Hello and welcome to yet another Monthly Recap. The weeks are just flying by aren’t they? Right, now I’ve got the usual ‘my, doesn’t time fly’ sentiment out of the way, let’s get stuck into this wrap up. March has had a lot of things going on in the background, with a number of projects near completion but not quite there yet…
My Books:
Heart of Mist, Book I, The Oremere Chronicles
When I left you last, I mentioned that I’d turned down some traditional publishing options to stay on the indie route.
Well, I haven’t looked back since, and Heart of Mist is well on its way to the shelves.
The major development has been that I’ve sent the manuscript to my editor. That’s right. I made my final structural changes thanks to feedback from my Advance Team, and while I held my breath, pressed ‘Send’.
The edits are due back mid-April, so you’ll be hearing more about how this went in my April Recap.
It’s a surreal time for me – it’s the last time I’ll be doing any significant changes to the book, and then it’s time for typesetting, which is when the book actually starts looking like a book…
I also mentioned in my last recap that we’d decided on a cover. I’ll be sharing that with the world before the end of the month, so stay tuned for that!
Finally, I’ve done my first round of approaching book bloggers and publications with my media kit – it was definitely a surreal moment sending that out into the world.
Book II, The Oremere Chronicles
At the moment, I’m getting a bit caught up with the production and the initial promotion of Heart of Mist, and so yet again, writing has taken a bit of a backseat. I imagine this is a problem many authors encounter when they’ve got one book about to be published, and another one (or two) in the pipeline.
I’ve slowly been getting back into this manuscript. I already had roughly 45,000 words, and I’ve slowly been working my way through these to make sure that they’re still appropriate for this book after editing the first book so heavily.
I’ve got about 11,000 words into this draft – so that’s a start. I’m at a point where I don’t think it’s terrible, but I’m looking forward to reaching a point where I’m writing new scenes and chapters, not just going over old ones. There are some epic moments I’m dying to get to!
Book III, The Oremere Chronicles
While I don’t have much to report in terms of writing this manuscript, considering Book II is still in the early stages, I do have some exciting news…
I came up with a working title for this one. Funny how things turn out – I don’t have a title for Book II yet, but I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve got for this book (not that I’m sharing!).
Other works
Last recap, I told you about working on a short story, ‘Break’ – a prequel to Heart of Mist. Well, in case you haven’t noticed, you can actually get that story right now, for free. By simply signing up to my mailing list, you can get an early glimpse of some of the main characters in my novel.
You also may have noticed that this website has undergone a bit of a change. I realised it was time to veer away from my freelance focus, and instead move towards a more official author platform.
Editor’s Life
Writer’s Edit
I have to admit, it’s been harder than usual to balance my Writer’s Edit work, my freelance work and all the work to do with the impending release of Heart of Mist.
However, Writer’s Edit is doing very well indeed. We’re continuing to break all our previous records in terms of traffic and engagement, and our community is growing at a wonderful rate.
I’m on the last leg of creating our course for freelance writers, but as always, we want it to be perfect before it launches. It’s going to be as streamlined and easy-to-follow as possible. I can’t wait to share it with our readers.
We also held our first meeting at our official HQ on the last day at the month. Dave had a presentation prepared and ran us through all the amazing new tools he’s created as well as the past months impressive analytics. I also officially announced the news about Talem Press to the rest of the team, and showed them the website.
There’s so much planned for this year, and so many ambitious goals we want to achieve!
Freelance
Freelance is a real time sapper lately. I do at least three freelance days a week now, and it’s incredibly hard to manage so many different projects and deadlines… But! A girl’s gotta eat.
I also ran some workshops for the Society of Women Writers, which you can read more about over on my Press page.
This blog
With the revamp of this website, comes a new content schedule as well. I’ll be aiming to post a little more regularly than just these monthly recaps.
I’m hoping to publish at least twice a month now, with the additional posts to explore my recent fantasy reads, behind-the-scenes of Heart of Mist and more.
What I read
- A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
- A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
- A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
I’ll be telling you more about this series in an upcoming post on fantasy series, but for now just know that it was equal parts breathtaking and intimidating.
I’d really love to get back to four books a month, but I just don’t think that’s going to happen with everything else going on.
Anyway, I’m off to dedicate some of this rainy Sunday to Book II in The Oremere Chronicles (finally!).
Until next time,
Helen
Note: Featured image credit goes to Alisa Anton via Unsplash.