What's Up Wednesday

It's time for What's Up Wednesday, a weekly meme run by Erin L Funk and Jaime Morrow. Here's what I've been up to this past week!

What I'm reading

I've been reading City of Stairs, a high fantasy novel with some truly amazing worldbuilding.

And I also read Sanctum by Sarah Fine. Wow. I can't remember the last time a book emotionally grabbed me this quickly! I don't write reviews any more because I don't have the time (the ones I post on the blog are pre-written), but this is a definite five-star read. I loved all the characters, loved the creepy atmosphere... and I bought the rest of the series immediately. It's that good!

What I'm writing

Shiny Book 3... and the rest of the series, seeing as my brain still seems to want to work on all the books at once. :P

And I officially won NaNoWriMo! Yay! ^_^ (The funny thing is, this is the first time I've won, despite pulling some crazy wordcounts in other months!) I'm now over 2/3 of the way through the draft. Once I finally pieced the fragmented chapters together, the words started flowing again!

What works for me

Reminding myself (again) that I spend the middle section of every single draft flailing about like I'm knee-deep in glue. As a "plotser", I wish I could outline every single scene, but sometimes I just have to write and see where it ends up (though I do work from an overarching outline for each book). And that means dead ends, redundant minor characters and dialogue, repetition, and in the most extreme cases, having to stop the draft and go back to fix something that's bugging me. *sigh* I've had to do this three times already!

The infuriating thing is that I know the answers are there, but it's like my subconscious won't let me see them until I actually start typing/writing (I often make lists in a notebook until it sorts itself out). If I'm inspired, it isn't a problem, because my brain will keep throwing the answers at me until I can't type fast enough (I've destroyed two keyboards this year with my mad typing! :P). This is what happened with the first book in this series - in fact, I wrote the last half of the book in only nine days, and a lot of it didn't go with my original plan at all! But I did have enough written down to keep it from going completely off the rails. Whereas with this book... I have some, but not enough yet. *shakes brain to see if answers fall out*


What else I've been up to


I had some new author photos taken by a professional photographer! And, surprisingly, they weren't all terrible. Haha. (I'm known for being the person whose eyes are closed in every single photo. :P)

 *Mysterious author face* (Actually thinking: "I could be writing right now" :P)

...I don't generally do photos. *hides*

And I've been setting everything up for the release of Walking Shadow (Darkworld #2) next Monday! The (gorgeous) cover was finally revealed on Friday. Guys, you've no idea of the level of self-control I had to exercise to keep it secret until now - and I've been sitting on the cover for Book 3 since JUNE! o.O Then again, publishing is 90% keeping secrets. :P

Yep. I have another announcement coming next month. Yes, it's publishing-related. No, it's not an agent or a book deal - and I'm totally okay with that. Yes, it's to do with Shiny New Series (and its actual title) and the Secret Plans I've been hinting at over the past few months. (I do shamelessly drop hints. I'm sorry. I'm a writer, I can't help it. ;) *evil laugh*)