Editor Needed!!

Word Count: 119,991
The Wild Hunt: COMPLETED


............Now what?

I hate to say it, but because I am too close to the story, I need someone outside of it to edit. I'd love to trust myself, to believe that I know my story so well that nothing could have possibly slipped through the cracks. But because I'm human, and flawed, I know better.

I need an editor.

I have a friend who writes and self publishes, so I think I will ask her who she uses. I think I might do some research online as well.

I thought that when I finished the book, I'd be happier. Part of me is ecstatic, after the last sentence was typed, I spent the rest of the day floating. It was such a wonderful high. Today, I'm still happy, but I'm more aware of the next steps, and the work that still needs to be done.

Plus editing sucks, its even more time consuming than the actual writing. Checking word frequency, and deleting ly words. Checking for passive voice, present tense vs. past, split infinitive, prepositions, comma use, dialogue, and that doesn't even include checking the story itself. Making sure all the strings are tightly woven together. Voice, flow, and conflict. There are so many things to check........it's exhausting. I also have to format, a file for hardback and for ebook, and because I'm going to put the ebook on more than one platform that means I have to format for each separate publication, Smashwords, B&N, Amazon............exhausting.

Once I have all that done I need to ARC, find readers, bloggers, and reviewers to test read. Why am I self publishing? I don't even remember anymore............sigh. Writing the book seems like the easy part now, and that is seriously scary.

I write like.............

Word Count: 118,125
Last chapter........................then epilogue



I have too much time on my hands. Which is silly when I'm still finishing up the last chapter of my first novel.

Because I'm a control freak, and I have to edit while I write, I came across this fun site.

I write like........?

The idea is you put in a few paragraphs of your work, and it analyzes and compares your prose and sentence structure against famous authors.

Since I have too much time on my hands and no work (insert obnoxious snort) I just had to play with the little analyzer. I prayed, PRAYED, my writing wasn't anything like those sparkly vampire books, and I mean prayed.

Lucky for me the writing God's were listening, and I got........... dun dun ta dun..............


Anne Rice.--------->


Which is pretty awesome really since I like her writing. Hell, I can remember reading The Vampire Lestat right after I saw Interview With a Vampire. I was pretty young to read it too, don't know what the heck my dad was thinking, but needless to say, it's still one of my favorite reads.

So go type in I write like, in your search engines. Maybe you'll get someone cool, or maybe you'll get someone awful and decide that work in progress needs some extra love.

Happy writing!!

Chapter 21 Killer Among Us

Word Count: 113,352

I actually thought I'd never get through the last two chapters. They are by no means finished. Both need to be edited and revised. They're not polished, just the first attempts at getting the words down. I wish I could say they were perfect. Alive and moving. I explained yesterday to the honey, how writing them works. This is what I said.

"Writing is like flowing water, you can't stop the water or control how much flows, all you can do is direct it, and hope it moves the way you want it to. That's how writing feels. I know what I want to happen, I start the chapter with a certain goal in mind. But the words flow and go where they want to, I just try to help them along in the right direction."

Words are like water.

It's the best description I have to explain the way it feels. It's a careful balance living inside the flowing words, and hoping you control them and not the other way around.

I still can't believe that I'm this close to being finished. One more chapter and an epilogue. Roughly 6,000 to 8,000 more words. It could be less, but I know myself.

Each chapter is roughly 20 pages or more, between 4,000 and 6,000 words. If the epilogue gets too fat I'll just make it a chapter. But I've rambled on long enough.


Time to get back to work.......

Chapter 20 The Wild Hunt

Word Count: 104,468

This is when things get hard. Not hard like getting through the first 19 chapters, and revising, revising, revising. No. This is hard like broken keyboard, unsaved chapters, starting over, and finding that one perfect myth to tie it all together. I was so sure last week that I'd be farther along by now. LOL haven't I learned anything?

Writing takes time.

I know this, I know it even before the words come to mind, or my fingers touch the keyboard. I know that writing takes time. I am at that all important chapter of the book, the part where Lo helps hunt a murderer. This should be cake, this is the one chapter I have thought about since the beginning. I know what I want to happen, what needs to take place, but I feel like the well is empty, the inspiration and whisperings of my muse quiet.

What now?

I re-read the same ten imperfect pages hoping it will come to me. It needs to be perfect, its that important to the story. All of my descriptions seem overused. I already did a paragraph describing the ripped flesh with maggots squirming beneath the surface. I already did torn abdomen and yellow ropes of intestine hanging from the open wound. This is horror, its supposed to be terrifying, suspenseful, at least a little description. Every word is flat and lifeless, boring, and not good enough. Is it terrible to hold myself up to such high standards, this is my first book. My first born novel.

