End of Summer Update
Hello, everyone!
What a wonderful summer! Truthfully, the best summer vacation of my life so far, and I have you guys to thank for it, because I wouldn't have been able to afford my trip without your support. You are the best fans that a writer could have! I'll tell you all about my adventure and about my writing plans now that I'm getting back to work.
My Summer Vacation
We left home on July 5th, my mother, my aunt, my cousin, and I. It took us six days to drive from Oregon to Michigan, and three days to drive back. On the way there, we stopped at several national parks, zig-zagging north and south several times. We visited Craters of the Moon first. The stark, alien landscape of the volcanic fields was beautiful. The next day, we crossed the Rockies, and were caught in a thunderstorm that dumped torrential rain and marble-sized hailstones on us. A couple of times, visibility was so poor, everyone on the road pulled over to wait it out. That afternoon, we made it to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone.
The mountains were amazing. We have several large peaks out here in Oregon, but not so many so close together. Yellowstone was beyond description. Even though it rained and thundered the whole time we were in the park, and it had gotten dark before we got to the exit, it was fantastic, and a very close second on my list of favorite stops. The geysers were amazing, the colored mud, the river, the waterfalls, the vents -- it was all spectacular. And we had a bison cross the road right in front of our car!
The next day, we went to the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse, and Mount Rushmore. Those were very cool, but I prefer natural wonders over man-made ones. Still, I'm so glad we went. After that, we made an unplanned side-trip to see Devil's Tower, which is a natural rock formation and is featured in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I love that movie, and it was so awesome to stand there in the Tower's shadow!
The next day, we drove through the Badlands, which was my favorite of our sight-seeing trips. We saw bighorn sheep ewes and lambs climbing up and down steep, weather-worn spires of dirt and stone. Never saw any rams, but that's okay. The landscape is absolutely amazing, the colors and the shapes caused by erosion, the gullies, the cliffs, red and gold and blue and white! It was like a fanciful painting, like one of my fantasy worlds, but it was real. And from one lookout point, using binoculars, we could see three separate herds of bison in the distance, each with probably a hundred animals in it.
After that, it was just straight driving on to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We stayed with my second cousins for four days. The reunion was amazing. There were so many people that I'd heard about, but had never met before. At times, there were a few too many people for me (I don't like crowds of strangers), but there were enough people that I did know that I was okay. We walked on the beach of Lake Superior every day, picking up agates and other stones, and I was able to avoid the mosquitoes (which are as big as small birds) until the very last night, when someone left a window open and they got in and ate my feet, which were sticking out from under the blankets. Let me tell you, three days in a car on the ride home with itchy feet is no fun :(
All in all, it was most exhilarating, awesome, fantastic adventure of my life (so far, I hope). When we got I home, I started house-sitting two days later and spent most of the rest of my vacation there. One of the dogs that I watch was diagnosed with diabetes just a few months ago, so I've gotten pretty good at giving her the insulin shots. Now I'm home and getting ready to start work next week. Strangely, I'm actually looking forward to it. ^_^
Back to Work
This summer, I did very little writing. I decided just to take a break and worked on nothing. it was just a few days ago that I suddenly said, 'Man, I feel like working on Moonlight'. So I've been busy trying to fix that mess. Before doing any re-writing, I sat down decided exactly what I wanted to happen, how I wanted Izeri to act, and what from the original draft could be salvaged. I'm picking out pieces that work and weaving new material around them, so hopefully it'll be okay. I don't know when I'll start posting these revised chapters, but when I do, I'm going to delete the bad chapters that are posted on FictionPress and post the new ones, rather than just replacing the content of existing chapters. I'm going to leave the bad chapters up on LiveJournal, however.
I also dealt with the termination contracts from PD Publishing, so within about 30 days, Magebound will no longer be available to purchase. So if you want a copy, better get it now. I'm sad, but I'm also looking ahead toward what I'm going to do with those books now. I had very good experiences with both of my publishers, and they did sell more copies of my books than I have with Broken Wings on my own, but everything takes so long (which is standard across the industry and not a criticism of my publishers). Part of me wants to self-publish and just get it done. (Of course, I'm sure I'll take just as long since I'll have to do everything myself, but at least it will be in my hands, instead of me waiting for something to happen.)
Maybe I'll try self-publishing Breach, and if that does well, I'll do the Magebound series, too. I need to look into print-on-demand services, too, since Breach was never available in print. I hear that Createspace does a good job.
I'm also still planning two winter themed stories to go with Long Winter's End. I'd like to have that done by January/February.
I haven't decided what I'm going to do about Moonlight Mondays, WIP Wednesdays, or Free Fiction Fridays. If I'm going to complete all these projects that I have, I won't be able to start all of them back up, not right away, anyway. If/when I find the time, I think WIP Wednesday will be reinstated first, although maybe on an every-other-week basis. I'll decide more when I see how much progress I make on all of these projects.
