Books and Reading Thursday: Enjoying your own creations

Bit of strange post for this week’s Books and Reading Thursday!

I saw a quote on Pinterest the other day which pretty much summed up part of the reason I started writing:

‘If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.’ – Toni Morrison

I write because I have stories that I want to read all bundled up in my brain and I just have to expel them 😀

So, I write these tales that I am so desperate to read and then what happens?

I have to re-write and edit them so much that the thought of reading them again makes me want to start rocking in a corner somewhere mumbling to myself!

But in April, I plan to re-edit and refresh the books I published last year in time for their one year anniversary. I learnt tons last year, not just about writing itself, but about the whole publishing process.

A while back, Sierra from Permashift, updated her book, The Soul (a book I highly recommend checking out), and I realised how much I also wanted to go over my older books and give them an update.

But, at the same time, I am also kind of excited to go back and read them.

I know I will be doing some editing and re-writing, but there won’t be too much (I hope 😀 ), so I’m hoping I will be able to read the books mainly for the stories I was so desperate to write in the first place.

The main books I will be refreshing are Stolen Bloodline, Heart of the Arena, and The Queen’s Jester, my first batch of books I ever published. I will also be going over Prophecy of Stones and The Magic Spark, but probably later in the year.

It’s getting on for a year since I published those first three books, and though some of the writing might make me cringe, I am hoping that the long time away will allow me to once again enjoy these stories and characters that I spent so long creating.

So, April is going to be a busy month getting all the books updated whilst writing a new one, but a fun month nonetheless 🙂

I highly recommend going back and reading the stories you spent so long creating, especially if you haven’t looked at them in a while. It might be difficult to read them without completely turning off the nagging voice inside that tells you bits you could have improved and things, but you worked hard on those characters and stories, why not go back and enjoy them after you’ve had some time apart? 😀

Do you enjoy going back and reading your own books? Do you ever miss the stories you wrote years before?

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my posts over the weekend 🙂

I am trying to add a change to my routine which started today, and has left me completely out of whack! So, I haven’t had time to write a blog post and I haven’t been able to manage commenting on many blogs yet!

So instead, enjoy this awesome vlog review of Prophecy of Stones by Sierra of Permashift!

I always love her vlogs, she’s hilarious and always makes me smile 🙂

The Queen’s Jester also got an awesome review from Teri Lloyd! 🙂

Sorry for the all about my stuff post! Will hopefully get a hang of this new routine soon.

Tomorrow won’t be a Romance Weekly post as (again) still shuffling my work around. I will have a normal post instead tomorrow though! 😀

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Progress Report:

Status of sixth manuscript: Writing first draft.
Word count: 2830 (Total word count: 20,710).

Books read: 2/4.

Mid-October Book Review: Yeah, not going so well!

Books and Reading Wednesday

So, it’s my first book/reading related Wednesday post 😀

Photo by the very talented Twisted Pixel on Flicker

When I read, I normally only read one book at a time. This is mainly because I like to immerse myself in one world and one set of characters at a time, and concentrate solely on that.

But, recently I attempted to read two at a time.

Attempted.

It didn’t go very well 😀

I tried to read a few chapters of each on alternating days, but I found it confusing having to get myself back into which book I was reading every other day. I was hoping that reading two at a time might help me get through my to-read list quicker, as I have so many I am excited to read!

In the end, I gave up and ended up focusing on one and will now continue on with the other as I have finished Sins of the Father by Melissa Barker-Simpson (who has recently released her new book, Hands of Evil).

Sierra over at Permashift had a great idea of reading different books on different devices such as one in paperback, one on kindle and one on nook. I might be tempted to give that a go at some point in the future, but for now, I’m afraid it’s going to be one at a time 😀

Though I have to admit, it is nice to focus solely on one book. I enjoy getting lost completely in that one story and not having to switch to different characters or worlds in different books. It seems to keep me excited about the books I read!

