fantasy writing

All Things New – May Recap

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Can’t believe this month is over… Mamma Mia time is flying by! So this month has been one of new beginnings.

A New Workspace

My lovely, gorgeous Simon has built me a new workspace! We were going to go for a shed on the drive but I decided I’d feel too lonely! What with three dogs, six cats and my lovely husband milling around for inspiration I was worried that I’d just sit there.

So this is the before pic, with my lovely muse, sadly no longer with us.

Before Pic: My very much missed muse, Simba

I love the length of my new ‘desk’ which is simply built from planks and it will serve lots of purposes as I’ve just bought myself a new sewing machine and am searching for patterns and fabrics. I used to sew a lot back in my twenties, from evening gowns to curtains!

A New Release

The first of the books in my series, The Luna Legends is now out! You can grab your copy at the links below.

Amazon

Other Vendors

A New Grandson

Jax Benjamin George entered the world on the 12th May at 3.45 am. He’s ‘lush’ according to his dad and elder brother and sister and I just can’t wait for cuddles. In the meant time we sent this Italian doll for hugs. My sixteen year old daughter has the girl doll, named ‘Doddy’ and she has had several surgeries but is still going strong!

So onto the nitty gritty of my month. . .

Goals Update

Shiny new planners…

 

I have some new planners and am loving them. I use one for my quarter planning and one for my daily and weekly planning. I’m always changing my system, one just hasn’t stuck yet. So these are now the brain house of JoAnna Lamb Authorpreneur. It’s where all the action happens 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Goal 1 Writing and Editing

  • Rewrote Thunder Moon, the first book of Season 1 (40k words)
  • Summarised books 2 and 3 of Season 1 had planned to plot them but ran out of time

Goal 2 Publishing and Promotion

  • Published Season of the New Moons
  • Developed my freebie, a reading journal – grab yours here
  • Set up my email list – if you grab the journal you’re on the list
  • Sent out my first newsletter

Goal 3 Healthy Writing Habits

  • I monitor my mood with smileys and May was almost 100%
  • Completed the #vss365 challenge every day and published them on Twitter, approximately 4000 words.

Oh, and I’ve been sketching, here are my efforts. Am loving Procreate and these classes.

A goldfish called Bob
A rocket to take me to the Moon
A Ballerina for my granddaughter

Final Thought for the Month

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”

Confuscius

Ciao for now!

Oh and if you want to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free reading journal in return, follow this link!

Wolf Moon: Out Now!

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Wolf Moon

My first fantasy novella, Wolf Moon is released today in e-book format. It’s also the birthday of my most beautiful granddaughter, Caitlin, to whom I’ve dedicated this book.

I’ve been working for the past year on making a space for my new writing persona, and this will be the first of many fantasy based stories. I have so many ideas, it’s wonderful to escape into a world of my own making and create characters that I both love and hate at the same time! I’m already working on the second ‘Moon’ based book which I plan to publish towards the end of the year.

Three Moons
Two Worlds
One Legacy

Xanthe has no idea what a Moon Princess is never mind The Book of Words.
All Xanthe has ever wanted is to meet the mother who abandoned her at the Wishing Well Centre. On the fifteenth anniversary of that date she finds herself up a tree talking to a white peacock and receives her first ever present. A map of portals.
Aided by her best and only friend, Kit, she arrives on the Kingdom of Selene. The Season of the Three Moons is nigh and as the Moon Princess, Ayla she must free the Moon People from the evil grasps of the dryad, Toovah.
Will Xanthe be able to complete the challenges set for her and defeat the evil Toovah? Does she want to? And will she finally meet the mother she dreams of?

Wolf Moon

 

Writing Goals: December

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Last month I only had one goal:

😎Participate in National Write a Novel in a Month Challenge – and I clocked up over 56k words (yes, fifty six thousand words). My plan at the start was to write 2k a day for 6 days, having Sundays off – they are usually my PJ and off screen days – and I obviously wrote a little more than my target. The first half of the month I wrote longhand, with a pencil and notebook. A staved middle finger on my writing hand made that a little difficult as well as a pulled back muscle!  I reverted to transcribing scenes and character development via the keyboard. I’m still working on transcribing and still have a lot of decisions to make, as things changed, as always, as the story fell out of my head.

How did you get on?

For the month of December I’m going to be realistic. We go away in our van on 15th December to spend the festive season and the New Year in Spain and I don’t plan on doing much, other than walking with the dogs, cycling and sight seeing. 🙂 So for the next two weeks my goals are:

  1. Continue to transcribe my NaNo project five days a week
  2. Complete the authorschallenge2019plus on Instagram (I can plan these posts ahead)
  3. Draft out my Social Media plans for 2020
  4. Finalise Wolf Moon for publication – hard copy proof has arrived!

Let me know what you’re planning to work on and what plans you have over the silly season – you may have guessed I don’t particularly enjoy this time of the year 🙄

 

Great Opening Lines

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Opening lines are important. Some stick in the mind longer than others and some will mean that short moment in which a reader decides to read on (that all important ‘hook’) … or not. Here are a few of mine.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must want for a wife.” Jane Austen:  Pride and Prejudice

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.” Iain Banks:  The Crow Road

“124 was spiteful.” Toni Morrison:  Beloved

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were very normal, thank you very much.” J.K.Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

What are yours and why?

Author Shout Out: Rachel Aaron

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So this month’s author featuring in my shout out is… Rachel Aaron.

I was first introduced to Rachel Aaron through one of her non-fiction books and I can honestly say it changed my approach to writing.

 

Her book 2,000 to 10,000 is a practical guide about increasing your word count. She identifies three important areas to think about, knowledge, time and enthusiasm and it’s these three points which are critical if you want to hit that target. Knowing what you are going to write, finding the time to write and understanding your best time to write. It’s a gold mine for planners and pansters alike, I dare you not to succeed if you follow the steps that Rachel outlines.

Just recently I’ve turned my writing eye to Rachel’s fiction books and have just finished the first book in her series the Legend of Eli Moonpress and read the Spirit Thief. It was a great read and her debut novel and she delivers it all through her main character, a cheeky thief called… Eli Moonpress. I was captivated from the start by his antics, it’s an honest to good read about someone who does naughty things but with great finesse and humour. I’ll definitely be reading more of this series. Rachel is writing another series, an urban fantasy about misfit dragons which sounds like fun too…

 

 

 

Writers Toolbox: March Favourites

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Every month I share some of the things that I shove into my toolbox, it could be a useful blog post, a book I’ve read, a website or article… here are my favourites for March: [Read more…] about Writers Toolbox: March Favourites