Anyway, I am back and I'll try to respond to any comments or questions you might have, so let me know if you've got something to say. ^_^
Until next time,
Katica
What a wonderful summer! Truthfully, the best summer vacation of my life so far, and I have you guys to thank for it, because I wouldn't have been able to afford my trip without your support. You are the best fans that a writer could have! I'll tell you all about my adventure and about my writing plans now that I'm getting back to work.
My Summer Vacation
We left home on July 5th, my mother, my aunt, my cousin, and I. It took us six days to drive from Oregon to Michigan, and three days to drive back. On the way there, we stopped at several national parks, zig-zagging north and south several times. We visited Craters of the Moon first. The stark, alien landscape of the volcanic fields was beautiful. The next day, we crossed the Rockies, and were caught in a thunderstorm that dumped torrential rain and marble-sized hailstones on us. A couple of times, visibility was so poor, everyone on the road pulled over to wait it out. That afternoon, we made it to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone.
The mountains were amazing. We have several large peaks out here in Oregon, but not so many so close together. Yellowstone was beyond description. Even though it rained and thundered the whole time we were in the park, and it had gotten dark before we got to the exit, it was fantastic, and a very close second on my list of favorite stops. The geysers were amazing, the colored mud, the river, the waterfalls, the vents -- it was all spectacular. And we had a bison cross the road right in front of our car!
The next day, we went to the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse, and Mount Rushmore. Those were very cool, but I prefer natural wonders over man-made ones. Still, I'm so glad we went. After that, we made an unplanned side-trip to see Devil's Tower, which is a natural rock formation and is featured in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I love that movie, and it was so awesome to stand there in the Tower's shadow!
The next day, we drove through the Badlands, which was my favorite of our sight-seeing trips. We saw bighorn sheep ewes and lambs climbing up and down steep, weather-worn spires of dirt and stone. Never saw any rams, but that's okay. The landscape is absolutely amazing, the colors and the shapes caused by erosion, the gullies, the cliffs, red and gold and blue and white! It was like a fanciful painting, like one of my fantasy worlds, but it was real. And from one lookout point, using binoculars, we could see three separate herds of bison in the distance, each with probably a hundred animals in it.
After that, it was just straight driving on to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We stayed with my second cousins for four days. The reunion was amazing. There were so many people that I'd heard about, but had never met before. At times, there were a few too many people for me (I don't like crowds of strangers), but there were enough people that I did know that I was okay. We walked on the beach of Lake Superior every day, picking up agates and other stones, and I was able to avoid the mosquitoes (which are as big as small birds) until the very last night, when someone left a window open and they got in and ate my feet, which were sticking out from under the blankets. Let me tell you, three days in a car on the ride home with itchy feet is no fun :(
All in all, it was most exhilarating, awesome, fantastic adventure of my life (so far, I hope). When we got I home, I started house-sitting two days later and spent most of the rest of my vacation there. One of the dogs that I watch was diagnosed with diabetes just a few months ago, so I've gotten pretty good at giving her the insulin shots. Now I'm home and getting ready to start work next week. Strangely, I'm actually looking forward to it. ^_^
Back to Work
This summer, I did very little writing. I decided just to take a break and worked on nothing. it was just a few days ago that I suddenly said, 'Man, I feel like working on Moonlight'. So I've been busy trying to fix that mess. Before doing any re-writing, I sat down decided exactly what I wanted to happen, how I wanted Izeri to act, and what from the original draft could be salvaged. I'm picking out pieces that work and weaving new material around them, so hopefully it'll be okay. I don't know when I'll start posting these revised chapters, but when I do, I'm going to delete the bad chapters that are posted on FictionPress and post the new ones, rather than just replacing the content of existing chapters. I'm going to leave the bad chapters up on LiveJournal, however.
I also dealt with the termination contracts from PD Publishing, so within about 30 days, Magebound will no longer be available to purchase. So if you want a copy, better get it now. I'm sad, but I'm also looking ahead toward what I'm going to do with those books now. I had very good experiences with both of my publishers, and they did sell more copies of my books than I have with Broken Wings on my own, but everything takes so long (which is standard across the industry and not a criticism of my publishers). Part of me wants to self-publish and just get it done. (Of course, I'm sure I'll take just as long since I'll have to do everything myself, but at least it will be in my hands, instead of me waiting for something to happen.)
Maybe I'll try self-publishing Breach, and if that does well, I'll do the Magebound series, too. I need to look into print-on-demand services, too, since Breach was never available in print. I hear that Createspace does a good job.
I'm also still planning two winter themed stories to go with Long Winter's End. I'd like to have that done by January/February.
I haven't decided what I'm going to do about Moonlight Mondays, WIP Wednesdays, or Free Fiction Fridays. If I'm going to complete all these projects that I have, I won't be able to start all of them back up, not right away, anyway. If/when I find the time, I think WIP Wednesday will be reinstated first, although maybe on an every-other-week basis. I'll decide more when I see how much progress I make on all of these projects.
Anyway, I am back and I'll try to respond to any comments or questions you might have, so let me know if you've got something to say. ^_^
Until next time,
Katica