Do you read more than one book at a time? Or do you prefer to read one book? What are you currently reading?

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Progress Report:

Status of fifth manuscript: Still waiting to start first draft.

Books read: 1/4

Mid-August book review: Written and ready.

July 2014 Round-Up and August 2014 Plan

It’s August! Yeah, I don’t how that happened. Seems every month this year has crept up on me faster than it should have.

This month was a rather hectic one, but fun!

July
– Kept completely to schedule.
– Posted every scheduled day, except one I missed due to internet not working.
– I received more great reviews for my books 😀
> Heart of the Arena: 1x 5*, 4x 4*
> Stolen Bloodline: 4x 5*, 1x 4*
> The Queen’s Jester: 3x 4*
– Connected regularly with bloggers.
– Used twitter and facebook more effectively to help support other authors.
– Read 3 books (1 below target!)- The Commons, Book 1: The Journeyman by Michael Alan Peck, The Soul by S.R.Carrillo, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
– Updated my blog.
– Set up a mailing list and newsletter- Click here to sign up!
– Released Prophecy of Stones!

One goal I didn’t reach was that I didn’t look into different forms of marketing quite enough. This is something I am going to have to do, no matter how much I dislike marketing 😀 If I want to earn enough to live on from my writing, then it is something I am going to have to think about more and start implementing.

So, now onto August!

Plan:
1st- 31st- Write first draft of next book.
13th- Book review, either traditional or indie.
29th- Indie eBook review

Goals:
– Read 4 books!
– Find new ways of marketing and implement them.
– Continue actively supporting others and look into different ways of achieving this.
– Write more short pieces for prompts.

A lot of other things happened in July:

Melissa Barker-Simpson released her new book, Hands of Evil! You should definitely check it out. I am currently reading her book, Sins of the Father, and am thoroughly enjoying it (review to come!).

Ness Kingsley has returned to us 😀 She’s a great blogger, and definitely worth checking out her posts. Very excited to hear more from her in the future.

Lost to the Aether (my best friend and one of my amazing readers!) has started posting his comic, which is great fun read!

Kimberley M Ringer achieved an amazing thing by completing the Wharf to Wharf race! So a major round of applause to her!

Shehanne Moore has been posting some brilliant and hilarious posts, worth checking out just for the hamsters 😀

The Legends of Windemere trailer was released!

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Wow, what a wrap up of this month 😀

I also want to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who re-blogged, tweeted and shared my release day post. I am so grateful for your amazing and continued support!

This weekend I will be posting some scheduled marketing posts, but I won’t be around until Monday as usual 🙂

Just sit down and read!

Lately I have been struggling to read as much as I want. I think it’s because I fell out of the habit a while back and now it’s difficult trying to get back into it. Getting into that regular routine is much harder than it should be.

Recently, Callum posted about his approach of reading little and often, which got me thinking about how I could better my reading routine.

So, to try and help myself find a better schedule, but also just to motivate me to read more in general, I have decided to make every Wednesday a post about reading and books by others. And I am going to write an extra book review a month.

I will probably post the new book review in the middle of the month, and it will be either traditional published or indie published, but my end of month book review will still always be indie/self-published books.

I’m going to try reading for an hour and a half on an afternoon, rather than trying to read on a night, which I have been failing at. I read an article somewhere that changing the time you read might work well, so I’m going to attempt to give it a go 😀

My goal is to still read 4 books a month, and maybe I can work my way to upping that number by next year.

Remember, if you would like me to review your book, then just drop me an email 🙂

Do you have any tips on creating a good reading routine? How many books do you manage to read in a month? When do you find the best time to read is- day or night?

Also HUGE thank you to Winter Bayne and S.R.Carrillo for helping with my cover reveal, and to all of you who tweeted and reblogged! I am always so grateful for your support 🙂

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Progress Report:

Status of Prophecy of Stones: Final read-out and Marketing.

Books read: 3/4

July eBook review: Written and ready.