Writing takes time.

I will repeat this until the chapter starts to move me, until the words come to life. I will repeat this until the most important chapter of he book is written.The next chapter matters, of course it does but this one, this one, is Lo's introduction to The Wild Hunt. She's a virgin to it, so like any virgin, I want everything to be just right (since it wasn't in the real world :-). And to be perfectly honest what first time ever is truly perfect?

Writing takes time.

My new mantra. I will be so glad when this chapter is done. I don't even want to think about query letters, or synopses. I don't know if I even want to send them out. I think I might just get my feet wet, self-publish. But I will never self-publish if I don't get this damn chapter written. Two to go, plus an epilogue............Writing takes time........writing........takes.........time.

Deep breath..... Let's get to it.

Almost done..............now what?

I never really thought I'd get to this point. Three years ago it seemed impossible. I started researching, flirting with the idea for this book, but in all that time seeing the end, seeing the completed manuscript seemed impossible. Right now I'm at a word count of 98,230 words, and I'm not finished. I have about three more chapters to write. It's unreal being this close to the finish line. It's surreal, exciting, and a little scary. When I'm done it will be time to send it to an editor. I've done as much as I can do.

What have I learned?

Not to give myself deadlines. Most of them I didn't meet. You can't force the story, it has to evolve naturally. I hope that nearing the completion of my book I've got a better idea of what I'm doing then three years ago when I first sat down to write. Three years. I'd like to think that the next book will be easier, but that lesson I learned about deadlines sobers me. Writing is work.

Writing takes time. I'd love to crank out novels every three months but I have very high expectations for myself, and an obsessive perfectionist sitting on my shoulders. Writing is work. That is going to be my new mantra, its not a sprint, its a marathon. As I learn my craft I will get better but no matter what at the end of the day it just takes time.

Some days I wish I never started writing, but then I think about my world and characters, and I can't imagine life without them.

Writing is work, but it's also a high. It's holding a pen that can create worlds. It's living in your head but never feeling lonely. Writing is incredible. I am so glad I did this.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.






Whatever words I could use to describe this book wouldn't do it justice. As a wanna-be-writer its books like this that leave you breathless. It was beyond incredible, the first book I have read since Anna Dressed in Blood to rival it. It was that good. I'm not sure what pulled me in about it. As a reader I tend to devour books and skip over boring parts. I didn't skip, not once. It's that good. It also kept me guessing, and that rarely happens anymore. Even with books I enjoy a lot I can usually see the twists. I had feelings but no solid guesses, that is so worth the hours I spend reading it, and the money I spent. I'm in awe, this is the kind of story I want to write.

Read it, immediately it is so so so so good!!

Writing Goals........

I have been working on The Wild Hunt for a very long time. Over three years, off and on, mostly off if I'm being honest. I recently took a six month break from the story.

Something just felt off......

I wasn't sure what I wanted my story to be. I was so wishy washy that it started making me crazy. I would re-write and re-write, and still something was missing. I wasn't sure what I wanted my story to tell.

Finally after my break it was suddenly clear. It's about overcoming loss, and forgiveness. Forgiving the flaws in yourself and other people, and realising that only you can save yourself. I guess I wanted a protagonist female I could look up to. Someone other girls would cheer on. Mouthy and tough but hiding a sensitive center. We don't have to be just one thing, strong or weak, beautiful or ugly, right or wrong. There is good and evil inside of all of us because we are flawed, imperfect. I also wanted to show that a female lead could be both weak and strong. Not just one or the other.

Lately it seems like all the books I read the females are either spineless, or emasculating. I hope Lorelei is a bit of both, because God knows we all are anyways. Give and take, ying and yang, dark and light. Two faced, complicated, human.

So now that I found my goal, I can finally finish my story. I'm looking forward to it. I owe it to my grandpa, the reason I started writing to begin with.

Who tries to write a book without a goal, what kind of dumbass does that you might ask?

<-----------this idiot does!!!

I'm not particularly proud of that but what can I say. We're all flawed right. I had a concept, an itch I couldn't scratch, an obsession to get my idea down on paper. Now I finally have my goal, my message. I don't know if all authors do what I did (probably not) some might not even have an idea what the message is when they start. All I know is that this bear of a story gave me hell from the beginning, and I'm so glad that it did. Strange right? I learned so much about writing, and myself as a writer. I hope that the next one is easier (please God!!), but before I get ahead of myself, I've got to finish this guy. I'm strangely optimistic, it can't get any harder right..............Right?

I'll leave you with my new favorite band. Clarensau I Would Trade (ironically called grandpas song), love you grandpa, hope up in heaven you're giving them hell, and I'm making you proud!