave, myself and Claire have been working tirelessly on a big project that’s due to beta launch in the next few months… I can’t really say more than that, but I can’t wait to be able to share it with our readers.
In addition to everything going on behind the scenes, Writer’s Edit Press has been accepted into the Independent Publishing Fair run by Noted Festival in Canberra!
Myself, Claire and Kyra will be road tripping down in March to set up our own stall to sell the first two volumes of Kindling (Bernadette, you’ll be there in spirit!). In fact, I had to order more stock because our books have been doing so well that we didn’t have enough to bring to the festival. That’s definitely a good problem to have!
We also made some waves with some reviews on Kindling Volume II that were published recently:
For anyone wanting to write, or navigating the murky waters of the publishing world… Congratulations to all the writers, and to the team at Writer’s Edit for pulling together a worthwhile anthology. Writers – get one for your shelf.” – from Monique Mulligan at Write Note Reviews.
And…
The team at Writer’s Edit has done a fantastic job of creating an anthology of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including both helpful tips for writers and memoirs…
This anthology is compelling because it brings together many unique voices covering a wide span of topics. Founding editor Helen Scheuerer, along with her editorial team, have done a remarkable job of curating the young anthology to ensure that only high-quality writing of engaging, excellent stories are published” – from Abby at Old Fashioned Paper & Ink.
Kindling Volume III
Submissions for Kindling Volume III have just closed! Myself and the other editors are at the beginning of the reading period, and are slowly but surely putting together our shortlists for each category.
This year, we’re lucky to have the entire team back for the third and final volume of our much-loved anthology. You can read the official introduction of all the editors here.
We’re also stoked to welcome Alissa Dinallo back to design our last Kindling. Can’t wait to see what she does with the cover this year!
I’m sure there’ll be more to report on this next month 🙂
What I’ve Read:
- Kings Rising by C.S. Pascat
- The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody
- The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody
- Moments Like These by Jenny Bravo (a great example of an indie author who’s killing it!)
As you can see, I’m still on the Obernewtyn Chronicles. However the highlight of this month’s reading was hands-down Kings Rising. C.S. Pascat writes tension like no other…
Anyway, that’s it for now.
Until next time,
Helen
Note: Featured image via Styled Canvas.