What I'm Working On

As I said in my Twitter update, I have three projects going on now.  For the last week or so I've been working steadily on Makilien and am anxious to finish it.  I'm really happy with it so far.  I think I may go back and add even more to it when I'm done though.  It might seem a little short for a fantasy novel so I want to add a little more depth to it.  Writing the spiritual aspect of it has been very challenging, but well worth it.  And today I figured out how to make it a trilogy.  I wasn't happy with it only being a two book series.  In all the other series I've written, I've ended each book nicely with no unanswered questions and more or less began from scratch in the next book, but the second book of Makilien will be different.  It will end with something big that will not be resolved until the third book.  I'm still working out the details of that last book, but I'm sure in a few days I'll have a pretty clear idea where I'll go with it . . . now I just need to finish the first and second books first.  This third book idea is extra incentive for me to keep working hard on them because I'm so anxious to write it.

 

As for the new project I started working on, I have decided to write a prequel to my pirate series.  For those who have read The Pirate Daughter's Promise, the prequel is going to be the story of Daniel and Grace.  I am very excited about writing their story, and in researching that time period I have found some very interesting historical events to incorporate into the book that will make it even more than I thought it would be.

Finding Faith

I believe I finally decided on a permanent title for the fourth and last book in my pirate series.  It will be called Finding Faith.  It really encompasses one of the books main themes so I think it is a good title for it.  Kind of like Every Tear, I thought of this title while listening to music which is where I go a lot for inspiration.  I was listening to one of Building 429's newest songs, End of Me, which is one of my all time favorite songs.  As I was sitting and really thinking about the lyrics I was jotting down my thoughts about it and about my book and "finding faith" was one of the first ideas I wrote down and the one that seemed to stick.  I've tried it out for a few days, and I really think it's the right title.  So, my finished pirate series altogether is: The Pirate Daughter's Promise, Every Tear, A Captain's Heart, and Finding Faith.  I'm just about finished now with my first edit of Finding Faith.  I only have a couple chapters left so after that it will really feel done to me even though I will end up editing it countless times before it's ever published.

The Pirate Daughter's Promise - Book Trailer

After a couple of days of work, including hours of searching through stock photos and music, I am very excited to share the book trailer for The Pirate Daughter's Promise.

 

Twitter

I just signed up for a Twitter account.  Now I will try to keep it updated even if I'm not regularly posting new blog entries so you can find out what is going on.

A New Look and A New Book

Wow, it's been a long time, and I have quite a bit to write about. I've been wanting to change the look of my blog for a long time, and this morning I finally found this new template. Mom just helped me change it, and I really love it.

 

Great news. Mom and I are just about finished with our final edit of Every Tear so probably within the next month I am going to be submitting the manuscript to a Christian publishing company called OakTara. I heard about it from a fellow author, and I feel like this is where God wants me to go with this book so I'm praying it will be accepted. If it is, I'm really looking forward to starting the publishing process again.

 

I have not finished Facing the Waves (I'm still working on a permanent title), but I've been working hard on it the last couple of weeks and am about 3 or 4 chapters away from finishing. I will be very glad to finish. The main character is so unlike myself that I've been finding it a difficult book to write, but one I really need to write in order to properly end my pirate series.

 

In the middle of all that, I started writing yet another book in mid November. It's my first contemporary novel! With my ever growing love for music, I started thinking how interesting and fun it would be to write a book centering on music. At first, I thought it would be impossible to think of a good modern day book plot so I started asking my family for ideas, and in around 30 seconds, my brother, Jake, came up with a great plot. I didn't like it at first, but when I started thinking about it and adding in all my own details, I quickly changed my mind. This new book is about a young woman named Kaitlin from North Carolina who plays in a Christian rock band with some of her friends who are working on trying to get signed with a record company. In the midst of that, a secular band who was just signed comes to record at a studio that Kaitlin's uncle owns. The bass player from the band likes Kaitlin the moment he sees her and asks her out, but since he doesn't share her faith, she won't even consider it. Not to give too much away, he ends up attending her church and the rest of the book is about how Kaitlin's faith begins to change his life. I've reached chapter 15 in the book (which has no title yet). There will probably be around 20-25 chapters, and I'm going to finish it as soon as I finish Facing the Waves.

Another New Book

I've been putting off writing an entry about this because I wanted to be sure I was really going to do it and now I am.  I have started a new book for my pirate series so it's no longer just a trilogy.    It happened on July 4th.  That morning I finished my first edit of A Captain's Heart and realized how much I was going to miss my characters and writing about that time period.  I was writing in my journal about it and then the ideas slowly started coming to me.  This new book takes place eleven years after Every Tear and is about one of the girls from that book.  I just began writing chapter three last night and have the whole story pretty much planned out.  I think I might call it "Facing the Waves" which comes from a conversation between two of my characters later in the book.

My Future Book Plans

After they read The Pirate Daughter's Promise, I've had people ask me when the next two books, Every Tear and A Captain's Heart, will be available so I thought it would be good to answer that question here.  Right now I really don't know when Every Tear will be available or even when I'll be able to submit it for publishing.  Being almost twice as long as TPDP, Every Tear will probably be almost twice as expensive to publish so it will be quite a while until I save up enough money to feel like I can pay for it.  It all depends on the book sales for TPDP.

 

If you want to support me and my future writing, I'd be very grateful if you bought my book from the WinePress online bookstore.  It is only a couple dollars more there for shipping than other websites and that is how I receive the most profit for each book.  However, if that couple dollars would stop you from buying TPDP at all, then please, go ahead and buy it from somewhere like Amazon.com.  My greatest goal isn't to get the money, it  is to get TPDP to as many people as possible and hopefully God will use it to reach some of those people so if you've read it and enjoyed it, I would be delighted for you to recommend it to others.

 

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